Absoloutley loved it. Currents Turned Awry has to be the best foundry mission I have played so far.
The trek references and all of the dialogue, just plain amazing. I can't wait until you release the next project Leviathan99. I think I actually enjoyed that more than any other mission in the game so far.
Working theory on the pathing bugs: Maybe the Borg are spawning protodrones out of the bounds of the constructed Deck 11. If enemies can shoot through walls, it seems reasonable they can summon additional spawns through them.
Anyone know of a Borg group that doesn't spawn reinforcements?
The only way I was able to find it through search was by Author name. Typing the mission name turned up no results for me. I didn't check to see if it might be case sensitive for some reason though.
As for the mission itself I liked it, gave it a 4 star review. I think it only took me less than 30 minutes on first run through. Of course reading this thread I knew there were somethings that could be skipped and optional so I did that in some cases to see how the mission worked, thinking more like a foundry creator in those moments than a player. I loved the Trek references from past shows and such, nice touch and well used. Had to run through it a second time for one of the other endings.
I did see the borg and my bridge officers get stuck on the other side of the holodeck wall prior to opening it. They were able to fight each other and could fire through the wall and I could fire at them. System bug though so that didn't affect my review of the mission personally.
All in all not bad. I only knocked it down one star because to me some of the "flow" seemed off and I had a hard time truely understanding the Borg motivations. Also at the end when the captain beams in the text bubble stays over his head, it really should vanish after a few seconds otherwise he's just constantly repeating himself.
The flow didn't work for me in some areas when as a player you just run through and don't do the optional stuff in one part, but later in the mission you do. An example, without spoiling the mission, would be the assistance you can call for in fighting the borg. If you don't access the computers earlier you wouldn't have thought of that idea and yet later on you can do it "out of the blue". As for the borg motivation, it just didn't seem to fit how they would operate. At some point the borg will forget about certain targets in the interest of efficiency and the overall objective. They are very much "big picture" thinkers and this kind of felt small thinking to me. Could be because of the difference in these borg vs the borg we know and if that's the case perhaps that could be worked in somewhere to explain that all away.
In the end though very good mission and I would recommend it to other and seriously consider playing it again and again to find the hidden stuff and try the other options.
I tried to search for the mission and it wouldn't come up again. It's unfortunate because I ended up playing a bad mission where my captain was copping an attitude the whole way through, and both he and my BOs were totally unprofessional. It wouldn't have been a great mission if it weren't for that, but it was worse because of it. Anyway, I digress. I'm sure I'd have enjoyed CTA more.
I'll try to search by author name tomorrow and see if that works.
Ok, I finally managed to play this by searching by author. I liked some of it, but had some issues. Here are some suggestions, which you can take or leave as you see fit.
1) Main Bridge Felt Too Lifeless
I know the ship is under attack, but it felt like there should have been more people on the main bridge. I recommend adding some more NPCs to the consoles and a few more strewn around the bridge wounded (hurt animations), some with people tending to them (the kneeling tricorder scan).
Here are some potential NPC coordinates for you to use, if you so desire:
Seated consoles (Unlike Ops and Conn the legs don't clip through the chair on these) Animation to use: Sit - Officer's Chair
Port Console: X: -11.2; Y: 0; Z: 6.4; Rotation 30
Starboard Console: X: -11.7; Y: 0; Z: 6.4; Rotation -30
2) Dialogues Are A Bit Hard To Follow
The dialogue on the main bridge was a bit hard to follow. Actually this applies to several of your dialogues. You need to make it more clear what will progress the dialogue forward, and how to get back to the main dialogue tree. In each dialogue branch I'd suggest that the last option be clearly labeled to indicate that it goes back to the main tree (Go Back, Ask Another Question, etc). I understand you don't want to just give things away, but I felt like I was stumbling around asking the same stuff over and over trying to figure out how to progress things.
Also, I felt worried I couldn't ask all of my questions, because some other Foundry authors are using the extremely questionable tactic of making it so you can only ask one question before continuing. You didn't do that, but thanks to encountering that, while asking questions I was afraid I wouldn't be able to ask everything I wanted. If you clearly labeled the way to progress the dialogue the fears of people like me would be put at ease.
3) Deck 11 Problems
I hate to say this, but if I were you I'd go back to the drawing board on deck 11 and pretty much redo it. The pathing issues are just too bad. And it's not fun to access a console and then get steamrolled by the Borg because you're standing there with no BOs so all 7 attack you. I play on Elite, so I pretty much went down immediately and got an injury. I don't really care about the injury (I've long since come to accept that they will happen on Elite), but it was irritating since it only happened because my BOs were nowhere to be seen.
