freelancer demo is out
- Thread starter Wolf_Blacvkwolf
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ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
What the hell?
How would you get any more motion sick from Freelancer than any WC game? And how would using a joystick make you more motion sick that flailing around with the mouse? I don't know if that would quite work.. the game requires a left click for yaw/pitch and also tracks the guns with the mouse. It'd be easy as hell for the developers to slightly tweak how that works, but it'd be game dynamics reworking, more than what would probably be in the scope of a patch.
They're pretty different in the specific options there. Starlancer's biggest feature was the six player coop through the missions. Freelancer centers on these little island servers that grow up.
cff
Kilk'dymga'qith laq Ik'vikvi
That would be rather hard to do (if not done by DA) as you'd have to remove free firing mode and instead replace it by classical fire forward mode. You'd very much notice who flies by which method in the end. One would be an awesome gunner, one would fly much more erratic.
Huh? How so? You'd just have to lock the fire-cursor to the center of the screen while moving the ship just like you did in normal WC.
Just press the space bar. No more holding of the LMB needed. Pressing space again gets you back into normal mode. I wished there was a way to fix the guns to shoot only forward as well for if you can do this a joystick-pach would be trivial.
Just finished the scripted mission. Have to say, the mouse flight takes a bit of getting used to, especially only having a standard wheel mouse, I've lost the missile and "select nearest target" buttons on my 4-button-with-hat joystick.
That said it does work well enough, except it now feels like I'm playing a first person shooter, which I guess was the whole point of it all. I'd rather use a joystick anyday though, maybe in time, one of the clever WC folks, (HCl et al.) will figure out how to do it.
Couple of questions, I didn't look hard for it, but, where's the radar? And, looking at the 3rd screenshot on the CIC home page, it seems to indicate a multiplayer chat option, which I can't seem to see in this demo.
That said it does work well enough, except it now feels like I'm playing a first person shooter, which I guess was the whole point of it all. I'd rather use a joystick anyday though, maybe in time, one of the clever WC folks, (HCl et al.) will figure out how to do it.
Couple of questions, I didn't look hard for it, but, where's the radar? And, looking at the 3rd screenshot on the CIC home page, it seems to indicate a multiplayer chat option, which I can't seem to see in this demo.
Filler
General Graphics Guy
I found the mouse system fine. In fact, I think it would be a lot more difficult on a joystick.
Ever tried warding off a swarm of bogeys with your cargo ship's turrets?
Hit V and you can brush anything off with your rear turrets and whatever else can shoot back there. That sort of thing would be way too hard with an input device that inputs movement vectors instead of an xy position.
I was a little shakey with the mouse at first, but now I'm fine with it. Honestly, I don't see why people are whining unless they are afraid to learn something new.
Ever tried warding off a swarm of bogeys with your cargo ship's turrets?
Hit V and you can brush anything off with your rear turrets and whatever else can shoot back there. That sort of thing would be way too hard with an input device that inputs movement vectors instead of an xy position.
I was a little shakey with the mouse at first, but now I'm fine with it. Honestly, I don't see why people are whining unless they are afraid to learn something new.
The whole "Ditch mouse control" thing is what "freeflight" is all about, and you can use keys to turn as normal... however given the choice between keyboarding it and mouseflight, definitely mouseflight. You can still shoot off-center in freeflight, but being able to control your ship's motion independently of your guns (which would make you hideously unpredictable) is possible but akward at best.
Oh... yes. Radar. What radar? Keep in mind though that the number of objects that might be in your area at any one time (disregarding neutral ships) would likely overload the advantage that any compact visual display would give you. Imagine ships actively using all of these docking ports and gates... possible overload?
http://cgi.actionvault.ign.com/disp...gn.com/features/media/freelancer/fl010802.jpg
However, hail 3rd party patches. I wonder... Freelancer with a WC3 sprite cockpit overlay, full joystick support, transparent radar in a portion of your screen, and an official Freelancer Dramamine dispenser that mounts to the side of your monitor?
