Well, most of your items are things that are commonly wanted... but I disagree with two of them.

The reputation indicators would make the game seem like more of a game and less like a "virtual world." Some of the fun with reputation is not knowing exactly how your actions will effect your rep...

The other thing was the missles - I currently have 2 catapult missles on my ship, and use them often. When the enemy flies straight at me, there's nothing better than launching 2 missles right at em, strafing to the left or right, and watching them blow up. It's a lot more effective than energy weapons, at least. Once you get up past level 5 missles, they do extreme amounts of damage, and are fun to watch It takes some actual skill to use missles correctly, unlike energy weapons which is just "aim at the red X and click." Making missles "lock on" or making them more like energy weapons would be stupid IMO.

Hi there, I followed some discussions about making Freelancer better or what is needed
for Freelancer II or an expansion pack.

Most of them wanted more ships, weapons, commodities, etc.
I think there is a variety of ships but with some lack of logic. When you scan e.g. Junis
Ship from time to time during the SP-Missions she seems to fly a Defender (with the
modification of the large tail wing) that has a wepaon level rating from 4/2. But with
ongoing missions she uses higher leveled weapons. The same is with King.

And when you count it down to tech levels Rheiland would take over the whole Sirius-Sector.

Therefore I would recommend a more dynamic ship system, but more below.

Besides the equipment improvement (as Shadowrunners would say: "We need larger Weapons!"
the roleplaying aspect of the game is neglected. Well, bying better equipment based on your
level an the ranking system is a very good starting for space action based roleplaying, but
only a starting.

What I would like to have in an expansion pack or Freelancer II is:

1. A better roleplaying system where you have some key skills that you can raie with
advincing in levels. For a new level you get some points to put on your skills. Some
skill suggestions:

piloting: when you raise this skill you can handle ships better, the better this skill,
the better the manoeuverability of your ship.

gunnery: when you raise this skill enemy ships are better to hit or you make mor damage

trading: when you raise this skill you get a better pricing for commodities (lower prices
to buy, higher prices to sell)

charm: you may get worthfull information without paying for it at the bar, e.g. you get
the position of a wreck as a rumour (the correctness of this rumour is based on how high
you have this skill) or your ranking increases faster and decreases slower.

scanner operations: when you raise this skill you can use your scanner with improved
efficency, you have a larger range depending on this skill and you may can scan wrecks,
asteroids an other fields for scrap metal, niobium and other things you can get when mining.

tech: when you raise this skill you can repair or improve your ship yourself or to lower
costs.

2. As the producers of Freelancer say the ship should be your avatar, so I would highly
recommend the feature to "compose" your own ship. You may can buy a ship scaffold and put on
your own modules like engine, hull, turrets, hardpoints, cargo space and at least a hull
painting with your own textures. The basic ship scaffold should have a certain amount of
capacity points. Each type of module costs a certain amount of capacity points. To ensure not
to abuse this dynamically ship building there sould be a limit of capacity points to use for
modules. In combination with different ship scaffolds e.g. freighter types, fighter types,
bomber types, escort types or simply civil types you can build your own and unique ship. As I
would think a system where a fighter type has the following capacity points:
Whole ship: 150
Engine: max. 50 (so you can build in an engine between 10-50)
Cargo: max 30
Weapon mounts: max. 70
Turret mounts: max. 30
Hull: max. 70

Depending on your own needs and favours the fighter may be heavier equipped with weapons, or
has a better hull rating or has more cargo.

In addition you may can create your own texture and put it on your ship (like the house
symbols in the game)

If that is too much or not "in the spirit" of Freelancer you should at least have the
possibility to improve your ship rating a little bit, maybe improve your heavy fighter to a
very heavy fighter with about 10-20 percent more hull rating, an additional harpoint and
an improved power level (about two more than the standard ship type) at a cost of some
credits and less manoeuverability or a loss of reliability (your weapons or some of them
may have randomly malfunctions for a minute).

