Wed Mar 26, 2003 5:53 pm
NPC''s, large firefights, and the gift of immortality
This is one of my little pet peeves about FL...it's not even all that noticable in most cases, but it's odd anyway...
Story characters can't die. It doesn't matter how many enemies are shooting them, they never quite make it to 0 HP. It doesn't matter who it is or what they're flying. I've selected them before the battle begins several times, with the following results: they lose all their shields and armor on the first attack run, then don't drop any lower for the rest of the mission.
There are precisely two developed(more than one mission) story characters who DO die, but neither one does so from enemy fire(names will be kept secret for anyone who doesn't know who they are yet). And Beta 4 in the first mission can die, but he only shows up once and is never seen again.
Now, this is somewhat understandable...with no way to eject and so much firepower being chucked all over the place, you'd be howling in frustration and smashing your monitor if they could die. I can well remember almost doing in my mechanical friend a few times in Starlancer when those torp bombers from Gamma kept getting wasted.
It isn't so much that characters can't die that's the problem here. It's that the game keeps telling you to defend them. I ask you this: why give the player an objective to defend an indestructible ship? It's like they intended for characters to be killable, but then changed their minds at the very last second.
Oh well. Rant over.
Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless
Story characters can't die. It doesn't matter how many enemies are shooting them, they never quite make it to 0 HP. It doesn't matter who it is or what they're flying. I've selected them before the battle begins several times, with the following results: they lose all their shields and armor on the first attack run, then don't drop any lower for the rest of the mission.
There are precisely two developed(more than one mission) story characters who DO die, but neither one does so from enemy fire(names will be kept secret for anyone who doesn't know who they are yet). And Beta 4 in the first mission can die, but he only shows up once and is never seen again.
Now, this is somewhat understandable...with no way to eject and so much firepower being chucked all over the place, you'd be howling in frustration and smashing your monitor if they could die. I can well remember almost doing in my mechanical friend a few times in Starlancer when those torp bombers from Gamma kept getting wasted.
It isn't so much that characters can't die that's the problem here. It's that the game keeps telling you to defend them. I ask you this: why give the player an objective to defend an indestructible ship? It's like they intended for characters to be killable, but then changed their minds at the very last second.
Oh well. Rant over.
Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless
