Privateer
- Thread starter Dex
- Start date
As others have said Elite inspired Privateer. I remember you could upgrade your ships and the ship salesmans speach when you didnt have enough money for the new ship or weapons. I vaguelly recall it being a relatively limited size galaxy to run around in though.
I would say it was closer to the later X-series than Elite or Frontier though.
I would say it was closer to the later X-series than Elite or Frontier though.
What's the next step up? Absolutely galactic? Anyway, whatever it is, there's also Limit Theory!
There's also another one in the wings that keeps threatening to Kickstart. Can't remember it's name though.
Elite 1 had 2048 completely unique systems to visit. This fit on a audio cassette and about 32kb of memory
Frontier Elite 2 I think had 513,982,470 unique systems, with their own planets all of which were "actual size" as was the distance between planets, and they orbitted their stars correctly etc etc. You could free roam over the surface of each of the planets (temperature \ gravity permitting) this all fit on a single floppy disk!
What I liked the most about Privateer, aside from free exploration, was the unique planets you could land on. Like Oxford was this agricultural planet, and you'd have this landing sequence where your ship flies past fields and windmills. Detroit was dark and rainy, Hades was volcanic, there were aquatic planets and frozen planets covered with ice, there was quite a bit of variety that I can recall. And of course the space stations too. And the "landed" screens fully reflected the planet you were on. It was very cool how it gave you that feeling of going from one unique world to another. Did Elite have anything like that? Or were you perpetually bound to space or surface map fly-byes?
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The main difference was Privateer's emphasis on storyline, while the Elite games had a stronger forte in trade and exploration. Sure, you could trade and explore in Privateer too, but there were about 50 systems all told, and the business model was less versatile. Both had their strengths - I love Privateer for the interactive-action-movie-feel it generated, and the Elites for a more self-governed experience where I could imagine my own stories. Bah, nostalgia.
Privateer was great, definitely not as sand box as Elite but visually at the time it was stunning, especially the planet scenes. It did have a real movie feel about it too and I think it was related to the wing commander series. The ability to buy a few different ships was a good touch and I especially liked the weapon systems, you had several hardpoints for energy weapons and could buy several different weapons to fit. So it was possible to have a pair of ion based weapons for greater shield depletion and then switch to tachyon canons to punch through the hull.
And I think Dani behr was the voice for the computer..mmm Dani behr
And I think Dani behr was the voice for the computer..mmm Dani behr
Loved privateer, coming from a wing commander and freespace series background, and even tried privateer parallel universe, although its a great game, like others said its still limited in the sandbox area. You can accomplish and max out your ship in less than a few hours, whereas in Elite especially Oolite with mods, you have tons of options which is amazing.