Merry May everyone! April came and went, leaving us with wonderful spring weather... Right?

*checks forecast*



 

Well anyway, the age old question of when we will see FreeSpace 3 was finally answered! The answer though, may not surprise you. Well let's get to what we were up to last month.




Well we only have one big piece of news this month, FSPort 3.4 was released, updating the FreeSpace 1 total conversion with many new assets, including a totally redone and remixed soundtrack by none other than Dan Wentz, the composer for the FreeSpace games! Radical!

Oh Axem, I just realized that you Forgot this release.

Oh apparently there's a second release this month! Isn't that neat!




Well it looks like the SCP was 19 days too late when it came to releasing a new build to punk the newsletter. But to make up for it, they've gone onto a completely new revision number. Yes 3.7.0 RC1 was released! The 3.7 builds include new pilot code that let players use the same pilot for any number of mods without crashing. Give it a play and help squad bugs!

Now technically there's still a code freeze, but that's not stopping some people from showing off new features they're just itching to add.

For example, Yarn's coded Adaptable Hud Scaling. This allows the hud to automatically scale to your resolution, without having to scale from preset resolutions. This will surely help the crazy people with 3+ monitors.

Zookeeper's been hard at work with stuff like Auto Spread Shields, which allow shields to fit to the shape of the ship without a shield mesh plus a bunch of other small features, all of which I would love to see ingame.

Are you on a platform like MacOS or Linux and want to peak into the VP files, but you can't, because the programs are all Windows only? Well FreeSpaceFreak has you covered with WxVPViewer! You too, can discover the hidden files in those VP files you keep downloading.

Are you on Windows 8 and want to peak into VP files, but you can't, because the programs don't follow the Metro interface, and that really bugs you for some reason? m!m has you covered with VPGUI! Technically this was from last month, but I missed it.

The scripting board was sort of quiet this month, but FelixJim's updated his in-mission tech room script. Contains some new features, such as viewing your own ship, viewing your weapons, and viewing your enemy! Freaky stuff.




The ORFg Tychicus/GTFg Unamit comes to us from Korbar and Scooby Doo. With those two large looking turrets on the front, it looks perfect for giant BEAMS. Modders, do not disappoint!


fightermedic releases a stand alone fighter cockpit for anyone that wants to add it to their own mod. But just keep in mind, that not everyone's a fan of complete immersion. But i must say, it does look pretty cool.


AndrewofDoom's released a ship pack of Sword-like ships for anyone to use. They don't come with tables (or chairs), so you'll need to craft your own. Perfect for the modder that needs more ships.


Inferno shows off a WIP shot of their amazing GTSD Bastion flagship. Dat runway.

_{Apologies for missing this}

headdie made a tanker container, for people transporting mass amounts of Pepsi and/or Coca-Cola. Comes with a converted pof and table, but its not quite textured. So its up to you to finish that last part!


And just 3 hours after that tanker container, Doko shows off his tanker ship! Why, this could carry even MORE Pepsi and/or Coca-Cola! Not released yet, but I do hope we'll be able to see it done!


Admiral MS shows off his latest work with the RTS Mod, and holy cow, does it look like an RTS. Attacking specific subsystems? Queued orders? Creating waypoint paths? This is amazing stuff.


This month on ScoobyWatch: The Scimitar!



Those overachievers working on the MediaVPs give us updates on 5 ships. The Alastor, the Anuket, the Ra, the Hermes and the Shivan Comm Node. We'll have all of those ships done in no time!

Alastor
Anuket
Ra Escape Pod
Hermes Escape Pod
Shivan Comm Node Textured!



Homesick is quite a fitting title for this campaign. Also fitting would be "How Could Things Get Worse?" As the name implies, the campaign takes you far from the GTVA systems and you and your friends are trying to find a way home. Along the way we get some insight into how the citizens of the GTVA think and how the GTVA thinks, atleast in the window that Blaise Russel constructs; which I know that there's some of you who think its sort of rubbish.

I think what I liked most about Homesick was the transition from a sort of easy-going atmosphere into one where the laid-back inhabitants are thrown into a deep and dark pit. The campaign starts with a command briefing about applying to join the GTVA. However all positions are filled, save for being a janitor. So naturally, you join the Custodian Mercenary Group (because quite frankly custodian sounds much better than janitor!). So when you fly out for the first few missions, you get to know your wingmen. Out of 7 fighters that fly with you, 3 have distinct personalities and are sort of immortal (which helps in the long red-alert series missions).

