[Goober5000]

...what would you ask to change in FreeSpace?

Release FS2 on-time, instead of one month early.

That single change would have had a large number of cascading consequences.  First, reviewers and gamers would have received FS2 when they expected to receive it, as opposed to surprising everybody and then disappearing when it apparently wasn't selling.  Second, FS2 would have been marketed properly and the marketing money wouldn't have disappeared.  As a consequence of these two points, FS2 may have sold quite well instead of disappointing everybody.  We might have had that FS2 expansion pack (that was begun but then quickly cancelled) and we might even have had FS3.

On the other hand, one could make a strong argument that it is precisely the lack of FS3 that has fueled the FreeSpace community.  For example, I doubt Volition would have been willing to release the source code if they were still making games in the series.

[Megawolf492]

On the other hand, one could make a strong argument that it is precisely the lack of FS3 that has fueled the FreeSpace community.  For example, I doubt Volition would have been willing to release the source code if they were still making games in the series.

Well, then I think the question is: would you trade this community (or at least what you contributed to it) for a really well made FS3 (and FS2 expansion)?

[Dragon]

I don't think could've managed anything better than BluePlanet, TBH. The only appeal of FS3 seems to be that it'd be "canon", which is essentially meaningless anyway. There's also Inferno, which is more in line with FS style. Also, don't forget that without FS code, we wouldn't have Diaspora, TBP, FoTG, WCS... Those alone are worth not having canon FS3.

[IcemanFreespace]

+1 for blue planet opinion, imho when voice acting comes out for WiH that'll be as perfect as it ever gets.

[Dragon]

Indeed, though remember that WiH isn't the conclusion of BP's story. At this point, noone knows what BP3 will be like, but I assure you, FREDers will do their darndest to top themselves and WiH. BP is better than any FS3 concept I've seen, and it pretty much nailed all the good ideas had for it to boot.

[General Battuta]

I'm obviously not going to argue that BP isn't great - although part of being a creator is hypersensitivity to your own weaknesses, and I don't think we've ever had criticism harsher than some of our own internal thoughts. There's always stuff to be improved. Sometimes those improvements could be dramatic.

More importantly, BP is just one of many possible great stories you can tell, in one of many possible styles. With infinite time and resources I'd love to sit down and do a notional FreeSpace 3 written in 's extremely tight, minimalist style. And there are other styles too, just as different and valuable.

We're always overjoyed to be loved. But I'm not comfortable with the idea that BP is the ubercampaign and that no others need apply. We're in this together.

[Deepstar]

I would ask, why Cruisers are these small ships and the Destroyers the big ones...


Also i would like to know, why the german translation is so bad (in FS1) or incomplete in both games. Why there are no voiced (de)briefing in the german versions


But the most problems i always had with the series is the boring presentation of the story, because it only consists of wall of textes and static screens that are read aloud (in english speaking versions at least)... sure it is good for user made campaigns, which normally does not have any voice-actor... but for an official campaign it was still boring in the time the first game was released. Yes, i know, you can not expect a game that presents a Story in FMVs like Wing Commander: Prophecy did 12 months earlier... but if i see that only a few months after FreeSpace 2 (which changed nothing in the presentation) both Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance or StarLancer were released... FreeSpace2's presentation looks very ancient against them.
During the missions, so to speak during Gameplay, Freespace is still one of the the best games in this genre... but outside of the missions it is maybe one of the worst...

[General Battuta]

Noooo I totally disagree. FreeSpace's presentation is perfectly suited to its narrative and it's extremely sharp.

[NGTM-1R]

Prerendered cutscene after every mission.

Are we saying "topical" or "Wing Commander 2" or "Starlancer" here?

[Nagrach]

@Deepster. Oh Yes. Lt. Arsch 

[headdie]

Prerendered cutscene after every mission.

Are we saying "topical" or "Wing Commander 2" or "Starlancer" here?

Er WC2 was all drawn art and most of the time used the same loop interposed of different backgrounds.

WC3 was FMV and pre renders but that was a massive game for its era and ran off iirc 4+ CDs as opposed to iirc 2-3 CDs for FS2, about the only other game I can think of that I owned in that era that big was Baldur's Gate 2 at I think 4 cds which in all cases you needed to swap between during gameplay which was annoying as hell.  also despite this the install to the HDD was still massive for the era.

cant comment about the others

[Killer Whale]

[NGTM-1R]

Er WC2 was all drawn art and most of the time used the same loop interposed of different backgrounds.

WC3 was FMV and pre renders but that was a massive game for its era and ran off iirc 4+ CDs as opposed to iirc 2-3 CDs for FS2, about the only other game I can think of that I owned in that era that big was Baldur's Gate 2 at I think 4 cds which in all cases you needed to swap between during gameplay which was annoying as hell.  also despite this the install to the HDD was still massive for the era.

cant comment about the others

Yes, but WC2 had an end-mission cutscene of your crew-chief commenting on the condition of your craft (and a visual representation of that). Starlancer had a single prerendered launch and singled prerendered landing cutscene that it used for everything. Actually topical would require more work than either of those, something like WC3.