Honestly, just having the gameplay of casual with all the mechanics being the same would be good enough, though with alerted territories already being master mode essentially, it would be interesting to see how that would be balanced.
On this topic, I would sooner have master mode (and casual I guess) in contracts and escalations over freelancer, it’s long overdue.
Haha I agree. They should try battletoads for nes. Then say hitman is hard. lol.
…no it’s not? There are many types and flavours of Roguelikes with various scales of randomisation and punishment. Making freelancer easier (or in your words “dumbing things down”) is not a bad thing, nor would it break from the genre, especially since most of your weapons are saved anyway if you fail (only freelancer tools are removed).
You can still make a game mode fleshed out by balancing around all player complaints, not just by players who like the game mode as-is. And there are issues with the mode; hardcore mode as @schatenjager can attest to, is way too difficult because of how much of a difficulty spike it is, and how thrown together it apparently feels, which is a sign of bad balancing decisions, and needs to be fixed to be made easier. Making games easier is not “dumbing X down” it’s making it more accessible to more people, and in many cases, fixing issues that make the game mode feel stale. No game mode should feel stale.
You need to specify what kind of easier you’re talking about because I don’t think anyone would have a problem with like, a difficulty setting for casual/pro maps instead of pro/master, or just adapting the idea of random contracts back into the main game, but on the other hand yes I do think stripping out all the mechanics that might generate a bit of friction & turning the mode into little more than a long mastery grind, would be the exact wrong direction to take if your goal is to make it less stale. (& like… who even said it was stale???)
I’m not saying anyone said that, but it’s a state of gameplay no game should ever be in. Freelancer isn’t quite in that stage, but it’s not exactly perfect either.
We’re not even a week after official release, there is plenty of time for improvements yet. But people trying to dismiss the thought of making games easier as “dumbing down” (as @GenericGamer283 is clearly doing) is not something I can agree with.
Yes but a fundamental aspect about roguelikes is risk, and there are some complaints, not all, that absolutely despise this.
I never said they shouldn’t make freelancer easier, I’ve even given an example of how to make it easier. I’m honestly leaning towards having showdown/alerted failures reseting only the sydicate, not the campaign, for all of freelancer as opposed to only a hypothetical casual mode (which should be added) as I’ve suggested. As sometimes campaign failures can be due to unpredictable ai, which isn’t fun at all. And while I personally don’t take issue with long campaigns (I like taking them on for multiple days) it would help alleviate frustrations that you even brought up in another thread about losing alot of progress due to a failure.
I agree to a point, if a majority of people enjoy something a certain way, why radically change an aspect of it to appease a minority, unless is makes both group satisfied or doesn’t adversely affect the other group. Surely you can agree that not losing freelancer tools and even items on you for death/failure wouldn’t go over well.
Again, never said there weren’t issues, there are lots of things I’d like changed or added, but the fundamentals are pretty solid in my opinion. Pretty sure everyone agrees that hardcore is completely bonkers and unfun, that does need to be changed.
If by making them easier, you completely change aspects of a game so that more people win the game, then yes, that’s “dumbing it down.” Accessibility does not equal less challenging games.
Again, I will repeat, I never said there aren’t certain aspects that couldn’t be changed or made easier, and no where did I dismiss that, only a certain subset of people who don’t like the risk/reward factor, as opposed to more pressing and direct improvements. If that’s what you got from my comments, I apologize. I think most people wouldn’t be mad about losing items and failing campaigns are if the actual underlying problems were fixed.
(i.e. unpredictable ai, suspects looks not being properly telegraphed, objectived not being explained properly, or are inconsistent, bringing in a sniper only to realize it’s not practical to use (had an idea from my previous comment that I found from a reddit post, still looking for it but I’d love to hear thoughts on it because it was a really smart solution to a problem I didn’t even know I had haha) terrible starting locations (Morgue 
), lack of variety in mission types (wish there were more than regular missions and showdowns, have a lot of ideas on that. If anything becomes stale, that will, not the actual mechanics of the mode), hardcore mode being a joke, more uses for Merces (I’m conflicted on this, enjoy unlocking new decorations, but it would be cool if we could by them), Mastery track is long slog of a grind, and even more stuff I can’t think of at the moment.)
