What I dont like about Freelancer and a few questions

Wed Apr 30, 2003 11:46 pm by Cool Hand

my opinion is based on the demo version of freelancer, so please correct me if I get anything wrong.

- controls and ship systems are much too simple. makes the game much more of a action game than a action simulation like privateer and others were. I dont care about that joysticks arent supported, but at least they could have made the mouse more configurable and make it disable the flight controls when you access map view and other windows where you need a mouse pointer. that would have made the free flight totally unneeded. at least all other functions can be controlled with the keyboard. I would also like to see a thrust control via the mouse wheel, if I cant use the controller on my joystick...

- I really dont like the racial systems divertion. you know, english sector, japanese sector, american sector, german sector. that makes the whole universe behind this game very childish and even a bit racist.

- the sound (esspecially voices) sounds like it comes out of a pc speaker. but maybe thats only in the demo version. correct me if Im wrong.

- the cutscenes and character interaction graphics suck. period. why did game designers start to make 3D cutscenes lately? 3D graphics arent that well (esspecially animations) yet to make them cutscene-worthy. well... at least in this game.

- conversation is boring and simple. very simple. It also makes the game look cheap if your character always repeats his sentences like "uhhhh huh, interesting, whatcha got, etc. sometimes it even doesnt fit like when a man in a bar asks you if youre new and your character answers "whatcha got?"
tho this system makes the radio traffic in space AWESOME!

and I also have a few questions since I only played the demo yet:

1. is there 4.1 or 5.1 sound support in the full version? my rear speakers wont work in the demo version, but it may be my computer since on some games they work and on others they only work when I disable voice com (half-life i.e.).

2. in the demo some conversations are being ended before all is said. is that the case in the full version aswell?

all in all the game is still very nice and I will buy it for sure. but I still think it hurt the game a lot that chris roberts left and/or mircosoft took over digital anvil. I think it would be almost perfect now if chris roberts would have been the lead designer till it was finished!

Thu May 01, 2003 12:03 am by TychoCelchuuu

Japanese in one sector, Germans in another sector, and English in another is racist? What about the Earth? Most of the Germans are in Germany, the English are in England, and the Japanese are in Japan. Doesn't seem racist and childish to me :p

Thu May 01, 2003 12:11 am by Cool Hand

it makes it looks unrealistic. you dont think in the far future, that nations are still diverted and will each have their own systems, do you?

Thu May 01, 2003 12:35 am by -Lucifa-

You don't actually think that means it's racist do you? You notice that we already are seperated from the others by water, note what's the difference if it's only space instead?

Thu May 01, 2003 1:17 am by Cool Hand

jesus... first, I said its a BIT racist. and I meant that more in designing terms, not the game world itself. second, it is national diverted, which is absolutely unrealistic in the far future. if it would have been different factions, clans, etc, ok. but why did they use germans, americans, english and japanese from which some start to unite right now (EU)???
sorry, but in realistic terms that makes the game look childish and unrealistic.
the WC galaxy was fine, some systems had english names, russian names and german, and all mixed. but they werent completely english or german just because they have names of english or german cities/states. and there werent lots of english/german named systems close by another.
for people who love their country over everything it may be nice. germans will play in german systems, british in english systems, americans in american systems, japanese in japanese systems. great. awesome. never seen a game divert international players more than that... and I bet it was intended that way.

Thu May 01, 2003 4:47 am by Chandrasekhar Limit

Having a country of homogenious population in and of itself is not "racist." People who speak the same language, observe the same customs and had ancestral roots from one region tend to aggregate together and want to govern themselves. That's no crime and is perfectly acceptable as long as they do not discriminate against another group and persecute others based on things like race, religion, etc.

You can look at the Houses in FL as political entities. Libertarians prefer their American-style government with 3 branches. Bretonians prefer their monarchy. Rheinlanders prefer their system of Chancellorship and Bundestag. The Kusaris prefer whatever it is they got ("shogunate???" That's definitely too medieval for my tastes.) There is no racism in having different political systems.

Remember in the WC plot there was a war against an alien race bent on the annihilation of the human race. Under such conditions humankind would unite to fight a common foe. But do you remember what happened after the Kilrathi War ended in WC4? Political fragmentation into Confed and Border Worlds. Is that racist? I don't think so.

Same story with FL-- After making their escape from the Coalition to Sirius, the alliance population no longer have a common threat to bind them together. And since Mr. Life-of-the-party Trent (sarcasm of course) and Company nipped the common threat (Nomads) in the bud, there still isn't any reason for the Houses to band together into one political entity.

That all-humans-as-one-country is not necessarily in humankind's future, and there is nothing "racist" about that.

Thu May 01, 2003 5:30 am by vkboy

if only there was an Australian sector.. buy a good old Commodore Fighter, or Monaro Battleship..... if only

Thu May 01, 2003 10:27 am by aidle

Hi, Cool Hand and everybody else.

I've watch the plenty video demo before the actual game.
In fact the graphics effect is better.

In fact I did "expect a lot of changes" since it's 1 CD only.

- Trent do not speak in flight and no taunt
- No radar system
- Less or simple cockpit effect.
- Quite Less and fast explosion animations.
- The interaction cutscene is not CGI but Direct X 8 standard.
- Do not support feedback mouse.

The 3D sound is excellence.
It do support the mousewheel for speed.
I use the Nostromo N30 mouse. 1 extra button.
You can program the "wing" button for missles launch.

But if you think the game is easy..i don't think so
They got this Level System, Because as the your level
get higher the enemy got a better performance and action
More rear turrets/missles firing, mine drop and team up enemy.

In fact "Privateer2 - The Awakening" and even "StarLancer"
consist more than 2 CD.

Anyway freelancer is best of the best but still need improvement.
I still able to play with P3 system anyway.
Just wait if DVD Rom is widely use.

Freelancer is "not racist but factions", In fact I can go
any houses without a problem unless you disturb them.
That's the reputations system. The game is not
challenging.....without it.

Sometime I wonder what make Chris Roberts leave?
I always fans all his game productions, creative and
unique....I wish "game industrial community" have some awards
given to this kind of people.

fatcobra

Thu May 01, 2003 10:40 am by dang8

the factions are only separated because the sleeper ships landed away from each other other wise if all the ships landed on one planet they would proably be having one home world and the planet will be having mix national names

10'000 Lemmings can't be wrong

Thu May 01, 2003 11:38 am by Chandrasekhar Limit

to Aidle:

No disagreement from me on most of your points, except one...

The number of CDs a game comes on is not exactly an indicator of its complexity. Privateer 2 and Starlancer have more than 1 CD not because the games are more complex but because they used quite a bit of streaming full-motion video playback, particularly Privateer 2, which used human actors and shot actual scenes (and takes A LOT Of disk space). Starlancer did utilize more on-the-fly renders for certain transitions, but it still used FMV playback too (though instead of using real actors it is computer-rendered).
Freelancer on the other hand used FMV only for the intro. All the other transitions and cutscenes are rendered real-time. That's why it only has 1 CD.

Thu May 01, 2003 12:13 pm by lvxoccvlta

Human beings have and always will seek relationships with people who are similar. For this reason, cultures will always remain different. Mixing cultures is one of the worst ideas ever conceived by post-modern liberal socialists. This is why London is a problem, D.C. is a problem, and South Africa is/was a problem.

This is why the middle east continues to be a problem.. there's bloodshed along the border where islam meets another religion.

Utopia will never be reached here on earth, because we're all the same.. it's all the same as it's always been man

Fri May 02, 2003 3:27 am by Unpro

I wish it had radio stations like GTA...

I wish I can hire wingmans, heck I want to hire a god damn train!!...

If I can make lots of money, would two gunboat escorting me and three trains, plus two eagle and two hammerhead for wing support..

oh yeah, I like a starbase near the badlands. my own starbase..

anyway, you can never get satisfied. Nobody knows what is the real secret to success, but one way to failure is trying to please everybody..

Juni : Did I ever tell you that people are change by circumstancecs?
Trent : uhh[!..No?..
Juni : Well I did. Babble..babble..bla..bla..bla..
Trent : (Ok...ok.. do I get to sleep with you or not?)

Fri May 02, 2003 4:07 pm by Catscratcher

Everything is fine from the side of the story. I mean each race has its own area. It sounds right if you think that world was still the same as it is now. I assume that the story is connected to Freespace. So it makes sense that ppl name the planets that way.

However I would like the game more if they really used some unique names. Some more imagination about the factions. In fact, they created a realistic universe, but i just don't like it that way in games

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