For those who haven't noticed/Commentary accepted

My short scenario, Infestation, was uploaded a few months ago, quietly, on Ambrosia's addon page.

Since there was no real fanfare for it, and people who may not have looked at the page could have been waiting for it regardless, I figured that I'd post about it here.

And mention my new Ares-related project, "The Last Whimper", a scenario relating to humanity's first (failed) conflict with the Cantharan Order and their servants, the Gaitori Union.

It puts a new meaning into "difficulty" -- all the human ships are clearly inferior, even to the Gaitori ships, so you'll be hard-pressed to take out foes that seemed easy before. The Gaitori Carrier requires good amount of firepower to take out, due to its particularly heavy shielding. Even the strongest human ship can only just match the average enemy vessels, so you'll need luck, strategy, skill, and in some cases, superior numbers to triumph.

Of course, there will be no conventional multiplayer mode.

Comments from anyone still around welcomed.

And even if you're not around, well, wouldn't hurt to send a message in.

This post has been edited by Consul Bob : 09 October 2007 - 01:43 AM

Infestation...., interesting variation on the Ares theme.
I failed level 2 though Too many hostiles.

Great to see that there are still some of us out there battleing on in defence of humanity in the Ares universe.

The second mission is tricky; the human ships in Infestation are upgraded, though, and I beat it myself at least twice, so I know it's possible. It's just difficult. Your fleet is more or less identical (minus assault transports) to the one in Infestation's main mission, so you're pretty well equipped.

Keep at it and you'll get it!

The Last Whisper is coming along pretty well; it's remarkably different from the usual, I think, in that most of the missions will probably take place in the same battleground. The system will remain the same, minus ships and any structures that get destroyed as the battle goes on.

However, it'll remain interesting, I'm sure. While the first mission just sets the stage, the second mission is already moderately difficult (because the Gaitori ships outclass yours so much).

The human ships have projectile cannons and nukes; no particle shielding whatsoever, which makes their protection, armor-only, laughable compared to the enemy's. It becomes obvious after extended combat how the humans couldn't overcome the Order's invasion.

In the end, I expect you'll find it interesting, and probably still easier than Mag's impossible plugins.

I've downloaded Infestation as well, but I can't get past level 1 because I can't figure out what the objective is. Is it survive for X amount of time or eliminate all of the (asteroid creature, forgot its name) life forms?

Ah.

The objective of the mission is hunt-and-destroy -- though it may take some time (as I concealed them pretty well, I think), eventually you should notice zerbilities spawning near a certain area, from my recollection. There are two of these locations; once they are destroyed, the flow of zerbilites will cease and you can leave the system from the other jumpgate. (as opposed to the one you came in from).

The mission's relatively tricky, and should take significantly longer than most.

Really, Infestation was more proof of concept than anything, looking back at it. While a cool enough scenario from the developer's point of view, particularly with the infested asteroids, it leaves much to be desired for players. I didn't have it tested by anyone outside, or if I did, only by one person, and I deluded myself into thinking that anyone could find the spawn points, when that's not necessarily true.

TLW's looking to be more playable, if only because the existing missions (of which there are two) have a reasonably clear goal defined. One of my other projects, Human/Cantharan War, is also pretty nice; it's really my best Ares work. So don't think just from Infestation that I'm completely incapable of good mission design.

Hope this helps!

- Bob

Okay, I got past the first mission, but the second one is unavailable for some reason.

Spoiler

Does that Cantharan buoy have something to do with this?

Spoiler

Oh, you found it! Good job.

No, it doesn't, even though, in retrospect, it really probably ought to. I put it in there as a way to reveal some Cantharan involvement in the strange occurances in the sector, but I didn't do anything more with it. Perhaps if I'd thought over it some more I'd have included a second similar one, somewhere, for the purpose of the secret mission.

The secret mission's only accessible if you use the level-selecting cheat, or if you access the file with Hera and change the first to a training mission. The latter's obvious, so I'll tell you about the first one here, just in case you didn't know it (I didn't!).

