Author Topic: Official new people thread!  (Read 229732 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Rodo

  • Custom tittle
  • 212
  • stargazer
    • Minecraft
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Welcome Sonzai, stay around for more awesome stuff is coming  :yes:
el hombre vicio...

 

Offline AV8R

  • 28
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
AV8R says - "Hello there ladies and gentlemen!".....

As a new poster here, hello to all! And as far as this whole Freespace project is concerned, all I can say is... wow.

I've been such a fan of the original Freespace for so many years that I literally can't remember exactly when it was I bought the original retail CD (I'm thinking it was likely back in '98 when I got so tired of playing Descent 1 & 2 over and over again that I simply had to find another Descent fix before Descent 3 came out or I went crazy - which ever came first). So I took my much-lighter-self-at-the-time-than-now and headed to my local video game store and stumbled upon Descent:Freespace there on the shelf. Its stark-white, minimalist box and imposing-looking capital ship partly emblazoned on the box caught my eye and at first I thought, "How is a Pyro-GX gonna take on that thing?".... I obviously didn't have a clue how Freespace differed from the Descent universe - and I was about to get schooled.

When I finally got it home, installed it and played it for the first time, then I knew. This was nothing like Descent. There were no robots, no power-ups, no keys to find, no reactors to blow up (save the Lucifer's); this wasn't Descent at all - it was Freespace. This was freedom - freedom from the oppressive, claustrophic mines on the planets below and their destructive denizen. This was drifting, no, dancing through the stars. You weren't trapped in the lava-filled mines of Descent, you were soaring through the heavens in a somewhat fragile, yet powerful ship (well, depending on the ship you chose and the weapons it would carry for that mission). And beyond Descent's plot of cleaning out mines for an unappreciative and ego-centric leader of a faceless corporation, in Freespace you are a faceless, yet pivotal cog in a wheel of a galactic struggle for the very survival of mankind - a story told in such an epic Hollywood-prodcution-type-struggle-for-the-fate-of-humanity way that I literally stayed up all night, thoroughly engrossed in the plot, to finish the game (fortunately it was a Friday night - unfortuantely it shows what kind of social life I had back in '98). In fact, to this day it's still as exhilirating to destroy the Lucifer as it was back in the day - even while my patient wife and my honey-do list continue to languish as long as this game exists.... (hey, she knew I was addicted before the "I do's" so don't feel sorry).

I know this is going to seem strange, but it took over 12 years of playing Freespace before I finally wanted to experience what Freespace 2 was all about (OK, so maybe I'm a late bloomer). So, after buying FS2 from GOG (I'm so happy they're around) and spending a weekend being a part of the final chapter of the epic struggle for the fate of humanity done to near-perfection once again, I said to myself, "Self, why in the world did you wait so long to be a part of this incredible piece of (imagined) history?" Never again will I turn my nose up to the possibility that a sequel can be a good thing (but, honestly, it's so hard after seeing so many bad sequels at the movies - but hey, this isn't Hollywood.... maybe that's a good thing?).

"So, what's next?" I thought. At the end of this epic story, how could it get any better from here? Silly me - the answer is simple: better graphics! It always makes the story more compelling! It worked for me with Avatar. Great visuals will suck you into the story even deeper - even if you've already seen the original numerous times. Heck, ask anyone who saw Star Wars Special Edition - it's all about better storytelling through better graphics! (George Lucas really is an evil genius).

So after downloading, installing, configuring and playing these epic stories once again with these incredible graphics improvements (or "ports" as they're called - and not in the ship dock or sweet wine sense; this "port" is a reimagining through painstaking code enhancement and image refinement) I have to say that this, by far, is the most special edition I have ever had the priviledge of experiencing.... Descent:Freespace and Freespace 2 - Special Edition. Or, better known simply as: FS2 Port.

So a hearty and sincere thank you to each and every person involved in this project - those who made spanking Shivans, blowing up pretty capital ships and saving the universe an even more fulfilling experience for the common man than it used to be (if that's even possible....).  :D

 

Offline KyadCK

  • 29
  • Getting better with every game
    • Minecraft
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Welcome to hard-Light AV8R, but if that is your reaction to the enhancements of FS1 and 2, I'd love to hear what you have to say after playing a few (dozen) fan made campaigns and mods. FSport and the MediaVPs are just the beginning.
Freespace Wallpapers     BluePlanet Multi     Minecraft Deimos Build Log
Need help setting up Multi? Then join us on the Multi-Setup IRC channel!
Computers only fear those who know how to use them

 

Offline gubernator

  • 2-∞ - User does not compute
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Hello all. I'm new here and just want to thank everyone for making this game rock. I love space sims. and this is the best. I don't think I can ever go back to the X-Wing series again!


