A new Freedom Force....

[Sorceror]

    I realise that this is highly unlikely to come to pass, particularly if the DC/ Marvel patent on ALL superheroes, past AND future, holds up but still - dreams come free.  Sometimes games do get reworked - I understand a new version of UFO: Enemy Unknown is being coded as we speak.  So say that the fact that this game one decade on still has loyal fans will be enough to inspire a developer.  What would we want ?

1) Our heroes back - Minuteman, El Diablo, Man Bot, Microwave, Man o' War ... we love you.
2) A similar set up - isometric 3D, upgrading heroes, teams of up to four (but really no more than six because then it becomes a war game not a superhero game)
3) The labour of love that was  and wasn't quite there with 
4) Although I did like the crisper control system
5) It would be brilliant if at the end of each episode the computer could "play back" the best bits.  When playing the game you are mainly at roof level controlling small icons.  It would be great to watch your heroes in close up action at the end of each level.
6) A longer campaign with more randomness.  Surround a main plot with a smattering of "everyday" superhero chores
7) The problem with having only four heroes in the team at any one time is that the temptation is to build up those four heroes to the exclusion of all others.  And then it becomes a dreadful shame if suddenly your favourite hero is "unavailable" for the final battle.    NEARLY found the solution with the two separate teams fighting simultaneous battles.  I'd like to see a final battle where the full complement of your superheroes can be fighting to save the day in separate locations
8) I hated cannisters.  They were just so "un hero" like.  Grubbing around looking under bushes for hidden ones on pause instead of seeking out villainy like true heroes should.  Instead heroes should get bonuses - improved attacks, recovered health, raised abilities, improved experience, from "feats" during the game - specific achievements would grant the bonuses.
9) After the new "main" game I'd like to see regular "sequels".  Maps and existing characters could get added to the store ready for the next episodes.  Perhaps even one release could be the best of fan mods ?  Ransack your comic collections for all the different types of stories and scenarios that the superworld can create.  Heroes could be reused - either have your favourites at their lower levels, play with two powerful characters rather than four weaker ones, or have the opposition boosted to reflect more powerful heroes.
10) More interaction - the little cut scenes - more characters to talk to on each level.

Enough already - at least for now.

And if you are the one person who posts here who hasn't seen the new "Avengers" movie - it iss the "Freedom Force" of superhero movies.  i'm not saying it couldn't have been better - but still very, very good.

Sorceror. x.

[captainawesome]

1. For all the features from the current FFX to be available as part of the new game.
2. An in-game editor to create new powers and their descriptions
3. To bring back all the different energy options from ff1 (none, trace, minor, very low, low, medium, high, very high, extreme)
The limited options of ff2 made customizing annoying.
4. Much higher stats, instead of 1-10, having more like 1-30 or 40, 10 speed just isn't fast enough for someone like the Flash, and I'd make smaller buildings throw-able at the highest strength levels.
5. More damage types, for instance, I'd prefer more of the regular damage types having an additional DoT variant. (like radiation and irradiate) there would be chill (cold) burning (fire) electrified (electricity) and so on.
Flying melee would be a must. Flying characters could use their melee attacks, pickup, wield, or throw objects or smackdown targets without landing. Grounded characters could still melee attack or smackdown any flier that was resonably close.
6. Powers could do more than one damage type, the player could just click an 'add damage type' bar on the power customize screen (for a decent amount of prestige for each type added, naturally)   
7. Increased team size to five or six for campaign, eight or ten for danger room battles.
8. I'd amp up all the characters in the campaign (not just heroes, the villains and minions too) so that most of the characters had more than one useful power earlier on. Kind of like in the excellent DCUG mod, all the characters had more options for planning a strategy, although, of all my points, this is the only one I'm not too sure about.
9. I know it would make the game insanely hard, but I'd have bullets do a LOT more damage. Like, about 40-45 points per bullet (basically, you won't survive more than a few hits). This would (unless the character is bulletproof, has a force-field, has super-speed reflexes, etc...) make more Batman-ish stealth tactics necessary.
10. I'd make an option for active defenses, so that (for a hefty amount of prestige) the character could use the shield, and continue to attack while using it.
11. A better storyline would be nice, FF1 had a great story, integrating all the characters, FF2 seemed (only by comparison, mind you) kind of lame. I'd also have more of a clear-cut main villain (There really wasn't room for both Entropy and Time Master).
12. A really, really, really long campaign. FF1 had a decent length campaign, FF2 seemed a little short, but still pretty good, but for a true finale that would be the crown of a FF trilogy, it would have to be a campaign of epic proportions. I'd love a campaign around 2.5 times the length of FF1's campaign, long enough to fully upgrade the entire team, and recruit all the optional characters, as well as a custom or two.
This is all I can think of for now...... I'm sure I'll come up with more later.

