[Narwhal]

... the game never existed, you had this great idea in dream of a Space Shooter in which a mysterious race intervenes in a conflict between the Terrans and another race... you get the idea.

What would you make different ? In term both of background / history and campaign/battle design.

My opinion :

In term of background / history
 - I would make nodepoints tougher nuts to crack, but with lighter ships able to jump in or out further away from jump points to justify "skirmishes" in systems.
 - I would make the Taranis a Destroyer
 - Actually, I would call cruiser "cruiser", but "destroyer" carriers, and war capships smaller than cruisers "destroyers".

In term of campaign design
 - More point defense for capships. The level of anti-fighter defenses we see in PI - this I like. It feels more realistic.
 - No "waves" of ships, even Shivans. Maybe one first wave to scout, but then brute forces immediately. I really resent the "wave" systems (although I understand it was necessarily due to hardware capacities in 1999)
 - Shivans ships more specialised : for instance the Scorpion is supposedly a scout IIRC, but really we only see it used just as a fighter. I would have liked to see it used more as a scout - only a couple of them patrolling, and jumping out when they see something. As it is now, when I play, there is only three types of Shivans "fighters" : Dragons (shoot with missile or send wingmen), Manticores (engage)  and "Targets" (everything else, supposedly they are "assault" or "heavy" fighter", I don't really make the difference anyway).

What are the other ideas flying around ?

[Rodo]

You know you can do almost all of those right now, with the FSO mod¡fications anything can be done

My response would be much like yours, but I would add a freedom of movement in an universe, not in a preset scenary. (mission boundaries)

[Sushi]

Put it on a better engine, of course.

As far as gameplay changes go... well, as Rodo pointed out, those can already be done. And the ones that I want but can't be done, I code in. 


Frankly, I'm surprised there haven't been more "FS1/2 re-imagined" campaigns than there are.

[MatthTheGeek]

Probably because there are a lot of people that would immediately jump in against everything that remotely look non-canonical.

What if was interesting, but Shivans with beams in the GW ? Meh.

[Rodo]

Or maybe because making your own version of an universe is pretty damn difficult.
Particularly because if you want to go against FS main story you'll have to at least reach as much content and length (in regards of the campaign) as the originals did.

I bet everyone round here has thought of a side story to the main FS one... at least one, I know I did... and still do.

[BengalTiger]

I'd add a bit more realistic physics, which would allow ships to 'slide' while turning without having them accelerate to ludicrous speed (a side effect of high damp values in the .tbl). Thrusters on all 3 axis for all factions would also be nice.

I'd also double the velocities reached by ships, as well as weapon ranges.

I'd make sure that when 2 capships duke it out, they'd kill each other faster in FS 1 to give the feel of them actually having firepower, and slightly slower in FS 2 to allow players to watch 3-4 minute shootouts rather than nearly instant pwnage.

And meeting only 2 alien species just isn't enough, especially for FS 2.

[Sushi]

I'd add a bit more realistic physics, which would allow ships to 'slide' while turning without having them accelerate to ludicrous speed (a side effect of high damp values in the .tbl).

$Use Newtonian Dampening: YES
Solved.

[Thaeris]

I say we use the iNovae engine when it's released...

 

[Dragon]

I'd also double the velocities reached by ships, as well as weapon ranges.

There's a mod that does just that, along with optimized main campaign.

[General Battuta]

And meeting only 2 alien species just isn't enough, especially for FS 2.[/color]

This I can't agree with. More is not better. I'd prefer to see more time taken to explore the existing species.

We haven't run out of things to say about humanity yet. Vasudans and Shivans should get the same depth.

[Timerlane]

I aways thought that in FS1 we should have started out with weaker 'prototype' shields, then had them become full power later in the campaign. I kind of figured that was part of the justification for the Valkyrie's flimsy shields, seeing as most people, by default, would probably want to pick the brand-new Valkyrie to fly in the beginning, over the Apollo(and then assuming everyone would want to transition to the Ulysses and/or Herc by the end).

Of course, I'm sure we'd all replace ST with ST:R.

Were this topic here a month or so ago, I'd probably had things a little more fresh on my mind.

[Droid803]

I wouldn't change anything.

[Titan]

I would add more cowbell.

[Timerlane]

At the very least, some of the logical, hinted-at stuff from the FSRef Bible could be made more prominent/included. Really, just giving Volition all the time they needed, instead of having to hurry up and meet x deadline, could work.

[Scotty]

FS2 was released ahead of schedule and deadlines, IIRC.

[Timerlane]

FS2 was released ahead of schedule and deadlines, IIRC.

Given certain things, like the unused path for the Colossus in High Noon, I don't think everything was done yet, per se. The tech room description for the Horus, and a Command Brief introducing the Perseus both claim each are the fastest fighters in the GTVA. Again, my memory fails at the moment, but I'm sure there were some more nits that could stand to have been run by a fact checker.

Also, if knew there would be no FS3 soon following, perhaps there would have been a tiny bit more info given regarding everyone's motives(YMMV as to whether that would necessarily be a good thing, of course).

[Androgeos Exeunt]

At the very least, some of the logical, hinted-at stuff from the FSRef Bible could be made more prominent/included. Really, just giving Volition all the time they needed, instead of having to hurry up and meet x deadline, could work.

Well, the deadline was set by them, and they decided to meet it by any means necessary. There's nothing we could do.

[Klaustrophobia]

i think the sense of scale is entirely screwy in the FS verse.  i really don't know how you'd go about fixing it though.  smaller craft perhaps.  and it always bugged me that everything putzes along at no more than 100 m/s through SPACE.

[Rodo]

i think the sense of scale is entirely screwy in the FS verse.  i really don't know how you'd go about fixing it though.  smaller craft perhaps.  and it always bugged me that everything putzes along at no more than 100 m/s through SPACE.

True, I've always hated the fact that capital ships are either too small or fighters are too big, there's no way an Orion can fit as much fighters inside as it should.

[IronForge]

I would make it an MMORPG.