[wookieejedi]

It's been a few months since our last official forum update, so all of us at Fate of the Galaxy want to share what we have been working on (updated assets, better lighting, fixes/optimizations, and more).

Progress Highlights

• Added Skipray Blastboat (very large thanks to robear for sharing the model and also adding more textures for us!).   
• Added sensor probe from XWVM. Much thanks to FekLeyrTarg and terryb for sharing the model and texture.   
• Added a Cloakshape specific cockpit with extracted AO (thanks Limbert!).   
• Added updated sensor and defense satellites with new models and textures (thanks DarkVisor!). The previous models were sourced from somewhere and were ancient and not up to current standards, so it's great to finally have them updated.   
• Added separated cargo and containers for the BFF1 and new cargo container ship. Within FRED both can be mixed and matched to create more varied missions.   
• Added AO maps to Asteroids and Asteroid Base.   
• Updated EMP and damage arc widths and colors to better match actual effect colors.   
• Updated GR-75 so that cargo can be destroyed, just like the BFF1 and DV-3 Freighters (albeit the GR-75's cargo is harder to hit since it's better protected by the ship compared to those other freighters).   
• Updated most ship cockpits with AO separated maps (thanks Limbert!).   
• Updated some scripts with additional optimizations, including exiting hyperspace script.   
• Updated glow point script with new FSO options, which allows it to be more performant.   
• Updated FotG’s custom shaders with most recent FSO shader optimizations (thanks TheE!).   
• Updated Project Alderaan with many improvements, enhancements, balance tweaks, and fixes.   
• Fixed many, many other minor bugs, which would be far too long to list.   

Community Connections
We also would like to highlight all the fantastic work continually being done with FSO. Since our last update the FSO devs have released a new stable FSO version, and they continue to merge in updates and engine improvements from the FSO community. Just to name a few, TheE has highly optimized shader code to remove FSO lags when ships arrive, EatThePath’s work with his shader updates progresses steadily, Lafiel and Goober continue to add highly useful features to FSO, MjnMixael has authored many PRs to allow modders to further tune FSO to their needs, and taylor and Cyborg continue to monitor and support multiplayer for stability and improvements. Also, there’s many other devs adding great fixes, features, and other enhancements!


Moving Forward
For folks who want to view more frequent FotG updates, feel free to join our Discord channel where we post most of our informal progress: https://discord.gg/k7ZMdmt

As always, thank everyone for all your support and enthusiasm! We are moving ever closer to completing our final milestones for a public release. Once those goals are met and polished, we will be extremely excited to share the game with everyone. In the meantime, here are some shiny screenshots. May the Force be with you!

[Venicius]

Looking great! Been watching this project with great anticipation since I joined the forums many, many years ago.

[wesp5]

So when will this be released? I get the impression that you are adding ships and stuff now that nobody will use in a near time. What are the final milestones you are talking about? For the last three years you are basically the only one posting here and if Disney continues to destroy the franchise, you should better release the mod before it is too late and nobody is interested anymore...

[The E]

So when will this be released? I get the impression that you are adding ships and stuff now that nobody will use in a near time. What are the final milestones you are talking about? For the last three years you are basically the only one posting here and if Disney continues to destroy the franchise, you should better release the mod before it is too late and nobody is interested anymore...

Most of the FOTG traffic and feedback happens on Discord these days.

[Darius]

Considering the prequels, hot mess that they were, didn't kill off people's enjoyment of the original trilogy I highly doubt whatever's getting released nowadays is going to put people off Star Wars.

[Strygon]

I've completely checked out of current day Star Wars but I still occasionally play the original Battlefront II, and once this mod is out, it shall be no exception.

People can separate the original media and its fan work, after all.

[wookieejedi]

So when will this be released? I get the impression that you are adding ships and stuff now that nobody will use in a near time. What are the final milestones you are talking about? For the last three years you are basically the only one posting here and if Disney continues to destroy the franchise, you should better release the mod before it is too late and nobody is interested anymore...

We purposefully do not state a release date since this is a volunteer project and IRL factors always take precedence with our team members  Over the past few years though there has been a ton of new development and updates, as evidenced by the quarterly summary newsletters over the past years. Overall, we are very excited for folks to play FotG and continue to work as best as we can on it. Also, as TheE and the initial posting stated, the Discord is where most folks chat now (same with Freespace2 in general even). I've heard from many, many folks that there is still quite a large interest in Original Trilogy game content that fits the feel of the movies, which is what FotG excels at. (Also, though opinions may vary, I myself am enjoying the series such as Andor and the Mandolarian).

Overall, there is a large amount of content and campaigns done that we could have released already. To be on the safe side though we are going to release everything all at once. 

[wesp5]

Overall, there is a large amount of content and campaigns done that we could have released already. To be on the safe side though we are going to release everything all at once. 

Do you fear that Disney will try to pull the mod down? Otherwise I would guess it would be much easier to find mission bugs once the mod is out there and more people are playing it!

[wookieejedi]

Indeed! I very much agree that community testing would be great for polishing.   Fortunately, we also have a great pool of private mission testers to help with that.

Regarding Disney, alas, we are keeping a low profile and not doing piecemeal releases out of an abundance of caution b/c we've seen what's happened to other SW mods from Disney.  As a mod team, we have gone to extreme lengths to make sure we're complying with copyright law, and include zero copyrighted material, whether models, textures, sound, or music.  Everything in Fate of the Galaxy has been made from scratch by our team or is used with permission from their respective owners.  It would be terrific to share the 3 completed campaigns and the dozens of completed ships (over 22 player flyable ones alone) with the community.   Though, to make sure our efforts can have the best shot at full distribution, we've made a conscious decision to keep a very low profile at least until the time there is a public launch, and the game is widely available. 

[wesp5]

Regarding Disney, alas, we are keeping a low profile and not doing piecemeal releases out of an abundance of caution b/c we've seen what's happened to other SW mods from Disney.

So what other mods have been shut down?

It would be terrific to share the 3 completed campaigns and the dozens of completed ships (over 22 player flyable ones alone) with the community.  

So how many campaigns are you planning?

[wookieejedi]

There's at least three that are just off the top of my head (KotOR one, Galaxy in Turmoil, and another Battlefront remake one).

Regarding our planned missions and campaigns, here's what we are saying publicly 


Fate of the Galaxy will come with a high level of single-player content. These include multiple campaigns, standalone missions, and the ability to create missions using the FSO mission editor FRED2. Multiplayer servers will also be maintained and available to play on with friends.

The first three campaigns narrate three interconnected stories set at the beginning of the Galactic Civil War. Each of these three campaigns consists of about 5 missions, thus designers put high emphasis on quality mission design and high replayability. The player's performance throughout the campaign will affect how later missions play out. For example, the Alliance campaign will finally pit a ragtag Rebel task force against a dreaded Imperial-class Star Destroyer, and the player's performance throughout the campaign has a major impact on this encounter's difficulty. The best possible outcome is hard to achieve, thus a number of playthroughs will be required.

Players receive different types of training in different campaigns. The Alliance mini-campaign will start with a basic training mission that, aside from teaching the basics to new players, introduces the player to Fate of the Galaxy's unique gameplay features. The Imperial mini-campaign starts with an advanced training.

Standalone missions will also be included in the first release. Many of them will be serious, story-driven missions, but there will also be arcade-like "challenge" missions in which the player must accomplish a wide variety of objectives, such as surviving two minutes within a Strike-class cruiser's firing range. There will also be a Practice Zone mission, where the player can test flying any of the small craft and actively spawn in any craft in the mission as a hostile or friendly to practice combat.

Three additional campaigns are being worked on and will be available when the game is released to the public, but specific details remain under embargo until public launch. This large component is code-named Project Alderaan.

[wesp5]

There's at least three that are just off the top of my head (KotOR one, Galaxy in Turmoil, and another Battlefront remake one).

I never heard about these, but it seems that they were all fan remakes which publisher hate when the original game is still sold.

Three additional campaigns are being worked on and will be available when the game is released to the public, but specific details remain under embargo until public launch. This large component is code-named Project Alderaan.

To sum this up, the mod is basically ready except for Project Alderaan and you don't dare to release it now to not be shut down?

[wookieejedi]

There are some other additions and update checks we want to do as well, but yes, a large portion of the game is ready.

Overall, we are just being as careful as possible