Let's Design TIE FIGHTER 2!

[Admiral Valdemar]

The SW sim games were always less hardcore than any real flight sim or the likes of I-War simply because they are very basic in controls and detail. You can't make them any more complex without inventing a load of crap that most people will shun anyway and you certainly can't have Newtonian mechanics because to the general public, flying in space is like flying an aeroplane.

Big battles I can go for though. Just don't have them being the ONLY mission, they could get irritating and dull just as quickly as "inspect those million crates because the Imperial Navy loves customs duty now".

[Vendetta]

The SW sim games were always less hardcore than any real flight sim or the likes of I-War simply because they are very basic in controls and detail. You can't make them any more complex without inventing a load of crap that most people will shun anyway and you certainly can't have Newtonian mechanics because to the general public, flying in space is like flying an aeroplane.

Also, in Star Wars, flying in space is supposed to be like flying an aeroplane.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I wonder if they will ever allow us to command capital ships and starfighters at the same time.

You do this in 'Empire at War', it just doesn't have a first-person perspective.

Er? That game sucked on many orders of magnitude. I want a game where you could actually command the ship, and drive the ship. Not just point and click. A real capital ship sim.

[Sidewinder]

I wonder if they will ever allow us to command capital ships and starfighters at the same time.

It will be a personal dream of mine. :P Besides, realistically speaking, the only starfighters that can't deal damage to capital ships when their shields are still up.

If we have the option of playing AS DARTH VADER...

Seriously, how cool would that be? Us as Darth Vader, with the Force to pinpoint enemy weaknesses and improve our aim, having the option of either remaining Sidious' loyal henchman, or overthrowing him?

[Starglider]

Er? That game sucked on many orders of magnitude. I want a game where you could actually command the ship, and drive the ship. Not just point and click. A real capital ship sim.

Aside from being 2D, that is relatively realistic. You don't fly an ISD with a joystick, you just lay in heading. Something like Klingon Academy would work ok for the small ships (e.g. blockade runners), but you're not going to be individually aiming the weapons on an ISD, you're just going to be prioritising targets for the gunners. The SFC games were about appropriate for SW capship command I would say (though their fighter implementation was superficial at best and the interface would need upgrading to deal with the workload of commanding something like the Executor).

Seriously, how cool would that be? Us as Darth Vader, with the Force to pinpoint enemy weaknesses and improve our aim, having the option of either remaining Sidious' loyal henchman, or overthrowing him?

That would at least somewhat justify a 'never get hit by flack, personally kill thousands of enemies in the course of a campaign' style gameplay.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Also, in Star Wars, flying in space is supposed to be like flying an aeroplane.

True enough, though I do hear in the EU that the use of unorthodox manoeuvres happens now and then. It would be nice to have the option to turn off the whole inertial system and be able to spin on your axis and shoot anyone on your six while still doing a few klicks/s in the direction towards your mothership.

[Praxis]

The SFC games were about appropriate for SW capship command I would say (though their fighter implementation was superficial at best and the interface would need upgrading to deal with the workload of commanding something like the Executor).

Which is why I modded SFC to add Star Wars.

[Ace Pace]

I wonder if they will ever allow us to command capital ships and starfighters at the same time.

You do this in 'Empire at War', it just doesn't have a first-person perspective.

Er? That game sucked on many orders of magnitude. I want a game where you could actually command the ship, and drive the ship. Not just point and click. A real capital ship sim.

Try Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, might fit what you're looking for.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Try Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, might fit what you're looking for.

Nothing beats having a Star Dreadnaught for a flagship and delivering broadsides though.

[The_Saint]

There's a couple of freeware games lurking about that cover the battles at Yavin and Endor from the Rebel side hosted at
http://www.bruneras.com/
I found them engaging even though at all times you're just one pilot amongst many. There's something in the Endor battle their that is lacking in a lot of the later starfighter games eg RSII


Maybe if instead of following a linear game path, after basic Tie training you get choices in your postings and or the chance to turn down rank... hmmm take a promotion and go ship aboard the Executer or join some mysterious expedition led some blue guy out into the unknown regions as an interceptor pilot...
Maybe I just like the illusion of choice...

[Pelranius]

I'd like to go up in with numerically inferior but qualitatively superior Imperial starfighter forces and fight the teeming swarms of Rebel scum across the galaxy, blasting apart research installations, shipyards, garrisons and academies. Unfortunately, the only way to do that without smashing continuity into a billion pieces would be to set the game in LotF where the Remnant has broken away from the Galactic Alliance. That unfortunately means one will knock heads with that wannabe Sith Lord who I shall not mention here.

[Starglider]

I'd like to go up in with numerically inferior but qualitatively superior Imperial starfighter forces and fight the teeming swarms of Rebel scum across the galaxy, blasting apart research installations, shipyards, garrisons and academies.

A squadron commander game where you had to intelligently use your numerical advantage to bring down superior quality X-wings would frankly be more novel and interesting. Though rather more demanding of quality AI.

[andrewgpaul]

I'd like to ditch the "Your engines are damaged, so now you're at a dead stop" 'critical' effect. Perhaps have damaged engines randomly changing the thrust would be better; you're camped behind that Lambda-class shuttle, when all of a sudden, a Headhunter dodges in behind you, puts a laser bolt into your left engine, and the thrust spike rams you into the back of the shuttle

Oh, and in those missions where you have to escort the feebly-armed transports into hyperspace, could you make it so they don't get it into their head to dogfight with B-Wings?

[Vehrec]

Me, I'd like nice newtownian flight engine for a change, with some funky inertial effects that let you use Repulsorlift engines in a gravity well to bank and do classic SW moves.
And a lot of you guys, while coming up with awesome ideas are missing out on the point of TIE fighter. It's about one guy, in a fighter with no shields, taking out six superior craft. IN THE FIRST LEVEL, you should make ace against Y and X wings or something.

Other things that have occured to me: Let us re-fight classic battles in the Simulator. Fly defense on the Death Star. Chase the Falcon through the Anoat asteroid field. And attempt to land on the Invisible hand during the battle of Corruscant or just duel with Vulture and Tri-droids. We could have so much FUN with unauthorized simulator programs.

New mission types. Like say one where you actually have to go out and determine which distant sensor ping might be a squadron of X-wings, which ones are harmless freighters, and which ones are pirates with more guns that is safe or sane.

[Jade Falcon]

I'd like a dynamic campaign where failure or success impacts the overall big picture. It worked in the Wing Commander games, and even though they were much maligned it was a good idea.

[OmegaGuy]

Hapan ships are a must.

Also you should get to fly the Sun Crusher in a secret bonus mission.

[Darth Smiley]

A kind of part space flight simulator / part capital ship simulator with full Newtonian physics has been tried. It's called Starshatter: The Gathering Storm. I my opinion it is a rather crappy game.

The issue is, fighters really don't make sense in space. In gameplay terms, this leads to cheesy 'balances'.

Despite having long range, fast tracking highly destructive lasers, a destroyer is utterly helpless against a fighter wing because the lasers won't lock onto to fighters (despite said destroyer being perfectly capable of seeing them, both visually and with sensors).

To make fighters are needed for scouting, sensors are nerfed horribly. As a capital ship commander I can often SEE my opponents anywhere on the map because there is nothing to hide behind, yet can't order my ships to attack because we 'don't have a sensor lock'.

To give fighters the long range attack mission, missiles get nerfed. Despite so called Newtonian physics, torpedoes and missiles have very limited range, after which they just..disappear. To make matters worse, to make the pathetically small missiles fighters carry actually viable against cap ships, point defenses can't even target down fighter missiles ( despite being able to take down capship missles with such relative ease that it is impossible to get a missile through in a one on one fight ).

Not only that, cap ships can't even attack targets on a planet, so fighters have to go down there and destroy planetary defenses, which, surprise! consist mostly of fighter bases, so that there is much dogfighting.

One wonders why someone doesn't simply mount some good old anti fighter missiles on a capship to help out. Well, they do, but fighters carry 'decoys' which always attract the missiles away, despite being very easy to see with the Mk I eyeball. These same decoys are the fighter's only defense against other fighters, but since they are so effective, it quick degenerated into a 'plasma beam' dogfight.

Tie Fighter II would be nice...but please, please make it consistent!

[Feil]

Wasn't there a mod being developed for Freespace 2 a while ago that billed itself as an unofficial TIE Fighter remake?