[Dragon]

Spoiler:

(which, by the way, is really historically implausible; human powers never declare war on each other immediately on contact- they at least scout each other out first)

Recon probes were sent to Sol and GTVA was scouting it before attacking.
Also, Vice Admiral Morian behaved in rather non-diplomatic way, but it was Renjian that fired first.
I recommend you to read the addiational material on BP site, it explains very lot of things.

[manwiththemachinegun]

One of the big conversation points a while ago was how this campaign fits the idea of the Shivans existing as both "Preservers and Destroyers" and how that fits in with the

Spoiler:

Vishnans.

It seemed clear to me that...

Spoiler:

The Shivans and the Vishnans aren't the lightside/darkside of the universe aimlessly bashing it out for control of the lesser races. The Vishnans seem more like teachers and educators, while the Shivans are the muscle that keep the galaxy in check. They BOTH want races on par with the old, creative Brahmans. The Shivans destroy those who fall into warlike existences, and thus preserve the potential of future races. This was explicitly mentioned in the second to last mission. These two factions are actually complementary to each other... until the Shivans overstepped their boundaries and duties by seeking to annihilate the Terrans and Vasudans after they put aside their differences to unite, both in the alternate universe and the primary GTVA one.

Obviously, many people hold their own canon on what they consider to be the future of Freespace. But what's in Blue Planet doesn't contradict anything in the canon of the first two games given what they tell us.

[General Battuta]

In fact the BP stuff is almost a straight extrapolation from FS2 canon, with only the Vishnans thrown in. There's not much new material (Starborn/whatnot), just processing.

I personally think that the Shivans are both destroyer and preserver, but only time will tell.

[manwiththemachinegun]

Agreed, I think that some people were interpreting...

Spoiler:

The Vishnans were the great preserver side of the coin, full stop. While the Shivans were just cosmic bullies. I don't think that accurately represents what we see. Clearly the Shivans are trying to preserve the potential of some great plan set into motion long ago. It's just that they went too far and ignored the rules that dictacted what was to be saved/preserved. Then the Vishnans stepped in and acted as great preservers since the Shivans abandoned their apparent ordained place in the universe.

[Ariel]

i have a problem with the mission of the disabled cruiser  when i push alt+ A  the pilot not ejecting what can  be done in order to pass the mission?

[General Battuta]

What's your autopilot key bound to? Check your key settings.

[Ariel]

ןi don't understand the question

[The E]

Go to the options menu by pressing F2. Once there, go to the control config menu. Check what "Activate Autopilot" is bound to. Set it to Alt-A. Then try the mission again.

[Aardwolf]

Go to the options menu by pressing F2. Once there, go to the control config menu. Check what "Activate Autopilot" is bound to. Set it to Alt-A. Then try the mission again.

Isn't there a feature to make keypress-based directive text match what a player has rebound stuff to? If so, shouldn't this be put in, for the next release?

[The E]

Not using the key-pressed sexp, AFAIK.

[Aardwolf]

And it can't be modified to detect if autopilot has been engaged? 

[The E]

That's what it does. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the directive text to reflect the actual key combination.

[Aardwolf]

???

I could have sworn there has been a feature to do that since retail.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, I was under the impression that the directive text in the training missions reflected your actual key assignments, and not just the default controls.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I thought things can be automated through cutscenes. Turning the press-Alt+A event into a cutscene shouldn't affect gameplay much, since that happens right at the end of the mission segment anyway.

[General Battuta]

That's been considered.

An alternative is to have it remain an alt-A trigger, but if nothing happens for a few seconds, the cutscene triggers automatically.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

That might work too.

[Thaeris]

Wait... In that case, how does a campaign like "Windmills" work, then? Despite it using several standard UI controls, it definately has a series of uniquely-defined keystrokes for gameplay.

...I think Aardwolf has to be right about this...

[General Battuta]

Uniquely defined keystrokes are not the problem. The problem is getting them to show up in the directives box.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Enter $Alt-A$ into the directive keypress line? I'm fairly sure it's something like that, in the help files...