Freelancer (computer game)
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| Freelancer | |
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| Developer(s) | Digital Anvil |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft |
| Release date(s) | March 3, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Space simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) USK: 12+ ELSPA: 15+ PEGI: 12+ |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | Minimum requirements:
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Freelancer is a space simulation computer game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft. It was released on March 3, 2003 for Microsoft Windows. The primary distinguishing feature of the game is that it does not end when the last in-game mission is completed. At that time the player has only explored a small part of the game universe, and is then free to continue to explore the rest of the region.
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[edit] Story
The player character is Edison Trent, a recent arrival on Manhattan, the capital of Liberty, after the space station he was on (Freeport 7, in the Sigma-17 system) was destroyed by mysterious attackers, thought to be the mysterious terrorist organization known as the Order. At this point the player has no ship and 500 credits, as Trent invested the rest of his money in a deal with Sam Lonnigan, a Samura representative who promised one million credits for one ton of Boron. Lonnigan was rescued from the station but sustained critical injuries, and Trent wishes to remain in Liberty until such time that Lonnigan is in fit state to continue business.
From this point the player can play through a series of missions which will take him or her through a story of political intrigue and a secret alien invasion, intermixed with fast-paced battles. After arriving on the planet Manhattan, the player is left with nothing but 500 credits and the decision to go to the bar. Once there, the player meets Jun'ko (Juni) Zane, a Liberty Security Force officer who needs a freelancer to escort a freighter convoy to the nearby Pittsburgh. She offers the player a basic second hand starfighter and some credits in return for escorting the shipment of food and medical supplies from Fort Bush to Pittsburgh. Upon accepting, the player's new ship will be moved to the launch pad, and it can be launched to space.
Upon launching, the player meets up with the mission CO, Michael King, another LSF agent. While the player is leaving Manhattan's atmosphere, the Rheinland cruiser RNC Donau, carrying Admiral Schultzky, who is heading to a high-level meeting with President Jacobi over the strained tensions between Rheinland and Liberty, is preparing to dock with Newark Station, one of the two stations around Manhattan. Suddenly, Newark picks up several unknown contacts: five Order fighters are heading straight for the Donau, weapons armed. Newark warns them to stand down, or they will open fire, but the enemy contacts refuse, claiming that they're protecting the President, and that Schultzky is a traitor. Before Newark, the Donau, or any fighter can intercede, the hostile contacts launch several salvos of powerful missiles, which destroy the Donau. There are no survivors. After this, the player and King are dropped into the middle of the battle, and King tells the player to help the fighters around Manhattan take the enemy down. Once the last fighter is destroyed, King learns that the planetary defense grid was off-line; this is how the fighters got so close to Manhattan without being detected earlier. The player and King continue on to Fort Bush, where they successfully escort two transports to Pittsburgh. On the way, they are attacked by pirates. Once they are fought off and Pittsburgh is reached, it is revealed that the convoy was a ruse to draw pirates out of hiding. It has confirmed what the LSF has suspected: the pirates have a base close by, because they would never attack something as big as a transport too far from a base.
Once the player repairs and outfits his or her ship, he or she launches once more and links up with a squad of LSF fighters. The player begins a search pattern, but has barely begun when Prison Ship XT-19, in orbit around Maine (Pittsburgh's moon), comes under attack. King immediately diverts course with Epsilon wing and the player to help. The ship is nearly destroyed by the time help arrives. Once the group of attacking Rogues are successfully fought off, King and the player resume their search pattern and receive another mayday, this time from another LSF patrol: Beta Wing. Upon helping the crippled fighter, the player learns that his group was exploring a particle cloud when they came under extreme fire. Beta 4 supplies the coordinates, where the enemy base is discovered. The player is required to take out two missile platforms to clear the way for the torpedo bombers. Once this is done, Delta Wing comes in and destroys the base with torpedoes, and the freelancer's first mission is completed.
The player is much different from how he or she was when he or she was first deposited on Manhattan: Now owning a ship, a small reservoir of credits, and some experience, the player has taken his or her first steps into the game. Between missions the player is free to explore, take on jobs, trade cargo and so on until his or her net worth reaches a certain level. (An easy way to do this is by looking around asteroid/gas/debris fields and criminal patrol paths until you see a red X on your map. Go to it, and you will see a floating wreck. Shoot it and then tractor in the items that come out. Sometimes you may find expensive weapons or missile ammunition, but these are usually in dangerous radiation areas or pirate zones.)
