Fate of the Galaxy

Fate of the Galaxy (FotG) is a single and multi-player total conversion using the FreeSpace 2 Open engine set in the Star Wars universe. The game is in development and will be released as a standalone (the game FreeSpace 2 is not required). The game also maintains an active website, forum and Discord Channel.

Developers

chief1983: Project Lead
Brand-X: Senior Artist and Content Moderator
TopAce: Mission Design
swashmebuckle: Music Composer, Writer
zookeeper: Model Conversion, Artist, Scripting
CountBuggula: Webmaster, Communications
niffiwan: Coder
wookieejedi: Mission Design, Scripting, Beta Management
Limbert: Artist, Cockpit Models and Textures

Full list of contributors is present in Credits screen of the game.

Gameplay

Fate of the Galaxy is a space combat simulator game where the player takes the role of a starfighter pilot through a series of missions and campaigns. The game is primarily played through the perspective of single-manned craft. There are no plans currently for control of capital ships, though certain craft also allow for AI gunners. Current missions are set in space, including in asteroid fields and nebulas. A multiplayer mode is also available to play and works well at low pings (~<100 ms). Standalone instances of the game are maintained, which allows players to easily join a server and play with friends.

The player will choose to play as a pilot for the Rebel Alliance (later the New Republic), the Galactic Empire, or as a neutral adventurer. All sides will have their own unique ships to control.

The gameplay will differ from that present in the default FreeSpace 2 universe. Ships will be much faster and combat quicker paced, with a larger focus on avoiding damage rather than absorbing it. Several coding features have been completed to create a new, unique style of combat.

Authenticity

Fate of the Galaxy strives to recreate combat as close to as seen in the Original Trilogy of Star Wars, during scenes such as the Battle of Endor and the Battle of Yavin. To achieve this, the members of the development team have extensively analyzed individual movements and moments within these scenes to determine a baseline for such game concepts as damage, speed, and maneuverability. Each fighter will stay as close as possible to its canonical statistics stated in various sources, but the final authority is the Original Trilogy movies themselves. Thus, many attributes may be contrary to other published materials due to their divergence from the Original Trilogy.

Vehicles

The game will initially include a reasonable number of ships unique to each side, with some designs being shared between factions. Each side's fighters and capital ships will have unique strengths, leading to a different gameplay style for each side.

Alliance to Restore the Republic/New Republic

The X-wing Starfighter, main fighter of the Rebel Alliance

The Alliance to Restore the Republic and New Republic maintain a focus on versatile and durable starfighters and small, fast capital ships. Most of the Rebel fighters are equipped with secondary missile weapons such as concussion missiles and proton torpedoes. Rebel players will, in most cases, be unable to outmaneuver their Imperial counterparts and will rely on their superior durability and weapon complement, as well as teamwork to engage the enemy. Rebel capital ships are smaller than their Imperial counterparts, with each having diverse strengths due to their construction by various manufacturers. Rebel Mon Calamari Cruisers are noted for their incredible shield regeneration rates, while Corellian Corvettes are known for their speed.

The following Rebel/New Republic craft will be included in the first release of the game:

Millennium Falcon

Galactic Empire

The TIE/ln Starfighter, main fighter of the Galactic Empire

The Galactic Empire's main strategy for fighters revolves around the concept of numerical advantage. Imperial TIEs usually lack shields and durability, but have very potent weaponry and great maneuverability to counter this weakness. Most Imperial fighters also forego any sort of missile secondary weapons and focus entirely on their lasers for offensive armament. Imperial capital ships are much larger than those of the Rebels, and focus on heavy offensive weaponry and great hull durability.

The following Imperial craft will be included in the first release of the game:

Neutral

There are multiple factions in the Star Wars galaxy which use many craft that are not produced for the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance. These craft vary in characteristics and are used throughout the galaxy in various roles.

The following Neutral craft will be included in the first release of the game:

Missions and Campaigns

Fate of the Galaxy will come with a high level of single-player content. These include multiple campaigns, standalone missions, and the ability to create missions using the FSO mission editor FRED2. Multiplayer servers are also maintained and available to play on with friends.

