NEW HOPE for Freelancer

Till now they only remade Bioware games…

Personally I think the guys who are here and the ones who have passed by here have done much more for this game by modding it so well, with little or no information or guidance, than any remake might be expected to do.

Because a remake may incorporate some of the cleverest stuff, but probably not all, and probably will not add much new impressive stuff that will outshine the mods.

So it may well be disappointing, even as Freelancer II.

What do you think?

My point of view is that only a re release of freelancer can bring it to the new generation en mass. Modders have done amazing things, but their work will never be seen by those who have no idea the game exists.

I’d love to see a HD version released into the mainstream by someone, it would bring the game back to market again and it wouldn’t make the new generation of gamers spew all over their screen when they see breeze blocks and golf balls in space when they start it up for the first time

I think kinda the same way as StarTrader does.

FL will be 10 years old next year.
Baldurs Gate and other “classic” games all get remakes.
A FL remake in a newer, fancier or “better” engine would be freakin awesome, but then its just a remake or the same thing just a little bit newer. (+ everyone wants maybe other features) Even with a build in mod support/api/etc. The communities will split because everyone likes other features and modding becomes so easy & handy.
(and for impressing a game studio or publisher we need a wastly huge fanbase + ads + hype)

If you have one main server the devs need to manage all wishes and similar stuff. You cant get it right for everybody.
(just like the community wars @ BP devs forum^^)

I think one of the biggest problem is simply content & the ever lasting comparing with the “old innovative games”.
In FL you have Sirius (which by itself is incredible detailed (in my opinion) ). Once its explored there are guys who create their own systems, ships, maxing out their vanilla play style, etc.
And of course balance and handling of the game is very important. You must make it interesting for a lot of people not just for so called hardcore fans or stuff like that.

And a very modern problem is this:
You put put a game with kick ass features and in the next three years nobody talks about it anymore cause the people want innovation. (+ everything before BF3 looks ugly
)
Just throwing out FL2 with a new story/universe wouldnt be enough.
I think it needs to be kinda like GW2/EvE. Alot of dynamic, huge worlds & a working concept.

Hope i didnt write too much & its kinda understandle but i think this is a very intresting topic which on the one hand includes alot of stuff already said a gazillion times and doesnt change anything, yet … but on the other hand all the different opionions are very interesting.

now i need some sleep im still suffering jetlag^^

The problem is that Microsoft gives even less of a shit about Freelancer than EA does about Baldur’s Gate. They’ve killed the devs, buried the IP and essentially done their best to forget they’d ever made this game (and made PC games in general, in fact).

Don’t get your hopes up guys. At best we get a spiritual successor to Freelancer from an indie dev, at worst we’re stuck with modding the last of a dying breed.

Yeah, get a unity and go to work

That’s a nice HOPE you got there, it would be a SHAME if ANYTHING happened to it.

Hitting on some indie developers is more easy to say than done.
Of course somebody or a group of people can code an engine or smth similar but this takes time and a lot of resources, too.
I still keep my fingers crossed that there is smth behind yet closed doors.

tonamin wrote:
apart from just sitting there and let freelancer fade away.
Good job guys, good job!

srsly?^^ pls troll someone else

Out of my experience its incredible difficult to “bring back” the space combat/genre games. There is currently simply no interest @ the market and i dont know a good way to change it.

A petition? well many tried that before -> no big interests
Advertise the mods? -> hm maybe the game gets a little bit of attention but still it is depending on buzz marketing, kinda like the “indie games”.

greetz,

tonamin wrote:
I dont see anyone else haveing any ideas, apart from just sitting there and let freelancer fade away. Good job guys, good job!

If you think you’re so much better, why don’t you work on something? Those people you say are just “sitting there” have done a lot for the game, and you should be ashamed to insult them in this way.

tonamin wrote:
I dont see anyone else haveing any ideas, apart from just sitting there and let freelancer fade away. Good job guys, good job!

you deserve a jun’ko face

What if we get Unity and as a BIG group of modders we help to make it?
I can help with textures … another guy could help with the ships and models
and some others who know how to ue the scripting thing could write the game…
If we just try as a group we could make something big

one2many wrote:
If we just try as a group we could make something big

Sure, you and every other indy development group that’s tried to make a successful space sim in the past decade.