In the next segment, the player captures an artifact smuggler named Sean Ashcroft, escorts another convoy to Willard research station, encounters Lonnigan, who seems to have gone insane and ultimately gets sedated by a security team, answers a mayday from said research station, and Jun'ko eventually reveals that people around her are disappearing. Arrests have quadrupled within the LSF. Jun'ko says she will try to find out more. After a while, the player returns to Manhattan to find Lonnigan, who holds Trent at gunpoint and warns him to get out of Liberty before running off.
When the player goes to meet up with Jun'ko again, a thief appears to speak to Trent. He claims he and Trent are the only remaining survivors of the Freeport 7 attack (everyone else is either dead or missing). He hands Trent a strange alien artifact, claiming it's what the attackers were after. Suddenly, the thief is shot. The shooter, an LSF officer, threatens to do the same to Trent. Jun'ko appears demanding an explanation. The LSF officer tells Jun'ko that his orders are to kill all artifact smugglers on sight, which Jun'ko cannot believe, as that is against Trent's rights and the LSF officer's duties. The LSF officer then turns on Jun'ko and attempts to fire, but Jun'ko is faster and comes out of the showdown alive, unlike the now-deceased LSF officer. Jun'ko says that Liberty isn't safe for her and Trent anymore, as murder is a capital offense and she doubts the government will believe them when they say it was self-defense. They launch to space but are intercepted by what seems to be the entirety of New York's navy contingent. Just as the player and Jun'ko are about to lose hope, Walker, a cruiser captain met earlier, and King, destroy one of the battleships and allow the player to escape. They end up at a base that belongs to a friend of Jun'ko. After a chat (and some history of New York), Trent and Jun'ko find out that they are now worth a million credits for whoever catches them. The base gets attacked by Liberty ships, and then cruisers come in to finish them off. Jun'ko and Trent go through the Magellan jump gate. After that, they get attacked by Bounty Hunters, and stranger still, they get help from the Lane Hackers, a criminal organization. After killing the Bounty Hunters, they go to the Hackers base. They get attacked by Rheinlanders, again. With help from the Lane Hackers, Jun'ko and Trent destroy them. Jun'ko and Trent split up after that. Trent goes to Leeds to talk to his old friend Richard Tobias.
In the search to find out just what the artifact is, the player finds Sinclair, the assistant to a Xenoarchaeologist, Quintaine. She cannot analyze the artifact without Quintaine's help. Upon finding him, the player is intercepted by Rheinlanders and forced to abandon Leeds with the artifact, Jun'ko, Sinclair, and Quintaine himself. More base-hopping ensues as the player runs from his or her pursuers and eventually ends up in Kusari. Trent falls in with the Blood Dragons, a pirate group determined to restore their honor and return control of Kusari to its rightful owners; them. The player retrieves the Proteus Tome, an alien scroll required to analyze the artifact, from Kusari Governor Tekagi, who has been acting oddly and possesses a remote planetoid in the very remote system, Tohoku, which only one Jump Hole leads to from Chūgoku. The player finds out that the Chancellor that was attacked to get it has been infected by a creature called a Nomad, who have the ability to possess humans and give them super-strength and abilities. The Nomads had already possessed leaders or key authorities in each system, so there is little hope left at this point. It is revealed that the terrorist organization, the Order, who destroyed the Donau, was actually a group founded to protect the colonies from Nomads. The Nomads plan to infiltrate the colonies and have them go to war with one another until the colonies are weakened enough for the Nomads to take over. Rheinland has been almost completely taken over by Nomad-infected leaders who have imposed martial law: the Order knew that the meeting with Jacobi and Schultzky was only a means to infect the president of Liberty. This is why they destroyed the Donau.
Trent then travels to Rheinland to extract an Order operative named Herr von Claussen. While in Rheinland, Trent aids von Claussen in destroying several Nomad battleships being built by Rheinland. As they flee Rheinland, they are intercepted by a Rheinland battleship. Luckily, an Order battleship, the Osiris de-cloaks and provides Trent and von Claussen with enough cover to land on the ship. After landing, Trent meets with Jun'ko, King, and the leader of the Order, a former Liberty operative named Kaspar Orillion.
