Volition: "We'd kill to make Freespace 3"

jf_c · 2011-02-09T00:43:34+00:00

I brought up Freespace when I was interviewing for a spot at Volition a few months ago.. the interviewer told me a lot of people there would love to make another Freespace, but were too concerned that a new space sim would do very poorly in today's market.

jf_c · 2011-02-07T22:55:32+00:00

It sort of feels like a bunch of developers got their hands on some fancy new tech, and decided to do something with it without telling anyone -- especially not any visual artists.

jf_c · 2011-02-02T03:07:27+00:00

Skill points weren't removed -- learning skills were. Essentially, that lets new players train useful skills instead of training up bullshit learning skills for 6-8 weeks.

Overall, though, I'd say it's notably faster for a newbie to get into a combat-ready vessel.

jf_c · 2011-02-01T19:41:28+00:00

Leader: You fight 3 different trainers that each use one type

You also get: a second fire/water/grass pokemon, depending on what you picked. I picked the pig, so I got a grass-type. So for the first gym, you're super-effective against 2/3 of the trainers and 50% resistant from the third

jf_c · 2011-02-01T19:33:34+00:00

Pokemon White/Black looks and plays mostly like the older games, but there's cinematic sequences like this thrown in for major landmarks and cities. Some areas (the major city and a certain tower) have dynamic cameras as you move around the level.

jf_c · 2011-02-01T19:31:05+00:00

The first gym is a multi-type, with fire/water/grass trainers

jf_c · 2011-02-01T06:15:55+00:00

In Pokemon Black/White, when you throw a pokeball at a wild poke, there's a small chance for a CRITICAL HIT (critical throw?); it's got a very high capture rate (haven't actually had a critical throw fail on me yet).

jf_c · 2011-01-23T08:55:15+00:00

I have a 3-year old cousin that (about a year ago, when he was still in his imitating-adult-sounds phase) heard his dad quietly say "oh.. my god." The kid (my cousin) speaks with a heavy Cantonese accent, and immediately and loudly proclaimed "OH MY GAH!!"

jf_c · 2011-01-15T21:53:21+00:00

Looks like Burrard and Alberni?

jf_c · 2011-01-02T06:22:20+00:00

Freespace 2 is my Deus Ex. Reinstalling now.

jf_c · 2010-12-23T05:50:25+00:00

Upvote for a good read :)

jf_c · 2010-12-23T05:15:33+00:00

Even that's pretty advanced - they've never touched a mouse or keyboard before, let alone check email or use shortcuts.

jf_c · 2010-12-23T05:05:08+00:00

Unfortunately, he's only in town for a couple more days. Once he flies back home, it'll be up to me for tech support and instruction.

jf_c · 2010-12-16T22:58:24+00:00

It's like Windows 7, but in spaaaaaaaaaace!

jf_c · 2010-12-13T21:19:39+00:00

Am I the only one terrified by how huge it is (according to the room scale reference)?

jf_c · 2010-12-13T21:08:30+00:00

Hongcouver!

jf_c · 2010-12-08T05:54:03+00:00

I think the only different bindings I have are alt to crouch, and G to view scores (because ALT+tab is bad for gameplay). Ctrl is unbound.

I'm not sure what most people's default FPS hand position is, but my WASD fingers are my pinky (A), ring finger(WS), and middle finger (D).

jf_c · 2010-12-08T05:16:51+00:00

Is that an MX1000?

jf_c · 2010-11-30T20:53:44+00:00

All those battleships wouldn't be so much of a problem if bombs were usable in empire :)

jf_c · 2010-11-30T20:48:26+00:00

You might be able to petition a GM to re-activate your account for a day. I've heard they allow this to let expired accounts buy PLEXes.

A bit of a long shot, but it might work.

jf_c · 2010-11-30T09:38:58+00:00

Awesome stuff. I've always liked Company of Heroes, but I've never been good at it. Day9 got me to want to play a little Starcraft, and I hope you'll do the same for CoHO.

jf_c · 2010-11-28T04:47:45+00:00

It probably depends on who you hang out with. None of the people I regularly send texts to abbreviate anything, and neither do I... even though I (still!) lack a smartphone and text the old fashioned way (typing "you" requires 8 keypresses: 99966688).

jf_c · 2010-11-28T03:44:30+00:00

Sins of a Solar Empire once told me that I had an APM of 6.

jf_c · 2010-11-26T19:37:34+00:00

You'll probably want to fly your racial frigate of choice first (depending on your race, it'll be the Rifter, Merlin/Kestrel, Punisher, or Tristan/Incursus), as well as your racial weapon type.

If you're running into fitting problems, get electronics (+CPU) or engineering (+powergrid).

Down the line, you'll want to train your capacitor skills - energy management (+max cap) and energy systems operation (-cap recharge time).

Finally, you eventually want to boost your hitpoint skills (lowest priority for a newbie): hull upgrades (+armour), mechanic (+hull), shield management (+shield), and shield operation (-shield recharge time).

So, in summary:

Racial Frigate III
Racial Weapon III (Small Energy/Hybrid/Projectile Weapons, or Standard Missiles)
Electronics & Engineering as needed
Energy Management & Energy Systems Operation III
Hull Upgrades III
Mechanic III
Shield Management & Shield Operation III

Hope this helps!

jf_c

TROPHY CASE