[Nyctaeus]

On Monday, I reviewed some of the side stories for The Lost Generation - Ashcroft

On Tuesday, I started a draft for a new campaign (not Of Shivans and Men-related), wrote some scenes to develop some characters, the rules for the scenario and the essential plot lines.

Today, I am drew up concepts for 5 missions, out of 12-16.

Tomorrow, I could replay a certain section of the Freespace 2 main campaign for research into canon.



Do I need to be stopped?

Definitly not

I remember one of your project that was especially interesting. FS1 era, Ancients and two Orions on the blockade of Knossos portal [one slayed by pair of shivan beams]. Plz tell me it's something similar .

[0rph3u5]

I remember one of your project that was especially interesting. FS1 era, Ancients and two Orions on the blockade of Knossos portal [one slayed by pair of shivan beams]. Plz tell me it's something similar .

Ah, Shard of Infinity... the object lesson that brought me to the original question
That project really fast became my creativity and ambition out of control. Took me a while to realize that this was making it bad. (But keep your eye open after the release of the The Lost Generation - Ashcroft, I just might share video of missions that were abandoned.)

As for the answer to your question, I long lost my appetite to "fate of world/galaxy/universe"-style stories (doesn't mean there are no good ones though) and no longer have a desire to write those.  Esspecially since once up to stakes and scale too much, narrative artistry becomes meaningless to a degree; I may be a hack but if you are hack at least to try fail in manner that produces an possibily interesting failure.

The "weather"-project, let's call it that, is a more personal story and requires me to create a sense of intimacy for the story to work (one of current problems is that I might have taken that too far). I also want to be a meditation rather than a sermon, so there is problem number two.

[Nyctaeus]

If I start any new project, it would be more ambiental and reflective than SG and Exile. Mostly because of fact that majority of released campaigns are "save the world" scenario rather than independent tale about specific events, taking place hidden from eyes of common people. Blizzard already made me tired in case of settings like that.

What I liked in the Shard of Infinity was the feeling coming from it. Clearly FS1 style with some mysteries like Ancients, beams in shivan ships, Knossos, new warships designed in FS1 style... I guess it was set in Reconstruction era, huh? Or even alternate timeline? I'm kinda tired of shining, next generation warships like TEI fleet. With addon of dyson sphere from one screenshot and some coherent writing, it made me extremly curious what story and secrets lies behind this particular setting.

[Bryan See]

I've made a leap in redesigning the models used in my now-stand alone Shattered Stars.

It is called the GRF Dravaka, also known as the GRW Small Interceptor. It has 2 internal primary mounts and one external secondary mount, and a "show ship" cockpit.

It's the first of many in the GRW Fleet.

You may recall it as the small version of the AF Kato and the AB Attis. The former was HTL'd by Esarai (whom I PM'ed a month earlier) long ago.

[0rph3u5]

What I liked in the Shard of Infinity was the feeling coming from it. Clearly FS1 style with some mysteries like Ancients, beams in shivan ships, Knossos, new warships designed in FS1 style... I guess it was set in Reconstruction era, huh? Or even alternate timeline? I'm kinda tired of shining, next generation warships like TEI fleet. With addon of dyson sphere from one screenshot and some coherent writing, it made me extremly curious what story and secrets lies behind this particular setting.

Yeah it was Reconstruction Era (in a sense*), I brought in some ships from Inferno: Alliance like the Tyr and the Antaeus to fill roles that were useful (e.g. because the Ancients had no shields I made expert Jousters, which meant you had to kill them either at long range or really close range; which Flak-turret are just good at)

*It was basically meant to be a separate time line, where the Ancients had found a Dyson Sphere of older construction with a technology on it that let them wait out the destruction of their Empire in a sort of suspended time. However as the Dyson Sphere was damaged and the Ancients really didn't know what they were doing (part of their backstory) they resolved to "recruit" another species to help them, try to first conquer the Vasudans then luring a GTA counter attack into a trap. After the Terrans escaped the trap, a science team consisting of GTI holdouts then opened one Knossos devices the Ancients used to suppress the natural jump nodes and the Shivans flooded in (until the Ancients finally managed to shut down the portal again). At the final battle above Dyson Sphere would then damage it futher causing it collapse on itself and similar to the end of Transcendent eliminate the timeline in which it existed.
Originally there was also a lot more events that hinted on the damaged "time machine" concept by having alternate timelines "bleeding" into each other, but ultimately that was scrapped (or rather I decided to make a dedicated story out of it which I didn't finish yet). Similarly there is still an element in there that the Shivans might not even be "contemporary" Shivans of the reconstruction period.

