I heard you like announcements so I'm going to announce the announcement that I announced earlier. I'm
TOTALLY LEGIT.
The Perpetuity LimitAfter much deliberation, I have decided that working on multiple campaigns at once is far too much work, so I decided to combine all the campaigns that I started working on into one mega-campaign! It'll be called 'The Perpetuity Limit', and will conclude the Tides of Darkness timeline, while simultaneously being a remake of Dawn of Sol, correcting some critical flaws with its mission design, and include
three totally new scenarios! People who have been talking to me these past few years should know what some of them are.
The good thing is, since I'm just reusing missions from things I've already started, it's 75% complete! I was aiming for an April 1st release but it turned out that testing is taking a bit longer than expected, so I had to simply announce the announcement instead of actually releasing the damn thing.
Upon the complete release of this project, I'm done with modding FSO. Since it wraps up all I've been doing in terms of personal projects since the day I first started modding FSO, and I feel having everything falling into one giant package is a nice way to wrap things up, and probably the best way I could let this go, being the rather OCD person I am.
The idea is that each sub-portion is inherently "standalone" but have more connections between them than one might first expect...
Here, I'll give a quick description of each sub-portion.
Tides of Darkness 2: Beyond The Dark Portal
Dev Screens:
1Following the theme of blatantly copying Warcraft 2 names, this sequel follows basically the same general theme as ToD, but brought up to date in terms of FSO features! Continuing the story of the Shivan and Terrans against the Negators. Features a revamped Shivan fleet as well as a revamped Negator fleet (no more low-poly nightmares!)
This segment is approximately 10 missions long.
Sol Invictus
Dev Screens:
1,
2,
3,
4A dedicated remake of Dawn of Sol. Much less escort missions and multiple intercept. The mission count has been thinned down significantly to improve the flow of storytelling. Notably, the whole ICC infiltration arc which was buggy has been removed. This mini-project is a bit strange as it straddles two different bigger projects, but I think it still works. If it doesn't I'll just end up severing its connection to this particular one and keep it to being just an EW-universe prequel... (Haven't gotten to the latter portions of this particular one yet)
This segment is approximately 15 missions long. You'll see a lot of familiar missions which have been edited (primarily the first ones), and a few new ones to fill in the gaps better.
Project: Outreach
Dev Screens:
1,
2,
3A post-capella era campaign, it takes many themes from a premise similar to that of Blue Planet, but with drastically different consequences. The GTVA construct Sol Gate for similar reasons, only to find that all of Sol has been wiped out of all life, and crawling with Shivans. With the threat of a third Shivan incursion imminent, the GTVA is suddenly severly limited in their courses of action. Their only lead as to what happened is a single beacon, located at the fringes of Sol...and a mysterious jump node network leading to the galaxy's deep core... The idea behind this is a dual point-of-view campaign, where the player assumes the role of both a GTVA pilot, and that of a pilot from the refugees who fled Sol, as they attempt to solve the mystery of the origins of the Shivans. A key theme is contrasting the two factions and their motivations, beliefs, and values, as well as their military doctrine. In the final chapter, the player will have the option of picking which of the two sides they think are more "right", which will determine the ending. Regardless of your choice, however, certain things won't change... This chapter is by far the largest chapter of the campaign, which is basically a megaproject in of itself.
This segment is approximately 30 missions long.
Ashen Wings: The Shadow Ops
Dev Screens:
1,
2,
3Ashen Wings: The Shadow Operations is best described a collection of short (one-mission) stories revolving around the important sorties of the modified
Hecate-class destroyer
Tyndareus operating for Special Operations Command (SOC), rather than a true classical "campaign". The time frame ranges from just before the Capella incident to many years after. Meant to show not the entire story of an event, but to show the highlights of a ship and a squadrons long career over an extended period of time. There is no "filler" , and you only get to see glimpses of what is really going on in each incident. You won't get to see, or necessarily even hear of the beginning and ending of specific happenings in the universe, but you will get to see a bunch of middles, and through them, piece together a bigger picture (or so I hope). The challenge is to present a coherent product, and to develop the characters and setting through all of this, leading to a unique flavour of campaign unlike any other. Every mission is a "climax" so to speak, and much care has been given to continuously present new and interesting mission content. The missions in this campaign aren't even necessarily presented in chronological order, but are stringed together thematically through related events. You will sometimes be thrown into the action without any background, but the situation should become apparent as soon as you read the dialogue (that's what my testers have told me, at least!)
This segment is approximately 15 missions long. (* this one is actually almost done, and is currently being tested by a small but devoted team of beta testers!)
The Perpetuity Limit: The Eyes of the Watchers
What initially started as the idea I had in mind for "Freespace Quest", which over time evolved into something far greater. Intended only to be played after completion all the previous arcs, the "main" campaign of The Perpetuity Limit ties all these previously-unrelated stories together...
This segment is approximately 10 missions long.
Total Mission Count: APPROX
80. I've been busy...
I'm thinking that the final campaign will be available in two ways: indiviudal campaigns, and one "mega-file" which strings all of the above together, though I am worried about hitting limits and such.
In fact, I might end up releasing things piecewise, as one massive package in a single folder might deter players, and prove to be a troubleshooting nightmare...
A few specific sections are basically complete, anyway, so if you want to see them soon I'll get those parts cleaned up.
I know it's dubious of me to do this so close to April Fools, but I've only started having free time right about now.
I've got some dev screens to prove that I'm no faker! I've posted some others around a bit, and if you're smart you could probably piece together what goes where in terms of these projects.
More to come as I comb through my screenshots folder, and as my testers send them to me!
So, which one are
you the most excited for?
