[PKDecatur]

I kind of had a brief idea for a campaign set almost immediately post-Capella, focusing on almost all of the "canonical" non-Shivan villains of the two games.  It'd be set in a region of several systems who are in a tumult because there's a lot of anger and fear at the GTVA after it somehow didn't do a good job in settling the refugees and recovering from the attempted  Shivan invasion.

So you'll play a pilot in a squadron doing some peacekeeping/insurgency-fighting.  The enemies could be-

NTF Remnants: Since Bosch basically flew away into the nether, they dropped most of the pseudo-mysticism for political ideology- relocating the capital to Polaris, a semifascist Neo-Terra order, anti-Vasudanism, etc.

Pirates: A generic term for criminals with ships.  Smugglers, bounty hunters, renegades, Mafia Cowboy Bebop-styled "syndicates in space", plus some idealistic independent raiders who read too much Robert Louis Stevenson.

Hammer of Light: Again, Vasudans are usually much less fractious than Terrans, but there's always the one bad apple of fanatics...

GTVI: They obviously are kept on a shorter leash than their predecessor agency, but my idea is that due to the shaky nature of the region, they're given more authority to act against insurgents, sometimes causing them to get into fierce disagreements with the conventional military (which you are a part of).  That might lead to a few firefights, quite nasty.

Secessionists: Perhaps some people have had enough of the GTVA, and want to bring back the Adhara Coalition, Antares Federation, Luyten New Alliance, Regulus Syndicate, etc.  They may or may not collaborate with Neo-Terran remnants, but they'll likely to fight against them and with each other, actually, since they would call for local autonomy.

Thoughts?

[Dark Hunter]

I would say take one of those groups and go with it. Too many enemies otherwise. It'd make the story too confusing, both for the player and for the designer.

To me, the best choice would be the Secessionists. Neo-Terra was pretty well trounced in the main campaign and the HOL has been, if not wiped out, then powerless for over thirty years.
A GTVI conflict is too similar to the premise of the Silent Threat campaign. It'd be better to start with a new idea.

The Pirates would be a good idea, as well. There aren't enough pirates featured in FS. The ones in Derelict were very well-done, and I'd like to see some more of that.

The story sounds as though it might work. I think there ought to be a deeper story than just running around peacekeeping though. Although that may feature heavily in the first few missions, a major plot twist of some sort should be included to keep it interesting.

If you're going to do Pirates/Secessionists, fringe systems would do better as locales rather than somewhere more central like Antares. I wouldn't try to bring back old factions, but create new ones.

Well, that's my advice. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

[PKDecatur]

Oh, yeah, I'm sure in such a scenario certain groups would (eventually) be focused on, instead of having everyone at once.  However, there would be Neo-Terran and HOI elements mentioned, and maybe they might appear temporarily (just to show how chaotic everything is).  And the idea of conventional GTVA forces fighting Intelligence ships would just happen in one mission or two for flavor.  First off we'd start off with a place in anarchy, with all of these groups running around, but eventually you'll be introduced to the main enemy that dominates the rest/is behind it all.

Anyways, thanks for the responses.

[Hellstryker]

Ahh cmon no more pirates they're too.... well they arn't strange enough. i'd like to see an enemy with a differant motive for once. you could always bring in a new species, without ancient ships i might add (i can model/do weapon pcx files) The procyon insurgency was a very well made campaign but i would like to see somthing set in one of the lesser heard of systems (Dubhe? Mirfak?) pirates always make good side enemys of course but they shouldn't be the main focus of the game

[Mustang19]

The Pirates would be a good idea, as well. There aren't enough pirates featured in FS. The ones in Derelict were very well-done, and I'd like to see some more of that.

Really? "Just about every other campaign" isn't enough? While we're on that,

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Pirates_and_Campaign_Design

[Dark Hunter]

Well, apparently I haven't played the campaigns you have.

[Mustang19]

Oh, just play one or two more... pirates are the hackneyed filler badguys of FreeSpace, and Derelict is not the only campaign that has them. So have fun.

[CP5670]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of pirates in general either. They can potentially be used in interesting situations and have cool backstories, but in many campaigns I've seen with them, they don't seem to have any point and feel like they're just put in for you to have something to shoot at during missions, in the absence of any real enemy. I tend to avoid using them in my missions altogether.

[TopAce]

Pirates are mysterious, that's why their backstories are not explained.

Ok, that's not the best argument of the century, but still....

[Nuclear1]

Of all the bad guys listed in the first post, secessionists are probably the least overused.  Pirates have been beaten to death in just about every FS campaign ever made (Awakenings, Destiny of Peace, Derelict, Homesick, Transcend, Sync...). NTF remnants often get lumped into the same category as pirates; their locale just usually is in Sirius, Regulus, and Polaris.  HoL has been redone by both Volition and user-made campaigns (the HOL mini-campaign that came with FS2, Awakenings, Pathways). GTVI is sort of the default "mysterious" bad guy for any campaign (Titan Rebellion, Derelict, and countless others).

Secessionists are good to go with because you can weave together all sorts of complex character development and twists that you just can't get with clearly-defined good guys and bad guys like with pirates and HOL.  They're also less faceless than GTVI and can be made to seem more human.  Trust me, watch The Rock and if you attempt even remotely to model your main antagonist (not "bad guy"; they don't have to be evil) after Ed Harris's character in that movie, you'll have a villain worthy to center a story around.