Hey all: first time here in the boards; long time Freelancer addict.
First off, let me give mad props to the people who came up with droppable pilots. The interesting thing about that is that you can traffic Bounty Hunters without pissing off the cops (cuz otherwise the cops would constantly jump the Hunters), though I think I've seen some instances of cops perhaps fighting each other? Selling the Nomads to research bases where they'll be experimented on seems a nice touch. It'd be neat if there were pilot types for each faction, but I can see how that could get tedious working out the prices for each type for each base and for each encounter for each system... still, it'd be neat to sell Junkers to the Hogosha or vice versa, Agiera techs to the Lane Hackers... Planetform officials to the Gaians, etc! In such a case, no matter how you align your factions, you're likely to find a great profit. You can currently only get Corsairs or Outcasts in their home systems... I propose that perhaps you should only get Faction-Specific pilots from their elite fighters (like the Molly's Werewolf, for instance). However, that would necessitate the elites being more common for the most part to ensure that people go for the big money.
I like the fact that you can get to all the story mission systems; however, this needs to be cleaned up as far as the linkages go. Anyone venturing through the Alien Jump Gate is going to be LOCKED on the other side: do not attempt this without first saving somewhere safe, like Planet Toledo! Also, the Alaska Gate in the New York system is similarly one-way: you can get to Alaska through Omicron Minor or whatnot but cannot get back through Alaska from New York. Maybe this was intentional to keep people from making two-jump runs between Willard Research Station in California and Alaska to fight the Nomads... still a bit frustrating. It'd be neat if there were more links in the back Omicron systems
It'd be nice if you could get through the Dyson Sphere shell on the other side of the Alien Jump Gate (presuming there's some way to actually LEAVE the system). I think it'd be awesome if the Order and the Nomads were both factions in the normal sense: the Monkeys mod was interesting but it didn't do so well on my machine. Basically, the only thing left missing is a few bases to add meaning to the whole works: Juneau Shipyard is there, but it doesn't seem to have a docks attached. I bet you could steal the appropriate skin from one of the other shipyard-specific bases, maybe in Kusari or Rheinland. It'd be nice to have missions versus the Nomads available from the Order at Toledo and the Zoner bases of Planets Gammu and Primus... plus, shouldn't the robots have robot voices (currently they're human-sounding)? If I'm right, the bars in the bases have dialog cards specific to each base: this allows Zoners in different systems to say different things, for instance. Shouldn't be that hard to give the Monkeys and Robots something interesting to say.
Might I venture that the Robots be the best source for Military Vehicles (and perhaps very demanding of Alloys, Superconductors, Optronics and even Scrap Metal?), and that the prices of Military Vehicles be raised, and perhaps re-categorized? Trust me: military hardware is generally the most expensive stuff you can get nowadays, and it's always in demand as long as people are fighting. Maybe this should be broken up into specifics with larger cargo spaces required, like for Superior Nomad Brains and Minor Nomad Brains? Think: Military Scout Vehicle (or perhaps Jetbike) - 1 space; Military Aircar - 4 spaces; Military Hovertank - 8 spaces. Maybe even have a Military Command Vehicle or Military Mecha. They should be expensive as all getout and available only from certain bases.
I had a couple of problems with the original Freelancer that nobody seems to have thought about. First off, anyone wonder why you can't buy ships at shipyards? Second off, there is no such thing as a "Green" star. Ask any astronomer. It just doesn't happen. They've cataloged millions, and no green ones yet. You'd think they would know.
I've got a few other ideas but they'd require a drastic re-working of the game. These include in-play creatable or upgradeable bases, Faction investment instead of just crass bribes, zero-G space assault troopers... and that's just the beginning. Fortunately, I've got a D20 Future workaround for those of us who like playing dice-and-paper roleplaying. Unfortunately, since Microsoft owns Freelancer straight up, I'll have to bull**** systems, factions and things like ships and history from scratch: luckily, I know a thing or few about our near-stellar neighborhood and I think I can make something better based on real star charts and similar game rules that would be just as fun to play, if not better. Maybe after it's hashed out Microsoft will wanna do a deal to get a Freelancer version on the same rules system. Considering the size and resilience of the mod community, they might even want to do a PC Freelancer Gold edition with roleplaying elements and mod tools built in!
Keep up the good work fellas. Email me when the new edition comes out!
TarNutz,Feb 3 2006, 09:32 AM Wrote:I like the fact that you can get to all the story mission systems; however, this needs to be cleaned up as far as the linkages go. Anyone venturing through the Alien Jump Gate is going to be LOCKED on the other side: do not attempt this without first saving somewhere safe, like Planet Toledo! Also, the Alaska Gate in the New York system is similarly one-way: you can get to Alaska through Omicron Minor or whatnot but cannot get back through Alaska from New York. Maybe this was intentional to keep people from making two-jump runs between Willard Research Station in California and Alaska to fight the Nomads... still a bit frustrating. It'd be neat if there were more links in the back Omicron systems
Uhm.. the Alaska jumpgate in NY is 2-way.. you can get to alaska from new york, and get to new york from alaska.. You can even go to the Connecticut Jumpgate in alaska to get to New York.. There are a ton of ways around this.
As for the Alien Jumpgate, i'm guessing it goes to Omicron Lost. There's a Jumphole in there somewhere for Omicron Delta, so there's two ways in and out of that system. easy to get lost in tho, since the navmap seems non-existent.
Quote: Shouldn't be that hard to give the Monkeys and Robots something interesting to say.
Haha.. and what should they say? "Me want banana" "me want a heart" ?? :P
as for the other comments...
Discovery is primarily an EXPANSION of the original Freelancer. I agree, there's no such thing as Green Stars, but they make for some kick-ass scenery in-game. Freelancer is a FICTIONAL world, and as everyone is well aware, in the Fictional world, anything goes.
Welcome to the community!
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