Hey all, I'm new here.
I just want to say I absolutely love what you all are doing here. I started playing Freespace with my dad when it came out it 1998 (I flew the ship and used primary weapons, he used the communication menu and shot the secondary weapons (I was 6 years old so it made sense, haha). We got Freespace 2 in 2000 and that was when I started playing by myself. I couldn't beat the game on a difficulty higher than easy! Ever since then, I believe I've played the retail Freespace 2 campaign about 50 (original freespace about 20, middle and high school give you so much free time) times before I found the source code project.
Despite finding the SCP and some updated graphics, I didn't realize there was a modding community until 2010. The first serious mod I played was Derelict. If I ever questioned my commitment to Freespace (I didn't), Derelict reinforced my loyalty. In case anyone was wondering if I was a real FS2 junkie, since I found the updated graphics (early 2014), I've played the Freespace 2 campaign about 10 times. The icing on the cake though is Blue Planet. Age of Aqaurius was solid, I've played it through a couple times. It has bonus points for having my all time favorite mission, Forced Entry (I don't think I ever got to play it before the difficulty got reduced). When it comes to campaigns, though, I think my favorite is War in Heaven (followed by FS2, Derelict, then the original Freespace). The only complaint I have (if you can really call it that) is that I have fought first for the survival of the GTA in FS1, then the GTVA in FS2, and finally the GTVA once again in AoA. It is very hard to turn against those who I have fought faithfully for all this time (though not impossible, obviously). War in Heaven makes me think quite a bit about what is right and what is wrong in this war, and that is both very awesome (I love thinking about what my choices mean) and very bad (Wow that choice makes everything more difficult, I can't believe it).
I guess I just really want to say I love what you guys are doing, (I'm from Michigan, so when I say you guys that is a gender neutral term, just to clarify in case any ladies feel left out by me saying you guys) it's awesome. Please keep it up. As soon as I finish school and actually start making money, I plan on donating so that the Hard Light servers stay online. I wish I could say I didn't need this, but I do I think I might be addicted to all things Freespace. You guys are awesome.
I know it's probably not that important, but I've got the song from the end of the War in Heaven part 1 on repeat.