You have Alpha 3, a bit of an airhead. Asking weird questions out of nowhere and doesn't like going too far out of his comfort zone. Then you have Beta 1, a stronger pilot who is more no-nonsense, but she's a little more prone to anger when things aren't going so hot. And Beta 4, our Vasudan friend who likes to analyze our friends and drops us background exposition. He appears a lot more stoic and level headed, even in the face of all the pressure that comes in the story. The interactions between these three save some repetitive missions from becoming totally unbareable and upgrade them to bareable enough. More on that later.


Beta 4 is totally missing out on the hilarity that is Two and a Half Zods

So our calamity of errors and screwups begins when the Custodian is escorting a convoy, and some of the transports turn up to be carrying high tech equipment that they shouldn't be. The rather heavy-handed GTVA declares everyone in the group traitors, and starts to attack the convoy. So starts your running from the GTVA and a jump into an undiscovered node with an exploding capital ship behind you later, and you're stranded. So starts your long trek home. And boy, is it a long one. First you scavenge around an old Terran-Vasudan battleground, then a nebula, then a system with the GTVI who appear to be taking 'shoot on sight' with exceptional pride, then another nebula, nebula, nebula, yeah, a lot of nebula stuff. Along the way you pick up some friends, a derelict Fenris, a Vasudan support ship, and even some GTVA Vasudans late in the game.


Pirates! Yarr!

A lot of missions are 'Protect the Custodian' and usually it can take care of itself. The challenge is keeping yourself alive. Quite a few missions are tied together with red-alerts (when they work), so going into a new mission with 5% hull can end up being a little more fustrating sometimes. There's never really a warning that you should think about conserving ammo or being more careful than normal, but usually the second-parters are shorter. But I guess what's sort of the most jarring thing about the missions is the quantity of enemies that get send after you, and a bunch of rag-tag mercs with civilian quality hardware takes them all on and wins. This comes with the territory of being a retail compatable campaign, since the AI alone can't really give that much challenge alone, like in the Aeos Affair. So I can't fault it that much, but it still leaves a weird taste when I manage to destroy a bunch of prototype and unknown fighters.

So like I said before, what saves some of these repetitive missions from being totally unbareable are our three wingmen's interactions. Watching them go from "happy-go-lucky" to "oh my god, get me out of here now" helps the tension and builds the atmosphere of really being away from home. Alpha 3 is easily panicked and spends a lot of his time freaking out, leaving Beta 1 to try to smack some sense into him. But even Beta 1 begins to break, especially when the Custodian decides to take a seemingly safer but much longer route. And again, Beta 4 sort of plays a straight man between the two, giving us interesting background info that merc pilots probably wouldn't care to know about. But even in the descent into despair, our plucky wingmen try to inject some humour into everything, such as Alpha 3's description of the GTVA Colossal.

Inevitably, as we go into the final act, we meet the Shivans.


Oh don't look so surprised.



Homesick tells two tales. One of survival and persistence. Just how long could the Custodian group have kept on going with all these threats gnawing at them? And the other is with an unstoppable foe that could appear around any corner, how far are you willing to go to protect civilization? With all the heavy handedness the GTVA pulls, could you justify their actions to bring everyone into line, to ensure no cracks form that would lead to the deaths of million. And are these actions symptom of the coming Neo-Terran problem?

Anyway, I can see why some people don't like the ending, and I too wish it would have been... slightly happier. But I guess the message is: The universe is a hostile place.

Oh and inspect your cargo!

So this month we dealt with being on the run from authorities, so let's do the same next month with: Burning Heaven, released just last year!

Fly in battles that helped define the future GTA and GTVA. Fully SCP featured, tons of modded ships and even voice acted!




Last months theme was: Outnumbered. There were some really nice pics this month, but we can only have one winner each month. And that was mjn.mixael and criminally amazing picture!



Hard to believe that the pic is ingame, but it is!

Screencap Scoreboard:
ssmit132 - 1
X3N0-Life-Form - 1
FreeSpaceFreak - 1
mjn.mixael - 1

Next month's theme is: GIANT BEAMS. Show me large beams that made FreeSpace so unique when it was released. And I want to see good quality beams, not just a good quantity of beams!

Be sure to check out the Screencap Script to take great pictures! And I don't want to see any hud in the pictures! NONE!




This month's completely random closing question: what was the first custom mod/campaign you played?

The FreeSpace Port team is proud to announce an updated version of their venerable effort to bring all things FS1 into FS2.  The new release contains a whole host of bugfixes and content updates, and perhaps most notably of all, it also features an optional download of a remixed FS1 soundtrack by Dan Wentz, the original composer of the FS series.  Get it while it's hot!