Trent joins the Order and battles the Nomads for some time, gaining a Nomad power cell needed to activate the artifact. Sinclair and Quintaine made a discovery: the artifact is actually a star map of the empire of the alien Dom'Kavosh. Their empire stretched to many galaxies and had Hypergates, which are very powerful Jump Gates that can send any ship instantaneously to another galaxy. Gaining a plan, Trent and the Order stage an attack on the Nomad home world in an unknown and distant system, where they discover a Nomad city encapsulated within a Dyson sphere. The artifact, in Trent's possession, starts making a shield-like barrier around his ship. He goes near the city, and the Hypergate is activated. The Nomads are unable to take the transfer of power from them to the Hypergate, and are sucked in, devoid of engine power to resist. They are apparently not gone; they have merely been sent to another galaxy. The Order vows to watch the Hypergate to make sure they never return.
When Trent meets up with Jun'ko again on Manhattan three weeks later, he is once again a freelancer without a care in the world - for now. They both end up receiving the Lone Star award upon their arrival.
After this last mission the player is free to explore all the other systems in Sirius space with few limitations on what can be done. The player is free to take on missions, become a trader, a pirate, a smuggler, or a hero, and do as he or she pleases. The game never truly ends.
[edit] Gameplay
There are two distinct game environments; either the player is in space or landed on a planet or station.
The space environment is visually rich, with immense backgrounds created from sources such as images from the Hubble Space Telescope.[citation needed] The space around the player is populated with planets, stations, clouds of various types, Trade Lane rings and many other objects. Computer-generated ships (police and other patrols, cargo convoys and so on) move around on whatever business the relevant faction would be involved in. The space around many planets is a veritable hive of activity, with orbital stations and trade lane terminuses often in orbit, generating considerable traffic. The environment is rendered very realistically (within the rules of the game universe). The player can switch between various viewpoints.
In space, the player is in control of a ship and is generally trying to get from one place to another without that ship being destroyed. Control is through a mouse and keyboard; the game does not support a joystick interface. Maximum speed in normal flight is 80 of the in-game velocity units, but a thruster can also be used to boost speed for a period. ("Kill Engine" allows the player to drift at high speed, while forward, backward and side Thrusters allow the player to stay at KE). In cruise mode the speed increases to 300 units but in this mode all weapons are disabled. Any ship in cruise mode is usually difficult to hit but special "cruise disruptor" missiles (which, rather obviously, disrupt a target's cruise engines for five seconds during which the target can be attacked or destroyed) are available on the market. Trade Lanes allow a player to move across a system very quickly (2500 units). Ships have four flight modes - free flight, go to (a kind of autopilot that will fly a ship to a selected point avoiding obstacles), dock (used to land on planets and stations and to travel along Trade Lanes and through Jump Gates), and formation (in which a player can join a convoy and will automatically adjust position to match the convoy's Speed/orientation).
While landed, a player can trade weapons and ammunition, commodities and even buy a new ship. Players can also visit the bar to pick up gossip, have their reputation "hacked" (see Factions and Reputation) or select a mission from the job board to pick up a little money.
There are several ways to make a living. A ship can be flown to take on missions from the job board to gain money, or the player can move cargo around, ideally buying low and selling high. Some asteroid fields can also be mined by firing on small free-floating asteroids, garnering commodities to sell. However, mining takes great amounts of time to fill even the smallest fighter's cargo hold, and is therefore considered by many to be dull and uneconomic.
[edit] Ships and equipment
There are many ships to choose from. There are two basic types: fighters and freighters. Fighters are further subdivided into Light Fighters, Heavy Fighters and Very Heavy Fighters.
Fighters are more maneuverable, have more energy for weapons, and are the most commonly flown. Freighters, however, are used almost exclusively by traders (You are only allowed to have one ship at a time). They generally have more weapon hardpoints and are far more heavily armoured, but cannot use high class weapons and are unable to support as much fire power as a fighter. Although they are less maneuverable, they can attain the same speed as the fighters. Like the names suggest, fighters have limited cargo capacity (The largest is 70), while freighters have much larger holds (The largest capacity being 275).
