|
Rocket Baby Dolls posted:After several attempts, I've completed a test run of the next mission and it's going to be a messy one  the messy ones are always the best
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2021 09:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:58 |
|
|
Blood Dragons were loyalists of the prior deposed Shogun?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2021 12:33
|
|
|
https://freelancer.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Dragons The link goes into more detail. quote:The Blood Dragons are a terrorist organization supposedly descended from the royal guard of Shogun Hideyoshi -- deposed during a coup several centuries before -- and are dedicated to the overthrow of the current Kusari government.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2021 15:48
|
|
|
Recording the next mission went a lot more smoothly than I was expecting, especially from my experience with the test runs. I somehow glossed over the shield section in the store as I discovered upgraded shields before I started to record which made life a little more easier this time around.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2021 12:09
|
|
|
Loved playing this game back in the day, never really got into the online scene of it however. On the last video, you wonder why they ask the player to enter first, and I assume it's probably just easier on the people doing the scripting. Juni went first at least once during a transition. Alternatively, it could be the same reason as to why you get to cut in line when it comes to docking queue, you could have dozens of ships queueing up before you get there, but the moment anyone enters it lets the player in next. You know, expediting the experience of the player... and probably hiding the fact that ships just vanish when they enter a jump hole  I remember being able to fit the Dragon fighter between the engines of a Kusari battleship for some reason. I must have been pretty bored back then because I remember trying to fly in various other tight spaces, and that one stands out as something that felt like it shouldn't work, but just about does. StarFyter fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Aug 29, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2021 17:11
|
|
|
 New Information: https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=159466 I'm pretty much jumping straight into the next mission with this video. I conducted a tour of Chugoku while I was Freelancing missions in order to level up, there's not a whole lot to see apart from a few jump holes so this video starts out with a look at the map and a quick tour of Kyoto Station. I'm not really sure why we had to level up before starting the next mission, it's not like we have many places where we can go as we're not very popular at the moment: https://imgur.com/a/XGfbWan I'm not sure whether I completed the first half of this mission as initially intended as I went straight for the jugular. The second half of the mission became messy as the constant barrage of warnings became increasingly annoying and very distracting.  StarFyter posted:On the last video, you wonder why they ask the player to enter first, and I assume it's probably just easier on the people doing the scripting. Juni went first at least once during a transition. I'm sure it is down to scripting, especially as we never see the half a dozen or so rogue ships waiting on the other side when I'm on my own. It's just amusing to me that we're going on these dangerous missions into dangerous territories and everyone is happy for you to be the one to jump straight into the unknown. I'm intrigued by what else you have learnt in this game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2021 21:51
|
|
|
Kyoto folks being all familiar with Trent always felt odd. I suppose it was meant to be like you're the new brother in arms to them and not some stranger that wandered in with side arms to sell. No idea if they are as familiar with you if you visit Kyoto before meeting Ozu and stealing the transport. At least Leeds bartender knowing Trent from before made sense. If you are going to do any exploration with your rather unfavourable, but still moldable reputation, now is the time. The moment you start the next story mission, you are stuck with the story until the very end. This is the final free flight you have until post-game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 00:47
|
|
|
Oh, that's why I remember the engine thing for, the Kusari battleship guarding the shield generators, which I made a point to destroy since back then I had the obsession to blow up something if it was possible, and the safest way was to tuck myself between the engines and plink away. Clearly wasn't necessary to do in the slightest hah. The intended route is to fly below the asteroid base and through a borehole that goes through the asteroid, but uh, it's not that hard to fly past the defenders directly as you show. I only noticed the path on a subsequent playthrough myself. I also had an aversion to using missiles for whatever reason, seeing their effectiveness here makes me think I missed out. I mostly focused on energy weapons, usually getting a mix of Xenos weapons and something else for one other shield type, so I'm not too badly off in terms of anti-shield effectiveness. Speaking of, I think this is roughly the point in the game where having a positron shield is a good idea whenever the mission is likely to be against Rheinland forces, given it's effective against their main weapon type, and I remember the story missions getting a lot dicier from here on. And yes, to get xenos weapons of a higher level I did fly to the regions between Kusari and Liberty and shot a lot of Xenos for them... not really something you can do too easily right now, I don't think ...actually, you might be friendly enough with the Xenos at present due to relations shenanigans that they could potentially be willing to sell you right now, I never thought to check at this moment in the story. Not sure if they let you fly around that freely right now though. Sadly most of my memories of what I learned of the game are rather hazy, given I mostly played it roughly 16-18 years back, and I mostly stuck to the story missions, playing through the story maybe 3-4 times total. I did not end up being very adventurous in terms of dealing with the criminal factions either, although I did explore stuff like Hispania. It's been interesting to see all these wrecks I never got around to getting myself however. I mostly just got the ones that one story mission flies you close by.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 01:21
|
|
|
So now we're really into it. We get our first glimpse at the game's true enemy, the Nomad. It also takes a bit of the edge off of 'ZE EVIL GERMANS' thing, I think. They weren't the big evil guys, they were just the first to fall to the actual big evil guys. Also, Trent didn't fire his gun this time, but we can still see some of the points he's put into his on-foot combat, I think. He definitely seemed more comfortable and confident in his handgun fighting!
