[soilder198]

In all the years of knowing this game, I never wondered about its title. Until now. Does anyone know why it was named Freespace?

[An4ximandros]

It had something to do with the first iteration of subspace Volition made, when it changed, it sort of lost the meaning. (AFAIK: Freespace was replaced by Subspace, in game.)

[Phantom Hoover]

Freespace sounds a lot more interesting than subspace, although that might just be due to some tenuous associations with category theory I made.

[Woolie Wool]

I always thought it was meant as a contrast to the Descent series, where you flew through very confined spaces (mine tunnels) and your movement was heavily restricted by level geometry. FS, being set in space, was an open environment ("free space") as opposed to the closed spaces of Descent.

[yuezhi]

^well, i don't find the name descent fitting for whatever "360 degrees of freedom" is

[Rodo]

I thought the exact same thing as Woolie.

[deathspeed]

From the intro of the FreeSpace Reference bible:

"When scientists discovered what used to be called “FreeSpace” (now referred to as “subspace”), an alternate plane of existence allowing ships to traverse great distances of space in little time, our minds reeled with the possibilities."

[bigchunk1]

It had something to do with the first iteration of subspace Volition made, when it changed, it sort of lost the meaning. (AFAIK: Freespace was replaced by Subspace, in game.)

That's a really cool insight.

[Droid803]

I always thought it was meant as a contrast to the Descent series, where you flew through very confined spaces (mine tunnels) and your movement was heavily restricted by level geometry. FS, being set in space, was an open environment ("free space") as opposed to the closed spaces of Descent.

This was what I thought too.


FreeSpace = Subspace isn't nearly as interesting... (also, subspace is a freakin' tunnel, not very "free" if you ask me!)

[karajorma]

That might be why they changed it then.

That or cause they didn't think ExpensiveSpace would sell well.

[Nohiki]

I always thought it was meant as a contrast to the Descent series, where you flew through very confined spaces (mine tunnels) and your movement was heavily restricted by level geometry. FS, being set in space, was an open environment ("free space") as opposed to the closed spaces of Descent.

this would be valid had it not been released as "Descent: Freespace" in some countries for marketing purposes.

[General Battuta]

I always thought it was meant as a contrast to the Descent series, where you flew through very confined spaces (mine tunnels) and your movement was heavily restricted by level geometry. FS, being set in space, was an open environment ("free space") as opposed to the closed spaces of Descent.

this would be valid had it not been released as "Descent: Freespace" in some countries for marketing purposes.

I don't think you make a very good argument for the contrast being invalid when you point out that the title does, in fact, contain two words in contrast.

[Goober5000]

Both explanations are probably correct.  One of the major selling points of FS1 was that it was, indeed, in "free space" in contrast to the tunnels of Descent.  But then they may have decided they needed an in-universe explanation for the term.

Incidentally, the main reason for calling it "Descent: FreeSpace" was that FreeSpace, on its own, was the trademark of a disk management utility.

[UnlimitedBacon]

At first I thought it was some half baked open source space game, named by some neckbeard who adopted the customary and unoriginal system of adding "free" or "open" to the front of a word to name his project. Perhaps it was fate that FS really did get open sourced in the end.

[666maslo666]

I wonder where does the name "hard-light" come from?

[Wobble73]

I wonder where does the name "hard-light" come from?

I think that was a term used in Red Dwarf to describe Rimmer's new Hard Light Hologram.

[Grizzly]

I wonder where does the name "hard-light" come from?

I think that was a term used in Red Dwarf to describe Rimmer's new Hard Light Hologram.

So hard-light was choosen because modders turn a fantasy (light flashes of inspiration and all that stuff) into something which you can interact with (like the Holodeck from Star Trek)?

[redsniper]

Sort of, except I don't think Setekh meant it explicitly as a star trek reference. He said it was something to do with "dreams made real" or something. Light given substance.

[Rodo]

Sort of, except I don't think Setekh meant it explicitly as a star trek reference. He said it was something to do with "dreams made real" or something. Light given substance.

ah, now that is interesting stuff.

always wondered why it was called HLP.

[Grizzly]

Sort of, except I don't think Setekh meant it explicitly as a star trek reference. He said it was something to do with "dreams made real" or something. Light given substance.

Geussed that - ST just provided the easiest example .
Ooh, so this site was founded by Setekh? Or was he the one that came up with the name? How did this site came to be anyway?