285: The Greatest Game Never Played

[Free_Beer]

can't believe I missed this game when it came out, great article.. although, at the time, I was probably running a dial-up connection anyways.

You still can play Allegiance with a dial-up connection. That was one of the original design criterion simply because most people were on dial-up. The devs who continue to work on the code keep dial-up users in mind.

 

[Rad Party God]

Such an amazing idea for a game, released so far ahead of it's time. If such a thing were to release now, it would be devoured by the community. Something fresh and new, not done before. That's what the industry needs now, and it seems all the good ideas were released years ago, when nobody cared about them. I'll definitely give this a look.4

EDIT: Holy shit, this game doesn't fuck around. The picture they use on the wiki to describe the learning curve could not be any closer to the truth.

Spoiler

I thought that image was used to satirize the learning curve of EVE Online.

OT: Great article, the game looks pretty good, it's simply not my type, but the concept seems very fresh and new and, as it was already said, way ahead f it's time.

There is another game currently in development, called Miner Wars, it has similar concepts and it's still on pre-alpha stages right now, but I think that much of it's concept came from this game, even EVE Online, the only thing I didn't liked about that game is the indirect control you have over your ship, or at least making it optional.

I may never play this game, but it was a great article nonetheless.

 

[galdon2004]

Yeah, I'm afraid to jump into multiplayer to play as I will stink at the beginning, and though it says mouse control is necessary, it won't let me practice the mouse control in the tutorial missions because it's trying to teach the keyboard controls.

What I don't get, and this happens in most space sims I've played not just this one, is that when they say shields, they mean freaking SHIELDS. 30 seconds of direct hits to knock those things down (not even counting the hull) yet typically (without boosters) the time between weapons range and direct danger of collision is more like 5.

 

[clay_pigeon]

Yeah, I'm afraid to jump into multiplayer to play as I will stink at the beginning, and though it says mouse control is necessary, it won't let me practice the mouse control in the tutorial missions because it's trying to teach the keyboard controls.

The training missions in Allegiance have always been a little funny about control schemes. The default key for toggling mouse control is numpad-0. There is also a menu option for it. That should get you through the training missions.

More importantly, though, the best way to learn is to hop into a game. Most of us have very low expectations of newbie players, so you shouldn't catch much flack for making mistakes. There are a few jerks out there, but they are well-known jerks and most of us mute them at the first opportunity. Read the chat, ask questions, and try the best you can. I look forward to seeing you in game!

What I don't get, and this happens in most space sims I've played not just this one, is that when they say shields, they mean freaking SHIELDS. 30 seconds of direct hits to knock those things down (not even counting the hull) yet typically (without boosters) the time between weapons range and direct danger of collision is more like 5.

Dogfighting in Allegiance is less about jousting in space and more about using sidethrusters to dance around your enemy. Most dogfights take place at lower speed, with pilots thrusting in all directions to land shots on the enemy and dodge enemy shots. Bullets in Allegiance take time to travel to the target, so learning how to aim is a major skill for any pilot.

 

[galdon2004]

Yeah, I'm afraid to jump into multiplayer to play as I will stink at the beginning, and though it says mouse control is necessary, it won't let me practice the mouse control in the tutorial missions because it's trying to teach the keyboard controls.

The training missions in Allegiance have always been a little funny about control schemes. The default key for toggling mouse control is numpad-0. There is also a menu option for it. That should get you through the training missions.

More importantly, though, the best way to learn is to hop into a game. Most of us have very low expectations of newbie players, so you shouldn't catch much flack for making mistakes. There are a few jerks out there, but they are well-known jerks and most of us mute them at the first opportunity. Read the chat, ask questions, and try the best you can. I look forward to seeing you in game!

What I don't get, and this happens in most space sims I've played not just this one, is that when they say shields, they mean freaking SHIELDS. 30 seconds of direct hits to knock those things down (not even counting the hull) yet typically (without boosters) the time between weapons range and direct danger of collision is more like 5.

Dogfighting in Allegiance is less about jousting in space and more about using sidethrusters to dance around your enemy. Most dogfights take place at lower speed, with pilots thrusting in all directions to land shots on the enemy and dodge enemy shots. Bullets in Allegiance take time to travel to the target, so learning how to aim is a major skill for any pilot.

I did a bit of reading in the wiki and found the mouse toggle button but it didn't seem to do anything during the training missions. I had figured that to be probably due to the training mission being set up to teach one set of controls and not allowing alternate controls.

 

[Spinoza@SF]

I did a bit of reading in the wiki and found the mouse toggle button but it didn't seem to do anything during the training missions. I had figured that to be probably due to the training mission being set up to teach one set of controls and not allowing alternate controls.

You're right, the training missions are quirky that way.
It doesn't matter how you end up flying in the traning missions, as long as you figure out the primary concepts and the secondary controls (cargo, chat etc.)

Fighting against the drones in the "arena" mission is not important. They're nothing like live pilots anyhow.

 

[Alphakirby]

How do I feel as if RTS+Space Combat Sim would be head-explodingly awesome yet a hard to comprehend concept unless you played it yourself. I guess there's only one way to find out!

 

[Alphakirby]

Yeah, I'm afraid to jump into multiplayer to play as I will stink at the beginning, and though it says mouse control is necessary, it won't let me practice the mouse control in the tutorial missions because it's trying to teach the keyboard controls.