Hit shift-8 when in the level selection screen. Then type in the number of the level you wish to go to, and it will be unlocked! This is in "real" order (so The Mothership Connection in the standard game would be 23, not 20, because of the three training missions). All single-digit levels require an 0 to be placed before them, so to go to the secret level, type "02".

Infestation did a lot of stuff like that; you could say that it's what happens when brilliant features, decent level design and no outside testing combine. After I solved the various problems with getting the infested asteroids and the like to work, I kinda burned out, and didn't look at the scenario as realistically as I should have, in review.

Hope you enjoyed it nevertheless.

This post has been edited by Consul Bob : 27 October 2007 - 04:11 PM

Spoiler

Wow, I didn't know about that little "feature" either! Thanks for the help, Consul Bob.

Spoiler

I found the Cantharan buoy through a combination of the 1:16 viewing level and the radar screen. By looking for dots that had no reference to objects on the playing field, I managed to find the buoy in hyperspace with asteroids flying by and the occasional pocket of zerbilite activity, so it was pretty tricky.

I'm looking forward to playing The Last Whimper, by the way.

This post has been edited by JacaByte : 27 October 2007 - 05:18 PM

As I am in the process of restoring an OS 9.1 based PowerBook 1400, allow me to offer sincere thanks for doing your part in keeping the Ares dream alive. You have given Ambrosia one more reason to code a modern OS X version.

Uploaded plugins no longer require moderator approval? That's a good thing - I haven't checked them for several years! Unfortunately, I no longer have access to a computer capable of running Ares, so I can't check out your plugin myself, but kudos on putting in the hard yards and getting it to out to the community. Having released one myself, I know how much work it can be - here's hoping lots of people get their hands on it and enjoy it.

I do not believe it. :mellow: I occasionally looked through these forums to see if anything is new, and I think that this is the first time in years that I have found anything of value here.

A while ago I was thinking about making a Nova-Ares TC but never got around to it. This, though, is just as good. The only reason why a few people I know do not have Ares is because of incompatibility. I would suppose that if we make a lot of good addons for both Nova-Ares and Ares, we might be able to give them some reason to consider OS X? I think that it would be worth a shot.

In any case, I think that if I ever get around to doing Nova-Ares, I would have quite a few decent ideas to use. Some things like rotating star systems may be lost, but it would definitely give Ambrosia something to consider if it got enough downloads. Just a thought.

Add-ons for Ares would be very nice, but one would want to stay away from making multiplayer add-ons. The multiplayer community for Ares is dead, I'm afraid, and it's going to stay that way unless something big happens. Ares will have to be kept alive through single player add-ons.

Quote

Add-ons for Ares would be very nice, but one would want to stay away from making multiplayer add-ons. The multiplayer community for Ares is dead, I'm afraid, and it's going to stay that way unless something big happens. Ares will have to be kept alive through single player add-ons.

And, if you ask me, through a fan-made Ares 2.0...

Add onz...

How is "The Last Whimper" comming on then..

I've just bought my new MBP 2.6GHz -Intel - but still playing Ares on the old G4, so need plug ins

@lord-commander-anic, on Feb 15 2008, 10:28 PM, said in Infestation/TLW:

Add onz...

How is "The Last Whimper" comming on then..

I've just bought my new MBP 2.6GHz -Intel - but still playing Ares on the old G4, so need plug ins

I assume you've given the ol' Footsteps of Pyrrhus a whirl?

Hey, that was a pretty good plug-in. I should congratulate you on it.

In fact...

boots up Mac and dusts off Ares

Footsteps of Whathisname? It's one of the Plugs I kept to play again and again!
It was a good one, nicely done.

@jacabyte, on Mar 9 2008, 09:48 PM, said in Infestation/TLW:

Hey, that was a pretty good plug-in. I should congratulate you on it.

@lord-commander-anic, on Mar 10 2008, 07:43 PM, said in Infestation/TLW:

Footsteps of Whathisname? It's one of the Plugs I kept to play again and again!
It was a good one, nicely done.

Well that's gratifying to hear.

And it's Pyrrhus as in "Pyrrhic Victory". I've always wondered if the reference was a little too obscure.