Hi Guys.
Alright, I think I should add my two cents worth here. Firstly, I loved Privateer. No, more accurately I LOVED Privateer. It was a great game and before Freelancer there was nothing that touched it. The thought of being able to remake it using Freelancer as the base is what has me working on this mod, but there are limitations.
1) Audio.
This is really hard to do in a mod. A lot of money in games these days goes into voice acting, and recording new tracks is prohibitive for those of us doing this as volunteers. Secondly, the use of sound is different in both games. Most of the audio tracks I liked in the original Priv was talking to the bartenders. All the useful info you will get in bars in Freelancer is in text. Easier to mod, but not so simple to convert to audio.
2) Core game elements
Trade lanes are how you get around in Freelancer. Auto Pilot was how you did it in Privateer. This is part of the core behaviour of the game and therefore is there to stay. Ripping out trade lanes is possible with Freelancer, but adding in an auto pilot is next to impossible. All you would achieve is making the game harder to get around if you took out trade lanes.
3) Storylines.
It is possible to do in some games, but it would be difficult to do with Freelancer. You can however modify the existing missions somewhat, but that is about as far as it goes.
4) Commodities / Equipment / Ships
Now we're getting somewhere! This is an area of Freelancer that will be much easier to attack than the others so far. While a complete and perfect conversion is probably not possible, those of you who really want to run Brilliance again will probably be able to do so with a little tuning of the right files.
5) Ships / Bases
These can also be modified reasonably easily. This is evident with the proliferation of ship mods out there already. Bases are a little harder, but I am working on a model spec for bases so that we can incorporate models like the Vesuvius into Freelancer as battleship bases.
In conclusion, it will certainly be possible to make Freelancer look and feel much more like Privateer than it currently does, but there are limits. You have my personal assurance that we all will push those limits on this mod.
That having been said, Freelancer already has many elements that are similar to Privateer. The gun types are roughly similar, however the variety among each weapon type to me is an improvement on the original game. Commodities work in an improved manner IMO, and docking and navigation are improved in the new game. I always found the Priv universe a little too small, and Freelancer has made dramatic improvements in that regard.
The trick with this mod will be giving everyone the sensation that they are back in the Priv universe while taking advantage of the strengths in Freelancer.
The bottom line is that we will probably not be able to swap out the Blood Dragons with costumes and heads of Kilrathi, with voices to match, but we will try to make the environment as immersive as possible.
We are all still working on an initial public release, and it will be quite modest in what is implemented. It will be a good taste of things to come however, and I hope you all like it when you get to see it.
Regards,
Acid.