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 01:56
|
|
|
StarFyter posted:I also had an aversion to using missiles for whatever reason, seeing their effectiveness here makes me think I missed out. It's been several years since I gave Freelancer a proper playthrough, so please correct me if I'm just talking horse-poo poo, but as far as I can remember, the first levels of missiles are terrible, and can't track for poo poo. It's not until the endgame that they become reliable butt-kickers, and by that time most people have probably written them off completely. They're also held back by the max limit of 50 missiles. That seems like plenty, but in the post-game that's only enough for one, maybe two skirmishes.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 09:18
|
|
|
I'm going to plough ahead with the next mission and see how the situation is afterwards. There will still be some new systems to tour afterwards. Most of the known universe hates us so there's no real point in exploring systems where we aren't welcome to land. We haven't been welcome in the nearby Independent systems since the moment they were opened up to us, the ones further out we haven't even discovered yet. The Edge World systems are going to be far too difficult at my current level. I could potentially take a gander through the Border World systems again but I'm going to run through the problem of having pretty much everyone in pretty much every system hating my guts and actively targetting me, the only way I'm going to be able to resupply is by returning to the only base that is welcoming me right now. A good chunk of the exploration will have to be done post-game. Missiles at the start were an absolute joke, they were only useful in one instance and that was with our first encounter with the Rheinland gunships. Also, at a certain point, pretty much every enemy ship has a countermeasure dropper which means the odds of hitting them are drastically reduced. At this point, if you're using them, you're spending a lot of money on replenishing a weapon that isn't being very effective. Torpedoes do a crazy amount of damage, but they're painfully slow and only go in the direction that you fired them. For torpedos to be effective they need to be fired at a stationary target or almost at point-blank range. It's only really now that we're accessing decent missiles that can actually pack a decent punch, which is helpful as it this point in the game they need to be. As inscrutable horse just mentioned, they have a limit of 50 and the better ones make them very expensive to operate as you need to constantly replenish them. As you saw in the latest video, I had two Catapult Missile Launchers equipped and I still only had a maximum limit of 50 missiles. To me, missiles and torpedoes have only been required for blowing up anything big as they've been very ineffective during dogfights.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 12:48
|
|
|
If you are using multiple missiles, equip a tier weaker or a homing version of a missile in addition to your main one. It reduces your damage output per volley, but extends your total missile damage output because each type of missile has its own ammo cap.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 13:04
|
|
|
my dad posted:If you are using multiple missiles, equip a tier weaker or a homing version of a missile in addition to your main one. It reduces your damage output per volley, but extends your total missile damage output because each type of missile has its own ammo cap. This is a good idea, thank you for the advice. I keep forgetting that we can enable and disable weapons at the touch of a button, they can easily be switched depending on the situation. I might do this for the next mission which I have yet to do a test run of.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 13:20
|
|
|
Rocket Baby Dolls posted:...Most of the known universe hates us... And this is why I figured Xenos might currently tolerate you, given they hate, well, everyone.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 14:27
|
|
|
StarFyter posted:And this is why I figured Xenos might currently tolerate you, given they hate, well, everyone. I meant to use image tags on the post above, this is our current reputation:  There are a couple of more organisations that are slightly above the positive line. I'll check where Xenos is after work tonight.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 15:41
|
|
|
I dunno if you can use it in an existing game, but a big HD mod for Freelancer just came out that actually seems to fully retain the game's style and just makes it look a little sharper. https://www.moddb.com/mods/freelancer-hd-edition/news/freelancer-hd-edition-released
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 18:21
|
|
|
I think I should point out that you're about to hit the Point of No Return for story quests - once you accept this next one, you're going to be going from one to another without opportunity to re-enter the sandbox. I can't remember entirely, but I'm pretty sure your rep will get generally fixed when you're done with the story.
|
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 19:00
|
|
|
Here are the last two organisations that still like us, Xenos are still slightly negative towards us: Mordja posted:I dunno if you can use it in an existing game, but a big HD mod for Freelancer just came out that actually seems to fully retain the game's style and just makes it look a little sharper. Thank you for the heads up. I'm not really wanting to make any drastic changes while the main LP is in full swing. I will give it a try post-story mode at some point though. Edit: The download file is 3gb. The Freelancer folder on my computer right now is 875mb. The_Final_Stand posted:I think I should point out that you're about to hit the Point of No Return for story quests - once you accept this next one, you're going to be going from one to another without opportunity to re-enter the sandbox. I can't remember entirely, but I'm pretty sure your rep will get generally fixed when you're done with the story. Lulti mentioned this above which I addressed a little further up. There isn't anywhere really open to me at the moment where I haven't been already. Kyoto is the only nearby base that we're welcome at and everything that needs to be explored are some ways off. There are the Sigma systems nearby but they're full of people who don't like us right now and there's nowhere that's easily accessible to regroup and resupply. I'm open to suggestions though. I'm not going to start a test run for another two or three days. Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Aug 30, 2021 |
|
#
?
Aug 30, 2021 22:31
|
|
|
Rocket Baby Dolls posted:Edit: The download file is 3gb. The Freelancer folder on my computer right now is 875mb. lmao Yeah, that's texture upgrades for you. I've done a fair bit of TES modding and uncompressed 4/8K is far, far too popular in that scene. I'm hoping this person has correctly realized compression is not inherently wrong
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2021 01:05
|
|
|
So, are you using the strafing and reverse thrust keys in combat? Doing so is really helpful for throwing off enemy aim and I remember doing it non-stop during the missions from this point on when playing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2021 01:44
|
|
|
I've done a test run of the next mission and it will be the next update, I understand that it will be the point of no return until the end. Right now there's nowhere logical left for me to go easily and there won't be until the end so I may as well continue the tours when I'm actually able to land on bases and speak to people. I have found one issue regarding missiles. I decided to utilise two different missile launchers and test them out. There are hotkeys that operate each weapon individually as well as hotkeys that operate a group of weapons altogether. We also have hotkeys to switch each weapon on and off individually. It's not an issue operating the missiles individually, but when you switch one of them off and press the "Fire Missile" hotkey, both missiles still fire. Operating the individual missile launchers is only a key away but it's going to confuse my muscle memory for a short time. You can group different weapons together and switch to fire those specific groups as and when you need them, but there are also hotkeys that are specifically designed to switch weapons on and off too. Night10194 posted:So, are you using the strafing and reverse thrust keys in combat? Doing so is really helpful for throwing off enemy aim and I remember doing it non-stop during the missions from this point on when playing. I went into this game extremely rusty with only the faintest of memories but I have made improvements over time. I think that it took a couple of updates for people to tell me to use the thrust during combat Strafing and reverse thrust have been mentioned before but they're not strategies that I've been using. To be honest, I've never really been one for finesse in games, my usual role in games that I play is as the tank and that's pretty much how I've been approaching this.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2021 13:24
|
|
|
Gothsheep posted:You know, for as many times as I've played this game, I honestly have no idea what the Blood Dragons are actually about. They're a counter-political group that opposes the Shogun I guess, but I have no idea why, or what they're hoping to accomplish. I mean Space Japan is pretty corrupt, but what is their goal? Are they trying to tear down the Emperor and install a democracy? Are they opposing the policies of discrimination? Are they against all the foreigners? Are they trying to kill the corrupt officials, or just take over the nation? There's a bunch of factions that don't feel as fleshed out as they could be but the Blood Dragons are probably the worst in at least some regards. It feels like they were created just to be a faction that is up for fighting the current government in the main mission and have some high-level infiltrators, but unlike a lot of other factions don't seem to have a lot of agendas other than overthrowing the current government and putting their own guy on the throne. Which , to be fair is probably the goal of a lot of similar organizations, but it doesn't really make you root for them beyond the main story missions.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2021 00:19
