I know someone has probably made this suggestion... well, its more of a dream... but I'll make it none the less. With some of our more experienced FREDders talking about campaigns that change their progression depending on how well you do, I am brought back to something which was tickling my mind a few months ago... a Freespace based strategy game. Now, you wouldn't be able to play any of the missions the way you do in Freespace, but you would instead control ship production, developpment, deployment, resource extraction, and millitary expansion. This would work much better once more in the way of evolutionary content (ships and technologies from early days through post FS2) is developped. Ideas for these would be taken from TVWP, Volition campaigns, and others that cover the gaps in FS history. For a simple version, one could replay classic FS campaigns but as the GTA (or even PVE), or GTVA supreme military commander. With the varied nature of post Capellean campaigns, both in ships and timelines, some expansions based on popular campaigns would be created, such as one for Inferno (since I haven't played or are familiar with a large swath of the campaigns out there, this is the only one that comes to mind). Gameplay would use a full 3D rendering of space, as a nodemap of systems. As more systems are discovered, they can be added on to the map, with colors indicating who's controlling them or if one is contested (like in the FS2 command breifings). Highlighting a system would tell you what natural elements (planets, stars, asteroids, nebula, etc.) exist in the system, various fleet deployements, the resource requirements, etc. By selecting a system, you can zoom into another 3D rendering of that system with all natural elements, fleet deployments, jump nodes, (all from above) displayed within the system. Any construction or research facilities would require both protection, supply, and orders (what to make). If a facility makes fighters then you could deploy them to any ship in the system, but a cap-ship would be needed to move them out (until small-ship inter-system drives are developped). The player could start out at the very start of Terran (or Vasudan for that matter) subspace exploration and expand your empire. The flow of colonists would be independant of player control, unless an evacuation is needed a la Capella. As new, fertile territories are discovered, civilian ships would begin to travel to nearby systems and set up camp, but if the trek is dangerous, you might need to provide escort for these. If a system gets ignored somewhat and you fail to ship the resources they desire, they might decide to withdraw from your alliance and go rogue, prompting them to possibly turn on you forcing military action. A random element might possibly allow a Bosch-like person to grab support and attempt a takeover. Of course, the Shivans or possibly even the Ancients will arrive at some point with technology somewhat supperior to yours, prompting both military deployments and the peace treaty between the Terrans and Vasudans, which you need to support and nurture. As far as engagements are concerned, you would actually be able to watch cap-ships duke it out, while fighters and bombers engage as well. You have the option of sending however many ships you feel you need to deal with a threat. You may not even need to send cap-ships for this purpose, as bombers and fighters may do the trick, althought beam weapons on later campaigns will return some teeth to cap-ships. You can designate a ship in a region as a flagship, which will improve response time and even allow the PC to take up some of the minor automatic defense actions, but if you lose that flagship the effectiveness of the remaining vessels under its former command will dimminish. Old ships can be upgraded, overhauled, downgraded from flagship to secondary defense, or even decomissioned, with a minor refund (depreciation). You'd also get to name your own ships. You'd also need to create academies and pilot training schools to get pilots and crewmen for your ships. For pilot schools you might even get the option of creating an Alpha-1 pilot who is indestructable, but doesn't know it... maybe this would be a cheet or add-on. As for close-system monitoring within a nebular environment, ships would be represented by shadows and silouettes until you zoom in on them, and newer advanced scanning equipment helps to augment your data on the region. The nodemap could either be based on what we can agree is a balance of Volition canon (FS1, ST, & FS2 don't always agree), but then becomes more random in system dispursal as the player expands their empire beyond these canon borders, or there would be an option to make it completely random from the beginning, which would be better for someone who is tired of playing on the same old field.
Of course, this entire thing is just what I'd like such a game to be like, if someone ever got it in their mind to do one. Feel free to make your own suggestions, will full knowledge that no-one will ever make such a thing (a conciet).
I realize that may be a bit lacking in flow, but I just wrote it as the ideas came back to me. There's probably more that I forgot to mention.
Later!
