30th August 2003, 8:58 PM
Quote:The developers of Freelancer actually wanted to do something new with the combat in the space sim genre, and they did an admiral job with it. No more joystick control, but the actual combat is the best there is.
No, its just too dumbed down to be as fun as real space sims.
How does Freelancer have deeper combat than the X-Wing series? I don't see any way that that is possible.
Quote:Yes they are, you just haven't finished them because you held off for seven years!
But also because they are quite long and challenging...
Quote:Of course not.
Why do you never believe me when I'm joking? It gets frusterating...
Quote:I said take away the power management and consider the actual raw combat. Ooh, there's a radar system! That makes it so much... easier, actually.
But as I said, the power management is absolutely central to the gameplay and without it the game would be a shell of what it is... no way would it be half as fun...
Quote:Yet again you show your ignorance towards this subject. Your lasers (the correct spelling, BTW) do overheat, and that's one thing you have to be careful about. You have to buy better lasers and cooling systems to get longer fire life.
I played through the demo and don't remember that ever happening.
Quote:No it wouldn't, as the power management was put there to make combat seem complex. The flight models are not better and the actual combat is far simpler than Freelancer's. I have played both games extensively, you have not.
So? I'm talking about TIE Fighter mostly here, a game I have put a lot of hours into...
And you make it seem like the power management is optional, or added, or something! It is the heart of the entire gameplay system, and makes the whole game work! Combat? Yes, you do a lot of it... but the combat would be RADICALLY different without that power system, as you know if you've played these games as much as you say.
Quote:That's a complete and total lie. Just because it's easier to fire on enemies doesn't mean that the combat is simpler. By that logic you could say that a FPS with poor aiming would be more complex than say, Half-Life. Aiming and flying isn't slow and clumsy like it is in most space sims, so you have to worry about outsmarting the enemies rather than outsmarting the crappy controls.
Can't agree there, given how I love TIE Fighter's fighter controls, and think that the X-Wing series has the best flight model in the genre. :)
I just love how the planes fly, how they feel, the pace and complexity of the combat... its all done nearly perfectly...
Oh yeah, and you misrepresent it so badly there... this isn't a case of 'good controls' vs 'bad controls'. Its two totally different, diametrically opposing styles -- simple and easy to target and shoot versus much harder to target and shoot. I happen to love the complexity of the latter system...
Did I find Freelancer's combat fun? Yeah, but it has NO sense of immersion. I don't feel like I'm flying the ship... I feel like I'm flying a ship in a action game or something. What's so great about space sims is that they really make you feel like you're THERE! That's another way that the mouse system totally fails, in addition to all the ones I've said so far...
Quote:That's the only thing that makes the combat somewhat deep. It's a cheap way of making it tougher.
Cheap? CHEAP? Uhh... you are insane. Its called strategy. Strategy. Its about making the game more complex and deep... in a way that adds a lot of complexity and fun to the simulation. X-Wing with no power management would be a much simpler game... but by making you manage your lazers, shields, and engines, it achieves good depth in a way that is fun. Well, fun to me anyway... I always liked the power management systems. If you're low on shields you move over power from lazers, then you can't shoot for a while...
And there's nothing like when your ship has been badly hit, you have no insturment panels, no radar, targetting, shields, other cockpit panels... you're nearly flying blind. If you can then manage to survive... its really cool. I thought it was great that ship damage wasn't just cosmetic -- get hit and you can take damage that will greatly affect the rest of the mission, generally for the worse...