[pyro-manic]

Steel: That's an idea which has been thrown around before, and has been dismissed as a bad idea. Canon is the universe as created by - it is for them to expand on it, if the opportunity ever arises. We as the community are free to interpret the existing information as we see fit, and add to it in our own way. Hence the many and varied fan-made campaigns that now exist. If certain ideas and events were to be made into "canon" facts, then that would invalidate the work of many people, work which they have spent a long time creating. That just isn't right. Firstly, it means that the work which is made canon is somehow preferable to that which is not made canon. This is wrong, as nobody's opinions and ideas should be more valid than anyone else's. Secondly, the people who created the "new canon" are then responsible for it, and they cannot go back to it later and change anything without upsetting all subsequent work.

Lastly, the people at developed substantial additional material for continuing the FS storyline (and thus the canon), though they have not released it. They and they alone are responsible for any extensions and additions, as they created the scenario in the first place, and a bunch of random people on an internet forum do not have the right to interfere with their work.

What if it was decided that Inferno was to be canon? That would mean that many other campaigns could not be finished. If the FSU Project was declared canon, that would invalidate basically every other major project currently in development, as their storylines will be vastly different. I work for two projects that deal with future events (i.e. post-Capella), Into the Night (the 158th) and the Scroll of Atankharzim. They have completely different plotlines, but both are equally valid. Why should one be more "official" than the other? That would imply that one is better than the other, and that is not something that anyone has a right to declare to the world as fact. Opinion, maybe, but not fact.

[Gapie]

Ever considered multiple galaxies?

[Boomer]

Just to give my two cents...

Pyro is right.   worked to create a base universe that gave the player an immersive environment in which to pursue the ever so satisfying pasttime of blowing stuff up and the not so pleasant past time of listening to Command.  Errr... oops getting off topic.

Anyway, the reason to say that the universe as stated by is canon is so that anyone who wants to write a new campaign has the opportunity of building off of a stable foundation accepted by all.  

I can pretty much guarantee that short of additional material released by , no user made campaign is going to be accepted by all members of the community, past, present, or future to ever attend.  One thing you can't do is pretend to know how intended to go with the Freespace universe.  You can only present your view of how you think it should go.

Oh, and, uhh, does anyone have change for a nickel?

[Steel]

so i said what are the reasons to do something, rather than not...  negativity never gets anything done.  how about reasons to do something.

you said base universe - exactly!  expand the base, little by little.  no one said anything about things in the future...???  just you negative folks.

i personally have not seen V do anything recently?  lots of material to release?  where?  who REALLY knows this? (maybe someone does, but who...)

this is all made up, for enjoyment.  why not expand on it?  it seems to me that THIS group, not V or anyone else, has the reigns of the freespace world now.  is that not really correct?  is V constraining the work here?  have they dictated that you had better not mess with Freespace canon or else we will exterminate the human race?

party poopers...

yes, there will be some disagreement.  some folks will be disappointed, sure.  but this may get folks to actually put more research and work into their mods and campaigns.  like a badge of prestige.  this could increase the quality of work within the community.

or geez - maybe it is just a bad idea...    

[karajorma]

It's a bad idea.

What you're basically suggesting is in the same vein as the "Let's get together as a community and make FS3" suggestions that pop up. It's a bad idea for pretty much the same reason that is.

 If you're too lazy to do your own research simply borrow from Inferno or something and say it's in the same universe.

[WMCoolmon]

Or just come up with a timeline that names other campaigns as being 'canon' with your story.

Inferno and Derelict could easily be said to be a part of the same timeline, even though the campaign styles are vastly different, since AFAIK there is nothing to contradict it yet. Of course there's nothing to support it, either.

[karajorma]

Yep. That's basically what I was on about.

[Steel]

If you're too lazy to do your own research simply borrow from Inferno or something and say it's in the same universe.

i never once said i was too lazy or did not want to do my own research.  in fact, if i worked on something it would take forever because i am so anal...  not sure why you went down that path with me - sorry if i implied i was lazy....

if you (generally speaking, not anyone in particular) have a committee (whoever that MIGHT be...), and folks wanted their stuff "approved" (whatever the heck that MIGHT mean), they might do some higher quality work.

but...whatever.  no skin off my teeth!

[pyro-manic]

But that would mean that whatever the "committee's" idea of "acceptable" was would be the rule, and that stifles creativity as people have to work to the new rules rather than doing what they want. I'd much rather we have a diverse body of work of varying quality, than have a narrow range of what is acceptable and what isn't, even if it's all to a high standard, because most people simply wouldn't bother if they couldn't do what they wanted.

