I saw this on another site and i thought that it was neat with all the different space shows featured and the decent explanation of the reality of space combat
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</a><!-- m -->Umm, okay . . .
That was a bit interesting Mr. Ed - spectrum and all - and I gotta wonder how much ppl understand about the diff. between space flight and atmospheric? Must be somethin out there on that too!
The unfortunate reality is that most folks NEED to hear and see all those
flashy bells and whistles. They also want to control their space ships in
much the exact manner as a pilot would control his fighter/bomber
flying in the atmosphere. (yeah, it's hogwash)
The only remotely possible exception to this rule of space vacuum would
perhaps be dense gas clouds. (Better hope it's not a volatile gas)
Which would be dense enough to allow for the soundwaves of ordinances.
It's the truth. In space, nobody can hear you scream.
You cannot hear guns fire, you cannot hear bombs explode.
Even for that matter, in the absence of gravity and atmosphere, the entire
reality of flight and weapons fire changes drastically. The actual "mass"
of a ship determines it's resistance to collisions.
Two tv series sci-fi programs were close to mimmicking this type of
flight reality. They are Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactica.
One movie released in the 60's in particular mimmicked the reality of space
flight and living in space to near perfection, and that was
2001: A Space Odessy.
(Story written by Arthur C. Clark, Directed by Stanley Kubrick)
I encourage everyone who has not watched this epic (ahead of its time) movie,
to watch it and learn something from it.
2010: The Year We Make Contact, was good but nowhere near the reality
of the original movie.
I thought that with space fighting and flight being the basis of freelancer that the combat post would prove interesting also theres various cuts from some old shows i used to watch
another great space show which tried to do the space thing correct ( of sorts ) was UFO -- the moon sequences were done decently and you had to love the outfits and looks of the moon girls
In the first season finale ( i think ) theres an attack on B5 by Raiders and they show a decent example of a pilot lining up the guy pursuing him kills his main engines flips over his craft and blows the guy away while flying backward
2001 is a great movie Buttttttttt its long and very draggy in parts -- just like space flight -- 2010 was a snappier movie thought not as artistic per see
And while were on the Sci-Fi tv and movie concept i found this article about the whole subject and Sci-Fi problems on tv
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Truth be told freelancer is the end of a very long line of flight sims and its not a space flight sim -- but that does not detract from its simplicity and fun which is why we play it -- its fun
"planes in space" is what they call the concept of spacefighters behaving like atmospheric flying craft. Many years ago I played a game that tried to emulate realistic physics for small spacecraft, it was horribly complicated and very difficult and actually quite boring, although the community that grew up around it loved it. Cannot for the life of me remember what it was called.
Those of you old enough may recall the arcade game Lunar lander, although 2D it did at least try to be fairly realistic, gravity, acceleration, momentum, and it was rather hard.
Great clips on the video! Oddly enough, I was watching UFO at the weekend and the moon sequences are indeed reminiscent of 2001, although as UFO was made in Bretonia in the mid 1970s, sci-fi was still heavily influenced by 2001-style realism, it wasn't until Star Wars was released that fantasy spaceships became de rigeur again.
One of the reasons that Freelancer has such a simple flight model is that the game designers wanted something that the fps/rpg fans could pick up and use straight away rather than learning lots of controls. I always found using the Z key a lot more rewarding and fun, especially crashing around in asteroid fields.
Hmph, your own telly in your stable - i didn't get my own telly till I was 16 and then my mum nicked it.
You're right about that Taw. I also remember the Lunar Lander game..and
although I found it entertaining and challenging, I ended up leaving it behind
in favor of saving up my quarters. Another 2D game you might remember was called Asteroids. (didn't have to worry about gravity in that one). An interesting quasi 3D game put out by Wild Tangent put you on a planet in a hovering type ship that you had to learn how to manuver. "Dark Orbit".
It had a tendency to slide but still be affected to slow down under the effects of drag.
Forget about SabreWing2 because its physics was similar to Freelancer...but you got to control your fighter/bomber with a joystick. (pssst...collaborators!)
The planes in space concept did make freelancer easy to play and learn..
I'd still like to learn what engine they used to eliminate the gravity effects.