So what mods do you reccomend?

[Shant]

Funny enough the race was far easier for me in vanilla, I beat Dexter the 2nd time so I only had to listen to his tutorial the first time. I don't know why it was so easy for me the first time, I'm thinking I had a weak ship which was more maneuverable. This time I had the crusader, and I must've raced him 20 times and couldn't pull it off. Then I played with max cruise speeds and realized the faster you go the harder it is to beat him, not easier. In the end I had to cheat and swapped out my crusader for a starflier and beat him right away. It's all about maneuverability. Yeah those ideas sound good. I would think cutting off the jumpgate sequence is a definite because it won't mess with the balance of the game. Another one I like is increasing afterburner speed. Honestly though, after this playthrough I'm pretty sure I'll be done. I almost never play through a game twice...but 3 times? I really doubt it.

[Bullwinkle]

Shant wrote:
the race was far easier for me in vanilla, I beat Dexter the 2nd time
As a programmer, I am kind of fascinated by the AI behavior, so I watch it closely. Dexter Hovis misses a gate on his second time through the course, so your best opportunity to win is on the second try (or 4th or 22nd, or so on). His reflexes are computer-fast and -accurate, and he flies the Dagger, which is the best light fighter in the game. I am not sure that it would be possible to beat him if he did not miss a gate... I never have. It is more like he loses to me rather my winning.
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I played with max cruise speeds and realized the faster you go the harder it is to beat him, not easier. In the end I had to cheat and swapped out my crusader for a starflier and beat him right away. It's all about maneuverability.
Right. The faster the race, the greater the advantage in Dexter's computer-fast reflexes... up to a point. When the cruise speed is too high, he misses the gates and cannot recover, so you are better off using thrusters rather than cruise speed.And you did the right thing by getting a Starflier. I wouldn't call that "cheating"... it's like buying another ship just for that mission. You really have to try a few (or many) different ships in order to get all of the fun out of the storyline, so don't feel bad about hacking your level or money in order to do so. Anyway, the Starflier is probably the only ship more maneuverable than a Dagger, so it is the right call for the race track!(By the way, the Dagger is a very popular ship in multi-player because of its high maneuverability and five guns. It hits pretty hard for such a nimble ship. You have to make friends with the Liberty Rogues in order to buy one at Buffalo.)
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cutting off the jumpgate sequence is a definite because it won't mess with the balance of the game.
Yeah, it's the first thing I do when I start the game. You said that you experimented with cruise speeds but you didn't say whether you did it with the Speed Mod or by editing Constants.ini. If you are into editing the .INI files, here's how to shorten the Jump Gate effect:Freelancer\DATA\FX\jumpeffects.ini[JumpGateEffect]...jump_out_tunnel_time = 1 ; Change all lines like this to 0 or 1 rather than the default (often 5)jump_in_tunnel_time = 1 ; Do the same with these lines (was 5)Ironically, it appears that Crossfire 1.8 changed (it auto-updates itself) so that some of the ship- and weapon- mods don't "stick" without a lot of extra effort. It is beyond the capability of FLMM to correct, and I hope that the Crossfire team will make another update so that they don't do their anti-cheat stuff in single-player mode. I can fix it for myself, but it would be hard to package in a way that would be easy for somebody else to implement. In other words, Crossfire 1.8 wiped out some of my ideas (including afterburner speed) after I posted them. But the good news is that Crossfire makes so many excellent ships and weapons available from New York and New London that all you really need is to hack your Level (and, maybe, money) in order to buy them.
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Honestly though, after this playthrough I'm pretty sure I'll be done. I almost never play through a game twice...but 3 times? I really doubt it.
Yeah, I'm the same way... usually. Freelancer is the only (non-card) game that I have played more than twice. But Freelancer is special because: [*:iflh5ufa]It is so highly adjustable that I can keep the game interesting by trying different combinations. [*:iflh5ufa]Mods such as Crossfire add such a huge amount of new space -- and new puzzles -- to explore. [*:iflh5ufa]I have yet to find another game, since Freelancer, that I like as much.Speaking of puzzles, have you found the Crossfire-specific systems and ships that you asked about? Or the puzzle(s)? There is at least one that will take you a while to figure out. And you will probably need a well-equipped Very Heavy Fighter to survive in some of the Crossfire systems. If you have gone beyond New London without finding new systems to explore (and new ships to experiment with), then you may be rushing through the missions. You will get other chances later, but the Crossfire extensions don't lead you by the nose the way the storyline does... you have to do some exploring in order to get the full benefit (in case you have not already done so). I don't want to spoil your fun by giving away too many clues, but just be sure to read the News in a bar before hanging up the game forever.

