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An Honest Opinion

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

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 2:55 am

An Honest Opinion

Well fellas, I have been reading and checking up on freelancer for about two months now. I think that with all the buildup that this game had, we expected way too much. The demo kept me entertained for more than 5 hours, how many games can you say that about? I think that if one thing could be improved it would be the random missions generated in the bars. I have seen only a paltry 3 types of missions. This is disapointing. I realize that there are sill many other ways to make money in the game, but I was hoping that the random mission would increase the life of this game. Several sapce sims that are a few years old have missions like escorting ships, ferrying important passengers, going out and recon sector "", improve rep and gain "" houses' trust, test out new weaponry, and more that are not coming to mind. The game is fun, and most people will probably get a good month gameplay out of it. I don't know if microsoft could release a patch to add these(actually they could but I highly doubt they will). I am anxious to test out my multiplayer skills once i get my full version, and hopefully i'll see some of you out there.

GoodDog

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 3:11 am

Well id just like to say that there is more variation of the random missions once you move out more into different systems. The demo doesnt have everything.

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Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:13 am

So are you saying there are more types of missions other than killing a ship or blowing up cargo?

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:14 am

Now Good Dog

Are you trying to say by your post title if a player gives a positive review of the demo he is not being honest? I will give you my review of the demo earlier this week and it will be a honest one...negative or positive.

Edited by - WhiteTiger on 24-02-2003 05:25:36

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:34 am

I think he gave a positive review of it, and I don't think his complaint is any different from what even the TLR mods here have said. You can interpret "honest" equally to mean that negative reviews of it aren't being truthful.

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:09 am

ElectricBrain,

Can you give us an example of missions types that aren't related to blowing something up or arresting someone? Like maybe an escort or a passenger service or a trading mission? Please restore my faith that there is more than just killing a person, tractoring their escape pod, or blwoing up a group of ships.

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 7:12 am

Well, what i was trying to point out to GoodDog was that there were more than 3 types of randomly generated missions, even tho you can strip each down to a basic "kill this and that" scenario.

I do agree with you guys that there should be more types of missions BUT you guys must consider the fact that the randomly generated missions are not the only thing you can do in the game. It would truly be ignorant of you guys to do that.

Freelancer is a universe filled with many things to do. For example you can trade all you want. Why do you need someone to tell you to trade something when you can do it at anytime in the game? Another example is pirating. You can go about and shoot up any cargo ship you see and raid their goods all without having to be "hired" to do it.

Now, i do understand that there are scenarios that would be better off with more scripted events as a randomly generated mission but right now, FL has enough. Perhaps in Freelancer 2, when the development problems are pushed into the past, the dev team will have a lot more time and experience to make you guys an even better game with more exciting things to do.

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 7:49 am

That's right:

- if you want an exploring mission, go and explore
- if you want a "patrol sector" mission, set some custom wayppoints and fly this patrol
- if you want an escort mission, look for a transport, get in formation with him and escort him to his destination.

You will ask now "what's with the payment you would get if it were real random missions?" and you are right about that. Here comes the answer, the payment is based on success of these custom missions:

- exploring: your payment is a shortcut to another system which saves you time or a base with special commodity opportunities or some goodies you find in a derelict vessel
- patrol&escort: bring down some troublemakers and sell their cargo and weapons. Most likely you will get some weapons this way that you can't even buy yet. It's all up to you.



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"In all likelihood you're going to die out there. We're all going to die out there, but none of us needs to be reminded of that fact. So you die, you never existed." - Lt. Cmdr. 'Angel' Devereaux

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 8:46 am

Well, since we're talking honest opinions, I'll voice mine.

Let me start off by saying that I'm a fan of the Genre. I proudly own Fury 3, Hellbender, StarLancer, Tachyon, FreeSpace 1 & 2, Wing Commander Prophecy, Terminal Velocity and other's. So please don't expound that I'm not a fan of the Genre, or don't know what to expect of a Space Sim (as I've seen done to some in other threads).

I was expecting to hate this game for the lack of Joystick support and a cockpit view. After playing the Demo I have to admit that overall, it's not bad.

The "Mouse" flight control took me quite a while to get used to. At first I couldn't control the ship at all. After about 6 hours of playing now, I can control the ship good enough to get around, but I still have problems in combat. It just doesn't feel right. Plus, I have to keep looking down at the keyboard to make sure I'm hitting the right keys for "Target nearest enemy", "Target next", "Tractor", etc. Usually, when I look up again, my target's no where in sight! I really miss being able to map the buttons on my Joystick to do these things and just move a finger to press them, not needing to take my eyes from the action. I only hope that it'll get better with more practice.

Aside from that, I just don't feel that I'm in a spaceship. Maybe it's the lack of a cockpit view, but it just doesn't feel like I'm there.

There are a few other quirks that bother me, but I don't want to give the impression that I hate the game. I'll probably buy it, if for no other reason than because I'm dying for a new space sim. They're few and far between and I certainly want any that come out to do well to keep the Genre alive. But, I've gotta say that the lack of Joystick support for flight and combat, along with the lack of a cockpit view makes it hard to suspend disbelief and really feel that you're in a ship. Anyway, just my honest opinion, like the topic says.

PS- For my two cents, the Demo would have been a lot better if they would let you advance to level 2, so you could fly the other ships you see and use a few more of the weapons to see what they're like. No travel to other systems, or new missions or anything like that. Just let the player officially advance to level 2 without being kicked back to the desktop. Push that off until we hit level 3. :-)

Post Mon Feb 24, 2003 8:51 am

Control V is how you go into cockpit view. Yes, struts included.

Post Tue Feb 25, 2003 2:40 am

RE: Electric Brain

Thanks! I'll give it a try. :-)

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