[Evol Gee]

I've been thinking (and it hurts like hell)...

I miss playing Mission based space sims such as Tie Fighter and Freespace 2 (duh!), and i'm sick to death of the Elite/X: Beyond style game. I want to see developers resurrect the genre and in particular, there is nothing more i'd love to see then... wait for it... well you've probably guessed it... Freespace 3.

Interplay folded and f**k knows what Volition are doing, so what this thread is intended to be about is generating enough interest in a 3rd Freespace installation and having a developer pick up the project and do something for us. Ffs, atm i might even suggest get Valve (is that swearing) to pick up the project.

* Evol Gee crawls under protective rock to smoke a spliff and await hurls of abuse for bringing up FS3... again

[Wobble73]

Welcome to HLP Station, May your stay here be pleasant. Please be aware that our resident tame Shivan, Carl, lurks in the air ducts, if you happen to see him, back away carefully, toss him your lunch and pray that he isn't hungry. In the event of an emergency, the plasma rifle is stored under your seat. However, due to budget cuts, the napalm has been replaced with holy water! Access to the weapons lockers is restricted to Admins/Moderators, and The Hyper Intelligent Shade Of Blue. Mention of a third instalment of our favourite game is prohibited as are any combination of the characters eff ess three. Should this station develop a serious fault, please board an escape pod which has been programmed to take you to our sister station Game Warden. Please try to avoid all flame wars that can flare up at any time in various parts of the station and once again enjoy your stay!



Now we have done with the welcome speech.........No-one mentions the EFF ESS THREE thing here, as mentioned in the welcome speech. As you said that has been done to death and you won't make many friends in here talking about, especially suggesting Valve take it up.

If it ain't it ain't FS3

[CP5670]

Valve making FS3 would be almost as bad as Derek Smart doing it.

[Evol Gee]

Does that come with fries ?

Tbh i wouldn't even think about Valve takin it up. Who says its gotta be volition tho. err.. let me re-phrase that... Why does it have to be Volition ? Stop being so closed minded, get some sunshine and realise there are other developers out there other then Volition who could pull this off.

Rather then gettin all 1337 on me (rolleyes), maybe there should be a sticky thread about the subject if you don't want it discussed here.

I'm not here to make friends, I'm here for discussion about a something being done instead of just sitting on your backsides making half amusing posts such as yours. *sigh*

I have a suntan btw.

[karajorma]

Alright, whose trolling alt-nick is this?

anyway. From my FAQ.

When is FreeSpace 3 coming out?

Without a doubt this is probably the most common question asked by people entering the FreeSpace community. They see how brilliant FS1 and FS2 were and they find it hard to believe that FS3 isn't already available for people to play. I can't say I blame them. I found it hard to believe myself but the main reason FS3 isn't out already is because FS2 didn't sell that well.
Despite widespread critical acclaim the sales of FS2 compared to FS1 were actually quite poor. The community puts this fact squarely at the feet of FreeSpace's publisher, Interplay. Quite frankly FreeSpace 2 was hardly advertised at all so it's hardly surprising that it didn't sell. Rumour has it that Interplay released a Star Trek based game at about the same time as FS2 and descided not to advertise FS2 very heavily for fear of hurting the sales of that game.
Volition, (Simply known as [V] by the fans), the makers of FreeSpace later struck a deal with another publisher THQ and no longer work for Interplay but Interplay retained the rights to FreeSpace. The really annoying thing about this is that [V] have made several statements that show their programmers are willing to do a third FreeSpace game but can't since Interplay hold the licenses and THQ prefer to own the rights to any games they make.

The FreeSpace community has tried various methods to bring about FS3 including petitions and mailings to [V] and Interplay. None of these have had much of an effect because since FreeSpace 2 didn't do very well so Interplay doesn't wish to stick their neck out and hire someone to write a third.

