Update on our progress

Ok, we know we keep you waiting, so here's a small update of what we are doing:

- Nearly all necessary ships including the first starbase you'll see are ready. Only one minor issues on two capital ships, one carrier and one fighter to go.

- We have begun the finalization process of the Vega missions and we're reworking two of them. one of them will be a very special surprise.

- We will include two cutscenes in the next batch, one of which will be the briefing of Mission 4 (and the only time you'll get to SEE Colonel Klier before his unfortunate demise.

- We have further revised the Brimstone missions, especially mission 4, so please check that one out when you get to it.

- We have changed several menu sounds and also a few ingame sound effects like shield impacts both on other ships and the player ship. Please give us feedback on those also.

As you can see, we're hard at work and making good progress and we have a lot in store for you in Vega, so stay tuned and be ready for more action 😊

Sounds great! 😎

Can't wait for this! Looking forward for seeing the starbase - of what type will that be? Of course the bigger the better 😁 . Hope it will arrive soon. Keep up the good work guys!

My guess is that it'll be a Blackmane-type starbase.

Looking forward to its release 😊 Can't wait ^^

Another major milestone for the next release is upgraded music code - music transitions should be much more fluent now.

Also, the next iteration will feature new comm animations and some other ... rather unexpected surprises.

I really like those new talking heads. Well done. 😊

Of course you will see them a little smaller and monochrome ingame, but maybe we'll have a few of them in the manual or something 😊

KeldorKatarn wrote:Of course you will see them a little smaller and monochrome ingame

Which is why I am sitting in a corner at Tolwyn HQ whining and sobbing gently. 😉

for some weird reason i cant lose the picture in my head when i see those girls. i allways think abck to my childhood when i found some porntapes my parents had bought in a sexshop. the girls all looked the same way :p

That was far more detailed that I wanted (and needed) to know. 😉

Anyway, here are two more. How many animated sequences do you think we created over the past three days?

i love your approach on the rifle

Size does matter. Sometimes.

size allways matters (:

btw tolwyn what happened to my cute litle zombie girl avatar? 😢

The starbase is finalized, so are all the fighters. A few capships remaining and we're ready to roll.

One mission is already finalized with the next two coming.

Good to hear about the progress. We're waiting (un)patiently for the next release. 😉

Like everyone else, I can't wait! Don't worry about the "making you wait" part. I would rather wait and have fewer fatal issues than have to deal with those dissapointments sooner. Anyway, wish I could help you guys but today's programming is out of my league. I would be interested in learning though if you have any resources you can suggest to get me started. I used to program professionally but that was back in the Quickbaxic and Dbase era, lol. Anyway, great work so far, looking forward to the next release.

tedder wrote:Like everyone else, I can't wait! Don't worry about the "making you wait" part. I would rather wait and have fewer fatal issues than have to deal with those dissapointments sooner. Anyway, wish I could help you guys but today's programming is out of my league. I would be interested in learning though if you have any resources you can suggest to get me started. I used to program professionally but that was back in the Quickbaxic and Dbase era, lol. Anyway, great work so far, looking forward to the next release.

Most of the work is model checking and mission polishing actually. The programming is mostly bugfixing at this point and gladly there aren't that many bugs.

PS: Mission 5 is also a wrap.

M4 is fully voiced now. We are getting there...

We need a little more time to fix a few more model issues (this will take less time in the future, the main problem right now is the very detailed hangars in ther Confed carriers. Once those are out of the way, it will be easier) and the missions (we have a few complicated ones in Vega).

And since I, the main QA man and lead developer and scripter do have a job application 1000km from home in the next week I'll take the liberty of giving you a probable date for Beta 3: After easter

So you're free to enjoy your easter holidays, we'll get back to you with new stuff after that. And we really should be able to give you that stuff right after the holidays if everything goes right.

Sorry again for the delay on vega, but we didn't anticipate the number of problems we'd have with the hangar geometry and other model related issues. On the bright side, we found us another modeler who's helping us out a bit.

Is that new modeler one of the guys I've asked over at bc-central?

Nope. It's an old friend of mine who has recently resurfaced and offered to give us a big hand. 😂

Tolwyn wrote:Nope. It's an old friend of mine who has recently resurfaced and offered to give us a big hand. 😂

Models are slowly shaping up and our voice actors have started sending in their lines. The next beta should be a much reacher experience in terms of story telling. If all goes well, we should have the next beta ready in 7-14 days. Here's current change log:

- 0000156: [Content] Another pickup line - Mission 9 - Hermes 4 (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000150: [Gameplay] Mission 8 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000136: [Models] Lexington geometry errors hangar (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000153: [POF Data] Clarkson - POF Data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000108: [POF Data] Dukara POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000154: [POF Data] Clarkson medical - POF Data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000015: [POF Data] Arrow - POF Data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000147: [Gameplay] Mission 5 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000148: [Gameplay] Mission 6 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000106: [POF Data] Naval Base POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000138: [Models] Naval Base geometry errors hangar (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000067: [Models] Caernaven problem (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000046: [Tables] Techroom description entries in ships.tbl missing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000013: [Models] Sabre - multiple issues (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000131: [POF Data] Jutland POF data (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000145: [Gameplay] Conditional check possibly required for "fighter cover destroyed" message - M2 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000105: [POF Data] Caernaven POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000144: [Launcher] Launcher needs certain tweaks (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000117: [Launcher] The launcher needs its final layout and looks (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000140: [Gameplay] Valliancourt deathscream missing (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000114: [Gameplay] TCS Valliancourt wrong death announcement (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000141: [Launcher] Revise exception handling (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000143: [Gameplay] Death screen shows full name of enemy ship (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000109: [POF Data] Naktarg POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000135: [Models] Jutland geometry errors hangar (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000107: [POF Data] Turret Mine POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000111: [POF Data] LR Spear POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000110: [POF Data] Missile Launcher POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000103: [POF Data] Ferret POF data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000044: [POF Data] Zartoth - Pof Data (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000132: [Gameplay] Greywolf has the wrong deathcry in Mission Brimstone 1 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000133: [Gameplay] Kiltathi taunts - no voice file assigned (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000118: [Models] Hermes´s bow struts - markings (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000130: [Models] Jutland model has geometry errors near the engine section (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000127: [FRED] FRED cannot launch Saga (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000125: [Launcher] Launcher doesn't correctly display selected mods. (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000023: [Models] Kilrathi Drydock - shine and normal maps missing (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000122: [Gameplay] Brimstone 2: Success even if the player dies under certain condition (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000121: [HUD] Problem with wingmen display and quick start feature (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000123: [Gameplay] User assigned mission hotkeys are not correctly saved (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000116: [Launcher] The Launcher references the wrong Mantis webpage. (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.

WOW. Long changelog. I can't wait what's all in the next Beta Patch but if it need some more time than it's ok 😊

There will be no patch. Beta 3 will, once again, be a full fledged client. I expect the download size around 2 GB, which, in a way, is saying something.

Will there be full speech for radio communications in Beta3, or some are still incomplete?

Most of the comms should be included. We just had to recast several roles but I am optimistic, that we should get most of the lines done on schedule.

How about forwarding some samples in the meanwhile?

Should be ... doable.

Here are a few samples. Enjoy.

Please keep in mind, that this is not target sound quality. We'll remove background noise/clicking at some point.

