Freespace 3 possible?

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:42 pm

http://forums.avault.com/cgi-bin/ultima ... 005485;p=1

Derek Smart is interested in getting the Freespace license.

This could be good.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:53 pm

Its not just good. Its GREAT!

Provided this is legit of course. More power to him.

Tetrad · Post by **Tetrad** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:20 pm

Dr. Derek Smart? Ha.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:50 pm

No. Never.

Just read the HLP Thread about this. Basically, this total jackwipe has managed to alienate the heart of the FS2 community with one post. From what he's written, he sounds like an arrogant jack@ss with an ego larger than Russia. I'd rather murder him than let him get his hands on the Freespace license.

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:53 pm

such hatred TG

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:54 pm

Trust me, it's well-deserved. I'm with the FS2 community: I'd rather never see an FS3 than have him make one.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:11 pm

Wow, this is bad. I wish Derek Smart would just leave the computer world altogether, if not just leave anything remotely related to Descent alone.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 9:06 pm

Who the hell is Derek Smart? Summary?

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 9:14 pm

Vader wrote:Who the hell is Derek Smart? Summary?

Google is your friend ...

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 9:34 pm

I'd definetly be interested. If need be I'd just dis-own it as part of the Freespace series and move on(just like I did with Deus Ex 2).

Zetal · Post by **Zetal** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 12:48 am

I smell a biiiiig doubt. This is supported by:

1) The fact you would have to do another good/better acting job on FS3 (which caused the price to skyrocket)

2) Get a better guy than this ("In the gaming news groups, he's infamous for being the focus of the largest and longest running flame war ever seen." http://www.werewolves.org/~follies/)

3) Derek seems like a scam artist (by the faked PhD) and is probably just making lies.

4) Do you think anyone would actually buy it? The only people who seem to know about it are game enthusiasts. ...and I doubt they will get something by Derek.

5) Anyone in their right mind wouldn't take on making an FS3 when put next to the bad sales of FS2. Never make a sequel to a failure (In this case, only in profit. The game was good.).

So there's my take on it.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:50 am

I dunno.

a sequal for 500k?

You could... but I doubt it be a good game.

who holds the license for FS anyways? doesn't the parrallax peeps also have a hold on it, like Descent?

Tyranny · Post by **Tyranny** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 4:37 am

It never hurts to make a sequal of a game that didn't do well if you make an effort to learn from the mistakes and make a great game.

The trick is more often then not, they never learn, great games are few and far between.

Beowulf · Post by **Beowulf** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 11:54 am

FS2 was pretty frickin fun though.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:30 pm

Freespace came around after Parallax split, so I beilieve Volition is the only other company with claims to it. Now if only Volition could do FS3...

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:47 pm

Oh ★■◆●, I hope he doesn't get it. This moron making FS3 would be like Kevin J. Anderson writing another novel. Nothing good can come from this.

Zetal · Post by **Zetal** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:07 pm

Tyranny wrote:It never hurts to make a sequal of a game that didn't do well if you make an effort to learn from the mistakes and make a great game.

The trick is more often then not, they never learn, great games are few and far between.

There's a problem with that though. If the possible buyer figures that the game before that had never been heard of, the thought usually turns to, "Oh, they must not have done a good job with the first one. Maybe it wouldn't be worth it."

I guess FS2 would be inbetween our views because the game was really good but the marketing was bad. So it is really a toss up with this. But when you factor in this guy, I doubt it would work. It would probably be a complete flop.

Sage · Post by **Sage** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:01 pm

I hath never played any of the Freespace games, but I think Darek Smart should mkae one cuz it'd be new.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 9:24 pm

Derek Smart is a frelling idiot. No, it is not an honor that he continue the FreeSpace series. Instead, if true, it demonstrates in what dire straits Interplay is. If Smart is a new name to you, then you may be entranced and seduced by his promises. But if you're aware of his history of bragging, flamming, and then producing pitiful games, you'd know better.

No matter what his tremendous ego wants you to believe, his previous games were horrendously buggy and sucked. Big time.

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 5:04 am

Smart might actually do it, if he spends money on testing.

And a PR staff.

And more people.

And if he stuck just to funding the game.

Smart's problem is that he is pretty much a One-Trick pony, and can't seem to narrow his vision enough to make a fun, managable game.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:18 pm

Holy Crap!

On Second thought, i'd rather not see a FS3 if its decided that he will aquire the liscence. Given his previous scams, mayby this is just a joke?

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:20 pm

hey, if you want a new twist to FS2, try the Babylon 5 mod for it. Pretty nice. It's a HUGE D/L tho. 200+ megs. (i know that's nothing for some of you out there;))

Tangaroa · Post by **Tangaroa** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:54 am

Hmm, judging by the attitude of derek smart, im not even going to buy Freespace 3 if it does come out, I refuse to help such an arrogant arsewipe "earn" money. (fat chance just one person will make a difference though, would be good if nobody bought it and someone gave the topic link to some gaming magazine, might be a tad idealistic to think they would do anything about it, but maybe not.)

DigiJo · Post by **DigiJo** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:06 am

uhm, i have read some of the threads on avault and hlp, 24+ sites. thats the mother of all flamewars right?

Grendel · Post by **Grendel** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:36 am

Yes -- from Icemans link:

"In the gaming news groups, he [DS] is infamous for being the focus of the largest and longest running flame war ever seen. Even before Usenet, the flames were on AOL (in the Take2 forum) and Compuserve."

That guys is a prick & a fraud -- hope he won't get his grubby hands on the license..

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:45 pm

Duper wrote:hey, if you want a new twist to FS2, try the Babylon 5 mod for it. Pretty nice. It's a HUGE D/L tho. 200+ megs. (i know that's nothing for some of you out there;))

Be sure and get the full R2 release and not the patch. The patch does not work half the time and its a waste of 70 something MB.

Also, with the death of Volition Watch, TBP has moved to the HLP server.

http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~freespace/ ... o=29&cat=5

There are plenty of mods/campaigns out there to choose from. Some of the best I've played are Derelict, BWO, and Unholy Alliance. (All of which are still on Volition Watch...)

EDIT:

It seems he's registered and posted on HLP as well. (half-way down the page) This could get interesting...

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:00 pm

You know I wonder what the D3 community would do if the source code to D3 was released. Would we do something like the FS SCP? Or would we work on fixing all the bugs.

Personally I think D3 would really fit using cell shaders since it already looks very cartoonish.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:02 pm

Krom wrote: Personally I think D3 would really fit using cell shaders since it already looks very cartoonish.

Agreed Krom.
Thanks MD.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:03 pm

You know, I've since noticed that the cartoonish phenomenon is not limited to D3 as I once thought. I broke out Perfect Dark the other day and noticed the exact same symptom: too damn colorful!

The scary thing is the Perfect Dark Zero is (was) supposed to be cel shaded...

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:38 pm

Krom wrote:You know I wonder what the D3 community would do if the source code to D3 was released.

Probably nothing.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:00 pm

I registered at HLP recently, and after getting to see a little bit of the FS2 community, I think they're much more active than our community could ever hope to be. One of the problems with Descent 3 is that it is a mostly multiplayer-focused game. Let's face it: no matter how fun the singleplayer campaigns of all 3 Descent games were, they still lacked one major element: storyline. Just look at FS1 and FS2; they have what I feel is the best, most in-depth science-fiction story ever, even above most movies and books in the genre. The singleplayer of the Freespace games is storyline-driven, allowing great creativity in the realm of new campaigns and mods. That, combined with the FS2 Source Code Project, has allowed the FS2 community to accomplish great things in the realm of mods and upgrading the FS2 engine. Just check out some of the released campaigns and mods, and you'll see what I mean. As much as some of you people (yes you, Suncho

) seem to think that singleplayer isn't a necessary part of games, I feel it is what gives games their true longevity. I could replay FS1 or 2 a hundred times, and I'd still love every second of the campaign. Sadly, I just can't say the same about Descent singleplayer. Compared to what the Freespace community has accomplished, our community is stuck with a few mods that barely anyone plays, even the closest thing we have to a total conversion, Pyromania. And since D3's singleplayer just doesn't have the same type of exciting feeling that the Freespace games do, we don't have much in that realms. Even the best singleplayer levels, such as Reactor Gamma, don't measure up to Freespace singleplayer.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish our community was more like that at HLP: full of brilliant modders working on a variety of exciting new projects. Our community seems almost dead, at times, compared to theirs, and that saddens me greatly. If, by some act of God, we were ever able to get a fourth Descent game, the one thing I'd wish for it would be a truly engrossing singleplayer experience, along the lines of the Freespace games. It would greatly increase the game's moddability, longevity, and overall appeal.

P.S. One long-standing personal gripe of mine is that no one has ever attempted a total conversion of the D1 and D2 singleplayer missions, bots, and weapons to D3. Wouldn't it be great to see your old favorite levels with D3's graphics, or to play through D1 on insane in D3? Once again, I can refer to the Freespace community; they've completely ported FS1 to FS2, and from what I've heard, it's a very top-notch job. I just wish that something similar would have happened for D3, but I have to sadly acknowledge that it's too late now.

P.P.S. None of what I've said is intended to promote the FS2 community over the D3 community. Rather, I just want this community to quit shrinking, quit "dying," get more active, and show some life. I'd like to see some more ground-breaking steps, with or without the D3 source code. I'll actually admit that I haven't played D3 multiplayer in a while, because I've been engrossed in some of the truly excellent fan-made campaigns of FS2. I just wish I could bring some of that excitement to D3.

Liquid Fire · Post by **Liquid Fire** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:12 pm

The problem isn't the lack of mods, the problem is that nobody plays anything new. If people were constantly trying out new levels and playing interesting mods, there would be more mods because there would be more incentive to create them. This would slow down the "dying" of the community, possibly even turn it around.

But alas, I see a full stadium server...

DigiJo · Post by **DigiJo** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 4:44 am

hmm i think the descent-series has a great singleplayer and a great story too, and there are higly underrated mods like coop and roboanarchy that got almost never played even thou they are great fun.

and in the fs-community there are tons more sp-player then there are mp-player, in d3 it is the same. the sp player mostly never come to bulletin boards, they just look for new stuff to play in the inet. and for d3 there isnt much new regarding singleplayer.

and thats one of the main problem, its lot lots of work to create good singleplayer level for d3, that tell a nice story have good gameplay etc. or continuing a plot. for a spaceshooter like fs2 you have to create a briefing, place some units, hell even create a new ship probably. a standard sp map probably takes 1 to 2 weeks to create. and you can please the masses then, make them stay in the game.

for d3 to create a new sp-map with making a complete new world, the scripting and all the new stuff you can easy count 6 month, if not more for a single person. levelbuilder who already made a sp-map for d3 will agree i guess. so we have almost nothing to give for the hoards of sp-only player.