User:Snail

FreeSpace Biography

The Darkness Rising Era

I have been a member of the community since May 2006, though I had been playing FreeSpace for quite a long while before that.

My obsession with FreeSpace started in early 1999, when the new family computer, a Dell, I believe, arrived at our house. Along with the Dell came an old joystick and a small thing called Descent: FreeSpace Darkness Rising. This turned out to be the OEM version of FreeSpace 1, an early demo version with afterburner trails and planet bitmaps (this is all in FreeSpace 1, remember). At first I got bored with it as the initial training missions weren't exactly much fun. However, after skipping all the training missions and playing through the campaign, my mind was absolutely blown.

Unfortunately, Darkness Rising included only one third of the campaign, ending at the capture of the Taranis mission (First Strike). For about two years I obsessively played through the same missions over and over again. I think those days were the best days of my life. I had all the time in the world to do what I loved best, playing FreeSpace. I still believe now, 9 years later, that those first ten missions were the best missions ever created for FreeSpace. They had an unforgettable atmosphere that I still can't place today. Maybe it was those old explosions or sound effects, or that old school lighting. Maybe it was the old, eerie nebulae or that spooky music. Whatever it was, I will never capture that feeling again. Not now.

Eventually in what I believe was 2002 I (sadly) lost some interest in FreeSpace. Playing the same missions over and over again just wasn't that great all of a sudden. It was during this year (I think) that I began to play Halo: Combat Evolved and Sim City 3000 on the PC instead of FreeSpace. Those were dark, horrible times.

The FreeSpace 2 Era

Fortunately, after a year of losing FreeSpace, in 2003 I got a new laptop, it was a Sony VAIO. Some time ago I found some old disks called FreeSpace. Fondly remembering the times of FreeSpace, I randomly decided to look up "FreeSpace" on Google. I was surprised. There was not only a continuation to FreeSpace Darkness Rising, called FreeSpace The Great War, but there was a FreeSpace 2 also. I think I pestered my parents so badly that they couldn't put up with it any more. While on holiday in Singapore, I came home to see my laptop on, and my dad sitting in front of it. I was dumbstruck for a second. I went over to my computer and my dad revealed it all to me: FreeSpace 2 had been installed on my computer! Holy shit!

I think at that moment I screamed and started jumping around the room or something, I don't really remember. My FreeSpace obsession was now more than that. I really can't describe it. For another few more years I played FreeSpace 2 and FreeSpace 1. At the climax of my FreeSpace 2 obsession, I think I could have named all the ships, in order of appearance in the FreeSpace 2 Ship Database. Well single-player ships anyway. Now I could come quite close, but definitely not perfectly. You may think that at the time I would have been a good player of FreeSpace, but I wasn't; I played on either Very Easy or Easy. Despite FreeSpace 2 being better in all respects to FreeSpace 1, it still couldn't give me the same feeling I got while playing Act I of Darkness Rising. I don't know why.

Era of New Campaigns

After exhausting my love for FreeSpace by playing the entire main campaign upwards of 20 times, I again got bored with playing FreeSpace over and over. So again, I searched the web. Exactly what I searched for, I do not know. The first website I found was Tech FreeSpace, connected to FreeSpace Watch. I frequently checked the FreeSpace Watch sites and all their hosted sites quite a lot for a long time. After I had realized I had dicked around a website that would never be updated for long enough, I searched again. The second website I found was Sector Game. After following a string of links, I found something called BlackWater Operations. I'm not sure which links I followed, but eventually I came across the campaign known as Derelict.

I played it.

There were no words to explain my complete surprise after finishing it (in one weekend I think). The mind blowing madness of its mind blowing mind blowingnyness was mind blowing. I didn't play Derelict over and over again. My mind aimed higher. I had to get more. More, I say.

I don't know the exact series of events, but soon after that, I downloaded Inferno Release 1 and played that too. "WOW SO MANY NEW SHIPS!" Inferno Release 1 frightened me and made my mind reel with possibilities. It was at this point in time (early to mid 2005) that I inevitably considered FreeSpace 3. So I looked FreeSpace 3 up on Google at some point. The link brought me to 'The FreeSpace Oracle,' more commonly known as 'Karajorma's FAQ.' After reading the whole section about FreeSpace 3, as well as the rest of the site (minus the modding and FREDding bits) a few times, I somehow was brought to the old Hard Light Productions site in late 2005.

For a long while I didn't sign up, and simply checked the Inferno sites of all the projects as well as their forums over and over again (obviously, being Hard Light Productions, the websites were never updated). After playing a few more mods (including, but not limited to: FreeSpace Port Silent Threat, Deep Blood, Sol: A History) I got bored and returned to Volition Watch.

The Modding Era

After a bit more dicking around FreeSpace Watch, I downloaded several modding tools and started making a mod of my own. Having delusions of grandeur, I downloaded everything on Volition Watch and Sector Game to make a big ass mod like Inferno. It was called The Third Risen. As you could guess, it died.

For all this while I refused to use the Source Code Project (I couldn't get my mind around it). After biting the bullet in early 2006, I got the Source Code Project working (with much difficulty given my stupidity at the time) and signed up to the Hard Light Productions Forum. Still, I did not post. I lurked.

