[SF-Junky]

Recommended Build: FSO 23.1.0 - 20230917

This campaign was tested on and is hence optimized for medium difficulty level.

Text to speech compatible!


The year is 2369. Two years after the Second Shivan Incursion, a surge in Hammer of Light activity is troubling the GTVA in the remote Laramis system. The Special Ops dreadnought GTD Constellation is sent to investigate. Squadron leader Patricia Abayomi leads her 88th Nova Squadron into the storm...

Storm Front: Episode I - Prophecy
Storm Front: Episode II - Cthulhu

This. Took me. Back. Way back. What the heck! It's already been four years since I started giving these two campaigns an update and my life has again changed quite a bit since then, but gosh did I have flashbacks when I looked at this ancient material back in late 2019. I think it was the first time in at least eight years or so that I turned my attention to these missions and these were really shadows of the distant past. This was not even the first campaign I ever did in Fred, but the first that I - back then! - considered serious. It was in the mid-2000s that I made these, originally not even in English but in German. I was still in friggin' school! When I started doing the upgrade back in 2019, I had finished my master's degree and started working. And now that I finally publish it, I'm back at university doing my PhD. So it was really, literally half a lifetime for me. I think the original English language release was pretty much around the same time Age of Aquarius came out. This is how old this is.

And oh my god was it awful. When I started doing the upgrade, I thought I'd just do a little facelift and be done in a few months tops and then turn to finally finish Episode III because the bug really bit me then and I was motivated. But the mission design and moreso the writing was just. So. BAD! I had to give it major overhaul and today I'm really pleased with the result. Almost every mission underwent huge re-designs or were even replaced by totally new ones, particularly in Episode I. I also shortened both campaigns a little bit, down to three acts with six missions each which was balm for the pacing as I could get rid of all filler missions. Though I cannot deny, some sorties are more like playable cutscenes, every mission has a meaning now.

The writing improved massively, though it's still nothing I should be proud of and it never will be. The storyline itself remains as it was, but I added a lot of background to improve world building and also with the intention in mind to lay some foundations for later episodes - just in case they ever come. Weaknesses a still there, of course. Still nobody really gives a damn about the traitor.  How the H-o-L could pull off such a huge buildup in forces in total secrecy is still of... limited credibility and as I said: I'm not a writer (not a non-fiction one, at least) and I never will be - heck I'm not even native in English.

Well yeah, probably it's nothing much, but it's mah baby. Really some sort of a lifetime project.

Again, I hope I can give you a few hours of a remotely entertaining FreeSpace experience. Again, don't hesitate to let me know when you disagree.

[ryanchealth]

I would download the game but at 98% it would kick back that it was not installed correctly.  I verfied file integrity and it came up good. Once I start the game but it gave me 34 warnings.  Medusa missing subsystems, Texture warning on Titan model, Leviathan texture, Hyperion model texture (Guns too), Lycaon Texture, Asteria, Aule Texture, reshef texture, Osiris gun submodel not complete, Orsiris model issue, Imhoepuv debris texture and overall texture), Udjat texture, Typhyon Texture turret, Hatshetpsut newet turret texture, Vasudan Cheopsdebris Texture, cairo texture.  Not sure if this is any help to you but I tried.

[SF-Junky]

I have no immediate answer to that, unfortunately. I did everything than with the open beta upload last year. Did it also download the StormFrontStock mod package? That is, so to say, the Storm Front MediaVPs and all the assets that create your error messages are in there.

[ryanchealth]

So I uninstalled everything and then did a reinstall.  Looks like the Storm Front Stock is missing some files.   I attached the error message.

[ryanchealth]

Possibly an error when you uploaded the game?

[SF-Junky]

I've uploaded a new verison of Storm Front Stock (23.1.0) and of the Episodes I & II mod which refers that new version of SFS. Please update everything and try again.

Plus, maybe somebody else could verify?

[ryanchealth]

Still getting erros but there are less.  Looks like mostly music and shockwave files.  The GOOD news is ALL of the model files are fixed.  I went through the tech room and there were no more errors as went through each one.  I would love to play it but just got back from vacation and all hell has gotten loose with me being gone.  Can anyone else out there give it a try?  I am not exactly one to help with this as I am still learning the whole FRED2 thing. 

[ryanchealth]

The Discord site usually helps out a lot.  I will give the game a try on Saturday if I can.

[Goober5000]

This is terrific news.   Highlighted

For those having trouble downloading the mod, try Knossos.NET and see if that helps:
https://github.com/Shivansps/Knossos.NET/releases

[SF-Junky]

Thanks for the highlight, Goober.

Does the mod work for you?

[Mobius]

Congratulations on this rerelease, I'll definitely add it to my to-do list.

