DCUG: Released But Still Under Construction

[BentonGrey]

Yeah guys, it is certainly possible that some of them might be corrupt, as uploading files of this size is tricky.  Let me know if we keep having issues, although Area being able to unpack it makes me think that maybe it is just a compatibility problem between programs.

[area34]

I did get a warning on Gotham's pat_building_04a.dds. That might be whats hanging up other programs.

[TrajkLogik]

I did get a warning on Gotham's pat_building_04a.dds. That might be whats hanging up other programs.

I got the same error using 7-zip.

[BentonGrey]

Hmm...sounds like I do need to try and re-upload.  That figures.

[Blitzgott]

Congrats on the release, BG.

[earl of bronze]

This looks great! However it will take me a long time to dl it(around 2 hrs per part if my dsl doesn't disconnect during the dl) so I am going to wait until those with faster speeds get it working.

[Trelau]

Hmm...sounds like I do need to try and re-upload.  That figures.

i got the pat building dds error too, does it mean i can't play the mod? do we have to wait for the fix/reupload or is it "safe" to launch?

[BentonGrey]

Hmm...sounds like I do need to try and re-upload.  That figures.

i got the pat building dds error too, does it mean i can't play the mod? do we have to wait for the fix/reupload or is it "safe" to launch?

My guess would be that it is safe to launch.  Assuming that either only that texture, or that group of textures are messed up.  The Batman campaign might be affected, but the rest would likely be fine.

[Trelau]

huzzah! i have campaigns to play

[area34]

I got mine to launch. I went and copied in a new DDS over the warning one just to be safe. I haven't had time to really get into it so it might crash later in the game but from what I've seen there have been no problems.

[BentonGrey]

Alright, we're freshly uploaded, so we should be good to go.  I know that the archive itself is alright, because I tested it before I re-uploaded, but it's impossible to say for certain whether or not it was corrupted in the upload again.  Hopefully we're good to go.

[lugaru]

My g.f. is going to get scared when she gets home an sees the computer tracking down and downloading files on it's own. I love remote access. I'll be testing by tomorrow (get out at 6, sleep 4 hours, back to work at midnight until noon tomorrow) and I'll let you know if I see anything odd.

[BentonGrey]

Ha, thanks Lu, don't wear yourself out!

[earl of bronze]

Part 2 is an invalid or deleted file when I try to start dling it.

[BentonGrey]

I see that....I don't know how it happened, though.  I'll reupload this afternoon.

[earl of bronze]

Thanks!

[BentonGrey]

Uploading now, it should be finished in around 10 minutes.

[earl of bronze]

Ok I got it dled and used the latest 7 zip to extract it with a few art errors. It looks ok however when I try to start it it won't load. It just goes black like it is starting up but never actually does. This mod did take my free disk space down to 26%, could it be that be a problem? (I heard you are supposed to keep 25% free.)

[BentonGrey]

Okay, you still got errors?  Did you try redownloading?  Has anyone downloaded the new files and combined them without errors?  It is a known issue that, because the DCUG is so huge, it can take several minutes to load.  How long did you give it?

[earl of bronze]

I gave it at least 5 minutes maybe more. How long should I give it? I have not redownloaded because that would take at least 12 hours with my dsl speed if everything goes well.

[BentonGrey]

Hmm....well, it takes around a minute to load up for my PC, but it's pretty fast.  If yours is slow, it might take around five minutes, but I'm not sure.  If you got errors when unpacking it, that makes it likely that something really is wrong....I'll have to try and download it and unpack it myself.

If your DSL connection is that slow, that could definitely lead to corrupt files.  I think I'll try splitting the archives into smaller pieces.

[earl of bronze]

One thing I didn't know which 7 zip to use. I tried several articles to discover if my PC was 32 or 64 bit but nothing they said to do showed me. So I did the 32 bit beta since my PC is over 6 years old. If that was the wrong one would I have had many errors in stead of 4 or 5?