|
|
|
evilmiera posted:There's a bunch of factions that don't feel as fleshed out as they could be but the Blood Dragons are probably the worst in at least some regards. It feels like they were created just to be a faction that is up for fighting the current government in the main mission and have some high-level infiltrators, but unlike a lot of other factions don't seem to have a lot of agendas other than overthrowing the current government and putting their own guy on the throne. Which , to be fair is probably the goal of a lot of similar organizations, but it doesn't really make you root for them beyond the main story missions. This is true as they weren't, this was a Chris Roberts project that started in 1997: quote:In 1997, Chris Roberts began work on a vision he had since he first conceived Wing Commander. He wanted to realize a virtual galaxy, whose systems execute their own programs regardless of the players' presence; cities would be bustling with transports and each world's weather changes on its own time. Commodity prices in each star system would fluctuate, according to the activities of the computer controlled traders, who import and export goods. Roberts envisioned thousands of players simultaneously interacting with and influencing this world through a unique and intuitive user interface never seen before in other games. Each player could pursue a quest set up for their character, and join other players to attempt other missions together without needing to exit the game and start a new mode of play. Artificial intelligence would fly the players' spacecraft, letting them concentrate on combat or other tasks. Roberts intended the cutscenes and gameplay visuals to be of equal quality so players would be unable to distinguish between the two. By the end of 1997, it was officially announced that Freelancer was in the early stages of a two-and-a-half-year development schedule. Chris Roberts tried to make something resembling Star Citizen twenty years ago. At that time, Microsoft stepped in and tried to salvage what they could in an effort to secure the investments that they made.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2021 00:48
|
|
|
Rocket Baby Dolls posted:This is true as they weren't, this was a Chris Roberts project that started in 1997: In 1997, Chris Roberts envisioned a game. Then in 1999, Egosoft made that game and named it X: Beyond the Frontier. Then, in 2000, Microsoft bought the company, muzzled Roberts into a 'consultant' role, and an actual video game was produced.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2021 06:55
|
|
|
Well at least now he's moved from "cutscenes and ingame graphics indistinguishable" to "AI NPCs and players indistinguishable" but just lmao, at all of that
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2021 07:13
|
|
|
I actually might be completely wrong about X:BtF. I got into the Egosoft games with X2, and I know that game does more or less deliver on Chris's idea of a universally dynamic, AI driven economy (Albeit with its own jank) but I'm not sure how well the original game did it. Oh, and it has no multiplayer. We needed to wait until Eve to give us that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2021 07:24
|
|
|
 Current Information: https://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=159509 We are now past the point of no return. I decided to drop the Catapult Missiles for this mission which could have been a mistake, but it didn't have an impact as I still have my torpedoes. You may notice there is no cutscene around the 15:48 mark, I accidentally opened the menu mid dogfight and decided to reload the autosave, which loads the game immediately after the cutscene.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2021 11:55
|
|
|
Trent haven't gotten his mitts on it yet, but now we've seen the first of my favourite player ship.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 00:01
|
|
|
I wonder how that Rheinland fleet commander in the gas cloud is going to explain to his superiors "So, uh, 3 fighters showed up out of nowhere, massacred our fighter cover, blew up a battleship, and then just continued on their merry way"
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 00:18
|
|
|
