[cransona]

So, firstly I'll say that the extent of my "modding" experience is just getting creative with tables.  Very creative, mind you, but not as productive as someone who invests the time to generate skins and models.

Secondly, I'll say that I am a fairly competent scientist.   I think the concept of restricting space-combat engagement ranges to less than 1000 kilometers is absolutely ridiculous.  However, realistic space sims would be pretty boring.

I'm making this post to ask if anyone else would like to see a Mass Effect mod.  The SciFi background presented in the technical database from that game is somewhat scientifically sound (except for the whole "element zero" thing... and that whole "Mass Effect" thing... and the shield technology...).  They describe space-warfare occurring over vast distances as massive ships accelerate slugs to near-relativistic speeds instead of those stupid blob turrets and the stubby 3-kilometer-range laser beams from FreeSpace.  The point-defense lasers have a similar range in Mass Effect, except they are specifically designed to snipe off torpedoes and small fighters/bombers and they are not used to engage frigates or cap ships.  They describe the notion that "slowing down" in space involves turning your ship around and hitting the gas...  Here's a good one - in the Mass Effect universe bombers release ripple-waves of heavy anti-ship torpedoes because we all know that a single tsunami bomb fired every thirty seconds will get shot down unless you want to suck a face-full of shock wave and hand-inject it into the target hull.

I think the best way to describe what I'm thinking of would be to imagine a FreeSpace tech database full of text from the Mass Effect tech database; all ships are programmed for Glide Mode with the parameters tweaked to make the glide as loose as possible; your ship is a small frigate from which you command wings of fighters and direct cap-ship fire from a hundred kilometers away; capture the voices from the Mass Effect game to create transmission dialogue for in-flight events; carry over the "chose your own adventure"-style gameplay from Mass Effect in a way similar to how you deal with the nuclear bomb diffusing situation from BP2-War in Heaven...

There's a problem, though.  All the Mass Effect cinema sequences and gameplay defy the information in the database.  In the in-game cinema the ships close in to within a kilometer and shoot blobby little laser blobs at each other like kids shooting spitballs. So, I don't know how to deal with that disparity.  I'd like to meld the information in the tech database with the storyline in a way that doesn't completely violate both, but in the end I think some FreeSpaceiness should come through like the ability to slow down and having most combat engagements within visual range.  They do have fictional shield technology in both games, though.

I think an idea to illustrate my concept without making new mods (this is just a thought experiment) would be something like a Vishan Sacred Keeper to represent the Destiny Ascension benig preyed-on and surrounded by forward-heavy cruisers from the newer GTVA models created for FS2 and the Blue Planet series (perhaps Demios ships) for Geth Cruisers, use Aten-class and other Vasudan cruisers to replicate the Turian fleet ships around the citadel, get creative to represent the Asari or Salarians, use UEF torpedo ships for Human craft, replace all blobs with small beams and add long-range slug guns to frontal turrets, reduce the number of small craft, a little creative license here and there, and either a Sathanas or SD Shiva ship to represent Sovereign... as you play the role of Joker flying a fast and agile freighter-sized vessel engaging in combat and decision-making conversation with Shepard [thereby] determining whether or not to expend reinforcements saving the Sacred Keeper-class ship or just to engage the Shivan Jugg... although it's neigh invincible until a timed event or a particular outcome occurs to drop its shields (coincidentally when Sheppard pops UberSaren...

I still have no idea how to represent the massive citadel in FRED but the folks who created Luna City have demonstrated the capacity...  I'm afraid this scale of a mission might hog too many resources, but the point is just to get you thinking.  Would enough people give a care about a Mass Effect Universe made in Freespace?

[The E]

Only one problem regarding this. From a gameplay POV, combat over "realistic" distances at "realistic" speeds isn't possible in FSO.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Shooting ships that are, even 100 km away without targeting assistance is almost impossible.

You would need some kind of zoom system, or use only long range seeking missiles.

[Fury]

Ahem. There's such features as autoaim and autoconvergence available.
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Ships.tbl#.24Autoaim_FOV:

However, the problem is that FS game area (a box actually) as far as I can remember, is only 50km in radius. Well, you can place objects beyond 50km but I think they no longer function. And player self-destructs if he hits the invisible wall.

[Wanderer]

Realistic space battle with realistic speeds is about as interesting to play as a space fighter sim as it is to watch and wait paint to dry...

