In a very deep fantasy space game I'd like to see a lot more and diffirent ailiens, to make the imagination sufficient I suggest taking inspiration from smaller animals which live in sea. I'd guess a typical alien which lived in an asteroid field would look pretty much like crawlfish with hooks to grab their way between the asteroids. And I'd say jellyfish and octipus like aliens for the more open gas nebuales or giant liquid blobs in space.

Ailiens should be a very important part of the game, they might be your livestock which you might hunt, your predatory enemy or your "hunting dog" or companion in some way. They might help in the prosess of making eg. CO2 to carbon and oxygen or other chemical stuff and might give an environmental effect to an area. A thought also bypassed me, could they be intelligent and help you or compete with you economical, they might design equipment and DNA for your alien companions?

Parts of a ships might be organic, like bacterias which transforms burnt fuel to new fuel or something like that, but then it gets down to non-visible creatures which is only an ingridient. However they might also replace some hydrolics and other machinery.

Using Elite and Privateer as a basic plan for FL2 most have forgotten the game we are trying to copy with all these changes. Excluding the space and ships categories, the game we need to copy is ProtoStar. You had a ship you could crew, you could mine, scavange and fight for equipment. There were many races of which you added some odd ones to your crew as: medical offier, engineer, weapons specialist, cargo specialist, etc.

FL2 needs to be scaleable. Let it get a big as WE want, not MS. Different space maps and the means to get there need to be based on money transfer. You shouldn't be able to use gates, ports and mooring for free. This makes you trade or hunt. Sightseers need not play.

The two biggest aftermarket games for continued service to the gamers are: Freelancer and Red Baron. Keep the new game simple as possible and encourage MODS through a Microsoft development websight. That way, periodic upgrades via Mods are standardized. Player sights should also have Mods for their unique universe and play requirements.

FL2 should be playable for 10 to 20 years...growing all the time.

Franco
Springfield, VA

IF you try to copy any other space sim game to turn it into freelancer2, all you'll get is a copy of an outdated game that has adulterated Freelancer.
If you want to make a Freelancer 2, you have to keep it "Freelancer" and add to that.
Not only will you have problems with adulterating Freelancer, but you also possibly face lawsuit by those companies who made the other games including but not limited to Microsoft.
MS will allow you to mod the game, but they wont allow you to hack the source code. They'll butcher you for that.

I think some of the good ideas from other space sims should be used. Who where the smart guy who made first person shooters, I guess he could sue a lot of people nowadays. However, I think it is important to make it a bit different in controls and commands, the challenges can't be the same.

More on to that exo-suit in space idea, I really like the thought of that.

I mentioned Final Fantasy 7:Advent Children earlier, the thing with with Advent Children is that characters are able to jump VERY high, I think some similar effects used in Advent children could be used in a game where you fight in space to make it more action-filled. I am especially thinking about the character animations and camera movement.

Two hominid like creatures fighting in an asteroid field with little gravity would be just like THAT COOL . It would be very important to make the settings in the asteroid field dramatic if so, I like the thought of dust swirling around them when they get near asteroids, some fire and explosions from destroyed shipwrecks and asteroids in all sizes floating around maybe being destructable obstacles like those blocks Sephiroth throw at Cloud in one of the scenes of Advent Children.

I like those games with simple controls, however it is boring if those four buttons only have four functions! I think it is important that there are simple controls to encourage players to play, but they get bored if they aren't learning anything new, so I think that either it should be many combos which could be used creativily or achievable "equipment" or something that would add buttons to the controls.

I think that you should be able to walk around stations and planets.

Yeah, I was really dissapointed when I realised that you can't walk around on planets and stations. also the game physics are totally exagerated, planet, station and star dimensions are completley twisted, none of them are at scale compared to the system size. Joysticks and controllers lack as well. No more docking rings, they're a pain in the ****, just dock directly through the atmosphere !!! Own a house on planets where you can stock your ships....or even own a BASE !!! WHY NOT EVEN OWN A PLANET !!! A new story with the arrival of Coalition sleeper ships, the second nomad war or the return of the Don'Kevach. I had some other ideas but I can't remember them for now but I might send another post for those ideas. Ciao ^^ !

