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Freelancer and Vendetta-stunning similarities
Freelancer is also a 3d (mainly) space combat game, with options to choose your path in life through missions. The planet, base, and space graphics are nearly identical. The combat style of the mouse movement and buttons to adjust speed/afterburner is exactly the same as is in Freelancer, except in freelancer the guiding target symbols are on the outside of the screen, not scattered about inside of a small 2d representative spear, as is the case in Vendetta. The ship classes are also very similar, but that is to be expected, I guess, as these are used in almost all space games. Now I know that the creators of Vendetta claim not to have been inspired by any other than a select few of games, but these are similarities I can not overlook.
I'm sure I could make a long and detailed post about the similarities between Freelancer and Space Invaders, if I tried. :x
EDIT: Also, the first (internal) playable build of what we now call Vendetta was created in 1998, I believe. Didn't Freelancer come out in 2003?
EDIT: Also, the first (internal) playable build of what we now call Vendetta was created in 1998, I believe. Didn't Freelancer come out in 2003?
That's because both VO and FL have roots in Wing Commander.
FL's original game designer (Chris Roberts) was the designer for Wing Commander.
FL's original game designer (Chris Roberts) was the designer for Wing Commander.
Funny, seeing as Vendetta came out first...
It's not fair to compare FL's commercial release date to Vendetta's internal release "date". Vendetta's commercial release wasn't until Nov 2004.
Freelancer was demo'd in 1999 at Gamestock
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9903/12/gamestock.idg/index.html
Freelancer was demo'd in 1999 at Gamestock
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9903/12/gamestock.idg/index.html
I'm sure there's dozens of combat flight simulators that are very similar...
And as for VO and Freelancer, combat model is actually somewhat different, what, with no rolling or vertical strafes in Freelancer. (i think that's how it was anyway, i played freelancer in what? 2003?)
Plus lower strafing speed, makes for more 'usual' atmospheric like flying.
And as for VO and Freelancer, combat model is actually somewhat different, what, with no rolling or vertical strafes in Freelancer. (i think that's how it was anyway, i played freelancer in what? 2003?)
Plus lower strafing speed, makes for more 'usual' atmospheric like flying.
My point was that it's fairly hard for Vendetta to have 'borrowed' from Freelancer considering they had similar development times (Vendetta Test and Vendetta Online came out a year before and a year after Freelancer was released, respectively). The VO devs have already said that they got inspiration from Wing Commander and other games from that time, I believe.
Regardless, there's a reason I play Vendetta and not Freelancer, not EVE, etc.
Vendetta is better.
Vendetta is better.
Elite is better. But DEAD :) and so on...
Why not compare it to Descent:Freespace as well? Oh, but if that, why not move back to Descent... which really was a follow-on from Quake and Doom... but back to Wolfenstein 3D... which came out after Marathon I think?
But of course, *every* computer game was actually inspired by Elite, I'm told. lol
Who cares?
Actually, I care: Vendetta's combat model and flight control manage to do what Freespace, and Freelancer both failed at: realistic space combat with Newtonian physics. Freelancer was pretty much set up on a single plane in space (not very 3d, that), and Freespace was PLANES! IN SPACE! and well-nigh unplayable without a joystick.
Besides, last I checked, Vendetta was still going strong and who still plays Freelancer? (Freespace2 actually has a consistent community with the open source version)
But of course, *every* computer game was actually inspired by Elite, I'm told. lol
Who cares?
Actually, I care: Vendetta's combat model and flight control manage to do what Freespace, and Freelancer both failed at: realistic space combat with Newtonian physics. Freelancer was pretty much set up on a single plane in space (not very 3d, that), and Freespace was PLANES! IN SPACE! and well-nigh unplayable without a joystick.
Besides, last I checked, Vendetta was still going strong and who still plays Freelancer? (Freespace2 actually has a consistent community with the open source version)
I've never played freelancer. Does anyone seriously care about this? I'm pretty open about what inspired VO, and I'm sure there's lots of similarities with other stuff that I've never played, but that doesn't mean I'm being dishonest about our inspirations. There is also a certain amount of "great minds think alike" that happens, it isn't all derivative development.
"Choosing your life through missions" is not a big leap. Back in 1994, Tie Fighter had alternate mission progression trees.. you could either follow the standard "path" or do the optional objectives for the Emperor (or try to do both). That, along with games like Fallout 2 (1998) and other RPGs, was the basis for our mission-driven concept. I think Wing Commander Privateer (1993) was even more open-ended than TF, but oddly, I never played it.. although I was certainly aware of it and some of the open-ended concepts that people raved about.
