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Ideas for Freelancer 2

This is a free discussion forum on Freelancer. This is the place to discuss Freelancer issues NOT covered by the other boards!

Post Sun Aug 15, 2004 7:45 pm

Just a tiny suggestion: the ability to skip cutscenes you've already seen and a cutscene library so you can see your favourite moments again. Also, to stop people advancing so quickly, you would have to be a certain level to ship types of cargo: ie. At the start, they only trust you with food, oxygen and water, then with scrap metal etc. Another mechanic to slow down progession would be trader/fighter/explorer routes: traders could advance through money, people who fight a lot advance through kills and a cross-breed, the explorer, advance with a combination of the two, as well as having to visit bases and find wrecks. That should remove the Starflier --> Eagle in an afternoon game in Multiplayer.
About factions; you would also have to be friendly with a powerful faction to be trusted at higher levels. A more dynamic alliance system: as well as friendly and hostile, you could have sympathise and detract: sympathising factions will aid you if you are fighting their enemies, and detractors attack you if you are fighting their friends. New mission types: because there are certain styles of play, you can advance in different ways (as explained above). Fighters could have the missions in the current Freelancer (maybe some defensive ones as well), traders could smuggle, escort, deliver or build their way to success (help build some weapons platforms, 2000 scrap metal and 20 optronics) and explorers would spy, sabotage, recon and investigate for money (gain some rep with the corsairs, get some vital information of the bartender who's one of our agents). Also, the missions shouldn't be so basic (players have a choice, for instance in a build outpost mission for the LPI, you could get an offer from a rogue to plant a bomb in one of your shipments, accepting means more extreme faction loss/gain). News should be relating to current events too ('Famine in New Berlin, food prices soar' or 'Edison Trent assaults convoy'). It would be nice, like in Crimson Skies, if you could add your own decals or colour schemes. Finally, Trent should have to keep himself alive (food rations, water, sleeping in a base, relieving himself, after a few years; if he neglected himself, you'll find the game harder ie. sluggish reflexes) this'd also make people in multiplayer have to occasionaly return to a base to rest up, and it'd stop people from constantly camping areas.

Post Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:46 pm

When dealing with weapons dealers and I'm selling a boatload of weapons I just hauled in from standing off with the police for half an hour or so, it really gets on my nerves to have to sell every single one of those guns individually. If you could add a slider bar (like they have on comoditities or nanobots/shield batteries) so you could instantly adjust how many of a particular gun you wish to sell, that would be greatly appreciated. --- VH16

I am Nobody; Nobody is Perfect; Therefore, I am Perfect

Post Thu Aug 19, 2004 9:22 am

I'd like to see things more realistic, such as planets etc. to scale and orbiting the sun, but if they were to scale the planets be a dozens of times the size of the nav map, and the suns would be hundreds of times bigger than that! Also, the trade lanes system works really well so I don't think it's worth having moving planets and bases.
I'd like the NPC's to be much better, but there to be less of them in missions, because it seems ridiculous being able to take out 5 or 6 eagles at once when you're in an eagle too. Nanobots and shield batteries should be scrapped, because they just make fights drag on, and NPC's don't use them anyway.
There should be high paying missions for other factions than just the corsairs and outcasts (so that you don't have to become a pirate), and there should be a wider variety of very heavy fighters, each with different advantages so that in multiplayer you don't just get everyone with an eagle, and you get duels between different ships.
Lastly, get rid of engine kill, or make it so that when you use it it slows the ship down very quickly, because people use it in duels all the time and they just turn into jousts.

Post Thu Aug 19, 2004 12:42 pm

What I want in a sequel? I don't really care too much about new ships and commodities and stuff, but it would be nice. In order of most important to least,

1. More content rich systems! Exploration was the biggest thrill for me, so a few dozen new ones would be great. Open up the green nebulae, lets us go through the hyper gate system (maybe), more edge worlds, I'd leave it to the imaginations of the developers.

2. More storyline! The Campaign, and, even more so, the background story in the form of rumors and such, like the Hispania and the Omicrons, was a close second to number 1. The invasion of Rheinland by the Corsairs should begin, a joint Liberty/Order fleet should blockade the dyson sphere and get in regular epic battles as the nomads rebuild, and the fronteir should be pushing somewhat into the green nebulae area. Kusari should be most interested in purging the nomads from the fringes of its northern space.

3. Scale! Make the systems huge, and the objects gigantic. I want planets to be at least 1/100 scale to reality. At least. Thats huge, but imagine that! Flying next to a beautiful gas giant, so big the curviture is barely noticable. And no more being with in 10 klicks of a sun and living to tell about it!

4. Graphic overhaul! Yes, Freelancer is beginning to look a litle long in the tooth. Its still pretty, but in a year, it will be graphicly very forgetable.

