Was there an original plan to have more than Trent to choose from as the hero?

There had to be a plan for more characters. Why else would there even be a character selection screen when entering a multiplayer server when you can only choose 1, Trent. Seems the idea was abandoned in a rush ( rush, yeah right ) to get it out the door. This is not fact, simply speculation by deductive reasoning on my part.

I´m pretty sure that additional characters were once part of the plan. Remember that this game had a long development cycle and a lot of hiccups along the way. A lot of what was originally envisioned, or promised, was changed in scope in order to get the game out the door. Go read the archived previews in some of the online game sites for giggles. You´ll understand why some of the fans were pretty let down with the final product´s shallow nature. Recall that at one point, this game was actually slotted to become an MMORPG. How about these select quotes: &quot;Your ship will automatically pilot itself, following nav points to complete missions or performing a variety of maneuvers in combat. Unlike traditional space games, which frequently play like a shooter in a 3D arena, Freelancer has a much more tactical feel. You simply click on the maneuver you want your ship to perform, target your enemy with your mouse cursor, and fire away. Freed of direct piloting chores, I found myself making strategic decisions in combat: Which enemy subsystem do I target, how is my power being managed, which weapons should I be using? It was much more engaging than the de rigueur furballs of even the best space games. And should you so desire, you can override the automatic pilot and steer yourself.&quot; - Gamers.com &quot;Just as in real life, if there is a gold field somewhere in the Freelancer universe, we have created a mining operation complete with mining ships, a base to process the ore, police patrols to protect the mine, paths for transport ships to bring the ore to the consumers, and criminal groups to attack these transports or the mining operation itself. The inherent tension between miners and criminals creates a threat level for the gold commodity in this area, which, just as in real life, dictates the price.&quot; - Gamespy interview with DA &quot;The economy can be affected by outside influences. A band of pirates could rob a grain-producing planet of thousands of pounds of grain. This would automatically spawn some missions to either retrieve grain, or kill some pirates to get them off the planets back.&quot; - Gamer Web &quot;Players will have a while to wait before they can find out—Freelancer is currently scheduled to be released in the winter of 2000.&quot; - Chips &amp; Bits &quot;As a space-sim, you will get to blow up spaceships. The cut scenes include shootings and killing people. There are many uses of the “D” word and “H” word, and a use of “S.O.B”, not abbreviated. There are also small sexual innuendos in one cut scene. One regarding Trent (the main character) arriving on the planet with two women. In addition, there is bribery involved at times. Someone may offer to change your stance with particular factions…for a price. The use of alcohol and cigarettes is also depicted.&quot; - Christian Computer Games Review Okay, those last two were just for giggles. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

lol Ether Dragon that last one was funny all by itself. haha, good one I´d rather be sucked off by a mountain goat with peanut butter on my penis - Centy

lmao on your last preview, but after reading up on some of the real ones i am totally let down. the majority of stuff they left out was exactly what i felt the game was missing. hopefully they´ll come out with an expansion or make FL2 with all of the features they left out.

yeah, someone should make a mod, where you can choose different characters, or at least give him new clothes, in the create a new character screen.

too bad DA just cant get together some good modders and let them loose, since those dudes would do it for less wage than regular employees, no wait, is that slave labor? <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>, plus, the modders have better ideas on what to do woth the game, and all DA has to do is swat all the game bugs. General Fang leader of clan FMM http://www.FMM.homestead.com

thanks guys for the info ... I hadn´t realised just how long this game had been in development. It´s a shame that a heap of ideas originally planned for the game seemed to get ´shelved´. It´s been interesting reading up on old archived articles about the game from various websites.

It´s pictures like from the following link http://www.lancersreactor.org/…mp;File=gamespy0202-2.jpg on the lancer reactor website that makes me wonder about more characters originally being involved in the SP storyline. Who´s this bloke? I don´t remember this scene in the storyline... where did this scene come from? And who´s the girl?

The guy looks like the thief who stole the artifact on FP7. The girl could possibly some poor innocent bystander who got him in the act. My guess would be that is a screen shot of an alternative or longer opening scene.

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> The guy looks like the thief who stole the artifact on FP7. The girl could possibly some poor innocent bystander who got him in the act. My guess would be that is a screen shot of an alternative or longer opening scene. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> actually it looks like one of Dr. Sinclair´s assistants, or maybe Sinclair

actually he does look like the thief .... He´s got the purple rock but also there is a bright yellow glowing object he´s holding... I wonder what that was suppose to be? Would love to know what extra scenes may have landed on the cutting room floor during the game development.

In that particular screenshot, I believe it´s earlier versions of the thief (can´t remember his name) and Dr. Sinclair. There obviously were supposed to be more cutscenes and stuff. In fact, there´s probably tons of stuff that was trashed throughout development. A lot, if not all footage in the official trailers don´t appear in the game, like in the E3 2001 (has it really been that long?) trailer. As for character selection, no. It was known through the last year or two of development that the main protagonist would not have any user definable characteristics (not even sex) in favor of a better story. Maybe it was possible a long time ago, like 4+ years ago, but thats more than enough time to remove a simple feature like this. I´m not sure why it´s there, to be honest. <img src=´http://www.team-dlr.com/tach/tlrsig.gif ´>

&quot;X2 - the threat&quot; look slike it might be more of the game Freelancer for so long threatened to be... the info on egosoft.com certainly makes it sound like the business, though of course - as Freelancer taught us, won´t know for sure what its like til its actually delivered. But at least them fools at Microsoft aren´t involved in that project so hopefully egosoft will stick to their plans better than DA....

to be fair, and I am no lover of Microsoft, if they hadn´t taken over DA then there prob. wouldn´t have been any Freelancer at all outside of Chris Robert´s head. And I´d still be playing P2.

Tawakalna... From all the archived articles I´ve been catching up on concerning the development of Freelancer I have to agree with you about Microsoft ...