Sun Aug 31, 2003 8:55 pm
This is gonna be a long post so bare with me :p
I'm gonna list everything which *I* feel is lacking in this game and ignore the good points cause if I had those as well then it would be way too much to read, but don't forget that there are tons of good stuff in FL as well, or we wouldn't be playing it right? :p
So don't take the following as a "I hate the game" post please, cause it's not
Well, good points have been made here; the most accurate one being that this is more of a 3d space-quake than a true privateer game. I personally am not yet too bored with the game as I like to simply "fly around" in the universe whether it's in SP or MP...but I have to agree that there are tons of features which are missing and lots of weaknesses like:
Micromanagement and ship configs:
One of the things that I loved tinkering with in the true privateer games. Buying this part and that part and being able to really make a ship of my own. On FL it's just slamming in the best weapons and shields that you can afford and away you go.
Also, on a side note, there seems to be a very illogical state when it comes to ships, shields and weapons. In Liberty the common/standard equipment is for low levels and almost all ships in Liberty use this equipment whereas in Rheinland for instance the quality of ships, shields and weapons are much stronger but also a common/standard issue. That almost makes me wonder why Rheinland don't just take over the entire Sirius System. Personally I would find it more logical to see weapons, ships and shields, from the weakest to the strongest being avaliable everywhere in a balanced sort of way, but being slightly different. Like the best Liberty ships are slightly more agile, while the best Rheinland ships have more armor for instance. As of now, putting the best Liberty ship versus the best Rheinland ship would definately result in a Rheinland victory. But as I said, this is just a (rather large :p) side note
Trading and economy:
I personally am also a bit annoyed with the extreme difficulty it is to be a trader in the game. Perhaps it's just me but I found out that buying freighters were a total waste of time. I don't know if I'm that of a horrible pilot but I always find myself being constantly attacked by just every pirate in the system when I haul cargo from A to B. The turret view IMO is almost worthless as you can't fly and shoot at the same time. Mostly I end up trying to dock with a trade lane and while the autopilot does it's duty I try and shoot down ships with the turrets, but instead end up being chewed up in an instant. So I end up trading with a heavy fighter but I don't feel like a trader no more. Being able to hire wingmen/freighters would be splendid here. Besides, I see lots of NPC cargo ships having escorts everywhere...why can't I?
Probably the biggest disappointment in the game: the frozen economy. It simply gets boring too quickly when you have figured out a great place in which you can endlessly go from A to B and make money.
The AI:
I can say that this is my personal favourite game annoyance. The most utterly annoying AI ever seen. Example: there you are, flying through a long trade lane and after a while you reach the end of it only to find some pirates attacking some convoy and it is fully busy defending itself and is also perhaps assisted by some police or navy ships. They are all happily blazing their guns against each other and having a hell of a great time. All you want to do is ignore this battle and go on with your travels. But noo...every single ship that you happen to have a hostile relation ships targets you instead the second you enter the area. If there were for instance 8 pirates busy attacking some convoy and you are hostile with them, then at least 6 of these 8 pirates will go after you instead.
Another thing which is also linked with the trading issues is the constant trade lane attacks. They occur too often for my taste.
Size of the universe:
Could be bigger I guess. I personally favor the "bigger is better" mentality when it comes to certain things in games. Size of space is one of them. Then again, expansion occurs all the time still in this universe. Traveling from one corner to the other does take it's fair share of time as it should. There are quite a few places to land but I feel that each solar system has way too few planets. 3 planets at most I think per system and you can usually only land on one planet. Some areas are rather well done however, like the now and then lonely research or mining outpost in the middle of nowhere which you can come across. Mind that I say "rather well done" because I noticed that in almost all instances there's a "well-known" jumpgate only a few seconds away from the "isolated base or outpost" which in a sense ruins the isolation.
Ah well, those are most of the flaws that I see with FL. But even so, I still play, because the good stuff weigh heavily as well and the game is still good, and not to mention beautiful graphically, which I think is a big plus when it comes to privateer games. But it doesn't have the true spirit and it doesn't really deserve to be in the privateer genre as it lacks too many important things.