Wow, the voice actors did a great job, I'm impressed. Well done ➡️

VO (voice over) work comes out really fantastic. The experience is amazing - as are the actors. Now, I'll take credit for the words. I am putting a lot of work into those. But I'm not going to even pretend that my direction help the actors that much - they really don't need it. Still, next time I am hiring a voice acting coordinator.

The quality of WCSaga is just unbelievable. I knew that you guys would come up with an enjoyable game, but who could have guessed that it would reach such a professional level ? Congrats to the team and especially the voice actors. ➡️

Thanks. Believe me when I am saying, that the third beta will be a huge improvement over the 2nd one. It feels so much more polished - sometimes during play testing I find myself just slipping into the gamers mode and simply enjoying the game.

We'll also try to get as many animated briefings done as possible for the next beta. We had to recast the Kettle's actor for the 2nd time, which put us slightly behind schedule.

Wow, I'm very impressed by the voice actors.

sorry havbe been absent for over a week. new term started and it was quite stressfull at university (:

Nightmare wrote:sorry havbe been absent for over a week. new term started and it was quite stressfull at university (:

No problem, you didn't miss anything. But be back and ready for action next week right after easter 😊

You probably wouldn't say if there were but are there gonna be any easter eggs included 😁

Yup. Will be hard to spot though.

Good news:

briefings for the first four missions are done. We are currently in the process of finalizing beta 3 missions. If our final review will not show any apparent issues, we should be able to release the beta in the next few days. Granted, we've been saying that for quite some time now but things are looking up. 😉

Good to hear things moving forward. We are still here waiting, take your time.

We should be able to pump out Beta 3 within the next 48 hours.

Beta 3 will be up in a few hours. In the meantime, read the changelog:

- Beta 3 ships.tbl entries need checking - resolved.
- Vaktoth - Pof Data modifications
- Savannah HUD icon added
- Savannah - Pof Data modifications
- Bhantkara - Pof Data modifications
- Bhantkara geometry errors in hangar - resolved.
- Lexington - Pof Data modifications
- Intro scene 7 Longbow Pilot - resolved.
- kis_bhantkara is missing a shield mesh - resolved.
- Additional uniform textures for several characters - resolved.
- Sabre shield mesh replaced
- Sabre Pof Data modifications
- CAP pronunciation fixed.
- Mission 8 added
- Lexington geometry errors hangar resolved.
- Clarkson - Pof Data modifications
- Dukara Pof Data modifications
- Clarkson medical - Pof Data modifications
- Arrow - Pof Data modifications
- Mission 5 added
- Mission 6 added
- Mission 9 added
- Mission 7 added
- Naval Base Pof Data modifications
- Fixed geometry errors in Naval Base hangar
- Caernaven problem fixed
- Techroom description entries in ships.tbl added
- Sabre - multiple issues fixed
- Jutland Pof Data modifications
- Conditional check added for "fighter cover destroyed" message in M2
- Caernaven Pof Data modifications
- Various launcher tweaks
- The launcher now features its final layout and looks
- Valliancourt deathscream missing - resolved.
- TCS Valliancourt wrong death announcement - resolved.
- Revised exception handling
- Death screen shows full name of enemy ship issue resolved.
- Naktarg Pof Data modifications
- Jutland geometry errors hangar fixed
- Turret Mine Pof Data modifications
- LR Spear PPof Data modifications
- Missile Launcher Pof Data modifications
- Ferret Pof Data modifications
- Zartoth - Pof Data modifications
- Greywolf has the correct deathcry in Mission Brimstone 1 now
- Kiltathi taunts - no voice file assigned - resolved.
- Hermes´s bow struts - markings modified
- Jutland model no longer has geometry errors near the engine section
- FRED can now launch Saga
- Launcher now correctly displays selected mods.
- Brimstone 2: Success even if the player dies under certain condition fixed
- Problem with wingmen display and quick start feature resolved.
- User assigned mission hotkeys are not correctly saved issue fixed
- The Launcher references the wrong Mantis webpage problem solved.
- Mission 3: Reduced the delays a bit and improved some of the enemy AI.
- The launcher now correctly handles mods.
- Shield penetration bug fixed.
- Randomization of AMG Turret targeting improved.
- Changed several interface sounds.
- Shield rendering completely changed.
- Improved the contrast of a few UI font colors.
- Fixed a minor bug in mouse steering.
- Turrets now also reset when all enemies are destroyed.
- Additional Tresh line for Mission 4, mentioning the possibility to transfer energy to the shields.
- New carrier logos.
- Valliancourt death scream added.
- Small click in the engine loop sound fixed.
- Optimized the exception handling of the launcher.
- Comm waves normalized.
- Several Launcher fixes.
- New explosion sound.
- A music bug fixed. Now the patterns should finally start when they are supposed to.
- Ships appearing from the distance are now no longer logged as "Ship arrived"
- Head animations added.
- Enemy arrival tracks are now allowed to interrupt the Victory tracks.
- Hotkey assignment now also works for ships that arrive later in the mission.
- Hellcat flyby in mainhall fixed.
- Briefing cutscenes for M1-4 added.
- Episode 1 outro added to the Vega campaign.
- Vaktoth, Paktahn and Zartoth collision detection error fixed by deleting corrupted LODs.

ETA is five hours. (Download size this time will be 1.6 GB)

Sweet! Can't wait to get back into it.

Ready for download 😎 I understand that since the Beta3 will be the separate client, we can just uninstall Beta2?

Correct. You will need to uninstall Beta 2 prior to installing Beta 3. (Beta 3 is partially online. I split the setup file into several zip archives since my internet connection is unstable and my download server does not support upload resume)

To quote a lovely and witty voice actress who is playing the role of Colonel Wagner:

"I'm playing a fighter pilot in combat with an alien race that would destroy humanity. The neighbors must think Robert and I are having quite the argument; I keep yelling, "I'll see you in HELL!" (If the neighbors can also hear Robert's calm, interspersed "Again...again," no telling what they must think.)"

Oh dear... it is all my fault.

For the next beta iteration we are replacing the somewhat limited Windows Installer with a more sophisticated installer engine. The shouldn't be any downsides. The overall installation performance should be much better, additional free space on your system drive (for temp files) is no longer required.

Expect the next iteration in about 10 to 14 days. You will get four more missions to play with and updates on the old ones.

We also decided to make the coming iterations smaller so you won't have to wait so long anymore. The upcoming star systems will have less missions (max 3 instead of 4 or 5) for a while. We originally wanted to combine those because of their small size. But now we'll release them one by one. This will not only make sure weq can push the stuff out quicker, but we also have shorter cycles to give you updated versions of the already released missions.

Stay tuned and feel free to give us as much feedback on what you have so far as you can.

PS: Please also be aware that we will make another activity check before the next release. If you haven't posted much so far (especially the new guys) please play the beta you got and get us some feedback. If there aren't any bugs from your point of view at least give us some general feedback. Any tester that hasn't contributed anything by the time the next release comes around will miss it because he or she will no longer have access to the Beta forum by then. Sorry.

KeldorKatarn wrote:This will not only make sure weq can push the stuff out quicker, but we also have shorter cycles to give you updated versions of the already released missions.

A good decision. Would be much easier to tell if something has already been corrected. Additionally we could further discuss things like altered balancing in some missions...

