With the release of ShadowGorrath's SCP upgrade for Sol:AH (something long awaited by the world; big thanks to him for his hard work), i felt i should make a small announcement that is so long overdue it is officially embarrassing
:
About five/six years ago (like I said, overdue
) I was reading all the requests for a remake of Sol:AH, and as a budding (see
naive) game designer-in-training looking for practice, began discussing this is Blaise Russel, the creator. He said he was too busy with other projects to do a remake, and so I offered to give it a shot myself and he gave permission. So began (known only to a few people, whom I thank for keeping it secret for so long) what quickly became a total rebuild of Sol:AH; not only bringing it to SCP, but with more ships, more missions, more features, and a deeper storyline that spans the entire 65 years of isolation (from FS1s 2336 to INFs 2400s)…
...well, that was the grand vision anyway...
...a whole host of education-related commitments and the realisation that such a project is well beyond one teenager (who to be honest has never run a mod project before) has meant after all this time I have only the sum total of a tiny, pathetic alpha build with a few ships & tables and a single completed mission. Everything else is still in note form.
I’m announcing this now because at some point this summer I’m likely going to do what I should have done in the first place; try and get together a team to help develop the project. I need to think it over for a bit first, but watch this space in that regard.
And for those who like such things, behold, pictures from said alpha build:
A Shot from the Command Breifing of the first mission. Features an FS1 animation from the Port. In the final production i'd definetly look to resizing that anim.
The 1st Mission. The first half is simply a recreation of Blaise Russel's origional, right down to the lines being spoken, until...
...the Lucy makes an explosive entrance, imploding right in front of the Fleet (instead of far away like in the origional). It's here the mission deviates. Note the directives; in this one several Shivan fighters came through too, the remnants of the Lucifer's compliment, which you must help the Bastion wings destroy. Everyone is invulnerable until the player enters combat range thanks to SEXPs, so you aint gonna miss out. The Shivan fighters are also up-powered a little in the tables, with double their usual sheilds/armour (i might even make it triple in the final) to stretch the battle out.
After loosing a number of ships, the Shivans warp out (with SEXPs ensuring at least 1 Dragon is amongst them for a future mission), and (inspired by INFA) the player is told to dock with the Terra instead of jumping out. The way back the music is told to play a variant of the "breif1" track; which will be the "main theme" of the mod.
An example of two ships slated to star in the mod; the old Vesuvius from INF and Dark's Daedalus. The Vesuvius will require slight remodelling and reskinning to fit its new role as a civilian/pirate fighter, while the Daedalus needs updating with glow/shine/normal maps. The Medical TAC1 is also its own entry, the Terran Medical Module (TMM1). Dark's Medical Elysium\Chronos will also appear in the form of alternate textures for the relevant vessels which can be switched to in FRED. Again, all need shine/glow/normal mapping.
So anyways, a couple of pre-empted FAQ’s for you guys:
//\\//\\ Sol: The Isolation (Sol:TI) – Sol:AH reborn //\\//\\So what are you planning exactly?A rebuild of Blaise Russel’s Sol: A History, which will build upon the original’s storyline, factions and themes, while adding new ones of its own at the same time. It will hopefully make use of the SCP’s features to add to gameplay too (including HTL eventually, but at the moment neither of my comps can run HTL
). It will be optimised to run on INFASA as a mod.
Won’t this project conflict with ShadowGorrath’s upgrade?Not at all; ShadowGorrath’s Sol:AH upgrade is a reproduction that is true to the original mod, adding only bug fixes and SCP optimizations while keeping the vanilla aspects, whereas Sol:TI is an attempt to expand on the mod and introduce new themes and ideas to it. I planned to at some point create an “Old School” recreation of the Blaise’s original as a mod extra anyway, so if anything the two can compliment each other. Some aspects of his mod may also find their way into our mod (which he has kindly given permission for
).
How big is it going to be?I am currently planning for a series of 5 or 6, campaigns each of at least twenty missions. The first four will cover similar events to the original (though not always through the same eyes), then the following ones continue the story beyond Sol:AH’s ending. I can confirm there will be a point where the campaign branches, and the player will be able to choose between one of two factions to fight for that will effect the outcome of the storyline.
How different will it be to the original?Though keeping mostly true to the basic plot of the original, there will be many differences, mostly around the nature of the GTA’s collapse, the relations between the different colonial powers, and the ships & stations seen. Almost every mission from the old Sol:AH will have a version in this mod, though likely modified or completely rebuilt. Some elements have been modified (for example, the “Republic of Mars” rebels make an appearance, but do not gain control of Mars, which remains loyal to the GTA throughout).
How many ships?Since Sol:TI will include almost all one race (there will be only five alien ships) I would like to exploit this chance to really go to town in fleshing out the Solar system so expect as many as we can fit in. The ships will be based on one of three “eras”; the “FS era” (centred on FS1 ships), the “INF era” (centred on the EA fleet from Inferno), and a third era midway between them, containing the vessels developed between the two time periods.
For each Era, there will be a set of ships for each of the three main factions; the GTA/EA, Jovian Coalition and the Uranian-Neptunian Union. Some ships will be shared between them but others will be unique to a side, and follow a particular theme (balance for GTA\EA, cheap & numerous for JC, and high-tech systems for the UNU). There will additionally be a handful of civilian and pirate ships. All of the above will also be true for weaponry.
Ships be a mix of FS1/2 originals, INF EA ships, a couple of reskinned and revamped ships from R1 INF (such as the Orc and Chaos from the old SOC fleet, which star in the UNU fleet) and from around HLP (such as Dark’s old Daedalus medical frigate), plus several new designs (such as the Orthrus; a Cerberus variant that features missiles instead of lasers).
Will you be using Woo’s ships from INFA/INFASA?Though it would make sense to do this, I am barring myself from doing so. My project (with permission) will use the vanilla-sourced and INF EA ships from INFASA to keep file size low and ease compatibility, but ships made strictly for that mod (such as the Viper and Tyr cruisers) will be avoided, so that INFA remains a unique experience to my own project and vice-versa.
What will support for fan content be like?This project will actively encourage fans to create their own missions & campaigns. All the human fighters will be player flyable and all fighter weapons useable (even if you never fly or use them in the campaign) so players can make missions where you are the JC or pirates etc. The storyline will also be supplemented by a series of "reference guides" that detail the timeline of events for each campaign and go into detail on how to present each side and what items they should/shouldn't have.
I think that just about covers everything. If anyone has any additional questions, feel free to post them, along with your opinions/comments. This is all still in the planning stages, and will need
of organising before its off the ground, but watch this space.
Thanks
T-Man
