Free Roam Online Confirmed!!!!!!!!!

MikeFarrar · Post by **MikeFarrar** » 19 Jun 2004, 05:58

Well hello again all u guys and gals. Mike is here with an Enormous Scoop!! Free Roam Online has been confirmed for Need For Speed Underground 2. Thats right, Free Roam Online!!!!!! Thats communicating to your opponents over the internet and being able to see there cars. Also u can show off that awesome soundsystem that u've spent ur hard earned money on. How do i know this u ask? Well EA held a press conference in Redwood shores to show off there pre-alpha test of NFSU2. EAGAMES.com editor, Micheal Mullen got a chance to talk to Greg Uhler, the producer of Need for Speed Underground 2. Read the interview here

Micheal: What kinds of options are we looking at for online? Now that EA's doing Xbox Live, gamers have to be wondering about that.
Greg: Everything that you can do offline, you can do online as well as the open world itself.

After i read this all i could do was:

This could open new doors for the virtual street racer. Everything u could do offline, you could do online as well.

Nfsunlimited News Reporter
~Mike

Source: EA's official NFSU2 site

M_S · Post by **M_S** » 19 Jun 2004, 06:18

ooooh. nice find man. but i dont play online soo it never realy botherd me. but i always loved the free roam feature when they first relesed that it was going to happen

bronco · Post by **bronco** » 19 Jun 2004, 07:05

frankly speaking i didnt like nfsu online as well cause everyone was such retards, they were all vicious and mean, and gameplay sucked as well, i mean i got cable and it still lagged and ppl cheated, but i guess free roaming is different, all u do is bum around..

Summ · Post by **Summ** » 19 Jun 2004, 09:36

YAY!!! Now we can have a whole BUNCH of massive dork gangs hanging out in their f***ed up rides filling the whole street ... how sweat is that?? *mumbles*
At least in NFSU if the tendency in a race was ppl starting to crash each other .. you could just leave the race. This time online there's nothing to stop common ppl from going completely bananas. Oh joy ...

Tone it down a little pls Summ

GT

Post by **Morty** » 19 Jun 2004, 10:11

Summ: Which is why NFSU2 needs damage. People wouldn't crash that much if they had to pay for it. And of course, thos crashing into others would have to pay for the damage they've caused on the other car(s) as well. Probably won't happen, but I like the idea

Anyway, I think the FRO (as I've started to call it) will be great. I still can't wait...

^Sparco^ · Post by **^Sparco^** » 19 Jun 2004, 10:54

Yep, online as offline... I suppose this is the way: The city will be our menu in online mode (as offline). So you enter online, and you will be with your car in a random place of the city, and search to other players. Then, configure the game, and play.

When the race start, I see 2 possibilities:
1) The other players disappear, racing with those you have choosen. So you are now in an independent race.
2) The other players stay, with their races. I mean: 5, 6... 20 races at the same moment, all over the city. You would cross with them and have to be careful in order not to crash with other racers. wow! This is an exciting form of play, but difficult to make it real: Many CPU required, players disturbing other races.... but wow! Probably in the future games. I say again: wow!

Summ · Post by **Summ** » 19 Jun 2004, 12:07

and I say CHAOS!!! No, sorry, i don't like it a bit! We've seen what the crowd of NFSU players have to offer online, and most of us agree that not much the game...but the community SUX and is f***ed up ... giving them TOTAL freedom ... is just gonna make it worse imo.