Hey hey, FreeSpace fans. Happy spring! (or fall for the South Hemisphereians) At least I hope there is some semblance of spring (or fall) where you are! So March has come and gone with some campaign releases and re-releases. And a very important birthday! Yes, FreeSpace 1 was released March 19th, 1998! Fifteen years old, why next year it will be able to drive.

So what went on in this community that's primarily dedicated to this teenager of a game?




So last month I said it was a quiet month for campaigns, well this month had a bit of an update on that.

Shadow Genesis, a 40+ mission campaign has released! Looks like the GTVA is having trouble with renegade groups and Shivans. (Boy, that seems to happen a lot!) So hop in your fighter and defend the GTVA from certain dooooom...!


And a large group of campaigns were re-released in March as well.

BTA re-released Dusk Wars with a re-written story and a slightly re-made warp effect, requiring everyone to re-finish it. Re-bravo!
Andrew of Doom released a new version of Dimensional Eclipse. Featuring fixed missions, difficulty changes and some new and redesigned ships. Maybe I will get around to playing this one day!
And fightermedic throws 6 remastered campaigns at us, Lightning Marshalls 1-4, The Regulus Campaign and Operation: Savior. Aside from the usual things like new backgrounds and nameplates, fightermedic threw in some things seen in Diaspora like cockpits!

To be all meta-like, I'll report on the Fate of the Galaxy newsgrid giving a report on whats going on in a project far, far away. It's got some nice screenshots and even some words!




February 28, 2013, 08:55:40 pm CST, Axem posts March Newsletter. March 01, 2013, 12:46:31 pm CST, SCP releases FreeSpace Open 3.6.18. Really guys? REALLY? So because of that damage scaling bug from 3.6.16, they pushed out a quick official version that fixes it. Now the SCP team is quickly integrating the new pilot code to allow people playing to just use a single pilot all the time. After that, who knows? Maybe... g-e-o---- I'll stop there.

This space reserved for 3.6.20 release news:
I'M WAITING



Meanwhile, in the scripting forum:

Scooby Doo has a fairly comprehensive rotating animation script in an alpha release. If you're feeling brave, check it out. It does stuff like lowering landing gear and... raising landing gear. Well, that is still pretty neat.

BlasterNT posted some ideas about neat scripts he would like to see, and then actually delivers! This is such an unheard thing! He's got a hit indicator so you know when you actually hit stuff, and a reload gauge so you know exactly when you can shoot stuff.

PoDo shows off some neat scripting that lets you display cockpit information on another computer. This is great for people building immersive cockpits. Definitely cool.




No real releases this month, but progress is there!

Okay, well there's this release of the soundtrack to Syrk by ShadowsofLight. Perfect for anyone looking for some new music for their mods. Personally I will not be using it, as there is no disco. It's just a personal thing, I hope you all understand.

When we last left ShadowWolf making the Pharoah, it was untextured and just a single color. But he's taken secret texturing lessons from mjn.mixael and thrown a great coat of paint on his ship. Hope to see is released soon!


BlasterNT shows that, not only can he write lua scripts, but he can do some cool modelling stuff. This stealth bomber has more moving parts than my toaster. But I think it would still burn my precious raison bread. I hope flying that thing will make bombing missions so much easier.


Oddgrim has obviously been sacrificing items to the right god, because oh my FRED, he just keeps turning out amazing things. The Isis? The Bast? The now-finished Orisis? I'm dying of dehydration from all this drool being lost.


Oh and speaking of sexy Vasudan Craft, The_Dagger gives us the GVB Hathor, based off of some of the concept art of FreeSpace 2. I'm starting to think there's more good Vasudan fighters than Terran now!


ScoobyDoo continues being a starship factory with some new fighters and a capital ship! Seriously, what are you guys sacrificing to the god of ship-making?




Secret intelligence division doing secret things for the GTVA... secretly. It's the Titan Rebellion and what I'm about to tell you... is not secret.

Let me just start off this review with saying, the campaign and ensuing things that happen to the player is bananas. I really mean no offense to anyone who enjoyed it or who made it. The story is straight up bananas. But that's okay. The debriefing recommendations on the successful debriefs sort of show a certain self-awareness that's telling the player, "Look, I know this is bananas. You know this is bananas. Let's just have some fun with this bananas story." And I'm okay with this, so just turn off your logic center from your Blue Planet playthrough and enjoy the pleasant variety of missions and 50+ ship killing sprees.

