[Gray113]

Hi guys
My course is finishing soon an looking at the current jobs market I might have a lot of free time this summer  . If this is the case I would like to make an attempt on a campaign that I have been considering for a while now.

The jist of it will be Earth contacting the GTVA through the use of a sleeper fleet that travels between systems trough the use of sublight engines. The people of Earth have developed technologies (mostly from the wreckage of the Lucifer) including a basic capship shield system that whilst not effective against warship weaponry can be used to protect against environmental hazards found in deep space (such as radiation storms meteor showers, ect),  beam weapons and most (importantly) subspace gate technology that requires a gate to be placed at each side of a node to allow for transit.

The GTVA and Earth will combine their knowledge of subspace gate technology to develop NSDs (node stabilising devices) between Sol/Delta Serpentus to reunite humanity and construct of a new wave of sleeper fleets to colonise previously unreachable starsystems. Once a colonisation fleet has arrived and setup shop in a new system they will scan for unstable jump nodes that link to GTVA space and construct NSDs. Any system that is capable of supporting life will be colonised including those that cannot be connected to GTVA space (in order to provide a backup against Shivan invasion of GTVA space)

It is very unlikely that I would include Shivans as the main antagonists in this campaign but instead use 3 different races.

I would prefer to have 2 races that would be technologically inferior to the GTVA who are at war with each other in order to present a dilemma for the GTVA whether to attempt to interfere in order to prevent the Shivans being drawn in by conflict. The other race would be the remnant's of an advanced race that survived a Shivan onslaught through destroying their subspace portals (possibly ancient though I would prefer to create another race) that would be extremely xenophobic and attack on sight of any alien ship.

I have never attempted to create a campaign before so I would guess that this will be difficult for me to accomplish so I would like some advice from others that have tried similar campaigns both successes as well as failures. Is this too optimistic? Is anyone willing to provide examples of races I could use? Does anyone have some good examples of designs for sublight engines? Any advice would be welcome even if it is to tell me I'm an idiot for even attempting this 

[General Battuta]

Poke around the wiki and you should find all the models you need for your alien races.

[Black Wolf]

You're in some degree of luck. There are three existing new races with relatively extensive shipsets - the Nightmares, the Askaeldians and the Ancients - check thisd page to find the downloads. They're probably a good place to start from if you want to develop new fleets. If they're not to your liking, well, things get trickier. There's WoD, which has a lot of new stuff, though the quality varies and it's distinctively non-freespacey in its aesthetic - same goes for a lot of the other stuff that's been created lately on a large scale, like AndrewofDoom's sword fleet or a lot of his and Droid's work for Dimensional Eclipse (although the Askaeldians come from there originally).

As for your plot, it's potentially interesting. I've always wanted to see a FS universe with a lot more races, see how those interactions would work ala the Star Trek, Star Wars or Babylon 5 universes. But just remember that no matter how cool and diverse your modpack is, you need to stay focussed on the gameplay and the storyline - that's very hard to do when you're throwing dozens of new ships at the player. Maybe you should think about making a smaller campaign at first that gradually introduces the player to one of the races, then introduce the second a little later, then the third after that. Might be a little less... in the deep end, if you catch my drift.

[General Battuta]

FreeSpace 1 and 2 both threw dozens of new ships at the player in the span of just a few missions, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll have a comparatively smaller pool to draw from anyway.

The most important thing to do in starting a mod - and keeping it going - is to get to the stage where you can FRED, even if only with placeholders. FREDding missions is the lifeblood of development and the best way to keep up momentum.

[Nyctaeus]

Dimensional Eclipse is probably the best source of alienlike models. Creators collected probably the biggest collection of various alien ships. With new/modiffied textures and big amount of motivation, You can make 2-3 fleets to match your taste. If they don't look freespacey, it's good! Why the aliens must look like a recolored terrans . You can also asl Esarai about other models from his fleetpack [there were also cruiser and corvette in WIP stage]. As I remember, Esarai made a few alienish models models for his [probably inactive] Trials of the Abyss mod. They are pretty cool , Recolored Machina Terran models, despite their quality are always and option too.

