21

General Discussion / Re: Happy 25th Birthday, HLP

« Last post by Mobius on January 07, 2026, 02:23:33 am »

Happy 25th birthday HLP! A quarter of a century old and still delivering stuff.

22

General Discussion / Happy 25th Birthday, HLP

« Last post by Goober5000 on January 07, 2026, 01:59:19 am »

To everyone who has contributed to HLP over the years, in ways large and small, congratulations.  It is because of you that this community endures.  25 years is really something to be proud of.  How many other internet communities can say the same?

Here's to 25 years of Bringing Modders Together. 🍻🥂

23

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: Screencap Contest: December 2025

« Last post by BengalTiger on January 06, 2026, 10:03:20 pm »

Oh I love that old intro. I'd love to receive it if anyone wants but I've been lurking enough I've seen it quite a few times. Either way I'll have lunch for Carl.

And thank you!

Well, since you ask for it.


The station may appear Derelict on first glance, but should someone request a speech and not get one, there will be an Inferno.
So, here we go:


Welcome to HLP. It's just another day here. Ever since the Ancient-Shivan War, we've been running this station to uphold the greatest science fiction universe on this side of Vasuda Prime.
The emergency exits are to the left and to the right. The upper decks have ship design workshops, weapons design workshops, mech design work shops. They also have ships, weapons and mechs.
Don't know how those last ones even got here to be honest.

The upper middle decks are decked out with all sorts of facilities, ranging from an invasion of other franchises to an invasion of ...
Cannot say the name once again for we could all be doomed, the Silent Threat of the Smart One still migh exist after all.

You can also find Zodz serving Headz, our diplomatic missions and various forms of cuisine, entertainment and other places to visit on the middle middle decks.

The lower middle decks are home to hangars and shipyards mostly, but also other... well, things.

The lower decks have a reactor that looks like a giant potato (I've seen it first hand, not making this up), and some docking bays.

And finally, meet the cleaning crew. Carl the Shivan in all his glory.

Now, since you've been shown around, we will be leaving the Blue Planet and going into uncharted territory. The Station is in fact self propelled, and WE BRAKE FOR NOBODY.

In case you are homesick, we were able to perform a Strategic Transfer of Equipment to Alternate Location on a Shivan Comm Node. It is now in the lower lower decks, hooked up with a tow cable.
It does work fine, and nobody knows how or why.

We will soon be Crossing the Styx and proceeding Into the Depths of Hell.

That's all, folks.

24

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: Looky what I found!

« Last post by BengalTiger on January 06, 2026, 09:04:46 pm »

Derek Smart...

Have not heard that name since the very early days at HLP.

Anyone remember the full story? I think it's worth explaining for the newer folks.

I found the OG thread: https://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=25162.msg503400#msg503400

Linked at his first post.

The short of it is, DS expressed an interest to buy the FreeSpace license and develop FS3, but HLP was very familiar with how garbage he was, both as game dev and general human being, and in one of our finest moments of history, collectively trolled the **** out of him till he ****ed off, lol.

A number of people actually tried to be reasonable with him or were polite in explaining how much we didn't want him anywhere near our precious, but dude was such a ragey lolcow that we weren't kissing his feet in praise.

2004, woooow...
I'll be going through the whole thing

25

Fate of the Galaxy / Re: [FotG] Current Shipset

« Last post by wookieejedi on January 06, 2026, 10:28:57 am »

Updated with the newest addition, the Raider Corvette from FekLeyTarg!

26

Gaming Discussion / Re: Minecraft Multiplayer

« Last post by Mongoose on January 05, 2026, 10:55:18 pm »

Heh, I was just looking around the OG map a couple of months ago when I had a brief burst of Minecraft interest. Unfortunately I don't know of anyone running a server right now.

27

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: Looky what I found!

« Last post by Mongoose on January 05, 2026, 10:52:15 pm »

You have to say his name three times to get him to show up, so we can only talk about him in the third person.

28

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: Looky what I found!

« Last post by deathspeed on January 05, 2026, 07:54:43 pm »

I thought I had been around for a long time, but this is my first time seeing this.  I do remember DS though - i hope this discussion does not conjure him lol.

29

FreeSpace Discussion / Re: Looky what I found!

« Last post by Colonol Dekker on January 05, 2026, 10:02:29 am »

He is not a reasonable man...

30

FS2 Open Tools / Re: RELEASE: Knossos.NET (KNet)

« Last post by Mobius on January 05, 2026, 10:01:58 am »

Just popping here to say that I'm switching from the old Knossos to Knossos.NET right now, and the entire process is much more intuitive and handy that I thought! K.net automatically synced with my FS2 folder and loaded all relevant settings. Nice work guys, it has never been so easy!