[UPDATE RELEASE] Xeptatl's Sword OXP

[Cody]

Being the 'Chuck Yaeger' type of test pilot, I managed to get between those two ships as they were exchanging fire... fearsome ordnance!

[pagroove]

So its a sort of Death Ray those ships are carrying. BTW in which galaxy you have to be to star the mission? Because I'm currently in 3.

[Smivs]

....in which galaxy you have to be to star the mission? Because I'm currently in 3.

The mission starts in Galaxy Five, so you have a few days to get there.

[Smivs]

RELEASE!

Xeptatl's Sword is now ready for download.
A lot of people have put a huge amount of effort into this project, and we like to think it maintains the high standard set by other recent releases. It will take you through all Eight Galaxies twice, and you will have a number of adventures in your quest to save the Ooniverse from a full-scale Thargoid invasion. As well as plenty of action, we hope you enjoy the 'look' of the mission as well.
Xeptatl's Sword OXP also has its own website, where you will find lots of information, background and help.

XeptatlsSword.com

Downloads are available from the website, which also includes a full Credits list.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved. This OXP would not have been possible with out the help, advice, assistance and support of the following Commanders:- Okti, El Viejo, Fatleaf, Staer9, ADCK, Ironfist, Mauiby de Fug, Eric Walch, P A Groove, Griff.
Also thanks for the patience shown by my family, Mrs_Smivs and the Smivslets over the last nine months.
I hope you enjoy it

[Zieman]

Downloaded.

Sorry, I couldn't resist poking around the files (I always want to see what kind of scripts I install), and found a curious thing: xsannihilator.js will do nothing, because every line that would do something is commented out...

Is this intentional?

If it is, then why bother having a ship script for the Annihilator at all?

[Smivs]

Oops!
That obviously slipped through the spring cleaning process. It was an old script which has been incorporated into the main script now. As you realise it wasn't doing anything. I have now removed it and have uploaded a 'cleaned-up' version, but it will do no harm so any downloads already installed will still work properly.

[pagroove]

Wow, Impressive. Looking forward to the missions! I looked at the website and enjoyed the well constructed backstory. It should take some time before I can start this as I'm in Galaxy 3 with 953 kills and I probably first want to play To Catch a Thargoid (TCAT).

[Smivs]

Thanks to everyone who's downloaded this so far.
Several sharp-eyed Commanders have been in touch since release having identified a few anomalies in the OXP. None of these are serious and the OXP will work just fine as it is, but I will be cleaning-up the OXP and releasing an update soon, just to make sure the thing is as tidy and 'correct' as possible. I might leave this for a few days in case any other issues are discovered - I'm not too keen on releasing update after update just to fix minor issues which will not affect the working of the OXP. So probably next weekend I'll release v1.0.1 which will have all the corrections in place.
It's early days yet, with the release only four days ago, but as some of you work through and complete the mission, any feedback will be welcome, so feel free to post your comments here.
Smivs.

[Smivs]

I've just uploaded v1.0.1 of Xeptatl's Sword. This is a minor update to fix a few issues which have shown up since release.
A few redundant lines of code have been removed from the shipdata.plist, the main script has been updated to sort out a few minor issues such as forgetting to cancel a destination on the F6 galaxy chart, an un-used script has been removed, and a couple of minor visuals/graphics anomalies have been fixed.
None of these issues would break the mission or cause any problems, but as they have been discovered it made sense to issue an update at this point.
If you have already downloaded the OXP you will not need to re-download, but I would recommend doing so anyway just to ensure you have the current version and everything works as well as possible.
Thanks in particular to Mauiby de Fug, Zeiman and Eric Walch for discovering these issues and not only alerting me to them but also often supplying the solution!

Don't forget we like a bit of feedback, so if anybody is currently working through the mission, let us know how it's going, and what you think of it.

[Smivs]

A week on from release and 50 downloads.
Thanks everyone.

[Capt. Murphy]

Don't worry Smivs - the downloads will come (and 50 in a week ain't bad). For myself my Commander is in galaxy 3 and about to head into galaxy 4 - my current plan is to do some of the galaxy 4 missions before heading to galaxy 5 (at which point I'll be downloading and looking to do this mission and Coyote's Run). Or maybe I'll skip through galaxy 4 and come back to those another time.....?

[Cody]

Don't worry Smivs - the downloads will come (and 50 in a week ain't bad).

I doubt that he's worried... fifty in the first week is good!

[Capt. Murphy]

True enough,

The don't worry was more at his request for feedback from the post above that. We will get a chance to play it through sometime....

[Smivs]

Just a suggestion for all who are heading for Galaxy five to do these missions:- do Coyote's Run first. Xeptatl's Sword starts in G5, but ends elswhere, so by doing CR first, you can move on to XS afterwards.

Edited to be more vague

[Eric Walch]

do Coyote's Run first. Xeptatl's Sword starts in G5,

Doing one of the two missions brought me to an asteroid field, close to the sun. There I noticed a bug in the shaders of Griffs asteroids. Maybe not a bug, but they behaved different on heat than the default shader.
Ships (Includes asteroids) without custom shader, always use the default shader. When the temperature raises to 80 - 85% of maximum, they start to glow red. But Griffs his shader gives the asteroids already a full white color at this temperature.