GearHead2 v0.622, Waiting for Harlock

[Joseph Hewitt]

I've just uploaded v0.622 to SourceForge. Here's the list of changes:

- More content for core story
- Core story missions now display their reward up front
- "Mansion of Fetch" has been fixed
- Some new lancemate character development bits
- Set plot timer on joining lance, rumor timer on quitting (arenascript.pp)
- \HINT now uses LayerID rather than PlotID (arenascript.pp)
- Added TrainNPC ASL command (arenascript.pp)
- Attitude, motivation added to XNPCDesc (narration.pp)
- Added \PCJOB, \HINT_MEMO message formatting commands (arenascript.pp)
- NPC repair skill message fixed (backpack.pp)
- Equip slot menu now has alpha keys (backpack.pp)

As usual, try it out and let me know if you encounter any problems.

[Joseph Hewitt]

I found a serious bug in v0.622. The good news is, this bug has apparently been there for a long time and I'm the first one who noticed. Sometimes allies who show up to help you in combat will be permanently deleted from the campaign. This problem has been fixed in the SVN version and I'll be making a bugfix release soon.

[Daemonward]

After deciding to upgrade my equipment, I was told to go to Athera. Once I arrived, I got an email from Liandor(20 year male politician) saying that "There are matters I want to discuss." But when I talk to him, he has nothing to say.

Also I've noticed that I'm only getting paid about 4-6k per mission, but I'm regularly paying 10-13k to restock my mecha after each mission(my lancemate has a Ice Wind 88d which comes with 4 sets of Swarm Missile 40 launchers).

[Frumple]

Also I've noticed that I'm only getting paid about 4-6k per mission, but I'm regularly paying 10-13k to restock my mecha after each mission(my lancemate has a Ice Wind 88d which comes with 4 sets of Swarm Missile 40 launchers).

[Beware the babbling!] Missile launcher ammo is expensive, heh. Considerably moreso than most gun ammo; it's usually a good idea/necessary to hold off on extensive missile use until you've got a good windfall of cash and enough rep that missions pull in the cash to manage upkeep. Keeping 'em off of lancies can be a good idea too, as they have no concept of 'conservation' when it comes to launchers, though obviously that's not an issue in tactics mode.

Doesn't help that missiles in default burst have absolute crap staying power; four shots and that's it, barring reloads. All that being said, nothing in the game matches a mlauncher's potential damage output, for reason of the sheer number of times the things can hit -- even if they can't do it twice in one battle -- even at DC1, 60 shots hitting something at the same time is going to ruin something's day.

I feel your pain, though. I rarely get to use mlaunchers much until a while into the game, and logistics (4 shots vs the 30+ guns have) tends to have yeh skip over even when you can support the cost. At least they tend to be lighter than DC equivalent guns, and the range is nice. They're first-strike weapons usually, not primary ones, least as far as I can tell.

Are you not able to make up the difference in loot, though? Even puny weapons like shaka cannons sell for 4-5k; if you're making sure to loot the mecha corpses, even low-rep missions can manage >10k per mission, often before the reward is factored in.

[Daemonward]

Are you not able to make up the difference in loot, though? Even puny weapons like shaka cannons sell for 4-5k; if you're making sure to loot the mecha corpses, even low-rep missions can manage >10k per mission, often before the reward is factored in.

I have tech vulture, but so far all I've salvaged is a gorilla's arm(m. repair is only at 5). I thought collecting salvageable loot after missions(when allowed) was automatic, do I need to actually loot mecha corpses?

[Daemonward]

In the starting faction menu of character creation, Hoeller Industries has no description text.

[Frumple]

I only occasionally get leftover weapons/armor from destroyed mecha automatically added to my inventory, upon leaving a battle -- usually it just doesn't happen for me, at least as I've noticed. Actually, I can't remember the last time my mech ended up with anything I didn't manually pick up, salvage mission or not. Further, you can strip them in non-salvage missions for a little extra cash too, though I think there was mention of adjusting that at some point in the future.

It's not terribly much effort to just make a habit of stripping any destroyed machines that don't go sailing off the map (so sad, when those deliciously hawkable weapons go flying into oblivion*) in space fights, just to be careful.

Salvage of actual mecha/mecha parts -- arms, legs, etc -- is indeed automatic, providing the mission allows for it.

* Might be amusing to have a random wrecked machine occasionally fly through a battlefield or a swarm of them slam into a spinner or something. Mecha graveyardcomet?

EDIT: Quick check on a salvage-enabled mission, just leaving the wrecks behind instead of stripping them leaves me with... nothing. Nada. So yeah, if it's automatic, it's at the very least mildly sporadic and should not be relied upon. Lost out on probably 40-50k worth in cash and a couple decent-ish weapons, bleh.

[demnpercy]

Joseph,
First, I'd like to say that GH 2 is a fantastic bit of software. It's easily the best labor of love type game I have ever played, and it's honestly more engrossing than 99% of commercial games out there. Keep up the good work!

On a less syncopantic note, I don't know if this is the right thread for bug reports on GH2 .622, but it seems to have turned into it. In that vein, I have a couple of things that may be bugs. If it's important, I'm running Vista on a relatively new Toshiba laptop with a dual core Athlon processor and integrated ATI graphics.

1. During the second "get a new lancemate slot" mission, the one where the guy shuts down the cavalier's club and threatens to duel anyone who enters the building, I ran into a group of his henchmen outside the spinner. The  lead henchman (the one who initiates conversation with you) didn't have a mech, he just charged into battle wearing a spacesuit. When he gave his little speech about how his badass custom mech was going to destroy you, instead of the usual grandiose name, he just said something like "my mech". Predictably, he was shortly thereafter atomized by a railgun burst. If it will help, I can send you the save game where it happened.

2. If I use the 3d version, it crashes to the desktop with the following error if I try to enter a spinner interior. It doesn't do this in space, or during battle, or going from space to the spaceport, only if I exit a building. I've tried just about every possible combination of graphics settings, and they make no difference. The 2D version runs just fine. Also, I wasn't hitting Ctrl-C, and doing so doesn't seem to cause any problems.

An unhandled exception occurred at $0BC41B1C:
EControlC: Control-C hit
$0BC41B1C
$07EB772D

Thanks again for making this wonderful game, and if you need the savefile or anything, I'd be glad to shoot it your way.

[Joseph Hewitt]

1. Oops... the character search for that encounter didn't specify that the NPC be a combatant. I've fixed it so that from now on the opponent should always have a mecha.

2. Odd. If you could send me the save file for this it might help, since I can't seem to replicate the bug on my own.

[demnpercy]

Perhaps this is a silly question, but where should I send it? Also, I don't know if it's the savefile that's causing the problem with the CTD, as it happens for a new game too, but I will send it along.

[Joseph Hewitt]

pyrrho12 at yahoo dot ca.