3. Complex Missions via the board or persons in the bar. I would like to have multi staged
missions like the one in the storyline. First fly to a waypoint, seems that the target person
had fled to another system, follow him, find him and hunt him down. You must find the track
on the target again through talking to persons in bars or calling patrols in space.

Other types of missions like escort a convoi, transport special commodities or persons to
another system, find the track on other persons, jumpholes, lost ships etc. and report it.

4. Randomly meet the people from the storyline, have a drink with King, a little love affair
with Juni , report Orillion about strange things happened to you.

5. Dynamic commodity prices dependent on market mechanism, when you buy a commodity often
on one planet, the price should raise and vice versa for selling.

6. Software for the Turrets like in Schleichfahrt. You may use Software for automatic aiming and shooting at ships or missiles/torpedos. The better the software, the higher the cost, the higher the reliabiltiy.

So what do you think, especially about an improved roleplaying system in Freelancer?

Greetings,

The Sorcerer

Sarcasm is a scalpel, not a bludgeon[!

Edited by - Sorcerer on 15-03-2003 12:48:24

There are many things I'd like to see in a patch/expansion. I've posted most of them before, so won't go over all that again. But a few of my favorites are:

1. When Juni "Unlocks" the jump gates, have it unlock ALL the jumpgates, so you can actually choose NOT to follow the storyline for a while and explore other systems.

2. When you sell a ship, have it remain at the Planet/Base where you sold it, so you can go buy it back later if you want to.

3. How about adding a couple of "Order" bases, where you could also buy the high level weapons and ships after the SP campaign is done. That way, you don't have to ruin your rep with all the law-abiding people just to get them.

4. I've noticed that the game seems to give you credit for selling items before you actually do. Example: I'm $10,000.00 dollars away from the next level, and I buy a freighter load full of Diamonds at a really cheap price, next thing I know, I hear the little chime that tells me I've "Leveled Up". How is that possible?! I should have the same "Net Worth" I did before I bought the Diamonds until I actually sell them for a profit!

5. After the SP game is over, have the "News Items" in stations and such continue updating. Many don't seem to change anymore. Gives the feeling that you're "Frozen in Time".

6. The AI thing. Don't have Hostile NPC's who are engaged in battle with other NPC's break off the fight just to come attack the player.

7. In the "Base List", have "Hostile" bases turn Red, so that you know not to expect a warm welcome there. Sometimes it's hard to tell or remember who owns which basses. This could save player's a lot of frustration.


Well, I've gone this far, so I may as well add in the last few that could probably only come out in an expansion...

8. More variety in "Random Missions". Maybe some "Escort" missions?

9. Larger Capitol Ships! The "Hispania" and other Capital ships look rediculously small!

10. More ship "Customization". Ie: speed differentials, other "Modifications" that were dropped from the game.

11. Something to spend your money on after you have the best of the best. Maybe ability to buy a "Station" and outfit it, pick what goods to stock and the prices, hire "Security" to patrol the area, etc.? Factions who are "Friendly" will come there to trade, rest etc. Those who are "Hostile" will attack if in the area. Another thought would be to allow you to purchase a Planet to terraform. You'd have to come up with all associated costs and everything, but when it was done, you could put a base there, pick your planet's industry, hire worker's, etc. Maybe even build a city eventually. Anyway, a few ideas.

12. Have someone from "The Order", or Juni, show up in Manhatten every 3-4 levels with a Real mission after the SP game is done, until you get to the MAX Level.

13. Maybe make just a few (3-5) of the "Derilect" ships you find in the game even higher level ships than are aveilable to buy. Then, give us the ability to "Lock On" to them with the tractor beam and tow them to a shipyard for repairs. When we brought the shipyard enough money for full repairs, we could then have and fly the ships?

Anyway, that's my two cents.

All these great ideas should be sent to Microsoft so their not wasted 0's and 1's!

http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/su ... us&gssnb=1

Hopefully, with enough of these Product Feedbacks, MS will take notice of what we want.

