Paradigm Shift
Paradigm Shift was an early attempt to create a fan-made conclusion to the FreeSpace storyline. Despite being one of the largest community efforts at the time, the project has since faded into relative obscurity, and is not well-known in the current FreeSpace community. It is sometimes cited as a failed community project.
Contents
Original Vision
The campaign was intended to include a full-scale continuation of the FreeSpace saga, including approximately fifty new models, a full-length campaign of around thirty missions, new effects, interface and source code changes created in league with the early Source Code Project. Project leader IceFire, an extremely prominent member of the community had large past experience, including the release of prior campaigns Derelict and Warzone. Such an ambitious project required a large amount of skilled staff, including modelers, music composers, texture artists, interface artists, sound effects creators and mission designers.
Storyline
The storyline was planned to take place 80 years after the events of FS2, placing it around the year 2450. The GTVA had developed into an enduring, prosperous alliance, with new technologies and a new stage of social enlightenment. Divisions between the Terran and Vasudan species had become a thing of the past. The Shivans were also described as playing a major part in the plot, invading the core systems of Vega, Beta Aquilae and Antares.
Failure
Although a few prominent members did attach themselves to the project, including Aldo and IceFire, the campaign was considered dead not too long after being created (people on the project have pointed out that they never went anywhere with the project). This could be for a number of reasons, including being extremely overambitious, but also because it came at a time when most other community members were already engaged in other projects at the time. It was envisioned that the project would gradually increase as more projects were completed and more members became available, but unfortunately, this did not happen.
Part of Cold Element
Despite the initial failure of the project, a number of teammembers such as Ace and IceFire wrote a rough outline for the campaign that would be the eventual conclusion to their Cold Element campaign series. Work would resume after the release of BlackWater Operations, with PS being set roughly 20-30 years after the events of BWO and a backstory generic enough for both of its branching ends to be considered the prequel for PS. Due to the long stagnation of BWOs development and most of its former staff departing from HLP, any hope to realize the project was dropped and the storydraft posted on HLPs forum in 2012.
Plot Pool
In 2020, Ace revealed further details regarding the setting of PS, along with a number of presumptions towards the Shivans, subspace and their relation. These ideas were not limited to PS or CE, but rather formed a pool from which various campaigns - for example Venoms Over the Top - were fueled in the early years of FS modding.
Legacy
Though the Paradigm Shift campaign was never completed, the work that went into it did not go to waste. Several Paradigm Shift models were released upon the mod's collapse, most of them created by Aldo.
List of ships from Paradigm Shift
Note to Wiki contributors - Any ships with the model naming convention shiptypeP-xx are likely to be from Paradigm Shift.
See also
- Over the Top - A project which faced a similar fate.
