[Woolie Wool]

The year is 2395. While much was lost 28 years ago during the Second Great War, much was also gained. The Knossos portal had provided the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance with newfound hope, hope to reconnect with Sol, hope for the human diaspora to join arms with their brethren on earth, hope for the prosperous and peaceful future that was shattered when the Terran-Vasudan War broke out three quarters of a century ago. For once, mankind could imagine a future without poverty, without terror, without endless war. Project Eirene, the endeavor to build a Terran jump gate, was a beacon of hope for the human race.

It was not to be.

Where the GTVA had expected peace, they found war. Where they had expected brotherhood, they found hatred. The Free Democratic Solar Republic had risen out of the ashes of the core of the Galactic Terran Alliance, the paranoid, mistrustful product of sixty years of fear and isolation. Held in the iron fist of its tyrannical generalissimo Marco Mocci, the FDSR had turned a bustling interplanetary civilization into an engine of war. The Solar Republic trusted no one, especially not people who woud ally themselves with aliens.

In 2392, the first Allied expeditionary fleet entered Sol and was fired upon in mere minutes. 50,000 people were killed in less than an hour as Solar fleets descended upon the expeditionary force and tore it to shreds. War was declared only two hours later. Two and a half years and over a billion casualties later, the war shows no sign of letting up. As the tyrannical Generalissimo grows ever more belligerent and insane, GTVA forces muster for a decisive, overwhelming offensive to break the back of the Solar Navy and liberate the human homeworld.

You are Ensign James Whitmore, a green pilot fresh from the Academy. Graduating near the top of your class, you were transferred to the GTD Shima, one of the GTVA's most powerful warships. The order has just come in to advance on Solar strongholds in Delta Serpentis. It will take all of your skill, instincts, and courage to survive. And who knows what else might be waiting to befall the embattled GTVA from beyond the borders of known space? The battle for Sol is about to begin. The Lost Generation...is coming home.

Status: Currently one mission is complete, and most of the modpack is finalized as well. I plan to release a demo once I finish the first five missions. I plan for two acts. The first act will deal with the conclusion of the Solar War, the second will depict the third Shivan invasion and reveal the true nature of the Shivans and their plans.

Features:
* Dozens of new ships, from interceptors to dreadnoughts, as well as upgraded ships from previous eras.
* A new enemy faction, the Solar Republic, fearless, fanatical, and deadly.
* Numerous new weapons, including long-ranged, deadly accurate plasma cannons, devastating cluster rocket launchers, and the unique Drunk Missile.
* Tougher, cleverer AI
* Stronger, deadlier capital ships
* Recurring wingmen with distinct personalities
* The return of the merciless Shivans, but things are not as they seem

Do you want to help?
This is still in an early stage of development and Twist of Fate and Wings are higher priorities for me, so I'm not looking to assemble a team right now. However, if you are a modeler and interested in doing models or converting unfinished existing models for Conflict 2395, especially Shivan ships, send me a PM.

[Galemp]

*watches cautiously*

[Dragon]

Looks good, espcially the normal maps.

[-Norbert-]

That fighter looks like a heavier descendant of the Shrike (from TVWP I think)
I quite like it.

[Deka1184]

The Raiden looks like a Typhoon from EVE-Online.

[bigchunk1]

Looks like a good collection of work/ideas

* Tougher, cleverer AI

I am the most interested in this feature. When I am playing a campaign, killing that 100th fighter, I think to myself that this game would not be so fun without a decent AI. Improving the AI I think improves a critical piece of gameplay.

* Numerous new weapons, including long-ranged, deadly accurate plasma cannons, devastating cluster rocket launchers, and the unique Drunk Missile.

Guess we will have to wait and see. Always fun to try new weapons. Looks like the Ripper KEW has a count for solid ammunition in addition to energy. Nice

"In 2392, the first Allied expeditionary fleet entered Sol and was fired upon in mere minutes. 50,000 people were killed in less than an hour as Solar fleets descended upon the expeditionary force and tore it to shreds. War was declared only two hours later."

