[WMCoolmon]

This is something I've had floating around in my head for awhile now, but we're only just now getting to where it might be useful.

The idea of the ModVP would primarily be to provide a set of ships/media that expand upon the retail ones, ie follow the same design schema and are campaign non-specific. Right off the top of my head, good examples would be Lightspeed's nebulae, and the GTFf Saphah.

The general idea would be to provide a somewhat-standardized library of media that FREDders could use to add variety to their campaign, without having to pick off modellers from other projects. For any kind of fiction, the general idea would be that these would be things that just didn't pop up in the main campaign because they were somewhere else, were invented shortly after the main campaign, or were retired before the main campaign.

Releases would be done in sets, so a modder could just mention "This campaign/mission requires ModVP Set 3 or higher".

I'm not offering to coordinate it, I have enough involvement with FS2 already, and at this point, I'm not sure how useful it'd be, other than getting mods in one spot. But, I figured I might as well throw it out.

[FireCrack]

hmm... so stuff like "hecate with quad guns" ? stuff that deviates, but by expanding rather than changing?

[WMCoolmon]

Maybe not quite that small. I was thinking more along the lines of, you have a Terran civillian convoy escort mission, but you want more types than 2-3 freighters, a gas miner, and Elysium transports. Things like luxury liners, passenger ships, mobile homes, maybe a construction hauler, etc.

Or, special pirate ships.

A Hecate with quad guns would probably apply, maybe the six-gun Herc, but they seem like pretty small changes.

[Solatar]

I used to add a few select ships to my FRED list (I had it cut down to Great War era however) of ships that I thought were about [V] quality. I think it included like...the Vasudan mine, SF Gorgon, and a few others. Something like this wouldn't be bad, but I think if we're going to make some general add-ons, we should keep it with only the really good models. I'd really only use it if it contained really high quality stuff (the luxery liners and stuff that are available now aren't quite up to par with the rest of the Freespace ships, which I know is very hard to do). Of course...I don't release much FRED stuff anyway. Too much dang real life to finish a campaign.

EDIT: Different packs could be released for different time periods as well. Some for Port campaigns, Reconstruction era, second Shivan incursion, post Capella, etc. That way you could launch a campaign and require the "Reconstruction Era Mod Set" or the "Post Capella Set".

[Trivial Psychic]

I'd nominate the Ticonderoga.

[FireCrack]

^Is that that extended fenris thing?

[DaBrain]

Sounds like the thingy in my signature.

Hmm... I hope the link is still working...

[Krackers87]

If you organized them effectively then it might be somewhat useful.

This would be something that would also require voting on to decide what goes in each packet

[Trivial Psychic]

^Is that that extended fenris thing?

Yup.

[Fade Rathnik]

Kinda like a HLP expanded universe. A comunity endorced and developed expanded universe for Freespace. Fill in all the rest of the ships and details that volition didn't, only HLP's take on that. That way it could give moders more matterial to work with, Hell, Inferno is used in more than one mod isn't it? Of cource this could lead the way to the idea of the HLP campain thats been hinted on here and there.

[Black Wolf]

Kinda like a HLP expanded universe. A comunity endorced and developed expanded universe for Freespace. Fill in all the rest of the ships and details that volition didn't, only HLP's take on that. That way it could give moders more matterial to work with.

Never happen. Don't want to rain on your parade but this has been suggested before and always gets knocked down. Nobody would agree. I think plenty of campaigns have stupid premises. I'm certain there're people around who think campaigns I'm involved in have stupid premises. Thus, a conflict is born. Multiply by the number of contributors. and all we'll get is another capaign backstory forced into shape by a few individuals who manage to agreeon the elemental details, and that nobody except the creators follow.

[Solatar]

What about a number of small .vp's that include a small mod and a little .tbm with suggested useage, etc.

Here's an example I prepared using Dark's Vasudan Mine. Great War, early reconstruction era. Just plop it into your main FS2 directory, stick it in a mission and set the Kamikaze flag.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Taristin]

I've a Losna and Kelpie available for just that purpose. Whatever is on mekhu is free for use in anything...

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[Galemp]

I'd go along with this, but only if we wanted to 'fill in the gaps' left during the main campaign's timeline. This is a big issue for the Scroll of Atankharzim, acquiring Vasudan counterparts to the Fausus, Myrmidon and Erinyes (Imhotep, Shu and Reshef.) We did something similar with the Freespace Port, adding the Karnak as the only non-canon ship in there. Any mods like this would need to be of sufficient quality and useful enough to be accepted there, however, which is something that probably won't happen. There would need to be a unanimous census among the community to add those mods in the general timeframe as Volition canon.

[Sandwich]

I actually really like this idea, for one main reason, and on one condition:

The reason is that it would give publically released models a destination, as opposed to floating around in a thread somewhere. This also gives people incentive to push their work through to completion, so that it meets the standards required of the package (mainly standards such as full LODding, debris, pathing, stable, etc. Model quality would be up for debate, obviously...).

The condition would be that a method to decide which MODs to include in a package be agreed upon and adhered to. Perhaps a date-based method, where a new pack comes out every 3-6 months. Perhaps a numerical-based method, where every 10-20 new ships that meet the standards are tossed into the next pack. Or a combination of the two, with a minimum of 10 ships and 3 months between packs - or something completely else I haven't thought of. The point being that there be a rule laid down that will decide if an appropriate model will make it into this pack or the next.

[Galemp]

Or we could hold nominations in polls for mods that have risen above a certain, almost legendary threshold and embedded themselves into general FS mod awareness. The SOF Banshee, SF Gorgon, GVF Reshef, and GTD Raynor immediately spring to mind.

[Trivial Psychic]

SB Vinhychal 

[Sandwich]

The swhat?

[FireCrack]

I think he means the SB Vindhyachal

[Depth_Charge]

Those bombers kick ass on "Into the Depths of Hell"