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The ships do have different turn rates. I was playing cargo runs with a friend of mine and I was driving the humpback freighter until I got frustrated enough and just sold it for a light fighter and MAN, what a difference!

Thrusters are better than just "engine kill" though. Engine killing will keep you on a straight trajectory, but I can afterburn through a turn with better thrusters. Essential upgrade for me.

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Yeah, there is a BIG difference between a FR and a LF, I would never say there isn't. If there wasn't then something would be REALLY wrong! LOL!
But, between a LF and a HF (And even some VHF.) the difference seems negligible.
I just think they did a liiiiittle bit too much "balancing" of the ships.
The game IS still AWESOME and VERY fun.
It offers MANY things to do, for many different play styles.

And, if you want to turn at full AB speed you just TAP the AB button as you guide with mouse flight.
You turn very smoothly and stay at 199 speed the whole time, AND the thruster STAYS at 100%...learn to control the AB+EK and the thruster upgrades ARE a waste.

Ok, some things i've said have been a little harsh so i guess i deserved some flaming. Nonetheless i hope my point came across, which is: "ok, you've been disappointed with some features of the game but please try to have some fun with other things that are in the game". That's all i wanted to say in the end. Now let's get back to a normal discussion mode without any "get the **** outta here" attitudes. Peace?

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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

Lev,

No hard feelings mate.
We are all adults right?
Well, at least I know *I* am one OLD f***! LMAO!

Please don't take things I may say in the way they may sound.
I am just an old soldier that sometimes doesn't choose his words to carefully, and tends to be a little too blunt 99.9% of the time.

Be well man,

PD

Well, i'm 26 so i believe i qualify as an adult... to some degree that is.

EDIT: you know i actually had lot's of fun with the Encarta Encyclopedia and especially with the Encarta World Atlas.

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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

Edited by - Lev Arris on 09-03-2003 03:46:02

Well I'm 10 years younger so not adult.. I'm allowed to flame you.


:p



You met me at a very strange time in my life.

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Well I'm 10 years younger so not adult.. I'm allowed to flame you.

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I wouldn't count on that. I've killed people for less.

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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

Just thought I'd add my two cents (and I respect all opinions already discussed here as well):

First of all, I tend to agree the ships are a bit too similar. I do wish there were more noticeable differences, and I think it'd be nice if stuff like different afterburner boosted speed more, etc.

That said, I still find the stuff you can customize ON a ship more than adequate in some areas. For example, even in the demo there are a LOT of weapon choices from fast lasers to slow, powerful shots. I think it's cool that you can outfit guns or missiles on the hardpoints you want and either go all guns or have more of a missile boat. I also like that you have to choose a type of shield and one kind won't work as well in some areas as others, and also that you can mount a ton of powerful guns on your ship, but you may have to pay with it since your power core will have too much of a load to fire a lot in a row. A lot of the ship customization aspect to me is balancing your loadout to be both powerful and efficient.

I do, however, wish there were some more things that could be upgraded such as your computer, the sensors, etc. And yeah, it'd be nice if each individual ship had its own characteristics (for example, light fighters might all have tight turning radii, but maybe even among them it varies a little). I do like that hardpoints, armor ratings, etc. vary.

Finally, as far as exploration, it's not the color of space that makes the exporation fun (though that adds to the atmosphere). It's the anomolies you find...the stumbling on abandoned ships with new toys you can loot...the wondering what factions control what and how powerful they are and where their bases are...it's the going to new planets and seeing what new items and weapons they're selling.

Again, simply my opinion, and I only have the trial so far.

If you want to see the difference in ships. Take the very first ship you get in the game. Then head over to a pirate base in Rheinland and attack. See how long you survive. Now buy the best ship found in Rheinland and attack the same pirate base. Chances are you won't die.

The Ships are not balanced at all. If you take the best ship in Rhienland to Liberty, you can go on a rampage and destroy everything in sight and problably won't use any of your nanobots and shield batteries. But take the same ship to Rhienland and try the same thing you'll probably get destroyed or real close to it.

The level of difficulty only changes in the systems.
From Easiest to Hardest:
Liberty
Bretonia
Kasari
Rheinland

____________________________
If cats always land on thier feet. What would happen if you strap 2 cats back to back and drop them?
Probably destroy space and time.

It's pretty obvious who would have won if war broke out.

