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Storyline & campaign
jusas
Earthforce Officer
Ok, I thought I'd make a post about what I've been planning with Paladine for the campaign.
[b]Story made short[/b]
The campaign is based on the EA civil war and president Clark's rule.
In the beginning there are some basic operations, such as escort missions, raider sweeps and distress calls. At some point the ship is ordered to return to Earth space and is refitted with some new weaponry at the Moon base. Clark is preparing for covert operations at the borders of the neighboring races. Scaring off the other races he starts a terrorizing campaign, eliminating patrols, recon parties and outposts, leaving behind subtle hints that EA is not to be taken lightly. The EAS Odysseus of course takes part in these operations. At some point the Commander starts to question the authority and the motives of president Clark. He begins to hear stories about other officers, Clark questioning their loyalty after being reluctant to take his orders. He begins to doubt where his true loyalty lies, is he to take orders from president Clark or the Earth Alliance and wonders if Clark really represents the people of the EA. While under Clark's orders he also gets into a troubling situation where he has to take part in taking down a "renegade" EA ship, whose captain was a well known within the ranks. Soon he hears about the voice of the resistance - he realizes he is not alone. President Clark's authority is being questioned throughout the ranks and he is being hard pressed to keep the military under his control, having to promote some officers that are loyal to him and assigning as many ships under the control of his new Captains as possible. The Commander now knows where his loyalty lies: not for the president but for the people of the Earth Alliance. He is determined to find others and join the resistance but he soon finds out that the Nightwatch within his crew have their
say and the Captain of the Lancelot betrays him after being blackmailed. Like it wasn't hard enough as it is...
The Commander's ship joins up with the resistance and joins Captain Sheridan's fleet to free the EA worlds from Clarks oppression. From here there's no turning back, and tough battles are fought to free Proxima, Vega, Antares and other colonies, Mars and finally Earth.
The End.
[b]The characters[/b]
[COLOR=royalblue]Captain John Evans[/COLOR]
The newly appointed Captain of the EAS Odysseus.
Being one of the best and the brightest, he studied and graduated from the academy 2248, after the Earth-Minbari war. His first assignment was as a lieutenant aboard the EAS Thetis serving as a tactical officer. Promotion to Lieutenant Commander after an excellent service record in 2252, now serving as first officer aboard the Thetis. After his actions under pressure during the Antares incident, he was promoted to Commander and due to the events became a good friend with Lieutenant Commander Cheng, the Starfury squadron leader of the Thetis. Commander Evans received yet another promotion in 2257, now being one of the youngest starship captains commanding an Omega class destroyer. The young Captain was assigned to command the EAS Odysseus battlegroup conducting anti-raider operations in the Orion system under the command of General Hewitt.
[IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/cheng.jpg[/IMG] [COLOR=royalblue]Lieutenant Commander Cheng Jia Li[/COLOR]
The squadron leader of ODFA-2122 "Alpha" Starfury squadron. Enjoying a long career in the EarthForce she has seen a lot of combat, mainly with the raiders that have been active all the way since the Minbari war. The Lt.Cmdr. is a skilled squadron leader and has earned the respect of her pilots and her superiors. Showing her skills and determination in the Antares incident she saved the lives of her squadron's pilots and by her part saved the EAS Thetis from destruction. Now serving under Captain Evans she is one of the best friends of the Captain, and has been ever since the incident.
[IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/hayden.jpg[/IMG] [COLOR=royalblue]Captain William Hayden[/COLOR]
The Captain of the EAS Lancelot. Being the man with a family he is known to be a man of no hasty decisions. Of the three Captains he is know to be the man of priciple - once he has made up his mind, he sticks to his decision no matter what. Being a veteran of the Earth-Minbari war he can be trusted to carry out his orders to the bitter end. However he's as a warm and a social man and has become a friend of John in a short time, despite the difference between their ages and career advancements.
[COLOR=royalblue]Commander Ewa Jasinski[/COLOR]
The Commander of the EAS Callisto. Being an intelligence officer she has been assigned to command the Callisto. Her commanding skills and experience do not match the other two Captains but she is an expert in intelligence and reconnaissance and her skills along with her ship are often the eyes and the ears of the battlegroup. Being an intelligence officer, the true nature of her is somewhat unclear to the others as she tends to keep everything beside her job to herself.
[b]Details of missions[/b]
I've taken the liberty to start planning missions and this is what I have come up with so far:
[COLOR=burlywood]1. Orion Patrol[/COLOR]
EAS Odysseus jumps in, near the Orion main colony. EAS Callisto and EAS Lancelot are sitting near the space station orbiting the colony. As Odysseus jumps in, it contacts its battlegroup (Lancelot and Callisto) and greets them, telling it's nice to see them again. Odysseus proceeds to the rendezvous point near the space station to receive supplies and regroup with the other two ships. The two ships arrive and an atmospheric shuttle is launched from the planet to deliver supplies to the Odysseus. During all this the characters chat about everything that has happened lately and once the supplies are aboard, the Odysseus/Callisto/Lancelot receive a distress call from a nearby jumpgate and the player is instructed to hit the hyperspace jump button. The button is pressed and all ships jump into hyperspace.
[COLOR=burlywood]2. Distress call[/COLOR]
The raiders have attacked two transports. The Odysseus battlegroup jump into the scene and see what's going on. Fighters are launched (or suggested to be launched) and the battlegroup moves in to defend the transports. Once the ships get close enough, one transport and the raider mothership recalls its fighters and jumps out, leaving the other cargo ship behind. The player is left to wonder where the raiders took the transport.
[COLOR=burlywood]3. Search and rescue[/COLOR]
All EA ships in the system are informed of the incident in an attempt to locate the missing cargo transport. The Odysseus receives a message reporting a ship wreckage in a nearby sector. The battlegroup is once again divided to enable a larger search area and the Odysseus is called to inspect a suspected wreckage in a nearby sector. The Odysseus find the wreckage and also the raiders, a mothership with a full complement of fighters. The mothership sends out its fighters to delay the Odysseus and jumps out, leaving the looted transport wreckage behind.
[COLOR=burlywood]4. Reassignment[/COLOR]
The Odysseus is contacted by a general and ordered back to Earth space to be refitted. The Odysseus along with its support ships enters Earth-Moon space and sees a fleet of ships being refitted on the Moon space docks. Joking with his intelligence officer Jasinski, he asks him to listen all active military frequencies. Jasinski agrees and the Captain hears a lof of chatter about special missions, orders and he picks up some very disturbed comments about what's going on. The Captain is interrupted by the general with a private message.
[COLOR=burlywood]Cutscene[/COLOR] - what the Captain thought about the message and the orders he was given, shows the fleet setting off to a classified operation authorized by President Clark himself. The Odysseus is alone again. The ships in the battlegroup were redirected back to the Orion system. Intelligence officer Jasinski was especially interested in what was going on but was denied all access to the operation. She remains interested and tries to find out just what this operation is all about (showing her ship breaking off from formation and jumping out from a jumpgate).
