[Hippo]

I wonder if i hold the record?


i mean, a mission i can bang out in a day or two if i don't get distracted, but the big picture takes longer

[Dilmah G]

I wonder if i hold the record?


i mean, a mission i can bang out in a day or two if i don't get distracted, but the big picture takes longer

Well FRED-ing is like creative writing to me. I need to be "In the Mood" to do it, if I FRED when I'm not in the mood I usually end up re-doing it. And FRED-ing tends to bore me when done in excess, so I balance it out with some RL stuff

[JCDNWarrior]

And by extension, how long should it take to FRED an entire campaign?

For purposes of comparison, it took the FSPort team six years to release ST:R, and the BWO team is coming up on eight years for their release (excluding the BWO demo).  It took me just one month to FRED Deus Ex Machina at the beginning of junior year in college, but that included very few mods and no voice acting.

Derelict, however, puts everybody to shame.  The entire 45 mission campaign (44 if you discount the credits) was completed in JUST 10 MONTHS.  Or 11.5 months if you start from the initial "Welcome to the Boonies" concept.

Well, being a relatively beginning FREDder, I think the actual building takes around several days to a week, and over a month of gaining ideas, and testing, testing, testingggg. That's what made my first publically released level pretty good, in my opinion. I'm currently working on something that I hope will be much better, but development on a single level can still take a very long time if you test and tweak a lot.

- JC

[Dilmah G]

What did you release JCDN?

[NGTM-1R]

From personal experience, I know I can turn out three missions that, if not masterpieces of quality, at least didn't have anyone screaming "NOOOOOBBBBB",  very quickly. Those were the first three missions of Operation Savior, completed in roughly eight hours. Then I hit bugs with the build in use at the time that delayed the campaign for a week. Had I not, I probably would have made it to the "five-missions 24-hours" deadline I originally set for myself on the campaign with time to spare.

Admittedly, the campaign included no mods, and no voiceacting. It was not as basic as it looked, since I went to some length to try and cover multiple contingencies regarding ships being disabled and destroyed in the last two missions (and they consequently took about half as long again each). But I think this should be lesson of sorts. More people should be trying to emulate Homesick (which was also no-mods no-voice), and fewer people trying to emulate TBP (total conversion) or Inferno (total conversion in all but name).

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I've averaged about one every four weeks so far, though I can make a rather decent one in about a week if I'm not too busy GIMPing.

About one third of that is making it up, one sixth is the actual FREDding and half of the time is fine-tuning and bugfixing

* FSF wonders why the question is asked

[dragonsniper]

I did make a mission a while ago. Put around 2 weeks into it. But I do remember that I made a full mission with atleast 50% bugtesting in about 6 hours. It was crap though. It had a pretty bad storyline to it, and if I had put some more thought and time into it, it could have been a lot better.

I don't think that making a mission should be rushed. If you do, all you get are bad reviews. Best to take your time. Whether that means a week, month or more.

[Goober5000]

* FSF wonders why the question is asked

Just out of curiosity.  Back in college I used to be able to churn out a fairly action-packed mission in two weeks, but I had loads of free time then.  I no longer do.  And I think I FRED best when I have a long, uninterrupted stretch of time to work, which is hard to come by.

[Rhymes]

That's Real Life^tm for ya.  It abhors free time.

[dragonsniper]

That's Real Life^tm for ya.  It abhors free time.

Sadly, that's to true.

[Blue Lion]

Most of the missions I do, I think about way beforehand. I know exactly how I want it to go down before I even start FREDing. So when it comes to actually doing it, it doesn't take as long. It's more "getting the mission to do what I want".

[Dilmah G]

I usually go in with an idea, it's just that FREDing is sometimes just such a mundane task I can get tired of far too easily. So I have to accomplish it in multiple sittings.

[Ransom]

I used to just write up a basic mission concept of a few sentences then jump right into FRED, but eventually I realised this was resulting in incredibly sloppy missions. It's that planning style that resulted in the slabs of filler in my previous campaigns. Since then I haven't so much as touched FRED before the entire mission is planned out from start to finish, dialogue and all.

[Vidmaster]

Well, there is this mission I worked on 5 months (DAMN YOU SHIP LIMIT!!! )
And there is this six-mission campaign I created in two days.

 

[Krelus]

I used to just write up a basic mission concept of a few sentences then jump right into FRED, but eventually I realised this was resulting in incredibly sloppy missions. It's that planning style that resulted in the slabs of filler in my previous campaigns. Since then I haven't so much as touched FRED before the entire mission is planned out from start to finish, dialogue and all.

I'm kinda like that, except I monkey around in a single-mission I named "Sandbox" for ideas. But yeah, knowing where you're going first is always a good thing.

[Dilmah G]

Well, if I'm real serious I type up a word .doc with possible ideas, paste my references of FS2 CB's and write outlines for each mission in the campaign.

[Krelus]

System-wise, I've already got the whole campaign choreographed using this.

[Dilmah G]

System-wise, I've already got the whole campaign choreographed using this.

The BWO Node Chart is really only accurate for that universe, apparently there are a few differences.

[Krelus]

System-wise, I've already got the whole campaign choreographed using this.

The BWO Node Chart is really only accurate for that universe, apparently there are a few differences.

I checked, I'm only using canon systems (I.e., Altair, Aldebaran, Alpha Centauri, Vasuda, Deneb, Serius, Vega, Beta Aquilae, Antares, Ribos and Ikeya.) I just use that one because I find it easier to read.

[unsrm]

Well I'd just like it noted for record that those of us that still play Freespace appreciate the time and effort all you guys put in no matter how long it takes you.

Silent Threat Reborn is one of the best non-volition campaigns I've ever played (I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't a V campaign) so maybe the time is worth it?