Yes, something like that would be nice. And is a good point to add a new upgradable ship device, the targeting/gun computer. The higher the price, the more the features. Here are two examples, i have seen them in some game before, i don't remember which one though:

-Autodefend: Multitargeting-
I have six turrets with six different firing arcs...I would like these turrets to fire whatever red thing that enters their fire arc and range. While i try to escape with evading maneuvers. That is how a truck should be, since it has not the hull/shield of a capital ship, that can sustain for a while the constant fire of a whole fighter wave.

-Autoattack: Current target-
Turrets will fire my current target when it enters their fire arc and range.

Something funny happened to me while flying straight ahead in turret view firing at the enemy fighters. I was so excited that i forgot to give the 'goto waypoint' order to the ship, so i was flying parallel to the trade lane...towards the big blue planet Curacao. Imagine where i ended up? I parked my Rhino inside the shop. More avionics needed here . Or maybe im getting too old?

Saiyan,

Maybe you know Sea Dogs, there you are a privateer, you have a crew and you feel yet like a privateer, not a partnership. Anyway maybe a crew is not a good idea, since computing is so advanced that can replace human brain here. Something like Mother in alien? or Hal 9000?. I miss this hardware.


Just a thought.

Have you realized that enemy fighters DO fire their rear turret while steering, jumping and evading your shots? Now i ask, How can they do that? I want too!!

i was just about to make the same remark
i noticed several times an enemy did a very nice evade move on my incoming missiles while his turrets took a nice pounding at me :/

and since other human players dont seem to go hostile even if they attack u, your turrets wont fire at em and it wouldnt be too gay

you can shoot back wards and stear by the rear view, V button or so, but the controls are reversed.

Skippy:

What you are asking for is EXACTLY what you WILL be able to do in the upcoming game X2: the Threat by Egosoft. In that game you will be able to write scripts to give your turrets and other ship controls artificial intelligence to do task automatically. For instance you'll be able to program the turrets to fire on certain ships and avoid firing on others. In addition AI scripts will allow you to program your owned factories and factory workers to do certain tasks (like buy and sell goods to certain areas/factories).

I sounds like it could be pretty complicated but the developers assure us that some predefined scripts will be available and you can trade scripts with other players if someone has written one you want to try.

X2 does indeed look to take Freelancer mechahics and build them up to create the ultimate in combat/trade sims. My only concern is that it might be too deep for me. Freelancers simplicity is very appealing to me as I don't have a lot of time these days.

Oon-tee-dee!

Wnen is X-2 coming out?

Up till recently I've been dogfighting in my freighters, since the Drone and Clydsdale do a decnt job of it.

But since switching to a Humpback I've had to give that up and now use turret view.

So ...

mines mines mines - as someone said above. If you stay on your flaight path and at full throttle inevitably the enemy ends up behind you a lot of the time, at which point astring of powerful minds can clear your six in a short time.

Also, if you do end up with an AI ship "chasing" you, they will tend to more or less stop behind you. Then you can trade fire with them pretty easily. If you have bigger guns, you win

ER

I go for medium guns, (180 damage 4.00 repeat) times two on the front of my dromedary, plus a class 5 missile launcher. One level 6 turrett. The rest class 5 (sun Fury II's I think) 8.33 repeat.

The big guns up front for dog fighting, the missile cuts down on the energy usage, though I have had a 8.33 Sunfury on there in the past.

You can mount some Class6 (BIG) guns from Rhienland, (get them from Berlin) that do 360 damage with 2.00 repeat, but they strip your power and they're useless for dogfighting. Good for the later stages of SP though, but now I've done that, I'm gone back to the medium cannon.

later
jb

@dmwnz

There isn't a date set yet. I think they are still looking for a publisher, but a rolling demo/benchmark is said to be released soon.

@Weadge

If you believe what the developers say, the complexity wont be much of an issue. They claim it's possible to play the game basically as an all-action shooter, and if you go for the more complex trading aspects, there will be helpful tools to control your empire (overviews/scripting etc).

I recently started playing X-Tension, which is the latest game in the series (before X2). At first, the lower pace of the game (compared to FL) was almost too much, and the dynamic economy was a bit frustrating, but now I'm getting started and will soon buy and start my first factory. The added depth of gameplay compared to FL is really starting to appeal to me. If they manage to make X2 slightly more polished, or "mainstream", while keeping the underlying complexity intact, they could have a real winner.