[COLOR=burlywood]5. Covert Ops[/COLOR]
The Captain soon finds out what it's all about. The fleet that left Earth space is now under the command of a Captain who's a trustee of Clark. Accusing neighbouring small races of terrorist activities, the mission is to destroy an alien reconnaissance fleet near the borders of EA space. The idea is to give alien races hints that EA is not a power to be trifled with. The fleet sets itself hidden in the shadow of a moon and strikes as the alien fleet appears. It's a massacre, the ships have no chance to fight back, but they hail all frequencies trying to get their voice heard. EA ships quickly jam all communications. After the fleet is destroyed, the ships regroup and jump into hyperspace. After disappearing, the camera shows a Narn G'Quon class cruiser jumping in only to see ship wreckages.
[COLOR=burlywood]6. Answers[/COLOR]
Cmdr. Jasinski wants to find out what covert ops are going on, so she decides to start digging deeper. She finds some loose ends of arms trade, investigations that have led nowhere / were cancelled. She decides to do some checking on her own and after some exchange of opinions with Captain Hayden, they set off to another sector to investigate the clues.
The Callisto arrives at the scene and begin investigating the area while the Lancelots stands by in hyperspace. The Callisto spots a loading platform and some debris but the area seems quiet. Soon, like struck by incredible luck raider ships jumps in from hyperspace. Pretty soon another ship arrives, a Cotton class tender with EA markings jumps in from hyperspace and meets the raider ships. Shuttles are sent from the tender and they transfer cargo. Not long from that the ships' sensors pick up the Callisto and they break off, the EA ship moving away preparing to jump and the raider ships are moving towards the Callisto with hostile intentions. The tender jumps out and the Callisto lets the ships approach it and then contacts the Lancelot requesting for help. The Lancelot jumps in behind the raider ships and the battle begins. After the battle Jasinski is even more decisive in her efforts to uncover what indeed is going on and in what scale. The Cotton class tender escaped but she intends to find out the identity of the ship and what its orders were.
[COLOR=burlywood]7. Beyond the call of duty[/COLOR]
Like wiping out the alien recon fleet hadn't been enough, the fleet now has orders to destroy a military outpost. The ships jump in and start the attack. It's a massacre once again but this time, the curious Narn cruiser receives the SOS message and arrives at the scene. Suddenly new orders come, the Narn cruiser must not be allowed to escape or send out a message identifying the attackers. The Narns attempt to communicate but no answer is given and all ships target the Narn vessel and unleash hell upon it. The ship must be destroyed or its jump engines disabled and then destroyed before it jumps out.
[i](It turned out that the Earth transport company had made a series of deals with the Narn government, transporting goods and supplies to their worlds. This had alerted President Clark and he had made a plan to stop this activity by hiring the raiders in a strict secrecy to raid the transports. This also explained how the raiders managed to avoid most EA military patrols and the how they picked their targets. The Narns were very curious about what happened to the transports and were set to investigate any SOS messages (and this explains how the Narn cruiser ended up in the middle of the EA covert mission). This all comes out in a discussion between the Captain and a Captain of a Narn cruiser when joining the resistance.)[/i]
[COLOR=burlywood]8. Proof of blood[/COLOR]
Jasinski believes that she has pinpointed the location of the Cotton class tender. Jasinski and Hayden discuss the situation and they decide to follow the lead since it leads back to Orion sector and seems to be their best hope for locating the raiders. Just like earlier the Callisto jumps in alone hoping to not show all of their cards at once. By no surprise they find the tender along with a raider battlewagon. As the Callisto is detected the battlewagon launches its fighters and approaches the ship in the hope of destroying it. Being heavily outnumbered Callisto calls in the Lancelot. Knowing what to expect the Lancelot jumps in front of the tender which was attempting to escape. The tender opens fire on the Lancelot and Lancelot returns the favor. Lancelot destroys the tender but soon the raider battlewagon realizes that it's cornered and manages to jump out. They got close but not close enough to finish their job and they are once again left wondering how to locate the raider mothership now.
[COLOR=burlywood]Short Cutscene[/COLOR] - The task force is dispersed and the Captain is ordered back to Orion sector to join the battlegroup. The Odysseus flies through hyperspace and the Captain speaks to his personal log about the thoughts he has about the last operation. The ship jumps in and immediately the Captain is contacted by Commander Jasinski, who tells him that they've received another distress signal just a minute ago and that they must hurry.
[COLOR=burlywood]9. The Judge, the Jury and the Executioner[/COLOR]
The Odysseus battlegroup jumps in to the battlezone, seeing a transport under attack by raider fighter wings. They soon also spot the mothership (battlewagon) and three frigate class ships. The Captain hails the raider fleet letting them know what they're accused of and lets them either surrender or be destroyed. No reply is received and the frigate class vessels begin closing in towards the battlegroup supported by several fighter wings while the battlewagon starts to retreat. Once the battle has been fought, the battlewagon attempts to jump into hyperspace, but Omega class destroyer EAS Petsamo jumps in just in time to intercept the battlewagon and destroy it before it jumps into hyperspace. The mission ends as Cmdr. Jasinski contacts Capt. Evans and requests for a private, secure channel telling him there's something he should hear (turns on ISN, Persident Clark declares martial law). After that she tells him that it's not all, she has something to tell him... on a secure channel. The raider episode is over.
[COLOR=burlywood]10. Ties and connections[/COLOR]
The battlegroup proceeds to Beta 4 to investigate the connection between EA and Raiders. Jasinski has not told anybody else than Evans and Hayden about the results of her investigations, fearing that the leads might lead higher in the command hierarchy. Trusting her own battlegroup (and knowing the captains' backgrounds) she decided to discuss it with them in private. However what she does not know is the problem Hayden is facing with the Nightwatch. Most of his crew have joined the Nightwatch and he's constantly on the edge, trying to keep these issues hidden from Nightwatch. Jasinski is not sure who's behind the supply operations or why but she has intended to follow the leads. Evans agrees this has to be investigated and wishes to inform the high command but respects Jasinski's wishes of closure, knowing that she probably knows what she's dealing with.
The battlegroup jumps to the scene behind a moon hiding in its shadow. They set their passive sensors to maximum and wait. Their sensors soon pick up a faint contact: a loading/storage platform floating in space. Just as they see it, a Raider ship jumps into the scene. It heads towards the platform. Some seconds/minutes after, a jump point opens and a cargo ship escorted by an Omega class destroyer jump in. Evans wishes to move in, anticipating a raider ambush on the cargo ship but Jasinski asks him to hold quiet. It soon becomes evident that the ships are not hostile towards each other - cargo is ferried from the destroyer to the Raider vessel and the cargo ship moves to formation with the Raider ship. Just as it seems they're preparing to leave the scene, the Odysseys receives and energy spike: they have been spotted. The destroyer begins to jam all frequencies and approaches the battlegroup weapons hot launching its Thunderbolts. The Raider ship assists by sending all her fighters to fight it out. They try to overwhelm the battlegroup with superiority in numbers, targeting crucial devices. Once the destroyer is heavily damaged it and the raider ship attempts to flee with the cargo transport. Survival of the battlegroup is necessary and any ships destroyed is a bonus but not necessary for completing the mission.
[COLOR=burlywood]11. Two Jumps[/COLOR]
Being damaged the battlegroup decides to head back to Orion for repairs. However enroute to Orion they receive a high priority transmission from EA high command, redirecting them to Regula system. They arrive at the scene and notice three other Earth destroyers (EAS Stardust, EAS Moebius, EAS Bradley) sitting nearby. The Captain of the Stardust contacts the Bradley and issues a surrender order and notices in his dialogue that the "reinforcements (Odysseus battlegroup) have arrived, he's now outgunned and outclassed". The Captain of the Bradley replies something like "This has gone too far already. Are you ready to start shooting your own people now? This is insane!". A dialogue with Capt. Evans follows, something like this:
Capt of the Bradley: "The Odysseus? John, is that you?"
