[Akalabeth Angel]

The thing is though surely it must take a huge amount of effort to put in a mission editor as good as FRED and this would probably increase production costs. If there wasn't a FRED 3 or it was rubbish I feel that many people would not play FS3 for long but instead come back to 2.
I feel that given to apprehensiveness that Interplay would feel about releasing FS3 they would try to make it as cheap as possible without compromising the game, which could mean scrapping FRED 3.

FRED and FRED2 aren't special programs made for the fans. They're just the tools that volition used themselves to create the missions. So a lack of FRED3 or equivalent would be simply an omission, unless they create the missions some other way that makes it impossible to release. Though Freespace's modability goes far beyond FRED. The ease of changing tables is another (given the proper tools).

[Thaeris]

Someone mentioned that in FS3 they wanted V to end the "FS trilogy."

...This, my friend, is unacceptable. Here's why:

You can't just end something as awesome/win as FS with a trilogy... When the GTVA and any other races which might be brought up in the story finally show down with the Shivans, I want it to be 500+ years since FS2 in the most spendiforous, BoE-smashing battle EVAR CONCIEVED that it would make Gurren Lagann look like a joke. That would do FS and V justice. I'm convinced nothing else will do.

-Thaeris

[General Battuta]

I can't think of many series of...well, anything...that have gone well past the third installment of a single story arc, though.

[Locutus of Borg]

Quake?

Oh wait, you said STORY...

lol

[Akalabeth Angel]

Quake?

Oh wait, you said STORY...

lol

Wing Commander has 5 games does it not?

[NGTM-1R]

Only 3 of which dealt with the same arc.

[Akalabeth Angel]

Only 3 of which dealt with the same arc.

Well personally I'd rather have them end Freespace or at least the current story arc rather than "milking the franchise" with game after game. I've always favoured stories with a set beginning and end than open-ended premises with no end in sight.

The biggest problem with larger arcs as well is that there's always the possibility that the last arc(s) don't get finished (ie see Freespace 3). Same thing with Babylon 5 and BSG. Both shows thought they wouldn't get a season 5 so they decided to end it in season 4, though B5 did get season 5 and then with so little story left the season was pretty slow and pretty bad.

[General Battuta]

I am pondering. Harry Potter arguably had four pretty strong entries (arguably seven, if you liked the last one). You could quibble about to what degree they all dealt with the same arc, but I reckon you could calli it a successful seven-book story, though personally I think it derailed after four.

Past that I'm struggling a wee bit. A Song of Ice and Fire? Or has it gone overboard too?

And yeah, I agree with Akalabeth Angel.

[Mongoose]

I am pondering. Harry Potter arguably had four pretty strong entries (arguably seven, if you liked the last one). You could quibble about to what degree they all dealt with the same arc, but I reckon you could calli it a successful seven-book story, though personally I think it derailed after four.

I'd argue that Harry Potter only started getting good after the third book or so, but that's for another thread.

[General Battuta]

I agree with that too, I think it peaked around three, four, and some of five.

[BlueFlames]

I can't think of many series of...well, anything...that have gone well past the third installment of a single story arc, though.

Command & Conquer

[Old text goes here.]

It does count, whether you like it or not.    Don't object, lest the forum lords will smite us again!

[stuart133]

It may be true but the story is not exactly great is it??

Any series that have gone beyond 3 installments without losing the plot??
I really don't think so. That said I would love someone to prove me wrong

[Mongoose]

So wait...I could have saved myself the bother of splitting out those two pages' worth of off-topic babble by just letting the forum glitch eat them for me?  I guess I was doing it wrong.

[General Battuta]

I can't think of many series of...well, anything...that have gone well past the third installment of a single story arc, though.

Command & Conquer

[Old text goes here.]

It does count, whether you like it or not.    Don't object, lest the forum lords will smite us again!

Command and Conquer is an interesting case. Red Alert 1-3 are a separate story arc from C&C Tiberium; I'm aware of Kane's presence in RA1 but the fact is that that's more of an easter egg than anything else. Moreover, both storylines 'switched authors' of sorts after the second installment.

With RA3 being fairly bad storywise and Tiberian Sun and Renegade arguably both being rather low-quality, I'd say they've both definitely derailed.

[IronForge]

I don't have time to read anything and having gone so far off topic I don't see why it hasnt been locked yet. But yes GoG's selling (and making into topselling item list) of freespace and freespace 2 sure has appeared to make a difference. Lets hope they are who they claim to be and sharing profits with whoevers gona create FS3 and not just some random guy with lots of bandwidth uploading stuff.

Anyway, why freespace cannot end with FS3? Because look at what was possible in the days of FS2. We couldn't do any real fleet VS fleet 10capships against 10 battles because of then tech limitations. If FS3 was released this year, we could probably have that and more. Plus, weapon effects and graphics would be awesome. So why I don't want it to end in say 5 years time? Cos I wanna play FreeSpace in 3d with a touchless mouse 50 years from now.

[Mongoose]

Seriously, come on, people.  This is the second time I've had to lop a whole bunch of posts out of this thread and send them to GD, thanks to that lovely database corruption.  Go take your Honorverse, C&C-verse, and whatever-the-hell-verse talk there, and leave this for posts at least tangentially related to the topic.

[Scotty]

In our defense, this is how good discussions get started.

[Thaeris]

<Thaeris agrees with Scotty>

[Mongoose]

Discussions in general are all well and good, but discussions that have absolutely nothing to do with the FreeSpace universe or its mechanics aren't so good when they take place in this board.  I don't mind topics meandering off their original intent to related subjects, like the current interesting one about stealth in space, but when you start spilling out whole paragraphs about a random sci-fi book series in a thread ostensibly about 's desire to make a third FreeSpace game, that's just way too off-course for my tastes.

[Colonol Dekker]

Yep, General Discussion belongs in General Discussion.......