I really think Digital Anvil got the wrong definition of balancing when it came to the ships. Balancing shouldn't mean every ship within a class is the same, it should mean that there are valid reasons to choose every ship in the class. Someone should want to upgrade a light fighter with engine enhancements so they can get behind a larger fighter and unleash a salvo of missle fire. And another player should want a heavy fighter with some turrets to pulverize anything that gets too close.

And can you outrun missles with afterburners? It seemed like you could. If so, that's got to change, otherwise forget it.

I know this stuff is pretty obvious and has been stated before, but that's what's keeping Freelancer on my list of good games instead of my list of incredible games. As someone said earlier in this thread, Digital Anvil wanted your ship to be your avatar. Currently that really isn't possible (although the weapon selection is nice).

I must agree with the general feeling that DA shouldn't have balanced the ships so much. I think it would make the strategy of being a pilot so much more important. If you wanted to have a nimble little fighter that had medium weapons, no real shields but could out run and out turn anything then you could work on skills as a pilot. If you'd rather just destroy things and don't mind turning like a bus then you'd have that option as well. I think the suspension of disbelief and the creation of your "avatar" would be greatly enhanced by having unique performance characteristics for your playing style. I know that I would definitely feel more like a pirate if I had to choose my battles and my prey more carefully since I knew about all I could do is out run them...

Anyways, here's to hoping for a patch. *grin* Otherwise this is very close to being one the best space sims in a long time.

"'When you go out your door, its is like seein an enemy.' Since you are a professional warrior, you should never forget the spirit of combat at any time. A warrior who does not put the spirit of combat into his heart is nothing but a merchant wearing the skin of a warrior." - from Bushido Shoshinsu

What I don't like about the weapons:

They're all the same. They are coloured projectiles that have a speed ranging from 500 to 1000 ft per second or so, they're all more or less fast firing (ok some shoot 10 times a second, some only 5, but that's not that of a difference).
I want like a machinegun, a railgun (sniper like), a rocket launcher like and so on. Not thousand variations of a fast firing projectile laser plasma cannon.

Missiles are useless. That sucks. I love the feeling when an enemy is fleeing and you send a missile after him and FOOOOSH - explosion.

The Javelin Missiles are SO SLOW and stupid that you don't even hit enemies that are fleeing from you. The only chance to hit an enemy is to do a kamikaze-like stunt and hit him when he's direclty in front of you.

The Stalkers are more clever, they hit sometimes. But they don't do damage.
What I really like are the Hornet missiles

They're extremely fast. Ok, they don't do much damage, but they are fast enough to hit enemies that are in cruise mode and stun them. That's cool.

You met me at a very strange time in my life.

Looking at the original post, I wouldn't really consider a cargo upgrade to be "exciting"

Personally, I think there are TOO MANY different types of weapons. I mean, just in the group of "lasers", you've got laser, tachyon, pulse, photon, plasma, particle... basically lots, is what I'm saying. And then when you throw in all the different faction customizations, it just gets nuts. And the variations are often so minor as to be meaningless.

... in terms of variations between ships, it would be interesting if ships varied in unique ways, maybe even ways that couldn't be changed by equipment. Say, for instance, Rheinland ships had larger power reserve, but less armor. And Liberty ships were more maneuverable, but didn't go as fast at cruise speed. I think that would make each ship class feel more unique, and could theoretically give people reason to pick even "old" ships when more advanced in the game.

What DA did is fine for the purposes of the game, it just doesn't make the ships feel particularly "real". (How CAN Liberty be so prosperous with such an underfunded Navy?)

ER

I must agree aswell. Like I mentioned somewhere else, it's ridiculous that the thrusters don't affect travel speed, and that all ships are equally fast. Simply ridiculous. Probably because of the balancing issue.
I wish there'd be more possible customizing, like naming your own ships, naming and selecting appearance of your pilot, more varied ships and weapons, as has been mentioned, the possibility of interaction with encountered ships via hailing.. I mean, the hail option is there, except it's useless the way the game is now.

I haven't figured out how exploration works yet, because I don't know how to do it, really. I can't just fly around, because I wouldn't be looking for anything, and even if I were, I wouldn't find it, because I wouldn't know where to look that I hadn't looked already. Complicated? Maybe. I just don't have a clue how to explore. I mean, if you find a jump hole, you can't use it. You apparently have to find the jump holes by following the story.

FURTHERMORE, it's silly that you can't advance in levels unless you follow the story. It takes away the "Free" in "Freelancer". You should be able to decide. I hate it when games force the players to do things.

If you by now think I don't like the game, you're wrong. I like it very much, but it could just have been so much more!
Peace