Frontier - First Encounters(Elite3)

[Hueij]

Man, a 59 posts thread about a what is it, 9 year old game? I played the original Elite way back in '85 on the C64 and Elite FE (Elite 2) until a couple of years back but this thread made me download FFE. I didn't have much time to play it and get used to the controls yet. The graphics don't look like much .(My first impression is that the graphics in Elite 2 are much easier to the eye and that the vector graphics on the original C64 Elite are even better than that)

But this weekend I'm going to give it a try. Just reading child of thor's posts took me back to the times I flew an Imperial Courier. Universe beware, Commander Hueij is back!

BTW, I would love to see some screenshots from all of your adventures.

Okay, first mission is to get off of Hope without being killed

[DrSpike]

I think you'll enjoy it. I'd be surprised if you played it for long though.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I think you'll enjoy it. I'd be surprised if you played it for long though.

I'm not sure, I don't like the graphics. But I played the original Elite on the C64 for years and Elite 2 after that on PC until about two years ago, so if FFE can capture my imagination like its predecessors did I will be playing this for a long long time.

If only David Braben had the resources someone like Sid Meier has...

[DrSpike]

Well you aren't going to like graphics in old games now that you've been spoilt with newer games.

Elite2 in particular was quite decent graphically when it was released.

[child of Thor]

Graphics...smaphics Dr.Spike - leave the Hueij be!

The biggest bonus i'm finding with FFE over Frontier, is the ground attack missions, and a more varied array of mission types in general. Add in about a half dozen new ships(some pretty good too) and the emergence of the Alliance in a once disputed area of space between the Federation and the Imperials, and its won me over

Dont forget the fan sites - lots of useful stuff is available there.

And i've kinda found that 'mythical' shipyard - the one where you can customise your ships
Well kind of, its a utility you can download from here http://www.hooplah.com/encounters/utility.htm its near the bottom of the page in the FFE section and its called FFESHIP.ZIP(420k).

Its a cheat basically that gives you some crazy starting ships in place of the standard SakerIII. Most seem over powerfull, but it also has info on how to edit things yourself - so i might give that a go and do the odd tweak here and there.

'What! you've never heard of the Asp Falcon? She's the ship that did the Sol/Acturus run in less than 8 parsecs! She's fast enough for you oldman - I've made some special modifications myself.'

In my game i've given up on that mission for now as it put me in a part of space too far away from a dolphin transport mission that i just liked the sound of

I'll get another chance at ground attack missions i'm sure, still nasty lawyers are a juicy target - its a tough choice

And Snotty - about the size of space,its one thing i kinda didnt like much that was introduced into Frontier - having to speed up time in the game in order to go anywhere.
With a real attempt at modelling our galaxy(in terms of distances and simple physics) in a game, i guess it just became a neccesity. I always found that in Frontier(and FFE) it was just too easy to use the auto-pilot and speed up functions to start zipping around the place. It kinda removed the immediacy of the situation in comparison to the origonal Elite. I kinda remember in the first game it took a while before you could even afford auto-pilot, and all the manual flying you had to master kinda made the game world more immersive.

Still in Frontier you had much more to explore/play with which kinda compensated this. Plus if you used the time controls in a certain way(as i mentioned in a previous post) you can remove some of the 'Blur effect' in the two later games.

But yeah we've gone 80AU in the real world(and that craft has been flying for how long! 20+years!).
Puts it into perspective. If we are ever to travel outside our immediate solar system, we'll need to come up with a clever way to do it........speed up time like in Frontier/FFE maybe?

[Hueij]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Well you aren't going to like graphics in old games now that you've been spoilt with newer games.

Elite2 in particular was quite decent graphically when it was released.