Evans: "[Capt of the bradley], good to see you. Mind explaining me what the hell is going on here?"
Capt of the Bradley: "Are you telling me you don't know? Christ, they've kept you out of the loop... Let me explain this to you..."
Stardust: "Captain Evans, what do you think you're doing? I'm in charge here, cut your communications with the Bradley immediately. That's an order!"
Capt of the Bradley: "I'm telling you, do NOT listen to these people. I was there, they didn't care one bit what happened to the people... those bastards, they bombed Mars! Innocent civilians!"
Capt of the Bradley: "Just don't tell me you're with them. Hell, I know you, you can't possibly be with them..."
Evans: "For god sakes, I didn't even know!"
Capt of the Bradley: "That's the real tragedy here... listen, this can not go on. Things have gone straight to hell ever since the martial law was declared!"
Jasinski: "Even more than you know. We've got to get out of here and fast. _Now_ would be a good time..."
Stardust: "Evans, you have disobeyed a direct order! This is your last chance, join the formation now or I will have you court martialed!"
- A short pause -
Evans: "[Capt of the Stardust], due to the recent events I have no trust whatsoever to obey any unconfirmed orders and as of this moment I acknowledge the high command as an unreliable source of confirmation"
- A short pause -
Hayden: "John, get the hell out of here now! It's a trap, it's..."
Evans: "Will, what the hell are you talking about? Will? Respond!"
- The Lancelot becomes hostile, Nightwatch has taken over -
Nightwatch from Lancelot: "Captain, the Lancelot stands with you. Captain Hayden has been relieved from command"
Stardust: "About time there. Any last words Captain Evans?"
Evans: "I've already said it all"
Stardust: "Fine, have it your way then. All batteries target the Bradley..."
Evans: "[Capt of the Bradley], we got to get the hell out of here, now!"
Capt of the Bradley: "I already would have if I could! They fried my jump engines before you showed up, I can't jump!"
Evans: "There's never an easy way out... and by god I won't leave my friends behind!"
The ships open fire on the Bradley and the Odysseus battlegroup. The battle seems possible to win but in a few minutes a jump point opens and three more ships (cruisers, destroyers) join in. The battle seems hopeless now, the Bradley has taken heavy damage when another jump point forms in the sector. EAS Alexander and EAS Sendai jump in to save the day. Captain Hayden and a few of his crew manage to overwhelm the Nightwatch crew members for a while and join the fight, heading to certain death ramming his ship at one of the cruisers that just jumped in. The fighting gets tough but eventually we win, have a conversation with Major Ryan (the Captain of Alexander) explaining a lot of things including the battle that took place on B5 space, and finally we set off for repairs to Babylon 5.
[COLOR=burlywood]Cutscene[/COLOR] - Jumpgate opens and the Odysseus with the Callisto come out. They glide past the camera and as the camera turns towards their tail, Babylon 5 is seen. B5 control greets the Odysseus and gives docking clearance, telling that Captain Sheridan wishes to see him and Jasinski. Here we could insert a short rendered animation of the B5 control room showing people working there and maybe see even Ivanova standing there back to the camera (if we want to be perfectionists :) and the cutscene ends to a scene where we see a shuttle docking with B5.
[COLOR=burlywood]12. The Voice of Resistance[/COLOR]
In the briefing Evans is updated on the situation with Clark, Babylon 5 and its bad supply situation and generally what's going on in EA. B5 has received a report of fighting in Beta 4 rendezvous point on the edge of Earth space where loyalist forces are chasing off ships that are attempting to join the resistance. This time Evans takes orders from himself, deciding to leave B5 space and jump to Quadrant 15 were he expects to catch some resistance ships running from Beta 4. The remnants of the battlegroup jump in to find a battle taking place at a distance. Loyalist ships are engaging resistance ships and they seem outnumbered. The Odysseus with the Callisto join the fight and as the loyalist ships get enough damage, they retreat and jump out to avoid casualties. The escaping ships' Captains are somewhat friends of Evans and they join the player's force. However the fight is not over yet, two more ships are on the run and one of the Captains knows he should jump in any time soon. In seconds the local jumpgate comes to life and two heavily damaged resistance ships arrive with three more loyalist ships closely behind them. If these ships are saved, it's a bonus but they're not necessary to be saved for the mission to be completed.
[COLOR=burlywood]13. Loyalties[/COLOR]
From the information received from the saved ships Evans now knows about a large scale military exercise taking place in the Orion sector. Acknowledging the risks Evans decides to go fishing - the risk is high but if he pulls it out, if his hunch is right this would be a great opportunity to get a lot of ships on our side. On the other hand he might lose it all. Evans with his new companions jumps in the middle of the exercise announcing his alignment, calling all those who would be ready to serve Earth on this hour of need. Not all Captains participating in the exercise agree with Clark's policies, some decide not to react at all and some are right out hostile. The ships soon realize they're in a middle of a live-fire exercise and all hell breaks loose. A massive battle with 35/40% of the ships ready to join the resistance start to fight it out with the loyalist Captains. The reinforced Odysseys battlegroup joins the fight to even the odds and a massive, devastating battle is fought. Many loyalist and resistance ships are destroyed completely and the ones that survive have their thoughts blackened by this tragedy, having to fight their own people, some being friends with each other.
[COLOR=burlywood]14. Information warfare[/COLOR]
The resistance is growing day by day but Clark's propaganda still keeps pushing through the StellarCom. Spreading information is crucial for both sides and until now both sides have had a fierce war of information and misinformation. B5 has now the advantage of broadcasting using the Great Machine to enhance the transmissions. Clark has taken over the comm relays and is relying on them to broadcast long range messages and his own propaganda. Taking out a major hub, one of their central relay stations, would severely disrupt their communications and the ability to broadcast their propaganda. This would buy us some time and create a distraction and chaos among Clark's forces for a short period of time allowing our forces to make a few more distractions and surgical strikes.
Captain Evans with his task force will jump near the central comm station near a mid-range military outpost as a larger force of resistance ships creates a distraction in the adjacent sector hoping that they send in some of the defenders to investigate. Evans will then proceed to destroy the comm relay and get out of the area before he gets overwhelmed by incoming Clark's ships.
[COLOR=burlywood]15. Crossing paths[/COLOR]
The Odysseus task force is in hyperspace returning from the successful mission when they realize they're facing loyalist ships face to face in hyperspace. Ignoring the risks of hyperspace battles the loyalist ships open fire. Evans must survive.
[COLOR=burlywood]16. Liberation of Proxima 3[/COLOR]
...
[b]To do[/b]
::OLD> During the second episode the Captain would continue Jasinski's investigations, leading his battlegroup to AWOL missions. The Captain encounters raiders and establishes a link with raiders and EA high command. He gets investigated and suspected for disloyalty and basically his fate has already been planned. He is sent to deal with a "renegade" EA ship as a last chance to see where his true loyalties lie, followed by the betrayal by Capt. Hayes.
[b]Story made short[/b]
The campaign is based on the EA civil war and president Clark's rule.
