[Freelancer Mod News]New demo of Freelancer: The Nomad Legacy released!

Cpt_Rei_Fukai

Bas wrote:
OK, loaded it up.

1 I believe in the Eng version of FL, it is called Rhineland, not Rheinland.
2 Critical: Generic “destroy base” missions couldn’t be completed, not possible to damage the base (usual gun equipment, can submit savegame)
3 Balance: Basic tractor beam sucks WAY too much. It it impossible to ever collect life-saving nanobots or shield batts during a fight.
4 Balance: The power of NPC ships often range between “pretty easy” to “almost impossible” by a single ship upgrade. You might want to do it less polarizing and more ships in-between. I felt especially the sudden upgrade from like 8k hull ships to 30k Valkyres has been pretty harsh.
5 Sale price for lv1 weapons should be higher, like 300$ at least, or ships should drop lv2 more oftne. It is rpetty frustrating fighting for your own life (and their death) only to get 90$ creds in return for random encoutners.
6 Will the old systems be visitable?

1 No, it called Rheinland in the english version(see e. g. the english starmap)
2 The destroy base missions don’t work like you expect them to.(they are pretty neat imho)
3 Well you can upgrade the tractor. Also should you be able to loot bats/bots during combat?
4 I felt that way too, but try upping your engine, this helps a lot
5 Fl lets you only define a resale percentage afaik. Any increase works globally…
6 There are no old systems anymore. Which is also why FLMM format does not make any sense

Jeider

Thanks for playing. Let’s answer questions.

So I bought a new engine for my ship and then it turned out my power plant can’t handle it, so I had to durdle with donkey speed.

That’s why in the lastcutscene of mission 1 Alaric says “BUY POWERPLANT”.
I don’t know how avoid this issue. Only by changing of UI, but I can’t.

After failing a bar mission multiple times, I had to abort it because it was too impossible for me on hard difficulty.

I don’t know what I can say. This version of mod is 50% easier than 2017 version.

The auto-drive system did crash me right into a weapon platform.
I almost did end up in the atmosphere of a planet

That’s FL’s issue. Enhanced speed limits cause this problems. So… autopilot is dangerous in my mod.

I flew back to a previous solar system, only to find out the STRONGER enemies are there

This mod have alternative game balance. That’s why some NPC have autolevel, some NPC is fixed. Pirates in “dangerous” systems is fixed.

Suggestions & bugs:

Thank you, I’ll take a look on this list.

When ambushed by pirates, there was an EngSub without a russian VO. Known?

Yes, we know this issue.

Balance: First mines the enemies are using are FAR too overpowered, IMHO. A single mine did destroy 75% of the hull of my starflier, and that’s with an armor upgrade. (That was on hard, however)

Rheinland mines has big shield damage. Current balance is based on 2 mines per faction and quantity of mines per ship. May be I can do this better. But later.

Critical: Generic “destroy base” missions couldn’t be completed, not possible to damage the base (usual gun equipment, can submit savegame)

That’s ok. This is advanced missions. You need to attack “vulnerable points” of base and crack way to center of this base. Look at this old example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BYO3Oga9uU

Balance: Basic tractor beam sucks WAY too much. It it impossible to ever collect life-saving nanobots or shield batts during a fight.

This tractor beam already improved. Tractor in 2017 version was a lot slower. How to avoid: just buy better tractor.

Balance: I think there should be anti-shield weapons for every projectile speed. If you do not want to code additional ones, you could simply put the speed of other weapons to the same level. This goes directly with the point above, when I was facing overpowered ships, I often barely took down their shields, and even damaging the hull was a huge task already. Having had anti-shield weapons for my ship might have helped a lot on this.

Interesting. But I’ll think about it later. I already implement generic anti-shield guns. In 2017 version that’s gun was not exist and situation was worse. For this moment - premature optimization (sorry, don’t know how to tell it on english).

Consider to include FLHack and very, very short doc about it, such as that it allows saving in space. If you do not want to include the tool, I especially liked the ability to save in space, and personally, that the game doesn’t pause on alt tab, so I can surf the web or stuff or chat while cruising.

I have special .exe-file with possibility of play game in window mode without freezing of the game. But this is not implemented in demo version. I can. But it’s very dangerous on alt-tab.
Save in space - just use console. Open console, enter “save” command and you saved in space. Do not do this inside storyline mission.

Weird to have shield batts dropped, but they cannot be bought.

