[NotDefault]

As pretty much my introduction to the space sim genre (I had never really paid much attention to them), I bought X-Wing Alliance, since it got really positive reviews.  That game is insane difficult.  It's ridiculous.  I played on easy and I was still getting killed off over and over in missions... not to mention that the first mission flown for the Rebel Alliance is one of the hardest in the game due to horrible level design.

Then I bought FS and FS2, so I'm happy now.

They have reaffirmed my belief that I cannot possibly suck that badly at an entire genre.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by TurboNed
The conversation was going in circles.  (-:

Oh... I knew that... Sorry, I was focusing on the "pretty" bit...

Originally posted by aldo_14
AAggghhh

Have a little thought for the hungover, eh Setekh?

Apologies, sir...

[Carl]

i'm pretty sure this article was posted about a year ago on the VBB

[Su-tehp]

Slightly tangental topic: Ok, I'm gonna brace myself for the inevitable flames here as I say this:

I bought Rebellion off the shelf when it first came out.

And I actually enjoyed playing it.

*ducks and braces for flames *

*peeks head out when nothing happens*

*stands back up*

Ok, then. Yeah, I really did enjoy this game. People complained about the interface, but I never really had a problem with it. Just a week after I bought Rebellion, I read a review in a gaming magazine (maybe it was CGW?) that said that the Rebellion interface was horrible, unwieldy and completely counter-intuitive. My jaw hit the floor when I rad that because I thought the reviewer couldn't have been more wrong.

Rebellion lost its appeal once I kept beating the computer AI on the highest difficulty. Come to think of it, I didn't lose to the computer even once. The micromanagement actually did appeal to me. The graphics were lackluster (especially the space combat stuff), but managing resources and logistics was quite fun.

But my main complaint about Rebellion was that it was too easy. If it had been possible for me to lose to the computer, it would have been much more enjoyable.

I also want to say that I NEVER bothered with Force Commander. Once I saw the reviews that showed pictures of the control interface take up a full THIRD of the screeen (Jesus Christ, Blizzard's Starcraft had a WAY better interface than that and it came out at least a year before Rebellion!), I decided that FC wasn't worth the price of the cardbord box it was in.

X-wing (the original) and Tie Fighter were both great games. But LucasArts then made a HUGE mistake in their subsequent space sim games that both FS games managed to avoid:

When LucasArts made X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, they made turning your fighter contingient on your velocity, i.e. the faster you're going, the slower you turn.

This one change from the original games RUINED X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter AND X-Wing Alliance. As a result of this change, every time you need to change your direction, you have to slow yourslf down and turn your ship into a sitting duck. By completely changing the flying dynamic, LucasArts made their space sim games unplayable.

LucasArts forgot the first rule of business marketing: If it's not broke, DON'T FIX IT!

It is this mainly reason (but there are others) that I feel that the FS games are products truly above and beyond the caliber of the LucasArts space sims. (I'll debate Origin's Wing Commander games another time.)

As I end this rant, I just want to leave a little something behind for the folks at LucasArts.

*farts in general direction of LucasArts Game Studios*

Thank you for your time.

(Note from Management: The above rant does not preclude me from purchasing Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (contingient upon favorable reviews, of course), nor will complaints about management of the Star Wars franchise preclude me from watching Episode 2: Attack of the Clones in the theater on May 16. Just FYI )

[Galemp]

Well, so long as we're asserting ourselves:

I liked Force Commander. Granted, it was the only RTS I've ever played, but I enjoyed it. The controls were clunky, yes, and there were graphics problems, but I think it was worth it to watch a squad of four AT-STs fully animated in 3-D march to a Rebel base and release a stormtrooper attack force. I don't know how it compares to other RTS games, but I liked it.

[Corsair]

Thank you Su-tehp for making me feel incredibly stupid. I never beat Rebellion. Not once. I lost a few times and the others I just didn't have the patience to finish.

[the slammer]

Originally posted by GalacticEmperor

 Granted, it was the only RTS I've ever played...

[Sesquipedalian]

Originally posted by Su-tehp
When LucasArts made X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, they made turning your fighter contingient on your velocity, i.e. the faster you're going, the slower you turn.

This one change from the original games RUINED X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter AND X-Wing Alliance. As a result of this change, every time you need to change your direction, you have to slow yourslf down and turn your ship into a sitting duck.

Actually, maximum maneuverability occured at 1/3 and 2/3 throttle settings, with none and full throttle settings being the least maneuverable.  Half open throttle was somwhere in between.  My general rule was to dogfight at 2/3 throttle.  It was very playable that way.  

Of course, the paucity of missions and plot in XvT was a major downside to the game, and I lost interest rather quickly.  I never tried XWA, mostly because of the lackluster experience that was XvT.

[Galemp]

Not to mention the cap ship explosions...

*blam blam* *poof!*

[Su-tehp]

Originally posted by Corsair
Thank you Su-tehp for making me feel incredibly stupid. I never beat Rebellion. Not once. I lost a few times and the others I just didn't have the patience to finish.

D'oh!:doh: Sorry, Corsair, I really didn't mean to make anyone feel stupid about not finishing Rebellion. You're right, though, it IS a game that requires a fair amount of patience. The only way I could win if I was the Empire was to capture and put a garrison on EVERY planet on the map in order to find Mon Mothma and Luke Skywalker and the Rebel HQ. Since all three of those things migrate/move all over the galaxy without staying in one place, the only way to win the game is to leave them nowhere to go.

