Silent Threat
Silent Threat is an official expansion pack for FreeSpace 1. Its major component is a new campaign documenting the Hades Rebellion, which introduces several new ships and weapons as well as new command briefings. It is also notable in that it includes dozens of fan-created missions. Silent Threat was released on the second of October, 1998.
Contents
Official Description
"As the Great War rages on, you've been commissioned by the GTI (Galactic Terran Intelligence) for special intelligence operations. In a matter of National Security, you've been asked to go behind enemy lines in order to preserve the fragile space treaty. Is the GTI setting you up or are the Shivans spreading their evil rage?"
- Over 40 new missions created by both the developer and fans.
- 2 new playable ships join your squadron of 40 stunningly realistic, richly detailed craft.
- 2 new primary weapons and 2 new secondary weapons are now at your disposal to trash the sky with enemy debris.
- A new enemy capital ship has emerged and is poised to challenge the greatest fighters in space.
- The multiplayer chaos continues with up to 12 players over the Internet."
New Ships and Weapons
Player-Flyable Ships
- GTF Loki - Reconnaisance fighter used by the GTI.
- GTB Zeus - New strike bomber to replace the GTB Athena.
Non Player-Flyable Ships
- GTD Hades - Flagship of the GTI Fleet, developed with technology from the SD Lucifer.
- SB Seraphim - Extremely powerful Shivan bomber.
Weapons
- GTW-43 Leech Cannon - Energy draining primary weapon.
- GTW-51 Shield Breaker - Primary weapon designed solely to defeat shields.
- GTM-86 Cluster Bomb - Second-generation cluster missile.
- GTM-11 EM Pulse - Electronic warfare missile capable of temporarily disabling enemy fighters and bombers.
Campaign/Mission Briefings
- Compiled by Eishtmo, Silent Threat Campaign Briefings
Fan-Created Missions
Over half of the missions included with Silent Threat were created by fans who participated in the Silent Threat Mission Design Contest. The contest was won by The Destiny of Peace in the single player category and Full T-V battle in the multiplayer category. Most of the missions were available as free, downloadable content on Interplay's now-defunct FTP server. In fact, only Deception, Into the Fire, Order of the Eye, and Virginia's Run were exclusive to Silent Threat. A list of the missions chosen for Silent Threat and their respective designers follows:
- Asteroid Onslaught - Danny Craig Defrancis
- Black Knight - Michael M. Solyom
- Crippler - Christopher Douglas Haskett
- Cutting the Supply Line - Peter Drake
- Dead in the Water - Christopher James Bagwell
- Deception - Brian Wheeler
- The Destiny of Peace 1-7 - Justin Mills
- Fortress - Christopher Douglas Haskett
- Full T-V Battle - Jason Attard
- The Great Escape - Adam Rorabaugh
- The GTI Shadow - Justin Raynard
- Hunted - Dan J. Raymond
- Into the Fire - Colin "IceFire" Czerneda
- Loner - Rob Munro
- The Manhattan Project - Justin Mills
- The Master of Illusion - Ryan Glasnapp
- Order of the Eye - Peter Drake
- Powerball Arena - Victor "DrDooM" Shin
- Red Herring - Matt Sparling
- Roadkill - Matt Finnerty
- The Sands of Normandy - Nathan "Dynamo" Hoying
- Shadows - Brad Crawford
- Supplies! Supplies! - Jeff Montgomery
- Surprise - Eser Guven
- Survivors - Colin "IceFire" Czerneda
- Test of Honor - Brad Crawford
- Virginia's Run - Christopher Vann Cox
Other Resources
Since the main Silent Threat campaign received extensive criticism and is viewed as somewhat weak, in both storyline and execution, a fan-created extension of the main campaign was released: Silent Threat: Reborn. The campaign is an attempt to create a campaign without the shortcomings of the official one, namely plotholes and badly-scripted missions. This campaign is already available.
Comments
Much has been said about the campaign's defects. Yes, there is an Orion simply called "GTD" here (and it's furthermore referred to as a "cruiser"). Yes, there are no return to base directives anywhere, and all the targets are stationary and spew out an unlimited number of enemy fighters. Yes, there's not much dialog in the campaign, but there's something wonderful in the way the original ST is done: Playing on a sufficiently low difficulty level, there's nothing you need to worry about. ST requires no precognitive abilities to complete its missions, unlike its fan-made remade: There will be no EMP shockwaves that will render you incapacited because you did not jump out in a window of 5 seconds after killing everything. There will be no 15-minute-long missions that you will likely lose in the 14th minute. It's all about blowing up everything that gets in your way, sometimes while protecting something. These escort missions are just okay: there will be no single Zeus bomber that jumps in 8 kilometers away from you and, in 30 seconds, destroy the superpowerful space station you have been so ardently defending from an overwhelming enemy force. You will score a lot of kills in this campaign, and you may even single-handedly take on cruisers while your wingmen draw away hostile fighters' fire. Yes, the last mission is what it is: garbage, but then again, just play on a relaxing difficulty level, and you won't have a problem. - TopAce 16:15, 4 September 2009 (UTC)
