[rsaxvc]

So, I had this idea for how to lay out different campaigns.

First, we split the game into Eras. ( Rise of the Empire, Galactic Civil War, ... )
For each Era, we display a map of the galaxy, with different campaigns visible. Example attached ( the main campaign needs to be split into many smaller ones)

After certain campaigns are played through, we remove those from the map, and add whatever they unlock.

Advantages:
If we want, we can go back and add an entire Era later ( prequel or that Vong BS )

Disadvantages:
How do we implement empire/rebel? I imagine a lot of people want a 'rebel campaign' and an 'imperial campaign'

[attachment deleted by evil Tolwyn]

[StarSlayer]

Looking at the map actual brought a question to mind...

If Tantive IV picked up the Death Star plans passing by Toprawa on the Hydian Way, basically a hop skip and a jump from Yavin or at least on the way to the Core Worlds, WTF was it doing at the ass end of the Corellian Run getting pounced on by the Devastator? 

[redsniper]

Flying by Tatooine before Galactic maps were thought up by EU people?

[chief1983]

It could be done similar to the Ender's Shadow series of books, where you just take up the story from another perspective, in this case on the other side of fight though.  It could be a recurring character, or even someone who's never even mentioned in the first story but who witnesses those events somehow in their own story.  It could be random TIE Fighter pilot X who only got to the fights in time to clean up the messes you left behind.

[Snail]

So how will the storyline go? Will you guys be creating your own little plot?

[StarSlayer]

Just to throw something out there you could have the player character start as an Imperial Pilot.  Naive and full of patriotic piss and vinegar.  He goes through the Imp Academy, gets tasked with hunting pirates/terrorists,  customs etc.  The type of missions where the Empire is maintaining law in order in the galaxy.  Eventually he gets disenfranchised with the Empire, possible a mix of some morally questionable missions and his homeworld getting brought to heel.  At some point he defects to the Rebellion and starts that campaign.

[Mobius]

That brings memories back...I had the Italian version of it on a spacial SW magazine. Although I did not remember all the content of the page, I do remember that thing about the Empire finding safe routes passing through the center of the galaxy.

In any case, for that. It's a nice map to base things on.

[Titan]

Just to throw something out there you could have the player character start as an Imperial Pilot.  Naive and full of patriotic piss and vinegar.  He goes through the Imp Academy, gets tasked with hunting pirates/terrorists,  customs etc.  The type of missions where the Empire is maintaining law in order in the galaxy.  Eventually he gets disenfranchised with the Empire, possible a mix of some morally questionable missions and his homeworld getting brought to heel.  At some point he defects to the Rebellion and starts that campaign.

Which is the story for about half the star wars stuff out there. 

[rsaxvc]

my thought that was that this would be the container for all sorts of things. I didn't want to lay down my own plot/missions.

We could start off with the film plots (4-6) broken into individual blocks.
From there you can implement the extended universe wherever possible.

Each major campaign should be a self-contained subplot, and should be playable independent of other campaigns.
Example Campaigns(all have their own timelines, all have their own map):
New Sith Wars
Invasion of Naboo
Clone Wars
Galactic Civil War

Each mini-campaign should be a set of almost self-contained missions. I was thinking something like 3-5 missions. For example:
'Killing the DeathStar' would involve missions to hijack supplies, destroy a fuel convoy, take out fighter wings, and eventually the final mission.

[StarSlayer]

Just to throw something out there you could have the player character start as an Imperial Pilot.  Naive and full of patriotic piss and vinegar.  He goes through the Imp Academy, gets tasked with hunting pirates/terrorists,  customs etc.  The type of missions where the Empire is maintaining law in order in the galaxy.  Eventually he gets disenfranchised with the Empire, possible a mix of some morally questionable missions and his homeworld getting brought to heel.  At some point he defects to the Rebellion and starts that campaign.

Which is the story for about half the star wars stuff out there. 

mkay the player character, in attempt to impress his rich liberal girlfriend whom he is infatuated with joins the Rebel Alliance.  His aptitude for piloting and leadership soon lands him a relatively important position in the local Rebel Cell's hierarchy.  Eventually he comes to understand his girlfriend is a whinny hippie flake, after which he realizes the entire operation's aims at equality and spreading the wealth are not going to be advantageous to his standard of living.  Armed with the clarity that the Empire's suppression of xenos and tight control of civil liberties actually benefit him the player begins colluding with local Imperial forces to bring down the rebel cell and defect to the Empire.  After successfully brining down the local Rebel Cell in a savage and bloody act of betrayal the player receives a commission in the Imperial Navy.  Again proving his worth as a pilot the player catches the eye of Imperial Intelligence who then use him as a successful deep cover agent infiltrating criminal syndicates, traitorous elements of the fleet and the Rebel Alliance.  After many years as an extremely successful counter insurgent the player retires and lives off his ridiculously large pension in his villa on some nice beach planet in the Imperial Remnant.

