Free Worlds campaign rework (Stage 1)

[Amazinite]

Content (Artwork / Missions / Jobs)

Summary

While the Free Worlds campaign is a great story, there's definitely room for improvement at various points. Most notably, the choice between the Reconciliation and Checkmate routes is particularly one-sided toward Reconciliation at the moment (ref: #4121).

This PR will be the first of many that seek to run the Free Worlds campaign through a certified Derpy Review™, cleaning up the campaign from front to back. Over the years, I've gathered a collection of notes on various things that could or should be changed with the Free Worlds campaign, from issues that need patched up to story improvements that could be made to enhance the story. It'd take me hours to type out and explain all of the changes I have planned, so I'll just provide a general summary of my goals:

• Improve style consistency: The Free Worlds campaign is some of the oldest content in the game, and some of our mission writing style has changed in that time. As I go through the campaign, I'll be doing my best to make things more consistent. This includes organizing mission nodes to match how we do things today as well as going through conversations and removing terms that no longer fit (e.g. referring to the Free Worlds as a "coalition," or removing the single instance of "Officer Winters" that never got used after one mission and therefore seems out of place to me).
• Use new mechanics: There's been a lot of new mechanics added to the game since the Free Worlds campaign was written. Such new mechanics could be used to enhance some missions. Whenever I spot such a case, I'll put those new mechanics to use.
• Meatier conversations: Particularly in the intro file, conversations at certain points can be rather short, not doing much in the way of improving the player's understanding of the Free Worlds or the characters within it. I'll be going through and adding to such conversations where I see that they can be expanded upon to provide the player with more information or characterization.
• Enhance themes: It was said by MZ that his goal for the campaigns was for each of the factions to appear to be morally good from the cursory glance given of them by their introductions, but as the campaign progressed things would become more morally gray. I'm not convinced that this was done too well with the Free Worlds campaign, so I plan to make this theme, among others, shine through better than they do right now. Another theme that's been mentioned is how the Free Worlds was intended to be in a more religious section of the galaxy, but this religiosity never really shone through in the end outside of a few sparse examples.
• Improving plot: In tandem with the enhanced themes, there are also a number of plot improvements I want to make, mainly surrounding the Syndicate's involvement in the campaign. The final choice between Reconciliation and Checkmate should largely lean on the player's trust of the Syndicate, but the player is never given any real reason to trust the Syndicate. Despite them being a tacit ally of the Free Worlds, there's only really one instance in which they actually help the Free Worlds by providing parts for the deuterium refinery on Smuggler's Den.
• Set up for future content: By involving the Syndicate more in the campaign as described above, this will create a good set up for parts of the Syndicate campaign. I also have plans to set things up for the Republic campaign, as I've taken note of how the Free Worlds campaign as it is currently written has the Free Worlds ever-expanding, at least up until the Reconciliation vs Checkmate choice where the Navy finally retakes three worlds. I plan to add at least one additional battle between the Navy and FW where the Navy attempts to retake some lost territory much earlier. And finally, Hai Revealed + Philosopher's Liberation #4952 has also outlined that there are certain plot points that aren't made very clear. What is the fate of the Oracle? What happens to Alastair in Checkmate? With these changes, I'll be clarifying some of these questions, while also unifying some of the differences between Reconciliation and Checkmate as to reduce the number of assumptions or branches that future content that relies on the main plot needs to make.
• Resolve FW-related issues: Over the years there have been a collection of issues opened in relation to the Free Worlds campaign. I would like to resolve many of these, so long as a solution to the issue would easily slot into what I'm already working on.

The following sections will provide an overview of the specific changes made to each section of the campaign as I make them. For sections I haven't gotten to yet, I'll say WIP or have a short preview of what I'm planning. For even more specific details, I'd suggest looking at each commit individually.

The changes in this PR

This pull request focuses on reworking the intro and start files. The two biggest goals with reworking the plot of these files are the following:

• Do more justice to Tomek's story arc, taking him from being a drunk idiot who goes and nearly gets himself killed to an important strategist who is simply at odds with the decisions of the Senate, but still acts to do what he sees as the best course of action for the Free Worlds as a whole.
• Involve the Syndicate more in the Free Worlds campaign, laying the groundwork for a more proper story justification for why one might choose the Free Worlds Checkmate route.

