Over the past week, we’ve posted up three images speaking to something BIG happening to FW:ToW on April 7th 2012. Speculation on what this may be referring to has been everywhere from new models to a full release of the mod.
While it is not either of these things, it is something pretty big for our fans that have faithfully following us for over almost 4 years of development. You’ve stayed by us through the thick and thin and understood that developing a mod such as this is very much a journey rather than just a destination.
As a development team, we were disappointed in ourselves that we were unable to make the March deadline of full beta release. While we all had legitimate reasons for this, and a vast majority of fans understood these unsaid reasons, but it still ate at us for the past month.
So, to thank our fans for all they’ve done for us, for their constant support and encouragement, we decided to release a demonstration package of the mod.
In this demonstration package you will be able to fly over 100 vessels, see firsthand the improvements to the freelancer graphic engine, engage in combat with the non-playable characters (NPCs) and engage in player versus player (PvP) with other players. In the demo, there are two systems where all of your interaction will take place; the combat prototype system and the capital prototype system.
What this demo will not contain is full gameplay functionality that will be in the final release such as dockable capital ships, dynamic economy, player influence system or any of the final canon star systems. Those are still being worked on and tweaked for a full beta release. It also will NOT contain a freelancer server program. All people who download the server will play on what will be our official server come full release. We decided to release without a server to be able to monitor server stability and to fix any program related bugs with this mass test. By having you put the program through its paces, we'll be able to see where we can improve it for full release.
To also make things interesting, we’re giving all new players just enough cash to buy a new fighter class vessel. For anything else, the player will have to work for it. They’ll have to destroy our NPC starfighters and sell the loot they drop. So, for those looking to fly one of our huge capital ships, you’ll have to work for it, a bit. Teaming up in groups would probably your best bet at being able to buy new ships, quickly. We also hope to arrange a few PvP events just to keep people interested.
So, that’s the big news. I hope you all are as excited to try the demo out as we are excited to release this demonstration package to you all.
I’d also like to take this article and showcase some of the amazing work that’s been accomplished by our very own FriendlyFire. He’s been painstakingly improving our solar system with beautiful new planets and effects. For those of you who haven’t seen his work in the past few weeks, please take a second and take a look at these beauties!
From the Freeworlds: Tides of War development team, we thank you for your continued support of this mod.
good job FWTOW team, and good luck on the final release
Thanks!
First I learn that I don't have to do school for two weeks, with full credit...next I learn Freeworlds has a demo.
You guys just made my day. :3
Good timing :) Hope to see you on the server a lot then!
So, we're all waiting for DL link!
April 7th ;) It will be there.
yes! ive been waiting to fly a corellian corvette for ages. :D
Who has two thumbs and has been avidly waiting for something to fill the hole left by the tragic end of SWG:JTL? This guy!
Hehe. Great. It's not the full release but it's something to whet the appetite.
yes! i was already missing the flying system from SWG, this is somekind like that and better
respect <3
Thanks a lot for the kind words. We hope people enjoy it!
OH YEAH :D
Not the full release but a demo is something I can live with.... at least for a while longer.
Thank guys/gals.
Not a problem. Thanks for your understanding.
Too bad its near the end of my spring break but AWESOME, I want a nebulon B then work tword a star destroyer >:)
I had been hoping for a little more.
HOWEVER, I am happy to get everything you are willing to throw my way, guys. :)
Sorry to disappoint then but we thought this was a good alternative to having nothing released.
Its all good, Sush'.
<3
Nice i cant wait for the full release
Ahh, been following ya since day 1, way before i even created this account so yeah i know developing is hard. I kinda knew there was no way for a full release to be out so soon but i hoped. Anyway i'm curious when the full release is ready do you just "patch" the demo server and we keep all we have done in demo or do we start all over again ??? Thanks and keep up the good work.
We'd have to start over again because there will be a lot more added onto the demo. Furthermore, we'll have an installer for the full release with an autoupdating feature.
Ahhh thought so, then i'll wait for a full release :(. If i waited this long i can wait couple of more months :/
Congrats on being nearly there. I would rather wait and have something polished than a buggy mess early!
Can't wait to play!
Thank you.
You guys are wonderful, you didn't need to do this, we could wait for the final product, but still, thank you, thank you so much :D
Thanks a lot!
Wonder where I can get the actual Freelancer game.. It's not in steam, is it?
No it's not. Here are some ideas of where to get it:
The-starport.net
This sounds good - time to find out if the graphical extras are too much burden for our hardware :)
Will this demo have all the recent graphical improvements..?
I'm guessing it'll have the dx9 goodies up until xmas and hopefully (simple) shadowing, but what about the distortion thingy?
Distortion may not be in depending on if we get them applied to explosions this week.
Hadn't expected distortions, everything else included will be amazing anyway. :)
Best of luck with this!!
Can you own more than one ship in this? Or are you stuck with one?
You can try over 100+ ships in this demo.
what's the HDD requirements? i have little space so i know how much to delete beafore 7th :P
The download uncompressed will be about 1.7gb. Compressed it's about 1GB.
thanks its less than i expected, great
Started installing Free Lancer as soon as I saw this! Can't wait for the 7th!
Not as big news as I thought. Oh well, its something...I guess.
:\
It's always nice to see such effusions of joy upon the release of even so small a part of a free, voluntary project.
Im excited, but the various banners made it seem like so much more >_>
That and considering Sushi was not very direct in his answers to my questions regarding which plugins would be included in the release.
"What this demo will not contain is full gameplay functionality that will be in the final release such as dockable capital ships, dynamic economy, player influence system or any of the final canon star systems. "
Great work on the games guys, but i have a quick question. Will the game run in a widescreen mode without any other modification, for me thats 1200x800, and if not does anyone know how to make it run in a widescreen mode.
Yes. You can always select your desktop's resolution in the options menu. Otherwise, editing the options file lets you input any resolution, 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
You know what is nice about this is the 8th is my Birthday :D
Thank you Sushi!
Today is the day but, i coudn't find the release time anywhere.
Sushi, can you tell us something more?
It's only 11am EST here. We're just putting together the installer and the upload will be up in a few more hours. Expect late afternoon EST (GMT-5).