Originally posted by Illius

I played Freelancer quite a bit.  Even got some mod that expanded it's universe and added quite a large ammount of new systems you could fly to and what not.  Newer ships, more weapons, more resources to haul.  My friends and I decided to play it together and stuck with it for a good month or so.  I however also enjoyed Freespace 2.  I think out of all the space sim games I enjoyed that one the most.  It was more complex then Freelancer and offered more things to do while flying through space and fighting.  It had a greater range of missles, you could adjust the power settings to either the shields, weapons, or engine so that you could withstand weapons fire better or fly faster or hit harder, it was great.  One of the missions I remember was  having to fly cloaked by the giant ship and scaning it's weapons, it brings back great memories.

Freelancer to me was somewhat lean when it came to substance.  It had a great base full of potential and I just wish someone added a bit more to it.  A bit more complexity would be great

It's the Discovery mod that you're referring to.

http://www.discoveryfl.com/html/features.html

It has both single player and multi player options and the npc AI seems much improved, either that or I've got alot worse.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Originally posted by Ariolander

In that case I am turned off. I was a HUGE fan of freelancer's intuitive mouse/keybopard combat system and though I got both flight sticks and a joystick I always prefered Freelancer's mouse/keyboard setup over X3's joystick or Eve's overworld view.

 

They are making mouse&keyboard flying mode , that is very very good (so people that play it say)

 

Also there is two alternative flying modes aswell. Newtonian (like in Elite and Jumpgate Classic) and Dumpener Assisted (like in Freelancer)

And you can switch them at will , creating interesting flying tactics

Jumpgate Classic already has the mouse controls.  I assume Jumpgate Evolution will just reuse that system since people definitely fly with the mouse controls in JGC.  In general I believe aiming your guns is considered somewhat easier with the mouse but flight control is better with a stick.

Jumpgate classic has old graphics sure, but you get 14 days completely free on the trial and its easy to get to an ok fighter in that time.  You don't even need to give them billing info and the download is quite quite small.  Plus you can play offline or online in the simulator and try out every single ship and every single configuration you want.

You want to know what its like?  try it out NetDevil has made it very easy.

Your controls are pretty decent IMO however the real physics feel is definitely different from say Tie Fighter games.  You can definitely get used to it and its fun, but your dogfighting style will change ALOT.

There is absolutely no way any former X-wing or freelancer players can say much about the newtonian flying style without trying it.  They may like it alot better, in some ways its less restrictive since you canfire one way while moving a different way.

Tachyon the fringe was very good, so was Independence War 2

Originally posted by Renko

It's the Discovery mod that you're referring to.

http://www.discoveryfl.com/html/features.html

It has both single player and multi player options and the npc AI seems much improved, either that or I've got alot worse.

Yep, I believe that's one of the best mods currently available - and they are constantly coming out with updated versions.  There's still an active community out there with a lot of servers.  The mods have really done a nice job over the years.  I think you can pick up a copy of freelancer for $10 or less in the bargin bin.   Buy it, download some mods, and join one of the servers - they are free.  It's a lot of fun for a few months.  Fun doesn't come much cheaper than that, and it'll help pass the time while Jumpgate in under development.