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I played Freelancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game) long ago. It had about 30 "star
by nirui 7y ago
I played Freelancer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game) long ago. It had about 30 "star systems", each one is about 100KM~200KM in-game distance in diameter. It's a fascinating game back in the day, and cost me years of free time.
When I jump from that game to EVE, it's very obvious to me that EVE is not for explore. You can do that of course, but you will be bored fairly quickly even compare to games like Freelancer.
In Freelancer, every "star system" that I jump into gives me a feeling of mysterious, until I cruise through every inch of the map, and memorized every cruise path and hidden "Wormhole"s.
In EVE, every system feel like the same. Yes, they have different layout, NPC and background, but still, it feel like repeat.
I believe EVE is more of a game of politics. A game about ruling, conquer and team work. Explore? not so much.
I don't know, maybe because the map of EVE is too big to provide saliency. In Freelancer, every map is manually made to service the background story, so each one is different in their own ways. Also, because the map is so small, you can make them vibrant easily.
- faitswulff 7y agoDid you ever play Star Citizen? I bought into the kickstarter because it was a "spiritual successor" to Freelancer, but never actually got around to playing it. Also have no idea what happened to it, if the development tanked, etc.
- kibwen 7y agoHeh, Star Citizen's perpetual development is a popular and regular topic on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19807082 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19807082
- Causality1 7y agoEver since Star Citizen betrayed us by walking back their "third person Freelancer-style combat" promise there hasn't been much hope for anything that recaptures that spark. I can tell you that Everspace is the closest I've come. The lore and plot are skimpy and the star systems are procedural but it absolutely nails the combat.
- faitswulff 7y agoDamn, I wrote a sibling comment to yours. Looks like Star Citizen fell short of Freelancer's legacy :/
- Causality1 7y agoIndeed. I'm not sure Chris Roberts has actually seen a jet fighter because the cockpits of all his space fighters look like those of World War 2 bombers with 60% of the field of view blocked by giant metal struts. My sedan offers better situational awareness than his starships.
- evgen 7y agoI am quite amused by the idea that you think someone in a spacecraft of any kind would gain situational awareness by looking out a window using the Mk 1 eyeball.
- Causality1 7y agoWhich begs the question, why have cockpit glass at all instead of immersing the "pilot" in a virtual environment with the most useful data available? Maybe something resembling, say, a chase cam?
- indigochill 7y agoIf we were going for "hard sci fi", you'd need some kind of drone or something to provide the chase cam perspective which seems like it would be a massive liability in combat. I agree a virtual environment would be preferable, although rather than representing the surroundings visually (which has a lot to distract from tactical decision-making), I'm picturing something like a higher-definition version of Elite Dangerous' IFF interface (with the little dots showing their relative angle to the ship).
- Apocryphon 7y ago
- alceta 7y agoAbsolutely second that Freelancer was an amazing game, I loved both the single player and (modded) MP with role playing. Tried Eve Online but it's just a completely different genre.