[General Battuta]

So...why are you playing on Insane?

[Dilmah G]

Exactly, the game's about having fun after all.

[bloated]

don't get me wrong it comes across as a challenge that quickly degrades to being a real pain in the ass because of the repetition.

I've done it but it leaves a terrible annoyed feeling after finishing.... and one that just feels like it could have been done much better.

So...why are you playing on Insane?

because I've beaten it on every other level..... but their is more to it than that.

I'm not saying Freespace the great war was a terrible game but the ending wasn't designed well.

the story was done very well..... right up to the end but the mission composition itself not so great... it's all semantics now the game is 11 years old and long since written finished released and done..... it's a good lesson on how not to finish a game but that's about it.

if I play a game from start to finish on insane and then am faced with 1 mission that is 3 X's more challenging than all of the previous missions.... well I've got a beef with it but their is more to it than that.

the ending blew...... it wasn't fun, it wasn't fun on infant level and it was less fun all the way to insane.

Exactly, the game's about having fun after all.

sure it is but playing an entire game through on insane and doing it with the feeling that it was a challenge.... a fun challenge at that is great because it's fun...... then you get to the end mission and you've played through the entire game on insane and even if you don't think much of the mission it's a quest.

it's hollow to finish it any other way and spoils the feeling of accomplishment you get from having done all previous missions on insane.

understand I don't really care all that much..... no therapy required but I entered this discussion because someone was complaining about the Sathana's not giving a feeling of dread for some players like the Lucifer did...... I felt different and explained why..... I went on to add that the final mission in my eyes was a disappointment and this is the conversation that has followed so I'm just going with it and not because I have any particular agenda.

when I compare the ending from FS1 to the 2 endings from FS2...... my goodness I can't convey how happy / relieved and even a little proud & overwhelmed by the mastery of the ending to FS2..... it left mystery and really made me feel like I was a part/sacrificed for something........ the ending for FS1... bleh... it was ok but scripted and not really much fun, finished for the sake of finishing is about the best I can give it.

[General Battuta]

I have to agree with that. The FS2 ending was just a cut above. FS1 felt kind of like Independence Day.

[Lucika]

I have to agree with that. The FS2 ending was just a cut above. FS1 felt kind of like Independence Day.

I felt that the ending of FS2, no matter what, was full of what some of us called "Command's arrogance". Remember when Command almost literally sends you to helly because another transport blew up as a zillion of too-much Shivans were shooting everything to pieces?

No offense, I liked it. But look on FS1:

Have you ever heard your higher officer almost crying? Remember when you get a message like that from Command (I can't remember exactly what it was): "You have three more minutes, Alpha! You must do it! Please!"
I played FS1 five years ago and these words are still echoing in my ears whenever someone mentions the Lucifer.
Which is more hopeless, for God's sake? You're just a nameless cog in the great machine... but what kind of situation is needed to make Command almost cry?

[Nissan]

I felt that the ending of FS2, no matter what, was full of what some of us called "Command's arrogance".

I think the arrogance in FS2, as ridiculous as it was after the major victories, faded toward the end of the campaign. It started to build up because pretty much every time the Shivans revealed a new weapon--the Rakshasa, the Ravana, and the first Sathanas--the GTVA recovered from the initial setback and defeated it. But once the rest of the Sathanas fleet showed up and the GTVA had no real response, you could sense that arrogance turning to fear and anxiety.

In FS1, that fear was there, but it was limited somewhat by the fact that there was a potential solution in the records on Altair. There was no such solution in FS2. Really, there was simply no chance for victory... all the Terrans and Vasudans could do was run, put up one last road block, and hope the Shivans didn't bust through it. That overall hopelessness created a much more dread-filled atmosphere in my view.

And on the note of echoes... it wasn't a voice, but the image of the star surrounded by the Sathanas fleet in the final few missions gave me chills for a long, long time.

[bloated]

I felt that the ending of FS2, no matter what, was full of what some of us called "Command's arrogance". Remember when Command almost literally sends you to helly because another transport blew up as a zillion of too-much Shivans were shooting everything to pieces?

Have you ever heard your higher officer almost crying? Remember when you get a message like that from Command (I can't remember exactly what it was): "You have three more minutes, Alpha! You must do it! Please!"
I played FS1 five years ago and these words are still echoing in my ears whenever someone mentions the Lucifer.
Which is more hopeless, for God's sake? You're just a nameless cog in the great machine... but what kind of situation is needed to make Command almost cry?

your comment about the ending to FS2 has nothing to do with the ending for FS2.

it was like 5 missions before the end of FS2 when command was openly saying "we can't win this"... "were retreating". "we can't possibly defend against a fleet of such magnitude".

