Dissecting (and mapping) Captive II: Liberation

[JemyM]

Originally Posted by LuMan

Years ago a load of us at school mapped Jet Set Willy. We were REALLY proud... and then a magazine printed their version which was (i) better and (ii) actually accurate!

Great story!

I have tried very hard to find a copy of an old 80'ies computer magazine from Sweden that had maps of Last Ninja that are the coolest maps I ever seen. They were handdrawn with every item and every guard illustrated. Unfortunately they were made in newspaper format so they are difficult to scan.

Originally Posted by LuMan

Keep up the good work JemyM - I'm going to dig this gem out again.

Do so.

[JemyM]

Right, decided to upload my playthrough of the first mission of the game even though I wasn't happy about it's quality. If there are those interested in this game feel free to have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...8egHHSDF1XJ1Yt

Sorry for the outrageous thread necromancy, but this game can be a lot of fun! The plot, cut sequences and atmosphere of the game were the big perks for me.

I remember eventually finding a 'data crystal' when playing this, which had the address of Toyogon, and for some reason it stays in your inventory after you return from the emperor and will then tell you the address of the next captive. Using this I completed a number of missions in quick succession, but the end cut scene of each mission was always the same. I'm not sure if there's a 'final' cut-scene, but given I've just found out there are 4000 missions it seems unlikely!

Can anyone recommend any good similar games? Particularly in terms of the atmosphere/style and setting.

[RetroPaul]

This was one of the games i felt totally out of my depth with and never really played. I remember buying it for my CD32 based on the glowing magazine reviews but aside from showing off the cool intro sequence and cd audio to my friends i dont think i ever got anywhere at all in the game.
I amazed by the complexity, size and mechanic's of it, i never realised at the time, damn good work mapping it out, i think ill give it another go!

[whowasphone]

Originally Posted by JemyM

Right, decided to upload my playthrough of the first mission of the game even though I wasn't happy about it's quality. If there are those interested in this game feel free to have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...8egHHSDF1XJ1Yt

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I wrote a guide for this game using your videos and all the information you uncovered and shared! I made sure to credit you throughout the guide! It was extremely satisfying to fully understand this game after all these years!

I am amazed at the detail of your map work, labeling every street name and recording the type of each of the 987 buildings is truly going above and beyond. Would you be willing to upload your maps to Game FAQs so that they will preserved on another site?

If you have time please have a look at my guide, if you find any errors please let me know!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/cd32/9...4/introduction

Thank you again for all your hard work!

[JemyM]

Originally Posted by whowasphone

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I wrote a guide for this game using your videos and all the information you uncovered and shared! I made sure to credit you throughout the guide! It was extremely satisfying to fully understand this game after all these years!

I am amazed at the detail of your map work, labeling every street name and recording the type of each of the 987 buildings is truly going above and beyond. Would you be willing to upload your maps to Game FAQs so that they will preserved on another site?

If you have time please have a look at my guide, if you find any errors please let me know!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/cd32/9...4/introduction

Thank you again for all your hard work!

Yes, I can't recall why they aren't on Game FAQ's already but I uploaded them today. The liberation walkthrough is one of my older videos and since then I got myself better microphone and recording software that allows me to separate the microphone and game audio and throttle volume independently. You can check my recent Alien Breed 3d II video for example, I think it sounds a lot better.

I have considered remaking that video due to the audio issues but it's not been a priority. Given it is is fairly short I know it do not take much time but there are other projects that I felt to be of greater urgency.

That said; I am very happy for your guide. I did the first mission but realized that there were a potential to continue to play as a rogue-like, building up your robots to more and more powerful hardware, weaponry and configurations. I never quite figured out how to mod properly, even if I did my best and a good guide on that is something I really lacked while I made my maps.

[whowasphone]

Originally Posted by JemyM

Yes, I can't recall why they aren't on Game FAQ's already but I uploaded them today.

Thank you very much for uploading your maps! I'm looking forward to seeing them there!

Thank you very much for making the videos too, I listened carefully and wrote down most of your strategy in my own words into the guide. So I wouldn't worry about remaking the videos unless you really want to!

I made a request on the gamefaqs forums that we share joint credit for the Liberation guide, since you discovered so much of the information about the game. If it goes through, the guide should also appear on your gamefaqs profile! I think you will then be able to edit it, if there are any parts you want to correct.

I also noticed you fully mapped Alien Breed 3D II! What an amazing display of effort! It's an insane achievement! I recently wrote a guide for the first game and it gave me such a headache, I can't imagine mapping the whole game! I'm currently mapping all of Fears, so I can really respect the amount of detail on all of your maps, adding all the enemy locations is going above and beyond!

[JemyM]

Originally Posted by whowasphone

Thank you very much for uploading your maps! I'm looking forward to seeing them there!

It's been 6 days and they are still not approved, just status "submitted"... Hopefully they are accepted soon.

Originally Posted by whowasphone

Thank you very much for making the videos too, I listened carefully and wrote down most of your strategy in my own words into the guide. So I wouldn't worry about remaking the videos unless you really want to!

