Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Desert Tyrant on June 20, 2007, 05:40:48 pm
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In regards to make myself look less like an asshole, I decided to make this here thread, asking what people really thing of Silent Threat.
I'll start: I regard Silent Threat to be a fairly mediocre expansion pack, with fairly lame voice acting. (Can I say Derilect's is better? ;) :P), only decent missions, and for me, none of the fun factor of the first game. The newer weapons were rather lame, and the Loki, I find, is rather uneeded(IF I want straight on Acceleration, I'll go with the Valkyrie. If I want a pure Dogfighter, the Ulysses works just fine.) I can see the virtue of a recon craft, but the Loki aklso hass a structeral gaff that redered it useless as recon craft. Why, Again? What is the use of a Recon craft that can't work effectivly? And was the GTVA so bankrupted in between FS1ST and FS2, that the military couldn't get a better interceptor? The Zeus, on the other hand, make for a decent little bomber that dogfight ok, and can carry enough Bombs to threated or destroy FS1 era crusiers(IIRC, they also remain a significant threat in FS2, despite having paper-thin shields and armor for a bomber.) The Zeu isn't a horrible little bomber, but at the same time, I also wish that the GTA just simply upgraded the Athena and gave it Tsunami capability. Granted, the GTA might of simply not had this capacity by the time of ST, with the loss of their main industrial base.
But, honestly, the problem(Sorry for long-winded-ness) I have with ST is the fun factor, when it comes down to it. Very few missions have the fun, or tension of the first game, of which I felt ST tried emulating, and only got half-right. The only missions I remember is the mission with the GTD Myrmidon, and you also see the Lokis for the first time. The two others are the mission where you see a GTI mop-up team get into a tangle with the shivns, and the last mission with the Hades.
The last problem I have with ST is the complete lack of closure that the viewer gets. Hades gets blown up, the end? No consequnces for blowing the largest ship in known space until the Collosus?
Oh, and I supposed I should take the time and apologize to Scuddie for my actions in the previous night. The word Idiot just got under my skin from the last time out, so I apologize.
So, any thoughts? Yay or Nay?
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it would have been better if the hades was active, beams and all(it did have beams, right?), and you were put through hell to kill it.
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To sum it up in one word............
Anticlimactic
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To sum it up in one word............
Anticlimactic
Exactly.
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Dark Hunter's opinion: meh.
It is almost impossible to believe that it was :v: that made this expansion. The missions didn't fit together at all, none of them were very fun; it seemed almost as though Silent Threat was an idea pool for weird missions they never got to do in FS1.
Good things from it: the Hades, and, even better IMO, the M10 music.
Here's hoping that ST:R really is close(r) to completion like Goob says, so we can see what Silent Threat should have been.
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I think everyone here thinks ST more or less sucked. The storyline had a lot of potential and there were two or three good missions in it (the first one and the pirates one were quite nice IMO), but the others were anywhere between mediocre and atrocious.
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I am never going to play the original ST. I am waiting to play ST:R.
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Wasn't ST made by fans and then V decided they would do something with them? Or am I just dreaming?
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Wasn't ST made by fans and then V decided they would do something with them? Or am I just dreaming?
Dreaming. ST came with single missions designed by fans (I had two missions that were accepted) but the actual ST missions were from Volition.
The original poster is correct...ST was somewhat lackluster as an addon pack. But we were desperate for more Freespace after the first one and this was a quick fix until FreeSpace 2 came out.
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Quick fix? Probably part of the reason fs2 didn't do as well as it could have.
-m
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I am never going to play the original ST. I am waiting to play ST:R.
It's at least worth playing for the un-killiable Hades komedy mission(No, I never had trouble with that mission, beat it the second time through on normal,)Wasn't ST made by fans and then V decided they would do something with them? Or am I just dreaming?
Dreaming. ST came with single missions designed by fans (I had two missions that were accepted) but the actual ST missions were from Volition.
I'll be honest, that is precisly the only part of ST that I thought was exceptional. Some of those missions were as good as some done by :V: And I liked the whole Mandela Prime Arc, even though that gets invalidated by FS2.
The original poster is correct...ST was somewhat lackluster as an addon pack. But we were desperate for more Freespace after the first one and this was a quick fix until FreeSpace 2 came out.
Gee, thanks.
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Quick fix? Probably part of the reason fs2 didn't do as well as it could have.
-m
Doubtful. Nobody knew about FreeSpace 2 when it came out...thats what we were fighting against the whole time. Truth be told I think Interplay was confused as to how to market the game. Descent: FreeSpace they just marketed as a Descent sequel even when it wasn't...but they approached it that way and the game did decently. Enough for them to say ok...make a sequel. Unfortunately I think the tide was against Volition with FreeSpace 2.
