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Archived Boards => The Archive => Blackwater Operations => Topic started by: IceFire on October 05, 2008, 11:32:42 pm

Title: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 05, 2008, 11:32:42 pm
...some of the fine work that Water, a member of the BWO team has been doing for the FreeSpace Upgrade project.

Highly detailed GTF Valkyrie is under development: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,55877.80.html

During the course of BWO you will return to Earth and some of these now antique ships will be around and potentially available although far less survivable than the newer GTF Persus.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mars on October 06, 2008, 01:15:31 am
During the course of BWO you will return to Earth and some of these now antique ships will be around and potentially available although far less survivable than the newer GTF Persus.
I think the Valkyrie is a much better interceptor for its day than the Persueus.

But you're right, of course
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Goober5000 on October 06, 2008, 10:27:58 am
Speaking of drawing attention, did you change the forum description for BWO? :)
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 06, 2008, 04:10:24 pm
Speaking of drawing attention, did you change the forum description for BWO? :)
I did...never liked the old one after being initially flattered.  At the time it was a bit more true, BWO being a collection of several people who had released major campaigns but most of those people are gone and the title doesn't say anything about BWO.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Trivial Psychic on October 06, 2008, 09:24:44 pm
I think the Valkyrie is a much better interceptor for its day than the Persueus.
Well, the Valkyrie was a straight interceptor, while the Perseus is an interceptor/Fighter.  The Perseus is fast, but not as fast as the Valkyrie.  On the other hand, the Perseus is a better dogfighter and has two secondary weapons bays.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: redsniper on October 07, 2008, 12:54:13 am
Pshaw, I'm going to defect to the Earth side and kick those fancy GTVA fighters' butts with a rickety old Valk. It's not the fighter that matters, it's the pilot.

Also, I'm just as excited for BWO now as I was way back in 2000. Keep up the good work guys! :yes:
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mars on October 07, 2008, 03:08:21 pm
This new valk just looks so... sexy. I would want to fly it even if its armor was made out of paper... oh wait.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 07, 2008, 03:21:50 pm
IMO all those people getting sentimental over old, retired FS1 Great-War era fighters/bombers need to get a few Trebuchets shoved up their exhaust...


Err... Nevermind... :nervous:
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mongoose on October 07, 2008, 03:57:01 pm
Why?  The Valkyrie is a far better pure interceptor than anything in FS2, other than the Horus...which was also an FS1-era interceptor.  I think Trivial Psychic made me finally realize why I've always held so much disdain for the Perseus as an interceptor: it was never meant to fulfill just that role.  It's an excellent, speedy all-around fighter, but it was never meant to take on the singular role that the Valkyrie performed so well.  That afterburner still makes me drool; you could fly at 165 for what seemed like days...
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mobius on October 07, 2008, 04:00:11 pm
The Perseus is also supposed to conduct surgical strikes on enemy warships and destroy subsystems and turrets.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 07, 2008, 04:47:10 pm
Indeed the Valkyrie is a pure interceptor which makes it good at that role but its less useful in a stand up fight.  We've essentially left it unchanged from its FS1 table stats and while its a speedy and compact fighter...they do tend to go down quickly.  You'll be seeing them in BWO but they aren't prolific and when they are they don't last too long.

The Perseus trades the Valkyries top speed for better protection and more versatility.  Its job is more like a modern day SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) type aircraft with multi-role fighter/interceptor/surgical interdiction capabilities.  Much more varied but it means that its primary job as the GTVA's interceptor fighter is somewhat compromised.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Bobboau on October 08, 2008, 12:58:29 am
but even though it's an old bird, it won't be restricted to the ML-16. if you were one of those 'never get hit once' style pilots, you may well find the valk even more seductive than you remember. thought there are a few even more delicious options available to you, given how both paths give you a next generation top of the line dedicated interceptor.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mars on October 08, 2008, 09:04:14 am
 This might be asking too much, but how often in the campagin are players likely to find a Valk in the load-out section, I seem to remember not very often at all?
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Droid803 on October 08, 2008, 06:24:31 pm
If you choose to side with Sol, I believe that it'd show up a bit :P
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 08, 2008, 08:50:34 pm
This might be asking too much, but how often in the campagin are players likely to find a Valk in the load-out section, I seem to remember not very often at all?
Probably not too often.  Its an old relic...as is the Apollo.  When you place a Valkyrie next to an Erinyes or something equally as powerful...things tend not to go too well.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Turnsky on October 09, 2008, 01:47:30 am
The Valk's prolly very capable vs similarly equipped modern fighters in the right hands, although the right hands would prolly refer to use something more modern with more asskicking potential  :P
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: DREDHAWK on October 10, 2008, 09:44:35 pm
Iv always perfered  the Perseus offer the valk it must just be me.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 11, 2008, 02:46:30 am
Iv always perfered  the Perseus offer the valk it must just be me.
Did you just escape from the hospital or something?
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: BlackDove on October 11, 2008, 03:11:15 am
Now now. Let's not be rude to one another. The man (boy?) is excited and has good intentions. That's good enough...