On a mechanical level, you might know that I don't like time travel stories due to the problems with agency, stakes and that the ability to time travel actually would fundamentally alter the concept of causality for the time traveler. The reset to default at the end was a stab at that - 30+ missions and in the end non of it even mattered.
Also as you might imagine, the Star Trek: Voyager two-parter "Year of Hell" was a major source of inspiration.

[Nyctaeus]

While I also dislike time travel stories, but this one would be quite potent with different ending and it's excellent setting for further evolution of post great-war era terran and vasudan fleets. In the age of boring, shiny, ultra advanced ships and post-capella campaigns I always wanted to see different approach to terran and vasudan ship design, derived stricte from FS1 technology. I made Atum with setting like that in mind, for Woolie Wool's Twist of Fate. It's a shame to see both SoI and ToF dead than.

[Bryan See]

Me too, but I haven't given up on that.

[0rph3u5]

I have finished penning the outline of the "weather project":

Final count 12 missions total; 9 combat mission, 2 that will be 100% non-combat ones, 1 that may be non-combat.
Now to tally all models I will need.

ps. Did someone make a mainhall for a Typhon?

[Trivial Psychic]

ps. Did someone make a mainhall for a Typhon?

I would welcome this.

[bomb3rman]

Almost finished bringing a lot of Wing Commander Saga from Klavs ship pack into my mod. Especially the Kilrathi-ships make a very good addition if you put them to a new fraction with some ancient Near Eastern background 

[Nyctaeus]

Carrier model I'm working on for some game project, but also I want to include this in Exile as ORS tactical carrier. Based on sketches by Lukasz159, but I also made custom alterations and took some minor inspiration from Hiigaran ships. It  probably won't appear in the first release of Into the Dark Waters, but in further update of the modpack. It's supposed to look like kinda old design, so I hope I succeed

[Bryan See]

A human design you mean.

[starbug]

Well i have taken a break from my United Terran Republic fleet, seem to have got a bit of artistic block for their Cruiser class, so i started work of the republics rivals the Colonial Alliance.

This is what i have come up with

The Colonial Destroyer Armiger class. This is the mainstay of the Colonial fleet. It is a torpedo destroyer. armed with 5 VLS, 2 medium railguns and a couple of anti fighter/torpedo turrets. Unlike the Republic ships that can multi task. Colonial ships are designed with one specific aim, in this instance FTL in and launch its torpedo's from a safe distance, without having to enter close quarter combat. The ship will normally be escorted by 2 anti-fighter corvettes for figther/bomber protection.

As for the design i wanted to do something very different for this group and i am pleased with how this has come out so far.

[Goober5000]

ps. Did someone make a mainhall for a Typhon?

Indeed someone did, albeit for FS1.  Check out the Vasudan Flight Deck from here.

[Trivial Psychic]

I don't suppose its compatible with the current FS-Port at 1080p resolution?

[Goober5000]

What you see is what you get.  But someone ought to try sending a message to the email address in the readme to see if Sewer Urchin is willing to send that .br3 model file.  That would allow rendering at higher resolutions.

Failing that, it's always possible to use image resizing to get a hi-res version.

[0rph3u5]

Let me put it here too:

[Nyctaeus]

Looks cleaner, than the version I played the last time. I guess there are still no chances to save the convoy?

[0rph3u5]

Looks cleaner, than the version I played the last time. I guess there are still no chances to save the convoy?

I am still working on that... but I am also rather fond of the fact that the GTVA blockade is effective (despite the Monitor being buffed through the roof in the hull department, as it the same ship that holds down the Knossus in "Endgame").

[Novachen]

I am currently working on a fixed german translation for the FreeSpace Port.

Actually i have to say, that this is a pain in the ass. Because this game is so ridiculous and have hilarious errors.

We all know the node-inconsistencies, but i never realized before, that this game has a lot of missions where the system names changes between the different stages of a mission file. There is a complete other system mentioned in the debriefing as in the command briefing... and the mission itself takes place in a system, where you have a jump node that leads to the system where you already should be, according to the command/mission briefing.

And sometimes you do not have a clue, which system is the right one you should use .
If you read the story of the game through the mission files... it makes no sense at all.

Even i am surprised how little text the individual missions have...

ps. Did someone make a mainhall for a Typhon?

Indeed someone did, albeit for FS1.  Check out the Vasudan Flight Deck from here.

Actually that one looks surprisingly good for a pre-FS2 one.