At this present date, I am working on a major mod conversion that brings the nomads back...along with their mother ship. But this is set somewhere in the future beyond the end of the story line.
They have made a comeback and are invading most of the house systems . There seems to be no end to the encounters. (Especially useful in multiplayer to help prevent those "campers" from harassing newbies) The nomads are nastier than they were before...same ships, but more firepower.
Also in in the plan is a specialized encounter system where a final battle will take place with the nomads and the mother ship. However, the nomads are not alone and this new alien race is allied with them (since the nomad collective gained control over them).
The final battle should be "repeatable" in multiplayer. It is meant to be difficult and places a team of Multiplayers in a situation that is against the odds. (pretty much the way it was during the mission story line)..suicidal.
This particular "encounter" system is pretty much complete with the exception of adding mission created (destructable) solars, planets and a target star.
Then the tedious task of developing the mission must be accomplished.

Players are led by rumors toward an outer system where they will find a single station where the mission will be offered. When the mission is accepted, they are then given a certain "time limit" to disable the mother ship. During this time, they will face incredible odds as nomads and their allies defend the mother ship as it heads towad the firing point to take its shot at the star.
The "FREELANCERS" Must find a way...or the system will be lost.
This is where they make their final stand against the nomad mother ship. They must stop it at all cost. Billions of lives in that system are at stake.

Don Benitez Missing son is still yet to be found and returned home for the lucky one who will collect the 6 million credit reward. But finding him won't be easy, and getting him out will be even more difficult.

I would Play Freelancer So Much more If the Universe Was to Scale. I Hate the way you can fly between planets in about 10 minutes, it makes me almost nausous.
Also, a more dynamic Economy, With Stocks and Shares and Random Events (I Know Grover's Working on Somthing Like This)
Another Thing Would be a Wider Range of Ships, For Example, you can Customize your ship's look and feel. E.g. How it handles, Improved Engines.
If there's going to be realistic scale then there needs to be some kind of Warp System. i was thinking Tradelanes in a different skin, but only one at each end, and instead of reaching a constant speed, you continue accelerating until you reach about halfway (so it feels like you are being slingshotted through space)
Another idea I've had, would be a little Icon Comes up in the Corner of the Player you're talking to (private Chat) Like when NPCs talk to you.
I would also Desperatly like 3d Maps and Systems. I Hate the way that the Universe Map is on one plane. it's so Dull and Unrealistic, Perhaps a map similar to that of EVE (but no quite so big) and that kind of Scale as well. making Freelancer Massivley Online As Well would Be Awesome. it would mean... Well the game becomes more dynamic and player based.
Ok, Final thing (This really bugs me) Why do Criminals get the best weapons in the game? Yes we all know the Outcasts are skilled pilots and engineers, but why can they trash every single house faction in seconds with thier amazingly superior Guns? I suggest that all the Guns be balanced out, but so they still have differences.
Has anyone ever considered contacting microsoft? i know the chances of a Freelancer sequel are slim, but there's a tiny chance they might listen. Even if they didn't, I'm sure we could get in contact with some of the old DA Coders. Now the company has gone out of business, they might just help us out.
I reckon that If the whole of the TLR modding community got together, we could make a Decent Sequel to Freelancer, 3D nav map and all. Don't say it can't be Done. I've changed the Interface by accident before, you can't completley hard code somthing into a game. I reckon we could do this!

Well considering I created this topic 3 years ago, back when I was a moderator of religious magnitude, I get 400th post. I'd post some ideas for freelancer 2, but there isn't going to be one. There was going to be one at one stage, DA were actually working on it shortly after FL's release. However MS pulled the pin quite early on in pre-production.
Not many people knew that, in fact it's the first time I've ever mentioned it, straight from Bargib's mouth, who got it straight from Digital Anvil. So there you go, a snippit of Freelancer lore.

My apoligies if I'm bumping this thread, but I'd like to post my rantings about freelancer.

1: The multi-player system sucks. Why don't they try something more like battle.net for starcraft? The reason I say this is that I wanted to show a friend my account, but I couldn't, because I didn't have my comp with me at the time.

2: The trade-lanes are a bit unrealistic. If you read the info on them, they say they "enable superluminial travel". Well, even if they travel at a speed of 150000 m/s, that isn't even close. Light travels at 300,000 m/s. Try that on for size.

3: Wingmen. I play Vegastrike, Privateer remake, and the entire EV series, based of of old space-based games, and they have wingmen. Why not freelancer?

