Freelancer 2 (?)
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Part of what has made Freelancer last this long is the ease of modification (in some areas) so you’d need to find an engine that has the capabilities needed that is almost as easily modifiable.
Otherwise you end up with a new game yes but at the same time finite in lifespan.
In my view nothing should change with the plot, only how it is presented in terms of music, textures etc. Not changed just improved and repackaged as if it was a newly released game. Thats my intention anyways, and part of that will require programmers due to the launcher needed and the FLHook segments, we already have all the required knowledge spread amongst us.
It will just take time…
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Freelancer is probably the closest I’ve ever found to the perfect kind of space game - one that isn’t bogged down in pointless and depressing realism, that doesn’t force you to grind a trade route for days before you can have fun, one that understands most people are looking for a romantic style of space combat over a highly simulated one. I agree it’s not a question of how to patch the faults and gaps in Freelancer, but why they haven’t been patched yet. Things like player cap ships, jump drives, bigger universes, better AI, to my knowledge these are all possible and in existance across a number of different mods, but each mod I’ve seen in Freelancer misses the almighty point by a noticeable margin and focuses on the wrong kind of experience. Obviously there’s an element of differing opinions to consider, but I really believe most people want what I want from this game - the fun, easy-to-learn hard-to-master gameplay of Freelancer, set in the same kind of interesting, engaging, visually beautiful universe, but enhanced and improved to its limits.
I’d love to make it, but I’m not a tech guy. I could write you pages and pages of how to design this perfect FL mod, but I have no clue how to actually tinker with the game itself. And that’s sad, because I know it’s possible, I’ve seen elements of this perfect mod all across the community of Freelancer, and I’d love nothing more than to see them all brought together and make this game something really special; all it takes is the right design focus and some co-operation, and we’d have it.
If anyone ever wants help with designing that kind of project - please, let me know, because I’d love to see it become a reality.
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Beagle wrote:
the fun, easy-to-learn hard-to-master gameplay of Freelancer, set in the same kind of interesting, engaging, visually beautiful universe, but enhanced and improved to its limits.We’ll have to see what I can come up with once I have my new PC and when FriendlyFire can release all that snazzy DX9 stuff … But something like what you suggest is my own personal plan.
When I have re-mastered New York is most likely when I’ll release a demo of it to get opinions on it. But for now it’s in a planning process.
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Actually I am looking for a story writer atm, don’t have much time to work on that aspect.
Also I wonder if anyone knows of a list of all of the storyline commands that FL uses?
Thanks Vital, I’m still working on it a year and a half later, making good progress
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Honestly I think what w0dk4’s been doing is sufficient to keep Freelancer alive for a while longer. Rebuilding the game from scratch in a new engine takes an incredible amount of work (far more than you can imagine) and at that point it’d be stupid not to also improve upon the base recipe, a bit like what LS is doing.
Freelancer’s attracted so many because its gameplay is solid and it’s the last of its generation (by that I mean a AAA space simulator). I wouldn’t want a possible spiritual successor to just ape Freelancer exactly, I’d want it to do more, better. For the time being, our best bet is to keep improving upon the base game that we have.
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For the time being, our best bet is to keep improving upon the base game that we have.
We need the proper sur-maker that would also support animation models like Jump-Gates. SUR-files are real pain in the ass last years.
SUr-Builder 0.0.3 works absolutely incorrect. Output sur is awful.
Obj->sur converter works better, but output sur is still awful.Those sur-makers cover all model over, they’re looking for nearest vertexes and connecting 'em without leaving any holes in models.
They turn the model into “looks like original form, okay, he is an idiot, he won’t notice mwuhahaha”. We need exact sur-model from original form. Now i’m thinking to learn sur-splicer, mb it can make it good. -
I really don’t agree about theObj->Sur converter. I hitboxed this with it and the hitbox is about as good as it gets. The rings you can fly through and so on. It did take a bit of tweaking though. but not too much.
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Yes, the OBJ converter is definitely good enough to do everything we need. SURs are no more an issue with this.
However, please remember that this isn’t the thread to talk about that. Feel free to make a new topic (or even better, continue the OBJ->SUR converter topic) about it.
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i am doing a little something in my man cave right now. as for a name i am calling it the alaska expansion it looks pretty neat. i replaced the mine field with junk and replaced the pointy anoying things in alaska with ice. i have about 5 bases added that have missions including juno and prison base mitchell. i have beta testing it my self for months still need time to edit info cards and names. would like to play around in the unknown section . it ir only open single player right now.
http://evilempirerevolution.forumotion.net/t168-new-freelancer-mod-i-am-working-on heres a link to my videos
but all of our mods are freelancer 2 we dont need a free lancer 2 -
WhiskasTM wrote:
SilentAssassin82 wrote:
The rings you can fly through and so on.Whta?! You can fly through between those two rings? In my cases suchlike constructions with spaces were capped with polygons, wtf…
If I remember (from like 3 or 4 years back) there was a trick to get around the poly count. Had something to do with creating the base into sections and then joining them, then the total mass can far exceed the polycount. Don’t ask me how modelling has never been my thing but I believe the basic work was done by some guy that created those “modular bases”.
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FriendlyFire makes a good point. Freelancer 2 would probably have to take it to a new level.
The part that fascinated me the most is not the action, but the thousands of background stories explaining where all the faction came from, why a station is placed here and there is even information on astronomical objects (clouds, asteroid fields, etc.) You can communicate to any neutral and friendly spaceship and it will communicate back. The illusion that the whole universe is a breathing system is there!
You won’t find this in ANY space game in such a beautiful detail. And you know why? Because no developer is ready to spend this amount of energy and time into such a game as Digital Anvil did. Heck, they even had to “cut” because Microsoft pressured them to release the game. I can only imagine what the game could have been if they got the time.
Also, until today the view of the planets haunts me. I think if there ever was a Freelancer 2, it should allow the player to walk around on those planets, or at least the capital.
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Emmanuel wrote:
The part that fascinated me the most is not the action, but the thousands of background stories explaining where all the faction came from, why a station is placed here and there is even information on astronomical objects (clouds, asteroid fields, etc.) You can communicate to any neutral and friendly spaceship and it will communicate back. The illusion that the whole universe is a breathing system is there!
You won’t find this in ANY space game in such a beautiful detail.Hmm, till now I really couldn’t put my finger on the thing that makes Freelancer as good as it is, however now that you mentioned it, you’re absolutely right. All these “details” really make up a great living universe around you and thus a great gaming experience.
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Part of freelancers success is that it failed its goals during development.
It was meant to be a MMORPG.
I guess they didn’t plan to release the server software - but after microsofts “cut” they had to release what they had.
Thats why we have such a feature rich freelancer AND the ability to mod it.And thats the reason why nobody released something better yet - its simply to expensiv without adding a monthly fee.
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“It was meant to be a MMORPG.”
source? -
Bas wrote:
“It was meant to be a MMORPG.”
source?http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1999&pub=2&id=184
Ausgabe November 1999 -
I think Microsoft games probably has a list of game ideas on some chalkboard at somewhere, and then there’s the accompanying printed documents regaurding the freelancer sequel which was scrapped sitting in a gray cabinate at someones cubicle which has been handed down from Department to Department, as well as the accompanying files for the source code sitting in a mapped drive like this …
Z:\Projects\Backup\Old\Retired Games\Microsoft Games\Digital Anvil\Users\hj3894\Users\Desktop\Freelancer2 (Copy 5)\Source\Bin\Debug\Old Stuff ({32890730892738027-3289070372–378289390238927389.}).zip
Which is password protected by something like P@ssword
