[Campaign] Elementary, my dear Watson

I'm now working on a 4-mission campaign, entitled "Elementary, my dear Watson". Even if each mission follows each other, they can be played separately.

Amid intense fighting between the Human Navy and the Kraylor, a major outbreak of Watson's disease is sweeping through the colonies of the Nox sector, with billions of lives at stake. However, political infighting in the Core Worlds has resulted on a total deadlock for relief actions, putting entire colonies in jeopardy.

But Commodore Oberth, an idealist officer of the Rear Guard, wants to override the political squabbling by setting up an unsanctioned relief effort, without any support of the Human Navy.

The players, as officers of the HNS Panacea of the Rear Guard, will have the responsibility to help Oberth negotiating a deal with unaligned smugglers to obtain medical supplies and if they are successful, escort the relief convoy to the Nox Sector.

The first mission, "First, do no harm" is finished and can be found here : http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=074744107071758

I'll put the other when they are finished too :)

Comments

  • Dead link :)
  • Woops thanks for the heads-up, will re-upload it when I get back.
  • We seem to have a mission-breaking bug :(

    I'll upload it when I'll find what exactly makes the mission drop its state under certain condition.
  • Okay, after being delayed for a little less than one month, we will have our first playtest of the scenario tonight ! All bugs and quirks have been ironed out, converted it to use the new ship templates, so I hope that balance is not completely off.

    I'll keep this thread posted :)
  • edited June 2016
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    This was a 5-player session (Captain/Tactical/Engi+/Science/Relay), with only new crew. While overwhelmed by the functions (I did not really explain well, I must say) and battered in its few tries, the crew really enjoyed the game, without exception. Here is a summary :

    Version tested : Compiled from source (09/06 morning)

    ~1H15 session. No crashes or bugs. Rock-solid performance (the main reason I wanted out of Artemis in first place ^^). We tried my new scenario a few times first, but the crew did not managed to get very far on either try. So we switched to doing a few times the basic scenario for better learning.

    Being a rookie crew, there was a lot of mistakes (Engineering was really suffering, especially when the captain wanted system cut and re-powered quickly)

    I think that I should really balance my scenario, maybe have at very least an easier variation before sharing it with the community.

    The Atlantis ship's sideways missile tubes made it hard to aim for the (rookie) tactical officer which was often confused.

    Relay sharing a probe's view with science really helps assessing the situation when the ship is in the middle of a nebula.

    My tactical officer had a good suggestion in my opinion : maybe have 0/90/180/270 degrees indicator display bigger or 0/45/90/135/180/270/315 bigger, for quicker reference for new crew, to find more quickly angles.

    Overall the crew was satisfied and wants to try the game again :)

    EDIT : Two of them even suggested we should get uniforms for the next time :)
    Hope my english is not too messed up as it is late ^^'
  • Instead of "Captain/Tactical/Engi+/Science/Relay" I recommend "Captain/Helms/Weapons/Engi/Operations" for a 5 player setup.

    While it removes probes, and the ability to see beyond 30km, Tactical is a heavy task otherwise, as you pretty much have ALL the direct ship controls at your hand.
  • edited June 2016
    I always run new players & crews through the Basic scenario for the first several games. Once I see they are completing the scenario without problems, then I'll switch it to something else.
    Most everyone understands the concept of "kill all the bad guys & protect the space stations" of the Basic scenario. If I think they're starting to get bored of just killing things, I'll change it up.

    If the crew is experienced enough, I'll combine relay & science on the same screen or "dual box" where there's 2 computers for 1 person for science & relay.
  • Yep, not the smartest decision I made ^^ Thanks for your feedback.

    I've significantly notched down the scenario's difficulty and added "Easy" and "Hard" variations. I'm hoping to reunite almost the same crew this week, as they liked the game.

    Our first session was quite rushed, as had several setbacks :
    - One computer was not working (the computer itself, not EE)
    - We did not have the credentials to connect to the venue's LAN network
    - A crewmember had trouble finding the venue
    - No one did the tutorial

    Being used to have a veteran crew, I forgot how to handle rookies, so I quite rushed them in a crash-course. Next time, I plan to do it more nicely : maybe have all of them to play the tutorial, do a few basic missions and after that, launch them on the scenario on Easy or Normal, given how well they perform.

    Depending on the feedback, I will do another round of tweaks or fixes in the mission and then upload the first mission.

    On the campaign side, depending of the final choice of the mission, players may either progress to mission 2a (entitled "Time is of the Essence"), which writing is half-done or to mission 2b (entitled "Down the Rabbit Hole"), which writing is finished, with coding expected to start soon.
  • I was not able to reunite the crew, so here's the beta version of the first mission (should be ok, even if balance was not tested) : http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=08103089425333876278
  • Did you get your scenario into a release? I tried the download link and it was gone (posted for more than 100 days). Did you continue to the next mission? Any chance of reposting the first mission?
  • ^^ I have the same question now.
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