Sad news

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:14 pm

I just found some sad news! 

I don't know how many folks here were familiar with the Freelance project for Elite Force I, which had gone standalone last year. But it was just announced today that the project was CANCELLED!

You can read the details here:
Freelance Home Page

While I hadn't been following it closely, I knew about it, had played the preview that was released for EF, and really liked it. It was really promising, the only thing lacking was good voice acting. It sucks immensely that they decided to shut it down. I hope some day it gets revived, because it looked like it was going to be worth it. At this point I think FO and Excalibur and the only two Star Trek mods/games that are active and worthwhile, and one of them hasn't even been released yet!  I just hope Excalibur doesn't suffer the same fate as Freelance.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:29 pm

its sad to see another mod die, star trek games are thin on the ground at the moment and mods for them are thinner

i dont think excalibur is ever gonna happen to be honest, it seems they have bit off way more than they can chew trying to build an entire engine and make a game in 2 genres lol.

all i have ever seen from excalibur is screenshots and concept stuff. i dont really think the game will ever be released. i'd love to be proved wrong.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:34 pm

There are not allot of new Moldable games out that are free.

its sad to see another mod die, star trek games are thin on the ground at the moment and mods for them are thinner

i dont think excalibur is ever gonna happen to be honest, it seems they have bit off way more than they can chew trying to build an entire engine and make a game in 2 genres lol.

all i have ever seen from excalibur is screenshots and concept stuff. i dont really think the game will ever be released. i'd love to be proved wrong.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:37 pm

i dont think excalibur is ever gonna happen to be honest, it seems they have bit off way more than they can chew trying to build an entire engine and make a game in 2 genres lol.

all i have ever seen from excalibur is screenshots and concept stuff. i dont really think the game will ever be released. i'd love to be proved wrong.

Excalibur is actually quite likely to happen.  It is slow progress since everyone is working on their own time, but progress is always being made.  The guys in charge are incredibly talented and very dedicated.  Excalibur isn't likely to die off with these guys at the helm.

[Kestrel]

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:43 pm

Last edited by Kestrel on February 9th, 2011, 10:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

its sad to see another mod die, star trek games are thin on the ground at the moment and mods for them are thinner

i dont think excalibur is ever gonna happen to be honest, it seems they have bit off way more than they can chew trying to build an entire engine and make a game in 2 genres lol.

all i have ever seen from excalibur is screenshots and concept stuff. i dont really think the game will ever be released. i'd love to be proved wrong.

I have to agree with that, i just cant see it ever being completed.

People should wonder why after all this time we havnt seen a shred of any beta or alpha gameplay.

More on topic i hadnt even heard of that mod perhaps if they put more effect into advertising this it would have gotten more attention and the porgrammers and other staff that it needed.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:49 pm

Excalibur is actually quite likely to happen.  It is slow progress since everyone is working on their own time, but progress is always being made.  The guys in charge are incredibly talented and very dedicated.  Excalibur isn't likely to die off with these guys at the helm.

im not questioning their talent, they are probably very talented game makers. but the task they have set themselves is stupdendous, not even game development companies would be so ambitious. it would take a team of well funded designers a lot of time to do what they want. there is only so much talented people can do, only so much time in the day.

they havnt released any media that would suggest that real progress is being made.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 10:59 pm

im not questioning their talent, they are probably very talented game makers. but the task they have set themselves is stupdendous, not even game development companies would be so ambitious. it would take a team of well funded designers a lot of time to do what they want. there is only so much talented people can do, only so much time in the day.

they havnt released any media that would suggest that real progress is being made.

Right, I didn't mean to imply that you were questioning talent, but I wasn't very clear.  The Excalibur team did recently release a new version of the model viewer, but that's mostly just for the graphics portion of the engine.  In addition to some videos of basic physics and whatnot, there has also been a higher-paced release of information, images, etc. as of late and hopefully it will stay that way.

I can understand why you think it won't be finished, but I just don't think you should give up hope.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 11:12 pm

That cancelled project i never knew. So... no tears from my side.

concerning excalibur. feels like they will at least release something. if you go to youtube --> user: stexcalibur or so there you will find some stuff. they actually made good progress and got it sorted to have ship combat ready by now. also the interview they gave is quite interesting - it shows dedication and they link this project to their real life studies on game design or whatever. This is the perfect basis for a successful fan game.

posted on February 9th, 2011, 11:30 pm

More on topic i hadnt even heard of that mod perhaps if they put more effect into advertising this it would have gotten more attention and the porgrammers and other staff that it needed.

It started as an big EF mod, so most of it's "publicity" was on the EFFiles site. Then they decided to make their own engine, and it looks like that was what killed them between lack of skill and lack of dedication.

I have a feeling that Excalibur won't die easily. I think the Excalibur devs like to keep things under wraps until what they're working on is good and ready. Right now it looks like most of their work is going into the graphics system and the way ships are represented in code. But it looks like they are close to having script writers, so I'd say that's a sign of some progress. I'd say the only reason we haven't seen an alpha yet is because there isn't any real game play logic yet, nor a solid, detailed story.

I agree that they are taking on a lot, but if they do it right, it could be one of the best, and most realistic Trek games ever.

posted on February 10th, 2011, 12:11 am

Hadn't heard of this one either. Still stinks though. I started modding with SFC3 and that community is essentially dead now.

Excalibur looks like they've progressed a lot, I'm hoping they get it right. If nothing else, the web site looks good haha.

posted on February 10th, 2011, 4:26 am

im not questioning their talent, they are probably very talented game makers. but the task they have set themselves is stupdendous, not even game development companies would be so ambitious. it would take a team of well funded designers a lot of time to do what they want. there is only so much talented people can do, only so much time in the day.

they havnt released any media that would suggest that real progress is being made.

As much as I hate to agree your right, Unless this is part of some plan to start a dev company and show case what they can do to get investment, then Excalibur will very likely never see the light of day.

Problem with projects of that size is that there just isn't enough man power. Even games Like Fifa have around 100 Developers.

Heck Star Trek Online had 100 Dev's at the start.

I really want to be wrong and see it in all it's glory, I'm just very sceptical I've been around Star Trek Mods for what seems like a decade now and I've learnt my lessons on getting hopes up.

// My Word it has been a decade of Star Trek Mods !!!!!