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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Sarafan on October 19, 2012, 06:02:44 pm

Title: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Sarafan on October 19, 2012, 06:02:44 pm
I've looked back today on how long I've been in this community, 6 years, a long time but...

But I've been hiding something the past 3 years, its a cardinal sin among the community but I cant ignore it anymore.

I... I havent played Freespace in 3 years, its just that I couldnt, the last time I flew a mission I was bored! BORED! I dont know whats wrong with me BUT I know I'm not the only one. I know there are others out there and this thread is for those like me.

Come in and tell us how long you've been without Freespace. Dont let others delude you because an addiction is a addiction.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 19, 2012, 06:13:25 pm
Whats... the point of this thread?   :wtf:
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Sarafan on October 19, 2012, 06:20:59 pm
Humour and for people to tell how long they stayed without playing FS.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Cyborg17 on October 19, 2012, 06:35:22 pm
36 hours, about, since I last played a mission.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Rodo on October 19, 2012, 06:44:17 pm
I no longer play, I just playtest or test.

At least not until we get a campaign released.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: yuezhi on October 19, 2012, 07:16:31 pm
1 year. i blame my ****ty computer.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Sushi on October 19, 2012, 07:38:59 pm
Working on Diaspora pretty much ruined Freespace for me. I haven't played for about a year. Now that Diaspora is released, I don't play OR work on that either.

And yet I still hang out on hard-light. Go figure.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Axem on October 19, 2012, 07:48:16 pm
This is a depressing thread. :(
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: headdie on October 19, 2012, 07:58:52 pm
Retail mission, not a clue its been that long
most recent mod, WiH and not much of a clue when that was either
Most Recent TC, Diaspora, well technically not played past mission 2 due to my relic of a PC, safest bet would be WCS:DD when it came out
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Nuke on October 19, 2012, 09:50:16 pm
i probibly haven't seriously played freespace in at least 5 years if you dont count testing my own mods/scripts/code/etc (which i still do from time to time when im bored). but to be fair i haven't been playing a great many games lately, with the exception of ksp and sometimes starcraft 2 (which i dont think ive played in several months).
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Mongoose on October 19, 2012, 10:42:21 pm
I was on a kick of (re)playing through a bunch of campaigns several months ago, but some other games have managed to get in the way since then.  I need to get things started again, since there's quite a bit of newer stuff out there I've yet to play.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: IronBeer on October 20, 2012, 02:49:27 pm
Still slowly piecing together my own campaign, but I haven't hopped behind a strikecraft's controls in about three months.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: JGZinv on October 20, 2012, 04:59:46 pm
6 years and counting lol
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Droid803 on October 20, 2012, 08:02:11 pm
Haven't actually played since JAD 2.21. Retail? Must have been years. I only ever replayed the retail campaign once (so a total of 2 playthroughs).

Done some testing here and there for various campaigns including my own, but I find the default FreeSpace flight model aggravatingly slow and boring in terms of dogfighting now, and I've also completely lost my ability to hit anything without autoaim due to working on Dimensional Eclipse for the past year and a bit.

I go on the forums more than I play/do anything, mostly because I can browse forums between classes and at work.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 20, 2012, 09:21:03 pm
This is a bad thread and you should all feel bad.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: karajorma on October 20, 2012, 09:31:05 pm
Yeah the world would be a much better place if all these people had spent the time they spent developing and playtesting wonderful campaigns on simply playing and giving everyone less to play with. I'll tell the team to stop developing Diaspora and come back in 6 months time once we're all up to date shall I? :p
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Axem on October 20, 2012, 09:50:08 pm
On the other hand, who are we making mods for if everyone is too busy making their own? :confused:
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: LordMelvin on October 20, 2012, 10:03:03 pm
This is a bad thread and you should all feel bad.

I... I... I'm *sniff* I'm so...sorry...
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: mjn.mixael on October 20, 2012, 10:16:14 pm
On the other hand, who are we making mods for if everyone is too busy making their own? :confused:

We are making them for the next generation of players who will hear how fun fs is and how good the newer mods are from all the previous... players.... dammit.

yeah we should all just pack up and go home, probably.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Nuke on October 20, 2012, 10:17:29 pm
im only holding out pending rendering badassness.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: NGTM-1R on October 20, 2012, 10:22:01 pm
On the other hand, who are we making mods for if everyone is too busy making their own? :confused:

It's me, I actually play your mods.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 20, 2012, 10:32:47 pm
The absolute best work done in the FreeSpace engine has been achieved in the last couple years. I feel bad for anyone who's missed out.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: An4ximandros on October 20, 2012, 10:41:19 pm
 Whelp, this thread makes it evident we should shutdown everything and HLP should turn into a gaming forum! :lol:

 On all seriousness I've been kinda bored of Freespace, too many people are conservative enough to hail Volition as: "The Gods of Gaming Development (TM)" and refuse to even consider the fact that Volition made a game for 1999 and that we should evolve from and not stagnate by remaining 90% what Volition made (which they wouldn't today.) This close minded idea almost completely invalidates the whole point of the SCP into which many people have poured their souls into.

 We need more original campaigns that shake the game-play, we should drop the whole dogfight in space attitude and make something interesting and cool only possible IN SPACE!
Or at least a new art style plz, I'm bored as heck from the old Volition style soulless, colorless texturing from a 1999 game. :(
 
I'd like to add I also believe all Zods should be worshiped as our true lords and masters. SA-VASUDA!

EDIT: If my wording offends someone I apologize, it was not the intention.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Sarafan on October 20, 2012, 10:45:49 pm
I knew I wasnt the only one...
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: AtomicClucker on October 20, 2012, 10:50:01 pm
@An4ximandros

While I'd love the notion of doing more awesome stuff in space, the notion of playing a missile hitting a target in a realistic flight model isn't very fun. But I do agree that the dogfight needs to be revamped, Wings of Dawn is still one my favorites in that regard.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: An4ximandros on October 20, 2012, 11:08:14 pm
Not asking for realistic space (even realistic modern Air warfare would be boring to the average person) but something stylized to fit the "atmosphere."
 Wings of Dawn and Diaspora are examples of what we could do, but far from perfect, for the lack of a better word.

 For example: I have a concept for a sort of gunship that deploys a special "missile" that works as a one shot turret to be used in a semi-newtonian "dogfight" setting.
 I also had a bunch of ideas for "nuke ships", giant RC missiles with a detaching "Subspace" Engine that you'd escort to take out "World Ships" (ships made out of hollowed Asteroids) And a much more strategic campaign, with "Cruisers" being the main workhorse and larger stuff being strategic assets only used in few missions. And...

 I should make a thread for this and start my own mod already dammit.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Axem on October 20, 2012, 11:09:40 pm
Whelp, this thread makes it evident we should shutdown everything and HLP should turn into a gaming forum! :lol:

 On all seriousness I've been kinda bored of Freespace, too many people are conservative enough to hail Volition as: "The Gods of Gaming Development (TM)" and refuse to even consider the fact that Volition made a game for 1999 and that we should evolve from and not stagnate by remaining 90% what Volition made (which they wouldn't today.) This close minded idea almost completely invalidates the whole point of the SCP into which many people have poured their souls into.

 We need more original campaigns that shake the game-play, we should drop the whole dogfight in space attitude and make something interesting and cool only possible IN SPACE!
Or at least a new art style plz, I'm bored as heck from the old Volition style soulless, colorless texturing from a 1999 game. :(
 
I'd like to add I also believe all Zods should be worshiped as our true lords and masters. SA-VASUDA!

EDIT: If my wording offends someone I apologize, it was not the intention.

I do not know what campaigns you have played, so forgive me if I assume you haven't played the following campaigns:

Wings of Dawn: Completely unique universe! New aliens to make friends with and blow up.
The Antagonist: Again, completely unique universe! Uses community ships and assets to create something that is both very fun and tugs at your brain.
Just Another Day: Okay, biased cause its mine. But its been my own goal to make it fun, and then make it funny. In other campaigns that I've lent myself to, I try to follow the same ethos. Fun first, then we do other things to enhance it.

Things like BP do follow the "traditional" FreeSpace model (in that you have the pre-established gameplay that you might find boring), but the missions try to go beyond that. It's just not Escort Mission #4457, its trying to capture the player in a new way to play and see the universe.


And just in general to the people who spend all their time making other mods with no time to play any others: I do salute your sacrifice! I really wish to see what you all come up with. But if at some point you want a break, or feel that you're burning out by doing too much, there's nothing wrong to see what everyone else has done. You might find inspiration from others work that you might not have come to in a vacuum. After playing The Antagonist, I really liked how the missions were structured. The boss fights were segregated from the shoot em up parts of the campaign, which means losing at the boss, doesn't mean replaying the entire mission over (oh hey some missions of JAD, nice of you to make me die at the very end). That's something I've been building into my missions now.

But don't burn yourself out totally if you can help it*. :( We're not as big as the modding communities for minecraft or half life. People who cease to play FreeSpace hurt us a lot more.