[Bullwinkle]

Finding wrecks, secret bases, hidden jump holes, and some other crazy Crossfire stuff, requires exploring off the beaten track... outside of the Trade Lanes. Space is vast, and Freelancer underscores the vastness by sometimes-long cruises in between destinations. Q) How do you explore a new system without a tedious grid search?A) Use the Nav map to display common Patrol Routes for Friends, Foes, and Neutral Factions. The Patrol Routes will show you where the NPC's go. Sometimes it is just some rich gas cloud or asteroid farm but, other times, there might be something interesting there. If you see many Patrol Routes converging on one spot, then you can bet that there is a reason that the AI's are all going there.Of course, Rumors, paid Information Tips, and the News sometimes give you clues about where to search as well. Also, especially in Crossfire, you can sometimes see a distant object with your eyes that your scanners might not pick up. When I cruise to a destination, I often sit in the turret seat ("H" key) and look around while I let the autopilot ("Go To...") do the flying. This works whether or not your ship is equipped with a turret.For Example, BPA Newgate is a prison ship, in Bretonia, that pays well for prisoners that you tractor after a battle. It is not on a Trade Lane and the story line does not take you there. You have to find it for yourself... and, once you locate it, you have to figure out how to get in without being blown to smithereens. Hint: I tried autopilot the first time, which is how I know about the "smithereens" part.

[Shant]

Wow I'm glad you mentioned that I should read the news. I have not been doing that. I'm already in New Tokyo and have not seen any new crossfire specific ships or new systems. Thank goodness you mentioned it now, at least I can go do some back tracking before I'm at the end!Prison ships...so they're the ones who buy the ejected pilots and pay more than $1 for them? I have not encountered a prison ship as of yet. So you're saying anytime you're in a new system, you check the nav map and check the trade routes, and wherever there's activity, you check there? Haven't tried that before, will do so on my next play. I've got around $200,000 saved up now and would really like a top notch ship, as the enemies' shields are really powerful now and I'm beginning to get out-gunned again. But I don't want to cheat either, no more messing with my save game. I guess I should be doing more exploring than I'm used to.

[Bullwinkle]

