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General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Freespace Damo on July 08, 2007, 03:26:05 am

Title: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 08, 2007, 03:26:05 am
I have a friend who LOVES the game Freelancer, and I'm going to try and introduce him to FreeSpace 1 and 2. Can someone please help me describe the games in detail so i can give him a bit more understanding of it?

Thanks very much!

:)
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: blackhole on July 08, 2007, 03:32:18 am
I am a freelancer veteran, having played the game for 5 years and explored ever nook and cranny, as well as modded the crap out of the game, so i can first tell your friend that he will most likely love freespace 2. The second thing i'd tell him is that its completely different than freelancer. Freespace 2 is mission based, meaning you can't go out and do whatever you want, your dead set on a single campaign route. Surprisingly (at least, to freelancer players), this will not degrade the gaming experience. It lets freespace 2 give you a storyline experience like no other space sim has. The other important difference is that combat is waaaaay different. You still go around shooting people, you still have a targeting system (and it functions similar to freelancer's), but your in first person mode and its quite realistic, unlike Freelancer's rather fantasy version of fighting.

The third difference is that Capships are no longer celestial ornaments, they are very, very important, probably more important than you. Commanding your squadmates is almost the only way to get things done, and trying to do everything yourself, like you do in freelancer, is just going to get you killed. There's no real upgrading ships, you just get better ships as the game goes along, and all the missions are tweaked based on that.

Thats a description of freespace 2 direct from a freelancer.

Freelancer, by the way, kicks f***ing ass. :D
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Cobra on July 08, 2007, 04:23:38 am
Everything after your first paragraph and the capship deal is a load of bull****. I never give my wingmen orders unless the situation is really desperate, I basically leave my men all on autonomous mode.

Freelancer sucked, by the way. :P

---

Freespace 2 is a user-friendly game, easy to get used to, fun to play, and the sequel to one of the best games ever. Also easily modified. It even has a mission editor that's really simple, and the mission designers at Volition used it!

---

Something like that. :P
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: castor on July 08, 2007, 05:26:14 am
I never give my wingmen orders unless the situation is really desperate, I basically leave my men all on autonomous mode.
:wtf: Even on hard/insane?

Anyways, there are loads of FS reviews out there. Why not show some of those to your friend, FreespaceDamo?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Snail on July 08, 2007, 05:30:18 am
c-3-9.
Then all of them die. I go in and finish the enemy off.

or

c-3-1
On every target systematically

or

c-3-8
Kill everything with Trebs.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: GenericCorvette on July 08, 2007, 05:33:01 am
For your inconvenience, I have broken this up into incomprehensible sentences mixed to form a bunch of  paragraphs.

Taking down an enemy fighter is much quicker in FreeSpace 2 because you don't have to shoot him eight hundred times. Because you are not Superman, bringing down a large capital ship actually requires bombers with torpedoes and/or friendly capital ship support. Supporting friendly capships in the battle against an enemy capship requires you to take out the enemy bombers before they can launch their payload or destroying the enemy capital ship's heavy armaments. The weapons you use tend not to have powered-up clones labeled with a number higher than the next weakest weapon in the set. The weapons capital ships use include gigantic photon beam cannons for turning other capital ships to slag. Getting hit by a stray beam is a great way to commit suicide.

Combat situations with capital ships are not actually limited to the following:
1: A battle where the forward cannon or one or more smaller capital ships completely demolishes a larger ship. (Where have I seen this before? Oh right, Captain Marcus Walker vs. Battleship Unity. The Rheinland gunboats vs Battleship Harmony, although you can actually save the Harmony and watch it magically disappear as soon as the mission is over.)
2: A battle where a bunch of fighters smash a capital ship, and usually, its escort as well. (The first actual battle you see in the game starts with a bunch of Order fighters destroying the Donau with only a few Javelins. Freeport 7 is a station, so it doesn't count even though it's the first thing that blows up. Later on, the Rheinland and Kusari fleets end up being beaten by bunches of fighters a bit too easily.)

Asteroids are no longer non-moving ultra-invincible blocks whose main goal is to pester people who keep bouncing into them (I hate the goddamn Badlands). They are now large and easy to destroy lumps that tend to fly into whatever you're protecting and cause serious damage if you don't stop them.

There are masses of downloadable content. Among the downloadable content includes new campaigns and missions so you don't have to fly your Modded Uber Ultra Killer Mega Retrofitted Ship of Doom 3000™ through the exact same missions every time. The FreeSpace 2 MediaVPs should be installed before you even play, because it makes the game look real pretty.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: TrashMan on July 08, 2007, 05:43:21 am
Nicely said...

FS2 capships (especially some) will chew you up and spit you out if you go all Rambo on them.

