Firefly vs. Privateer by Victor54

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

Firefly vs. Privateer

POSTED BY: VICTOR54
UPDATED: Friday, February 3, 2006 08:06
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VIEWED: 18196
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Monday, July 5, 2004 2:19 PM

I booted up an old Dos version game this morning. It was the original Privateer series from Origin. I had another old game that was simular to Privateer that collected crew members as well as cargo by various means.

I think it is time that the Firefly fans have their own game that combines the planet hopping commerce, pirates, theives, good guy, bad guy, and everything we enjoy in Serenity. Just as long as they keep the blah blah blah stuff to a minimum and let us try to get jobs and cargo without going to jail.

Comments?

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Monday, July 5, 2004 8:26 PM

HAPLO721

3 words for ya:

Spgrand. Sptheft. Spauto.

Early: You ever been raped, Kaylee?
Kaylee: You know, it's funny you should mention that... ever heard of the Fox network?

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Tuesday, July 6, 2004 12:45 AM

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Freelancer is a very close approximation to the Firefly universe (but with weapons). You're a captain and you've got to ship goods between planets or go bounty hunting or work for the military... Its set after a war in our solar system so we left and set up digs in a new bunch of systems in another galaxy. If I remember correctly, the bad guys are even called the Alliance.

check out my WIP firefly roleplay system at www.estador.co.uk/firefly

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Tuesday, July 6, 2004 1:43 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Ironically - it was Firefly's very similarity to Privateer that drew my attention to it in the first place.

Just nothing quite like rolling a maxed out Galaxy with holds fulla brilliance through the ole Troy sector.

Not sure which is worse tho, Retros or Reavers...

-frem
diefuxdie

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Tuesday, July 6, 2004 10:39 PM

DARKARCHON

Privateer was an awesome game. Way ahead of its time. Earth and Beyond online is similar. Also, anyone remember 'Elite' for the C64? It was the original 'Privateer' game.

Memories...

-Dark

Keep Flyin'

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Sunday, September 5, 2004 7:13 AM

SEVEREN

Privateer is my all-time favorite game!

As far as I'm concerned, Firefly could be Privateer with added intrigue and possibilities.

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Sunday, September 5, 2004 10:28 AM

MALDISCONTENT

Oh yeah, first thing I thought of when I started watching Firefly. If you notice, Serenity almost looks like a Tarsus. (For those who don't know, a Tarsus is the first ship you get in Privateer.)

Mal-bad...in Latin.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2004 4:55 AM

ROUTIER

Quote:
Originally posted by DarkArchon:
Privateer was an awesome game. Way ahead of its time. Earth and Beyond online is similar. Also, anyone remember 'Elite' for the C64? It was the original 'Privateer' game.

***************

"Elite" was designed by 2 young Brits and *first* came out for the BBC Microcomputer in 1984. I know - I had a copy which I got from England! It was a sensation, and soon was ported to the C64.

http://www.hooplah.com/encounters/version.htm

To overcome graphical limitations on the BBC Micro, it split the screen & ran in 2 different graphics resolutions simultaneously, using interrupts. Technically brilliant, and a great genre-defining game.

(Wish I still had that boxed copy - it'd be worth quite a bit now)

Yes, memories......

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Tuesday, September 7, 2004 5:17 AM

SIGMANUNKI

I remember that, and if I'm not mistaken, I still have it around somewhere. I loved just about everything Origin put out. Anyone remember the Crusader series?

But if someone really wanted a Firefly game that was based on a Privateer like game, one should look into modding Vega Strike and it can be found on sourceforge.

I'd do it but I suck at graphics/3D stuff/etc. There's already a mod out for it, also on sourceforge, so figuring out how to do it would be easier than starting from scratch

----
"Canada being mad at you is like Mr. Rogers throwing a brick through your window." -Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

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Tuesday, September 7, 2004 6:49 AM

RAVENGER

Actually the closest game universe to Firefly is a game I worked on - Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos

You play Cal, head of a small band of freebooters who do dodgy jobs for shady organisations in a remote cluster of space. This all takes place many years after an Independence War between the commonwealth and the indies.

There are a lot of parallels and similarities. In fact there's a crew shot that looks very much like the one in Firefly when the alliance board Serenity. There's also a few shots in the TV series that are very similar to CGI in the original Independence War game.

The website is http://www.independencewar.com/home.htm

I'd love to do a proper game based on Firefly though.

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Friday, September 17, 2004 8:01 PM

the movie is not the Series. Only the facts have been changed, to irritate the innocent; the names of the actors and characters remain the same

Quote:
Originally posted by DarkArchon:
Also, anyone remember 'Elite' for the C64?

