Frontier/FFE appreciation thread

[DraQ]

Because those truly awesome freelance space-sims are not appreciated often enough on the Codex.

 

[afewhours]

Did they still have the "edible arts graduates" in Frontier, or was that just the original Elite? That made me laugh.

 

[DraQ]

Did they still have the "edible arts graduates" in Frontier, or was that just the original Elite? That made me laugh.

Sadly, Elite only.

 

[Lord Rocket]

I will post in this thread. Frontier was the shiznit, and a lot better than the original in lots of ways. It was a shame that the physics made combat in space rather dull, and I never could fathom why only one pirate attacked at any given time. There was a good joke in the combat section of the manual though.

 

[asper]

Elite rocks... The Kubrick-inspired classical music soundtrack gets me every time... Frontier is my favorite...

Please post any Elite remakes/clones that you know of...

I know Oolite is worth playing when you install the mods, even though it eventually gets repetitive... are there any others?

 

[SuicideBunny]

i loved getting that space shuttely freighter, putting the strongest laser into the turret, and blowing myself up because of hitting my own wing during combat..
or ffe's mission bugs that prevented me from ever finishing that one stupid mission near the end.

sigh, games like this don't get made no more...

 

[DraQ]

I will post in this thread. Frontier was the shiznit, and a lot better than the original in lots of ways. It was a shame that the physics made combat in space rather dull, and I never could fathom why only one pirate attacked at any given time. There was a good joke in the combat section of the manual though.

It wasn't as dull anymore once you got your head around the whole newtonian thing and once you realized that "engines off" is nothing, but creatively mislabelled full-manual mode.

Single pirate at the time was a time compression bug. If you used lower stardreamer settings when expecting pirate intercepts, you could not only get multiple attackers, but see them coming from over a thousand kilometers.

Please post any Elite remakes/clones that you know of...

JJFFE and GLFFE are windows compatibile replacement .exe-s for FFE with a number of extra features, like famous "Jordanian Controls" allowing full control over directional thrusters. Modded variants are also available.

GLFrontier is a Frontier port that can be run on modern rigs. Disregard excessively crappy openGL screenshots - classic renderer is also available after pressing ctrl+E.

i loved getting that space shuttely freighter, putting the strongest laser into the turret, and blowing myself up because of hitting my own wing during combat..

Notice that this game had exact-to-model hitboxes years before some guys got around to making 2.5D shooter where you could rip bitmap demons apart with bitmap chainsaw.

 

[Ivy Mike]

I must have played the shit out of Frontier some 15 years ago. I still remember reading a preview about the game in some games magazine or other and thinking that that game had to be the best thing ever. I recall even daydreaming about playing that game. Incredible.

What we need is a proper follow-up that isn't dumbed down (although the newtoninan physics could be toned down a notch) and expands on the sandbox gameplay. Didn't Braben say he was working on Elite IV years ago? How's that coming along? Anyway, those replacements/ports DraQ posted makes me want to get down with both games again.

 

[Lord Rocket]

I will post in this thread. Frontier was the shiznit, and a lot better than the original in lots of ways. It was a shame that the physics made combat in space rather dull, and I never could fathom why only one pirate attacked at any given time. There was a good joke in the combat section of the manual though.

It wasn't as dull anymore once you got your head around the whole newtonian thing and once you realized that "engines off" is nothing, but creatively mislabelled full-manual mode.

Yes, thank you, I have owned a legitimate copy of the game since it came out, and I do still play it every couple of years.
Even so, it never became anywhere near as exciting as the fights in the original, since the greater variability in the ship types means you will usually kill them easily or be utterly annihilated remarkably quickly. The only tense firefights I have had involved me in an Asp and the enemy in one of those preposterous looking Imperial ships.

Single pirate at the time was a time compression bug. If you used lower stardreamer settings when expecting pirate intercepts, you could not only get multiple attackers, but see them coming from over a thousand kilometers.

I didn't know that though.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Didn't Braben say he was working on Elite IV years ago? How's that coming along?

Latest News
David Braben to announce new Elite in 2008

GamersGlobal reports that Braben may announce Elite 4 in 2008.