Good. The truth is that once they were done and I realize the audio was off I was exhausted. You can't see it, but it is one of the most frustrating video-series I produced because there are so many things that could go wrong. I even reveal at one point that my gamesave broke. I also remember that the way I planned it out was to get the amount of money I needed exactly. Accidentally misclicking a shop owner meant attacking the shop owner, accidentally combining the wrong credit sticks etc, stuff like that could lead to having to do it all over again. The credit-video was half an hour or planned movement/walkthrough through the world where everything had to go right. I think I rerecorded that bit for half a day.

Originally Posted by whowasphone

I made a request on the gamefaqs forums that we share joint credit for the Liberation guide, since you discovered so much of the information about the game. If it goes through, the guide should also appear on your gamefaqs profile! I think you will then be able to edit it, if there are any parts you want to correct.

That's amazing, thank you. The fact you solve the questions I had about chipping was great because that was an aspect I couldn't answer. When I finished the first mission I felt "done", but I also wondered later on how the game scales really. Do you keep your characters for the next missions and do they get better and better? Are there better weapons? Given how 'easy' Mission 1 was really, do you *need* to have very strong weapons and skills? Do the game get harder? I also wonder how you 'solve a map' without a specific walkthrough for it. What A>B>C>D>E steps do you need to take when you spawn into a new sector without any clues on where to begin?

Originally Posted by whowasphone

I also noticed you fully mapped Alien Breed 3D II! What an amazing display of effort! It's an insane achievement! I recently wrote a guide for the first game and it gave me such a headache, I can't imagine mapping the whole game! I'm currently mapping all of Fears, so I can really respect the amount of detail on all of your maps, adding all the enemy locations is going above and beyond!

I felt a bit of a duty to ensure all the classic Amiga games are at least mapped. I actually started on others but never finished.

[Reynolds]

Where can be found the AB3D2 maps?

[JemyM]

Originally Posted by Reynolds

Where can be found the AB3D2 maps?

On gamefaqs: HERE.

[whowasphone]

Originally Posted by JemyM

It's been 6 days and they are still not approved, just status "submitted"... Hopefully they are accepted soon.

There is apparently only one person reviewing GameFAQs submissions right now, so it takes a long time. I wouldn't worry, I'm sure they will be up there by next week.

Originally Posted by JemyM

Good. The truth is that once they were done and I realize the audio was off I was exhausted. You can't see it, but it is one of the most frustrating video-series I produced because there are so many things that could go wrong.

Well, I really appreciate the effort you put into not only making the videos but researching the game and sharing the information. I could really understand how deep the game was and how it all worked!

Originally Posted by JemyM

accidentally combining the wrong credit sticks etc, stuff like that could lead to having to do it all over again.

If you combined the wrong sticks, the wrong droid would have all the money?

Originally Posted by JemyM

Are there better weapons? Given how 'easy' Mission 1 was really, do you *need* to have very strong weapons and skills? Do the game get harder? I also wonder how you 'solve a map' without a specific walkthrough for it.

I also wonder about which weapons are the best, but it seems like you found a good answer with the Super Phaser MK3 guns.

As far as I know the game does not get harder. The furthest I have heard anyone getting in this game is mission 45, but the captive spawned in a room with a glitched staircase and so could not be rescued. This was from a comment on youtube. It seems very likely that due to the procedural generation of this game it is impossible to finish all 4,000 missions.

I think the clues are all obtained from reading newspapers and talking to NPCs, as you did in the first mission. Concerning chipping, I believe that is fully explained in the manual. However the explanation is quite confusing, so it took me a long time to work out what they were trying to say. What some of the ability chips do was revealed in an official guide for CD32 Gamer. I think there are lots of features that seem to be in the game, but were never actually implemented due to the size and complexity of the project.

Originally Posted by JemyM

I felt a bit of a duty to ensure all the classic Amiga games are at least mapped. I actually started on others but never finished.

I also understand this “sense of duty”. Its interesting to map out these forgotten and unloved spaces. Perhaps you could also submit them to Hall of Light, because they also have a separate map section for each game. As you can see there are no maps for Liberation and Alien Breed 3D 2, yours should definitely be there!

http://hol.abime.net/883

[JemyM]

Originally Posted by whowasphone

If you combined the wrong sticks, the wrong droid would have all the money?

It's been awhile since I made that video... I remember I had some specific narrow rules for pedagogical reasons. I have a vague memory that I made sure to not accidentally combine credit sticks and made sure they were always kept separated, and I remember that I had to replay the whole segment if I accidentally did so. This might not actually have been a big issue otherwise and I do not remember strictly *why* it was.

Originally Posted by whowasphone

As far as I know the game does not get harder. The furthest I have heard anyone getting in this game is mission 45, but the captive spawned in a room with a glitched staircase and so could not be rescued. This was from a comment on youtube. It seems very likely that due to the procedural generation of this game it is impossible to finish all 4,000 missions.

Originally Posted by whowasphone

I think there are lots of features that seem to be in the game, but were never actually implemented due to the size and complexity of the project.

That's a shame.

Originally Posted by whowasphone

Perhaps you could also submit them to Hall of Light, because they also have a separate map section for each game. As you can see there are no maps for Liberation and Alien Breed 3D 2, yours should definitely be there!

I will look into this. I was using Hall of Light heavily on my latest project.

The Amiga have several exclusive Dungeon Crawlers that always been an obsession for me. Liberation is one of them, and I feel reluctant to rest until they are all thoroughly covered.

[whowasphone]

The maps are up! Thanks for sharing them!

The guide didn't go through though, I'll try again.