La capacità di agire non deve essere solo nelle mani dei politici

Pubblicato il 23 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questo articolo è uscito sul periodico il Lametino lo scorso 17 aprile 2010.

Riprendendo gli ideali di autori liberali, l’MGPP invita la cittadinanza a riflettere sulle responsabilità della classe politica e su quello che i cittadini possono fare per cambiare veramente le cose.

Le elezioni sono un momento molto importante per la società: la popolazione è chiamata a scegliere i propri rappresentanti tra una fitta schiera di candidati. Una volta eletti, almeno in teoria, questi rappresentanti hanno il compito di risolvere i problemi, di bloccare nuovi problemi sul nascere e di sfruttare determinate potenzialità per migliorare la condizione socio-economica generale. Senza la popolazione a mantenerli (sia economicamente che con le preferenze) i politici non sono nulla, eppure nessun cittadino comune è portato a considerarli come dei propri dipendenti, pagati profumatamente per svolgere dei compiti ben definiti. Nella nostra società, il rapporto tra cittadino comune e uomo politico è di pura subordinazione a quest’ultimo… ma è giusto che le cose stiano così? Perché in altri paesi i politici sono costantemente sotto pressione al fine di migliorare la loro rendita mentre qui la situazione lascia molto a desiderare? Senza un controllo deciso e imparziale la politica diventa fine a se stessa e i benefici per la popolazione vengono ridotti ai minimi termini.

La società è caduta diverse volte nell’errore di considerare i partiti di opposizione come dei mezzi ideali per bilanciare la preponderanza di una qualsiasi maggioranza e metterne in evidenza le lacune con assoluta imparzialità: niente di più sbagliato, dato che la storia insegna che i patti (più o meno evidenti e prevedibili) tra fazioni politiche in apparente contrasto sono una costante da tenere continuamente in considerazione. In uno scenario di questo tipo, è umanamente impossibile sperare che la politica si possa controllare da sola.

Le azioni della massima parte dei politici sono a breve termine, ovvero sono volte a garantire delle soluzioni temporanee e caratterizzate dal solito giro di favoritismi di casta e meriti di dubbia validità. Il politico ideale dovrebbe lavorare per il futuro, considerando le conseguenze a medio e lungo termine delle proprie azioni sull’intera società; tuttavia, se non c’è nessuno a vigilare sulle azioni dei politici, la buona volontà iniziale tende ad eclissarsi inesorabilmente e gli unici a pagarne le conseguenze sono i cittadini. Gli stessi cittadini, oltretutto, vedono la loro libertà di scelta andare scemando di fronte alle figure politiche e alla loro presunta capacità di essere in grado di prendere le decisioni migliori per il bene comune. In questo frangente è opportuno citare il “teorema della dispersione della conoscenza” del liberale classico Adam Smith: le figure carismatiche e presumibilmente onniscienti non esistono e una persona che si considera all’altezza di tale ruolo è da ritenersi folle. Il discorso vale, ovviamente, anche per i piccoli gruppi di persone alle quali sono affidate enormi responsabilità – questa affermazione, che all’apparenza potrebbe sembrare antidemocratica e/o sovversiva, risulta valida nella maggior parte dei casi.

In un mondo in cui la classe dirigente non fa nulla o fa molto meno di quello che potrebbe fare è necessario che i cittadini prendano l’iniziativa. Una limitazione considerevole del potere politico, necessaria per spostare l’ago della bilancia verso i cittadini e verso la concretezza, richiederebbe una riforma radicale del sistema attuale. Riforma che, tra l’altro, è impossibile da attuare se si affida ai politici il compito di limitare il loro stesso potere: aspettarsi una cosa del genere da loro è indice di ingenuità. Come si fa, allora, a risolvere il problema? Chi ha pensato ad una rivoluzione sociale più o meno violenta non ha considerato quella che, ai nostri occhi, sembra essere l’alternativa migliore.

Il Movimento Giovanile di Pressione Politica è nato e sta per entrare nel vivo dell’azione proprio per fungere da alternativa. Grazie alla natura apolitica e apartitica, il movimento si pone come un mezzo per mandare avanti iniziative concrete e, cosa ancor più importante, dimostrare che la capacità di fare non è e non deve essere solo nelle mani dei politici: il bene comune non può essere di parte e se il movimento ha come obiettivo l’affermazione di Lamezia è nostra intenzione proseguire per questa strada senza interferenze dall’esterno. Per meritare il proprio appellativo, la classe dirigente lametina deve agire per garantire ai cittadini che la mantengono il migliore futuro che si possa auspicare. Il nostro compito è quello di mettere in evidenza i problemi della nostra città e proporre delle soluzioni che lascino il segno: la politica è un mezzo per raggiungere i nostri obiettivi.

Francesco D’Amico

Pubblicato in (TLR) Francesco D'Amico, Il Lametino, MGPP, Società | Contrassegnato , , , , | Lascia un commento

Incontro coi candidati: un breve resoconto

Pubblicato il 23 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questo articolo è uscito sul periodico il Lametino lo scorso 20 marzo 2010.

Invitati a rispondere ad una serie di domande, quattro dei cinque candidati alla carica di sindaco hanno partecipato al grande evento organizzato dal Movimento Giovanile di Pressione Politica.

Il 17 Marzo 2010 è stato un giorno importante per Lamezia Terme e per il Movimento Giovanile di Pressione Politica: l’incontro coi candidati alla carica di sindaco della nostra città ha potuto vantare una grande partecipazione popolare e il fatto che il Teatro Umberto era praticamente pieno ne è una prova evidente.

L’evento è iniziato ufficialmente con l’intervento del presidente e fondatore dell’MGPP, Danilo Greco, che ha presentato al pubblico gli obiettivi del movimento, il suo modus operandi nella realtà territoriale lametina e la natura prettamente apolitica e apartitica che lo rende capace di agire con assoluta imparzialità. Subito dopo l’intervento iniziale, sono state introdotte le modalità con le quali di lì a poco si sarebbe svolto l’attesissimo incontro.

Ispirandosi allo stile statunitense dei classici confronti televisivi tra eminenti figure politiche, l’MGPP ha optato per la seguente impostazione: ad un moderatore, scelto tra i componenti del movimento, è stato affidato il compito di porre determinate domande ai candidati presenti. Contrariamente a quanto si può immaginare, le domande non erano affatto “personalizzate”: a tutti i candidati sono state poste le stesse questioni, gli stessi interrogativi e gli stessi limiti di tempo (da 1 a 2 minuti) per poter intervenire. In una sola occasione è stata data a ciascun candidato la possibilità di porre una domanda qualsiasi ad un altro candidato a sua scelta, e con molta probabilità questo è stato il  momento più intenso dell’intero dibattito e sicuramente l’unico frangente in cui l’atmosfera di calma quasi assoluta ha rischiato di venire irrimediabilmente meno.

Il ruolo di moderatore, tra l’altro molto delicato, è stato affidato a Massimo Citino, studente presso il Liceo Classico F. Fiorentino. Volutamente scelto tra i membri minorenni dell’MGPP, Massimo ha saputo gestire al meglio il compito assegnatogli: ponendo le varie domande ai candidati e agendo prontamente in caso di necessità, Massimo ha dato un contributo significativo al successo dell’incontro e ha meritato in tutto e per tutto gli applausi ricevuti.

La capacità organizzativa e la riprovata imparzialità hanno saputo rimediare all’assenza dell’On. Ida D’Ippolito, assenza che ha rischiato di compromettere la buona riuscita dell’evento. I membri dell’MGPP presenti all’incontro hanno espresso una chiara e forte soddisfazione, confidando nel fatto che gli sforzi organizzativi sono serviti per dimostrare all’intera città la voglia di concretezza che alimenta il Movimento Giovanile di Pressione Politica sin dalla nascita.

Non sono mancati i momenti in cui gli invitati hanno portato avanti attacchi politici di varia entità, ma l’atmosfera di assoluto rispetto e volontà di cooperare per la buona riuscita dell’evento ha prevalso sulle rivalità politiche di ogni genere. Come prevedibile, tra il pubblico c’è stato chi ha approfittato della calma proverbiale che ha permeato l’incontro per alzare la voce e fare degli interventi più o meno fuori luogo che, nella maggior parte dei casi, sono stati ignorati sia dal pubblico che dai candidati presenti.  Degno di nota è il fatto che, nel corso del dibattito, l’On. Ida D’Ippolito (che, ricordiamo, non ha partecipato all’evento) non è stata oggetto di particolari attacchi politici e/o personali e questo conferma con chiarezza che l’evento è stato caratterizzato da un profondo rispetto nei confronti del candidato assente.

