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Hosted Projects - FS2 Required => Blue Planet => Topic started by: noodlezombie on January 19, 2009, 04:08:12 pm

Title: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: noodlezombie on January 19, 2009, 04:08:12 pm
I want to preface this by saying that I really liked Blue Planet. It has some exceptional missions (my favorite by far is Forced Entry. That one is frakking brilliant). And I especially love the new GTVA ships, they look great and the campaign does a very good job of conveying just how superior they are to the Shivan tech, while still not being invincible.

That being said, the plot was just...stupid. Or rather, it starts off promising. Expeditionary Force back to Sol, state of the art fleet. Awesome. Something happens in transit and you end up in an alternate universe where the Shivans won. Hey, that's fine, it's a bit out of the norm for FreeSpace, but I can still get with it.

Spend a few missions blowing up Shivans with your hilariously superior tech, make contact with a lone ship carrying the last survivors of the human race in this universe, all is well.

And then, out of NOWHERE, comes this 'chosen one' and 'extra dimensional aliens' nonsense. What the hell is this crap? Not only is it retarded and has no place in a fleet action based, military space sim (I will make an exception for the Sync/Transcend campaigns, since they are somewhat similar but do it far, far better than Blue Planet does), but it's not like the plot really needed it.

Why couldn't the story just have been about running through Shivan blockades to rejoin the rest of the GTVA battlegroup, and then clearing a path back to the node, a couple missions where you hold off Shivans while the scientists in the fleet work out how to reproduce the energy fluctuations to get you back to your universe, then an final epic gauntlet mission where the fleet makes a mad dash for the node? That would have been fine, I would have been more than happy with something like that.

And don't get me started on the so called 'character focus'. Not once during the entire campaign did I give a crap about Alpha 1, his Dad, or my wingmen. Awkward in-mission dialog and frankly badly written journal entries =/= good character development.

And then it gets into all this spiritualist garbage. When I got to the part where I'm presented with 5 pages of a speech on the final resting place of the soul I literally, physically facepalmed. Why is this stuff in my FreeSpace campaign? And what about the part where the aliens essentially tell you you're the long foretold chosen one? I couldn't even facepalm, I just ಠ_ಠ for about 5 minutes.

I don't wish to sound overly harsh, but I feel someone has to come forward and say these things. The basic premise of the story was solid, and the missions were great. But the story about a 3rd of the way through just went to hell. It's not like I'm asking for the campaign to be remade or anything (although...I mean you could essentially keep the first several missions the same...well whatever) but please, please don't do this same crap with War in Heaven.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 19, 2009, 04:32:41 pm
:welcomesilver:

First of all, welcome to the HLPBB! :D

Like you, I expected something different from the plot but I have to say that the campaign turned out to be memorable - the community loved it. :D I complained about a few things and said that WiH should be different from AoA under many points of view.

WiH will be about a completely different situation so we should have the same twists we had in AoA, I trust Darius on this one. I guess he doesn't want to repeat the experience in AoA... :nervous:

I'd like to add that, well, all character-driven/focused campaigns tend to have weird(no offense) things on them. I'd really like to see a radical change in this tendence because, IMO, it isn't true. I have great hopes on WiH, I want it to be what I'm looking for. :)

On a side note, you should use the [spoiler][/spoiler] tags. My post was vague on purpose, people reading yours would have full knowledge of certain, focal parts of AoA. Example:

Spoiler:
Did you know what Snail is a weird person? :D
[/mobius]
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: DarthWang on January 19, 2009, 05:29:55 pm
I liked the Vishnans just because I liked seeing the new ships and weapons and a new race in general
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: The E on January 19, 2009, 05:42:31 pm
Same here. I like Campaigns that do something completely unexpected, just like Blue Planet did.
I, for one, never expected the whole "You're in a different Universe"-Thing, and the way Darius handled it was certainly good enough for me....Better than the average alternate-universe-themed TV-Show, anyway...
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 19, 2009, 06:57:25 pm
Perhaps because I read to many of the "you have a destiny" sort of books, AoA's somewhat awkward aspects really didn't make much of a difference for me.
Although I would hope in WiH that some of the awkward aspects, e.g some the spiritualist writings get altered as a friend of mine who played it got a bit insulted at his beliefs.  (Seriously, don't ask me how it happened.)   :nervous:
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 19, 2009, 07:29:47 pm
It grew on me as I replayed it.

The presentation was good, the writing was good (don't know what your issue with it was -- it wasn't always perfect but it was far from awkward in terms of FRED dialogue), the ideas weren't original but they were original in a Freespace context. I found the whole destiny/chosen one thing pretty effective; it was foreshadowed from very early on in the campaign.

War in Heaven looks to be at least partly a more gritty and grounded experience. So you might like it better.

Anyway, if you didn't like the characters (which I thought were well-written and convincing), it sounds like something in the campaign just didn't work for you. It's a matter of taste and opinion, as are all things. You can go play Procyon Insurgency or something if you want a purely military experience.

If by 'this sort of crap' you mean character development and that brilliant flashback mission to the death of Eriana and Sam's mother, then I have to register a vote against noodlezombie and ask for more excellent emotion and character exploration in WiH.

Also, careful not to troll -- 'this kind of crap' and 'frankly retarded' isn't constructive criticism.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 19, 2009, 07:41:37 pm
War in Heaven looks to be at least partly a more gritty and grounded experience. So you might like it better

Although you can certainly bet that the Vishnans will be back. Not sure about the Shivans though as the conflict is more Terran orientated than anything . . .
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 19, 2009, 07:46:09 pm
War in Heaven looks to be at least partly a more gritty and grounded experience. So you might like it better

Although you can certainly bet that the Vishnans will be back. Not sure about the Shivans though as the conflict is more Terran orientated than anything . . .

Maybe. It's suggested that the Vishnans are watching and judging.
Spoiler:
Also, we don't know if Shiva's banishment from the Council is permanent across all universes or only applies to that single universe.

Out of curiosity, how'd your friend who played AoA get insulted?
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 19, 2009, 07:51:14 pm
(Seriously, don't ask me how it happened.)   :nervous:

I have no idea. Although . . . perhaps he was overreacting. He's quite . . . uh, religiously sensitive. No one else I know shared his opinion.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Droid803 on January 19, 2009, 08:06:08 pm
Uhm...alright...
"Lesson: Don't take fictional religions seriously?"