In the beginning there are some basic operations, such as escort missions, raider sweeps and distress calls. At some point the ship is ordered to return to Earth space and is refitted with some new weaponry at the Moon base. Clark is preparing for covert operations at the borders of the neighboring races. Scaring off the other races he starts a terrorizing campaign, eliminating patrols, recon parties and outposts, leaving behind subtle hints that EA is not to be taken lightly. The EAS Odysseus of course takes part in these operations. At some point the Commander starts to question the authority and the motives of president Clark. He begins to hear stories about other officers, Clark questioning their loyalty after being reluctant to take his orders. He begins to doubt where his true loyalty lies, is he to take orders from president Clark or the Earth Alliance and wonders if Clark really represents the people of the EA. While under Clark's orders he also gets into a troubling situation where he has to take part in taking down a "renegade" EA ship, whose captain was a well known within the ranks. Soon he hears about the voice of the resistance - he realizes he is not alone. President Clark's authority is being questioned throughout the ranks and he is being hard pressed to keep the military under his control, having to promote some officers that are loyal to him and assigning as many ships under the control of his new Captains as possible. The Commander now knows where his loyalty lies: not for the president but for the people of the Earth Alliance. He is determined to find others and join the resistance but he soon finds out that the Nightwatch within his crew have their
say and the Captain of the Lancelot betrays him after being blackmailed. Like it wasn't hard enough as it is...
The Commander's ship joins up with the resistance and joins Captain Sheridan's fleet to free the EA worlds from Clarks oppression. From here there's no turning back, and tough battles are fought to free Proxima, Vega, Antares and other colonies, Mars and finally Earth.
The End.
[b]The characters[/b]
[COLOR=royalblue]Captain John Evans[/COLOR]
The newly appointed Captain of the EAS Odysseus.
Being one of the best and the brightest, he studied and graduated from the academy 2248, after the Earth-Minbari war. His first assignment was as a lieutenant aboard the EAS Thetis serving as a tactical officer. Promotion to Lieutenant Commander after an excellent service record in 2252, now serving as first officer aboard the Thetis. After his actions under pressure during the Antares incident, he was promoted to Commander and due to the events became a good friend with Lieutenant Commander Cheng, the Starfury squadron leader of the Thetis. Commander Evans received yet another promotion in 2257, now being one of the youngest starship captains commanding an Omega class destroyer. The young Captain was assigned to command the EAS Odysseus battlegroup conducting anti-raider operations in the Orion system under the command of General Hewitt.
[IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/cheng.jpg[/IMG] [COLOR=royalblue]Lieutenant Commander Cheng Jia Li[/COLOR]
The squadron leader of ODFA-2122 "Alpha" Starfury squadron. Enjoying a long career in the EarthForce she has seen a lot of combat, mainly with the raiders that have been active all the way since the Minbari war. The Lt.Cmdr. is a skilled squadron leader and has earned the respect of her pilots and her superiors. Showing her skills and determination in the Antares incident she saved the lives of her squadron's pilots and by her part saved the EAS Thetis from destruction. Now serving under Captain Evans she is one of the best friends of the Captain, and has been ever since the incident.
[IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/hayden.jpg[/IMG] [COLOR=royalblue]Captain William Hayden[/COLOR]
The Captain of the EAS Lancelot. Being the man with a family he is known to be a man of no hasty decisions. Of the three Captains he is know to be the man of priciple - once he has made up his mind, he sticks to his decision no matter what. Being a veteran of the Earth-Minbari war he can be trusted to carry out his orders to the bitter end. However he's as a warm and a social man and has become a friend of John in a short time, despite the difference between their ages and career advancements.
[COLOR=royalblue]Commander Ewa Jasinski[/COLOR]
The Commander of the EAS Callisto. Being an intelligence officer she has been assigned to command the Callisto. Her commanding skills and experience do not match the other two Captains but she is an expert in intelligence and reconnaissance and her skills along with her ship are often the eyes and the ears of the battlegroup. Being an intelligence officer, the true nature of her is somewhat unclear to the others as she tends to keep everything beside her job to herself.
[b]Details of missions[/b]
I've taken the liberty to start planning missions and this is what I have come up with so far:
[COLOR=burlywood]1. Orion Patrol[/COLOR]
EAS Odysseus jumps in, near the Orion main colony. EAS Callisto and EAS Lancelot are sitting near the space station orbiting the colony. As Odysseus jumps in, it contacts its battlegroup (Lancelot and Callisto) and greets them, telling it's nice to see them again. Odysseus proceeds to the rendezvous point near the space station to receive supplies and regroup with the other two ships. The two ships arrive and an atmospheric shuttle is launched from the planet to deliver supplies to the Odysseus. During all this the characters chat about everything that has happened lately and once the supplies are aboard, the Odysseus/Callisto/Lancelot receive a distress call from a nearby jumpgate and the player is instructed to hit the hyperspace jump button. The button is pressed and all ships jump into hyperspace.
[COLOR=burlywood]2. Distress call[/COLOR]
The raiders have attacked two transports. The Odysseus battlegroup jump into the scene and see what's going on. Fighters are launched (or suggested to be launched) and the battlegroup moves in to defend the transports. Once the ships get close enough, one transport and the raider mothership recalls its fighters and jumps out, leaving the other cargo ship behind. The player is left to wonder where the raiders took the transport.
[COLOR=burlywood]3. Search and rescue[/COLOR]
All EA ships in the system are informed of the incident in an attempt to locate the missing cargo transport. The Odysseus receives a message reporting a ship wreckage in a nearby sector. The battlegroup is once again divided to enable a larger search area and the Odysseus is called to inspect a suspected wreckage in a nearby sector. The Odysseus find the wreckage and also the raiders, a mothership with a full complement of fighters. The mothership sends out its fighters to delay the Odysseus and jumps out, leaving the looted transport wreckage behind.
[COLOR=burlywood]4. Reassignment[/COLOR]
The Odysseus is contacted by a general and ordered back to Earth space to be refitted. The Odysseus along with its support ships enters Earth-Moon space and sees a fleet of ships being refitted on the Moon space docks. Joking with his intelligence officer Jasinski, he asks him to listen all active military frequencies. Jasinski agrees and the Captain hears a lof of chatter about special missions, orders and he picks up some very disturbed comments about what's going on. The Captain is interrupted by the general with a private message.
[COLOR=burlywood]Cutscene[/COLOR] - what the Captain thought about the message and the orders he was given, shows the fleet setting off to a classified operation authorized by President Clark himself. The Odysseus is alone again. The ships in the battlegroup were redirected back to the Orion system. Intelligence officer Jasinski was especially interested in what was going on but was denied all access to the operation. She remains interested and tries to find out just what this operation is all about (showing her ship breaking off from formation and jumping out from a jumpgate).
[COLOR=burlywood]5. Covert Ops[/COLOR]
The Captain soon finds out what it's all about. The fleet that left Earth space is now under the command of a Captain who's a trustee of Clark. Accusing neighbouring small races of terrorist activities, the mission is to destroy an alien reconnaissance fleet near the borders of EA space. The idea is to give alien races hints that EA is not a power to be trifled with. The fleet sets itself hidden in the shadow of a moon and strikes as the alien fleet appears. It's a massacre, the ships have no chance to fight back, but they hail all frequencies trying to get their voice heard. EA ships quickly jam all communications. After the fleet is destroyed, the ships regroup and jump into hyperspace. After disappearing, the camera shows a Narn G'Quon class cruiser jumping in only to see ship wreckages.