Sorry for the word vommit, would love to have a discussion on this. I love a lot of things about freelancer that I wouldn’t want changed, but I’m no fool to think that it’s perfect. There’s so much I would tweak and add to make perfection a reality.
Sometimes it does, though. Some people can’t use their hands for long periods of time without taking breaks. Some people can stay focused long enough for a mission as it is right now. Some can’t look at a screen for too long. There might even be people who have real life responsibilities that make it impossible for them to play for half an hour without interruption.
If you give them an option to save and come back later, or give them an option to make the game a bit easier so they can finish the mission faster, you make the game accessible for them.
You can’t look at it from the point of view of someone who doesn’t need a less challenging game. For someone who needs one, the less challenging mode is still challenging, just no longer impossible.
There is a difference between this…
…and this. I am a big advocate for accessibility in video games ever since I played The Last of Us Part II, it had options I didn’t even know I needed, let alone wanted, to improve my experience. We seem to have differing definitions when it comes to accessibility, as for me it means ease of access, not ease of use. There are many blind, deaf, and handicapped players who beat darksouls, not because the game itself was made easier for them, but because they were able to play in the first place, through special controllers or other means, and you know what? They loved it! They got to play it with the same difficulty as everyone else, but now they weren’t held back because of there issues. Compare that to someone who simply is busy and doesn’t have a lot of time, and it should be clear that it’s nowhere near the same. I don’t have the time I used to, to invest into a lot of games anymore, but I wouldn’t want someone’s experience to be adversely affected so that I can get a leg up on it, but there are ways of achieving that that don’t involve making the game easier, or “dumbing it down.” Funny enough, I saw one thread about an exit save mechanic that would help for long missions and perfectly encapsulates my viewpoint, it would save progress if you needed to leave, but you couldn’t just use it to save scum as it would delete itself upon loading back in, the perfect solution that keeps everyone happy and keeps the intended experience that I hope gets added eventually.
Basically, there’s a lot of nuance and thought that I want IOI to consider when improving Freelancer, as well as players when making suggestions, as I’ve often noticed people firmly on one side or the other when it comes to this. And I will admit that I lean towards a certain opinion which shouldn’t be suprising, but I hope I explained my reasoning well enough.
Real life responsibilities as in “caring for disabled family members”, not as in “has an appointment to play golf with their boss” or “wants to go to the cinema with friends”.
The thing is, giving options to people who need options (for whatever reasons), won’t make the game less fun or challenging for people who don’t need them. You (general you) won’t be a less amazing and hardcore and omg player just because others who can’t gid gud get a chance to play the game at all.
But yeah, our definitions of accessibility really don’t match up here. I want people to be able to actually play the game.
I was moreso referring to having a job and family, but I don’t see why the distinction matters. That would suck, but a game should have built in catch up mechanics to help with all situations. There are many times where more important “adult stuff” had to come first during an raid on destiny, and as much as that sucked, it is what it is.
I’ll like to add that once again that I don’t particularly care if there’s an easier mode for people like yourself, I just don’t want it affecting my experience, and while I’d prefer if they kept it consistent between all difficulties, if they gave the easy mode an instant win button but kept my experience the same, I’d be content with that.
Damned by faint praise there.
Oh, I don’t need an easier mode. I just had a couple of months when I couldn’t play many games at all because my injured hand was killing me after ten minutes.
Your entire tone and way of writing really suggests otherwise.
Not sure what you mean @Dribbleondo, but I was being hyperbolic again, can definitely see how that can be taken as an insult, my bad.
I’m just really passionate about the subject is all, if I come across as standoffish, that’s not my intention. I’m sure you can understand what it’s like getting caught up in your emotions.
Ah, I’ve been there before, hope it’s gotten better!
Yes, and it only took ~18 months. 
Go to bed, Grandpa.
when are you talking about?
Thankfully I was the same as you. The game briefly crashed half way through a mission and I loaded the game up again and all my weapons and tools were thankfully still there.