4: Kill engines (Z). Hmm. Tad unrealistic, eh? Why bother buying a 6,000 credit thruster when you can get the same thing with a 1000 credit one that you start off with? (BTW, I know that 6000 credits isn't that much later on, but during the storyline, it's actually quite a bit . . .)

5: Longer storyline. This is my main gripe with freelancer. I loved the storyline, and am playing it now for a third time. Note that I got freelancer less than 3 weeks ago. Why not have a couple more storylines? Or maybe a storyline more like EV Nova, with multiple choices that affect how you play? Play as the Outcasts, Corsairs, Liberty Navy/LSF, Rhienland police perhaphs?

Anyway, that's my 25 cents.

Free lancer Research Mod Notes

-- Leave original game pretty much intact -- just add and build and flavour better -- nothing wrong with not fixing somethin that aint broke -- just needs tweaking

-- Freelancer needs to resemble a 800 year old civilization --- old abandoned bases -- used ships -- hidden colonies

Lead in Idea --- Alot of smaller Sleeper Ships also escaped with the Main 5 -- they were populated by survivors and remnants of refuge populations fleeing the coalition -- that accounts for all the new flavor system's --- Explore new System's look for Coalition signs ???

Lead in Idea --- Corsair and Outcast young couple meet and fall in love ( see one of the news bulletins ) -- her father is chief artifact researcher for corsair's -- spots reference to cardamine in dom kavash records how it prevents nomad infestation and how to cure addiction -- drug now traded as a diet pill and long life herbal remedy and outcasts free to expand -- Outcast's and Corsair's cleaned up huge --- they created a couple of soap opera's --- The Young and The Outcast & Crete General Hospital -- made a fortune on the Vid Channels Selling weight lose cardamine supplements --

Lead in Idea --- GMG expands into new found sigma system's and looks to become the fifth great house -- possible add on to colonization and base set up mission's -- Stop nomad infestation of GMG ???

Lead in Idea -- have a group approach and want your help setting up new colony --- run supplies and missions for new colony set up trade routes back to Sirius -- Explore region for new bases and Colonies

Lead in Idea --- get the gang back together -- juni yada yada -- to save the heart of sirius from the destruction of a Rogue Black Hole Launched by the Nomad's -- lead a great trail thru dangerous territories to discover the secrets of the dom kavash and Save the day -- yada yada -- I know its a Flinx story -- my apologies to Allen Dean Foster -- lots of good freelancer Ideas in his stuff --

Lead in Idea --- Coalition forces sabotaged the Hispania -- Algerian or Berber ?? contingent then split off and are in new system's ?? -- building communication device to earth or some such yada yada ??

Reopen -- underground base on Sparta -- other hidden bases similar -- see dock anywhere idea below

Design a way to land on planets with out docking rings --- like the mod where you can dock anywhere -- a beacon or satelite would do -- need special scanner to detect it in orbit ??

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New Station's

Define Station's --- Sell only Certain Item's -- ie Engines or Shields or scanners or tractors or ?? Like Macco or Minke or Jiffy lube

Repair Station's only -- Rocket johnny's thruster's -- Omar's used scanner mart -- Special Bases just for personel npc traffic

Fix-it Shop's -- Hot rodding -- Used Ship yard's ( junk yard's ) Part's yard's -- Shaking Sammy's used defender mart -- Cornwal Pete's refurbished Clysesdale's -- driven only by little old lady trader's on sunday's

Weapons Depot's comercial vs military ---- Billy Bob's Blaster Emporium vs Battleship yada yada

Ship yards comercial vs military

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New Idea -- have npc's cuss and shout out things in " language " of region -- cussing in old speak per see --- get comunity to provide 3 sec mp3's of " R " rated linguistic cussing and cries

Also add Music to fit -- per Region -- or nationality -- or former that is

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Distraction's

Gypsies --- Travelling in groups of ships ( freighters and fighters ) around Big old Momma Liners or Battleships -- Going from System to System

Space Monster -- giant nomad battleship or something shows up deep in territory --- Like planet killer from old Star Trek Episode

Rogue Black Hole -- must find dom kavash device to stop nomad threat -- search galaxy -- save galaxy

Mission idea -- lead a great trail thru dangerous territories to discover the secrets of the dom kaash and save the heart of sirius from destruction

Planet Auction -- Complete a number of tasks to participate in auction and explore ruins and discover thing's or ship's in orbit -- who knows could be expensive dead Rock full of nomads ??

