Originally posted by TopAce
And what if the two chapters contradict each other because of a plot-design mistake you made?
That's why piecemeal campaigns tend to require the most thought and work, and therefore, tend to be very rewarding once they are released (if done properly).
In this case, it leads me to think that maybe releasing a
good campaign in chapters actually may take longer than releasing it in whole. It takes longer to check the plot, characters, etc. to ensure continuity, and, if you are aiming for well-designed missions, it may simply add onto the load.
As for the length of the chapters, I don't believe that they have to be in any way short. If a campaign is too long to do in whole, then it would seem appropriate to break it into chapters; but unless you have a very good reason, it seems like a waste to only do less than ten missions per chapter; if you only have a few chapters, than you can easily combine them into one major campaign.
Of course, when I said "very good reason" above, I mean things along the lines of shifting viewpoints/change-of-characters-or-factions. I know a couple of campaigns in development that act this way (Inferno, I believe; then there's my
own and
Divided Terrans). Sometimes a story is far too grand or epic to be told simply from one point of view or in one campaign, and it may need to be divided up. GTI, for example, divides up the story among the many different factions of the day, namely the GTA, GTI, and PVN, but with some rising powers as well. I think that Divided Terrans operates in a similar way, and maybe Inferno as well (someone may want to check my facts here; I really haven't checked out Inferno for a long time).
Back to lengths of campaigns, I see no reason why a chapter should be in any way "short". Like I said before, less than ten missions in a few-chapter campaign is lame, unless you have the situation above, which is then still lame, as you will have to try to tell your story in less than forty missions, all the while shifting through viewpoints. I don't know how long Inferno Chap. 1 was, but I know that GTI Rebellion plans to have upwards of thirty missions in Chapter 1 alone. Combine this with the five chapters planned, the total is well over 150 missions.
Now, tell me: would you prefer waiting years for (well-thought-out and designed) 150 missions with mods and mods and mods galore and music, all in one major download, or would you prefer ~30 missions at a time, with mods that you can keep around for the next chapters and not worry with downloading again?
[/massive p1mp]
If there's one reason that GTI is taking so long in development, it is simply because of the storyline; I have the ideas in my head, and the staff and myself are currently hammering it out in a fine-tuned campaign, but there still a number of things that need work on. The next chapters need to have their storylines updated frequently to adapt to whatever last-minute changes get made to Chapter 1, which, needless to say, is a workload in itself.
That's the problem with piecemeal campaigns. You write 2-3 chapters and then realise that you could have a really cool mission if only you hadn't done some tiny little thing in the first chapter.
That is a problem indeed, and I'll say that I've run across it a few times in GTI. The staff will start working, and then I'll have an incredible idea, and then have to update the outlines again.
So, anyway, I voted piecemal.
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