Yes, I forgot that. In 2017 version batts not exist. In this version it’s returned back, but I forgot about shop.

About other question - I’ll try to fix it later. Main balance problems - for this problems I don’t want to fix this, because I can fix it my entire life. For this moment balance will stable. Current objective - complete main work on this mod. I already make balance changes and balance become better. Not perfect. But this is not easy job, because - you already see it - this is not just “level 1 > level 2”, this is really huge balance system. For this moment - that’s enough.

How long did you work on it so far?

Very long. May be starts from 2011 or 2012…

Any ETA on next demo or test release?

Real life and slow speed of my voice actors destroyed my plans… I don’t know how answer this question.
Anyway - your activity really motivated me to continue my work.

Will the old systems be visitable?

No. Old system isn’t supported.

Is the drake better than the Stiletto?

Stiletto - Standart (level 2) Rheinland Fighter
Drake - Advanced (level 3) Kusari Interceptor
Drake is better, because can mount advanced and nomad guns. And elite shield+internal equipment. Stiletto supports only standart guns and advanced shield+internal equpment.

I suppose there is no way (FLHack?) to replace mission requirement by money requirement (past mission 3)?

Ohhh… you are about “just play in mod without story”?

Sorry for bad english.

P.S. about balance fixes. Sorry for ultimate answers. But we have a lot job to do. This is fine tuning. Now we need to do main content.

Bas

3 Well you can upgrade the tractor. Also should you be able to loot bats/bots during combat?

You can in theory, but before you upgrade it isn’t possible in practice because of very low range and very slow tractor speed, you basically need to stand still for 5 seconds in order to get anything.

That’s why in the lastcutscene of mission 1 Alaric says “BUY POWERPLANT”. I don’t know how avoid this issue. Only by changing of UI, but I can’t.

heh, the issue actually only arrived after I bought a new engine, lol.

That’s FL’s issue. Enhanced speed limits cause this problems. So… autopilot is dangerous in my mod.

That was less strict feedback and more telling of my adventures!

Rheinland mines has big shield damage. Current balance is based on 2 mines per faction and quantity of mines per ship. May be I can do this better. But later.

It is rather that these are the first mines the NPCs are using, and they turned out to be devastating. You could add mines for stronger NPCs only, or add weaker ones for earlier NPCs.

Ohhh… you are about “just play in mod without story”?

After story mission 3, yes, because the readme says that anything further in story won’t work. There is still that one side mission though.

Sorry for bad english.

Oh don’t worry, I am sure my Russian is worse!

If you are short on time…have you tried recruiting modders, maybe here or at the global FL discord server?

6 There are no old systems anymore. Which is also why FLMM format does not make any sense

FLMM offers more than just adding mods together, such as not having to have seperate installs for FL.

Bas

Tau 4: Mislabeled tradelane near jumpgate
Manuf. Platform -> Manufactory. Is cleaner. (Defunct equip dealer at battleship)
Avalon: Prison has no equip dealer, but equip area- Planet Kil -> Planet Kiel

On a space adventure…
Start:
Discovered systems: About 5
Game time: Roughly 6 hours
Credits: About 37.000
Ship: Stiletto

Coming back to Bismark:
Discovered systems: 22
Game time: Roughly 8 hours
Credits: 128$
Ship: Titan
2 Lost weapons
Ships is a wreck
Lost a thruster too. :<

I really struggled also because I had no income. Overpowered enemies for me aside, I simply couldn’t take job offers because my reputation was too bad. :x

Bas

I would like to leave something pretty important. Motivational words.

I was just checking randomly some FL websites as I do periodically. I haven’t touched the game for years, except when I went for campaign again with the Trent the Monkey King-mod.

Yet, your mod pretty much sparkled my interest instantly. There was NEVER - to my knowledge - ever a (real/custom) fan-campaign of FL for all the 17 years! You can fully can term yourself as pioneers without a doubt!

I also prob didn’t expect too much. And boy, was I wrong! While I don’t understand a single word, the Russian VA sounds great! And I can’t even remember there being an option for subtitles to begin with, so I was quite baffled about that one, too!

You also don’t “only” came with a new storyline, but rather a whole new universe to boot. Also with some features FL was missing, like Engines or Power Plants, tractor beams and stuff (albeit were featured in many mods meanwhile). Also, a sidemission sounds intriguing.
You also made quite some surprising UI changes!

