Freelancer - Do any of you play this game?

I'm thinking of putting up a 24/7 dedicated server again.

So, do any of you guys play the game?

[gmd3d]

No .. never .. don't have time now for game .. with the time I put into modelling ..

Originally Posted by Taranis

No .. never .. don't have time now for game .. with the time I put into modelling ..

LOL!


But you know, you should always make time to play.
Otherwise you'll wake up one day and find you have an interest in 'shuffleboard', wearing plaid pants with polka dotted shirts, and yelling at kids to 'get out of my yard!'.

[gmd3d]

Originally Posted by Fretslayer

LOL!


But you know, you should always make time to play.
Otherwise you'll wake up one day and find you have an interest in 'shuffleboard', wearing plaid pants with polka dotted shirts, and yelling at kids to 'get out of my yard!'.

AAAnnd!!! what wrong with that .. and they are not plaid pants .. they are a jeans and not ironed with a line down the front .. and I always yell at kids .. what the point getting older and not been able to yell all kinds of hell at kids ..

(but these days they shoot at you)

Well, I may age but I sure don't mature!
LOL!

I have 39 years on my body but my heart and mind are still that an 18 year old.
I don't ever want to grow up.


One of the cool things about Freelancer is that I can take ships from this site and import them right into the game. What's cooler than designing your own ship? Why, flying it in a dogfight of course!

[evil_genius_180]

2 questions:

What kind of game is it?

Is it a PC game? (I'm assuming, since you use models from this site, but it's not impossible to port those to a console.)

It's a PC platform space sim game.
You can be anything from space cop to space pirate and anything in between.
The 'universe' is an open one and it's up to the player to decide what they want to do.
There are factions - if you ally yourself with group A - the groups who hate them will begin to target your ship.

You can haul diamonds across the universe or, like me smuggle weapons and cigarettes (which are outlawed) to prison colonies.

I bought it when it was new (for $50) and now you can get it in the $9-$14 bin.
The game doesn't use a joystick for flight control (uses the mouse) and has some issues with real galactic physics (which some people really cried about) but the game is so customizable that you can turn it into a BSG game, a Trek game, a Star Wars game - or all of the above.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer/

[evil_genius_180]

A space sim for the PC. I'm friggin' there.

I love PC gaming. In fact, that's mostly what I've been doing instead of 3D the last month or so. (mostly Star Wars games) And not using a joystick (even though I have a Playstation Dual-shock-ish controller) would be the preferred choice for a space sim. That's why I usually don't like games like that on consoles, the controller is more of a hindrance than an asset, IMO. So, I shall have to pick up a copy of that game for my PC.

Cool deal.


I think you might like the game and the fact that you can import tons of extra ships for the game is a real mega-bonus.

The game has a very cool single player version (lots of cinematic cut scenes and plot development) as well as a great multi-player version as well.

When I put my game server up it'll be a 24/7 server and it's only a matter of time before it ends up with clans on it. My last FL'r sever was pretty populated - I had something like a couple of hundred players on it. There are servers with more but I still thought it was cool that so many people played on mine.

We have rules on the server like no PVP in the New York system because that is where all new players start off. This way you don't to deal with the jerk who's 10th level and he sits around waiting for 1st level characters to kill.

Something else about the game that's way cool is that you can upgrade your ships - both to better ships as well as things like better shield generators, engines, power plants, tractor beams, sensors, and weapons.

Also with the clans on the server they stake out galactic systems (like gangs in da hood) and if you go into their space - expect something to happen.

Something else we did on my server was if a clan from one system wanted to challenge a clan for another system we'd host 'War Night' and you could log into the server as a spectator and watch as the clans did battle. I had it set up do that they could even pilot the capital ships in the wars. Some of the time you'd see a clan lose their sector of space and have to regroup and try again later to get it back.

I'm going to set up a sector for clan '3DG' (or something similar name wise) in case anybody from here wants to be in the same clan. Since you can have multiple characters you can be part of more than one clan if you so choose.

In the NY sector we had our ServerCops who's ships had police like markings on them, massive weapons and nearly God like shielding. The few times when people were disrespectful of the server rules we'd smoked em hard and took their goods.

Oh, yah - when you blow somebody's ship to bits - their cargo, weapons and upgrades all end up floating about in space... and to the victor goes the spoils!

[gmd3d]

Sound good alright ..

[Kai]

aaah TurboElite...

wonder where I put my copy..

[volkov]

It's a great game for a casual space sim. Definitely worth 10 bucks from the bargain bin if you like this type of game. I never got into multi-player, but the single-player is a lot of fun. I've tried a handful of the newer games in the genre, like X3 and Darkstar One, but I keep going back to Freelancer.

