Topic: OP Scenario Pros/Cons - Opinions on existing game

[ogoptimus]

So, I've just recently gotten Orion Pirates.  I've had SFC 1 since about 2000 and SFC 2 since 2004 (a bit late, yes), and SFC 3 since last year.  I love them all.  Though, so far OP is my favorite one yet.

Forgive me if the following is redundant, or seems insulting in any way, neither is meant.

I have to say OP made some great innovations:

1. The ability to play a general campaign as any empire, this was definitely missing in EAW.
2. Soooooo many ships and new weapons from the Starfleet Universe--this really is SFB in realtime (I see why overloaded phasers were banned--they're insane).
3. The unbalanced scenarios.  This to me is just great!  I never liked the "balancing" that the first two seemed to do all the time, giving you enemies that were just as good as you.  I mean, it's a war for ***'s sake!  Things aren't even all the time, that's why people win them!  Let me have a frigate vs. cruiser battle.  The little guy can always just choose to run away!  (which it seems the AI does sometimes, since some scenarios start and end before I've even gone to Red Alert.)
4. All the mods that are out there!  I have downloaded I don't know how many ships.  I've got some of the FASA designs, some of the ADB classic ones, some of those from the original game, and a bunch of others that people have made.  It's so nice to have such a massive diversity of models, that I know weren't possible for the developers to make, since if they did, they'd still be working on them!


But, there were some drawbacks:

1. Whenever you have allied ships in the scenario, the enemy invariably seems to single-mindedly go after your weakest ship even if it's better than all your allied ones.   While your allied ships don't seem to do the same and don't rally to your ship under fire and help keep it alive--they spread out their fire.
2. Some scenarios were just a tad too unfair, like Distress Call.  It's a great idea in principle, but come on!  I've got to rescue a frigate, but the three enemy cruisers get to and kill it before I can close even half the distance!  And I'm going speed 30!

Does anyone else have some things they'd like to add to this, or refute what I've said?  I'm not complaining about any of the cons, or that I could do better, I'm just throwing an opinion out there.  They're mostly necessary to make the game challenging too (one can't win them all, though we'd like to).

[Lieutenant_Q]

1) I've never noticed this problem, and if it is indeed present, its far better than in SFC3 where the AI targets the closest ship and doesn't re-target until it cloaks, disengages, or is destroyed.

2)  Yes, this is a bit of a problem.  The AI spawned against the ship is distress is based on your fleet, not what the allied ship is.  When I fly in the early era in solo missions I tend to get the F-DNL, when I get the distress call mission (on Admiral Difficulty) that puts the F-DDG up against a R-K9R.  Even at 31 I can't get there fast enough to keep it from firing its full Plasma salvo at it.

[Kid Carrson]

No FMSE Mission Editor for SFC OP!   If we had that little gem for OP, we'd have about everything we could hope for in a game.

KC