Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Cyborg17 on July 12, 2018, 04:02:31 am
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Played Campaigns in (Approximate) Chronological Order
Ancients Era
Ancient-Shivan War (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871307#msg1871307)
Pre-Great War Era
Cardinal Spear (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871039#msg1871039)
Cardinal Spear: Vega (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871039#msg1871039)
Great War Era
Descent: Freespace the Great War (with FSPort and MediaVPS) (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1870867#msg1870867)
Trimuriti (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1870587#msg1870587)
Bem Cavalgar (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871442#msg1871442)
Tango (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871019#msg1871019)
Operation Templar (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871019#msg1871019)
Reconstruction Era
Eagle Takes Flight (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871019#msg1871019)
Destiny of Peace (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94893.msg1871019#msg1871019)
Second Incursion Era
*Coming Soon*
Post Capella Era
*Coming Soon*
So, in honor of Knossos and the simplicty of using it, I am going to try to play the available campaigns in a semi-chronological order. And say a few things about each on here, like why is this campaign unique, what there is to like, what to be aware of, etc.
I am not going to use spoiler tags, and neither should you! I will keep spoilers light, but there will be some at least. And I'm not going to limit spoilers from anyone else. If you want to add any comments about any of the campaigns, feel free I will link to them as well. If credits are included in the campaign, I'll try to include them, too, if time permits.
Campaign length, 1-5 missions is short, 6-15 is medium, 16-30 is long. 30+ is very long.
Hit list: Cardinal Spear
Frontlines 2334
Ancient-Shivan War
Ross 128
Rain on Ribos 4
Hellgate:Ikeya
Light of Antares
Any other FS1 style campaigns that still work.
Between the Ashes
FS2 main
Lightning Marshall,
Further FS2 goodness.
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Trimurti
Chronology: Great War
Quick impressions: Alien, Nostalgic, Polished, Mysterious, Deep, Inscrutable
Short Description: This brilliant campaign is a journey through the highlights of Freespace 1 through the eyes of the helter skelter shivans. Always wondered what it was like to play the destroyer? Well, this is the campaign for you.
The good: The real strength of this campaign is its atmosphere. Messages are scrambled both visually and audially, and you have to infer the general plan and objectives of the mission from the briefing, which is also in indecipherable shivan. But even more than that, you hear the messages of the poor sods you are taking down. I finished the campaign wanting more.
The meh: it's still a newer campaign and it hasn't been around long enough to iron out all the bugs and spelling mistakes.
The bad? The lack of more concrete instructions can be confusing, and although it didn't bother me much, if you're that time of player, keep it in mind before you start.
What else: If you hate feeling guilty, you may not want to play this campaign. The shivans do some eeeeeevil things.
Weapons are more unweildy than their Terran counterparts, but still usable and thankfully not what they would be if you were using retail. I was able to play though on Medium without too much trouble.
Finally, keep on the lookout for the spoons. I played through the whole campaign never knowing that they were even there.
Campaign length:Medium
Credits:
Author: Asteroth
The Scroll of Atankharzim team for the Vasuda Skybox
HerraTohtori for the Earth skybox
PVD_Hope for Dark, Ambient 0.1 (the mainhall music)
PIe and JSRNerdo for playtesting
Axem for a useful script to swap ship classes while preserving weapons
Esarai for the Skjoldr
The Blue Planet team for some sound effects, music, the Orion refit and cosmology
Release Thread (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=94689.0)
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Wait grammar mistakes
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If you're doing them in chronological order you should start with Ancient-Shivan War.
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Wait grammar mistakes
I should really have said spelling. Caught it because of microsoft sam sounding weird in-mission. I'm going to send him some direct feedback soon.
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Freespace: The Great War (via FSPort and FSPort MediaVPs)
Chronology: Great War
Quick impressions: Atmospheric, unpolished
Short Description: Freespace: The Great War is the story that started them all. The xenocidal Shivans are coming for Earth!
The good: Atmosphere is the strength of the first game. While both FS1 and FS2 give you the overwhelming sense that you cannot win, FS1 (IMO) is the game that makes the Shivans feel more alien and mysterious at a basic level. The music is eerier than in the sequel as well.
The meh: Not as exciting to play as Freespace 2 era campaigns. There are inconsistencies throughout the Command Briefing animations, and in other in-game text. Don't trust the things you hear and read.
The bad: There are quite a few missions that feel rushed in and unpolished. One or two even lack messages that tell the player that they can leave. Some can be quite difficult on medium or above without really needing to be and other missions will be way too easy.
What else: No beams! Also, to get all medals, there are at least two missions where you need to play on at least medium and do extremely well.
Campaign length: Long
Credits:
Voilition
FSU team
FSPort team
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You should do BTA next.
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I would recommend at some point doing "Destiny Of Peace".
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If you will play Rain On Ribos 4, Hellgate: Ikeya, or Light of Antares soon, drop me a line and I'll get you the updated versions (yet unreleased)
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You're forgetting "Silent Threat: Reborn".
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You should do BTA next.
I would recommend at some point doing "Destiny Of Peace".
You're forgetting "Silent Threat: Reborn".
Well, I'd guess Cyborg17 knows these campaigns and can decide on his own what to write about next. :D
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Yeah, this is a long term project, and I want to get to everything you're talking about. My plan was to do Frontlines, but I still can't get it to work on knossos. Is anyone else able to get it working?
It would make sense to do Silent Threat: Reborn, yes, but there's lots of other stuff, too. I think I'll do random custom included FS1 campaigns until I can get Frontlines to work. So Orph3u5, that sounds great.
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Post for Operation Templar, Destiny of Peace, Tango, and Eagle Takes Flight
Operation Templar (FSPort version)
Chronology: Great War
Quick impressions: Action-Oriented
Short Description: Operation Templar is a campaign made by Volition. It's the real reason to get the Silent Threat expansion pack. Further polish and balancing by the FSPort team makes it a pretty enjoyable play.
The good: The campaign doesn't stop delivering on what it does well, action. It also gives you a lot of latitude on how to complete your objectives. FS2 Command voiced all the command messages for these missions. The cruiser in the last level actually has an impact in the last mission.
The meh: Thoth Spam and Prometheus-R. A freighter shows up in the last mission that seems to have a guardian threshold of 9%, but destroying it would be completely possible. I was too lazy to look at the mission events to see what was really going on.
The bad: The missions repeat the "keep the fighters off the bombers while they finish off the destroyer" gameplay.
What else: You will not fail for losing allied cruisers, but if you're like me, the mission ain't done till they're safe.
Campaign length: Short
Credits: Volition
FSPort team
Destiny of Peace
Chronology: Reconstruction Era
Quick impressions: Big, a little macabre.
Short Description: A campaign about the resettlement and colonization of new systems just after the Great War.
The good: Varied mission structure, and a sense of scale.
The meh: Lots of gratuitous death and war. Not very challenging.
The bad: Feels like a fanfic sometimes. Some implausible events.
What else: If you hate Vasudans, you'll like this campaign.....
Campaign length: Medium
Credits: Justin Mills
Tango
Chronology: Great War (Concurrent)
Quick impressions: Inventive, long
Short Description: This campaign is somewhat unique in that its setting is one sector of space, the eponymous Tango sector.
The good: It's unique and well-Freded for the time.
The meh: First mission is more than 20 minutes long. The campaign is pretty likely to have been balanced on Easy or Very Easy.
The bad: This is the first campaign to make me mad at the mission designer since starting this. First and third mission have gratuitous asteroids being thrown at ships you are supposed to protect. Imagine the original FS1 mission that did it, but 10x worse and while you're fighting multiple waves of fighters.
What else: Second mission has some world-building which is interesting, but Red-Alert into third mission is unnecessary. Third mission is a little buggy.
Campaign length: Short
Credits: Julian Egelstaff
Eagle Takes Flight
Chronology: Reconstruction
Quick impressions: RPG-like, polished.
Short Description: Build up your own business as you take on pirates and shivans!
The good: You feel like you are really building a mercenary company. Missions are challenging enough without being crazy. Pirates that act like pirates and actually run away!
The meh: Campaign could have been longer. Your firepower ramps up very quickly in mission 3 and 4, and I'm sure the author had plenty of other ideas when creating the story line. This is understandable though, since this is Freespace and modding in Freespace takes forever.
The bad: Some of the writing feels like it was written by a pre-teen.
What else: If modding gets any easier in the future, the way the ships were customized in this campaign feels like how a Freespace RPG should be. Finishing it, I wanted more missions and more choice in what weapons/systems we upgraded.
Campaign length: Short
Credits: Robert Carroll
Frontlines is fixed on Knossos and is next on the list. :D
Is there any information that I should add to the write-ups? Also, if anyone disagrees with anything I say, I welcome corrections and push back.