A while back an announcement by Derek Smart (creator of the BattleCruiser 3000 series) that he was attempting to purchase the licence caused widespread consternation amongst the community. The quality of his other games, the attitude with which he treated the community when suggesting this and the fact that he showed no intention of asking [V] what they had planned for the storyline of FS3 left the community up in arms. Fortunately the situation appears to have normalised since then with Derek Smart deciding to leave FreeSpace alone and make up his own universe instead.

While the occasional juicy titbit from [V] or Interplay (The fact that Interplay has been hovering near bankruptcy for the past two years for instance) occasionally stirs interest the general consensus of the community is to not mention FS3 at all unless there is something new to say about it. Comments about FS3 are generally unpopular amongst the veterans because we've seen them all before. If you have something new to contribute people will generally receive it politely but posting questions about FS3 that we've all seen a hundred times before generally results in a terse answer and a link to this site or the Wiki at best.


How about we get the community together and write our own FS3?

After questions about FS3's release date this is one of the sorest points in the community. Posting a topic like this on one of the FreeSpace boards is actually more likely to get you insulted that simply asking when FS3 is coming out. While that question is merely naive this one carries a rather subtle insult. After all if the solution is so simple wouldn't the community have to be idiots not to have thought of it before? The fact is that the idea has been brought up several times before. It came up again shortly after the FS2 source code was released because for the first time not only could we make a new story for FS3 but also improve the engine to do it. The idea was rejected then for several reasons and continues to be rejected every time it comes up for many of the same ones.

    * What would the plotline be? - The various members of the community have their own viewpoints of where the FS3 plotline would go. Furthermore we've had several years to become convinced that our particular plotline is the best one. It would be very hard to persuade the community to rally around a single official storyline for FS3. In fact the only thing that the community would rally round would be an official plotline from [V] but they continue to play their cards very close to their chests. Without this the community tend to go by the motto that "If it isn't [V], it ain't FS3".
    * Who would play it? - The entire community would know large portions of the plot line so who would the campaign be for?
    * Who has the time? - Most of the community are working on their own campaigns already. To do this would mean that they would have to give them up for the duration of the project.

Since a fan made FS3 would be no more official than Inferno or Derelict or any of the other campaigns already released or currently in production most people don't feel there's much point. Many of these mods are our own visions of FS3. There is no need for a semi-official one.

[Wobble73]

Does that come with fries ?

Tbh i wouldn't even think about Valve takin it up. Who says its gotta be volition tho. err.. let me re-phrase that... Why does it have to be Volition ? Stop being so closed minded, get some sunshine and realise there are other developers out there other then Volition who could pull this off.

Rather then gettin all 1337 on me (rolleyes), maybe there should be a sticky thread about the subject if you don't want it discussed here.

I'm not here to make friends, I'm here for discussion about a something being done instead of just sitting on your backsides making half amusing posts such as yours. *sigh*

I have a suntan btw.

*sigh*

I suggest you go and read Kara's FAQ about the subject and then come back and try and discuss it!

If any other developer did a third episode then they would not have the storyline that had! FS2 was left with a few unanswered questions which we all want answered, obviously had a third installment in mind to answer these questions but was unable to produce it for various reasons. Go read the FAQ and then come back!

Edit: I see Kara got here before me!

[AlphaOne]

Oh boy now i'm not gooing to start bashing you for mentioning the FS x but please it already hurts like hell ! I mean most of the people over here even me to some degree have come to realize that FS x beeing made and released is like tring to guess all of the winning lottery number 10 years in a row which is as you guesed it imposible.

So please dont mention it again...it's whats best for all of us....!

[Snail]

This thread will get locked by Taristin in just a few minutes.

If it ain't it ain't FS3

Why? Because any other developer who makes it will be just like any other mod, like Black Water Ops. or Inferno, just with the name FreeSpace 3. Chances are, any other developer will **** it up. Big time. It will not be FS3 without at the helm.

Anyway, I'm probably going to be burned for this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

I hope FreeSpace 3 never gets made.