GAWD that sounds so fake coming from me.

I can't do this. Ice. Please. Words of wisdom. Anything I would have to say would be hypocritical.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Turnsky on October 11, 2008, 03:41:28 am
Iv always perfered  the Perseus offer the valk it must just be me.

may not be just you, for since the Valk is fairly obsolete by the time the Perseus rolls out of production..

However.. with an old frame like the Valk, civvies may "hotrod" that old husk into something of a serious performer, no?  :p
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 11, 2008, 12:32:22 pm
To each is own for sure...I'm hoping that we'll offer some of you the chance to try the Valkyrie out at least in a few missions against the more modern GTVA opposition and Sol Coalition ships.  But my preference would definitely be the Perseus over the Valkyrie given the Perseus better balance of sheilding and armament options.  The two don't occupy exactly the same mission type despite their similarities.  Yes the Perseus takes over as a Terran built interceptor but its definitely not as fast...it does have staying power that the Vakyrie always lacked...even in Descent: FreeSpace.

So the question is the nimbleness of the Valkyrie combined with its speed and slightly better than average primary gun options or the Perseus with its better secondary armament and shielding for better versatility.  Not forgetting that the Perseus is still quite fast.

In any case you'll get to try these things out in BWO no doubt and see which way you like it.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 11, 2008, 12:59:33 pm
Will you be allowed to fly both the Valk and the Perseus in the same mission? That way we would be able to compare them.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: DREDHAWK on October 11, 2008, 01:50:15 pm
Iv always perfered  the Perseus offer the valk it must just be me.
Did you just escape from the hospital or something?


No Did not just escape from hospital. thank you very much.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Akalabeth Angel on October 12, 2008, 12:49:37 am
The Valkyrie has half its subsystems in the nose, I always found in FS1 that I would lose sensors or weapons or whatever faster than I would in even the Erinyes. So, the Valkyrie quite honestly was never my favourite. But I could see myself giving it a go in BWO.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 12, 2008, 06:28:18 am
The Valkyrie has half its subsystems in the nose, I always found in FS1 that I would lose sensors or weapons or whatever faster than I would in even the Erinyes. So, the Valkyrie quite honestly was never my favourite. But I could see myself giving it a go in BWO.
The Athena has this problem too methinks.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mobius on October 12, 2008, 08:21:17 am
Yes, both the Erynies and the Athena have this problem. It's a good thing under certain points of view, though...it helps balancing these two "slightly" exaggerated spacecraft.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 12, 2008, 08:41:42 am
Huh.

In INFA the Athena has 165m/s afterburner but the Wiki says it only goes 120m/s. :wtf:
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mobius on October 12, 2008, 10:03:52 am
Maybe the post-GW Sol version has been improved...
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Turnsky on October 14, 2008, 04:56:54 am
it'd make sense given sol's limited resources.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Colonol Dekker on October 14, 2008, 05:15:30 am
Athena ftw.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mobius on October 14, 2008, 01:51:08 pm
it'd make sense given sol's limited resources.

Well, :rolleyes:...
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 14, 2008, 02:55:19 pm
it'd make sense given sol's limited resources.

Well, :rolleyes:...
@Mobius: If you're saying that 1 system can possibly have more resources than 20+, I'm calling bull**** there.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mobius on October 14, 2008, 03:01:26 pm
No but I'd say that Sol's most important colonies are nearly the equivalent of another system. Maybe not in terms of resources but in terms of population, industries and such.

