Eternal Silence 3.0 Beta Flight Changes

[Munro]

The Eternal Silence
mod have a new update. They have released some information about changes their
making to their space flight system in the upcoming 3.0 beta.[br]

We've gotten many comments about the ES flight system in our past betas, and
Beta 3.0 will mark a pretty big shift in the way it works. We've taken feedback
from numerous sources and came up with a system that benefits the gameplay as a
whole.[br]
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The main complaint we got from a lot of people was that the flight system was
just plain too hard. We've done our best to simplify things for everyone. We've
taken out the newtonian toggle and replaced it with a cut engines key, we've
also made the ships react much quicker to input and we made them just generally
easier to use. In 2.3, pilots spent most of their time flying straight. In 3.0,
pilots will fly in squadrons and teamwork will play a much more central role,
since the flight is now much simpler.[br]
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The cut engines key, which I mentioned before, is simple. It simply shuts off
your translational thrusters allowing you to drift in one direction and turn
around. Your ship's turn rate is doubled while the engines are cut. This allows
pilots to pull of BSG style flips. A skilled pilot can also use it to gain an
edge on turning when combined with the boost key.[br]
[br]
Another complaint we had about the flight system of previous betas was that the
ships felt too much like noclip. We've addressed this by going for an arcade
style physics systems where your side thrusters no longer need to compensate
during turns. This means we can turn down the accelerations on all our ships and
really give them some weight. The new turning style means that turning is easy
and unless you use the cut engines key, you are always flying relative to the
direction you are facing.

They also have a few new screenshots of the NGM fleet firing up an interceptor on Cerbera. If you look closely you'll also see the new HUD coming to 3.0.
View more at their website.[br]

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[99.vikram]

Finally! Freelancer pioneered this idea, I believe?

 

[Darkside55]

Well, I never had a problem with the old flight system, but I guess enough people did. I'll remain open minded.

 

[Nabobalis]

Yay, update. I loved this mod.

If the ships fly like freespace I would be happy.

 

[Betelgeuze]

Very dissapointed, they are turning a great space combat simulator(that was easy as hell) in a shooter with spaceships, sad news.

 

[qdog]

Our game was never ment to be a space simulation.
Sorry to disapoint you. But let me say this: before you haven't tried out the new flight system, you don't know what you are missing out.

For myself, I hated newtonian. Than I got used to it, loved it. Than, we merged arcade and newtonian in a very adoptable way, which realy turned out great. Now, comparing 2.3 and 3.0, I have to say we realy nailed it with this flight version. The symbiosis of newtonian and arcade (if you want to call it arcade) turned out great. The look and feel is amazing.

 

[Betelgeuze]

It ruins believability for me, and the Newtonian flight physics is what made ES different from the other ones. That’s gone now.
For me the flight system was perfect as it was and I don't see what’s hard about it.

Anyway I can’t blame you guys. I was hoping for a new version of a great space combat simulator but if you guys are aiming for an arcade shooter with a space theme I guess it’s me who made the wrong decision supporting this mod.

Just one question, why bother adding a Newtonian system in the first builds if you are aiming for an arcade shooter?

 

[qdog]

Never said we are aiming for an arcade shooter. And we are not delivering an arcade shooter. Go ahead and play it once it is out, let me know if you like it or not. But don't let us down before even testing it. I am sure you will like it. Or, you could sign up for the beta team and check it out yourself.

There is always someone who will like newtonian and somebody who will like the pure arcade. We got a pretty good solution and its not the middle thing of both systems. Its something we are very satisfied with.

 

[MadMechwarrior]

Newtonian is actually easier to code. As we've stated before, you can still get a good newtonian feel with the cut engines key, it's easier for newbs to get into and it promotes teamplay in space rather than just focusing on your one craft.

ES was never meant as a pure space sim. We've dropped some of the sim features in an attempt to make the gameplay more team-oriented, and it has payed off. We've seen beta testers form squadrons on their own and protect bombers and gunships.

I'm much happier with the new system, because it's more fun with less hassle. The newtonian code is still in there and serves as the base for this system. The game still maintains a very space feel to it.

Anyways like Qdog said: try it before you bash it, you might be surprised.

 

[Betelgeuze]

Well sure, it’s your mod and I respect that, it’s just not what I hoped for. I'll probably give it a try just like the previous versions but as I stated before I’m not into the arcade stuff and I’m a little disappointed, but that’s just me I guess. I liked how you guys gave everyone the choice to go for the system they liked in previous versions.
Also I still don’t get what’s so hard about the old flight system, it took me 5 min to get used to.

I wanted to join the beta testers team some time ago, but I hardly have time for my other projects so I wouldn't have been of any use to you guys.

 

[qdog]

Fair enough.
But yeah, I can understand that you are bummed out. But then again, it might not disappoint you. I know simulation fans would get a kick out of it. But that requires to be more accurate with realism. That means we would have to turn of 90% of all our sounds, kill most of the graphic effects and all that.

Yes, it might be worth trying that out. Maybe on another project. Or maybe a modification of our mod. Who knows? Its easy to do, cause in most cases you just need to switch off key features. We kept all those non realistic elements in cause we want to deliver a fun game. Not saying simulations aren't fun. I am actually a sim fan. Its just not how we invisioned the game. We wanted a game thats easy to adopt, easy to get into and still be challenging. With our new gameplay elements and the new flight system we can deliver that. I am sure a lot of people would have been able to deal with pure newtonian, but it wouldn't work well in our universe on the long run. So the symbiosis of both flightsystems worked out well.

Again, once 3.0 is out, realy, let me know how you like it. message me through this forum. I would like to know if simulation fans still like it.

Marc

 

[Betelgeuze]

I'll do that