Reckoning Gamma

[Bob McDob]

Well if the Tarsus isn't battle ready, and the commodity trading system isn't set up to generate sufficient amounts of profit to buy upgrades quickly...

Thank God fot the impossible-to-hit and rather cheap Ferret... but then why even bother with starting the game in a flying coffin?

Well, that's what this release is for - bug-hunting, game balancing and making it run decently before it hits prime-time.

Alastor, check your PMs, I have a proposal for you.

 

[Alastor]

Alastor, check your PMs, I have a proposal for you.

Awesome.

An idea I have for simulating the "No Autopilot in combat" deal:

First off, please, decrease the amount of afterburner energy some fighters have, so they at least run out after several seconds (or run out at all!!), but also increase it for some other ships (like the 2 second Tarsus). I think this was supposed to allow some ships to have multiple thrusters, but that concept itself doesn't make sense to me. The Tarsus had only one, the Orion had one, The Galaxy had one, and even the Centurion had only one. If you wanted some ships to have faster afterburner speed than others (so the Centurion has more velocity than the Tarsus in afterburn, since the Freelancer engine seems to only add the thruster speed for that certain thruster on top of the max speed), make different thrusters for different types of ships (light fighter, medium figher, heavy fighter, and Freighter, or something along these lines). This is where the somewhat varying thruster energy for ships comes into play, so if a Tarsus or galaxy tries to use a light fighter thruster, it will drain way to fast, but a Centurion using a heavy fighter thruster will get better speeds and will drain at a reasonable pace. So if the NPC fighters are equiped with their corrisponding thusters, they will have viable use in combat, but cannot chase down a cruising ship for more than 7 to 13 seconds. This also will keep the player, if in a faster ship, from fleeing the battlezone.

Next, make all weapons disrupt cruise engines. This way you cannot flee combat with a cruise engine unless you are very good at dodging blaster fire and missiles. Thus, you must defeat your enemies before moving on. However this might be easier said than done, and if I remember my last PvP in Freelancer correctly, while you're distrupted, you cannot do the engine kill slide, or use thrusters (I think, but I'm really not sure on this one), so that might ruin combat overall. But I think it would be worth testing. A better way this could be done is if you make the cruise engine charge-up time like 10 seconds for all ships, making you risk getting torn to shreds if you prematurely try to use them in battle.

Just some suggestions, feel free to edit or tell me I'm wrong (and why I'm so very very wrong ).

Thanks.

 

[Marc]

Next, make all weapons disrupt cruise engines. This way you cannot flee combat with a cruise engine unless you are very good at dodging blaster fire and missiles. Thus, you must defeat your enemies before moving on.

just make extra certain that bad guys don't appear a heartbeat hafter I wasted the last bunch; this is exactly what ruin Privateer 2 for me- I couldn't get anywhere because bad dude kept coming into radar range and my autopilot cut out every time.
It's a balance, a very delicate, very frustrating balance this modding thing... And I admire you guys for having the patience to do it.

 

[warzog]

Just some suggestions, feel free to edit or tell me I'm wrong (and why I'm so very very wrong ).

You're Wrong, Very Wrong!
Here's why:

First off, please, decrease the amount of afterburner energy some fighters have, so they at least run out after several seconds (or run out at all!!), but also increase it for some other ships (like the 2 second Tarsus). I think this was supposed to allow some ships to have multiple thrusters, but that concept itself doesn't make sense to me. The Tarsus had only one, the Orion had one, The Galaxy had one, and even the Centurion had only one. If you wanted some ships to have faster afterburner speed than others (so the Centurion has more velocity than the Tarsus in afterburn, since the Freelancer engine seems to only add the thruster speed for that certain thruster on top of the max speed), make different thrusters for different types of ships (light fighter, medium figher, heavy fighter, and Freighter, or something along these lines). This is where the somewhat varying thruster energy for ships comes into play, so if a Tarsus or galaxy tries to use a light fighter thruster, it will drain way to fast, but a Centurion using a heavy fighter thruster will get better speeds and will drain at a reasonable pace. So if the NPC fighters are equiped with their corrisponding thusters, they will have viable use in combat, but cannot chase down a cruising ship for more than 7 to 13 seconds. This also will keep the player, if in a faster ship, from fleeing the battlezone.