I'm also making some minor changes to other files outside of the intro and start to help lay the groundwork for future work:

• Slightly rework the choice between FWC and FWR to reflect some of the changes made during the first chapter.
• Tie up some loose differences between FWC and FWR to help facilitate the writing of new missions that take place after and reference the Free Worlds campaign.

Misc

• Removed instances of referring to the Free Worlds as a coalition. [consistency]
• Standardized capitalization of "South" and "Southern" when referring to the region instead of the cardinal direction. [consistency]
• Replacing various instances of Free Worlds characters saying "hope" with "pray." [themes/religiosity]
• Moved reputation changes done by various events to the missions that trigger the event, making the events more universally usable. Did not make this change to events which are explicitly FW only (e.g. "fw safe passage start/end," which only give the player safe passage). [laying groundwork]
• Renamed the main story files to be numbered by story chronology. [organization, consistency]

Intro

• Pact Recon:
  • In the first mission, the militia are helping the captain fix his freighter instead of the militia officer just talking to the captain. [themes/FW doing what the Republic doesn't]
  • Now introduces Freya in the first mission instead of the second. [characterization]
• Pact Questioning:
  • No longer allowed to defer; always get questioned by Republic Intelligence. [themes/overbearing Republic]
• FW Recon:
  • Added choices to ask why JJ wants you to scan the Navy ships. [plot]
  • Removed the mention of a "secret base" from the second mission; JJ has no reason to be telling a random merchant about that intel. [characterization, plot]
  • Made the complete conversation in the last mission MUCH meatier instead of just being a small dialog, allowing the player to interact with JJ and ask questions about the Free Worlds, Republic, and FW Council. [characterization, themes/FW against the world]
• FW Escort:
  • The escorts that help you defend the freighters are now persistent, as opposed to having the missions mysteriously respawn lost ships or despawn ships that could have kept helping. To facilitate this, the player is now sent to Longjump to meet with the convoy instead of the convoy starting on whatever planet the player gets the chain offered on. [new mechanics]
  • Tomek is now introduced in the first escort mission instead of the second. This means that if the player fails the first mission, the second chance mission makes more sense, as previously you could fail the first mission and have no idea who Tomek is during the second chance. [characterization, plot]
  • Made the complete conversation in the last mission meatier instead of just being a small dialog, allowing the player to interact with Tomek and ask about the FW Council. [characterization]
• FW Bounty:
  • The player can now ask more about the ships they're being asked to destroy, including in some cases giving the player tips. [plot]
• FW Katya:
  • The player is now given multiple new choices to doubt Katya and Eyes when it comes to the Free World's innocence or the actions that they are taking. [plot]
  • If the player blames the Free Worlds after the nuke test is found on Clink, Katya swears before God that the Free Worlds are innocent and that they are being framed. [themes/religiosity]
  • The player now screams "Death to all Tyrants!" when boarded by the Navy should they choose to attack. [plot]
• Rescue Katya:
  • The player is now warned that they should probably have a warship and some spare funds before joining the Free Worlds. [plot]
  • Tomek now confronts the player about mistrusting them should the player have failed the second chance but still met the requirements to join the Free Worlds. [characterization]
  • The conversation now provides the name and a description for each member of the FW Council instead of saying plainly that you were introduced to them. [characterization]
• Defend Sabik:
  • After the player paints their ship, Tomek now goes off to gather the militia instead of hitting the bar for some drinks. [characterization]

Start

• Liberate Kornephoros:
  • Tomek now addresses a crowd of militia after defending Sabik instead of only the player. [characterization]
• FW Prisoner Parole:
  • The player can now ask what is done with those Navy prisoners that didn't swear an oath to stop fighting. [plot]
• oathkeepers founded:
  • No changes.
• FW Syndicate Diplomacy:
  • Improved Alondo's explanation for why you meet the Syndicate in person. NOTE THAT THIS CHANGES SOME LORE ON HYPERSPACE COMMUNICATION. [plot]
  • Tomek now agrees with Alondo that it'd be best to evade Navy patrols, instead of not saying anything when Alondo suggests that Tomek would be fine with them being destroyed. [characterization]
  • Introduced a new character to the Syndicate, Samuel Remington. Remington takes part in the negotiations between the FW and Syndicate in order to get the Free Worlds a better deal. [Syndi campaign groundwork, plot]
  • The Syndicate supplies heading to Tarazed now add a new outfitter to Tarazed that includes supplies that the Free Worlds normally doesn't have access to. This outfitter is then later added to various FW planets. [plot]
  • The Tarazed CEO warns the player about trusting the Syndicate because of this action. [plot]
  • Syndicate Fleets now appear in the eastern Dirt Belt, bringing supplies to Tarazed, and the Free Worlds now sends patrols into the eastern Dirt Belt to uphold their side of the bargain. [plot]
  • Left the Poisonwood mission untouched because it's already pretty good.
  • Added a missing JJ during the Council convening at the end of the arc. [plot]
• FW Hope Recon:
  • Added a reference to the new eastern patrols established in the diplomacy missions. [plot]
  • The Gunboat that launches from Hope is now a part of a friendly government to avoid having it attack you after you let it live. [plot]
• FW Plasma Testing:
  • No changes.
• FW Supply Convoy:
  • Slightly reworded a character's dialog on describing how the Free Worlds' presence has reduced piracy. [plot]
• FW Pirates (Part 1):
  • Removed mention of Tomek's whiskey. [characterization]
  • Tomek now going into more depth when explaining dealing with the threat of piracy in the Free Worlds, describing how if the Free Worlds can't get a handle on piracy in the region then they're no better than the Republic, and confidence in the Free Worlds will falter. [themes/FW doing what the Republic doesn't]
  • Removed a mention of the Free Worlds expanding territory or convincing more worlds, as before Tomek both mentioned that they're not trying to gain territory but also that they're trying to convince nearby worlds to join. [plot]
• FW Senate:
  • No changes.
• FW Pirates (Part 2):
  • Changed some references Tomek makes to the Senate. Instead of "We are convening the Senate," it is now "the Council has decided to convene the Senate." Instead of "we wanted to get as much done as possible before the Senate," it's "I wanted to get as much done as possible." Instead of saying "Indeed" in response to the question "We should wait for the Senate to decide," he answers "Perhaps." [characterization]
  • Tomek now expands more on his ideas for why he wants to attack the pirates instead of negotiate, and why he wants to attack Greenrock specifically when speaking with the player. [characterization]
  • Tomek now argues more strongly against the plan to negotiate with the pirates when the Council convenes at the start of the arc. [characterization]
  • Added Alondo to the conversation at the start of the arc because he was missing previously. [plot]
  • Broke up the missions into "FW Pirates: Attack" and "FW Pirates: Diplomacy" as opposed to the previous numbered naming system, which I always found somewhat confusing.
  • Regardless of the branch taken, the attack on Greenrock now succeeds. Despite the Senate's desire to have done diplomacy, they now order the continued occupation of Greenrock now that it is under FW control instead of letting the opportunity go to waste. The result of this is reduced piracy in FW territory and some Dirt Belt systems. [plot, themes/shades of gray]
  • FW Pirates: Attack:
    • Removed the option to attack Bloodsea, as it becomes pretty inconsequential to the later story. [plot]
    • The conversation when meeting up with the invasion fleet is now far less dour. The invasion of Greenrock is still described as probably difficult, but is not described as basically a death sentence as it was before. [themes/options with tradeoffs instead of clear rights and wrongs]
    • The Greenrock battle fleets are now set in stone instead of being randomized, which could have led to wildly easier or more difficult battles depending on your RNG. I haven't yet tested and balanced the specifics, though. [balance]
    • Tomek now arrives on Greenrock after you capture it and orders the fleet to search the spaceport for major criminals to arrest and slaves to free. [characterization]
    • Freya and Alondo now drill you and Tomek for attacking Greenrock instead of only drilling you and Tomek already being under house arrest. You are interrupted by JJ with news about the early warning sensors on Hope going off. [plot]
    • 1% chance that Freya shoots you if you make a specific choice after invading Greenrock. [funny moment]
  • FW Pirates: Diplomacy:
    • Alondo says that Tomek is somewhat right in saying that it's difficult to negotiate with pirate worlds. [characterization]
    • Freya is now the one who says that Tomek didn't want to follow orders from the Senate, and JJ is reluctant to assume Tomek's intentions. [characterization]
    • Updated the mentions of Tomek's attack on Greenrock at the end of the branch to reflect what happens in the Attack branch. Alondo interrupts the conversation to bring news about the early warning sensors on Hope going off. [plot]
• NEW FW Early Warning:
  • A branch new mission arc. Before Tomek (and possibly also the player) can be stripped of their rank by the Senate, the early warning sensors installed on Hope by the player early in the campaign begin detecting increased Navy fleet movements, indicating a coming offensive.
  • Tomek continues to command the militia one last time before he is sent off to the Senate, accepting whatever punishment he receives. [characterization]
  • The player learns that the Navy and FW patrols in the eastern Dirt Belt are not fighting with one another, and the planet of Harmony has become something of a neutral zone for both size of the war, with an unofficial cease fire in effect there. [themes/reluctant warriors]
  • JJ and the player travel to Harmony to speak with Navy Commandy Ranulph Hines in an attempt to negotiate a peace talk. Hines refuses to negotiate and attempts to arrest JJ and all other FW personnel in the spaceport, but JJ appeals to the Navy's sense of honor, saying it would be dishonorable to arrest them when they arrived for the purpose of negotiating. Hines dislikes that his men disobey him, but does not act any further and allows you to leave. [laying groundwork, themes/a Republic in decay, themes/honorable Navy]
  • Upon returning to FW space, Tomek orders the fleet to enter Wei and fight the Navy fleet building up there before it can enter Free Worlds territory. This becomes the second Navy offensive, as opposed to currently where the Navy is on the backfoot from the start of FW Start to the end of FW Middle. [plot]
• FW Senate Hearing:
  • Renamed version of the old Senate hearing that would occur if you disobeyed Senate orders, just that it's now after FW Early Warning instead of at the end of FW Pirates. [plot]
• FW Refinery:
  • Now fakes place after FW Early Warning instead of directly after the diplomacy arc of FW Pirates. The purpose of the mission is now to smooth over the relationship with Thule after Tomek's attack on Greenrock. [plot]
• NEW FW Rogue Elements:
  • A new mission that takes place during the break between FW Start and FW Middle, and teases the appearance of the Wolf Pack. The Wolf Pack have hijacked news broadcasts across Free Worlds space, playing a video of one of the speeches that Tomek gave to rally a fleet to attack Greenrock. The video attacks the FW Senate for putting Tomek under house arrest, foreshadowing the more militant nature of the Wolf Pack. [plot]

Middle

• The event for the FW leaving Greenrock is now triggered by the start of FW Middle. [plot]
• The Syndicate are a bit less idiotic about immediately incriminating themselves. [plot]

Reconciliation and Checkmate:

TODO:

• Across both endings, the Oracle is destroyed and Korban steps down as CEO of the Syndicate. [laying groundwork]

Side Plots

• FW Pirates 1A:
  • Moved to the side plot file since it wasn't a required mission. [organization]
• FW Conservatory:
  • It is now explicitly stated in the mission dialog that some of the equipment for the Conservatory comes from the Syndicate. This was actually always the case in the mission description, it was just never highlighted by the conversation. [plot]

Progress bar for dopamine purposes

Files that I've finished going over the story of:

• Intro
• Start
• Minor Middle edits
• Minor Reconciliation edits
• Minor Checkmate edits

Stuff I'm holding till later while I finalize the story first:

• Rename files to be numbered? Intro -> Prologue?
• Make sure any new battles are balanced enough (FW Escorts, Invasion of Greenrock, Early Warning battle).

Stuff I need to do after everything else is done/approved:

• In FW Intro, move FW Escort and Bounty above FW Katya.
• Rename the start file to be numbered.

For later stages

Misc

Preview:

• Get rid of the Navy Cruisers that sometimes enter FW space. They're stupid annoying to deal with.

Intro

Preview:

• Rework the justification for Katya staying on Clink. [plot]

Start

Preview:

• Add a new arc that furthers the divide between Tomek and the Senate before the FW Pirates arc.

Middle

Preview:

• Much longer lead-in to FW Middle, as currently one could be kicked out of the FW and upon returning instantly be given secret information by Alondo.
• The Syndicate ask that the FW hand over a criminal who was apprehended on Greenrock. This give a bit of groundwork for the same thing being done again later. Or perhaps it is the Syndicate who hand over a criminal wanted by the Free Worlds so that the handoff of Sawyer can be seen as reciprocal.
• Dreadnought production is only complete because of help from the Syndicate.
• Thinking of having more Wolf Pack involvement in the plot somehow.
• Morally gray: perhaps the movement behind the formation of the Free Worlds wasn't entirely in good faith? Corporations in FW space getting cushy deals that leave them better off than if they were still in the Republic?
• Morally gray: turn the region east of the Free Worlds into a cease-fire zone? Navy fleets and FW fleets fly by each other but don't fight. Player meets Navy on the ground of a planet somewhere. Show that no one really wants to fight unless they have to.
• Change up the choice at the very end of the Middle to be less one-sided toward Reconciliation (Improve FW Checkmate #4672 but better).
• Have the Syndicate supply the player with some of the tech that is currently exclusive to FWC, such as the ionic afterburner. This would both help with the idea of the Syndicate trying to build trust with the player while also allowing more players to access otherwise underused outfits (given the rarity with which players choose FWC).

Reconciliation

Preview:

• I don't expect to change much in Reconciliation. The Oracle's fate will be made more clear, that's for sure.

Checkmate

Preview:

• Improve FW Checkmate #4672 but better.

Epilogue

Preview:

• We're getting Tomek and JJ epilgoues.
• Change up Danforth's epilogue to properly react to however Checkmate turns out.

Misc

Story changes in files:

• Middle
• Reconciliation
• Checkmate
• Epilogue
• Side Plots

Non-story relates changes:

• Resolve any TODO comments in events.txt.
• Determine if any additional changes need made to stuff in the events file.
• Add new FW war jobs for patrolling the eastern Dirt Belt, transporting cargo from Tarazed to the FW, and escorting Syndicate convoys to Tarazed.
• Reassess autosave points.

FW Issues checklist:

• Prevent 'Local Map' purchases while Pug are manipulating hyperlanes #7100
• Empty systems around Tarazed stay Republic-aligned during FW quest #6949
• Republic ambassadors don't care about luxury accommodations #6546
• Missing FW epilogue Jean-Jacques and Tomek #6249
• Navy ships become "friends' while still fighting FW Militia ships #6065, FW ships in "Sweep for Navy Ships" mission seems to be destroying fleeing Navy ships #4167
• The overwhelming popularity of the Reconciliation ending #4121
• Free Worlds Escort, empty Freighters #3503
• [BUG] Mission "What happened to Rand?" with a Jump Drive #989

Other campaign ideas and changes

• Karma is heavily underutilized in the campaign right now. I've suggested in the past that we could perhaps replace "karma" with "fame" and "infamy" conditions, and use them more widely than karma is used now. I'm not sure I'll be focusing on such changes though with this PR, as I feel like doing a fame/infamy system justice would take a fair amount of time, and I don't want to hold up what I see as more important changes for too long.
• Another thing that's been discussed is potentially adding a bunch of culture missions that give you more insight into the state of the South, Rim, and Free Worlds before the fighting starts. We could also potentially even add culture mission during the war. I have a fair few ideas for such missions, but as these missions aren't necessary for the campaign, I'd rather handle such mission in a separate PR.
• I do not plan to go through and rebalance the combat missions during the campaign. Any new combat missions I'll try to have balanced, but preexisting missions will remain as is. There have been a number of balance changes made to human tech over the years that has influenced the battles during the campaign, so battles may have become either easier or more difficult than intended, but there are still significant balance changes in discussion for changes in the near future, so I'd rather not have to rebalance everything in the FW campaign twice.

[Hecter94]

https://github.com/endless-sky/endless-sky/blob/master/data/human/culture%20conversations.txt#L504
Two more references to the Coalition of Free Worlds. Not sure if you want to handle them in this PR, or if it should be a different one.

[Amazinite]

This branch was actually pretty out of date until I opened this PR, so I hadn't caught those on my end. Thanks.

[Terin]

One minor organization thing that would be handy to address in here: Could we rename free worlds start.txt to something a bit clearer? I can never tell if it's start or intro that comes first. Could maybe take a page out of the Remnant files and have free worlds 1 intro, free worlds 2 start, etc.? Or find a term that could replace start?

[Zitchas]

For a word that clearly comes before "intro" we could use "prologue," but yeah, numbering makes things much clearer. (I originally implemented numbering for the Remnant because they correspond to chapters. If there was only going to be three I probably would have stuck with start, middle, and end. But more than three sections goes much nicer with numbers.

[MasterOfGrey]

Super stoked to see this finally getting along some!

It's also shone a light on a couple of things that have lived rent-free in my brain for a while so I've called them out here. :)

Also I'll back the suggestion to rename the files with a number before the descriptor. Hai Reveal does that also for clarity, and I suspect the Republic campaign is going to as well.

[Hurleveur]

Just wondering, do you intend this to be just text changes or also some fleet changes? Because I think that most big battles could use some looking at to make them doable with a single ship, not saying you have to do all of it though of course, if someone is interested he could do it. Multiple opinions would be nice too, mine is that the missions are almost impossible to do in a single ship. (took me 20 tries; without landing to repair the fleet all the time of course)

Maybe it could be done in a separate PR; FW balancing or smth

[Amazinite]

@Hurleveur Added a bullet point under the cutting room floor section. There are significant balance changes to ships in the game still in active discussion, and once any such changes are implemented it may wildly change how we would rebalance any battles, so I don't want to rebalance everything now then have to do it again later.

[Amazinite]

Finished going over the intro file, and the PR description has been updated with the major changes under the Intro section. If anyone has any further suggestions or comments about the intro file then I'll go over them, but as far as my own plans go I'll be moving onto the start file next.

[EjoThims]

Two biggest diff files don't have the option for me to open in app, I guess because the diffs are -too- large?

I'll try through browser in a bit, but here's the other stuff, all mostly pretty minor.

[EjoThims]

Finally got it working in browser to finish the rest.

Mostly just a few places I think tone/implication could be improved a bit still.

[warp-core]

I'll do the remaining files tomorrow.

[warp-core]

Do human ships actually last long enough under fire from Quarg ships for the ionisation to be apparent?
And, honestly, telling me they have weapons like the Quarg's isn't going to encourage me to take this job.

[Amazinite]

telling me they have weapons like the Quarg's isn't going to encourage me to take this job.

Well I did bump the pay up.

[warp-core]

Freya does logistics, and Tomek does supplies? What's the difference?

[Amazinite]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
MZ's work on that one, not mine.

[MasterOfGrey]

Supplies is making sure that there are people who can actually supply what you need, in the quantities you need them, on the timeline you want them - and if not, seeking other suppliers or investing in expanding the capacities of existing ones.

Logistics is corralling the products of your dozens to hundreds of suppliers, and potentially their suppliers if you're a government who's requisitioning vehicles and resources, and ensuring that all of those supplies actually end up where they're supposed to, when they're supposed to, and that suppliers and receivers both are aware of when and where those supplies are ending up.

In a small project this might be the same person/department, but for anything large enough to require multiple people to manage it, these are absolutely separate jobs.

[MasterOfGrey]

Just gonna say, the dynamic through this section had me rolling. Not sure if it was intended but it's so specific I'm pretty sure I could summarise their whole background off this interaction alone.

[warp-core]

Suggested change

	` You find Tomek walking among the fleet, conversing with a large group of captains and crew members and assessing the damage they have suffered. When he sees you he says, "Captain <last>! How is your <ship> holding together?"`
	` You find Tomek walking among the fleet, conversing with a large group of captains and crew members, and assessing the damage they have suffered. When he sees you he says, "Captain <last>! How is your <ship> holding together?"`

[warp-core]

People aren't defined by the circumstances of their birth. Smh.

Aren't you defining them by what part of the galaxy they happen to be in right now?
Ijs isn't even here when we start, and there's no indication he actually spends a whole lot of time here.
Your justification for this whole thing seems to be what MZ said about a person from the Dirt Belt probably being religious. The Dirt Belt, the Rim, and the South are all different places, the FW doesn't even contain any Dirt Belt worlds initially, and only two of the main characters are actually from there. (Maybe three, I don't know where Tomek is from.)
You're essentially turning the FW into a nation of hats.