FreeSpace Port ReCharged Dev Log 03 - Flight Mechanics
- Iain 'Sessile_Nomad' Baker
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Welcome back, friends. In my previous developer blogs, I explained that I was creating a mod, why I was making it, and some of the hurdles I encountered in the process.
You are probably wondering what the mod I'm creating is called and what it consists of. The first question can be answered easily enough, and as you have probably gathered by the title of this dev blog series, it's called 'FreeSpace Port Recharged'.
What it consists of is what the rest of this dev blog series will focus on. It is essentially an unofficial 'soft reboot' / 're-imagining' of the classic Decent: FreeSpace campaign, updated for the 21st Century. What will this change from the original? The short answer is 'A lot'. The long answer is what most of the rest of this dev blog series will delve into.
However, before we do that, let's examine the mini-mod I created some time ago, as it serves as the foundation for FreeSpace Port Re-Charged.
What Came Before
Long before I decided to create a full-blown mod of my own, I decided to change my biggest bugbear with the FreeSpace franchise in general - and most Space Combat Sims for that matter - the flight characteristics.
Most craft in Vanilla FreeSpace handle like aeroplanes, or the X-Wings and TIE fighters from Star Wars - they fly in the direction they are facing, and that’s it. I believe this was intentional on Volition's (the developers') part, as they have allegedly stated that the initial idea for FreeSpace was 'World War 2 dogfighting in space'.
However, I had always found this frustrating, because I wanted the craft I was flying - and in some cases, the enemies I would be fighting - to move more like space helicopters, or the Starfuries from Babylon 5 - i.e., six degrees of freedom movement and strafing.
Babylon 5 Mod: Start of the EA Civil War
It turned out that this was actually quite simple to do - the Babylon 5 Total Conversion ‘The Babylon Project’ shown above, and the BSG 2004 themed TC ‘Diaspora’ shown below both did this to varying degrees. It’s just that no one had fully implemented these into FreeSpace itself.
Diaspora BSG mod for FreeSpace 2
There had been a few attempts, but at the time of writing, these remain unfinished. So, being the highly impatient 'Sessile_Nomad' that I am, I decided to do it myself.
This resulted in Project GXYZ (which stands for Glide - the ability to move in one direction while facing in any other, and moving in the X, Y and Z planes). You can see the results below.
Project GXYZ
As it turns out, it is relatively easy to do the same for all the other campaigns - even those that used user-made ships. So, I started creating ‘GXYZified’ (technical name) versions of these campaigns for personal use as well. Being the generous Sessile_Nomad that I am, I shared them with anyone who wanted them and published ‘how-to’ guides for anyone who might like to create their own.
That's all for this week. Next week, we really put the 'Combat' into our Space Combat Sim. See you all there.
Links to previous posts in the FreeSpacePort ReCharged Dev Log
Iain is a 40+ author and gamer from England, who started his gaming journey on the Atari 2600 36(ish) years ago. His specialities include obscure cult classics, retro games, mods and fan remakes. He hates all sports games and is allergic to online multiplayer. Since he is British, his body is about 60% tea. He can be reached via email at nomadsreviews@gmail.com
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