Eventually, after playing Inferno Release 1 many times, it became my favorite mod (Huge fleets of overpowered juggernauts killing each other. What's not to love?). A month after I signed up, I posted my first thread in the Inferno board. It was called "Inferno SCP Storyline". It was a stupid complaint about the removal of the Inferno mystery race and the so-called 'Great Rebellion' (commonly mistaken for a new HoL). After being Welcome Beamed by Sarafan (who proceeded to burn me for heresy), I did a few random things, posting around the Inferno board, etc.

Then my post ratio went up considerably after I realized that the FreeSpace community was a much better community than the Halo one (I will not expand on that point). Now, I have joined a few projects and spammed the forum up. This is where Snail stands today.

- Snail

Projects

Ancient-Shivan War

Main Article - Ancient-Shivan War (campaign)

Contributions

• FREDding
• Testing
• Writing

The Ancient-Shivan War is the most recent project I've joined. Though my contributions have been minimal currently, I plan to put my FREDding skills to work and expand this amazing mod into a fully-fledged campaign.

Description

The Ancient-Shivan War takes place in the distant past, putting the player in the role of one of the many Ancients as they fight desperately, and ultimately futilely, to save their empire and home from the Shivans. The player will have the opportunity to pilot numerous Ancient ships as he takes part in their struggle for survival.

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Apocalypse III

Contributions

• FREDding
• Tabling
• Testing
• Grammar Checking
• Plot
• Writing

Apocalypse III was among the first of the projects I joined (after Machina Terra). Initially my contributions were merely advice on tabling and planning it out, however as the mod began to stabilize and our goals became clear, I began to do a lot more for the project, going so far as compiling a completely new modpack for the project (the third complete rebuild of the mod). Though I have not yet FREDded very much for the project, in the near future FREDding will begin. Because the other main contributor to the project, Shiv_PL, is Polish, it is necessary that all of the writing in the mod be checked for correct English. Though my English may not be absolutely perfect myself, all that is needed is to get rid of the very obvious language errors. I also help a lot with the testing of the mod and getting rid of the many bugs.

Description

Apocalypse III is set in a completely different universe in which humanity has developed in a very different way from FS2. However, with the appearance of the Shivans, the futures and ideals of the human race are shaken to their core.

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Earth Defense

Contributions

• Secondary Project Lead
• FREDding
• Testing
• Grammar Checking
• Writing
• Plot

Earth Defense is the project that I've committed the most to actually working on. Early on in my involvement, I did very little work for the project, and what I did do was mainly grammar checking or bug-testing missions. However, as the project grew I began to contribute more and more to the project, culminating in a complete re-write of the plot, for which I have earned the title 'Secondary Project Lead' (a title also held by Blowfish).

In addition to that, I contribute additional bug-testing, grammar checking and mission design.

Description

Earth Defense tells an epic story which is intended to end the FreeSpace saga in a climatic and spectacular conclusion.

Though the initial plan was to release multiple smaller campaigns to tell the story, it was eventually decided to create one, longer campaign to conclude the storyline.

It is to be noted that the first demo received critical reviews from most members of the community. This was mostly due to a last minute decision to release the mod on Christmas, before any real testing had been done on the project. Hence, there were multiple bugs and errors, as well as balancing issues, that were not fixed when the first demo was released. Regardless of this, that demo is already rendered redundant as the plot has evolved quite a bit since the initial plan.

Earth Defense will contain multiple unique, high-quality ships and weapons, as well as a compelling plot engineered to end the FreeSpace trilogy. Earth Defense has an very experienced team, including Axem, Shiv, blowfish, GenericCorvette, Hades and many others.

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Machina Terra

Main Article - Machina Terra

Contributions

• FREDding
• Tabling
• Writing

Unfortunately, due to the time of development of Machina Terra, it has virtually degraded into an organizational nightmare, with old stuff mixed in with the brand new. My work for Machina Terra was mainly to get everything sorted out before work continues, including cleaning out the tables and writing out tech descriptions for the project. Other than that, I did a minimal bit of FREDding for the project, but this has gone largely ignored (since there are much better fredders on the project anyway ;)

Description

"He saw a veil of darkness surrounding the entire alliance, as the enemy blackened the stars. He felt the wrath of revenge, the heat of battle and the coldness of death. He saw the blood of his compatriots painting whole worlds red, as streaks of energy crossed the land.

He saw the rest of his life before him, fighting a lost war.

He felt the fear of a whole race."

The Shivan threat is gone again. Years have passed since the supernova, since the cataclysmic battle that took so many of our brothers' and sisters' lives. We prosper again, rebuilding lost cities and regaining lost pride. People remember the horrors of the war against the destroyers, but few are those who truly understand them - few are those still alive who bore witness to the death of a star and countless souls. Fewer still are those aware of the ripples of movement spreading throughout the Alliance, a stirring capable of crippling people's faith and bringing back ghosts from the past. Buried memories will arise and forgotten prejudice will be remembered; fear and destruction will soon become once more the only view on the Terran and Vasudan horizons.

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Teeth of the Tiger

Main Article - Teeth of the Tiger

Contributions

• FREDding

Teeth of the Tiger started off as a small mod based around a few models - But has grown into a much bigger endeavor. I joined the project late in 2008, and after a hiatus began mission-design work on the project.

Description

Shortly after the Capella incident, the prospect of a third Shivan invasion of Terran-Vasudan space looms just over the horizon. Exploration of fringe systems and unexplored Jump Nodes leads to an unexpected encounter with a new species...

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Comments

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Wikipedia	In contemporary speech, the expression "a snail's pace" is often used to describe a slow, inefficient process.