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New Commodity's

People as Cargo -- Deliver people and goods -- Set up Base -- Set up Colony ( see below Mission's )

Have Random people in bar ask for lifts in turn for money or repairs or info ( see below Mission's )

Beer in Rhineland -- or Ale in Bretonia ----- Perishable ---- Ship to places you would ship food -- also luxury item

Fine Wine in Rhineland and Bretonia and Liberty --- luxury Item --- Ag planets to Cosmopolitan Centers

Tobaco -- Liberty and Kusari -- luxury Item

Mail -- Letters -- Military dispatches -- Stellargram's -- Legal documents -- arrest warrants -- lawsuit ??

High End Clothing -- Latest New Paris Fashion's ( Highly Perishable / Time Limit / Danger Yada Yada ) -- new terrorist group -- anti fur or anti clothing -- nudist terrorists ?? naked in their ships ! !

Enviormental Gear --- Exploration and Weather Clothing and Equipment

Old Earth Antiquities -- Priceless Antiques -- Art work

Jewerly -- Expensive Watches -- " Bling " yeah yeah man k-roc pulled into Manhattan with a cargo of bling and the zeno's try to put the muscle on him

Animal's -- contraband -- transport of animals across instellar lines

Cows -- Cattle herding -- Beef -- refrigerated meats -- Fish and poultry -- Specialty Cargo Pods -- Refrigerated -- Vacum sealed -- Stasis Sealed

Survival Ration's -- MRE's -- Ship to Outposts and Hidden Bases and beginning Colonies

Seed -- for crop rotation and specialized for enviorments

Fresh seafood or Shell Fish --- Lobsters and Crab's --- from water planets -- persishable -- needs special refrig unit
-- news flash giant kusari lobster breaks loose from Cargo Container and terrorizes Newark station

Fur luxury Mink or ?? Clothing item -- from artic planets

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Mission's


Have Random people in bar ask for lifts in turn for money or repairs or info -- get surfer jim to Curacao Finals in Time and he super charges your thrusters or you get free board wax ??

Have Random people in bar ask for cargo delivery or to have a cargo Delivered -- Haul Freight instead of Buying and Selling

Have Random people in bar ask for a Fresh scouting report of newer system -- investigate phenomenon -- maybe way to get special scanner's

Have Random people in bar ask for Escort from one Place to Another -- Can you help get me to the gate ( time limit / danger yada yada )

Have Random people in bar ask You to go Pick up or Deliver FOOD -- ie take out -- Interstellar fast food -- Highly Perishable -- Wontons from Kusari -- Shnitzel from Rhineland -- bagels from new Isreal

Have Random people in bar ask for Salvage -- go out and get guns or cargo of wreck and bring it to them

Have Random people in bar ask for Revenge -- go out and find ship blow him out of sky and bring weapons and cargo back -- bring / leave / kill

Have Random people in bar ask for Bounty -- go out and find and kill or capture yada yada for me ---

Have Random people in bar ask for Rescue -- help help my brother timmie has just been shot down -- find him before whoever and yada yada ( time limit / danger yada yada )

Have Random people in bar ask for Surveilance -- drop in and quietly take a peek at a System or station -- possibly scan -- or follow someone from place to place

Have Random people in bar ask for Help in winning a race or obstacle course ( time limit / danger yada yada )

Have Random people in bar ask for Help with Diplomatic Missions -- Arrange trade route -- Negotiate Access -- deliver peace offering -- slap guy with lawsuit papers -- Subpena

Have Random people in bar ask for Help with ship Repossesion -- Edison Trent -- RePo Man -- pay me or have me tow you back to port ?? Hey -- you owe 16.50 on that Kusari Drone plus Interest !!

Intersystem Taxi's / People Freighter's -- Foreign Cab Drivers with Gun's ! ! ! Yo Man Yo Man -- I give you Lift to Pittsburg -- ya wanna meet my sister ??