Ships can be equipped with a shield and a thruster. These are technically optional and can be upgraded, but the player would be extremely foolish to take to space without these items. The shield protects the hull from weapons fire but each hit knocks the shield capacity down; if the shield is disabled, gunfire will cause damage to the hull until the shields reactivate - this usually takes about twenty seconds. The shield regenerates over time. Shield batteries, which can be bought when landed or often tractored in from destroyed ships, can be used to recharge the shield instantly. Similarly, hull damage can be repaired using nanobots, which again can be bought or salvaged.
The thruster gives ships a boost to a top speed of 200 for a short period of time. There are four types of thrusters, only differing in the amount of power drain. Like the shield, the thruster regenerates over a period of a minute or so.
In addition to guns and turrets, the player can also mount missile and torpedo launchers, countermeasure and mine droppers and a cruise disruptor, a specialized high-speed missile designed to temporarily disable an enemy's cruise engines. All weapons and shields are separated by classes 1 through 10. Most Liberty Ships hold up to class 3 weapons while most Very Heavy fighters can hold up to class 10, though class 10 weapons must be found by the player, as they are unavailable through conventional means.
There are also various wrecks in space, containing small stockpiles (known as "loot" in the game) of weapons (including the coveted class 10 weapons), equipment or commodities. Typically, the more valuable the loot is, the more difficult it is to reach the wreck that contains it, often being located in dangerous radiation pockets.
Third party modifications often contain additional ship types, equipment, and/or altered specifications or physics which can affect game play.
[edit] Character status
Character status is based on "worth" - the sum of the value of a player's ship, weapons, cargo and cash reserves. As a player's worth reaches certain thresholds, the character level goes up. Higher-level characters are able to buy more powerful ships. The highest level attainable in single player is thirty-eight (38), while some multiplayer modifications can extend this to eighty-nine (89) or three hundred(300). This level usually means more than $950,000,000 worth. A player's cash cannot exceed $1,999,999,999.
[edit] Factions and reputation
As one progresses, he or she will meet other characters, each of whom belong to one faction or another. There are dozens of factions; the police and naval forces on one side, the pirate factions such as the Outcasts and the Corsairs on the other, and many commercial entities such as Bretonia Mining and Metals and the Gas Miner's Guild in-between.
How these factions treat a player depends on the player's reputation with them, influenced by actions against them. They may be friendly, neutral or hostile based on a sliding scale. Neutral factions may scan a player's ship and order him or her to give up cargo or fight for it. Hostile factions won't bother scanning or warning - they'll attack on sight. Friendly factions will leave the player alone and (if the player's reputation is good enough) may help out in a fight. Players can't land on hostile bases/planets and may not be able to buy certain high-powered weapons unless their reputation with the seller is good enough.
Reputation with any faction changes every time a player interacts with another character. If a player destroys a Corsair fighter, for instance, his or her reputation with the Corsairs will suffer accordingly. Attack their enemies and it will improve again.
Factions are interlinked and have allies and enemies. Destroying an Outcast ship affects a player's reputation with the Outcasts, of course, but also makes enemies of their allies, the Liberty Rogues. At the same time the player's reputation with the Liberty Police will improve.
Reputation hacking is something that a player can often do in bars on planets and stations. For a fee (a bribe, really), a player can have his or her reputation with one faction or another significantly improved; this usually incurs a reduction in reputation with enemy factions.
Some factions, such as the Blood Dragons, play an integral part in the game's storyline. Blood Dragons, who are descendants from royal guards that protected a deposed shogunate, operate in a hollowed-out asteroid called Kyoto base. Towards the latter stages of the game, they assist Trent in dealing with the Nomad threat. At the storyline's end, Trent's reputation with factions will be restored to the level they were before Trent escaped from Liberty, except the Blood Dragons, who will remain friendly with Trent.
[edit] Strange physics
The trade-offs involved in making a space simulation game that is actually playable has resulted in a set of physical rules that are completely at odds with the real universe.
Planets and other astronomical objects are represented as being much closer to one another than the vast distances that separate them in the real world. For example, the planets Pittsburgh and Manhattan are, in the game, entirely separate entities with (presumably) their own orbital paths. However, the distance between the two worlds would, in reality, be more suited towards a moon in low orbit.