B.t.w. - Freelancer rocks, FS2 rocks even harder...
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jambo on July 08, 2007, 08:44:23 am
With one word: Perfection
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Game_Master64 on July 08, 2007, 12:59:31 pm
put it this way

FreeSpace2>Freelancer

both good, FS2 is better
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Snail on July 08, 2007, 01:08:40 pm
With one word: Perfection
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: blackhole on July 08, 2007, 02:00:20 pm
Saying FS2 is better then freelancer isn't going to convince them to play. The 2 games are almost incomparable. Sure, they're both spacesims, but the gameplay, storyline progression, and general feel are completely and totally different. The only 2 things they have in common is a targetting system and the fact that you shoot people in spaceships.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Cobra on July 08, 2007, 02:06:06 pm
I never give my wingmen orders unless the situation is really desperate, I basically leave my men all on autonomous mode.
:wtf: Even on hard/insane?

Yeah, that was how I played FS1 when I beat it on Insane. :P
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Sir T on July 08, 2007, 02:10:25 pm
Playing through a Mission in Derelict last Night Iwas running around like a maniac. Friendly corvette against 3 cruisers. I skimming along the hull on the other side to the cruisers and then swooping to take down some bombers that were coming in. One of the cruiser raced its main beam along the corvette and the edge of that beam spilled over into empty space before shutting down.

Unfortunately, empty space contained me. For approximately 0.01 seconds. Then it contained a cloud of gas. Thats how significant you are. sometimes you can die and its not your fault. That said you have to make strategic decisions all the time and direct your wingmates around. Fortunately the tools to do that are excellent in the game. Even leaving your wingmen on auto is a strategic desision.

Freespace has no "elite" type trading content, but in all other ways it is far better. you ill probably need a joystick to play. Of and tell them to run FS1 or the updatred FS1 mod for SCP as  they will probably find that more familiar to them as freelancer pilots.

Only problem with the game is it over reliance on missiles but that seemed to have been corrected in the games I am having now as the AI countermeasures now actually seem to work. Yey.

Freespace SCP combat in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6VhyMzu12c
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Unknown Target on July 08, 2007, 02:12:17 pm
Freespace 2 is the best space combat sim ever made. That's what I tell everyone.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Hades on July 08, 2007, 03:20:22 pm
Youll probably need a joystick to play

Thats BS  :P You c an play with mouse and loystick.But since he plays freelancer He will be more used to mouse.

Oh yea heres a tip to tell him...Don't try to kill a Corvette or any thing bigger in a fighter. ;7 :lol:
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Game_Master64 on July 08, 2007, 03:24:06 pm
doesnt Freespace have an actualy fight sim engine?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: colecampbell666 on July 08, 2007, 03:26:09 pm
After playing with an Evo Force, an awesome joystick, the mouse was really easy to use (some Logitech mouse with a million buttons)

[cough]Logitech joysticks suck :ick:[/cough]
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Unknown Target on July 08, 2007, 03:33:58 pm
doesnt Freespace have an actualy fight sim engine?

No? :wtf: Where would you get something like that?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Game_Master64 on July 08, 2007, 04:31:52 pm
i dont know, i think i read it somewhere around here, long time ago. maybe i'm getting it confused with a different game.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Unknown Target on July 08, 2007, 05:02:42 pm
Probably Starshatter.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Polpolion on July 08, 2007, 05:03:15 pm
Just give him a copy of FS. That's all the description he should ever need.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Charismatic on July 08, 2007, 09:25:00 pm
I would describe FS1 and FS2, as a ... game?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 08, 2007, 11:20:02 pm
Keep it coming guys! all kick ass stuff so far!

I liked that youtube video, thats nuts. That'll grab his attention for sure.

Also, i fly with the keyboard (Numpad and A and Z, Spacebar), learnt when my mum got my FreeSpace: The Great War back when it was brand spankin new.

EDIT: Forgot to say thanks ;)
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: AlphaOne on July 09, 2007, 12:25:14 am
To put it simply : its a game which makes you go crazy with joy..that it exists...and makes you play it like a maniac till you finish.....then its like hitting a brick wall at 200km/h......suck big time...but then you discover the mods....and life has a meaning all over again......till you finish the mods......then you just go into idle till the next good mod apears....! And if you are one of those ppl who play derelict right after the main campaign....especialy after a very long period of inactivity you almost think its a continuation of the game itself......and pretty soon you become adicted to it.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jr2 on July 09, 2007, 03:14:03 am
Eh, if you finish all mods, and want more, then open your mods up in FRED, find how they did it, and make your own!  Ofc, that involves sacrificing a little... Now I catch myself looking at stuff when I play in FS and one part of my brain is going "when-is-wing-destroyed-Cancer, then..." or something like that.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Game_Master64 on July 09, 2007, 11:50:37 am
To put it simply : its a game which makes you go crazy with joy..that it exists...and makes you play it like a maniac till you finish.....then its like hitting a brick wall at 200km/h......suck big time...but then you discover the mods....and life has a meaning all over again......till you finish the mods......then you just go into idle till the next good mod apears....! And if you are one of those ppl who play derelict right after the main campaign....especialy after a very long period of inactivity you almost think its a continuation of the game itself......and pretty soon you become adicted to it.

yup
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Grizzly on July 09, 2007, 01:23:20 pm
Probably Starshatter.