Sherman, set the WayBack machine for, what, like, a THOUSAND YEARS AGO?

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Dirty Dozen Brass Band, "Big Chief (w/Dr John)", from "Medicated Magic"

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Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:08 AM

LETOV

Quote:
Originally posted by Routier:
Quote:
Originally posted by DarkArchon:
Privateer was an awesome game. Way ahead of its time. Earth and Beyond online is similar. Also, anyone remember 'Elite' for the C64? It was the original 'Privateer' game.

***************

"Elite" was designed by 2 young Brits and *first* came out for the BBC Microcomputer in 1984. I know - I had a copy which I got from England! It was a sensation, and soon was ported to the C64.

http://www.hooplah.com/encounters/version.htm

To overcome graphical limitations on the BBC Micro, it split the screen & ran in 2 different graphics resolutions simultaneously, using interrupts. Technically brilliant, and a great genre-defining game.

(Wish I still had that boxed copy - it'd be worth quite a bit now)

Yes, memories......

Ahhhhhh Elite. I loved that game. I had the pleasure of playing it on the BBC Micro while visiting family friends in England in 86. Since then I've played the crappy PC versions and the neat (although buggy as hell) sequel Frontier. Good fun.

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Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:43 AM

GUNRUNNER

Don’t forget Escape Velocity! In fact I’m part of a group that is working on a Firefly Mod for the game!

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Sunday, January 30, 2005 3:01 PM

JAZAF

Quote:
Originally posted by MalDiscontent:
. If you notice, Serenity almost looks like a Tarsus.

hey, yeah! now that I think about it. The Tarsus and Serenity do look pretty similar

---------------------------------------
Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with till you
understand who's in rutting command here.

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Friday, February 18, 2005 2:50 PM

MARVIN

Maybe a firefly mod could be made on top of vegastrike.
Try it. It's open and free.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

Did however take up alot of memory last time i tried it..

Nothing can beat Elite tough :)

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Wednesday, July 13, 2005 6:52 AM

GOOSE

I am wondering if any one has imported the Serenity into Freelancer and, if so, where I can get that mod.

Otherwise, I would like to take a whack at it. But since this will be my first Freelancer mod, I'm not exactally sure what I need to do. So anyone with some ideas?

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Wednesday, October 5, 2005 5:25 PM

F224EVER

In response to the last post, I am trying to import the 'Serenity' as a ship into Freelancer. It will take a little time since it will be my first mod too, but email me and I will send the finished product before I post it on lancersreactor.com. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed that it turns out well. And, by the way, I think just cruising in the ship will be bad ass because it would prove quite difficult to rewrite the entire galaxy for the galaxy of firefly. Maybe I can make a Mal skin as the main character too... hahaha, I just might have to now... throw me some feedback.

The one thing I've learned is that in your eyes, noone can do better than you.

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Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:47 PM

REIRDEN

Oh man, if you succeed in the Serenity mod for Freelancer, please contact me. I tried to do it myself, but I guess I just don't have the talent. I would really appreciate it.

Cruise the 'verse in a Firefly... that's the dream right there.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005 4:54 PM

MAMIYAOTARU

"Maybe a firefly mod could be made on top of vegastrike."

Interestingly enough there has been talk among some of the VS devs of doing just that, mainly between the two who were chiefly responsible for the Privateer Remake.

It's stalled a bit though, I haven't been online much lately. Anyway, anyone with an interest in helping out can swing by with art or suggestions for how it should play.

Serenity itself is in engine and looking fine, it's just hard to know what to do with it. VS has a lot of trading but also a lot of space combat. Some 1st or 3rd person on-planet action would imho be a benefit, though VS hasn't such a thing yet.

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Thursday, November 17, 2005 11:34 AM

DAGON93

I didn't have the shiny goodness to have a computer when Privateer was out but I do have Privateer 2 which had some magor bugs but other than the story line it was an awesome game except for the fact that your ship was a fighter and you had to hirre a cargo vessel :( But nonetheless still pretty cool. Is there a version of Privateer out there that I can play on my computer now? I can software compatability done to win 95

Explode?! I don't wanna explode!

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Monday, November 28, 2005 10:04 PM

F224EVER

Your Dream has come true... I won't lay claim to what I didn't create, (been slightly busy building models for a few other games) but here it is... enjoy... http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/Download/Download.asp?ID=2017

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 4:02 PM

DAGON93

Thanks f224ever! I got them down, and as soon as I get freelancer I'll post on how good it is (unless someone beats me to it

Explode?! I don't wanna explode!

