[Snail]

Yes, I know, but given how basic some FS1-era campaigns can be there might not be much to FSCRP-ify in the first place.

[Mobius]

It depends. This one is short, so I may be able to upgrade it all by myself providing that grammar-checking is not required.

EDIT: The upgrade has officially started... it's time to improve the Dicta Mobius... 

[htnk]

Looks like the wolfpack's squadron logo is missing...

Oh my... gotta change name of my campaign then...
I planned to name it exactly 'Wolfpack' and give pirates a wolf-like logo instead of the traditional Jolly Roger

btw. any chance of running this campaign on FS Port or sth? (My FS1 CDs won't work anymore )

[Mobius]

There also was a Wolfpack squadron in Warzone, the 636th.

Yeah, you should be able to play the campaign with the FSPort. I've already played the first mission.

[NGTM-1R]

According to your first post, you've already checked the Wiki - there are many interesting articles about FRED there,
like this one.

tbh, that's a really crappy article on the subject. It isn't terribly in-depth and draws a number of strange conclusions.

[General Battuta]

Well, I think it does make a few fair points - first, that pirates shouldn't have large numbers of vessels and wouldn't commit their precious resources to a risky attack, and second, that the mere act of doing damage can earn pirates some ransom just as well as boarding.

Which opens up possibilities for FREDders.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah, I mean it's alright to use Shivans as cannon-fodder, but Pirates... well, Pirates are human, they're not faceless, and seemingly strategy-less on a battlefield level (in FS1 the Shivans seemed to have more of an overarching campaign strategy while it wasn't too apparent in FS2, but let's not start with that). I mean you can get away with it, but Pirates aren't a military force, so therefore they have to be smart about the way they deploy.

[General Battuta]

I don't get where this 'Shivans are aimless in FS2' meme is springing from (aside from Snail  ). They're on the defensive for a little while, picking off Allied assets, assessing and waiting, and then a decisive and overwhelming response coheres.

[Snail]

I don't get where this 'Shivans are aimless in FS2' meme is springing from (aside from Snail  ).

Oi! It's not a meme! It be the truth! The word of God! The Shivans in FS1 are a lot more intimidating than they are in FS2! Fact! Because I'm right! And you're wrong!

Also as a Global Mod you shouldn't be derailing the topic! Bad! No! Bad! Bad Global Mod! You are a bad Global Mod! Bad!




Sorry, I couldn't help it...

[Mobius]

Snail, is that a joke? If it wasn't, I totally agree with you.

Back on topic, you need to define pirates. We don't know how pirates in space would behave, and we don't know how many ships they can muster.

"Pirates" might even be a term used to define a faction that is resisting to a more powerful entity. Resistance? Opposition? Remnants of the enemy faction? Calling them "pirates" is much more convenient.

[General Battuta]

Oy, Mobius: those who live in glass houses... Try to act like a civilized forumite yourself for a few weeks before making snippy remarks about how I'm a 'bad Global mod.'

I wonder if 'pirates' is something of a creative failure. It seems like we could take some tips from BSG and come up with some more modern, precise terms for entities like this. 'Resistance elements', 'insurgents', 'dissident militia', 'surplus-equipped remnants of post-GTA splinter governments', so on. The more specific the writing is the more interesting the opponents are.

[eliex]

Pirates are just generally people who rob or commit illegal violence at sea, (in this case, in space) according to the dictionary. Note however, that the phrase "illegal violence" can apply to many situations allowing FREDders a considerable amount of creativity.

[General Battuta]

Well, my idea was (riffing off of Mobius' suggestion that the term 'pirate' should be applied more broadly) that the term 'pirate' is boring, generic, and deleterious to versimilitude, and therefore could be replaced by more specific and modern terms where applicable. I mean, we've all seen 'space pirates'. Space pirates don't have motivation or history. They're the kind of guys who send a lot of Lokis to attack that convoy in Derelict. Pirates are dull!

We need newer, sexier concepts.

[mxlm]

I wonder if 'pirates' is something of a creative failure. It seems like we could take some tips from BSG and come up with some more modern, precise terms for entities like this. 'Resistance elements', 'insurgents', 'dissident militia', 'surplus-equipped remnants of post-GTA splinter governments', so on. The more specific the writing is the more interesting the opponents are.

The difficulty is that in order to know why folks would be dissatisfied with the government--dissatisfied enough to go outside the law and blow stuff up for fun and profit--you have to know something about the government and society. What do we know about the GTVA? That there are humans and vasudans. Obvious angle: xenophobia! But, y'know, Volition already covered that. Twice. So aside from xenophobia, what do we have? Well, it's galactic, so maybe self-governance? Except AFAIK we have no idea how the governance of a system or station or whatever works. So we'd have to make that up.

What I'm getting at is that in order to come up with some modern, precise terms for entities like this, well, someone's first going to have to do a fair amount of world building. Unless they're willing to do a lot of hand waving and pay no attention stuff, anyway.

[General Battuta]

There's enough to go off of in the techroom to do that easily enough. Post-GTA power blocs are interesting and largely unexplored, for instance.

[NGTM-1R]

What I'm getting at is that in order to come up with some modern, precise terms for entities like this, well, someone's first going to have to do a fair amount of world building. Unless they're willing to do a lot of hand waving and pay no attention stuff, anyway.

That should not stop someone. At all.

[Snail]

There's enough to go off of in the techroom to do that easily enough. Post-GTA power blocs are interesting and largely unexplored, for instance.

Exactly! I was thinking of making a Reconstruction era campaign about that sometime.

[htnk]

Well my campaign story will include for instance the Luyten New Alliance which is by the time still independent from GTVA, but they will have nothing to do with pirates themselves.

[Snail]

Just a heads up though, the regional blocs were only semi-autonomous. They weren't like the NTF.

[Mobius]

They might have had some influence on the future birth of the NTF, though. The GTVA was only 9-10 years old when the NTF rebellion started (if I remember well), meaning that it was quite possible to be the result of grudge towards the powers that pretended to take the place of the legitimate GTA authorities.

We know there are many ideals behind the creation of the NTF, but I wouldn't scrap those connected to politics.