Needless to say, this requires of extra game time, which in turn requires a fair amount of patience.

I preferred playing as the Rebels. I found that the best way to take Imperial planets was to incite uprisings (using my best spies like Han Solo et al.) on Imperial worlds that had a lot of resources and had an Imperial garrison to keep the population in line. Then once the uprising was underway, I would slowly use my agents to sabotage/destroy pieces of the garrison (one regiment at a time). Remember, when an uprising occurs on a planet, it can take anywhere from 4 to 6 regiments to suppress it. If there are less than the required number of regiments on a revolting planet, it will be impossible to suppress the uprising. Once I managed to destroy the entire garrison with my spies, the uprising would end and the planet would then shift loyalties to my side! Voila! Instant Rebel high resource fully developed planet!

Is that cool or what?

Of course this strategy can take anywhere from 20 to 50 turns to complete, but usually I would be doing this to several planets at once, so the time investment is well worth it.

Hope this tip helps. I got more advice if you need it; all you gotta do is ask.

[Nuclear1]

Star Trek and Star Wars have been taken and beat into any sort of product imaginable (movies, tv (S.T at least), toys, games, heck... even little electronic BANKS!). FreeSpace deserves more of a chance. Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition.... Very few good StarWars/Star Trek games coming out (last good Star Trek was Bridge Commander).

[Windrunner]

I have just one question to mikahel:


If you really have that mutch bad pointers about FS2 then why the hell are you playing the game??

[the slammer]

Originally posted by nuclear1
(last good Star Trek was Bridge Commander).

Last good Star Trek game, and most recent Star Trek game too!

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Windrunner
I have just one question to mikahel:


If you really have that mutch bad pointers about FS2 then why the hell are you playing the game??

First allow me to quote myself (with added emphasis:

Did I miss the original part in the game? It was good, no doubt, but it was about as cliched as it could be. FS1 showed a bit of originality, but FS2 was generally more of the same.

Now, to answer your question:

At what point did I ever say the game was bad? Hell, at what point did I say I was playing the game (if I were, it'd be the third or fourth time, I'm not as into as most here). I like the game but I'm not here to play the game, mainly.

I came to Hard Light because of Independence War 2. I like to mod IW2 but no one seems to want to play it. Hey, I can deal with that. So here's this great community dedicated to gaming, and Freespace in particular and what's more, some of the community like my work (Narol, I'll never know what posesses you). When interest in Iwar2 died out, I'd have left and spent all my time with the INA-IWAR folks, but for a few people: Venom, Thorn, Steak and Warlock. Steak's warm welcome kept me here, Venom's debating kept me here, Thorn's sense of humor and general silliness kept me here, and Warlock's general cool attitude kept me here.

You know what else? I have an ego. I like it when other people like my work. I appreciate the appreciation. I get a thrill seeing some of my work come to life in the hands of others. I like working with people on projects like the Raynor. I like making things that other people value. I like to contribute.

I love space sims. I've enjoyed every single one I've played. I criticise them all, however. I criticise Freespace freely. It has deficiencies. Those deficiencies can be corrected, or minimized by modders (and now by programmers, with the source code). I might not play the game much, but I spend a lot of time thinking about it. When they are released, I'll play Reciprocity and Over The Top and Narol's 158th. I'll especially play Narol's campaign, because I get to see the things I've done brought to life.

Finally, no one does anyone or anything any good by glossing over failings. You don't like the ship designs in Freespace? Well then, make better. You don't like the engine? Write a better one. You don't like story work? Write a better one. I can't write a story, and I can't improve the engine, but I can contribute ship meshes and advice or wisdom or opinions.

Is that a clear enough answer to your question?

[edit]Sorry, Thorn. I didn't mean to leave you out of the Who's Who list up there. You kick ass.[/edit]

[TurboNed]

Originally posted by Sesquipedalian


Actually, maximum maneuverability occured at 1/3 and 2/3 throttle settings, with none and full throttle settings being the least maneuverable.  Half open throttle was somwhere in between.  My general rule was to dogfight at 2/3 throttle.  It was very playable that way.  

Of course, the paucity of missions and plot in XvT was a major downside to the game, and I lost interest rather quickly.  I never tried XWA, mostly because of the lackluster experience that was XvT.

This "feature" strongly bugged me as well - the "physics" behind it isn't even laughable - it's plainly beyond completely totally absurd.  And for the record, the turning rate is maximized at 1/3rd throttle - REGARDLESS of energy allocated to engines.  So they're not even claiming that your turning rate is based on your speed - ('cause you can allocate all your thrust to your engines, cut to 1/3rd throttle, and turn on a dime, punch the throttle back up, and put the energy back into L and S without losing much speed), turning rate is based on where the little lever in your ship is stuck at.

Anyway, I got used to it, mapped joystick buttons to 1/3rd and full throttle, and learned to kick peoples' butts with it (though for some odd reason, I'm way better at MP XvT than MP XWA).

And for the record, XWA had a pretty dang good SP campaign IMHO.  Even if it was flawed.  FS2 was definitely WAY better.  (-:

Totally Games and LucasArts have teamed up to make another sim (though it's aerial WW2 combat this time.  Again (remember SWOTL?))...maybe they'll get this one right.  (-:

Now....if only I can fly an X-Wing against some Yuuzhan Vong with convincingly-made Dovin Bassals (sp?).  Ahhhhhhhh, for that day wait I.  Or something.

  --TurboNed