Thu Mar 20, 2003 1:13 pm
Modding or Fixing a crappy game?
My friend and I eagerly reserved our copies of Freelancer well before March. We had waited a very long time for this game. Longing for it ever since the demise of Privateer online. I personally was sick and tired of being disappointed with half-baked space sims that tried to recapture the essence of Privateer. Jumpgate was a total waste of time, and although Earth and Beyond is very pretty to look at; there is no point to the game. So as Freelancer was nearing its release date, our hopes were high that finally we would have the game we always wanted: a multiplayer Privateer.
We left Software ETC that day with our heads held high, for in our hands we held the holy grail of gaming. Surely, the last game Chris Roberts had anything to do with could not be anything less than perfection. Even though Microsoft had gotten their evil and tainted hands on the project, I figured there was no way they could ruin this game.
We played Freelancer all day and all night, and it was a blast. However, it quickly became apparent that after you had enough money to fully equip a very heavy fighter that the multiplayer aspect of the game became a very slow paced deathmatch. And what point was there to kill another player? Well besides bragging rights… none. There is little to no penalty for death. Once you have money, you cant lose it. So eventually, when everyone has a Titan or Eagle, the servers will just become deathmatch servers. There won’t be much point in leaving New York, everyone might as well just stay there and kill each other over and over again. This was defiantly not what we were looking for when we dished out $53 each for this game.
So what to do? After reading all of the great tutorials and modding info in this site, we excitedly started to mod freelancer. The idea was to basically make freelancer more difficult. We dubbed our project Siege Perilous, after the very unforgiving Ultima Online server. Made NPCs stronger, made the AI smarter. Changed the prices of everything so it took a week or so to get a very heavy fighter instead of 3 or 4 hours. On top of that we figured we could easily throw in expensive Gunboats for players to buy. All of this was done to extend the multiplayer experience. This would finally give veteran players a place to test their skills. Thus giving an unfulfilling game a new chance at life.
It only took a few days to tweak all of liberty space. Yet no matter how many INI files we searched thru, there was no way to increase the penalty for death. It was around then I realized what we were doing. We were no longer modding the game… we were trying to fix it. It made me sick to think I spent $53 for a game that I had to go out of my way to fix. Not to mention that they didn’t release a single utility to make the process any easier. They left so many mundane things hard coded, such as the weapon descriptions; it felt as if they had built a giant fortress around their crappy game. I had to ask myself, is it really worth the time and effort to break down these barriers? The answer is easy, I already waste too much of my life playing games… why waste more time trying to correct the mistakes of others.
I don’t blame Digital Anvil; I know that gamers as a whole have turned into a bunch of wussies. I think it all really started with Everquest, Verant figured out that if you make a game where you cant lose it’ll keep players coming back for more. It’s the latest generation of gamers really, the ones who didn’t grow up in the golden age of video gaming. They don’t understand that losing is a part of every game. If you can’t lose, then you really cant win either. Unfortunately, many games these days only allow you to win. Freelancer is one of these games.
Yeah, I’m sure ill receive a lot of flak for my words here today. But what I’ve said needed to be said. I’m sure many of you will claim freelancer is a multiplayer privateer: with its static economic system, constant spawning of retarded NPC baddies to kill. However, the major difference is that playing privateer was a challenge and it was lots of fun overcoming that challenge. Privateer was not a linear game, while Freelancer is. I don’t care how good the new mouse/keyboard flight system is… it just doesn’t feel right without my joystick. What is the point in owning a joystick if I cant use it?
What bugs me the most about Freelancer is it’s so damn linear. Liberty -> Britonia -> Kusari -> Rhineland -> The outer most sectors. The ships and weapons get better as you go along. The next ship is really just an armor and reactor upgrade to the last. So when I was modding this game that was yet another thing I was trying to change… I really felt as if I had taken on the burden of changing every last aspect of this game. Which is something I should have never had to do.
How far do you really think Microsoft will let us MOD this game at any rate? Just look at the dismal progress made with StarLancer. Even if someone made a decent MOD for FreeLancer, because of the crappy way they set things up, it will be really easy to cheat. And cheating just ruins the game for everyone.
