Posted this on the VBB:
Tim asked me to put a few more files from my outline up on the site. You can find them at
http://faculty.concord.edu/manzione/ under "New". There's some artwork, a mission map, a briefing, and a couple of mission outlines in sequence with the last ones posted.
On some of the comments made here:
(1) Having been convinced that there would be no FS3, I wrote the outline with the intent of creating a "campaign" FS3 -- the next best thing. But I also knew it would never be sold, and would probably not be played except by people who were experienced with FS1 & 2. Veterans. Like the player-character I created. In any game it's very "artificial" to ramp up skills levels through the early missions -- the real world often hits you with everything on your first outing. You survive, or you don't. So I decided to do it differently. No ramp up; real world.
(2) Besides, what makes you think that the Sathanas or Ravanas are the biggest, baddest ships out there? Or that Dragons are the fastest, or Seraphims the most powerful bombers, or Maras the best all-around superiority fighters? I took FS into Shivan space, where the "real" war is. What the GTVA finds on the Shivan/Andarta frontier are the "front-line first-echelon" units, and they aren't equipped with aging, obsolescent weapons systems like the Sathanas. In the Great War and at Gamma Draconis the GTVA faced catagory-C and rear-echelon guard units. Which is why you can kill 200 Shivan ships in FS2 and still fear Shivan "superiority" -- it doesn't work any other way. In the failure sequence in one of the missions I posted tonight, you can find mention of the "NBTS," what we referred to as the Notorious-Bigger-Than-the-Sathanas-Ship," which was never modded. Think about a vast, capship battlefield between the Shivans and the Andarta at Arawn system on the map. That's what the tiny GTVA task force stumbles into towards the back end of the campaign. It's a hell of a mission, too ambitious, maybe, sure, but then I was writing FS3, fer cryin out loud, knowing it would never be made, so I pushed as hard as I could without getting silly about it.
(3) On whether a GTVA task force can survive in Shivan space -- The Shivans have more important concerns at first. Only when the force reaches the Dyson Sphere at Khrishna on the campaign map do the Shivans realize the possible objective is linkage to the Andarta. At that point the Shivans realign their priorities, and things get tougher.
(4) On my son Tim -- he's bright and talented, and a better writer than I was at that age. He's motivated, and drives me nuts sometimes by asking questions. ("Why do
they have the big eyes, dad? How do you spell 'nocturnal'? Can you read this and tell me what you think? How do I make the smiley face?") But I thank you all for accepting and encouraging him.
Ascraeus, who is Tim's dad
Fair enough.