Nice, I'm looking forward to it. If fact, fewer missions are better for testing - you simply have less missions to concentrate on at once 😊

I just got started with it, i'm sorry it took me so long to start playing with the beta. I only played the first mission so far, getting used to the controls, and so far i haven't encountered any problems. Just one question, my wingman doesn't have a voice, right? I'll keep trying to keep up and play the missions again in different difficulty levels, and in different ways.

Depends on the beta iteration and the mission. In the next iteration nearly all lines will be voices. Only a small fraction are still missing.

True. 95% of the lines have been recorded by now.

KeldorKatarn wrote:Depends on the beta iteration and the mission. In the next iteration nearly all lines will be voices. Only a small fraction are still missing.

Oops, you're right, i just checked and i have the 0.9.3.4671, i'll download the latest one.

Chaosbringer"]

By "the next iteration" I meant the upcoming one.

The next iteration is shaping up. We have most elements locked and in place now. Expect the new beta very soon.

Tolwyn wrote:The next iteration is shaping up. We have most elements locked and in place now. Expect the new beta very soon.

Looking forward to Beta-4 with eager anticipation!

Bring it on 😈

RAWR !

As regular beta testers will be aware (yes, all ten of you), there is something increasingly traditional about betas arriving remarkably later than the advertised deadline. This can be through a combination of factors, usually revolving around workload and, most crucially, many wasted hours spent chugging pints of sweet sweet booze in the local bar instead of actually sitting down and working on the occasionally enjoyable space opera.

Jokes aside: the beta is taking shape. As it stands, we need to correct minor texture issues on two capital ships and then we will build the release package and get this damned thing out of the door.

Good luck. 😊

Just take your time.

TParis wrote:Just take your time.

Let's put it this way - Beta 4 has been delayed by two weeks. That is not something we are taking lightly. 😐

Just a quick update: if our review later today will not yield any serious issues, next beta will be available in 24 hours.

That's good to hear Tolwyn. ➡️

Looking forward to seeing it ➡️

Tolwyn wrote:Just a quick update: if our review later today will not yield any serious issues, next beta will be available in 24 hours.

The next build is final and we are already in the process of preparing the installer, which will take a while.

Btw... if you can still read this you survived our latest clean up among the Beta crew. Some of you however might receive a warning PN if you have contributed but haven't done anything useful in the recent past. Stay on top of it people and thank you everyone still here, you guys helped us a lot.

Stay put for the next Beta. We'll release the changelog in a few minutes as a teaser.

Well, I'm glad I can still read this 😊 I'll install the new Beta when I'm back home, hopefully round about 6pm. I can't wait to see the improvements and new missions!

Installation finished. Took some time to download (about 2 hours). Going to test as soon as I'm finished with work.

Great! While you are at it, please confirm that audio playback issues (in our cutscenes) are fixed.

If you are refering to the audio delay I can confirm that I didn't notice anything like that.

But take a look at this -> viewtopic.php?f=13&t=146

Tolwyn wrote:Great! While you are at it, please confirm that audio playback issues (in our cutscenes) are fixed.

It is not a coincidence. The problem is identified: if the movie player has to go through larger amounts of data it can result in substantial delays (depending on hardware configuration). We are currently working on restructuring the code, which should fix the issue and allow for smooth playback.

If all goes well, we should be able to pass you a new executable in a few days.

Beta 5 will be delayed by a few days but it should be out by the end of the week.

KeldorKatarn wrote:Beta 5 will be delayed by a few days but it should be out by the end of the week.

Very nice 😊

Yay! 😁

In somewhat unrelated news we will probably merge betas 6 and 7 ('Nifelheim' and 'Caliban'), which means you will end up testing 5 instead of merely 2 missions.

So how many new missions will Beta5 contain?

Three

It's Saturday and no new missions yet [disappointed], but I know you guys are working hard to get the new missions out, so I will with eager patience wait for them.

The missions are final already, we just have a few more tweaks on our roadmap and we hope to get another cutscene-performance patch in too. We will probably release tomorrow or Monday 😊 Probably Monday morning since we always need some time to compile the installer and load the entire package up.

I might actually go for an incremental update this time around.

Tolwyn wrote:I might actually go for an incremental update this time around.

Depends on the number of changes. Previous betas included extensive modifications to core data files.

Automatic updater is up and running. It should detect previously installed beta version and copy updated files into the correct folder.

We are starting our upload...

Might just take forever 😁

It's an incremental update. ETA 1 hour. (Unless I run into some issues)

Beta 5 is now available. Keep your fingers crossed that the incremental update works.

Can't wait to get home and install it

We are making great progress and Beta 6 should be out early next week.

Great! Was somewhat distracted from testing due to my sons ilness. But as he's fine now, I will be able to fully participate again 😉

Expect two new missions, several updates to Proxima 2, easier to destroy capship engines, medals!, new intel-entries, the Episode 2 outro cutscene and as always: several surprises.

Edit: I nearly forgot. We'll also remove the need to press Alt-N

KeldorKatarn wrote:Edit: I nearly forgot. We'll also remove the need to press Alt-N

that's a very good decision. I always felt like it was a bit unnecessary to hit Alt-N when you can't even decide which NAV you want to fly to. Don't know why I never suggested a removal ....

Expect Beta 6 "Nifelheim" on Wednesday

Just a quick update, guys. You can (probably) expect next beta update (Codename 'Caliban') this Sunday.

Next beta will be available in a few hours. 😊

It's getting a bit quiet in the forum, what's going on guys?

I'm still alive and I've just posted 4 screenshots for you. 😊

KeldorKatarn wrote:It's getting a bit quiet in the forum, what's going on guys?

KeldorKatarn wrote:It's getting a bit quiet in the forum, what's going on guys?

My problem atm is that I always give the campaign a complete re-run. Because of some unexpected events (mainly good things 😊 ) I didn't get to the new missions, though. Going to give the caliban missions a try today or tomorrow 😉

Samheyn wrote:My problem atm is that I always give the campaign a complete re-run. Because of some unexpected events (mainly good things 😊 ) I didn't get to the new missions, though. Going to give the caliban missions a try today or tomorrow 😉

Why would you do that? Unless of course.... no, that is out of the question. 😊

Glad someone is doing that

Uhm, same here.

Next beta will be available ahead of schedule. Expect download links within the next few hours.

Tolwyn wrote:Next beta will be available ahead of schedule. Expect download links within the next few hours.

Guys, what's going on? The forum is nearly dead!

KeldorKatarn wrote:Guys, what's going on? The forum is nearly dead!

That is not they way to do it. i repeatedly said that you remaining quiet doesn't help us at all. if you play missions and you don't find any issues,and the mission is good to go from your point of view then for god's sake tell us! We don't know you have played the mission and didn't find anything. We need you to tell us that. Not having found anything IS useful information.

We don't just need you to report the presence of bugs but also the absence of any!

Hello guys,

We're not doing this because we want to be assholes, far from it. We're doing this because we always need those extra set of eyes. Some of us have worked on Saga for so long that the concept, programming, ideas have been ingrained into our minds. An outsider's point of view (beta testers) who can see Saga for what it is from a fresh pair of eyes can give us a new perspective and catch something that we have not considered before.

Just like any project, when it becomes released, it's going to come under major scrutiny. The criticism will be harsh and unrelenting, and when it's all over, our critics will pull the passive-aggressive "Oh, we always wanted Saga to be a better product, that's why we're doing it!!!!" excuse.

You fight as you train, you train as you fight. That's why we need your help. We need to know all of the problems, critiques, and constructive feedback up front, all of it, in spades. This way we can prepare ourselves and refine the product to give that initial impression of praise rather then critique. Anything helps, even something as little as "no problems this mission, press!".

KeldorKatarn wrote:That is not they way to do it. i repeatedly said that you remaining quiet doesn't help us at all. if you play missions and you don't find any issues,and the mission is good to go from your point of view then for god's sake tell us! We don't know you have played the mission and didn't find anything. We need you to tell us that. Not having found anything IS useful information.

We don't just need you to report the presence of bugs but also the absence of any!

Of course, I didn't mean that we should shut up if we don't find any bugs 😉 It's just that sometimes one does not have to say anything new. But I think there are many people here who are doing their jobs - Making comments on gameplay, problems, impressions, positive critiques etc. Maybe some of the testers do have better weather conditions than we here in Germany 😉 I guess there will soon be more traffic here in the forum - and I hope that, too.

Man, I just wrote a long text about all the things I like about WCSaga and all this "You're great, just keep up the good work!" stuff. But I deleted it. Why?

Because I want to keep it short and simple:

What you've achieved so far is more than I ever ever would have expected from a ,sorry, don't punch me for this one, "mod team" you know? This is no mod or little tweak of the originial game/engine. This is the next wing commander (prequel) that never got released by EA. It would have been Chris Roberts job to do this but he and Origin/EA failed to take the initiative even though there was a big fanbase over all these years.

There are two things I would like to see :

1. WCSaga and the crew behind it getting the attention it deserves by the gaming media and the original WC-Team without EA sueing you

2. EA gets the hint and gives the WC-Series a restart. I know they were impressed by Privateers GOG.com sales and it seems like they were already considering a new game. Perhaps WCSaga shows 'em in which direction they should go (and not to do another WC-Arena)

And sorry for beeing quiet for a couple of weeks, but as others said we didn't expect you to want infos in the style of "everything is fine, works"

+ my family kept me busy 😉

And now: keep up the good work.

Sameheyn, very good text. There is nothing more to say, just sign.

The next beta will be a bit delayed. The Beta 9 missions are extremely complex in terms of balancing needs. This also means that we need you to really test these missions very very well, including in several ways to play them. You can lose those and still progress and some of the following missions will change a little because of this. Also within a mission several things can happen depending on what you do. This is especially true for one of these missions.

So be prepared to really dig into those and do your best to find every possible outcome and try to break it.

So at this point it would be good to clone your pilot in order to test those different branches?

Yes

So, what can you expect from the new beta (apart from a series of fairly difficult and very complex missions)? A brand new cutscene, more awesome voice acting (Codiene will finally tag along) and finally command briefing animations. I spent the last few days working on these small animations and I think that they turned out fairly well considering the amount of time which went into these (e.g. not much).

Next beta will be released tomorrow. Brace yourselves!

Ready for duty!

Upload might take a while though - this will probably be the first beta release larger than 2GB.

Good to hear. I am ready to go.

Tolwyn wrote:Next beta will be released tomorrow. Brace yourselves!

Red 5 standing by.

Flapping-my-arms-trying-to-lift-off standing by 😁

Fliep wrote:Flapping-my-arms-trying-to-lift-off standing by 😁

Here's current change log.

- 0000411: [Models] Confed debris needed (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000470: [Engine] Cuscenes cannot be interrupted properly (HCl) - resolved.
- 0000274: [Engine] Cutscene Lag (HCl) - resolved.
- 0000450: [Missions/Gameplay] Turret Mines not engaging Kilrathi in Torgo-1 at Nav 2 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000447: [Missions/Gameplay] Brimstone 2: Pothead's death too far away from Destroyer (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000393: [Missions/Gameplay] Vanishing gunfire when close to a capital ship (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000480: [Voice-over] 09_kettle_09 pickup (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000423: [Missions/Gameplay] Mission 28 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000422: [Missions/Gameplay] Mission 27 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000487: [Cutscenes] h_25_command_ani_02 - aliasing artefacts (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000491: [Voice-over] Proxima 3: Mr Freyers no voice lines assigned (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000490: [Missions/Gameplay] Proxima 2: Contradiction Sol and Sirius (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000482: [Voice-over] Torgo 1 - Voice acting mistake TCS Raven (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000459: [Voice-over] 28_codiene_05 pickup (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000472: [Models] Bluepoint - texture issue (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000486: [Voice-over] 06_hermes_control takes appear to be damaged (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0000485: [Voice-over] limiter problem - 's' syllables missing (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0000473: [Voice-over] Dawn's line in Vega 3 is voice-less (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000478: [Voice-over] Vega 5: Greywolf's line w/o voice (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000476: [Voice-over] Vega 5: SS Halo Rounds' line "Hopefully" w/o voice. (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000412: [Models] Battleaxe (Caernaven) debris (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000458: [Voice-over] 28_ninja_01 pickup (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000467: [Voice-over] Greywolf:"Great, kid" instead of "Nice shot, kid" (found in Vega 2) (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000421: [Missions/Gameplay] Mission 26 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000462: [Voice-over] 26_psychopath_08 pickup (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000466: [Speech] Snipes' Compliment in Brimstone 4: Voice and Subtitles different (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000461: [Graphics] Texture issue with Sector HQ. (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000460: [Content] Constancy in carrier registration numbers in Intel entries. (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000451: [Models] Spartan way too large (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000455: [Missions/Gameplay] Proxima 3 - Assassin's comm log text differs from voice (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000430: [Models] Behemoth model geometry issues (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000449: [Voice-over] M25 Codiene pickup (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000300: [Engine] Video audio volume - no adjustments possible (HCl) - resolved.
- 0000273: [Engine] "No sound" set in launcher ---> game locks up after intro anim. (HCl) - resolved.
- 0000420: [Missions/Gameplay] Mission 25 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000440: [Models] Jutland geometry error (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000431: [Models] Behemoth's shimmering texture. (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000345: [Models] Behemoth - faulty uv mapping & z-buffer issues (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0000437: [Missions/Gameplay] Line missing in cmd-briefing of Torgo 1 (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000446: [Voice-over] Vega 1 - Greywolf still has no voice in one sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000448: [Voice-over] Brimstone 3: Wrong Kettle-Line (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000425: [Missions/Gameplay] Mission 3 balancing (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000434: [Missions/Gameplay] No Voice Debriefing in Vega 1 and 2 (but Debriefings have been recorded) (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000427: [Voice-over] Mission 3 Kettle pickup (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000432: [Voice-over] Mission 8 debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000426: [Engine] Check kills needed for badges, engine might treat them as cummulative (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000409: [Models] kilrathi warships - minor hangar issues (Tolwyn) - resolved.

For this new beta, will we have to delete the last beta or is it going to be an add on to the current beta?

It will be a full installation. We changed quite a bit of stuff.

Ok guys, here a few comments about the upcoming beta.