Poco dopo la conclusione del dibattito, il presidente dell’MGPP ha rinnovato gli inviti al concerto, organizzato dal movimento stesso e destinato a coinvolgere diverse band locali, che si terrà la sera del 20 Marzo sul corso Numistrano.

Francesco D’Amico

Pubblicato in (TLR) Francesco D'Amico, Il Lametino, MGPP, Società | Contrassegnato , , , , , , , | Lascia un commento

Terme di Caronte, queste sconosciute

Pubblicato il 22 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questo articolo è uscito sul periodico il Lametino, diviso in due parti, il 20 marzo e il 3 aprile 2010. Leggi anche la seconda parte, uscita sul medesimo giornale il 30 settembre 2017.

Note già dai tempi dei Romani, le terme di Caronte si collocano in un contesto geologico particolare che riguarda tutti i lametini. Quella della piana di Lamezia Terme è una particolare struttura geologica che prende il nome di “graben“: è caratterizzata dalla presenza di una faglia imponente (che attraversa i centri abitati di Nicastro e Sambiase, per poi raggiungere la costa), di varie faglie minori e di una zona depressa (la piana di Sant’Eufemia). La faglia più grande non deve essere sottovalutata: nel 1638 ha provocato un terremoto devastante che ha segnato profondamente la piana e che, purtroppo, è finito nel dimenticatoio quando avrebbe dovuto servire da monito per l’edilizia che non rispetta le norme antisismiche. In altre occasioni avremo modo di discutere ampiamente tutto quello che (non) è stato fatto per sensibilizzare la coscienza dei lametini su questo problema.

La faglia di Lamezia, anche se pericolosa e apparentemente inutile, è responsabile della presenza delle terme: evitando di cadere nell’errore di abbondare nell’uso termini scientifici, in questo articolo verranno esposte le caratteristiche più salienti della realtà geologica della zona dando una particolare importanza a tutto quello che la classe dirigente non ha fatto per le terme.

Andando in profondità, la temperatura aumenta di un particolare valore noto come “gradiente geotermico”. Il gradiente ha un valore minimo di 5-6°C al km e uno massimo di 70°C al km circa in prossimità dei corpi magmatici. A causa della deriva dei continenti e dei vari scontri tra placche, il gradiente geotermico nella nostra zona è abbastanza rilevante. La faglia e le strutture da essa derivate permettono alle acque di andare in profondità, aumentando sensibilmente la loro temperatura: durante il processo di risalita, le acque portano dal sottosuolo vari elementi aggiuntivi. Caratteristica, per esempio, è l’abbondante presenza di zolfo che spiega il classico odore di uova marce. Altro elemento presente, seppur in quantità decisamente più basse, è il pericolosissimo arsenico. Le sorgenti degne di nota per le loro caratteristiche chimiche sono tre: Caronte 1, Caronte 2 e Sant’Elia. La sorgente di S.Elia è una sorgente fredda (la temperatura delle acque si aggira intorno ai 23°C circa, 15-16°C in meno rispetto alle sorgenti Caronte 1&2) e con una composizione chimica leggermente diversa. Il ruolo di questa terza sorgente, sconosciuta ai più, è sempre stato quello di fornire dati preziosi sulla natura delle Terme Caronte.  Fatta eccezione per la sorgente S.Elia, la quale è nota agli studiosi per la sua omogeneità, i valori di temperatura e salinità delle sorgenti sono diminuiti negli ultimi anni e questo fenomeno è stato interpretato come la conseguenza di un maggiore apporto di acque superficiali nell’acquifero delle terme.

Il monitoraggio di temperatura, composizione chimica e flusso è stato poco costante nel tempo e questo denota un interesse limitato nei confronti delle terme. La sorgente S.Elia è stata ampiamente trascurata in molte occasioni: anche se, come già detto, si tratta di una sorgente fredda, il suo ruolo nella raccolta di dati di una certa rilevanza è fuori discussione. Come se non bastasse, gli studi geologici che hanno interessato l’area sembrano limitati alle rocce in affioramento (molte delle quali hanno un’età superiore ai 200 milioni di anni) e non c’è mai stato il trend di andare oltre per scoprire e capire di più. La mancanza di dati certi su quello che avviene in profondità è dimostrata da un modesto numero di teorie volte a spiegare, tra le altre cose, l’assenza di alcuni elementi chimici anziché di altri. Insomma, ad una situazione particolare è stata riservata un’attenzione convenzionale e i risultati sono alla portata di tutti.

La mancanza di studi approfonditi sulle terme è a dir poco scandalosa: ci sono dati preziosi sulla composizione chimica e sulla temperatura delle acque superficiali, certo, ma mancano gli elementi necessari per mettere in evidenza le potenzialità delle terme e dare una risposta definitiva a vari interrogativi. E’ possibile creare una o più centrali geotermiche di enorme prestigio, capaci di garantire alla città una certa indipendenza dal punto di vista energetico? E’ possibile scoprire nuove sorgenti e/o sfruttare al meglio quelle note, offrendo la possibilità di creare un complesso turistico di rilevanza internazionale capace di attirare l’enorme flusso di turisti stranieri che arrivano in Calabria durante il periodo estivo?

Tanto per fare un esempio, sarebbe molto interessante attirare il flusso di turisti tedeschi che di Lamezia conoscono solo l’aeroporto internazionale (sappiamo tutti che Lamezia non è una meta, è solo un mezzo per raggiungere una meta) e preferiscono stare nei villaggi turistici di Pizzo Calabro e dintorni. Ancor più interessante sarebbe mettere in atto progetti sperimentali per la creazione delle centrali geotermiche, progetti tali da avere una rilevanza internazionale; in questo secondo caso, tuttavia, è sempre meglio rimanere con i piedi per terra per evitare troppe aspettative.

Perché siamo qui a lamentarci dell’assenza di queste analisi approfondite e a fantasticare sulle potenzialità delle terme? Non era nell’interesse di tutti i politici lametini scoprire quali fossero le reali potenzialità dell’area in questione e reagire di conseguenza, dando una dimostrazione magistrale di interesse nei confronti del nostro territorio a tutta la popolazione? C’erano tanti motivi per far sfociare l’interesse di chi ama la propria terra nella pianificazione di uno studio approfondito sul sottosuolo, primo tra tutti la voglia di dare alla neonata Lamezia Terme un impulso tale da potersi imporre nel contesto regionale e, forse, anche in quello nazionale. Come prevedibile, non è successo nulla e siamo caduti nel ridicolo: non protestiamo per la mancata costruzione di una data infrastruttura, protestiamo per il fatto che non sappiamo neanche se quella struttura si può costruire o no.

Fino ad ora, le terme di Caronte sono state “sfruttate” a pieno titolo solo per alimentare la lista di false promesse che i cittadini di Lamezia sono costretti a sentire passivamente durante le campagne elettorali: si parla di creare questa o quella cosa ma mai di capire cosa si può fare. Il risultato? Illusione assoluta e mancanza di certezze. Ci sono tanti altri motivi per i quali i lametini si dovrebbero vergognare della rendita della classe politica del passato, ma non essendo questa la sede più appropriata per affrontare il tema le dovute conclusioni sono lasciate al lettore.

Per fortuna, esiste un modo per rispondere con decisione a tutti questi anni di promesse inconclusive: il dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell’Università della Calabria è interessato ad iniziare gli studi di cui le terme hanno così tanto bisogno e l’unico “ostacolo” burocratico è costituito dalla mancanza di fondi regionali (problema che si potrebbe risolvere a breve). Considerando la collocazione temporale della nascita del nostro movimento (avvenuta poco prima dell’inizio della campagna elettorale), della nascita del progetto terme del nostro movimento (ancora più recente) e considerando anche il fatto che sarà necessario un confronto con l’amministrazione regionale per al’attuazione del progetto, nei tempi a nostra disposizione non è stato possibile organizzare un incontro tra il sindaco della nostra città e i docenti dell’UNICAL che sono interessati allo studio. Il Movimento Giovanile di Pressione Politica si impegna ad organizzare questo incontro nel periodo post-elettorale come prima iniziativa da proporre al sindaco, confidando nella possibilità di ottenere risultati concreti e immediati.

Sarà anche un modo per verificare la lealtà della classe dirigente alla “causa” lametina: un sindaco che non si impegna per mettere in evidenza le potenzialità della sua stessa terra e sfruttarle nel migliore dei modi non merita quell’appellativo. Staremo tutti a vedere se sarà necessaria una vera e propria pressione politica o se il MGPP riuscirà a far scattare una reazione a catena che porterà alla rivalutazione del nostro territorio.

Francesco D’Amico
Studente di Scienze Geologiche – Università della Calabria

Pubblicato in (TLR) Francesco D'Amico, Il Lametino, MGPP, Scienza e Ricerca | Contrassegnato , , , , , , , , , | 2 commenti

Stormkeeper interviews Admiral Aken Mobius!

Pubblicato il 22 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questa è un’intervista in inglese pubblicata su HLP l’8 dicembre 2008 / This is an interview in English posted on HLP on September 8th 2008

Stormkeeper: First off, tell us a little ‘bout yourself. 

Mobius: Well, my name’s Francesco D’Amico and I live near a town called Lamezia Terme, in southern Italy. I’m a University newbie, too.

Stormkeeper: When did you first join HLP?

Mobius: It happened in May 10th, 2006. I used to visit HLP since late 2005 thanks to Karajorma’s FreeSpace FAQ, which led me to the most important FS fanbase. I really love FREDding. I’ve been FREDding a lot for two years and a half but, sadly, none of the missions I’ve worked on has been released yet. I was like many other FREDders – I started with a big project and lost interest due to lack of additional ideas and skills. Useless to say, however, that my first 30-40 FRED attempts turned out to be a nice way to improve my skills. I’m currently working on the remake of Inferno: Alliance, a campaign released in late 2006. I’m also working on Neo Terra Victorious, whose old demo is very well known. I’m also part of the Earth Defense team but my lack of spare time led me to become a FRED advisor and idea guy for ED. I hope to have more time for that project in the future, because it’s very promising. The other projects I used to work on, like Steadfast, are currently on hold. Steadfast, for example, is without any doubt the first cutscened campaign in development. By cutscened I mean a campaign in which every single mission has take-off, landing, and important-events-related in-mission cutscenes. I hope it’ll be released in the future.

Stormkeeper: The first team you joined was the Inferno team correct?

Mobius: If you’re referring to the first team with certain importance within the community I’d say yes. If you were generalizing, I’d say no – the Steadfast team was the first one I joined. Steadfast focused my attention on Inferno and, in fact, I was a pretty active poster in the main Inferno forum. My interest attacked Woomeister’s attention, who decided to hire me and a few other people as testers for the first release of INFA. I became a full member of INFASA in early 2007.

Stormkeeper: So the first team you joined was Steadfast?

Mobius: Yeah.

Stormkeeper: What was it like, working on the Steadfast campaign?

Mobius: Thanks to it I realized how wonderful FREDding is. Dysko wasn’t incorrect when he claimed that I FREDded 99% of Steadfast missions. I’ve also learned a lot about table editing and other aspects of FS modding from it. Unfortunately, however, the project was put on hold due to the lack of dedicated team members (without considering me) and free time. Since it is an INF campaign with many mods to the main INF pack I hope to work on it after the release of INF SCP.

Stormkeeper: So from there you began working on INF? 

Mobius: Thanks to Steadfast I became an Inferno fanboy. As I said, I’ve been working as FREDder since early 2007 and the fact that INFASA is nearly done makes me proud of my work. I’ll soon start working on the other INF campaigns, INFA2 and INF SCP, and hope to turn them into enjoyable campaigns. Inferno R1 and INFA lacked characterization and high-level FREDding – many community members oftentimes claim that, for example, S:AH is much better than the old INFA. My job is to turn INF campaigns into pure campaigns and not only add-ons to a modpack. So far I think I’m performing that task in a nice way.

Stormkeeper: So how, what and why did you choose to take up Neo Terra Victorious? 

Mobius: It happened by chance, when I decided to post a thread in the resurrected NTV forum about what, in my opinion, decent plans for an NTF-based campaign should have been like. I played campaigns like Neo Terra and Utopia which, in my opinion, aren’t plausible enough to tell a story about a rebellion that succeeds and achieves its objectives. Soon afterwards my post, Galemp contacted me. In the following discussion I decided to join the team. That’s what led to the current situation.

Stormkeeper: So that led you to take up the reins of NTV?

Mobius: Exactly. To be honest, NTF campaigns have always attracted my attention…among all “What If…?” ones they probably are, in my opinion, the most interesting ones. As I said a while ago on HLP there are many cool campaigns that feature the classic rebellion with the classic leader that, amazingly, musters a fearsome fleet and possesses incredible technologies and information. In NTV you’re going to see a normal rebellion that deals with the lack of equipment and experienced personnel. You’ll get that feeling since the very first mission.

Stormkeeper: And that attracted you greatly?

Mobius: Yeah. Obviously, my comment is not meant to offend other popular campaigns and their designers. What I say is that there are many differences between canon factions and non canon ones when it comes to plausible plotlines – unlike in PI, you can’t expect the NTF to have a superdestroyer or anything else that is without any doubt too implausible.

Stormkeeper: So the NTV tries to capture the very real difficulties that rebellions will face? Like, shortage of supplies and equipment, personnel and all that?

Mobius: Yes, but in a certain way. Although we’re aware of the fact that the NTF doesn’t have enough resources to defeat the GTVA we should also think about the fact that the NTF is the most important authority of three systems – Regulus, Polaris and Sirius – whose importance and capabilities might exceed those of most GTVA systems. Under this circumstance, the NTF will not be “poor” – let’s say that its resources will be divided among its forces. For example, don’t expect rookies to fly the same spacecraft used by regular GTVA pilots who defected to the NTF…at least not at the beginning of their career. The characters will focus the player’s attention on the Lost Generation and its expectations – the heads of young pilots are filled with ideals that change immediately as soon as they join the fight and face GTVA units. The “Dream of Neo Terra” will quickly vanish and Neo-Terrans will suspect that there’s something else behind the rebellion – someone might even accuse Bosch. As we all know, the ideals of Neo Terra are pretty far from Bosch’s true intentions and purposes.

Stormkeeper: So will the dialogue attempt to reflect the hatred of Vasudans? 

Mobius: Neo Terrans aren’t all the same. They’re humans, like us, and might be victim of prejudices and stereotypes. For example, it’s very hard to believe to someone who always claims that “Americans are all X”, “Italians are all Y”, “The British are all Z”, etc. etc. Not everyone is supposed to share the feelings of the people s/he lives with. As direct consequence, there are many Neo Terrans who don’t hate the Vasudans. The same principle is applied to any other ideal of Neo Terra. Characters will, in fact, be as much various as possible.

Stormkeeper: So you won’t have a bunch of racist buggers? Because FS2 always gave me the impression that the NTF were united by their Vasudan hatred.

Mobius: I think mine is the most appropriate choice. Many NTF pilots are young people who believe to the ideals of Neo Terra and consider the GTVA a terrible faction to defeat. These pilots have their own feelings and personal interests that lead to have different behaviours towards the GTVA. Obviously, hating the Vasudans help – I think most Terran families lost at least one member during the Terran-Vasudan war and the only way to attract the attention of a vast group of individuals is to show anger towards the Vasudans.

Stormkeeper: So what role will the player take?

Mobius: The presence of characters (who, for instance, will not have callsigns) doesn’t imply the fact that the player’s character sends messages or interacts actively in discussions. The player will be a young pilot so his importance within the NTF fleet is very poor. He’s authorized to use only the most basic spacecraft, like the GTF Valkyrie.

Stormkeeper: So he starts at the bottom rung, basically? 

Mobius: More or less. His achievements will eventually turn him into a top notch pilot. He will not be like “Alpha 1”, at least not at the beginning. Things will be very, very balanced during the campaign.

Stormkeeper: No single-handedly taking on the Psamtik and disabling and disarming it? 

Mobius: Exactly. Adversaries like the Psamtik might be too strong for the NTF to face directly…you can give for sure that they’ll hardly get destroyed.

Stormkeeper: So what sort of missions, generally speaking, will the player face? Mostly raids and stuff?

Mobius: Since the campaign’s plot has not been fully decided the team doesn’t know what the campaign will really feature. At least at the beginning the player will take place to missions whose importance is somewhat limited, like escorts of ships of minor importance and rodeos (focusing the attention of the enemy on a certain sector while the main NTF plans involve actions in another sector). You’re also going to see many in-mission cutscenes.

Stormkeeper: Rodeos sound interesting.