If you like strategy, take a look at Sins of a Solar Empire for some massive fleet battles. The only downside is that there isn't a real campaign story mode.

[evil_genius_180]

Amazon has it for the nice price right now. It's $9.99 and comes in a jewel case, or you can pay $24.99 if you're really anal retentive about having a boxed version. (and the CD probably comes in a stupid envelope instead of a nice jewel case)

I ordered mine last night. Since it's coming from Target, there's some tax and shipping involved but the whole thing was less that $14. I should be getting it in a couple days.

[evil_genius_180]

I got my copy in the mail earlier. I haven't done much, watched the opening movie (that rocks, BTW) then I had some canned conversations (I'm too used to RPGs, I kept wanting to chose my responses ) and blew the hell out of some space ships. Anywho, it looks pretty cool so far.

It's funny, though, the game told me that it didn't recognize my video card and there might be problems. Yeah, right. My video card is way newer than that game and it runs smoothly with every setting maxed.

The video card message is bunk.
I get it too and I'm running a monster nVidia card that has enough 'umph' to run After Effects CS4 with all the bells and whistles running. LOL!

The single player game is good for the story - it really does get quite interesting and in the 3rd (and final) act things happen that will make the game worth the time invested.

If you go to www.lancersreactor.com you can get a slew of patches and add-ons for the game that will update and in many cases, upgrade the game and game play.

You can run anything from Star Trek and Star Wars ships to Wing Commander and Galactica ships. Given the choice, I fly a 'Y-Wing' more than anything else - lots of power and set up correctly, has a ton of speed and shielding.

The game, like any other, has good and bad points but when you equal it all out, it's still a fun game and well worth the money - and I bought mine off the 'New' rack for $50. I've gotten hours and hours of replay value from it and consider it to be a good deal for the cash. If I were to work out the dollars to hours I'd say I spent about .50 for the game.

The main thing about the game that I do not like is the ship design and the way the characters (in the cut scenes) walk. Not to be wanker but you see that many of the designers of the game were women - I mean really - watch the way Trent walks and you'll see what I mean. How do you spell sashe' ? LOL!


Most of the 'stock' ships that come with the game a 'clunky' IMO (like Xena's Sword - too 'My Little Pony' looking) but the over all flight is a lot of fun.

There are also MODs out there that 'spin' the planets and even some that remove the nebula backgrounds.

If you're enjoying the game or think that you might you need to check out Lancer's Reactor and see what you like.

Wanna fly a Tie fighter? You can!
Wanna fly a Viper Mk 1, Mk2 or Mk3? Go for it!
Think 'Slave One' is the goods? Well, go get it and take it for a spin!

Commanding a Trek capital ship your thing? Well - strap on a Starship and look for a fight!


While I am a fan of 'Descenet: Freespace' and all of the games in that series, there is something about 'Freelancer' that makes it special - and I think it's the ability to customize the game as well as character development - wanna be a cop? A pirate? A smuggler? A bounty hunter? - It's all up to you what you want to become.

And when you have a connection that will allow you to play a mulitplayer game online you go to a whole new realm of fun. People make/join clans and then stake out sectors of space the way gangs do in neighborhoods and the way people do with their country. Pass through a system that's hostile to your clan and expect to be jumped.

Back when I ran my server we would have 'Fight Night' were Clan-A would challenge Clan-B and they'd go to war - the rest of the people (not in either clan or an ally of either) would log in, stay out of the way and watch the battle unfold. Since you can fly anything from a snub fighter to a capital ship the 'Wars' were quite entertaining to watch.

Oh, there are also a lot of good tutorials out there that explain how to make your own ship and import it into the game - that IMO is way cool.

[evil_genius_180]

Originally Posted by Fretslayer

The video card message is bunk.
I get it too and I'm running a monster nVidia card that has enough 'umph' to run After Effects CS4 with all the bells and whistles running. LOL!

I have an NVidia GeForce 6100 256MB (but it can pull more) GFX card. While it's certainly not state-of-the-art, it can certainly handle a game from 2003. That message is probably designed for people using older, not supported chipsets (like the old SiS 4MB cards that came with practically every computer in the late '90s or something.) But it certainly is useless for those of us with much newer systems. That's the first Microsoft game that has given me that message, and I have 5 Microsoft games (that I can think of off the top of my head, besides the free Windows Vista games.)

Originally Posted by Fretslayer

If you go to www.lancersreactor.com you can get a slew of patches and add-ons for the game that will update and in many cases, upgrade the game and game play.

Thanks for the link, I bookmarked it.

