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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: TopAce on May 14, 2005, 11:32:55 am

Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on May 14, 2005, 11:32:55 am: Which feature do you think is the best in both FS games?
For me, it's FRED. It's easy to use and knows a lot of things. Those who saw X-wing Alliance's Skirmish mission generator sooner than they started using FRED, they will find that this little programme knows everything that can be done with a mission designer programme.

I am not posting a poll, because everybody loves different things in the game. It would make no sense. :D

In-game feature: Probably the nebula background, not the Full Nebula 'fog', but the background you can see in deep-space missions.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Mongoose on May 14, 2005, 12:17:05 pm: Definitely the physical gameplay itself. You really get the sense of being out in deep space, pulling off crazy maneuvers as you try to take down your target. When you fly up next to one of those massive capital ships, you truly get an awe-inspiring sense of scale. The ships have the perfect mix of realism and arcade-style gameplay. The reticle and targeting system, while displaying immense amounts of information, are brilliantly laid out and aren't cluttered or confusing in the least. Above all else, the storyline is among the best I've seen in any sci-fi, and the Shivans are by far the greatest villains ever. What's even better is that you not only learn about the story through cutscenes and briefings, you get to physically live it through the missions. The Freespace series still ranks as my favorite singleplayer action game. :D
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Fergus on May 14, 2005, 12:44:19 pm: I love the defensive fire from the capital ships. No other space sim can really quite convey the terror that you get when a NTC Aolous jumps in next to you, all those flaks, AAA's and blob guns. It all adds up to a seething firestorm that requires real skill to avoid, not the pitiful turrets you see in X-wing where you simply need to keep on your toes. Bombing is fantastic, preying that you can keep those Helios' locked while you burn in towards the Sathanas, flak everywhere. Anyway, I just love the gameplay more than anything else, and yes, FRED is king.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on May 14, 2005, 12:47:38 pm: I can see you are not as laconic as I am.
Thanks for the replies, but I am still waiting for more!
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Jal-18 on May 14, 2005, 01:08:25 pm: I have to agree, the big ship's defensive fire really is what makes dogfighting in this game so damn fun. Sure, taking on 8 Mara's all at once, while the last remaing 6 hercs of a NTF fleet are shooting at your tail is exciting, but when you have an orion, a demon, liliths, demoises, and a moloch all firing everything they've got at each other, (and you) THAT's when you get the crazy high that says "Okay, there's absolutely NO way I can get out of this one - NUTS!"
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: redsniper on May 14, 2005, 01:31:17 pm: 1. It's easy to make mods and campaigns which has kept it alive this long.
2. SCP!!!!1 :nod:
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Getter Robo G on May 15, 2005, 12:15:13 am: Here here! I also agree that FS1&2's ability for mod friendliness is the best feature of all and it's greatest strength!

Close second is the SCP! (Long live SCP!)
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 15, 2005, 02:03:29 am: Certainly FRED has kept it going, but FRED isn't actually a part of the game itself.

I think it's easily summed up: Beams.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Singh on May 15, 2005, 02:20:14 am: The beamz of death!!!111!1!11

Seriously...the sheer fun that comes with being in a beam-filled dogfight with them firing everywhere, some even grazing you and the general thought and feeling of "HOLY FRICKING **** IM GONNA RUN INTO THAT BIG GREEN BEAM! AARRGH!!" is what did it in for me.

Oh, and Fred too! :D
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Jal-18 on May 15, 2005, 03:10:15 am: Although it's so incredibly annoying to be flying along at the end of a mission only to get speared by a big friendly beam...although I guess that's one of the things that makes this such a fun game. (Damn gunners!)
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Hellbender on May 15, 2005, 04:04:52 am: Avoid the beams and you won't get hurt...

For me, it's not any one thing, it's the total experience. There is not any one aspect that stands out, just a nice completeness about the total package that keeps the game fun to play.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on May 15, 2005, 04:05:20 am: Do none of you enjoy DOGFIGHTS?
I just love when I can humilate an Erinyes with a Loki.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: bluelotus on May 15, 2005, 10:24:02 am: I always loved dogfights around enemy capship. You must avoid the defensive fire, and at the same time you must kill your enemy before you get killed. And the best thing for me: When you miss the fighter you'll hit the capship. I don't know why but i love these thing :nod:
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on May 15, 2005, 10:32:44 am: You're the man of coincidences then.

