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more on dynamic universe issues....

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

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:07 pm



But you have ATC, you have chatter in the universe, you have tons of people going to and from places, you have a very nicly thought out universe. These things make for me an illusion of a living, dynamic world, where I have a role to play...



problem is the illusion is far away from perfect, you noticed it just to often how limited the universe is. In my view it´s decreasing the fun playing the game.

As I said once to a friend, I like to watch films, I remember myself not to look for flaws, but if they are so easy to spot that you noticed them still, than than the movie will not be not as good as it could be, and I will start to be pissed about those flaws.
Or do you still enjoy films when the charakters in it do not give you the feeling to be real ppl (let exclude action and comedy movies, cause it´s part of the film to have unrealistic characters *g*)

Some things are just to stupid to get easy ignored.

What personaly bothered me most are the constant pirate attacks of pirates that stand a chance like a snowball in hell against me, single starter ships that attacked me just cause they are hostile (something that imo should be patched) and the general sitation of the fl universe, with rebels in each system.
The fl universe gives you the feeling to be totaly ****ed up, when you are in space, constant war since maybe 1000 years, but the charakters in the universe seem not to feel like it would be war going on.
Its behond my understanding how the houses can have huge millitary forces (that seem not so huge if you think about that some pirates are able to fight those forces since generations) and are not able to at least temporaty clean areas efftiv from pirates.
Bases get build damn fast, and still the lose of battleships seem to get a real problem, and there are even not much arround.

It all makes not really much sense to me, which destroyes the illusion.

After all it seems to be a game that simply was not done complette, there are the right ideas, but most did not get as much finished as I wish.

My 2 cents to the problem with the dynamic universe, that is so damn static that somehow most of my motivation in single player went "poof" after a few days playing.

Still the game has a good deal of potential in mp, so we will see what the time brings in this area ... (even when I see some balance problems for mp, cause the noob space offers the smallest protection against grifers)

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:24 pm

There's things about the game I don't like but they are outweighed by the things I like by about 100 to 1. I'm hoping that enough people buy FL to make it worthwhile to make patches, addons, and sequels.

Let's get those missiles ready to destroy the universe!!

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:38 pm

Apocalypse - you ave been around the block a few times, and I respect that, and therefore I give you more leeway than most... but PLAAAEEEZZZZ..... If you don't like the game, and if it has let you down - I feel sorry for you, but I am very sure that you would be unable to satisfy with any game in this genre, because you are living in Utopia.

Enjoy the game for what it is, and try to look over the weaker spots. As said in many other posts, the bad things are rather tiny to the good things. If YOU feel the bad things are bothering you too much, OK - I can't force you to change you mind, but you don't have to repeat your stand - this is afterall a fansite...

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

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:50 pm


What personaly bothered me most are the constant pirate attacks of pirates that stand a chance like a snowball in hell against me, single starter ships that attacked me just cause they are hostile (something that imo should be patched)


I agree. I doesn't make sense for a solo Junker to threaten me for my 2 oxygens in my cargo. Even if I'm hostile with somebody, I won't commit suicide over it.

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:57 pm

speaking of far way non-patrolled areas...


is there a rouge base in the pittsburg debrie fields? honestly either they have a base there or the police turned bad.

-I trade for a living, rouges piss me off, come get me, catch me if you can, i will leave you in the dust, or you'll die trying, take your pick.-

@Heretic Inc. We trade because we own.@

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:04 pm

Actually, I've never seen an official claim that Freelancer is a dynamic universe. The only thing I've seen is that it has a dynamic reputation system. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Geez, tho, DA's attempt at a dynamic universe is pretty good, you've got to admit. And besides, no matter how much detail they put in, there's always something they'll miss. So don't worry about it. It's just a game.

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:13 pm

I remember back when I read something about a specail effect flaw in one of the
scenes in "Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers". I loved the first one and when I watched the second one..I could not help but try to notice that tiny little flaw...I saw it. And I wish I had not..trying to be so picky as to notice every little single flaw can ruin a experence for you. It is like when you first meet this wonderful looking girl..then later you start noticing all of her not so perfect features. The best attitude is to look at something as a whole...and not each little single part.

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:29 pm



Apocalypse - you ave been around the block a few times, and I respect that, and therefore I give you more leeway than most... but PLAAAEEEZZZZ..... If you don't like the game, and if it has let you down - I feel sorry for you, but I am very sure that you would be unable to satisfy with any game in this genre, because you are living in Utopia.



Actaully my posts changed in the last days quite alot.
Cause there were phases were I was really really pissed about the game, and even doubt if I will buy, and times were I was totaly amazed about it, and thought even about pre-order it and ignore the extra bucks for shipping.

Its still a good game, and my critcs are mostly about that it could be EASY even better. You say that for each flaw there are 100 good things, I say, if they would have eliminate most of the major issuses the game would have been 10 times better. And would have been maybe the best game ever made. Now its just in the top10 of my favorite top list, its still not to bad and definatly worth buying, at least to me, still seeing alot lost potential is somehow hurting, and most of the problems mentioned, are real not to hard to realize, so what I really do is wonder what the heck they did in the last 4 years
somehow the strive for perfection is missing, at least in my impression.

btw I am the only one that hopes that a possible expansion will instead of adding a full new campagne will add about 20-30 subplots to the main story and a good amount of new mission types?
Would improve the game ihmo alot.

Well or maybe even give us a editor that allows us to do scripted missions that can added as sub missions on a mp server.