I'd suggest trying to make the area a bit more open so the BOs maybe will not have such pathing problems. The walls you're using at the end there may be causing issues since they don't go together the whole way. There also seems to be a serious issue with the Holodeck door not being seen as solid by the BOs, so at a minimum you should put an invisible wall across there (or several layers of them) to try to stop the BOs from warping through it.
Regarding the borg spawning. In addition to my BOs being MIA, it's not really that fun fighting Borg in close quarters with no way too react. The Assimilated attack is almost certain death when you're playing on elite, and you don't have a real player healing (BO healers are too pathetic to catch it and heal through it properly). The BOs even when pathing correctly are too stupid to back off from the Borg, so starting with them right on top of you only makes matters worse.
What I'd suggest is to expand the corridors to the left and right of the Holodeck and have them turn left and right and continue on for a bit. Space the consoles out along the corridors and have the Borg already beamed in (you can place them so in the event they aren't killed during the part where the player gets the console, they will just be part of the Undine/Borg battle). However, I don't know how hard it is to build on that map, since the ground beneath the courtyard might not be flat which would make lining everything up a nightmare. It might be worthwhile to just use a premade Starship interior (maybe the highly damaged Wargames interior) and simply have the holodeck door act as a map transition to Q'onos Under Siege with the arch.
4) A Bit Too Short?
Overall the mission felt a bit on the short side to me. I could have used another full interior map. I don't know if I missed a lot of optional consoles or something, but I didn't see any that I didn't read. If there were more consoles to access on the bridge you might want to make them flashy so people know they can be used.
I'd suggest trying to make the area a bit more open so the BOs maybe will not have such pathing problems. The walls you're using at the end there may be causing issues since they don't go together the whole way. There also seems to be a serious issue with the Holodeck door not being seen as solid by the BOs, so at a minimum you should put an invisible wall across there (or several layers of them) to try to stop the BOs from warping through it.
Regarding the borg spawning. In addition to my BOs being MIA, it's not really that fun fighting Borg in close quarters with no way too react. The Assimilated attack is almost certain death when you're playing on elite, and you don't have a real player healing (BO healers are too pathetic to catch it and heal through it properly). The BOs even when pathing correctly are too stupid to back off from the Borg, so starting with them right on top of you only makes matters worse.
What I'd suggest is to expand the corridors to the left and right of the Holodeck and have them turn left and right and continue on for a bit. Space the consoles out along the corridors and have the Borg already beamed in (you can place them so in the event they aren't killed during the part where the player gets the console, they will just be part of the Undine/Borg battle). However, I don't know how hard it is to build on that map, since the ground beneath the courtyard might not be flat which would make lining everything up a nightmare. It might be worthwhile to just use a premade Starship interior (maybe the highly damaged Wargames interior) and simply have the holodeck door act as a map transition to Q'onos Under Siege with the arch.
4) A Bit Too Short?
Overall the mission felt a bit on the short side to me. I could have used another full interior map. I don't know if I missed a lot of optional consoles or something, but I didn't see any that I didn't read. If there were more consoles to access on the bridge you might want to make them flashy so people know they can be used.
Great feedback on the whole. I just wanted to highlight these points.
The invisible wall may be a pretty good idea there and I didn't realize people had BOs walking through the door. (I thought they were somehow appearing right outside automatically.) There not only are no gaps in the walls but they all overlap with eachother's geometry slightly.
I've played this several dozen times and I've never been able to replicate the errors. I wish I could see someone else play the mission. Your feedback is some of the most detailed I've gotten but I've TRIED getting my BOs tangled on geometry or pushing them through the walls/holodeck door and I've never been able to, even trying to do it.
Very astute about the mission being one map short. There was another map planned for main engineering where you seal a warp core breach but I could never get the gimmick of the closing door working like I wanted to. Also had plans for some optional endings but the assets just aren't there for what I had in mind so I decided to save both for future missions.
I think my BOs warped around a bit too. I'm not sure the invisible wall will solve the problem for sure, but it's just a suggestion that might help. In the mission I've been working on I've started to make liberal use of invisible walls to counter situations where BOs warp through. It's a very irritating problem in my mission because at several points there's a wall with a force field and you're supposed to assess the situation and then lower it, but the BOs can ruin it by jumping through and aggroing prematurely.
If I have a chance I can try playing through again with a Fraps recording going, and then upload it to Youtube.
I think my BOs warped around a bit too. I'm not sure the invisible wall will solve the problem for sure, but it's just a suggestion that might help. In the mission I've been working on I've started to make liberal use of invisible walls to counter situations where BOs warp through. It's a very irritating problem in my mission because at several points there's a wall with a force field and you're supposed to assess the situation and then lower it, but the BOs can ruin it by jumping through and aggroing prematurely.
If I have a chance I can try playing through again with a Fraps recording going, and then upload it to Youtube.
