[An4ximandros]

Assassin's Creed did NOT touch BP in any way whatsoever, all the so called ASS references are to the book which, get this, INSPIRED Assassin's Creed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamut_(1938_novel)

Read that book, It is awesome.

 Heads up, there are other references to Books in BP, such as the name Solaris: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)

[General Battuta]

You guys are doing FANTASTIC work with this one.  Your storytelling is getting better (I hated AoA's plot, liked WiH, loved the gameplay of both), and you did a masterful job of helping me get totally immersed and suspend disbelief.

However, in the first mission briefing, you made blatant reference ("Nothing is true, everything is permitted") to another video game series. 

I can tell that Assassin's Creed heavily influenced this latest chapter, but actually using THE Assassins' Creed as the creed of the Fedayeen was not a good move.  Come up with your own knockoff maxim for the Fedayeen, paraphrase it, alter it, or even remove it -- but your story is strong enough that it can and SHOULD stand on its own just fine without quoting other games verbatim.  If you do, the spell of immersion is broken -- I go from being IN the experience, to THINKING ABOUT the experience.  Which is a damn shame because you did so good to immerse me otherwise, making reading that all the more jarring.

Please don't do that again.

What an ironic post - complaining about a video game knocking off a quote from another video game, without realizing that video game was referencing a quote from history.

Please don't do that again. 

Assassin's Creed did NOT touch BP in any way whatsoever, all the so called ASS references are to the book which, get this, INSPIRED Assassin's Creed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamut_(1938_novel)

Read that book, It is awesome.

 Heads up, there are other references to Books in BP, such as the name Solaris: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(novel)

Nietzsche predates Alamut I'm pretty sure, as do other sources.

[Gregster2k]

Oops.

I'll definitely give those books a look.

On the other hand, the use of Deus Ex: HR's theme (Icarus) was also jarring to me (albeit not as much as the quote).  I have that song associated pretty heavily with Deus Ex, not FreeSpace.  That being said, I got over it and enjoyed the mission anyway, there was that initial bump though.

[Luis Dias]

Greg, you are not alone about that "initial bump" on the Icarus theme.

[-Norbert-]

Still I think it's better to have a great track that fits the situation even if it reminds me of something else initially, rather than a track that either isn't great or doesn't fit.
There is just so much that Bellisarius and Darius can compose and/or remix by themselfs in their free time.

[cio]

Nietzsche predates Alamut I'm pretty sure, as do other sources.

Nietzsche borrowed that from Dostoyevsky. "If there is no god, then everything is permitted" or something similar can be found in The Brothers Karamazov, a great read by the way.


Speaking of inspirations for WiH, the chanting of the Vishnans in the last mission of act 3 reminds me somehow of "Daphnis et Chloé" by Maurice Ravel.
And one of the paintings you glimpse when you die looks very much like Hieronymus Bosch's work, Ascension to heaven, I think the painting was.

[Luis Dias]

Nietzsche predates Alamut I'm pretty sure, as do other sources.

Nietzsche borrowed that from Dostoyevsky. "If there is no god, then everything is permitted" or something similar can be found in The Brothers Karamazov, a great read by the way.

This is just untrue. Nietzsche came up with that aphorism while describing the "secret motto" of the 12th century group of assassins, leadered by Hassan-i Sabbah. This group is, obviously, the primary source of inspiration for the game "Assassin's Creed". The quote is historical, but you got the references wrong.

Dostoievsky used a variant of this nihilistic theme to describe what would happen "without god", ironically an aphorism voiced by the criminal one  Dmitri (while Ivan being the atheist, who apparently didn't fall down to become a criminal).

[coupster103]

Ugh everyone's posting about how badass WiH act 3 is and mine just crashes and says ''antipodes has stopped working'' as soon as i try to launch it.....help please?

[QuakeIV]

Ugh everyone's posting about how badass WiH act 3 is and mine just crashes and says ''antipodes has stopped working'' as soon as i try to launch it.....help please?

Check the compatibility thread perhaps, I'm pretty sure it has a fix for that.  (its stickied)

[ssmit132]

Well, I just finished WiH Act 3.

Holy crap, what did I just play!

I'm in awe of the things that you guys did with this game; I mean, all of these missions with all sorts of fancy tactical elements - I'd heard about how innovative it was from some of the other posts here, but it was certainly a lot of unexpected things in here for me. And I had a lot of fun with it, too, despite some things (the sneaking around stuff especially) not really being my favourite thing to do.

Spoiler:

Her Finest Hour and Eye of the Storm were particular highlights for me - I remember feeling incredibly tense as the Carthage prepared to depart as I was worried I wasn't going to disable it in time, but I did and it felt so good to be victorious! And in the latter mission, trying to get the tanks down before the Ignatius had to pull out, worring about where the stealth fighters were, all while massive warheads fell from the sky - absolutely beautiful.

And, well, consider me rather rattled after Universal Truth. I don't think I've ever experienced anything quite like that before. It was unsettiling to see how old and alien the Shivans and Vishnans are supposed to be. All these weird words they spouted that I'd never heard of before, while they were discussing their plans for humanity... Never mind being told to RUN AWAY from things and to not turn around... I don't often get scared by fictional things, but that certainly freaked me out at least a little.

I really don't know what you will throw at us after this, but I'm sure it will be as brilliant, if not more so, as this part of the story.

[EAD_Agamemnon]

Hmm...is A3 really A2 (as per the campaign list with A1 being the one where you fly a frigate)?
In other news...I've yet to complete Act 2 but find it a strangely immersing campaign...that I feel needs commenting upon RIGHT NOW!