Mobius: I think the same thing. Things aren’t easy for the NTF when the player isn’t on the main battlefield. The rebellion will face many losses, many of which can’t be prevented. In a given mission the player may be ordered to move from one sector to another (in-mission cutscenes will mostly feature jump sequences) in desperate attempts to save what can be saved from certain capture or destruction. In any case, jump sequences usually feature the jump of the player and the ships he’s escorting to a new sector. You might, for example, escort NTF transports moving from a given region of Deneb to the atmosphere of Cygnus Prime.

Stormkeeper: So the missions will be ‘chained’? 

Mobius: No, every mission will be as much independent as possible – rather than creating a new mission with a completely different environment (like the atmosphere of a planet) we simply use in-mission cutscenes and many advanced SEXPs to represent the effect.

Stormkeeper: How long will these missions be?

Mobius: The average NTV mission won’t last long. In escort missions, for example, you’re not going to wait something like 10-15 minutes until a ship fully recharges its subspace drives to jump to another sector. In other words, the presence of in-mission cutscenes doesn’t necessarily imply that missions will last 20+ minutes.

Stormkeeper: From what you told me, the tempo of the missions in NTV will be very different from regular FS2 missions, seeing as most FS2 missions have you on the offensive, hitting at the NTF or Shivans. But a rebellion would be on the defensive a lot, wouldn’t it? 

Mobius: Depends on the circumstance, but I can ensure you that missions will not last long enough to discourage players as certain FS and FS2 missions did. In my opinion a mission should, first of all, be enjoyable and possibly have good replay value. About the rebellion – it depends. During Koth’s attack on Epsilon Pegasi, for example, the NTF will be on the offensive. Overall, the rebels will act according to the situation. A rebel fleet cruising a contested system doesn’t spend more than a given amount of time in a sector and is always ready to jump out and spread should GTVA units spot it. The rebels also developed guerrilla-like tactics to take over the GTVA in many environments; I think you’re going to see a very interesting use of the GTF Loki fighter.

Stormkeeper: I’m sure we will.

Mobius: In order to come out with a very nice campaign the team needs more FREDders with good abilities. Thanks to them we might get the job done. A demo featuring the first missions of the main campaign could be released soon. If the team is big and motivated enough we could come out with more than one campaign set during the NTF rebellion. The new NTV continuity starts during the Battle of Deneb but we could eventually create side campaigns set earlier, at the very beginning of the NTF.

Stormkeeper: Interesting. Well, thanks for your time, Mobius. Any last words for our readers?

Mobius: I hope to bring you many enjoyable campaigns, guys.

Pubblicato in Articles in English, Interviste, Videoludica | Contrassegnato , , , , , , , , , , , | Lascia un commento

The Cursed Interview: Ransom Arceihn on his original artwork!

Pubblicato il 22 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questa è un’intervista in inglese pubblicata su HLP il 22 settembre 2009 / This is an interview in English posted on HLP on September 22nd 2009

Mobius:
Ransom Arceihn is the FREDder behind the creation of three popular campaigns: Transcend, Sync and Windmills. He’s a voice actor as well, and whoever played Derelict SCPsurely noticed his great interpretation of Mackie. Ransom, what led you to create Transcend and Sync?

Ransom Arceihn:
Sync came out of a long-held desire of mine to see an expansive,multi-part space opera about time travel. Something that would start small and swell over the course of the story until the consequences were all but impossible to account for.

Transcend is a partial expression of that. But that actually started as a wholly separate project. Originally it was about some mysterious pilot in a nebula who discovers Something Terrible – then it was about said pilot somehow bringing about the collapse of the Terran-Vasudan alliance. While the basic components were there, it wasn’t until I finished Sync that it really took shape. In structure as well as concept.

I was never satisfied with all the exposition in that campaign – jump in, listen to two minutes of dialogue, jump out. I wanted to try for something more light-handed.

I don’t think I quite succeeded, considering the business with Omega, but like the awful repetitive gameplay it was a useful learning experience.

Mobius:
What served as a source of inspiration?

Ransom Arceihn:
In Sync’s case I honestly couldn’t say. The concept’s been fermenting in my head for a long time. I like the sense of the uncontrollable that stories about time travel describe. But I think I can lay the blame for its inception as a FreeSpace campaign at the feet of Blaise Russel’s Homesick. The influence is fairly obvious, I’d say.

Transcend’s easier. The theme in the second-to-last mission is a pretty big clue. Silent Hill’s atmosphere and minimalist storytelling style was probably the main inspiration for the project.

Mobius:
The reference to Silent Hill marks a tendence to add horror-style characteristics to Transcend, right?

Ransom Arceihn:
The atmospheric stuff, yeah. Although funnily enough I never actually thought of the campaign as horror while I was making it.

Mobius:
You worked solo on these campaigns, and also succeeded when many campaign designers failed. The disadvantages of working solo are obvious, but what do you think the advantages are like? How did they influence the development of Transcend and Sync?

Ransom Arceihn:
I guess the main advantage is I don’t have to answer to anyone. There’s nobody to disagree with. Everything’s more or less how I want it to be. There’s also no reliance on anyone else to carry their weight.  Of course, with a functioning team a project can only benefit from having more than one mind working on it. Not to mention the more sensible workload. But like you said, the advantages are obvious.

Honestly, I think to some degree the fact they were solo projects damaged Sync and Transcend. While I was making them I basically had no idea what I was doing – certainly I didn’t have anybody to tell me how terrible an idea it was to have about ten essentially identical missions in a row, as much as you might think that would be common sense.

Mobius:
I see. Had you worked on Transcend and Sync with someone else, what do you think the result would have been like?

Ransom Arceihn:
Well, again, better gameplay, more than likely. But I suppose it would depend on the person. It’s hard to say.

By the same token they might have burnt out without ever seeing release because one of us lost interest or got frustrated with the other team member. And then everything would be completely different!

At the time I felt it was vital to make it all myself. I’ve never felt comfortable asking for staff, because everyone’s already so busy in this community. I’d be taking away from some other project.

Mobius:
That said, what have you learned from your previous experience?

Ransom Arceihn:
Well, with Sync and Transcend I more or less didn’t care about gameplay. I approached it like a nuisance – nothing more than a necessary delivery system for the story. Which is obviously ridiculous.

Both campaigns were big learning experiences for me in terms of storytelling, narrative structure and characterisation, but I think that was the most important realisation I made. That I’m a terrible game designer. I’m trying to rectify that, but I suppose we’ll see how that turns out.

Mobius:
What do you think about character-driven campaigns, in comparison to “conventional” story-driven ones? Transcend and Sync, as far as I know, were the first CDCs (short form of character-driven campaigns I use) to be ever made. What did you feel like when developing two notable campaigns which didn’t follow the classic “jump in, do your job and then jump back to base” style?

Ransom Arceihn:
There wasn’t really any decision process where I decided: this campaign’s going to be character-driven. They were always that kind of story. It’s the form of narrative I find most appealing, so naturally I’m going to gravitate to that.
The bigger picture campaigns that FreeSpace lends itself so well to are really interesting to me, though, because it’s a form of storytelling more or less unique to games. A similar narrative in a movie or novel would be unbelievably dry. But in FreeSpace it works.

It’s not really one or the other, either – campaigns like ST:R, while not character-driven, have plenty of recurring characters and give a very convincing impression of people working behind the scenes. Even the main FS2 campaign had Bosch. I think FreeSpace is at its best when there’s a marriage of the two.

Mobius:
Do you see any weaknesses in character-driven campaigns and their gameplay?

Ransom Arceihn:
Haha, absolutely. The problem with characters is they talk. Often too much. It’s very tempting to fill a firefight with exciting dialogue, but without voice acting that’s a total drag.

And since they tend to focus on a small group of ships, often your mission design options are limited. You get a lot of escort missions. I think FreeSpace is one of the only games in history where escort missions are the norm.

Mobius:
Are you refering to much needed oddities, such as ships having their hull integrity set back to 100% for balance purposes?

Ransom Arceihn:
Oh, definitely, there’s that. And constantly refilling the player’s munitions even when they have nothing to dock with.

Good design can get around that, though.

Mobius:
Well, similar problems also affected the main FreeSpace 2 campaign. Karajorma showed how the number of red alert missions has been severely reduced for balance purposes. Afterall, it’s not that hard to deal with it.

Ransom Arceihn:
I’m not surprised. Having a consistent hull integrity for the player’s ship would make things unplayable pretty fast.

Mobius:
Now, let’s talk about Windmills. The campaign is very original, although I had a similar concept (which didn’t get beyond the planning phase) some 3 years ago. What led you to create it? There aren’t any similar campaigns so far, and FreeSpace RTS is currently WIP.

Ransom Arceihn:
I got the idea for Windmills from a mission I was working on for Project 03. It ended up being scrapped, but at one point the player took on a bit of a voyeuristic role and watched enemy ships from afar.

I thought: man, it would be kind of interesting to have a short campaign where you just watched a battle take place and had no direct control over it. Then I thought: well, hey, I guess you could influence it by ordering ships around.

That’s when the cartoon lightbulb appeared above my head.

Mobius:
lol

Ransom Arceihn:
What made me drop everything and make it immediately was actually the challenge of it. I’d never tried to FRED anything half so complicated. What drove the project was the themes I was trying to explore – I don’t think I could make anything without a story to tell – but I was also excited by the idea of twisting the FSO engine into a shape it wasn’t meant for.

I could almost hear it shrieking in animal rage by the end, there. That last mission was a house of cards.
All kinds of surreal bugs surfaced. At one point any friendly ship that tried to attack the enemy base would warp in, but there would be nothing there. Just deathroll explosions in the shape of a ship.

It’d never actually die, either – just explode invisibly.

Forever.

I asked Goober about it but he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Eventually I had to revert to a backup of the mission. Didn’t happen again, even though I did the same things. Another time – spoilers here – the part with the transport where it flicks back and forth between the simulation and ‘reality’ a couple times. For no good reason I could discern, FSO would crash to desktop on the third flash or so.

Not every time, either! Just when it felt like it.

That event didn’t do anything different from the others, and none of them had caused crashes, but FSO didn’t care. It was like it was giving me the finger. In the end I actually had to remove the event from the mission and do without that flash.

Mobius:
Judging from the stuff you showed in Windmills, I kind of realized that even if it was short that campaign may have been a nightmare to design. I didn’t know about these issues, and the fact that you came out with a polished campaign is a sign of great skills.

Ransom Arceihn:
Haha, thanks.

It was pretty frustrating at times, but I had a great time overall. The whole production was like a giant puzzle – the last mission especially. I loved that sense of problem solving. It’s easily the most rewarding design experience I’ve had.

Mobius:
What do you think of the community’s feedback on your work?

Ransom Arceihn:
The feedback on Sync was pretty much what spurred me onward. The reception was fairly mild, but it was generally positive and I don’t know how I would’ve taken it if the thing had flopped.

The reaction to Transcend was actually a big surprise to me. The campaign was a bit of a gamble – it dealt with supernatural elements in a community mainly concerned with science fiction, the storytelling was unusual for a fan-campaign, and on the whole I didn’t have any idea how the community would react.

I expected maybe a handful of people to like it. So that was a pleasant surprise. But their responses also woke me up to the obnoxious mission design I’d been favouring, among other things, so that was really valuable.

I didn’t have many expectations from Windmills. Like I said in the release post, I couldn’t actually tell if the campaign would be any fun to play, and I certainly wasn’t sure if I’d been successful in conveying the story I’d intended to. That ended up being where most of the division was. People I’d hoped would like the story didn’t, others I hadn’t expected to enjoy it did.

There’s something about FreeSpace that attracts a surprisingly wide variety of tastes, and that makes the feedback this community generates really wholesome. It’s invaluable as a creator to have access to that kind of criticism. So I guess I find the question a little strange – I’m not sure how anyone could feel about it other than grateful.

Mobius:
Are you planning to create another campaign or even a mission based on Windmills’ style?

Ransom Arceihn:
Not planning, no. There were a bunch of mission concepts I never used that would be interesting to try, and I definitely think more could be done with the idea, but I’d prefer to move forward with my other planned campaigns. Anyone else is welcome to go for it, though.

Mobius:
Before talking about your WIP project, it’d be nice to get to know your career as voice actor. As I stated at the very beginning of this interview, Mackie’s voice in Blaise Russel’s upgrade of Derelict was yours. What else have you done as voice actor? Was the Transcendant’s voice 100% yours? I know you may soon have a role in Warzone SCP – if so, would you like to say something about it?

Ransom Arceihn:
The bulk of my other voice acting experience has been within this community, but I’ve had a scattering of roles outside of FreeSpace. Machinimas and flash animations and the like. I’ll be playing a minor part in a radioplay for an NPR station in central Ohio, but I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about that.

The Transcendant was 100% me in as much as I didn’t do any pitch shifting or what have you. Obviously there were effects laid in for distortion and such.

My part in Warzone is Admiral Russik, as I’m sure you know. Most of my previous roles were pilots, so doing an officer is an interesting change of pace. There’s a degree of gravitas demanded by that sort of character that’s still unfamiliar territory for me. He was actually my favourite part of Warzone, too, so there’s a bit of extra pressure there to not screw it up. Of course, whether I succeed remains to be seen.

But the part’s both fun and challenging. There’s no better combination, really.

Mobius:
It’s very nice to see Warzone’s VA going nicely, and I’m sure your files will be a great addition to it.

Now, let’s talk about the partially secret project you have been working on for a while: Project-03. We already know you’re not going to reveal that much about it, but is there anything you would like to say?

Ransom Arceihn:
Not much more than what I’ve already mentioned elsewhere. It’s heavily character-driven, it’s about 36 missions long, and it’s not related to my other campaigns. I’ve made a serious effort with the gameplay and overall structure this time – no filler, no repetitive missions. To the best of my ability, anyway. If I’ve failed there I’m sure the community will call me out on it.

I can tell you that it’s been delayed slightly! Three extra missions were added to the lineup a couple weeks ago. So, um. That’s something.

The campaign’s taken so long primarily because it got two-thirds completed only to be scrapped wholesale and restarted. After finishing the second of three acts I went back to rejig the early missions where the ideas were less set in stone, but every time I looked at the next mission to ‘fix’ I ended up starting it again from scratch. I did this for every mission before I realised none of the original ones were left. That process was finished late last year.

It was the consequence of poor planning. But I’m kind of glad it happened that way, because for all my stumbling around like a blind man it resulted in the campaign I’ve got now. I wouldn’t recommend that method of scriptwriting, though. I certainly won’t be doing things that way again.

Mobius:
Well, I have experience with similar overhauls so I perfectly understand what you’re trying to say.

Without trying to spoil secret content, can you underline the difference between Project-03 and your previous work? You already said gameplay has been taken care of, but what else can we expect? Is the experience going to be similar to that seen in Transcend and Sync? Are you making use of mods? If so, what about them?

Ransom Arceihn:
I don’t want to create too many expectations. Trailers are one thing, but I’m always afraid of pulling a Molyneux and saying something that’ll come back to haunt me. I’d really rather just make the damn thing and let people play it cold.

That said, the difference is focus. Sync’s preoccupation was with mystery; Transcend’s was atmosphere. This campaign is about people. As far as structure goes you can expect something closer to traditional FreeSpace. It’s more militaristic. There’s definitely some tonal similarities in that the story goes to some pretty dark places, but no, it’s not the same kind of campaign.

There’s a few mods in there, but mostly it’s all retail. I prefer to keep to the vanilla stuff when I can. In this community we’re all so familiar with things like Sobeks and Orions and whatnot that they become like the word ‘said’. There’s no new data to process. Your mind just skips over it and focuses on the events themselves. That’s the theory, anyway.

Mobius:
As we all know, “Project-03” is only a working name. When are we going to discover the true name of this project? Do you already have it in mind, or perhaps it hasn’t been defined yet?

Ransom Arceihn:
I’ve known the name from the start. It’ll be revealed with the trailer. I have a variety of reasons for keeping the name secret, but alas, they’re all secrets too! My hands are tied.

Mobius:
Can you provide a reasonable ETA? Or better, can you tell us all what’s left to be done?

Ransom Arceihn:
There’s twelve missions between me and the end. So the FREDing’s about two-thirds done. There’s still testing and various finishing touches to be done after that, but mission design’s the main time sink and once that’s complete release won’t be far off. Any date I could give you before then would be a wild guess.

Mobius:
It won’t be long, then. At least, that’s what I hope.

Uhm, you mentioned the ship classes Sobek and Orion. Could you please tell us when Project-03 takes place? Before FS2, during FS2 or in the Post Capella period?

Ransom Arceihn:
It takes place in the same year as the log entries in the progress thread. 2370: three years post-Capella.

Mobius:
Why did you chose that date? Are there any reasons you’d like to divulge?

Ransom Arceihn:
The story being told here is necessarily post-Capella, so there’s that. I chose the (relatively) near future because it allows for some flexibility in terms of minor technology advances, while retaining the conceit of being a fragile time. It also lets me hold on to the retail fleet.