[BentonGrey]

I'm not sure....but if your PC is that old, it probably is a 32 bit one.  I'm hoping that some more computer savy than myself will offer their opinions.

[earl of bronze]

Maybe it is just too big for my PC. I tried to delete it so I could replace it if you find it damaged and re upload but could not. I had to move it to a backup drive. Could that be the problem?

[Trelau]

  I finally had time to start playing the DCUG, i just finished playing the first two mission of the campaign

Spoiler

So first mission, the white martian mission. I had already played this one in the previous version, and it's very good.
The Manhunter hero file is well done, and the white martians are a real threat to him (since his best option is to enrage or hypnotise them and they keep depleting his energy bar, it's a real cat and mouse game). The cosmonaut have a tendency to die by accident (one punch on a first martian, becomes enrage and kill the cosmonaut in one punch while you fight a second martian...) and that gives you an extra reason to be cautious. It plays like an infiltration and that's the best kind there is (in my opinion of course, some prefer large battle).

The difficulty is reltively high for a first mission, but the large amount of hit point of the Manhunter and the fact that it's relativly short (so that if a cosmonaut die you didn't lose an hour of play) balance this nicely. The dialogue are well writen, but the cutscene are sometimes weird (manhunter sometimes use combat animation while talking...flying in circle is a weird way to respond to threat)

Also, the timer doesn't disappear when you've taken the cosmonaut with a leaking suit to your chamber. However the timer doesn't make you lose, it just stays there until it reaches 0 so that's not a big problem.

Also, it might be normal, but it seems there is an endless spawn point for white martian (i had killed 43 by the end of the mission, having a great score of 43/23 killed); it made things a little harder in the end (without the health canister i wouldn't have made it) but it's manageable. I don't know if its normal, but if it's a concious choice, i would tone it done a bit: instead of spawning them two by two, you should consider spawning them one by one, because i know that it's too difficult a mission for my casual-player friends and i'm afraid it will discourage them to go any further.
But overall like i said, great first mission.

Second mission, the Batman mission.

So this one gave me a little scare: when i clicked mission briefing it completely froze my computer...I had to restart and then it worked but gave me a stange error "missing MLC something-something .dll" Maybe it's due to the fact that my FFVTTR is not installed on C:, so i'm gonna assume it's my fault unless someone reports the same problem.
The mission briefing plays weirdly: batman and alfred talks above the button...but i can still click them. so i can click on "train" or "recruit" while batman speaks about the plot. I'm not sure why it did that, but i redid the mission several time to be sure it wasn't a one-time bug.

Batman's hero file needs a little speed boost. It's a solo mission, and exploring a big map with one guy who doesn't run very fast was a little boring at the begining. His other stat and powers are well-balanced so far (the fact that he relies entirely on his explosive batarang to kill the white martian is not bad, i died two times trying to put the scientist in stasis and punching him before realizing that i had a heat attack...that reminded me to always reads the characters description and weaknesses in the lower bar ^^)

Final "complaint" before i give you praise (because a good investigation mission with batman deserves it): the weapon system. I first equipped a boom tube that shots laser/teleports, and then the flamethrower next to the guard (nice idea to fight heat-sensitive martian). I really like the idea, the fact that you have to count your munition is nice too. I just have a complain abotu the graphical state of the weapon...I don't know if it wasn't implemented yet, or if it's a bug (but there's texture on it so i doubt it) but all the weapons are just a tube attached to your arm. It would be nice if we could have different model for different types of weapons.
That's nitpicking, but that's all i found to "correct" in this mission.