I was actually hoping you were gonna hook me up with a link. I Googled the game but the most relevant link I got was the official Microsoft page. It doesn't help that freelancer isn't exactly an uncommon word.

Originally Posted by Fretslayer

You can run anything from Star Trek and Star Wars ships to Wing Commander and Galactica ships. Given the choice, I fly a 'Y-Wing' more than anything else - lots of power and set up correctly, has a ton of speed and shielding.

The game, like any other, has good and bad points but when you equal it all out, it's still a fun game and well worth the money - and I bought mine off the 'New' rack for $50. I've gotten hours and hours of replay value from it and consider it to be a good deal for the cash. If I were to work out the dollars to hours I'd say I spent about .50 for the game.

The main thing about the game that I do not like is the ship design and the way the characters (in the cut scenes) walk. Not to be wanker but you see that many of the designers of the game were women - I mean really - watch the way Trent walks and you'll see what I mean. How do you spell sashe' ? LOL!


Most of the 'stock' ships that come with the game a 'clunky' IMO (like Xena's Sword - too 'My Little Pony' looking) but the over all flight is a lot of fun.

There are also MODs out there that 'spin' the planets and even some that remove the nebula backgrounds.

If you're enjoying the game or think that you might you need to check out Lancer's Reactor and see what you like.

Wanna fly a Tie fighter? You can!
Wanna fly a Viper Mk 1, Mk2 or Mk3? Go for it!
Think 'Slave One' is the goods? Well, go get it and take it for a spin!

Commanding a Trek capital ship your thing? Well - strap on a Starship and look for a fight!


While I am a fan of 'Descenet: Freespace' and all of the games in that series, there is something about 'Freelancer' that makes it special - and I think it's the ability to customize the game as well as character development - wanna be a cop? A pirate? A smuggler? A bounty hunter? - It's all up to you what you want to become.

And when you have a connection that will allow you to play a mulitplayer game online you go to a whole new realm of fun. People make/join clans and then stake out sectors of space the way gangs do in neighborhoods and the way people do with their country. Pass through a system that's hostile to your clan and expect to be jumped.

Back when I ran my server we would have 'Fight Night' were Clan-A would challenge Clan-B and they'd go to war - the rest of the people (not in either clan or an ally of either) would log in, stay out of the way and watch the battle unfold. Since you can fly anything from a snub fighter to a capital ship the 'Wars' were quite entertaining to watch.

Oh, there are also a lot of good tutorials out there that explain how to make your own ship and import it into the game - that IMO is way cool.

Thanks for all the info. I still have only played a little bit, I was in the middle of re-playing Knights of the Old Republic 2 when Freelancer came in yesterday. But I'll probably take another break from KOTOR2 again later and play some more Freelancer. I do already know that I like the space combat in the game, though. I set it to the mouse move mode and had a blast shootin' those enemy fighters.

(This is why I never get any 3D work done anymore. Now that I have a PC that can play games more advanced than RollerCoaster Tycoon and Age of Empires II, all I do in my spare time is play games. )

It's important to play games - one should only stop when they are in the grave.
Playing games keeps the mind sharp and the heart young.

Speaking only for myself (and the countless voices that live in my head :laugh: ) I get some of my best ideas for animating or stories when I'm playing a game that is totally unrelated to the project I'm working on. I think it's because when you (or me I guess) play a game, the imagination is in full swing along with the technical bits of gray matter.

When you put both of these things in motion you can achieve things far greater than you had even thought possible.

Last month at this time I had no clue how to use Adobe After Effects.
Last night I completed my first major animation with it.
I got the inspiration for revisiting it while I was playing 'Titan Quest: Immortal Throne' in a multiplayer game with my 60+ year old father. Go figure. LOL!

I will say this though - not game related - but when I drop my next animation on y'all you're going to see something 100x better than anything I've done so far. It's going to take me a bit of time due to my 'real life' now getting in the way but when I pull the curtain off of the stage it's going to scream.

Anyway, if you have any questions about the game or getting the MODs working give me a shout. One thing I can say is that to use the MODs you'll need to download and install FLMM (Freelance Mod Manager) and it's funky bugger to get set up. If or when you get to that point, let me know and I'll help you get it configured so that you don't spend the wasted time that I did doing the same.

[evil_genius_180]

I get inspired by games also. In fact, I keep telling myself that I'm going to build the Ebon Hawk and several other ships from the KOTOR games (of course, doing so would require me to actually stop playing the game long enough to make a mesh, but that's beside the point.) On a related note, my productivity took another hit today. I was at Best Buy and I *had* to get Madden NFL 08 for the PC (it was only $9.99.) I friggin' love football, so it's a big "YAY" for my gaming but not-so-much for my modeling.