Descent: Freespace

Descent: Freespace - The Great War
Also known as: Conflict: Freespace - The Great War (Europe), FreeSpace: The Great War (Amiga) Developers: Volition, Hyperion Entertainment (Amiga) Publishers: Interplay, Haage & Partner (Amiga) Platforms: Windows, Amiga Released internationally: March 19, 1998 (Windows), December 2001 (Amiga) This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text.

Descent: Freespace - The Great War is a space flight-sim, where humans fight a war against an alien race, only to join up with them to fight another alien race.

To do: Move anything related to the Silent Threat expansion to a subpage.

Unused Dialog

Eve of Destruction

Eve of Destruction has a few unused lines, some of which were present in the 3-mission demo.

Alpha 2: Turn on your Autotargeting.

Not referenced.

Alpha 2: "The first one's hull is down to 40%. Looks like they've already seen some action. Let's finish them off."

This line is present in the mission, but has no trigger. In the demo version, it's played a few seconds after the first wing arrives.

Alpha 2: "Don't forget to use your heat seekers. They have a range of 1500 meters."

Basically a nudge to encourage the player to use the MX-50. Has no trigger.

Debriefing: "Despite your efforts, Vasudan fighters escaped from the system. When we allow them to elude us, Pilot, we appear weak. We won't tolerate this sort of embarassment again."

Occurs if the Orff is protected (Delta wing arrives), but one of the enemy fighters escapes. As the enemy ships are directed to attack the Orff, they will be destroyed well before their departure timer comes up (requiring at least 5 minutes). The only exception is Aries 3, who can survive if the player moves full speed away from combat for the mission, but its departure instead makes the mission unwinnable (Pieces wing only arrives when Aries is destroyed, and Delta only arrives if Pieces is destroyed.)

The Field of Battle

The second mission, where asteroids are somehow able to stealth Vasudan ships.

<any wingman>: "Sensors inoperative.  Target visually until you're close to the hostiles."
<any wingman>: "I can't target any hostiles."
<any wingman>: "Asteroid field interfering with sensors."
<any wingman>: "Let's follow the blips on radar."

These four messages appear when two conditions are met: 4 seconds have elapsed, and "false".

Small Deadly Space

Wherein Alpha wing secures a Vasudan cargo depot, guarded by Aries and Cancer and reinforced by Virgo.

Terran Command: "More Vasudan fighters arriving. They're destroying their own cargo! Stop them!"

This message was intended to appear when Virgo wing arrives, as the arrival of said wing activates the mission objective to protect the cargo containers (an already active objective). Also of note, event "Cargo IFF" activates when Cancer and Virgo wings are destroyed, resulting in the cargo containers now being tagged as friendly. In the same trigger, Virgo wing (despite being destroyed and no longer able to affect the mission) receives a goal to destroy Cargo 2. The instructions to destroy the cargo container therefore never get realized.

Avenging Angels

Wherein Alpha secures something stolen from the Vasudan cargo depot.

Debrief: "This section has been removed"

Stage 4 of the debrief.

Out of the Dark, Into the Night

Wherein Alpha finds something unknown.

Delta 1: Delta here... need some help?

The trigger works fine. However, the message name is "delta arrived", which uses the built-in message rather than this mission-specific one.

Paving the Way

"Cut the chatter, Alpha 2."

Not referenced.

This mission has three triggers, "I'm bored 1", "cut the chatter", and "I'm bored 2", the first being a tutorial message about aggressive asteroids and the last asking the player to help shred asteroids. The middle trigger does activate but does nothing.

Galatea: "We've detected two Shivan bombers."

This is a fallback if Alpha 2 is destroyed by asteroids. The AI player is competent enough to avoid this, and killing Alpha 2 yourself places you in the Traitor faction where you won't receive the message.

Pandora's Box

Your success in acquiring the shield technology against such overwhelming odds has indicated to us that you are, in truth, working with the Shivans. Your interrogation is scheduled for 0930. You will be escorted to the brig.

If you are going to cheat, do it a little less blatantly.

This debriefing is displayed if you complete the goal "Investigate the Cargo", an impossible task because those cargo containers self-destruct when you get close to the depot.

The Big Bang

Command: "The area is secure, report back to base."

Not referenced, and there's instead a different message being printed.

GTS Asimov: "We need to evacuate. The station is becoming very unstable."

Intended to trigger at the 75% HP mark, although it's also likely to also hit the 50% hull message at the same time.

"Get us out of here! It's gonna blow."

Not referenced, but there is a different message when the Asimov reaches 8% HP.

Tenderizer

(Beta 1): "TC seems to have placed our flight path near a patch of asteroids. Gotta love the Alliance, right?"

There is a conversation at the beginning of the mission. This line isn't referenced and thus won't get played. Additionally, the voice file "a2m5_c.wav" associated to this line isn't present.

The mission doesn't include an asteroid field.

(Alpha 2): "Ha! Yeah, those brainiacs at Command are really something."

Per above, except this text doesn't have a voice file associated with it.

"Delta wing coming in to assist."

Not referenced. Delta wing isn't present in this mission.

Beta 3: "On our way."

Alpha 2: "Let's wrap it up."

Galatea departs 23 seconds after all enemy ships are destroyed. One second later, Terran Command tells the pilots to stand by for further orders. 11 seconds after this, Beta and Alpha then make these messages.

These messages are masked by another event chain. About 18 seconds after the enemies are destroyed, Galatea announces its departure. 8 seconds after this, Alpha 1 receives the message saying new orders are coming through now. 8 seconds later, the red alert trigger activates starting the next mission before the two pilots start their departure message.

Also, Beta departs 4 seconds after the Galatea, and Alpha departs 8 seconds after Galatea.

An unused debrief appears if the condition "false" is met, with no associated audio:

This section removed

Shell Game

Because this is a "Red Alert" mission, briefing stages 2 and 3 don't get displayed. Briefing stage 2 has audio, but stage 3 doesn't.

This isn't a bug because this stage doesn't ever get shown in a Red Alert briefing. Please don't report it as one.

This section was also removed.

While briefing stage 2 has associated audio, it clearly mismatches the text.

Alpha Wing, you did an excellent job of escorting the Galatea. She reports that she is fine and is conducting her next operation.

Evangelist

Successfully completing the mission results in the following debriefing, but it is not shown because it uses a Red Alert transition. It incorrectly uses the failed mission debrief as the voice.

If you were playing this through a campaign, you would never see this. It would take you straight into the next mission.

Doomsday

Because this is a Red Alert mission, the second briefing stage is not shown. It has audio. If it were possible to see, it would have always appeared even if you skipped the previous mission by warping out before destroying the Eva.

Good job destroying the Eva.

Good Luck

The final mission in the game is a red alert mission, and also has a second briefing stage. The text itself is a placeholder reminding editors that Red Alert missions only have one briefing stage.

This stage will never be seen, and if you are looking at it, ignore it. Red Alert missions only have one stage.

However, said briefing has audio attached that doesn't match the above placeholder text.

(transcription): You did well to make it here Alpha 1 but it's not over yet. This all comes to nothing unless you take out the Lucifer.

Silence All Voices (Silent Threat)

Vasudan target got away, Alpha 1. Advising command to track and neutralize.

A leftover message with no trigger. Tdepart, each

Aries 3 has made the jump. Situation out of control. Return to base.

This message is played when Aries 1 exits the system. Aries 1 departs when it's completed a waypoint path, but it has no orders assigned (and thus sits still).

Of trivial note is that Libra and Virgo wings are also scheduled to warp out once Aries 1 departs.

Two targets escaped. GTI tracked and silenced the first vessel, but the second evaded our forces and informed the Vasudans of our operation. Your failure has jeopardized our treaty with the Vasudans. You are grounded until further notice.

Be aware of the positions of all ships in the area. You cannot afford to let any escape.

This debriefing (and recommendation) appears when Aries 1 escaped. As above, Aries 1 doesn't have proper instructions to depart.

Unused Videos

On the Silent Threat expansion CD, there are unused videos found in \extras\secret\supersecret.

Run-16S.EXE

If run, it plays a fullscreen video of a terran running down a corridor. The video plays in a loop.

This executable was part of Freespace development. It contains strings such as D:\Projects\freespace\CFile\cfile.cpp in reference to assertion errors.

ShipHit06.avi

Vasudan fighters flying near a Vasudan capital ship. A Shivan lands on one of the fighters, stamps on it, causing it to crash into the capital ship.

SpecCEat.avi

Some C-shaped monster eating a ragdoll.

Speccrun.avi

The same C-shaped monster now chasing that ragdoll.

TV-Fite5.avi

A fist-fight between a Terran and Vasudan. The weak Terran throws a few punches that barely pushes the Vasudan, who then grabs and drops the Terran in one move.

VKitch02.avi

In the future, the survival of Earth hangs precariously in balance. A race of humanoid aliens threaten to destroy all of humankind. Silently infiltrating a small city, the aliens capture a key operations base...

The base is a human kitchen. The Vasudan retrieves a box, removes a decapitated human head, places it on the counter. After inspecting it, it sings a quick song, and leaves the head to fall. A 40 second short, where the Vasudans capture a key Terran base: A Terran kitchen.

WINGTEST.AVI

"Roger wing leader, target acquired."