[Dan1]

Still getting erros but there are less.  Looks like mostly music and shockwave files.  The GOOD news is ALL of the model files are fixed.  I went through the tech room and there were no more errors as went through each one.  I would love to play it but just got back from vacation and all hell has gotten loose with me being gone.  Can anyone else out there give it a try?  I am not exactly one to help with this as I am still learning the whole FRED2 thing. 

Got this as well.  Downloaded the Storm Front Stock first and got an error to verify file integrity. 

Verify file integrity gives almost immediately.

Uninstalled and no storm front campaign installed.   Started from scratch on Storm Front Stock gets to 99% and says Error occured during installation please reinstall or verify file integrity.

[Goober5000]

Thanks for the highlight, Goober.

Does the mod work for you?

I haven't tried it unfortunately; I've been pretty busy.

Actually this might help: several weeks ago this same error happened with either Derelict or Inferno.  The mod had been uploaded to Knossos using .VPs, but reuploading it with loose files fixed the problem.

[CRZgatecrusher]

good news, you can make it work (You just have to download the missing files from: https://fsnebula.org/mod/StormFrontStock for the stormfrontstock mod and just add them to the appropriate mod folder (after extracting them of course)

I don't know why knossos doesn't like it but that seems to fix it for some reason. I've finished it and there seem to be a few issues. One strange one is on the mission where you

Spoiler:

where you find the disabled shivan ships for the first time. If you play at normal time compression you only get to make the first jump, then you are locked out of the second jump. (btw for anyone trying to cirvumvent the issue, use time compression up until the first jump)

I am sorry if I am being annoying and negative, but aside from that (and I think one other mission stuck bug) I was able to complete both chapters just fine. If there is a chapter three I'd play it just, the gimmicks were fun and the story was somewhat compelling at times. (and the game was enjoyable as well)

[SF-Junky]

Thanks for the hint, Goober. I've uploaded everything again, this time without .VP packaging. Actualling I'm often getting a message that an unexpected error occured but when I upload again, it says that everything is already there... Well, sorry for the mess, guys, but there is not much I can do from my end other than pushing the upload button in Knossos (which is the entire idea behind it, anyway). As I said, with the Beta it worked just fine.

I don't know why knossos doesn't like it but that seems to fix it for some reason. I've finished it and there seem to be a few issues. One strange one is on the mission where you

Spoiler:

where you find the disabled shivan ships for the first time. If you play at normal time compression you only get to make the first jump, then you are locked out of the second jump. (btw for anyone trying to cirvumvent the issue, use time compression up until the first jump)

Thanks. I'll look into it. Edit: Fixed. That was a very stupid mistake on my end.

[ryanchealth]

Re-downloaded and no errors

[SF-Junky]

I played through this campaign recently (but don't have it on my computer right now though)...there are a couple bugs I remember:

1-In the mission where you go in the nebula to investigate the derelict Typhon Volantis...after the enemy Iceni frigate blasts your cruisers...only one cruiser survives.  The surviving cruiser (I forget its name but it was the Aeolus) then turns into a ghost kind of; what I mean is that you can see it but it isn't solid.  You can fly through it and shoot through it and there is no contact.  The mission essentially freezes at this point.  Your transport that's docked with the Volantis never leaves and the enemy Iceni just sits there (and only fires on you if you get in range of it).  I was only able to progress after doing the die 5X method.  What is supposed to happen in this mission?

2-In the mission where

Spoiler:

your Vasudan wingman Bakhu betrays you

he almost never dies.  He keeps trying to ram the Constellation but just keeps bouncing off.  One time, luckily, he did disappear and the enemy fleet came in and the mission progressed.

I answer here, 'cus you posted in the wrong thread.

Thanks for the hints. In the first mission, the Iceni is supposed to kill both cruisers. Seems like in both cases I need some kill trigger.

[ryanchealth]

I think I am in Mission 7 or close to it.  Guarding a Convoy with the Lucidity and the Eiger.  I managed to save all the ships (NOT EASY but possible with Trubechets) but then nothing else happens.  The second convoy never jumps in and everyone just follows there waypoints.

[ryanchealth]

By the way.  These are not EASY missions and I have really am enjoying them.  I rarely beat them on the first pass and that is how I like it.  You have to use some strategy to complete them.

[CT27]

I just finished trying Episode 2 again.  There were no technical glitches from what I saw in the actual campaign.

However, I noticed an issue when checking the actual file folder of Storm Front.  After manually downloading the Storm Front episodes and Storm Front Stock items manually from their FSNebula pages (I don't use Knossos right now), extracting the files and putting them in a folder...the total size of that folder was ~2.7GB.
After finishing Episode 2, I looked at the Storm Front folder and it was over 6GB.  I wondered what the problem was so I looked in the folder and the event log text document had grown to over 4GB.  I've never had an event log folder get anywhere near that before (I don't think I've ever even seen one get to GB size before).

For what it's worth, I was playing on FSO 23.2 RC9.


I hope you can complete Episode 3 to resolve the Cthulu cliffhanger.