Another great mission overall, the investigating is fun (finding my first experimental weapon really surprised me), the fact that you're less poweful that the martian is a nice change of perspective (Manhunter could get hit while fighting, he was strong enought to take it) and the plot moves forward at the right pace (well, it's jsut the begining but still ^^)

I'll keep playing and i'll keep posting review, i'm really enoying the mod so far and if i didn't have to work i'd finish it in one continuous play

Last question: if/when you start reworking on the mod, i'd like to know if you intend to include voicepack. The minions yell, grunt and shout but the hero remains silent...And i'm pretty sure you did Timmverse voicepack and i have them...But since all the character are built-in i can't give them a voice. I wonder if the hero file could be modified to give them there closest voicepack even if you don't include them in the main install, we could get them on out own (unless pointing to an absent voice set causes problem? )
Anyway: great job  

[Trelau]

  Oops

Spoiler

I'm stuck at mission 3. I've done it five times already, but i can't seem to trigger the event. Superman gets "jimmy"'s call, i run toward him, cutscene, he changes into a soldier/martian. At this point the objective "save jimmy olsen" doesn't check or evolve in any manner. i ko the 4 soldiers, nothing happen. the sphere keeps firing beams at me but i can't destroy it. i try flying around the map to trigger another event or something but nope...am I missing the point? i there something wrong with the mission or with the player?

By the way, i redid mission 2, and i kinda broke the game...batman has ropeswinger, but can't fly inside the building (smart choice i guess). But he also has driver, wich weirdly works inside. I summoned the batwing, and its explosive missile...well, you could say it gave me the upper hand...or you could say i completely destroyed my oponents. I know you're probably not supposed to summon your vehicle inside, but isn't there something to actually prevent you from doing it?

Also, since i had the chance to play with superman (even if it wasn't for a very long time) his hero file is okay, but it could be more "fun". I like to give him some area attack like a thunderclap (think Superman TAS when he took out a fire by clapping his hands, or The New Frontier where he silences everyone when they're arguing) or sometimes a stomp when i want him to be more brutal. To nitpick, he has speeding bullet to superspeed on the ground, but doesn't have afterburner to superspeed in the sky.
Also, i'm not sure how this works, but your kryptonian attribute give him vulnerability, i assume to kryptonite. But he also has "accidental change" wich i guess turns him into "superman k-poisonned"; so how do the two interract?
And man do i love this mod, i hadn't played FFVTTR in months, and now i just do random rumble room battle just to see wich characters i'll get to play with and against ^^

[BentonGrey]

Wow Trelau!  That is a really excellent review.  Thanks so much for taking the time to write all of this up, man.  Things like this make me feel like all the time and effort I put into the mod was worthwhile.  I really appreciate you giving such detailed feedback, and it is really gratifying to know that you're enjoying the mod so much!  Remember, there are two other campaigns (and change) to play, in addition to the JLA one.  Let me respond to some of your observations, questions, and critiques. 

Spoiler

I finally had time to start playing the DCUG, i just finished playing the first two mission of the campaign

So first mission, the white martian mission. I had already played this one in the previous version, and it's very good.
The Manhunter hero file is well done, and the white martians are a real threat to him (since his best option is to enrage or hypnotise them and they keep depleting his energy bar, it's a real cat and mouse game). The cosmonaut have a tendency to die by accident (one punch on a first martian, becomes enrage and kill the cosmonaut in one punch while you fight a second martian...) and that gives you an extra reason to be cautious. It plays like an infiltration and that's the best kind there is (in my opinion of course, some prefer large battle).

FF lends itself to more stand-up fights, so I like an occasional sneaky mission too, which is why the Batman one is so very, VERY about being sneaky.  I've always thought of this one as a pretty good blend of sneak and fight, since, as you observed, MM is pretty tough. 

The difficulty is reltively high for a first mission, but the large amount of hit point of the Manhunter and the fact that it's relativly short (so that if a cosmonaut die you didn't lose an hour of play) balance this nicely. The dialogue are well writen, but the cutscene are sometimes weird (manhunter sometimes use combat animation while talking...flying in circle is a weird way to respond to threat)

Also, the timer doesn't disappear when you've taken the cosmonaut with a leaking suit to your chamber. However the timer doesn't make you lose, it just stays there until it reaches 0 so that's not a big problem.