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NPC'S as Cargo -- per see
--- 10 tons each if not more depending on NPC -- baggage or equipment -- Only one per trip -- possibly key them to level's -- Also Ship's -- need freighter or scout depending

Floating NPC's --- move from bar to bar -- bumming lifts and adding equipment and upgrading Tech

Engineer / Repair ( scotty ) --- after trip supplies upgarde or gives you a card to help -- Spot lemons or really good Buy's ?? in Ship Junk yard

Purser /Trader ( harry mud ) gets you a discount for Commodities or tells you of a great deal

Weapon's / Gunnery ( sulu ?? )gives you better weapons or targeting or where to go or a card to get you better deal

Medical ( mc-coy ) -- help transport medicine and and emergency medical supplies to wreck area or colony in distress

Scientist ( spock ?? ) -- gets you better scanner or upgrades your scanner --- tells you tech secrets -- Shows you things

Give a Rogue a Lift -- gets you into a hostile base -- gets you a better rep -- help him he helps you ??

Various faction types --

Navigator -- ( Chekov ) hes been around the galaxy and knows maps and military bases

Hitch Hiker -- hes out to hitch hike thru Galaxy and can show you maps and tell you thing's Whispers and Legend's -- constantly reappears -- could be spy -- follows you with a system lag ??


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New System's Unpopulated ( supposedly )

8 Sigma System --- 6 Tau System's --- 6 Omega --- 6 Omicron -- possibly fill in a nomad system or two like the one in monkey universe ( very nice ) note steal ( borrow ) gates and structures ( kidding )

Mission Idea --- Lead the way in settling new Colonies and Setting Up Bases -- While defending Against Nomad threats and other thing's -- Set up new trade Routes back to Sirus

=====================

New System's Populated ( supposedly )


Liberty System's --- Florida -- Michigan ( off detroit munition's ) Amerind / Navaho System ??

Canadian System's -- Vancouver -- Halifax -- New Quebec ( Quasi Bretonia ) -- New Military/Police -- rcsp -- royal canadian space police ?? Dudley do right in a Fighter ??

Australia System's --- Sidney -- Melbourne -- Ayers Rock Aborigne system ?? ( Quasi Bretonia )

Free French System's --- Normandy ( New Paris ) -- Aquitane ( New Monaco ? ) ( Border Worlds )

Italian System --- New Venice -- Pax Romana ( New Rome ) ( Border Worlds ) -- New Sicily -- we make you a Planet you cant refuse ??

Isreal System -- New Jeruselem -- Haifa

Greek System --- New Olympus ( Border Worlds ) -- new athens -- Corinth

Swiss / Dutch / Belgium Combined System or system's -- ( Rhineland ) -- Neutral Banking System -- New Swizterland ??

Scandinavian Combined System --- New Erikson's Land -- Dane land ( Viking type Set Up ??? ) ( Rhineland ) -- Viking Pirates history comes full circle ??

Polish / Free Russia Remnant's Combined System --- Kamchatka -- New St Petersburg --- ( Rhineland )

Free China Remnant's ( ie Taiwan ) French Indo / Chinese Combined System -- ( Kusari )

India System's --- New New Delhi -- Old Old Calcutta -- ( Kusari )

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Ships --
Water Buffalo --- Mammoth --- Leviathon --- Donkey --- Hippo --- Pachederm --- Pony --- Burro --- Rik Shaw --- Semi --- Oxen to suggest just a few myself

Heavy Tactical Freighters --- where Cargo is dear and guns Cheap / Also / To discourage Armed Investigation's of Private Property

Colony Vesel's --
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-- I was thinking about your problem with MS and updating Freelancer -- One reason that the game has lasted is its simplicity and sheer fun and size

-- when Sid Meyer came out with Civ 2 -- they also issued a disc with all the mods that had been done for Civ 1 & 2 --- MS is all about Money -- and freelancer is one of the few Flight Sims Left ( disquised as a Space flight sim ) MS loves a Monopoly

-- Ask them to do a 5 Year anniversary disc or something and offer up all the cummunity's mods to be included -- wouldnt look bad on a modders resume having been Officially published -- and MS could crow that there Program is still going 5 years in Yada yada

-- Appeal to the Evil Giants Ego approach -- They wouldnt have to really do much and could repackage it for Vista -- Kinda of a Vicious Backwards Con of Sorts

Hi, couple ideas that have probably already been suggested.

-House multiple ships (ship that your not flying stays at that planet)
-Player mission commissioners in MP (players post missions, bounties [against players or NPC's, various other jobs available only to other players)
-New England System added to the Liberty Sector (with planets such as Planet Vermont, Planet New Hampshire, Planet Boston, etc...)
-Hispania survivors and their settlements