I will say something that is perhaps too obvious (or even unfair) to say. This plot is very similar to those of Inferno and Blue Planet. I am guessing this plot teaser is nothing more than a general overview of the setting for this proposed campaign, but I would like to see some kind of unique details to this concept to compliment the amount of art and modding that could potentially go into it. I say this not because I think that a bloodthirsty Sol government is a weak idea, but because such beautiful scenes and innovative gameplay tweaks could be bogged down by a story which only serves to setup a Terran on Terran conflict.

I would be interested to see what specific ideas you have for the motives and structure of the Solar Republic, and how they were able to so readily unify under such an aggressive and expansionist cause. Do they really hate Vasudans that much, or do the powers that be feel threatened by reunification with the GTVA? Perhaps a glimpse into their ambitious high command, do they govern with zeal or lies?

And what’s the pilot’s personal stake in all this? Does James Whitmore encounter strange things first hand which result in surprising consequences? Or is he a no frills trained killer with battles to fight and medals to win? There are a lot of opportunities to take the player on an adventure, especially since one of the features of this campaign involves personified wingmen.

Maybe this campaign hopes to be a gameplay extravaganza, setting aside an overly complicated story to deliver us edge of your seat action and missions which require puzzle like strategy to complete. I am all for such a campaign. New ways to play Freespace can only inspire the community to both continue playing and developing.

I am curious to see what form of campaign this collection of ideas and assets might shape into.  Maybe it is too early in development to say anything quite yet. I can only say one thing for sure, those screen shots look wicked cool.     

[Dragon]

AI would most likely be some variant of the one made by Fury.
Fury's AI should be available as a separate mod somewhere.

[-Norbert-]

This plot is very similar to those of Inferno and Blue Planet.

Inferno yes, Blue Planet no.

In Blue Planet the GTVA are the agressors. Mind you, I said agressors, not bad guys!
Here we pretty clearly have the good guys and the evil dictatorship. Quite different from the very complex setting of Blue Planet with all it's shades of grey and moral ambiguity.
At least as far as I can tell from this post, maybe it will turn out that the evil dicator was really only propaganda from the GTVA high-ups.... we'll have to wait (and then play) and see.

[SF-Junky]

This plot is very similar to those of Inferno and Blue Planet.

It is, yes. But that is not a problem at all imho. There are plenty of campaigns with a very similar story line, but that alone doesn't make a campaign good or bad. It depends on how you implement the stuff.

Even if it turns out to be a copy of BP - why not? If it's done well and gives varying accents.

[-Norbert-]

It's rather hard to copy BP: WiH considering that it is neither released nor finished yet 

[Woolie Wool]

I think one point that should be made is that the whole war in Sol thing is pretty much the obvious choice for a post-Capella campaign with a jumpgate, and it parallels the beginnings of FS1 and FS2. I mean, you have a jumpgate, you have access to Sol, what are you expecting, bug-eyed intergalactic sex slavers who have come to harvest humanity's women?

[Scourge of Ages]

I mean, you have a jumpgate, you have access to Sol, what are you expecting, bug-eyed intergalactic sex slavers who have come to harvest humanity's women?

*Takes notes for a future campaign

[Woolie Wool]

GVD Apothess firing:



The Apothess can do 40% damage to a Ravana in a single shot. Since the Ravana in 2395 has 220,000 hitpoints (the weakest of any 2295 destroyer), the Apothess beam does 88,000 damage in a single blast.

[Nuclear1]

I mean, you have a jumpgate, you have access to Sol, what are you expecting, bug-eyed intergalactic sex slavers who have come to harvest humanity's women?

* Nuclear1 makes a minor Rogue II rewrite

[bigchunk1]

I mean, you have a jumpgate, you have access to Sol, what are you expecting, bug-eyed intergalactic sex slavers who have come to harvest humanity's women?