Almost every space object, be it planet, star, fort, or Jump Gate, lies on the same plane (notable exceptions are the binary star at the center of the Tau-37 system and a jump hole in the New York system that is used in a single-player mission). Some new mods have attempted to move the plane of some objects.
The scale of the game is also completely distorted. For example, the atmospheres of planets are only about 200 meters thick, and planets are generally less than one kilometer in diameter. Space stations share the same problem, sometimes being so small that they should only be able to house one person. However, if one makes the assumption that the M and K distance measures used in the game do not actually mean metres and kilometres respectively, but rather (for example) M=Kilometers and K=1000 Kilometres, this would help resolve the scale issue.
In addition to strange physics of the size and motion of objects, there is also the presence of sound traveling through the vacuum of space. The sound of weapons impacting enemy ships and the Doppler effect of traveling ammunition or ships should not be audible, although the presence of sound in space has been popular in many other space-themed experiences such as Star Wars. Certain shows (Firefly), however, successfully utilize realistic space effects (e.g. inertia, no sound, use of projectile and missile weapons, no "lightspeed" or warp) without taking anything away from the experience. The sound problem can be somewhat explained by the presence of shields. Prior to launch, the shields on a player's ship will activate, trapping a small amount of the planet's (or base's) atmosphere inside. This might allow the pilot to hear some of the sounds, (such as firing his/her weapons). However, should the player's shield be deactivated or disabled, the gasses trapped inside would be released, resulting in the aforementioned silence of all weapons, collisions, etc. Hence, the shield/gas idea is limited in its potential to explain this error. In some shows' background, this is rationalized as being an audio feedback system provided for the pilot's benefit, to engage all of his/her senses in helping to track and defeat enemies.
[edit] Trade Lanes
Trade Lanes are a network of free-floating satellites that allow for extremely fast travel within the confines of a star system, allowing the player to travel between system features (planets and stations usually) in less than a minute, instead of having to traverse the area using the comparatively slow "cruise speed."
Trade Lanes are susceptible to being disrupted by concentrated weapons fire aimed at the satellites, although the Trade Lane rings themselves are technically immune to damage, only having a shield rating. When the Trade Lane is disabled, any ships in transit not yet beyond that section of the lane instantly decelerate to normal speeds. In addition, they are generally required to fend off the attacking pirates who caused the disruption until the Lane recharges itself again, at which point they can escape.
Trade Lane rings are equipped with light turret weaponry designed to assist any friendly vessels that are ambushed in this fashion, though they are somewhat ineffectual compared to ship fire.
[edit] Multiplayer
To play in this mode, a player must connect to a server (the server program is installed with the game so that one can play on a LAN). A program called Freelancer Mod Manager has a server admin with it, allowing the server to run mods. However, "Freelancer Mod Manager" is not allowed on most servers that run the original 1.0/1.1 version.
There are a few basic differences between multiplayer and single player modes:
- When saving a game in single-player, the game is stored locally. In multiplayer a character, ship, location and so on are saved on the server when a player disconnects.
- In multiplayer, new characters normally start on Planet Manhattan in Liberty Space with a basic spaceship. The single-player missions are not available.
- Certain Jump Gates, Holes and other features in the single player are not normally accessible in the multiplayer game.
- If a character is killed in a multiplayer game, the player can restart on the last planet or base he or she landed on. The player normally loses any cargo and unattached equipment that he or she may have been carrying.
Freelancer's multiplayer mode has stayed alive for over 3 years and some servers have 60-70 players per night. There is a large variety to choose from when you seek a Freelancer server, but most players agree that multiplayer is different from single-player on many aspects. Some servers use a roleplay system where you can put a [X], [H] tag in front of your name in order to be a Pirate(X) or Hunter(H). Each of those roles have a specific set of abilities that adds depth to Freelancer. There is also a big modding community on Freelancer. However, many players think that most mods are not proper due to the very large number of ships that most mods contain who are not properly balanced.
The significant difference that distinguishes multiplayer from single-player is the options to co-operate. Some Freelancer clans have over 100 members, and most feel that clans, politics and impact on a server is easy to establish and especially maintain on the multiplayer side of the game.
The most popular server in Freelancer multiplayer is the Raw server. The server has several different clans such as The Red Hessians(Pirates), Roberts(Pirates), Skulls(Pirates), White Tigers(Cops), Hacker Corp(Terrorists),and Xenos(Pirates)
[edit] Universe
The Sirius Sector contains 51 star systems divided into seven political regions: Liberty, Bretonia, Kusari, Rheinland, the Independent Worlds, the Border Worlds, and the mysterious Edge Worlds.
