I have some thoughts on the new hyperdrive technology after playing with it a bit more last night. First off, it's a powerful, and wonderful, addition to the game. A friend of mine popped in at Houston while I was in New Tokyo. "Zip, bang, boom," I was grouped with him in minutes. It might have taken a bit longer, but my concentration was focused on avoiding asteroids and such, so that I didn't really notice.

My own personal feeling is that such capabilities only belong on fairly large ships. It might even take up a chunk of cargo space (if possible.) I know that some fighters had the drive in the Star Wars movies, but I get the sense that such a device would require a huge chunk of power. Personally, I hope you expand the number of ships that utilize the hyperdrive. Here's my own candidates list:
- All VHF's
- All Gunboats
- The top 25% of freighters (you changed the cargo caps, so I can't relate them anymore.) This might include the Humpback, Dromedary, Corvette, Millenium Falcon, and Marine Assault Drop Ship.

I think it's important to leave the lighter fighters and lesser freighters untouched in this regard. The fighters rely more on their maneuverability, and they'll want to keep their engine-kill. Sad to say, but my main excuse for excluding the lesser freighters is simply a matter of balance. Once you have a hyperdrive, lane disruptions are a non-issue. However, it can also be argued that these freighters are built from an economical standpoint, and a need for space savings, and so lack bulky "luxury features" like the hyperdrive. If there's any way that Hyperdrives can be made buyable, they should be. This gives players the option of keeping their engine-kill ability.

Anyone who's ever fought to dock at a tradelane ring with a White Star or Gunboat would sacrifice important limbs for a hyperdrive.

Edited by - Ether Dragon on 05-06-2003 20:22:30

Ether D. u had a stroke of ingenuity in last post! How did the hyperdrive works? by combining two engine mounted as one...if we could create anm engine that would combine characterstics of 2 engines in one package...that could act like a single hyperdrive engine...hmm for here to warp engines its jut 1 step. gonna try it tonight and see what i can get out of it.

MD,

The TIE Defender no longer have class10 gun slots! Will there ever be any VHF TIEs with class10 guns slots? I miss my old TIE Defender!!

um.. i was just wonderin if the hyperdrive thing did anything special because i bought the y-wing and i couldn't find anything really special if there is somethin special i didn't no how to activate it and can u tell me if there is

if your not wasted the day is

The hyperdrive replaces your ability to use "engine-kill." Hit the "z" key, and hold on tight. My guess is that it won't work if you replace the engines.

Amazing mod, first of all, and I can't wait to try out this new version, but I do have one request: Its awesome having all these new ships to choose from, but I notice alot of them are really too powerful when fighting against the AI (haven't played MP with this mod and dueled yet).. what I suggest if maybe have enemies use these ships as well as you. For example, instead of encountering 4 Red Hessians all in Sabres, you could have 1 in a B-Wing, one in an A-Wing, one in a gunboat, etc. or whatever is feasible. Its great fun being able to get all these amazing ships, but it kind of detracts from the experience when you are the only one in space flying these new ships, and everyone else is flying ships from original Freelancer. You could even tailor specific ships to specific factions (Slave1 to Bounty Hunters, X-Wing to military/police), and other ships as available to more then one, or all factions. Adding variety to ships you encounter would make your mod even more fun then it is already.
Oh also, did you figure out how to fix NPC colllision damage to make it agree with yours? The latest version I played was .9c, and a collision would usually take off most or all of my shields, and a collision for any computer player would take off next to nothing. Keep up the good Work!!!

A lot of the factions are using the new ships to some extent. I've seen the AI tooling around in Starfurys, Starvipers, and gunboats. I don't doubt we'll see a wider selection as MD gets the time to implement it. He has to be careful to not go overboard, however. He got a lot of negative feedback when he did this earlier. Players are attached to the factions as they stand now. We expect to see Corsairs in Legionaires, Centuriouns, and Titans, not A-wings, X-Wings, and B-wings. Changing the ships a particular faction flies takes away from their character.

