A patch is a PATCH...usually maing a program working better (or worse) than the original release. Expansion on other hand is what you are writing about. A patch for freelancer server is on the way, making the srever more stable and prevents some of the cheating. If an expansion comes...it will take some time. Maybe upto a year depending how many new things it will be in it. I hope that an expansion is planned with bits missing from the original Elite games implemented...let's hope so

Well, considering that Frontier: First Encounters had a simply MASSIVE universe and Newtonian Flight physics, coupled with voice, music, and decent graphics (for the time) all on one CD, I'll admit that I was expecting more from this game.

What would be nice is if DA and MS put out expanding content as FREE downloads (remember the Mech Pak idea for MW4? Blech), and perhaps have a great modder relationship, they could hit off as well as CS did for Half-Life.

Its true that patches by default fix things, but there are such things as content patches (if you ever beta tested a MMORPG, you'd know what that is, lol) that can add all sorts of gameplay.

But from what I've seen of MS as a publisher lately, they'll either milk it for all its worth and ostracize the modding community, or leave it dead as they publish some other faulty POS with ad worms embedded in it on release.

Well, im sorry to say, but no S*** of course i have played and tested many mmogs, and thats kind of in light of what i was hoping DA would do, add more content through patches, im not talking alot, maybe some extra bases (just stick a docking ring onto a planet) or some new NPC's to mosey around the bar, maybe a few new weps, mines or missiles. Maybe some new ships to fight, btw, random missions go under this category, you should know that by now, if they add new missions, that is considered new content. So what i was thinking is not only bug mashing and other things to stabilize the game, but also more content to be added through download (such as Total Annihilation added a new unit to a given side with every patch) basically just more content with patches, not EVERY patch, just a rare one in a few that adds some new elements to the game.

"I Would Rather Die Standing Than Live On My Knees"

Realistically, if it's only a server-side patch, there probably won't be any new content. They'll probably fix the crashing and do something about the cheating.

Even if they do release a client patch, I doubt there will be any major changes. Freelancer is not a MMORPG. It's more of an arcade game than a RPG, and that should be evident to anyone who's played to the "end".

Unfortunately the developers painted themselves in a corner a long time ago with the promise of a ground-breaking, jaw-dropping, etc, game. They told people to expect anything and everything from Freelancer.

There is no doubt this game has a huge potential to be an RPG, but (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) if the developers wanted to put out an RPG, it should never have been released at this stage. In that context it needs at least 10 more single player campaign missions, and major rebalancing, including ships, equipment, commodities, etc.

Some real things I'd like included in an eventual client patch:

- Fix the various bugs, such as the unknown object in Tau-37, certain jumpholes not being identified, the "Bering->Hamburg" location in Bering should be changed to "Hamburg Jump Gate", small things like that.

- For the sake of prolonging the lifetime of the game, it should be more difficult, especially in the latter stages of MP/SP. The game right now is as easy as Independence War 2 was hard. For those of you who haven't played I-War 2, it's got some of the most unforgiving space lanes I've ever flown.
I'm not talking about major changes - just give the NPCs better equipment and fix some of the AI exploits (thinking about the cut-engine-and-turn-around one, for example).
Also you should not be able to use a trade lane or jumpgate if it's hostile. Use a jump hole like every other pirate in Sirius.

- Adding a few new systems shouldn't be terribly difficult and should keep people interested.

- The HUD while flying is rather amateurish at the moment. It does the job nicely, but why can't we have some eye candy? A few glows here, a little shimmering there, can go a long way. And please, PLEASE, make the missile warning bigger, or in big bold centered text, or something. We could also use small hull/shield indicator bars on ships that are not targeted, at this point the only way is to cycle through all of them.
Some people have also mentioned an onscreen map. That would be useful if you wanted to know where exactly a ship is behind you - at this point you can't really tell and have to use back view or turret view to check.

- The multiplayer menu needs some work. The game freezes completely while trying to connect to a server, which can last up to 20 seconds; there's no manual refresh of single or a small group of servers; one should not have to edit the shortcut properties to open a direct IP connection; and there should be at least an explanation why one can't host a server and play on it from the same game, I'm sure that confused many people.

- We could use more detailed options in the Video tab in the Options menu, such as asteroid draw distance, etc, which can already be modified manually in initialization files.


Edited by - RunOrDie on 29-03-2003 03:02:44

I would like to see the ability to move and adjust the size of the in game screens. eg map screen. You could then move it into a corner and keep it open when exploring. Most of the in game screens are too big , if you want to check something on the fly it takes up the whole screen.

In tribes and tribes2 they had a script called HUD mover that gave you the ability to resize and move every aspect of your HUD. Something along those lines would be perfect.

Another idea, 'auto dock' for those long haul freighter runs when your doing 30 plus waypoints. Just set your co-ordinates, hit the button and have a nice cup of tea : )

The auto-dock idea isn't bad at all. Additionally the "Find best path" system should be extended to include jumpholes the player has already explored. And the autopilot improved to avoid confusion when you try to navigate a system with more than a star in it. With all this, one should be able to cruise from Cambridge to Omicron Alpha without touching the keyboard!

isn't the patch server side only?

It is, but if you bother to read my reply I was speculating about an eventual client patch.

I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I have a pile of gripes about MP, but I honestly think that this one feature would be the best thing to have in a patch:

- a smart mod downloading system. When connecting to a server, have the server send you a checksum of the mod that it's running and an URL for your client to download it. (Admins should use an external website to host the mod so it doesn't use up the server's precious bandwidth.) Show a progress bar to the client while the mod is loading. Most players won't be willing (or technically knowledgable enough) to go to fansites and install weird software, and I think mods are going to be the only way to make MP fun.

We don't need more ships. We don't need more guns. We can do that ourselves.

Cheating is rampant right now, but cheaters are typically stupid. Somebody will develop tools to catch them.

Modding this game with its human-readable INI files is relatively easy. Documentation would certainly help! *hint* *hint* MS! Make it easy for the players too and this game will provide a whole other arena of fun (a la Warcraft 3).

I would like for it to have a rebalancing of the ships. Currently the game is dominated with class 10 ships and their overpowered nomad weapons. The lower class ships don't even maneuver faster, in fact they turn much slower and have no advantages over class 10s. There is practically no strategy to space combat involved besides what little there is. I'm already bored of playing this online due to lack of variety and its just collecting dust on the shelf. The next time I play it again may be if a patch fixes the imbalance so that people can actually role play different professions without being slaughtered by class10 nomadics. This game has so much untapped potential its ridiculous. I doubt a patch will address these issues though. I'm keeping an eye out on the modding community as I am a big fan of Privateer and although this game lives up to be equally enjoyable as Privateer was, the multiplayer aspect is quite terrible.