[aRaven]

Kudos to whichever EU dude came up with the "Etheric Rudder", two words which conveniently explain away why ships move like they're in the air while remaining obviously BS enough to halt any further inquiry by the physics megadork element of sci-fi fandom.  Plus it sounds cool.  Speaking of rudders, has anyone found or cobbled together some pedals that work with Freespace for less than the ridiculous $100 they want for the Saitek or CH sets?  Gotta have yaw for that authentic dogfight feeling, but twisting the stick should be used for roll if anything...

i like twisting my stick

[Wobble73]

I was thinking of trying my PS2 steering wheel and pedals for FS2. I wonder if that would work? I wonder HOW that would work? 

[CountBuggula]

I was thinking of trying my PS2 steering wheel and pedals for FS2. I wonder if that would work? I wonder HOW that would work? 

There are all sorts of options.

I have the Radioshack adapter, and it works fine.

Without gravity there wouldn't be much of an atmosphere around...

Yes, but in the movies, games, and books the starfighters all behave as if they're in an atmosphere.

[Wobble73]

I was thinking of trying my PS2 steering wheel and pedals for FS2. I wonder if that would work? I wonder HOW that would work? 

There are all sorts of options.

I have the Radioshack adapter, and it works fine.

Yeah, I have a PS2 to PC adapter I got from Game. I use a PS2 pad all the time with the PC. When I said "HOW" I meant that I'm wondering how you'd set it up for turning, banking, pitching and rolling!

[CountBuggula]

I was thinking of trying my PS2 steering wheel and pedals for FS2. I wonder if that would work? I wonder HOW that would work? 

There are all sorts of options.

I have the Radioshack adapter, and it works fine.

Yeah, I have a PS2 to PC adapter I got from Game. I use a PS2 pad all the time with the PC. When I said "HOW" I meant that I'm wondering how you'd set it up for turning, banking, pitching and rolling!

Ah, I think this is what you're looking for then.

[brandx0]

Guys, there are topics for discussing joysticks and where to get them.  Can we keep it out of this one please?

[Snail]

Can I ask a quick question?

What sort of 'style' for in-game combat will you be following? Will it be similar to FS2 fighter combat, or will it be different and a more unique experience?

[chief1983]

One of the greatest signs that this mod is progressing is the fact that we have a working alpha finally.  It's taken us a long time, and it mostly uses placeholders, but it's allowed us to really get into the nitty gritty of how will the game play, and we've been working hard to create a unique experience never before felt in a FreeSpace mod, or any Star Wars game before.  With this has come some new custom code features that will greatly enhance the playing experience, and we can't wait to release a beta version so all of you can finally jump in the cockpit of an X-Wing or TIE Fighter.

From the 2008 News Grid wrap up.  So yeah, we're going to try to make something distinctly different from most everything else.  Maybe not as different as SoL, but hey, at least in our mod you still sit in the cockpit

[brandx0]

I guess perhaps to clarify a bit of what I mentioned in that post, the goal we've given ourselves is simply this:

Freespace will render our ships for us, and give us a framework.  After that it's all ours.  We're hoping to create something that feels like a real star wars space sim, not what we've been given with the X-Wing series, nor Freespace 2.  Watch the Battle of Endor again, and imagine sitting in the cockpit of that.

[TomShak]

One thing I'd like to see compared to the TG games is much less emphasis on energy management. I've been playing XWA again recently and one of things I remembering is how much of your time in game is taken up with managing your power systems, it really detracts from the fun in my view. Also the number of occasions that you end up using ridiculous power tricks like doubling your speed by dumping to engines.

That's not to say I think power management should be removed entirely. For example, I think the way that energy management was handled in Freespace 2 was much better. It took more of a sideline role, you could use power to your advantage but also you could largely ignore it if you wanted.

I think the focus on power management in the TG games also added to their "slow" feel. Killing a shielded fighter in those games was a case of gradually wearing it down. Whereas the impression I always got from the films was that a good rapid fire burst was enough to overload a fighter's shields and take them down. Having someone on your tail was dangerous, whether you had shields or not.

[TopAce]

...I think the focus on power management in the TG games also added to their "slow" feel. Killing a shielded fighter in those games was a case of gradually wearing it down. Whereas the impression I always got from the films was that a good rapid fire burst was enough to overload a fighter's shields and take them down. Having someone on your tail was dangerous, whether you had shields or not...

Did you get that impression from the movies? It always seemed to me that no matter what you're flying, you are one hit if you're a TIE, and two or three if you're flying something else, which doesn't make much of a difference because lasers in the movies are rapid-firing ones.

[Herra Tohtori]

Pretty much the only difference between X-Wing games and FreeSpace games energy management is that

1. In FreeSpace, energy doesn't drain away from shields and weapons, while in X-Wing games you need to keep the energy on maintenance level at least to just prevent that

2. There are more positions and thus more combinations for energy configurations in FreeSpace.

Otherwise, it's quite the same. Furthermore I don't think there's any reason to select the system that Totally Games chose; I don't think there are any canon mentions of shields and lasers draining if no energy is constantly fed into them. The FreeSpace system is more relaxed in that regard.

What comes to the Death Star trench run, I vaguely recall them directing all shield energy to forward shields (although any pilot worth their salt would have re-directed them to rear quadrant after the turbolaser anti-fighter fire ended and TIE's were spotted) but it might explain why the X-Wings were so vulnerable to the TIE's in A New Hope (or Darth Vader just had the skillz to shoot just the right spot... which is not completely unplausible either for obvious reasons).

[TomShak]

Did you get that impression from the movies? It always seemed to me that no matter what you're flying, you are one hit if you're a TIE, and two or three if you're flying something else, which doesn't make much of a difference because lasers in the movies are rapid-firing ones.

Indeed, in the movies shields seemed like something that helped you shrug off the odd stray hit. However, if you took several solid hits in succession then it was all over. Which is very different from how it was in the TG games.

Pretty much the only difference between X-Wing games and FreeSpace games energy management is that

Well both the X-Wing games and Freespace both have guns, shields and engine power systems. However, I always felt the shields and gun "buffers" in X-Wing were much larger but charged much slower. In the X-Wing games you could take a lot of fire while your shields were strong, but once they were down it took ages to recharge them. However in FreeSpace your shields were much weaker but charged quicker.

The result was that in X-Wing you really had to micromanage your power situation so that your shields and weapons buffers didn't get depleted. Whereas in Freespace you didn't have to think about it nearly as much.

Also in the X-Wing games dumping had a much larger effect. For example you could take a slow Y-Wing (80 MGLT) dump power to engines and suddenly it's as fast as an A-Wing (120 MGLT). Dumping generally had a much smaller effect in Freespace.

[starlord]

Well, as far as I remember, the only engine effect in freespace would be to increase the afterburn recharge rate, not to boost the general speed values of your fighter. However, since the Xwing series do not come with the afterburn concept (save the SLAM in tie fighter) that's quite logical.

[aRaven]

Well, as far as I remember, the only engine effect in freespace would be to increase the afterburn recharge rate, not to boost the general speed values of your fighter.

no. play and observe again.

[Pred the Penguin]

I really liked the tactical management of energy in the FS series. I don't think it'd be too out of place in SW, albeit with much weaker shields. (or stronger weapons)
But I don't think I'd enjoy the way the X-wing series work.
I trust the team to make the most enjoyable SW sim ever. They're the kinda SW fans that won't get things wrong.

[starlord]

Oh? did I miss something?

[Herra Tohtori]

Engine energy level has direct effect on the maximum velocity on FS2. Although it is not as pronounced as in X-Wing series, and varies a lot more between different ships, and afterburner recharge rate tends to be the more deciding factor for maximum speeds at lower difficulties.

[jr2]

Max OClk speed in the tables... if the max oclk speed is the same as max, then yeah, just a faster AB recharge.   Oh, and I think that part of the reason fighters died so fast in the movies was that they didn't have time to equalize or change their shield coverage, that seemed to perhaps take time or something... whereas in the Millenium Falcon, they were large enough to take of hits.  But you remember when they were running from the Star Destroyers, C3P0 saying "If we take on more hit in that 'area'"... So, maybe the lasers burn through the shields, but the shields absorb enough of the laser that it doesn't make a killing blow?  So therefore why fighters go down quick is that they get shot in the same (critical) spot several times, taking damage each time because the shields don't stop the laser, they just absorb some of the punishment?

IDK, what do you guys think of all that?


EDIT:     <---- Darn you, Goob.

[WOLF_Angel]

One thing I personally think would be cool other than having something besides fur balls for multi player (like the combat engagements from XVT), would be to have something like the challenges they use in Call of Duty for the different craft/missions in the game.