Or, a more likely situation; Microsoft ignores them all, hire hitmen to assassinate those who complained, then proceed to make more crappy titles filled with bugs and spywares...

Actually, the feedback gets funneled directly to the developers, so filling out the form is a good idea. I've seen many a thing a customer griped about get sent in as feedback and get changed with the next version. Alas, I highly doubt I'll see joystick support added unless the developers decide to quit being stubborn and add it back... something MS really won't have a say in since they just package abd distribute the game. But, it still can't hurt to send the feedback anyway.

I know. I can't think of any other way to relay what we want from them, so this is essentially the only choice we have. I'm going to type up something nice and fat, like the first few posts, reasons why, and send it in hopes that as a nonflamebait plea it will be taken into account.

Want to tell Microsoft to improve Freelancer?
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/su ... us&gssnb=1

Very, very, damn long. But this is what I sent to Microsoft / DA about Freelancher.

Hey whoevers reading this,

I'd like to first say that I dearly love Freelancer. I haven't felt this way towards a space sim since the classic Privateer (and expansion pack, Righetous Fire). So please take what I say as an indication of hoping to make the game better then it already is

ANTICHEATER DETECTOR
1) Will it be possible for the server to check for cheaters? I hear lots of stories about characters logging, and jumping to level 38, or playing with their .ini files to screw around in the multiplayer. Please include some sort of cheat detecting operation where it will be known if the values are not correct. It's really hurting the community.

SHIP COMPONENTS
2) Add in upgradable components for ships - in particurlar armor, engines, and afterburners. Armor increases hull strength. Engines increase your top and cruise speed. Afterburners could go faster and/or use less energy. Yes, taken from Privateer. Incredibly surprised it wasn't added (nor the radar as in Starlancer. I don't know if you know, but getting color radar in Privateer after watching those grey monotone dots was the best!) I know this was meant to be jump in and play, be on the safe side, but I can't see the harm of adding in the ability to add armor, upgrade engines, or replace afterburners.

SHIP CUSTOMIZING
3) I'm a strict proponent of each ship being unique; light fighters would be noticably faster and more maneuverable then line, heavy, or very heavy fighters. This would make the choice between ships more a personal preference of fighting styles then anything else. Again, I know that the ship is seen more as an avatar of the character, but logically it's a bit silly how weak the Defender is and why the Titans didn't overrun Sirius. If possible, please make it a non-Dungeon Siege ever scaling power ladder.

MP FACTION AI
4) If your friendly with a faction and you're being attacked, they help you. Or perhaps this ability should be limited only to the police or military. This would be especially useful in multiplayer, I would like to add.

MP FACTION TOUGHNESS
5) Another multiplayer aspect I would like to see would be random power levels of patrol ships to keep us on our toes. Perhaps every 1 out of 4 spawned police, military, or pirate patrols will be stronger then normal. 1 out of 10 much stronger. This to ensure the random difficulty levels of potential opponents; you'll never really know what to expect.

DEATH PENALTY
6) As is, no one really, and I mean -really- cares about dying. Resurrection is only a button away. PvPing is seen more as grief then fun combat. It's not even PvPing to some, but Dueling. To make the threat of death more potent, and perhaps even fearful, stricter death measures would have to be enacted. Three things could be done, in my opinion. a) Money loss. Die enough times, and you'll be too poor to fix, upgrade, or trade with your ship. IOW, mining for you! b) You have a certain number of lives. Once their used up, their used up and your character is deleted. That would make you a bit nervous ... c) combination of a and b. If anything, just please add the ability to use these penalties for the server if they so desired!

MP CHAT (Oi Vey)
7) The ability for quick chat commands, like BattleField 1942. For example, Numberpad 0 = "I'm under fire!" Numberpad 1 = "Fly in formation." Without them, it's very awkward to communicate to others especially when busy or in the heat of battle. Mappable keys, editable messages. Making the chat easier to use in general, with toggle keys for group or system speak, and longer messages allowable. Perhaps a lower font? Or customizable font and color for system, group, or individual speak?