[COLOR=burlywood]6. Answers[/COLOR]
Cmdr. Jasinski wants to find out what covert ops are going on, so she decides to start digging deeper. She finds some loose ends of arms trade, investigations that have led nowhere / were cancelled. She decides to do some checking on her own and after some exchange of opinions with Captain Hayden, they set off to another sector to investigate the clues.
The Callisto arrives at the scene and begin investigating the area while the Lancelots stands by in hyperspace. The Callisto spots a loading platform and some debris but the area seems quiet. Soon, like struck by incredible luck raider ships jumps in from hyperspace. Pretty soon another ship arrives, a Cotton class tender with EA markings jumps in from hyperspace and meets the raider ships. Shuttles are sent from the tender and they transfer cargo. Not long from that the ships' sensors pick up the Callisto and they break off, the EA ship moving away preparing to jump and the raider ships are moving towards the Callisto with hostile intentions. The tender jumps out and the Callisto lets the ships approach it and then contacts the Lancelot requesting for help. The Lancelot jumps in behind the raider ships and the battle begins. After the battle Jasinski is even more decisive in her efforts to uncover what indeed is going on and in what scale. The Cotton class tender escaped but she intends to find out the identity of the ship and what its orders were.
[COLOR=burlywood]7. Beyond the call of duty[/COLOR]
Like wiping out the alien recon fleet hadn't been enough, the fleet now has orders to destroy a military outpost. The ships jump in and start the attack. It's a massacre once again but this time, the curious Narn cruiser receives the SOS message and arrives at the scene. Suddenly new orders come, the Narn cruiser must not be allowed to escape or send out a message identifying the attackers. The Narns attempt to communicate but no answer is given and all ships target the Narn vessel and unleash hell upon it. The ship must be destroyed or its jump engines disabled and then destroyed before it jumps out.
[i](It turned out that the Earth transport company had made a series of deals with the Narn government, transporting goods and supplies to their worlds. This had alerted President Clark and he had made a plan to stop this activity by hiring the raiders in a strict secrecy to raid the transports. This also explained how the raiders managed to avoid most EA military patrols and the how they picked their targets. The Narns were very curious about what happened to the transports and were set to investigate any SOS messages (and this explains how the Narn cruiser ended up in the middle of the EA covert mission). This all comes out in a discussion between the Captain and a Captain of a Narn cruiser when joining the resistance.)[/i]
[COLOR=burlywood]8. Proof of blood[/COLOR]
Jasinski believes that she has pinpointed the location of the Cotton class tender. Jasinski and Hayden discuss the situation and they decide to follow the lead since it leads back to Orion sector and seems to be their best hope for locating the raiders. Just like earlier the Callisto jumps in alone hoping to not show all of their cards at once. By no surprise they find the tender along with a raider battlewagon. As the Callisto is detected the battlewagon launches its fighters and approaches the ship in the hope of destroying it. Being heavily outnumbered Callisto calls in the Lancelot. Knowing what to expect the Lancelot jumps in front of the tender which was attempting to escape. The tender opens fire on the Lancelot and Lancelot returns the favor. Lancelot destroys the tender but soon the raider battlewagon realizes that it's cornered and manages to jump out. They got close but not close enough to finish their job and they are once again left wondering how to locate the raider mothership now.
[COLOR=burlywood]Short Cutscene[/COLOR] - The task force is dispersed and the Captain is ordered back to Orion sector to join the battlegroup. The Odysseus flies through hyperspace and the Captain speaks to his personal log about the thoughts he has about the last operation. The ship jumps in and immediately the Captain is contacted by Commander Jasinski, who tells him that they've received another distress signal just a minute ago and that they must hurry.
[COLOR=burlywood]9. The Judge, the Jury and the Executioner[/COLOR]
The Odysseus battlegroup jumps in to the battlezone, seeing a transport under attack by raider fighter wings. They soon also spot the mothership (battlewagon) and three frigate class ships. The Captain hails the raider fleet letting them know what they're accused of and lets them either surrender or be destroyed. No reply is received and the frigate class vessels begin closing in towards the battlegroup supported by several fighter wings while the battlewagon starts to retreat. Once the battle has been fought, the battlewagon attempts to jump into hyperspace, but Omega class destroyer EAS Petsamo jumps in just in time to intercept the battlewagon and destroy it before it jumps into hyperspace. The mission ends as Cmdr. Jasinski contacts Capt. Evans and requests for a private, secure channel telling him there's something he should hear (turns on ISN, Persident Clark declares martial law). After that she tells him that it's not all, she has something to tell him... on a secure channel. The raider episode is over.
[COLOR=burlywood]10. Ties and connections[/COLOR]
The battlegroup proceeds to Beta 4 to investigate the connection between EA and Raiders. Jasinski has not told anybody else than Evans and Hayden about the results of her investigations, fearing that the leads might lead higher in the command hierarchy. Trusting her own battlegroup (and knowing the captains' backgrounds) she decided to discuss it with them in private. However what she does not know is the problem Hayden is facing with the Nightwatch. Most of his crew have joined the Nightwatch and he's constantly on the edge, trying to keep these issues hidden from Nightwatch. Jasinski is not sure who's behind the supply operations or why but she has intended to follow the leads. Evans agrees this has to be investigated and wishes to inform the high command but respects Jasinski's wishes of closure, knowing that she probably knows what she's dealing with.
The battlegroup jumps to the scene behind a moon hiding in its shadow. They set their passive sensors to maximum and wait. Their sensors soon pick up a faint contact: a loading/storage platform floating in space. Just as they see it, a Raider ship jumps into the scene. It heads towards the platform. Some seconds/minutes after, a jump point opens and a cargo ship escorted by an Omega class destroyer jump in. Evans wishes to move in, anticipating a raider ambush on the cargo ship but Jasinski asks him to hold quiet. It soon becomes evident that the ships are not hostile towards each other - cargo is ferried from the destroyer to the Raider vessel and the cargo ship moves to formation with the Raider ship. Just as it seems they're preparing to leave the scene, the Odysseys receives and energy spike: they have been spotted. The destroyer begins to jam all frequencies and approaches the battlegroup weapons hot launching its Thunderbolts. The Raider ship assists by sending all her fighters to fight it out. They try to overwhelm the battlegroup with superiority in numbers, targeting crucial devices. Once the destroyer is heavily damaged it and the raider ship attempts to flee with the cargo transport. Survival of the battlegroup is necessary and any ships destroyed is a bonus but not necessary for completing the mission.
[COLOR=burlywood]11. Two Jumps[/COLOR]
Being damaged the battlegroup decides to head back to Orion for repairs. However enroute to Orion they receive a high priority transmission from EA high command, redirecting them to Regula system. They arrive at the scene and notice three other Earth destroyers (EAS Stardust, EAS Moebius, EAS Bradley) sitting nearby. The Captain of the Stardust contacts the Bradley and issues a surrender order and notices in his dialogue that the "reinforcements (Odysseus battlegroup) have arrived, he's now outgunned and outclassed". The Captain of the Bradley replies something like "This has gone too far already. Are you ready to start shooting your own people now? This is insane!". A dialogue with Capt. Evans follows, something like this:
Capt of the Bradley: "The Odysseus? John, is that you?"