my dad posted:I wonder how that Rheinland fleet commander in the gas cloud is going to explain to his superiors "So, uh, 3 fighters showed up out of nowhere, massacred our fighter cover, blew up a battleship, and then just continued on their merry way" To be fair, that was actually nine fighters, there were six waiting on the edge of the cloud to join you... and they get shot down in very short order. (It's your fighter cover getting massacred there) And then the other guy you arrived with does something that explodes the whole installation along with himself, but RBD didn't look behind when leaving to see that happening (cool guys and explosions, and all that) I may have played the campaign a few too many times. As a sidenote, the story gives the player a freebie for the postgame here, by flying you close enough to some wrecks in that battlefield that you'll very much want to grab eventually. StarFyter fucked around with this message at 07:43 on Sep 6, 2021 |
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 07:41
|
|
|
Trent is kind of an odd duck in the universe. If people seem to be acting weird around him, you might want to check out his kill count and then try and put that into context. He's someone who just sort of casually gets into 1v8 fights, wins, and doesn't even realize that isn't normal.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 08:10
|
|
|
Gothsheep posted:Trent is kind of an odd duck in the universe. If people seem to be acting weird around him, you might want to check out his kill count and then try and put that into context. He's someone who just sort of casually gets into 1v8 fights, wins, and doesn't even realize that isn't normal. For all of Trent's fanboying over Van Claussen in his log, at that point he would have some impressive killcount himself, multiple capital ships included.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 08:27
|
|
|
StarFyter posted:To be fair, that was actually nine fighters, there were six waiting on the edge of the cloud to join you... and they get shot down in very short order. (It's your fighter cover getting massacred there) I was talking about the Rheinland invasion fleet Trent bumps into while flying with Lord Hakkera, not the alien superweapon factory.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 08:55
|
|
|
Oh, right, that did happen in the same mission. I blame so many battleships blowing up in one video that I got distracted. That reminds me, I feel like they probably reduced the amount of fire those battleships in particular put out, given you're fighting in close proximity to three of them there, and usually they can chew through your shield rather rapidly. It's also been years since I played it myself, and I could have just been a bad player
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 09:15
|
|
|
This is a great lp. Also really makes me realise just how many ideas and concepts Elite Dangerous ripped from this gem of a game.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 14:45
|
|
|
There were Elite games before Elite dangerous so I'm not confident they really copied ideas. They might have taken some cues for some details but Freelancer is also an old game and there were newer space flight sims between it and E:D releasing. Freelancer still holds a special place in my heart though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 15:55
|
|
|
The original Elite came out in 1984, yeah, and had two sequels before E:D. The influence is likely the other way around (Elite -> Privateer -> Freelancer, probably) but that's not to say E:D can't have been inspired by what happened in the genre as well. I'd just hesitate to say ideas were 'ripped.' Psion fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Sep 6, 2021 |
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 16:42
|
|
|
I honestly don't know because I've certainly never played the older games, I'm just struck by the many similarities in gameplay core concepts. A lot of the best parts of Freelancer you'll find in ED as flavour, numbered docking, attempts at making a "living" universe, chatter, supercruise, station placements, faction flavours... just much less concentrated I suppose. Freelancer is a much more lightweight game, but also way more concentrated which frankly helps a lot in many aspects.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 17:00
|
|
|
I remembered the Rheinland section being really short, but not quite that short, lol.
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 17:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:58 |
|
|
Nice piece of fish posted:I honestly don't know because I've certainly never played the older games, I'm just struck by the many similarities in gameplay core concepts. Yeah, that's fair. I think a lot of these features are sort of inevitable in the genre, sort of table stakes if you're gonna do Big Space Trading. I only know the broad strokes of the three Elite games before E:D so I don't know what - if any - of those specifics they had or didn't have. and really there's no harm in E:D taking every good idea they can get because there are so many not good ideas in that game Psion fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Sep 6, 2021 |
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2021 18:41
|
|