MP PLAYER GROUP FUN
Make player grouping more fun and distinct. As is, a # doesn't convey much identity. But if it were typable (and thus a different chat interface) Group #32 could become "Blackbeards Pirate's," or "Bounty Hunting Guild." Perhaps even show the group as an ID tag next to the name similar to how one would see an NPC ship "Navy - Defender"? Toggable off if one is in a secret group, that is.

MP, SERVER POWER & STABILITY
9) Please include the ability to type in an IP-address in the multiplayer section. Allow the hosts of servers to accurately log players, their actions (determine cheaters), and kick or ban as appropriate in an easy manner. Server stability appears to be a large problem as not many servers, if any I know of, don't crash within 48 hours. Also, no other server in the entire world is able to host more then 32 players. Well, some try to but they red-lag bad and people disconnect. Someone remarked that it's not a problem of bandwidth, but of pure computing power needed for over 32 players. I'm not sure what is to blame, but if the ability to host over 30 players easily arrives, up to 64 or an even jaw dropping 128 the community would THRIVE. Players could be in nearly every system, with more then just a few in the popular ones. There would be an inevitable growth of clans (pirate, escort, trading) and the politics which would ensue would be wonderful to play in.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST ...
10) If any of the above might seem like a nice idea in theory, or can't be coded due to priorities, let there always be the option for the community to do it. Can't easily kick or ban players from your server? Well, it's very easy to fix if you just do this ...

Thanks for reading,

I hope it sheds light on what we're looking for in the upcoming patches and expansion packs.

[email protected]

Want to tell Microsoft to improve Freelancer?
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/su ... us&gssnb=1

Ignore funktion against those spamers.

abitly to form private channels, and not just the group channel and system channel.

balance the ships more out. (i.e remove the eagle as the ueber ueber ship, make sabre mabye aswell abit more sluggish, so hammerhead will be for example a vailed option for pvp., aswell add some better light fighters, and improve the complette navy to a level where they actually can do some taff stuff)

hmm, what else? double the speed and turn rate of all missiles. (so they become an actuall danger)

double the dmg of all ai ships and give them shildregeneration according to their shild type.

make player (at max half of what they have) drop cargo and (sometimes) weapons when they get destoryed. add please a com menü. with group invite, trade request, request to drop x cargo and request to drop y weapon.

add an emergy signal transiver, which call for help against attackers. this would draw attention of all security forces and all allied factions in the system. (could be work as simple as each system gets according to the factions present a amount of ships that will spawn within 180 seconds in about 3k distance to the player after he called for help)

there are not much stuff you need to modify for this, could be relized as mission script that you can activate in space (should cancel out your old mission if you run one) and after the ships spawned close to you, they can act just acoording to your and their faction status .... so it would be not a good idea to call for help in an lanehacker controlled system for outcast help if you have them barely green and fighting right now lane hackers
they would kill you instead of helping you *g*


all the posted stuff I think could be easy added with a patch. but ok the last point would be part of a bigger patch, still patch able.

I think nobody mencioned this but i wish to be able to destroy a capital ship/space station, the damn ships dont even have a shield/energy bar, im not saying that a one man ship could destroy it but imagine that 3 or more guys (and this guys already add very good ships) on the net joined up and wanted to destroy it, that would be fun, and later on that server a new ship/space station would be built again, and the players that destroided it would have a bounty on there heads for a long long time, bounty that could be claimed by AI or another player that could destroy them.
Also i would like that a person could buy a capital ship e move it , for u that only play the game in MP capital ships in SP DONT move, thay just stand there like a siting duck (and u can destroy them in SP)
And the last thing it would be nice to have a cloaking device, someting that would last for some time but when u opened fire it would take a long time to recharge (to prevent that ppl destroyed something and run away in the "shadows"
Most of the other stuff that i would like to see changed as been already mensioned
Sorry fo my eng

I really wanna see more improved leveling, so its not all about money. It'll be nicer if we have our own rank according what we do in the game. For instance we get the rank of a hero when killing lots of pirates, merchant when we do a lot of trading, miners for mining, or pirates when attacking the merchant. But its dynamic and have more rank than just that, so we can kill 50% police and 50% pirates and have another rank. Just like Dungeon Siege ranking system. Or it can also be decided with the mission we take the most, more ship hunting, assasinate, capture, etc. (of course after the mission is improved with more varied types). So people can have their own rank and still a freelancer because of the dynamic ranking system. That way hopefully people can really aftering something in MP after they have the best ship and best weapons.

