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Archived Boards => The Archive => Syrk => Topic started by: Lucika on September 30, 2012, 10:49:29 am

Title: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on September 30, 2012, 10:49:29 am
Dear Dev Team!

Let's call this a pointless announcement of closure, alright? I've been gone for... God knows how long, really. It is clear that the project has completely faded away (and if you ask me, I'd say that HLP has also started to go down on this path, but whatever) without my presence. This is completely understandable. However, after the botched demo release and a few other incidents I've... I'd love to say that I had no time for this and while it is certainly true that I had to take care of tons of school- and family- and illness-related **** in the last... whatever frame of time, really, I would have been able to come back if I had felt the power in myself to reinvigorate this once more.

As some of you surely know, I've been working on this since early 2010 and I had to resurrect this project many times. I've been trying to guide this boat without any sufficient knowledge of FRED, modding, mission balance at all, with nothing but the writing skills of a 16->17->18 year old. I didn't think I could start "over" again.

I should have written this ages ago, I know. I'm not particularly active on HLP, even, it feels like as if I've fallen into a pit, depriving me of all my energy. If not for the fact that I can stroll through school with basically no effort and the random gaming and other events I attend, I'd honestly consider visiting a psychologist to check if I have bipolar-D. (Apologies to anyone who actually suffers from it, I do realize my problems are nowhere as bad.) Apart from the ramble scribbles and the occasional short stories I produce, my creative efforts seem to have also hit an all-time low, which really worries me. I couldn't find any new "project" to sink my teeth into, anything new to come up with. I actually used to have too much of them to even carry, hell, just look at all the random campaign ideas I've thrown around when I was still active.

I have learned a lot from this and I honestly think I would be less if I hadn't given this a shot. It was an excercise of persistence, creative work, management, "leadership"... many things I probably wasn't cut out for, to be honest with you. Still, I'd like to believe that I've improved a lot over these years and I'd like to thank all of you for sticking around.

I would call this a closure and bid farewell but there is nothing to close down and we have all moved on anyway. :) I'd like to thank all of you for your hard work, whenever and in whatever role you decided to work on this pet project of mine: I, we could not have come this far without your help. It was a great journey, even though it didn't pan out the way I imagined it as I was 15, maybe 16. I think that is understandable though.

[...]

Also, go take a look at SoL's latest musical endeavor (coincidentally, one of the few words I still cannot spell) here (http://petergagliardi.bandcamp.com/album/formation-i-through-the-universe). It is great, I must say.

Again, thank you for your participation and I wish you all the best of luck for your future projects! I hope to hear from you somewhere later down the line.

Lucika
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: TopAce on September 30, 2012, 10:58:14 am
This is sad, and understandable. It's been fun working on this mod, despite the demo's reception. Thank you for that. I hope you will one day feel like returning to FreeSpace modding and launch a new project.  :)

Farewell, Syrk.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Spoon on September 30, 2012, 11:35:58 am
Well, I'm not suprised.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: X3N0-Life-Form on October 01, 2012, 06:48:18 am
Actually, iirc, you predicted that act1 would be released somewhere in 2013 and that the mod would die soon afterwards :).

Still, I had a good time working on this.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Mongoose on October 01, 2012, 11:56:25 pm
I'm sorry to hear this. :(

Regarding what you say about losing energy, if along with that you feel like you're losing interest in a lot of things that you used to enjoy, I think it might be worth your while to talk to a professional.  I can't diagnose that sort of thing, but I sure as hell know what it's like to experience it, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.  If it is a legitimate condition, there are ways to treat and manage it, and it can't hurt at all to talk to someone and get some more info.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Nyctaeus on October 02, 2012, 05:09:07 pm
But... I still want to know, what's up with the Shivans in Syrk :(
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: JCDNWarrior on October 02, 2012, 05:34:13 pm
I feel for you and definitely understand the challenges there are in making a campaign for FS2, as I'm working on a campaign myself. I hope you'll use the coming time to rest and figure things out for yourself. Perhaps, and hopefully, you'll feel the itch to get back into things and brainstorm new ideas you never thought of before. Taking a distance from something you're making, to return later, can be a good way to improve as well.