There are two major tasks for you this time:

First: To thoroughly test all Beta 9 mission including within the campaign mode, exploring all possible branches. Initially we just want you to experience them fresh, in a day or two we will post detailed information about the pissible outcomes of all missions which we'd like you to test (we'll put those in spoiler tags in case someone cannot start right away. The first flight experience reports are also very important to us)

Second: We have begin to make missions master ready. We'll open a new section in the forum where only finalized missions will be discussed. We have already given them a green light, now it is your turn. if you give them your ok, we're good to go. This also means that the mission are to be regarded as 100% complete. if you find ANYTHING wrong with them, even a ' mission, do report it. We also want EVERYONE to play them and post a "GREEN" once the mission is good to go from your point of view. Once we have a green from everybody we'll freeze them. The first batch will be the Brimstone missions (Mission 1, 2, 3 and 4). Those should be final. Please test them in detail. However please only report issues, no feature requests or suggestions for changes that are not really necessary. We will no longer include those in the Brimstone missions. This is about finalization only. You'll find threads for every finalized mission in the new forum section, please exclusively post GREEN reports or bugs there. Do not generally discuss the missions or give general feedback. That's what the regular mission threads are for. What should be reported are voice problems, text errors, not-so-nice autopilot animations, timing issues, other stuff that just doesn't feel polished or might simply be missing. This includes cutscenes, briefings, command briefings, ship and weapon selection screens and debriefing / medal stuff! Regard those missions as "release ready" If you feel they don't deserve that status and you wouldn't want them to hit the public in the state that they are in, post why. Otherwise give them a "GREEN"

Please test them in campaign mode also to make sure the cutscenes play and the campaign flow is working correctly both with losing and winning branches.

Thor wrote:For this new beta, will we have to delete the last beta or is it going to be an add on to the current beta?

You don't have to (as it runs under a new installer ID), but you really should.

Any update on ETA?

STILL compiling the installer. I'd say I'll have the download available in 10-12 hours.

2 hours till upload completion. However, since I need my beauty (?) sleep, I'll post download links in approx. 6 hours.

Ok, going to start the download after breakfast.

Enjoy!

Guys, it is nice that you start the entire campaign again, but we also need feedback on the new missions soon after we release them...

Not to mention, that we usually release new betas within 2-3 weeks. Next beta might get delayed if we receive feedback one day prior to the projected release date. Let's also keep in mind that we will initiate a game wide playthroug once the the first RC goes online (or once missions get "greenlighted"). 😊

True, only the missions we post for greenlighting are really relevant. The others are in a state of finalizing and while feedback is welcome for them, we usually haven't changed very much in that department, so we really want you to focus more on the new missions because we haven't had ANY feedback on those yet.

As for Beta 9 in general, you might want to dig into those anyway... it's your last chance to fly the Thunderbolt!

Will focus on the new missions asap (this noon probably).

Man.. I hate this... atm I have to progress through the whole campaign because my cloned pilot files have been corrupted. Again... Don't know what happened, but as I activated the clone it had no campaign selected and zero kills. any idea why this happened ?

You could, of course, use a mission selection cheat to quickly play test new missions.

We might look into this matter or create a small tool which would allow you to modify your current campaign progress. Keldor can tell you more on this subject.

I know how to use the tech room reveal cheat. It's also nice for viewing new models without the need of 3rd party tools 😉 But you wanted us to try the branching feature and you can't try it from the tech room as you can't make any progress in the campaign when flying missions from here. When I came close to the last mission during the playthrough of the last beta I cloned my pilot several times but now they seem to be somehow broken.

The idea of a small tool is great but perhaps it would distract you from your work and take too much time. Perhaps a "top ace" pilot like in Tie-Fighter would be enough. Updated every beta to let you continue with the new missions.

Just an idea 😊

Well, the only mission affected by branching is M26 and we have supplied a modified version of it, labeled M26a. It is possible, that changes to the pilot file (e.g. support for additional medals/badges) might have broken the clone functionality. Could you try to reproduce the issue? If it persists, please open a ticket.

Sure, I will look into it.

Actually nothing was broken. Freespace simply didn't mean a fully copy with "clone". All it clones are the player settings like control settings etc. it doesn't close the scores or campaign progress.

We changed that and we'll send you a hotfix.

Sweet!

KeldorKatarn wrote:Actually nothing was broken. Freespace simply didn't mean a fully copy with "clone". All it clones are the player settings like control settings etc. it doesn't close the scores or campaign progress.

Ok... this explains everything.. I have to admit that I never ever used the clone function in FS2 or any mod so I always thought it would make a perfect copy of the player with a different name.

KeldorKatarn wrote:We changed that and we'll send you a hotfix.

I really appreciate this. Although I like playing through the campaign I hate to be the last one to play the new missions in the fluent campaign style they were ment to be played 😊 Not to mention that it is sometimes disappointing to go through all of the missions just to conclude "I didn't encounter any difficulties" (don't get me wrong, I'm actually very happy not to find any bugs 😊 )

Next beta will probably come up this weekend. Either Saturday or Sunday.

Thanks for the heads up Keldor.

Will the Proxima Misions be subject of the Greenlight Testing in this Beta?

Yes, Proxima, Loki and Nifelheim

We have to "greenlight" one episode per beta.

Thx for the info.

We might get it online of MOnday after all, we'll probably get it done tomorrow but I don't know about upload times, so the download might not be ready before Monday morning.

Anyway thanks so far for the green-testing phase so far. We're close to mastering the first 9 missions, yay!

The next Beta will be on tomorrow (Monday) morning.

Still no palpable progress on the next mission arch (missions are in a playable state now, but they are not ready for you guys yet).

On a brighter note, we might be able to release next set of missions for greenlighting this weekend. Sorry about the delay.

This goes on my record. I needed to take some time off and I'll continue working on a slower pace. Working on this with just 2 people has taken its toll. We'll release the next beta once we're done, but we might slow down a little. There's no sense in us ruining our health over this.

Agreed. Real life and health are more important. I think that this is the right decision.

Depends on your point of view. I consider every day I am not contributing to the project a day wasted - I've been working on Saga for so long, I'd rather work on it every day instead of having it on my consciousness for another several months. 😉

I have a job to think of. We'll get this finished, but I need to slow down a little.

KeldorKatarn wrote:This goes on my record. I needed to take some time off and I'll continue working on a slower pace. Working on this with just 2 people has taken its toll. We'll release the next beta once we're done, but we might slow down a little. There's no sense in us ruining our health over this.

Sometimes it's even better to take a short break. Take your time, that project goes on well, even with two weeks delay it will become a great game, highly appreciated by the community.

Expect the next beta sometime tomorrow. Sorry it took so long this time.

KeldorKatarn wrote:Expect the next beta sometime tomorrow. Sorry it took so long this time.

You have to love Keldor, the man is incredible. Expect some great changes to the HUD code in the very next beta... 😊

What next? Do you plan to change the power management display to look more like in original or maybe add those cool dents on the canopy which distort the view when you take hull damage? 🙄 Or maybe floating gun cross for Excalibur auto-aiming guns? ❓

How about we address more pressing issues like better wide screen support? It's like a dream coming true for me.

See the difference?

This patch will need to be properly tested with various resolution of course. It is important to ensure that it works correctly using different configurations.

My guesses were little exaggerated I agree 😉 but nevertheless great news! I use 1440x900 16:10 aspect.

You could use windowed mode to test other resolutions as well.

By the way, guys, let's take a moment to wish Keldor a very happy birthday. Without his dedication and hard work none of this would have been possible.

Happy birthday, Keldor. 😊

Happy Birthday also from me 😊

Thanks guys.

Best Wishes to you, Keldor!

I'm a little late, but still: Belated best wishes, Kel!

I guess I am also a bit late but happy birthday Keldor.

