You would probably focus most of the storyline from the capship War Rooms and governing bodies emergency situation meetings planetside. Plus the advanced experimental tech rooms where they develop all the rip offs of Shivan tech. Ship-to-ship combat would provide the excitement when needed, but would not be the main focus.
My 2c.
This is the first time I've seen someone suggest a way to actually script the series in one of these discussions.
Elaborate?
The problem with movies based on video games is they sometimes tend to focus
too much on the front lines where all the action is, like the games do -- but with the games, this is so you have something to
do, because that's why you (as an actor) are there. Notice how games include animated shots / cutscenes to explain most everything they want to involve you with plot-wise that doesn't directly involve you acting on the scene. However, for a movie, you want more depth than mostly adrenaline-fueled shots so it doesn't feel like a cheap action flick with no perspective, and for a series, you want to know even more than that.
Perhaps you could open the series with the GTI experimenting around Ross128, attracting the Shivans' attention, with the GTA-PVE war sprinkled in to give background. End Season 1 with the Lucy slagging Outpost Riviera.
Start Season 2 with the intel briefs of both the GTI and PVE leadership (chaining from upper level Generals and them forwarding it to their superiors civvy-side).
I haven't really thought too much past that, but basically with a series, you would want to see the forest, whereas the games focus on the trees (as that's the level where an individual interacts with the universe in an FPS -- unless you go the RTS route, in which case you see some of the tactical level forest). Feature films would be between those two levels, probably following a few major players and some generals from some capships or whatnot, as that's all they have time to really develop.
Battuta's idea seems good.
Play it like The Wire, opening with characters on the tactical level and their immediate operational superiors, then opening the scope up into fleet-level and civilian authority into the picture on the UEF and GTVA side. Keep the previous cast levels in play as you escalate so you can show the feedback loop of decisions and consequences on both sides of the war.
