*SEAL reaches into his big bag of toys and pulls out an idea from 2001...*
Way back when we were ooohing an aaahhing over OFP 1.3, Radiosilence and I dreamt up this cool idea - a Resistance campaign! How novel! Imagine that, taking the resistance units and using them for something!
Then, after we had drawn up the plot and were starting to get people together, BIS goes and releases the official resistance campaign. Talk about a kick in the face. We had this all thought up before they announced it...and naturally we dropped it like a hot potato when they did.
But, for the greater glory of OFP, I relate to you the unofficial resistance campaign (at least what I can remember of it!).
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So here's the story:
You're a young 20something journalist, a native of Everon. Your dream was to study abroad, expand your horizons, and see more of the world than your little country has to offer - so you've been somewhere in the West studying at one of the big journalism schools (Colombia, Syracuse, whatever). So you finish school, and decide that you're going to come back home to your beloved Everon, but you hang around for a few more years to pay off loans and such.
It's during this time that an oppresive military government comprised of some of the more undesireable characters in Everonian politics takes over, complete with Soviet backing (they want to turn the island into a military outpost or something - they have a vested interest in controlling the region and it's a hell of a lot easier to do it this way) - they're in control but have the muscle of a good number of Soviet troops on the island backing them up. There are no NATO forces here at all - another interesting twist. You hear about this, and of course you're pissed off.
But, being a journalist, you decide that you could help out more if you headed down there to do a series of stories for the papers about it - really dig deep and relay the whole tale to the rest of the world, because they have no idea how bad things have gotten in Everon. Naturally the government puts the squeeze on any free press, so you take it up as your quest.
So you get back to Everon and look up a few local journalist friends of yours and they point you in the right direction - you write up a few in-depth articles without the commies coming after you, but then you get the big break - a local resistance leader has heard about you and has agreed to let you interview him.
Talk about publicity! So you go to the meeting place (covertly of course) and you meet a contact who gives you more info - using that, you find the leader in a house and sit down to interview him. But, somehow Ivan found out that this guy was in town and launches a raid to bag him - troops storm the house and there's a gun battle, and you're caught in the middle of it.
When you come out from behind a desk, you see that everyone is dead, except for the resistance leader - he's been shot up in a major way but he tells you to get the hell out of there, because more likely than not the Russians are coming for YOU next, since you were seen with these guys (whoever their informant was could have told them that).
So what do you do? Find the resistance and hope they take you in.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In short, that's mission 1. It could be done in a really long intro, or a mission with cutscenes and suchlike. It should draw you into the story. Where it goes from there, who knows.
So you are sort of unwillingly thrust into the role of a fighter and not just a journalist. We had thought up things like NATO special forces intervention gone awry, raids, sniper missions, all kinds of cool things - more detailed and "guerrilla-like" than your average OFP:R missions. Things like blowing up the cars of the puppet government's officials, infiltrating a parade held for a city mayor and causing all sorts of mayhem and destruction...etc.
We wanted this to be story-driven, but with plenty of action; more than just ambushing stuff and taking back towns. If I remember right, the resistance was supposed to be multifaceted as well, and one of the factions that had joined into this loose coalition would go renegade, playing all kinds of hell with things. There woud obviously be a pretty thick plot in all the intros and outtros - and you'd be privvy to most of it because of your unusual position.
So now I put the question to you, readers: since BIS made the official one, is something like this old news? Does it interest you at all?
If so I can certainly get more of the details and stuff, but I figured the above is good enough for a general overview.