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The thing I can't stand about some people anti-FS2 arguements is that it was advertised fine, yet they say the game sold badly because it, for l;ack of a better word, sucked. Every other person in both the internet and RL I know except for the CICers flat-out LOVES FS2.
It's... a rather uncompelling arguement, to be honest.
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I'll be honest, that is precisly the only part of ST that I thought was exceptional. Some of those missions were as good as some done by :V: And I liked the whole Mandela Prime Arc, even though that gets invalidated by FS2.
That would be the campaign "Destiny of Peace," which was recently touched up (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,47590.0.html) by the FSPort team. And yes, it is rather awesome.
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AH, man, that stuff looks awesome. Too bad I can't play it :(
(I've got SCP, but it does not work, because of some OPenAL crap. Plus I can't reinstal or redownload it, because of the Windows Vista's patetned anal paretal control system(TM, patent pending)
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The thing I can't stand about some people anti-FS2 arguements is that it was advertised fine, yet they say the game sold badly because it, for l;ack of a better word, sucked. Every other person in both the internet and RL I know except for the CICers flat-out LOVES FS2.
It's... a rather uncompelling arguement, to be honest.
:confused:
Anti-FS2? Every single person I've talked to on-line or in real life who has heard of FS2 has said it was fantastic. I've never heard even one person say it sucked. Where do you hear this?
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The Wing Commander CIC.
EDIT: To clarify, Bandit LOAf absolutely hates FS2, saying that it is WC:Propecy without a soul. Lehah said that he got the game for free, and he said it suck so bad, he wanted his money back.
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then they obviously don't know what there talking about. FS2 is the best game. period.
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then they obviously don't know what there talking about. FS2 is the best game. period.
Their criticisms are not without basis. Short of Snipes, the rest of the "characters are faceless and simply do not mean anything other than voices that tell you what to do. You are Alpha one and that's it. No name and no voice.
FS is story driven, not character driven. That is what that they dislike, story without a soul.
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Obviously these are people with no imagination! :rolleyes:
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Snipe was cool. Silent Threat felt like a deathmatch. The first mission didn't gave such a good impression either. You just jump in and kill everyone, kinda lame. Then you had a long series of missions to kill people who witnessed the fight and anyone else that comes in contact with the survivor.
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First mission was an example of a story that could have been good, but was botched.
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I have three friends who tried FS2 and didn't like it.
One has a hard time translating a 2D image (monitor screen) into 3D thinking and kept running into things. The second gets motion sick.
And the third one doesn't play games in single player at all, ever (aka: "who cares about plot?") and focused solely and completely on whether multiplayer fights were intense and immediately gratifying enough to his liking. At the time (late 2001 I think) FS2 was not exactly the most active of multiplayer communities.
However, the rest of those who I showed it to loved it.
As for Silent Threat... yeah. I'm not playing it again.
I'm waiting patiently for ST:R.
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Feeling I always got from ST is that it was something to fullfill a need in the Freespace Community for an expansion to Freespace. No offence to :v:, it's sound marketting practice, why not, if you have a game that did as well as FS1, milk the cow just that little bit more?
I don't think ST was really thought out all that deeply, they just needed enough plot to keep you interested and to make the game 'unique'. The storyline idea was a good one, but as mentioned before, the missions sort of let the game down in places, some of them certainly felt a bit rushed compared to the polish of the original FS campaign.
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Silent threat did have a nice soundtrack ;)
And, some very good stand-alone missions.
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The middle missions (eg the pirate one) were a little more fleshed out. I got the impression that V was in a hurry to get the campaign done, so on the last mission they said, "Alright, let's keep the briefing/debriefing to a few paragraphs, put Alpha 1 against a Loki wing with 99 respawns, put the Hades for the endgame boss, and call it an epic mission". There was an article on Volition Watch a few weeks before Silent Threat came out; they predicted that ST was meant to be a rushed expansion pack to boost slipping FS1 sales. Kind of like Attack of the Clones. It's worth noting that ST usually came for free with a copy of FS1, that's how cheap it was.
I don't see why you guys are that hard on the campaign, though. Look for the positive points, they were there. I remember the first time I saw the Loki I thought it was the coolest fighter of them all. So high-tech, with that cool tiger-teeth logo. The campaign had some good surprises. But I was about 10 when I first played it, so I guess now that I'm older the memories have worn off and I have to join in the bashing.
And anyone who says the Loki is junk needs to play on Insane. Play Field of Destruction with your wingmen as Ulysses/Herc, and then as Loki. The AI does extremely well in that ship, for some reason, even if human pilots have better choices.
edit: Oh, and some pretty bad stand-alone missions, too. They basically accepted everyone they could within the 2-3 week development period.
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All I'm gonan say about ST - WTF was that with the last mission? Gimme a BOMBER dammit!
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one of the only good things that ST gave us was the Hades. the music was another.
