[General Battuta]

I'd be happy to add any campaign that someone can do a short blurb for.

[Apollo]

I'd be happy to add any campaign that someone can do a short blurb for.

In that case:

The Second Great War Part II - This campaign is considered the greatest of the many mod projects undertaken for FreeSpace 2, despite its lack of major mods and its predating the source code release. It manages, through slick FREDding, an incredibly engaging storyline and clever dialogue, to completely immerse the player in the FreeSpace universe, and it provides an unmatched playing experience. Technically essentially flawless, and artistically sublime, The Second Great War Part II has been called "The fan's FreeSpace 3".

What? It's from the wiki!

[An4ximandros]

I know what I'm playing this April 1st:



Thanks Apollo

[Apollo]

You're welcome.

[0rph3u5]

I'd be happy to add any campaign that someone can do a short blurb for.

I will write something ...

EDIT: Just noticed that the missions for LoA I've are updated ones I never released (e.g. they use the kamikaze-ship-change stuff I used in TLG as well) ... I better wrap them up into a new download then before I write something (expect them somewhat mid April)

[Catecholamine]

Freespace 3 the search For bosch - The campaign is set two years after the Capella incident. The player character and her wingmen - each with distinctive and developed personalities - are highly regarded pilots stationed aboard the GVD Cleopatera [sic], a Hatshepsut-class destroyer modified with Shivan technology. The story opens with the announcement that a new Knossos subspace portal has been discovered in a remote corner of the GTVA, and that the Cleopatera [sic] and her battlegroup have been dispatched to investigate. Their mission is to find and apprehend Aken Bosch so that he can be interrogated and brought to justice. Along the way, the player character is subjected to the greatest tests of her career and her life, and makes shocking discoveries about the nature of Bosch, the Shivans, and the universe itself....

Straight from the wiki.

[Mebber]

Besides LoA and Hellgate Ikeya, i'd suggest to add Rain on Ribos 4 too.  It's been awhile since i've played it, but i remember it as one of my absolute favorite Great-War era campaigns. It blends in very well with the main campaign, and delivers a similar atmosphere and feeling of futility when fighting the all-mighty shivans. Imho it's a good choice if you've just finished the FS1 main campaign and just want to see 'more' of the war.

[InsaneBaron]

As a new community member, I found this guide very useful, both for giving me some insight into HLP's history and for getting me started on you guys's campaigns (I tried to play Derelict, Silent Threat: Reborn, and Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius at the same time, if that tells you anything  just couldn't make up my mind!)

Anyway, Having played ST before I joined HLP, I definitely wouldn't consider it mandatory playing now that we have ST:R- which I beat yesterday    However, I would highly recommend to any other newcomers that you complete FS1 (and probably ST:R) before FS2, simply because other wise FS1 gets ruined and FS2 has less impact. The appearance of Shivans is scarier if you've witnessed firsthand what they're capable of. 

EDIT: Ok, about the "a lot" emoticon... cruel. Just cruel. 

[General Battuta]

Added Hellgate: Ikeya and Light of Antares - thanks so much to Orpheus for helping out with the blurb. Keep them coming!

[NGTM-1R]

The Bablyon Project

So maybe JMS hated it when he was asked to put an ace pilot on his cast and killed them off, but you think Starfuries are pretty cool. This is for you.

TBP plays differently from FS in a number of ways. Foremost is that it rewards marksmanship far more, because targets are smaller and the number of guns you'll be carrying fewer. There are no shields, so you'll get very sensitive to how far away you are from an opponent when you finish them off to avoid getting caught in the blast. And the missiles, such as they are, are minimalist nearly-straight-running weapons. There will be dogfighting. A lot of it. It was also one of the first efforts to feature beam weapons as main guns for fighters, with the Minbari Nial.

Down the years a good number of TBP campaigns have come out, and a good number of single missions. Orpheus alone made campaigns were made from the point of view of members of the PsiCorps, as a Shadow fighter (which included one of the first uses of in-mission jumps), and as a raider/mercenary.

[General Battuta]

It's in! Thanks so much.

[InsaneBaron]

I think Operation Templar would be worth an entry. After all, in it's original form it's one of the only four canonical campaigns made. Gameplay-wise the FSPort remake is quite good for a mini-campaign.


"Operation Templar was originally a set of four popular multiplayer co-op missions created by Volition to tell an important part of FreeSpace history: the fall of the Hammer of Light. The same team that created Silent Threat: Reborn also remade Operation Templar as a single-player campaign. The FSPort Operation Templar remake follows the original missions much more closely than Silent Threat: Reborn, preserving the mission structure, plot, briefings, and even voice acting, all while rebalancing the missions for single-player mode and making them FSO-compatiable. Operation Templar tells an essential (and canonical) bit of the FreeSpace story in the form of four challenging missions, featuring a unique blend of Volition and Hard Light talent."


Minor note, I think Derelict has 43 missions, not 60, unless there's a hidden set of missions I'm unaware of (I still have a couple missions left before I finish it.)

[Goober5000]

Great summary.   One cool thing that Galemp did with Operation Templar was to change the HoL installation to a Cheops instead of that silly Arcadia.

[0rph3u5]

Orpheus alone made campaigns were made from the point of view of members of the PsiCorps, as a Shadow fighter (which included one of the first uses of in-mission jumps), and as a raider/mercenary.

Someone nugged me about this ... 2 out of 3 are actually the work Vidmaster; only the PsiCorps one is my work (and the worst of it)

[NGTM-1R]

Someone nugged me about this ... 2 out of 3 are actually the work Vidmaster; only the PsiCorps one is my work (and the worst of it)

Well I'm a derp, somebody fix this stat. (I actually thought it was some of your best.)

[InsaneBaron]

Great summary.   One cool thing that Galemp did with Operation Templar was to change the HoL installation to a Cheops instead of that silly Arcadia.

Thanks. I agree it makes more sense for the HoL to build their own base in a hollow asteroid, as opposed to making the GTA build an Arcadia in an asteroid field then abandon it

To be fair, the original designers had a pretty limited ship sandbox to work with- no Vasudan installations, civilian ships, et cetera. These days, "Hey guys, for the next mission we need Shivan Luxury Liner with enough firepower to take out the Gargant from the last mission" "I'll make it!"
 

Am I correct in assuming that making Nagada a Cheops was the only major plot change?

Also, Battuta, any opinion on adding OT? Maybe in "Give me something oldschool"?

[Goober5000]

Am I correct in assuming that making Nagada a Cheops was the only major plot change?

No, we changed a few other things, but all of them were fairly minor.  The most noticeable change other than the installation is probably the command briefing in the first mission.

[MatthTheGeek]

Ya, coop missions (multi missions in general) can't have CBriefs.

[AndrewofDoom]

Speaking of which, how hard would it be to implement Command Brief support to multiplayer?

[InsaneBaron]

Am I correct in assuming that making Nagada a Cheops was the only major plot change?

No, we changed a few other things, but all of them were fairly minor.  The most noticeable change other than the installation is probably the command briefing in the first mission.

THAT's right. I remember thinking that that CB must have been altered, since it mentioned the situation with the cross-era weaponry.
Which was interesting by the way. It made loadouts a bit challenging, since the only dogfight primaries available were Prom Rs and a few Banshees. (I spent the first three missions in a Herc simply for the quad Banshees). I imagine the original would have been even trickier, since it wouldn't even have had Banshees!