I used to love RTS games...and some SIM games of which FS was my favorite while other Descents were also fun. In recent years I much prefer RPG, ESPECIALLY ones with some kind of story, of which BP certainly seems to have. Its great to be flying as something more than the "Death Incarnate Alpha 1" and instead as named character...male or otherwise...that tries to do their part and what extra they can.

BP in my opinion is one of those mods that seems to bring the smaller picture into perspective as just a part of the big one. IE Imagine FS1 as you're just another pilot (albeit impressive one) that finds their(self) faced with the prospect of the grinding TV War only to be faced by the arrival of the Shivan threat and the all-consuming need to defend against them at any cost to themselves. PARTICULARLY the last mission where its easy to see "Alpha 1" being the fatalistically selfless sort. Then there is FS2...a pilot haunted by what they know was lost...and terrified by what could be after seeing the return of the Shivans as well as being awed by the demonstration of their ability and power at Capella. (Needless to say I'd be both of those under those circumstances).

I could go on describing but it wouldn't do it justice. I'm afraid the aspiring author streak in me has a tendency to find the limits of the written word...despairingly lacking at times. What it all comes across as is that feeling you get when reading a really good book...and getting asked to summarize it to someone that's never read a book in their life...or simply doesn't understand very well. Makes descriptions rather clumsy.

I look forward to seeing BP through to its end as it like very few other SCP mods...seems every bit as worthy a concept for the nigh taboo title of FreeSpace 3 as any might come. The choice of music...perfect theme and mood setting!

[Luis Dias]

Hmm...is A3 really A2 (as per the campaign list with A1 being the one where you fly a frigate)?

BP is divided into:

BP 1 : Age of Aquarius

BP 2 : War in Heaven

BP 3 : (Don't recall).


BP2 has been further divided into five acts, and released in the following timelines:

BP2 WiH Act 1 and 2 -> First War in Heaven release, in 2010;
BP2 WiH Act 3 (Tenebra) -> Second War in Heaven release, in 2013 (current)
BP2 Wih Act 4 and 5 - > Yet to be released

What it all comes across as is that feeling you get when reading a really good book...and getting asked to summarize it to someone that's never read a book in their life...or simply doesn't understand very well. Makes descriptions rather clumsy.

Try it though. I'm one of the school of thought that the only reason someone can't summarize something into a very short take is because he doesn't understand it as well as he thinks. I'm not trashing here, I don't think I'm able to do it too!

What I like most about War in Heaven is that it is the first very hard sci fi game that really takes its premises seriously and to its full extent, creating almost a new secular mythology on the likes of 2001 and so on (the inclusion of "Requiem" at the right moment really made my own day, as you can tell).

[EAD_Agamemnon]

Just finished A2 (or whatever it should be called) and got rescued from being cooked to death by Sol....and DUH-AMN! This is a great piece of work so far!

Also...regarding the inablity to summarize properly. I've NEVER been good at explanations.

EDIT: DOH! Seems like 2 parts were directly linked in the listing in the campaign room for Act 1. As soon as WiH part 1 ended it immediately cut to part 2. I fired up Part 3 (as per the listing in campaigns) and the cinematic in it continued from where I'd just left off from being rescued at Sol. Somehow I think something got typoed....oh well. Since I've not yet reached that point where I'm being told NOT to turn around to see whats behind me...I'm not done with whats been released yet.

[General Battuta]

EDIT: DOH! Seems like 2 parts were directly linked in the listing in the campaign room for Act 1. As soon as WiH part 1 ended it immediately cut to part 2. I fired up Part 3 (as per the listing in campaigns) and the cinematic in it continued from where I'd just left off from being rescued at Sol. Somehow I think something got typoed....oh well. Since I've not yet reached that point where I'm being told NOT to turn around to see whats behind me...I'm not done with whats been released yet.

What? Sunglare was the end of Act 2, you just started Act 3. The first campaign you played is Act 1 and Act 2.

[EAD_Agamemnon]

Well however the numbering system of the order works...
I'm now at the "do not turn around" part....trying to run...to run....to run................and have not yet succeeded in outrunning IT!

[An4ximandros]

Shunt all power to engines and BOOST FOR YER MIND! RUN RUN RUN! What Diff you playing at?

[EAD_Agamemnon]

Um....I've been going casual on Easy...
I'm told to head for the light...yet I couldn't see any anywhere. Am I to run in the direction I face on arrival in the Abyss? IE dont touch pitch/yaw...just floor it?

OR Could it be because I got a few errors before mission start? One of them is

Couldn't load animation/bitmap 'debris04'

ntdll.dll! ZwWaitForSingleObject + 21 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 67 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>

The rest are also for debris02 & 03.

[Klaustrophobia]

the light is a tiny pinprick a little off center to the left.  i've never NOT been able to outrun it. i mean, it always kinda... pushes me the last little bit....

[General Battuta]

Um....I've been going casual on Easy...
I'm told to head for the light...yet I couldn't see any anywhere. Am I to run in the direction I face on arrival in the Abyss? IE dont touch pitch/yaw...just floor it?

OR Could it be because I got a few errors before mission start? One of them is

Couldn't load animation/bitmap 'debris04'

ntdll.dll! ZwWaitForSingleObject + 21 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObjectEx + 67 bytes
kernel32.dll! WaitForSingleObject + 18 bytes
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>
fs2_open_3_6_17_SSE2_BP.exe! <no symbol>

The rest are also for debris02 & 03.

Could you post your debug log, please?

[EAD_Agamemnon]

I'll have to re-run the mission then with the debug build then (tomorrow). Managed to finally survive it though...and I certainly hope to see Blue Planet's conclusion. This mod is not simply a mod...but an entire saga unto itself it seems.

BAH! Time I went o bed already....I shoulda went to bed almost an hour ago (as of this post) but didn't want to leave the last mission half-finished.