Then again...
I barely take anything seriously...
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Dilmah G on January 19, 2009, 08:24:00 pm
noodlezombie

BP is the best piece of FRED-ing I.Have.Ever.Seen. (in league with ST:R, Transcend etc)

If you didn't give a **** about Alpha One, you obviously weren't playing it properly, that mission where you dock with the Vishnan ship, I actually felt really saddened to leave Corey and Taylor. I have to concur the Command Briefing for that seemed a bit awkward, but Darius created a piece of art with that campaign. IMO, he's akin to Picasso with mouse and keyboard in terms of campaign writing and FRED-ing. ST:R was good, but it took a whole team, Darius was like a one man army, those 5 pages of CB about the final resting place of my soul, I leaned in on my moniter and read it through like my life depended on it, I motherfrakking loved it. If you want spacesims to stick to combat and combat only, be my guest, but campaigns like BP opened up doors for future campaigns, he pretty much FRED-ed Samuel Bei's biography, he gave a REASON to fight!
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: noodlezombie on January 19, 2009, 10:52:29 pm
noodlezombie

BP is the best piece of FRED-ing I.Have.Ever.Seen. (in league with ST:R, Transcend etc)

If you didn't give a **** about Alpha One, you obviously weren't playing it properly, that mission where you dock with the Vishnan ship, I actually felt really saddened to leave Corey and Taylor.

All I felt at that point was 'oh god, not another mission where I don't do much of anything' and then I hit the time compression button.

If by 'this sort of crap' you mean character development and that brilliant flashback mission to the death of Eriana and Sam's mother, then I have to register a vote against noodlezombie and ask for more excellent emotion and character exploration in WiH.

It wasn't that brilliant. I see what he was trying to go for, but the characters had no, well, character. There was basically no development about them at all. All there is really is a few journal entries, some lines of dialog about 'he's not my father!' a couple random visions in the nebula and then suddenly it's 'no, I must save the fathers! no Samuel, you are the spaceships' and a bunch of awkward, out of place stuff about Alpha 1's supposed destiny.

Oh, also, during that flashback mission I couldn't help thinking 'oh come on, those Shivan warheads were in flight for a good 20 seconds, Alpha wing you idiots, you could easily have shot them down well clear of the shuttle'.



Also, careful not to troll -- 'this kind of crap' and 'frankly retarded' isn't constructive criticism.

I'm not trolling. When something is bad and/or stupid, I'm going to call it out as such. I have no problem with someone making a campaign that goes outside the norm. I again cite the Sync/Transcend campaigns. Those are incredibly unique, and I actually started to care about some of the characters in those. And Transcend especially had a bunch of alternate universe and 'chosen one' stuff in it, but that was fine because it was done with more, I don't know, tact? Style? Logic maybe?

Something anyway, it felt natural, the plot gradually escalated in Sync and Transcend, as opposed to AoA where the plot abruptly changes tone and style, and not in my opinion for the better.

I do realize he did most, if not all, of the work on Blue Planet himself, and as I've said, most of the missions are great. I'm not putting down his ability to FRED. But maybe he should just get someone else to do the writing next time around...

Uhm...alright...
"Lesson: Don't take fictional religions seriously?"

I'll refrain from making the obvious joke.

Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Darius on January 19, 2009, 10:55:16 pm
BP was pretty out there with its story premise (which inevitably means it's not going to sit well with some people) and most people seemed to think the execution was good enough. Noodlezombie's welcome to express his ills with the campaign so long as it's constructive (Here's a hint: "stupid" and "crap" is the wrong way in going about it and just makes one look like a troll).

Besides, if the story was simply about running a gauntlet through Shivan-held space and saving humanity, it wouldn't have got nearly as strong a reaction as it would have :P

But I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the mission design and other aspects of the storyline.

When I got to the part where I'm presented with 5 pages of a speech on the final resting place of the soul I literally, physically facepalmed. Why is this stuff in my FreeSpace campaign?

Your FreeSpace campaign? Dude, srsly.

It's not like I'm asking for the campaign to be remade or anything (although...I mean you could essentially keep the first several missions the same...well whatever) but please, please don't do this same crap with War in Heaven.

Out of the question. Just warning you now. :P
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: noodlezombie on January 19, 2009, 11:01:37 pm

When I got to the part where I'm presented with 5 pages of a speech on the final resting place of the soul I literally, physically facepalmed. Why is this stuff in my FreeSpace campaign?

Your FreeSpace campaign? Dude, srsly.

It's a figure of speech.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 19, 2009, 11:41:31 pm
As a general rule of thumb on the Internet it's a good idea to phrase things as 'in my opinion' or 'as I see it'. There aren't many objective facts that everyone in such a diverse population can agree on.

Anyway, you've made it clear that (in your opinion) Blue Planet's plot is bad/stupid. That probably means it's just not right for you, since a great many very intelligent people liked it, as Darius pointed out.

It's not a problem with either side, just a difference in perception, so we should all just live and let live.

Also, just want to second all the stuff Dilmah G said. I'm a pretty damn good writer and I was impressed by the religious text. The only place I found serious flaws in the writing was the very end of the last mission -- there were some obvious grammar problems.

Doing the VA work for Blue Planet, I've read over or listened to most of the lines in the game more times than I count, and really, they're pretty good (and sometimes brilliant.)
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Dilmah G on January 20, 2009, 03:10:21 am
Noodlezombie

If breaking the trigger on your joystick is the only thing that concerns you when playing a freespace campaign, then BP obviously isn't right for you.

noodlezombie

BP is the best piece of FRED-ing I.Have.Ever.Seen. (in league with ST:R, Transcend etc)

If you didn't give a **** about Alpha One, you obviously weren't playing it properly, that mission where you dock with the Vishnan ship, I actually felt really saddened to leave Corey and Taylor.

All I felt at that point was 'oh god, not another mission where I don't do much of anything' and then I hit the time compression button.




If you don't have the patience (or some would say the Intelligence) to listen to dialogue in a narrative, then the best thing for you to do now is to head down to your local arcade and amuse yourself with something less 'demanding' such as Time Crisis 4, and break the trigger on their light guns (I think that's the term), and don't worry about a storyline, as long as there are pixels on the screen, you can keep on developing carpal tunnel in your index finger, which I'm sure will occupy you.

If all you wanted is to blast the Shivans back to a jump node and get the hell out of there for no apparent reason...

Great, how 'bout you close firefox, open FRED, and keep your head down for a good few months and show us what you come up with. You see, Blue Planet isn't just a 'Campaign', a series of missions, Darius goes a step further and give us a 'Story' as well, a reason FOR those missions, and a reason for the story. If you refer to BP as 'Crap' and 'Stupid', then you ST:R would suit you more.

Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Ashrak on January 20, 2009, 03:29:59 am
I want to preface this by saying that I really liked Blue Planet. It has some exceptional missions (my favorite by far is Forced Entry. That one is frakking brilliant). And I especially love the new GTVA ships, they look great and the campaign does a very good job of conveying just how superior they are to the Shivan tech, while still not being invincible.

