Battlestar Galactica Combat Sim Finally Out

Matt Grunau

Matt Grunau

Adobe Demigod
For years, there has been a team of folks building on the old Freespace 2 engine to create a Battlestar Galatica simulator. The playable demo is finally out. I downloaded it (300 megs) and there are even some third party missions out there as well. Multiplayer support is available as well. This game/demo is not for sale, there is no price, and no one is making money off of it, so I hope I have not breached any rules here by posting.

http://www.game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3502

Installation instructions and computer specs are in post #2.

http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/downloads.html


This is not the final, there is a massive patch coming up with the rest of the starships, new sounds (that I am helping to create, never had so much fun doing sound design in my life, and I'm not even getting paid for it, thank you very much) as well as more missions, campaigns, and hopefully in game voice support.


As an avid follower of the old Freespace games (for which there is now an upgrade of models, sounds and other such you can get), which in my opinion were the best space combat sims ever, this was a huge surprise. To be asked to participate in its creation was even better.

So, download if you want, play a little, register where you need to so you can play online. If you ever are in multiplayer and see Rapier, be prepared to get blown into the void.


All the info you need is in the first link.


EDIT more helpful links

http://www.game-warden.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3577
 
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Right on! Freespace was one heck of a kick-a** game! I didn't know there were that many fans still out there! :)

I'll have to give this a shot as soon as I get home!

EDIT:

Where can I get the updated models for FS2? And when did the engine become publically available?
 
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Shaw said:
Right on! Freespace was one heck of a kick-a** game! I didn't know there were that many fans still out there! :)

I'll have to give this a shot as soon as I get home!

EDIT:

Where can I get the updated models for FS2? And when did the engine become publically available?
Click to expand...

There was actually a line in the release notes of the game as far as copyright protection. It read: "You are free to make a copy of this game for a friend, provided you do not use it for commercial use". or something to that effect.

That may sound strange, but the exact reference is about two thirds down the page.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/FAQ/general.html#WhereGetFS


Here are some links you will need for updated models, sounds, etc.

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,38195.0.html

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Installing_fs2_open#Step_One:_Understanding_what_you_need

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,39905.0.html

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=4150
 
No frackin' way! Never even knew this was in development.

They need some official BSG games though. FPS style, strategy style, flight sim style, but obviously well made or else there'd be no point.

I'll def check this out. Maybe this will be so good they won't need a flight sim.
 
I haven't played flight sims in a while, so I'm trying to get the hang of this thing, especially now with the thrusters. But I'm glad they included the side and up and down thrusters. You'd always see that with the ships in BSG and they'd do some crazy moves with it. Seems like you can do the same thing.

I had to re-set the keys though. Last space sim was X-Wing alliance and I remember there were lots of buttons, using up almost the whole keyboard, but this one seems to use the keyboard twice as there are a lot of "shift-?" keys. I don't like thrust side to side and up and down to be shift+ keys, so I reset the num pad to allow the thrusts, bank, accelleratye and decelerate and match speed, all the things I find I need during combat while controlling with a joystick.

Anyways, gonna try this some more. Just wish they had a picture of the breifing room while you're in there to make it seem like you're in the battlestar Pegasus.
 
Jon Starr said:
I haven't played flight sims in a while, so I'm trying to get the hang of this thing, especially now with the thrusters. But I'm glad they included the side and up and down thrusters. You'd always see that with the ships in BSG and they'd do some crazy moves with it. Seems like you can do the same thing.

I had to re-set the keys though. Last space sim was X-Wing alliance and I remember there were lots of buttons, using up almost the whole keyboard, but this one seems to use the keyboard twice as there are a lot of "shift-?" keys. I don't like thrust side to side and up and down to be shift+ keys, so I reset the num pad to allow the thrusts, bank, accelleratye and decelerate and match speed, all the things I find I need during combat while controlling with a joystick.

Anyways, gonna try this some more. Just wish they had a picture of the breifing room while you're in there to make it seem like you're in the battlestar Pegasus.
Click to expand...


Look up and start using the Glide function. It's your best friend. You set a forward velocity, enable glide, continue that velocity, but can swing your ship around (while now going backwards at your pre-glide velocity) and aim and fire.

You can do stupid damage with it.


And remebmber, this is the demo release. All the ships you want, including being able to launch from the Pegasus as well as targeting individual canons on Basestars will be available. Just a little while longer. Look at some of the videos, they speak volumes.
 
Yeah, there's not much right now. But it's fracking fun for what it is.

Glide, yeah I should probably try the levels again using glide, never though of it. Maybe I'll set it to 0 on the num pad and try it. But how well does it work? I'll give it a try.
 
Glide works best when you are in a dogfight, and you have someone on your tail. Ordinarily, you would have to out maneuver that fighter to get behind them. Not so with Glide. With Glide, you engage it, do a 180 (still "coasting" on you original course), and start blasting away. Basically, it allows you to maintain direction and speed, but the reverse the heading of only your ship so you can have your target in front of you.

Sounds strange, but in space, with inertia, it is perfectly viable.
 
Yeah I know what you're talking about. It makes sense. But don't you need to have the crossair on the target to engage glide? I haven't had a chance to try it yet though.

EDIT: Oh, I know what you're talking about now. You don't want to glide along with the craft, you just want to glide, plain and simple. Didn't know you could do that.
 
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