"Alpha you've got to protect those refugee's"  "Alpha we need you to protect as many of the refugees as possible".

and finally "everyone pull out and god help us all"....... their was no arrogance in any of that..... literally the last 5 or so missions were all "were doomed.".... consider the last missions were all about desperate attempts to close the jump nodes, that the GTVA was actively sacrificing capital ships for the sake of that goal and the initial hubris of the story was gone.

the problem with Lucifer and FS1 was this.

Command always screamed that they were afraid of Lucifer.

I was never afraid of Lucifer.

I did a number of strafing runs across it looking for ways to destroy it only to be rebuffed by it's shields..... I wasn't threatened.... I could fly in close to avoid cannon fire or I could fly away and plan a new trajectory to strafe it again... no tension no fear.

"oh no it's the Lucifer"..... "we've got to do something"....meant nothing to me that was commands problem, destroying Lucifer exagerated the issue, once the shields were gone I flew up looked for a generator and hovered while shooting it for 2 minutes, then recharge my engines fly to the next generator and shoot it for 2 minutes then do that 3 more times and Lucifer blows.

dealing with Lucifer's fighter escort was the challenge while doing this Lucifer wasn't..... Lucifer was the annoyance.

the first time I encountered a Sathanas I got caught in the beam fire it was sending at my cruiser and was vaporised having never known what it was, the 2nd time I was so worried about the building scream of it's cannons I ran on full afterburner in the hopes I would survive long enough to see it...... that's fear, that's dread.

Lucifer in comparison... nothing I watched and immediately was trying to figure out how to destroy it.... I didn't care if it saw me, I didn't care if it fired on me and if it didn't have the magical shields I would have destroyed it's engines, then it's weapons systems, it's fighters and then it's cannons all by myself.

if a Sathana's saw me..... it was pretty much over, you hugged the hull in a desperate attempt to avoid weapons fire but then you'd be trapped because you couldn't pull away except to run out the back if you could..... it was all bad.

[Kolgena]

the first time I encountered a Sathanas I got caught in the beam fire it was sending at my cruiser and was vaporised having never known what it was, the 2nd time I was so worried about the building scream of it's cannons I ran on full afterburner in the hopes I would survive long enough to see it...... that's fear, that's dread.

For me, the flak turrets that shred you in seconds on insane is what did it for me. As soon as my screen started flashing from all the explosions, I just knew I was screwed. Then the dread turned to frustration turned to 10+ restarts :/

[bloated]

For me, the flak turrets that shred you in seconds on insane is what did it for me.

"shivers" the horror of flak you can't lock, hard to target anything.... at first you aren't sure what's happening then you glance and see your shields going and all your thinking is "what the hell I've got to get out of this" then you think quick and guess where you are then go full burn towards or away from the target to try and break free.... if you make it... and that is a solid "if" then it's almost like you shake your head to clear it and try to figure a new way at the target but by then your missile lock warning is going off so your scrambling to figure out who's getting a lock on you and adjust your energy settings to get some shield and burners back.

you start hoping ani fighter beams aren't targeting you and if you hear a beam turret spooling up.... eek.

one of my more memorable moments in FS2 was chasing down a Shivan Mara that was flying along the hull of the GTD Acquataine.... so I'm chasing it down shooting and watching my missile lockon track the Mara and overall feeling good about this kill.... then Acquataine flak turrets start targeting the same Mara I'm on and I'm thinking "he's screwed" with a bit of a grin.... then suddenlly my fighter is shaking all over, my shields are collapsing from friendly fire from Acquataine and I can't get the lock before I'm forced to break off the vector riding on full burners before I'm destroyed...... the Mara buckles and folds on itself so at least it's dead but I've lost 30% armor from friendly fire and for the moment need to recharge my shield all for a fighter that I didn't get to kill.

a significant lesson for me that I'm just a fighter in this war doing his job.

[dANGER boy]

Haha.  Flak turrets can be a real pain on harder difficulty levels.  For me there's a huge difference in the way cap ships appeared in both games.  FS1  had ships that appeared often so you became "old friends" with them.  They almost had a personality.  I remember moving to the GTD Bastion for the first time after the Galatea was destroyed and it felt different.  However, I thought that the cap ships, exempting the Lucifer, where grossly underpowered.  I can't remember the name of the mission but its the one where the Bastion and Eva pretty much do a broadside of each other near the end of the main campaign and I thought, wow, this is cool, but they aren't doing anything against eachother.  It's the bombers in FS1 that did the dirty work.