I hope I didn't bore too many of you too death now :p
In either case, keep playing, and keep hoping. Perhaps some day with the help of mods or whatever, FL will become something much better :p
I'm gonna list everything which *I* feel is lacking in this game and ignore the good points cause if I had those as well then it would be way too much to read, but don't forget that there are tons of good stuff in FL as well, or we wouldn't be playing it right? :p
So don't take the following as a "I hate the game" post please, cause it's not
Well, good points have been made here; the most accurate one being that this is more of a 3d space-quake than a true privateer game. I personally am not yet too bored with the game as I like to simply "fly around" in the universe whether it's in SP or MP...but I have to agree that there are tons of features which are missing and lots of weaknesses like:
Micromanagement and ship configs:
One of the things that I loved tinkering with in the true privateer games. Buying this part and that part and being able to really make a ship of my own. On FL it's just slamming in the best weapons and shields that you can afford and away you go.
Also, on a side note, there seems to be a very illogical state when it comes to ships, shields and weapons. In Liberty the common/standard equipment is for low levels and almost all ships in Liberty use this equipment whereas in Rheinland for instance the quality of ships, shields and weapons are much stronger but also a common/standard issue. That almost makes me wonder why Rheinland don't just take over the entire Sirius System. Personally I would find it more logical to see weapons, ships and shields, from the weakest to the strongest being avaliable everywhere in a balanced sort of way, but being slightly different. Like the best Liberty ships are slightly more agile, while the best Rheinland ships have more armor for instance. As of now, putting the best Liberty ship versus the best Rheinland ship would definately result in a Rheinland victory. But as I said, this is just a (rather large :p) side note
Trading and economy:
I personally am also a bit annoyed with the extreme difficulty it is to be a trader in the game. Perhaps it's just me but I found out that buying freighters were a total waste of time. I don't know if I'm that of a horrible pilot but I always find myself being constantly attacked by just every pirate in the system when I haul cargo from A to B. The turret view IMO is almost worthless as you can't fly and shoot at the same time. Mostly I end up trying to dock with a trade lane and while the autopilot does it's duty I try and shoot down ships with the turrets, but instead end up being chewed up in an instant. So I end up trading with a heavy fighter but I don't feel like a trader no more. Being able to hire wingmen/freighters would be splendid here. Besides, I see lots of NPC cargo ships having escorts everywhere...why can't I?
Probably the biggest disappointment in the game: the frozen economy. It simply gets boring too quickly when you have figured out a great place in which you can endlessly go from A to B and make money.
The AI:
I can say that this is my personal favourite game annoyance. The most utterly annoying AI ever seen. Example: there you are, flying through a long trade lane and after a while you reach the end of it only to find some pirates attacking some convoy and it is fully busy defending itself and is also perhaps assisted by some police or navy ships. They are all happily blazing their guns against each other and having a hell of a great time. All you want to do is ignore this battle and go on with your travels. But noo...every single ship that you happen to have a hostile relation ships targets you instead the second you enter the area. If there were for instance 8 pirates busy attacking some convoy and you are hostile with them, then at least 6 of these 8 pirates will go after you instead.
Another thing which is also linked with the trading issues is the constant trade lane attacks. They occur too often for my taste.
Size of the universe:
Could be bigger I guess. I personally favor the "bigger is better" mentality when it comes to certain things in games. Size of space is one of them. Then again, expansion occurs all the time still in this universe. Traveling from one corner to the other does take it's fair share of time as it should. There are quite a few places to land but I feel that each solar system has way too few planets. 3 planets at most I think per system and you can usually only land on one planet. Some areas are rather well done however, like the now and then lonely research or mining outpost in the middle of nowhere which you can come across. Mind that I say "rather well done" because I noticed that in almost all instances there's a "well-known" jumpgate only a few seconds away from the "isolated base or outpost" which in a sense ruins the isolation.
Ah well, those are most of the flaws that I see with FL. But even so, I still play, because the good stuff weigh heavily as well and the game is still good, and not to mention beautiful graphically, which I think is a big plus when it comes to privateer games. But it doesn't have the true spirit and it doesn't really deserve to be in the privateer genre as it lacks too many important things.
I hope I didn't bore too many of you too death now :p
In either case, keep playing, and keep hoping. Perhaps some day with the help of mods or whatever, FL will become something much better :p