 
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
:welcome:

 
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Hey there everyone =D Can't say I'm exactly new here, been playing FreeSpace for as long as it has been around, although I was only 6 years old, when FS1 was released. My favorite games of all time. During the last, say, 2 years, I've been much more active than before, starting my own project from ground-level and playing through many, many user-made campaigns and mods. I let these pieces of art inspire me, and then I put that inspiration into good use by working on my own project.

My FreeSpace project has been going on ever since early 2010. Worked hundreds of hours, probably. I'm going solo with this, with my older bro as the tester. He's a FreeSpace veteran too, and a far better player than me ;) I will release my work when it is completely ready, aiming for top quality. Perhaps within a year. I'll be asking for help closer to release, cuz I will most likely need some  :nod:

I'd like to thank everyone who has worked on FreeSpace to improve and make it the experience it is today. Campaings and mods like Blue Planet, Wings of Dawn (Yay, Spoon, way to go!  :yes:), Silent Threat: Reborn and Vassago's Dirge really tend to make my day. That's all for now =P Cya around ^^,

 

Offline Rodo

  • Custom tittle
  • 212
  • stargazer
    • Minecraft
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
nice, another campaign in the making :D

welcome to hlp man :yes:
el hombre vicio...

 

Offline deathfun

  • 210
  • Hey man. Peace. *Car hits them* Frakking hippies
    • Minecraft
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
That's what I love about this place
More people keep coming and making an amazing game continue to have more and more stuff to do with it

Those 60$ games you play SP for 3 hours and you're done can suck it
"No"

 
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Thx guys! ;) That's really encouraging. I bet you I'll get it done. For me this is more like um... Official Semi-New People Thread :lol:

 

Offline H-Alien

  • 22
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Hello everyone!

right so this is the formal introduction thread, let me start off then with me:

Me
H-Alien, no I'm not alien and my nick has nothing to do with Freespace or spacesims at all. I guess it was somewhere in the 90's that I needed a nickname for chatrooms during schoolbreaks. I was living abroad, being the only white guy in the class and I happened to be listening to homesick subteranean alien from Radiohead, so I figured that would be a appropriate nickname. However I can't spell subteranean so I skipped that and Homesick Alien was born. Then again I wasn't homesick at all and got tired quickly about people asking me about that so I turned it into Happy Alien but friends just called me H-Alien. My first pc game memory probably is Alley Cat, but I got amazed for the first time by Commander Keen (should tell something about my age). I'm a huge cow fan (read dutch, but in all seriousness I truly am a huge cow fan). Okay that was the boring part.

Right and how did you get here?
Bought Freespace 2 original cd's when the game was just released (lost 1 cd though). Played and enjoyed it immensely. Never played Freespace: The Great War. Now if it wasn't for "Sobek" mentioning FSopen on the rage3d forum some weeks ago, I would have never known about FSopen. So thanks to him.I've been lurking on the forum for some weeks now, trying to figure out what I needed to play Freespace in all it's modern glory. Took some time and reading up, I must say this board can be a bit overwhelming at first :) However, once again Sobek pointed me in the right direction of installing everything properly.

I started playing FS2 with the latest mediavp's and nightly builds, wow flabbergasted how much all the modders improved the game. Job very well done I must say. Soon I decided I would play FSport first (which I'm going through at the moment), then FS2 and then Blue Planet before venturing out to other mods or use campaigns. The sort of sad part is that I just recently bought me The Witcher 2 and Deus Ex: HR. These are the first games I've bought full price in years...yet I haven't touched them since discovering FSopen. I actually bought me a joystick just for this game alone (wow that takes some getting used to). That shows how great this game was and how much it has improved by the modding community.

So can you help us out in someway?
I'm afraid not. I know nothing of programming at all and I haven't really grasped all the specifics of the engine (or the structure in which things are done here) yet to be any good as a guinea pig for some of the crazy stuff you guys come up with. The only thing I'm a bit good at is marketing and competitive swimming/tennis/golf but I cant imagine that being of any use.

anything else
If I understand correctly there is this thing called the `trunk`which is the more or less stable thing (Am I right if I believe the mediaVP_3612 to be what is called the "trunk"?). Then there is the nightly build which is an updated file "in between" mediavp's, with all the new stuff which appear to be stable as well. And then I get smacked around with the "antipodes" which I believe to be the real "no guarantees this is a test build and a test build only" thingy where new "improvements" are tested one by one. I'm just wondering if I'm remotely correct in these assumptions. I'm not counting all the individual test builds, just trying to get a general understanding of the main structure of this thing.

