Are we a Vanilla server?

[-]LrdD[-Apocalypse]

The BS are awesome, especially since they are moving docking bases.
However, i am not sure that as the amount of BS increases with players owning them, they might create more lag in the server.

one proposition, if the subject allows it, could be that in Battles the gunnery of BS should only destroy other BS ships and not Fighters and vise verse, this would balance it out a bit.

On repair turrets, Why do we need them when we can laugh about having lost guns in battle? It is fun to see that i lost all my guns and that all i have to do is to wait to be shot down.

After thinking a bit in this 2 different subjects of BS an Repair Turrets i realize that the server is not anymore as i was intended to be. I am not criticizing, i just observe that we are becoming more moded like some other servers out there. They have BS and different ships, we use different ship as them, they want more powerful guns, we want more powerful guns too. We are not as a vanilla server as we were to be anymore. The vision of having vhf fights is disappearing in small changes made heer and there. We now have even nomad ship included in the mod not forgetting that we also have Trader ships with more cargo hull and cloaking devices.

Gone are the days when we use to get hunted by other eagles without the interference of a nomad, BS ships or the use of repair turrets and lets not forget their cloaking devices that at one time were gadgets reserved for admins only. with all due respect i could say that the EFS motto of Eagle Fighting Squadron could just become a clan name and not anymore be related to the vhf eagle as i used to think of them.

The question is, were are we headed with all this changes? We are heavenly moded and yet we keep an idea of Vanilla but in fact this is not true anymore. We need to rethink and go back to our old ways of playing the the game as the old vision was. A vanilla server where we can play and fight or hunt each other in eagle ships. If we continue with the way things are and on the development of new gadgets and ships we have lost everything that EU stands for, we have lost the wonderful vanilla server with hard to kill NPCs.

[Eagle]

Vanilla
1st, we are still and will remain fully vanilla compatible. That means unmodded (aka vanilla) players can still play EU server, in that respect we are and have always been 'vanilla'.

Battleships
Every player can only fly a single ship, wether thats a battleship or a fighter does not impact the server differently and thus lag in that respect is a non issue. As far as balance goes... we have put ALOT of effort in making battleships be balanced as this is one of the most important things to us to preserve. Our battleships aren't rediculously powerfull, and can infact be taken out easilly by a vhf squadron if unprotected. The only real advantage a BS offers is that it can act as a carrier and in doing so allow players to respawn near where the action is taking place. Ofcourse this means they can take the ship deep into enemy territory, but that is exactly what it was intended for, its up to the enemy to then eliminate the battleship and then focus on the remaining fighters who would, upon dying, end up back in their own system (assuming fights took place near a base hostile to them).

Repair turrets
Repair turrets as we envisioned them would be used to repair the afore mentioned battleship as, unlike the fighters it harbours, it would be unable to dock in a hostile environent and repair. This would allow a battleship to remain in working order for as long as its escorts are able to fend off attackers. To prevent this piece of equipment from being used to avoid any repair costs, we've made it expensive enough to compensate. Related poll was started where suggetions on altering this can be posted by the way. Last but not least, equipment actually destroyed (i.e. guns shot of) can't be repaired as there's nothing left to repair, only way to get that back is either die or repurchase.

Modded servers
My definition of a modded server is one where a mod is mandatory and where you will find ship/equipment/etc. etc. not found in the original freelancer game. Here at Eagle Utopia we only use what is allready present in the original game, maintain a very good balance and at the same time stay true to the game's story line. We don't have more powerfull guns for ships which we could always fly and we have no intention of introducing anything more powerfull to be used for those ships as this would disrupt what we hold so very dear... the balance of it all.

New ships
Allready covered really, these aren't new they're just pilotable by players whereas they could only see npc's use them before. I can't stress enough that we have very carefully added each such that they do not disrupt the balance we have, large freighters for instance can indeed haul alot more cargo than those available to unmodded players, however... they are quite unable to moor everywhere which greatly limits profits that can be made and the maximum that can be made infact matches that of the 'normal' freighters. Nomad ships are indeed pilotable as well, its just another vhf the way we implemented it and it can put up a decent fight when going up against a any other VHF. It is however, even with all the possible upgrades, still the weaker of the species and pilots will have to rely on their skill/strategy to be successfull in conquering the human realm.

Cloaking devices
Ofcourse a natural extention, and must have item for nomads. Human fighter ships however have the ability to cloak for a very limited amount of time if they are able to obtain a civilian cloaking device. These devices have also been very carefully balanced, for instance they can't be used when the owner is engaged in combat redering them useless as a means of escape. The only way they can be used is to covertly enter an area, but due to their limited cloak time and long recharge time... its usefullness is purely strategic and doesn't give the owner any advantage other than covert entry.

Future of Freelancer
The time where players found unmodded freelancer acceptable is long gone and Eagle Utopia has held ground for a long time. If we want to survive, we'll have to offer our players something more and so we will. You can expect there to be more additions over time, albeit slow as it not only takes alot of time to implement new concepts... it takes even mroe time to make sure we keep everything properly balanced and not divert from the story line too much. All changes we make however are ones we make because there's a demand for them so as always, keep posting ideas/suggestions on how to make things better.

Closing argument
As has been proven countless times in the past, players tend to jump on new things as they become available. Whenever new systems are opened, new ships are introduced, new equipment becomes available... everyone is all over it. Over time however, this will balance itself out again and we can expect the exact same thing to happen with all new things we have on EU as well.

[>3MAJ<>Red_Sonya<]

As I said few times before , i played on lot of servers and ... EU cant be replaced . Balance is key word here . I found a lot of interesting things on different servers but what they dont have is balance . Here .. we have BS's and i was skeptic at the beginning , but now i'm not . As Eagle said

Our battleships aren't ridiculously powerfull, and can infact be taken out easily by a vhf squadron if unprotected

; he is absolutely right . Making game more interesting , making tactics to kill BS and fight eagles at same time . Maybe we can start discussing about what is lame / not lame in using them , that i can agree .
I love this server cause its closest to the original game as it can get . But , times changes , game changes ... Has to change if it wonna survive and it will survive only with more players .... EU is changed , but nothing drastically - as i sad BALANCE is crucial (IMO)
Regarding the Repair turret ... well you need another player for start .. second , it can be destroyed too ...
I think that all this depends of the way that this toys are used . So i'm gonna start new tread about this questions cause have I have few remarks about it . But , for me , EU is vanilla server and where ever you go in some point you will be back here ... Why ?? Cause the players , simplicity , balance , HK ... even cause the admins

[>3MAJ<>Hunter_Killer<]

;D

[[Dark_Order]shiverblade]

Eagle, great that your busy with it but just a random question out curiosity: when will the changes come? cant wait for it im so thrilled about it! i luve those changed but when are they going to come?