[Burdokva]

Hey folks,

glad to see the space-sim community so strong! Now, i haven't been playing FSII in quite a while, and I'm simply overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of campaigns and TCs. I would be sure to check them all out, in time, but what's the best place to start?

Not difficulty wise (I consider myself an old dog when it comes to space-sims) but continuity wise, with the default FreeSpace setting and universe in mind? I've set my sight on "Blue Planet" and the Neo-Terra campaigns for now, but are they suitable? Anything other to recommend set in the FSII universe?

Note: Apologies for any misspelling and errors, English isn't my native language!

[The E]

Silent Threat: Reborn is recommended playing. As is Derelict.

[Rodo]

Well BP is a good sequel, but it's still unfinished and you need tons and tons of downloads.

Maybe you'd do better to try first some of the old goodies like Derelict.

Have you played the FSport yet? it's FS1 missions ported to FS2 engine, maybe you could start there as well.

Check here if you want a full list of campaigns and their status.

[General Battuta]

I'd say you should hit up:

Silent Threat: Reborn, Derelict (old but good), Transcend (superb atmospheric horror), Vassago's Dirge (artsy FS2-era minicampaign), and Blue Planet 1 (voice acted FS2 sequel) and Blue Planet 2 (intense war campaign thing.)

Also, Windmills.

Well BP is a good sequel, but it's still unfinished and you need tons and tons of downloads.

Everything released by Blue Planet is quite finished, and you only need two downloads.

I'd actually advise playing Derelict later in the list as it's a little buggy these days and may frustrate the heck out of you.

I dunno what the Neo-Terra campaigns are.

[Scotty]

Well, two sets of downloads.

Once you find what campaigns you want to play, you can get just about all of them from the links here. /shameless plug.

[General Battuta]

Well, two sets of downloads.

No. Just two downloads. Use the ModDB mirrors.

[Rodo]

Well BP is a good sequel, but it's still unfinished and you need tons and tons of downloads.

Everything released by Blue Planet is quite finished, and you only need two downloads.

I didn't meant unfinished as having issues or anything else, I meant the story is not yet closed.

And about the downloads, well you need to download at least 1GB of data (FSU 3.6.12 + BP AoA + BP WiH).. I know I suffered because of my frikking ISP poor download speeds

Still, 1GB or not to download, it's definitely worth it.

[General Battuta]

Well BP is a good sequel, but it's still unfinished and you need tons and tons of downloads.

Everything released by Blue Planet is quite finished, and you only need two downloads.

I didn't meant unfinished as having issues or anything else, I meant the story is not yet closed.

Not a reason not to play FreeSpace, and not a reason not to play Blue Planet either. 

[Trivial Psychic]

You forgot about Shrouding the Light (STL) and STL:Origins, as well as Blaise Russel's other campaigns "Fall of Epsilon Pegasi" and his Shivans mini-campaign.  I'd also say Inferno R1 but it hasn't been updated to more recent SCP standards.  There's also Inferno:Alliance.

[General Battuta]

You forgot about Shrouding the Light (STL) and STL:Origins, as well as Blaise Russel's other campaigns "Fall of Epsilon Pegasi" and his Shivans mini-campaign.  I'd also say Inferno R1 but it hasn't been updated to more recent SCP standards.  There's also Inferno:Alliance.

I wouldn't say I forgot about them, but they're not part of my usual bundle of intro campaigns.

[Delta_V]

Some of the other campaigns that I can think of are Procyon Insurgency and the Ancient Shivan War.  Both are very well done, although PI can be rather challenging, and ASW only has the first of three chapters released.

Yes, there is a LOT to download, and if you are one of those poor souls stuck with dial-up (like me up until a few months ago, when I finally got DSL), it is virtually impossible to get all of downloads for FSO and the mediavps, much less any of the mods.  I found Hard Light about a year ago, but never joined because I couldn't hope to actually download everything, but finally got DSL and basically went on a Freespace playing spree, and the amount of work this community has put into the various mods is truly amazing.

[General Battuta]

Procyon Insurgency should have been on my list. It's challenging as hell but an incredible piece of work from a gameplay standpoint.

[Droid803]

ST:R and BP:AoA.
Fully voice-acted and fairly straightforward, and also very awesome.

[NGTM-1R]

Homesick, Derelict, Shrouding the Light.

Maybe I've got the nostalagia goggles on tight since Homesick was the second campaign I played, but...

[General Battuta]

Homesick, Derelict, Shrouding the Light.

Maybe I've got the nostalagia goggles on tight since Homesick was the second campaign I played, but...

Homesick was a pretty seminal moment in FreeSpace modding, since it introduced the fighter-wing-and-a-corvette paradigm that went so far for so long.

[Insomniac34]

Blue Planet AoA and WiH are incredible, I recomend them easily.

[T-LoW]

Blue Planet AoA and WiH are incredible, I recomend them easily.

Second that. Just finished Part 1 of WiH and I'm still stunned 

[SypheDMar]

Windmills, maybe? But it ain't a space sim.

[Burdokva]

Thanks a lot for the replies, guys! I went with the first campaign I saw at ModDB a few weeks back (Age of Aquarius), and I just finished it... amazing! No offense, but I wouldn't have believed it fan-made mods for an old sim like FSII can achieve such quality. Until now. I'll be sure to download everything I can, I have decent speed. I bigger problem is I have only a few gig's free on my HDD and if I keep downloading FSII stuff I may break it...

Just another question, how hard is Blue Planet in respect to other user made campaigns/TCs? I beat it on hard, but it took a lot of effort - I guess I've gotten rusty at space sim...

[MatthTheGeek]

Well, beating it on hard is already better than most people around here. Although BP : AoA and WiH don't suffer from this, the problem with most user-made campaigns is that they are often balanced only for easy and medium, and so playing in higher difficulties may be either frustrating or even break the missions. Play at your own risks !