[shodan]

Hi,

so I love freespace but I'm having a hard time getting any of my friends to play it

I was thinking there could be a couple thing that could be done that would make it easier to introduce friends to freespace

Having freespace on steam

such an epic community developed game would probably get a lot of exposure from being on steam, I'm sure valve would be very supportive too, there aren't that many free games of this quality

also being on steam makes it extremely easy for the user to coordinate multiplayer games with friends, you just shift-tab to bring the steam overlay while staying in-game, right click your friends and click invite to game

added benefit of being on steam include automatic updating of the game so every player has the latest and greatest and the devs will get a ton of user feedback as well as a dedicated user support forum in the steam community forum

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but to make this a hit I think there must be full on coop campaign with well balanced difficulty and levels that take advantage of having multiple human players (for example a mission where one of the players must pursue a fleeing spaceship while another must defend a friendly disabled one)

the missions should have briefings and debriefings that have all players watching together with voice chat to discuss strategy

missions should be organized in 2-3 hours long campaign, I think a lot of how left 4 dead deals with this can be used as is, they really refined the concept of playing with friends


a nice perk would be in-game voice chat that make distort the player's voice to sound like they are talking through radios (then in some missions you can have extra interference or even radio-jamming ships that you have to destroy without being able to communicate)

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lastly I think the menun UI should get an overhaul, I love the X-wing style inside of a ship but for new users trying to figure out how to join the server before it starts it's a bit too convoluted

I haven't tried the multplayer in a (long) while but it would need to be able to do things like automatically assign a new host if host computer disconnects (because 1 hour long games ruined because of server dying would suck), spectate for player who's ship has been destroyed and ability to re-join the game if you get disconnected without restarting would be good things to have


I know this might be a lot to ask but I just thought I would put this out there and see if it gets any interests, I think this is the sort of thing players are expecting out of a coop game in 2012 and that coop gaming is really where it's at in terms of playing with your friends a game with lots of replay value (which freespace totally have, I think I played the main campaign 5 times each by now)

[Kolgena]

It'd be nice, but I think there are a couple of (big) things working against this very ambitious proposal.

1. Freespace isn't free. HLP isn't allowed to distribute game files, only the game engine in a non-commercial manner. Putting the retail game on steam would have to be worked out by third parties before HLP's mediavps mods could come into the picture.
2. The mediavps are damn impressive, but I'd hesitate before saying that Valve would think the package of satisfactory quality to host. It's missing too many unupgraded assets.
3. You can already put offline games into Steam, which I'm pretty sure will allow the overlay to work with the game. (Or I could be spewing nonsense. I don't use steam much). VoIP needs to be put into the engine. Steam overlay doesn't automatically bestow VoIP to everything (IIRC). If we wanted VoIP, it would be the same technical effort with or without steam involved.
4. There is a Coop campaign already.

Point 1 is probably an absolute limitation of getting this onto steam though. Wasn't there another thing that was like Steam, but for mods and indie projects though? I remember it was an idea that was thrown around a year or two back.

Worst comes to worst, we can still be happy that at least Freespace 2 isn't on Origins.

[Iss Mneur]

Wasn't there another thing that was like Steam, but for mods and indie projects though? I remember it was an idea that was thrown around a year or two back.

I won't address the rest because, I think you covered the issues just fine.

You are probably thinking of Desura.  It is still technically on the table but after what their host company, ModDB, did to Diaspora (and all of the other Battlestar Galatica projects) I don't think any HLPers are very keen on Desura any more.

[Kolgena]

What happened to Diaspora?

[General Battuta]

Hi,

so I love freespace but I'm having a hard time getting any of my friends to play it

I was thinking there could be a couple thing that could be done that would make it easier to introduce friends to freespace

Having freespace on steam

such an epic community developed game would probably get a lot of exposure from being on steam, I'm sure valve would be very supportive too, there aren't that many free games of this quality

This game isn't free, which is part of why it's not on Steam. You must buy a copy of FreeSpace 2 in order to play it.

but to make this a hit I think there must be full on coop campaign with well balanced difficulty and levels that take advantage of having multiple human players (for example a mission where one of the players must pursue a fleeing spaceship while another must defend a friendly disabled one)

It's not exactly what you're looking for, but the FreeSpace 2 campaign can be played in co-op all the way through.

[yuezhi]

What happened to Diaspora?

IIRC nothing directly related but you can thank NBC for forcing a black out on the BSG total conversion for nexus.

the fact that freespace is one of the old games that don't require a subscription service is the reason why i play it instead of signing up. much prefer it to that new space sim out for free right now.

[shodan]

Hi,

thanks for the replies

as for the game not being free, I see that it is on sale for 6$ on GOG so licenses can be obtained (from GOG if not their upstream source)

there are many under 5$ games on steam and I have no doubt that steam would welcome the game in its present form, it certainly is far more polished than many indy games

the steam overlay and voip can work without it being on steam (simply adding them to the library as non-steam games works, or should work) but doing that you wouldn't know which ship said the last thing and you couldn't add radio-like effect and game status related limits on communication (jamming, noise, radio effects etc..)

you can't invite people to your server without it being a steam game and I think that's the main obstacle about playing with friends

setting up the game, making sure everyone has the same version, sharing ip addresses, opening ports and have the whole thing stable on real internet (many games on steam will keep going even if the host dies), that's what really matter to get a lot of people interested

this would also allow the creation of a freespace steam group to coordinate games with strangers

[karajorma]

What happened to Diaspora?

IIRC nothing directly related but you can thank NBC for forcing a black out on the BSG total conversion for nexus.

The issue wasn't that they removed Diaspora so much as that they removed Diaspora without a single word to us, replaced it with a boilerplate page that gives no one any information on why it was removed from the site and in the case of at least one of their admins, acted like an arse about the fact they had the right to do it.

I never blamed the ModDB for removing Diaspora, but they way they did it sucked. And as a result made me reluctant to spend further effort on their installer if there is the chance that they might suddenly yank one or all of our mods in the same way.

[The E]

as for the game not being free, I see that it is on sale for 6$ on GOG so licenses can be obtained (from GOG if not their upstream source)

there are many under 5$ games on steam and I have no doubt that steam would welcome the game in its present form, it certainly is far more polished than many indy games

Bringing FreeSpace to steam is something we have no control over. That's Interplays' business.

the steam overlay and voip can work without it being on steam (simply adding them to the library as non-steam games works, or should work) but doing that you wouldn't know which ship said the last thing and you couldn't add radio-like effect and game status related limits on communication (jamming, noise, radio effects etc..)

you can't invite people to your server without it being a steam game and I think that's the main obstacle about playing with friends

setting up the game, making sure everyone has the same version, sharing ip addresses, opening ports and have the whole thing stable on real internet (many games on steam will keep going even if the host dies), that's what really matter to get a lot of people interested

this would also allow the creation of a freespace steam group to coordinate games with strangers

Again, the main obstacle here is that we, as a community, do not control FreeSpace, Interplay does. They are the ones who have to make the business deals to put FS on Steam, and then they'll basically have to work with us to do all the steam integration work. I don't think any of that is likely to happen, seeing as how FS2 on gog seems to be doing rather well.