Freelance, the Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Mon Feb 24, 2003 4:39 pm by SabreWhore

Why is it games designer have such potential and always squander it?

Ok Freelancer, HUGE universe, diverse, loads of NPCS, loads of places to go........ like carrying Elite into the Gen games...
Sadly theres so much could have been done, and SHOULD have been done instead of things that were done and shouldn't.

The Single Player Campaign should have been shorterm, and simpler, and the time 'wasted' on it should have gone into the things that would have given more longevity.

Like more hidden bases, hidden technologies , cloaking devices, hyper drive, new alien ships, weird fronteir bases. Also the ability to pick up jobs in space, like Hailing a freighter and offering your services as his escort afterr his own escorts have been caned by pirates and you bailed him out.

Factions, companies freindly meter going UP when you bail out ojne of their frieghters in an ambush....
The ability to radio pirates and bounty hunters in flight and see what they are doing, and ask if you can join their missions.

The ability to lease hold space on freighters, or just lease the freighter. You could pay by escorting their convoy, or by a percentage of sale proce, or by up front depending who you are dealing with and how much they like you/need your protection.

The ability to pick up news broadcasts ect in space for oppertunism. Like Elite, a planet suffers a disaster you get the news and profiteer by seling them med supplies ect.

There are just SO many things could have been done with the time that was taken up on a pointless SP campaign set.
I mean this is FREELANCER? Right? So surely the priority should have been given to making the game as involving as possible for the Freelancing aspect of it, not wasting countless hours of dev time on a fruitless campaign set that goes against the whole concept of the genre.
I really hope they do an Addon pack for this, and this time FORGET the scripted SP missions, and focus on fleshing out the universe and things for FREELANCING.

I dread to think how much time they spent on that SP campaign, and to be honest it would have been better without it in the game at all. All they needed to do was flesh out the universe and throw the players into the game..
After that its down to the player what they do, thats the whole point of these games. We dont want to be stuck with some scripted mission game, we want to Freelance and do our own thing in the universe.....

Its harsh to criticise and I will still buy it, but its frustrating watching devs completely miss the bus with a game. If they had just gone down the right road, the title should have been the clue FREELANCER, this game would have been 20 times more fun.

Its still value for money, and fun, but I just hoped for so many things, and instead they put in things that shouldnt have been there at all...

Mon Feb 24, 2003 4:46 pm by kalniel

Well thanks for voicing your opinion. But it's just that, and I have my own opinion of what I'd like in freelancer and it's a lot closer to the actual product than the one you've given.

All I mean to say is everyone will have their own version of the perfect game, and the devs will try to make a game that has the most things for the most people. That means some people will complain about some features, others will complain about a lot of features. You might even be very lucky and be the kind of person the devs had in mind when they made their desicions (I was lucky for Morrowind). If you're still going to buy the game, then the devs designed enough of a game that you'd be interested, but by the same measure someone who wants almost the opposite to you might also be interested enough to buy the game, and they'll also be more people who really love the game design how it is.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:04 pm by Bargib

I also tend to differ, and let's hope that FL sells well, so we will see an expansion that adds more of the dynamic stuff!

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

Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:11 pm by Dragoro

"The Single Player Campaign should have been shorterm, and simpler, and the time 'wasted' on it should have gone into the things that would have given more longevity."

That would of ruined the game, since when does making a campaign shorter make the game better. Thats got to be the dumbest thing ive ever heard of.

"Like more hidden bases, hidden technologies , cloaking devices, hyper drive, new alien ships, weird fronteir bases."

Theres no way you can say this, theres no way you could of even found half the hidden stuff. Your just complaining to complain.

"Factions, companies freindly meter going UP when you bail out ojne of their frieghters in an ambush...."

That does happen so i dont know what your talking about.

"The ability to pick up news broadcasts ect in space for oppertunism."

This is also in game, so once again your talking with out knowing.

In the end, what youve shown us is that you played the game for maybe an hour or so and then came here to bash it without having a clue about what 90% of the game is about.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:13 pm by mcguffin

Comparing with elite will destroy Freelancer.
Elite was a huge realistic, unlimited, dynamic, and random fractal universe.
This is why Elite was so fascinating.
freelancer is a human made universe. With lot limitation and far less dream ...

Edited by - mcguffin on 24-02-2003 17:15:00

Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:26 pm by SabreWhore

"That would of ruined the game, since when does making a campaign shorter make the game better. Thats got to be the dumbest thing ive ever heard of."

If I wanted a campaign game, I wouldn't have wanted agame called FREELANCER..... Freelancer was supposed to be about freelancing, NOT a campaign....

"Theres no way you can say this, theres no way you could of even found half the hidden stuff. Your just complaining to complain."

Half what hidden stuff? How much do you think is in the game? I hear not very much at all, most of it was taken out. Theres no hidden ships ot stuff as far as I know....only a few nomad weapons.

"""Factions, companies freindly meter going UP when you bail out ojne of their frieghters in an ambush...."

That does happen so i dont know what your talking about.""

Uhh no it doesn't. You bail out a convoy and its off through the jump gates the second it can get away, sometime without even finishing the pirates and it leaves you ther without so much as a thanks. And that is IT.

Sure you can help them if you want, but it wont gain you ANYTHING. No recognition, no reward no nothing. Its like you didn't exist in space.