[Mongoose]

I don't think anyone's ever tried the idea of the GTVA coming across somebody else's fight and having to go all Prime Directive, so it's definitely worth a shot.

[Gray113]

Thanks for all the responses 
All this is still very much an idea in process though I would like to try getting away from the wave after wave of Shivans aspect of the game. Some of the mods that I enjoy the most are those where you are fighting new enemies that require different approaches. I am a bit worried about how I can make a mod in which the player will be fighting inferior ships (like fighting FS1 level ships with FS2 tech) so I could use some advice about making this a challenge without having to spam waves of enemies.
I have also been looking at some of the fleet packs though I have not approached any of the creators. I am still playing Dimensional Eclipse but this has given me plenty of ideas on how I would like the alien races to look.
I'm still coming up with the plot for these guys, the ideas I have had so far still seem a bit to generic Sci-fi. I want them to be interesting so whilst I am finishing up with my course I will be working on the plot.

[Gray113]

From Shivan Hunter in BP forum Project Nagari: Canon?

Ancients being a very weird culture since they spanned a sizeable portion of the galaxy before developing FTL travel

I have been thinking about that as a plot device. Something along the lines of the beings that control subspace did not want a repeat of the genocides perpetrated by the Ancients and so allowed the younger race to develop subspace technology within contained environments (a limited number of useable subspace corridors) where interaction between a small number of races could be monitored to look for signs of xenocidal behaviour. In the case of the Terrans and Vasudans the violent and competitive nature of both societies meant that the elder races were unwilling to allow interaction with others until it could be determined that they would not try to conquer / exterminate other races. The failure of both societies to coexist peacefully resulted in the Shivan genocide being ordered - a response ordered when any race is deemed a threat to the other young races in the galaxy. Only the sight of Terrans fighting and dieing to defend the Vasudan homeworld lead some of the elder races to question the annihilation of the Terrans, the final defence of earth by joint Terran / Vasudan forces convincing enough of them that both races had earned a stay of execution.

In the event of the GTVA being able to develop intersystem travel without the need for subspace I think opens intriguing possibilities under this scenario. How will the elder races react to GTVA forces showing up in other inhabited systems? How would the GTVA react to meeting other races that are warring against each other in experimental environments without knowing that it is a test environment? Have other races managed to survive a Shivan assult and been left isolated from the other races? Have other races survived and been Incorporated into galactic society?

Does this sound a bit convoluted or is it an ok place to start?  Anyone see some mileage with this path?

(P.S how do I move this thread to fan fiction?)

[Black Wolf]

It's a solid idea, possibly tricky to implement, but far from impossible to do well.

The big issue would be how the GTVA travels between stars without subspace. The implication from the Ancients cutscenes (as well as what we know from astronomy and physics in the real world) was that slower than light travel was a very slow, very inefficient way of moving between systems, and the pace picked up markedly when the Ancients developed subspace. To me, this implies something like a sleeper ship or generational ship or possibly something somewhat less conventional, like a downloaded consciousness/von-neuman machine type scenario - but in any case, not something that can be easily integrated into a combat based campaign, I would think.



As for moving the thread to Fan Fiction, we can do that if you want - are you planning on converting from making a campaign to writing a story?

[Gray113]

I'm planning for a campain but I thought that maybe I had posted it in the wrong place seen as I haven't started on anything other than the plot yet.

The Idea was for Sleeper ships similar to the sanctuary in BP (but more advanced of course) with intersystem travel taking up to a decade in some cases but for the purposes of plot the character' would have taken two years. The exploration fleets would not be comprised of front line units but would instead rely on a strong fighter/bomber contingent and a couple of powerfull frigates for defence. These would still outclass anything that the technologically inferior races would have to attack with though as the plan is for these races to be comparable to Terran/Vasudan forces in FS1, the idea being that the GTVA task force would be placed in a similar position to when the Lucifer fleet arrived in Ross 128 (but of smaller size).