"Space" and "Planet" graphics look pretty similar between all space games, but our "Base" (read: space station) graphics are quite unusual, at least in their construction if not in how they look. If this is representative of a Freelancer station, I'd say it fits much closer to the usual "huge object you dock with" concept, not our "lots of small objects tied together in unique ways". We constructed our stations so we could re-use the same objects throughout the galaxy and create different stations, and also so that someday we could build a "station construction set" and let players build their own stations (yes, that was a goal, even back in the 90s). If anything, the actual technical graphical methods we used to build them were more based around what we saw in the "Half Life" (1) engine, where large numbers of similar-but-different levels could be constructed with a relatively small number of assets. As a result, our stations use a lot of texture layers, blended in realtime so that we could re-use the textures in different ways. A lot of layers, especially for how old the assets are.. it was around the maximum we could do with the GeForce1-era fixed-function pipeline. I'm not claiming that our stations are particularly remarkable or great-looking or anything, just that they're quite unlike what I've seen from any other space-game makers, at least from a technical standpoint.
For whatever it's worth, I did turn out to know a guy on the Freelancer team, although I wasn't aware of it until long after both games were released. He didn't play our game either, heh, since he was "burned out on space games".
I've also said this before, but ultimately, we're all standing on the shoulders of giants. I never actually played Elite, or Starflight (until very recently) but I have no doubt that we owe a great karmic debt to those games, along with George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry and every major Sci-Fi author going back at least to Jules Verne. The fact that other people had similar inspirations or ideas doesn't really surprise me at all, they were logical progressions of where we stood at the time.
(EDIT: Here's an earlier thread discussing similar topics)
"Choosing your life through missions" is not a big leap. Back in 1994, Tie Fighter had alternate mission progression trees.. you could either follow the standard "path" or do the optional objectives for the Emperor (or try to do both). That, along with games like Fallout 2 (1998) and other RPGs, was the basis for our mission-driven concept. I think Wing Commander Privateer (1993) was even more open-ended than TF, but oddly, I never played it.. although I was certainly aware of it and some of the open-ended concepts that people raved about.
"Space" and "Planet" graphics look pretty similar between all space games, but our "Base" (read: space station) graphics are quite unusual, at least in their construction if not in how they look. If this is representative of a Freelancer station, I'd say it fits much closer to the usual "huge object you dock with" concept, not our "lots of small objects tied together in unique ways". We constructed our stations so we could re-use the same objects throughout the galaxy and create different stations, and also so that someday we could build a "station construction set" and let players build their own stations (yes, that was a goal, even back in the 90s). If anything, the actual technical graphical methods we used to build them were more based around what we saw in the "Half Life" (1) engine, where large numbers of similar-but-different levels could be constructed with a relatively small number of assets. As a result, our stations use a lot of texture layers, blended in realtime so that we could re-use the textures in different ways. A lot of layers, especially for how old the assets are.. it was around the maximum we could do with the GeForce1-era fixed-function pipeline. I'm not claiming that our stations are particularly remarkable or great-looking or anything, just that they're quite unlike what I've seen from any other space-game makers, at least from a technical standpoint.
For whatever it's worth, I did turn out to know a guy on the Freelancer team, although I wasn't aware of it until long after both games were released. He didn't play our game either, heh, since he was "burned out on space games".
I've also said this before, but ultimately, we're all standing on the shoulders of giants. I never actually played Elite, or Starflight (until very recently) but I have no doubt that we owe a great karmic debt to those games, along with George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry and every major Sci-Fi author going back at least to Jules Verne. The fact that other people had similar inspirations or ideas doesn't really surprise me at all, they were logical progressions of where we stood at the time.
(EDIT: Here's an earlier thread discussing similar topics)
OMG JUMPGATE EVOLUTION IS JUST LIKE VENDETTA THEY ARE BOTH IN SPACE AND YOU HAVE REAL TIME COMBAT WTF OMG BBQ
I played Freelancer for quite some time, and I can fully understand a person noticing the similarities. However, the apparent implication that VO is secretly inspired by Freelancer seems a bit ridiculous. VO and Freelancer are in fact nearly the same game with the same general idea aside from one being online. They would HAVE to end up with one looking like another. This is a very specific SCI-FI genre, if they weren't similar they wouldn't both be SciFI spaceship combat rpgs.
When I finally quit messing around in Freelancer, the only thing I wanted was a mmorpg version. So far this game is exceeding what I hoped for.
When I finally quit messing around in Freelancer, the only thing I wanted was a mmorpg version. So far this game is exceeding what I hoped for.
This is not the right question to ask.
it would be possible through a wormhole to link the 2 games (universe) and play together?
I know it takes a lot of work and for the sub you can always get a idea
I think the idea is crazy or it deserves reflection
it would be possible through a wormhole to link the 2 games (universe) and play together?
I know it takes a lot of work and for the sub you can always get a idea
I think the idea is crazy or it deserves reflection
I wonder what the French term for "facepalm" would be?
/face de palme
Hmmm Michael Jackson it's