As a matter of fact I only play old games nowadays Give me a 2D point&click adventure any day (well, after I finish Gabriel Knight 3 that is )

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Hueij

As a matter of fact I only play old games nowadays Give me a 2D point&click adventure any day (well, after I finish Gabriel Knight 3 that is )

well once that old Elite hook as got into you - you really wont care about FFE's graphics much

As a side note i never played Frontier on PC, but on the Amiga the resolution in Frontier seems much higher/smoother than what i'm getting on PC FFE.
Although that might be the difference between a TV-scart connection and a PC monitor one?

Im playing FFE in full screen on a 15" monitor - i guess on a bigger one it would look even more jagged!!

You could try it windowed with the JJFFE version? on my monitor its a pretty small window(it being a 15" screen and all), but looks much less blocky.

[Hueij]

You could try it windowed with the JJFFE version? on my monitor its a pretty small window(it being a 15" screen and all), but looks much less blocky.

Yeah, I play with the JJFE version and on a 15' monitor (one of the advantages of a dual-head videocard )

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Graphics...smaphics Dr.Spike - leave the Hueij be!

I said I thought he'd enjoy it. I was just providing some perspective.

[child of Thor]

I know - your just keeping me in check, i have a habit of this kinda thing

I'm going to have a look at the info for Editing the game, so you can ceate your own start-up ships. I'm finding the ships suplied with the editing program are just too powerful or not special enough, plus you get a bank account with 1,000,000 credits in it - it takes a while to give it away to the various charities

So what kinda ship would you all like as a special gift?
If you want uber-ships, then check out the ones in the utility; i'm going for something just a little above standard specs and performances.

I've always found myself swaping ships quite alot in Frontier, depending on what i wanted to do. This for me kinda spoilt my player bond with any particular ship. In Elite you were stuck with the Cobra mk3, which was fine as you could upgrade it alot, and it felt special to you - even if you wished you could get your hands on a fer-de-lance
In frontier the greater freedom to choose your ships was a great addition, but no single ship perfectly fit the jack-of-all trades type i was looking for. The Asp was about as close as i could get - but it was too small if you wanted to combine combat/trader/and a few passanger cabins.
The Imperial Courior was just a bit too big and slow imho.
I've always wanted to fly a 'Millenium Falcon' in Elite(Frontier etc) - a real jack-of-all-trades ship

So thats my project for the next little while, if i can get my head around the instructions and Hex editting

[Hueij]

Just give me an Imperial Courier and I'm happy. Right now I'm still ferrying medicine to Soholia though

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by child of Thor
I know - your just keeping me in check,

'tis a hard job, but someone's got to do it.

[child of Thor]

well I've just started a hotseat game of Patrician2 with a friend who's visiting - be prepared, as i'm very impressed so far

[DrSpike]

Never played that, so I can't keep you in check there.

[child of Thor]

well i enjoyed it so much i went out and picked up PatricianIII for £7.99(HMV Oxford street) yesterday - its got slightly better graphics etc. My buddy and I started on it last night, i'd go with this one over PatricianII, just for the more animated game world. In one short sentence its like a combination of the Settlers(1-2)+Pirates with a very fun trade simulation(i thought it might be incredibly dry, but no!). I regret not giving it a spin sooner.


ELITE FREEFORMERS NEWS UPDATE:

Ok so i'm not enjoying the Hex-editing, its on hold for the time being.

But its time to talk about some interesting other things.

X-Beyond the frontier+X-tension budget game pack from THQ for £9.99.

I bought that at the same time as PatIII. It was being called the 'New Elite' when it came out. I gave it a good few hours this morning to do the Elite magic thing........and sadly something isnt quite right.

It looks great(especially compared to FFE!), but thats about all the praise i can aim at it now. In those three hours i played it today it seemed very slow to get going. You have to sit through nearly an hour of an introduction to get started. And then when you are set 'free' you sort of crawl around a small part of space trying to work out why everything is moving so slowly and why compared to in Elite, you just dont feel very free at all? Strange game - but after my initial negative feelings, i'm going to give it a good go, as i know many games get better as you get into them.

But so far Elite FFE is still the better version of Elite to play, which is something i can get back to doing on the weekend