Games of Yore: Privateer

Sometimes I indulge in a few reminiscences of the games we old geezers played way back in the last millennium. This time it is: Privateer!

After I already talked about Wing Commander in the last post (https://steemit.com/challenge30/@lennstar/games-of-yore-wing-commander) I can of course not speak NOT about this Elite-like spin-off in the WC universe from 1993.

Privateer is one of my all-time favorites because of its open-world-character. You could do the main story or just get randomly generated missions and upgrade your ship – or buy a new one. It was produced mainly by Erin Roberts, Chris brother who was busy with Strike Commander (I will talk about Strike Commander, too!).

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Wing Commander timeframe

The year is 2669. The fight with the Kilrathi is going bad, the furballs have pressed deep into human space. But on the fringe of human colonized space is the Gemini sector, too unimportant to get a heavy attack. There people try to live – or make a fortune.

You are Privateer Grayson Burrows, who will make a big discovery and get a big gun. On this way you will get new weapons, shields and ships to fly.

WP: Centurion in fight with Talon

Missions

Privateer has a story line, but even there the missions follow the same basic 4 types:
A) Attack a certain target
B) Patrol several waypoints
C) Take freight from one point to the other
D) Escort a NPC ship

On every planet you land on there is a mission computer generating up to 5 mission for you to take, up to 3 at a time. You could also get missions from the Merchants or Bounty Hunters guild (after paying a fee) The guild missions where harder, but with better reward.

Enemies and Friends

The Gemini Sector has more enemies then it needs. Virtually on every trip you can fly into pirates or retros (Die by the very weapons you adore!!), who will kill you on sight. OK, sometimes you could appease pirates, but why would you do that? Just kill them ;)

In the outer regions there is also a possibility to run into a Kilrathi patrol. Very dangerous!

But if you are lucky you have militia on your side, or even the military itself! But be careful. A single shot on them wont make them enemy, but if you are too careless they will turn against you, too!

Player ships

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At the start you have an old Tarsus model of a small freighter. Yes, it makes money and with a few upgrades it can defend itself against retros or pirates flying only Talon ships… but why make a fortune if you cannot show it?

There were three more ships you could fly: The trading vessel (where I forgot the name), the Orion, a sort of tank with 5 levels of shields, and the Centurion, a fast fighter and the only ship you can fly that has 4 guns at the front.

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Both Orion (1) and the trader (2) have turrets, but they were completely useless. They could only be player controlled, and if you were sitting in the turret your ship would be flying a straight line. Not a good idea.

Guns and Missiles and other stuff.

You were a Privateer, but you could buy all the stuff of a real pilot! Personally I preferred the Neutron gun. Cheap and with a BIG Bamm! Also slow, low range and lots of energy usage, so be careful when to fire. But if you aimed right and where a bit lucky, you could (in a Centurion) 2-shot a Talon when you both were flying head-to head!

My favorite missile was the Torpedo. No steering but big bang for small money. Contrary to its name it was fast, faster then the dumbfire missile. I used it as a sort of additional gun for big targets.

But guns where not all you needed. Target systems, energy and shield systems all took up a lot of money you first had to earn.

Energy System

Privateer has a unique energy system: Shields, guns and afterburner all draw energy from the same source. And if your shields go down, so does the energy draw of them.
So if you were in heavy fire, you had more energy for your guns and more important more energy for your afterburner (most important part on your ship) to get you out of trouble!

This system constituted a very effective, low-key balance system and provided lots of hairy but manageable fights. I really wish more games would use such a system!

More Privateer

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The first Privateer had an addition released that added higher-grade equipment. But enemies also upgraded in weapons so in effect the game was a tad harder.

1996 Privateer 2 was released. It was a stand-alone game and the places where never mentioned in any other WC universe game. It also deviated in the general look and feel from the other games.

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Privateer 2 DID have a lot of ships to fly and hire/rent though!
The balance in this game was made on enemy side: At start the ships (especially the turrets) would fire a lot less then later on when you were flying a big bad fighter, which made upgrading a bit of counterproductive. Especially when you had to protect something.

A Privateer 3 never made it through the early phase, as the other Wing Commander games.

You can still download several versions of fan-remades of Privateer.