That being said, the plot was just...stupid. Or rather, it starts off promising. Expeditionary Force back to Sol, state of the art fleet. Awesome. Something happens in transit and you end up in an alternate universe where the Shivans won. Hey, that's fine, it's a bit out of the norm for FreeSpace, but I can still get with it.

Spend a few missions blowing up Shivans with your hilariously superior tech, make contact with a lone ship carrying the last survivors of the human race in this universe, all is well.

And then, out of NOWHERE, comes this 'chosen one' and 'extra dimensional aliens' nonsense. What the hell is this crap? Not only is it retarded and has no place in a fleet action based, military space sim (I will make an exception for the Sync/Transcend campaigns, since they are somewhat similar but do it far, far better than Blue Planet does), but it's not like the plot really needed it.

Why couldn't the story just have been about running through Shivan blockades to rejoin the rest of the GTVA battlegroup, and then clearing a path back to the node, a couple missions where you hold off Shivans while the scientists in the fleet work out how to reproduce the energy fluctuations to get you back to your universe, then an final epic gauntlet mission where the fleet makes a mad dash for the node? That would have been fine, I would have been more than happy with something like that.

And don't get me started on the so called 'character focus'. Not once during the entire campaign did I give a crap about Alpha 1, his Dad, or my wingmen. Awkward in-mission dialog and frankly badly written journal entries =/= good character development.

And then it gets into all this spiritualist garbage. When I got to the part where I'm presented with 5 pages of a speech on the final resting place of the soul I literally, physically facepalmed. Why is this stuff in my FreeSpace campaign? And what about the part where the aliens essentially tell you you're the long foretold chosen one? I couldn't even facepalm, I just ಠ_ಠ for about 5 minutes.

I don't wish to sound overly harsh, but I feel someone has to come forward and say these things. The basic premise of the story was solid, and the missions were great. But the story about a 3rd of the way through just went to hell. It's not like I'm asking for the campaign to be remade or anything (although...I mean you could essentially keep the first several missions the same...well whatever) but please, please don't do this same crap with War in Heaven.


if you want all the same stuff that a billion other campaigns do, then please do play those other campaigns, i for one loved BP cuz running blockades to do the same old bloddy thing gets boring after iv done it a 100 times :)

BP made me go WTF and i loved it.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: ShadowGorrath on January 20, 2009, 03:51:10 am
If you want pure action, just open FRED2Open and make a giant BoE. That should last you for a few hours. You won't even need to make Events/use SEXPs.

Now, if you don't like BP, then either criticise it nicely, or shut up. Since you can't criticise nicely, all you can do is shut up.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 20, 2009, 04:25:38 am
It's not like I'm asking for the campaign to be remade or anything (although...I mean you could essentially keep the first several missions the same...well whatever)
If you don't like it, no one is stopping you from remaking the last missions into blow-things-up parades and being happy with it.

Actually, if emphasis on storytelling isn't your thing, there's always Second Great War Part 2 (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.40). That has a horrible story, but you don't really need to concern yourself with it since it is mostly handled during briefings and debriefings, whereas during missions you just have to blow things up on a ridiculous scale.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Dilmah G on January 20, 2009, 04:28:48 am
If you want pure action, just open FRED2Open and make a giant BoE.

Hey! I do that sometimes!
If you're in the mood for it, it can be quite entertaining, but a huge BoE and BP are two different things, the two cannot be compared. Period.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Commander Zane on January 20, 2009, 04:57:21 am
It's not like I'm asking for the campaign to be remade or anything (although...I mean you could essentially keep the first several missions the same...well whatever)
If you don't like it, no one is stopping you from remaking the last missions into blow-things-up parades and being happy with it.

Actually, if emphasis on storytelling isn't your thing, there's always Second Great War Part 2 (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.40). That has a horrible story, but you don't really need to concern yourself with it since it is mostly handled during briefings and debriefings, whereas during missions you just have to blow things up on a ridiculous scale.
But he doesn't want time compression in his FreeSpace. First mission starts off with an escort mission with a Corvette some 20 klicks from a jump node and enemy fighters jumping in another 20 klicks away.

Horrible story is a bit of an understatement here... :wtf:
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Darius on January 20, 2009, 06:00:00 am
I don't think noodlezombie's griping about the fact that BP has a story, though...it's mainly the plot execution and themes running through it that he didn't either like or agree with: that's fine. There's always room for improvement when one's starting to FRED for the first time, and I certainly didn't expect to please everybody with it :)

I'm also not going to say that his view that Sync/Transcend did this kind of story better than BP is rubbish (indeed it was Ransom's storytelling execution that inspired me). It's just the way he said it that came across as disrespectful (and people here should know my stance on basic human respect after playing the campaign :D )

So while I appreciate everyone's support :D we shouldn't slam him for not liking BP. Only the way he put it across.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Molybdenum on January 20, 2009, 08:48:30 am
Quote
I want to preface this by saying that I really liked Blue Planet. It has some exceptional missions (my favorite by far is Forced Entry. That one is frakking brilliant). And I especially love the new GTVA ships, they look great and the campaign does a very good job of conveying just how superior they are to the Shivan tech, while still not being invincible.

That being said, the plot was just...stupid. Or rather, it starts off promising. Expeditionary Force back to Sol, state of the art fleet. Awesome. Something happens in transit and you end up in an alternate universe where the Shivans won. Hey, that's fine, it's a bit out of the norm for FreeSpace, but I can still get with it.

Spend a few missions blowing up Shivans with your hilariously superior tech, make contact with a lone ship carrying the last survivors of the human race in this universe, all is well.

And then, out of NOWHERE, comes this 'chosen one' and 'extra dimensional aliens' nonsense. What the hell is this crap? Not only is it retarded and has no place in a fleet action based, military space sim (I will make an exception for the Sync/Transcend campaigns, since they are somewhat similar but do it far, far better than Blue Planet does), but it's not like the plot really needed it.

Why couldn't the story just have been about running through Shivan blockades to rejoin the rest of the GTVA battlegroup, and then clearing a path back to the node, a couple missions where you hold off Shivans while the scientists in the fleet work out how to reproduce the energy fluctuations to get you back to your universe, then an final epic gauntlet mission where the fleet makes a mad dash for the node? That would have been fine, I would have been more than happy with something like that.

And don't get me started on the so called 'character focus'. Not once during the entire campaign did I give a crap about Alpha 1, his Dad, or my wingmen. Awkward in-mission dialog and frankly badly written journal entries =/= good character development.