Mobius:
Very well, Ransom! Thanks for your availability, and keep up the good work. There are so many community members looking forward to Project-03, so best of luck with your solo project!

Ransom Arceihn:
Thanks. It’s been a pleasure.

Pubblicato in (TLR) Francesco D'Amico, Articles in English, Interviste, Videoludica | Contrassegnato , , , , | Lascia un commento

General Battuta unveils the secrets of Blue Planet!

Pubblicato il 22 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questa è un’intervista in inglese pubblicata su HLP il 5 luglio 2009 / This is an interview in English posted on HLP on July 5th 2009

Mobius:
When did you join the BP team?

Battuta:
Well, I began working to voice act Age of Aquarius, the first Blue Planet campaign, last summer.

After a few months of work, Darius wanted to give both Rian and I BP badges as a kind of ‘thank you’ gift, so we had those for a while. But there wasn’t a BP internal forum at that point, since it was still a one-man team.

Mobius:
I remember you claiming that you were working as voice acting manager, only. Have things changed since then?

Battuta:
Yes, they have. Darius began a private alpha test of War in Heaven this spring, at which point he set up an internal forum. I’m now FREDding alongside Darius.

Mobius:
What are you FREDding, exactly? Are you creating your own missions for WiH with extreme liberty? Are you sticking with Darius direct hints?

Battuta:
Darius and I have an extremely close creative relationship (but, uh, not like that.) I’ve spent some time on the internal forums for other projects, such as ED and TVWP, and Blue Planet is much less formal and much more free-wheeling. (bit more to say)

Mobius:
Interesting… so you’re both working on the storyline? What kind of ideas do you come out with?

Battuta:
Darius is the Supreme Leader and Omnipotent Arbiter of BP. What he says goes. But he’s always open to feedback and new ideas. Almost every day, he posts some new ships or story ideas, and I riff off them. I’d kind of compare our creative process to the way a band generates music.

For example, a little while ago Fury, one of the HLP admins, had some great ideas about how to handle development, and Darius was completely willing to listen. I’ve been struck again and again by how little ego or hierarchy there is on the team. It’s all really friendly, a very funny place.

Mobius:
Hey, that’s nice. Are you going to create fan fics?

Battuta:
Actually, yeah! We have a little project going on we’re thinking of releasing as a prologue to WiH. It’s a campaign conceptualized and scripted by FoxtrotTango, an HLP member who was really interested in the Blue Planet setting and wanted to work in it. So we helped him learn the setting, and he wrote a really interesting, morally challenging story.
So I guess it’s not really fanfic.

But part of the idea with that prologue release, I gather, is to get our modpack out so people can work and play with it. We’re not big on exclusives, I think.

Mobius:
How are we going to read the result? Is it going to be released with the campaign? There are many ways to show it off, like FRED’s Fiction Viewer and a dedicated section of BP’s website.

Battuta:
Ah, okay, I think I was unclear about that. FoxtrotTango’s story is an actual, playable campaign with some really interesting features. For example, you can choose what your character says, which I believe Wing Commander Saga has done as well but which felt like a logical extension of the Blue Planet style.

As for other writing, we did release some background material for War in Heaven, which you can read on the Blue Planet website. But we’re going to try to put as much of the story as possible into the campaign itself. Relying on outside material is less fun for the player.

Mobius:
What did you guys feel when you started working with Darius? Age of Aquarius is, without any doubt, one of the most successful custom campaigns ever created. Did you feel like being of any help?

Battuta:
Well, there was definitely a bit of a rock-star feel to it at first, and I was a bit nervous. But the fact is that Darius is a really modest, unassuming guy. Age of Aquarius has gotten rave reviews, but people also had criticisms and suggestions, and Darius was really eager to hear those and work on fixing them.

I think part of the reason Blue Planet has remained so drama-free is because of Darius’ leadership. He made me promise not to talk about him like he was the second coming or anything, but he’s polite, gracious, totally open to criticism, and almost never offended. And he’s a big fan of other FreeSpace projects on HLP, so team rivalry isn’t really an issue.
And on a practical level, yes, I’ve absolutely felt like a help. I’m a pretty solid FREDder and I’ve been able to do some pretty darn cool missions for War in Heaven.

Mobius:
Speaking of criticisms, what have you learned from the constructive ones? I remember quite a few of them, and I was involved more than once. Because the criticisms were mostly directed to certain choices in terms of storytelling, are we going to see a different plot development in WiH?

Battuta:
Well, the main criticism of Age of Aquarius was that some of the story twists felt too mystical for some people’s taste, and that the writing was sometimes a bit hammy. But I think that has to be placed in context. AoA really connected with people because it made you the star of a soaring, heroic interdimensional adventure.
When you went out there to guide the Temeraire battlegroup through the Knossos in N362 and Razorback started playing in the background, I’m pretty sure everyone felt a thrill.

But, yeah, Darius wanted to deal with some of that. For example, all the mysticism and prophecy in Age of Aquarius, including the Great Preservers and Sam’s connection to that, means something very specific which was foreshadowed as early as the FS1 intro movie.

So I think people like TrashMan will like where the plot goes, because it doesn’t just go haring off into ‘energy beings’ Star Trek territory. War in Heaven is a gritty, political war story, based in no small part on research into the World War II Pacific theater.
It’s a darker story, and your experience as the main character will be a little richer, because of deeper interaction with the war and the people around you. You’ll be able to make some decisions, even.

Mobius:
What are the fans going to find in WiH? Pretty much everyone has taken into account that Darius has seriously considered all criticisms to his work (in the positive way, of course)… but what are we going to experience, exactly? There have been several discussions on HLP about the war between the GTVA and the UEF.

Many community members came out with the assumption that the UEF simply won’t defeat the GTVA, and this assumption has had a wide consensus among players. People also came to the conclusion that, in order to win, the UEF needs to capitalize on a limited number of resources. In other words, what can we expect from the war?

Are we going to see an incredible number of GTVA ships falling to the UEF? Is the UEF going to taste a defeat in a number of engagements?

Battuta:
Well, first off, I can point you to the Blue Planet website, where the briefings ‘The Reunion’ and ‘Balance of Power’ discuss the beginning of the war a little bit.

No, you will not see an incredible number of GTVA ships falling to the UEF. Remember, this is the GTVA you played a part of in FreeSpace 2, and in fact, they’ve improved tactically. GTVA warships will often attempt to jump away when damaged. In fact, they often won’t engage until their jump drives are fully charged, just to make sure they can escape.
You’ll see GTVA ships working in destroyer-centric battlegroups, forming gunlines and flak pockets. There will be TAG support, AWACS coordinating bomber jump-ins, jamming, and extensive use of Trebuchets by the GTVA.

The UEF is outnumbered, outgunned, and arguably outplayed by GTVA tactics. Their capital ships are versatile and have excellent anti-fighter defenses, but they just can’t match up to GTVA beams. Every time the UEF sends a capital ship into the field, it’s running a risk, because the GTVA holds back Bellerophon and Chimera corvettes on hunter-killer tasking.
These ships might jump in at any second to counter UEF warship deployments and nullify them with their heavy beams.
The UEF’s advantage is a huge industrial base – remember, Sol infrastructure has been built up for a very long time, and the UEF is economically prosperous under the Ubuntu party – and their superb fighter corps. UEF fighters and gunships are trained to work closely with Karuna frigates to disable GTVA forward beams and destroy enemy squadrons.
Unfortunately a lot of the UEF pilots are reservists, and they’re all exhausted, overwhelmed, and suffering from low morale. That will be dealt with in the campaign.

So, yes, you’re going to see the UEF struggling and struggling hard. The GTVA will be relentless, capable, and smart. You’ll see them doing all the things that the ‘heroes’ in a lot of stories think up.
As a player you’re going to be a match for GTVA fighter forces, and you’ll get to try out the sheer firepower of UEF gunships, but you’ll probably learn to be very afraid of GTVA warships. Stick close to your Karuna if you need to hide from enemy fighters, and use your modular armor!

So yeah, as you can see, this is something we thought a lot about. And the input of members like you, Mobius, NGTM-1R, and even newer people like spardason is very valuable.

Mobius:
Without spoiling anything of the later development of the plot, can you tell us what we’re going to see later in the campaign? Is there a remote possibility that, at the very end, the campaign will no longer be based on the war between the GTVA and the UEF?

Age of Aquarius started with an expedition and ended up in a way that no one could have imagined at the very beginning of the campaign.