On the opposite, FS2 has so many different ships you don't really get to know any of them too well except for the Aquitane, Colossus, and Warspite.  However, cap ships actually feel like they can do stuff.  Sure bombers help out, but I prefer flying intercept and dogfighting while I watch the cap ships tear each other to shreds.  Yes, the Sathanas didn't have that huge fear factor until you find out there are 80+ of them, but the sheer firepower and the other cap ships were what I imagined in a space sim.

[Killer Whale]

I remember trying to fly towards capella so I could get that sathanas fleet with a few banks of trebuchets, I play on easy so I probably don't get all the fun out of the game, I could take down a sath, if I could spend the time. What I didn't know is that maxims will bring a huge ship to 25%, no less. And those saths are only a picture, not an enemy fleet thousands and thousands of kilometres away. I was killed by a collision with Alpha 1 for that.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah it's just a sun image, you won't be able to reach it. Ever.

[Krelus]

Haha.  Flak turrets can be a real pain on harder difficulty levels.  For me there's a huge difference in the way cap ships appeared in both games.  FS1  had ships that appeared often so you became "old friends" with them.  They almost had a personality.  I remember moving to the GTD Bastion for the first time after the Galatea was destroyed and it felt different.  However, I thought that the cap ships, exempting the Lucifer, where grossly underpowered.  I can't remember the name of the mission but its the one where the Bastion and Eva pretty much do a broadside of each other near the end of the main campaign and I thought, wow, this is cool, but they aren't doing anything against eachother.  It's the bombers in FS1 that did the dirty work.

On the opposite, FS2 has so many different ships you don't really get to know any of them too well except for the Aquitane, Colossus, and Warspite.  However, cap ships actually feel like they can do stuff.  Sure bombers help out, but I prefer flying intercept and dogfighting while I watch the cap ships tear each other to shreds.  Yes, the Sathanas didn't have that huge fear factor until you find out there are 80+ of them, but the sheer firepower and the other cap ships were what I imagined in a space sim.

Yes! I loved how in FS1 the Galatea felt like home, and the Hope also had a sentimental value to it. I was really sad after the Galatea got fried, right there was when that "We are SO boned" feeling kicked in.

[dANGER boy]

Yes! I loved how in FS1 the Galatea felt like home, and the Hope also had a sentimental value to it. I was really sad after the Galatea got fried, right there was when that "We are SO boned" feeling kicked in.

I got the same feeling.  Man, I think I might go back and play the original FS again.  As cool as the FSPort is, it has nothing on the real deal, even with its terribly inaccurate missiles. 

[colecampbell666]

Yes! I loved how in FS1 the Galatea felt like home, and the Hope also had a sentimental value to it. I was really sad after the Galatea got fried, right there was when that "We are SO boned" feeling kicked in.

I got the same feeling.  Man, I think I might go back and play the original FS again.  As cool as the FSPort is, it has nothing on the real deal, even with its terribly inaccurate missiles. 

I got reallly attached to the Galatea. I wish I could pinpoint what made FS1 so... Awesome compared to the Port. The Port's good in it's own right, but smething's different.

[General Battuta]

I...didn't. I'm not quite sure what everybody's thing for the Galatea is. It seems to be crewed by comparatively bad voice actors with stilted writing. 

[redsniper]

Actually, the Port feels like FS1 to me now. It didn't for the longest time, but I think in the latest incarnation, they got it right.

[William Wolfen]

Actually, the Port feels like FS1 to me now. It didn't for the longest time, but I think in the latest incarnation, they got it right.

Having played the original less than a week before playing the latest port ( the only one i've played), i found that the port was better in that it brought the graphics up to a more modern lever, and supported my widescreen resolution.  While i'm not typically big on graphics, it certainly puts a nice new spin on an old favorite.

[dANGER boy]

Having played the original less than a week before playing the latest port ( the only one i've played), i found that the port was better in that it brought the graphics up to a more modern lever, and supported my widescreen resolution.  While i'm not typically big on graphics, it certainly puts a nice new spin on an old favorite.

Ok, this may not be the place to discuss FSPort, but I will say that even though the Port does have a very clean, polished feel to it, I like the old-skool feel of the original, even with its outdated graphics.  While a 640x480 resolution is not the best, it brings back fond memories of older times.  And like I said, FSPort is considerably easier with the improved accuracy of missiles than the original.

Props to the FSPort team because they really did do a phenomenal job but I treat it like any other mod. 

[colecampbell666]

Did they fix the bug in which the Plato never dies?