Each system contains a diverse mix of planets (many of which can be landed upon), space stations, Trade Lanes (for rapid travel within systems), asteroid and debris fields, dust and ice clouds, and many other stellar miscellany. Many of the planets and systems are named after places on Earth. For instance, the capital of Liberty is named Manhattan, and the system Manhattan inhabits is known as New York. This is presumably because the colonists do not want to forget their original home (a war-torn Earth). (This is supported by the intro movie: "We have grown, we have prospered, we have flourished. But we will never forget..."). Other notable planets include New Berlin (capital of Rheinland), Crete (home planet of the Corsairs), Malta (home planet of the Outcasts), Houston, Leeds (a polluted yet densely populated planet), New London (capital of Bretonia), Pittsburgh (a desert planet with mines), Stuttgart and New Tokyo (capital of Kusari).
The government systems of the four houses are generally taken from their original nations' histories. For example, Liberty is a democratic state with an elected President, while Kusari returned to a feudal system with the Shogun as the ruler of all Kusari and minor lords overseeing their own territories. Bretonia appears to be a constitutional monarchy, ruled currently by a Queen. Rheinland displays the militaristic tendencies associated with the old European state of Prussia and has a Chancellor as head of state.
Travel within each system is fairly simple – there are many ways to get around over long distances. The first is to use the onboard cruise engines, a powerful inter-planetary drive that propels the player at fairly high speed, at the cost of the ability to use weaponry. The second method is to use Trade Lanes, high-velocity shipping lanes that propel a ship at extreme speeds. The disadvantage to this is that pirates always know where the player is in a Trade Lane, as Trade Lanes are static, unlike the usually random courses that cruise engines are used for. A pirate group can disable a Trade Lane ring segment in front of the player, dumping the ship out of the channel and in range of the pirate's weapons. The third is Jump Gates and Jump Holes. A Jump Gate/Hole is the only way to move from one system to another. Jump Gates are normally found near Trade Lanes, while Jump Holes are usually hidden a good distance away, inside an asteroid field or nebula, mainly used by criminals. Jump Gates are man-made technology, while Jump Holes are a natural phenomenon, similar to a wormhole.
Liberty Space is in the center of the Sector and is the "safest" area to be in as the local villains don't have ships with any great firepower. Life gets harder as the player travels farther from Liberty; wandering into one of the border systems in a basic ship or with basic weaponry is a certain way to get the player character killed very quickly. The rough level of difficulty, in order from least dangerous to most dangerous, is as follows: Liberty, Bretonia, Kusari, Independent Worlds, Rheinland, Border Worlds, Edge Worlds.
[edit] Background
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[edit] The Exodus
A war between two major factions, the Coalition and the Alliance, has been waged in the Earth's solar system for decades (see Starlancer for the video game based on this conflict). Eventually, the Coalition gains the upper hand and the Alliance, sensing defeat, builds a group of five sleeper ships in secret. Each ship represents one of the major members in The Alliance: the Kusari (Japan), the Rheinland (Germany), the Liberty (America), the Bretonia (Britain), and the Hispania (Spain). Fortunately, all five escape the Coalition blockade and head toward the Sirius sector carrying thousands of colonists. (Originally, 8 sleeper ships were launched by alliance forces. Three were destroyed by Coalition forces back in Sol, while the hispania was disabled en route to Sirius. This is a little known fact only learned on Malta by conversing with a certain outcast.)
The original introductory video to the game, which was not included in the finished product, implies that Earth was destroyed by an alien power not long after the Exodus. The video also states that a single ship survived the nova and went after the sleeper ships to warn them of the aliens. The fact that someone is narrating the events implies that the ship made it. In this version of the video, the phrase "We will never forget" has a completely different meaning. It is important to note however, this video may have been cut from the game for a reason- it could be the developers decided against revealing the fate of the solar system and so in the final story of the game the solar system may be intact, though probably under Coalition control.