And oh, are my eyes working properly? Another compatriot from the Heart of Europe?
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Andreas on May 15, 2005, 11:02:20 am: Dogfights, promotions, medals and FRED. I am a simple man. :o
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: bluelotus on May 15, 2005, 11:17:03 am: Quote
Originally posted by TopAce
You're the man of coincidences then.

And oh, are my eyes working properly? Another compatriot from the Heart of Europe?

Yup, Hungarian pow@ ;) Éljenek a magyarok! :D
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Nuke on May 15, 2005, 11:20:26 am: as i just mentioned in the thread about the colossus, atmoshtere and story. the story is believable and imersive, and the atmoshpere of the game makes it all seem more real. the nebulas, lightning everywhere, the large scale battles, guns blazing. the beam cannons give you chills and you feel feer when flak starts blowing up around you. the battlefields always active and you know that you could die at any moment when your caught between two capships. the sound effects in this game are the best ive heard in any space sim (any game for that matter), music is good as well, even for a metalhead like me. it sounds like the musicians actually had to earn there money, when they could have just synthed the whole thing. the story and the gameplay are really well meshed together making the game even more imersive. really theres nothing you can compair freespace to.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Axem on May 15, 2005, 11:32:02 am: FRED's a given. Allows you to be a storyteller and include just about whatever you want.

But I really love the weapons, flak is my favourite one. Its seeing the explosions everywhere that bring a sense of how fierce the fighting is. And seeing those beams go off are always a thrill to watch. :D
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 15, 2005, 03:40:31 pm: Quote
Originally posted by TopAce
Do none of you enjoy DOGFIGHTS?
I just love when I can humilate an Erinyes with a Loki.

If I wanted dogfights, I could play Wing Commander, or Starlancer, or...you get the idea. Dogfighting isn't unique.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: phatosealpha on May 15, 2005, 09:26:10 pm: Capships that don't make you wonder 'why on earth would someone build a big expensive ship if a single fighter can blow it straight to hell?'. Flak and beams add up to "No, you are not going to take out that Aelous by yourself".
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: bluelotus on May 16, 2005, 02:42:37 am: Take treb missle, and that Aelous ships is in trouble.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on May 16, 2005, 04:23:53 am: Quote
Originally posted by ngtm1r

If I wanted dogfights, I could play Wing Commander, or Starlancer, or...you get the idea. Dogfighting isn't unique.

I don't know either games. Anyway, I enjoy dogfights in both FreeSpace and X-wing Alliance, so IF I knew the two games you mentioned above, I would still like FS Dogfights.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Black13 on May 18, 2005, 01:11:58 pm: Two words for you -

Targetable subsystems...

There is nothing like disabling that one last shivan nephilim, telling your squad mates to jump out - and then spending a little one on one time with mr Nephilim - slowly pumping promethius shots into him, or perhaps a few shots of the dreaded kaysers

That being said, my friends can make maps for UT2k4 and Halo CE - I never got the hang of it though -

I made several kick butt missions on Fred though - it allowed me (a network geek - not a program geek) to become my own video game author.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: aldo_14 on May 18, 2005, 01:21:52 pm: Explosions.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: WMCoolmon on May 18, 2005, 10:27:16 pm: The AI.

Seriously, how fun would Freespace be if everything just sat there and didn't shoot back? :p
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Dark RevenantX on May 18, 2005, 10:32:47 pm: Everything
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Mongoose on May 19, 2005, 01:25:40 am: Quote
Originally posted by WMCoolmon
The AI.

