Part 2: 02 - The Place of Chariots
Let's play The Place of ChariotsArgh, my eyes!
Entire thing actually fit in one YouTube post this time, so I just went with that.
Briefing & Level
Viddler | Polsy | YouTube HD | Download .mp4
Welcoming back the map.
Coloring is 100% copied from the first level's briefing. In FS1, the briefing animations often didn't sync up to any sort of sense on the map, but we'll see how it goes this time. I'm using FS1-style icons for the ships since they stand out better. For now we've got the Aquitaine and Iceni.
Let's meet menu screens and Myrmidons
The totally exciting login screen:
The even more exciting loading screen:
And the new FSO loading screen, that only shows up when you're playing in 1024 resolution or higher:
And something of actual interest.
The Myrmidon is a pretty nice ship. It's hard to really compare one game to the other, but I'd prefer a Myrmidon over any FS1 ship. Probably in the top 5 in the whole of FS2 as well.
In closing, some graphics setting info. Besides all the checkboxes of options that the FSO launcher offers, there are a bunch of custom settings you can write in to change lighting options. The wiki offers a sampler of various combinations in example here. Leaving all such options off leaves the game looking the most like classic FS2, most notably, the ships are very well lit ambiently. Reducing that, and turning up the light effects from other sources creates a fancier look. I tried out the suggestions on that page, and for the moment am using the final one:
-ambient_factor 5 -ogl_spec 50 -spec_exp 15 -spec_point 1.2 -spec_static 1.7 -spec_tube 1.5
Only problem is, it leaves the ships looking very dark in the database!
Let's have some bonus stuff #1
Nothing too special this time, but here's a link to Volition's FS site, which looks a bit worse for wear, but still works for now.
http://www.volition-inc.com/fs/downloads.cfm
On it, you can find things such as the font used in game, and the "FreeSpace Reference Bible". It's got a ton of info for writers, and it taught me that "Free space" is supposed to be the original name of what they now call subspace.