Ancient-Shivan War is a fan-made mod for the video game FreeSpace 2. The game is a prequel, set during the Ancient-Shivan conflict and was divided into three acts, the first chronicling the Ancients committing their latest act of genocide and their first contact with the Shivans, the second act portraying the Shivan advance into Ancient space, culminating with the Ancients shutting down the jump gate to the region of space where they encountered the Shivans (as alluded to in the main game) in attempt to prevent them from advancing further, and the third act which would've depicted the Ancients' last stand... was sadly never made.
This game includes examples of:
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Dear GOD, the Ancients are portrayed as being made from pure weapons-grade xenophobic Jerkass.
- The Bad Guy Wins: It’s a Foregone Conclusion. The Shivans completely curb-stomp the Ancient forces into a million overconfident bits, and cause the Sopul system to go supernova. Mind you, considering it’s the Ancients we’re talking about here the Shivans can only be considered “bad” because they stoop to genocide instead of just bombing them back to the Stone Age.
- The Battlestar: The ACa Akrotiri is an Ancient, juggernaut-sized carrier with a Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon that can incinerate a Cain-class cruiser in two shots and an Aesdherian destroyer in ten.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: And believe it or not, the Ancients are black and Shivans are grey as they seem almost justified in wiping out a genocidal, xenophobic race like the Ancients.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Ancients treat watching their destroyers bomb an entire species out of existence the same way you'd treat watching a fireworks display. Makes you wonder just
how many species they've destroyed. - The Cavalry: In mission 4, the Akrotiri arrives just in time to save the Apesokari from an Aesdherian carrier's attack. It's even lampshaded by the commander of the Akrotiri.Fleetmaster Im'halus: It was destined to be like this Apesokari. As the old proverb goes: when the need is highest, your saviour is near.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Ancients are really good tacticians, despite their occasional bursts of overconfidence and Honor Before Reason, and they should be as they've never been defeated before encountering the Shivans.
- One example involves them positioning their ships behind a jump node from which they know the Shivans will come through and proceeding to obliterate a few cruisers and corvettes without breaking a sweat.
- Another stroke of brilliant tactics involves an attempt to deprive the otherwise invulnerable Lucifer of supplies by destroying Shivan supply depots, the idea being to force the Lucifer to withdraw. Ultimately it doesn't work, but at least they tried something other than charging at it with guns blazing.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Once the Lucifer showed up you knew the Ancients were screwed.
- Dead Fic / Orphaned Series: The game was meant to be released in three separate acts. The first two acts, depicting the start of the war, were released, the second one even ended on a pseudo-cliffhanger, with the Ancients closing the Gamma Draconis jump gate, in the hope of preventing the Shivans from reaching their core worlds. Only for a title card to say: "If only it were that simple". Sadly, while the third act did enter production, it was abandoned by the original development team and no one else has experienced enough interest in it to finish it.
- Death by Irony: The Ancients destroy inferior species, and get destroyed by a superior species.
- It's further emphasised by comparing what the Aesdherians did when the Ancients curb-stomped their fleets, which is retreating to their homeworld in the hope of the Ancients leaving them be, with what the Ancients did when the Shivans curb-stomped the Ancient fleets, which is retreating to their homeworld in the hope that the Shivans would let them be. It didn't work either time.
- Do Not Call Shivans "Inferior": Because the Ancients totally got hosed for doing that.
- Ethereal Choir: One of the briefing themes has one.
- Evil vs. Evil: On one side we have the Ancients, who are portrayed as arrogant, xenophobic, genocidal and overconfident to the point of calling the Shivans "inferior". And on the other side we have the Shivans, who are bad because they're Shivans.
- Foregone Conclusion: The Sopul system going supernova, as it's what caused the nebula from FreeSpace 2. Also the closure of the Gamma Draconis jump gate.
- From Bad to Worse / Always a Bigger Fish: For the Ancients. First the Vassago-class destroyer shows up but the Ancients trash it with no effort, then the Demon-class destroyer shows up and trashes an Ancient destroyer but gets trashed in turn, then the Lucifer shows up and really starts trashing stuff, and then a Sathanas-class juggernaut shows up and shit really goes down, and then a whole bunch of Sathanas jugs show up and cause Sopul to go nova.
- The Great Offscreen War: The whole point of the mod was to defy this trope in regards to the war between the Ancients and Shivans.
- Hope Spot: The end of Act 2.If only it were that simple
- One-Woman Wail: The music in the opening cutscene makes use of it.
- The Right of a Superior Species: The Ancients embody this to an extreme degree, and end up getting their just desserts for it.
- Small Name, Big Ego: The Ancients view everyone as inferior, even species that are superior to them in some aspects such as the Aesderians (who, despite having barely discovered subspace, already had shield and beam weapon technology, something which the Ancients lack).
- Suicidal Overconfidence: To say the Ancients are arrogant is an understatement. As just one example, they don't call off the Akrotiri after its main gun failed to penetrate the Lucifer's shields, but force them to keep fighting despite having no chance of success.
- Running Gag: A Meta-example involving the Akrotiri. Varies other campaigns using the ship model such as BluePlanet often feature its massive main cannon being destroyed early in a fight. This series is no different.
- Villain Protagonist: Just to be clear, you're playing as an arrogant, xenophobic, genocidal, Nazi in all but name.