Evans: "[Capt of the bradley], good to see you. Mind explaining me what the hell is going on here?"
Capt of the Bradley: "Are you telling me you don't know? Christ, they've kept you out of the loop... Let me explain this to you..."
Stardust: "Captain Evans, what do you think you're doing? I'm in charge here, cut your communications with the Bradley immediately. That's an order!"
Capt of the Bradley: "I'm telling you, do NOT listen to these people. I was there, they didn't care one bit what happened to the people... those bastards, they bombed Mars! Innocent civilians!"
Capt of the Bradley: "Just don't tell me you're with them. Hell, I know you, you can't possibly be with them..."
Evans: "For god sakes, I didn't even know!"
Capt of the Bradley: "That's the real tragedy here... listen, this can not go on. Things have gone straight to hell ever since the martial law was declared!"
Jasinski: "Even more than you know. We've got to get out of here and fast. _Now_ would be a good time..."
Stardust: "Evans, you have disobeyed a direct order! This is your last chance, join the formation now or I will have you court martialed!"
- A short pause -
Evans: "[Capt of the Stardust], due to the recent events I have no trust whatsoever to obey any unconfirmed orders and as of this moment I acknowledge the high command as an unreliable source of confirmation"
- A short pause -
Hayden: "John, get the hell out of here now! It's a trap, it's..."
Evans: "Will, what the hell are you talking about? Will? Respond!"
- The Lancelot becomes hostile, Nightwatch has taken over -
Nightwatch from Lancelot: "Captain, the Lancelot stands with you. Captain Hayden has been relieved from command"
Stardust: "About time there. Any last words Captain Evans?"
Evans: "I've already said it all"
Stardust: "Fine, have it your way then. All batteries target the Bradley..."
Evans: "[Capt of the Bradley], we got to get the hell out of here, now!"
Capt of the Bradley: "I already would have if I could! They fried my jump engines before you showed up, I can't jump!"
Evans: "There's never an easy way out... and by god I won't leave my friends behind!"
The ships open fire on the Bradley and the Odysseus battlegroup. The battle seems possible to win but in a few minutes a jump point opens and three more ships (cruisers, destroyers) join in. The battle seems hopeless now, the Bradley has taken heavy damage when another jump point forms in the sector. EAS Alexander and EAS Sendai jump in to save the day. Captain Hayden and a few of his crew manage to overwhelm the Nightwatch crew members for a while and join the fight, heading to certain death ramming his ship at one of the cruisers that just jumped in. The fighting gets tough but eventually we win, have a conversation with Major Ryan (the Captain of Alexander) explaining a lot of things including the battle that took place on B5 space, and finally we set off for repairs to Babylon 5.
[COLOR=burlywood]Cutscene[/COLOR] - Jumpgate opens and the Odysseus with the Callisto come out. They glide past the camera and as the camera turns towards their tail, Babylon 5 is seen. B5 control greets the Odysseus and gives docking clearance, telling that Captain Sheridan wishes to see him and Jasinski. Here we could insert a short rendered animation of the B5 control room showing people working there and maybe see even Ivanova standing there back to the camera (if we want to be perfectionists :) and the cutscene ends to a scene where we see a shuttle docking with B5.
[COLOR=burlywood]12. The Voice of Resistance[/COLOR]
In the briefing Evans is updated on the situation with Clark, Babylon 5 and its bad supply situation and generally what's going on in EA. B5 has received a report of fighting in Beta 4 rendezvous point on the edge of Earth space where loyalist forces are chasing off ships that are attempting to join the resistance. This time Evans takes orders from himself, deciding to leave B5 space and jump to Quadrant 15 were he expects to catch some resistance ships running from Beta 4. The remnants of the battlegroup jump in to find a battle taking place at a distance. Loyalist ships are engaging resistance ships and they seem outnumbered. The Odysseus with the Callisto join the fight and as the loyalist ships get enough damage, they retreat and jump out to avoid casualties. The escaping ships' Captains are somewhat friends of Evans and they join the player's force. However the fight is not over yet, two more ships are on the run and one of the Captains knows he should jump in any time soon. In seconds the local jumpgate comes to life and two heavily damaged resistance ships arrive with three more loyalist ships closely behind them. If these ships are saved, it's a bonus but they're not necessary to be saved for the mission to be completed.
[COLOR=burlywood]13. Loyalties[/COLOR]
From the information received from the saved ships Evans now knows about a large scale military exercise taking place in the Orion sector. Acknowledging the risks Evans decides to go fishing - the risk is high but if he pulls it out, if his hunch is right this would be a great opportunity to get a lot of ships on our side. On the other hand he might lose it all. Evans with his new companions jumps in the middle of the exercise announcing his alignment, calling all those who would be ready to serve Earth on this hour of need. Not all Captains participating in the exercise agree with Clark's policies, some decide not to react at all and some are right out hostile. The ships soon realize they're in a middle of a live-fire exercise and all hell breaks loose. A massive battle with 35/40% of the ships ready to join the resistance start to fight it out with the loyalist Captains. The reinforced Odysseys battlegroup joins the fight to even the odds and a massive, devastating battle is fought. Many loyalist and resistance ships are destroyed completely and the ones that survive have their thoughts blackened by this tragedy, having to fight their own people, some being friends with each other.
[COLOR=burlywood]14. Information warfare[/COLOR]
The resistance is growing day by day but Clark's propaganda still keeps pushing through the StellarCom. Spreading information is crucial for both sides and until now both sides have had a fierce war of information and misinformation. B5 has now the advantage of broadcasting using the Great Machine to enhance the transmissions. Clark has taken over the comm relays and is relying on them to broadcast long range messages and his own propaganda. Taking out a major hub, one of their central relay stations, would severely disrupt their communications and the ability to broadcast their propaganda. This would buy us some time and create a distraction and chaos among Clark's forces for a short period of time allowing our forces to make a few more distractions and surgical strikes.
Captain Evans with his task force will jump near the central comm station near a mid-range military outpost as a larger force of resistance ships creates a distraction in the adjacent sector hoping that they send in some of the defenders to investigate. Evans will then proceed to destroy the comm relay and get out of the area before he gets overwhelmed by incoming Clark's ships.
[COLOR=burlywood]15. Crossing paths[/COLOR]
The Odysseus task force is in hyperspace returning from the successful mission when they realize they're facing loyalist ships face to face in hyperspace. Ignoring the risks of hyperspace battles the loyalist ships open fire. Evans must survive.
[COLOR=burlywood]16. Liberation of Proxima 3[/COLOR]
...
[b]To do[/b]
::OLD> During the second episode the Captain would continue Jasinski's investigations, leading his battlegroup to AWOL missions. The Captain encounters raiders and establishes a link with raiders and EA high command. He gets investigated and suspected for disloyalty and basically his fate has already been planned. He is sent to deal with a "renegade" EA ship as a last chance to see where his true loyalties lie, followed by the betrayal by Capt. Hayes.
Comments
As for what's next, i'll have to do some thinking.
Perhaps this could be linked with the intelligence officer Cmdr. Jasinski, as he was very curious about Clark's operations. Maybe she found out something...
I want an interesting story with lots of details, so ideas are welcome!