Ok guys, next beta will come out right before christmas (on the 23rd probably). That will be a huge beta because of the complexity of the missions so we need you to test the upcoming 3 missions very thoroughly. With that we will have the most complex missions behind us I think and we should pick up some pace again. The beta after that will be out in the first week of January so you have all the time between the holidays and after new year for this beta and the next batch of greenlighting.

Happy belated birthday Keldor

Looking forward to the next beta.

New beta will be released in a few hours. Yay for us!

YAY!!! 😛 ➡️

The production of the next beta is slowly gearing up. Apart from a number of new missions it will include updated kettle briefing sequences - you might have noticed some discrepancies in the shape of his head depending on the sequence.

In somewhat unrelated news: my broadband internet has finally arrived - from now on, beta upload should not take longer than 60-90 minutes.

That's music in my ears. 😊

Btw, it is really sad, that we don't get any first flight videos anymore 😢 Especially since there are some nice suprises coming up and it would be a shame if we didn't even see a few reactions to those 😢

Sorry about that; I've been spending all my (admittedly limited) testing time lately on green-lighting, so I haven't actually played any of the newer missions. I'll try to make some time to do so soon, and I'll be sure to post first-flight videos when I do.

Yay! ➡️

Spoilers!

Stinger wrote:

Spoiler (click to reveal)

Dammit! I'm waaay too curious and now I spoiled myself^^ I take it Hawk and Panther will appear in the next Beta iteration? Niiiice 😊 Nice idea with the picture btw 😂

Well, missions for the next beta are a wrap. If all goes well, we should be able to release the next beta tomorrow. We still have a few loose ends to take care of.

Tolwyn wrote:Well, missions for the next beta are a wrap. If all goes well, we should be able to release the next beta tomorrow. We still have a few loose ends to take care of.

I won't be able to start the next missions for another week....just so you know.

ETA: 45 minutes.

Thought I'd mention this: If you guys don't produce first flight videos on these 5 missions (or at least give detailed after-action reports) I'm gonna hate you for the rests of your lives 😢 ... just saying... :ugeek:

I'd take this very seriously if I were you... 😉

Since I don't have much free disk space left, I'll check out some alternatives to FRAPS. Taksi sounds very promising. Edit: Audo doesn work there. Looks like I need Fraps afterall. 😢 Edit2: Shall we also record the Briefings and make voice comments?

I don't have a Mic... please don't kill me 😭 😭 😭 I'll write after-action reports.

Stinger wrote:I don't have a Mic... please don't kill me 😭 😭 😭 I'll write after-action reports.

You can still record the video. It's still interesting to see how you play the mission.

ok, will do as soon as I'm through with the batch of missions that are still waiting to be lighted in a decent green-red 😊.

Bad news: Only 2 thirds of Freya 2 have been recorded and my voice is almost unnoticeable. Do you still wish to see what I've recorded?

yeah, and you do not need to record a commentary if you do not want to, the most important part is to see how you approach the mission and which actions you take.

Guys... DON'T record videos on fullscreen resolutions!! That's mad. You'll never be able to play the game naturally that way let alone make an upload of such a monster.

Do them at 320x240. We just need to see what you are doing, we already know what the game looks like in HD ^^

I've just uploaded first-play videos for Cairo2-Hyperion2; I'll try to do some more soon.

Ok, I just tried to make an ingame-vid from Freya1 for testing purposes. Even with minimal resolution of 1024x768 and half-size setting in fraps, the file has 3.8GB. Which video decoders are you guys using to decrease the resolution?

Use FormatFactory (http://www.chip.de/downloads/FormatFact ... 04225.html) to compress the video. MP4 offers better quality, AVI better compression.

Thank you, that's a nice tool.

I still have a few problems though... fraps doesn't record my audio. I've tried everything and I'm beginning to think it's a driver-specific issue. It records an audio stream, but that one is empty. When I try to record sounds with my sound card, it works.

Second issue is more problematic: When I capture videos, my joystick input begins to lag every 10 seconds -.- Has anyone else experienced such a problem?

I really want to make first-flight vids, guys. I just don't know if it works for me here. I'm fighting for several hours now. Well, I'm working on it.

Uh, no, I don't have any input issues with my joystick.

As far as audio goes - we do not really need it, you can go with your windows soundmix. Whatever. 😉

go for a lower resolution of the video. if the end result is just 320x240 thats enough for us to see and might prevent any too heavy issues with lagging. . as for the recording, just use the sound mix of windows or whatever. Maybe record the audio in the background and mix them later or something.

also maybe ask arisian or thor what they are using, they seep to be using dxtory.com or somthing, whatever it is. their videos seems to work out just fine.

I'll look into it. As for the resolution of 320x240 - it can't be altered in fraps. Saga's smallest res is 1024x768, but I'll recode it to a lower one, that's no problem now that I have that nice tool. The lagging however is not in the game itself, it's only the joystick's input that is interrupted every 10 secs. The game runs smooth as it should. I'm gonna try dxtory as soon as possible. For now, good night 😊

In case it will help anyone, my current process is as follows:

1. I use Dxtory for recording. The free "trial" version adds a big watermark, but that's not a problem here. Video encoding seems to work best using the default "dxtory" codec; you can set the recording to whatever resolution/framerate you want. I play the game at 1600x1200 (60fps,4xMSAA), but I record at 20fps and 25% scaling (which I guess is 400x300 resolution). I record 2 separate audio tracks; the first uses my mic as an input, and the second uses the system audio output (which captures the game's sounds). Both tracks are recorded as PCM 48000 Hz, 16 bit, stereo.

This gives me video with two separate audio "tracks" that allow you to listen to just one, just the other, or both. I record a separate file for each mission, and the file sizes are generally a few gigabytes, depending on the length of the mission.

2. I use FormatFactory to convert (and compress) these videos into DIVX encoded AVI files (note: both AVI and MP4 are container formats, so the size depends on the codec used, not the file extension), bringing the file size down to a couple hundred megabytes. Unfortunately, FormatFactory doesn't seem to handle two track audio well, so I loose the game audio track. If you don't care, you could just post them like this, but I keep going to re-add both audio tracks (I do this partly because I'm often saying things that are direct responses to things said in the game, and I worry they won't make sense in isolation).

3. I use VirtualDub to save each audio track from each original (not divx) video to .WAV files. I then use FormatFactory to convert these to .MP3 files.

4. I use DivXMuxGUI to re-combine the DivX movies with the two .MP3 audio tracks that go with that movie. The result is a DivX with both audio tracks, once again allowing the game audio and my voice to be heard simultaneously or one at a time.

5. I use WinSCP to upload the videos; I find I often get an error about being unable to resume a transfer when each individual video is done uploading, but it doesn't seem to actually be a problem. It means you need to keep an eye on the transfer, though, since you need to dismiss the error dialog (just hit "skip") to continue the upload (assuming you're uploading more than one file at a time).

It's kind of a pain, but it's the only way I've managed to get two audio tracks on the compressed videos. I generally wait until I've got a batch of 4 or 5 missions before I go through the conversion/uploading process, since it takes a while. If anyone else has a better process, feel free to post it!

Wow, thats a detailed tutorial, thank you. Unforunately it seems that I have more specific issues - the game sound is recorded but crippled. As if that wouldn't be enough, I have video problems, too. Half of the codecs aren't working and the game crashes as soon as I hit the record button... isn't it good to have expensive hardware? -.-

Next beta will wrap up the main story line. It will feature two large missions with ~160-200 voice lines each, two extra long briefing sequence, 5 minute long outro and an updated credits sequence featuring, among others, our full voice cast and our beta testers.