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 4:54 PM

REIRDEN

YOU ARE A GOD.

This is one of the best Freelancer mods I have ever seen! And it works on multiplayer! Wow! Thanks for making a Browncoat's dream come true.

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Monday, December 26, 2005 4:09 PM

DAGON93

Alrighty! I did get Freelancer for X-Mas and unfortunatly for me I didn't install everything for the mod correctly :( I forgot to install the FLMM manager. So What I can buy is a completly BLUE (no textures) Firefly! (kinda funny) and the one thing it doesn't say in the downloads that It says on the game is that you have to be at Level 20 to even buy it! I hope that is something that my haphazard and missing things upload brought about but other than that I looks really cool to be able to fly Serenity in Freelancer!

Explode?! I don't wanna explode!

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Tuesday, December 27, 2005 4:49 PM

CARTOON

I agree, "Firefly" would make an outstanding computer game. As to why no one in the gaming industry has tried this, I have no clue.

I had "Privateer", but it wouldn't install on my modern system (don't have DOS, so that certainly doesn't help). (Also, I never understood how games which ran on a 50Mhz, 50MB, 4 RAM system, would not run on a 2.6Ghz, 120GB, 256 RAM system.) And there was another early game which was very similiar, called "Protostar" (another DOS game).

And, yes, I have "Freelancer", too. And while "Freelancer" has a billion-times better graphics than its two predecessors, I thought the earlier versions were better (as far as gameplay).

BTW, does anyone remember "Terra Nova". Had some of the best gameplay I've ever experienced (especially relating to how you could command your fellow team-mates). To this day, I haven't seen better team-mate interaction than "Terra Nova".

To my thinking, "Firefly" could take the best of both "Privateer/Proto Star/Freelancer" and "Terra Nova", and be one shiny game.

Unfortunately, I'm not a gaming executive (or even a programmer). Just a lowly school-bus driver.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005 12:17 AM

KORINU

Try Dosbox to run old dos games on Windows 2000/XP.
Here is the link: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/

A game in the firefly 'verse? That would kick-ass.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005 2:08 AM

CITIZEN

Quote:
Originally posted by Cartoon:
Also, I never understood how games which ran on a 50Mhz, 50MB, 4 RAM system, would not run on a 2.6Ghz, 120GB, 256 RAM system.

Because the former is 16Bit, the latter is 32Bit or even 64Bit. When we make the move to 64Bit proper most if not all current 32Bit games simply won't run. It's also likely that older DOS based games require an old fashioned expanded memory model, such as EMS, that is simply not supported by Windows.

Most DOS games won't run under modern 32Bit windows because it is so different internally to the old DOS based systems. It's almost like trying to play a playstation1 game on an XBOX...

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
Remember, the ice caps aren't melting, the water is being liberated.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005 6:54 AM

CARTOON

Thank, Korinu. I'll give that a try.

Thanks to you, also, Citizen. Although, most of your response was Greek to me.

Yeah. I sort of understand what you're saying. You'd think better, more-powerful systems would run little, dinky games though, wouldn't you? Well, maybe not.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005 10:11 AM

DAGON93

Ok, I went and uninstalled everything and reinstalled everything the way it should have been. And the ship is still blue in the dealers screen, BUT I went into the ins? file and changed the level value (just so my level 5 could buy it) and purchased it and from then on the textures are on the ship and everything is shiny! (I may go in and change the armor value higher too)

NOTE:changing the level value didn't make the textures finally appear, it was just so I could buy the ship.

Explode?! I don't wanna explode!

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Friday, January 6, 2006 10:01 AM

DIAVO

Hi! I've been lurking here for a while and just noticed this thread. WC Priv is one of my favorite games of all time too!
I've been playing a mod for Vegastrike called Wing Commander Universe.
[Wing Commander Universe Alpha 0.2] http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=52085#files

It's based directly off the Privateer Remake (you can even play most/all of the Priv campaign still) but added to it are many many ships of the entire WC series PLUS instead of being limited to just the Gemini sector, the entire known WC Universe is there -- you can jump from Sol to Kilrah!

