Descent: Freespace: The Great Thread

From how huge a game Freespace is, I'm surprised this thread wasn't started sooner.

Well...there is that Freespace Open thread, but that one only has two posts...

Anyway, new Freespace thread, here we go!

On a side note, this is the first convo I've ever started. CELEBRATION!

edited 31st Aug '11 11:10:16 AM by DemoralizedAnt

I had a really hard time doing turns in Freespace with the mouse. :(

There's mouse flight in Freespace?!

I've always used the Joystick. It works great!

Dive dive dive!

I thought about buying a joystick for Freespace, but it would probably make it hard to aim precisely. Plus I didn't feel like shilling out HKD$250+ (about USD$32) for a big fancy Logitech joystick.

What brand do you use? Can you aim good with it?

I'm not sure what brand mine is, but I know that it is a relic by today's standards. And I aim just fine, but then again, I've had some experiance with the joystick.

Only a few posts in, and that has already been mentioned. Snipes is so awesome.

In response to that...

"Oh my god! It's the Lucifer!"

edited 31st Aug '11 11:06:17 AM by DemoralizedAnt

"any quote from War in Heaven"

I've always played Freespace with a mouse since the last time I had a joystick was when I played video games on my dad's lap. Freespace 2 is probably the greatest game ever made, even just counting the original campaign. If you add in the amazing mods, it's no contest.

Goddamn, now I have to go play through it again...

Mouse is never a good thing to use in space/flightsim games, especially Freespace. Investing in a good flightstick like the Extreme 3D Pro is the only way to go.

edited 31st Aug '11 4:08:08 PM by s5555

I guess I'm so used to a mouse that it just seems natural to me. Hell, I play IL-2 with a mouse, despite how clunky that can be.

The only Space Sim that I've ever played using a mouse is Freelancer. For all of the rest, Freespace included, I used either the joystick or keyboard.

Who here knows how to kill Shivans before you are given the Avenger Cannon?

Since no one answered, I'll say it.

The GTW ML-16 is useless against Shivan shields, but a barrage of Fury Missiles at close range can devastate the rear shields, allowing you to finish him off with your main guns.

Snipes is so awesome...

edited 7th Sep '11 4:58:48 AM by DemoralizedAnt

As an aside, I'm friends with someone who played all the Wing Commander games up to Prophecy using just the keyboard. Then again, he's kind of a masochist like that.

In regards to the thread's topic, I managed to get one kill in the first Shivan appearance with a lot of patience and spamming the fuck out of the rockets to bring down the shielding. Probably one of the more frustrating missions of the first game if you're not content to just play Brave Sir Robin, Bravely Running Away, with that recon in the captured Dragon (not to mention actually capturing said Shivan fighter) not that far behind, for me.

edited 8th Sep '11 4:44:15 PM by Nohbody

I stayed in Deneb until I scanned everything that could be scanned, including the Lucifer (OH MY GOD!).

Too bad science team had vapor for brains, cause the retrofits to the Dragon made it handle like a brick and its jump drives broke down around the time the Eva came in.

edited 9th Sep '11 4:20:58 AM by DemoralizedAnt

On the other hand, it's not like they had a technical manual for the Dragon...

But they did have the combined efforts of Terran and Vasudan scientists and engineers, so if they had done a little more research on the Dragon, the Great War would have been won a lot sooner.

But with the Lucifer Armada heading for Vasuda Prime, I guess they didn't have enough time for more in-depth research.

I HAVE NOW ACQUIRED THE TRIPLE ACE IN DESCENT: FREESPACE!!

edited 9th Sep '11 7:57:49 AM by DemoralizedAnt

(Bumping thread for great justice)

I've been making progress in my latest playthroughs in Freespace 1 and 2. However, I've run into a rut in 2 on the mission "Proving Grounds", in which you take part in testing the new Pegasus stealth fighter. I've been trying to get the medal for that mission, but I haven't been able to destroy the Tiamat before the Aquitaine jumps out of the Nebula. Plus, for that mission I reserve one missile bank for EMP Missiles, which I use to keep the Pegasus wing from destroying the Oberon. Even if I bring Hornets, I wouldn't be able to cause enough damage to finish off the corvette.

As for Descent: Freespace, I'm on my way to the defense of Vasuda Prime, but I've been killed repeatedly (not by enemy fighters, mind you!) in the mission where I escort the Galatea to Beta Aquilae. Three deaths were from getting to close to the kamikaze fighters when they hit the Galatea, and one more when the Galatea ran me over as it went into Subspace. In the latter case, I was a little disoriented from the fighting, and I forgot to DIVE DIVE DIVE! But hey, no one said dogfighting was easy.

It's been a while since I played Freespace. I tried to install the FS2Open package but it kept erroring on me when I tried to load the original campaign missions and occasionally crashing. I followed the instructions exactly so I don't know what I was doing wrong. Also, I no longer have a functional joystick and mouse steering SUCKS.

I used to do a bit of amateur level building in FRED. Was fun, I liked staging battles with huge numbers of capships. After all, Freespace is the game that coined the phrase "Battle of Endor Syndrome" for the habit of amateur level editors to throw in huge fleets of ships in every mission.

I think I can sympathize with that practice, despite me having absolutely no FRED experiance. I'm guessing from their perspective, massive space battles make for an exciting mission, or something like that. I don't remember seeing any engagement that had more than four or five capital ships on either side.

Problem is, as I discovered, that the more ships (especially capships) that you throw into a mission, the less influence the player feels like they have over the outcome. After all, a fighter can only have so many bombs and there's a limit to how much you can dodge when you've got twenty AAA beam cannons and thirty flak cannons all gunning for you.

There are ways to do it well but they are lost on most amateur builders.

Never thought of it like that...

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I got the Triple Ace AGAIN in Freespace 2. VICTORY!

It also helps that the more big battles you have, the less impact they have on the player. Look at the Blue Planet series. The first part is generally small-scale frigate sized action, and whenever big capships show they clear the field. When the actual big battles occur, you can really understand the hugeness of it all. War In Heaven has more big battles, but it also has fantastic pacing with the more unique missions. Pacing is the most underrated part of game design, and it's something that Freespace nailed.

I have no ideas for you in Proving Grounds, unfortunatly. That mission was goddamn hell, almost as annoying as A Game of TAG. Honestly, I don't have that much trouble with hitting things with the TAG missiles, it's just such a huge change of pace from the normal gameplay, and not a fun one, either. I hate having to depend on the AI for my kills.

If memory serves, those two missions are among the most hated of all. "A Game of TAG" was the worst of the lot, which throws you in with no secondary missile bank and saddled you with a Great War relic, the GTF Ulysses, as your fighter. To be honest, I really had no problem with the Ulysses, since I had all but mastered using it in Descent: Freespace. But there was the issue of its inferior armor.

Some of the ships and weapons in Freespace 2 are said to be an improvement on another design from the Great War, but a good number of such were inferior to their Great War counterparts. The Hercules Mark 2 was described as having better speed and maneuverability without sacrificing firepower. But when you compare it to the Great War Herc, the Mark 2 has noticibly smaller missile banks and four gun hardpoints instead of the original's six. The GTW Circe was said to have been based on the old Banshee laser, but since it does virtually no hull damage, its more of a second generation Shield Breaker.

omg http://shadowsoflylat.net/index.php How the hell did I not notice this sooner.

^ Um, what does a fan-made Starfox game have to do with Freespace? "Both have spaceships" doesn't count.

It's a Freespace mod.

EDIT: ohwait same engine but standalone

durr.

edited 16th Sep '11 4:08:47 AM by GiantRobots