But don't forget the Freespace Universe is based on you being a pilot among others.
Definitely not. In all canon Freespace campaigns, you are the über Alpha 1 who can single-handly eliminate waves after waves after waves of enemy fighters and destroy capital ships on your own like no tomorrow. The whole war basically rests on the players' shoulders in canon (I suggest you pick a look at the failure debriefings for "Surrender Belisarius" if you want to see how far 
brought that concept). This is widely known in the community as the "Alpha 1 syndrome".
Not that it's necessarily a bad thing - players usually like to be the hero who does heroic stuff - but it definitely isn't "one pilot among others".
On another topic, are you, really complaining about the campaign being to hard in Insane ? How about reducing the difficulty, that's what difficulty options are here for !
The campaign was thoroughly tested and optimized to be winnable in Insane difficulty. It obviously requires knowing at least a little in advance what to do in the mission and what the best approaches are. I personally believe Tenebra shines by its replayability factor : it is because it is very hard to do it right the first time, and that there are so many different ways (and that there isn't necessarily "one best way") to complete some of the missions that Tenebra can be so enjoyable.
The core of our Insane balancing is that it has to be winnable, and consistently winnable (as in, not just by pure luck) in Insane, when you already know the mission quite well, by players like me or Quantum Delta (we are the two main Insane testers). Trial-and-error is required, even for us. It is not intended to be consistently winnable on the first try (again, in Insane), nor the first couple of tries, even for veteran players.
Well. True about the "uber alpha 1". Kind off. It has become that. But if you would play Medium or Hard, most of your pilots are alive and helping a lot.
I mean most mission you have at least 2 squads including your own and I believe the thought of the game would be you're 1 pilot among others. I think that is pretty clear.
Blue Planet has developed more into that "Uber Alpha 1" character. Especially in War in Heaven.
Don't forget that we who play Freespace, are probably pretty good at it and can kill everyone... But it would be pretty silly if the game developers developed the game after an Insane Player, yea?
Regarding your answer on my difficulty opinions.
I guess I compared it to much to the Insane difficulties for other campaigns like the original Freespace Campaigns and Age of Aquarius and War in Heaven Act 1 and Act 2.
I play those campaigns on Insane maybe on the hardest mission replay only up to 3 times. It still feels quite challanging and I'm on the edge of dying which is good.
But Act 3, with those complex missions, the difficulty is on a whole other level.
Quoting "The core of our Insane balancing is that it has to be winnable, and consistently winnable (as in, not just by pure luck) in Insane, when you already know the mission quite well, by players like me or Quantum Delta (we are the two main Insane testers). Trial-and-error is required, even for us. It is not intended to be consistently winnable on the first try (again, in Insane), nor the first couple of tries, even for veteran players."
Now when you say that, it makes more sense actually.
I can agree on it. No luck could get me through my mission. I had to know the mission well. I had to know my weapons and my ship well. I had to know the battlefield well, to know the best approach to victory. And I always make it harder for myself, by trying to do the mission as perfect as I can.
But even if I knew the mission well through briefing, it did take a replays to really 100% know what the best approach on the battlefield. Surely, no luck.
Another thing while playing on Insane.. My wingmen on WiH Act 3 cannot die. And it looks pretty silly when they are blasted by 10 fighters, several sentries, Flak Guns and Anti-fighter beams. And they survive
I relied a lot on my wingmen because they couldn't die. That's why I think it was a bit to hard.
The Carthage Destruction/Capture Mission, I think it would have been better if there was 1 or 2 wings of fighters trying to draw the other fighters. That would have been better IMO.
I replayed the harder missions probably more than 10, 15 or 20 times. Before I completed it. I had to use my wingmen for almost everything, while I just watched the combat. Because as soon as I shoot, it's a death trap. And some missions they wont attack the fighters on order. Maybe it was only the Carthage destruction/capture mission. Because when I ordered the wingmen to shoot down enemy fighters, the responded like it was unnecessary...
Or maybe I'm supposed to be more of a commander? But don't forget the Freespace Universe is based on you being a pilot among others.
Yea I definately got this feeling myself. I felt more useful making tactical decisions and ordering wingmen around than making use of my piloting skills. In fact, it was often times too risky to do such a thing! How many ranks do you have to go up in the military before you're the guy with the binoculars standing near the artillery and deploying platoons on the radio? I felt like I was that guy.
This is more realistic though if you think about it. Think about the types of objectives you are completing. Attacking a destroyer, stopping a commet, destroying a convoy; these things aren't really something one fighter does. Well, unless you are Alpha 1, the greatest pilot in the universe. A good moral from the military (not that I would know) is that you need people to do things. You need soldiers beside you, you need fire support, you need coordination from command. Anyone who fights a war alone is mad. WIH3 tries to deliver this and I like it. I like it because it's true.
I dunno, I sort of saw WIH3 as a unique new way to branch out of that press h and kill style gameplay, and any mod that goes there is generally doing something right.
Just don't stray of to far outside the Freespace universe. Meaning, don't get to creative. I was not a fan of the Tower Defense Mission. Creative, but does not fit.
I dunno about this. There have been many dogged attempts to play out the freespace formula, and really it only goes so far. I would have to believe, given the opportunity now, the volition devs themselves would go outside the box in making a sequel as well. I thought the tower defense mission was one of the best ones in the mod btw.
And there was voice acting in WIH3? What voice acting?
I think it is becoming the opposite. It's not getting more realistic. 1 Squad of Stealth fighters doing the whole job? I guess maybe I should make a play through on hard, because on insane that is only possible because your wingmen are "supposed" to be very skilled and therefore, never dies. As of they don't drop below like 15% Hull.
The tower defense mission was a very creative idea. It was pretty well made. But what the Freespace Universe succeeds is it makes me feel I'm part of a war. Part of a crew, I'm flying with my wingmen and trying to make a difference.
With the Tower Defense Mission it felt more like a silly game, to be honest. I love Freespace so much because I for one, love "War" games. And the more they succeed to make it feel like I'm actually in the war, the better.
There was no "war" in the tower defense mission. Because one, it was not original. I mean, the idea is taken directly from Tower Defense, which just reminds me of those silly games that usually turn out to look very silly in their end-games...
And two, platforms and building strategies? It becomes a strategy game. Which, never feels like I'm part of the war. I'm just the commander giving orders. And then the enemies comes in stupidly in a line wanting to get killed?
No it has KILLED the whole war feeling. Others might have liked the idea and the mission because you maybe have played a lot of Tower Defense. Me, I don't like that game. It's to plain and stupid IMO. So I think it's no good for Blue Planet or any other Freespace campaign.
Freespace originally makes you 1 pilot, among others. If you really think about it. If you don't play on Insane which causes your wingmen to die really fast, (And bare in thought that this game is old).
You start of by just following orders and you cannot order anyone around. You become later a veteran elite pilot. But mostly the only other thing you are ordering around are your wingmen. I don't recall being able to order around the capital ships in the original Freespace 1 and 2 campaigns.
While it's not a bad thing that in Blue Planet, we can now order around capital ships. But in reality, pilots doesn't get to do that to much. Because they are flying Fighters. A Fighter Pilots lifespan is never to long. There is only a few that probably manages to stay veterans, which then I can agree, they get to boss around a bit, but they probably get killed as well. Just because they are fighter pilots. Compared to big Capital Ships with crews over hundreds and thousands.
And yea, about the Voice Acting. I simply gave my opinion that in Age of Aquarius, some voice acting was better and some were worse. While to others this might be a bother but to me it is because I'm a quality junkie whenever it's possible.
And because I love Blue Planet so much, I would hate to see some bad voice acting ruin it.
