Mod interview with Shattered Worlds' developer Forsaken (Freelancer)

There are 3 replies in this Thread. The last Post () by Travis.

    This is a Questions and Answers article about the Freelancer-Mod Shattered Worlds: War-Torn with the mod developer Forsaken.


    What are the main features of Shattered Worlds: War Torn?


    Forsaken: SWWT is an entire overhaul of the Freelancer game and everything we didn't like in other mods and in the vanilla game. This includes a full rebalance, major graphics overhaul while adding a good amount of content.
    Polish, attention to detail, and the fact that we have stepped beyond the mold of the precedent set by vanilla and created an entirely new balance system that works... better than vanilla and those that emulate vanilla.
    In our 1.3 dev, we've upped the bar significantly too. It is surprising how the dramatic the effect is when a bunch of little details are combined into one product.


    Why players should join your server and
    not anyone's else?


    Forsaken: There are loads of great servers and admin teams in the FL community. So that is a tough one.
    I think people should join our server because the mod and community is awesome *nudge, nudge*.
    I believe our modding team is one of the more talented out there. We are a new mod that has advertised very little despite this we are growing at a rapid pace and are realizing success that very few FL server communities are seeing these days. Seeing as most of our players heard about us via "word of mouth" says a lot about the mod and our community.
    As more and more people join our community, it will become attractive to more and more people because there is activity on the server and forums.


    You mentioned the upcoming mod version 1.3. What will be new in this edition?


    Forsaken: The number one thing for me during 1.3 dev was to make the mod compatible with single-player. There are many players who wanted to play the mod in single-player... I was constantly getting pm's and emails requesting a single-player campaign option. So we set off to make it work... It was a huge challenge because the mod was optimized for multi-player and the extent in which we overhauled the game mechanics. Nevertheless, we prevailed. I must say single-player never looked so good. I wanted to make it more of a challenge, but we needed to cater to a broader audience, so we had to tone it down quite a bit.
    The new features for SWWT 1.3 that immediately come to mind are:

    • Full Single-player Campaign compatibility.
      Missions vs. Battleships (not using workarounds to fake them either)
    • Battleship Encounters that are serious forces to be reckoned with.
    • LOADS of graphics improvements beyond what we already have in SWWT 1.2
    • Dynamic NPC spawn another feat exclusive to SWWT
    • The introduction of player flyable capitalships
    • New FX
    • Improvements to our exclusive and innovative mining system
    • New ship content
    • More balance tweaks to improve the gaming experience



    Capitalships? This sounds a bit imbalanced....or do you have planned something for such a reason?


    Forsaken: This is why we have the Bomber class fighters. It is a simple case of rock paper scissors and speccing your equipment/loadout to match your enemies. Bombers are easily killed by fighters, but bombers have the ability to take out capital ships.



    How did you realize this?


    Forsaken: Bombers lose the ability to utilized more advanced evasive maneuvers such as the engine kill slide. This makes them fodder for fighters, however, Bombers have the weaponry that make them a threat to capital ships.
    Having said that, we have had concern among our players, regarding the server becoming a "cap whore" server like other mods. This is something we wanted to prevent, however, we wanted to make capships deadly (as they should be) but didn't want the server to be nothing but capships which is quite prevalent on other servers.
    As a result, capital ships will be limited to factions and clans.
    We haven't released the exact details or requirements, but hopefully it will be well accepted by the players. The players in our community are pretty sensible and understand the ramifications of rampant capship proliferation. They have an appreciation of the balance and wouldn't want it to be ruined by capitalships.



    Sounds balanced. Can you examine the Release date for version 1.3 in weeks or months?


    Forsaken: To be totally honest, I don't know. I want to release it ASAP, but it takes time to make something everybody is on the team is happy with. We have redone many things several times because we weren't happy with the results. I am not a fan of creating rules, and because of this, we are trying to utilize coding to prevent creation of rules to prevent exploitation of game mechanics. As a result, mod development for this version has taken longer than expected.
    Hopefully we can get this thing out by the end of January.... but I don't know if I'm being too optimistic.


