Yet another very long pause in updates on the website. It has been another crazy semester to be sure. It is nearly over and thats a very good thing. BlackWater Operations continues to plod along adding some new team members and getting some serious work done.

Our two latest contributing members have been ShadowWolf, involved with a number of other projects, and Ace an outstanding community member having been present around the FreeSpace community almost as long as I have been. Both of these guys have been working feaverishly on missions, Ace in particular has completed a great number of important scenarios and has done some extra work on new pilot images as well as helping work out the complex plotline.

So the good and bad news is that BlackWater Operations won't be done for Christmas but the good news is that the first half of the campaign is almost complete leaving some less substantial components for the other half of the campaign to finish off. This doesn't mean that we're halfway being done, this means that we've completed half of the missions and brought them to a release state. Work on the remaining set should commence this holiday break and we may have something coming in the new year. Roll on 2004!

Our boys at Galactic Terran Vasudan Intelligence have rustled up some intelligence info on the Sol Coalition of Planets fighter that is codenamed: Gefion. Check the intellignce updates

April.20.2003
The Latest Updates

We've called in some reinforcements to help finish BlackWater Operations missions. We'll be introducing them later on but in the meantime here is a release update.

Elements of the team have been hard at work creating the missions for the final campaign. There is going to be roughly fourty missions in the final release. You'll see about three quarters of those depending on how you play the campaign through. You'll need at least two play throughs to catch both sides of the story and while there is some repetition, we are looking at ways to make that as slim as possible.

MOD work has slowed considerably in the last months because most of the content is complete. Minor tweaks by our MOD team have yielded some excellent results and hopefully people will be pleased with the final results. We estimate that the campaign will be done by summer and that we'll be able to release before school starts in September. As everyone knows, hitting release dates is impossible so no date will be given. Until that time, sit tight and await release!

A couple of people have let me know that they now have some additional mirrors for the BlackWater Ops demo campaign available. Special thanks to these and others who have made mirrors available to all kinds of people. Its much appreciated!

And now the downloads.
Courtesy of elorran:
BWO Demo Core Download (3.81mb)
BWO Demo Voice Download (6.58mb)

Courtesy of Skippy:
BWO Demo Core Download (3.81mb)
BWO Demo Voice Download (6.58mb)

The BlackWater Operation's Demo is now complete and ready for download. Here's a list of the features:
- Four action packed missions
- Compelling storyline that sets up the story for the main campaign
- Full voice acting for all in-mission messages

And now without further delay. I bring to you the BlackWater Operations Demo. Its got a two part download to help the slower speed modems. The Core Download is required for play. It contains the small number of MOD's, graphics, missions, and table files to facilitate play. The Voice download quite obviously adds voice to all of the missions and its an optional download. Enjoy!

BWO Demo Core Download (3DDownloads - 3.81mb)
BWO Demo Voice Download (3DDownloads - 6.58mb)

Yes, the BWO Demo is virtually ready for release. Missing voice files have been accounted for, bugs have been worked out and the demo is nearly ready. We're doing a very final round of testing to ensure that there are no major errors in the release. I'm confident that the demo will release by the end of the week barring any major disasters.

In other news, we now have a virtual army of mission designers working on the main campaign of BlackWater Ops. Although we've hit a snag with a final list of missions, the main campaign looks well on its way to being completed. It will be months yet before release but with an array of MOD's virtually complete and a list of missions as long as my arm, it looks like everyone will be in for a good time.

Release method for the main campaign will include several downloadable files which will include the core files. Extras like voice will either be recorded during final release and made available later or done before release and made available as a separate download. The demo will release with a core and voice pack.

November.19.2002
Sorry for Delays

Sorry about the delays people. This years semester consumed a considerable portion of my time and the time of the other team members. Things have been delayed but definately never halted. The demo has completed a round of beta testing. We've run into troubles, the foremost being the need to record a couple more voice lines and those voice actors no longer being available. Now we have to get creative. But the good news is that you should see the demo by Christmas time. Not exactly a release date, but about as close to one as you'll get from us.

The actual main campaign is still in heavy development. We've got a good handle on the first 10 or so missions. Approximately a 1/3rd of the campaign. We hope to have those more or less complete and in a release package as soon as we can. Until later!

We're looking for someone who can (re)skin ships. In particular, we're looking to change the look of the textures on a number of the Sol Military fighters (including older vessels like the Apollo). If you have some texture skills and some example work, please contact myself by clicking here.

We've got some good news and some better news.

The first good news is that the BWO demo is very close to being finished. We'll probably run some beta testing with a few playtesters in the coming couple of weeks and then release the demo. Nearly all the voices have been recoreded although a small number have so far not been done yet. My guess is that the testing on the demo and the final recordings will come into place about the same time.

In terms of content, the demo features:

• Four action packed missions
• Bobboau's GVI Cairo station plus tweaked ship stats
• You play the character of Aidan Mallory in a character driven plot
• Experience a set of prequel events that set things in motion for the main plot
• Fully voice recorded missions

The other good news is that we're doing quite well on finishing the first half of the BWO Main Campaign. We've cut some excess missions to ensure that what we do present is top notch. Expect about 30 missions from us when we're done.

The BWO Demo is nearly ready for release and is undergoing some final testing and polishing stages. To further enhance the demo and campaign experience, we hope to get as many voice actors as possible to fill out the roles. Particularly, voices of Admiral Kepler, Commander Mallory and some of the BWO squadron pilots will play larger roles than others but your help is needed regardless of how big and how small.

BlackSheep, of The Babylon Project fame, has kindly offered to deal with the voice actors for us. So, his instructions are to record the line: "Alpha wing, get in position. Beta wing, cover us. No one to be left, get them all". That should be recorded in 44 Khz, 16 bits, MONO and sent to his e-mail address here. Check the forum for additional comments.

April.1.2002
First Look at Sol

Shockingly enough, this isn't an April Fools joke. The very first look at a vessel used by the Sol Coalition of Planets (SCP) is now available in the Intelligence section of the website.

The new ship is called the Vanir and its a 95 meter long behemoth of a heavy bomber. Its also one of the largest player flyable ships made available in a FreeSpace 2 campaign.

Once again, we've been busy with so many things including this campaign that time devoted to the website has been extraordinarily low. As before, we haven't given up, and this project is far from cancelled. Today I'd like to unveil the Intelligence section of the website.

Available there are the profiles of four GTVA ships that you are both new to and familar with. Consider this page a work in progress with a number of enhancements coming to the pages later on. Expect some of the information to change as we continue to balance the new and modified ships. Closer to release, we'll start to reveal some of the craft that the Sol Coalition uses so stay tuned for that.

A total of eight new screen shots have been posted in the screen shots section. All of Page 2 is new. The first three shots are from early versions of the BWO Demo which will lay out some of the backplot for the rest of the main campaign. The demo is not yet ready but we will let everyone know when it is.

We should have some profiles of some of the new ships available soon, but expect Sol ships to be kept under wraps for a while yet.

Our operatives have managed to aquire the gun camera footage of a test combat mission involving a new Vasudan tactical fighter craft. Our operative revealed that it is currently designated GVF Selket and its the Vasudan's latest and most unconventional craft yet designed.

GVF Selket Image

Our operatives are currently trying to discover information about the crafts capabilities. Keep checking this channel.

Welcome to the new BlackWater Operations website. After several weeks of work on the design and the content, the new site is ready to bring new information on the final design cycle to finish the campaign and get it out to fans.

Unfortunately, Christmas and the workup to the holidays has been hectic and so no new information is currently available on ships or weapons. But we urge you to take a look at the new screen shots section which has at least one new ship shown in quite a bit of detail and alot of nice looking nebulas.

More content updates should be arriving on the site shortly including new fiction, a rundown on your fellow wingmen, and as much information as we can give you at the moment about the new ships in BlackWater Operations. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.