[Setekh]

Sometimes I wonder - as the next generation of games (of all genres, not just space sims) comes and goes, is there anything that is really changing or improving - except the realism of the game? I realise that developers must be running out of ideas, but I truly yearn for a game that is really different. Truly daunting, and kind of OT - but still...  

(Btw venom - enjoy your new sig  )

[CobaltStarr]

 

Originally posted by NeoHunter:
Sounds a bit like Babylon 5's Starfuries.  

Actually, that's what I was going for...   That's an execellent design for a space superiority fighter...   I think that if someone in the future had to come up with a design for a space fighter, they probably couldn't come up with a better base design than the Starfury...  

I came up with all of the stuff in my first post in the space of 10 minutes so there's a lot of room for improvement...  

[Grey Wolf]

-Multiple types of Capship Weapons
-Varies on type of mission.
-Partially Modular, so there are specific
 Bomb and Missile slots.
-Again, varies on type of mission.
-No Newtonian.
-Shields on all fighters, bombers, and small
 to medium sized Capships. (Large ones just
 have heavy armor.)
-No fighter turrets.
-Capships ranging from about Fenris size to
 as large as the SSDs and th Collosus.

And some other ideas:
-Only joystick. (In my opinion, the idea to
 make Freelancer joystick free sucks.)
-Civilian ships.
-The choice to leave the military if you
 want to or the possibility of being kicked
 out.
-Completely variable storyline. (Like most
 modern RPGs.)
-The ability to fight on both sides of the
 war.

[NeoHunter]

 

Originally posted by CobaltStarr:
Actually, that's what I was going for...   That's an execellent design for a space superiority fighter...   I think that if someone in the future had to come up with a design for a space fighter, they probably couldn't come up with a better base design than the Starfury...  

I came up with all of the stuff in my first post in the space of 10 minutes so there's a lot of room for improvement...  

The Starfury from Babylon 5 was way cool! When I first saw Babylon 5 on TV, I was awed by its manuverability. There was trailer of it being chased by an alien fighter. Then suddenly, it stopped its forward thrust and did a 180 and fired continuously at the alien fighter behind him!! That's how I think real space fighters will be created in the future. If Man ever gets down to concentrating more on exploration of space and invention of space technology rather than have petty wars here and there.......

I also found another concept of Babylon 5 very appealing. The ability to intercept enemy fire. Like I fire 10 plasma shots at a enemy corvette and the enemy fires 10 shots as well to stop them from hitting his ship's hull. Very nice instead of sci-fi shows like Star Wars and Star Trek where the weapons always hit their targets. FreeSpace 2 has that problem as well. In Babylon 5, I think casulties are lower.


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[IceFire]

I don't know about lower casualties.  Into the Fire had one big assed battle.  I don't think there has been a bigger battle in the history of science fiction.  Its a testament to the guys who created the special effects.

[NeoHunter]

What happened in Into The Fire?

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[Fineus]

 

Originally posted by NeoHunter:
What happened in Into The Fire?

"one big assed battle. I don't think there has been a bigger battle in the history of science fiction. Its a testament to the guys who created the special effects."  

It has to be said that the scope and skill of the set piece battles in B5 is only rivaled by a small handfull of Startrek episodes and the final piece of Return of the Jedi.


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[Shrike]

Just a wee bump...I've been looking into this some more.

[QXMX]

It'd be cool to see a voice command implementation so that you wouldn't have to type on the keyboard to give your wingmen orders.

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[Setekh]

Then again, that would probably take quite a bit of CPU power to process on the fly. Not to mention the problems voice-recognition software has had with people of different accents.

[QXMX]

Maybe as a supplement    It couldn't be more than a few words.

Alpha 2, attack, Scorpio 1  

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[Styxx]

The best way to do that - and ensure it works - would be to ask the player to record at least three voice samples for each voice command he wants to issue. Then the computer would be able to recognize him, and only him.

[Setekh]

Yeh, that would be good.  

[Ace]

I was a part of a team which *was* working on such a next generation game.

Everything mentioned here is very easy to impliment, and the voice commands were a favorite of mine  

However, the developing company believed they would be better suited in making cliche' FPS games and has vanished into obscurity.

I was working on this project during my long absence to FSW, mainly due to non-disclosure acts.

Now that it's dead, and that the design documents and some core materials are under personal copyright (Adam N. Rorabaugh) I plan on using these material in case I ever find a good group of programmers.  

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Ace
Staff member FreeSpace Watch
 http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/

[wEvil]

well i know a few people who might be interested...so long as there's nothing REALLY hard to code..(err...2 to be precise,  uni 1st year)

And i doubt you'll find any shortage of modellers in these parts

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[wEvil]

To be honest what i would want to see in a space sim is;

More correct physics

More accurate hit effects...i want to see CHUNKS flying out of an orion when it gets sliced in half with a shivan beam.

proper 3D per-pixel glow effects

Real shadows

fully modular systems (get to change reactors on later levels?)

more interaction with capships...in FS2 its much better than most, because capships don't just site there and wait to be thrashed by a fighter wing...you must stick another capship in there to neutralise it.
so i suppose it boils down to a far more advanced AI

(more) Interactive wingmen - its not that hard...unreal tournament can have people randomly saying stuff to simulate a conversation.

Better lighting FX (i want the darkside of a ship to be just that...DARK)

Better shading model
I'm sure most modern 3D DX8 compliant accelerators could handle a phong or even blinn shading model

more flexible campaign/storyline
I know its been done before, but a very advanced campaign generator system would make for a high replayability factor

Neway..this has probably allready been said...oh yea, one last thing:

wEvil on the 3D modelling team  

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[Setekh]

 

Originally posted by wEvil:
More correct physics

Have you played IW1?  

[joek]

About the whole Newtonian physics debate...

Sure, it can be really hard to play (dogfight, etc) with pure Newtonian physics; but I don't think that you need pure Newtonian physics to have Newtonian physics.

You could have a game with those physics, but instead of you the player controlling all the thrust and vectors, there would be an onboard computer to handle all that math and control. Then it would be like you just point your ship where you want to go, and the computer fires all the right thrusters to get you there.

But I think another factor of Newtonian physics that would have to be considered is the design of the ship. You can't have ships where you have a big engine in the back and a bunch of thrusters to turn it. Let's say you were attacking a big cargo container, but you're flying towards it and you'll crash into it. With a "big engine" ship you would have to turn away from your target, and apply thrust to stop, then turn back towards your target to keep firing. Not very game friendly.

What you could have with Newtonian is new ships where your weapons system rotates seperately from your engines system. This then could (and would probably have to) introduce a whole new game control system (maybe like two joysticks) where can control where you're flying and where you're shooting separately. Although I'm sure this would create a whole new level of complex game; and I should probably stop rambling now.

Joe

[wEvil]

never played IW-1

apprently it was good?

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[Setekh]

Nice idea, Joe. That's sweet.  

wEvil: IW1 is - different. I didn't like it because I was too used to FS, which has a very different style of play. I should have another crack at it.