[Mobius]

Most fighters? Since when? He/It will have to control only his/its wings(Alpha through Gamma, for example).

Or better, the player will not give orders at all. He/It is not always supposed to be the wing/squadron leader.

[Snail]

Or better, the player will not give orders at all. He/It is not always supposed to be the wing/squadron leader.

Or better yet, he's a civilian in an Argo transport and does not have any weapons.

[General Battuta]

In general I agree with the concept that 'the enemy should win without action on the part of the player'.

There are some spectator missions in Freespace...but they're less fun and satisfying.

I love a good BoE, but I'd rather it be background to a 'destroy that particular subsystem' or 'take out that fleeing transport' or 'reach the node within a time limit' objective.

[Mobius]

The Great Hunt(FS2) is pretty much like a "spectator" mission. Do you find it less fun?

It's a matter of points of view. I'm sick of how protagonists do everything by themselves, in a good game/book it is important to "distribute" the credit.

[woodburner]

WHOOOOOOOOAH that's a lot to answer.

I hate to give away part of the mission , but...

It goes like this:
1. 5 Sathanas Juggernauts  head towards a planet.
2. the Lucifer, AKA Liberator, and some Terran secret weapons blow them up(the name of the campaign is "Shivan Civil War").

Your Objectives:

1. protect the Liberator and Terran secret weapons against 45 (very stupid) bombers. You are aided by only one wing of ace dragons and 3 modified Terran ships. Good luck.

P L E A S E P L E A S E P L E A S E P L E A S E

do not make this mission. If I could copyright it, I would.

[Snail]

The Great Hunt(FS2) is pretty much like a "spectator" mission. Do you find it less fun?

It's not a Battle of Endor mission, is it?

[Mobius]

The Shivans will never have civil wars, not according to the Hive Mind Theory^TM.

It's not a Battle of Endor mission, is it?

It's a pseudo-pseudo-BoE-ish mission. We were talking about "spectator" missions in general, anyway.

[Snail]

The Shivans will never have civil wars, not according to the Hive Mind Theory^TM.

Which is not proven to be true.

It's a pseudo-pseudo-BoE-ish mission. We were talking about "spectator" missions in general, anyway.

I was talking about BoE missions in which the player has no power over the outcome of the mission. 2 corvettes, 2 cruisers and a destroyer, at different times is hardly what I call a BoE.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

The Shivans will never have civil wars, not according to the Hive Mind Theory^TM.

Unless there is more than one hive.

[Snail]

Hive Mind Theory is not definitely true, just the most widely accepted one.

[Mobius]

More than one hive = civil war going for THOUSANDS of years...nah.

[Snail]

More than one hive = civil war going for THOUSANDS of years...nah.

Nobody said that. And the Shivans aren't necessarily a hive mind. It's just the most widely accepted theory.

[Mobius]

How would you explain a civil war? Why would they "clear" the Universe when they're busy with a civil war?

[Snail]

A small group of Shivans maybe deciding they had had enough? Or if for the time being we accept the Hive mind theory as being true, then maybe a few got detached from the hive somehow.

[Jeff Vader]

Yeah. Happened in Star Trek.

[TrashMan]

'the enemy should win without action on the part of the player'.

WRONG.
The mission should fail (or not..depending on what you want to accomplish), but that doesn't automaticly mean your forces must win.

Imagine a mission where your only goal is to survive long enough. Maybe your forces will win, or maybe not. But that's not the mission objective.

[Mobius]

The Shivans aren't a species like any other(they might have been created by someone else in a zero-gravity environment), they're "programmed" to follow orders and die. Maybe the Hive Mind became intelligent and decided to eliminate the "creators"...

[TrashMan]

Yeah. Happened in Star Trek.

[Jeff Vader]

 

Yeah, but seriously. I was referring to TNG.

[Snail]

"programmed" to follow orders and die.

You don't know that. They could be mutant bunnies for all we know. We know next to nothing about them.