Seriously, how fun would Freespace be if everything just sat there and didn't shoot back? :p

Hey...I like shooting cargo containers! :p
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on May 19, 2005, 08:55:46 am: Quote
Originally posted by Mongoose

Hey...I like shooting cargo containers! :p

I wanted to post EXACTLY the same.
Any one you prefer shooting moving drones to stationary containers?
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Cobra on May 24, 2005, 02:42:26 pm: 1. Dogfights. I love pulling crazy manuevers around an Arcadia or Orion, especially aircraft-style manuevers, like when you pull up on the joy, twist left or right, and level out on either side of your wingman. :D
2. FRED. Easy to use, very flexible, and you can make campaigns to get all medals and promotions. :D
3. Beamz. Beams help me with dogifight manuevers and they're just plain awesome. They really give life to capship and capship to fighter battles. not like FS1 where the bombers do all the work. ;)
4. Surprises. Everything is not as you expect them to be (well, when you first play it anyway ;)). The Lion's Den had surprises (you know what i'm talking about)
5. Awe-inspiring ships. The thing that makes ships awe-inspiring are their entrances. The colossus jumping in to save the day, the psamtik doing the same, the sathanas jumping in with all guns blasting. it's just awesome.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Sundog on May 27, 2005, 05:36:20 pm: I like the fact that the enemy "pilots" make mistakes too. I manged to get a NTF fighter to jink into a big beam one mission (pure fluke, of course - but I know games where the AI wouldn't have allowed it to happen).
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: castor on May 28, 2005, 03:18:34 pm: 1. dogfighting - teh intensity
2. caps - no tin cans
3. wingmen :eek:
4. all-around underdog position - we're mud, just waitin' to be wasted or...? :mad2:
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Johnmike on May 31, 2005, 07:07:49 pm: Easily, the unit scale. I mean, not many (if any at all) games successfully create the feeling that capital ships are massive and important. Even in all of the Star Wars games a single X-Wing pilot (you) can take out a Star Destroyer. Sure, you will probably die, but if you're good enough you can do it alone. In FS2, it's almost impossible to do some jobs without capships. This gives the game realism, much better gameplay, and less storyline inconsistencies (hey, they uber-giant death destroyer is a pansy!) Freespace 2 is the only flight game I've played that did it correctly.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Unknown Target on May 31, 2005, 07:30:46 pm: I love the capital ships, and like Johnmike said before me, the scale. The scale is simply incredible, these ships are actually big. They look big, sound big, feel big, they are simply huge. Add another component to that: I love the feeling you get from attacking one of them. It actually makes you stop and go "oh ****, I'm ACTUALLY about to attack an Orion head on." and you get some real tense moments when you're dodging flak bursts and cannon fire, trying to get al ock to release your payload.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Taristin on May 31, 2005, 07:35:39 pm: They don't really look that big... for something that's 2 km long, the Orion looks only several hundred meters at most.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 31, 2005, 10:10:55 pm: Until you're staring at it from about 100 meters away, anyways.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Dark RevenantX on May 31, 2005, 10:26:00 pm: Change your FOV to something that makes faraway things look bigger, or you can scale the models, turrets and their positions, collision boxes, and explosions to be much larger. Of course, the textures will look like a pixilated smiley face.

Compare that with this, which is like the textures at the moment at the default size:
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: WMCoolmon on May 31, 2005, 11:25:41 pm: That causes FF to lag its ass out. :p

Also,
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,31211.0.html
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Dark RevenantX on May 31, 2005, 11:40:25 pm: I run on a Mac with 400mhz, and it doesn't lag at all with FF.
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Liberator on June 01, 2005, 12:05:02 am: t3h b34m5!!!!!!!!11111111
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Sundog on June 01, 2005, 10:26:09 am: Um, does that actually mean anything, Liberator?
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Lynx on June 01, 2005, 10:29:38 am: Quote
Originally posted by Liberator
t3h b34m5!!!!!!!!11111111

And no one saw it coming.

:p
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: TopAce on June 01, 2005, 10:32:44 am: Quote
Originally posted by Sundog
Um, does that actually mean anything, Liberator?

He also means the beams which come from the suns and make starships sublimate when the wanted temperature is reached. ;)
Title: What's the best feature in FreeSpace 2?
Post by: Sundog on June 01, 2005, 10:45:27 am: Oh, I see. That style of communication just looks like gibberish to me until I can get a handle on what's actually being said - then I feel like an idiot for not realising it all along...:doh: