[OverDhill]

Looking at this thread

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=70582.0

It is obvious that there are some great campaigns made for both FSport and Freespace 2 Open.

Would someone like to recommended the sequence in which to play these campaigns for someone who is new to the Freespace world and has never played any?  Something like a timeline and where each campaign takes place (yes there are probably alternative universes but even these would sit in the timeline and have some sequence to play them in).

This list could be pinned to allow other newbies to see what they should start with.

[MatthTheGeek]

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Campaign_List

You're welcome.

Might not be exactly up to date and some links are probably dead, but that's definitely a good place to start.

Also, http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=80688.msg1603310#msg1603310

[OverDhill]

Thanks that second link is what I was looking for. Must be lack of sleep for not finding it even with a dozen searches.

[General Battuta]

Here's the best answer!

[Lorric]

Thanks that second link is what I was looking for. Must be lack of sleep for not finding it even with a dozen searches.

No, the forum search just sucks.

Here's the best answer!

Your guide has already been linked to.

[OverDhill]

Well comparing these three lists I came up with the following Campaigns based upon polish and timeline order.  Any changes or suggestions?


http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=58358.msg1177882#msg1177882
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Campaign_List
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=80688.msg1603310#msg1603310

Updated list



FSPort
Silent Threat: Reborn
Destiny of Peace (won Interplay's 1998 Mission Design Contest - was included in the Silent Threat expansion disc)
Operation Templar (released in the Game of the Year edition - FSPort team released an improved version)
FreeSpace 2


Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius
Blue Planet: War in Heaven

Derelict
Cardinal Spear
Awakenings
Warzone
Vassago's Dirge

Oh and this new one that I just saw  Incursion and Return to SOL

[Lorric]

Cardinal Spear - A good campaign, though too easy. Except the last mission...
FSPort - Original Freespace brought to FS2. Still very enjoyable today.
Operation Templar - Fun canon multiplayer mini-campaign turned single player. Play FSPort and Silent Threat Reborn first.
Silent Threat: Reborn - Exceptional. But play FSPort first!
Awakenings - This is a very good campaign.
Operation: Crucible - Supposedly the only fully branching campaign. And fine work.
Destiny of Peace - I don't remember it well, but I enjoyed it.
Tango - Haven't played. Plan to.
FreeSpace 2 - It's Freespace 2! Play it! Advise all the FS1 canon stuff first.
Fall of Epsilon Pegasi - I played this I believe on an incompatible version. Could only run a few missions but enjoyed them. I will try again now I have 3.7.0 sometime.
Lightning Marshal - Haven't played.
Pandora's Box - Haven't played.
Titan Rebellion - Haven't played.
Transcend - regarded as a classic around here, I haven't played it yet. I don't know how to find the best working version either, please, do tell if you do, as I want it.

Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius - despite the fact I don't like the player character (some do) this is still a highly polished campaign with an enthralling story. A little light on action, but still highly recommended.
Blue Planet: War in Heaven - haven't played it, but lots of people think it's awesome.

Derelict - Gave up on this after a particularly difficult, lazily, badly FREDded mission. Only campaign to make me do that. However, I have seen it let's played, and it's a vast campaign with otherwise great missions and a great story. Well worth your time, and regarded as one of the classics around here. I will pick it up again eventually.
Aftermath - played this very recently. It's a good campaign.
Warzone - Haven't played.

Phantoms - These two are both good mini-campaigns.
Echo-Gate - recommended this to someone a few days ago.

Advice, play all the canon stuff first. All other campaigns based off the canon will then make so much more sense.

Also, consider my favourite campaign, Wings of Dawn.

[General Battuta]

Ditch your whole list, start by playing FS1, Silent Threat Reborn, and FS2, then pick a recent mod - Blue Planet, Vassago's Dirge, The Antagonist, whatever - to start with.

[Lorric]

No, keep the list! There's loads of good stuff on there, you've listed nearly all the campaigns I've played!

But I'd do as Battuta says and play the canon stuff first. Unless you want to play something not related to Freespace, like Wings of Dawn, or the much maligned Wing Commander Saga, which I would say should at least be tried.

[OverDhill]

Well comparing these three lists I came up with the following Campaigns based upon polish and timeline order.  Any changes or suggestions?


http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=58358.msg1177882#msg1177882
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Campaign_List
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=80688.msg1603310#msg1603310

Updated list  -  reduced as in who am I kidding if I will ever get around to playing them all.. lol (I also want to get around to playing B5 and the Star Citizen down the road)



FSPort
Silent Threat: Reborn
Destiny of Peace (won Interplay's 1998 Mission Design Contest - was included in the Silent Threat expansion disc)
Operation Templar (released in the Game of the Year edition - FSPort team released an improved version)
FreeSpace 2


Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius
Blue Planet: War in Heaven

Maybe list

Cardinal Spear
Awakenings
Destiny of Peace
Derelict
Warzone
Vassago's Dirge

[Lorric]

Hey, who says you can't finish them all?

You just wait, once you get going...

[General Battuta]

Vassago's Dirge should be on your 'definitely' list, otherwise looks pretty good to me. You could probably cut Operation Templar, it's not particularly interesting. Short, though.