And then it gets into all this spiritualist garbage. When I got to the part where I'm presented with 5 pages of a speech on the final resting place of the soul I literally, physically facepalmed. Why is this stuff in my FreeSpace campaign? And what about the part where the aliens essentially tell you you're the long foretold chosen one? I couldn't even facepalm, I just ಠ_ಠ for about 5 minutes.

I don't wish to sound overly harsh, but I feel someone has to come forward and say these things. The basic premise of the story was solid, and the missions were great. But the story about a 3rd of the way through just went to hell. It's not like I'm asking for the campaign to be remade or anything (although...I mean you could essentially keep the first several missions the same...well whatever) but please, please don't do this same crap with War in Heaven.

Very well good sir! Here is your money back...

Its ok to criticize but the furiosity of your statements resembles that of an angry customer who just payed 50 bucks for say Mirrors Edge(I heard the story is bad there). You didn't pay a dime to enjoy this campaign and its creator sacrificed his time in exchange for nothing but gratitude. Loosen your tone and give Darius some advice on how to improve his writing/storytelling(which IMHO can always be improved) instead of making statements with little or no arguments to support them.

I think that the main problem with Age of Aquarius' storyline was the fact that it turned out very compressed in the short(not in comparison to other campaigns but to the proportion of the storyline) campaign length. The theme changes could be a bit more fluent. Suddenly for three mission your a Vishnan then boom you're back to your body again then, wham Shivan and Vishnians are fighting, slam the expedition was meant to conquer Sol by force etc. Some of the major plot elements are compressed into just one mission. It would be hard to otherwise fit all the ideas into one reasonable sized campaign.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 20, 2009, 10:15:54 am
Yeah, guys, ease off. Now we're practically the ones flaming him.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 10:20:38 am
I liked the Vishnans just because I liked seeing the new ships and weapons and a new race in general

I'm afraid that people who know INFR1 didn't experience that feeling.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Narvi on January 20, 2009, 10:26:08 am
I don't think noodlezombie's griping about the fact that BP has a story, though...it's mainly the plot execution and themes running through it that he didn't either like or agree with: that's fine. There's always room for improvement when one's starting to FRED for the first time, and I certainly didn't expect to please everybody with it :)

I'm also not going to say that his view that Sync/Transcend did this kind of story better than BP is rubbish (indeed it was Ransom's storytelling execution that inspired me). It's just the way he said it that came across as disrespectful (and people here should know my stance on basic human respect after playing the campaign :D )

So while I appreciate everyone's support :D we shouldn't slam him for not liking BP. Only the way he put it across.

Since this appears to be the 'criticize Blue Planet' thread, I might as well contribute.

I agree with a few of his points. The whole 'chosen one' thing and the 'timeless superalien' thing could really have done with some more foreshadowing. The implementation and exposition were just a wee bit clunky.

It's the whole 'show don't tell' rule of writing; a Vishnan ship is really just a superfighter. There's not much gameplay or stylistic difference in your piloting, besides the fact that you're flying a superfighter. That's one thing that could be improved, though I really like the Vishnan missions. I understand the Vishnans took Bei because of his tactical knowledge, but it still feels too GTVA-ey, though that might be deliberate, as I suppose that Bei would identify tactics that way even as a Vishnan fighter.

(May I suggest your try The Babylon Project's Dark Children campaign? You fly a Shadow fighter in that one, and it's very nice and alien. Your wingmates are your 'brothers' (they have these adorable cute little voices...) and because you're a living, arrogant little superfighter, the enemy wings eventually get designated as 'Pitiful', 'Weak', 'Victims' and so on. Flying the fighter is also a different experience; you aren't completely invincible, and you can be shot down if you're not careful. It's a very atmospheric campaign.)

Also I don't think the whole 'benevolent superalien' thing really fits with the Freespace universe either, but that's just me. Maybe Star Trek, or B5, but not really Freespace.

I also think it cheapens the motivations of the Shivans a bit to have them as overzealous members of some superalien council. At the end of the campaign the Vishnans were all 'you're out of the council dudes' and basically telling them to go to bed without their supper. Their inscrutability and awe-inspiring nature is lost because they have just been told to leave and they did so without complaint.

Oh, and the whole "conquer Earth" thing makes Command out to be a bunch of gibbering morons. They sent in an invasion fleet which was full of Earth fanboys. Then they don't brief the fleet on the fact that they are an invasion fleet. Clever, Command. I'm sure there won't be mass defection at all.

Also, High Command's motivations are very strange. They have to know that public opinion will turn against them if they go to war with the extremely romanticized human homeworld. Why would they attempt gunboat diplomacy without even attempting peaceful contact first?

In fact, a war between the two doesn't really make much sense. The GTVA have slightly superior ships and outnumber Earth considerably. Any war would not be profitable for either side.

The GTVA doesn't really need Earth besides as a symbol, and any war against Earth would likely have no public support because of Earth's massive romanticization by the Lost Generation; morale on the GTVA side would not be high whenever they fight Earth forces. I suppose the GTVA could go for the propaganda route and establish themselves as 'liberators' against 'the new tyrants of the human homeworld', but unless they lie about the details of first contact, not many people are going to believe them.

Earth itself is obviously self-sufficient, and in any case, they shouldn't be capable of maintaining hostilities with an entity the size of the GTVA for any long period of time. The weight of numbers would just be against them.

(I originally figured the task force was just to serve as a statement of force, and as a peacekeeping force in case Earth was less peaceful than expected. I figured it also contained diplomatic personnel to bring the new Earth government up to speed with recent history. I was not expecting their policy to be "JOIN US OR WE WILL SHOOT YOU".)

I also don't like your use of cutscenes. Cutscenes aren't Freespacey! You're in the cockpit, and there you stay. It makes sense occasionally, like the Vishnan/Shivan discussion at the end, but there's really no need to make the first meeting with the Sanctuary's pilots into a cutscene. Nor during the destruction of the Ravana during the first Knossos mission. Though, thinking about it, I think I understand the reasons for the cutscene in that last case; you probably didn't want to have the player wait for the Orestes to jump through the Knossos, and so you just ended the mission after the Ravana was destroyed.

That's not to say that I didn't like Blue Planet. To praise: The sound design and mission structure were both exceedingly well done. You also managed to convey a story without using too many 'fly and listen to your wingmen talk' missions, unlike say, Sync or Transcend. You've hit a good balance between gameplay and story. Well done!
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 12:26:04 pm
Quite frankly, many comments I read here made me sick. This is a classic situation...a group of individuals pretends to have the right to flame someone else for...what? "The greater good"? This is very bad, IMO.