In Freelancer, each ship has it's own engine, but there are 4 player thrusters setup to work basically the same on every ship. (Which is fine.)
In Privateer, there were 7 Engine upgrades, but only one Afterburner.
(Which upgrades available depended on the ship you had.)
In order to do as you propose, it would require having 7 (or so) Engine upgrades per ship, plus 1 afterburner per ship.
Unfortunately, while it COULD be done, you would see EVERY Engine Upgrade, and EVERY Afterburner, listed in the equipment room.
AND...
I know of no way to get Freelancer to limit the player to the purchase of items made for their specific ship.
But, since you can't upgrade engines, (Freelancer won't allow it) that would still leave a bunch of afterburners, and all of them would be available to the player.
(A waste to even attempt it, IMHO.)

Next, make all weapons disrupt cruise engines. This way you cannot flee combat with a cruise engine unless you are very good at dodging blaster fire and missiles. Thus, you must defeat your enemies before moving on. However this might be easier said than done, and if I remember my last PvP in Freelancer correctly, while you're distrupted, you cannot do the engine kill slide, or use thrusters (I think, but I'm really not sure on this one), so that might ruin combat overall. But I think it would be worth testing. A better way this could be done is if you make the cruise engine charge-up time like 10 seconds for all ships, making you risk getting torn to shreds if you prematurely try to use them in battle.

Cruise Disruption is attached to specific weapon's mounts.
Specifically, "hp_torpedo_special_2" mounts.
AND...
You fire 'em by "Launching" a cruise missile, So you'ld fire EVERYTHING EVERY shot!
AND...
The "hp_torpedo_special_2" mount carries no class limitation as do energy weapons.
So...
Changing every weapon over to "hp_torpedo_special_2" mounts would allow a ship to have ALL Missiles, ALL Torpedoes, etcetera, because everything would mount everywhere.
If "Cruise Disruption" were a function, doing as you suggest would be possible.
But, in Freelancer, it's only assigned to that one mount, and nowhere else.

BTW-I tried ALL of the above in early incarnations of the mod.
They weren't released to the public because they just didn't work right.
If you look through the Privateer forum on Lancer's Reactor, I discussed all of the above, and explained why each didn't work.

 

[Alastor]

Ah, thank you Warzog. That all makes sense.

I was very very wrong indeed!

Well, I suppose the 10 second cruise charge time might work, but that might mess up gameplay for those impatient explorers out there

EDIT:

Cruise Disruption is attached to specific weapon's mounts.
Specifically, "hp_torpedo_special_2" mounts.

I don't suppose there's a way to change that so all weapon mounts (hp_weaponXX or something, I'm on a public computer so I can't check) have the cruise disruption ability? Although I'm sure that someone has thought of this before, it's probably hard-coded into a .dll or the .exe, which would be at least extremely difficult and time consuming and at most impossible or impractical. Oh well, just a thought.

 

[warzog]

I don't suppose there's a way to change that so all weapon mounts (hp_weaponXX or something, I'm on a public computer so I can't check) have the cruise disruption ability? Although I'm sure that someone has thought of this before, it's probably hard-coded into a .dll or the .exe, which would be at least extremely difficult and time consuming and at most impossible or impractical. Oh well, just a thought.

Sorry, the Cruise Disruption function is tied to THAT hardpoint in the Freelancer Engine.
As far as I know, no one's been able to hack it, yet.

In fact...
There are several oddities that would be nice if we COULD hack the Freelancer Engine.
Did you know?
1) That there's a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no engine installed?
(I discovered them when I tried to let the player purchase a ship with no engine, hoping you could then transfer, or buy one, but Freelancer won't let you do that.)
1A) There's also a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no Generator installed?
(Freelancer won't allow you to remove a generator, unless you have more than one, so you'll never hear it.)
1B) There's also a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no Scanner (Sensor/Radar) installed?
(Freelancer won't allow you to remove a Scanner, unless you have more than one, so you'll never hear it.)
1C) There's also a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no Tractor Beam installed?
(But it only occurs during certain missions, so you'll never hear it, but I never included that as an option.)
2) That there's icons for a "Micro-Nuke" Torpedo, like in Privateer 2?
3) That there's icons for a "Weapon's Cooler" and a "Radar Jammer" (ECM)?
4) That there's a repair droid in the coding?
(But it's data, icons, etcetera have been deleted.)