[Sarkoth]

I don't think there is any particular order one should play all user generated campaigns, mods and / or total conversions. What I did about half a year ago (like done at least once every couple of years) was getting everything I could find and what appeared to be still functioning / rehauled / Re-Released. Pretty much building my FSO library from scratch. I tried to get literally everything. Even the really bad stuff. Started with everything FS1 related. And bit by bit, I worked my way through pretty much anything that was ever released and or linked here on HLP. Going in alphabetical order, just picking the next entry in the mods list as I went on. I left the eyecandy and total conversions for last and stored everything above 100MB in a separate folder, so that I won't accidentally skip or forget about them. My Freespace directory stands at 37.2GB at the moment with no duplicate or unneccassary leftover files. Diaspora, WingCommander and TBP not even being counted for, because they are installed somewhere else as standalones.

Because the community has been steadily releasing campaigns, it appears that they get released a bit faster than I am able to play through them. And I am loving it. 13 years of neverending joy.

But the best bet would be playing FS1 (via FSport), Silent Threat: Reborn and the main FS2 campaign first. Otherwise 90% of the references made in user generated content will probably go by unnoticed.

Personally, I would avoid starting with all the "bigh stuff" right away. There have been so many new features added, that when playing some of the older campaigns, you won't be able to enjoy them as much as you would have, if you had played them before all the new mods and conversions.
I, for that matter, still haven't even started any of the campaigns that released in the last 2-3 years. When I played the valentine special of search for bosch just a few days ago, I nearly jizzed in my pants, seeing where the SCP has already taken one of my most beloved games of all time. And in my directory, there is still waiting Ancient Shivan War, Bem Cavalgar,  BluePlanet, Burning Heaven, Dimensional Eclipse, the Derelict Re-Release, Dawn of Sol, Dusk Wars, The Lightning Marshall Re-Release, Shadow Genesis, Shrouding the Light, The Centaur Project, The Antagonist, Tides of Darkness, Vassago's Dirge and Wings of Dawn. And I haven't started Wing Commander yet. So all in all, I'm still set for most of 2014. ^^

[General Battuta]

You played Search for Bosch without playing any of the campaigns it's parodying?  Well, uh, your call...

[Sarkoth]

The original search for bosch was more than enjoyable and completely ludicrous by itself. I'll have to replay the valentine special after I am done with the the anime-esque conversions.

On a different note: The reason why I played the way I did was, because just as the OP, I had no clue where to start and went with the easiest way: Going alphabetically after getting all I could get my hands on, leaving pretty much most of the mayor (or big, for that matter) releases for last.

[General Battuta]

Well, we definitely have different approaches. I think new players should start with the best, a lot of which is also the most recent.

[SypheDMar]

Vassago's Dirge should be on your 'definitely' list, otherwise looks pretty good to me.

I proudly endorse this message.

I think Operation Templar for FSPort is a good coffee break campaign. It's got the voice acting and the straight-forward missions while having [V]'s seal of canon. And I figure that anyone starting out would want to be immersed in the canon universe first before immersing themselves in a better expanded universe.

[Sarkoth]

Well, we definitely have different approaches. I think new players should start with the best, a lot of which is also the most recent.

Indeed. But that's not neccessarily a bad thing. It's just different.

For me, playing Freespace Campaigns is like eating a really nice big steak with some side dishes. And I know that I am unsatiably hungry, so at the end of the day I won't be full, no matter in what order I eat. So I take a bite out of everything, and then start eating what I dislike the most first. I'll always grab a bite of the good stuff in between, but when the meal nears its extinction, I always save a really big chunk of whatever is best for last, so that I can enjoy the aftertaste of it as much and long as possible. This analogy pretty much sums it up perfectly. It really depends on personality I guess. I can also understand the drive of the OP to try to do everything in chronological order, considering lore. But it makes no difference afterall, because we probably all will agree that no matter how we are going about order, we're all having a blast one way or another. Some of us right away, some of us as a grand finale.

[Lorric]

I also tend to start at the bottom and savour the best for last in things. But Freespace is too big. I can't wait that long. On the other hand I can comfortably wait for something like Blue Planet to be completed while there are other things to play. I kind of admire the way you're doing it though Sarkoth. In theory it should just get better and better for you all the time.

[Sarkoth]

I also tend to start at the bottom and savour the best for last in things. But Freespace is too big. I can't wait that long. On the other hand I can comfortably wait for something like Blue Planet to be completed while there are other things to play. I kind of admire the way you're doing it though Sarkoth. In theory it should just get better and better for you all the time.

In theory? No, dear sir, it effectively and truthfully makes me love Freespace, FSO, the whole SCP and HLP more and more, the farther I get. It just becomes more and more amazing. Strangely enough, every time when I feel like having a few weeks of FS marathons, happening once a year or every other year, something mayor gets released during that period. It's really like christmas. And every 5 years or so, I start from scratch again. But everytime, when I play anything that hasn't been rehauled, it gets less and less fun. When I played Transcend for the first time, it blew my mind. Now, so many years later, when I finished it again just yesterday, it had lost quite a bit of its magic. Just because I knew what could have been better. And I only knew that because I had seen someone else doing certain things better a couple of years later. I'm not saying playing blue planet right off the bat would ruin any experience. But for me, personally, it would leave a faint and bitter aftertaste when trying to play "all the old stuff". I notice this in small details like the radar icons already. Every time I can't get the radar ship icons to work, I will get heavily annoyed and irritated in a dogfight. When playing "What If" last week, sometimes I felt like throwing my monitor out of the window because of small things like that. Probably I just have spent way too much time with this game in the last decade. I believe my last pilot profile before 3.7.0 had over 14000 kills. And that was after bricking it twice because I would never heed the warning that I should use a new or separate pilot file with certain mods.

I'll better stop rambling now.