[Snail]

mkay the player character, in attempt to impress his rich liberal girlfriend whom he is infatuated with joins the Rebel Alliance.  His aptitude for piloting and leadership soon lands him a relatively important position in the local Rebel Cell's hierarchy.  Eventually he comes to understand his girlfriend is a whinny hippie flake, after which he realizes the entire operation's aims at equality and spreading the wealth are not going to be advantageous to his standard of living.  Armed with the clarity that the Empire's suppression of xenos and tight control of civil liberties actually benefit him the player begins colluding with local Imperial forces to bring down the rebel cell and defect to the Empire.  After successfully brining down the local Rebel Cell in a savage and bloody act of betrayal the player receives a commission in the Imperial Navy.  Again proving his worth as a pilot the player catches the eye of Imperial Intelligence who then use him as a successful deep cover agent infiltrating criminal syndicates, traitorous elements of the fleet and the Rebel Alliance.  After many years as an extremely successful counter insurgent the player retires and lives off his ridiculously large pension in his villa on some nice beach planet in the Imperial Remnant.

[Titan]

Add an affair or two, and i'm happy.

[Flaser]

mkay the player character, in attempt to impress his rich liberal girlfriend whom he is infatuated with joins the Rebel Alliance.  His aptitude for piloting and leadership soon lands him a relatively important position in the local Rebel Cell's hierarchy.  Eventually he comes to understand his girlfriend is a whinny hippie flake, after which he realizes the entire operation's aims at equality and spreading the wealth are not going to be advantageous to his standard of living.  Armed with the clarity that the Empire's suppression of xenos and tight control of civil liberties actually benefit him the player begins colluding with local Imperial forces to bring down the rebel cell and defect to the Empire.  After successfully brining down the local Rebel Cell in a savage and bloody act of betrayal the player receives a commission in the Imperial Navy.  Again proving his worth as a pilot the player catches the eye of Imperial Intelligence who then use him as a successful deep cover agent infiltrating criminal syndicates, traitorous elements of the fleet and the Rebel Alliance.  After many years as an extremely successful counter insurgent the player retires and lives off his ridiculously large pension in his villa on some nice beach planet in the Imperial Remnant.

++

I want to play this...

...so badly.

[WOLF_Angel]

To the question of being able to play one side or the other and in which time line.  There is a painfully easy answer.  The plot ideas listed above all have merit and could be implemented.  The easier way to do this is on the log in screen you can pick what era.  This takes you to the load screen for that time period.  Then you pick which side you wish to fly for at that moment.  Similar to toggling reb/imp in XvT.

The beauty of this is you can play all the content on a single pilot record.  The initial log in screen can even have you stats as a total sum of everything you have done regardless of side or time period.

Take that one step further and you can have a button to take that same pilot record with the same stats into multiplayer.  XvT had this type of thing listed in there base stats screen.  You could see what players (by rank and ship) you have destroyed (and what fragged you) just as easily as you could what computer controlled craft by type.

It was fairly seamless for the player.  This is one thing that I really enjoyed about XvT that XWA I felt was missing.  You could not combine the single versus multi.

[rsaxvc]

I was wondering if we could actually have the player play two characters, an imperial, and a rebel, through the game. This way the player gets to play the good parts of both sides, in the same timeline. I do worry it might get confusing for the player to play a rebel campaign, then an imperial one.

[Titan]

Sorry, man. Freespace doesn't like it if you use one pilot record for everything. You get the weirdest problems.

[rsaxvc]

Any specifics on what's wrong with that?

Also, and more importantly, does this campaign menu seem like a good idea worth looking into? Or something useless that wouldn't add anything to the game?

[WOLF_Angel]

Personally I like the idea.

[chief1983]

It doesn't work well with changing campaigns, you tend to lose your progress I think.  Same with changing mods, since for one, that usually involves changing campaigns.  So I tend to create a new pilot per mod.  If there were a lot of campaigns I might even do it by that.

[MR_T3D]

mkay the player character, in attempt to impress his rich liberal girlfriend whom he is infatuated with joins the Rebel Alliance.  His aptitude for piloting and leadership soon lands him a relatively important position in the local Rebel Cell's hierarchy.  Eventually he comes to understand his girlfriend is a whinny hippie flake, after which he realizes the entire operation's aims at equality and spreading the wealth are not going to be advantageous to his standard of living.  Armed with the clarity that the Empire's suppression of xenos and tight control of civil liberties actually benefit him the player begins colluding with local Imperial forces to bring down the rebel cell and defect to the Empire.  After successfully brining down the local Rebel Cell in a savage and bloody act of betrayal the player receives a commission in the Imperial Navy.  Again proving his worth as a pilot the player catches the eye of Imperial Intelligence who then use him as a successful deep cover agent infiltrating criminal syndicates, traitorous elements of the fleet and the Rebel Alliance.  After many years as an extremely successful counter insurgent the player retires and lives off his ridiculously large pension in his villa on some nice beach planet in the Imperial Remnant.

++

I want to play this...

...so badly.

hell.yes

Add an affair or two, and i'm happy.

why only 2?