Tue Apr 15, 2003 3:31 am by matt_lever
I've probably said this in nearly every thread that I've had an opportunity to do so, but I'll say it again... the Coalition! Bring 'em on! Its always good to have an age-old enemy make a return - and the Coalition made good enemies. Don't know why. I'd love to see what the Starlancer universe has got up to in 800 years... imagine the advances they'd have made. Those warp gates, cloaks... They'd be an impressive foe once again.
Failing that, perhaps some sort of new alien. A peaceful alien perhaps, offering entirely new, unique, trading options. Perhaps the SP campaign could involve them dragging the Syrians into their own interstellar wars or something. A whole new set of political intrigues for people to think about. And they could then use the Freelancer engine for some spectacular ships and stations in the alien worlds, even more so than they have now.
They could also improve on the current game. More missions to take; instead of just 'go to waypoint X and kill enemy Y', they could incorporate random escort missions, shipping missions, all sorts of things. More interesting finds, like the Hispania.
And perhaps get rid of that Queen's-English thing they have the women in Bretonia doing. I don't actually know any people here in Britain who speak like that, and I don't see why the men still speak with American accents. In fact, I don't want to know. The voices in general could use some work... why certain members of the Kusari authorities have American accents, and others have Japanese accents, I don't know. The Rheinlanders are the same. Since when did people from Germany have American accents? I understand it must be difficult to randomise each individual nationality, but if they will set themselves these targets... and if the Corsairs etc came from the Hispania, like the guy I talked to on the Battleship Suffolk suggested, wouldn't they have Spanish accents when they talked over the coms?
I think expansion packs are good to an extent. The Sims fiasco is an example of how they can be abused by the publishers. One, sometimes two, expansions can help squeeze every last drop of goodness from a game before a sequel, or even a whole new series, is begun. A developer should be careful if they opt for two expansions... Half-Life: Oppossing Force was good, almost a game in itself, a model of an expansion pack. It told the same story from a different perspective, with different weapons and graphical enhancements. But Valve got too cocky, and as a result cocked it up with Blueshift . So long as there is viable potential for adding to a game with one or two expansions, then its fine. If its a money-spinner like the various Sims add-ons and Half-Life: Blue Shift , then I don't like them.