    What kind of server are you running? PVP or RP?


    Forsaken: Officially... relaxed RP.
    Having said that... its more like PvP facilitated by RP.
    There isnt a bunch of people sitting in a system ganking each other. Instead, it is more like people from different factions/clans which have roleplays which are opposite in alignment duking it out. Many of the old-school Freelancer vets remember the Excelcia server... we're trying to emulate that environment. Many will agree that a lot of great wars, roleplay, and memories were created on that server.


    Any screenshots or videos you want to show us?


    Forsaken: Yes, we just finished our introduction video recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipe7rWuKvo8
    Furthermore, here are some very nice screenshots:
    http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=advertpic19rl9.jpg
    http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=advertpic2gswa.jpg
    http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=advertpic3rtba.jpg
    http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=advertpic4fqzo.jpg
    http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=advertpic5esdd.jpg



    Anything else you want to add?


    Forsaken: To sum SWWT up, it is basically a server and mod created by people from a bunch of different FL communities. Every group brought opinions what they did and didn't like about vanilla/other mods and created a mod which represents the way FL should have been. The server environment isn't laden with rules or a complex code of etiquette. Generally speaking, we are a relaxed community that wants to create the best Freelancer gaming experience possible, and have loads of fun with other fans of the space combat genre.
    We have something for everyone, our RP requirements won't run off the casual gamer, but will allow the RP fanatic complete room to get the full RP experience. Our balance system works, you won't find everybody flying the same ship(s). Instead, you will find players flying the ship(s) that fit their flying style and you will see people equipped with a wide variety of loadouts which are specced out for the enemies they are facing.
    So if you're looking for one of the most polished FL modifications out there and a enjoyable Freelancer experience, the Shattered Worlds::War-Torn server is, in my opinion, the place to be.
    We've already merged with 2 other DevTeams and are willing to combine efforts with others. The mod you are getting isn't purely a perspective of FL from one community, but a combination of many different communities within Freelancer... something other mods really don't have.



    MOD DB page of the modification:
    http://www.moddb.com/mods/shattered-worlds


    You can download the modification here:
    http://freelancer-swwt.com/Forum/index.php?topic=58.0
    (Registration required)


    Media


    Shattered Worlds - Youtube channel:
    http://www.youtube.com/shatteredworlds


    Screenshots at MOD DB:
    http://www.moddb.com/mods/shattered-worlds/images


    Shattered Worlds forums gallery:
    http://freelancer-swwt.com/Forum/index.php?action=gallery


    Official Site
    http://freelancer-swwt.com

    I have tried this mod and it has many good things going for it. I liked the mining and the mining ships. I liked the structure for earning credits; the cost of purchasing ships and equipment was well balanced. Trading has been carefully thought out so as not just to create a few good trading routes, but involves most of the systems. RP works well, each player having to align him/herself to an npc faction. This means that you have to be hostile to at least one npc faction, they do not allow what is call Greylancing. The rules of RP are lengthy and take a bit of careful understanding but once understood again work well. The balance of weapons on ships has been well thought out; missile junkies beware. You need all round skills to be a fighter pilot; however, they do use bats and nanos, which makes for longer encounters.


    I have not play the mod long enough to comment constructively on my dislikes, but I think they need to work on the docking/undocking of ships; it is not at all realistic. I found that the larger mining ship did not seem to react to outside forces correctly and certainly did not dock as would be expected. I think that the docking of the larger ships should be restricted to planets to make it more realistic or at least have a mooring point for disembarking to the smaller stations. Despite our problems here, I prefer the PVP on Crossfire, strict rules restrict encounters. I like, for example, the police v pirates situation here, shoot first and ask questions later. I like being able to PVP just for the fun of it (with mutual agreement) and not have to worry about fitting it into a role play situation.


    As I have stated I have not played the mod for very long and my comments should be taken in that context but these are my impressions for what they are worth.