X2 Vs Freelancer.

[darkmaster]

The winner is... X2 - The Threat!
But Freelancer got some good points in the match.

1) The populated area is not just an 80 by 80 km square, it's the whole star system, and you have to explore it fully to find space stations to do repairs, commerce and missions... (you can get even to the sun and fly around it, I don't recommend to fly INTO it... ). You can go from a planet to another and see the first one getting smaller and smaller, and the other getting Bigger and Bigger...

2) You can target planets (and Sun) and land and commerce on the surface (You can do all you usually do on stations, sometimes more). To be more precise, the game is centered on traveling from planet to planet (in a star system), and from star system to star system)

3) The Information system. Anything that can be targetted (and I'm referring especially to Planets and Suns) get Statistical Info (even Escape Velocity!!) and the descritpive one.

4) The Waypoint system, you can click on any point on universal starmap (well designed itself) and the nav computer will set the Optimal Course to that target in a sequence of waypoints).

These are the good points that in my opinion where missed in X2.
Overall it's better X2, I like a more Simulator style, and I don't want to count it's good points because you already know that.

I wanted to point out what is missing in X2 and that was not so hard to imagine in a Space simulator.

Bye!

[Cobraking001]

right on there

freelancer rocks but x2 even more

[Nyax]

In addition to the above-

Freelancer has a far superior universe, has a vastly superior plot and cutscenes, characters that aren't all massively annoying, creates a feeling of a universe that has more then one living person in it, has better music, actually has a strong exploration element, a vastly superior interface and is just a far more polished then X2 (unsurprising given Microsofts involvement)

X has a far greater depth of options, a Greater range of missions and better graphics. (although this is almost more of a downside given the frame rate problems many have, and the difficulty in seeing most stuff, thanks to realistic lighting)

[pixel]

But Freelancer got some good points in the match.

You can go from a planet to another and see the first one getting smaller and smaller, and the other getting Bigger and Bigger...

you can do that in X2 too, just get a fast ship and use SETA. Actually sitting between planets in X2 is quite a cool experience.

The distances involved in X2 for planets are vast, unlike Freelancer where an entire planet is about 2 miles across.

[darkmaster]

A good point for X2.
Then my questions is: why they didn't make faster ships (more space like, I remind you that in real space ships move very fast, and in space fiction spaceships move at 7-8000 Km/s without any kind of problem... ) and took advantage from this huge spaces.
The grafic involved is the same, so the game won't run slower (maybe faster, since not all space stations would be drawed at the same time, with great relief of our FramesPS ).

[Rapier]

Ahh, the old X2 versus Freelancer debate. And this is the place to have it 'cos your posts get deleted if you try it on the Lancer's Reactor. Still, we gained a lot of converts from people who weren't satisfied with Freelancer. I myself thoroughly enjoyed it for a month in single player, and maybe a couple more multiplayer. I'm sure Freelancer sold more units, but I reckon X2 matches it in terms of the total numbers of hours the game actually gets played.

[Nyax]

But Freelancer got some good points in the match.

You can go from a planet to another and see the first one getting smaller and smaller, and the other getting Bigger and Bigger...

you can do that in X2 too, just get a fast ship and use SETA. Actually sitting between planets in X2 is quite a cool experience.

The distances involved in X2 for planets are vast, unlike Freelancer where an entire planet is about 2 miles across.

I hate to break it to you but the planet sizes and distances in X are far from accurate. Obviously Freelancer has taken a little bit of artistic license with the sizes of planets/ stars/ systems (the planets are larger then the stars in most cases) but that's also fairly obviously just because the sizes of the ships/ stations/ planets etc have been resized for the purposes of improving the gameplay. That doesn't detract from the Freelancers feeling of flying from one side of a solar system to the other, whereas xs tiny sectors feel more like flying from one side of a car park to the other... Yes you can fly off the gate grid, but there's no point in doing so because 134 times out of 138, there's absolutelutely nothing to do out there, and nothing to find. (Oh and it's also boring as hell in anything slower then an M5.)

[pixel]

But Freelancer got some good points in the match.

You can go from a planet to another and see the first one getting smaller and smaller, and the other getting Bigger and Bigger...

you can do that in X2 too, just get a fast ship and use SETA. Actually sitting between planets in X2 is quite a cool experience.

The distances involved in X2 for planets are vast, unlike Freelancer where an entire planet is about 2 miles across.

I hate to break it to you but the planet sizes and distances in X are far from accurate. Obviously Freelancer has taken a little bit of artistic license with the sizes of planets/ stars/ systems (the planets are larger then the stars in most cases) but that's also fairly obviously just because the sizes of the ships/ stations/ planets etc have been resized for the purposes of improving the gameplay. That doesn't detract from the Freelancers feeling of flying from one side of a solar system to the other, whereas xs tiny sectors feel more like flying from one side of a car park to the other... Yes you can fly off the gate grid, but there's no point in doing so because 134 times out of 138, there's absolutelutely nothing to do out there, and nothing to find. (Oh and it's also boring as hell in anything slower then an M5.)

I never said it was realistic, it's a game for heaven's sake

I personally think that the vastness of the X2 physics makes for a more inspiring experience than the arcade game Freelancer.

Note: I enjoy Freelancer, still play it now and again.

[spence336]

yeh but in freelancer all the ships have a max speed of 79mps or wateva meaning there not much point buying a fight when you could buy a freighter and have a stronger ship that goes just as fast

[Danno]

The "equality" of speed between ships was one of Freelancer's drawbacks. A lot of people were unhappy about it, but what can you do? Microsoft, unlike Egosoft, is not the kind of company to care much about what improvements the fans would like to see.

Just look at the influence they have in the "Lancer's Reactor" forums. Your threads are automatically locked if they are even the least critical of the game. Anyone with common sense enough to see the game's shortcomings quits posting when they get tired of biting their tongue, which leaves only the fanboy's. Arghh, don't get me going!

They're both good games though, and I'd love to see a project from someone that combined the best aspects of both.

Going back just a little, "Tachyon" was a good game as well.

[Horris]

I have both.

X2 has more depth, longer lasting.

Freelancer has better fights, more action. Multiplayer

If X2 and freelancer merged? So you could go into "fight" mode like freelancer, but trade like X2?

This debate doesnt go away does it lol

[James_2k]

I hate to break it to you but the planet sizes and distances in X are far from accurate.

oh so you've been to Argon Prime recently have you?

[duriel]

I accept all the points made about freelancer. For alot of people it was a great game.

I on the other hand played it for 2 days and then stopped as i thought it was crap. I hated the fighting method and suign the mouse to direct the ship. I hated the lack of missions. I hated the fact that i had to unlock areas by doing missions and coulnd just roam around the map on my own. I hated the fact that i had to fight every couple of minutes even when i wanted to be a trader.

I accept that there was alot more to explore (this has been mentioned on Devnet so i'd wait and see in the expansion as to whether this has been changed in X2)

Both games have good points and bad points.

The thing to remember is that they are 2 completely differant games that are both set in space. They do differant things and are meant to. To compare them to each other too much is wrong in my opinion.

Neil

[Subjugation]

IMO, the unrealistic radio chatter in Freelancer gave the universe a lot of feeling of life, like stuff was actually going on - and being able to hail ships properly was great. To be quite honest in terms of 'feeling of life' Freelancer is a few points above X2, but in terms of raw depth and things to do, X2 wins by miles.

[James_2k]

IMO, the unrealistic radio chatter in Freelancer gave the universe a lot of feeling of life, like stuff was actually going on - and being able to hail ships properly was great. To be quite honest in terms of 'feeling of life' Freelancer is a few points above X2, but in terms of raw depth and things to do, X2 wins by miles.

[duriel]

Radio chatter would be nice in X2 but i'd make it an option that could be switched off as people would get sick of it over time i'm sure.


As this thread is listing things people liked about Freelancer that they would like to see in X2 you can suggest things in the Devnet part of the forum. Just remember to read what has already been suggested to avoid re-posting the same ideas.

Neil

[joebeard]

For me, the FL universe felt a lot more real than X's, the first time I played it, I only played enough to finish the game. On my most recent playthrough, I earnt as much money as I could and tried to discover all the secrets. I only completed the plot once I'd done everything I wanted. My second playthrough was extremely fun and I was far more addicted to it than I was with X...

However, it only lasted a few weeks, where as X has longevity which in the end, wins over.

[Nyax]

Yeah the equal speed thing does seem odd at first, but actually i think it's a really good idea, because it let's you do something no other game does- You can have chases. It means that escaping from an enemy (or vise versa) )is now not just a matter of having a faster ship, it means you have to out fly them. Fighters are still far more manouverable and better armed then freighters so it's not as if there's no advantage to flying one.

[Horris]

I think the idea of the ships all being the same speed is there is no friction in space, so no matter what size of the enigine, the top speed always is the same. The only think that may diffrer is acceleration.

[JungleJim]

I've never played Freelancer, although I *almost* picked it up on 3 occasions.

The game I'm playing concurrently with X2 right now is VegaStrike (a Freeware space sim). VegaStrike is very much more accurate on the subject of speeds, distances, & sizes than any other game I've ever played (and yet it's still off by ~100x in some cases!).

To cover the vast distances between objects in space, it has multiple mechanisms: Flight vs. Combat travel, Spec Drive, Time compression, & Jump drive (between systems). Of course even with all of these options, it can take a while to get from point A to point B.

The shear size of the VegaStrike universe is astounding (it looks like 1000s of systems) but I can't say how large it is because I have only traveled to 10s of systems. The location & type of star systems in the VegaStrike universe have been designed from actual astronomical data. There seems to be some sort of active campaign going on but the specifics change when you resume from save games.

Like X2 there's a BBS type system from which you can accept missions. All in all VegaStrike is a very fun sand box. However, in most cases it isn't polished, there's no plot, and there's not a very diverse universe from the point of view of things to do.

You can target whole ships or just ship subsystems. You can capture ships, you can rescue pilots, collect dumped cargo, etc. You can land on planets, stations, & even large ships. You can trade cargo.

Anyway, as a comparison point, it provides a feeling for how some of the changes that people have requested for X2 might look.