EDIT: Original story updated and changed!
This is what just popped into my mind :)
I'd like to have a go at the 1st mission if it's ok, as a warmup for getting into the bigger ones. I'm making good progress working out the mission scripts but there is still more to learn.
Only other weak point for me may be the dialog since I don't really have a clear idea about the characters personalities or how they interact yet (or at least, how you want them to).
Anywho, I'm really excited about how this is going so far and can't wait to get stuck in and making some missions :D
I was hoping to plan the missions a bit better though, after the rough sketches I've planned to address the details of the missions (namely the main parts, events and how certain things are done). Then again I don't want to totally kill the scripters' creativity so some freedom must be given to them as well. I'll try to balance in between that. Perhaps I can do some thinking today to further outline the missions.
Oh, and although your enthusiasm is appreciated we don't have all the required models yet converted for the mission (ring station, atmospheric shuttle, crew shuttle at least)
Alot of that sorta thing I can do without any actual modding and it saves alot of time if I know more or less exactly how a mission is going to go from the start as the plan makes for a good guide?
1. The mission structure could be more dynamic. This would increase replayability and give the player the feeling that he is actually influencing the game world - this could be as simple as being able to rescue a few of the transports in mission 2 (or, through inaction allowing more transports to be stolen or destroyed). On a more global note, perhaps the change in allegiance could be made more dynamic and work as the player's choice - allow the player several missions to choose his side, altering the structure of these missions depending on when he switches over. If he doesn't change allegiance, maybe have an early alternate "bad" ending or something.
2. You cannot ram other ships. There is a way to simulate it with areaexplosion, but it's really lame.
3. Have you thought about stuff like fleet loadout? Perhaps a player's actions in a mission can influence what sort of equipment is available? For instance, in the Information Warfare mission, when the player is fighting for the resistance, perhaps the resistance is running low on high-tech weapons, and before destroying the comm station, he can send some marines aboard to recover a few shuttles loaded with... something you can later equip?
4. In general, I think some missions could use more complications - too many things tend to go "according to plan" in this layout (though not always) - while this is good sometimes, a few more twists and decisions in each mission might it more interesting. Also, don't get too carried away with large battles - while they may be cool and cinematic, they bog down Nexus and ultimately do not make for the most enjoyable experience. A smaller-scale mission which involves more decision-making and clever strategy may prove better than an all-out slugfest.
5. Longer missions in general would be nice, I think - having something as simple as "jump in and watch the raiders run off with a transport" is incredibly boring - you can have the raiders run off, but why not have some sort of confrontation or problem beforehand? Maybe the raiders are hiding behind an asteroid or something? Maybe the transports went off course, and you need to find them first? Besides telling the story, you have to remember that the player wants to play a game too, and if you can combine the two, the sum will be greater than the parts.
6. This is probably more a matter of my opinion than anything, and you are welcome to disregard this last part completely, but I think it would be advisable to stay as far away as possible from treading on ground already covered in the series, because the moment we reconstruct a battle from a B5 episode, everyone will swamp us with e-mails about how we missed the fact that a certain cruiser was located 50 m off starboard from the Whitestar (or whatever) rather than 55, and if we don't recreate the battle well enough, it will take away from the immersion, because it will destroy some of the illusion of it being set in the B5 universe. I would suggest maybe having the player play an important but peripheral role in such battles, out of sight of the main fighting, but doing something really important (like guarding the nearby gate to intercept any renforcements or something).
7. More of a storyline point, but have you thought of including characters from more nationalities (or at least non-Anglo-Saxon names)? One of the things that was great about B5 was that, unlike other space dramas, it actually made an attempt to realistically represent a wider array of nationalities, ethnicities, and so forth among the human race (Ivanova, Bester, Garibaldi, numerous side characters). Also, having the only major female character play the part of the enigmatic intelligence officer - her relatively exotic name doesn't help - just seems horribly cliche to me (no offence) - it sorta sends the message that women are these scary bizzare creatures that none of the (mostly male) computer game players can ever hope to understand. Maybe we can stick the token woman somewhere else, or add another female character to give some balance to this?
8. Do we have enough voice actors? Especially ones with cool but realistic accents?
Anyway, I hope this helps. I'm not trying to be a harsh critic or anything - in general I like all the twists and turns in the overall story, and how it reflects the original B5 plotline.
Eater.
Hi... I've just recently volunteered to help out with mission and campaign scripting. I've had quite a lot of experience with Nexus mission and campaign code, and this mostly looks good. Anyway, here is my take on this:
1. The mission structure could be more dynamic. This would increase replayability and give the player the feeling that he is actually influencing the game world - this could be as simple as being able to rescue a few of the transports in mission 2 (or, through inaction allowing more transports to be stolen or destroyed). On a more global note, perhaps the change in allegiance could be made more dynamic and work as the player's choice - allow the player several missions to choose his side, altering the structure of these missions depending on when he switches over. If he doesn't change allegiance, maybe have an early alternate "bad" ending or something.
[/QUOTE]
No problem but this means more work for you. So it's up to you how deep you want to dig ;)
[QUOTE]
2. You cannot ram other ships. There is a way to simulate it with areaexplosion, but it's really lame.
[/QUOTE]
True, but this could be scripted. It's just a detail, it doesn't all need to happen this way. This is not the final plan, this is just a bunch of suggestions. Think it as a some sort of base to work on.
[QUOTE]
3. Have you thought about stuff like fleet loadout? Perhaps a player's actions in a mission can influence what sort of equipment is available? For instance, in the Information Warfare mission, when the player is fighting for the resistance, perhaps the resistance is running low on high-tech weapons, and before destroying the comm station, he can send some marines aboard to recover a few shuttles loaded with... something you can later equip?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, details like you described would be great. As I probably have commented earlier, I'm just trying to think of something and draw some general guidelines to the story, showing the way. When returning to Earth in the beginning, the player gets to re-equip his ship pretty thoroughly with newer weapons. After that some events like you had described could enable refitting new weapons etc. Probably the next larger re-equipping happens when they head to B5 for repairs.
[QUOTE]
4. In general, I think some missions could use more complications - too many things tend to go "according to plan" in this layout (though not always) - while this is good sometimes, a few more twists and decisions in each mission might it more interesting. Also, don't get too carried away with large battles - while they may be cool and cinematic, they bog down Nexus and ultimately do not make for the most enjoyable experience. A smaller-scale mission which involves more decision-making and clever strategy may prove better than an all-out slugfest.
[/QUOTE]
Indeed. Hey, that's why I've tried to recruit people to share their ideas of the story and mission structure. More people, more ideas. Hereby I encourage you to think of some nice twists to the missions. The more the merrier.
About big fights, we don't have many. Bigger fights take place in the last 3rd part/quarter. I figured some bigger battles would be nice to have too.
[QUOTE]
5. Longer missions in general would be nice, I think - having something as simple as "jump in and watch the raiders run off with a transport" is incredibly boring - you can have the raiders run off, but why not have some sort of confrontation or problem beforehand? Maybe the raiders are hiding behind an asteroid or something? Maybe the transports went off course, and you need to find them first? Besides telling the story, you have to remember that the player wants to play a game too, and if you can combine the two, the sum will be greater than the parts.
