[docfu]

In the spirit of introducing new people to Freespace:

I promised one of my 3rd grade Japanese students that I would let him play Freespace 2 : Blue Planet : War In Heaven when he passes his next reading test.

As of this point he has not seen any part of Freespace, the only thing he has seen is my Saitek X-52 Joystick and my Sharp 37" LCD screen.

I was thinking his introduction to Freespace should be War In Heaven: Mission 2 vs the Aeolus because it's nice and flashy and it's a stable target. I think dogfighting would be a little hard and might make everyone else watching dizzy.

The flak should be nice. The alternative missions include Blue Planet : Forced Entry and Blue Planet : Preserve the Balance for the voice acting and the nice colors.

Comments?

[General Battuta]

D:

Aren't those a little...hard? Put it on Very Easy at least.

[docfu]

Of course.

Let's look at it from the other side. If I give him a nice easy introduction, couple of freighters or a supply depot, for instance, then every time he tells his friends about Freespace 2 the conversation will go like:

"I played this game at my teacher's house, it was really cool! I blew up a ton of ships and I won!"

...

Yeah, that's boring as all hell. Now the alternative:

"I don't know what the hell just happened but I'll never forget the letters A E O L U and S ever again."

...

Besides, if it's an Aeolus I only have one more vowel to go.

[bigchunk1]

If you want to give them a one mission tour... why not try 'The Blade Itself' campaign? The controls of a capital ship are pretty stable and it allows a lot of nice visuals to look at. Only downside is capital ships might be a little slow for their tastes, but you know them best.

On the fighter side, Plunder is a nice easy and straightforward mission, If you can explain to them how disabling a ship works.

Other than that, maybe AoA would be a better campaign to show them around. Forced entry is definately a good pick. then there is the mission 'Universal Truth'. They might get a kick out of that one on very easy. It's a really nice large battle.

Edit: Actually, for FE the beam disabling might be a bit tricky.

[Veers]

Almost sounds like proper education to me... 

[Rodo]

you don't want to introduce a student to freespace, not if you want him to keep studying

[SypheDMar]

Is the second mission the one where you jump in front of flaks? If so, he might die before he gets to understand the controls, and nobody likes to have a backseat gamer telling them what to do.

[General Battuta]

Honestly I'd give him something with voice acting.

[Droid803]

Into the Lion's Den IMO.

Watch freakout during DIVE DIVE DIVE HIT YOUR BURNERS PILOT.

Then *splat*

Lesson: Sometimes, **** just happens, and it runs you over if you're not prepared for it.

[Rodo]

Yeah, DIVE DIVE DIVE!

[esarai]

If you do chose DIVE DIVE DIVE, at least take a video of his response.

Though I feel like throwing this kid in right in the middle might be overloading enough as it is.  From what I've seen with my own crowd, space combat takes some time to get used to. 

Just for kicks make it an EC assignment

[The E]

Honestly? You're doing it wrong. You don't start off by showing them what we think of as the most awesome moments in FS, because without context, these things are void and hollow. Also, given that they're built on the assumption that the player is completely at home with the controls, showing them to a noobie who isn't will probably lead to frustration.

[crizza]

Well...If a Child in germany would tell his friends, that he played computer at his teachers house...I guess three huors later the police would knock on your door^^

[Dilmah G]

I remember playing the last mission with the 53rd at a mate's house when I was about 11 and the other blokes there were all stood in awe at the intensity and we were a few years out of 3rd grade, so I think something lighter by our standards would fit reasonably well.

[Qent]

The FS2 training missions struck me as "Wow, that's awesome!" when I first started. And I was 17 or 18?

[Snail]

The FS2 training missions (and FS2 in general, really) struck me as kind of comical at first, especially with the instructor's voice and the pink lasers (and pink nebulae).

[Destiny]

There's blue and red and even green parts of the nebula, you know~ But really, where did you see pink lasers? The stock Subach was red.

[MatthTheGeek]

He's probably among the same colorblind people who see pink in the MVP shivan beams.

[pecenipicek]

There's blue and red and even green parts of the nebula, you know~ But really, where did you see pink lasers? The stock Subach was red.

He's probably among the same colorblind people who see pink in the MVP shivan beams.

i'd rather blame a badly calibrated monitor for that to be honest...

[Kolgena]

Grade 3? As in, like 8 years old grade 3? Wouldn't the training missions be more than enough? Plus, little kiddies like to follow instructions sometimes.

If I've misunderstood the age, then I'd have to agree with people who have been suggesting something that isn't huge on shock value.
1) It might make the rest of the game kinda drab in comparision if they play the entire thing up to that point
2) They won't get it, and it becomes more of a spoiler, less of a "cool that was awesome" moment.
3) "The mission started and I died in 4 seconds. What the **** is this ****? This game is stupid". (Aeolus flak spam)