any unstructured FL mods? - Printable Version

any unstructured FL mods? - Printable Version

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any unstructured FL mods? - Ursus - 05-29-2012

Freelancer and the Discovery mod in particular are very structured, with distinct classes that are specifically balanced towards each other. It's not a problem, its a legitimate way to do things, and it seems to work pretty well.

But there is a lot of interesting things that can be done if you didn't have classes at all, just hulls with a bunch of cargo space and hard points that can be filled out so that the ship is optimized for your specific desires. Imagine a BWT with 12 hard points and 3600 cargo, and its up to you to make it into a cargo ship, a cruiser, or a hybrid smuggler. Discovery does *some* stuff like this now, like with armor using up cargo, but other games have done things like use thrusters on hardpoint mounts to improve turning agility (and give up guns for it), add external equipment like IFF decoder on a hardpoint, and so forth. In the context of Freelancer it would be something like make CDs into formal missiles that use a forward-facing hardpoint, make CM droppers into turrets that you mount along the side hardpoints, and so forth etc. This isn't really feasible in Discovery because of the heavy class-based balance system (battleships cant have CD, large transports cant have CM, and so forth).

Just wondering if any other mods have gone down this road and if it "worked" or not.

any unstructured FL mods? - SparkyRailgun - 05-29-2012

Not in the scale you mention, but plenty of mods have changeable engines, powercores, etc on top of the regular stuff you can change.

Also, a CD IS a forward facing missile.

any unstructured FL mods? - Ursus - 05-29-2012

' Wrote:Also, a CD IS a forward facing missile.

it uses a distinct hardpoint, I am talking about having it be like any other rmissile

any unstructured FL mods? - Cond0r - 05-29-2012

Flak 88, Void and Crossfire did some of that stuff. Should check those out. The only sad part is that their servers are almost empty.

Like on Crossfire. Its a great mod but, only like 30 or so players are on the server playing. And that's at peak times during the weekend.

any unstructured FL mods? - SparkyRailgun - 05-29-2012

' Wrote:it uses a distinct hardpoint, I am talking about having it be like any other rmissile

It uses a torpedo hardpoint.
A torpedo is a missile with a different name.

any unstructured FL mods? - Ursus - 05-29-2012

' Wrote:It uses a torpedo hardpoint.

some CD mounts can hold a torpedo, not the other way around

but okay make CDs just another type of torpedo, that can use one of the available medium hardpoints

any unstructured FL mods? - SparkyRailgun - 05-29-2012

The point I'm getting at is that all missiles can be a CD.
Most missiles simply don't have the function activated.

any unstructured FL mods? - Ursus - 05-29-2012

' Wrote:The point I'm getting at is that all missiles can be a CD.
Most missiles simply don't have the function activated.

That's right, because class-based balance requires some classes not have them, so they use custom hardpoints that are not available on all models.

Missile is a missle (apart from projectile form factor issues) so in an unstructured setup you would have a generic missle launcher, and buy whatever ammo you wanted for it. Maybe it would be CD, or maybe cannonball, or maybe paralyzer. This doesnt work in original Freelancer or in Discovery because the CD is a separate hardpoint, and even if the CD ammo did use missle launchers there are a bunch of ships that dont have forward gun hardpoints. It's too different

Here, this is from Escape Velocity, a Mac game in th 90s. You had cargo space and hardpoints

[Image: ev-12.jpg]

Need more power, then buy a bigger engine and lose cargo space. Need more hull protection, then buy armor and lose cargo space. Now you're a cruiser not a cargo ship.

any unstructured FL mods? - SparkyRailgun - 05-29-2012

I imagine it's all very possible, going back to your OP.
Nobodies really done it to that extent though, or at least not released it.