Sigh... -GT

^Sparco^ · Post by **^Sparco^** » 19 Jun 2004, 13:29

EA could make rules, as kick off from the race people who go reverse +10 seconds and similar things. It is not too clear what is "go reverse" in an open city, but it is possible to stablish it.
Maybe reducing too many Style points when crash, or creating motor damages. And a good idea: reducing for example 200 style points each second you go slower than 100kph (without include the start of race, logically). When you brake and go slower than 100kph, points start to reduce drastically.
There are hundreds of ways to reduce those stupid things that do some players. Free roaming is great. If there won't any problem, we all will like it very much

VizoR · Post by **VizoR** » 20 Jun 2004, 11:29

u guys expect like 1k ppl or whatever to be online at the same time in the same city? thats an MMO and EA would prolly have thought of that and go "hey, we can get more money out of it, call it MMO and ppl have to pay us even more for no support at all (like always)"
then there are also alot of smaller things like rules and comp specs that they have to think about so dont get all too excited, remember this is EA

Vimenze · Post by **Vimenze** » 20 Jun 2004, 12:16

well i like the idea of FRO, but on the other hand it's kind of making me wonder like in the previous posts.

Offline: cpu players you race with, more orientated, less problems.
Online: real players, chaos and if they are like the same i met recently on the NFSU servers... i rather don't play online at all

(mainly cuz of the cheaters

)

MikeFarrar · Post by **MikeFarrar** » 20 Jun 2004, 12:24

Summ may have a point about ppl causing chaos. But ppl did it in NFSU coz it was THAT F*CKEN BORING. Believe me. All u do is chat and race. The n00bs wanted to make it more interesting by causing chaos. But in NFSU2 there is a lot more stuff to do. Ppl wont wanna cause chos because there to busy enjoying themselves by showing off there awesome soundsystems, or doing burnouts. Because of all the features, not many ppl would want to cause havoc because not many ppl will pay attention cause there admiring other ppl. So FRO is a good idea and it will probably tone down the n00bism that the NFSU servers have.

Nfsunlimited News Reporter
~Mike

Summ · Post by **Summ** » 20 Jun 2004, 12:46

lol .. sorry GT, I'll cool off a bit now

. Mike, i guess it will be a little different when evrybody is actually IN his car. This would be ok if you had a crowd of 100 persons around 10 cars, but have 100 persons on the same street all doing donuts, or stopping and showing off their "awesome PREMADE soundsystem" which is gonna be exactly like all the other soundsystems, will just be lame in 10 minutes imo. It's guessing, alright, but I don't think it's going to be good. I still look forward to finding out how they plan on actually racing online. If it's going to be racing up and down the citystreets, just like Midtown Madness, Midnight Club and Free roaming offline, then you can expect no gameplay at all. If ppl are indeed all over the place, I wonder how it will be possible to have a decnt race. Immagine a crowd of 5-6 persons chumped together at a corner or in the middle of a road. Immagine the racing pack of ... virtually unlimited many cars .. turning right into this crowd ... uhmmm. I guess I have to see it before i belive it. Right now the idea of free roaming just makes me puke.
- waiting for more descriptions on free roaming online to further develope negative perspectives and pessimistic future visions and predictions

MikeFarrar · Post by **MikeFarrar** » 20 Jun 2004, 13:02

Well i dont think too many ppl on the same street will be a problem. Have u seen how big that city is! Even with 1000+ racers at one time on the server there will still be open space. And i think all the other ppl will dissapear when u enter a race. If EA add the option of designing ur own character this game would be perfect. Walking around ONLINE and talking to ppl will be awesome. But this is just the NFSU2 hype speaking so dont trust me

Nfsunlimited News Reporter
~Mike

^Sparco^ · Post by **^Sparco^** » 20 Jun 2004, 15:58

MikeFarrar wrote:Well i dont think too many ppl on the same street will be a problem (...) Even with 1000+ racers at one time on the server there will still be open space. And i think all the other ppl will dissapear when u enter a race (...) Walking around ONLINE and talking to ppl will be awesome (...)

I agree with Mike, I would like to find +1000 ppl in nfsu2 streets. I would like the city was the menu. Im not an expert, but I see a problem: so many drivers could turn the game so slow, doesn't it??

@Summ: EA members could enter the online game, with Police cars, and make pursuits with ppl who make stupid things LOL.

