[Black Wolf]

Just say, some newbie (note the little n - he's a sensible newbie) arrived, claiming to be a former (or current I guess) V staff member, with the story for Freespace 3. DaveB backs him up, so there's no question of its authenticity, and he wants to make a fan project to complete Vs trilogy.

The story is fairly detailed, with complete mission descriptions and the like, but the project would require a lot of work, dozens of mods, cutscenes, source changes etc.

So, hypotetically... would we get it done? FSU, the closest recent example, hasn't technically dies but went very quickly from a lot of excitement to a lot less. We've also begun to realize that most of our own promising projects are dying due to lack of manpower - would you really be willing to take time away from the projects you're working on (or running, in the case of many talented individuals in the community) to work for an effectively unknown newbie? Would the lure of a proper end to the series, one that you might not even agree with, be enough to get the coders to lay aside their personal aims, and move in the directions that the FS3 story requires? And do we even have enough people and enough motivation to take on such a massive project any more?

Hypothetically.

[Singh]

I don't know about the rest of the people here, but if even a slimmer of a chance the storyline can be continued, and that it is officially endorsed (or even unofficially) by the creators of the storyline in the first place, then, yes, I'd be willing to pitch in what pathethic little resources I have

[aldo_14]

No, and personally I wouldn't commit to any large project, regardless of origin.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Singh
I don't know about the rest of the people here, but if even a slimmer of a chance the storyline can be continued, and that it is officially endorsed (or even unofficially) by the creators of the storyline in the first place, then, yes, I'd be willing to pitch in what pathethic little resources I have

I don't doubt about there being people willing to commit to it - I'm wondering whether people think that we'd ever get it finished.

[Taristin]

Depends on who's doing it. So many of us are so spread out it's not even funny.

We need to train these n00b's

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Raa Tor'h
We need to train these n00b's

Why do you think I wrote the FAQ and help with any question I know the answer to?

Sure I'm a friendly guy but a large part of it is cause I knew that anyone who learnt to mod might end up helping me (or at least make a campaign I wanted to play)

[kasperl]

Kara: Geuss why I'm making the wiki?

I geuss I would help, and I would probably be around for quite some time too. I doubt it would happen though.

[Gloriano]

That would be cool,
 but that will never happen

[pyro-manic]

Depends if it's any good! If it's a crap story, then screw it. We've got some great plotlines going on with the likes of INF, SA and the like. If, however, it's a masterpiece, then yes, I'd use my scant talents to help.

[Knight Templar]

No, because my campaign is BETTAR!

[Flipside]

Curiously enough, that is more or less exactly why it would never get finished KT, because it would mean the forumers would all have to agree on things We don't do agree

[WildWolf]

The proposed story for FS3 that I heard about was pretty intruiging. If that means anything to ya.

[Taristin]

Yeah, yeah...

[DragonClaw]

And what exactly do you hope to accomplish by saying that?

I'd personally jump on the bandwagon and do what I can in the animation department...wouldn't have the inspiration for anything else though. In all reality, we haven't seen a single 'major' campaign released for FS2, even though a good few have been in production for 3 years or more now. It's saddening, really. My vote to "no".

[Flipside]

I'll be honest, I'm still pretty convinced it would end up as one huge argument
If it was suggested as something that the entire community got involved in, I'd be all up for it, but take, for example, textures and animations. My own taste in textures is pretty colourful, game-like if you will, so those textures probably wouldn't go down too well with people who prefer less saturated, more 'real-life' type textures, because they would be too 'bright'.

The same would apply to music, models, gameplay, storyline etc.

I think that within a few months of starting, a lot of people would lose heart and leave.

It's a grand idea, but our own Quality Control would kill it, at least in my opinion.

[Solatar]

The SCP has been going for a long time and hasn't died. What's to say something else this big couldn't last?

[Flipside]

Because the SCP is only dealing with a single 'part' of Freespace, and they have a large degree of Autonomy as long as they do not break the code, no ones going to turn around to Bobboau and say 'Well, you've spent six hours integrating Environment mapping, but I don't like it, so we're not going to include it.'. As long as it works, it's in. The SCP itself is coders only, not a mishmash of various and competing skills, a coder may not agree with how something is done or suggest a better way, but as long as it does not break the CVS, the coders have more-or-less autonomy on the content of their work.

Something as big as this couldn't be run like that, this place is filled to overflowing with skilled artists, musicians, modellers etc, it's also got a lot of people who are still starting out. A project like this would isolate people who want to participate, but just lack the skills or are still learning them. At least having new mods etc pop up all the time gives these people a chance to become part of the community. Also, people here have rl issues which means they cannot always meet deadlines, which could end up stalling large parts of the project, leading to more frustrations.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be great, it would, but I'd feel really sorry for whoever had to try and organise things

[Solatar]

Yeah, good point. It would be an organizational nightmare...

[Styxx]

Originally posted by WildWolf
The proposed story for FS3 that I heard about was pretty intruiging. If that means anything to ya.

Sheddup, MiLlAr.

[Kamikaze]

An interesting idea I had for a scheme to organize something like that would be for organizers to set up a website with a color-coded tree sort of thing which would list *exactly* what was needed/done/partly-done. People could then sign up to work on stuff, this could be implemented with some kind of dynamic website (It would be very similar to a wiki).

The diagram would list stuff by category first, then go into sub-categories then eventually on to individual works.

So under "Ships" there'd be "Shivan Ships" then "Capital ships" and then it would have a list of shivan capital ships needed (listed by, say, name). The entries would be links to a separate page with any additional information (concept art, tech room entries, what is already done, files for the work, who's working on it so on).

There would be an "upload" link as well, which would let developers upload any finished or partly finished material to the page. A list of files for the work would appear in the entry for it.

That would grant some degree of autonomy to the project and provide a visual clue of how much has been done.