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:confused: It was only two tracks, and I didn't think they were that great.
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All I'm gonan say about ST - WTF was that with the last mission? Gimme a BOMBER dammit!
Uh... You got to use anything you wanted, even the Ursa.
Mustang, I do generally agree with your assesment of ST.
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First mission was an example of a story that could have been good, but was botched.
I agree strongly with that sentiment. The first mission's briefing sounded excellent. Get out there and kill everything that lives in order to prevent a second T/V war. Now if that isn't an epic first mission it's hard to imagine what is.
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First mission was an example of a story that could have been good, but was botched.
I agree strongly with that sentiment. The first mission's briefing sounded excellent. Get out there and kill everything that lives in order to prevent a second T/V war. Now if that isn't an epic first mission it's hard to imagine what is.
I liked the first mission, but I absolutely hated the second mission. So braindead. So easy to any guy with an Athena + Synatic cluster bombs and Phonix v's. And the Phonix is not a brilliantly designed missle
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:confused: It was only two tracks, and I didn't think they were that great.
Au contraire. The only two tracks I thought were better than Darkside were Marauder and Spook. The ST music was excellent.
The missions, as everyone stated, were somewhat lackluster though. Not even the lack of variety in mission design; the missions just had stupid bugs in them that could've been fixed with proofreading or playing the mission(I mean, a Jump Node 0 in a :v: mission?). The three best missions in there were IMHO:
1. The one with the pirates
2. The first
3. The last (in multiplayer only; I had some great times in ST multi with this mission)
The only redeeming factor in the missions was Justin Mills; his Destiny of Peace campaign and Manhattan Project mission made up the best FS1 FREDing I'd ever seen up until I played Awakenings.
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The thing I can't stand about some people anti-FS2 arguements is that it was advertised fine, yet they say the game sold badly because it, for l;ack of a better word, sucked. Every other person in both the internet and RL I know except for the CICers flat-out LOVES FS2.
It's... a rather uncompelling arguement, to be honest.
Its group think unfortunately. The vast majority I think would be hard pressed to stand by. But this is a messy issue thats best not brought up.
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one of the only good things that ST gave us was the Hades. the music was another.
I've never liked the Hades model. It looks like something put together with a bunch of odd lego blocks. Not Terran at all.
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one of the only good things that ST gave us was the Hades. the music was another.
I've never liked the Hades model. It looks like something put together with a bunch of odd lego blocks. Not Terran at all.
IIRC it used some Shivan technology.
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It has Shivan turrets... and I think it's suggested that it has Shivan Super Lasers like the Lucy (if not that, then some form of Shivan uber-weapon) that, at the time of its deployment to Jotunheim, hadn't yet activated.
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The ending was a let-down.
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I've never liked the Hades model. It looks like something put together with a bunch of odd lego blocks. Not Terran at all.
but it's a good plot device (think PI)
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The Hades' main beam guns are horribly placed. I mean goddamn awfully placed. 2 top guns? WHeres the bottom or side ones, again?
one of the only good things that ST gave us was the Hades. the music was another.
I've never liked the Hades model. It looks like something put together with a bunch of odd lego blocks. Not Terran at all.
IIRC it used some Shivan technology.
It did.
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It has Shivan turrets... and I think it's suggested that it has Shivan Super Lasers like the Lucy (if not that, then some form of Shivan uber-weapon) that, at the time of its deployment to Jotunheim, hadn't yet activated.
Well the table files certainly had the Shivan Super Laser as two of the turrets. I think in FreeSpace 2 they are just a pair of SRED's so its less of a potent weapon at that point.
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The SSL works in SCP, right?
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Not the same way. It behaves like an FS2 beam (at least in the few instances I've seen it used with the SCP).
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It has Shivan turrets... and I think it's suggested that it has Shivan Super Lasers like the Lucy (if not that, then some form of Shivan uber-weapon) that, at the time of its deployment to Jotunheim, hadn't yet activated.
Well the table files certainly had the Shivan Super Laser as two of the turrets. I think in FreeSpace 2 they are just a pair of SRED's so its less of a potent weapon at that point.
Nope, ther're BGreens. Still awful placement, though.
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Not the same way. It behaves like an FS2 beam (at least in the few instances I've seen it used with the SCP).
That's because those instances use the SSLBeam, not the SSL itself.
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ST was horrible IMO :hopping:.The first mission was promising :) but then it was a let down :(.I knew they could do better, IMO 2/10 :no:.It had no story :ick:.None of the maps really fit together :doubt:.
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Also, the Hades' engine subsystem is awfully made :ick: I mean... you have 4 engines, and hitting the single engine subsytem you can disable 4 engines?
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Experimental Shivan Terran Hybrids, I'm sure... we never quite seem to get the handle on Shivan tech... well, by FS2, at least we seemed to have beams & fighter shields down pat...