I really like the game. That having been said, there are some aspects that have been kind of "dumbed-down" a bit to appeal to a wider audience, I suspect. These include:

*You have no display of damage to your ship. That doesn't seem to matter, since I have yet to lose any individual systems (weapons, etc) during combat.

*There is no "lock-on" targeting phase with missles. Furthermore, you don't get any threat warning when you are targeted with a missle. Both of these are standard in flight sims and previous space sims.

*I haven't gotten in to the later missions yet, but so far none of the many ships I've shot down use nanobots or shield batteries while fighting me, even though they carry them. Why am I able, as a beginner in a very light fighter, to successfully fight 4 enemies at the same time?

*The lack of radar, despite the prior comments about the red arrows, to really give you an overall feel for the tactical situation you face.

*The lack of any differential characteristics between ships. In the Wing Commander Universe, the lighter ships were faster, turned better and overall were more agile. The more heavily armored beasts had better weapons but there was a tradeoff in flight dynamics. As far as I can tell, in FL all the ships fly and turn exactly the same, regardless of size.

*There are no escape pods, clones, or insurance. Should you get blown up, you have to reload, which impairs the sense of immersion for me.

*There are others, but let me leave it at that as I would like to hear comments from others on these thoughts.

Again, overall I like the game alot, but would have liked to see some of the above features implemented.


Doctor Z.

There isnt a real radar in the game, at least not in the sense of something that tracks and displays all objects in range relative to you. I cant imagine *why* there isnt, but there isnt. It sure would be nice if they added this in a patch, but somehow I doubt that will happen.

Additional mission types would be nice as well, again though, I dont see that being added in a patch. Maybe an expansion.

olaf

Zucker, I take it you haven't played much yet and haven't been in many ships. The only part of the speed that is the same is the max speed all ships can go. 80 normal speed, 200 with afterburners, 300 at cruise.

Turning speed is very different between a light fighter and a heavy fighter and then a freighter. Forgot keeping your target always in front of you in a freighter, just try to get around quick enough to see him as he goes by again.

Light fighters are much quicker turning, but do have limits on gun mounts and gun levels, plus NO turrets. Heavy fighters sometimes get turrets as well, depends on design. Heavy fighers will allow a higher level weapon to be mounted, and will usually have a larger cargo hold and more armor, plus stronger shields.

They are different, very much so really. Now, all the light/heavy fighters that hold the same level weapons, those will feel basically the same. I don't believe the idea is to buy every ship. It's that based on who you have good faction with, you'll either be able to buy this light fighter or that light fighter, this freighter or that frieghter, heavy fighter etc. Get in good with the pirates, get access to slightly better ships, but risk being attacked everywhere and reducing the number of planets you can land on/trade with.



regards,

RogueOne

Perhaps the dissapointment does stem from the lack of "expected" detail and not the
game itself. In making it accessable they made it simplistic. They may boost sales
and attract a few new players but will it hold thier attention ? Will anybody but the
real hard core " us" still be arguing the merits of the game in 3 or 4 months? I hope so
because that means enough interest to get us the added features we would like to
see in an expansion or an FL2.
If your happy with the game the way it is great..I just "expected" more detail.

It IS the game I expected. Then again, I knew what sort of game it was going to be. A lot of the posts here from disappointed folk seem to be marking FL down for not having the same features/depth as more sim-oriented space flight games. This is primarily an action game. It's not going to have all the features of a sim. (And don't get me started on the concept of calling something that portrays an activity not yet possible a 'sim'.) You could be confused about this if you read the first lot of info released about the game, way back when Mr Roberts was at the helm, and then nothing else until release. Developers always have high goals at the start of a project, you can't blame them for talking it up a bit. A lot has changed since then.

The other cause for confusion could be the slightly misleading marketing-hype. Every publisher does it, but that don't make it right. That said, everyone has a different idea on what makes a "living universe". So I guess they can get away with it. Personally I can put up with less minutely detailed depth for rock solid stability, good graphics and performance, a good story (from what i've seen in the demo) and actual release! I'd rather have less detail in something that works than a buggy game that never gets fixed.

And throwing my hat into the "broad-generalization-on-what-game-FL-is-like" ring : Freelancer isn't 'Morrowind in space'. It's 'Mafia in space' !

"It's like shooting Cats in a barrel!"

So tigris, if FL is Mafia in space, would that also mean you would equate it to GTA3 in space for folks from that side of the gaming house?

I'd call it a bit more indepth than GTA3, but in many ways, it's almost the same. Instead of stealing cars, you might steal cargo, and destroy the "car, er ship". Instead of pulling missions for various mafioso's, you do them for your own survival, and Juni of course

Was trying to explain FL to the manager at EB tonight, and he wasn't overly familiar with Privateer, and seemed more the console gamer. So I then recalled some have called this Diablo in space, or even GTA3 in space, and THAT peeked his interest You can't say there was much in GTA3 that was accurate to the real world, so I'd say about the same realism applies here. It's not about realism, it's about escapism from the Real world, and just plain having FUN!



regards,

RogueOne

i have been assimilated. Freelancer is an excellent game. Yes, you can let MS know about it by posting in thier non-existent forums or sending an email to thier non-posted email address.

No, it's not the game I expected. Years of mis-publicity and mismarketing led me to expected an open ended space sim.

Instead I got a great action-adventure.

i'd loved it to be the former but taking it on it's own terms the demo convinced me it was good enough to buy on import.

Judge it on what it is, not what we either wanted it to be or were led to believe it would be.

I've not played GTA3 Rogue, but that sounds about right.

"Judge it on what it is, not what we either wanted it to be or were led to believe it would be."
Big thumbs up to tagos for expressing in one line what took me a few wandering paragraphs!

"It's like shooting Cats in a barrel!"

looking through this forum, i think i'll wait for 'elite 4' to be released (whenever that may be).
I keep seeing lack of 'depth' pop up. which doesnt surprise me.

---

Judge it on what it is, not what we either wanted it to be or were led to believe it would be.

---

Thanks Tagos, agree with this completely. I think there were a lot of expectations and heightened misconceptions about the game. I'm enjoying the game for what it is, not for what I expected it to be.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
The Next Thing I Say To You Will Be True
The Last Thing I Said Was False

A game like Freelancer has been through a lot of transformations, and even the journalists reporting on the game at times said stuff that was not true at the time and later on even less so.

All in all I think FL is a great, entertaining game, which at least has a lot to do for the ones who want to be explorers!

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

Expectations are the leading cause of disapointment.

The best way to ruin the fun of exploration?

"Access denied."