[NotDefault]

Eh, my first "mission" was a pathetic dogfight between Alpha wing (flying Ulysses fighters) and two Shivan wings (flying Mara fighters).  One of the Shivan wings jumps in "unexpectedly" in the middle of the mission.  Needless to say, I didn't release that.  I did make voices for it, though (what was I thinking?!?!).

Unfortunately, it has been my only mission so far.  I'm working on another one, which I'm hoping will have a successful (read: fun) fight between two Destroyers while not swamping the player in masses of fighters and not using a "fighter-bay is disabled" cheese-out.  I'll see how it works out and I might release it.

[EdrickV]

My first FS2 mission was Graveyard Shift. A mission where you guard a ship graveyard against shivan ships. A very simple mission, didn't use events till I decided to turn on one "dead" ship's beams. Never finished it. Closest thing I have to a finished mission is WatchDog for the Robotech MOD. (Now that's got some nice scripting, if I do say so myself. )

Edit: Now not not!

[beatspete]

FRED is like a puppy for christmas.  You make all the huge battles you ever dreamed of, then a few days later it ends up sitting in the corner cause nobody cares anymore.
Unless you do the walkthrough.  Yes, try the advanced walkthrough (and do it all).  Although it only tells you how to make one mission, i found having done it, i had learned enough tricks to do anything i really wanted and the SEXP's you dont use in it you can pretty much work out for yourself.

My actual first mission (which wasnt that long ago) was shooting at a Mara.
Then bombing an Aten with helios missles from a myrmadon.
Then a few battles with the Hades, since i never had ST and wanted to see what it was like.

I finished my first proper mission last week.  It started as a raid on an NTF shipyard, just bombing some ships.  Then i added a few ships patrolling the yard, and attacking Sobek.  Then i decided to put in the Iceni, it was just about to leave via a jumpnode and you couldnt intercept it, so it had potential to develop into a campaign plus i got to use a few of the sound files from the main game.  Then one ship which activated its weapons upon targeting it, and one that blew up its docking ring and jumped out so it could be used in a later story.
Eventually the mission ended up as a combined ship yard raid, and a rescue of a Mentu class that held secret research into integrating large beams into small ships (like the Lilith).
Let me know if anyone wants to try it out.

Second proper mission is nearly done, just need breifings and fine tuning, is capturing a shivan ship.  It was gonna be a Ravana but they dont have any dockpoints, so i changed it to a moloch.  You have to diable its engines and weapons, a transport docks and captures it, then you have to escort it to a jumpnode, a few shivan bombers attack to prevent you from stealing it.  
I think i upgraded the moloch to have a Lred (if they dont already) so i could integrate that into the Mentu with a large beam weapon story of the first mission, possible mini campaign.

oh well, happy FREDing everyone.

pete