FreeSpace isn't Colony Wars. It's only a few hundred years ahead of us, not thousands. In a few hundred years I'd expect Mars and a few satellites of the Solar system to be highly populated but no, I don't think other colonized systems can match Sol.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mongoose on October 14, 2008, 04:46:52 pm
Mobius does have a good point here.  Unlike the Vasudans, Terrans didn't have to get off of their home planet or out of their home system in a hurry in order to acquire necessary resources.  We live on a fantastically resource-rich planet, and beyond that, the Sol system has all sorts of avenues for materials exploitment and development.  We know from FS1 that the external Terran colonies weren't all that old in the grand scheme of things; Sol was still described as containing the vast majority of Terran manufacturing capabilities.  I'm sure the node collapse curtailed at least some activities due to the cessation of outside resources, but the inhabitants of Sol still had a hell of a lot to work with, not to mention hundreds of years of established manufacturing bases that the colonies couldn't even begin to approach.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mars on October 14, 2008, 10:15:47 pm
Except that 32 years later, the outside colonies demonstrate that they have a high amount of industrial capacity (look at all the ships Alpha 1 sees from his limited prespective)
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 14, 2008, 10:34:20 pm
In our version of FreeSpace history...the Sol system is plunged into political chaos after the ties are severed with the Alliance.  Chaos and confusion about loosing touch with the colonies compounded by fear created some rather complex situations.  More will be revealed in the actual campaign story (when Kellan and I were writing the original story we went pretty indepth into the situation).  Suffice to say that the military that Sol has is half new/half very old...allot of its banged together to make it work.  Thats the feel we're going with for the Sol Military Coalition.  Also the Sol government has a very tenuous tie on power when the GTVA arrives....and thats when things get interesting for both sides :)
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mars on October 14, 2008, 10:56:10 pm
I do believe that's the most detail I've heard about BWO in a very long time (years)  :eek2:

Let's celebrate in the streets
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 14, 2008, 11:29:47 pm
I'm pretty sure we said something about this before...possibly years ago :)

We've got allot of stuff happening over the last several months and in particular over the last few months. You'll be hearing and seeing allot more once we get to a place where we are happy.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Turnsky on October 15, 2008, 07:27:01 am
In our version of FreeSpace history...the Sol system is plunged into political chaos after the ties are severed with the Alliance.  Chaos and confusion about loosing touch with the colonies compounded by fear created some rather complex situations.  More will be revealed in the actual campaign story (when Kellan and I were writing the original story we went pretty indepth into the situation).  Suffice to say that the military that Sol has is half new/half very old...allot of its banged together to make it work.  Thats the feel we're going with for the Sol Military Coalition.  Also the Sol government has a very tenuous tie on power when the GTVA arrives....and thats when things get interesting for both sides :)

oooh, i like. Given the time you guys had to work on it, i suspect that models, etc (due to SCP) weren't the only things you guys have been refining, no?  :)
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Snail on October 15, 2008, 05:41:32 pm
So will the SMC get a full HTL fleet?
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: IceFire on October 15, 2008, 07:45:07 pm


In our version of FreeSpace history...the Sol system is plunged into political chaos after the ties are severed with the Alliance.  Chaos and confusion about loosing touch with the colonies compounded by fear created some rather complex situations.  More will be revealed in the actual campaign story (when Kellan and I were writing the original story we went pretty indepth into the situation).  Suffice to say that the military that Sol has is half new/half very old...allot of its banged together to make it work.  Thats the feel we're going with for the Sol Military Coalition.  Also the Sol government has a very tenuous tie on power when the GTVA arrives....and thats when things get interesting for both sides :)

oooh, i like. Given the time you guys had to work on it, i suspect that models, etc (due to SCP) weren't the only things you guys have been refining, no?  :)
Somewhat.  Kellan left the project a very long time ago now...can't even remember if he was here when we moved to HLP from Volition Watch when that was all shut down.  But when we started really working on BWO...when it expanded itself greatly...we wrote out allot of backstory.  I'm not even sure if all of its around somewhere but needless to say all of the plots and subplots, characters, and events...everything was completely written out and discussed between the two of us at length and then with other people later on.  Everyone who was a part of the project at various times left their mark on the story was it was refined.  The missions themselves are rich with this stuff too so you'll all...eventually...see what are hopefully the fruits of that labour.

In retrospect the story is probably overly complex for a FreeSpace 2 campaign.  But we had fun anyways :)

Plus if the story is too complex it still involves blowing allot of stuff up.  So can't complain too much :D

So will the SMC get a full HTL fleet?
Thats what we're working on right now...amongst other things. We have some really good looking stuff in the works.  When we get closer...we'll start showing people allot of our stuff.  But I don't want to release stuff and then go quiet for a while.  It prompts people to ask if we're dead and that sort of thing.
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Turnsky on October 15, 2008, 08:27:55 pm


In our version of FreeSpace history...the Sol system is plunged into political chaos after the ties are severed with the Alliance.  Chaos and confusion about loosing touch with the colonies compounded by fear created some rather complex situations.  More will be revealed in the actual campaign story (when Kellan and I were writing the original story we went pretty indepth into the situation).  Suffice to say that the military that Sol has is half new/half very old...allot of its banged together to make it work.  Thats the feel we're going with for the Sol Military Coalition.  Also the Sol government has a very tenuous tie on power when the GTVA arrives....and thats when things get interesting for both sides :)

oooh, i like. Given the time you guys had to work on it, i suspect that models, etc (due to SCP) weren't the only things you guys have been refining, no?  :)
Somewhat.  Kellan left the project a very long time ago now...can't even remember if he was here when we moved to HLP from Volition Watch when that was all shut down.  But when we started really working on BWO...when it expanded itself greatly...we wrote out allot of backstory.  I'm not even sure if all of its around somewhere but needless to say all of the plots and subplots, characters, and events...everything was completely written out and discussed between the two of us at length and then with other people later on.  Everyone who was a part of the project at various times left their mark on the story was it was refined.  The missions themselves are rich with this stuff too so you'll all...eventually...see what are hopefully the fruits of that labour.

In retrospect the story is probably overly complex for a FreeSpace 2 campaign.  But we had fun anyways :)

Plus if the story is too complex it still involves blowing allot of stuff up.  So can't complain too much :D

So will the SMC get a full HTL fleet?
Thats what we're working on right now...amongst other things. We have some really good looking stuff in the works.  When we get closer...we'll start showing people allot of our stuff.  But I don't want to release stuff and then go quiet for a while.  It prompts people to ask if we're dead and that sort of thing.

i like polish, it generally shows that a lot of thought has been given to something, instead of being halfassed and just churned out in rapid succession like other things you see these days.  :)
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mars on October 15, 2008, 09:20:59 pm
Will they be fighting the Strogg?
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Kosh on October 23, 2008, 07:23:31 am
Except that 32 years later, the outside colonies demonstrate that they have a high amount of industrial capacity (look at all the ships Alpha 1 sees from his limited prespective)

It is surprising considering that they were totally devastated by the Great War and during most of the reconstruction period there was total economic and political chaos in the Terran sector.

Quote
Why?  The Valkyrie is a far better pure interceptor than anything in FS2, other than the Horus...which was also an FS1-era interceptor.  I think Trivial Psychic made me finally realize why I've always held so much disdain for the Perseus as an interceptor: it was never meant to fulfill just that role.  It's an excellent, speedy all-around fighter, but it was never meant to take on the singular role that the Valkyrie performed so well.  That afterburner still makes me drool; you could fly at 165 for what seemed like days...


The afterburners were nice, but in an era of flak guns, beam cannons, and piranhas, the lack of armor and shields really hurts. When I first tried playing Argonautica I went with the Serapis (which has equally weak shields/armor) and the first wave of Nahema's with their piranhas quickly destroyed all of my wingman's Serapises and left mine badly damaged. The Terran reinforcements with their Perseuses last much longer........
Title: Re: Just drawing some attention to...
Post by: Mongoose on October 23, 2008, 01:25:25 pm
That's exactly why I usually concentrate on intercepting bombers and leave my otherwise-useless wingmen to be chewed to shreds by enemy capital ships. :p