But yes, the system will be probably like this: you enter online game, appear in a random place of city and go around searching drivers, or making stupid things with your car, like crashing etc. When go near a driver, his/her information appear over his car and you could chat with him. If drivers can go out of their cars (scissor doors make people to think that), you could go out and change the car with your partner....
Finally when you configure a race, all the other players disappear, and you dissappear to the view of those players. When the race ends, everything starts again. This could be a good way, what do you think of?

Post by **TheStig** » 20 Jun 2004, 21:18

I think you get several of the same city's, like rooms. and fit there X drivers....

funny if you are only with 2 player..... play Hide and seek

KekumRulez · Post by **KekumRulez** » 20 Jun 2004, 21:35

TheStig wrote:funny if you are only with 2 player..... play Hide and seek

Thats a nice idea, Stig! I like it

Summ · Post by **Summ** » 20 Jun 2004, 21:52

Stig's is the most probable solution. I don't really see how ppl can magically BE there and ... poof .. DISAPPEAR .. out of the blue. Either you are there physically, or you're not. There's no way btw. Another idea would be to teleport an eventual racing pack into a new city just for them. Probable as well.
@ Dani, no offense, but seeing details above a car and pointing at the car you want to chat with is a bit stupid. There's no way of telling who's "in town" tonight that way, nor a way to chat to somebody specific. *me races after Dani* Ahhhh!!! STOP For the love of god! I want to Chat to you!

you get what I mean? You ... *shivers* dig?

Drewb99 · Post by **Drewb99** » 20 Jun 2004, 22:09

Ricers who are parked in the middle of the road blasting pop rock and rap beware, my hit-and-run 240SX is on the road

Even if you had to pay for damage, 90% of the cars on the road will be Neons, Civics, 206s and the like that are cheap to get fixed. Not much of an incentive unless you've got a widebody kit or something.

Abdi · Post by **Abdi** » 21 Jun 2004, 04:13

dont be so happy, cheaters are going to ruine online mode so dont get your hopes up

god damn cheaters!

Post by **TheStig** » 21 Jun 2004, 14:03

well I think Ill stick with LAN mode.... no cheaters....

Post by **Bojan** » 21 Jun 2004, 15:09

With this free roam I really hope the online mode won't turn into IRC with GUI as happened with a certain game (cough*jedi knight*cough), where 90% of people on servers have a chatbox above their head.

UrQuattro · Post by **UrQuattro** » 21 Jun 2004, 15:17

If there was a 'SPECTATE" option, it would pretty much answer the 'Did he Cheat?" question...

toineed · Post by **toineed** » 21 Jun 2004, 17:01

We'll i hope they will ban a cheater for EVER!!! moewhahaha
no serious they must do that. That's cheaters can't go online anymore.

Summ · Post by **Summ** » 21 Jun 2004, 17:09

boby .. jk2 was COSY as hell, and had a comunity like no other. I miss those times tremendously. Sadly my clanboys have left it, along with 98% of the comunity I loved .. for jka, which by the way, now has turned into a german whorehouse (no offense for the germans). Jk2 endured long enough to have several behavioral mutations. From the hack and slash boring FFA mode to the more civilized, where ppl sat down and LET others play, watched, lured tricks, studied the opponents, commented and took them on again, civilized. Sorry if you don't like it that way. I find it way more attractive than .. say UT, where you know you'll die in 0.5 seconds, respawn, and get headshot as soon as you respawn ... great! wait another 2 seconds, respawn .. SPLAT! Well now .. I guess they painted the wall with my guts .. again .. weeeeeeeee. Sorry, I'm not for mindless action, nor were the guys who still played jk2 on serious servers, like wireplay.

Abdi · Post by **Abdi** » 21 Jun 2004, 17:26

god unreal tournament is so boring and bs! the only thing that will make that game fun is cheats :S

NFSUnlimited.net

Free Roam Online Confirmed!!!!!!!!!

Free Roam Online Confirmed!!!!!!!!!

:p