Is it still all about Freelancer? (FL as a standalone game engine)
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Hi everyone! Haven’t posted for quite a while, not sure if people who remember me are still around….
Ever since I became an active part of The Nomad Legacy’s team, lots of ideas came to my mind.
I looked around, glad to see some community is still active. What I’m even more glad to see is that Freelancer is getting more touches of modern technologies (some real crazy stuff we could only dream of once)
I wonder just how feasible it is to fully utilize the game’s engine - including advanced rendering mods - to create an entirely new game with up-to-date graphics while still running on a code base from early 00’s. You know, a truly immersive space experience of some sort. Maybe even potentially a VR-enabled one.
The game really does have great community-driven tooling, and in some cases it would save a lot of work to just start with FL’s built-in mechanics to make a similar game. Re-creating FL-like ship controls, inventory/equipment and hardpoint systems may not be difficult with modern engines, but rather bothersome in some way. Especially knowing it’s already been out there for over a decade.
Of course, I have a certain project in mind, but I’d really like to know the what possibilities lie ahead of our favourite relic of the past. Surely some of us have already managed to achieve things of incredible scale, and I’m completely certain that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I’d really like to discuss the topic of using a modded FL as a fully-fledged engine. Hopefully this thread will yield productive results for all of us
So what do you guys think?
P.S secondary topic: can we still actually call Freeworlds a FL mod? (I mean, despite literally being one to begin with)
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Hoo boy it’s been a long time. Nice to see people are still (occasionally) posting here!
I kinda feel like (assuming you’ve got the expertise) starting from scratch in something like unity if you’ve got that sort of thing in mind. While the limits of Freelancer have realllly been pushed by some incredibly clever people, there’s still some limits and problems that you could get around by using something that’s malleable by design.
That said there are some amazing TCs out there. I’ve not really been involved with the Freelancer community at all for the last decade or so, but it’s been fantastic seeing some of the stuff that’s come out of it when I popped in to take a look.
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The complications are relatively minor, honestly. At least from my point of view.
I do have the expertise needed to re-create FL-like game mechanics in Unity, and there are several buyable assets that make it somewhat easier. However, none of them get that sweet spot of perfection FL did, and personally I’m annoyed by the amount of work required to get there.
There’s a great deal of FL mechanics in Everspace, which I truly am a fan of. I find it especially interesting that almost everything seen in Everspace can be done as an FL mod, except for the procedural generation and VR mode (that’s sadly so half-baked)
My idea for a TCM is inspired by the original intention behind FL and “the Sirius system” being just one system (like in real life), but with a whole lots of content in it. For that purpose I looked around, Unreal engine seems fit for the visuals I have in mind, but FL nowadays has so much ready-made things like planets and suns, and plugins that would allow me to make high-poly ships and stations. Things that would either take a lot of time to implement from scratch or would cost a bunch for a non-profit project.
So, I suppose you can see where I’m going with this. As far as any similar game can go, the capabilities are mostly all there already waiting to be harnessed thanks to this amazing community
I’m just wondering what else can be done, and how far can we take it to be called a standalone game rather than TCM. Except for the code base not being shareware, of course…