5. Foot travel! I DON'T want this to be by any stretch of the imagination a major part of the game, but it would be cool to be able to sight see in the cities a little bit, but be kept from the whole planet by some lame excuse like you can't leave the foreign section. Stations should be fully accessable though. Part of this is the ability to fly around on planets, but feel very strongly that the emphasise must be heavily among the stars.

Many people here think that a choice of gender should be an option, but I think it stunts character development, unless the developer intends to make to completly different personalities, and therefore to different storylines, and thats a waste of time. Switching out Trent with a woman wouldn't work due to Juni's mildly flirtatious attitude towards him, for example.

Post Thu Aug 19, 2004 1:31 pm

there should be multiple campains, your choices in one of the campaigns effects whcich campaign you get next. Branching campaigns.

You should be able to beat a faction out of a system. some would be nearly impossible. like trying to force the cops out or the corsairs out of their homeworld. you on your own would be hard but if you work with a faction like the police you mightd beat them for a while but eventually htey would get back in

also i'd like a way to hit on juni, please.

Edited by - Evan D on 8/21/2004 9:07:37 AM

Post Fri Aug 20, 2004 12:16 pm

hell yeah
i would like to see us freelancers able to hire henchmen!!! Also adding factions would be a good idea. graphics was excellent but could be worked on... the idea of joining a houses navy temporarily is awesome. hope DA also work on what you do after the SP is over cuz trust me i got the s*** bored outta me after i finished the SP. i without doubt would love to walk around like a first-action shooter in planets & bases (maybe carrying a rail-gun or something ). i think that would be enough to keep me going even after the SP is over. Also i can predict that DA is gonna have a heck of a time trying to get a good sequel since there is so much high expectation for it.

Redux

Post Fri Aug 20, 2004 5:24 pm

Just a few ideas...
I think if DA wanted to make a really great game, they should come and look at some of the mods we have made here. A lot of mods really add a lot to the game, and it would be nice to have them incorperated into the real game. Evolutions is my personal favorite mod, so some of these ideas come from that.
1. Captured pilots. Being able to take pilots prisoner was one of the great things about EVO. Taking a bunch of Navy officers hostage and selling them to the Outcasts was a lot of fun.
2. Storage containers. Beleive it or not, this could work in SP and MP. You could buy different sizes of them, and if you had one, then and icon would be in the HUD, 'deploy storage container' or something. Then you could select it and put commodities and equipment in it. Then, you could pick it up later. But, you would be the only one who could use it. So if you were playing MP, and you came upon one of these containers, then it would say, "Such and such's Storage Container," and you wouldn't be able to do anything with it.
3. Open SP in the game. I don't think that anyone has mentioned this yet. When you clicked on Single Player, it would give you two options. Campaign, which would be playing the SP storyline, and then Open Game. Open Game would be like many of the 'Open SP' mods. Because many people complained about how the game was not like it said on the back cover, (there was really no way you could really chose your path, like in most RPGs) you would have several options. You could be like a Peacekeeper, you would start with a Patriot and be friendly with the LPI, Navy, LSF, ect. You could be a pirate, start with a Bloodhound, be friendly with the Rouges, Outcasts, and Hackers. A Bounty Hunter, start with a Piranah and be friendy with the BHG. Or a trader, start with a Rhino and be neutral with all. Peacekeepers would start at Ft. Bush, Pirates at Rochester, Bounty Hunters at Manhattan, and Traders at Newark. Something like that would give the game a lot of replay value, you could play the campaign, then be a pirate, then a trader, then a bounty hunter, etc. Obviously it would be different with the other new stuff being added in, but I think you get the picture.
Also, i think battleships would be fun, but you have to hire a crew and they would have to be really uber-expensive to make them fair. Plus, being able to hire a few pilots that could launch from your ship and fight for you or just escort you would be awesome.
Thanks for reading my ideas.

Edited by - ww2jacob on 8/20/2004 6:27:00 PM

Post Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:11 pm

make the graphics better, but still playabel on crapy computers (like mine)
i like his idea too.like ii said early, the charachter you play would be YOU. not trent.(of course, he'd still be in the game.and he'd also have a titan)


i have a titan that dose 4914
dmg with one hit from everything
except for the turret,and torpedo.
your right, nomad wepons are cheap. but not the ones you find in hidden wrecks!:p (if you
looked at my easy money thread,
i got this after only 2 runs, and i
also paid a guy to hack my rep
w/the corsairs)

Edited by - themax on 8/20/2004 8:13:38 PM

Edited by - themax on 8/20/2004 8:16:43 PM

Post Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:04 am

Hi,

Another addition to Freelancers choice of jobs is recon missions.
(Some of you may remember this from Wing Commander IV.)

You could have a hotpoint for placing cameras. Each one with varing stats.
(Example: range.) And you would have to take pictures of secret bases and other stuff like that...

Regards
Stephen

Post Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:58 am

After reading this thread, I like the ideas listed. But the thing I would like to see most hasn't really been said.