Shant wrote:
Wow I'm glad you mentioned that I should read the news.
Good! It sounded as though you might be rushing past some good things and I didn't want you to miss them, but I also didn't want to give away too much. The Crossfire extensions have multiple entry points, so you have not missed the major stuff yet. You can start the News thing at any point -- even after Mission 14. But you have already gone past great ships and a couple of interesting points. That's what those Saved Games are for, aren't they? Or, as you say, it's not that hard to just go back. Maybe you can make it a profitable cargo run. The ship levels (rank) and commerce are balanced better for multi-player than for single-player, and the Crossfire money balance is even more tuned that way. If you don't hack your rank then you cannot fly the best ships until after the storyline. If you plan to stop soon after the story ends, then what is the point of depriving yourself of the fancy gear? If you feel that the game is too easy with a great ship, then crank up the difficulty.But I am pretty sure that you won't think the game is too easy when you get deep into the Crossfire systems. If you think Nomads are tough, wait until you take on a pair of Dom K'vash gunboats (*evil grin*). They make Nomads look like rookies. :)As for money, well, you have already seen that some runs can net you 1,000 credits per unit of cargo. It still takes a lot of repetitive cargo runs to earn the $8 million that some of the Crossfire ships cost. Personally, I expand my cargo bay, which feels like a good blend between keeping the game balance while reducing repetitive runs. However you do it, it will take a long time to be able to try even a few of the fancy ships without hacking something... whether it is your money in your saved game, or the cargo hold in shiparch.ini, or something. So find your own path on modifying things, but remember that Freelancer was designed from scratch to be easy to modify. And you DID beat the game the first time you played it in straight vanilla mode, so it is not really a question of cheating so much as a question of what will be the most fun for you?
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Prison ships...so they're the ones who buy the ejected pilots and pay more than $1 for them? I have not encountered a prison ship as of yet.
Yes, exactly. In fact, the prison ships pay quite well for those prisoners. Maybe you found LPI Sugarland or LPI Huntsville when you were in Texas but did not know what they were? No matter... the point is that they are worthwhile to watch for. There are only a few prison ships in the game. As far as I know, only one is close to a Trade Lane (in Texas). The rest are off the main trade lanes so you have to look for them.If you are only going to look for one prison ship, I recommend finding BPA Newgate. It is, um, "different", especially if you find it on autopilot.
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So you're saying anytime you're in a new system, you check the nav map and check the patrol routes, and wherever there's activity, you check there?
Yes, exactly. During the "get a job" phases of the game, I ignore Juni's whining about hurrying up to meet her. I take my time to look around, because that is where a great deal of the fun in the game is... hidden away for you to find. Also, it allows me to earn more credits and buy better gear, which makes the later missions, um, "differently fun". You can even Decline missions from Juni... she will wait around until you are ready. She will pout a bit, but she will wait.Wrecks are great places to pick up free cargo and high end weapons, so they are worthwhile to look for. The Level 10 weapons sell for high prices so you can either keep them for your ship or sell them to make a profit. Wrecks are often in dangerous places (that's why there are wrecks there).
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I've got around $200,000 saved up now and would really like a top notch ship, as the enemies' shields are really powerful now and I'm beginning to get out-gunned again.
Vanilla Freelancer has four Very Heavy Fighters (VHFs): Anubis, Eagle, Saber, and Titan. Each have slightly different characteristics, and are only sold on one base, so you may have to look around for them. Obviously you will also have to be friendly with the proper factions in order to land on those bases. Crossfire adds many more VHFs, as well as some other interesting ships. It takes a big "Defense Budget" to try them all, but that's why I gave you the Save Game editors.When you go back to Bretonia to find BPA Newgate, you should also look for The Corridor. It's like going to the Galleria. :)I don't know how far you want me to go with hints, so just let me know if you want more... like specific systems, maybe?One more point of interest to check out if you are going back is in Omega 3, near Planet Sprague, east of Cambridge. I am not sure what to make of it at this point... it's just "interesting".

[Bullwinkle]

Another improvement in Crossfire 1.8 is that you no longer have to work through the original story line in order to play the story line extensions. In Crossfire 1.7, the player had to go through the original story line in order to get to the extended "Mission 14" (the vanilla Freelancer story line ends at Mission 13).However, Crossfire 1.8 uses the News and Rumors systems to give puzzles to the player. So, in the 1.8 version, a puzzle replaces what was previously Mission 14.You can play the old story line if you want -- the missions are harder and there are a zillion new ships and bases to explore. But you can start the Crossfire-specific extensions at any time, by reading the News and following clues there. Once you follow the first clue, subsequent clues will usually come by News and Rumors, although you may stumble upon Secret Storage Containers with Data Disks that contain further clues.It is more like an adventure game that way. The puzzles replace cut scenes for extending the story line. It is an excellent solution to the problem that modders run into -- everything about Freelancer is easy to mod except for the cut scenes. In other news, I also found out why Crossfire is not more popular than it is... the developers are a bit nutty about trying too hard to control the Crossfire environment. Between that and the fact that they speak English as a second language, they don't make a sterling first impression. In the end, though, they work hard to make Crossfire excellent. I am not sure why they work so hard at it, but I am glad that they do.I still like Crossfire, and 1.8 cleans up a lot of 1.7's rough edges, even while it is in beta.

