Recently re-installed to try out some relatively new mods that have come out for Freelancer.
Free Worlds and Privateer: The Reckoning.
Free Worlds is set in the Star Wars universe, many years after the fall of the Galactic Empire. SW canon and EU ships populate the far reaches of space.
When one first enters the game with a new character, they start at a bar with enough cash to bribe one of six factions (Civilians, Organized Crime, Imperial Navy, New Republic, Bounty Hunters & Smugglers), and the ability to buy one of three fighters (TIE Fighter, Pinook Light Fighter & Z-95 Headhunter).
Once the player has left the station there are 11 star systems to explore. The easiest way to find bases and planets not revealed on your map (there are no tradelanes) is to bring up the system map (F6 key) and click on patrols. There usually is a place to dock at the endpoints of the patrol lanes.
The starting sensors are very limited in range and don’t reveal docking beacons for planets not already visited unless the player is very close (2 km I think). Just because a planet on the map looks like it doesn’t have a docking beacon it may actually have one. It’s good practice to visit all the planets in a system for that reason alone.
Missions are typical Freelancer fare. Kill the pilots. Destroy the contraband. Arrest so and so. It’s also possible to mine asteroids, and do cargo runs to earn money. After killing all enemies in an area, it’s often wise to scan for loot that isn’t ammunition. Often, when tractoring indiscriminately, the cargo hold will fill rapidly with ammunition. Coruscant gems and other items are worth a fortune, and it’d be a shame to not have those in your cargo bay because you had concussion missiles instead.
Privateer: The Reckoning is another TC for Freelancer which uses the Wing Commander universe as its setting. I only started playing this mod this morning, but I like what I see so far.
Looks like most, if not all, of the ships available in the Wing Commander games (including Privateer) are included.
The most noticeable difference between this mod and many others is the rate of fire for most of its weapons. They seem very slow. Combine this with fast recharge rate (but low maximum) for NPC shields and you get really drawn out dogfights. Missiles seem to rule here, as a volley fired after you manage to get your enemy’s shields down, seems to do the trick.
The systems seem rather sparse at the moment, but the mod is still marked as a “beta” so they may be incomplete. Also, commodity prices don’t vary much from base to base, but that may be more from my lack of exploration of the systems.
In contrast to Free Worlds, which encourages PvP through the different factions, Privateer: The Reckoning encourages co-op mostly, since there are four “baddies” who are hostile to all players at the start. Two of those factions don’t even possess bases (yet, I’m guessing).
Right now I have a server up for Free Worlds with a server name of FreeWorlds-QT3 and password ********. That’s right. Eight asterisks. I’ll leave it up until 1am Pacific tonight for those that want to play. I figure the people who post here are more mature than the average CS player. I’ll have the Privateer-QT3 (same password) server up tomorrow and Thursday from 1pm to 1am Pacific for those that want to try that.
For those that wish to play these or other Freelancer mods and are having difficulties getting them to work, or have questions about gameplay, post here and I (and hopefully others) will do my best to help.