That is fully upgradeable ships.

Not just like thrusters and the like, or armor like in Privateer. But everything.

Say I actually like my Starflier. I should be able to upgrade the engine and powerplant to be able to fire more powerfull weapons, and use better shields. Then I should be able to upgrade my weapon mounts, So I could make those 3 mount all hold cl 10 guns. Then I should be able to add more gun mounts, and a better shield mount. And of course, better armor, thrusters, engines, powerplants, etc. But most importantly, it all should be balanced, so as I upgrade and modify my little starflier, it changes the stats so that my ship is still balanced with the rest of the game. So that If I go nuts and have a Starflier with 8 class 10 guns, a powerplant that can continuosly run them all, plus a lvl 10 shield, a really fast thruster with almost no drain, not to mention 2 missile mounts, the ship will still be balanced with everything else. Meaning in this scenario, the Starfliers handling would worsen with each upgrade, until it handles like a big huge VHF, or maybe even worse.

Of course, I know this would take a major overhaul of how the ships are handled in the ini files, but I think it should be done.

Also, better NPC AI and ships. I'd like to see NPC's just as hard, or even harder to kill then PC's. This of course would entail NPC's in VHF's as well. So flying through systems you might stumble over a wing of LF's, or a wing of VHF's. And attacking a base would find you going against at least a wing of VHF's, which would be almost impossible for 1 PC in a VHF to succesfully attack.

Post Tue Aug 24, 2004 9:00 am

Personnally I think it should be during the height of the war with the nomads (obviously Post FL). (in the beginning) You should play as a Zoner who wakes up aboard his home station only to see that it has been overrun by the nomads. The first actual mission should be your escape from the, now nomad infested, system of your home.

From there on out it should be totally roleplaying. I mean like your actions in certain situations affect how the story will play out.

And depending on your choices, you should be reunited with should cross paths with certain characters from the original...

For example: let's say that you choose to fight for liberty (for the most part but not all of the time) you should be meet and/or fight along side people like King and president jacobi (but not Juni who would be with the order). You get my drift?

Note*: Keep in mind that depending on you choices your allegiances could change overtime (i.e you could start out for liberty and end up with the Hessians or something)

There should also be several endings (3+ would probably be more than sufficient)

and that is my long drawn out opinion.

Let's hear yours!

Omicron Explorer

EDIT: My apologies to TLR (and Finalday in peticular). I should not have bothered to make a separate thread for story Ideas. I just didn't think that this thread was suited for it in the sense that most of the other replies were gameplay suggestions. Sorry.

Post Thu Aug 26, 2004 9:48 am

I think that Digitial Anvil should ditch the Docking Rings for FL 2. Instead, there'd be "markers", a sort of pseudo-docking ring that would point to the places where the bars, ship dealers, etc. are, and you could land yourself, I mean, picture this: you're speeding towards a planet at an impossible speed, as you pass the clouds, you begin to see the little details of the planet... a couple more seconds and you can see the builings and tiny specs which are other ships, 500 meters off the surface you kill your engines and do a reverse-burn to prevent crashing into the planet. Awesome. Then the planets would be free-roaming, you could shoot down ships and watch them crash into buildings.

Post Fri Aug 27, 2004 3:59 am

it is hard to say what they can ad what the mods havent already added. i mean the asylum51 mod has made pilotable bases. all the mod on lancersreator cover basicly every thing else. the only thing i can think of is to make it that if you destroy someone in deep space where there is no one around it should remain a secret between you and ice cold space. Or if you destroy a ship and steal it's cargo the police should scan for it thus adding more realisium.

Post Sun Aug 29, 2004 10:07 pm

The only idea that I have that hasn't been said and resaid and said again is that in FL2 there be a dificulty option at the begining of the game. I.e. when you start, you have a choice of rookie, veteran, or ace then play the game so that not only does the game get harder as you progress but by the time you're an ace at the last mission, BY GOD YOU'RE AN ACE! None of this just buy massive equipment and smash stuff. By the time you end the storyline you should have a rep that causes your enimies to quake and your friends to thank god you're on their side. Also it might be nice to have instead of having to do bribes, if you have killed enough of a certain faction, having the opposite faction try to recruit you.

Post Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:46 am

the first thing that should improve is the size of planets, stars ships etc.

in FL a planet is the size of a large building, while the sun is a marble !
Bases should be bigger 2 !
The docking bay is as big as the living aeria.
Also, cap-ships should be a LOT bigger then the fighters.

A nice addition would be more different missions like:
- sabotage missions (cutscenes while not in SP)
- missions where you have to destroy cap-ships
- perhaps some "frontline missions" where you take the fight to enemy terretory with a lot of NPC and perhaps even cap-ships !!!

(don't get me wrong I really love FL 1 !!)


Edited by - Aquarius on 8/30/2004 12:46:18 PM

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