Ability to buy a battleship (someone mentioned this before) but its a bit different purpose, since this is something that can make MP more exciting. We can register our own faction for A LOT of money and minimum members for instance, and buy a battleship in one system without the ability to jump through another system (so people can know exactly who rules in that system and where to attack them). Therefor we have a more focused purpose in MP not just roaming around and killing starfliers.. Therefore people will think twice when attacking a convoy of the biggest faction in the server, and PvP will become more political and encourage people to think twice before doing it.

sorry if it has been posted before, just adding whats in my mind

Hmmm.... good ideas so far. A few I've thought of:

- ability to customize your ship. I'd like options to apply decals, change the colors, and perhaps pick from some variations on the design (stats stay the same but wings and shape may change slightly).

- when I'm GOTOing a target and I press DOCK it should warn me if I'm too far away. When Outcasts are hammering away on my shields the last thing I want is to stop dead so the computer can tell me this. KEEP GOING and warn me instead.

- Something I'd like in Freelancer II is more locations. By this I mean scenarios where you are flying over the surface of a planet shooting enemy fighers down. Almost like what you see in some of the cutscenes but better. Another location could be in the upper atmosphere of a planet where you don't see land just clouds and weird floating cities. One other "location" I'd like to see is the interior of large structures. These could be capital ships (active or destroyed), underground bases (kinda like Descent), or large cities were you flying through buildings and dodging traffic. Though the missions would be largely the same the sheer number of locations would make things more interesting.

Edited by - Absynthe on 17-03-2003 16:34:00

http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/forum/t ... cer&M=True

I had some ideas but I see that almost all of them are being discussed here ;D

IF THE DA dose this this game will be number one!. Ok every one wants new ships and new missions like proecting a trade ship go undercover in a rouge base or somthing. Maby the liberty give you an tempary hack so you can land and you get info or somthing.
Cloking. Every one wants it but what you can do is let only sertain ships have them ie if the titan got it people might like that better than sabre or eagle. It would be like a shield execpt you carnt fire and takes 10 seconds for you to start firing after re cloking. Different Clokes come with different prices and times like all wepons and other sheilds.
Light- 360 seconds costs 200k
Delux-420 seconds costs 300k
Heavy-480 seconds costs 500k
Battle Ship Type ships in other words Big Mothers or Hvy Freighter.

Small
Hull armor 20,000 cost 15 million
Sheild Max It Could Take 15,000 cost 2 million
0/12 turrets level 9s and 10s.
Cargo 400+
Normal Speed 50
Thrusters 150
Cruise Engines 400

They could maby have people dock on them dunno yet but could only repair.
This would be cool if you and a friend attacked one of these ships and some people undocked off it and there was a massive battle.

Large
Hull Armor 30,000 Cost 22 million
Sheild Max 25,000 Cost 4 Million
0/15 Turrets level 9s and 10s
Cargo 600+
Normal speed 40
Thrusters 130
Cruise Engines 400

Yeah again maby dock on it only thinking 2 or 3 people. And you have to accept if people dock on you or not.
CAN ONLY FIGHT IN TURRET MODE
15 level 9 and 10 turrets would blow any one away so like on turret mode if you been attacked on your right side on the turrets that can see that can fire.


Other Stuff
Auto Turrets
The more you pay the more you get, Aiming wise and power like any other wepon.

There will be mistakes in this post but try and read past em thx