Yeah, the anim thing is a result of his flying and standing anims being so different, and I could and should have fixed it....but it was honestly such a minor detail that I never got around to it.

Also, it might be normal, but it seems there is an endless spawn point for white martian (i had killed 43 by the end of the mission, having a great score of 43/23 killed); it made things a little harder in the end (without the health canister i wouldn't have made it) but it's manageable. I don't know if its normal, but if it's a concious choice, i would tone it done a bit: instead of spawning them two by two, you should consider spawning them one by one, because i know that it's too difficult a mission for my casual-player friends and i'm afraid it will discourage them to go any further.
But overall like i said, great first mission.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!  I played this mission so many darn times while testing it and during playthroughs that I can't see it objectively anymore.   This was one of the very first things I ever created, and it is primitive enough to prove that.  The infinite spawn is a function of my modding inexperience, and it could probably use a tweak.  At the very least, I'd probably like to randomize it a bit, so there are certain delays between the bad guys respawning.

Second mission, the Batman mission.

So this one gave me a little scare: when i clicked mission briefing it completely froze my computer...I had to restart and then it worked but gave me a stange error "missing MLC something-something .dll" Maybe it's due to the fact that my FFVTTR is not installed on C:, so i'm gonna assume it's my fault unless someone reports the same problem.
The mission briefing plays weirdly: batman and alfred talks above the button...but i can still click them. so i can click on "train" or "recruit" while batman speaks about the plot. I'm not sure why it did that, but i redid the mission several time to be sure it wasn't a one-time bug.

Hmm...that is very odd.  I'm not quite sure what could be causing that...although it COULD be a function of a corrupted archive.  Perhaps something is missing.  I'm hoping that someone with more experience with the technical side of things will offer an opinion on that.  I'm guessing that the weirdness with the briefing is probably related to the same issue you were having earlier.  I've discovered that some base screen oddities can be sidestepped by saving and reloading.  I don't have a clue why.

Batman's hero file needs a little speed boost. It's a solo mission, and exploring a big map with one guy who doesn't run very fast was a little boring at the begining. His other stat and powers are well-balanced so far (the fact that he relies entirely on his explosive batarang to kill the white martian is not bad, i died two times trying to put the scientist in stasis and punching him before realizing that i had a heat attack...that reminded me to always reads the characters description and weaknesses in the lower bar ^^)

Ahh, mission-wise, you are almost certainly right about the speed boost, but the trouble is that he's balanced against the other three hundred or so characters in the overall terms of themod.   Yeah, don't forget the Limpit Mines!  They are HUGELY useful.  Also, the electrical batarang can be extremely useful for stunning the Martians.  If push comes to shove, and they get past your gadgets, you won't last long in melee.  You can hold your own for a few moments, but as soon as they land a punch, you're in trouble.  To make up for that, you can overpower a Batpunch, and you'll have a very good chance to stun your foe.  It should buy you time to get some distance.

Final "complaint" before i give you praise (because a good investigation mission with batman deserves it): the weapon system. I first equipped a boom tube that shots laser/teleports, and then the flamethrower next to the guard (nice idea to fight heat-sensitive martian). I really like the idea, the fact that you have to count your munition is nice too. I just have a complain abotu the graphical state of the weapon...I don't know if it wasn't implemented yet, or if it's a bug (but there's texture on it so i doubt it) but all the weapons are just a tube attached to your arm. It would be nice if we could have different model for different types of weapons.
That's nitpicking, but that's all i found to "correct" in this mission.