*And by that I don't mean, if you give up you're a traitor. People like Sushi have done great works and, with their own RL things going on, deserve a retirement.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: karajorma on October 21, 2012, 01:09:54 am
On the other hand, who are we making mods for if everyone is too busy making their own? :confused:

Well in the case of Diaspora, we managed to find a completely new audience. :D But there are plenty of people on HLP who don't mod. I'm sure plenty of them play the mods we make.

I just thought that Spoon's comment that anyone who doesn't play FS2 should feel bad was rather heavy handed. If you're enjoying yourself and contributing to the community, why should you feel bad if you don't play FS2 mods? Sure you're missing out on the opportunity to learn the latest tricks, but I'm certainly not going to insist that everyone has to play.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Mongoose on October 21, 2012, 02:37:13 am
On the other hand, who are we making mods for if everyone is too busy making their own? :confused:
I don't make stuff, and I like playing stuff other people make!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: BengalTiger on October 21, 2012, 04:40:14 am
Some people both mod and play. :P
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: MatthTheGeek on October 21, 2012, 04:44:23 am
(http://i.qkme.me/3rfrml.jpg)
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: karajorma on October 21, 2012, 05:12:23 am
Some people both mod and play. :P

And some people only do one. And that's okay. :p
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Dilmah G on October 21, 2012, 05:41:46 am
Probably been about 2/3 years since I've played FS on a regular basis. Playtesting for BP was the last time I did any real FSing, and I found that even though I didn't play a lot of FS relative to the other team members, I started to burn out a bit and just not enjoy it as much. It unfortunately also coincided with some RL stuff as well as the upper years of school and so I just never really got back into it.

I always FREDed for fun and to satisfy my BoE/military fiction wet dreams and still did so over the last few years, but other than that I just find it a real effort to do anything else. That, and my computer was notoriously crap for FS and is almost 7 years old. I want to play it again after typing this but ARGH I NEED A NEW COMPUTA

I do like HLP though, it feels kind of like the village bar that I'm happy to simply reside at on the internet, which is why I'm still here despite having very little to do with FS these days.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 21, 2012, 06:21:36 am
And some people only do one. And that's okay. :p
And some do none, which is more the impression I'm getting this thread was intended for.

We are making them for the next generation of players who will hear how fun fs is and how good the newer mods are from all the previous... players.... dammit.

yeah we should all just pack up and go home, probably.
Yup.


See? This thread is so bad its poison.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: The Dagger on October 21, 2012, 06:59:30 am
Wow, this thread is kind of depressing.

I just played BP yesterday and I count to keep at it today :D. I think the last time I played retail was 4 months ago and there are lots of mods I look forward to.

Maybe it's 'cause I just played Freespace 2 for the first time three years ago. I was looking for a space sim and I found out about HLP. I would probably never have bought FS2 if it wasn't for HLP.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Luis Dias on October 21, 2012, 08:11:19 am
I haven't played FS for a year or so cauze my laptop is pretty much in its retirement age and my 3 kids won't let me even think about having a solution for that problem.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Axem on October 21, 2012, 09:32:25 am
On the other hand, who are we making mods for if everyone is too busy making their own? :confused:

Well in the case of Diaspora, we managed to find a completely new audience. :D But there are plenty of people on HLP who don't mod. I'm sure plenty of them play the mods we make.

I just thought that Spoon's comment that anyone who doesn't play FS2 should feel bad was rather heavy handed. If you're enjoying yourself and contributing to the community, why should you feel bad if you don't play FS2 mods? Sure you're missing out on the opportunity to learn the latest tricks, but I'm certainly not going to insist that everyone has to play.

Not everyone has the benefit of making a stellar mod and/or stand alone game that goes across every major gaming site. :p

I won't say that everyone should be forced to play, but shouldn't we be encouraging everyone to play? And this thread just seems like it celebrates not playing. Unless its supposed to guilt them into playing again... Then bravo, I guess!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: esarai on October 21, 2012, 09:43:37 am
oh god I haven't played retail fs2 in...
in...
oh frak me I can't remember.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 21, 2012, 10:05:07 am
I can feel Axem's frustration especially because he
He works his ass off at a talent level that would, in another community (say, HL2 modding) have him routinely pulling press coverage and download numbers to make Diaspora green with envy.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Kobrar44 on October 21, 2012, 10:13:31 am
..this thread just seems like it celebrates not playing.
I had an impression like this was supposed to be "My name is ***** *****. I am ** years old. I am addicted since ****. I haven't played FS for ** months." but it ended up more like "I haven't played FS for years, what gives?". In other words, too much seriousness here. Or the concept[ppl] simply failed at the very beginning.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 21, 2012, 10:28:13 am
I can feel Axem's frustration especially because he
  • Makes missions that are technically excellent, probably the most ambitious and sophisticated in the entire community
  • Doesn't have a big splashy post-Capella mod, or a TC, or a new universe to draw attention
  • Does a lot of his original work in comedy, or in experimental stuff

He works his ass off at a talent level that would, in another community (say, HL2 modding) have him routinely pulling press coverage and download numbers to make Diaspora green with envy.
QFT
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Nuke on October 21, 2012, 10:48:49 am
ive slowed down but i sure as hell haven't quit yet.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: karajorma on October 21, 2012, 10:49:03 am
Not everyone has the benefit of making a stellar mod and/or stand alone game that goes across every major gaming site.  :p

As I said, there are plenty of people who come to HLP just to play games. So it's not like there isn't an audience for mods.

Quote
I won't say that everyone should be forced to play, but shouldn't we be encouraging everyone to play? And this thread just seems like it celebrates not playing. Unless its supposed to guilt them into playing again... Then bravo, I guess!

I was going to post something along the lines that if you want to encourage people to play telling them they should be ashamed of themselves for not playing isn't the way to go about it but for one reason or another I decided against it.

I agree with encouraging people or at least asking them why they're not playing. I just don't see any point in trying to make people feel bad because they like modding more than playing at this point. That's just likely to make them feel unwelcome in the community unless they play.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: soilder198 on October 21, 2012, 11:11:26 am
Even though this threads gone a bit off topic, I still play the main freespace 2 campaign from time to time because its so godly awesome
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Axem on October 21, 2012, 11:26:09 am
I just think that we shouldn't work in total vacuums with each other. Letting us build off each other makes mods of even higher quality.

I don't think we should shame or ostracize people for not playing FreeSpace either. My last sentence in that comment was a bit of a joke. Of course you won't get anything with a negative attitude. We have things like the highlights that help draw people to things like releases. They've been a little slow lately, the only big releases up there are Diaspora and Shumpspace (which goes back to July).

And yes, a good question might be, why have you stopped playing? Are they tired of FreeSpace in general now? Or are they just not aware of new content. If you haven't played for 3 years, you've missed (or forgottten) a lot of the highlights since then!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on October 21, 2012, 11:33:37 am
I haven't played FS2 mods since... uh... BP2. Gave up on the Antagonist, 'cause I suck at single-handed dogfights. I did play Diaspora though!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: karajorma on October 21, 2012, 11:33:53 am
I don't think we should shame or ostracize people for not playing FreeSpace either. My last sentence in that comment was a bit of a joke.

I knew you were joking. Sadly though there have been comments on this thread to that effect which didn't seem to be jokes.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: SpardaSon21 on October 21, 2012, 11:41:50 am
I don't typically replay campaigns, and I've done most of the stuff that's been recently released (yes, that includes Diaspora).  Busy waiting for Spoon's new mini-campaign for WoD though.

And no, don't tell me to play Sync, Transcend, VD, and Windmills.  Those don't interest me.  Yes, I am a horrible person for that.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: MatthTheGeek on October 21, 2012, 12:43:31 pm
I still very, very routinely play FS, mostly BP beta testing. I would understand though that people that have been there since the very beginning (more than a decade !) may be a bit burnt out. After modding HW2 for 8 years I rarely go back to it (but FS is much more awesome than HW2 !).
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: yuezhi on October 21, 2012, 12:51:07 pm
hmm. maybe i should just defect to tachyon and starshatter. :(
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 21, 2012, 01:35:53 pm
This is still a terrible thread and I don't see it improving!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Solatar on October 21, 2012, 01:37:00 pm
The first impression I got from the thread title was "hey, people that used to play freespace all the time, it's been awhile for me, how long has it been since YOU moved on to other things?"  The title suggests to me a backward looking mindset into an "old" game whose glory days have already passed, not taking into account that - as has been stated several times - some of the coolest, most innovative stuff that's been done with the engine has been done in the past few years and continues now.  That mindset can poison a community.  It's been 13 years, and we're finally getting to the really good stuff. 

I'm more of a consumer than a contributor (I rarely post as such, should probably add a few more "somebody's playing it, keep making it" posts), but regardless, the game is anything but dead to me.  Even personal, never-finished mod projects give the game a sandbox element that keeps it fresh when I'd rather meddle with stuff than play through any of the great stories out there.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Cyborg17 on October 21, 2012, 01:58:07 pm
I feel like the difficulty is that building Freespace missions, especially good ones, is a difficult task.  Both writing dialogue and putting together the mission events in a way that makes a mission fun, balanced, and interesting is a long process.

