Okay, so it's been a weekend and I should probably respond.
Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone!
Also, I have to admit to being a little disappointed with the decision to give the Shivans FS2 ships and weapons, and a little more disappointed with the decision to give the Vasudans extra weapons as well - flak and railgun type projectiles that I've encountered so far. I know that the FS1 canon weapons are a little limiting, but still, I found myself wishing it'd stuck to canon. I recognise that it's a stylistic choice - I guess I just would have made a different one. Others will disagree with me there - this exact sort of thing was suggested by Fury some time back, and IIRC received some degree of support - just not from me.
Both you and Luis Dias have a fair point here. In some ways this was a tricky choice to make - I'm both using and drawing upon Freespace as a text to add weight to my writing, but also subverting and ignoring it when it suits my purposes. In my defence, canonically the invasion and destruction of Vasuda takes... what, a few days? Bem Cavalgar is intended to take place over a much longer time than that (I imagine at least a month, which is the length of the entire Freespace 1 campaign) so some subversion was inevitable.
However, it was also a deliberate act on my part to try to divorce the player from notions of 'canon' and promote subtextual readings of the campaign. Petty crusade on my part, I know.
Also, some of the fiction seems a little... odd. Hard to put into the context of the storyline. Although again, that's style, and I might just be missing something that will be obvious to others.
Similarly, some of the fiction has only a non-diegetic relationship to the campaign in an effort to force the player to think thematically about Bem Cavalgar. I can elaborate on what (I perceive) the core themes of Bem Cavalgar are in a later post, if anyone wants.
But, I should emphasise, the good here far, far outweighs the bad!
I'm glad the choice mechanic worked. Goober's right when he said his credit is a reference to his FreespaceLancer proof-of-concept, and I know a couple of campaigns have already made use of non-linear campaign structures to good effect. I think there's some work to be done with the variables - some parts seem a little weak to me in their delivery.
For the record, the strategic map concept works like this:
I wanted Bem Cavalgar to have a certain 'boardgame' feel, and this is strongest felt in the strategic map, which plays a little bit like a single-player/co-op boardgame.
Each mission is a 'turn'. The strategic variables all increase or decrease each time you visit the strategic map.
'Time' controls what missions are available on a given turn. 0-10000 is turn 1, 10000-20000 is turn 2, etc. Time increase by 10000 each turn, minus the Power and Projection values of the Shivans that you killed/objectives you accomplished in the previous mission. Projection has a slightly larger affect on Time than Power (120% v. 80%).
Shivan Armada strength is the sum of Power and Projection, which start out at around 90000. Again, the Power and Projection gains you make in each mission are taken away from these values, so they slowly decrease over the course of the campaign.
The civilian statistics are essentially the 'points' of the campaign. Civilian ships that are evacuated in missions increase the Civilians Rescued value. Ships that die or would appear in missions that aren't taken go to the Civilians Killed value. Additionally, the Civilians Killed value increases each turn by an amount equal to 80% of Shivan Projection and 120% of Shivan Power.
There's also a 'Multiplier' value that increases when you do civilian missions and decreases when you do other missions. This multiplier increases how many civilians get saved each turn.
The PVN Navy Strength value is another, more general-purpose multiplier that reduces the amount Time increases, reduces the number of civilians killed and increases the number of civilians saved each turn by a very low amount.
Effectively, missions that target Shivan assets give the player more turns on the map and reduce the civilians killed each turn. Missions that rescue civilian refugees increase the number of civilians saved and let the player feel good about themselves morally. More tweaking probably needs to be done to get the balance right, though - some of which will come through more mission types, e.g. assisting the Navy, supply runs etc.
The missions themselves feel a little simplistic if you're expecting something like a VD or WiH level of complexity - there aren't many gimmicks or FREDding tricks beyond the big one in the mission selection stuff - but they're rock solid, bug free (as far as I can tell), well laid ourt, aesthetically satisfying, and most importantly they're fun - and they'll keep you coming back. If you're planning on re-releasing or iterative development then I do have some specific suggestions regarding individual missions, but I think I'll save them until I've 100% finished - but before I can do that I need to figure out how to kill this Demon!
Some of this is probably just my fundamental style, but some of it was also a deliberate choice - there's definitely a few missions where I just dump the player in a situation and say "Okay, go," like Black May and Celebrating Jutland. In the past I've done lots of scripted missions where the player gets carried through on the writing, so I wanted to limit myself in a sense and create something where the emphasis is almost entirely on the ships, the combat and the tactical decisions. Also, due to the strategic aspect, it would be a bit of a betrayal of the player if I changed the expected situation - anything fancy would need to be telegraphed clearly on the strategic map, and to be honest I don't think I explained how the map itself really works at all, let alone any more interesting missions.
I would definitely like to hear specific mission feedback.
So, yeah, in summary - although there are a few stylistic decisions I would have made differently, that takes nothing away from a unique, well FREDded remarkable first effort. Top marks!
Well, this is awkward. I didn't really think this through, it seems, but I've been outed on another board so what the hell.
I'm Blaise Russel.