In case you're into multiplayer open-world spacesims, then Discovery 4.86 is probably your best bet. I spent a lot of time playing this mod. Unfortunately, real life difficulties no longer allow me to play. Nevertheless, I have to recommend it.
The community is amazing, their forum and in-game roleplaying is at professional levels as are their blood-pumping events.
The factions in vFreelancer were already very intersting. FL Discovery takes them one step forwards by adding a few new, plus even one completely new nation. Almost all these factions have one or a few clans run by real players representing them, role-playing them like they're meant to...from trading and mining corporations, to militaries, pirates, outlaws or terrorists. These clans usually have their own websites to organize themselves, that's how dedicated they're.
Overall, the mod offers hundreds of new ships (including capital ships), items and weapons. It is tempting to become a lonewolf, work hard, trade a lot and eventually being able to afford a large capital ship, but be advised, the clans of the faction to which that specific capship belongs won't like you for that and may refuse to RP with you too. Most of them have their hierarchy and only let their "high-ranking" clanmates or leaders in one. They organize their events to be balanced so it's only understandable that some random lonewolf players coming out of nowhere with a battleship in the middle of an ongoing, purely fighter vs. fighter, battle with some "hey guyz, let me help" excuse is not welcome. The server and faction rules are strict and violators get sanctioned daily.
Joining a faction and role-playing is really what Discovery Freelancer is all about. It's almost like a modern form of theathre /acting.
To sum up, a very deep experience (with unquestionably one of the most intellectual communities I've ever seen) which I personally prefer over mighty EVE(the gameplay), mainly because I prefer to be in control and EVE is an RPG. The main Discovery server is also by far the most populated one out of all FL mods as you can see here.
Here is the trailer for the latest version of the game. It doesn't say lot though.
Some vids from battle events (I might add some more later)
Last, but not least, check the "storyline news threads" in the news feed. That alone says a lot.
Newest update for this mod has been released today fixing a lot of bugs, but introduces a few more (You can probably expect another update to sort the new issues soon...)
EDIT : Just as a heads up, most of the more serious bugs have been squashed by the Server admins, but at present there's 1 major issue regarding the "PvP System" Connecticut.
If a player disconnects while in that system ( access to the system is controlled by 2 commands "/conn" to get there and "/return" to the last base you were in ) then they will be stuck there until an admin can beam them back out.
Another minor issue is with one of the updates they did to allow docking on player ships. It messed up the code with Player bases a bit and players can randomly find themselves on a non-existent "proxy base" 100k below the system if they disconnected while on a player base. That's not a problem (just inconvenient), but trying to buy or sell goods to those bases can result in an instant cheat-ban.
Just thought I'd update anyone interested in this that hasn't gotten into it.
Most of the serious bugs in the Mod have now been squashed, and the Mod is now running smoothly on most servers.
The Connecticut issue is still there, but most servers do have Admins active who can deal with it quickly enough.
The finest 2 years of my gaming experience. I still remember the most prominent roleplayers. Though, last time I checked (about 4 years ago) the place was corrupted to the bone with elitism and nepotism.
Like DiabloTigerSix, I had to quit because of the duties outside of the game. Even when I felt nostalgic and tried coming back the notion of corruption was still dissatisfactory.
Now that I think back, this game was pretty much an arcade shooter which the community enriched with some fine roleplay. But once that same roleplay prevented non-elite members to fire any shots under threats of sanctions it became boring.
How much has changed in the past 3-4 years?
I believe the main server (GC) has become massively PvP oriented, and the changes they've been bringing to the rules reflect that.
If you want a milder re-introduction to it, then I'd recommend either the UK server (low player count - we could use all the extra players we can get, lol. Server's down temporarily at this moment though) or PTC (relaxed RP. I suspect this may be more along your speed)
I gave it another try... new faction leaders, old principles. Figures. People like me who can't afford to invest their entire free time on the forums (because we have very little to begin with) are not welcome in most official factions. Many unofficial factions are great (I'm gonna stop there because it speaks volumes for itself).
I'd try the other severs you mentioned but the latency (ping) is too long. Besides, investing dozens of hours only to play with a dozen people is a less lucrative option 🙂
I suspect that PTC will be likely to be best for you - it's got a high admin team presence (who are always quick and willing to help people out, as well as dealing with the more serious issues which pop up on occasion), but they do still go for the "Chat with your target before shooting them" type rule - Virtually every single server enforces this nowadays. Just think of it as having a bit of banter with your target before subjecting them to vacuum.
If you want to peek at PTC's forums to get a feel for the user-base before heading on over, then you'll find them here - http://www.discoveryptc.com/forums/index.php
You'll find that the admin team love to have a bit of banter with the community there, so you might see a lot of good-natured fun-poking about there.
Even as a pirate player I've always supported that rule. It makes gameplay much much more enjoyable. What I disliked about the official community were "closed elite groups" and the age old tradition of admins supporting terrorist groups because they themselves are part of them; people so drunk on prestige that they believe themselves to be above roleplay guidelines and the rest of the community in general. I used to be part of one such group for a short time, and it wasn't as gratifying as people think.
I'll stop my rant here because it feels like I've already spent an eternity arguing about that kind of behavior 😀 It did me no good back then and it won't change anyone's perception now.
I'll take you up on your offer and give PTC it a try 🙂
If you ever go onto UK give Enrico a wide berth as he seems to be the kind of player you'll hate
I wish I could say that I'm a part of one of the groups on PTC, but I'm not (mostly as I'm on the UK server's admin team which takes up much of my time when the server's running) - I used to be one of the main "role play" advisors for the Nomad faction over on PTC, however due to having spent several years playing with Nomad characters on the UK server.
Latest Post: Stellar Wanderer Our newest member: for4ddadalipage1 Recent Posts Unread Posts