Why? Because it will destroy all the mods already under construction (almost all of them). I think that we should just let the entire thing stay open and uncompleted. If it does get completed, however, it will certainly make the FreeSpace series complete, but if it doesn't it will leave us with an entire world of possibilities and openings for us to create campaigns and mods in. What will happen if FS3 gets made? What will happen to Inferno? What of Machina Terra? What will happen to every single campaign (well, besides AHTW) in progress? Perhaps they will continue? Or perhaps they will die for loss of motivation.

We will never know because FS3 will never be made.

[CP5670]

I'm actually not opposed to some other developer making it (or any discussion about it around here, for that matter), but Valve? I repeat my previous assertion.

I think I have a few guesses on who this might be, just based on the posting style.

I hope FreeSpace 3 never gets made.

Why? Because it will destroy all the mods already under construction (almost all of them). I think that we should just let the entire thing stay open and uncompleted.

I agree, and I think at this point most people here would too.

[Flipside]

Actually, I would agree with you Snail, whilst it would be nice to know the official take on what happened, it would never ever add up to anyones expectations, and would probably ruin the fun for those of us doing 'Semi-Canon' stuff rather than total conversions.

I'm willing to leave this open as long as no flaming happens, but keep Kara's comments in mind, I was here during the Smart incident, even got accused by him of starting the whole problem, which just goes to show how much attention he was actually paying. So I can understand why this is a sore-spot.

[IPAndrews]

Anyone remember the "There will never be a FS3" thread? 

[CP5670]

As large as it was, it was no match for TaS.

[Unknown Target]

*Resists urge to kill*

It's not so much the whole FS3 thing, but you suggesting that VALVE make it, of all companies. People flock to Valve like they're the best thing since sliced bread. They are, and will continue to be, a money-grabbing bunch of egotistical people that continue to tout the success of their 7+ year old game - you realize they, themselves, have made only two games, and people treat them as practically gods? Everyone flocks to Valve - Valve can do this, Valve can do that, Valve is mother, Valve is father!
No. Just no.


*Rant over*

No FS3.

[Dysko]

I fear that an eventual FS3 will be a next-gen game with an uber-graphic, that will melt down my PC since it needs as minimum requirements 5 GHz of CPU, 4 GBs of RAM, 50 GBs of HD space and a graphic card with 2048 MBs of RAM. But the thing that I fear most is that I spend a lot of money to buy a new computer, just to discover that the only better thing is graphic, with a sucking gameplay and an even more sucking plot. And no possibility neither of MODding, nor of making self-made missions.

Ah, obviously it will made for XBox users, so the PC version will be ultra easy even at "More-than-insane" difficulty.  Time of completion: 5 minutes.

The worst nightmare. 

[castor]

OT (kind of): Its hard to believe that a search for "FS3" in topic (all forums) finds only one thread

[Unknown Target]

Yea, because most other people are smart enough not to post threads about it.

[Bob-san]

If it's not it's not freespace 3!

The only way to get around that is to somehow get all original storyline writers to come together and write a third installment! That way it's actually FS3 and not but even that would require somebody to acquire the license to the game. Nobody has yet come and bailed Interplay from near-bankrupcy but Interplay hasnt actually made any money as of late... theyre over $13 million in debt with some $500,000 earned... not good to say the least.

Just dont post about it unless you bought the license and are willing to let make the game... WILL buy the license if it was available... i personally want to make a few million, talk to Interplay, and buy the damn license and sell it to !

[Black Wolf]

I'm not here to make friends.

Or go on cookouts I suspect...

[Bob-san]

The sad truth of the matter is one of two things must happen for any progress and growth.

1) Somebody or buys the license to the FS universe
2) Interplay bails themselves out of bankrupcy and are willing to do FS3 with or 's original producers directing the show.


Interplay only owns the license... it deserves little merit for what it does with it.

[Mathwiz6]

I dunno, asking :V: if they would actually be willing to make it would be interesting...

But yeah. :V: is the makers, and really, if they made such a game, it would either be far removed from the FS2 era, or we would all ***** about them wrecking mods.

And die Interplay, die!