I think where this would work best is with the factions that share a particular ship series. The Mollys and the Liberty Rogues both share the pirate ships, so maybe give the Mollys a new set of ships. There a lot of corporations using the civillian fighters, which makes for some fertile changing grounds.

There are no TIEs with class10 slots! Not even the VHF! Noooo~~!!

I had two opposing ideas, both of which I like and thought I'd share.

The first idea stems from MD's mention of warp drives being the next step after hyperdrives. I couldn't help but start thinking about a Star Trek alternative universe mod. Star Fleet Command 2 offers a huge number of ship models. How hard would it be to incorporate them into Freelancer? Could you add weapon hardpoints to the existing models as a shortcut and then feed them in? I picture Kzinti Drone Cruisers hurling waves of gunboat missiles, Romulans firing tracking globes of plasma, Klingons firing green (Rheinland) disruptor bolts, and the Enterprise firing Kusari Large Gunboat Cannon weapons (they have a very photon torpedo look.) Add in warp drives, and you're all set.

My alternative thought: maybe it's time to ditch all the movie-referenced ships. Don't get me wrong, I love my Starfury and Y-wing, but this is Freelancer. The different ships are at odds with one another, and they don't quite fit. With the increase in ship models being made available, perhaps it's time to start replacing the Star Wars/B5/Alien ships with models tailored for Freelancer. I happen to think that the Wing Commander series ships are perfectly acceptable for Freelancer, however. Freelancer seems more like a continuation of the game series.

I guess the best way to sum it up is that I wouldn't mind seeing the universe become more focused. Start making sure the ships that are incorporated fit with the atmosphere of the game you're creating. My own opinion is that all of these random ships pulled from all over are starting to detract from the game. Some of the ships just don't seem to fit. The Assault Drop Ship, is a good example. I know it's origin, and I just can't buy into it as a freighter. As much as I appreciate your info card on the Y-Wing, I didn't really buy your suggestion that they were created by a joint Kusari/Rheinland team. I like these ships because theyr'e cool, but in the back of my head, I'm thinking "this isn't right." Your goal was to rebalance Freelancer, not make it a movie fanboi's dream-come-true.

If you were to take me up on my suggestion, you would view any new ships you find with an eye towards replacing the exising movie ships, instead of simply adding them alongside them. Make sure to give advanced warning so players can exchange their ships if they need to. The major benefit of doing this is that you remove all preconceived notions about a ship. You won't have fans clamouring about how it doesn't match their expectations, and "change this" or "add that."

Also, maybe it's just me, but I never see a day when players should start having their own battleships and cruisers. It lacks any sense of reality. What nation would sell one of their most powerful and expensive weapons to a private individual? When is the last time you heard about Bill Gates going for a cruise on his private Battle Yacht?

MD, or anyone who's gone ahead and done it, please let us know how the new server patch deals with the Rebalance mod. I've been looking forward to the server patch for a long time, but given that I've gone this long without it, I think I prefer playing Rebalance rather than a few stability hassles (my server players might disagree.)

Anyone else get choppy sound with 1.04?

thnks for the help ether its rally kewl to fly so fast do u no how fast u can go with that on another thing is when i was in kasari airspace cound't find much new stuff like engines power plants and such all i saw was new ships which most of them were really good

if your not wasted the day is

another thing is when i was in kasari airspace cound't find much new stuff like engines power plants and such all i saw was new ships which most of them were really good one thing that kinda was wird was having them labeled "heavy fighters" when they only had 6 gun mounts and a turrent when a very heavy one has 9 and 1 couldn't u make the "heavy fighters" more stronger by placin a weapon mount or 2 more on and the very heavy fighters can't place lvl 10 weapons which since they are the best ones shouldn't they?

if your not wasted the day is

1.4b didn't add any new equipment, only new ships. If you're updating from a previous version, everything will be the same. If you're just trying to find equipment in general, I can't help you much. I don't recall MD ever spelling out the location for each custom part. If you have a spare million lying around, the best I can tell you is to head for Crete or Malta. Pretty sure they sell the best of anything custom the mod offers for equipment. In particular, you'll want to grab the Spellchecker Mk. IV and Heavy Grammar Turrets. :p