I feel like that's the thing that keeps more campaigns and mods from coming out, even more than asset building, disregarding the really large projects which never got that point.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Droid803 on October 21, 2012, 02:27:51 pm
I don't see what's wrong with this thread.
For the record, in my position : I've just stated that I haven't player anything since the last big-ish release that I was interested in. I'm assuming many others are in the same boat.

I could give less of a damn about total conversions set in non-original universes that I know nothing about, because they probably assume that I do know something about said universe, and proceed to deprive me of critical information (that an actual fan of the universe would obviously know and would be bored hearing restated). Not to mention that I haven't looked into the originals precisely because their descriptions never really hooked me. I mean sure, I know they're great achievements in terms of the technical modding perspective but I wouldn't play it just for that - I'd rather just have someone tell me what they did that was so cool. I don't see it being worth downloading several GB of otherwise useless data just to see a tech demo. I haven't called anyone out for totally ignoring my mod when talking about alternate flight models (while also bringing up Wings of Dawn which actually has a flight model closer to regular old FreeSpace), so hey. :P

You can bet that when WiH2, or JAD 2.22 comes out I'm sure as hell playing it, but the reality of the fact is that between work, classes, homework, and a mother****ing honours thesis there just isn't time to play campaigns I'm not totally interested in, and contribute to projects I'm already on. I feel that's the position most people who haven't played in a while are in, rather than being "burned out". I'd sure as hell be playing more if doing so contributed to REAL LIFE and all...

Anyhow, I feel like the whole "THIS THREAD IS BAD" posting is worse than the actual thread itself. It's not about to change anything and just makes this have a more negative and depressing atmosphere than it needs to.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 21, 2012, 02:58:55 pm
Quote
I don't see what's wrong with this thread.
See
Quote
The first impression I got from the thread title was "hey, people that used to play freespace all the time, it's been awhile for me, how long has it been since YOU moved on to other things?"  The title suggests to me a backward looking mindset into an "old" game whose glory days have already passed, not taking into account that - as has been stated several times - some of the coolest, most innovative stuff that's been done with the engine has been done in the past few years and continues now.  That mindset can poison a community.  It's been 13 years, and we're finally getting to the really good stuff.
I think this sums it up pretty good!

Quote
I haven't called anyone out for totally ignoring my mod when talking about alternate flight models (while also bringing up Wings of Dawn which actually has a flight model closer to regular old FreeSpace), so hey. :p
Well you bloody should! DE is criminally overlooked.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Sarafan on October 21, 2012, 03:11:48 pm
The first impression I got from the thread title was "hey, people that used to play freespace all the time, it's been awhile for me, how long has it been since YOU moved on to other things?"  The title suggests to me a backward looking mindset into an "old" game whose glory days have already passed, not taking into account that - as has been stated several times - some of the coolest, most innovative stuff that's been done with the engine has been done in the past few years and continues now.  That mindset can poison a community.  It's been 13 years, and we're finally getting to the really good stuff. 


Jesus, from the guy who created the thread I can say Kobra provided something you all missed.

I had an impression like this was supposed to be "My name is ***** *****. I am ** years old. I am addicted since ****. I haven't played FS for ** months." but it ended up more like "I haven't played FS for years, what gives?". In other words, too much seriousness here.

Real reason I havent played FS is because my is pc is a 11 year only junk, my god, everybody chill, Freespace nor HLP are falling
apart.


What have I done?



 :p
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Droid803 on October 21, 2012, 03:19:08 pm
Quote
I don't see what's wrong with this thread.
See
Quote
The first impression I got from the thread title was "hey, people that used to play freespace all the time, it's been awhile for me, how long has it been since YOU moved on to other things?"  The title suggests to me a backward looking mindset into an "old" game whose glory days have already passed, not taking into account that - as has been stated several times - some of the coolest, most innovative stuff that's been done with the engine has been done in the past few years and continues now.  That mindset can poison a community.  It's been 13 years, and we're finally getting to the really good stuff.
I think this sums it up pretty good!

I guess I can understand where someone might get that impression. It's up to interpretation, and I think there can be some room for people to look back and go "damn, I sure missed the days when I was in high school and never had to work, do any homework, or study and had tons of free time." :P People have their reasons and I really doubt it's out of some feeling that the "golden age" has passed - which obviously isn't the case, as because looking back, even classic campaigns like Derelict can be pretty...bland [and occasionally also pretty bad in terms of mission design] in comparison to the cool new stuff we have!

So, what's the point of calling this thread terrible then while not really contributing?
A ploy to get it closed by making it even more terrible?  :doubt:


:P
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Sushi on October 21, 2012, 04:20:28 pm
Holy crap this thread has gotten meta on itself.

:doubt:


I do find it interesting (and somewhat of a relief) that I'm not the only one who finds it hard to just play after having gotten into modding. It's really hard for me to just enjoy FS2 (or any variants) when I know how (relatively) easy it is for me to go and "fix" the things I don't like.

It's a strange position to be in where the power to change the game makes it hard for me to enjoy it as it is.

Anyway, I've concluded that when I do attempt playing again (probably after the next major/mediavps release) I'll have to make a conscious effort to just play it as-is, and not try to tweak things or even think about tweaking things. Also, to resist the urge to make my own mod yet again.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: SypheDMar on October 21, 2012, 04:33:16 pm
Last campaign I played was Diaspora, but I didn't finish it yet. I wish I did, but RL takes out a lot of time. When I'm not in school, I'm working for my organization or looking for an internship. When I'm not doing that, I'm working for my job.

Retail is still a very awesome campaign, and I do plan on going back to it again because I never beat it on Insane. Last campaign I played before Diaspora was BP2 when Delenda Est was impossible. That mission discouraged me a bit from FreeSpace because I felt like I lost all my skills in space sims and gaming in general (it turned out to be bugged, fortunately). I played BtA from time to time, and I probably played WoD before replaying BP2. And before that is retail.

Retail is fun, especially since I have a goal set for me. Multi is a ride when there are people to play with (haven't had time since last year). I tried to upgrade several campaigns including Sync, Transcend, and Windmills. There should be a thread under the Campaign Restoration Project. They're not the best restorations, but I tried to make Windmills functional for 3.6.12. I didn't get enough feedback to consider looking back at those and fixing anything, so if there's something that's broken, let me know!.

The best part about HLP is not the mods, though. For me, it's the community. Whether it be IRC or Gen Disc. (which seems have its ups and downs [downs lately]), HLP has lots of smart people that I like listening to, even if I don't understand all of it. Mostly because y'all make it understandable to the average person, and your interests are interesting to read about.

EDIT: One thing HLP has done is broaden my view. I started reading what people are saying and understanding them better than I should. Whether it be political, religious, scientific, or women's issues, I feel that HLP has been a major influence in my thinking of the world. Also, this broadening of views applies to reading threads too.

For example, that Spoon and MinMixael vs Karajorma thread: I knew that there was a misunderstanding. I wanted to say, "Hey guys. Nobody's suggesting that every needs to learn how to script and that scripting is better," but I didn't have the guts to post because lots of prominent members were there and the argument seemed to be personal. Looking back, I should've said something.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: el_magnifico on October 21, 2012, 05:59:51 pm
Aren't we exaggerating a bit? I mean, it's not like playing video games is mandatory or something.
I had a hiatus of at least a year when I didn't play Freespace because real life was being REALLY demanding. Recently, I came back from it because real life got even more demanding than ever but I'm suffering from considerable stress and I'm procrastinating many things. So I've been getting myself up to date with the main releases.
I just assume everybody has a reason to do whatever they might want to.

EDIT: One thing HLP has done is broaden my view. I started reading what people are saying and understanding them better than I should. Whether it be political, religious, scientific, or women's issues, I feel that HLP has been a major influence in my thinking of the world. Also, this broadening of views applies to reading threads too.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I blame the economic crisis, wikileaks, personal life changes and hard-light for my political changes in the last few years.
Also, I blame hard-light for my recently acquired ability to (somewhat) speak English fluently, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.



I don't see what's wrong with this thread.
For the record, in my position : I've just stated that I haven't player anything since the last big-ish release that I was interested in. I'm assuming many others are in the same boat.

I could give less of a damn about total conversions set in non-original universes that I know nothing about, because they probably assume that I do know something about said universe, and proceed to deprive me of critical information (that an actual fan of the universe would obviously know and would be bored hearing restated). Not to mention that I haven't looked into the originals precisely because their descriptions never really hooked me. I mean sure, I know they're great achievements in terms of the technical modding perspective but I wouldn't play it just for that - I'd rather just have someone tell me what they did that was so cool. I don't see it being worth downloading several GB of otherwise useless data just to see a tech demo. I haven't called anyone out for totally ignoring my mod when talking about alternate flight models (while also bringing up Wings of Dawn which actually has a flight model closer to regular old FreeSpace), so hey. :P

You can bet that when WiH2, or JAD 2.22 comes out I'm sure as hell playing it, but the reality of the fact is that between work, classes, homework, and a mother****ing honours thesis there just isn't time to play campaigns I'm not totally interested in, and contribute to projects I'm already on. I feel that's the position most people who haven't played in a while are in, rather than being "burned out". I'd sure as hell be playing more if doing so contributed to REAL LIFE and all...

Anyhow, I feel like the whole "THIS THREAD IS BAD" posting is worse than the actual thread itself. It's not about to change anything and just makes this have a more negative and depressing atmosphere than it needs to.

 :yes:
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 21, 2012, 06:23:14 pm
And no, don't tell me to play Sync, Transcend, VD, and Windmills.  Those don't interest me.  Yes, I am a horrible person for that.

These campaigns don't share any common elements so I can't see why you'd be disinterested in all of them.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: headdie on October 21, 2012, 06:26:16 pm
And no, don't tell me to play Sync, Transcend, VD, and Windmills.  Those don't interest me.  Yes, I am a horrible person for that.

These campaigns don't share any common elements so I can't see why you'd be disinterested in all of them.

I dont know.  I am going back a couple of years here and might be getting stuff muddled up but iirc Sync and Transcend had some pretty trippy surrealism aspects to the plots
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 21, 2012, 06:41:48 pm
Yeah, but VD and Windmills are both pretty distinct.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: swashmebuckle on October 21, 2012, 06:58:35 pm
It might be nice to have a "HLP Community Playthrough" type of thing where every month or so a campaign would be selected and players would be encouraged to try or revisit it and post about their experience in the thread, just discussing whatever they find noteworthy about it and letting the discussion go wherever (within reason).  Veterans could chime in with insight about the context of the time it was created in, and new players would be encouraged to join in without having to feel like they were all on their own, exhuming a corpse buried in 2003 or whatever.  I guess this is sort of similar to the wiki's featured campaigns, but:

1. It requires less executive effort than writing up a wiki page
2. The forum is where the bulk of HLP's activity is
3. We wouldn't be limited to only the best campaigns, as there is a lot to be learned from (and enjoyed) in the not-so-hot campaigns as well

Anyway, it could be a fun way to make it easy for new or returning FS'ers to get playing.  Sometime you just need an excuse.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 21, 2012, 07:01:45 pm
I have a half-completed thread in Gen FS intended to provide historical and artistic context for every major campaign.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: JCDNWarrior on October 21, 2012, 07:06:08 pm
Actually, I see a positive effect coming, something we of HLP could encourage - the announcement of Space Citizen has generated a lot of interest from Freelancer and Wing Commander fans for good space games like Freespace 2 has to offer. This means a lot of mods here can see a lot more interest and many more new and old people could come here looking for the work done. That's why it might be smart to hang around the Star Citizen forums and the Kickstarter page to pitch Freespace 2 SCP a little.

Myself, I still play Retail and WiH1 a little here and there, on and off, mostly to take ideas and lend elements to make my campaign and missions better and more interesting, though I regret to say I haven't had the time to play all of the recent mods yet. For me HLP is still quite a potential treasure trove and I hope to contribute a little to that when the time comes that I can present such project openly.

So, for anyone feeling down, I say, the best is yet to come, with all the new technical additions, WiH2 and other projects and mods that will present themselves, as well as more potential audience to witness these.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Droid803 on October 21, 2012, 07:13:18 pm
I have a half-completed thread in Gen FS intended to provide historical and artistic context for every major campaign.

If only it wasn't just half-complete :(
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: fightermedic on October 21, 2012, 07:26:39 pm
this thread is interesting and very odd at the same time :)
other than diaspora, i haven't really played since i started working on the voice acting of fall of epsilon pegasi - all the mission testing for the various campaigns i helped restoring can hardly be called playing, replaying a mission 30 times is definitely no fun :D

It might be nice to have a "HLP Community Playthrough" type of thing where every month or so a campaign would be selected and players would be encouraged to try or revisit it and post about their experience in the thread, just discussing whatever they find noteworthy about it and letting the discussion go wherever (within reason).  Veterans could chime in with insight about the context of the time it was created in, and new players would be encouraged to join in without having to feel like they were all on their own, exhuming a corpse buried in 2003 or whatever.  I guess this is sort of similar to the wiki's featured campaigns, but:

1. It requires less executive effort than writing up a wiki page
2. The forum is where the bulk of HLP's activity is
3. We wouldn't be limited to only the best campaigns, as there is a lot to be learned from (and enjoyed) in the not-so-hot campaigns as well

Anyway, it could be a fun way to make it easy for new or returning FS'ers to get playing.  Sometime you just need an excuse.

i think that's a wonderful idea :) you could argue though, that the campaign restoration project is more or less just this ;) and i can't see too much interest in that part of the forum over the last year (despite the fact that at least in my humble opinion some of the best campaigns freespace has to offer are gathered there)
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 21, 2012, 07:27:15 pm
I have a half-completed thread in Gen FS intended to provide historical and artistic context for every major campaign.

If only it wasn't just half-complete :(

I'm working on it, but like you, RL is kicking my ass.  :(
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Mongoose on October 21, 2012, 07:31:02 pm
I do find it interesting (and somewhat of a relief) that I'm not the only one who finds it hard to just play after having gotten into modding. It's really hard for me to just enjoy FS2 (or any variants) when I know how (relatively) easy it is for me to go and "fix" the things I don't like.

It's a strange position to be in where the power to change the game makes it hard for me to enjoy it as it is.
I think this falls under the "TVTropes will ruin your life" category on the aforementioned site; the gist of it is that the more you learn about literary devices and genre tropes, the more you start to see them in the media you consume, to the point where it can interfere with the experience.  I could definitely see the same thing happening to an experienced campaign creator while playing through someone else's work.  By the same token, though, there's also the possibility that you could come across some little trick that makes you stop and think, "Holy crap, how did they pull that off?", and then fire up FRED to take a look.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 21, 2012, 08:38:05 pm
I think this falls under the "TVTropes will ruin your life" category on the aforementioned site; the gist of it is that the more you learn about literary devices and genre tropes, the more you start to see them in the media you consume, to the point where it can interfere with the experience.  I could definitely see the same thing happening to an experienced campaign creator while playing through someone else's work.  By the same token, though, there's also the possibility that you could come across some little trick that makes you stop and think, "Holy crap, how did they pull that off?", and then fire up FRED to take a look.

I've gotten as deep into the guts of FS design as almost anyone (probably not as deep as Sushi, though, who's had to gaze into the AI code for so long), and the campaigns that have really blown me away the last few years have been campaigns where I kenned almost immediately how they were doing it, but I was still gripped by what they were doing. The Antagonist in particular (which I'm betting most of the people in this thread haven't played) was stunning for how closely it approached the design qualities of a real modern indie like Bastion. I haven't played Dimensional Eclipse yet but knowing Droid it's probably got some of the same going on.

I think about 90% of the players and probably 70% of the designers have no idea how much power they're sitting on. FRED is an absurdly capable editor and we've only scratched the surface.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: SypheDMar on October 21, 2012, 11:50:11 pm
... i haven't really played since i started working on the voice acting of fall of epsilon pegasi...
By the way, if you're in need of a human instead of a TTS, let me know. I try to imagine that I sound better than a computer.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: CommanderDJ on October 22, 2012, 01:46:48 am
I haven't played FS in at least a year, with the exception of two missions of Diaspora before it crashed and it didn't hook me in enough for me to try again (probably because I've never seen BSG). The problem is that to me the gameplay is all the same, no matter the mod or alterations. I stopped playing the Antagonist after a few missions because I got bored - people kept telling me that the gameplay was nothing like FS, but I couldn't see it - it all felt the same to me just with different weapons, models and table values. I do think that doing some modding and coding a long while back did speed this up - knowing how it all works, unfortunately, ruins the immersion for me since I start thinking about FRED events and SEXPs when I should be thinking "I'm in a spaceship!"

Not sure if posting this was wise, but there you go.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Nuke on October 22, 2012, 02:34:09 am
i know ive occasionally diverged off and tried modding other games, freespace wasnt exactly my first experience with modding. id done some stuff for quake and descent 2 prior to fs1. nothing release worthy i just did it because i wanted to know how games worked. ive modded some games since. like freelancer (which i hated modding). more recently ksp, i just released a small number of parts not to long ago (ok so it was a beta and i havent gotten around to smashing all the bugs yet). in a way the simplicity of it reminded me of the golden days of freespace modding (and they arent so recent for me). the problem with my freespace mods, was that i had established a massive backlog of old models prior to the scp turning out awesome new features. there was just so much backtracking and re working of old assets it became more of a chore than a hobby. and thanks to endless corner cutting and asset reuse to save time, my mods are a mess. even my htl stuff is somewhat ugly. i dont really know what to do about it anymore.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: ssmit132 on October 22, 2012, 02:48:54 am
Though I by all means still like FreeSpace, I haven't really played it that often in... well, the last year at least. Partly because I've just felt like doing other things, and partly because I don't feel like playing it when I have things for uni I have to do (not that I don't procrastinate anyway). Once I have less I need to do, I might give Diaspora and Darkest Dawn a whirl, not to mention the other things I have to get to (such as finishing Dimensional Eclipse and putting some decent time into FFI on Virtual Console). I actually haven't been playing that much at all, recently, except on the DS/3DS since that's a good time filler for the train, so it's not limited to FreeSpace.