Also, take a jumping motivating cartoon filly! (GIF)

robocop

Jeider wrote:

Is this an exe hack? I can see where you changed the max_bank_angle values in the shiparch but don’t see how you ‘deactivated’ max_bank_angle.

Sorry, this is was a long time ago. May be I forgot, how I did that. Anyway, you already resolved this issue.

The question I still have is how did you keep the strafe feature with the roll feature? I can roll now but not slide left/right and when I try to map the keys in game I’m advised that the key is already mapped. When I try to map it in keymap.ini it doesn’t work, nor does it show as mapped in the options/controls page ingame.

Jeider

The question I still have is how did you keep the strafe feature with the roll feature? I

Oh, sorry, forgot about it.

That’s easy. But only by ini edition. This is content from my initial keymap.ini:

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_MANEUVER_SLIDE_EVADE_LEFT
ids_name = 1956
ids_info = 3228
state = keydown, keyup
key = "A"

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_MANEUVER_SLIDE_EVADE_RIGHT
ids_name = 1957
ids_info = 3229
state = keydown, keyup
key = "D"

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_Z_ROTATE
ids_name = 1463
ids_info = 3300
state = keydown, keyup
key = "A"

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_Z_UNROTATE
ids_name = 1464
ids_info = 3301
state = keydown, keyup
key = "D"

Just 2 keys with same default keyboard buttons.

Bas

(Also posted 2x on page2, in case you didn’t see it)

Nanobots should be more in line in price - x10 price for x2 heal seems way too overkill
Hornviper MK III has the same energy usage as MK II, at the very least in the tooltip.

Also, please contact me if you need any testers, or if I can help you getting some English VAs.

I will add a few paragraphs for FLHack and the generic base missions for the readme which you can copy.

So….aside of further focusing on new missions, I consider these stuff priorities to be done, either because of the impact and/or the low opportunity cost (time to work on it). In no specific order.

Price fix advanced nanobots. I’d advocate for 2x the heal -> ~250% price of the previous
Hornviper #3 energy usage fix
FLHack inclusion, simply add the tool/files and leave everything in the doc else. Not coding or anything, just delivering along the mod.
Inclusion of sold shield batts (if the work is not too much to do)

Bas

I have updated the readme file, included a short guide for FLHack and the generic destroy base missions. I also fixed some grammar and spelling errors from other sections. (attached on the post)

I also have a suggestion to make:
You focus on storyline missions and the like. There are likely only some very few people who can do some.

Meanwhile, get some other modders on-board. For good resource usage, it is best if others do the more routine and common modding and fixing; such as adding, fixing or balancing equipment, systems and the like. Of course, you are fully encouraged to communicate your visions and wishes.

For the same reason, I don’t think you need to be the one needing to translate. I bet there are tons of other people who could do such a thing. Same for spelling errors and maybe dialogues.

For getting modders, one place would be right here, others would be like the Global FL discord server (I can ask and redirect them if you allow me to).

Edit: http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00237162831566835514

Jeider

After story mission 3, yes, because the readme says that anything further in story won’t work. There is still that one side mission though.

Everything after mission 3 is only with russian version and without dialogs. Mission 4 now in progress.

If you are short on time…have you tried recruiting modders, maybe here or at the global FL discord server?

In development of my mod I has one problem… no one can help me. Yes, I have support in hacks (thanks for everyone, who helped with it), but no one can help me create my sirius, create new cutscenes and complete my story mission. And I don’t want cooperate with foreign people, because it cause many problems with language. Sorry, talking on english already burns my brain. Development will destroy it… Only one way is possible - help me with translation. And implement sounds without me - this is IMPORTANT. Implementing of english sounds required too many time from me, but this is really usual work.

Nanobots should be more in line in price

Secret: in first version I wanted to remove nanobots.

Hornviper MK III has the same energy usage as MK II, at the very least in the tooltip.

This is FEATURE. Sorry, but game balance - this is my job. You tried only demo version of my mod and don’t know about all planned and partially IMPLEMENTED features.

So. My guns system. This is not just “level 1 > level 2 > level 3”.

We have a Horviper. This gun has a 4 version:
Hornviper Mk.I - basic gun
Hornviper Mk.II - standart gun, 2x damage, 2x power
Hornviper Mk.III - advanced gun, 3x damage, 2x power, SELF-DESTRUCTION
Hornviper [Nomad] - advanced gun, 2x damage, 0.5x power

Mk.III gun has enabled “damage per fire” feature. You’ll lost percent of gun hull after each fire. But you can avoid this feature. Find - you can’t BUY, you need FIND it - special rheinland weapon cooler. This cooler will disable overheat on all your Hornvipers and Flamecurses. But you can mount cooler only for ONE faction. You need to choose faction and find required cooler for your guns.
This feature already implemented and working.