[/QUOTE]
I just throw you the bone to chew. You do your best to make them more interesting. Post some ideas! :)
[QUOTE]
6. This is probably more a matter of my opinion than anything, and you are welcome to disregard this last part completely, but I think it would be advisable to stay as far away as possible from treading on ground already covered in the series, because the moment we reconstruct a battle from a B5 episode, everyone will swamp us with e-mails about how we missed the fact that a certain cruiser was located 50 m off starboard from the Whitestar (or whatever) rather than 55, and if we don't recreate the battle well enough, it will take away from the immersion, because it will destroy some of the illusion of it being set in the B5 universe. I would suggest maybe having the player play an important but peripheral role in such battles, out of sight of the main fighting, but doing something really important (like guarding the nearby gate to intercept any renforcements or something).
[/QUOTE]
Agreed. I just thought that some historical consistency would be nice. Naturally battle for Earth is already a disaster to even think of. But hey, we're just fans aren't we? Fans make mistakes. If you asked them that would they want that battle to be a part of this game they'd say yes. I'm not saying that we have to have it but that was my initial idea.
[QUOTE]
7. More of a storyline point, but have you thought of including characters from more nationalities (or at least non-Anglo-Saxon names)? One of the things that was great about B5 was that, unlike other space dramas, it actually made an attempt to realistically represent a wider array of nationalities, ethnicities, and so forth among the human race (Ivanova, Bester, Garibaldi, numerous side characters). Also, having the only major female character play the part of the enigmatic intelligence officer - her relatively exotic name doesn't help - just seems horribly cliche to me (no offence) - it sorta sends the message that women are these scary bizzare creatures that none of the (mostly male) computer game players can ever hope to understand. Maybe we can stick the token woman somewhere else, or add another female character to give some balance to this?
[/QUOTE]
LOL, I have nothing against women ;) I just had to figure out some roles and some characters. It just happened to be that I chose a western guy to play Evans, a black guy to play Hayden and a woman to play Jasinski (yes, she's Polish). I never even had even thought of it how you described it... I'm sorry you feel that way :rolleyes:
Nationalities vary. There are still a lot of smaller roles to fill in.
Just like before, if you have ideas let me know.
[QUOTE]
8. Do we have enough voice actors? Especially ones with cool but realistic accents?
Anyway, I hope this helps. I'm not trying to be a harsh critic or anything - in general I like all the twists and turns in the overall story, and how it reflects the original B5 plotline.
[/QUOTE]
We don't have voice actors yet. We can't start to look for suitable actors until we decide who's who and where he/she is from.
Criticism is good and I really need another active guy here who can share his views on the storyline and it's nice that you can comment as a "technical advisor" although I've looked into scripting myself, that's the main thing I've been doing for the mod so I know pretty well what can be done and what can't. However I'm a complete idiot when it comes to campaign scripting, I've never really looked into that stuff so it sure is good to have you aboard.
About the characters - if you thought out Hayden and Evans pretty well already, maybe we could make Thomas Foy a woman (this would also balance out the whole Ewa-as-the-only-enigmatic-woman issue)? Maybe a Japanese woman? I think it's actually a good idea to have the one main character have a "western" name, since most of the players probably will be either British or American, and the rest would be used to playing characters with western names.
For the battle for Earth, if we can do it right, it would be great - I was speaking more in general, that it wouldn't be a good idea to constantly intersect the original storyline (and I'm glad that you seem to agree with me).
For the individual missions... perhaps it would be better to leave all the in-mission details up to the mission scripters? That way they wouldn't get too bored with their work if they can use their imagination a bit here and there - just have the guidelines for the important events, and then they can throw in some side objectives. Or if you really want everything centralized, we could plan it all out in detail, that works too (it would just take quite a bit of time to do it all at once).
Anyway, for the rest of it, I'll throw down some ideas for campaign dynamics and individual missions later (don't have too much time to type all that right now), but in general, you can do a lot with dynamic campaigns, including having certain ships be present or not present in missions, having certain ships have different alignment based on campaign variables, and so forth. I believe it may even be possible to have wholly branching campaigns with different missions depending on the outcome of the last one, but I still need to test to make sure that this works right (let me know if you're interested in this and I'll do the tests).
Eater.
I'd like to leave some freedom to the mission scripters, I don't want it all centralized. Then again if you think of something neat, don't keep it for yourself, tell the rest of us too. Ideas can lead to more ideas and small details could be carried from one mission to another. That's what I love in Nexus campaign system, the ability to keep record of things.
Branching the campaign/missions sounds good. If you screw up something, things just might be a bit harder in the next mission. Nice little details that add to the experience.
[B]Mission 1[/B]
The mission should take place near an EA cargo depot - the depot consists essentially of a cargo dump (a bunch of crates and stuff floating around) with an automated defense grid - any non-EA ship that gets too close is fired at.
While the atmospheric shuttle is on its way, a transport jumps in and doesn't respond to communications. In fear of some sort of undercover attack, you are ordered to fire some warning shots at the transport, at which point it stops. If you do not fire warning shots in time, the transport is destroyed by the defense grid - this takes away the small XP bonus you would otherwise get and makes it harder to rescue some transports in the next mission, because you get to the scene later (raider ships start closer to transports). When you board it, the captain talks about escaping from a raider attack (all his comms equipment was destroyed, so he couldn't pick up your hails). After the shuttle docks and the necessary back-story conversation is played, the captain mentions that a larger convoy was following a few jumps behind him, and that they too probably got ambushed by the same raiders some time after he escaped. If you did not rescue the captain, you are notified a bit later with the distress signal.
[B]Mission 2[/B]
It may be a good idea to split up the player's forces a bit here, since obviously no raider mothership could stand up to three EA ships for long. When you jump in, there is some dialog about some sort of comms jammer in the area, which prevents broadcast communications, esp. with the poorly-equipped civilian ships (your own ships can communicate fine, because EA ships would surely use some sort of sophisticated point-to-point communication which cannot be intercepted or jammer, like lasers or IR). This means that you have to search the asteroid field (or nebula?) which you find yourself in in order to locate the transports. Here, someone would recommend that you split your ships up, and you are given a bunch of nav points - the civilian convoy itself can start in a random location a certain distance away from your fleet, and the raiders start a certain distance away from it and move towards it, using specialized raider fighters to board and capture the transports. One transport starts out much closer to the raiders and is automatically captured a few seconds after you detected, but the rest of the transports can be defended by your fighters and deck guns from the raiders. The longer you take to locate the convoy, the harder it will be to save the transports (which means that splitting up really is a good idea). When the mothership begins to take damage OR all attacking raider fighters are destroyed, the mothership and whatever transports were captured will jump out. At the end, your xp reward will depend on the number of transports you saved, with a severe penalty for any transports destroyed.
[IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/approved.gif[/IMG]
[IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/evans.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/cheng.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/hayden.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://jusas.net/tmp/hewitt.jpg[/IMG] [SIZE=1]Captain Evans[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]LtCmdr Cheng[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]Captain Hayden[/SIZE] [SIZE=1]General Hewitt[/SIZE]
... and more to come ...
However that brings along some problems: several folders have to be kept up-to-date as we now have copies all over the place. I'd suggest we do most of the work in "mod-mode" as it's the only way to use the.... no wait, it's not (duh!) I just realized that I can launch the mission editor directly. Indeed, no problems with the editors so we can go on with the plan. Just ignore this...
Excellent! The mission scripting may begin.