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Anyone Here play StarLancer?

Posted: 2005-03-01 01:08pm
by Cabwi Desco
or rather should i say with the age of this game, Ever have? I just recently started rediscovering it. man my nerves have gotten better since last i played. now the missions seem so... Easy and this was after 2 years of not playing. and im playing on hard BTW.

also does anyone have a favorite in game moment?

Posted: 2005-03-01 01:26pm
by Stormbringer
I played it but compared to others like WC:4, WC:P, or the Freespace pair it had a limited replay value. For one thing the missions seemed to be either two easy or near-impossible. I don't like that because I want a challenge but not the frustration of a mission that takes 12 tries to complete.

Posted: 2005-03-01 01:58pm
by salm
"THE ION CANON IS LOCKING ONTO THE KRASNAYA!!!"

*zap*

Posted: 2005-03-01 07:03pm
by Cabwi Desco
salm wrote:"THE ION CANON IS LOCKING ONTO THE KRASNAYA!!!"

*zap*
WTF? that wasnt in the game! Gamma destroys the Krasnaya in the mission where the Reliant has to go in for repairs, unless you sucked at that mission and got the reliant nearly pasted and let the krasnaya get away by taking too long to shoot out her engines. and there are only three Ion type weapons in the game, the one on Fort Vanguard, the one on Dark Reign, and the one on the Borodin, and there are no Coalition cruisers in any of those missions.

Posted: 2005-03-01 08:13pm
by Enigma
I've played some of it years ago. I got irritated after constantly getting excuted for high treason.

Posted: 2005-03-01 08:26pm
by Cabwi Desco
you. shot. your. own. SHIPS! what did you expect them to do, hand you flowers and candy?

Posted: 2005-03-01 08:33pm
by Enigma
Cabwi Desco wrote:you. shot. your. own. SHIPS! what did you expect them to do, hand you flowers and candy?
Not my fault. One mission involved finding a black box from a destroyed secret ship. I didn't see the black box until it was too late and I rammed it.

Then there was this mission in which I had to protect the fleet from waves of bombers. One bomber launched a torpedo at a very weak corvette and I overshot the torpedo and hit the corvette causing it to blow up.

So you see I get executed quite a bit.

Posted: 2005-03-01 08:46pm
by Cabwi Desco
Okay first one... Mantis Mission, fly a crusader or coyote, shoot all the mines, then get nice and close to a large chunk, beind it is always the recorder.
Second One, thats the one where first you are sent to hunt Ion Trails, yes? Pick a Patriot with a Fuel Tank, and four sets Raptors. engage the fighters, but try not to use missiles linked twin tachyons only, a patriot is essential here for its speed and guns. after which when you jump out to the Victorious wait for the bombers to appear and launch their torps, use the quick lock on of the raptors to take down the torps before they even get close, if not use the first set of fire linked weapons, Proton Cannons, and get in front of them, sounds suicidal but it increases your accuracy. then a wave of fighters appears, this is where the fuel tank comes in, it allows you to burn around without worry. then procede back to the Vic. ASAP. another wave of bombers attacks, proton guns and raptors again. then finish off the fighters, there the escort section is done, now rondevous with the Yamato and use Full Guns to take down the cruiser shield generators.

Posted: 2005-03-05 01:25am
by Sarevok
Starlancer outclasses Freelancer by lightyears. It had real good looking ships instead of lego blocks, actual capships that could fight an entire fighter wing, torpedo bombers, ground forces etc. II wish the Coalition comes back to haunt the pussified LSF. Starlancer 2 : The Coalition Strikes Back ! :D

Posted: 2005-03-06 11:20am
by Jade Falcon
Some people on Freelancer did say that since the original Freelancer intro got cut, there was always the possibility that the Coalition survived and would come looking for the Freelancer colonies. :)

Posted: 2005-03-06 02:16pm
by Cabwi Desco
Yeah after not playing SL for three years and starting playing FL about a year ago I replayed SL again. and I felt gipped.

I Think about it like this in a ship to ship comparison

Starlancer Wolverine Advanced Heavy Fighter
2 Collapser Guns, Linked Tracking Fire, no energy drain, High fire Rate
2 Laser Cannons, Linked Tracking Fire, normal energy drain, High fire rate
1 Tachyon Cannon, Tracking fire, medium energy drain
1 Seemingly Cosmetic Dual Laser Cannon Turret
8 Missile HPs
Optimum Gun Range 40k
Optimum Speed 120kps
awesome shields and armor
Reverse Thrust and ECM, and normal Countermeasures

FL Corsair Titan Very Heavy Fighter (with an idilic loadout)
2 Skyblast Bs, High Energy Drain, Class 9 Weapon, 8.33 fire Rate
2 Nomad Energy Blaster, No Energy Drain, Class 9 Weapon, 4.00 fire Rate
1 Firestalker Missile Launcher,decent speed and heavy damage
1 Cannonball Missile Launcher, slow as fuck and Very Heavy Damage
1 Skyblast B Turret, High Energy Drain, Class 9 Weapon, 8.33 fire Rate
1 Sunslayer Torp Launcher, molases on an Iceberg, supposedly the strongest weapon in sirius, doesnt change the fact that it takes nearly 10 shots with this thing to take down a CRUISER!
Ripper Mine, what the fuck are these things for! mines are a waste of money.
Optimum Gun Range 600-800 METERS!
Optimum Speed 80kpH!
crap on a stick comparable shields and armor
no extra equipment other than an OPTIONAL thruster and OPTIONAL Countermeasures

IMO, the Wolverine could pWn anything in sirius. The Titan would be smashed by the first SCREAMER that hit it.