The first three campaigns narrate three interconnected stories set at the beginning of the Galactic Civil War. Each of these three campaigns consists of about 5 missions, thus designers put high emphasis on quality mission design and high replayability. The player's performance throughout the campaign will affect how later missions play out. For example, the Alliance campaign will finally pit a ragtag Rebel task force against a dreaded Imperial-class Star Destroyer, and the player's performance throughout the campaign has a major impact on this encounter's difficulty. The best possible outcome is hard to achieve, thus a number of playthroughs will be required.

Players receive different types of training in different campaigns. The Alliance mini-campaign will start with a basic training mission that, aside from teaching the basics to new players, introduces the player to Fate of the Galaxy's unique gameplay features. The Imperial mini-campaign starts with an advanced training.

Standalone missions will also be included in the first release. Many of them will be serious, story-driven missions, but there will also be arcade-like "challenge" missions in which the player must accomplish a wide variety of objectives, such as surviving two minutes within a Strike-class cruiser's firing range. There will also be a Practice Zone mission, where the player can test flying any of the small craft and actively spawn in any craft in the mission as a hostile or friendly to practice combat.

Three additional campaigns are being worked on and will be available when the game is released to the public, but specific details remain under embargo until public launch. This large component is code-named Project Alderaan.

Development

The progression of model work shown on an E-wing Starfighter, from Model (Right) to Normal Maps (Center) and Diffuse Texture (Left). Note that this model will not be used.

Fate of the Galaxy picks up after a number of previous attempts to create a Star Wars mod for FreeSpace. For several years the "Star Wars Conversion Project" was worked on by various teams and developers, but without any releases.

In early 2007, chief1983 took over as project leader, and began to assemble a new team of developers. Choosing the name Fate of the Galaxy, the initial team consisted of chief1983, Brand-X as a modeler and Turambar as a texturer. The initial plan put forward was to use the models and textures that had been completed by previous teams. Soon after the reformation of the mod team, however, it was decided that all new art assets were needed to compete with the high graphical standards of the newer models, and all previously completed ships were discarded.

Work continued on ship models and textures through the next year and a half, as new staff members were added to the development team. In May of 2008, work began on implementing the new ship models into the game and work began on redesigning the feel and pace of the FreeSpace 2 Open engine. Work still continued on the models needed for a campaign and demo release.

In early January of 2009, Brand-X experienced a hard drive failure which destroyed all previous models of his, setting the team's art department back significantly. Since then, work has progressed on recreating these models to even higher quality standards.

On June 4th, 2009, the first in-game screenshot of the X-wing starfighter was made public at the ModDB site and at the official FotG forums. The first three campaigns, which are set at the beginning of the Galactic Civil War, were eventually completed, and worked then moved to standalone missions and three additional campaigns code-named Project Alderaan.

In December of 2018 the team began the first phases of private beta testing. In June of 2022, the private beta tests were stated as nearly concluded.

In May of 2019 the teaser trailer was posted.

Throughout 2020-2022 developmental showcases have consisted of forum updates and gameplay streams on Discord.

In June of 2022, multiplayer was confirmed to be working well and standalone servers were created.

Newsletter

On June 1st, 2008, the mod development team released their first newsletter, giving a brief update on the status of the project and advances made throughout the month. This newsletter can also be found on the official forum.

The newsletters are posted on a quarterly basis on the Fate of the Galaxy Forums. Also, the majority of the unofficial development chatter occurs on the Fate of the Galaxy Discord channel [1].

The most recent newsletter was released in September 2022. This update highlights, among other things, new ship additions and updates to Project Alderaan.

First Release

The first open beta of Fate of the Galaxy was originally planned to be released sometime late-2008 or early 2009. However, with the art setback, the release has been pushed back. A date has not been decided yet, but the initial version will include six campaigns and multiple standalone missions.

Recent years have shown considerable progress on the mod, including a release of a private beta.

In the most recent communications on Discord, co-community manager wookieejedi posted: "We keep getting closer and closer to meeting our final milestones for a public release. Once those goals are met and polished, we will be extremely excited to share the game with everyone." (October 15th, 2022)