Right now I am considering putting my copy of Freelancer on Ebay before it becomes as worthless as the rest of my games sitting on my shelf.
We left Software ETC that day with our heads held high, for in our hands we held the holy grail of gaming. Surely, the last game Chris Roberts had anything to do with could not be anything less than perfection. Even though Microsoft had gotten their evil and tainted hands on the project, I figured there was no way they could ruin this game.
We played Freelancer all day and all night, and it was a blast. However, it quickly became apparent that after you had enough money to fully equip a very heavy fighter that the multiplayer aspect of the game became a very slow paced deathmatch. And what point was there to kill another player? Well besides bragging rights… none. There is little to no penalty for death. Once you have money, you cant lose it. So eventually, when everyone has a Titan or Eagle, the servers will just become deathmatch servers. There won’t be much point in leaving New York, everyone might as well just stay there and kill each other over and over again. This was defiantly not what we were looking for when we dished out $53 each for this game.
So what to do? After reading all of the great tutorials and modding info in this site, we excitedly started to mod freelancer. The idea was to basically make freelancer more difficult. We dubbed our project Siege Perilous, after the very unforgiving Ultima Online server. Made NPCs stronger, made the AI smarter. Changed the prices of everything so it took a week or so to get a very heavy fighter instead of 3 or 4 hours. On top of that we figured we could easily throw in expensive Gunboats for players to buy. All of this was done to extend the multiplayer experience. This would finally give veteran players a place to test their skills. Thus giving an unfulfilling game a new chance at life.
It only took a few days to tweak all of liberty space. Yet no matter how many INI files we searched thru, there was no way to increase the penalty for death. It was around then I realized what we were doing. We were no longer modding the game… we were trying to fix it. It made me sick to think I spent $53 for a game that I had to go out of my way to fix. Not to mention that they didn’t release a single utility to make the process any easier. They left so many mundane things hard coded, such as the weapon descriptions; it felt as if they had built a giant fortress around their crappy game. I had to ask myself, is it really worth the time and effort to break down these barriers? The answer is easy, I already waste too much of my life playing games… why waste more time trying to correct the mistakes of others.
I don’t blame Digital Anvil; I know that gamers as a whole have turned into a bunch of wussies. I think it all really started with Everquest, Verant figured out that if you make a game where you cant lose it’ll keep players coming back for more. It’s the latest generation of gamers really, the ones who didn’t grow up in the golden age of video gaming. They don’t understand that losing is a part of every game. If you can’t lose, then you really cant win either. Unfortunately, many games these days only allow you to win. Freelancer is one of these games.
Yeah, I’m sure ill receive a lot of flak for my words here today. But what I’ve said needed to be said. I’m sure many of you will claim freelancer is a multiplayer privateer: with its static economic system, constant spawning of retarded NPC baddies to kill. However, the major difference is that playing privateer was a challenge and it was lots of fun overcoming that challenge. Privateer was not a linear game, while Freelancer is. I don’t care how good the new mouse/keyboard flight system is… it just doesn’t feel right without my joystick. What is the point in owning a joystick if I cant use it?
What bugs me the most about Freelancer is it’s so damn linear. Liberty -> Britonia -> Kusari -> Rhineland -> The outer most sectors. The ships and weapons get better as you go along. The next ship is really just an armor and reactor upgrade to the last. So when I was modding this game that was yet another thing I was trying to change… I really felt as if I had taken on the burden of changing every last aspect of this game. Which is something I should have never had to do.
How far do you really think Microsoft will let us MOD this game at any rate? Just look at the dismal progress made with StarLancer. Even if someone made a decent MOD for FreeLancer, because of the crappy way they set things up, it will be really easy to cheat. And cheating just ruins the game for everyone.
Right now I am considering putting my copy of Freelancer on Ebay before it becomes as worthless as the rest of my games sitting on my shelf.
(actually Freelancer is primarily a single player game). And considering that Freelancer is nothing more than an average game...