Any requests from this list? Mobius' List of Updated Campaigns (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=58358.0)
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Cardinal Spear would go with all of the campaigns in your last post in terms of the time it was made (c. 1998!) You might want to try that one before a modern mod like Frontlines.
I like the small reviews...
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I was going to recommend Cardinal Spear but then I saw you already had it (it also has a sequel CS: Vega) so a "Reconstruction" campaign I'd like to recommend would be "Shrouding The Light: Origins" and its main campaign "Shrouding The Light".
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I don't think I've ever seen the sequel before. You wouldn't happen to know where to find it?
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The mod adds two campaigns - CS and CS: Vega, IIRC.
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And there it was. I actually have played it before, and I think I just didn't remember switching between the two campaigns. :nervous:
They were a quick play at only 4 missions each.
Cardinal Spear & Cardinal Spear: Vega
Chronology: Pre-Great War
Quick impressions: Primitive, Structured
Short Description: Cardinal Spear is perhaps the best known pre-FS1 campaign around. It has been updated by the FSCRP and has a lot of strengths.
The good: Well-structured, well-tested, very polished. Not too short, not too long. The campaigns are really meant to be played together and work together well. The author also got really creative with their custom weapons. They are primitive, but also fun.
The meh: You have to keep shock waves in mind since you have no shields. The command briefing voice actor is little low, so you may have to boost the voice volume.
The bad: The last mission feels like it was designed so that you, yourself, would feel like a hero, which takes you out of the Freespace flow a little, since Fresspace is really about the squadron.
What else: This campaign features fleet sensible FS1 fleet combat, a rarity. It also has an ensemble cast from the hard-light community as voice actors. Finally, the skyboxes were created by Herra Tohtori, who is our resident astronomer, and they look wonderful -- and accurate.
Campaign length: Medium
Credits: Adam "Ace" Rorabaugh
High Poly Planets / High Rez Planet Textures: Herra Tohtori
New Suns: m2258734a
Hard Light Voice Actors:
freespacegundam
Darkblade
Killfrenzy
sphynx
azrael15
Getter Robo G
neoterran
Ransom Arceihn
Goober5000
Mongoose
Admiral Nelson
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Frontlines 2334 (and 2335)
Chronology: Pre-Great War
Quick impressions: Complex, challenging,
Short Description: Frontlines 2334 is a mod which aims to flesh out the vague Terran-Vasudan war. It showcases new models and weapons, and even has some fancy scripted elements.
The good: You can feel the hard work that went into this campaign. About a third of the campaign is made of missions with tiered outcomes, which are impeccably balanced. Getting a perfect score on those really feels like an accomplishment.
The meh: As a Pre-Great War pilot, you are stuck without shields and shockwaves are deadly. You may get discouraged if you try to get the perfect result from any of the tiered missions. I could not do it (without cheating) for missions 3 and 10. This campaign is probably best for veteran pilots.
The bad: Even with all the hard work, mission 3 had a few bugs for players who do well. The testers probably didn't want to go insane testing all its possible outcomes.
What else: Frontlines 2235 is a extended tutorial for those new to pre-shield combat. (And the kill-counter will inflate your ego - Nice touch!) This mod works very well as a completment to FSPort MediaVPs. The custom weapons feel reasonably powerful, and the custom models are high quality. It has the potential to birth many other mods from the same timeline.
Campaign length: Medium
Credits:
Matthew "Black Wolf" Weber
Joshua "Lepanto" Nelson.
Lorric
fightermedic
Admiral Nelson
mjn.mixael
Frontlines 2334 FREDding by Black Wolf and Lepanto
Frontlines 2335 FREDding by Black Wolf. Lorric and Lepanto
Beta Testing by Lorric, Lepanto, fightermedic and Admiral Nelson
Command Brief Animations by mjn.mixael
Head animations by Black Wolf
Turret hotkey script by m!m
All custom models by Black Wolf except:
GTG Brominos (TVWP Team)
PVG Oasis (TVWP Team)
GTB Mars (Original ship GTB Rhea by Col. Fishguts)
Wind.wav recorded by Mark DiAngelo, available from soundbible.com
Mars Skybox by the BP team
brightbluebox skybox by Axem
Other skyboxed by Black Wolf
Music:
AC4 OST - Mr. Adam
My Little Pony Fan Music - Lunar Republic Metal Cover - Freedom's Warcry: Arkane
AC4A OST - Today
AC4A OST - Water Down
Special Thanks to:
m!m
Vasudan Admiral
The FS Port team
The SCP and Media VPs teams
Release thread:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87519.0
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In addition to "Shrouding The Light", which I mentioned earlier, another campaign I'd like to recommend for now would be "The Lightning Marshal". It takes place at the beginning of the NTF war... relatively shortly before the main FS2 campaign. If you want 'normal' FS2 physics for it, make sure you get the more recent FSCRP version.
BTW, I'll try to stick to one campaign recommendation per week to make sure your to-do list doesn't get too big.
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I like this thread. :)
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Ancient-Shivan War
Chronology: Ancients
Quick impressions: Stylized, atmospheric, primitive
Short Description: This campaign is the first two parts of the story of how the Ancients fell to the Shivans.
The good: The writing style of the campaign has a lot of unity and works well to create a culture for them. You more or less feel like you are actually being spoken to by the Ancients. It also references to the Ancients Monologues from FS1. The campaign also shows a lot of polish, including command briefing animations and solid sound design.
The meh: The Ancients don't adapt to the shivan's technology, and so you never get shielding, but they handled shockwaves pretty well (by getting rid of most of them). Most of the weapons will deplete your energy stores pretty quickly, so you have to plan around that. The story was never completed, as well, and you will not have any real moments of triumph. At some point, hopefully someone will complete Acts 3-5.
The bad: The story is somewhat rushed, unfortunately. To have a few more missions to flesh out the stories would have been perfect. If this is my biggest complaint you're doing well, and is more just a consequence of Freespace modding. Le sigh.
What else: Some missions can be difficult at higher levels. The modpack is rather complete, though. You can make a lot of different missions with what they created. Yes, it would be nice to have nicer looking Ancients ships with less tile mapping, but it's better to actually have them and be able to use them. Well done.
Campaign length: Long
Credits:
FSF - Team leader, jack-of-all-trades
Droid803 - FREDding, model converting, general modding
ShadowGorrath - Ex-team leader, effects, general modding
Starwolf1991 - FREDding, effects, general modding
Stormkeeper - FREDding, website works
FreeSpaceKing - Texturing
Tantalus53 - FREDding
Bigchunk1 - FREDding
Esarai - Modelling
Former team members:
Snail - Original tech descriptions
Maelstrom0511 - FREDding
Mobius - Testing
Special thanks to:
Hunter - Providing a space for ASW to exist: this website, our forum, and all the FTP space we ever needed
Aldo - The Achladia, Odigitria, Vassago and Kythera concepts, as well as the Tylisos model
The Shadow Genesis team - Super Cannon effects
The Blue Planet team - Bugfixing the Akrotiri
The Inferno team - Exclusive Ancient models
Flaming_Sword - Effects, interface templates
Alex Navarro - Gathering sound effects
Nighteyes - Explosion effects
Freeplaymusic.com - Music
Earth Defense - More music
Blackhole - Even more music
Ryan Main - Intro cutscene music
Release Thread: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=82887.0
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Bem Cavalgar
Chronology: Great War
Quick impressions: Desperate, difficult, polished
Short Description: Probably the most difficult campaign out there. This is a campaign about defending the Vasuda system as the Lucifer attacks.
The good: A lot of work went into it. There is a map mission where you can pick between two different types of missions. Enemies feel challenging and objectives worthwhile. The intro cutscene is pretty amazing. The ease with which your allies and civilians are wiped off the radar makes it feel like the end of the world.
The meh: Weapons don't feel powerful anymore. Avengers especially are just not worth it. This campaign literally forced me to use the flail for the first time in more than 10 years. The author provided ways to get more powerful weaponry for you and your wing men, take those opportunities when possible.
The bad: Trying to do well on medium (which I am trying to play all these campaigns on) feels like fighting a heavyweight boxer. All the things that you've tricked the ai with in the past you are now suddenly on the receiving end of. Basilisks, for the first time, are ridiculously overpowered. And at the end of the campaign, you don't feel as rewarded as is warranted from the effort you put into the campaign. Even some sort of, "You saved _____ lives." would have been nice, honestly.
What else: The author decided that the shivans in the original Freespace are truly under-powered. Here they will have beams, strong primary and secondary weaponry. It can be jarring, but I like the decision. It makes more sense in the long run. A few tips: you need to micro-manage your wing men.