I'm quite deluded by the comments of certain members, I thought they were slightly better. Noodlezombie didn't claim to dislike BP simply because all he wants is to blow stuff up without any text - the fact that he played, enjoyed and cited campaigns like Transcend and Sync is a valid proof. All he said is that he didn't like certain choices in terms of plotline development, and I have to agree. Yet still, me and Noodblezombie don't think BP's FREDding is bad.

De gustibus non disputandum est, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_gustibus_non_est_disputandum) alright, but we have to cite the facts here. People who deal with games based on "chosen" characters might not necessarily like BP's storyline while others might find it original and interesting. Also, certain choices are dabatable if accurately analyzed by people who have a very good knowledge of the FreeSpace Universe - I didn't like that Council matter involving the Shivans, just to say an example. Also, there should have been things to back up Command's choice of invading Sol: that choice wasn't obvious and a good way to justify it would have been nice(something like highly ranked officers' opinions about Sol forcing the fleet to come out with that decision, possibly for "self defense" and/or "safety reasons").

Also, I'm sick of people accusing Second Great War Part II even if they don't have the skills to create something better than it in FRED.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 20, 2009, 12:32:57 pm
Darius already addressed that point, Mobius. He has some valid criticisms and we recognize them.

And I do hope the Shivans get a bit of their menace back. They need some new ships and new motivation.

I think the invasion of Sol was perfectly plausible, but I'm sure the reasoning will be explored more during WiH.

Hasn't it occurred to anyone that maybe GTVA High Command is aware of the religious government that's taken over Sol and considers it dangerous?
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 12:35:41 pm
I think the invasion of Sol was perfectly plausible, but I'm sure the reasoning will be explored more during WiH.

No doubt we'll find out more in WiH but, at the moment, what we have isn't enough to justify that choice. The UEF is not like the EA.

Hasn't it occurred to anyone that maybe GTVA High Command is aware of the religious government that's taken over Sol and considers it dangerous?

How?

We all know that, in theory, it'd be possible to communicate to and from Sol thanks to a close system, Alpha Centauri...but in terms of FS Universe we don't know if it'd be a good choice to give it for sure.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 20, 2009, 12:36:59 pm
I think the invasion of Sol was perfectly plausible, but I'm sure the reasoning will be explored more during WiH.

No doubt we'll find out more in WiH but, at the moment, what we have isn't enough to justify that choice. The UEF is not like the EA.

It might very well be more dangerous. The EA government is human. GTVA High Command may consider the Elders to be under alien influence, or they may be motivated by fear of Earth religion spreading throughout GTVA space and damaging their ability to react to another Shivan incursion.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 12:38:56 pm
How do they know about the Elders?

PS
I've edited my previous post.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: -Norbert- on January 20, 2009, 02:34:07 pm
Quote
IMO, he's akin to Picasso with mouse and keyboard in terms of campaign writing and FRED-ing.
Now there is no need to get insulting  :P
Did I mention I hate most modern art?

Anyway back to topic.

I wouldn't argue about the "ending" just yet. It is pretty much the same as with many TV series last episodes of a particular season made into a cliffhanger.
Give the audiance an unexpected massive surprise/shock and keep it mostly unexplained to keep the audiance hooked and coming back for the next season, were it is then resolved.

And I'm quite surprised that you liked Transcend/Synch but dislike BP. For me it's the other way round. I found one of those two nice, but not to my taste and the other one going straight over the top on the "weird-o-meter". But since it's a while since I played them, I don't remember which one was which  :o
BP on the other hand I really like a lot. Of course it has it's issues, but BP has fewer of those than many celebrated commercial products in my opinion.

As for Shiva. We don't know how he/she/it? reacted to the banishment. She just went away for that moment, hardly surprising since the Vishnan ship was clearly superoir to the Shivan one. Maybe they just regrouped to launch a war against the Vishnans and their council, not accepting the banishment at all...
Maybe they rethink their position and strife to atone for their crimes....
Maybe they really accept the banishment and turn into nomads that travel aimlessly around a galaxy they emptied of life in the name of the greater good....
Maybe they send their lawyers to sue the Vishnan, arguing that the Vishnans can't make such a decision on their own, without first consulting the rest of the council.... (Okay, the lawyer part was a joke, but the part about the Vishnans making the decision without consulting the council is quite valid I think.)
Maybe, maybe, maybe.... just too many possibilities and no answers.

So we are back at "wait for more info" I guess.


As for the GTVA knowing about details of the Solar system:
Unless it escaped my attention, it was never mentioned how long the subspace node was re-established before the force was send through. Maybe they send some stealth fighters in first to see what was going on.
And it is rather likely that the node needed some time to stabilise enough to send capitol ships through. Maybe they were able to receive communications from Sol before the node was entirely stable or even establish communicated with the earth government.
Remember the Earther ship that was destroyed by the Orestes didn't seem to be particularly surprised to see other Human ships come through a suposedly destroyed jumpnode and they also seemed rather unfriendly and guarded.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: noodlezombie on January 20, 2009, 03:53:26 pm
WiH obviously not being out yet I can't really make any real judgment on the whole GTVA vs Earth thing, but from what little we know of it right now it just doesn't seem natural. Honestly, to me, as of right now, it all seems like simply a contrivance to get Alpha 1 on the side of Earth and to portray a Sol vs GTVA war from the pov of the Earth forces. Which is fine, it will provide a unique perspective on things.

But looking at it as a story within the FreeSpace universe it just doesn't work. Everything we've seen about it indicates that the GTVA is a fundamentally benevolent organization. Misguided and arrogant at times perhaps (the Shivans can't POSSIBLY defeat our new technology! ahahahahahah-wait what? 100 Juggernauts you say? ohshi-) but it's not evil by any stretch of the imagination. They would never, ever, start an unprovoked war, especially against something as near to mythical status as Earth.

You could argue that maybe it's a few bad Generals/Admirals/Politicians pulling the strings to start a war, but the last time I checked the GTVA was a democracy. And especially with a project as big and important as reestablishing contact with Earth, there's just no way a few bad apples could get away with something like this.

Again, I'll withhold final judgment until the campaign is out and I've played it, but it just doesn't seem right...
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 20, 2009, 04:21:12 pm
Is it actually a democracy? We know there's a General Assembly and a Security Council, and presumably this would fall under the purvey of the Security Council, which is presumably staffed (judging off the UN) by the most influential big name powers.

We know that relations between the Terrans and Vasudans have cooled off as the Terrans grew more and more obsessed with returning to Earth (while, presumably, the Vasudans continued to prosper and flourish.) The Terrans may be facing an economic collapse and major rifts within their own society.