I've also been having some mod ideas I'd like to try, or at least put something together for fun, but the same problem occurs there, also I don't know whether I can think of a interesting story.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Gortef on October 22, 2012, 06:57:30 am
It sure has been a while since the last time I played FS2... well, Diaspora is on my list of "play soon" so maybe that will fix things up.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 22, 2012, 07:05:12 am
I haven't played FS in at least a year, with the exception of two missions of Diaspora before it crashed and it didn't hook me in enough for me to try again (probably because I've never seen BSG). The problem is that to me the gameplay is all the same, no matter the mod or alterations. I stopped playing the Antagonist after a few missions because I got bored - people kept telling me that the gameplay was nothing like FS, but I couldn't see it - it all felt the same to me just with different weapons, models and table values.

I doubt you got far enough in to judge that.
Spoiler:
If you've played a campaign before in which you flip in and out of subspace whenever you want in order to battle enemies that can 'submerge' and 'surface' I'd be very shocked.

The worst thing about this thread is the effect it has on creatives. This community exists because people are willing to put in time. If nobody cares about that time, or takes advantage of its results, well...
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: JCDNWarrior on October 22, 2012, 07:17:01 am
The worst thing about this thread is the effect it has on creatives. This community exists because people are willing to put in time. If nobody cares about that time, or takes advantage of its results, well...

Well, that's why I suggest, again, to ride the wave that's being generated by Space Citizen - If there's one way to attract the audience we want, there it is. Having kept track a little of the Space Citizen forums where people asked for what similar games to Space Citizen they could play to tide them over, many weren't aware of Freespace 2. I really think it'll help a lot if we can tap that audience.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Luis Dias on October 22, 2012, 07:24:59 am
Oh don't get depressed too much. I do enjoy everything you create, and if I can't play it myself, I try to watch it on youtube and so on. Also, there's a whole multitude of people who do play it and just aren't interested in chit chats ;)
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 22, 2012, 07:37:48 am
Oh don't get depressed too much. I do enjoy everything you create, and if I can't play it myself, I try to watch it on youtube and so on. Also, there's a whole multitude of people who do play it and just aren't interested in chit chats ;)

I'm not worried about myself! But there's plenty of people on HLP who don't have the benefit of an awesome subforum full of thoughtful people.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: karajorma on October 22, 2012, 07:38:44 am
The worst thing about this thread is the effect it has on creatives. This community exists because people are willing to put in time. If nobody cares about that time, or takes advantage of its results, well...

I don't think it's a case of no one caring though. We've always known that there are plenty of people who hang around on HLP cause they like the community and not cause they play Freespace any more. That's been the case as long as there has been a HLP.

Seriously, what's in the water that is making everyone such sadsacks recently? A thread like this should be a place to make a few people realise "****! It's been that long? Better go fire up FS!"
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: MatthTheGeek on October 22, 2012, 07:48:01 am
This thread is so pessimist it kills kitten.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: AndrewofDoom on October 22, 2012, 08:15:19 am
Well, on a positive note, this thread guilt tripped me enough that I actually decided to actually work on SHMUPSpace yesterday. :p
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Spoon on October 22, 2012, 09:14:56 am
Seriously, what's in the water that is making everyone such sadsacks recently? A thread like this should be a place to make a few people realise "****! It's been that long? Better go fire up FS!"
Different people seem to be having different interpretation's of the original intention of this thread. I for one can't make out anything positive out of the opening post. And apparantly I'm not the only one who can't.

The worst thing about this thread is the effect it has on creatives. This community exists because people are willing to put in time. If nobody cares about that time, or takes advantage of its results, well...
Yuuup.
Threads like these will always have an effect on the mind in one way or an other. In this thread's case I'm more inclined to think "Geez, apparantly its too much effort to play and enjoy new releases for these people. Why should we even bother?" instead of "Golly, these people haven't played anything in so long! Let's get fired up and produce more stuff (they wont play)!" (oh wait, both of these are not very positive. Well... figures.)
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: mjn.mixael on October 22, 2012, 09:30:08 am
Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for? Is it so that 5 or 6 people can download my cutscenes, upload them to YouTube and not give credit? Cause that's happened, and that sucks...

Quite separately, I find it interesting how many people have confessed not playing FS in a long time here, but definitely have gone to the FSU board to complain about this and that.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Luis Dias on October 22, 2012, 09:37:45 am
Well it would be perhaps too soon to confuse this thread for an actual statistical study over the situation, although other kinds of statistics may exist that support your pessimism. As far as I can tell, I can say that I appreciated every single improvement you made in those cutscenes and assets. And I hope they will live forever.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 22, 2012, 09:40:16 am
Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for? Is it so that 5 or 6 people can download my cutscenes, upload them to YouTube and not give credit? Cause that's happened, and that sucks...

If it's worth anything, I see a lot of enthusiasm off-site for FSO. SomethingAwful had a pretty active FS2O thread for a long time.

Quote
Quite separately, I find it interesting how many people have confessed not playing FS in a long time here, but definitely have gone to the FSU board to complain about this and that.

Yeah, this and people who post tech support/'new ideas' but haven't actually played the game in years just drive me insane.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: MatthTheGeek on October 22, 2012, 09:47:50 am
If it's worth anything, I see a lot of enthusiasm off-site for FSO. SomethingAwful had a pretty active FS2O thread for a long time.
That doesn't make any sense. If they have interest for FSO why aren't they coming over here ?
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 22, 2012, 09:49:41 am
If it's worth anything, I see a lot of enthusiasm off-site for FSO. SomethingAwful had a pretty active FS2O thread for a long time.
That doesn't make any sense. If they have interest for FSO why aren't they coming over here ?

I think there's a pretty large continent of passive readers and intermittent-HLP-checkers who haven't registered accounts.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Luis Dias on October 22, 2012, 09:58:32 am
Most people consider HLP to be a "modders" forum, and not actually a "players" forum. So you would expect most people here to be a "modder" of some sort. I myself feel a little odd to be even posting in here sometimes, as if I don't really deserve it. Or something.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: MatthTheGeek on October 22, 2012, 10:47:24 am
A player that doesn't play mods is a sad player.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Kon on October 22, 2012, 11:51:12 am
I barely ever post here, and I come and go for stretches in the IRC channel, but I've been following the HLP since 2004 and I couldn't be more grateful to the talented people here who have kept Freespace alive and well. It's now been 8 years since the PXO server fell off that forklift, but we're all still here.

I don't play FS every day because I don't play as many games as I used to, in general. Whenever I do get on a gaming streak, however, I always find time to dust off the joystick and shoot some red dots. I'm currently abroad for a few months, but one of the first things I plan to do when I get home is play Diaspora. It looks like I'll have to check out The Antagonist as well.

This thread is fairly depressing for a number of reasons, but I think it's most important to remind the modders here that their work is enjoyed by many people who aren't HLP regulars. Just because you can't see them post doesn't mean they don't appreciate the work that goes on here. If anything, it might mean they're too busy playing! ;)

Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for? Is it so that 5 or 6 people can download my cutscenes, upload them to YouTube and not give credit? Cause that's happened, and that sucks...
I'm an FS1 fetishist and huge fan of all the work you've poured into the FS Port. I can't keep track of how many times I've played through The Main FreeSpace Campaign. I've only managed to replay the FS2 campaign to the end once, and I think that was still on retail. I know there have to be a lot of FS1 fans lurking out there, and since I'm not even sure if retail FS1 will install on today's machines, the work you do is really invaluable. Thank you. :)
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Solatar on October 22, 2012, 12:07:20 pm
Thought I'd pop in and add a +1 to the above post.  I always preferred FS1 to FS2, and absolutely love mjn.mixael's work (as well as everybody else involved with the FSPort, of course).  Everytime I take a RL hiatus from gaming - usually over the summer, where I don't have lots of computer access - come back and FS1 is more and more badass. 

In what I am taking to be the positive spirit of the original post: I just did a FS1 + ST:R + Shrouding the Light + Templar Port extravaganza playthrough over the last few weeks. 
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on October 22, 2012, 01:15:19 pm
Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for?

Heck no, your work was my incentive last time I played the main campaign! Speaking for myself, I'm still very much looking forward to new high-quality FS-universe material. WiH2 and BtA are high on my wishlist, and I was absolutely thrilled when VD came out! If I haven't been playing a lot lately, it's because the recent mods didn't catch my interest - low quality or out-of-universe. But if one of the of the established mods does a release, hell yeah I'll make time to play it, and I'm sure many others will too!

You guys shouldn't let this thread get on your nerves. There's, what, 20 people here who said they hardly play anymore? As ASW team leader (not even a high-profile mod), I was pleasantly surprised that our first release got over 1700 downloads! I still get PMs every once in a while, from people who wanted to let me know how much they enjoyed playing the mod.

So modders, keep it up! People are absolutely, positively, still playing our mods - don't let this thread make you think otherwise!

Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: el_magnifico on October 22, 2012, 01:19:19 pm
Oh don't get depressed too much. I do enjoy everything you create, and if I can't play it myself, I try to watch it on youtube and so on. Also, there's a whole multitude of people who do play it and just aren't interested in chit chats ;)

I'm not worried about myself! But there's plenty of people on HLP who don't have the benefit of an awesome subforum full of thoughtful people.
Ha! I already have that. Right inside my mind. Yeah. :pimp:

Wait! That's not a good thing to have, is it? :shaking:

 :P

Most people consider HLP to be a "modders" forum, and not actually a "players" forum. So you would expect most people here to be a "modder" of some sort. I myself feel a little odd to be even posting in here sometimes, as if I don't really deserve it. Or something.

Welcome to the club.

Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for? Is it so that 5 or 6 people can download my cutscenes, upload them to YouTube and not give credit? Cause that's happened, and that sucks...

Quite separately, I find it interesting how many people have confessed not playing FS in a long time here, but definitely have gone to the FSU board to complain about this and that.

Listen, I know you got offended with me in the past because I said FSPort lacked a certain something FS1 had, and you took me wrong and took it personal. I just wanted to tell you that, just like SSX-Kahn and Solatar, I'm an FS1 fetishist and I DO appreciate all the work you've put there. If anything, it makes me wish you would finish it by updating those missing cutscenes and finishing the ones Volition ditched. By the way, I still play FSport every now and then.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Beskargam on October 22, 2012, 01:36:31 pm
I gotta say I don't post that much, nor mod much of anything. But I play the mods, and mjn I love what you and fsport have done for FS1. I always liked the first one over the second. Sorry that this thread has you conent creators down, but I hope you know that your work is appreciated
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: ShootMe2 on October 22, 2012, 02:04:20 pm
Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for? Is it so that 5 or 6 people can download my cutscenes, upload them to YouTube and not give credit? Cause that's happened, and that sucks...

Quite separately, I find it interesting how many people have confessed not playing FS in a long time here, but definitely have gone to the FSU board to complain about this and that.

I just played through the FS Port and absolutely LOVED the work that has been done. I took notice to the changes. Please don't be discouraged.

To everyone here: I am just a gamer, with no capacity for modding games, and this community has rekindled my love for FreeSpace. I went out and bought a joystick just for this game and to be able to enjoy all the work that's been done. I consider FreeSpace to be my favorite game series of all time, and I definitely won't stop playing it now that I've found this community and all the fantastic work that's been done.

So, a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you here that have worked on and/or supported the creation that is has continued for so many years and hopefully will continue on for many more.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Fury on October 22, 2012, 02:29:00 pm
Looking at these replies I'm not sure if I should post. But what the hell, what's one more sob story?

In my case I've never been much of a player. I've skipped most mods, the past, present and future. Even the ones generally regarded as top of the cream. When it comes to FS, playing it doesn't really satisfy me. And ever since my MS Sidewinder Precision Pro broke, I've been unable to find a controller that I am comfortable with. I've tried several joysticks since then and none of them have the feel I'm looking for. Keyboard or keyboard and mouse aren't any good either, even if some of you swear by them. As time passed, I played less and less.

There has been long periods where I haven't played FS in years. In the past I've had at least two of these periods. The first was after I quit TBP. I felt I could no longer express myself in the B5 universe where everything had to follow the series and movies closely. My time was over there and I quit not only TBP, but FS too.

Roughly several years (!) later I decided to play FS again and picked Blue Planet: AoA by random chance. I really liked what Darius had created there and found out that he was in the progress of creating WiH. I somehow ended up joining the BP team. It was insane fun since I could once again be creative. I even modded for BP while I was at work. Though being based on FS and AoA, there were restrictions on creativity but far less than what TBP had. Lots of good things came out of it and I was pretty happy.

But eventually things changed. WiH part 1 development was nearing its end and closing into release. There was not many ways for me to express myself anymore. Most of that was now shouldered by mission designers since you really shouldn't change the modpack too much this late into the development.

After WiH part 1 was released. I pretty much fell into a slump. Even with WiH part 2 now in development, there just wasn't much for me to do since it was up to the mission designers to be creative. And at this point, they could create pretty much everything they desired themselves. As usual, playing missions wasn't really in my interests and when I did, it probably wasn't with appreciable results.

And because of the slump, stress had creeped up my scrotum and showing in my attitude as well. So I made the best decision I could at the time, I quit BP. I briefly did some work for FSU and Diaspore, which was over rather quickly for same reasons. I decided I should either work alone or quit modding altogether.

I tried to create a mod of my own but every time I picked it up, I quickly lost interest. It wasn't supposed to be anything but a gameplay tech demo anyway. But also because of that, I had no real motivation or drive behind it. And now it has been roughly six months since I last touched FSO.

So now, I'm nothing but a lurker. A lurker who no longer knows what the hell he should have done if not quit, knowing what happened in all those cases afterwards.

But regardless. Modding continues. As does playing. Just not from my part.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 22, 2012, 02:32:03 pm
Fury, you did an amazing job, and you shouldn't feel obliged to do anything.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Mongoose on October 22, 2012, 02:54:06 pm
Indeed. Based on this thread... I doubt I'll be starting any new, big projects. I mean, I've worked very hard to modernize almost all of the FS1 (and more important to this thread) and FS2 interface assets. Cutscenes, mainhalls, cbanims, weapon models, medals. (These are in varrying states of completion.) If no one even bothers to even play the retail campaign, then what am I doing all of that for? Is it so that 5 or 6 people can download my cutscenes, upload them to YouTube and not give credit? Cause that's happened, and that sucks...
Pretty much every time there's been a new MediaVPs/FSPort release in the time I've been here, I've made it a point to replay the retail campaigns (or at least campaigns that use mostly-retail assets) to see all of the new stuff in action.  I'm well overdue for another playthrough, though if the Upgrade team has a potential release planned for the next few months, I might just hold off until then.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: CommanderDJ on October 22, 2012, 05:56:33 pm
I haven't played FS in at least a year, with the exception of two missions of Diaspora before it crashed and it didn't hook me in enough for me to try again (probably because I've never seen BSG). The problem is that to me the gameplay is all the same, no matter the mod or alterations. I stopped playing the Antagonist after a few missions because I got bored - people kept telling me that the gameplay was nothing like FS, but I couldn't see it - it all felt the same to me just with different weapons, models and table values.

I doubt you got far enough in to judge that.
Spoiler:
If you've played a campaign before in which you flip in and out of subspace whenever you want in order to battle enemies that can 'submerge' and 'surface' I'd be very shocked.

That was actually the last mission I played. After that, I stopped.

However, I have been keeping up with what the SCP's been doing, and once my exams are over I hope to return to do some bugfixing at least. Once WiH 2 comes out, and the next JAD, I'll play them, since it's more the story and the setting of those that keeps me coming back.

I don't mean to belittle anything that's been done here! FreeSpace has been a part of my life in some capacity since 1999, and HLP since 2008. There've been some great times, and this community will always hold a place in my heart. There's the new MVPs that I'm greatly looking forward to, and several mods like I said above. The dedication that key members of the community put in is incredible. I only wish I could put in the same dedication.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: mobcdmoc3 on October 22, 2012, 06:18:53 pm
I've got my own project going, but I've still managed to fit in some time for playing other mods/campaigns. I really, really regret not finding this community sooner than I did. Only until a few years ago did I even realize that a FS2 existed :nervous: (boo Interplay and their failsauce marketing). I ran through FS1, and then wondered if there was a FS2. Surely enough, there was - Along with this community standing strong.

I've managed to get through almost everything that's been put out there, minus a couple that I simply haven't been able to get enough time to sit down and get into. I appreciate everything that has been done -> It's managed to extend the viable playing time of this game beyond any single game by itself. There's just so many mods out there that bring something new to the table. As long as there isn't a shortage of support or mods, I'll be happily playing this to the very end.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Scourge of Ages on October 22, 2012, 07:12:39 pm
Just skimming this thread has giving me enough motivation to get back to it and finish the two campaigns I've started playing (Derelict and CoW2), and start some of the great stuff that I haven't gotten around to yet (like the latest JADs, in order, DE, Ridiculous, SHMUPSpace, and WCS, EDIT: Antagonist).
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: SypheDMar on October 22, 2012, 07:51:32 pm
I wish I had the time that you have.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Mongoose on October 22, 2012, 08:23:32 pm
Hey, sometimes you have to just make some time for yourself. :p

*says the guy who employed that philosophy to disastrous effect in college*
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: CP5670 on October 28, 2012, 02:48:26 pm
Interesting thread. I actually just loaded up FS2 again last weekend, after not having played it in a couple of years. I need to catch up on several campaign and content releases.