Another great mission overall, the investigating is fun (finding my first experimental weapon really surprised me), the fact that you're less poweful that the martian is a nice change of perspective (Manhunter could get hit while fighting, he was strong enought to take it) and the plot moves forward at the right pace (well, it's jsut the begining but still ^^)

Once again, I'm glad you enjoyed it.  I had a vision for this mission from the very beginning, unlike some of the others (I added in the Superman, Flash, GL, and WW missions mostly because I liked the idea of every character having an introductory mission).  When I was plotting this campaign way back when I was working that terrible job scoring tests, I had this idea of Batman being hunted through a factory by White Martians, totally outclassed, but managing to outwit them.  I like to think that, the end especially, captures that feel a bit.  The missing textures are an oversight on my part, although the custom weapons are a function of EZScript, as are their models.  When they have the right textures, they look much better.   I suppose I'll have to add that to my list of things to fix eventually.

Last question: if/when you start reworking on the mod, i'd like to know if you intend to include voicepack. The minions yell, grunt and shout but the hero remains silent...And i'm pretty sure you did Timmverse voicepack and i have them...But since all the character are built-in i can't give them a voice. I wonder if the hero file could be modified to give them there closest voicepack even if you don't include them in the main install, we could get them on out own (unless pointing to an absent voice set causes problem? )
Anyway: great job 

Ahh...I should probably include a note about this in my readme.  My mod IS set up to work with my VP's, and to work with just about all the DC VP's ever made, as well as a bunch of the generic ones.  I've monkeyed with some of the voice ID's, (all of mine will plug right in, though) so it might be a little off in some places.  However, I never made a Batman pack.  The existent Bat-pack plugs right on in, though, as does my MM, Superman, WW, Aquaman, etc.  However, another thing on my list of stuff to do is to replace a lot of my JLA hero VPs with Sledgehammer and CQ's versions extracted from JLA:H.  In general they sound better than my hack-job versions.

Oops
I'm stuck at mission 3. I've done it five times already, but i can't seem to trigger the event. Superman gets "jimmy"'s call, i run toward him, cutscene, he changes into a soldier/martian. At this point the objective "save jimmy olsen" doesn't check or evolve in any manner. i ko the 4 soldiers, nothing happen. the sphere keeps firing beams at me but i can't destroy it. i try flying around the map to trigger another event or something but nope...am I missing the point? i there something wrong with the mission or with the player?

Those orb things are switchable traps, meaning that you need to switch them off to end the encounter.  Look around the corners and on the walls of buildings.  That should do the trick.

By the way, i redid mission 2, and i kinda broke the game...batman has ropeswinger, but can't fly inside the building (smart choice i guess). But he also has driver, wich weirdly works inside. I summoned the batwing, and its explosive missile...well, you could say it gave me the upper hand...or you could say i completely destroyed my oponents. I know you're probably not supposed to summon your vehicle inside, but isn't there something to actually prevent you from doing it?

Hmm...I think I actually removed ropeswinger without changing the description of that custom attribute.  Whoops.  Ha, either way, there isn't any way to stop a player from calling the Batmobile or Batwing, except their own realization that it wouldn't make any sense to do so.  I'm leaving it up to the player's good judgment in this case.

Also, since i had the chance to play with superman (even if it wasn't for a very long time) his hero file is okay, but it could be more "fun". I like to give him some area attack like a thunderclap (think Superman TAS when he took out a fire by clapping his hands, or The New Frontier where he silences everyone when they're arguing) or sometimes a stomp when i want him to be more brutal. To nitpick, he has speeding bullet to superspeed on the ground, but doesn't have afterburner to superspeed in the sky.
Also, i'm not sure how this works, but your kryptonian attribute give him vulnerability, i assume to kryptonite. But he also has "accidental change" wich i guess turns him into "superman k-poisonned"; so how do the two interract?
And man do i love this mod, i hadn't played FFVTTR in months, and now i just do random rumble room battle just to see wich characters i'll get to play with and against ^^

Haha, Supes is powerful enough as it is (especially in the JLA campaigns), so I think adding more area attacks would be a bad idea!  As for not giving him afterburner, I simply didn't have enough power slots, and I had to cut somewhere.  He's pretty fast in the air anyway.

SHOOT!  I just realized I lost my to-do list along with the unfinished missions...bah!

[Trelau]

So the review continues
a rather short one this time

Spoiler

So first, the dll bug and computer freezing bug seem to have completely disappeared. I'm gonna call it good news  
About your voicepack, i think i know why they don't work with me even though i have them: i think i added a "bentonjlu" prefix or suffix to all your voicepack to find them more easily, so the herofiles probably point to the original name. I'll try renaming them to see if the heroes start speaking.
About the herofiles: it's true that i forget they're supposed to all be balanced, so too bad for batman, he'll have to walk

Now the serious stuff (like i said very short)
I finished mission 3, it was enjoyable and very superman-esque (save jimmy, defuse the bomb to save metropolis) but maybe a little too short. And since superman has his heatvision, the encounters are really easy, so it's more about not koing the citizen and destroying the building. Damage control is not my favorite kind of fight, and yet it was still fun.
Like i said i only regret it was a little short, but it's an intro mission for superman so i guess it's normal.

edit: ooh, i forgot: the switches both have "switch" and "activate" command on them.  The "activate" command makes a message appear "the switch is broken". I guess you took them from a level wich had a broken switch, and you forgot to remove it's special command before adding your own. It doesn't crash te game or the mission so it's not a real problem, it was just confusing.

Now the little technical problem, since i have it in both mission 3 and 4: i think i need the "trick" to change the max/min zoom, because in metropolis and on the moon, i can't zoom out enough to see above the building/higher rocks. So view was a little uncomfortable (i think metropolis has the daily planet, but i can see the sphere on top of the building, i pass right through it.

Intermission: the superman/scientist dialogue is interesting, and the little hint that global surveillance displease superman but that he might consider doing it for the safety of the people makes my watchtower-sense tingle (i don't know if you meant to imply that the watchtower idea was becoming a normal step to take for superman, but that's how i took it and i liked the way it was done)

Mission 4: the reason why the review is shorter
I can't beat it yet. I still haven't find a way to get out of the first encounter without having to use my hero point. The second encounters with the ships is easier (since they are sensitive to energy) even though beams attack seems to miss more than half of the times when they're flying (i though it was weird, the beams just pass through them without damage, but the projectiles have impact so they work better)
Then i go on to try to sabotage, i usually hve time to defeat the ships but the two remaining white martians kill me all the time. I even tried to lure them far away from the machine so that i could try to sabotage it befor they come back, but it seems i can't trigger the "sabotage" action before killing them.
Even though i die every time, Hal seems to be pretty nice: crushing/energy beams and projectile, a stasis cage, a personal shield...I haven't been able to make the direct golem attack fonction. The animation appears, but no damage whatsoever, maybe i'll try it in rumble room to see if i was justunlucky (i though you couldn't dodge a direct attack, but i might be wrong)
Hal's a little weak, and strangely enough his projectiles attack are more effective than his beams attack even though he has light speed. But on the other hand his aim is real bad so you have the choice to hit for sure with a "weak" beam or to try your luck to put a powerful energy fist. This kind of choice is a good idea.
I still have to figure out a strategy to get the two white martian, but so far i've tried stunning them (the energy slam stuns them 3 out of 4 times) and then using energy jets or fist. The constant empty energy bar is hard to manage (i often stun myself because i give an order, get EP drained and try to launch the attack just after...). Liek i said the projectile are the only real damage dealer and the white martians dodge them almost all the time.
I've tried spamming them whith construct but they don't buy me has much time has i need to recharge my energy...
I'll keep trying, don't tell me the solution!

