Blue Planet: War in Heaven
Acts 1-3 of 5
"That means we did it! We're home..."
"...now under the direct jurisdiction and authority of the GTVA, as per the Beta Aquilae Convention, 2385..."
"...don't you understand? They are not going to listen. They are not going to talk. They are going to burn us to ashes and build something new from the char..."
"...every time we pull the trigger we are destroying ourselves as surely as they destroy us..."
"...last remnants of mankind's collective past. Guardians of our collective future..."
FEATURES- The United Earth Federation: a full-fledged new faction with their own ships, weapons, history and gameplay style, including never-before-seen models
- A brand new soundtrack with two new tabled tracks and dozens of event-driven pieces
- The next chapter in the Blue Planet saga: a dark psychological drama, steeped in military realism and set against the backdrop of a brutal civil war
- Thousands of words of fiction and techroom entries
- Fast-paced gameplay bringing the familiar FreeSpace experience to new heights
- Subspace strike missiles, new voice-acted personas, an AI Betty for UEF ships, and other gameplay elements to discover
- Epic skyboxes for many of the worlds of mankind's home system
And presenting Act 3- Continue the saga. Push yourself to the limits of necessity and morality to discover the truth.
- Stealth. Assassination. Victory by any means. Enter a raging fleet battle. Prowl the storms of Jupiter. Approach the very brink of madness. Experience some of the most elaborate missions ever built.
- Unleash new weapons and master the Ainsarii stealth strike fighter. Trade weapons for new equipment - self repair systems, additional ammo, or enhanced armor.
- Fight alongside the elite of the elite. Work with wingmen who can interpret orders and understand what they're being told to attack.
- Expanded soundtrack, including new remixes and original tracks by Belisarius.
- Gorgeous new graphics, courtesy of the SCP: deferred lighting, team colors, and shadows.
- Enhanced UEF ship models for better performance and cleaner looks.
We owe this community an enormous debt, and we are tremendously grateful to all of you for your help, support, and advice. Blue Planet is a labor of love, and we hope that you enjoy playing it as much as we've enjoyed building it. We owe special thanks to our fellow modders and to the Source Code Project and FreeSpace Upgrade Project teams for their patience and generosity.
Unlike Age of Aquarius, War in Heaven is not voice-acted and probably will not be for a very, very long time. Voice-acting takes a lot of effort, patience and time. Fortunately, community volunteers have stepped up, and voice work is now underway.
IMPORTANT
Make sure you have every item on this checklist before you begin playing:
- The 3.6.12 MediaVPs. They MUST be located in your FreeSpace 2 directory, in a folder called mediavps_3612. MV_Advanced, MV_AnimGlows and MV_RadarIcons are optional.
- Blue Planet isn't standalone. It installs onto a copy of FreeSpace 2.
INSTALLATION
WINDOWSThe best way to install Blue Planet on Windows is the
Blue Planet Complete Installer. This will install
Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius - The Director's Cut and
Blue Planet: War in Heaven. You'll be ready to play almost immediately - you just need to select the correct build in the launcher.
- 0. If you have an existing Blue Planet install, don't worry about it. The Installer will work with it.
- 1. Make sure you have the 3.6.12 MediaVPs installed in mediavps_3612.
- 2. Download the BPComplete installer.
- 3. Let it run, and tell it where you've put your FS2 files.
- 4. Once the Installer has finished doing its thing, start the Launcher of your choice, select the release BP build in your FS2 directory (named fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe), select Blue Planet as the active mod, and play.
Manual InstallBut the BP Complete installer is so very large and takes ages to execute! Can't I just use a WiH installer if I have AoA installed already?You can! Just be aware that using the Complete installer will ensure that you have the absolute latest version of all the files BP needs in order to work correctly. If you only use the WiH installer, you may miss an updated file from Age of Aquarius. There are executable installers for
Age of Aquarius available here and
War in Heaven available here. As of January 7, 2013, you
MUST update your Age of Aquarius install, no matter how recent - even if you downloaded the recent New Year's update.
You can also use the individual VP links below (under MAC) to install War in Heaven.
MACWe don't have an installer for Macs, unfortunately. But you can still perform a manual install with the following easy checklist.
- Make sure you have the correct MediaVPs, as listed above.
- Download the following files and extract them to your FreeSpace 2 folder:
- War in Heaven files -
- Visit the Age of Aquarius release post. Make sure you have the latest update (January 2013). Download and extract the full Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius archive to your FreeSpace 2 folder.
- Download Mac Blue Planet builds right here. You will not be able to run Blue Planet without these! Select the release build in your launcher of choice (WXLauncher is a good pick for Macs), select Blue Planet as a mod, and enjoy.
LINUX- Install just like you would on a Mac, but use the following builds instead -
- You will not be able to run Blue Planet without these! Additional Linux compile instructions are on the way.
READ ME
- Open your FreeSpace 2 Launcher - (launcher.exe or WXLauncher), go to the MOD tab, and select blueplanet2 as your mod. Open the Features tab and select Gameplay as the list type. Make sure you have enabled "Use models for ship selection" and "Use models for weapons selection". Then launch the game.
- The cutting-edge build you'll be using includes the new pilot code. You won't see your old pilots, and you'll have to create a new one. Your old pilots will return if you switch back to an old build to play a different mod.
- These builds also have a lot of new graphics options! If you're having serious performance issues, please review your graphics settings in the launcher. If you're seeing slowdowns with a lot of gunfire or lights onscreen, reduce your lighting detail in the in-game options menu.
- With the new lighting settings it's important to have a low -spec_point value. Make sure your lighting settings in the launcher are customized! We recommend -spec_point 0.3
- If you experience visual corruption or low framerate, delete the adv_bp2.vp file from your blueplanet2 folder, and the adv_bp file from your blueplanet folder.
- We recommend setting music volume to full and voice volume to full in Options (F2). Please visit the Techroom to read new Intelligence entries and credits!
- Don't forget to visit the Campaign Room to see everything you can play. Blue Planet offers a lot of options!
For troubleshooting, click here!
For the review and discussion thread, click here!