If all goes as planned, we will release just one more beta before we will concentrate our efforts on finalizing the game. It's time to shift gears and finish the game!

Keldor has just finalized M49 and it turned out awesome. You should really enjoy the conclusion of Sandman's story. 😉

Tolwyn wrote:Keldor has just finalized M49 and it turned out awesome. You should really enjoy the conclusion of Sandman's story. 😉

As an added bonus, we are finally implementing proper death scream SFX.

Beta 15 will be delayed by a few days. The last mission is a scripting and balancing nightmare so we need a few more days for that one. On the bright side however we're close to getting our release trailer done.

I'll also post some new greenlight threads here as soon as I find the time.

Hope you don't mind some old, inactive tester rejoining for these latest stages of testing...

Shall I focus on the latest missions or do you want me to start with older ones?

Focus on the latest, those are always the ones we need information for first, as they are the most fresh and unpolished ones. You can of course play chronologically if you haven't played the earlier ones. But in that case just "play" the early ones to get the storyline and then concentrate on testing the latest ones. Oh yeah... welcome back 😉

KeldorKatarn wrote:Beta 15 will be delayed by a few days. The last mission is a scripting and balancing nightmare so we need a few more days for that one. On the bright side however we're close to getting our release trailer done.

It's well worth the wait though, I've just played through the first iteration of the mission - no dogfights as of yet, but the mission is turning out fantastic. Listening to the final dialogue as you land on the battered Hermes gives you goosebumps.

Tolwyn wrote:Listening to the final dialogue as you land on the battered Hermes gives you goosebumps.

Spoil0r

Stinger"] Oui.

Any ETA of Beta 15?

The last mission is very complex and we are still having a few issues with it.

Take your time, I'm still in the greenlighting process and could use a little more time to look for issues in the currently released missions... It takes very much time when you have to fly the missions multiple times to check all possibilities, models and text messages/debriefings. But I'm looking forward to Kilrah 😊

Actually, I've just played the last mission for 2 times in a row and everything seemed to work nicely. I could spoil it for you as I recorded the last five minutes of it for my viewing pleasure. Har!

Next beta should be available in just a few hours.

Stinger wrote:Take your time, I'm still in the greenlighting process and could use a little more time to look for issues in the currently released missions... It takes very much time when you have to fly the missions multiple times to check all possibilities, models and text messages/debriefings. But I'm looking forward to Kilrah 😊

First playthrough reports on new missions have priority. Please play every released mission at least once and write a feedback report BEFORE you start greenlighting. We need at least a first feedback ASAP. Greenlighting is then the next step.

Ok, will do as soon as I get home today 😊

Whoah, I've been promoted! 😛

Tolwyn wrote:Next beta should be available in just a few hours.

Enjoy new missions and the final outro cinematic.

Just two missions to go, guys!

Tolwyn wrote:Just two missions to go, guys!

It's more of a trailer loop. Keldor and myself watch that things several times per day in order to keep us at the top of our game. 😊

We'll try to finish next beta this weekend, on Monday at the latest. Then we could switch entirely to bug fixing and preparing to launch this thing.

Tolwyn wrote:We'll try to finish next beta this weekend, on Monday at the latest. Then we could switch entirely to bug fixing and preparing to launch this thing.

Final mission is ready.

Over the next few days I'll add the big Oberan gas giant from different views to the missions, tweak a few remaining bugs and create the Prologue campaign file . Expect the Oberan Beta around Tuesday.

We are very excited to reach this milestone. After many years of hard and tedious work, the end is near.

Last beta will be available in a couple of hours.

Here is the prelimenary change log. 116 tickets fixed plus numerous other changes.