So about Hal: some problem with the plasma sculptor and summoner attribute
_give missile works perfectly, but give weapon, squash and block give me purple objects. if it's my fault, i'd like to know how to fix it (i'm pretty sure that it works in ffx...i'll have to retest)
_summoning: the robot is a yellow mister mechanical robot, since the "tank" which in fact is a jet is green and the other robot (i forgot its name) is green too, i assume it's another texture problem.
Si if it's my texture/plasma scupltor that are broken i'll have to look into it (like i said i hadn't played in a while, but i'm pretty sure plasma sculptor never gave me any trouble)

edit:And i thoug i'd manage to make it shorter

[BentonGrey]

Excellent!  I'll give you some specific responses again:

Spoiler

So the review continues
a rather short one this time
So first, the dll bug and computer freezing bug seem to have completely disappeared. I'm gonna call it good news  
About your voicepack, i think i know why they don't work with me even though i have them: i think i added a "bentonjlu" prefix or suffix to all your voicepack to find them more easily, so the herofiles probably point to the original name. I'll try renaming them to see if the heroes start speaking.
About the herofiles: it's true that i forget they're supposed to all be balanced, so too bad for batman, he'll have to walk

Glad to hear that the really bad bug doesn't seem to be rearing its head anymore.  Yeah, renaming the files would definitely cause the DCUG not to be able to find them.  Ha, yeah, the balancing process for this mod was incredibly involved.  Every character had to be balanced against their rogue's gallery, their compatriots, and then various OTHER heroes and villains.  It took quite a lot of testing.

Now the serious stuff (like i said very short)
I finished mission 3, it was enjoyable and very superman-esque (save jimmy, defuse the bomb to save metropolis) but maybe a little too short. And since superman has his heatvision, the encounters are really easy, so it's more about not koing the citizen and destroying the building. Damage control is not my favorite kind of fight, and yet it was still fun.
Like i said i only regret it was a little short, but it's an intro mission for superman so i guess it's normal.

Yeah, the truth of this one is that I didn't have much in the way of a compelling story to tell with Superman.  My only real "idea" was "save Jimmy."  So, you end up with something pretty short.  Also, I tried really hard to tweak various things so these guys would be a real threat to Supes, but if I had changed it anymore, they'd have eat the rest of the League for lunch.  I didn't want to bring in any of the war machines you see later (like the ones on the moon), since it wouldn't make sense, narratively.  Unfortunately, the traps didn't do nearly as much damage as I wanted, even set on extreme.

edit: ooh, i forgot: the switches both have "switch" and "activate" command on them.  The "activate" command makes a message appear "the switch is broken". I guess you took them from a level wich had a broken switch, and you forgot to remove it's special command before adding your own. It doesn't crash te game or the mission so it's not a real problem, it was just confusing.

Yeah, that's a function of EZScript.  I don't know how to change it, but since it doesn't affect anything, I'm not too worried about it.

Now the little technical problem, since i have it in both mission 3 and 4: i think i need the "trick" to change the max/min zoom, because in metropolis and on the moon, i can't zoom out enough to see above the building/higher rocks. So view was a little uncomfortable (i think metropolis has the daily planet, but i can see the sphere on top of the building, i pass right through it.

I really wanted Metropolis to have some skyscrapers, and I DO have the zoom thing activated on my rig, so I suppose I put some of those details out of sight.  You should make that little edit, as it makes things much easier, and also much nicer visually.  Yep, the planet sphere is indeed on top of the building.

Intermission: the superman/scientist dialogue is interesting, and the little hint that global surveillance displease superman but that he might consider doing it for the safety of the people makes my watchtower-sense tingle (i don't know if you meant to imply that the watchtower idea was becoming a normal step to take for superman, but that's how i took it and i liked the way it was done)

Thanks!  I was pretty happy with how this turned out.  Interesting that you picked up on a foreshadowing of a "Watchtower."  Well...you'll just have to wait and see what develops!