Oh... yes. Radar. What radar? Keep in mind though that the number of objects that might be in your area at any one time (disregarding neutral ships) would likely overload the advantage that any compact visual display would give you. Imagine ships actively using all of these docking ports and gates... possible overload?
http://cgi.actionvault.ign.com/disp...gn.com/features/media/freelancer/fl010802.jpg
However, hail 3rd party patches. I wonder... Freelancer with a WC3 sprite cockpit overlay, full joystick support, transparent radar in a portion of your screen, and an official Freelancer Dramamine dispenser that mounts to the side of your monitor?
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Yeah, knew it was only a matter of time before people would start setting up camp like this.
I've learned how to use the mouseflight, and that's how I flew exclusively in Privateer 2. But that doesn't mean it's the best way.. and further, my issues are that the game has been slanted towards mouseflight without the possibility of joystick play. We were told that this was because of all the crazy neural net tactical computers and autotracking and other features that would make mouse play the most natural and obvious logical interface choice.. but I really see nothing about the game that wouldn't work fine for those who prefer a joystick if they just chose to give people several input options.
Eder
Mr. Standoff
I haven't got the demo since it's far too big a download for my dial-up connection, so I'll just have to wait for the full game... 
But someone please clarify something to me: From what I've read, I get the impression that you use the mouse to aim your guns (moving guns?), and hold a modifier button OR use the keyboard to steer your ship... is that it?
--Eder
But someone please clarify something to me: From what I've read, I get the impression that you use the mouse to aim your guns (moving guns?), and hold a modifier button OR use the keyboard to steer your ship... is that it?--Eder
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Yeah, the guns track to where your mouse cursor is pointed at. Right clicking fires. Similarly, when you hold down the left button, the front of the ship begins to turn and center on where the cursor is at. So in practice, you find the enemy ship, get the cursor over it, and hold down both mousebuttons to fire and bring your ship to bear on it. It's not a bad system, I kinda like it and it works better than I expected.. I just think that alternative schemes would only benefit the game. Since the gun control is tied to basic cursor control, it'd be more than a simple patch to map in joystick support. The guns would probably have to autotrack on their own or be hard set forward like in WC. It's cool as it is, and I would probably be having even more fun if I could use a stick.
I think it would be more in keeping with the spirit of the game to have the joystick move a gun cursor and let the ship nose follow the gun cursor just as it does in mouse flight.
However, I think you are right: a better interface design would be to steer the ship with the joystick and let the gun turrets auto aim at the selected target. If they were clever, they could even let you put your turrets into a point-defense mode where they would automatically track, target, and fire upon hostile ships and inbound torpedoes.
But then they would have to include some kind of actual tactical challenge to the combat (in order to compensate for the computer taking over the gun aiming player skill), and what fun would that be, right?
No one!
Nah, I don' want to show off, but if anyone with a newer comp should tell me because i own some newer games and the run quite jerky even on my PC. If others with the same or lower configurations can run the demo fine, they could tell how the game runs on their system, so that I know if it's just my PC that cannot handle this game.
Nah, I don' want to show off, but if anyone with a newer comp should tell me because i own some newer games and the run quite jerky even on my PC. If others with the same or lower configurations can run the demo fine, they could tell how the game runs on their system, so that I know if it's just my PC that cannot handle this game.
Oggy
Rear Admiral
I get that problem on my machine,
Unreal 2, Mafia, C&C Generals etc everything turned up as high as it will go, all run fine.
RTCW just laughs in my face as the frame rate drops (At 800 X 600),
as does Morrwind, (Even at 640 X 480 with pixel shaders off)
and Jane's Attack Squadron, the list just goes on....
Why God? why?, did I not buy the latest hardware and download the most up to date drivers, why must you mock me ?
Unreal 2, Mafia, C&C Generals etc everything turned up as high as it will go, all run fine.
RTCW just laughs in my face as the frame rate drops (At 800 X 600),
as does Morrwind, (Even at 640 X 480 with pixel shaders off)
and Jane's Attack Squadron, the list just goes on....
Why God? why?, did I not buy the latest hardware and download the most up to date drivers, why must you mock me ?
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