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I played it (not the Demo - the real thing), and I see a hug

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

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 12:44 am

I played it (not the Demo - the real thing), and I see a hug

Hiya guys. I just played the not-so-legal copy of FreeLancer for a couple of hours and it rocked my balls of for sure! I'm not sure if I'll buy the game and keep playing, or just uninstall it though. As I see it there's a MAJOR problem with the whole concept of the game. The problem is that let's say you spend four weeks on building your character, buying more guns, cooler ships and all that - and then, the server you play on shuts down. Well, your whole character and all the time you spent on the game - is WASTED. No, you can't just play on another server, because your character was stored locally on the server you played on!

Don't get me wrong - I think the game is absolutely fantastic. But do I want to spend my dollars and time on a game where all can be lost in a few seconds?
I think this needs to be fixed before I spend two more minutes playing the game. What do you think?

Edited by - Wolverine on 23-02-2003 00:45:20

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 12:48 am

I think that if you aren't playing a legit version you won't have to worry about that much, as you will have to play on cracked servers that will be more laggy, populated with more idiots, and less stable than legit servers.

Also, this really isn't that big of a problem for the legit versions. Just find other groups of like minded players who have their own private servers and play with them. Maybe if we bug microsoft enough they will put up some of their own, like EA does with Battlefield 1942

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 12:50 am

Edit: I meant that you wouldn't have to worry because the cracked servers will be too crappy to play on anyways and will have a higher chance of not staying up.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 12:52 am

That is no different than "Server Vault" servers for "NeverWinter Nights".
The reason they are stored serverside is to eliminate cheaters, greifers, and hackers, from being able to just edit their saved characters and ruin the game for "fair playing" players.

I feel the opposite of how you do I guess.
I wouldn't want to play the game if they WERE saved clientside.
Too many @$$holes in he world that like nothing more than to cheat their characters up then ruin other players fun.
At least if thy have no control over the character file it is one less thing to worry about.

Just one man's opinion.

Fly well,

Pyrate Dredd

§~~~~~~~~~~~~~§

And this too shall pass.

§~~~~~~~~~~~~~§

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 12:56 am

Uhm, yes. What I mean is that no matter how nice people are on the server, if it dies, or the person who hosts the server suddenly takes it offline, your character is GONE. After the little time I spent playing it I was almost hooked immediately. I think I can almost ensure you that if you spend a few months or weeks on a character, once it's gone you'll never play the game again. Well, maybe you will if you have a thing for building things up from scratch, but then you probably like SimCity more. This will be a problem for a lot of players, no matter how good the game is, trust me! Like I said, I already love this game, but do I want to spend a lot of time on a character to suddenly see it gone? Hmm.. I don't know.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:00 am

The possibility of a server going down is just something you have to consider when choosing one to play on. Like I said, do some searching and find out what servers will likely stay around, there will surely be lots of fans for this game that will want to host persistent servers.

Also, for a sure fire solution to the problem, host your own.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:07 am

That is not a huge problem. With me it is not a problem at all! A lot of Freelancer's players are not interested in multiplayer. If that is the only problem Freelancer has....I will be extremenly pleased.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:15 am

I can't see why you shouldn't be able to copy your profile to another server? That shouldn't be too hard, should it? I guess you can research a little, but servers go down for a lot of reasons (hardware, sudden lack of interest, viruses, a sudden bug that corrupts everything...). But I guess maybe there'll be a few RAID-kitted servers with tape-backup out there within a recent ping-range... I hope!
My point is that there are other character-based multiplayer games out ther (like Ultime Online, Asherons Call etc.) without the single-server strategy.

* Another problem is that you won't be able to change server either, let's say that you discover that your friends play on another server than yours. Or there's a new server that hosts x more players than yours. Or you're fed up with the people on the server that you're on, or, or, or...

I just think that since it's such a great game, it would be so much greater if you could "travel" between servers and maybe meet thousands of people instead of your ordinary 32 ?

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:16 am

All of you should know that warez copies of games are not buggy. They are the retails versions that were copied and published on the Internet.

There is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE if you play legit or warez games. The only problems is that the game which require keys have to be bought...

Why are they on the net so early you say? Let me light you path... games are being disributed long before they hit the shelves.

Groups who release the games have inside contacts (shippers, companies, etc...)

However, on a more serious note, the multiplayer issue IS a problem... microsoft should install a dedicated server on an oc-48 minimum

TigerLord

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:19 am

Quote: "That is not a huge problem. With me it is not a problem at all! A lot of Freelancer's players are not interested in multiplayer. If that is the only problem Freelancer has....I will be extremenly pleased."

Well, the interaction is great when you can tip people about different stars and ask about prices on different planets, trade between *people*, chat, aaah, there's a reason for why multiplayer is such a huge hit nowadays. The game unfortunatley doesn't feel quite up to date in this aspect I'm afraid. And I'm sure you'll read that in the reviews too.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:24 am

Still not a problem wolverine.

If Freelancer can handle those issues as well as Privateer did...I will not have a problem. Is the AI going to be as good as real people? Of course not! But I play computer games to have fun and get my mind off of real things in life...so I think the single player part of Freelancer will fill that bill nicely. I do not expect the AI to be perfect and I have tons of fun finding stuff out all by myslef anyway.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 1:24 am

This is something you have to consider. Are you going to play on a random server, ran by some person with a cable modem and the warezed version, who will probably uninstall it in a week, or will you play on a sponsered server that will always be up? Solution: play on more than one server.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 5:11 am

****ing warez loozers. Buy the Goddamn game and then enjoy a LEGAL copy without all the bugs. And yes warez copies are ripped games with alot of bugs and everybody knows it. If you think they don't then you are fooling yourself.

I came. I saw. I conquered. And sometimes get conquered.

Edited by - natrunner on 23-02-2003 05:11:38

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 6:02 am

Eh, I'm new around here but based on what I've read and based on my 8 hours gametime with the demo, if the single player doesnt do it for me all the time then if MS doesn't allow a character transfer between servers then like these guys are saying, you'll just have to find a sponsored server like ELITE.

A question though.. Will characters be lost if say a server computer is knocked offline, reboots, or closes? Or when the server starts back up again, will the previous character files be reloaded?

And btw, you can't honestly call yourself a fan at all if you get a ripped warez copy, can't even come close. Closer to being an enemy of the genre itself -- if you don't go out and buy the games you care about, you risk adding to the snow-ball effect of piracy, which could drive dev's and publishers away from the genre.

Post Sun Feb 23, 2003 6:05 am

I'm gonna ask you guys to avoid discussion on "warez" and get back on the main topic.

If the server goes offline, reboots, crashes, etc your files will still be on there. Only way your files will be screwed up is if somehow the player files get corrupted but the chances of that happening is very low. So if the server goes down, just wait a while and it should be back up with everything like it should be.

Just pick a server which you know will be on all the time.

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