[Spicious]

Realistic space battle with realistic speeds is about as interesting to play as a fighter sim as it is to watch wait paint to dry...

The clearest evidence of this is that the big space battle cutscenes towards the end completely ignored the plausible sounding space battle descriptions in the codex, especially with the big red beams.

[Rodo]

So I take none of you will play wings mod when it's released?

[Fury]

I would and I am saddened that ToF seems to have a priority over it.

[CommanderDJ]

I love Mass Effect and would like to see a mod. But like the others have said, the type of combat describes in the ME universe doesn't seem to work with the FSO engine.

[cransona]

Ahem. There's such features as autoaim and autoconvergence available.
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Ships.tbl#.24Autoaim_FOV:

However, the problem is that FS game area (a box actually) as far as I can remember, is only 50km in radius. Well, you can place objects beyond 50km but I think they no longer function. And player self-destructs if he hits the invisible wall.

Well, as you can tell I like the Blue Planet mods, and I know from playing them that the playfield is greater than 50Km;  I played a mission where a GTVA AWACS ship jumps in 50K away from my own ship during a mission where they utilize subspace missile strikes on a couple UEF frigates, and the playfield extended further past my fighter in the other direction, therefore it must be much greater than 50K across.  But, as you said, I don't know if it was a functional ship, but it did warp-in rather than having been placed there before mission start.

[cransona]

Anyways, I was thinking a FSO mod would be based on standard HiFi (High Fiction; as opposed to SciFI) space opera combat.  Cap ships in a mod could have 10Km slowfiring railguns and torpedoes, frigates have mid-range weapons and constantly change course to avoid long-range railgun slugs, your ship could be upgraded as you progress through the campaign with the various upgrades accumulated during ME2 such as a Thanix Cannon and improved shielding, bombers and fighters would be frail, no blob-turrets, and utilize glide physics.  That could work well for the Mass Effect Cinema Experience as long as you ignore the realistic data in the codex.

[Fury]

Well, as you can tell I like the Blue Planet mods, and I know from playing them that the playfield is greater than 50Km;  I played a mission where a GTVA AWACS ship jumps in 50K away from my own ship during a mission where they utilize subspace missile strikes on a couple UEF frigates, and the playfield extended further past my fighter in the other direction, therefore it must be much greater than 50K across.  But, as you said, I don't know if it was a functional ship, but it did warp-in rather than having been placed there before mission start.

Note that I said radius, not diameter.

[Wanderer]

Anyways, I was thinking a FSO mod would be based on standard HiFi (High Fiction; as opposed to SciFI) space opera combat.  Cap ships in a mod could have 10Km slowfiring railguns and torpedoes, frigates have mid-range weapons and constantly change course to avoid long-range railgun slugs, your ship could be upgraded as you progress through the campaign with the various upgrades accumulated during ME2 such as a Thanix Cannon and improved shielding, bombers and fighters would be frail, no blob-turrets, and utilize glide physics.  That could work well for the Mass Effect Cinema Experience as long as you ignore the realistic data in the codex.

Yeah. It would be possible to adapt Mass Effect universe into FS Open. However it would be far closer to the cinematic combats seen than to the combat descriptions in the game.

[cransona]

Well, as you can tell I like the Blue Planet mods, and I know from playing them that the playfield is greater than 50Km;  I played a mission where a GTVA AWACS ship jumps in 50K away from my own ship during a mission where they utilize subspace missile strikes on a couple UEF frigates, and the playfield extended further past my fighter in the other direction, therefore it must be much greater than 50K across.  But, as you said, I don't know if it was a functional ship, but it did warp-in rather than having been placed there before mission start.

Note that I said radius, not diameter.

I can monitor experimentally-induced gene expression in a neurotoxicology lab, but I can't remember the basic terms of geometry... bleh.

[Dragon]

We could make a semirealistic space combat with Newtonian flight model, invisible lasers and high velocity torpedoes as main weapons.
That's the closest thing to realistic space combat that can be done in FS.

[rhettro]

I'm a big fan of the Mass Effect games, but are there enough ship types to make it viable?  I think it would be more realistic to do a mod of TSR's old role playing game "Star Frontiers."  It has a very Mass Effect feel and plenty of ship types to be brought into a game world.