Posted: 2005-03-06 02:50pm
by Executor32
I bought it about a 3 months ago at EBGames for $2. I really should get around to installing and playing it. :D

Posted: 2005-03-07 12:11am
by Sarevok
Jade Falcon wrote:Some people on Freelancer did say that since the original Freelancer intro got cut, there was always the possibility that the Coalition survived and would come looking for the Freelancer colonies. :)
The narrator says in the intro.
We have thrived, we have prospered, but we will NEVER forget
Yeah right. They remember the days of Starlancer so well there is not a single mention of it in the entire game.
Cabwi Desco wrote:snip
The only advantage the Titan has are it's turrets and even that is negated when going up against blind fire capable fighters. And btw the Wolverine is even fastere then you mentioned. It has a top speed of 280 km / second and this is without afterburners.

This is the last thing a Titan pilot will see if he ever faces a Wolverine.

Image

In general a lot of technology seems to be lost during the voyage to the Sirius sector. Freelancer ships are much weaker than Starlancer ones

Cloaking is an amazing extremely rare new technology in Freelancer even though in Starlancer it is quite commonplace (on a side note the cloaking effect in Freelancer is one of the worst I have seen).

Then there is the extremely vulenerable unshielded capitalships in Freelancer. Compared to this Starlancer capitalships had nearly impenetrable shields that only torpedo bombers could hope to collapse. There is no FTL propulsion like jump drives or warp projectors in Freelancer even though even though the smallest fighters in Starlancer had them.

Posted: 2005-03-07 01:30am
by Vympel
Starlancer had a few flaws:

- the scale of capital ships was utterly pitiful.
- it felt like dodgem cars. You constantly hit other fighters and nothing happened to you
- did I mention capital ships were ridiculously tiny?
- you couldn't play as the Coalition

Posted: 2005-03-07 02:05am
by EmperorMing
Vympel wrote:...
- you couldn't play as the Coalition
Yeah, I always did want to wipe the stars clean of the Capitolist Space Pigdogs. :P

Posted: 2005-03-07 06:28am
by Ypoknons
Yes, the capitial ships weren't Tachyon sized but their explosions were really cool - the debris includes a good amount of the original ship, dashing aside an old sci-fi brainbug that the whole ship has to disappear when the ship blows. There is some good art too - the backgrounds were sometimes quite expansive, and the ships are interesting - nationalistic, not generic, at least, and it had speculator lighting, if I remember right. Gun effects were zzz though.

Gameplay was okay.

Posted: 2005-03-07 06:47am
by wautd
Played it some years ago (tried playing it again not so long ago but coulnt get it to work anymore). Regardless of its issues, I had fun with it. Fighting commies in space was a nice change.

Posted: 2005-03-07 07:40pm
by weemadando
wautd wrote:Played it some years ago (tried playing it again not so long ago but coulnt get it to work anymore). Regardless of its issues, I had fun with it. Fighting commies in space was a nice change.
Why did no-one else play Battlezone?

Posted: 2005-03-07 09:07pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
Vympel wrote:- it felt like dodgem cars.
Huh, is that what they call bumper cars down in Mars? :P

Posted: 2005-03-07 11:21pm
by Stark
Battlezone (one, not two) rules the world of ruling games that rule.

I've notplayed all of SL, but I wasn't impressed. The capships while capable (unlike FS, ugh) are small, the game is ugly, having the yoke onscreen irritated me. All things being equal, not enough to drag me away from FS:SCP, not that its WORKED in months :)

Posted: 2005-03-07 11:38pm
by Jason von Evil
I tried playing it yesterday. Nearly impossible to play without a joystick, in my opinion. Would've been nice if you could control ship movement with the mouse, like in Freelancer.

Posted: 2005-03-08 12:12am
by Stark
Buy a $5 console-USB converter. Its not as good as a proper joystick, but its better than keyboard.

Posted: 2005-03-08 12:22am
by Stormbringer
Aya wrote:I tried playing it yesterday. Nearly impossible to play without a joystick, in my opinion. Would've been nice if you could control ship movement with the mouse, like in Freelancer.
HERETIC!

Seriously, how can you not have a joystick? And how can you even imagine playing a flight sim with a mouse and keyboard?

Posted: 2005-03-08 03:10am
by wautd
weemadando wrote:
wautd wrote:Played it some years ago (tried playing it again not so long ago but coulnt get it to work anymore). Regardless of its issues, I had fun with it. Fighting commies in space was a nice change.
Why did no-one else play Battlezone?
I did. But that was no space combat

Posted: 2005-03-08 03:42am
by Brother-Captain Gaius
Mmm... Battlezone. Truly a god among games. The concepts supposedly pioneered in game like Operation Flashpoint, Natural Selection, and others were all there in solid form in BZ... I remember playing 1v1 matches back in the day over the pitiful excuse for a LAN we used to have. I was pretty good in a Razor as I recall.

Oddly enough, I don't think it was in PCGamer's recent Top 50 Games of All Time. I'd put it at #2 personally, just below Half-Life.