[Rick James]

Random campaign idea.

Freespace: The New Age

Set post-Capella. After not receiving aid promised by the GTVA, fringe planetary governments are incited to a rebellion that is not all that it seems. A disgraced GTVA pilot, part of a convoy caught in the middle of the conflict, discovers an artifact in deep space previously thought lost to the GTVA. The convoy dispatches a transport to collect the device. It takes over the transport's navigational systems and sends it on a series of jumps to the location of something which will create a New Age for humanity and the Vasudans.

[Mongoose]

I'm kind of reminded of this one site I once stumbled across making fun of various ill-conceived mods for the Half-Life engine.  As the writer noted, so many of them seemed to start out with the premise, "The year is 22XX. Go!"  Not that most of our user-made campaigns are anywhere near that generic, but they seem to share a similar mechanic.  "It has been XX years since Capella. Go!"

[Rick James]

I'm kind of reminded of this one site I once stumbled across making fun of various ill-conceived mods for the Half-Life engine.  As the writer noted, so many of them seemed to start out with the premise, "The year is 22XX. Go!"  Not that most of our user-made campaigns are anywhere near that generic, but they seem to share a similar mechanic.  "It has been XX years since Capella. Go!"

Establishing the time in the setting is critical. I don't want to play a campaign wondering whether this is the Great War, Reconstruction, Post-Capella or an alternate variation of the main Freespace campaigns.

[Mongoose]

I know that's true, but it does get rather amusing seeing that same phrase at the start of just about every custom campaign out there.

[Galemp]

What about a what if scenario? What if destroying the node failed and the second shivan invasion occured? this opens many possibilities in terms of plot. The shivans could crush all human-vasudan colonies or the there could be a third race that intervenes. Or worst case scenario, shivans destroy everything and human-vasudans are forced to hide out and live somewhere secluded. Think sort of like battlestar galactica, but instead of looking for earth, they settle on a single planet. This is all just off the top of my head so its all pretty rough. but the possibilities are endless.

You haven't played Blue Planet, have you?

[TrashMan]

I know that's true, but it does get rather amusing seeing that same phrase at the start of just about every custom campaign out there.

It's used because it works.

[Mongoose]

...when I reach the point at which explicitly spelling out the exact humorous intent of a situation is required, I'm reminded of why I shouldn't have bothered in the first place.

[General Battuta]

What about a what if scenario? What if destroying the node failed and the second shivan invasion occured? this opens many possibilities in terms of plot. The shivans could crush all human-vasudan colonies or the there could be a third race that intervenes. Or worst case scenario, shivans destroy everything and human-vasudans are forced to hide out and live somewhere secluded. Think sort of like battlestar galactica, but instead of looking for earth, they settle on a single planet. This is all just off the top of my head so its all pretty rough. but the possibilities are endless.

You haven't played Blue Planet, have you?

This!

[Capt_Thunder]

Would any one consider making a marines approach to missions? I mean  where you have specialized one time use equipment, that you use up on you initial assault but have to abandon and use captured equipment or modify your own.  You will have to make hybrids.  But whatever you do, no one knows you exist.  So no big explosions.  It has to be missions where people would say are impossible without the whole fleet.  But where a few well trained, (each holding a few BSc. Degrees), with prototypes might be able to pull it off. You will have to find away to distract the enemy (Thin their ranks from your area), then make them look for you where you are obviously not (kill someone or damage something important). You enemy will react and hunt you down; and protect vital areas.  If you know where they are, use that to you advantage.  After killing your first victim. You will need to kill another one very far from the first.  The idea is to cause confusion- have some of them thinking what you want them to think and the rest unable to make up their minds. Fear is you best weapon here. Even the most well defended fortress, can be brought down if they are in a state of confusion. By the time they see you, it must be too late to mount a successful defense.  So one's going to need a lot of specialized stealth crafts.  Also one may to resurrect a meson beam firing ship for ship disabling (no big explosions unless absolutely necessary).  One may need to modify a vasudan gun boat to carry a few marines, but where you can fly and even defend yourself.  Then there is the modified bomber, wish can carry specialized cargo and a specialist to look after it. Of course this leaves you with a limited way of defending yourself.  Would it be possible to deploy a mine from a stealth craft or at least make it look like you did by docking and undocking.
Then there is your enemy. You're going to need an enemy which requires all this. May be to capture a destroyer, whether shivan, or GTVA or anyone who has a ship worth capturing, probably when refueling or hiding in a nova or supernova. Then one can build installations which might worth the investment. Could one jump around space destroying communication devices and sensor arrays, where the game remembers your weapons and ship status before each jump; and you start each new mission your hull, subsystems and missiles exactly as you had them when you jumped out of the last mission?
Did anyone finish the story line for technical superiority?  That was a great campaign. It is worth finishing.

[Molybdenum]

Que?

[General Battuta]

Much of what you're suggesting is possible. It's just going to take a ton of effort, and most of the community is already devoted to their various projects.

If you want to see it happen, you might as well get started! There's a ton of other great stuff to check out as well if you're not interested in producing that particular scenario yourself.

[ShadowGorrath]

What about this?

[firzenr]

Chuck Norris invades the GTVA, and they must make a drastic alliance with the Shivans...

However, the Chuck Norris is armed with super powered round house kicks beams, which kill in one hit. A massive Endor type battle breaks out, but everyone dies, except for the player (as usual), and the player must defeat the Norris against impossible odds.

The player must first discover Chuck Norris's weakness, which turns out to be nothing, so, in order to save the universe from the Chuck Norris, the player sacrifices himself and turns the entire universe into nothing, that way, Chuck Norris can be defeated.

[Rodo]

Chuck Norris invades the GTVA, and they must make a drastic alliance with the Shivans...

However, the Chuck Norris is armed with super powered round house kicks beams, which kill in one hit. A massive Endor type battle breaks out, but everyone dies, except for the player (as usual), and the player must defeat the Norris against impossible odds.

The player must first discover Chuck Norris's weakness, which turns out to be nothing, so, in order to save the universe from the Chuck Norris, the player sacrifices himself and turns the entire universe into nothing, that way, Chuck Norris can be defeated.

this one seems taken out of the "Freespace dream" thread

[firzenr]

Alright, seriously...

I have a few ideas, but I would like someone with good experience on making campaigns to actually execute this if they'd like to.

It's a rather simple storyline, it's about the people left behind in Sol ever since the jump node collapsed. However, nothing really is going on, but the story focuses on a rather old man, who was once a pilot during the Great War. He tells a handful of pilots, or just one, his story and his experiences. The player will then live through those experiences.

However, the style this will be done is jumps, jumping between the past (the man's memories) and the present.

The old man however, flew with his best friend Petrarch during the Great War, however, they were separated, and the old man was stranded on earth with some other people.

The years have then passed by, and the old man is retelling his ordeal, and how he one day wishes to see his good friend again (who is now, an admiral), and how he promises himself to not die until he sees that Petrarch has returned.

So yes, you can do whatever you want, it's just the Great War, except with character development garbage.

[General Battuta]

Ideas are very good indeed. The problem is that making campaigns is so hard no one is likely to tackle it, since everyone's already busy with their own projects.