Battuta:
I can’t discuss that. Obviously the thing that gets people most excited about BP is the story, and we don’t want to spoil that. But people will get to experience the full fury of the war. It won’t be derailed by drama the way, and we’re not skipping ‘the good stuff’.

That said, part of Blue Planet is the amazing story twists, and you will see those. My lips are sealed, but some of the stuff that I’ve seen made my spine crawl.

Mobius:
Everyone is excited about WiH, but if Darius is correct Blue Planet is a trilogy. Have you started working on the third chapter of the series?

Are you going to wait for the release of WiH before planning the third chapter, so that you can work with the comments of your beloved fans in mind?

Battuta:
We know exactly what’s going to happen and we have the modpack for it. But our focus right now is on getting War in Heaven done. Blue Planet has always been a lean, mean, efficient development machine! 😛 (particularly impressive since Darius is in med school).

And yeah, Darius will definitely take fan feedback for Chapter 3.

Mobius:
Two quick questions related to the current status of the project: how is AoA’s voice acting going? Do you have a release estimate on WiH?

Battuta:
Age of Aquarius voice acting is eighty percent done. All we need are a few minor roles. We’re hoping to finish this summer, then polish up some of the technical flaws in Age of Aquarius, add some new assets (including normal maps for all the ships and some other minor upgrades), and re-release a director’s cut.

As for War in Heaven, that’s an interesting story. The alpha version of the campaign was actually finished this spring.

Mobius:
So… when are you going to release it?

Battuta:
However, after Darius reviewed it with Fury, Dilmah_G, Rian and I, we decided to re-FRED it to fix what we perceived as a lack of depth. We’re making really rapid progress with the reworking, though, so don’t worry, we’re not going to turn into another Silent Threat: Reborn.

Not too different from what you’ve done with INFASA, I believe!
In fact, I want to talk about our workflow a bit. Darius and I are in time zones separated by about a twelve-hour difference. So every morning when I wake up, it’s his evening, and he updates me on what he’s done that day. I take over. Then, that night, I pass off my progress to him.

So we’re literally working almost constantly on the project.

Mobius:
Well, INFASA’s upgrade is too impressive for me to find a word to describe it. I hope WiH will not have to undergo a similar upgrade, or it will take a while before the release…
A long while…

Battuta:
We honestly don’t worry too much about release dates. But we’ll probably have enough to do a ‘chapter 1’ release soon if we feel it’s a reasonably self-contained story, I guess? I’d have to talk to Darius. If you guys want something like that, let us know!

Mobius:
Are you planning to create a poll in which you’ll be asking wheter or not WiH should be divided into several sub-chapters?

Battuta:
Nah. We’ll probably make that call internally. By which I mean Darius shall proclaim it!

Mobius:
Here comes a classical question: write at least 3 good reasons to download WiH as soon as it gets released and play it until the very end!

Battuta:
1. The deep, morally ambiguous writing. This is the closest thing you can get to a FreeSpace novel.

2. The tactically rich, cinematic gameplay. In War in Heaven, capital ships get respect. These are beautiful, stately behemoths. They’re not going to die like toys. Similarly, fighter duels will be marked by AWACS coordination, rally points, and a very diverse weapons set on both sides: GTVA beams, pulse weapons, and TAG against UEF railguns, torpedo and missile salvos, and death-dealing gunships.

Mobius:
And the third reason is…?

*drool*

Battuta:
3. You will see a Solaris and a Raynor dueling against an enormous Mars skybox, beams glittering in the dark, missiles swarming, as tactical meson bombs detonate in the background, shattering intrasystem gate farms – all as you lead your White Knights against a squadron of Erinyes to a soaringly epic soundtrack. And then you can die happy.

(And the new music is bloody sweet too.)

Mobius:
Thank you very much for the interview and the exciting info, Battuta! Best of luck with Blue Planet!

Battuta:
Thanks for your time, Mobius, I really appreciate it. And everyone reading, please, if you’ve got a mic, give us your voice over in the Voice Acting forum!

Pubblicato in (TLR) Francesco D'Amico, Articles in English, Interviste, Videoludica | Contrassegnato , , , | Lascia un commento

TrashMan talks about his WIP Flames of War campaigns

Pubblicato il 22 settembre 2013 da lightbluemobius

Questa è un’intervista in inglese pubblicata su HLP il 29 ottobre 2008 / This is an interview in English posted on HLP on October 29th 2008

Mobius:
First of all, introduce yourself. What’s your Real Life name and where are you from?

TrashMan:
Toni Stanicic. I’m from a small coastal town in Croatia, called Baška Voda.

Mobius:
Your WIP campaign, the second release of FoW, is attracting a lot of attention. What have you planned? Is it true that there will be many new ships?

TrashMan:
Oh…quite a few. Since I release everything to the public as I finish, most are already seen. Still, there should be one or two surprises in there.

Mobius:
Easter eggs?

TrashMan:
For FoW, I planned a rather big campaign. It was in the backburner of my noggin’ for quite some time. Concept has changed a bit as time went by, but the core stuff are just as they were invisioned from the beginning. As for easter eggs… Yes. Quite a few. I actually had to drop a lot of them due to time constraints. Never enough time…especially since I’m working on a lot of different things. For instance, I had to drop a really good Derek Smart easter egg.

Mobius:
Who are the team members? What is your role, other than that of project leader?

TrashMan:
My role? Everything. I’ve had quite a few tem mebers come and go. Usually they come in, help with one, maybe two missions, and then they dissapear. So I’m mostly doing everything myself. Some, like Diceman, have been more help than others, but every little bit counts. Even half the mission done is already something. Not to mention the testing. Gods, I make tons of stupid errors and oversights. So testers are a blessing.

Mobius:
That’s not comfortable – have you ever planned to recruit more, dedicated people?

TrashMan:
Yup, but it’s not easy. People have their own projects. And I guess I’m just not lucky in that regard. Seems I have a habit of picking people that have a really busy Real Life. People that would like or help, but just can’t… I lost quite a few good FREDers that way. And to computer failures… not to mention the missions they had but didn’t send back in time… Yup, quite a few setbacks.

Mobius:
I assume that FoW’s development is pretty slow – am I right?

TrashMan:
Not really.. When I work on something, I work 150%. It’s just that it often goes into pause mode, due to many other FS and non-FS related projects. When  I was making my mod for SOTS, I had to put FoW on hold, since it was a colossal project in itself (100 different ship sections in 3-4 months plus testing and weaponry). And there’s always the come-and-go interest.

When I’m on the mood I can sometimes make a mission a day…sometimes. Depends on the mission. Depends on what else I’m doing that day. I play games and have some shadow of RL left too. That eats up time too.
Maybe it would be important to note that I allways do more things. I FRED a little, then switch to Truespace to make a model for one project or another. Then I fire up Soldat or something. Repeat ad nauseum.
Heck, If I had a big, dedicated team like some other projects…I would have been finished LOOOONG ago. As it is, I had to make quite a few cuts..sadly. I completely dropped out branching for instance. But, If I even finish FOW: DOTA, I plan to have branching there. We’ll see.

Mobius:
Are you planning to divide your upcoming campaign in multiple parts? That should help a lot.

TrashMan:
I already have.
FoW was supposed to have 3 parts. The first onr, that I released (FoW: sons of Thunder.. a.k.a. Chapter 1).
The second one, detailing the period between the one I’m making now and the first, on how the pirate wars happened and contact with Earth was restablished. The second one was never made tough… I just made 3 teaser missions, which I’ll ship with FoW: COTS

Mobius:
What should the community expect from upcoming FoW campaigns? Are they going to be advanced under a FREDding point of view? Blue Planet recently demonstrated how a wise mix of mods can turn a normal campaign into an epic one. Have you planned something…well, “unconventional” for FoW?

TrashMan:
I dont’ really think I did anything revolutionary regarding FREDding..no ingenious use of SEXP’s or anything. But let others be the judge of that. That was never really the goal anyway. I’m just trying to tell a story and make interesting and fun missions.
But there might be one interesting mission, from a FRED point of view.

Mobius:
Does the campaign feature in-mission cutscenes?

TrashMan:
Yes. One or two.. and pure cutscene missions too.

Mobius:
Does it mean we’re going to see cutscenes take off, landing sequences and such?

TrashMan:
Maybe. The mission I’m working on now does have sometihng like that. Although I don’t know if you could define it as “launching”…

Not all missions are 100% complete. Yet. At the moment, I got erm..20-something missions 25-26 methinks. They could all use additional testing and tweaking. So yeah, I can add more cutscenes or other interesting stuff I find the mission lacking. Don’t get me wrong, cutscenes are fun – but a campaign is there to play. So I’m trying to not overdo it with too much text or cutscenes.