Either way, don't feel down, you made a good attempt to make a original story and setting. It's better to try and fail than not try at all. ;)

Good luck with everything either way!
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: starlord on October 15, 2012, 03:34:30 am
Lucika i hear act 1 was almost complete. Would you care prehaps to release what's already been done?
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on October 16, 2012, 04:40:27 pm
Lucika i hear act 1 was almost complete. Would you care prehaps to release what's already been done?

The team seemed to have plans to continue development but there seems to be no one who has the time and energy to take the helm. If that won't happen, we've been planning of creating an asset dump and I was also going to release the full storyline for better or worse. If there is no progress on this front any time soon, I'll try my best to organise a release of sorts.

Also, I'd like to hereby thank everyone for the nice comments! :) It's been a blast working on Syrk for all these years, even if things didn't pan out the way we hoped they would.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on December 03, 2012, 05:05:09 pm
It seems that most of my old posts are inexplicably missing.

Background story

Humanity only colonized Sol yet and is only able to make intrasystem jumps AND only fighters and bombers can use it. These guys've divided in 4 (you will see this in the first missions campaign briefing), and fighting with each other. In time, they'll colonize Delta Serpentis, and they'll reach a non-canon system called Syrk...
In Syrk they find a Knossos portal and... a lot of Shivans. They almost die there and all evidence of Syrk is dumped - until the second campaign - and in the very end, humanity finally allies under the name of GTA.

Run-through of factions; possible M1 "briefing"


Some of you already know this. I forgot to carry this over from GW. The story of Syrk won't be fully told with this campaign only.

I originally planned the story of Syrk to be a trilogy. I
I had a 2-3 sentence synopsis for a 180 mission story arc. Never expected to complete it fully but the story was there. I was going to share it but the goddamn thing seems to be gone now for some reason. As for releasing the current assets, my lack of FS technical expertise and my inability to bug others with it anymore, I would love it to be done but since no one offered assistance with it when I posted about it on the internal, I don't think it will be done.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: yuezhi on December 03, 2012, 05:23:51 pm
mind if i spoil a little Lucika? i don't know what happened to the reference bible but i still remember the ultimate conclusion to this campaign almost word for word.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Mongoose on December 03, 2012, 06:53:43 pm
About the missing posts, try linking to them in this thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83008.0).  With the recent downtime and database corruption that occurred, certain longer posts were cut off at the first apostrophe that appears in them.  The posts still exist in an older backup, but one of the admins just has to dig in and copy/paste them manually.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Legate Damar on December 03, 2012, 11:22:06 pm
Another campaign project cancelled? No... THE LINE HAS TO BE DRAWN HERE, THIS FAR, AND NO FURTHER!
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: yuezhi on December 03, 2012, 11:33:16 pm
^how tardy of you.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on December 04, 2012, 11:35:09 am
mind if i spoil a little Lucika? i don't know what happened to the reference bible but i still remember the ultimate conclusion to this campaign almost word for word.

Go ahead by all means, I'd like to get the full thing out but bits and pieces work as well :)
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: yuezhi on December 04, 2012, 02:56:17 pm
Quote
M180(?)
HE Fleet is destroyed leaving only ??

HE ship salutes goodbye and jumps into Syrk node

Pilot:"Where do you think they've gone?"
Pilot2: "Who cares. The war is over"
:banghead: it's not word for word but there's the conclusion :(
and i didn't bother to read the middle because that's what i always do when i read novels before actually reading them.  :snipe:
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on December 04, 2012, 03:03:23 pm
Jesus Christ I think I can see why this thing failed altogether. :P
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Veers on December 04, 2012, 10:20:05 pm
My cents, the planning and development of the story line was rather solid. It is of course, no BP (what else is? :p). But was still a good read to go through.. I did enjoy that :)
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on December 05, 2012, 06:53:05 am
My cents, the planning and development of the story line was rather solid. It is of course, no BP (what else is? :p). But was still a good read to go through.. I did enjoy that :)

Of course it was no BP. It's not just that I am obviously not on the level of the likes of Battuta (and man oh man would I like to add a 'yet' to this) but also the fact that I never wanted it to be BP; I wanted to make this an FS1-style, mostly 'a nameless cog in the great machine'-type thing. Hell, Shrouding the Light, tops. It got pretty damn outdated - mainly because the whole concept has been outshone by the likes of BP - for one, and hey, the fact that I was a complete FRED and modding illiterate at the start didn't help things. Hell, you could argue that I didn't make a big progress in this regard anyway. It was a mammoth undertaking and I enjoyed every second of it, no matter how it ended.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Legate Damar on December 05, 2012, 07:01:59 am
A campaign doesn't need to be as professionally - done as BP to interest and engage me. I suspect that is true of many other players as well.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: General Battuta on December 05, 2012, 10:04:15 am
Not all campaigns should be the same thing and by no means do they need to be like BP to be excellent.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Rodo on December 05, 2012, 10:36:31 am
go f*** yourself, BP has set the standard too damn high.

now we'll all suffer for it.

 :P
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: mjn.mixael on December 05, 2012, 10:41:45 am
Meh. People keep aspiring to be the next BP and I suspect that has a part in the demotivation that is killing campaigns. Stop trying to be BP and just be your own campaign with it's own good and bad qualities. (Hint: BP, however good, is not perfect.)
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: X3N0-Life-Form on December 05, 2012, 11:16:16 am
Stop trying to be BP and just be your own campaign with it's own good and bad qualities. (Hint: BP, however good, is not perfect.)
Quoted for truth.
I decided some time ago not to be bothered if something I'm FREDing is lacking in originality, or even reusing tricks from other mods, as long as I'm having fun. I can't help but be heavily influenced by whatever happens around me, or whatever I play or watch. It used to be somewhat painful when I realised that some of the stuff I was doing was strikingly similar to something that was just released by more experienced community members.
Now instead of going "frak, now I have to either change it or do something better", I tend to go "awesome, that's almost exactly what I need. If I reuse part of that, I'll have more time to focus on something else/I'll be able to improve upon my own system", which in the end I found to be a bit more productive.
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: General Battuta on December 05, 2012, 12:23:17 pm
Yeah that's exactly what I was saying  :(
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on December 05, 2012, 01:20:25 pm
My cents, the planning and development of the story line was rather solid. It is of course, no BP (what else is? :p). But was still a good read to go through.. I did enjoy that :)

Of course it was no BP. It's not just that I am obviously not on the level of the likes of Battuta (and man oh man would I like to add a 'yet' to this) but also the fact that I never wanted it to be BP; I wanted to make this an FS1-style, mostly 'a nameless cog in the great machine'-type thing. Hell, Shrouding the Light, tops. It got pretty damn outdated - mainly because the whole concept has been outshone by the likes of BP - for one, and hey, the fact that I was a complete FRED and modding illiterate at the start didn't help things. Hell, you could argue that I didn't make a big progress in this regard anyway. It was a mammoth undertaking and I enjoyed every second of it, no matter how it ended.

I might need to clarify myself: I was trying to say that I never wanted to make Syrk BP-like. :P It's just that its story-related advancement and the changes it sprung made a basic design look positively obsolete. Which, of course, would not have been an issue in and of itself, we're talking about something that didn't make release, I'm just saying that there's now a higher expectation in terms of storytelling. Not a BP-esque story or storytelling method. I'm also not trying to say that it is a bad thing. :)
Title: Re: Announcement of closure (Goodbye!)(Public)
Post by: Lucika on December 08, 2012, 07:13:24 pm
For reference's sake: you can find the full story here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83044.g0). Thanks for lurking around, guys, it's been a fun ride, honestly! Most of you should have a general idea as to where to find me in case you'd want to. Goodbye :snipe: