Rebel Galaxy vs. Freelancer, unresolved

[fnberger]

Like many hopeful space pilots around here i spent a lot of time in Freelancer, mainly in the multiplayer self hosted server sandbox mode. The main quest was... ok, while some design elements were truly excellent. There are quite a few discussions here on steam and elsewhere if Freelancer really was a better game (besides steering fightercraft mostly and ships only later in the game), but i feel this discussion isn't over. Emotions aside: What are the points RG misses? What did Freelancer do better than RG? What would we want for a future mod oder a hypothetical RG II (apart from multiplayer)?

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Why do either of them have to be better? Why does it have to be a competition? They're both different and fun in their own way and both are flawed in different ways. If people like one the other both that's fine. If they don't like one the other or both that's fine, too. I will say that what Freelancer and Rebel Galaxy both miss is depth. There isn't a lot of story to both, they each lack characters with depth, their settings are superficial as well as their trading systems.

They both make combat the main focus of the game and while both have faction systems those systems are skin deep and wonky. Really the only difference between them is the 2-D vs 3-D combat and the fact that combat in RG is more physics-based (the environment around you factors into combat) whereas the only thing physical in Freelancer are the ships. Everything else is sprite-based.

As far as multiplayer goes that's impossible. For RG to be multiplayer It would have to be an entirely different game altogether. Even Torchlight II (which uses a modified version of the same engine) has a reputation for its syncing issues and that is far more multiplayer-friendly due to combat not being as physics based as Rebel Galaxy's.

What I'd like to see from a sequel is more of the same but deeper. I want the first game but with a new story and characters and more to that story and characters. I want factions that work better and a bigger & better trading system. I also want mining to be more of a potential career. Most of all I want more ship variety and more to them as well as more variety in mercs.

[fnberger]

Yes, "better" is an individual opinion. And, yes, we (you and i and some others) want more roleplaying, more toys, ships, weapons to play with and even more sandbox than in RG 1.

But from what i gather from this forum, quite a few people seem to be satisfied with pew-pew-ing their ways through a linear story. So making RG 2 the new Eve Online, with more action and less excel sheet work, would probably not be the first idea of many players. By now there's mainly one faction antagonism in RG, the Militia vs The Red Devils. All others seem to be getting along quite ok (civilian casualties set aside), or don't at all. It appears to me that RG was meant as a video console game, straightforward and entertaining, and all this sandboxing and RPing we do wasn't exactly intended. While it's a lot of fun.

So my question to the comm was: As both roleplaying and sandboxing is rather limited in both games, is there anything Freelancer had that RG is missing?

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Originally posted by fnberger:

is there anything Freelancer had that RG is missing?

The main thing Freelancer had that RG is missing is multiplayer and that's just not possible with RG. Aside from that the two games are very similar save for the difference in perspectives.

[Vince]

Originally posted by Zidders Roofurry -{EAC}-:

What I'd like to see from a sequel is more of the same but deeper. I want the first game but with a new story and characters and more to that story and characters. I want factions that work better and a bigger & better trading system. I also want mining to be more of a potential career. Most of all I want more ship variety and more to them as well as more variety in mercs.

@fnb sometime too much stuff just kill the fun, it also often happen to too many project, wich is sad for many titles
lot of layers are not a l l w a y s a good thing, it depend

also i kinda stick to what Zidd said kinda for the above reasons, mostly ; stations for each factions, (specific ships, turrets, broadside and all per faction)((let's say for exemple if you want to be friend with the militia you can't be friend with the red devil that kind of stuff & etc. & aside farming mission that pop below 5% for hardcore gamer let's say & "eventually")) some faction combination impossible per quest rewards wich will make faction heading a strategic or rp choice regarding your own gameplay and game approach (fight, trading, etc.)

main thing to me is to keep the "random encounter" fun in // with story encounter.
(in someway "Kinetic Void" is very similar to rebel galaxy aside KV is 3dfight + the ship editor, and the studio disbanded and all 2 year ago 75% of dev process done or so. wich is real sad regarding kv potential and the said devs team & founder, anyway that's another story & it happen time to time along the ea market, but just as a quick note)

on a more personnal note to me:

thing bigger than the Sturville = godmod even if i currently play with a minotaur for rep farm and lazyness i do much much prefer the feel of the encounter with Sturville and smaller ship, so regarding balance and player base imho godmod should be limited, the current balance is pretty well made regarding that as i personnaly don't play with dreadnaught, even the minotaur is a bit too much for me , more a lazyness farming quest thingy related as i do much prefer smaller ship

wich make me think even if the game balance is awesome a difficulties setting might have it's place let's say: easy encounter ilvl +1, normal +2, hard +3 etc. in that spirit eventually, not especially regarding the current game difficutlies itself but too value more specific ship size depending the diff level, let's say in very very very hard ilevle +5 your frigate won't make it whatever ^^

[GunsForBucks]

3D > 2D
I think this games dynamics are perfect ... any more "depth" and it would make it harder to jump in knowing nothing and enjoy the game.

I like fighting, like in Skyrim I spend too much time grinding skills instead of using them.

If anything for a RG2 I would want to see improved production values <prettier space, more varied explosions>, more varied interactions with NPCs... that is all that is missing that would make it feel like a AAA game in my opinion.

[Cookie]

The big thing that Freelancer had going for it in terms of lore and RP was not in fact multiplayer support, but a premade universe. You wouldn't be able to get the same depth in a procedurally generated universe without some seriously complex and thorough programming behind it.