 

[Alastor]

There are several oddities that would be nice if we COULD hack the Freelancer Engine.
Did you know?
1) That there's a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no engine installed?
(I discovered them when I tried to let the player purchase a ship with no engine, hoping you could then transfer, or buy one, but Freelancer won't let you do that.)

Yep, there was some mod I used once (FLRebalance?) that had different engines for different ships (Starflier engine, Borderworlds engine, Corsair engine, etc.), and you could (try to) swap them or sell them.

1A) There's also a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no Generator installed?
(Freelancer won't allow you to remove a generator, unless you have more than one, so you'll never hear it.)

Now that one I don't think I have hear of before...

1B) There's also a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no Scanner (Sensor/Radar) installed?
(Freelancer won't allow you to remove a Scanner, unless you have more than one, so you'll never hear it.)

Again, FLRebalance was the first time I think I encountered this. There was the the normal Scanner and the Advanced Scanner.

1C) There's also a pre-recorded voice message that states you cannot launch because you have no Tractor Beam installed?
(But it only occurs during certain missions, so you'll never hear it, but I never included that as an option.)

FLRebalance again was the first time I heard this. There were different tractorbeams with different ranges. Interesting about this is that apparently you were not supposed to start with one in the SP campaign (when you have the mission to capture Ashcroft, Juni mentions that they have installed a tractorbeam in your ship, however in the final game all ships have these from the beginning, I suppose they hoped that no one would notice the quirk in the dialogue ).

2) That there's icons for a "Micro-Nuke" Torpedo, like in Privateer 2?
3) That there's icons for a "Weapon's Cooler" and a "Radar Jammer" (ECM)?
4) That there's a repair droid in the coding?
(But it's data, icons, etcetera have been deleted.)

Wow! Now this stuff I had no idea about! I wish there was a way we could dig this up, especially that droid, since we have dropped nanobots and batteries.

 

[Bob McDob]

Wow! Now this stuff I had no idea about! I wish there was a way we could dig this up, especially that droid, since we have dropped nanobots and batteries.

I found out about the Repair Droid when I was looking through the inis for the Star Wars: Free Worlds mod. It has a bunch of parameters and I was going to try implementing it, but haven't got around to it yet.

(Right now I'm tweaking the Tarsus/Ferret and getting the commodities restructured)

 

[Alastor]

Jumped to Gemini system, it had a Retro planet named Earth, with a Mercury and a Venus. Two suns also. Full of Retros too...

Got a CTD from the jump from Penders Star => Junction too.

And once again, please tone down the amount of enemes in the systems. Sure you'll run across a wing of 3 Pirates, but within 10 seconds they have all 12 of their friends join them.

Thanks again.

 

[Bob McDob]

Yeah, I'm looking into toning down the number of enemies too. With the balance I'm aiming for, having so many ships around is overkill, and also rather more than I'm used to in regular Privateer.

As for the Gemini system ... well, it's weird to begin with, considering that it doesn't appear in the original game but on the Prophecy map. I don't know how it got on there or why.

 

[johnhawke]

Ouch I can't get to New Detroit for nothing. Game crashes in both Junction and Tingerhoff. I actually made it to the New Constantinople jumppoint in Junction, but the game crashed as soon as I got to the other side. Same thing happens when I try to jump from Nexus to Tingerhoff. There's only one other way to get to Potter and that's through 17AR and Eden and those other systems, but I think it will still crash on the way out of Junction. It's Damn annoying. I can't play it anymore without pulling my hair out. I give up.

 

[Unregistered]

How do you install the mod once you download it? My comp doesn't recognize it as any known file type.

 

[warzog]

You need to have the, "Freelancer MOD Manager" loaded.
You can download it @ lancersreactor.com
Alternately, unzip it with WinZip or WinRar, and copy it into the Freelancer directory.
(Doing so will make Freelancer ONLY play this mod.)