- 0001156: [Voice-over] M43 - Freya 1 - Command briefing : third part with lower voice (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0001170: [Missions/Gameplay] AI ineffective in M8 at lower difficulty level (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001162: [Missions/Gameplay] Oberan 3 - Hotel wing launch script tweaks (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001187: [Missions/Gameplay] Cutscene traitor check does not work (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001160: [Missions/Gameplay] Oberan 2 - small issues (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001185: [Missions/Gameplay] Freya 4 - Agincourt undocking and docking again (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001159: [Missions/Gameplay] Oberan 1 - small issues (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001184: [Models] Pelileu turrets alignment (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001183: [Missions/Gameplay] The normal for some cap-ship missile launchers is misaligned. (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001182: [Missions/Gameplay] M49 - Freya 7 - Mission path is hard to trigger : marines shuttles destroyed (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001181: [Voice-over] M49 - Freya 7 - Voice/text mismatch in debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001169: [Voice-over] 6 "static" takes needed (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0001141: [Voice-over] M45: Debriefing VO problem (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0000361: [Tables] ships.tbl checking (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000270: [Missions/Gameplay] Campaign - Intel (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000266: [Missions/Gameplay] Campaign - Tech room entries (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000268: [Missions/Gameplay] Campaign - Medals (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000380: [Content] Campaign file update (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001180: [Tables] Extended ascii codes in tables and mission files (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001179: [Missions/Gameplay] Missions files - double spaces (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000534: [Missions/Gameplay] Prolog Mission 5 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001175: [Missions/Gameplay] M50: Wingman behaviour (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001172: [Missions/Gameplay] M49: cloaked shooting (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001135: [Voice-over] M44: crackling sound (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001131: [Voice-over] M42: crackling sound (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001174: [Voice-over] M50: crackling sound (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001150: [Voice-over] M46 crackling sound (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001173: [Voice-over] m50: subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001177: [Voice-over] M48 - Freya 6 - Voice/text mismatch in win debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001176: [Tables] Some table files - Double spaces (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000533: [Missions/Gameplay] Prolog Mission 4 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001168: [Voice-over] M49 subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001166: [Voice-over] M48: subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001165: [Voice-over] M47: subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000987: [Models] Harrier class - outer hangar geometry-error (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0001161: [Missions/Gameplay] Ship selection / Weapon loadout - Revision of the help layers (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000532: [Missions/Gameplay] Prolog Mission 3 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001158: [Tables] Some table files - Misspelled words (x 11) (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001152: [Missions/Gameplay] M46 losing path issue (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001147: [Missions/Gameplay] M42 - Kurasawa 1 - Missing Kilrathi capships in escort list at nav 1 (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001151: [HUD] Alcor 2 - Nav 5 HUD marker color incorrect (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001154: [Voice-over] Freya 2 - Wrong word in Psychopath's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001146: [Tables] Technical database - Intel - Star system: Kurasawa - Misspelled word (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001155: [Voice-over] Freya 2 - Two mistakes in second debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001149: [Voice-over] M46: subtitle error (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001157: [Tables] Technical database - Intel - Star system: Freya - Misspelled word (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001101: [Missions/Gameplay] M41: Enemy stops firing too early (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001104: [Models] Confederation class hangar texture and geometry issues (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0001144: [Tables] M41 - Hyperion 5 - Missing recommandations in the login path debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001145: [Voice-over] M41 - Hyperion 5 - Voice/text mismatch in Greywolf comm (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000924: [Missions/Gameplay] Can't complete Hyperion 3 by attacking fighters first at nav 3 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001042: [Missions/Gameplay] Freya-3 Missiles are not subtracted from Ordinance Load when fired (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001142: [Voice-over] M45: Gameplay issues (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001143: [Voice-over] Freya 1 - Missing "m" in Avatarr's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001139: [Tables] Technical database - Ships: Gothri - Date error (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001136: [Voice-over] M44: losing path issues (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001134: [Voice-over] M44: subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001137: [Voice-over] M44: Debriefing issue (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001138: [Voice-over] M44: wrong name plate (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000531: [Missions/Gameplay] Prolog Mission 2 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000530: [Missions/Gameplay] Prolog Mission 1 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001130: [Voice-over] M42: subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001068: [Missions/Gameplay] Key actions are not disabled while jump sequence is played (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001005: [Voice-over] Cairo 4 - Sound glitch in 35_avatarr_04.wav (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0001124: [Missions/Gameplay] Kurasawa1: too easy (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001123: [Missions/Gameplay] Kurasawa1: Wingman behaviour (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001126: [Voice-over] M43: Debriefing text errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001125: [Voice-over] M43: subtitle errors (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001127: [Tables] Technical database - Intel - Carrier: TCS Oriskany - Text is missing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001096: [Missions/Gameplay] M26 - Nephele 2 - Kamrani corvettes are not displayed in "Escort List" (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001122: [Missions/Gameplay] M33 - Cairo2 - Missing Kamrani corvette in HUD Escort list (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001085: [Missions/Gameplay] M24 Torgo 3 - Traitor ending, Behemoth cutscene is played (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001118: [Voice-over] Nephele 1 - Double blank in Codiene's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001117: [Voice-over] Nephele 1 - One word too much in Codiene's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001116: [Voice-over] Nephele 1 - Double blank in Codiene's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001113: [Voice-over] Cairo 3 - Spelling mistake in Hermes' sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000736: [Missions/Gameplay] Cairo4: event not triggered (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001115: [Tables] Technical database - Intel file: Bloodmist - Typo error (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001103: [Missions/Gameplay] Kurusawa-1 mission crashes at debriefing screen (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000843: [Voice-over] Death scream SFX (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0001018: [Tables] Friendly AI too effective on lower difficulty levels (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001045: [Missions/Gameplay] Hyperion-1 Objectives and Deathfang Issue (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001112: [Voice-over] Caliban-2 Avatar reference to Sandman (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001105: [Missions/Gameplay] Hyperion 4 - The balancing is a bit too easy (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001062: [Voice-over] Various VA issues (trekkie) - resolved.
- 0001110: [Voice-over] TCS Amsterdam name is Misspelled (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001107: [Voice-over] Hyperion 5 - Spelling mistake in Greywolf's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001108: [Voice-over] Hyperion 5 - Spelling mistake in Wratghar's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001106: [Voice-over] Hyperion 4 - Colon instead of dot at the end of a sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001091: [Models] Yorktown hangar floor needs improvement (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000978: [Models] Jutland LOD problem (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001102: [Missions/Gameplay] M41: Objectives not updated correctly (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0000832: [Models] Lexington-class - hangar issues (Scooby_Doo) - resolved.
- 0001100: [Voice-over] Kurasawa 1 - Three double blanks in debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001097: [Missions/Gameplay] Kurasawa 1 - No mission objective on Invincible navpoint (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001099: [Voice-over] Kurasawa 1 - Several double blanks in multiple sentences (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001098: [Voice-over] Kurasawa 1 - Spelling mistake TCS Denver's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001095: [Engine] Code change causes problems in v0.9.16.7272 (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0000938: [Missions/Gameplay] Hyperion-3 KIS Wratghar Doesn't Engage after recall (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001093: [Voice-over] M40: Problem with Objective (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001094: [Voice-over] M40: VO/text mismatch (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001089: [Voice-over] Hyperion 3 - Missing dot in Venom's sentence (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001090: [Voice-over] Hyperion 4 - Missing word in debriefing (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001088: [Missions/Gameplay] Hyperion 2 - Unable to trigger losing path (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001034: [Missions/Gameplay] Torgo 1 - unable to access the mission path where TCS Dante should get destroyed (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001070: [Missions/Gameplay] Hyperion-4 Fail Briefing Incomplete (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001075: [Tables] Technical database - Intel file: Skipper - Text is missing (psych) - resolved.
- 0001081: [Voice-over] M38, VO/text mismatch (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001080: [Voice-over] M37, VO/text mismatch (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001083: [Tables] Technical database - Intel file: Stalker - Double spaces or punctuation (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001076: [Voice-over] Freya 7 Additional Debriefing Corrections (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001078: [Voice-over] Freya-8 Venom VO vs Txt during laser link (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001077: [Voice-over] All missions with Venom (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001041: [Models] naval base - z-buffer issues in the window area (Tolwyn) - resolved.
- 0001073: [Tables] Technical database - Missing text entry for "Jump Point Buoy#Kilrathi" (KeldorKatarn) - resolved.
- 0001071: [Voice-over] Freya 7 - debriefing voice/text mismatch (Tolwyn) - resolved.

Will it be stand-alone or addon patch? Just curious...

Stand alone, since we need to test the vp archive distribution method.

compiling the installer now...

We'll release an update at some point later today, featuring (finally) fixed Nephele mission arch plus numerous minor bugfixes.

The overview of currently known bugs now lists just eleven issues, nine of which are minor. MC should be ready for testing this weekend. Yay for the QA team!

Keep in mind, that this gives us approx. three weeks to test the final build. We will announce the release date after MC is available to you.

That's a ten-four.

Master candidate is most likely coming up sometime later today (Sunday). Stay tuned and get ready to play what will hopefully be the version that's gonna hit the public. LAST CHANCE TO SPOT BUGS GUYS!

Excitement overload.

Ready to go!

RC should be online around midnight. Andreas wanted to have another look at the fiction. Other than that we are set.

Woooo! 😊

We'll be releasing another MC tomorrow, containing fixes for all the issues reported thus far.

Standing by... 😉

Too soon :'(

It fixes mainly HUD in 1280*1024 resolution plus several minor issues you guys reported thus far.

Uploading second RC now...

VERY quiet in here. What's going on?

TThat is what worries me.

Personally, I've given up on trying to actually greenlight all the missions, and have started proofreading text (since that seems to be something that's gotten a bit neglected). My goal is to get do the fiction, then the info database, and then the manual if there's time. I wish I'd had more time to give you guys, but as always I'll try to do what I can. If there's somewhere else you'd rather have me focus the remainder of my testing time, let me know.

Testing, testing... I'm concentrating myself on reading the manual, playing through the campaign and reading the tech database entries. The time schedule is pretty tight so don't expect me to comment on every post 😉

Master is coming later today.

@Tolwyn's comment on 0001348: Sorry guys, but I don't think I saw that bug before. I've waited in the hangar to test the start script in every single mission for the past few months. Don't know what caused this bug but I think it's better to report such behavior late than never, is it?

Are you guys up to testing a small patch for us?

As of now it would include a changed font for the fiction viewer, a launcher that handles OpenAl devices slightly different, a changed Options menu that support both the current and the old Mouse control scheme.

That we need to test like crazy before we push it out.

I'm in, you can throw it at me. I will be able to test it tomorrow though.

Sorry, I was not at home the last few days, now I'm back on testing.

So, do you guys have an updated time schedule for the Linux version beta release yet?