[GUNSMIF]

Any advice for starting up on multiplayer???? i hear it can be a bit of a drama getting going??

[Bullwinkle]

GUNSMIF wrote:
Any advice for starting up on multiplayer???? i hear it can be a bit of a drama getting going??
That's an easy one... get the Discovery(*) Mod and join the Discovery server: [url]http://discoveryfl.com/[/url] just start exploring and trading. Soon enough, somebody will come around to give you a hand. They will know that you are new because you will be in a Starflier. Most of the folks who take the time to greet newbies are nice and friendly. In fact, most of the folks in New York are friendly, because that is where newbies start. You won't run into tough competition until you are ready to handle it.Multi-Player (MP) has a Chat feature so that you can talk with others.Each MP server has its own rules -- read them and follow them, or expect to be punished. :)A common rule at most servers is "No PvP in New York". That means that newbies, like you, flying around in your Starflier, don't have to worry about human pirates attacking you. The NPC's (Non-Player Character -- or AI's) might attack you, but not humans. "PvP" means "Player vs. Player".When you get a better ship and move out of New York, then it is up to you to be able to handle whatever you encounter. Usually there are groups or "clans" that you can join. When you do, they will give you tips, train you, and fly missions with you.Some MP servers use "Role Play" which means that you participate in a huge, multi-authored, interactive, "story". You may be expected to declare yourself as Cop, Mercenary, Trader, Pirate, Smuggler, or Freelancer -- and you will usually be expected to behave accordingly.PS: (*) It does not have to be Discovery. Any MP mod will suffice because all of the communities welcome new players. "Fresh meat" makes the game more interesting for the more seasoned players. -- (just kidding!) :)Well, mostly kidding. ;)I only mentioned Discovery because it is designed to have broad appeal, they have phenomenal documentation, and many of the board members speak English as their first language. In other words, it is just an easy place to start.PPS: Many of the mods include the no-cd feature that Darkone mentioned. So you might be able to skip using your CD just by installing the mod -- no Daemon Tools required. That depends on the mod, of course.

[HunterKiller]

I recommend the Underverse v 2.24 mod to anyone that wants something to really get into when it comes to a new playing field. Check out the forums @ [url]http://underverse.us[/url] and experience the way of the Underverse for The "Underverse Awaits You."

[zhokar]

Hey guys.This is my first post on the forums and already i'm being a thread-necrophiliac.I´ve read up on some great info on mods in this thread and was hoping you guys could help me out, because I am a bit frustrated at the moment.I installed Freelancer again yesterday and wanted to do some trading. I had forgotten that the system gates need to be unlocked one after the other by Junky'Zane during the campaign. So after an hour I had myself running into the Magellan gate in my Rhino - access denied.I started googling and found several tips. One would be installing the OpenSP mod - but this would completely remove the campaign. Then I found out about editing the initialworld.ini - but this only seems to work for LAN games, in local single player gates seem to be locked through the save files. Then I tried with the Discovery mod - only to find out the vanilla campaign isn't playable. Also I haven't looked into it yet, but I guess both Discovery and Crossfire have altered commodity prices/availability In Discovery I didn't even manage to find the "Flint" wreck in New York. Did I take a wrong turn or did they change wrecks as well?My questions are: - Is it possible to play the original campaign without gate restrictions in Discovery or Crossfire? - Is it possible to fly the "good" trade routes from vanilla in both mods or have they been modified too much?- Is there any way (modded or unmodded) to play the original storyline without gate restrictions at all, so I could fly around and trade for a better ship earlier (Doesn't feel like cheating if you actually play for it )- If so, is there any way to play the original campaign with the graphics from Crossfire or one of the other great graphics mods?xoxo, zhokarEdit: Also the only working save game editor only seems to work with win98 / 2000 / XP savegame directories and cannot be modified to look into the Vista directories without disassembling the program.