[Sorceror]

1. For all the features from the current FFX to be available as part of the new game.
2. An in-game editor to create new powers and their descriptions
3. To bring back all the different energy options from ff1 (none, trace, minor, very low, low, medium, high, very high, extreme)
The limited options of ff2 made customizing annoying.
4. Much higher stats, instead of 1-10, having more like 1-30 or 40, 10 speed just isn't fast enough for someone like the Flash, and I'd make smaller buildings throw-able at the highest strength levels.
5. More damage types, for instance, I'd prefer more of the regular damage types having an additional DoT variant. (like radiation and irradiate) there would be chill (cold) burning (fire) electrified (electricity) and so on.
Flying melee would be a must. Flying characters could use their melee attacks, pickup, wield, or throw objects or smackdown targets without landing. Grounded characters could still melee attack or smackdown any flier that was resonably close.
6. Powers could do more than one damage type, the player could just click an 'add damage type' bar on the power customize screen (for a decent amount of prestige for each type added, naturally)   
7. Increased team size to five or six for campaign, eight or ten for danger room battles.
8. I'd amp up all the characters in the campaign (not just heroes, the villains and minions too) so that most of the characters had more than one useful power earlier on. Kind of like in the excellent DCUG mod, all the characters had more options for planning a strategy, although, of all my points, this is the only one I'm not too sure about.
9. I know it would make the game insanely hard, but I'd have bullets do a LOT more damage. Like, about 40-45 points per bullet (basically, you won't survive more than a few hits). This would (unless the character is bulletproof, has a force-field, has super-speed reflexes, etc...) make more Batman-ish stealth tactics necessary.
10. I'd make an option for active defenses, so that (for a hefty amount of prestige) the character could use the shield, and continue to attack while using it.
11. A better storyline would be nice, FF1 had a great story, integrating all the characters, FF2 seemed (only by comparison, mind you) kind of lame. I'd also have more of a clear-cut main villain (There really wasn't room for both Entropy and Time Master).
12. A really, really, really long campaign. FF1 had a decent length campaign, FF2 seemed a little short, but still pretty good, but for a true finale that would be the crown of a FF trilogy, it would have to be a campaign of epic proportions. I'd love a campaign around 2.5 times the length of FF1's campaign, long enough to fully upgrade the entire team, and recruit all the optional characters, as well as a custom or two.
This is all I can think of for now...... I'm sure I'll come up with more later.

1)  FFX ?  Sorry...
2)  Sounds great
3 & 4)  Yeah - Dungeons and Dragons went this way in the end too and it makes sense to do so.
5) Definitely flying melee with a knock back knocking the loser out of the sky (or a sufficiently substantial knockback).  Also a facility for leapers to barge or wrestle fliers - helicopters never feel safe around the Hulk for example.
6) Composite powers - great idea.
7) I'm not sure about team size.  Firstly it would make it very difficult for the cut scene conversations to have more than the compulsory characters.  Secondly you'd have the X men films' problem (my perception) that the bad guys would seem outnumbered and outgunned.  Comparing with Baldur's Gate, similarly awesome, also Bioware involvement, BG worked with six PCs (player characters) because tactically you'd only rarely not have all your characters on the screen at the same time.  Even with four PCs on the Dr Robotic level I was pausing the game every second or so to switch between Dr Robotic and the assault on the Freedom Fortress.  As I said what I DID like was  with two separate sets of four heroes involved in simultaneous adventures.   Also with only a choice of about a dozen PCs the BG "roster" was smaller than  .  This also highlighted one of the technical issues about  .  Baldur's Gate rarely had a point of view more than two floors above the PCs so the action was always clearly visible.  With  having many, what, twelve to fifteen story buildings, most of the action was seen from bird's eye leaving the characters rather small.  That's why I favoured the "action playback" option so the computer could show the best bits of the action close up.
8) Not convinced - every character DID start with at least two powers.  My main observation was that it was better boosting some of the early powers than buying the later ones - for enemies not having blunt weapon resistance few could withstand Minuteman's 300 percent plus level 5 Smash (or whatever MM's basic attack was) while I've never tried to play a  campaign where I did not rely very heavily indeed on Diablo's Inferno.
9) Disagree big style.  One is that having very high damage with a very low attack percentage makes the games far more of a lottery.  Secondly I found stealth very hard on level 2 of the game - mainly because it wasn't very easy to see where your opponents were to plan the attack.  For me the attacks in  felt about right - although I did get frustrated that Diablo couldn't seem to hit a barn door at ten paces with Tongues of Flame but could hit an enemy standing half way across a park with a hurled bench.  Also whilst battering an enemy with a lampost was deeply satisfying it was also 100% successful, with automatic knockdown.  I'm almost surprised there wasn't an in game advert "Has your smash lost it's bash ?  Is your cortical suppression making you look dumb ?  Are your tongues of flame not hot enough ?  Then try these - Acme Traffic lights and Street lights - guaranteed to smash down any opponent, leaving them sprawling at your feet - where you can hit them again !  Each Traffic Light or Streetlight comes with a four hit warranty - more than enough to take care of most opponents less powerful than a supervillain. Strength 4 required.  Warning - Acme traffic light and streetlights are not recommended against Giant Robots and T- Rexes"
10) Hmmmm.  I'd be wary about overpowering particular characters. The, hmmmm, fat Italian singing bloke from  .  Flew, nearly impenetrable armour, decent attack.  I could only win by collecting every piece of street furniture in a quarter mile radius and chucking it at him.   It MIGHT work if defences had a MAXIMUM protection value - so heroes could fight off hordes of minions with little damage but were still vulnerable to supervillains.  Game balance is critical though.
11) I loved the crisper controls in  .  I also liked the first part of the campaign versus Nuclear Winter - the game works better often when the heroes are against the clock - and would be better still without the cannisters.  I like the parallel adventuring, the World War II setting was interesting and the new heroes were - okay.  But the second half of the game was too close a replay of the first with the final third being a reprise of the second third followed by a huge fight with Timemaster (and Entropy).
12) So this I agree with - we love the characters, the game system needs tinkering rather than complete revision, but we simply want MORE.  The main concentration should be on new opponents, new locations, new challenges, and far more PC/ PC and PC/ NPC interaction.  Maybe not long enough to have ALL characters at top power but long enough that every character should have been used at least five times.

S.x.

[davy jones]

