I’m very impressed. I really like the handling and the sounds in this alpha. But the steep price to join the alpha is a turnoff.

Freelancer’s spiritual successor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN3tKT0E0t8

http://ltheory.com/index.html

Unfortunately I missed the Kickstarter and thus access to the alpha, but boy. This guy loved Freelancer and every part of it and unlike Star Citizen, he won’t shovel 1st person view down the gamer’s throat. Needless to say this guy is a genius for building such a massive game all by himself.

But, you be the judge. Tell me what you think about his work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq4gih_AX44
He has a Development Diary showing his progress. I believe this guy.

The game is supposed to be released early 2014. My guess is it will be like Kerbal Space Program in that new elements will be added to the game over the months.

This is an excerpt of the Freelancer review from Gamespot.
http://www.gamespot.com/freelancer/reviews/freelancer-review-2912041/

When Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts announced that he was leaving Origin Systems, fans of his games were concerned that he had abandoned the space simulation genre. In 1999, those concerns were replaced with eager anticipation when Roberts announced that his next game, Freelancer, would be one of the most ambitious space simulations yet. But then Roberts left the project, and gradually several of its more innovative features were scaled down or dropped altogether while its target release date was constantly postponed. Freelancer has finally arrived, and while it’s not the revolutionary title it initially promised to be, it delivers the exact combination of addictive and accessible gameplay that the genre has needed for a long time.

Gives me a mixed feeling of deja vu and foreshadowing. Let’s just hope Roberts has learned from the past and his ambitions will turn into reality. I can already tell that they will miss the deadline. No way they can finish all of it in 2 years unless they finished major components of the game mechanics for the open world part by now.

What do you guys think about the fact that the story does not play in the Freelancer universe? I think it’s good and bad. First of all as much as I enjoyed Freelancer, the story was kinda weird. On the other hand, the website has pages and pages of story and we’ll have no other choice but suck it all in to get an idea about the new universe. It will take a while to learn everything.

So… I have some questions:

When you made the pledge which one did you choose?
-White Citizen
-Green Citizen
-Bronze Citizen
-Silver Citizen
-Gold Citizen
or are there even folks among us going Platinum and Titanium?

And how are the Golden Tickets related to this? If I had the cash I would have gone with the Freelancer package (Bronze citizen) but I’m seriously considering the Green Citizen Card because of:
*Digital game soundtrack
*Digital map of the game universe
*Digital 42-page Star Citizens manual

And something tells me the digital map and Galactapedia are somehow related… That being said, it looks like they will reach their pledge goal well in time. I check yesterday and it was at $600,000. Now it’s at $700,000. I hope this is a steady stream of money for another week. That would put them in a safe spot.

*I just noticed this:

“- Yes, you will be able to upgrade your pledge.”
Well then, I will go with the Green Citizen and hopefully upgrade my way to Freelancer/Bronze Citizen by November. :lol:

Next step: Figuring out how to raise the money to run a game like that one. :lol:

I think it will have the Freelancer elements to it, but thinking that this is probably the most challenging and biggest part, they don’t have it ready yet so they showed the Wing Commander aspect of the game.

I always wanted to walk on the planets. Not even the planets, just the small area where you land would have been enough, exploring the bars and stuff by yourself. Chris Roberts definitely has that kind of gameplay in mind and it’s gonna take a heck of a lot of time to do it.

Looking at the trailer the real question that bothers my mind is proportions. Will the universe and its planets resemble reality or will they be scaled like Freelancer for convenience?

Oh look:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/wing-commander-creator-talks-new-project-6397488?tag=Topslot;WingCommanderCreator039sNewProject;QuotifYou039veGot

Seem like the publisher problem has already been solved. Phew.

Minus 9 more days until the big reveal, people!!!

Here’s what I really wish he did:

Freelancer 2 with a new engine. I don’t mind if it plays in a new system instead of Sirius, but it would be freaking awesome if it played 10-300 years after Freelancer.

Now, one last thing to make the game they develop epic win: Make the engine modding-friendly. Oh, the possibilities. They would never have to develop another Freelancer if people could easily create their own systems. The modding community here has already done miracles and created incredible tools.

I want the graphics of Eve Online, but the gameplay of Freelancer. Nuff said. Oh and being able to walk on the planets. Not the whole planet, that would be too much time spent on development. Just the small part. I also wanted to take a walk in New London or one of the gardens with the panorama windows on one of the Freeports.

About Why’s comment, that pic reminds me of a website I have been roaming in sadness and hope about how a new Freelancer could look like:

http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

(Warning: You might never leave this blog)

We’ve all grown since the release of Freelancer and while I didn’t care about the details back in the day, the first question that came into my mind was the funding. Where will Roberts get the money and how can he convince those publishers to give space shooters one more chance?

The last thing I was really excited about was Jumpgate Evolution which was cancelled. It really looked like a 2011 version of Freelancer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hd9KAa1Ty4

stfx this is downright incredible what you did here. I wish I could help you but I don’t know anything about programming except for some basic skills in Python 3.0. Please keep up the good work!

Everytime I think it doesn’t get any better you guys surprise me. Distortion maps would be incredible if you can use them on a large scale. Black holes, but also planets and suns distort light. Not to mention all the potential for weapons.

Incredible job!

Nothing less than incredible! It’s amazing that you are able to get that much out of an engine that is at least 10 years old.

But be careful with the soft shadows. Due to the lack of an atmosphere, space has no ambient lighting and thus no soft shadows. So hard shadows are the realistic way to go.

But PLEASE add variance shadows. I would love to see them

Dude. I can’t thank you enough. I didn’t know where to start with modding. But now I finally have an idea of what’s going on. I’m so glad you did this. Once I have more time and not college in the way, I’ll go through the tutorials and do something.

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.

Hi and Welcome Lady Diamond.

True. Without some software engineers, Freelancer 2 won’t make it. It’s kinda sad that Microsoft just dropped Digital Anvil despite the fact that it was the best in its class.

We need to overcome our egos and realize that everybody could get their idea into a new game if only we get together to make it happen.

The reason why modders are not coming together to make Freelancer 2 is mostly because they disagree on the plot. Nobody wants to give up his/her plot because it is so important to how the world looks like.

I have read the stories of some here and I think all are great. I’m good at modelling and particles. But I’m horrible at texturing because I don’t have a touchpen and have never done digital painting.

I also think I would only be ready to join a Freelancer 2 project if we migrate to an engine that will cover our butts for the next 2 decades. I’ve been talking about CryEngine 3 for a while and I really think it is great and with the know-how, you could re-create the Freelancer world.

The most difficult part would be to program all the NPCs and how they travel as well as the dynamic trade system. But mods like Hamburg City Server which improved the trade system, show that people DO have the know-how.

So it all boils down to ego and when all sides are going to realize that the Freelancer Community is shrinking and we’ll soon have no other choice than to do one mod together or no mod at all.

@FriendlyFire True. But it would still be nice to have the huge library of shaders of a CryEngine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf8D8q-mSAI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brmZeRyuEuk

Those beautiful particle effects made me wonder What if there was a way to port all the gameplay of Freelancer to the free CryEngine 3 or at least resemble the gameplay of Freelancer?

Too bad I know nothing about programming. Otherwise I would be on this. It would be a mammoth project but it would save Freelancer for a good decade.

Thanks. Good to know because I was planning on using Maya. I will check out 3DS Max

Is there anything you need to keep in mind while modelling? I read in other threads that you should avoid certain kinds of polygons (convex?)

What about the model itself? Does it have to be one piece or is it okay if consists of several smaller pieces?

I think it won’t work. What you need on the planets is diffuse reflection not specular.

Are you guys working on clouds for the planets? That would be really nice.