[Bullwinkle]

If you want to play the campaign, then the easiest way is to just play the missions. Juni unlocks the Liberty gates at the end of Mission 2. In some mods you can get to Magellan via a jump hole in California -- it depends on the mod.In both Discovery and Crossfire there are new trade routs, ships, equipment, and systems available immediately from inside Liberty. There is no need to unlock gates early.That said, there are ways to do what you want. None are as easy (or fun), as just playing the mod:> - Is it possible to play the original campaign without gate restrictions in Discovery or Crossfire? In Single-Player (SP), yes. Any of your requests would get you quickly banned from the Multi-Player (MP) servers.(You may have to work around the launchers, depending on the solution that you choose:[*:39sut4ht]If you edit your saved game, then no workaround is required.[*:39sut4ht]If you edit any of the INI files, then you may need to disable or disconnect your Internet connection to prevent some launchers from "updating" your INI files to match the server.
)> - Is it possible to fly the "good" trade routes from vanilla in both mods or have they been modified too much?Most mods change the economy substantially. That includes Discovery and Crossfire.> - Is there any way (modded or unmodded) to play the original storyline without gate restrictions at all, so I could fly around and trade for a better ship earlier (Doesn't feel like cheating if you actually play for it )In Crossfire, find the jump to Custodian (from New York). There are plenty of ships, weapons, and lucrative trading routes in and near New York.> - If so, is there any way to play the original campaign with the graphics from Crossfire or one of the other great graphics mods?Crossfire supports the campaign, as does Discovery Version 4.79 (the last version of Discovery to support the campaign). > the only working save game editor only seems to work with win98 / 2000 / XP savegame directories Which save game editor did you try? IonCross?The Freelancer Simple Save Editor should work on any version of Windows and can open save games in any folder. You may need a tool such as FLDev to decode the hash numbers in the save game so that you know which gate is which.

[zhokar]

Hey,thanks for all that info. Concerning the vanilla singleplayer, I am only allowed to move to California, Texas, New York, Colorado after mission 2. The Magellan gate is locked in both California and New York for me. Do you happen to know, how far into the campaign i would need to be for the HONSHU-YANAGI-BERLIN-MAINZ-HONSHU trade route?And yes, I tried the IONCROSS editor.Edit: Almost forgot - so is there a mod/.ini change that just lets me go where I want without changing anything else?

[Bullwinkle]

zhokar wrote:
I am only allowed to move to California, Texas, New York, Colorado after mission 2. The Magellan gate is locked in both California and New York for me. ...And yes, I tried the IONCROSS editor.Edit: Almost forgot - so is there a mod/.ini change that just lets me go where I want without changing anything else?
Right, the gates out of Liberty remain locked until the Flee from Liberty mission. However, the jump holes may not be locked. In vanilla I think there is a jump hole from California to Cortez or Magellan. The state of the jump holes (locked or not) varies between mods, so just give it a try.Once you get out of Liberty, you can go anywhere in the game.The IonCross editor makes unlocking the gates as simple as pushing a button. If you want to unlock the gates without using IonCross, you are going to have to work harder. It is possible, using the tools that I mentioned, but not straightforward.Maybe the second-simplest solution, after IonCross, is to use the Freelancer Simple Save Editor to unlock all of the gates. Just delete the lines that say "locked_gate = ..."PS: If you are headed to Honshu, then going through Colorado is the quickest route. The only reason to go through Magellan is if you want to buy a Dromedary along the way. You will have to hack your level with the Save Editor in order to buy a Dromedary.(PPS: I would put the Simple Save Editor in the Download section here, but the button to Upload a File is missing again (sigh) ).

