FreeSpace Port ReCharged Dev Log 04: Guns Galore!
- Iain 'Sessile_Nomad' Baker
- Sep 6
- 3 min read
Welcome back, friends.
In the previous dev log, we examined how I revamped FreeSpace's flight mechanics, thereby resolving one of my biggest bugbears with the 1998 classic and making it far more enjoyable (for me, at least).
The next irritant that needed scratching was something shared by many Space Combat Sims, sci-fi films and TV shows of the '90s: Crappy Cannons!
Not enough Gun
Let me explain. Since the 1960s, we realised that to score a hit in a high-speed dogfight, you needed your gun(s) / cannon to have as high a rate of fire as physically possible, and a very high muzzle velocity (how fast the bullet/shell is moving when it leaves the barrel.)
The 1960s solution? The M61A Vulcan - an electrically powered six-barrelled ‘Gatling’ rotary cannon. This spat 20mm explosive bullets at 6000 rounds per minute. Or 100 shots per SECOND.
These rounds had a muzzle velocity of 1,050 meters per second, or approximately 3,780 kilometres per hour (2,348 miles per hour), or a little over Mach 3. That’s an awful lot of lead and steel moving very fast.
The Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar using the 20mm Vulcan
So, what did most sci-fi films, shows and games of the 1990s have? Guns with rates of fire that would make a flintlock sneer with contempt, and muzzle velocities that could be overtaken by a Ford Escort.
Babylon 5 fighters shooting very slow shots
Video by Bob Drummond
FreeSpace, being from the same era, had similarly glacial rates of fire and projectile speeds, as you can see in the video below, which shows them in their vanilla format.
FreeSpace (Vanilla)
Video by Linux Longplays
That’s gotta change, I said to myself, so I changed it. I at least doubled the rate of fire for all guns and increased their muzzle velocities by at least 1.5 times. Much better 🙂
FreeSpace Port Recharged Guns Test
Maintaining the Balance
To prevent these cannons from becoming overpowered and making the game too easy, I reduced their damage per shot by half, therefore preserving their respective DPSs (Damage Per Second). Thanks to the power of weaponised Excel formulas, this ended up being surprisingly easy to do as well.
Moar Dakka Dakka!
I then figured ‘hey, it’s in space, we should have ballistic space guns firing space-boolets.’ So, I created the ‘Browning’, a precursor to FS2’s 'Maxim'. And since I was aiming for greater realism than retail FS, I took a leaf from the Blue Planet mod's playbook and made them use physical ammo that can run out in-mission, but can also be topped up in-mission by the support ship.
We Can Buff That Out
Speaking of the support ship – a craft which the player and AI wingmen can call in to rearm them - I made it capable of repairing fighter and bomber hulls up to 75%.
I did this because the changes I was implementing was making the game significantly more difficult - especially in the earlier missions where you lack shields. So, I enabled this feature to balance it out.
I resisted allowing the support ship to repair hulls up to 100% because this felt unrealistic, and it gave the player an incentive not to get damaged in the first place. I reduced the support ship’s subsystem repair ability to 80% for the same reason. (FRED giveth, FRED taketh away 😁)
That’s all for this week, folks. The next update – which will probably be in a fortnight due to an upcoming long weekend – we will look at the other aspects of FreeSpace Port ReCharged's expanded arsenal. 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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