Bobthemanofsteel wrote:

one2many wrote:
If we just try as a group we could make something big

Sure, you and every other indy development group that’s tried to make a successful space sim in the past decade.

take it easy bro, if we couldnt make it before was because we got tired or there wasnt enough resources (or people)
Also, not everyone here can develope things as a pro
If the entire starport gets into it we should be able to make some playable thing

…anyway
all we have here is liberty ale

Actually there is a project in the works. For the modders of FL you only have to look as far as the users who have made tools and extended FL well beyond it’s original programming (FLHook, FLAC, the DX9 conversion from the FW team, etc…). Plus all of the modders who have contributed models, scripted, editing and more so much so that FL no longer even looks like FL. And on top of that the startup conversion projects that exist out there on sites such as SourceForge that were never completed. Well there is one that is still going strong though after 2 years of development and you are free to help. Since FL is copyrighted it isn’t FL per say, but it has the spirit of the game being built into it. I can’t make it like FL and still sell it but you can make it like FL and give it away (it has a MOD folder for that). Easy to script (INI text files for everything), a common model format (.X) and DirectX 9 is fully supported. Multiple extended formats in the game such as texture based specular, bump mapping, glow maps, detail mapping, group models, animated textures, dynamic economy, construction, ownership of in-game items, mining, looting, persistent NPCs (over 700 now), custom music and much, much more. And it is still in the alpha stage of development.

So instead of fussing about when FL 2 will be released, how about helping make it happen by contributing to my project. Any and all help is needed. Everything from tools, models, scripting to bug finding is open for all.

Sorry for the shameless plug, I’ve been developing GE for the past 2 years which is what you guys keep posting about in thread after thread, with your help and input it could actually happen…

The main problem with setting up teams for voluntary unpaid work like this is the disagreements, and eventually the originators split away because they aren’t being listened to, or can’t keep the steam up because it is unpaid and voluntary.

Most of us put in unbelievable numbers of full days and hours of work into modding FL, and it was very hard to do, and to learn what to do. But we kept going because it was our own “thing” and our own ideas going into it, and we wanted to see how good our results were.

But if we had been put into a team, or even got together willingly into a team, we would probably not have kept it up for more than a couple of months at most before the team fell apart, because each member would have differing ideas and it would not be our idea, so we would not keep up the same energy and effort that we would (and did) put into our own work for very long. Human nature. I admit my own shortcomings and I have seen the same in many others.

When I first started modding, the tools were very poor, hard to use and full of bugs we had to learn and get round. Today there is a raft of nearly superb tools for so many aspects of modding FL.

But LS has almost all of what is needed, I think.

So in my opinion… There you go guys, you will have a head start with LS and you will also have the Master to help things along when you hit roadblocks.

Personally I think this would be the best way to go, but those who volunteer have to first understand that they will need to commit to achieving targets without resisting, whingeing or ducking out.

So someone has to set those targets, because there is an aim to this work, and the rest have to obey, follow and achieve them.

And of course not to quit until the project is either completed or abandoned. That could be a couple more years, and your wife will NOT like it, I can assure you.

So if you are a single nerd, and looking for a focus, and sleepless night hours of frustration but with great satisfaction when you see your results - here it is!

ST, all well said!

LancerSolurus wrote:
Actually there is a project in the works. For the modders of FL you only have to look as far as the users who have made tools and extended FL well beyond it’s original programming (FLHook, FLAC, the DX9 conversion from the FW team, etc…). Plus all of the modders who have contributed models, scripted, editing and more so much so that FL no longer even looks like FL. And on .

LS, please think a little bit of my suggest. I believe you already saw it.

Everybody have their limits, i have 3 big personal projects in the last year, but now, non of them finished and i already drop one down because i don’t really have power to finish those things in this limited time.

I understand work for something alone is kind of sad thing, which will only have few people support you, and fewer people actually help. SO, that’s why i suggest you start from a little target, then, follow the situation. (Since i saw the video and guess what you want to make, a space shoot game OR ?)

I believe here no people happy to see a man’s good gift gets down. But, the determiner is the maker. Any decide will change the route of your GE, LS.

@ST - thanks, it takes a lot of work and low and behold I still have a wife

@Nexose - space shooter, too a degree yes, it will have that. Since that video I have been concentrating on the empire side of the game, ie. crafting, building, mining, ownership (mentioned in my above post), tech development, manufacturing and more.

What specifically are you talking about below?

Any decide will change the route of your GE

My translation : Any decision to change the route of GE development