Prothyon - 16

[everywhere116]

What should we do with the v5 files? The download just has a bunch of LUA files but no install.bat or ReadMe to tell us what to do with them.

Also do you want us to move both the "sounds" and "videos" folders themselves from the download into the extra's folder, or to just copy paste the files, or should we move the entire download folder into the extras folder?

[Mephi]

With the amout of test I got so far (zero) I decided it's gonna be better to do public beta testing of my mission. So here it is:
https://mega.nz/#!Z5YmjDCI!Zwyea0GVPcq8 ... mLsYLDD_ug
Be sure to read ReadMe.txt that is packed inside. I won't answer questions that are answered inside that file.

always check first page

[speed2]

I've updated the first post with instructions

[Zappa]

I've finished and enjoyed mission Prothyon Beta 5 (default hard), took about 1h30 and reached 1500 units cap. Despite i7 (score 148), towards the end the game ran much more slowly than I'm used to (but have not played large AI maps before).

Comments:

- the voice saying "good job, now escape with your ACU" was very low volume (compared to all voices before).

- ACU had to escape via quantum gateway, but not clear how to achieve this objective. Gateway was not highlighted, could not interact with.

- some time later the objective about civ trucks appeared. Seemingly long delay could have been due to slow sim speed, did not check how much game time passed since 'escape' objective. Gateway now highlighted and usable. Voice describing civ trucks objective was low volume again. Clicking on the civ-truck objective icon did not focus camera on the trucks.

- after completing mission, Gyle's "thank you commander" text was shown but no audio played. Could still finish mission normally (game stopped and button appeared, operation completed).

I played the last 30 min from a save file, have attached LastReplay (seems to be empty) and speed2coop.log (not checked if contains useful info). If above problems do not occur for others, maybe they are due to loading from file or game slowdown?

[PerfectWay]

Today I tried coop mission Prothyon-16. After the well-known missions of the official company, Prothyon-16 looks very fresh and interesting, my congratulations, speed2!
As for testing, I had a few comments.
1) Approximately half of the game (after the appearance of Seraphim) I have lost the ability to pause game (button was disabled) [SOLVED, depends on the timeout settings].
2) SACU did not want to evacuate, although I had a long and carefully waited for him. I suspect that this has happened due to the fact that I did not realize that the trucks must manually send the quantum gate, I may not be because of this.
3) The last base Seraphim has not had time to build. When my bombers reached it there was no defense and combat units, and ACU alone built generator.

I hope this information is helpful.
Regards, PerfectWay

[PhilipJFry]

The Morax SACU doesn't move to the extraction after every objective has been completed.

[Idontknowman]

Incredibly challenging map compared to everything in the campaign.
Mass and energy are a constant struggle due to being limited to T2 and I made full use of the 1000 unit cap.

I managed to take out the Evil One with some gunships before things got serious and shelled his T3 air & base with T2 cruisers. He can't produce air units once his power plants are down. Complete annihilation of all enemy forces.
I don't know if not leaving then and letting the countdown end would still have resulted in a loss despite no enemy forces being present on the map anymore or if that was a loss trigger at all and not instead a "Everyone: Attack !"-trigger. After such a long battle I'd rather play safe instead of curiously fucking up so close to a perfect finish.

An issue with the Seraphim appearence:
As the AI's base was handed over to me it went over my unit cap, causing me to no longer be able to produce units while the Seraphim was in a full attack.
Recommended to either keep that base in the AI's hands or to increase the unit cap beyond 1000 (+100) as I had to blow up the base and all in it just to be able to act again.

An issue with the "safe the civilians" trigger:
It claims all civilians have been rescued if a certain number of them entered the gate despite some still remaining that can still use the gate afterwards. The trigger should consider all trucks that still exist and not just skip the remaining ones just because the minimum amount of civilians was rescued. The minimum should only value failure vs success once no more civilian trucks are on the map that are controlled by the player but not cause the player to abandom the remaining civilians.

Voice:
Could be louder as the voice level is below the volume used in the campaign, otherwise well.

With the map design I had trouble when I was ordered to attack to AI controlled air base using naval, air and land units combined. The T2 radar wasn't enough to get any intel there and trying to get across wouldn't work because of the set up patrols and T2 Gunships. Now that I think about it I should've just used the position behind the mountain to build a radar there...

Eventually T3 should be unlocked when the Seraphim show up so that no T3 unit can be built but just so that the production speed increases and the player can get rid of some assisting units due to that to have more population cap available for actual combat units. The only thing I'd make available for T3 is the air scout. Eastereggs-wise the Titans that make a special appearence earlier in the map could maybe be unlocked by a hidden tech structure in the upper right corner of the map in it's final phase as that corner has nothing: no resources, no enemies, only land mass. Currently that's just an unused spot.

Edit#1:
The countdown should have a timer that's visible despite the info of it's state every now and then, like the Hades mission in FA has done it. Just so the player has some exact amount.

In case the countdown timer isn't a "you're about to be nuked" timer as on Hades in the FA mission but just a "minutes until the enemy will attack you with his T3 units" timer: The total annihilation of all Seraphim units should then result in a success of the "rescue the SACU" and "rescue the civilians" trigger along with an end of the timer and safe escape win as no enemies remain that could prevent this.

Edit#2:
Morax' extraction worked for me. He used a transport to fly over to the gate and used it. Eventually the ACU was stuck for some of the other players.

Edit#3:
Considering Morax: Had him die once due to the old Rhiza behaviour: Walking around in water, trying to construct stuff while the enemy shoots it down and damages the ACU until it explodes. The AI really needs to learn to either use some support units or to gtfo when there are destroyers, subs or torpedo bombers around, especially when damaged.

Edit#4:
This time I let the timer run out. Turns out the Seraphim invasion starts then, using naval and air units and initially also hover land units. A bit of a shame that the map doesn't expand so that the player is stuck in defense even when being capable of dealing with the assault but it's clear why: to end the mission the intended way. All in all very well designed. Nice design with going the extra mile and actually having an invasion. But the invasion needs a lot more T3 anti air jets to become a threat so that the player is no longer capable of throwing air units against the enemies, especially torpedo bombers that snipe anything but battleships quite fast. Also I could just retreat to the main island, sitting there all day as only T1 and T3 bombers along with gunships are capable of getting there and dealing any damage. Eventually the Invasion should get a single experimental unit, like the walker type experimental, joining from the north.

[Idontknowman]

Replayed it twice and 2 of 2 times Morax' extraction failed because the SCU got stuck due to pathfinding, kicking all progress achieved so far in the balls.

The other issue is that even if you get him unstuck he won't move anymore and in case his transport is destroyed he neither gets a new one nor does the map continue.

[speed2]

Can you give me the replay IDs?

[Idontknowman]

I only found the 2nd one. Event with gameplay speed +10 it took me 35mins to get to the relevant point.