Does Freelancer pwn?

Oh, and can I have your PR CD?

Edited by - Nspire on 07-02-2003 22:26:46

Let me clarify, this is not the NDA on the PR beta. *Wink*

Hehe - I knew you would be the first to post on this! LOL! And there where quite a few of the regulars in the Technical Beta program, making sure that DA listened to us...

Here are a few fun facts from the game:

Seems Tachyon get's his name into the manual, because they used a picture from a multiplayer sesssion we had with DA, and Tach is onscreen!

Cockpits are OF COURSE back in... believe me they listened... They had some issues with them, and asked the beta-testers if they should drop them or keep them. In the end they became an option you can set!

Stinger was and will continue to be our official server manager. He ran the mostly used server in the Beta outside DA offices. So any server questions - ask him!

Between the PR Build and the last build we as technical testers got, there is a rather big difference. The final build should even be better. Actually one thing we as testers removed from the beta where all the "gold-rushes" and to balance the way you make money. I estimate that most people will take missions to make money, but at one stage in the game making trade-runs was VERY profitable. Not anymore so... should be about equal...

Most of the TLR-crew on this beta has played the game many times, and I finished the SP campaign allready twice, and on my third runthrough. Stinger and some of the others have mostly played MP, and have mapped out most of the universe, like jumpholes etc. But even while I estimate that Stinger has played FL around 150 hours, he hasn't found everything... And believe me, we need to make sure that the maps and stuff you'll find here are correct compared to the retail version...

So fire away...




Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

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Stinger has played FL around 150 hours

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The set the record straight, I logged over 250 total hours at last count. All but 3 hours of that playing MP.

Is there dynamic trade prices or are they set for every system?

Set for every system and every place you land....BUT there are well over 160 places to potentially sell stuff. I've been to all but 15. There are several ways of finding the best/worse pricing. Hard to explain the details without seeing it, but the game does keep track of places you land, and the prices goods will fetch. The Neural Net has a section to show you best prices and worse prices of the places you've landed. The NAV map shows all the stations you've visited (sortable) and when you click on one, it zooms in on the system the base resides in. Very cool!!

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 05:13:54

Stinger - 250 hours - MAN - you are mad!

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

Putting some of those hours to use...

Can you talk to some detail regarding the structure of how you work together?

Working together - In MP there are three main things you can do as far as interact with another live pilot...trade, group, and chat. The working together as a team doesn't mean you HAVE to group together, but it does offer some distinct advantages. When you take a mission, you always see the number of lives you have left. Go at them one on one and your lives will say "zero." If you're in a group, then that number goes up as there are more group members. Last time I really paid attn, I was in a group of like 7 or 8 maybe? In this example, when a mission was taken, there would have be 6 or 7 lives left. If one person in the group dies, they can respawn and come back into the battle. This can be repeated by others until the goup lives have been zeroed out. Chances of this happening are really nil tho because there are going to be some really good pilots out there and no one has the same technique...therefore they don't die as easily.

In other words, what is the actual process to work as a team, taking on contracts, sharing the rewards, flying in unision, etc.

When a mission is completed, the price of the mission is shared among all group members (as it should be). But any loot is fair game. In my experiences, every shares the ealth or they are not a group member for long. This goes a long way in developing a sense of family and team unity in MP.

And what kind of effect you noticed on how the game anticipates this and reacts to create challenges for multiple players?

Is it simply a matter of being able to take on more challenging missions, or are the missions being altered (more enemies, better skilled opoonents) based on the number of team members?

The AI does react quite well in MP. Not all fights are created equal tho! The level of enemies realy relies on the mission and in part where you are in the galaxy. The numbers of team members has no bearing on the difficulty level. Well, maybe they so sometimes. If you have one member that thinks they're in a group that can handle a tough mission and they go get one in the bar, it might be too tough for the lot of ya. In some circles that's called getting cocky. Some missions are fairly easy and pay well, some are tough as nails and pay a pittence. You learn as you go I must say. As you venture into the Borderworlds, they get MUCH tougher!!

What about the whole concept of a team? Is it just a matter of marking yourselves as alligned when your on the server at the same time? Or does it remember more about your alliances? I would assume that a "team memer" not currently online doesn't get paid if his "team" completes some mission right?

Group member do eventually get aligned the same if you stay together for hours. Not perfectly aligned with the same factions, but it only stands to reason if a gorup member is geting fired up on by a faction and they don't come after you because you're friendly towards them..what cha going to do sit back and watch a friend get nailed...not on my watch. So you essentially do become somewhat aligned the same with the same factions. Of course individuals can take bribes along the way that only affects them, not the group, so it's in a constant state of evolution on alignment.

Edited by - Clutch on 07-02-2003 22:51:38

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 05:24:49

The MP, tell me all the facts worth mension,
persistant or non persistant, tell me everything!

Server are persistent. This means you log into one server..play for a while..leave and your character is retained exactly where you left off when you log back into the same one (if you don't make the admin mad and they boot cha which can happen). If you log into another server...you're starting from scratch and build a character unique to the server from the ground up again.