Like the Aeos Affair, this is a campaign from an older era (though there is an updated version by the FSCRP with newer assets and stuff). The tricks we take for granted are not really here, but we still come out with some not-bad-at-all missions. So just to bring you up to speed, you're part of a super secret organization called NeoIntel, that reports only to the GTVA Security Council and no one else knows about you. Not the GTVA, no the SOC and not the GTVI. Well, except for one GTVI admiral aaaand... SPOILERS, he's the main bad guy. So the missions are sort of what you would expect from spec-ops missions. Capture this, stealth recon that, attack this under a false flag. There's a few missions that are kind of stale, just ones that are "defend this motionless object for 5 minutes", but I'll forgive that... for now. Oh and Alpha 1 syndrome is alive and well in this campaign, not that I can blame NeoIntel... I wouldn't trust my wingmen with anything that decides the fate of the GTVA either!


Seriously guys, learn from a master

So there's two missions I'd like to shine a spotlight on. From a consequence in the first mission, your operation has caused a fued between two Vasudan clans to re-erupt (I would hope that the Vasudans were past that stuff by now but hey), so you're sort of flying a GTVA flag to get everyone to just calm down. You do this by disarming everybody and shooting down hostile fighters (acceptable losses!), and even when you've saved the underdog they repay you with "I never needed your help, now I'll finish them off". Geez! Then there's a twist at the end. Anyway, looking at the mission just on a pure gameplay level, its just disable and dogfighting. Hardly unique! But in the way its presented that gives it a special shine to it. People sometimes get stuck in a "I have to make this mission totally unique" mindset, when sometimes the solution is just to present your escort or attack mission a little differently.

The other mission is kind of funny (atleast to me). Excuse me while I drop a campaign I made in but... I thought I was being SO ORIGINAL and CLEVER when I came up with the idea of a massive beam-tag system to kill capital ships. And then I played Titan Rebellion and seen that I was beaten to the punch years before. Bravo. Bravo. So there's definitely a good mix of original ideas that keep you going from a few staler escort missions.


I'm now afraid of being sued for blatantly stealing massive beam-tag systems!

Now I know I said the story is pretty bananas, but I'll give credit for nicely introducing various elements that pay off in later missions. "Oh, this Ganymede is setup like a giant railgun, that'd be cool to see" *Several missions later* "Neat!" "Oh, this renegade Orion isn't using its beams. The debrief says its weird too, something about reworking beams?" *Several missions later* "Aaaah the beams!" So nothing is really unexplained and what does come out of left field is something that gets uncovered later. I can't say if you'll accept those explanations anyway; because if you can't get your head around a secret society of 20,000+ people breaking any law to protect the GTVA from foreign and domestic threats in their eyes, this campaign may not be for you...

A campaign should be judged on what it tries to be versus what it is. With a wild attitude and a weird sense of logic, the Titan Rebellion shows its just here to have some fun missions with some fun ships. It doesn't ask to be taken seriously or demand you think about a gripping story, it just asks you to have some plain old fun.

So I'd recommend its a play if you can just roll with some asburdities.


Plus you get shiny medals. Wait...hold on here! I didn't anything! I take back everything I said, this campaign is AWFUL!

Next month we're going to- er- we're going to- Um, I'm sorry. I'm not feeling great, I guess I'm just a little...

HOMESICK.

Yes, Homesick! It was highly acclaimed back in the day, but that was back in the day. It broke barriers and introduced this whole "lets talk for minutes about THINGS instead of shootings". Now it might be a little tricky to get working, there's always tales of red-alert problems and whatnot, but we're going to give it our best. Worse comes to worse, ctrl+shift+s all the way!




Last's month theme was vasudans! And apparently no one likes them! Poor guys. First they get their homeworld glassed over, then they're almost ignored in a screencap contest. Luckily there were still some very nice pics.

FreeSpaceFreak gives us the winning pic for the month, with a gorgeous shot of a Hatshepsut. The station in the background kind of makes the destroyer look like its got some extra appendanges, but the lighting on that shot is just great.



Screencap Scoreboard:
ssmit132 - 1
X3N0-Life-Form - 1
FreeSpaceFreak - 1

For next month, our theme will be: Outnumbered. Give me a sense of dread, show me a lost cause that will still go down in history!




What is WITH all these rebellions and renegade groups in campaigns? FreeSpace 1 had the Hammer of Light, Silent Threat had the GTI, FreeSpace 2 had the Neo-Terran Front, it seems like its super easy to get thousands of people on your side at a moments notice. That's it, I can't take it anymore. I'm splitting off into the People's Front of Neo-Terra! Who's with me?!

Due to the damage scaling bug in 3.6.16, we've released 3.6.18 before merging in the new pilot code.  This build should be a bit more sane.  Go save the universe Alpha 1!