Interesting to see that BP had a negative effect on some people's FREDding motivation. For me, WiH was just another representative of a "3rd generation*" of FREDding FS campaigns that fully and completely integrate with FSOpen and really stretch the engine - campaigns like Vassago's Dirge, Wings of Dawn (by all accounts), the BtRL demo, recent JaDs and one or two others. These campaigns are all similar in that the old ways of making missions (Aping volition, basically) aren't really up to standard any more - we have the tools to make a much more interesting, complex and diverse pool of missions
I think it's been successful because it's probably the best-polished example of the current generation, and very tightly integrates a large number of new assets with the new gameplay capabilities of the SCP. It looks unique, plays unique, and has enough of a storyline to keep people interested whether they particularly like it or not. I'm personally not a fan of several of the decisions they made (character based gameplay being a big one), but I can still enjoy it as a technical tour-de-force.
*For anyone who cares, I'd define the generations of FS campaigns basically as follows:
First generation campaigns were everything released prior to and in the immediate aftermath of the Source code release. The aim was largely to ape Volition - a good campaign had lots of not-too-complex, bug free missions with fun gameplay. They (generally) had few mods and were basically the equivalent of FS2 expansion packs. Examples would be the Cold Element campaigns (Derelict, Warzone etc.), Homesick etc.
Second generation campaigns were the ones released post SCP, but without the full integration of the various new features that we have now. These might have larger modpacks (representing the larger mod-base available at the time they were created and increasing skillset of the community) and use some SCP features. These often also represented a significant step up in the quality and complexity of the FREDding. Examples here would be Unification War, PI, Transcend and ST:R.
Third generation are campaigns that fully integrate with the SCP, and could never have been realized in anything like their current forms with the original engine. These often have big modpacks, and feature unique and often very complex FREDding tricks that allow for significant diversity of mission design (most likely due to the fact that the community has reached a sort of "critical mass" of FRED experience, as well as the ability to add new features to the engine as required). I'd say this generation probably started with Windmills, which was far and away the most complex and advanced campaign of its day, and continues with the sort of campaigns I mentioned before.
Obviously, it's not a perfect system, but I think it's interesting to have charted the development of the FS modding scene. Every few years, the standard of quality that people expect goes up. If, for example, Derelict was released today, even in it's post-FSCRP, voice acted form, it would no doubt be praised for its coherent storyline and largely bug free missions and VA, but I think it's very unlikely that it'd be considered the classic that it currently is. It's simply not ambitious enough for modern standards. But for me personally, I don't see this as a demotivator that prevents me FREDding - more a motivator to increase the quality of the work I am doing. There are a couple of features in TI missions that would probably have been put into the "too hard" basket a few years ago, but which are in the missions today because campaigns like VD and WiH proved that very complex and interesting things could be done, and the net result is, IMO, a significant improvement.