Mobius:
The first chapter of FoW turned out to be a nice campaign since the very beginning. Are the new releases going to match it, if not overtaking it, in terms of plot?

TrashMan:
I hope so. I do think the overal plot here is more…well though off. Certainly there are twists and interesting battles. The First FoW centered a LOT on the player squadron.  This one is a bit more on the plot, altough there still will be memorable pilots you fly with. I hope. In Fow: SoT (chapter 1) you just switched 2 squadron. In CoTS, you’ll go trough 4-6. So less mission time per character, some old faces will be there too.

Mobius:
Are we going to see new soundtracks, command briefings anis and head anis?[/color]

TrashMan:
I used the FS1 soundtrack (love it)  and added a few more tracks, mostly for cutscenes and special occasions. Lots of new sounds, for weapons and easter eggs, various events. And some new Head ani’s. CB ani’s. Whatever I managed to make and will manage to make by the time it’s done. It’s gonna be a big file.

Mobius:
How many mbs in your latest expectations?

TrashMan:
I can give you a rough estimate.. gimme a moment.
I just .rar’s my COTS folder…everything in it. FS1 music, maps, models – the works. It’s got some extra stuff that will need to be removed, so dont’ treat this as a final number…but it’s around…still compressing…
Methinks 100 Mb or so  for sure. The latest version of all the models used are gonna be in there, with slight tweaks and stuff.
Ooo..holy schnitzel. 237 Mb!
I’m gonna have to do some serious cutting. There’s apparently quite a bit of extra stuff in there :)
And there are double entries multiple version of a model or texture.  I expect 120 MB or so, without FS1 music.

Mobius:
That’s what I was about to say, although there are far bigger modpacks in circulation at the moment. One more question: can you give us an ETA?

TrashMan:
Ouch. A bit hard to say. In a day or two I’m gonna start a testing bonanza to squash some bugs, since the missions are 99% done. Can’t really say. Could be a week, could be a month. I want it to be complete and polished (as much as it can). Go with the higher estimate, it’s a safer bet. ;)

Mobius:
Once again I’d like to remind you that additional team members might be needed in the near future. I guess all community members interested on FoW want to see a bigger team to get the job done.

TrashMan:
It was slow, but it’s practicely done. Heck, I’d say we did better, as disorganized and small as we were, than most bigger projects out there.

Mobius:
Are you going to solve the problem in the near future?

TrashMan:
The staff problem? Hopefully. If enough people are interested in DOTA…..
Bot honestly, from the time I begun working on FoW: Cots, most of the time was spent doing other things. In other words – the project was almost constantly on hold. Considering the amount of time put into it, it’s going very fast.

Mobius:
An announcement should attract more attention. To be honest I thought there were more people working on FoW before starting the interview, I’m amazed on how you’re getting the campaign done by yourself with minor help from other community members.

TrashMan:
I’d say 1/3rd of the missions in Cots had been worked on (started or partially done or almost completely finished) by other team members. They helped how they could, when they could, and for that I’m grateful. Note that mostly these people didn’t have too much experience with FRED or anything.

Mobius:
Overall, how many FoW campaigns are we going to see? Which are they complete names?

TrashMan:
FOW: Sons of Thunder (a.k.a  Chapter1)
FOW: Chapter 2 (you’ll never see this. Canceled.)
FOW: Coming of hte Storm (should be done soon)
FOW: Dawn of the Apocalypse

Mobius:
For a total of how many missions?

TrashMan:
Let me count…
Uuuhh..29. Without cutscene missions. For Cots.

Mobius:
What about the other campaigns?

TrashMan:
How many mission DOTA will have…a LOT. It’s supposed to have a really big branching point with 2 endings.

Mobius:
Can you give us an estimation?

TrashMan:
I’d say around 40. It all depends. The basic story and several critical missions are planned. Ther rest is still changebale. So it’s flid.

Mobius:
They will be a lot, indeed. Can you tell us something about the plot and what we’re going to see without spoiling the storyline?

TrashMan:
For DOTA? Or for COTS?

Mobius:
Both of them…

TrashMan:
DOTA…we’ll, I guess there’s no surprise to anyone anymore that the HoL will be involved.
So yes. The HoL are back. And they have a plan (lol).

Mobius:
You’re going to use the Mefdef, right?

TrashMan:
Yup. All HoL ships. The ships table is full. I had to drop ships out. I was contemplating switching to an Inferno build and for DOTA I will have to. Since Shivans have been practicely removed from the COTS table and for DOTA they got shiny new toys.
And some other ships will be added to the GTVA arsenal in DOTA. So yea… a friggin pile of ships. Say, wanna skeak preview of some of hte Easter eggs(only if you promise not to tell)?

Mobius:
The interview is intended to become public so…no…maybe in another circumstance. Anyways, since you are a superb and prolific modellers you’re surely going to use many of your ships in upcoming FoW campaigns. Will they include civilian liners and logistic ships?

TrashMan:
Yes. I’m re-doing some of them exactly for this purpose. For instance, I’m currently re-working the Sizifus mega-freighter. Adding more detail, improving it here and there. Some other ships may receive the same treatment.

Mobius:
What about new weapons? You have been posting new weapon-related threads for a while and this led me to think that FoW is going to have many original weapons of various power and effectiveness. Is that true?

TrashMan:
I haven’t counted, but there are quite a few new weapons. I’m still thinking of removing a few, since they’re not supposed to be used in COTS, but rather DOTA.

Mobius:
What kind of weapons are those?

TrashMan:
Well, there’s quite a few capital ships weapons (they got a lot of new weapons), but also quite a few fighter weapons. From sniper guns, to massive bomber anti-capital cannons, gatling cannons of various types to missiles and bombs. I expect the campaign to be a bit harder for new players, since all enemy weapons got a lot more power than usual.

Mobius:
Are they balanced?

TrashMan:
Yes…compared to player weapons. Both HOL and Shivans will have vastly improved weapons. They’ll actually be comparable to player ones in damage/second. Some elite weapons for the HoL will be even worse. Facing a elite HoL wing? With max AI, more powerful weapons and the AI profile set to be harder? Not easy. The player gets nice toys too. ;)

Mobius:
Elite wing? This means we’re going to face enemy Aces?

TrashMan:
HoL will have elite wings, yes. I’ve made new AI tables for this campaign. Shivans will rely more on numbers. Of course, they are still no match for the player and his elite wing, but the game plays a bit different then usual. When you’re facing their elite…but that’s not that often. They got regular pilots too.

Mobius:
Are the elite HoL pilots going to be pretty much like characters?

TrashMan:
Not really. If you’re attacking some important HoL asset, expect to see elite HoL wings together with more average ones.
HoL pilots are not much for talking, they’d rather shoot you. And in missions where you’re fighting their elite…there’s a lot of action so Ace bluster talk is really hardt o squeeze in. Your own side is chatty enough. ;)
That does not mean the enemy is faceless…you’ll see.

Mobius:
Looks like FoW is going to exceed the community’s expectations. Are there any other interesting things about your WIP you may wish to tell us?

TrashMan:
Exceed expectations? Well see.
As for interesting things…we’ll, it’s gonna have a good number of easter eggs. Expect one or two in almost every mission.

Mobius:
Are they triggered by the player using certain keys or they’ll appear automatically?

TrashMan:
There’s been a lot of brainstorming about how to implement them. So far, there are 3 versions.
Global easter eggs that have been hard ot trigger any other way, since they appear in missions in a very ankward time. So they’ll be turned on/off via a global variable, triggered by typing something.
The second type is simple. A container will jump in near the player during a mission and his HUD will issue a warning. If that container is destroyed within the next 30 seconds, it triggers the easter egg. If not, the container departs.
The last type is the hidden ones. You just got to find them and they’re the best ones to boot.

All 3 are currently used in various amounts.

Mobius:
Looks like you paid a lot of attention on Easter Eggs – why?

TrashMan:
JAD, Deus Ex Machina…
And I just felt like making them…for kicks…I started doing them when  I was not in the mood to “actually” work on the campaign. So I said “what the heck” and decided to put them in.
It’s almost like fusing a JAD mini-campaign with FOW…

Mobius:
Interesting…this is surely one of the longest interviews ever made on HLP. TrashMan, I wish you luck with Flames of War!

TrashMan:
Thank you. I hope I will deliver.

Pubblicato in (TLR) Francesco D'Amico, Articles in English, Interviste, Videoludica | Contrassegnato , , , , | Lascia un commento