The sleeper ships arrive at different times, in different locations. The Sirius Sector is a region of space with many star systems surrounded by four distinct landmarks. In the 'north' is the gas, oxygen, and hydrogen rich Crow Nebula. In the 'south' is the volatile, yet mineral rich Walker Nebula. To the 'west' is the rocky Barrier, a massive and long asteroid-filled region rich in useful metals. And finally, to the 'east' is the mysterious Edge Nebula (in which part of the singleplayer mission campaign is located, fighting the Nomads)
[edit] Liberty
Of the five sleeper ships, the Liberty arrives first. This allowed the colonists to choose a centralized location with a mix of resources and habitable worlds.
In time, Liberty became the most powerful House militarily because of the size of their navy (even though in-game their ships are actually the weakest), and developed the lowest crime rate. (This can also be explained from a story progression. Liberty corporations Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering discovered ancient alien artifacts, and from them, developed the underlying technology behind Jump Gates and Trade Lanes, to which they hold exclusive rights.)
[edit] Rheinland
Arriving after the Liberty, the Rheinland selected the region adjacent to the Walker Nebula for its resources, specifically diamonds.
In time, Rheinland grew to have the second most powerful navy (although in fact with the strongest mainstream ships in the game), with a corresponding crime/terrorism rate. However, after the 80 Year War with the Gas Miners Guild and the exploitation of Rheinland's military by the Nomads, Rheinland's economy collapsed and the fleet was reduced to a single battleship.
[edit] Kusari
The Kusari arrived next, and selected the region near the Crow Nebula. Much to the surprise of the colonists (who were hoping for planets with considerable landmass), the bulk of the planets in the area were very similar to their old lands: little land, abundant water. This was a blessing in disguise, however, as the Kusari quickly created businesses to farm seafood and hydrogen gas.
Kusari has the least powerful navy (although second strongest mainstream military) because of the lack of metals in the region; almost all metal used in Kusari is imported from Bretonia or Rheinland.
[edit] Bretonia
Bretonia arrived a full 20 years after the Liberty, due to the fact that the starboard engine was disabled during the Exodus. Bretonia chose a region in the Barrier because of the abundance of usable metal.
Bretonia has a slightly smaller navy (the third strongest in game) than Rheinland, but is the most economically powerful House. For example, Bretonia was the first House to pay off the debts incurred by building the Jump Gates and Trade Lanes.
Bretonia retains the royal family and aristocracy that the current United Kingdom supports, along with corresponding grievances such as fierce contest over the independence of Dublin and severe pollution of entire systems by industrial waste.
[edit] Hispania
En route to the Sirius Sector, the Hispania suffered major damage. Some suspected a Coalition spy, but nothing was confirmed. As a result of internal fractioning, half of the colonists decided to abandon the wreckage by the use of the Hispania's shuttles. The descendants of these colonists became the Corsairs.
Those that decided to take their chances with the drifting wreck arrived in a system with a habitable planet. The Hispania was unable to take the colonists to the planet, and therefore they used the escape pods to land. These became the Outcasts.
While both the Corsairs and Outcasts have since evolved into powerful criminal empires, it is interesting to note that these two factions are bitter enemies, despite (or, perhaps because of) their common ancestry: both factions believe the other group was the one responsible for the damage to the Hispania. Outcasts and Corsairs are the fiercest warriors and have the better equipment in Sirius.
The game takes place 800 years after the Sirius system has been settled. The Alliance is almost a forgotten concept and the four houses of Liberty, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Kusari compete against each other while pirate activity continues to grow on the frontiers.
[edit] Systems and Houses
In the game, there are four houses. Each house has systems, similar to states/cities. Each system has at least one planet, and a few bases. Information about forbidden systems below. Some connecting systems that are not under a house, are classified as Border World systems or Independent. These include the Taus(Tau-21, Tau-23, etc.), the Omegas(Omega-7, Omega-3, etc.), the Sigmas(Sigma-13, Sigma-17, etc.) the Galileo and Kepler systems, the Bering and Hudson systems, and the Magellan and Cortez systems.
Liberty - Systems include the forbidden Alaska system, New York, California, Colorado and Texas system. The New York system is the main system of Liberty, with its "capital" Planet Manhattan.
Kusari - Systems include the forbidden Tohoku system, Shikoku, New Tokyo, Kyūshū, Hokkaidō and Chūgoku. The capital of Kusari is New Tokyo, in the New Tokyo system.