What I don't get, and this happens in most space sims I've played not just this one, is that when they say shields, they mean freaking SHIELDS. 30 seconds of direct hits to knock those things down (not even counting the hull) yet typically (without boosters) the time between weapons range and direct danger of collision is more like 5.

Becuase it hates you =P JK but seriously that sounds like hell, remind me to watch suspiciously at games that do that!

 

[Grampy_bone]

The thing about Allegiance is it has a ridiculously steep learning curve. That, combined with the rather insular community means that new players are more likely to be shunned and kicked than welcomed and tolerated.

Some games deserve to die.

 

[C-45]

The thing about Allegiance is it has a ridiculously steep learning curve. That, combined with the rather insular community means that new players are more likely to be shunned and kicked than welcomed and tolerated.

Some games deserve to die.

Have you tried playing it at all? The community is really nice and while the learning curve is like running into a brick wall they have the flight school and newbie games to help.

 

[SJ]

Hi, I'm SpaceJunk from freeAllegiance.

Some of our grandpas take newbie training a bit too seriously. They used to carry the missiles by hand in their time, upslope both ways. I'd say just pop in the main server and ask if someone could give you a quick flying and situational awareness lesson in a side server. The guides are like learning to drive without a car.

Also, if you find your escape pod killed very often when your rank is still below 5, that's probably a nice veteran saving you the ride back to base.

 

[Continuity]

I'm still curious why space-combat games took a nose-dive in the late 90s. I know the reason they were prevalent in the first place was because you could make a good one even with the technological limitations of the time. ... Why isn't this being done anymore?

I've been scratching my head over this same question for the past 10 years. Freespace 2 was the last space-combat simulator I played, and it was fantastic. I looked forward with fervor at the increasingly monstrous capabilities of powerhouse systems, and could only anticipate how amazing the next generation of space simulators would be. But that game never came.

Hey you guys know that the X series has been running strong this whole time right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(game_series)

I'm playing X3 TC at the moment

Hi, I'm SpaceJunk from freeAllegiance.

Some of our grandpas take newbie training a bit too seriously. They used to carry the missiles by hand in their time, upslope both ways. I'd say just pop in the main server and ask if someone could give you a quick flying and situational awareness lesson in a side server. The guides are like learning to drive without a car.

Also, if you find your escape pod killed very often when your rank is still below 5, that's probably a nice veteran saving you the ride back to base.

Cool, nice of you to pop in. I will check it out but just not for a few weeks, got college work to do over the holidays

 

[SJ]

I'm still curious why space-combat games took a nose-dive in the late 90s.

If you check Google Ngrams, the whole science fiction genre plunged in the 90s. Maybe the effects on the game industry lagged a few years.

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=science+fiction&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3

 

[Spinoza@SF]

The thing about Allegiance is it has a ridiculously steep learning curve. That, combined with the rather insular community means that new players are more likely to be shunned and kicked than welcomed and tolerated.

Some games deserve to die.

Lying trolls deserve to... live under a bridge far from here.

 

[Grampy_bone]

The thing about Allegiance is it has a ridiculously steep learning curve. That, combined with the rather insular community means that new players are more likely to be shunned and kicked than welcomed and tolerated.

Some games deserve to die.

Have you tried playing it at all? The community is really nice and while the learning curve is like running into a brick wall they have the flight school and newbie games to help.

I played it when it came out, like ten years ago. The fact that it may be good *now* is pretty irrelevant. Ten years and hundreds of hours of personal work and money from fans to make the game good? Yeah I'm going to go ahead and call that a Fail right there.

This article is full of whining and passing the buck. Oh boo hoo we didn't get enough marketing wah wah wah! The audience is never wrong; if your game was good then it would have been successful, end of story. There's something to be said about a game which doesn't require "cadet flight school training" in order to play.

 

[The Hive Mind]

God I had no idea this game was still alive; it must be fucking ancient...

 

[SJ]

Well, there is a bunch of texture and model updates in the artwork forum and external sites. Plenty of people still runs vanilla or turns eye candy off to get slightly better visibility, so the newer stuff doesn't get featured in gameplay videos very often. The good thing is that even a netbook can cope with very crowded brawls.

 

[Spinoza@SF]

The thing about Allegiance is it has a ridiculously steep learning curve. That, combined with the rather insular community means that new players are more likely to be shunned and kicked than welcomed and tolerated.

Some games deserve to die.

Have you tried playing it at all? The community is really nice and while the learning curve is like running into a brick wall they have the flight school and newbie games to help.

I played it when it came out, like ten years ago. The fact that it may be good *now* is pretty irrelevant. Ten years and hundreds of hours of personal work and money from fans to make the game good? Yeah I'm going to go ahead and call that a Fail right there.

This article is full of whining and passing the buck. Oh boo hoo we didn't get enough marketing wah wah wah! The audience is never wrong; if your game was good then it would have been successful, end of story. There's something to be said about a game which doesn't require "cadet flight school training" in order to play.

Troll on, while we play the most awesome game ever.

PS
Don't stop trolling!

 

[Barciad]

Wow, just wow. What on earth happened? I am downloading it now. I have a date in five hours, but I've got a few hours to kill.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I read the first paragraph and immediately thought "Ender's Game"