Campaign length: Medium (Branching Campaign)
Credits:
Blaise Russel
Freespace Port - all Freespace 1 content
Freespace Upgrade Project - strategic map ships based on their models
Black Wolf - Abydos installation
Trashman - Vasudan corvette
Blue Planet - fonts
Ben Prunty - Faster Than Light music (Federation and Last Stand)
Admiral Nelson - Patch to version 1.1
FreespaceFreak - Vasuda Prime bitmap
This campaign owes additional debts to:
Blue Planet
Goober5000
Ransom Arceihn
Release Thread (https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=85128.0)
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Silent Threat: Reborn
Chronology: Great War
Quick impressions: Impressive, needed, fun
Short Description: ST:R is a re-imagining of the GTI rebellion, told in a way that fills in the holes left by the original, with an impressive addition of missions.
The good: Varied mission structure, voice acting, well-balanced, fun, sensible pirates, and more! A certain mission where you have to protect a trio of science cruisers is probably the best single addition to the fanon that Hard-light has put forward, IMO.
The meh: The mission where a demon gets emp'ed doesn't make sense. Why not do this all the time, GTVA???
The bad: Very little to complain about. If I had to nitpick about something, it would be that all the built-in messages had to get rewritten for the voice acting. It was a little weird. Necessary but weird.
What else: This is a no-brainer campaign, a must play. Why are you still here? Go!
Campaign length: Long
Credits:
Core Staff:
Galemp - Project Co-Leader, FREDder, Story Writer, Render Artist, Vasudan Voice Mixer, Cutscene Artist, Quality Assurance
Goober5000 - Project Co-Leader, FREDder, Story Writer, Programmer, Voice Manager, Promotional Manager, Quality Assurance
Admiral Nelson - Background Manager, Beta Tester
Tolwyn - Voice Post-Producer
Associate Staff:
Ace - Promotional Artist
Blaise Russel - Pinch FREDder
chief1983 - Promotional Artist
Dan Wentz - Outro cutscene music and sound
kv1at3485 - Beta Tester
mjn.mixael - Cutscene Artist
NGTM-1R - Beta Tester
Ransom Arceihn - Promotional Artist
Sesquipedalian - Interface Artist
Spicious - Model Editor
Steven Trauger - Promotional Artist
Tom Fetterolf - Logo Design
Vasudan Admiral - Cutscene Artist
Voice Talent - Voice123:
Robert Bair - Einstein Escape 1, Kappa 1 (str05), Minelayer 1
Pat Caporuscio - Lambda 2 (str06), Lambda 1 (str13)
James L. Collymore - Admiral Glaive
Dave DeAndrea - Vasudan Translator
Matt Forrest - GTC Adamant, GTSC Moreau bridge officer
September Day Leach - GTI Holonet Monitor (Phoenix)
Kevin Lowney - Talus Particle Accelerator, GTSC Ratna
Dina Monaco-Boland - GTC Challenger, Lambda 1 (str05)
Brian Peck - Einstein Escape 2, Lambda 1 (str06), Lambda 2 (str13), Alpha 1
Sarah Pesek - Captain Larson (Phoenix)
Kevin Renshaw - GTSC Moreau lab officer, GTC Lone Wolf, GTC Minotaur
Eamonn Riley - Admiral Scott
Steve Royal - GTC Monitor
Peter Sandon - Jotunheim Commander
Blake Williams - Admiral Po, GTC Orff
Voice Talent - Voice Acting Alliance:
Jennifer Alyx - Wingman 4 (*****)
Betsy LaPolla - Admiral Tess, Decoy Kappa 1 (str05), Theta 1 (str07)
Voice Talent - Voice Acting Club:
Aramek - Wingman 1 (Veteran)
Rina-chan - Wingman 3 (Vixen)
Shard-Spider - Wingman 2 (Buddy)
Voice Talent - Game Warden:
Daniel Rodrigues - 82nd Nighthawks Squadron Leader, GTSC Einstein, GTC Iapetus, Terran Soldier (str13), GTC Gladiator
Voice Talent - Hard Light Productions:
Ted Alexander - Terran Command
Ryan "Sphynx" Anderson - Wingman 5 (Rookie)
freespacegundam - 91st Phantoms Squadron Leader
Galemp - GTSC Hinton, Iota 1 (str05), Frank (Phoenix)
Killfrenzy - GTSC Giordano
Mike Krcil, GTSC Herschel, Captain Montgomery (Phoenix)
Ransom Arceihn - GTI Pilot
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I really like this thread. :D