Nomad-edition of guns. You can craft “nomad-edition” of HornViper. This gun will have purple fx and minimal power requirements. For craft of this gun you need:

buy blueprints
buy gun components
find and get nomad energy
buy special craft gun for selected weapon
fire on special factory for this gun
Feature working, we did plugin, but feature still not implemented in game world.

This my weapon system. Craft energy-efficient guns or get maximum power for guns of ONE selected faction.

About everything else. Thank you for interest in my project. Thank you for founded bugs. I’ll try fix something of that. But you need to have limits in your interest. I don’t want to change balance. Thank you for readme, but I`ll decide myself, what I want to write in my readme. For example - bases in random mission. Descriptions will come in mission 5. You can learn everything already in game. This better. And I don’t want to allow players to use FL Hack. Mod already have console. May be I need to create some descriptions for this console.

Just a joke: I am the boss here

I hope you are not upset by these words. Sorry. You too motivated to change everything. And don’t know, how this system works.

For example. Look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWuCPik4EuM
You can find this something, what you can skip without properly translation. And this is about trading missions too.

Bas

velopment will destroy it… Only one way is possible - help me with translation.

Do you got the texts ready? I can see if I can find someone online for this.

And implement sounds without me - this is IMPORTANT. Implementing of english sounds required too many time from me, but this is really usual work

Do you mean recording or also included them ingame, aka coding them into files?

This is FEATURE. Sorry, but game balance - this is my job. You tried only demo version of my mod and don’t know about all planned and partially IMPLEMENTED features. So. My guns system. This is not just “level 1 > level 2 > level 3”. We have a Horviper. This gun has a 4 version: Hornviper Mk.I - basic gun Hornviper Mk.II - standart gun, 2x damage, 2x power Hornviper Mk.III - advanced gun, 3x damage, 2x power, SELF-DESTRUCTION Hornviper [Nomad] - advanced gun, 2x damage, 0.5x power

At the very least, this explains why they were like getting down so fast and over and over again! ._.

But you need to have limits in your interest. I don’t want to change balance.

Hm, I see. I would like to still give feedback on stuff like this, however. I think giving feedback is important, it is your choice what you do with it, and maybe you get some cool ideas by it or you develop a concern for something you didn’t think about before.

robocop

Jeider wrote:

The question I still have is how did you keep the strafe feature with the roll feature? I

Oh, sorry, forgot about it.

That’s easy. But only by ini edition. This is content from my initial keymap.ini:
[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_MANEUVER_SLIDE_EVADE_LEFT
ids_name = 1956
ids_info = 3228
state = keydown, keyup
key = "A"

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_MANEUVER_SLIDE_EVADE_RIGHT
ids_name = 1957
ids_info = 3229
state = keydown, keyup
key = "D"

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_Z_ROTATE
ids_name = 1463
ids_info = 3300
state = keydown, keyup
key = "A"

[KeyCmd]
nickname = USER_Z_UNROTATE
ids_name = 1464
ids_info = 3301
state = keydown, keyup
key = "D"
Just 2 keys with same default keyboard buttons.

Yup, that’s exactly what I have but I only rotate, no slide left/right. Verified against a fixed object in space.

Jeider

Yup, that’s exactly what I have but I only rotate, no slide left/right. Verified against a fixed object in space.

Don’t forget. This is DEFAULT keymap. Real keymap always overrided in your “My Documents” folder. For take changes you need to remove overrided file or make changes inside it.

Do you got the texts ready? I can see if I can find someone online for this.

Not all texts allowable to edit. But I can improve this work. This discussion already completed in discord.

About feedback. Don’t worry about feedback as is. Main problem - this is really “demo”. And you can’t see full picture. And we already find my mistake - I forget to reupload the mod with actual edition.

robocop

Jeider wrote:

Yup, that’s exactly what I have but I only rotate, no slide left/right. Verified against a fixed object in space.

Don’t forget. This is DEFAULT keymap. Real keymap always overrided in your “My Documents” folder. For take changes you need to remove overrided file or make changes inside it.

Tried it in both the keymap in the INTERFACE folder and in the keymap in the My Games/Freelancer folder.

Only the roll works.