[Rhymes]

Define "advanced." They already have the TAG-C, Eos, and Supernova.

[General Battuta]

Will GTVA get some sort of advanced SSM weapon?

More than they already have?

[Nightmare]

Yeah I have some sort of cruise missile with meson warhead and shields, plus an jump drive for system-wide range, and I wanted to know whether something like that made it to BP before.

[General Battuta]

That’s a Supernova, yeah.

[Iain Baker]

That’s a Supernova, yeah.

Or 'Dawnbringer'

[General Battuta]

Nah the Eos isn't meson-armed iirc.

[crizza]

Wait what? Supernovas are SSMs?! I thought only the Eos could pull that off
Out of interest: Is an Eos/Supernova able to be fired from one side of a node to the other, emerging in close proximity of a target or will they just exit the node and run out of fuel?
Or must an SSM-strike always originate from within the same system?

[JoeBalls]

It either branches to Bosch's plan for an 'arrangement' with the Shivans (as foreshadowed in FS2, this is very bad for the Vsaudans) or to the BP3 path where the Vishnans are gone (unclear whether temporarily or permanently) and the Shivanpocalypse is on.

So the Vishnans get "unmade" by the Shivans?

[Iain Baker]

Hi guys!

I have just finished the first draft of my in-depth review of Blue Planet, which should be going up on Coin-Drop.com next week. I will probably turn it into a five(ish) part article series, since at almost 5200 words long it is a bit hefty for a single article. Before I post it there I have attached the draft here for everyone to look at. Please let me know if I have missed anything or got anything wrong.

If any members of the BP team would like to provide a quote or two to go with it please let em know and I'll happily include them.

Cheers :-)

[attachment eaten by a Shivan]

[Colonol Dekker]

You can quote me saying (only as the voice actor) "the Orestes is bestes, it has humungous testes".

[General Battuta]

You might want to note that I was a teenage college student when I wrote a lot of BP, it was really prior to my novel/short story stuff.

[HLD_Prophecy]

Thanks for the submission Ian!

I no longer enjoy writing my thoughts about written works. I'm going to make an exception here and simply highlight this comment:

"Most video games fail when it comes to character development. "

I beg pardon for this - but this was the tipping point where I really felt like this article was TOO happy about BP and, by extension, came off as disdainful of anything and anyone outside of that fan circle. There are things to like about BP, but it isn't necessarily the favorite of every HLP'er. I guess the article felt... sugary, sickly sweet, to me.

But that is just my one thought.  Thanks!

[Iain Baker]

You can quote me saying (only as the voice actor) "the Orestes is bestes, it has humungous testes".

  I could probably get away with that since they do not censor language on Coin-Drop.com

[Iain Baker]

You might want to note that I was a teenage college student when I wrote a lot of BP, it was really prior to my novel/short story stuff.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll add that in :-)

[Iain Baker]

Thanks for the submission Ian!

I no longer enjoy writing my thoughts about written works. I'm going to make an exception here and simply highlight this comment:

"Most video games fail when it comes to character development. "

I beg pardon for this - but this was the tipping point where I really felt like this article was TOO happy about BP and, by extension, came off as disdainful of anything and anyone outside of that fan circle. There are things to like about BP, but it isn't necessarily the favorite of every HLP'er. I guess the article felt... sugary, sickly sweet, to me.

But that is just my one thought.  Thanks!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I respect yours even if I do not agree with it.

I will stand by my claim about character progression in games, since it is something few games attempt to do in the narrative sense (so increasing stats in an RPG doesn't count here). Many iconic characters have remind constant since their inception. Gordon Freeman is still a mute in an orange suit with a crowbar. John 117 is still a faceless guy in a green suit with a gun. Marcus Fenix is still a pissed off dude voiced by a bandanna wearing Bender. Sonic is still a smarmy little git who can run fast but never learnt to swim etc etc.

There are some good examples of course. The player characters in Bioshock and Deus Ex spring to mind, but truly transformational character development is pretty rare in all mediums.

Breaking Bad and GoT nailed it, since many characters undergo quite significant changes, swinging from villain to hero and back again as the series progress. (Walter White and Jamie Lannister for example)

Babylon 5 actually did a good job of this back in the '90s. londo Mollari went from being a somewhat pitiful and almost comic drunkard to becoming a sinister machiavellian warmonger, then saviour of the republic, and finally the tragic emperor of a dying civilisation.

Gradual transormational character development is kinda my thing - one of the reasons I prefer TV over most movies since two hours isn't enough to do it properly, but 50 odd hours is.

[General Battuta]

Thanks for the submission Ian!

I no longer enjoy writing my thoughts about written works. I'm going to make an exception here and simply highlight this comment:

"Most video games fail when it comes to character development. "

I beg pardon for this - but this was the tipping point where I really felt like this article was TOO happy about BP and, by extension, came off as disdainful of anything and anyone outside of that fan circle. There are things to like about BP, but it isn't necessarily the favorite of every HLP'er. I guess the article felt... sugary, sickly sweet, to me.

But that is just my one thought.  Thanks!

He's right, though. Like, objectively speaking.

[Nightmare]

Sooooo... attempt No. 3.

Shivanapocalypse

Any chance for Sol going supernova?

[General Battuta]

Probably not in the cards.

[crizza]

Wait what? Supernovas are SSMs?! I thought only the Eos could pull that off
Out of interest: Is an Eos/Supernova able to be fired from one side of a node to the other, emerging in close proximity of a target or will they just exit the node and run out of fuel?
Or must an SSM-strike always originate from within the same system?

Can I get an answer, as in pretty please?

Edit: Oh, and did Karen and her Wingmate somehow survived Delenda Est? Like their fighters being disabled and they're PoWs now?

[Mito [PL]]

@Iain Baker:
Your article needs a bit of course correction. Firstly, Blue Planet is supposed to be a trilogy, with AoA being the first part, and WiH being the second one, separated into 5 acts each. WiH acts 1 and 2 are definitely complete, with VA and such, while act 3 is without voice acting but other technicals could be changed underway.
Secondly, the videos you're linking to are quite outdated in terms of graphics, as they come without HDR and PBR effects. While I'm not sure if there's a take on Artemis Station with the most modern FSO graphics, I'm pretty confident that there is one on Icarus, but I had no success finding it. Maybe such an article would trigger another playthrough with every setting turned on, on some kind of high difficulty level with some tips in the annotations?
Also, it's Granite Hunter. Oh, and Al'Fadil.