[karajorma]

I didn't mean you in particular. Collective you.

Personally I don't see any reason why I need my stuff to get an official stamp of canonicity. If I have a good idea people will copy it. If they don't like it they won't. Why is anything more needed?

[TopAce]

Originally posted by karajorma
...Why is anything more needed?

Money, power, ladies.

[karajorma]

A jedi craves not these things.

Besides if you believe that working on extending Freespace canon will bring you any of those things youre clearly delusional and should be locked up and neutered as quickly as possible in the name of the public good.

[Hippo]

Thats why i prefer Scarface's version - you can't lock up respect

[Steel]

TA,
Tou can keep the power part!    But my fiance' would not like the ladies part, so all I would have left is money, which she would like to buy clothes and shoes with...  

Folks,
I give up.  You win.  You do know however, that committees pretty much deicde what you are able to do on a daily basis, right?  It is part of life and modern political systems.  It seems none of you trust your oldest and most respected community members enough, so in that case it would not work...  The thought was the community could vote on who gets onto the committee, maybe you have 5-7 members, and they set up standards (quorum for voting, yada, yada) and the community approves those (you know, like voting for a constitution) and then away they go...  But if the trust and desire is not there (made quite apparent here) then it really would not work.  Yep, it would be a large thing to do but it could pay off.  Like I said  - it was an idea, and no skin off my teeth...and you all know this community much better than I do.

[Taristin]

The commitee would decide to leave things as they are. Period.

[karajorma]

It's not about not trusting the older members. This has nothing to do with trust. It's about seeing no good reason to do this in the first place.

The community has discussed just about every aspect of the game. If you want to see what the community thinks about a certain aspect simply search or start a new topic on the subject.

I don't see any reason why you need to do the same thing and then get some kind of official stamp of approval. If you like the idea the discussion resulted in, you use them. If not you ignore them.

[RED DIAMOND]

Naw, I like the way it is now, with each persons vision playing out as they see fit. Any attempt to canonize non canon(Non V) material would be a step in the wrong direction IMHO. Free your minds.

[aldo_14]

There is no purpose in 'expanding canon' beyond reducing the options open to people in storytelling.  We'd be voting to cut our own throats, effectively telling the many mods in development they're storyline is invalid before it's even completed.

Not to mention people won't accept being told what canon is by anyone other than Volition employees.

[Mefustae]

Y'know, just taking a look at the 'Official Map', and i was just wondering something...it's obvious that the Shivans entered GTA/PVN Systems through an unknown Node in the outlying Systems, most likely, that system would be Ross128. Now, what i'm wondering, is if Lucy and her pals were on a Homeworld Destroying bender, why the hell did She bypass Sol's node in Delta Surpentis to go for Vasuda Prime first?! I mean, She must have passed right by the Node to Sol, so why didn't she take out Sol first?!

...I mean, sure, one could argue that She was simply going in a big loop, planning to exit GTA/PVN systems the same way She came, and thus would come back via Delta Surpentis and thus get Sol then...but that makes no sense, it would only make the extermination of life in our little quadrant of the Galaxy harder to accomplish...Moreover, it is really emphasised throughout FS1 that the Shivans were obsessed with holding Nodes, and yet they completely ignore the Delta Surpentis-Sol and go on their merry way...what's the deal with that?!

[aldo_14]

Because Volition hadn't drawn the canon map at that point.

Interesting to note that the players first encounter with the Shivans was escorting ships to the Antares-Ribos node; their first attacks in the game were in conflict areas (this is of course ignoring the Lucifer).

 It's possible that either the Shivans simply didn't know where Sol was (perhaps not realising there were 2 capital planets to target), or that the Lucifer was acting to disrupt the soon-to-be GTVAs supply lines, logistics, etc whilst the bulk of the Shivan attack was launched.

Or that the Shivans needed to regroup before launching all-out war (one of their entry points was Ikeya, for example; which would be an entirely different point of attack to that upon Ross 128) - so you'd have the fleet assembling from multiple locations, causing chaos in the GTA/PVN lines, and then forming up for the concentrated thrust onto the 2 home planets.

Of course, Volition could have drawn up the map after most of FS1 was done/plotted/scripted/etc, and just tried to match as much of the story as they could and hoped the poltholes would be ignored