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Logical Flaw?

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

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 1:12 pm

Logical Flaw?

Hi !

I am eagerly waiting for Freelancer to be published here in Germany (I just hope the German translation is not as awful as that of Starlancer) but I was wondering about a flaw in the background story :

The way I understand it, Liberty, Rheinland, Kusari and Bretonia are the super powers of the Sirius Sector. If so, how is it possible that the minor powers, like the Outcasts and such, have ships that are much better than those of the super powers. Or compare the Liberty heavy fighter to that of Rheinland. There´s a vast difference between those two, both in price and performance. So, shouldn´t Rheinland be much more powerful in military terms than Liberty ?
Is there a logical explanation for it ?

One other point : are the prices of the commodities fixed in the Full version, or do they simulate a free market, like in X- BTF ?

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 1:41 pm

Yes, the Rheinland military is much stronger than Liberty's. I presume this has something to do with Teutonic efficiency

Commodity prices are fixed, and each planet will buy/sell a commodity for the same price (no markup)

ER

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 2:07 pm

Well lets see.
Planets are the size of asteroids... ya can fly near the sun.. there are no gravity wells... A nuetron star's radiation doesnt ionize you on the spot.. There are shields.. (which would require a power of a small sun to run in the first place and they fit evr so neatly in a ship) when you kill your engines you slow down very fast. when you turn you have no inertia. Bases are immune to all forms of damage. Its a game. Its not real life. Just have fun and explore blow up and exploit . If it was based on reality.. in all likely hood your ship would explode from an impact from space dust before you ever docked on another planet let alon live to see the next solar system.

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 3:50 pm



Just consider shields in small spacecrafts to be possible in such a far future, and don't worry about the controls being like you were flying in a giant ocean, it's ARCADE, the only game with "real" space controls was the Independence War series (afaik). As far as the game is fun without real physics, I don't care, but personally I would've liked rolling like in FreeSpace, and even little drifting (without "kill engine" as well as vertical strafing would've been nice...

What I don't like is the lack of scale in the game. Since I've played FreeSpace, I miss giant (and I mean GIANT) battleships and space stations, but in Freelancer everything seems too small (or player ships are far to large), the systems, the planets (hell, Manhattan seems to be Pluto-sized...), just everything.

To the initial question of Nagroth:
Es scheint als sind die "Supermächte" eh nur nominell die Herren über ihre Gebiete, und die "Bösen" setzen auf technische Ueberlegenheit plus Guerilla-Taktiken und umgehen so fleissig das Gesetz. Aber ganz logisch ist es auch nicht, wie schlecht die Häuser ihre Systeme unter Kontrolle haben - ich würde z.B. als Liberty Navy mal die Badlands säubern gehen, aber so lange man die Rogues und ihre Basis im Nebel in Ruhe lässt, kann ja keine Ruhe einkehren. Krieg gegen den Terror...

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 3:57 pm

The classic Star Control games also used an inertial physics system. But I guess it was easy for them, since they were top-down.

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 4:03 pm

Being from Germany I am sure you know the Germans during WW2 had the best military equipment in the world. They just had a lame brain for a leader. I am glad tho...or I would know how to speak German real well by now!

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 4:58 pm

Well, imagine a combination of Freelancer and I-War 2, with maybe a bit of X-BTF in it. Freelancer provides the background and the basic gameplay, I-War 2 the physics (Newtonian movement in space and such) and X-BTF the economics (prices calculated by supply and demand) This would be one hell of a game !

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 5:14 pm


Logical Flaw?


The planets don't even orbit the sun ^_^

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:44 pm

[in reply to Nagroth
You would probably land in the universe of star trek... or star wars...

Edited by - Zamboni on 12-03-2003 19:44:51

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 7:53 pm

In the game they make it pretty clear that Liberty maintains it's hegemony mainly through control of Jumpgate technology and financial dominance, not by military force.

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 8:47 pm

Doomsday74,
And groups like the Corsairs would care about that influence... how? All they'd have to do is send a dozen Titans into Liberty space and they could take it over easily.

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 10:59 pm

Freelancer have many logical flaws: In cinematics battleships get blown off with 8 torpedoes or less when it takes at least 12 in the game, *might be a spoiler* Juni and King always fly the same ships even if they're Defender and Patriot, the planets are REALLY small... there are more things.

Actually, if you fly close to the sun in FL, you'll start burning. Why do you say that planets are not orbiting the sun? If you haven't seen a planet move, it's normal: it takes almost a month for the moon to fly arround the earth, why it should take less time for FL planets to fly arround the sun ?

Nevertheless I agree that it was ugly to make liberty ships the worst and rheinland the best!

-----
I saved mankind and all I got was this stupid medal?!

Bazil, M. P.
Webmaster and founder of Roughnecks -Freelancer Division
"If you would care to follow me... " -- DEATH of the Discworld

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 11:10 pm

Well, if the planets ARE orbiting around their respective suns, that would make tradelanes kinda impossible wouldn't it? As planets moved, the lanes would dump you out into empty space where the panet HAD been, except for that small period every year where the planet was near the trade lane exits?

Or are all the lanes, all throughout the system, also orbiting the suns at the same rate as the planet? Jumpgates too then? (so they always line up with a tradelane). It seems to me that tradelanes are pretty unrealistic for this reason, but a welcome addition nonetheless.

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 11:38 pm

We went through this in another thread. Short version: tradelanes can't work as designed in a realistic orbital system. And at the distance these planets seem to be from one another, you can bet your sweet assets that you'd be able to see them moving through their orbits in realtime.

Freelancer is not realistic (or even plausible) and was never intended to be. You need to be able to overlook those logical inconsistencies to enjoy the game. If you can't do that, there are other games you can try, I guess.

--milo
www.starshatter.com

Post Wed Mar 12, 2003 11:49 pm

I dunno why you think I'm not enjoying it, I did say it was a welcome addition nonetheless. I was just responding to the guy who said "maybe they do orbit". I'm not finding any fault with it, I love the game. I have played just about every space sim, and some of the most realistic (ie Terminus) were the least fun. I think this game is great.

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