Joshua seconds that... He would also like to state that Starshatter has actually, three flight engines, an arcade, an "semi-realistic" and an realistic... can be freely swithed to.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Polpolion on July 09, 2007, 06:58:28 pm
Ack! All italics and third person! :p
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: AlphaOne on July 09, 2007, 07:46:07 pm
Yeah i've noticed he worries me sometimes! :p
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jr2 on July 09, 2007, 10:20:07 pm
Is StarShatter free?  free"ish", like FS?  Or do I have to find it on eBay?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 09, 2007, 10:24:25 pm
I've convinced one of my FL mates hehe, he's gonna get it in the next month when he has a new download limit.

Trying to convince the other one but he said if he has a spare 2gb in his download limit he'll get it, he's on a 10GB download limit before its shaped to 64kbps.

I found my 3 cds i got from Freespacezone when it was still around, i've installed the game and now i'm trying to get the updated one with the good graphics, so far its been over 10 hour download and still going. I'm on 256/64kbps ADSL so its going to take a while.

I've been playing FS: The great war again to re-live that game that wasted so many hours in the past. Its still fun as it was when i got it amazingly.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jr2 on July 09, 2007, 10:27:24 pm
Hrm...  If you could convince a friend with a good connection and no d'l limit (or a big one) to get hip63's DVD + the 1.01 patch, then he could burn them to DVD for all of you, and you could mail copies to each other.  Just, after installing, BE SURE to rename the directory "fs1_port_3" to "fsport".

Hip63's DVD is compatible with Turey's Installer, except for the fsport, until you rename it.  So rename it, then run Turey's Installer.

EDIT: Get it from Hades Combine, see my siggy.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 09, 2007, 10:35:51 pm
Hrm...  If you could convince a friend with a good connection and no d'l limit (or a big one) to get hip63's DVD + the 1.01 patch, then he could burn them to DVD for all of you, and you could mail copies to each other.  Just, after installing, BE SURE to rename the directory "fs1_port_3" to "fsport".

Hip63's DVD is compatible with Turey's Installer, except for the fsport, until you rename it.  So rename it, then run Turey's Installer.

EDIT: Get it from Hades Combine, see my siggy.

Thanks that is a good idea, but I'm afraid none of us have a decent connection OR download limit. Australia's internet is very crappy.

Anyway with all the options ticked (Besides FreeSpace 2 Core) how big is turey's installer?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jr2 on July 09, 2007, 10:37:33 pm
heh heh you should've used my walkthrough & copied the .mve's... it's, umm...  about 4.61 GB - the FS2 Core.  I may have other mods installed from other locations, so a bit less than that.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Cobra on July 09, 2007, 11:11:53 pm
heh heh you should've used my walkthrough & copied the .mve's... it's, umm...  about 4.61 GB - the FS2 Core.  I may have other mods installed from other locations, so a bit less than that.

What the **** are you talking about? Retail FS2 isn't 4 GB. It is with mediavps though.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jr2 on July 09, 2007, 11:12:59 pm
I'm talking about what he's talking about.  What are you talking about?  :p

Anyway with all the options ticked (Besides FreeSpace 2 Core) how big is turey's installer?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: colecampbell666 on July 10, 2007, 07:23:16 am
The bare minimun install with just FS2 and no music or anything is 569 mbs or something

Stock FS2 (music, sound, movies etc. (no mediavps)) is about 2 gigabytes

Derelict is about 233 mbs

The mediavps are 479 mbs

The mediavps advps are about 300 mbs (not for the timid computer) :shaking:

FSport is about 700 mbs (total install, nothing left out)

Inferno Release 1 is 512 mbs

Cardinal Spear is 100 mbs (need the port to play)

Awakenings is 32 mbs (need the port to play)

Destiny of Peace is 84 mbs (need the port to play)

FSopen exes are about 30 mbs

JAD (with the cutscenes) is 70 mbs (the cutscenes are not necessary

Procyon Insurgency is 70 mbs

Transcend is 100 mbs

The rest of the mods are not more than 10 mbs.

Not all of these mods are with the installer but these are alot of the most common ones

I've got high speed and you dont! :lol: :P
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: karajorma on July 10, 2007, 12:07:58 pm
If you have a DVD burner my advice would be to copy the .mve files from the FS2 CDs you have and stick them in your main FS2 folder.

Then use Turey's installer. Download everything you can. Then burn your entire Freespace2 folder to a DVD and give that to your friends. The only thing required besides the contents of that folder is the OpenAL installer and that's about 700k IIRC.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Mustang19 on July 10, 2007, 03:45:54 pm
I never give my wingmen orders unless the situation is really desperate, I basically leave my men all on autonomous mode.
Yeah, that was how I played FS1 when I beat it on Insane. :P

Your wingmen's initial orders are usually that way for a reason. I finished FS2 on Insane and couldn't find much use any in-game orders. Your leadership tools are very limited; the mission designer usually "commands" your wingmen for you, so there's rarely a need to tell them to do anything. The communications menu is more of a curiosity than a useful tool, for me, at least.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 11, 2007, 12:40:15 am
Okay, i finally got it done, i copied the MVE and stuff off my 3 FreeSpace 2 CDs and got everything downloaded and installed.

Just a question:

Was i supposed to get caught in that supernova? I tried to gun it to the node but i was way too far away because i was busy trying to kill this one fighter who kept eluding my missiles and me.


Is there any alternate ending? Just a yes or no answer please ;) No spoiling it for me!
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jambo on July 11, 2007, 12:55:00 am
The mediavps advps are about 300 mbs (not for the timid computer) :shaking:
Where would one find these advps files? :shaking:
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 11, 2007, 01:59:10 am
I passed the game with both cutscenes, first time i got caught in the supernova but this time i was smart ;) I decided i'd fight near the node so when the countdown started i could get my ass outta there pronto.

Made me wonder what the shivan's were doing sitting there at the sun stupidly when they could of just came in and killed all of us without much effort. I found out didn't i? Hehehe, Command shat himself when he found out about the supernova. So did i, i was like "I'm like 10km out from the damn node and i got under a minute to get to that damn node!". Before that, thinking "HAHA SUCKERS! I'M KILLING YOUR PEOPLE AND YOU CANT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!"

Excellent game, i have to say best storyline in a game ever! Took me 2 days to pass ;)

Good work to Turey on the installer, top job there and good work to the creators and modders and the general community of the game!
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jr2 on July 11, 2007, 03:09:58 am
Ya, there are two endings: one; you don't make it, and you get a eulogy on how you sacrificed yourself so others could make it out, or two; you make it out.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: colecampbell666 on July 11, 2007, 08:31:08 am
The mediavps advps are about 300 mbs (not for the timid computer) :shaking:
Where would one find these advps files? :shaking:

There is a checkbox in the installer marked "3.6.8 Zeta MediaVPs with 710 patches". Under that in a sub-checkbox is *checks* 3.6.8 Zeta Advanced MediaVPs with 710 patches.

(http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/4593/advpsas8.png)

You can try these Super Advanced Uber-GraphicsTM, but they will kill your comp if it is anything less than top-of-the-line. If they kill your computer you can go into (your FreeSpace Directory)/mediavps and either delete or remove completely from your FS directory the files labeled "mv_adveffects" and "mp-710_adveffects".
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: jambo on July 11, 2007, 08:50:16 am
Surely they'd work on a AMD X2 4600+ with an 8800GTS and 2GB of ram?!

EDIT: Hmmm, seems I already had it ticked when I first downloaded this a few weeks ago. If you turn the mediavps mod on, will the advanced stuff run automatically?
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: colecampbell666 on July 11, 2007, 08:59:37 am
Yep. Turning on MediaVPs just runs every file in the mediavps folder.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: CP5670 on July 11, 2007, 10:07:51 am
Quote
You can try these Super Advanced Uber-GraphicsTM, but they will kill your comp if it is anything less than top-of-the-line. If they kill your computer you can go into (your FreeSpace Directory)/mediavps and either delete or remove completely from your FS directory the files labeled "mv_adveffects" and "mp-710_adveffects".

Nah, adveffects is not that demanding. It should run fine on most setups from the last two or three years.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Freespace Damo on July 11, 2007, 08:53:09 pm
How do you know if you are using them?

Would these specs be able to handle it:

AMD Athlon 64 3000 @ 2.249ghz
1024MB DDR400
300GB SATAII HDD
ATI Radeon 9800 pro 128mb

Thats the basic specs of my PC.

EDIT: I went into the Turey installer and i found that i already have them installed.
Title: Re: How would you "Describe" FreeSpace 1 and 2?
Post by: Locutus of Borg on July 11, 2007, 11:16:02 pm
here's how

be ready

NOT SUITABLE FOR PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 700



































IT'S ****ING AWESOME MOTHER ****ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!