Historically, large organizations have tremendous inertia. They do desperate things in an effort to perpetuate their own existence when they are about to become obsolete. There are large reams of political science written on this topic (though Rian is more an expert on it than I am.)

I think it thoroughly possible that the GTVA (or the Terran elements thereof) is simply seeking to bring Earth in line with a rapid demonstration of military force in order to neutralize an uncertain element and safeguard its own continued existence.

That said, from the level of a fighter pilot, no, it doesn't make much sense. But large organizations, historically, do very stupid and very risky things. And they do these things very consistently and very often.

It's easy for us to say 'makes no sense!' We say the same thing about, say, villains in stories randomly executing their underlings. But, in fact, historical tyrants very frequently did just that. These things seem cliche and difficult to believe but they're actually quite veracious.

So, knowing history -- I'm not too surprised.

(All that said, I'd love to see the issue explored further during WiH, at least in the techroom.)
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 04:27:28 pm
As for the GTVA knowing about details of the Solar system:
Unless it escaped my attention, it was never mentioned how long the subspace node was re-established before the force was send through. Maybe they send some stealth fighters in first to see what was going on.
And it is rather likely that the node needed some time to stabilise enough to send capitol ships through. Maybe they were able to receive communications from Sol before the node was entirely stable or even establish communicated with the earth government.
Remember the Earther ship that was destroyed by the Orestes didn't seem to be particularly surprised to see other Human ships come through a suposedly destroyed jumpnode and they also seemed rather unfriendly and guarded.

Those are pure assumptions.

You could argue that maybe it's a few bad Generals/Admirals/Politicians pulling the strings to start a war, but the last time I checked the GTVA was a democracy. And especially with a project as big and important as reestablishing contact with Earth, there's just no way a few bad apples could get away with something like this.

You could still use some sort of propaganda to manipulate everyone else's opinion. In FS2's Intelligence entries reported that Sol was suspected to fall in a status of total anarchy which is, by definition, dangerous. In any case, the GTVA should have analyzed the situation before even thinking to send an invasion fleet.

Maybe they had a wars for profits in mind, who knows...
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 20, 2009, 04:28:55 pm
It's not a pure assumption, Mobius -- the campaign explicitly says that a number of drones had been sent through previously.

These drones had probably been eavesdropping on UEF transmissions for some time. That's why I think the GTVA may have known about the Elders and the UEF spiritual state.

The situation was probably analyzed quite thoroughly before the battle group was deployed.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 04:45:29 pm
The drones analyzed Sol's political status?
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 20, 2009, 04:47:30 pm
As it was said, the drones probably eavesdropped on UEF transmissions, after which some highly educated GTVA analysts counted 1 + 1. Not directly stated in the campaign, but easy to deduce.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on January 20, 2009, 04:54:42 pm
No, it isn't that logical. Listening to a few transmissions is not the best way to learn everything.

Random transmissions tell nothing about the basics, the few things everyone out there knows....and even if they did you need many, many transmissions to be sure of anything.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: General Battuta on January 20, 2009, 05:45:52 pm
So how do you know they didn't gather many, many transmissions and relay them back to the GTVA?

That's probably exactly what they did.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: DarthWang on January 20, 2009, 07:21:24 pm
I liked the Vishnans just because I liked seeing the new ships and weapons and a new race in general

I'm afraid that people who know INFR1 didn't experience that feeling.

I never got any of the Inferno campaigns to work on my PC
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Darius on January 20, 2009, 09:44:33 pm
Officially they had sent probes in to scout the immediate area. But they could just as well have sent SOC black-ops agents in on an intel mission without anyone knowing about it.

I'm sorry I've had to withhold so many storyline elements from the first chapter. It wouldn't be doing anything for people's patience, and it's clearly upsetting you, Mobius: this is the second time you've become so worked up about the plot. Calm down a little, I don't want to come back to see that someone else has had to lock this thread while I was away. :)

I liked the Vishnans just because I liked seeing the new ships and weapons and a new race in general

I'm afraid that people who know INFR1 didn't experience that feeling.

I did, when I played it for the first time.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 20, 2009, 10:36:19 pm
Perhaps you could have a sub-campaign detailing the SOC black-ops agents working in Sol . . . although that probably wouldn't work as fighting is surely required.
In your spare time could you write some more mini-stories about the pre-AoA stage? It'll answer a great deal of questions.  :)
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Commander Zane on January 21, 2009, 02:18:23 am
And give us more time to see sexy ships, fly sexy ships, blow crap up with those sexy ships. :D
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: SpardaSon21 on January 21, 2009, 06:37:12 pm
Well, AoA was nice, although the whole Vishnu/Shiva/Council thing was a major piece of "WTF!?"  Didn't really fit right with the Shivans being the Almighty Destroyers and all.  I also think they could have added a few extra missions near the end so they could spread things out more.  AoA just seemed to move too fast.  More character development in WiH please.  Bei, Corey, and Taylor seem to have backgrounds, but they currently don't.  Its annoying knowing that there are people there, not just Alphas 1, 2, and 3 and yet we don't know who those people are.  They are superficial now, and deserve more than that.

Like the new ships (although 6 primaries is a bit much for a recon vessel like the Aurora, 4 would have made more sense), and I can't wait to see what the UEF will be equipping their pilots with.  From what I have seen in the vids they love ammo-hungry but most likely very destructive primaries focused on Kayser-style assaults where not being able to shoot doesn't matter since their enemies are dead.  My style of combat exactly!

In other words, AoA was good, and WiH looks even better.  Keep up the great work BP team!
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 21, 2009, 06:59:49 pm
I gather that the UEF's arsenal is mainly focused around projectile weaponry. Although will it encompass fighter primary weapons - e.g Maxim. (The tech room descriptions says it fires solid slugs.)

It's kinda funny in a way that it's similar to Halo - projectile weaponry vs GTVA plasma and beams - if my assumptions are correct.  :)
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Maverick on January 21, 2009, 09:57:07 pm
After my little debocal of my game crashing on "The Great Preservers" I've just finished this campaign, and I must say i was THOROUGHLY blown away. Back when FS2 was just a demo, i could not stop playing those 2 missions until i finally got the actual FS2 (Game of the year edition no less). With no real character backstory i was still ecstatic about the game especially with the way that one ended. As the game died out and the hopes for an actual sequel to the game rapidly faded, I eventually put the game away for several years. During which time i had no idea the SCP was actually started up until i decided to see how Darkwing (my online squadron) was doing. Needless to say I found the SPC and once again, with the updated graphics and such, i blew my way through the main campaign on Insane difficulty just for fun. (ended up getting slammed by the super nova as i was jumping inside the jump node.. again) As fun as it was, it felt like it was lacking something.

Once I started my research on how to update and get more campaigns, I started looking through to see which ones would be the most interesting and tried going in chronological order via their discriptions. I had tried some of the other campaigns that came with the SCP but i just didn't like the idea of being a pilot fighting against pirates, although i will try them again even though they still seemed to be lacking something. The BWO demo was very entertaining and i enjoyed that thoroughly, but was saddened at the fact that it hasnt been completed yet. By the time i was on the last mission, I discovered what was missing...

The fact that you're thrown into the missions as "a generic pilot" was fun, it generally felt a bit stale and such. However, once i noticed that you've become a pilot with story to follow it through, thats what hooked me once again.... Its the same reasons why I fell in love with Wing Commander 1-3 (never got to play 4) and the Original Descent 1-3. Aside from the missions it also focused on an actual story of the pilot you're playing as. Thats what i felt the original FS2 campaign was lacking (SOC missions aside of course). Enough rambling about this though, onto BP

At the first load of BP, (the description alone got me interested as it was not only 18 years later but actually touching something that i had been itching to play for, the journey back to Earth. From the first cutscene, i was blown away.... The new ships alone made me wonder what other surprises were in store. Even though it took a while to start getting into the action, just playing through the initial storyline gave me goosebumps and the new Balor cannon made me drool... (it was my #1 cannon for each mission that i was able to use it in). Oh man i'm rambling again...

Anyways, I thought the use of cutscenes  was extreamly inventive and it really seemed to push the SCP to the edge (I had just missed what it was like to actually fly a fighter into the docking bay to end a mission!). Just in the first missions of playing BP made me think 'This is what Freespace should have been!". The story, though questionable in some points was extreamly well thought out and planned and even when there was no actual cutscenes, the use of the command briefings to make them into them was very clever. The music was absolutely stunning as well, not just because i'm a Trance junky, its the fact that it set the tones for each mission so well! ("The Forced Entry"... just.. wow.... I had gotten up to that mission extreamly late at night, dead tired, it immediately woke me back up) Just to touch on the end of the middle of the campaign, I was deeply moved as to how that was played out and i could not help but feel what Bei was feeling as was scripted at that point...  As for the ending, my heart just sank and i literally sat there at the controls for 5 minutes in shock before i actually ended the mission.

In a nutshell, Darius, i would like to personally thank you for an extreamly well thought out campaign and a rather touching story that you had expressed through it. To leave it on a cliffhanger like you did was cruel, but very well done... I for one am definitely looking toward to WiH and i hope that its just as well planned as AoA was. I just hope it doesn't take so long like how 24 took almost 2 years to come back... Darius, I salute you and your staff.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: -Norbert- on January 22, 2009, 07:05:06 am
Quote from: Mobius
Those are pure assumptions.

Exactly!
Good to see that you know what the word "maybe" means :P

Joking aside:
My post was intended to show that there could have been a lot going on we simply know nothing about.
And considering that AoA was told entirely by Bai junior, that only makes sense, since he's not high enough up in the hierarchy to get such information.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Darius on January 22, 2009, 09:26:54 am
Thanks for your review Maverick, glad you enjoyed it. :)

My post was intended to show that there could have been a lot going on we simply know nothing about.

Well, the sign of good storytelling is to give enough information in the narrator's limited point of view that the audience/player doesn't feel there's too many loose ends at the end of the story. In the end the story became too big for 22 missions :P It's something that's being improved on for the next chapter.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: -Norbert- on January 22, 2009, 09:39:55 am
Since the story continues after AoA, I don't mind there being a few loose ends in AoA, see my earlier comment about cliffhanger :)

Besides, as I said, Bai (whom per personify in the campaign) wouldn't have any way of knowing about the behind the scenes stuff beforehand.
Thus it is only logical that he learns of the events that led to the war only afterwars.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: azile0 on January 23, 2009, 02:07:29 pm
I'm actually REALLY exited to be fighting the GTVA for a good reason. Playing a Neo-Terran just didn't sit well with me. Besides, I am so SICK AND TIRED of blowing up another wave of Basilisks, Seraphims, Dragons, and Nephilms. I want to fight some of those excellent ships that I've seen! Shivan conflict needs some SERIOUS revamping if it wants to sit well with me. GTVA strikes me as a very expansionist- type faction, and Earth is just their lost capital planet. The religious influence likely has little to do with it. I'm sure there is some religious influence high up in GTVA Command.

I hope that WiH has a nice, lengthy campaign, longer than AoA. He did a stupendous job at the storytelling in AoA, and WiH needs to match the storytelling element, and it needs at least 30 missions to tell a good story. I loved Homesick, because it really made me feel like I was being chased, and when you finally leave the Custodian, I was almost in tears. Same in Transcend, when the Raven chases you, driven by insanity, I felt pity for the guy. I just hope we don't go Vinshan again.Those were boring missions, because you just hit so damn hard. Except when you had to prune the Ravana's cannons. That was intense.

The music also attested for the game's brilliance. I LOVE AIM. Aim is the song that plays during Forced Entry, right? I love it. It really gets you pshyched to shoot down your 1,000th Shivan fighter. Or in the case of many of you, your 10,000th.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Snail on January 23, 2009, 02:09:27 pm
I agree with the above post. Including the bit about the Vishnan missions, those seemed strangely unrefined to me compared to the rest.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: azile0 on January 23, 2009, 02:10:54 pm
Finally someone agrees.  :rolleyes:

I can't wait for WiH, it'd bee nice over Spring Break. IF I CAN GET A COMPUTER TO PLAY IT.  :hopping:
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Phoenova on January 24, 2009, 02:17:14 pm
I think that the story telling in this campaign was excellent, and personally I would also like to see some character development for your wingmen.  For basically the whole time I was wondering what happened in Capella to make Bei Jr and Sr split apart (I forgot their first names).  The ships were all awesome too, they all seemed uniform in terms of material and a little bit in the way of design, which makes sense.  They all seemed to take a Deimos design, since it was such a successful ship.  I loved almost all of the missions, and my favorite was definitely the one where the two fleets reunited again to take down the Sathanas.  The epic music when the other half of the fleet arrived to help each other out, taking down a monster was beyond cool.  Forced entry was probably a close second.  Oh, and the first time I saw the environmental suit I laughed for a minute straight (in a good way, it was just strange to be playing as basically a human in space :) )

Now, I said I loved almost all of the missions, and the exception was when the Vishnans got involved.  Mind you, they weren't BAD missions, but every single mission involving them made me go wtf to myself, and it kind of felt out of place.  I think part of my confusion was due to the fact that Ive seen the models before (in Inferno), and they were Ancient ships when I saw them first.  I know that this doesn't make them the OFFICIAL Ancient ships, but getting rid of that association is hard.  Trying to figure out if these Vishnans are Ancients, another dimensions Ancients, or only related in ship models was pretty confusing. 