[HunterKiller]

Why not just do the Campaigns and then do the exploring? Once you find Ashcroft, (mission 3) you'll get the gate codes from Juni. No need to cheat the game. Even then, you'll still have to do missions for Juni before you're finished to be able to explore freely unless you get the Freelancer Mod Manager and find the No Story Mod to install. Geez. Once you're done with the story, you're free to do whatever. If you don't want to worry about any of that, find a 1.0 server that's laid back and you can trade to your hearts content and have someone to chat with and find out the best all around places to trade. MP is not so bad and there are some great, smooth running Vanilla servers out there.Run Luxury Goods to Hawaii (sigma-19) then Artifacts back to NY.By the way, Discovery RP 24/7 and CF aren't the only mods out there that have good trade routes and ease of game play. Disco is mainly RP and those that don't want to RP aren't really welcome if you're on the main server. However. there are some Disco servers that are really laid back but, they aren't the only mods out there that you can enjoy while trading. CF, not sure how they are about players not wanting to RP.Sorry BW, but those aren't the only mods concerning Freelancer. Why not advertise for the whole of the Community?

[Bullwinkle]

HunterKiller wrote:
Sorry BW, but those aren't the only mods concerning Freelancer. Why not advertise for the whole of the Community?
I was just answering zhokar's questions. Advertisement has nothing to do with the conversation...But I agree with your suggestions, of course.

[panzer225MAAZ]

panzer225MAAZ here-Of all the open single player mods for Freelancer my NUMBER ONE MOD is Rebalanced 3.55,very stable,you can actually play the mod without the universal cheat "perfoptions.ini" adjustments.Most mods,like Discovery 4.85,Phoenix 1.05,Crossfire 1.81,Frontierspace 1.75,Freelancer:The Next Generation 2.7.6 ,STILL HAVE ORIGINAL PARTS of Freelancer.Each have "special parts", but FALL SHORT!!!IT HAS EVERYTHING,BUT EVEN Rebalanced 3.55 has it's FAULTS!!!Rebalanced 3.55 has #1. Everything in each ship is CHANGE-ABLE!!!ENGINES,POWER PLANTS,SHIELDS,SHIELD CAPACITORS,FUSION INJECTORS,SHIELD SUPPORT GENERATORS,NANO-BOT and SHIELD BATTERY ENHANCERS,OVER SIX TYPES OF THRUSTERS,FOUR KINDS OF TRACTOR BEAMS!!!WEAPONS!!! GUNS and TURRETS in all SEVEN KINDS OF BEAM WEAPONS PLUS MASS DRIVERS!!!OVER THIRTY!! KINDS OF MISSILES!!!PLUS you ARE NOT left with ordinary torpedoes !SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TAKE A TORPEDO WARHEAD and ADD A CRUISE MISSILE ENGINE!!There are over 11 types of Torpedoes,from the original starslayer to Quantum Torpedoes,Some are SLOW as molasses,to 3 times faster then "normal cruise speed'!!Everything dropped in Battles IS SELL ABLE !!! IT'S very easy to make money!! The only problems with Rebalanced 3.55 is #1.the level-price change is STILL ORIGINAL FREELANCER!! Which means you can increase to the next level in battle,make a quick trade deal,etc.,etc.! #2. they STILL have trouble with TURRETS!! You CAN mount a NOMAD BATTLESHIP TURRET on a Patriot MK 2a fighter,which IS ABOUT 10 TIMES BIGGER THAN THE SHIP ITSELF!! AND STORE 3 EXTRA TURRETS ON BOARD!!!

[HunterKiller]

Try this one and I'm sure you'll not be disappointed.http://www.spacesimcentral.com/freelancer-f22/the-underverse-mod-t1394.html

[Skox]

I highly recommend this mod: [url]http://discoveryfl.com/[/url] site [url]http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php[/url] thing you have to have on mind if you want to play this Mod : This is RP server , with strict rules. My suggestion is that you read that rules on forum . If you are interested , join and have tons and tons of fun , if you can log on ... usually server is full !

[numidianian]

Well, I didn't actually played it and don't like any mods in general, but this sounds promising: Return to Earth mode.

[Geraldine]

Yes I saw that, but there has been no recent news about it. I wonder if any progress was made in the meantime?