In a meeting which was primarily about his new WiiWare game LostWinds, and after much prodding and inquisitorial asking from our side, David Braben, who together with Ian Bell created the cult space game Elite back in the 80ies, confirmed that he will do a modern version of his classic title.

in other words, that's pretty much the same as years ago.

 

[Seboss]

Yeah, Elite 4 is #1 vaporware, far ahead of Duke Nukem Forever, except nobody gives a fuck about it except for a dozen of half-fossilized geeks on a dusty usenet group.

 

[Oarfish]

And it will be an MMO, even if it isn't vaporware.

 

[DraQ]

And it will be an MMO, even if it isn't vaporware.

Of course then it'll autofail, as it's impossible to implement some of the core mechanics of E2 and E3 into MMO.

 

[Lord Chambers]

This game sounds like Space Rangers, which is a game released this side of the century that people have played.

 

[aron searle]

Im playing it now, at work.

ohhh im so bad

 

[The Dude]

I remember the short stories collection that came with the original Frontier. I thought it was pure awesome back then, though naturally I was quite a bit younger. The game was also awesome. Frontier, Civ and Sensible Soccer were the three games I spent most time on during my Amiga days.

Ah, found it on the Elite wiki, apparently it was called "Stories of Life on the Frontier." They are still pretty enjoyable reads if you like the game, though you involountarily think about how cool it would be if you actually could play out some of those situations in the game.

 

[DraQ]

I remember the short stories collection that came with the original Frontier. I thought it was pure awesome back then, though naturally I was quite a bit younger. The game was also awesome.

Indeed, even without rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.

Ah, found it on the Elite wiki, apparently it was called "Stories of Life on the Frontier." They are still pretty enjoyable reads if you like the game, though you involountarily think about how cool it would be if you actually could play out some of those situations in the game.

Here's the complete (I think) collection.

While it would be great if you could play out such situations in game, both those novellas and journals in FFE still add more layers to the world, fleshing it out.

 

[Visbhume]

I still remember playing the game and wondering how the hell did they manage to cram a whole universe in a single diskette.

Bonus points for the "verosimilitude" of the star systems. It really added a lot, it gave the game a "hard-sf" feeling that hasn't been equalled in gaming to this day and likely never will be.

Have the smooth planet-to-space transitions in Frontier ever been replicated in any other piece of software (besides Orbiter, that is).

Freelancer came out at about the same time and, while fun, it didn't hold a candle to Frontier.

 

[k_bits]

Frontier and FFE were great games. I still remember the first time I landed manually on a planet and set up a mining rig in Frontier. (Ah...Amiga games...how I loved you)

But I can't help but wish that the planets and universe weren't so bland. After a while it's just more of the same more of the same....there's no real reward for exploring. Heck, I remember purposely mis-jumping and ending up 4500 light years away, only to be dismayed at endless cookie cutter systems.

Personally, I think I would have preferred a smaller universe that was busier than an endless empty expanse.

To those that have played Oolite....how 'alive' is the universe by comparison? As I understand it, that game is much more 'mod-able' when it comes to mission content?

 

[DraQ]

Bonus points for the "verosimilitude" of the star systems. It really added a lot, it gave the game a "hard-sf" feeling that hasn't been equalled in gaming to this day and likely never will be.

Hehe. Nothing beats thinking that it's unlikely that pirates will intercept you now that you're so close to your destination port, with "close" meaning about 1AU (about 150 million kilometers).

 

[WalterKinde]

manual touchdown/docking was always a challenge or the flyby spy missions in FE2 and FF.
Once you knew the trade routes and could avoid pirates in your craft of choice you could build up a lot of credits esp in First Encounters if at the beginning you won the race and subscribed to the digital news papers aka what we know today as RSS feeds, those gave clues about what systems could need what supplies.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Didn't Braben say he was working on Elite IV years ago? How's that coming along? Anyway, those replacements/ports DraQ posted makes me want to get down with both games again.

Decide yourself:

http://www.frontier.co.uk/

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=8

Recently there was no real news. and whats this Wii crap? But at least he still wants to make Elite IV. Some people in the forum say something might actually be going on behind the scenes.

 

[DraQ]

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Why???

 

[DraQ]

Why???

Because we need to fight the decline of Elite: Dongerous.