Rheinland - Systems include Hamburg, New Berlin, Stuttgart, Dresden and Frankfurt. The Rhineland capital is New Berlin, in the New Berlin system.
Bretonia - Systems include Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, New London, Dublin and Cambridge. Bretonnia's capital is New London, in the New London system.
Independent Worlds - Systems include Cortez, Magellan, Galileo, Kepler, Bering and Hudson. They are all located on the Liberty border.
The Border Worlds - These include the Sigma, Omega and Tau systems (except Omega 41 and Tau 37).
The Edge Worlds - These include ALL the Omicron systems, Omega 41 and Tau 37
[edit] Similarities to Real Cities/Landmarks
These four houses are based on the countries they represent. A main distinguishing feature of Freelancer is that all of the systems, planets, bases, etc are named after real life cities or countries. A good example is Rhineland House which is based on Germany (a section of Germany is called Rhineland after the river Rhine). In the Singleplayer mode, you see the Admiral of Rhineland in a ship called the Donau. The Donau is also a river in Germany. Many other things from all houses can be pointed out as real cities/landmarks of a country.
[edit] Forbidden Systems
- Alaska
- This system is solely used by the Liberty Navy and only high-ranking officials have access. The Jump Gate has been locked so no one can get in to the system. The Jump Gate is deep within Zone 21, a minefield that has the capability to destroy your ship if you stray too close to them (there is a safe path through the minefield, however it is hidden).
- This system is also used much for research and its security and secrecy are based on Area 51. Nobody in the Sirius Sector really knows what happens in there, but as the player progresses through the storyline, it is revealed to contain only one functioning base - Prison Station Mitchell (the only other station is the non-dockable Juneau Shipyard).
- Some player made modifications unlock the system so that the player can go through the jump gate. However, entering the system is considered pointless as there is nothing of value in there. Many Freelancer server administrators send online players to this system as a punishment because of its lack of value.
- Tohoku
- Tohoku is a system that is also denied access to all others except the Governor of Kusari. In this system, there is a planetoid which is the home base of the Kusari Governor, Tekagi. It is surrounded by Weapons platforms and many turrets are installed on it. It has very high level security and can only be accessed using a jump hole. This System is a 'mission-only' system like Alaska as it is only accessible in one mission.
- This system is also commonly 'unlocked' through the use of player made modifications.
[edit] Awards
- E3 1999 Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best PC Game, Best Simulation Game, Outstanding Achievement in Graphics
[edit] Modifications
Freelancer supports a thriving modding community, mainly due to the fact that almost all of the architecture of the in-game universe (solar systems, economy, factions, etc.) is contained within editable .INI files. Many mods have been released, from simple mods adding ships or changing speeds to total conversions like FreeWorlds or Tides of War (both Star Wars total conversions) to The Next Generation (a complete retooling of the Freelancer universe, not associated with Star Trek) One of the most popular modding sites for Freelancer is The Lancer's Reactor, which contains most mods ever created for Freelancer, as well as a wealth of tutorials and utilities for creating mods. Another thing that can be attributed to Freelancer's modding community is Freelancer Mod Manager (FLMM), a program that makes installing and uninstalling mods incredibly easy, thus reducing the risk of damage to the game files requiring a reinstall.
[edit] Related games
- There are similarities between Freelancer and a much older game, Elite, which was available for the BBC Microcomputer in the early 1980s, as well as its two sequels, Frontier: Elite 2 and Frontier: First Encounters (particularly the in-game bulletin boards at each base where the player can find jobs to carry out).
- There are also similarities with Descent: FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 (in fact, one source shows a screenshot with an alternative design of the Freelancer flight displays in which the layout is very similar to that of Freespace and X: Beyond the Frontier and its sequels.
- The game Darkstar One has many similarities to Freelancer as well.
- Freelancer was designed as the spiritual successor to Wing Commander: Privateer, also has close ties (in the continued storyline) with another Digital Anvil game, Starlancer.
[edit] Similar games
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
- Official Website
- The Lancers Reactor - Largest and most popular fansite hosting many downloadable mods, forums and game information.
- Sirius Sector Neural Net - The Freelancer wiki.
- Freelancer Most Active Servers - List of Freelancer most active multi-player servers.
- The Hyperneon Cluster - Modded server and Freelancer community.
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