The server software does tell you if you've visited a server in the past and have at least created a character on it. The server software is also sortable by server name/pingtime/"visited" (Y or N) / IP addy/Numbers of players on the server / Build number/ whether it's a LAN / and "options (such as PK allowed or password)


/Eppie

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 05:26:59

I also have a question about multiplayer, can you host a game play with your friends over lan, then save the game and shut down the computer over night. Will you be able to pick up where you left game and continue or is it a big no-no to shut down the server.

I believe you can yes so long as you keep the server name exactly the same.. That makes sense to me.


Thanks in advance



Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 05:28:31

Let me relay that back to you and see if I got it:

Being on a team is basically a real time association your making. As in you click on the pilot and choose "group" and the game basically flags both of you as being in the same team/group.

So now when you accept a mission, it knows to pay anyone who happens to be flagged as a member of your group once it is complete right?

This in theory could mean that your group members may sit around the docking bay of space station XYZ while you fly off to complete the mission and you will all get a percentage as long as they are flagged as being part of your group, yes?

Exactly yes to all three... You can have a "slacker" in a group reap all the rewards but the loot unless it's traded amongst the members...and only done in space I might add (both grouping and trading)

So when player X logs off, he simply stops being considered by the server as a member of your group and obviously won't get paid when a mission is completed?

And when that players logs back into the server, he needs to rejoin with you to be part of the group again?

Again, yup to both...once a player logs off, they will need to rejoin to be a part of the group again.

The chat and trade options probably just bring up chat or trade windows respectively where you can talk or select goods/money and accept/decline to commit the trade?

Chat and trade ar two totally different concepts and steps to initiate. To trade you must target the other pilot and then hit a key (default is U). Even in a group you must target the group member. Then if the trade request is accepted, anotehr window comes up and both can pick and choose tiems to trade (or none at all) and at that point the still need to accept the trade to finalize the deal. To chat you simply hit a key (default is Y) and a screen comes up to pick and choose individual/system wide chat/ or if you use your arrow key you can chat with the console (the admin)

And with regards to the alegiance point you made, your saying that by virtue of fighting against the same opponents over long periods of time different players' reputations naturally move towards the same values, yes?

By design, sure...again, there are other factors such as birbes and how much to one side or the other of friendyl/hostile you were before you started letting the group activity control some of the effects. If you're really friendly with a faction...it will take a long time to become hostile.

Thanks for the details. I'm sure I will have a lot more questions.

Bring em on, been waiting to get the FACTS out for months!!

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 00:47:30

Oh, one other point to clarify: the lives thing.

So you get this "lives" ammount and if your group runs out of lives before a mission is completed, what happens? Mission failed, no cash, no rewards for completing the objective and the person who hired you is a little less friendly toward EVERYONE in the group? Or maybe just to the person who took the mission on behalf of the group?

Lose all the lives...mission failure. No cash, no nuthin' and yes the people that hired you will not be very happy at all. You fly as a group, you succeed as a group..you fail as a group (but you do not die as a group unless you're all really bad at dogfighting)

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 00:48:47

Give us a final word on the Radar

No radar, different colored arrows replaced that and seem to work well for me.

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 00:49:34

Woohoo! Cockpits! Awesome!

250 hours...holy crap that's insane, Stinger! I imagine that's how many hours I would've had to play to beat Morrowind.

At any rate, I'm really salivating over the prospects of flying on the TLR server. Just to make sure: what's the maximum number of players the TLR server will support at any one time? Also, can you have more than the max number of simultaneous players actually existing on the server? (i.e. 60 pilots stored on server, but only 32 playing at any given time.)

The maximum amount of players on TRL server is still debatable since I have not pushed the limts yet (not even close). I had 7-9 on at one time and there was no spike in the server. There was some lag, but that was primarily the dial-up peeps. The maximum allowed on any FL server is still 128. I'm working on that...stay tuned

250 hours in 5 months really isn't that much.... Actually, for the record there was another person I spent countless hours with in MP that probably had more hours logged than even I. I'll refer to him now simply as "pilgrim" since he really was a trailblazer to most of us. He'll show his face around here someday I'm sure of it. He was by far the explorer extraordinaire!

The max number of saved characters on any given server is ...well...limitless

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 00:50:27

Hi guys:

I played in beta, but not very well *grin* so I'm looking for some simple flight/combat tips. For example, the AI often hits the afterburners and virtually stops, and turns around to hit head on. Are they using strafe and reverse thrusters to do that? What other manouvers would you reccomend during a firefight? I find myself not using the strafe keys that much, but I'm assuming I should if I want to be good!

I use the straffing move constantly. It saves a lot on the shields and nanos. The AI doesn't compensate for that move as much as a living brathing human can. The combination between the reverse thrust (which is most of just a back up gear than what some have imagined like in Starlancer) and the thrusters is the best technique I can think of. In MP you also learn from watching others!! Basically, don't be stationary very much. Move around...juke and jive...if you stay in one place, you're dead.

Edited by - Stinger on 08-02-2003 05:33:09