There was once a long period when I spent a lot of time making missions as well as posting here, but hardly playing the game (except for testing things). After I finished PI, I got back into the actual game for the next year or two, especially the multiplayer side, before eventually burning out on that. I was still reasonably active on the forum until last year, having been involved with this community more or less continuously since 1999. It's been a good run, but you move on eventually. As always, there will continue to be a steady flow of newcomers making up for the people who leave over time. I do still play FS2 every now and then, but not necessarily more so than other games, and spend much less time with games in general than I once did. It's simply one of many "good games" in my gaming rotation that I cycle through over time.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on October 28, 2012, 09:23:21 pm
    I do play FreeSpace 2 a lot. As well as a lot of other First person shooters. They help me relax and de-stress after a hard days work. I do gender research, human sexuality and such. My calling is to heal both victims and perpetrators. I have to look at the darkest soul and find a way out for him or her. Those that need to help them, come to me to figure that out. I am the first person to have come up with a mathematical model to predict human sexuality. In any group of people, I can successfully pick out who will most likely commit a sex crime and what it will be. But I am digressing. I play FS2 because it helps me.
   One has to remember that when playing FPS games, it adjusts one's mentality to be more hardened. One focuses on ones will to survive; on the narrow local environment; on the company you have and surviving together; on just getting though the day.
   FS2 is different. It brings out the best in people. It brings out a care for people; Honor; determination to protect; will to sacrifice for others. The good qualities one would want to bring out of oneself. "Were in this together, I will help you if you help me, and we will see our way through this" type of thinking.
    Thank you all, Volition especially, for giving me the opportunity to de-stress like this keeping this type of mood.
    So my question is...what's next that you are making for us players to play.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on October 28, 2012, 09:51:43 pm
P.S. You may have marketing issues, considering the statement this is a moders forum not a players forum. Not many young people here know about FS2. Maybe you need a greater you-tube presence. Is it possible to make a gripping mini movie of your most popular work to get non moders attention?
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 28, 2012, 10:16:00 pm
P.S. You may have marketing issues, considering the statement this is a moders forum not a players forum. Not many young people here know about FS2. Maybe you need a greater you-tube presence. Is it possible to make a gripping mini movie of your most popular work to get non moders attention?

Never gonna beat this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhAR8rWPluQ)
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: jg18 on October 28, 2012, 10:32:15 pm
P.S. You may have marketing issues, considering the statement this is a moders forum not a players forum. Not many young people here know about FS2. Maybe you need a greater you-tube presence. Is it possible to make a gripping mini movie of your most popular work to get non moders attention?

Never gonna beat this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhAR8rWPluQ)

I dunno about that. :doubt:

I would argue that you really need more than story. A trailer needs a couple things. So it needs to explain what the piece is about or explain the plot some. equally important it needs to have an attention getter or something to hold the viewers interest; this could be some funny dialogue, an interesting idea, a cool scene, action sequence, or plot revel. It needs to give the viewer a reason to care which might be fulfilled by the attention getter and maybe something to unify the above themes.

Sorry for this, but gonna rag on the FreeSpace Movie trailer to illustrate the point. That trailer was an intriguing idea in how it was put together, but honestly wasn't as good as it could have been. It did nothing to enlighten the viewer to what the game/media was about. If I hadn't played the games, I wouldn't have a clue what it was about. I asked my sister for her summary of what it was about and her response was "Well. . .there are some ships. . ..and they're doing. . ..stuff". That pretty much all I got out of it as well. The trailer also lacked a full scale attention getter. The music served very very well as a unifying theme and partly as an attention getter, but after about 50 seconds in I'd lost interest because nothing was happening and the song couldn't keep me occupied that long. What would have alleviated both major issues in my opinion was some sequences of actually flying and shooting and explosions and fighting the shivans after the 35-40 second mark. Alternate between the action sequence and the solemn view of the iceni moving and Bosch's solemn viewing of whatever and portray that as a reflection on the war. Have the flying and shooting sequences mute so that the only sound is still twinkle twinkle little star, and try and illustrate a struggle against the shivans where humanity clearly isn't winning to fir the dark tone of the music.

Now to bring this back to the relevance of Spidey's Awesome Trailer and the elements in it. ok what does this trailer tell us? Its about space ships and a war.  humans are being attacked by evil looking ships and they are losing (i.e. all the stuff blowing up that isn't evil looking). the humans respond and put up a fight, but the outcome is uncertain though it looks slightly grimm with the deimos making a suicide run on the super big evil ship at the end. Now attention getter. that comes out right at the start as the tension is ratcheted up by the frantic sounding pilot as he freaks about about something. the shivans pop in, lots of cool explosions and dialogue that fits well with the scene. Basically Spidey's trailer hold the attention. now as a reason to care, there was an explenation at the start to "say freespace was a game in ...xxxxx""....dedicated modding community has worked on it since.. ...xxxxx".... and then you have the end with the "come see what you have been missing" bit encourage viewers to come visit the website.

tl;dr = spidey has an awesome trailer with all elements needed to make a good trailer

p.s. to the maker of the Freespace move trailer, sorry about picking apart your work and hating on it. I think It was actually really cool, and I know that I could not make a better trailer myself.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 28, 2012, 10:35:35 pm
Uh, isn't the 'awesome trailer' he's talking about the one I just posted?

e: yeah, it is, so I'm not really following your point. 'I don't know about that, here's this big post about why that trailer you said was awesome is actually awesome?'  :confused:
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: jg18 on October 28, 2012, 10:39:28 pm
Beskargam pointed out its various flaws in that quoted post, although he sugarcoats his criticism at the end. I intended it as a reply to the anchor text in

Never gonna beat this one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhAR8rWPluQ)

But never mind.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 28, 2012, 10:43:18 pm
Beskargam pointed out its various flaws in that quoted post

Where? In the first paragraph he's talking about a different trailer entirely.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 28, 2012, 10:44:44 pm
Not that I think it's flawless, but
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: jg18 on October 28, 2012, 11:16:22 pm
Taking back my "never mind" to clarify things... :sigh:

Battuta, I know you can read, but I'll summarize his post anyway, paragraph by paragraph. :)

[elements of an effective trailer]

[shortcomings of Spidey's trailer that greatly limit its effectiveness as a marketing tool, with suggestions for improvement]

[summary of the trailer, focusing on the good points]

[tl;dr that, well, kinda sugarcoats his criticism and contradicts his first two paragraphs]

[apology to Spidey for criticizing his trailer]

Consider mjn's reply to Beskargam in that thread:

p.s. to the maker of the Freespace move trailer, sorry about picking apart your work and hating on it. I think It was actually really cool, and I know that I could not make a better trailer myself.

There's no reason to contradict yourself just to be nice... You may not have the technical skills to make a trailer, but you clearly have an idea of the elements a trailer requires in order to be a successful piece of advertising.

Don't get me wrong, I love the trailer; I just watched it again before writing this post. But as a marketing tool, its effectiveness is limited, for the reasons Beskargam describes.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 28, 2012, 11:26:35 pm
No, dude, you're the one misreading it. I've been trying to tell you that your summary is completely off. You've totally misunderstood what Beskargam is talking about because you missed the fact that he's discussing two totally different trailers in his two paragraphs.

This is what you should be seeing, paragraph by paragraph:

[elements of an effective trailer]

[shortcomings of THE FREESPACE MOVIE TRAILER, which involves Bosch monologues, an Iceni, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This is NOT THE TRAILER I LINKED; the one I linked does not involve Bosch, an Iceni, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star]

[summary of the AWESOME SPIDEY TRAILER, the one THAT I LINKED, explaining why it is more effective and different

[tl;dr that doesn't contradict itself because he has been talking about two different things]

[apology to the maker of Trailer #1, the one that I did not link, for the unflattering comparison to trailer #2, that I did link

So c'mon, there's no need to

Quote
Battuta, I know you can read, but I'll summarize his post anyway, paragraph by paragraph

sink to this level.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 28, 2012, 11:28:23 pm
Let me make this absolutely clear:

This is the trailer Beskargam was criticizing in Paragraph #1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qkwG2fuPUQ)

This is the Spidey trailer that I posted and that he was praising in Paragraph #2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhAR8rWPluQ)

They're two different trailers, by two different people, and he thinks #1 isn't effective, and #2 is.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: X3N0-Life-Form on October 29, 2012, 04:48:28 am
You know it's going to be a bad day when batts double posts twice :s
/off-topic
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Dilmah G on October 29, 2012, 08:11:22 am
(http://i.imgur.com/306Ke.gif)

That said, that trailer's made me want to play some FS again. Awwww yeaaah.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: redsniper on October 29, 2012, 08:19:00 am
Pfffffhahahaha. Oh good lord, this is going to be good...
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Beskargam on October 29, 2012, 08:33:20 am
Uh well, this is akward. Battuta is correct. I was comparing and picking apart two different trailers

Also this looks like its gearing up to be a public witch burning, so let's not go there please
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on October 29, 2012, 09:35:02 am
Nah it's cool. jg18 is a smart cool guy, this is just a little snippy back and forth over a misunderstanding. And it's possible his criticism of the trailer stands even without your post.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: jg18 on October 29, 2012, 12:39:53 pm
All right, I'm sorry, I somehow misread his post.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on October 29, 2012, 05:29:22 pm
The first rule of communication is, "You are making someone feel what you feel".
So what is it you are feeling?
Let your feelings flow through your art.
Be content with your first steps. Your art will be coherent with time.
The let your feelings flow again. This time focusing on making others feel what you feel. Here is where you will make mistakes but that's O.K.
The last time you will be more your self and you will clearly make others feel what you wanted them to feel.
Now you would be able to team up with others and balance what they want others to feel and create a better work.
Create a trailer with a few emotional concepts in it, flowing one after each other. Not just a trailer. But a Mini-Movie about how you feel of the different things you like about FS2. Something you are proud of. The rest will follow.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on October 29, 2012, 05:43:14 pm
List the things you like about FS2. Not as a game designer, but as a player.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: MatthTheGeek on October 30, 2012, 01:57:57 am
The line is blurry, tbh. I like FS as a modder because it offers so much freedom to do stuff, and I like FS as a player because there's so much different stuff to play, which is the direct consequence of the first thing.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on October 30, 2012, 09:18:11 pm
That's great, you are being honest. being Honest is the first step. Try listing them and see what happens. Lets see where your thoughts and likes take us. Then we will know what we need o create.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on October 30, 2012, 09:34:34 pm
Two things I liked in the original FS2. After learning of aspect seeking missiles and targeting, the designers put the player in a situation where that was useless. And also having the player play a Tag Team anti fighter beam fight.  I think that was clever.
What experiences in the new Mods you believe players would enjoy?
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Apollo on November 03, 2012, 01:00:45 pm
I liked the Antagonist for its unique gameplay. Using subspace as a combat mechanic was brilliant. :)

WiH has a capship command mission and some other new gameplay elements. It's also notable for having non-retarded AI, and both Blueplanets are notable for having some possibly-supernatural elements.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on November 03, 2012, 05:48:10 pm
WiH has a capship command mission and some other new gameplay elements. It's also notable for having non-retarded AI, and both Blueplanets are notable for having some possibly-supernatural elements.

Definitely not, at least by the standards of SF
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Apollo on November 03, 2012, 06:12:36 pm
WiH has a capship command mission and some other new gameplay elements. It's also notable for having non-retarded AI, and both Blueplanets are notable for having some possibly-supernatural elements.

Definitely not, at least by the standards of SF

Science fiction and fantasy are actually not that far apart from each other-the main difference is that sci-fi has more technology and it usually has no blatant magic. However, it sometimes includes technologies and and realms that are so far away from our understanding of the laws of physics that they might as well be.

Major spoilers:
Spoiler:
Now, Blueplanet has many elements that could be considered supernatural. For example, Samuel Bei comes back from the dead. It's possible that the Vishnans did this, but then you could argue that their ability to do that would be supernatural.

The Vishnans also have the ability to psychically interact with and manipulate Human minds. Psychic powers such as these exist completely outside of our current understanding of physics, and that makes them a fantastic element. Consider also that many fantasy stories have psychic abilities. The wizards in fantasy also use their minds to manipulate reality, which could be considered a psychic ability.

Some Terrans and Vasudans also have the ability to receive visions from Shivans and Vishnans.

Now, you can try to make it sound scientific--and you are right to--but psychic powers are still essentially magical.

Also, aren't the Vishnans energy beings? As far as we know, no lifeform in the real world can be made only of energy, unless you consider matter a form of energy.

Vishnu is another possibly fantastic element. He exists outside of time, and he seems to have godlike power. Both of these seriously stretch the bounds of reality as we know it.
Of course, I might be wrong. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and all of these elements could possibly be explained away somehow.

I'm just saying, Blueplanet sometimes looks like science fantasy instead of just regular science fiction.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on November 03, 2012, 06:36:23 pm
I don't want to keep touting my ~published author~ cred here since I barely qualify as published, but as a writer of science fiction and fantasy, I am pretty well aware of their interstitial nature.

Your spoilered text ranges from understandable misinterpretations to bad misunderstandings. I'm happy to talk about it further in the BP forum, though, of course, I have to warn you about the futility of debate when one side has all the information and the other doesn't.

All FreeSpace campaigns are scientifically implausible, but there is nothing strictly supernatural at work in FS1/FS2 - just soft SF conveniences like subspace and really odd dynamics. BP holds to that, and although the soft SF contrivances cover a broader domain, it's still a little harder than your average episode of Star Trek.

(you should spend some more time in the techroom)

e: If everything you said in your spoiler text were true I wouldn't particularly like BP, so I'm pretty glad you're wrong!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Apollo on November 03, 2012, 06:47:13 pm
Your spoilered text ranges from understandable misinterpretations to bad misunderstandings. I'm happy to talk about it further in the BP forum, though, of course, I have to warn you about the futility of debate when one side has all the information and the other doesn't.

Ok, then I'll debate this in the BP forum. I'll probably get my ass whooped, of course, but it should be an interesting conversation.

EDIT: I did.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on November 05, 2012, 06:47:25 pm
During Game play in FS2. One learns to fly a fighter. When that's not enough, one gets a faster fighter. When that's not enough one gets a bomber to strike at a Capital Ship. Then you see a demonstration of the value of having a Capital Ship. But having done so, then witnessing the vulnerability of Capital Ships and the need for fighters. A rock vs. paper vs. scissors situation.
In BP one does not quite get that.
In Sync I did like the story and Its' campaign style.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on November 05, 2012, 07:29:55 pm
In BP one does not quite get that.

In BP (and DE) one gets to fly the capital ship (http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-black101.gif)

I think we already have a pretty great trailer, though.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on November 06, 2012, 08:35:08 pm
The BP trailers are awesome. I loved them.
But I may be prudent to show the Human struggle. Human emotions and Ideology struggles, that draw one to the characters. The FS2 Creators used Bosh's monologues for that. But the FS2 does not come with a movie maker with Characters and bridge backdrops. It would be a nice tool for campaign makers to tell the background of Characters. Limiting the need for in game chat to describe the cultural, family and emotional backgrounds. using in game chat instead to show reactions of the Characters to new situations. Does the new interaction bring out the normal projected emotion? Or does promote a degeneration in the Characters personality or Improve it. You highlight and preview history: but the player experiences the change.
And also show "what is the adventure of playing the campaign". The fun stuff the a pilot would enjoy. The original FS2 intro showed both a great Capital ship battle and an epic dog fight battle that made one want to play the game. The "Bastion Dies", there was a little dogfight too.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: An4ximandros on November 06, 2012, 08:40:41 pm
Problem is that you need CGI assets, and those are either cheap trash or millennial effort HQ when done for free.

Take BP for example, they use the vidcoms that are ripped straight out of Supreme Commander simply because it's the best they can get.
This is still a mod, done on free time and sheer willpower. And Darius' seekret Nagari mind enslaving powers!

Edit: Uh, why did this became a BP thread all of a sudden? I just noticed that...
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Mongoose on November 06, 2012, 09:20:18 pm
I wonder if there's any way to use the Source Filmmaker tool to rig up some head animations, since it has all that cool facial-manipulation stuff.  Of course then you'd run the risk of Bill from Left 4 Dead barking orders at Gordon Freeman. :D

Pootis bomber here!
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Black Wolf on November 06, 2012, 09:31:42 pm
There're always these (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Black_Wolf%27s_Anis). :pimp:
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: NGTM-1R on November 06, 2012, 10:17:46 pm
Of course then you'd run the risk of Bill from Left 4 Dead barking orders at Gordon Freeman. :D

Pootis bomber here!

Axem needs to hire you as an idea guy for future releases of JAD.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: General Battuta on November 07, 2012, 12:13:44 am
The BP trailers are awesome. I loved them.
But I may be prudent to show the Human struggle. Human emotions and Ideology struggles, that draw one to the characters. The FS2 Creators used Bosh's monologues for that. But the FS2 does not come with a movie maker with Characters and bridge backdrops. It would be a nice tool for campaign makers to tell the background of Characters. Limiting the need for in game chat to describe the cultural, family and emotional backgrounds. using in game chat instead to show reactions of the Characters to new situations. Does the new interaction bring out the normal projected emotion? Or does promote a degeneration in the Characters personality or Improve it. You highlight and preview history: but the player experiences the change.
And also show "what is the adventure of playing the campaign". The fun stuff the a pilot would enjoy. The original FS2 intro showed both a great Capital ship battle and an epic dog fight battle that made one want to play the game. The "Bastion Dies", there was a little dogfight too.

No, uh, I just meant the FSO trailer we had.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: Capt_Thunder on November 08, 2012, 09:24:55 am
O.K. I understand, Don't shoot, (he says, ducking for cover)
But What I am saying is that every significant step forward needs to be animated. And every significant campaign needs to be Highlighted.
Can your beta testers with "beast machines" play through select missions, recording their game. Then compile a mini movie Highlighting key developments in the FS2 Mods Storyline, and the "fun" of game play.
Title: Re: Reunion of Freespaceholics
Post by: StargateSpankyHam on November 09, 2012, 02:53:09 am
I have other games, so I do periodically end up AFKing from Freespace for a while. But I always come back around.

There is just so much win in Freespace, nothing else can compete with it in the long-term. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that Freespace (and the Stargate TV series) pretty much defined what sci-fi is to me. Then Blue Planet came along with its giant pile of awesome and redefined sci-fi for me again, in ways I did not even know sci-fi could be redefined.

Do I get bored with Freespace from time to time? Yes. It's like eating nothing but chocolate ice cream loaded with chocolate sprinkles and chocolate chips. It may be the best food on the planet, but even that can get boring after a while.