The Journey to Epsilon Pegasi

General

• Released on: 8th December, 2004
• Website: http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-journey-to-epsilon-pegasi
• Mods included:
  • Nameplate for the GTD Achilles
    
• Number of missions: 10 campaign missions
• Works in: Tested and optimized for the 3.6 release. The second release (v1.1 patch) works in 3.6.9.

Update

On November 2, 2007, The campaign was updated to v1.1. Changes include:

• Most typos are fixed.
• A few dialogs are rewritten, and new messages are added.
• Damage done to "the Boss" in mission 8 will be preserved for missions 9 and 10. (This is a trio of red-alert missions)
• Some missions are rebalanced. Those missions I touched are now harder, except for mission 7, that has become easier.
• A lot of miscellaneous fixes and alterations.

Next Planned Update

The Journey to Epsilon Pegasi is being updated once again. The goal of the next update is to bring JtEP to current SCP standards, to improve gameplay at places, and to make this old campaign more appealing to new audiences.

Some planned changes in particular:

• The first two, no-action, all-dialog missions will be transformed into cutscenes.
• Replacing retail nebulae with Lightspeed ones.
• Mission 4 will be made easier.
• The last three missions will no longer be red-alerts. Instead, the game will use campaign-persistent variables to store information. I haven't received any complaint that the trio of red-alerts didn't work for JtEP, but I know that red-alerts tend to cause oddities, so it's best to remove them if possible.
• Removing as many "filler" waves as possible.
• (possibly) Rename the oddly named Shivan cruisers to bear more serious names.

Estimated date of completion: Sometime in 2011.

Designer's Notes

The campaign followed the "simplicity is good" philosophical itinerary. That's a main reason I used only one mod.

Development

Development

The author has previously released Renegade Resurgence and using the experience he gathered there, he hired grammar and spell checkers before he completed the whole campaign. Thankfully to his diligent grammar checker, the campaign proceeded on schedule and was released in December, 2004.

At the beginning, when the missions where started to be FREDded, there was no plot at all. The ideas came as the missions progressed. I started with the mission that is mission 3 in the campaign, I thought it would be mission 1, but I later added the two preceding mission. The three final missions were started without thinking into any details about the plot, or even the ending. When mission 8 was finished, the plot was finalized.
I didn't want a happy ending, but I could not find a way to make an ending which favored the Shivans. I had to make a compromise with myself and eventually made a happy ending.

It was also typical for the development, that the name of the campaign was only given when work on mission 5 proceeded well. The mission files were simply named as New01.fs2, New02.fs2 and so forth. Mission 10 was finished as New10.fs2, renaming the files only began when the campaign file was being scripted.

The GTD Achilles

I wanted to give a reasonable name for the command ship I used in the campaign. I had seen the movie Troy and was deeply impressed how Achilles was displayed. Fierce, knowing no fear. Renegade Resurgence was in its final phases of development, so I did not have space to add any destroyers named GTD Achilles.

Releasing Renegade, I joined back to work on projects hosted at HLP, but wanted to do something else. So I started making a new campaign and inserted an Orion-class destroyer named GTD Achilles. This ship appears in almost all missions through the campaign as serve as a command ship of yours.

The GTCv Endurance

The task force to be sent to Epsilon Pegasi is not an all-beating fleet. The second most powerful vessel is a Deimos-class corvette designated the Endurance.

The goal of the Endurance was to support the old Orion destroyer with firepower and anti-fighter support. I humorously named the captain of the Endurance as Captain Caterer. It was an intention to change it in the final version, but I omitted to do it.

The GTA Houston

An AWACS ship named the GTA Houston also appeared in the campaign Renegade Resurgence. I took the liberty to use this name once again, Renegade being my work, too. There is no link between this GTA Houston and the one in Renegade Resurgence.

Shivan Ship Names

A large part of the names of the Shivan vessels have a meaning in Hungarian, my mothertongue. The meanings are as follows:
MINOR SPOILER ALERT

• SCv Irigylesremelto: Somebody who is envied because of what he/she has, or has achieved
• SC Felejthetetlen: Cannot be forgotten
• SC Nyakatekert: Rarely used word for "Awkward." Something that can be simpler or clearer
• SC Agykoponyamutet: Skull operation
• SC Hatalomravagyo: Thirsty for power, always wanting to have more influence
• SC Letartoztattak: "They (have) arrested me", can also mean "They arrested him/her"
• SC Idegileglebenult: (Should be written as "Idegileg Lebenult") So nervous that it is considered an illness
• SC Kifogbelezni: "She/he/it will disembrionate me/you"

A Terran cruiser also has a strange name:

• GTC Feledesbemerult: "Sank into forgetting", something that happened so far ago that nobody remembers it, or something that is so minor that no-one remembers it anymore

Misc Notes

Seeing a screenshot, senior HLP member Black Wolf asked why I did not use out the SCP feature called Texture Replacement to display the nameplate on the Achilles. It was already planned to be used, but this suggestion inspired me to do this as soon as possible.

Related Links

Websites

• Campaign profile | ModDB.com

Downloads

• Campaign | FreeSpaceMods.net