[Mobius]

...what would you ask to change in FreeSpace? In poor words, what are the cons of the series? The pros are well known and we all love them, but I'm pretty sure there are people around here who can point out one or more things in FS that just don't match their tastes.

Personally - but it's just my opinion - I believe should have done a better job at handling the universe and continuity they created. Both games are enjoyable (otherwise we wouldn't be here! ) but there are too many inconsistencies and major changes left unexplained for my tastes. Many user-made campaign series have done a much better job at providing players with a single and consistent continuity to play around with.

I would have loved to see more official campaigns other than the main campaigns from FS1 and FS2, Silent Threat and Operation Templar. Speaking of the main campaigns, some multibranching a la Colony Wars 1&2 would have been awesome. Any thoughts?

[Spoon]

Needs more (Vasudan) fanservice.

[procdrone]

...what would you ask to change in FreeSpace?

-Capital ships behavior (AI which torment us ever since) and gameplay - would like to see volition full professional implemented capship command system. (i know there is one made by modders)

But that's me, I am a capship freak.

[General Battuta]

The capship AI is exactly right for FreeSpace 2's design. It only becomes a task when you try to do more than what FS2 wanted to do.

[IcemanFreespace]

We turn a blind eye but it kind of doesn't make sense. Any good destroyer is obsolete since you can slap a Maxim on a couple of Herc Mark II's(powerful yet not that advanced or expensive I assume), disable it from a distance and destroy it in any way imaginable. Or just destroy beams from a distance if in a pinch. So actually a Hecate type ship makes a lot of sense, as a small base and a way of moving stuff safely. Maybe a Collosus could be the same just bigger, but it can't justify its cost I think. Cruisers are even more useless. Gunship would be a realistic ship of choice for FS2, with interceptors with developed trebuchets and kaysers to guard them.

[General Battuta]

Cruisers are pretty good anti-fighter platforms as long as they have AAA beams (and you play on insane to turn off your magical damage resistance). Maxims are ludicrously overpowered but they are fun lategame guns and that's what Volition wanted.

[AdmiralRalwood]

Personally - but it's just my opinion - I believe should have done a better job at handling the universe and continuity they created. Both games are enjoyable (otherwise we wouldn't be here! ) but there are too many inconsistencies and major changes left unexplained for my tastes. Many user-made campaign series have done a much better job at providing players with a single and consistent continuity to play around with.

I guess I'm along similar lines... fix all the inconsistent jump nodes. Sol having three jump nodes? Why do we care about the Lucifer sealing one, again?

[IcemanFreespace]

Cruisers are pretty good anti-fighter platforms as long as they have AAA beams (and you play on insane to turn off your magical damage resistance). Maxims are ludicrously overpowered but they are fun lategame guns and that's what Volition wanted.

They're great and the gameplay is excellent, however I was commenting on realism only. You're right I guess, I never played on insane. Hard is...hard enough for me. But still, you'd have to deploy them very carefully and imaginatively or they're gonna get maxim'd to bits. I guess you can kill maxims altogether or put a basic, thin shield on capships to solve these issues. However, you're then still susceptible to bomber attacks, as in, one pilot effectively killing Sathanas.

WiH gets this and a lot of other stuff very right. Like jumping out when you're obviously gonna get killed. Also, flak works the way it's supposed to.

[headdie]

im going for prevent the Interplay person/people from getting into work who decided to divert the FS2 marketing budget into other places

[Macfie]

im going for prevent the Interplay person/people from getting into work who decided to divert the FS2 marketing budget into other places

I don't know about that.  Maybe the source code wouldn't have gotten released and the game would have died off instead of being improved.  How many other games are still around and have been constantly improved over the last 16 years?

[headdie]

swing and roundabouts, the upshot would be that FS2 might have been a financial success and the series continued, perhaps with longer lifespan on the genre

[deathspeed]

This reminds me of the old "What would you like to see in FS3?" thread. 
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=19737.20

Honestly I play these games more for the action, immersion, and prettiness than for the stories, but I am learning to appreciate story more and more.  I'd like to see more of a branching rather than linear campaign, but I want to be able to pick up from a branch without starting over from the beginning.  I think I could do this on Wing Commander on my SNES, but since it's been almost 20 years since I played that, so my memory may be off.

[swashmebuckle]

I'd have liked to see a couple missions where fighters move through tunnels/structures/etc. like in Descent along with the requisite AI improvements to help them not run into the walls while doing so. Having all that free space to fly around in would be all the more appreciable if there were short contrasting claustrophobic interludes. Also there's nothing more immersion breaking for me than seeing AI ships run into stuff for no apparent reason.

[General Battuta]

That's highly realistic behavior! Pilots often fly into the ground for no apparent reason.

[fightermedic]

im going for prevent the Interplay person/people from getting into work who decided to divert the FS2 marketing budget into other places

I don't know about that.  Maybe the source code wouldn't have gotten released and the game would have died off instead of being improved.  How many other games are still around and have been constantly improved over the last 16 years?

QFT

and:
better AI would be nice indeed ... all those fighters constantly slamming into everything gets kinda anoying over time
oh, and better scaling collision detection code, so we can have bigger asteroid fields and everything...

[Cyborg17]

I would have loved more love for civilian craft and an explanation for why it takes a long time for destroyers to transit systems. 

[Klaustrophobia]

more of a feeling that cap ships are relevant instead of bomber targets.  huge improvement from fs1 to fs2 but still lacking IMO.

fluff-to-gameplay-to-cutscene consistency. 

fighters that felt distinctly different to fly beyond simply turning faster/slower.  cockpits, or at least different huds would have helped immensely. 

[666maslo666]

Prerendered cutscene after every mission.

[General Battuta]

Are we doing realistic design changes that could have occurred during FS2's development, or crazy wish lists? 

[Rheyah]

Unless the feature is already included, individual turret by turret targetting of ships.  That's all I'd want.  I could do so much with that without the fire beam sexps.

If this is already in place and there is a method of forcing turrets to just use their normal refire rate on a specific target, let me know!