I'd like staff like:
1. Equipment: Some characters start with them: Minuteman and his staff, Eve and her bow, etc. When knocked very hard, they should drop them, especially after hitting a wall/building. Equipment should be linked to characters' abilities. For instance, upon picking eve's bow, character should be able to shoot arrows. Imagine Minuteman picking up a Mob Rifle, or taking away Red Oktober's broom! Characters should both start with equipment and both find them on the battlefield. Imagine a mission where the freedom fortress is under attack and your crew has to rush it's items to fight off the enemies.
2. Power variety: Like captainawesome said, multiple damage, DoTs, some should even be linked to Equipment. Equipment should have more active abilities (Eve's bow, Riffles) but also passives (imagine Captain America's Shield giving block, etc.)
3. Have all FFX 3.0 features in game. I'd like that too.
4. Better Multiplayer: Being able to choose up to 11000 prestige heroes in multipalyer would be nice. No summons or that kinda thing, just the prestige should rise. Though the rules should be customizable.
5. Story wise, some of the villains should create a alliance. Mr. Mechanical, Pinstripe, Nuclear Winter (maybe Fortissimo, Blitzkrieg and Pan) and combine their minions in the battle against Freedom Force. Deja Vu should work by himself and try to rake over the city with his clones before the alliance is created. Maybe they all would be led by the astral ghost of Entropy which tries, through the powers of Time Master, to recover Alchemiss and repossess her or just prevent her from banishing herself somehow - you should fight back in the previous missions, traveling in time and preventing the villains from unleashing Entropy, but they should succeed and you should be able to stop her. However, your intervention should somehow create a paradox in a parallel universe where Freedom Force fails and Entropy threatens your universe by trying to merge it with hers/his. Imagine fighting among a alternate Freedom Force, alternate villains and a more powerful Entropy. They shouldn't look anything alike.
6. Enable numeric damage defenses. Nuff said. You should be able to choose a active defense that blocks infinite damage for a short duration or a permanent shield that blocks a given amount of damage.
7. Auras (Not arEas) or Persistent Effects: Such as armor bonus to nearby allies, damage bonus, speed bonus, nearby foes loose health/energy, more susceptible to stun/knockback or the opposite. Could offer some variety, especially for certain characters such as Quetz so they can support better.

[spydermann93]

On the note of a Deja Vu army:

I'd like to see Deja Vu use one (or several of his clones) spread discontent in the Freedom Force team, having the real heroes trapped by another villain or a horde of his minions with a clone impersonating them and slowly causing the team to spiral into chaos.

[ShawDAMAN]

I'm almost surprised there wasn't an in game advert "Has your smash lost it's bash ?  Is your cortical suppression making you look dumb ?  Are your tongues of flame not hot enough ?  Then try these - Acme Traffic lights and Street lights - guaranteed to smash down any opponent, leaving them sprawling at your feet - where you can hit them again !  Each Traffic Light or Streetlight comes with a four hit warranty - more than enough to take care of most opponents less powerful than a supervillain. Strength 4 required.  Warning - Acme traffic light and streetlights are not recommended against Giant Robots and T- Rexes"

love it. i always thought the weilded items were a bit too effective also.

[Epimethee]

i always thought the weilded items were a bit too effective also.

I suspect this was voluntary. Wielding lampposts etc. was one of the best moments of FF. Had they nerfed it, we'd have used it less, and probably enjoyed the game less.

[ShawDAMAN]

I suspect this was voluntary. Wielding lampposts etc. was one of the best moments of FF. Had they nerfed it, we'd have used it less, and probably enjoyed the game less.

Probably.  One thing I think they could have done though is either 1. retain the 'knockback' properties of wielded attacks and just reduce the damage a bit (the knockback is what makes them fun anyway) or just make the wielded objects a little less durable. It seems ridiculous to say it, but it doesn't really seem 'fair' to the villains lol.

As far as a 'new' freedom force, I'd really like them to....

Expand the 'rumble room' capabilities (maybe larger squads as some have said.... higher difficulty ratings.... a variety of potential objectives instead of just 'knock out all enemies' (maybe some timed deathmatches, capture the "flag" (or building or what have you) etc etc.) Much better enemy AI (AI characters should be able to use 'heroic revivals' also) and make adding voicepacks as easy as skins/meshes.

I agree that in-flight melee is a must also.

Also that online play really needed more attention. As far as that goes, a larger selection of "stock" skins/meshes/attributes would be great for people to create their own unique heroes and pit them against each other online. The "City of heroes" game comes to mind in this respect, although that level of variety isn't really necessary; but something closer to it while retaining FF's accessibility.

[BentonGrey]

Yeah, the ability to play co-op through the campaign is one of my great wishes for a new FF...which of course we aren't likely to see.