Now I won't even bother with test builds (at least not yet) but I do want to say that I greatly enjoy reading the "test builds" subforum. It gives an outsider like me a great view of the glamorous live of an coder/developer/whatever description applies (or more accurately the not so very glamorous at all live of an coder/developer/whatever description applies). O....and I have to admit I run an ATI graphics card, which doesn't seem to be very popular in the test build subforum ;)

So once again, Hi all and thanks to the community for keeping this franchise alive and up to date.


« Last Edit: September 27, 2011, 11:57:37 am by H-Alien »

 

Offline The E

  • He's Ebeneezer Goode
  • 213
  • Nothing personal, just tech support.
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Quote
anything else
If I understand correctly there is this thing called the `trunk`which is the more or less stable thing (Am I right if I believe the mediaVP_3612 to be what is called the "trunk"?). Then there is the nightly build which is an updated file "in between" mediavp's, with all the new stuff which appear to be stable as well. And then I get smacked around with the "antipodes" which I believe to be the real "no guarantees this is a test build and a test build only" thingy where new "improvements" are tested one by one. I'm just wondering if I'm remotely correct in these assumptions. I'm not counting all the individual test builds, just trying to get a general understanding of the main structure of this thing.

I sense a bit of confusion here, born from not being familiar with the terminology.

First of all, the builds. "Trunk" refers to the FreeSpace Open code repository, more specifically, its main branch (that is, the one that the nightly builds are made from). It is generally considered stable because most coders take pains to test the code they submit there. "Antipodes" is another branch of that repository, which, as you noticed, holds features that we believe require extensive testing before we can put them into trunk. Right now, that's the new pilot file code.

Now, the MediaVPs are an entirely separate effort. The Source Code Project Team (or SCP for short) writes the code for the engine, while the FreeSpace Upgrade Project (FSU) is responsible for building and maintaining the MediaVPs, which is a set of data files that take advantage of the enhanced features in new SCP releases. While they are versioned in the same way as the SCP releases for convenience, they are separate efforts and should not be confused.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline H-Alien

  • 22
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Right, I "think" I get it now.

So that's probably also why one has to download the latest build first, and then later on the mediavp's. The latest "build" is done by the SCP while the mediavp's are done by the FSU. This got me a bit confused initially installing FSopen aswell since they both are the same version number and the difference wasn't clear to me. Just stuck to the manual though and it worked, so I was happy.

 

Offline jr2

  • The Mail Man
  • 212
  • It's prounounced jayartoo 0x6A7232
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Hmm, yeah, the mediavps... are the updated "media", which is distributed in .vp file format (like a .zip file, but no compression, VolitionPackage... if that helps you any).

So, the SCP updates the engine as The_E said, which then uses the upgraded textures / animations / sounds / mission files / movies / etc that the FSU releases.

Eh, you probably got all that already from what The_E said.  If so, kindly ignore my re-stating it.  :)  And Welcome!

 

Offline Rodo

  • Custom tittle
  • 212
  • stargazer
    • Minecraft
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
We've got another alien in HLP!

Welcome :D
el hombre vicio...

 

Offline Androgeos Exeunt

  • Captain Oblivious
  • 212
  • Prevents attraction.
    • Wordpress.com Blog
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
How many aliens are there on HLP anyway? On my last count, there were very few.
My blog

Quote: Tuesday, 3 October 2023 0133 UTC +8, #general
MP-Ryan
Oh you still believe in fairy tales like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and free market competition principles?

 

Offline Rodo

  • Custom tittle
  • 212
  • stargazer
    • Minecraft
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Vasudans and Shivans count as well.
el hombre vicio...

 
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
I am back after a few years. Of course no one knows me. But it doesn't matter much. I'm basically a noob again. I just bought the games off of GOG. Is it better to play the first game in the fps1 engine or use one of those mods that ports 1 to 2?

 

Offline jr2

  • The Mail Man
  • 212
  • It's prounounced jayartoo 0x6A7232
    • Steam
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
Port.

 

Offline headdie

  • i don't use punctuation lol
  • 212
  • Lawful Neutral with a Chaotic outook
    • Minecraft
    • Skype
    • Twitter
    • Headdie on Deviant Art
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
I am back after a few years. Of course no one knows me. But it doesn't matter much. I'm basically a noob again. I just bought the games off of GOG. Is it better to play the first game in the fps1 engine or use one of those mods that ports 1 to 2?
Port.

FSPort has the advantage of being able to use the upgraded media files, but there are some subtle differences in how it plays due to changes between the FS1 and FS2/O engines, homing missiles comes to mind atm.
Minister of Interstellar Affairs Sol Union - Retired
quote General Battuta - "FRED is canon!"
Contact me at [email protected]
My Release Thread, Old Release Thread, Celestial Objects Thread, My rubbish attempts at art

 
Re: Semi-official new people thread!
I thought FS 1 had homing missiles.