* Nuclear1 makes a minor Rogue II rewrite

Haha, good one.

But yeah, I don’t buy that. If you need a war there are many different ways to slice it. Perhaps the GTVA finds Sol in a state of civil war and are forced to choose a side. Maybe Terran-Vasudan relations are starting to wane and the Terrans hastily construct a Sol gate to give themselves an upper hand. Maybe the discovery of Sol creates conflict within the GTVA and a rogue branch of the GTA joins Sol (NTF comeback anyone?) Maybe the Vasudans would be conflicted. Who is to say they act as a single beating pulse? Maybe I’m really your father and I rip my facemask off to show you that’s I’m actually Shivan.

I’m not saying these ideas are anything better, and I am also not saying that a militarily aggressive Sol government makes a bad story. I only was curious to see if the story had a more detail in the works to give it its own unique character. With the story in its general form, it strikes me as INF or BP.  That’s ok, I wrote a pretty lengthy review about how much I enjoyed BP, and I also like INF. Yet at the same time I don’t think that INF is the only way to depict the first Sol encounter after Cappella.

There are plenty of opportunities to make what is here into a great campaign, one that could easily consume me for hours.

Inferno yes, Blue Planet no.
 

You could be right, I have yet to see the details of this story and I have yet to play the second installment of BP. spoiler for BP:

Spoiler:

Maybe splintering in the GTVA goes further than the Orestes fleet.

Sometimes I just feel that an apple is an apple. You can put caramel on it, sprinkle it with nuts, and put it on a stick but you still have an apple.

It is, yes. But that is not a problem at all imho. There are plenty of campaigns with a very similar story line, but that alone doesn't make a campaign good or bad. It depends on how you implement the stuff.

Even if it turns out to be a copy of BP - why not? If it's done well and gives varying accents.

I agree, I guess I am interested to see what this turns into. I think I am just ranting too much. Keep feeding me eye candy

[-Norbert-]

You could be right, I have yet to see the details of this story and I have yet to play the second installment of BP

Neither did I play it (only a few beta testers did, and I'm not one of them). But there is quite a bit of information on the BP homepage. Apart from being informative those proses are also a good read.

And were Inferno had "Evil Dicatorship" versus "Democracies Champions" in BP both sides have good reasons for what they do. Neither side is fighting because they don't want to lose power, they both do what they think is right to save the human species and protect their way of life. That's the difference I'm talking about.
Of couse if you boil the whole complex story down to the three words "Sol against GTVA" it's the same. But that's like saying water and oil are the same because both are liquid at 20°C.

[Dilmah G]

As a (lazy) team-member, I'd like to point out there a few major differences between BP and Woolie's project. Most of you should be able to pick them out.

On topic though, that **** looks amazing! If I wasn't over committed as is, I'd offer to help.

[Woolie Wool]

As a (lazy) team-member, I'd like to point out there a few major differences between BP and Woolie's project. Most of you should be able to pick them out.

I once introduced the FDSR to someone with "you know about Blue Planet's UEF? Think of the exact opposite. Almost everything the UEF is not, the FDSR is."

The FDSR have been waiting for a second Lucifer fleet to invade for 60 years. Their entire society, philosophy, and way of thinking is governed by fear. To them, anything that gets in way of or reduces the effectiveness of the military increases the risk of being annihilated by the Shivans. The FDSR essentially see the GTVA, by virtue of being more or less democratic (and thus, in their eyes, weak) as a threat to their security, and they want to drive them out of Sol and conquer a few nearby systems to establish a buffer zone. They see the GTVA as cowardly, spineless, and fragile. The GTVA see the FDSR as savage, oppressive, and brutal.

[-Norbert-]

You're right. It's almost like BP reversed (both for the GTVA and Sol), only with more black-and-white instead of grey.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah, that's part of what I was getting at.