Deep Core campaign

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 4:01 am

Here's a 2 mission campaign for beginners and experienced players.

Enemies are weak but get slightly better depending on squad rank. Remember to save your game. I guess I should also say to backup your squad but thats up to you.

Instructions:

Unzip the file and place the maps in your
TOSWS/maps/campaign folder

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 4:07 am

Depending on the response to this campaign I may add another mission or two.

Temple · Post by **Temple** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 7:42 am

I've only done the first mission, but it certainly shows what can be done to make an interesting scenario! I thought taking on the miners would be easy, but the third one took two of my titans out with an engine explosion. It's tougher than it might seem!

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 8:59 am

Yeah, Explosions do happen in this game. The biggest danger is the ore collectors charge.

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 6:53 am

I've noticed a curious problem which I'm guessing is actually a bug in the game.

I've currently got three different teams set up in my HQ. I started the first mission of this campaign with team C. When the mission started, the transmission at the beginning referenced the Callsign of my leader for team A or B (hard to tell, since those teams have leaders with the same callsign). I'm guessing it's team A.

Don't know if anyone else has seen this problem elsewhere, if so, perhaps I need to post this over in the Bugs forum.

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 9:36 am

Its not a bug nor a problem. It did exactly what I set it up to do. Call you by your player callsign.

This can be done in the map editor using &player.

Iskandar · Post by **Iskandar** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 3:07 pm

this is a wonderful first campaign for those new to the game. those of us with a bit more experience will find it rather easy.
still, it is the perfect place for a squad just starting out to gain a bit of experience (and a lot of kills, enough to send one of my jocks to green rank) and a starting cash fund without risking their necks over much.

it is also a great place to learn about charges, and engine explosions.

Ended up with experience ranging from 2200 to just shy of 3k, and cash of 475k or thereabouts. That is with my squad of 4 jocks, so mileage varies, I'm sure.

as far as suggestions go, perhaps beef up the armor slightly on everything. ESPECIALLY the CT's of the ore collectors. they die way to easily, which may be the point, but a slight increase in armor (hell, even full armor) won't make them any more challenging.
(I think I got struck by one small laser. the charging did more damage, especially the jump charging.)

and maybe add a couple supporting processors to the end of the second map, perhaps based off tonnage of the squad. that poor guy at the end never even got a chance to move, much less fight back against my four. charge, knocked over. pounded 'til a leg came off, scanned, then called shots to the head.

also, saw a new kill. had my jock in my Lightning (pulse laser, 2 GME's) kill a Titan through engine destruction, without coring the location the engine was in. was actually kinda confusing. struck the CT for 9 from a GME, then struck the right arm for 8 from a pulse laser, ripping it off. at that point I had to wait on recycle, and it was only then, after 1 second passed, that I got the message "Engine destroyed, Titan AT destroyed!" at first, I wasn't sure what happened, but since that jock got the kill, I have to assume that destroying the engine in this manner isn't recognized until all weapons fire from that Titan resolves.

(another humerous death still gotta be the 3 napalm missles to the head, then bounce off the ground and take your head off trick my Fireball pulled off. Oddly enough, she got the kill for that one.)

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 5:12 pm

Originally posted by rosary
Its not a bug nor a problem. It did exactly what I set it up to do. Call you by your player callsign.

This can be done in the map editor using &player.

I must not have stated it correctly. The team I was playing the campaign with does not have anyone with the callsign that was used. One of my other teams does, but not the one that was playing.

LarkinVB · Post by **LarkinVB** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 6:23 pm

Is there a way to reproduce the ?bug? step by step ?

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:09 pm

I'll play with it tonight and see if I can (I'm at work right now). But for now, here's the setup.

I had three teams defined. Team A has 2 jocks, with callsigns of something like Kheldar (the leader) and Aldernon. Team B has 3 jocks, with callsigns of something like Kheldar (the leader), Aldernon, and Jannot. Team C has 3 jocks, with callsigns of something like Bob (the leader), Joe, and Pete.

Team C is brand new, and has never fought before. Teams A and B both have some experience.

I start up the battle module, select this mission (deep core), and read the briefing. The briefing properly references my team name. I start the mission, and receive a message at the very start which is addressed to "Kheldar".

Seems pretty straightforward, but I'll play with it tonight and see if I can duplicate the problem from scratch (unless someone else has a chance to verify it before then).

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:23 pm

Check your TOSWS command center options. What name did you put there?

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 7:37 pm

Originally posted by Iskandar
this is a wonderful first campaign for those new to the game. those of us with a bit more experience will find it rather easy.
still, it is the perfect place for a squad just starting out to gain a bit of experience (and a lot of kills, enough to send one of my jocks to green rank) and a starting cash fund without risking their necks over much.

This is the point of the campaign. Rather than jump right into the Savannah campaign and get repeatedly slaughtered in map 1, You can try Deep Core and get engrossed in the game like you should. Tosws is extremely fun and addictive. Deep Core helps to bring that out for the inexperienced.

If you want Hard, Try my Annihilation campaign. I made one pre-Savannah campaign and one post Metaborator campaign that helps bring the entire storyline into place.

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 8:00 pm

Originally posted by rosary
Check your TOSWS command center options. What name did you put there?

I'm unable to check now, but that makes an awful lot of sense. If that's actually it, wouldn't it make more sense for that string to be the callsign of the leader of the current team, and for that matter, can you even do that in the map editor?

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 9:51 pm

I put %player to humanize the campaign for new players but I could have just as easily chosen &squad or &leader. Making the text insert the squads name or the squad leaders.

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 10:10 pm

Ah ha. Well then, I guess there's no bug at it. It's working as designed. Good enough. It just threw me off is all. At first I thought it was somehow using the wrong team.

One thing to consider though. Someone who's completely new may not have actually set their player name, considering it just to be for multiplayer use (and not feeling up to that yet), or just plain not having found it yet.

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:11 am

Then it would just come up with the default. A chance I was willing to take.

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 5:51 pm

Well, I haven't finished the campaign yet (so I won't place a vote), but I have finished the first mission, and wanted to provide some feedback (avoiding spoilers).

I think the mission is a really good one for beginners. Nicely done on that part. Truthfully I got through without taking any damage at all despite having destroyed all but one of the enemies. I did start feeling like the mission was a little long though. Perhaps if there was one or two fewer rooms it would help prevent it from seeming so... repetitive. I did like the... unexpected turn of events. Nicely done.

Overall, just based off the first mission, and considering that this is geared towards beginners, I'd rate this one pretty highly.

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 7:35 pm

AStott wrote:Overall, just based off the first mission, and considering that this is geared towards beginners, I'd rate this one pretty highly.

Yes, it was important that the level be able to be played by beginners using one pilot and one titan that was picked because the name of the titan was cool. Even those that pick a titan with absolutely 0 crossover skills. The player who puts all his dp into energy weapons and buys a swift death because it has 'power' axes for example. The repetition is just to let players practice new things when they've just learned it. Also, you don't have to do everything to win the map. In fact, there may be secrets that you haven't found.

AStott · Post by **AStott** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 8:09 pm

rosary wrote:In fact, there may be secrets that you haven't found.

Really?! Whoah. Hmm... interesting.

rosary · Post by **rosary** » Fri Aug 22, 2003 8:25 pm

AStott wrote:Really?! Whoah. Hmm... interesting.

Then again maybe you have. I don't want to spoil the maps for anyone by telling.