It would have been cool to JUST see the Ancient remnants (Vishnans I know :p ) get involved to save the last bit of humanity in that dimension, saving another species from their fate, but the part about Bei getting involved and becoming a ship (and also the part about the Shivans getting a slap on the hand by getting kicked off the council and then leaving, and after never communicating with the Shivans we understand what they are saying perfectly?) could have been left out.

The story telling was suburb other than that, and the last mission made me  :eek: while I watched the future war start.  Hopefully at the very least the Temaire (I think thats its name) comes with us in WiH.  At least we have Bei Sr. escape pod on our side!

The one weird thing about the story was that I swore it said the Gate was completed 50 years after Capella, which made me wonder how the father and son could have been there (I'm 99% certain I misread this).  Also, it seemed like all these officers came to the different dimension conclusion just a LITTLE too quickly, without any other explanations 
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: CKid on January 24, 2009, 06:05:06 pm
The one weird thing about the story was that I swore it said the Gate was completed 50 years after Capella, which made me wonder how the father and son could have been there (I'm 99% certain I misread this).  Also, it seemed like all these officers came to the different dimension conclusion just a LITTLE too quickly, without any other explanations 

I believe the gate was build 18 years after Capella.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 24, 2009, 06:31:39 pm
The subtitles read

Quote
Delta Serpentis 2385
50 Years after the Great War

So CKid is correct - it should only be 20 years from the Capella incident since the Great War is FS1 era, not the Second Shivan Incursion.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Phoenova on January 25, 2009, 04:07:52 am
Yeah, I would have noticed that had I not skim read it  :lol: I assumed that a campaign taking place after FS2 would use Capella as the base time, but I guess considering the events that take place in alternate earth universe it makes sense.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Renegade Paladin on January 29, 2009, 11:11:18 am
I loved Homesick, because it really made me feel like I was being chased, and when you finally leave the Custodian, I was almost in tears.
You know, as long as we're spoiling Homesick, can we spoil how to get the campaign to not crash the game after the seventh (? I think so, it's been so long...) mission?   :p
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: eliex on January 29, 2009, 08:43:28 pm
It's the one where a Vasudan destroyer mistakenly accuses the Custodian and its pilots that it is carrying contraband then a red-alert? It was due to the infamous 3.6.9 red-alert bug. With a 3.6.10 build, you should be able to play it just fine.  :)
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Locutus of Borg on March 15, 2009, 01:39:00 am
I have to agree with the thread author on this.

I really felt nothing for the protagonist, and by the time the Vishans came into the picture I thought the plot was getting a little ridiculous.

I would've liked to have been eased into the whole idea of the 'chosen one' and the 'Vishans' but it seemed like it came out of nowhere.

I'd also like to say that I do have poor vision, so I was forced to read a lot of the stuff at an uncomfortably close distance to my screen. If the campaign was voice acted, I may have been more into it.

I did love the first part of ti though, I played it in one sitting.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Snail on March 15, 2009, 05:52:08 am
I'd also like to say that I do have poor vision, so I was forced to read a lot of the stuff at an uncomfortably close distance to my screen. If the campaign was voice acted, I may have been more into it.
So basically you only enjoy 3 or 4 campaigns then?
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Locutus of Borg on March 15, 2009, 09:18:24 am
Pretty much, lol

I love Destinyofpeace, and Derelict; and of course ST:R.

Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mobius on March 15, 2009, 09:24:54 am
Please note that she's 1002 years old, Snail... :p
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Mattsworkname on March 22, 2009, 08:35:06 pm
You know, I read a lot of people upset at the story, and I can't help but think that it's all over blown.

It's a free campaign guys, not a commerical product. Constructive criticizm is one thing, but no need to go around angrily venting like a child.

That said, I can't deny some of the complaints have merit. Command being the bad guys sets up a great second chapter, but at the same time makes them look like idiots.

As for the vishans and shivans, I like that someone at least tried to put into context the shivans and there purpose, even IF it didn't make a great deal of sense.And besides, the Vishans ships look cool as hell.

Now that being said, one issue that I don't get is the whole "Shivans turned into pussies" grip.


Is it just me, or does the thought of the dante returning backed up by about 50 Juggernauts and a couple dozen destoryers not fill everyone with terror. Dont' forget, these are the guys who super novaed capella. I doubt they will take the Vishauns actions lying down. My money would be on the shivans coming back in full force saying "Guess what. The concioul can go screw itself" Not in that terminology but, something to that effect.

Over all, I liked Blue planet and enjoyed it alot, and hope to see the second chapter soon.

Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: OsirisFLFan on March 24, 2009, 06:56:29 am
Firstly i started playing Freespace only two months ago and as expected i loved the game and now am a fan of all space sims.

I must say that of all the campiagns i've downloaded and played BP is one i consider as one of the best. The storyline diverts away fro the usual Shivans against humans and vasudans stuff that honestly has become a staple in most campaigns (nothing against that but after a while it gets boring). The twist at the end works because well they've been thru boatloads of crap then the sudden switch was a WTF moment for me.

I really liked the graphics and the ships it totally added a new excitement to playing the game as you rarely saw some of the flyable shipsfrom the orig campaigns.

All i can say is that the next campaign will probably be cool and can't wait for it but make sure the UEF have some chutzpah as the GTVA are seriously bad ass. :pimp:
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Droid803 on March 24, 2009, 04:55:08 pm
:welcomesilver:

Yes, we all can't wait for the sequel.  :D
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Thadeus on April 03, 2009, 08:18:59 pm
So has anyone other than me noticed the error in the cutscene where the Orestes battlegroup is attacked by the Lucifer?

I was very confused when I was told that the year was 2285.
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Dilmah G on April 03, 2009, 08:27:51 pm
So has anyone other than me noticed the error in the cutscene where the Orestes battlegroup is attacked by the Lucifer?

I was very confused when I was told that the year was 2285.

Hmm, I never picked that up
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: Snail on April 04, 2009, 06:44:55 am
So has anyone other than me noticed the error in the cutscene where the Orestes battlegroup is attacked by the Lucifer?

I was very confused when I was told that the year was 2285.
Whoa!

Another dimension(no pun intended) to BP's already gripping storyline - TIME TRAVEL
Title: Re: Blue Planet Plot
Post by: ShadowGorrath on April 04, 2009, 08:49:14 am
Yea, it's supposed to be 2385...