That would be amazing. On the whole, this mission leaves me feeling a lot less ambitious about any future plans for custom terrain... or at least phasing terrain. Still plan for lots of customization but, in the future, I plan to use the details as, well, details more.
Frankly, at this point, I'm starting to hope that choosing away team sizes aren't too far off and I could just retune this one. I'm also curious if it will fix itself if they close the shooting through walls bug.
But a lot of what I want to do just isn't very compatible with BO pathing, apparently. And I'd rather move on to do more missions than get stuck on bug fixes. I'm not abandoning this one but I couldn't handle 8 just like it without making a job out of it.
Oh... And weird question: do you use the keyboard or the mouse to move? I'm wondering if the angles people move and turn at makes a difference here.
Comments
- Added disclaimer to mission description regarding length.
- Addressed minor typos.
- Clarified mission location
- Added 3 additional optional endings.
The trek references and all of the dialogue, just plain amazing. I can't wait until you release the next project Leviathan99. I think I actually enjoyed that more than any other mission in the game so far.
Congrats on a job very well done.
Anyone know of a Borg group that doesn't spawn reinforcements?
As for the mission itself I liked it, gave it a 4 star review. I think it only took me less than 30 minutes on first run through. Of course reading this thread I knew there were somethings that could be skipped and optional so I did that in some cases to see how the mission worked, thinking more like a foundry creator in those moments than a player. I loved the Trek references from past shows and such, nice touch and well used. Had to run through it a second time for one of the other endings.
I did see the borg and my bridge officers get stuck on the other side of the holodeck wall prior to opening it. They were able to fight each other and could fire through the wall and I could fire at them. System bug though so that didn't affect my review of the mission personally.
All in all not bad. I only knocked it down one star because to me some of the "flow" seemed off and I had a hard time truely understanding the Borg motivations. Also at the end when the captain beams in the text bubble stays over his head, it really should vanish after a few seconds otherwise he's just constantly repeating himself.
The flow didn't work for me in some areas when as a player you just run through and don't do the optional stuff in one part, but later in the mission you do. An example, without spoiling the mission, would be the assistance you can call for in fighting the borg. If you don't access the computers earlier you wouldn't have thought of that idea and yet later on you can do it "out of the blue". As for the borg motivation, it just didn't seem to fit how they would operate. At some point the borg will forget about certain targets in the interest of efficiency and the overall objective. They are very much "big picture" thinkers and this kind of felt small thinking to me. Could be because of the difference in these borg vs the borg we know and if that's the case perhaps that could be worked in somewhere to explain that all away.
In the end though very good mission and I would recommend it to other and seriously consider playing it again and again to find the hidden stuff and try the other options.
I'll try to search by author name tomorrow and see if that works.
1) Main Bridge Felt Too Lifeless
I know the ship is under attack, but it felt like there should have been more people on the main bridge. I recommend adding some more NPCs to the consoles and a few more strewn around the bridge wounded (hurt animations), some with people tending to them (the kneeling tricorder scan).
Here are some potential NPC coordinates for you to use, if you so desire:
Seated consoles (Unlike Ops and Conn the legs don't clip through the chair on these)
Animation to use: Sit - Officer's Chair
Port Console: X: -11.2; Y: 0; Z: 6.4; Rotation 30
Starboard Console: X: -11.7; Y: 0; Z: 6.4; Rotation -30
Standing consoles
Animation to use: Any variation of Type - Leaning
Port Wall: X: 13; Y: 0; Z: -0.1; Rotation -90
Starboard Wall: X: 13.1; Y: 0; Z: -0.1; Rotation 90
Port Tactical: X: -1.217; Y: 0; Z: -5; Rotation 0
Starboard Tactical: X: 0.874; Y: 0; Z: -5; Rotation 0
Aft Port: X: -6; Y: 0; Z: -12.7; Rotation -154.4
Aft Center (Engineering): X: -0.018; Y: 0; Z: -13.7; Rotation 180
Injured Crewmen w/optional medics attending
Sitting Against Port Wall (Anim: Hurt - Knee): X: -12.4; Y: 0; Z: 3.9; Rotation 95
---Attached Medic (Anim: Tricorder Scan - Kneeling Sustained): X: -12.3; Y: 0; Z: 2.9; Rotation 0
Standing Facing Wall Near Turbolift 2: (Anim: Hurt, Head Standing) X: -8; Y: 0; Z: -11.1; Rotation -118.8
---Attached Medic (Anim: Tricorder Scan - Sustained): X: -7.5; Y: 0; Z: -9.7; Rotation -168.7
Hurt, Lying Starboard Wall (Anim: Hurt - On Back 01 or 02): X: 11.7; Y: 0; Z: 3.4; Rotation 147.2
---Attached Medic (Anim: Tricorder Scan - Kneeling Sustained): X: 12.4; Y: 0; Z: 3.9; Rotation -101.8
2) Dialogues Are A Bit Hard To Follow
The dialogue on the main bridge was a bit hard to follow. Actually this applies to several of your dialogues. You need to make it more clear what will progress the dialogue forward, and how to get back to the main dialogue tree. In each dialogue branch I'd suggest that the last option be clearly labeled to indicate that it goes back to the main tree (Go Back, Ask Another Question, etc). I understand you don't want to just give things away, but I felt like I was stumbling around asking the same stuff over and over trying to figure out how to progress things.
Also, I felt worried I couldn't ask all of my questions, because some other Foundry authors are using the extremely questionable tactic of making it so you can only ask one question before continuing. You didn't do that, but thanks to encountering that, while asking questions I was afraid I wouldn't be able to ask everything I wanted. If you clearly labeled the way to progress the dialogue the fears of people like me would be put at ease.
3) Deck 11 Problems
I hate to say this, but if I were you I'd go back to the drawing board on deck 11 and pretty much redo it. The pathing issues are just too bad. And it's not fun to access a console and then get steamrolled by the Borg because you're standing there with no BOs so all 7 attack you. I play on Elite, so I pretty much went down immediately and got an injury. I don't really care about the injury (I've long since come to accept that they will happen on Elite), but it was irritating since it only happened because my BOs were nowhere to be seen.
I'd suggest trying to make the area a bit more open so the BOs maybe will not have such pathing problems. The walls you're using at the end there may be causing issues since they don't go together the whole way. There also seems to be a serious issue with the Holodeck door not being seen as solid by the BOs, so at a minimum you should put an invisible wall across there (or several layers of them) to try to stop the BOs from warping through it.
Regarding the borg spawning. In addition to my BOs being MIA, it's not really that fun fighting Borg in close quarters with no way too react. The Assimilated attack is almost certain death when you're playing on elite, and you don't have a real player healing (BO healers are too pathetic to catch it and heal through it properly). The BOs even when pathing correctly are too stupid to back off from the Borg, so starting with them right on top of you only makes matters worse.
What I'd suggest is to expand the corridors to the left and right of the Holodeck and have them turn left and right and continue on for a bit. Space the consoles out along the corridors and have the Borg already beamed in (you can place them so in the event they aren't killed during the part where the player gets the console, they will just be part of the Undine/Borg battle). However, I don't know how hard it is to build on that map, since the ground beneath the courtyard might not be flat which would make lining everything up a nightmare. It might be worthwhile to just use a premade Starship interior (maybe the highly damaged Wargames interior) and simply have the holodeck door act as a map transition to Q'onos Under Siege with the arch.
4) A Bit Too Short?
Overall the mission felt a bit on the short side to me. I could have used another full interior map. I don't know if I missed a lot of optional consoles or something, but I didn't see any that I didn't read. If there were more consoles to access on the bridge you might want to make them flashy so people know they can be used.
Great feedback on the whole. I just wanted to highlight these points.
The invisible wall may be a pretty good idea there and I didn't realize people had BOs walking through the door. (I thought they were somehow appearing right outside automatically.) There not only are no gaps in the walls but they all overlap with eachother's geometry slightly.
I've played this several dozen times and I've never been able to replicate the errors. I wish I could see someone else play the mission. Your feedback is some of the most detailed I've gotten but I've TRIED getting my BOs tangled on geometry or pushing them through the walls/holodeck door and I've never been able to, even trying to do it.
Very astute about the mission being one map short. There was another map planned for main engineering where you seal a warp core breach but I could never get the gimmick of the closing door working like I wanted to. Also had plans for some optional endings but the assets just aren't there for what I had in mind so I decided to save both for future missions.
If I have a chance I can try playing through again with a Fraps recording going, and then upload it to Youtube.
That would be amazing. On the whole, this mission leaves me feeling a lot less ambitious about any future plans for custom terrain... or at least phasing terrain. Still plan for lots of customization but, in the future, I plan to use the details as, well, details more.
Frankly, at this point, I'm starting to hope that choosing away team sizes aren't too far off and I could just retune this one. I'm also curious if it will fix itself if they close the shooting through walls bug.
But a lot of what I want to do just isn't very compatible with BO pathing, apparently. And I'd rather move on to do more missions than get stuck on bug fixes. I'm not abandoning this one but I couldn't handle 8 just like it without making a job out of it.
Oh... And weird question: do you use the keyboard or the mouse to move? I'm wondering if the angles people move and turn at makes a difference here.
I have tried the invisible walls. They seem to mostly work after adjusting the placement.
I also made some cosmetic/lighting changes to Deck 11. They make it look more dramatic, IMHO, although the bloom can be fierce.