Anyway, with a few tweaks it Role Plays like Firefly nicely. Heck, you could even pretend the Kilrathi are Reavers! Download it, install it, play it for a few minutes, save your game. Now to get things RPing:

1) Your save game file (in the privateer.001/save dir) can be opened & edited in Notepad. The first numbers you see is your money. Up that to something obscene like 999999999. Tell 'em a rich aunt died on Hera.
2) Back in the game, equip that fei oo Tarsus with a jumpdrive and go somewhere with a better rep, like New Detroit.
3) Buy yourself a Drayman. It's a medium-sized cargo ship. Slow and ungaingly tho. We'll fix that! Buy the best stuff for it to taste. Save the game.
4) Exit the game and go to the privateer.001/serialed_xml dir and go into your savegame's title dir. Open the "drayman.stock.csv" file in Excel. Ooh, stats! Shiny!
Now tweak some stats. The first I recommend is Moment_of_Interia, set it to 50. The ship'll handle more like Serenity/a heavy fighter than an asteroid. ;) Then things like the Afterburner Speed need to be upped. I like a Speed of 500 and Afterburner to 2000 (it'll take a while to accel to that tho). You might want to up your Armor all around and Hull too. All to taste.
5) Open the save game file in the Save dir and decrease your money to something reasonable -- I like to be nearly poor for effect. ;P
6) Play! You might notice that tweaking some stats means you can't buy/sell certain related parts, but that's ok, you can always retweak things as your playing goes on.

You can just as easily do this to your Tarsus or a Galaxy, but the Drayman is comparable in size to a Firefly. Plus a Drayman can carry a couple of small fighters! (buy 'em in the Commodity Exchange screen, launch them in-flight with CTRL+X, use CTRL+A to say "Attack my target", and call 'em back with CTRL+L).

Also, in the setup screen I have No Specular Lighting set (perfect, not plasticy looking ships), and sfx/music set to My Effects Only. I play the Firefly TV show soundtrack mp3s in WinAmp while I play WCU -- perfect Firefly ambience! (in-flight push the "." key to up the sfx)

One more tidbit, at pirate bases (like @Pentonville), you can get jobs that are "kill this Confed ship" and "smuggle this to here" which was NOT in the orig WCPriv.

Wish I could rename all instances of "Confed" to "Alliance"...

So, have fun with this, lemme know if any of you try and and/or come up with something better. =)

--Diavo

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Monday, January 30, 2006 8:08 AM

ZERO

The Firefly mod for Freelancer is really cool, been playing it for a few weeks now.

BUT, I'd personally like to see a combination type game for Firefly.

Basically a 2-in-1 type game that combines a Freelancer type space sim with a Half-Life type first person shooter. The reason being is that sure, it's great to fly around in Serenity, but I'd like to get off of the ship and be able to command the team through missions like knocking over a bank, or robbing the train... Anyway, I just think that would be the best game EVER!

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Monday, January 30, 2006 8:33 AM

JOX

If you folks are interested in playing a 'Firefly-like' game I would suggest you check out EVE Online. Its basically like Elite on steroids set in a multiplayer 'verse andplayable completely online. They even have a 14 day trial!

www.eve-online.com

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Friday, February 3, 2006 6:45 AM

DIAVO

Quote:
Originally posted by Zero:
BUT, I'd personally like to see a combination type game for Firefly.
Basically a 2-in-1 type game that combines a Freelancer type space sim with a Half-Life type first person shooter. The reason being is that sure, it's great to fly around in Serenity, but I'd like to get off of the ship and be able to command the team through missions like knocking over a bank, or robbing the train... Anyway, I just think that would be the best game EVER!

It would be the best game ever, especially if it had no subscription.

I had this idea a while ago. Imagine it as a MMORPG, with gameplay modules. People who just wanted space flight (either big multi-crew types or personal fighters ala Wing Commander) could just install the space flight module. People who want a more 1st/3rd person shooter/RPG (definitely RPG level ups for interest) could only have that mod installed. People who wanted the full experience could have both mods: fly around, then land on planets and explore towns and wilderness.
Furthermore, AI controlled characters should be in every town, like Morrowind. =)

My tweaks (3 posts above) to WCU are similar to the space flight mod this game would have. In fact, if you didn't have the FPS mod installed you should still be able to jack into the 'net and get freelance missions (bounties, patrols, etc).

I'm actually adding such a computer game into my webcomic. An element to add some action, some of the characters play it from time to time. =)
Hopefully the first related comics will start this week. ':-)

--Diavo

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Friday, February 3, 2006 7:30 AM

MASTERPAT

All of this can be done. Not sure how, but I use to play Star Wars Galaxies and it had both first/third person, and space flight. You could even move around the inside of your ship while up in space. The game wasn't that great, but if they could do it, then I don't see why someone else could rig up the same thing. Would be awesome, and I got a nice shinny coin for the guy/gal who pulls it off!!!

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Friday, February 3, 2006 8:06 AM

DIAVO

SW Gal flopped for several reasons -- but the concept was indeed great.

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