Mission 4: the reason why the review is shorter
I can't beat it yet. I still haven't find a way to get out of the first encounter without having to use my hero point. The second encounters with the ships is easier (since they are sensitive to energy) even though beams attack seems to miss more than half of the times when they're flying (i though it was weird, the beams just pass through them without damage, but the projectiles have impact so they work better)
Then i go on to try to sabotage, i usually hve time to defeat the ships but the two remaining white martians kill me all the time. I even tried to lure them far away from the machine so that i could try to sabotage it befor they come back, but it seems i can't trigger the "sabotage" action before killing them.
Even though i die every time, Hal seems to be pretty nice: crushing/energy beams and projectile, a stasis cage, a personal shield...I haven't been able to make the direct golem attack fonction. The animation appears, but no damage whatsoever, maybe i'll try it in rumble room to see if i was justunlucky (i though you couldn't dodge a direct attack, but i might be wrong)
Hal's a little weak, and strangely enough his projectiles attack are more effective than his beams attack even though he has light speed. But on the other hand his aim is real bad so you have the choice to hit for sure with a "weak" beam or to try your luck to put a powerful energy fist. This kind of choice is a good idea.
I still have to figure out a strategy to get the two white martian, but so far i've tried stunning them (the energy slam stuns them 3 out of 4 times) and then using energy jets or fist. The constant empty energy bar is hard to manage (i often stun myself because i give an order, get EP drained and try to launch the attack just after...). Liek i said the projectile are the only real damage dealer and the white martians dodge them almost all the time.
I've tried spamming them whith construct but they don't buy me has much time has i need to recharge my energy...
I'll keep trying, don't tell me the solution!

Haha, you don't want any tips?  Alright, I won't offer any!  The fight between Hal and the Martians turned out even tougher than I had anticipated.  Those White Martians and their ability to drain energy ended up giving him no small amount of headaches.  I will say that, although the fights are usually long-ish, you should be able to get through them without getting too beat-up.  I will say that the key is to NOT get your energy drained.  You're vulnerable when that happens (because Hal's got a passive energy shield, his aura).  I'm glad you like his build.  It's one of the things that I've never really been happy with, although after I tweaked his summonings, I was much happier.  His beam attacks should also be more accurate than that.  I think they've got high accuracy.  Hmm....

So about Hal: some problem with the plasma sculptor and summoner attribute
_give missile works perfectly, but give weapon, squash and block give me purple objects. if it's my fault, i'd like to know how to fix it (i'm pretty sure that it works in ffx...i'll have to retest)
_summoning: the robot is a yellow mister mechanical robot, since the "tank" which in fact is a jet is green and the other robot (i forgot its name) is green too, i assume it's another texture problem.
Si if it's my texture/plasma scupltor that are broken i'll have to look into it (like i said i hadn't played in a while, but i'm pretty sure plasma sculptor never gave me any trouble)

edit:And i thoug i'd manage to make it shorter

It sounds like his summonings have gotten screwed up a bit.  He should summon a Mech Man, a jet, and a walker of some type (if my memory serves me).  They should all be green.  I don't know what could cause that to mess up, since the summoned stuff's profiles are set-up in FFEdit.  As for the plasma sculpture stuff, those FFX textures just aren't in certain maps,which is my fault, but they won't be of much use in this mission anyway.  

I'm glad that you enjoyed these two as well, but if you think these were hard, just wait 'till you get to Aquaman's mission.

[Trelau]

I did it!

Spoiler

by carefully using the battleground, i managed to fight only one martian at a time, using energy slam to knockback one martian far away while i shielded myself and lauched jets or energy blast at the other. the trick to watch your energy bar so that your passive defense doesn't stop working was not a bad idea too 
i still had some problem to trigger the "sabotage" command though: Hal tried to walk to the center of the object, i had to put him in flight and "above" (or north if you prefer) so that he move correctly to the trigger point. Nothing insurmontable.
Oh, and how could i forget to say that the Hal/Ring dialogue is pure gold 
I'll do a forum search to change the camera work, but for now i renamed the voicepack and they work, so that's settle too
I did a copy/paste of the ffx tecture for the plasma sculptor, i didn't retry all of the fonction but it seems to be working too.
The summonings are ok, its just that the jet is labelled as "summon a mini tank" instead of "mini jet". But for the green texture not being green, i don't know why it does that yet.

Now, for Aquaman!