Hmmm, by the looks of it, it seems the AI could use a tad of an upgrade with the first patch...

Well the funny thing about colors in space pictures we see is that most really spectacular images are taken with non-visible wavelengths. For example, x-rays, infrared, etc. It's common for multiple exposures to be taken at different wavelengths, each given a false color and combined into the resulting images we see in the news and such. But hey, this is a game.

you cant fly to everything you see in space. one time i noticed some strange spots of lights and decided to try to fly to it. thought it might some ship that recently blew up. after a while i realized that i wouldnt reach that place anytime soon so i just left the game running for about four hours with the ship pointing in the right direction and the cruise engines on. when i got back to the comp i ended up travelling six billion kilometers and apparently no further to the target then when i started.

6 billion in 4 hours?? Those are some mighty powerful cruise engines you got...

one of my favorite things is flying along the rings of a planet. just feels cool

Ok, the trade lane connect planets, space stations, etc. But , If the planet is going in orbit around the sun, how would trade lanes work? I mean, all the planets in FL are stationary, kinda silly IMO

Yeah.. there are some serious issues with dynamics. It would be pretty cool if things actually orbitted around the sun. You're maps would have to be constantly changing. Come to think of it... I don't think any space-based game has really taken that into noticible account.

On a side note, doesn't your character ever have to eat, sleep or go poo-poo? Even if you go to a bar he'll never order a drink. I guess maybe that first drink in the SP game filled him up indefinately.

I've always thought about that myself. It would be really interesting if they did orbit... Then the trade lane lengths would vary on a seasonal basis (which really would likely be too gradual to notice during short periods). It would also complicate things a great deal, as in addition to planets orbiting around their respective sun, stars orbit through the arc of a galaxy. Though even still, in real life, it could take, days, months, or in many cases years or centuries for these changes to be really significant.

And it's probably more than any programmer wants to deal with at this point. I guess we all assume that the planets and stations in systems orbit in such a symmetrical, stagnant manner that relative to each other they are all unmoving.

auntless wrote:

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Ok, the trade lane connect planets, space stations, etc. But , If the planet is going in orbit around the sun, how would trade lanes work? I mean, all the planets in FL are stationary, kinda silly IMO

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They can't work like that in real life. The trade lanes would wind up like a watch spring as the inner planets and trade lane accelerator rings would have to orbit faster than the outer ones. Even if each TLAR could use thrusters to maintain an arbitrary position in space without orbiting the central star, the routes between the planets would occasionally have to go right through the center of the sun.

Marco wrote:

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I guess we all assume that the planets and stations in systems orbit in such a symmetrical, stagnant manner that relative to each other they are all unmoving

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Or, we could assume that it's all a bunch of nonsense invented for a computer game and it doesn't have to make sense. It's kind of like asking why a space marine was sent to deal with all those Cacodemons and Fire-imps and Barons of Heck ligging around an average DOOM level.

--milo
www.starshatter.com

Buddy, that's essentially what I was implying with my ridiculous proposition of orbits that create relatively stationary object positions. It's a joke to think that the programmers were attempting to be realistic in that sense.

Before anybody tries to implement that level of physics into a space sim, I think they should first get down realistic scales and distances. Otherwise, be content with the continued sacrifice of realism for the sake of a coherent, working play universe.

Sorry, missed the sarcasm in your first post. My mistake.

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Before anybody tries to implement that level of physics into a space sim, I think they should first get down realistic scales and distances.

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Of course, there are several space sims that do implement that level of physics, mine among them. It's not particularly hard to do, and it doesn't need to mess up the story - on the contrary, it can help the story make sense.

However, a real physics model would not be compatible with the trade lanes used in Freelancer. They would have to use point-to-point jump gates or put some type of gateless warp drive on each ship if they implemented that kind of realistic space environment.

--milo
www.starshatter.com

Milod, I was checking out your sim, and it looks pretty impressive. If you're using realistic scales, then count me as interested. Independence War games were the only ones that have done it really successfully, I think. I'm especially intrigued by the planet combat... That's something I feel is sorely lacking in space combat games. I guess the later Wing Commanders had a little bit of it, but it was sickeningly unrealistic. I'd really love for there to be a battlefield that transfers seamlessly between planets and space...I hope that isn't too far in the future for the genre.

Edit: Just wanted to comment about p2p jumps vs. trade lanes... I think they would make more sense in that it would better explain the speed increase. But they would have to be gateless, as you say, and you would have to have complete control over the exit point, as that exit point would vary. I still like IWar's use of FTL drives the best, though.

Edited by - Marco on 12-03-2003 21:03:06

The battlecruiser series uses a hyperdrive to travel between systems. Needs to when you take into account the distances that are in place between nav points and plannets. After each point is reach, you have to wait for the drive to recharge. To travel between systems you use a jump gate much like FL.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance..."

Wish I'd played that game... I heard a lot of good things about it.