[Release] Timed FA Campaign for 3682

[qwop]

Hello,

I kinda like the SupCom FA campaign, but dislike the fact that it is almost impossible to lose after the first part of the mission, and you are always completing the same objective to advance. To complete an objective, you'll usually build up to such a point that you're unlikely to actually fail from part 2 onwards. There is an old mod floating around the web called the Timed Campaign, which automatically proceeds to the next stage of a mission whether you've completed the objective or now. I've had a lot of fun with it years ago, but it's not compatible with Coop and only the first two missions were done.

I've been having fun playing thorugh the campaign again, and decided to 'update' the idea of a timed campaign. Five missions are complete, but only the first three of those are tested and somewhat balanced so that's what I'm releasing for now. The last three should be out in 2-3 days, depending on when I'll find the time to test.

Note that the 'timers' are fairly short for the most part. You are extremely unlikely to finish an objective in time, but that's kind of the point. It leads to some interesting scenarios at time, and you can actually lose if you don't focus on what's important (I've just learned today that QAI actually nukes your base in two places in the second mission - it's the first time he had the chance).

If you feel the timers are too long or to short, it's trivial to change them. Just go to the script file (ie. X1CA_Coop_001_script) and search with your text editor for '-- timer' - this is a unique string that is always placed near any timers. Add or subtract from the timer as you see fit. Difficulty level influences how much time you have, and only those on hard were tested (does anybody play on normal anyway?).

There are also some tweaks to the missions themselves, but they are minor for the most part. They are as follows:
Mission 1 - none. You can cheese most of the mission if you go straight for ACU in part 3, but it's probably more fun if you don't.

Mission 2 - on hard, there are 3 GC instead of 5 so anywhere between 2 and 5 spiders will survive. QAI additionally nukes the order base from part 2 and Burke begins dialogue earlier, so that spiders won't be caught in the blast.

Mission 3 - you get a single T3 engineer and 4 ASF at the beginning from Rhiza. Since she holds Burke in highest regard, it would make sense that she would help you out at the beginning IMO. I've wanted to give a single engy and make her ASF patrol above your base, but the AI can be really stupid at times, so you get four of them to protect against random early gunships and the like. If you dislike this, go to the _script file of mission 3 and delete the line "ScenarioFramework.CreateTimerTrigger(RhizaGivesUnits, 2)" (should probably increase timer as well if you do)
-Sera engineers take forever to build the bombers, so I've created another timer instead that's shown in objectives shortly after part 2 starts - you've got less than half an hour total from the beginning of the mission to kill them, and if they are still alive when the timer ends Burke dies and you lose. Some units that are unlocked in part 1 and 2 are unlocked from the beginning of the mission due to those time constraints (mostly the sub hunters)
-this is probably a problem with some balance changes introduced by FAF, but Rhiza tends to die in less than 5 minutes into the mission for me. Since I mostly play with mods I can't be sure of that though (can't check at the moment), but I haven't touched anything related to this. Just cheat two additional destroyers in the first naval battle for Rhiza or whatever.

Mission 4 - You better turtle up hard or get lots of strats, because all chickens attack you, instead of just three or six depending on difficulty. And since there's only 20 minutes and like 15 chickens, you better make some air to kill them before they attack your base unless you can kill three vet5 chickens at once.

Mission 5 - probably won't have any changes

Mission 6 - ???


To 'install' the files, just replace the default maps (by default in C:\Users\Hive\Documents\My Games\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander Forged Alliance\Maps) and start them as you normally would from FAF client.

@edit - it's quite possible that some dialogues will happen in odd places due to the changes made. I've tweaked some of the most glaring ones that I saw, but it would be a hell of a lot of work for no real benefit to catch them all and would involve a lot of additional decision trees. It doesn't really change the gameplay in any way, but I figured I should mention it.

[Cuddles]

Hi qwop,

Have a look at the current mission 6 in the coop tab, speed2 AFIK introduced a timer there already.

Anyways, love the idea, will def have a go at it.

[speed2]

Im slowly adding timers where the dialogue and the mission allows me to still make sense.

I dont think its the best way to replace the original mission files as the coop is using the map from there, so if you change it even a bit, it will lead to desyncs