""""The ability to pick up news broadcasts ect in space for oppertunism."

This is also in game, so once again your talking with out knowing."""

Again , no its not. All there is , is random background noise of people chattering about what cargo they have and where they are going. Thats useful for pirates only, and half the time its not even true when you scan the freighter. Theres NO space news about diosasters or events happening which you can latch onto and exploit like a plague on Planet Leeds or something needing Med suppiles.

"In the end, what youve shown us is that you played the game for maybe an hour or so and then came here to bash it without having a clue about what 90% of the game is about"

In the end you have resorted to making things up which blatantly aren't in the game at all......

....

"Comparing with elite will destroy Freelancer.
Elite was a huge realistic, unlimited, dynamic, and random fractal universe.
This is why Elite was so fascinating.
freelancer is a human made universe. With lot limitation and far less dream ..."

I find it amazing that considering the advances between then and now, Elite can still be more dynamic than Freelancer is. Not a great statement for longevity in offline mode really....

Admittedly for MP players it will last a lot longer....

Edited by - SabreWhore on 24-02-2003 17:30:04

Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:34 pm by Dragoro

lol nope, your just not willing to find the stuff. No they havent taken most of the stuff out, your just too lazy to find it. Youd rather complain about it. And you arent the one that determines whether the game is about freelancing or not. If you had put any effort into playing the game, youd of realized that you dont have to do the campaign mission after mission. You can do one mission, and then not bother doing the next one for a week, a month, a year if you want to. You can go do other missions, mine, explore or even pirating inbetween the campaign missions. If you had put any time into playin the game you would know this. Just cause you cant find something does not mean its not there, it just means you were too lazy to try and find it.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:59 pm by SabreWhore

No again you are wrong. Only the begining can you do this. Once you get to a certain point, you get tied into the capaign with NO opportunity to leave it at all. You get NO option but to do it mission after mission whether you want to or not....

It seems, YOU are the one who hasn't been playing it. I have already completed the capaign now (thankfully because it was the worst part of the game).

Even the 'Jobs' are limited. Wheres the variety? Every job amounts to going out into som,e asteroid belt or other blowing up a few ship, maybe a weapons platform and pushing the Tractor button if required.

=They could have spent some of the time waste on the SP campaign making more varieties of misions. How about cargo missions? Passenger missions? Transport stalking missions?

Instead its, "go here blow up ships and your done" every time.... does get VERY repetative. I though a Freelancer would have a great variety of jobs to Freelance in......

Why can't missions have time scale, to be done by a certain date ect. That would allow you to take multiple missions on and do them as you travel along a route....
Of course that would require some dynamic time........

You can bitch at me all you like. The fact is I am only poiting out some pretty poor aspects of an otherwise ok game. I had thought it would be GOTY, but having played it, I am afraid it doesn't have what it takes for GOTY.

It all feels very confined and limited and scripted.

I guess I am still waiting for someone to remake Elite, this defintaly isn't as good as Elite was sadly.
I still hope some company will re-do Elite or at least something close to it..

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:17 pm by Targan

First , lo to all

please forgive me my bad Eng. ( German without english Knowledge

)
But this is a great Fan side and i want say a few Words about this topic.

Well , i agree with most from Sabers opinion, but i'm a Big Fan of this
Kind from Space Games and i want that this Type of Games stays alive.

I don't buy one of this games , no i buy two ( first the US Version and then the German Vers. ( for better understanding

))

Although i hope that a Addon will come und gives us all that what we want

)))

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:39 pm by Bargib

Sabre... I'm fairly sure you can explore freely after completing most missions up to 10 or so, and only after that you are locked into the storyline untill mission 13.

Please, may I ask what the purpose of posting here is for you, because I'm confused?

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

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:42 pm by Greyfish

if one is looking for an elite style game check out the X series at www.egosoft.com

FL looks fun to me, but I was expecting something closer to Elite, and am disappointed in that. but if one meets FL on its own terms, I expect one would enjoy the game. what FL set out to do (cut features notwithstanding), it does fairly well.
I'll be purchasing FL soon, but after the demo its no longer at the top of my priority list like it used to be. I'll still get it, but I can wait a few months to see what the patches bring

g

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:43 pm by UnionBuster

This whole idea of "FL selling well to warrent an XP" is odd right now. Stardock has already put aside several months worth of budget to fix bugs, create add-ons etc. no matter how much the game sells (taken from the lead dev). A company like MS should be able to front some money to do these things.

Anyway, I think the game will be great, but there are some things that would have made the game much better.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:44 pm by SabreWhore

What purpose?

Whats that supposed to mean? You are only welcome here if you think Freelancer is perfect or something?
I imagine my purpose is much the same as anyone elses when I post here, and thats discussing Freelancer.

It just so happens I am discussing the things that I think could have been done to make it much better...

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:57 pm by Dragoro

Not its not just for fans that think its perfect. But its not for people that come here and say stuff that is totally untrue, which you have done SabreWhore, but when one choses a SN with whore in it, what can ya expect but garbage.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 6:59 pm by Dragoro

Not its not just for fans that think its perfect. But its not for people that come here and say stuff that is totally untrue, which you have done SabreWhore, but when one choses a SN with whore in it, what can ya expect but garbage.

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