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:46 pm

just one comment on the dynamic universe- opponents of Fl use Battlecruiser and x as games that have dynamic universe built in- neither game is currently avail in the Us- Any comparison is futile- I have looked at reviews for both games when they came out and most reviewers had bad things to say about them-bad grahpics
hard interface-empty space and so forth
I think freelancer is the most complete game so far in terms of the whole package

Post Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:56 pm



btw I am the only one that hopes that a possible expansion will instead of adding a full new campagne will add about 20-30 subplots to the main story and a good amount of new mission types?


Hey Apoc: I couldn't agree more!

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

Post Thu Feb 27, 2003 10:48 pm

Bargib said "Dynamic universe... Hmm... in my book FL is more dynamic than almost any other game out there..."

Thats not true. Games like X, X2, Jumpgate, Battlecruiser all have a dynamic universe. So far Battlecruiser games have the largest and most advanced freeform dynamic universe and will a lot more things to do and exceptionally good AI. Even the demo for Battlecruiser Millennium has a more dynamic universe than Freelancer. All the reviews for the game are on the 3000ad.com website and they were all positive.

Carver said "just one comment on the dynamic universe- opponents of Fl use Battlecruiser and x as games that have dynamic universe built in- neither game is currently avail in the Us- Any comparison is futile- I have looked at reviews for both games when they came out and most reviewers had bad things to say about them-bad grahpics hard interface-empty space and so forth I think freelancer is the most complete game so far in terms of the whole package"

Thats not true either. Every review of Smart's (pun intended?) games praise the dynamic freeform universe. The downside of those games is that they are so huge and complex, that you have to invest a significant amount of time in playing them.

From reading the others threads (especially the locked ones), it looks like the FL fanboys are twisting every single bad facet of FL to make the game look better than it actually is while at the same time putting down other games. The FL game is a mass market arcade space sim and in that regard it is only _slightly_ different from Starlancer, Tachyon and similar games in that vein. I won't call it a _bad_ game; its just a disappointing game that after almost seven years, I have to wonder what they were doing. This game is not innovative in any aspect. There is nothing in it that has not already been done before. Even the most basic feature such as trading can't compete with very old games such as Privateer.

We can all have our opinions but some people here tend to think that FL is the only space sim that we have played. Most of us have played all the sims that are available which is why we are here.

I have forgotten who said that Smart is leaving the space sim business. That is also not true. What he did say in a recent interview is that he is taking a break from PC gaming to do an XBox title and that the upcoming Battlecruiser Generations (which really makes FL look like an arcade game) is the last space sim of its type. He has decided to do the MMOG version of that (I think its called Battlecruiser Generations Online or something) game as the last Battlecruiser title. This means that there will be another Battlecruiser title after the next one, but it will be MMOG like Eve.

Post Thu Feb 27, 2003 11:22 pm

Yapab,
Your quote from X is exactly what the original plans were for Freelancer, when it was planned to be a MMOG . Freelancer feels more "alive" than say, Jumpgate, which does have dynamic prices in a multiplayer environment. When do you decide that you have enough detail, compared to the expense and time it takes to put in more? They were running a little behind schedule, you know Sometimes decisions have to be made, and we aren't privy to all the factors that go into these decisions. I learned this after being involved in the development of another game.

Hopefully, sales will be good enough, and player run servers will be popular enough, that DA can get the greenlight from MS to go ahead with the MMOG plans. Then we'll see all this stuff we dream about, when a server farm is running the game. I wonder how many players you could fit in FL if server power was no object, speaking just about the space available in the Freelancer universe ?

Post Thu Feb 27, 2003 11:37 pm

Torgen,

Yes I know, but remember the games been in development for 5 years . What is this MMOG version???? Im only new to the freelancer universe, know more about x and battlecruiser (maybe thats why i expected more?).

Lets say the game is popular and there is an average of 5K people playing together on a given server (dreams )... that would mean A LOT of ships hehehe but the demo liberty system seems big enough to hold about 1000 easily, so the whole game could hold 5000 quite well, it would be busy! but i wouldnt mind it at all. All they would have to do is implement IRC on each base station and u'd have people just talkin like on IRC in different places a good COM system would also be nice, with that many people who would need random voice chat audio from the NPC

maybe in a few years time we will have games like that!

Yapa

Post Fri Feb 28, 2003 6:00 am

My turn.

Freelancer is more a arcade space shooter than a Space sim to me. I would put games like elite and X in the space sim arena.

Freelancer is more a story driven rpg action shooter with a semi open static universe which you could use to make some extra money and upgrade your ship.
Fun to play. If I could compare the game to other games I would do it like this.

FreeLancer = Diablo. Fun hack and slash with a fantastic story.
X2 = Morrowind has a story but you are free to whatever you want, and with who ever you want to do it with. Endless playability.

burn me if you want but I am buying both games and I will enjoy them both but in the long run X2 is going to last longer with me due to it's endless possibilities to create your own trading empire and ships.

--------------------------------
Michael"TRAPPER"Needham
The Weak Shall Perish

...Yes sir thats right... just drop your cargo or I can open your hull with my twin plasma blasters, and take the cargo for myself.......Thank you, have nice flight.

Post Fri Feb 28, 2003 8:23 am

Over all..........................the most Dynamic universe game is X-Tension....................but it don't have the greatest graphics.

I think this would rank about 6th when it comes to Dynamic universe.

But the game play makes up for it a bit. It would have been the best game of all time if they had of made it to be a proper Dynamic universe.

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