Maybe if RPG progresses more and is accepted more by the players on the server (on average 1 in 5 RPG) that could be an option. To introduce any server-side mod you have to stop and start flserver to impliment, yes? With Boston having so many players logged on the advantages of RPG as shown by it's acceptance would have to outweigh the frustration in the server going down to switch starting characteristics.

The faster Internet connections and increase in max player limit are bringing in more players than before (1580 player accounts and 2084 characters currently). I am actually getting multiple clans on the server complete with clan wars. Plus I am getting work finished on my website (finally!) so the clans and myself have some place to "boast".

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

The starting faction/ship mods affect the mpnewcharacter.fl file only. No restarting the server required! Keep it in mind for the future. I'll be adding more factions for the next update.

___________________________________
There is no knowledge that is not power.

Currently my website guru, Omega-X, is converting the website and the XMB forums to a new phpNuke site. There are a few problems though so please bear with us and we hope to be up normally and running better than ever.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

love ya server man
got 5 players on it my best being [TDR Blaze and other pirate ones.
just be warned Ratt if he ever logs on will hack the server. he did that to me before i could ban him or get my mafia to kill his player. i will do all i can to serve u in stopping hackers and killing there players.
please, never shut down your server or else i'll loose everything!

c ya on the server

hey, earendil, can you do me a favor and tell snubNOSE on earendil.net/forum that Blaze says thanks for the advice. he is under boston clans/ Pirates Alliance clan. something won't let me respond to topics or even become a member. this would be a GREAT favor. tell him i will be [PABlaze[PIR when on the server. he asked me to respond but as i said something's wrong. just do me a huge favor by telling him this.

Actually with the new website you have to log in on the home page, not within the forums itself. It's phpNuke and it's all integrated.

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

NEW SERVER-SIDE MOD COMING!

Yes, Boston is about to get more challenging. To maintain attraction of newbies and our TLR affiliation, the new character experience is little changed. Players should be able to level up as before in the non-PvP zone of Liberty with only a little more effort. But outside Liberty, watch out! No need to repeat myself though, please check out some details here. All details will follow once the mod is installed.

We don't intend on letting FL die without wringing every bit of fun out of it, especially on the server-side. I am trying to do that while keeping as much of the original FL experience as possible. Thus PvP is nearly unchanged and NPC's are harder! Realize when I say harder I don't feel you should be compensated for a harder mission! If a mission was harder but it paid you more, than overall it's not harder in my book.

Eventually we hope to have a rollout in FLMM format of the mod so others can host the same vision we have of FL.

So that the right people get the right credit, here is a quick list of credits compiled by the team. Please forgive if anyone is missed, I can edit this!

Boston SuperMod modders:
- Chips for invaluable knowledge
- Nephilim for his battleship tutorial
- Wasabe for general help
- Earendil for the Boston server and excessive editing
- Frobozz for tons of research and editing
- Nightwolf for minor editing
- Wan Solo for the test server and putting it all together

Test server beta testers in no particular order:
GcDiaz
Wash
[RN Earendil
[RN Deamon
Frobozz aka [RN Logan
Bones
Broley
Captian Miller
[RN Warduke
Draco
Husher
[RN Itheryn Luin
Krazoa
Night Strike
MB52
Moe
[RN Nightwolf
Nightcrawler
Omega X
popester
Prime
programexpert
Skylar
snubNOSE
Spamraider
[RN Wannderer
Wan Solo aka [RN Napalm

Thanks for the Roughnecks TeamSpeak server for the many hours chatting about ideas, plans of action and just lots of bs'ing.

EDIT: Bloody square brackets...
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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

Edited by - Earendil on 7/8/2004 10:27:13 AM

The new Boston SuperMod v1.0 is now up and running on the Boston server!

This is a server-side only mod that makes FL harder! Please check out all the details here. There is even some eye candy in the shape of battleship formations but these battleships aren't the wimps you see in the original FL where they are easily trashed by VHFs!

Other server admins may be interested in this mod or the techniques used because the random NPC's have been reduced. So far on my server I have a significant drop in both server load and bandwidth. Consequently I have increased max players to 34 and eagerly await a chance to test the server with this many players.

We DO intend on supporting this mod and adding as much as possible to it in the future! Feel free to post your comments about the mod in our forum here.

Thanks again to the Boston Mod Team!

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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

hmm apart from the CSV cargo lowering thats the same as Lello's NPC revenge

Sure some things are similar Pinger, there IS only so much you can do server-side. BTW, should have mentioned all the anti-cheat stuff Lello's mod has (changes similar to Lancerguard and some other things) are already in the Boston server and by default are in the SuperMod.

Differences in the SuperMod:
- CSV & Armored Transport cargo amounts (already mentioned).
- No aggressiveness changes.
- No Liberty Battleship formations (yet). No Nomad Torpedo Boats, no Order ships.
- No Battleship formations fighting each other.
- No Nomad cruise disrupters.
- No Nomad Battleships drops but Nomad Fighters still drop guns.
- No Nomad Fighter bot and bat drops nor do they bot and bat.
- No changes to NPC ship loadouts in the Sigma systems.
- Larger NPC ships (Armored Transports, Transports, Trains, Gunboats, Cruisers/Destroyers, Battleships) have plus 14x higher (armor_scale_17) hull strengths. No notion of Lello's hull increases in what capital ships.
- All station guns, weapon platforms, stationary dockable ships, trade lanes, larger NPC ships cause up to 10x more weapon damage but no refire rate change. (player obtainable weapons are unchanged) No notion of Lello's damage increase. Also allowances made for Liberty systems, for newbies.
- No player ship capabilities are effected (except starting character, see below). This includes no extra weapons (like Paralyzer launchers), extra shields (like Adv. Champion level 10 gravitron shields), etc. beyond what the original FL provided. Hence PvP is pretty unchanged.
- A graduated increase in accuracy of the pilot above easy level. (note this is across the board and applies to EVERY NPC weapon that has a pilot level associated with it)
- No NPC faction pilot level changes.
- Reduced random NPC's in all systems by half. Even with the extra Battleship formation encounters, server load is significantly reduced.
- Minor non-Nomad Battleship and Cruiser/Destroyer commodity drops.
- No NPC faction ships where they are NOT normally found in the original FL. For example Lello's mod has Nomads in Sigma 17, Nomads normally populate outside the Beta and Alpha unknown jump holes and the top & bottom unknown systems.
- No mission changes (yet) except for all NPC's on Omega 41 and the Omicrons having a rough level increase in weapons, shields, etc. (this applies to random, patrolling and mission NPC's in these systems)
- Only starting character change is bot and bat increase from 3 &3 to 10 & 10 respectively, starting cash unchanged from original FL.
- Original FL Nomad Fighter only wave in the unknown systems is still in place.
- No wreck drop changes.

I think there is enough of a difference with what is done in Lello's mod and Boston's SuperMod that most players wouldn't confuse the two. So I suggest you check out again the details of both.

No disrespect meant to Lello's mod. I have played it quite a bit on Lansdale Galactica (a great server!) and it is an NPC revenge. My vision for the SuperMod was to make the original FL harder and not always compensate with more goodies like cash, non-original equipment, commodities, etc. yet keep it as close to the original FL in all but difficulty. I think we achieved that.

EDIT: Opps, TLR forums have no underline BBcode.
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Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
See server rules and server news for more info.

Edited by - Earendil on 7/12/2004 1:56:30 PM

one question that has been bugging me Earen
do the ships assisting you on a mission (the ones where this applies) have increased capabilities against the mission target npcs ?
havent wanted to ask Wan in game but i was curious

Yes they are! You always stand a better chance on a mission where you have backup. All VHF NPCs have been upgraded so the more you have fighting with you instead of against is better.

BTW to all "top pilots"......All VHF NPCs were upgraded in this mod but the GMG Eagles seem to have benefited the most. As far as I know....including this week on boston and the previous month on our test server....NO ONE has been able to fly back to ruiz after successfully completeing a lvl 43 mission for the Outcasts in Omicron Beta. The few lvl 42 missions that were completed the pilots used a full compliment of cannonballs, nanos, bats and were missing weaps by the time they returned.

We will be releasing this mod in a FLMOD format in about 3 weeks to all sysadmins that would like to use it. Although it was beta tested for months on our test server we want to run it through a month of full public usage to iron out any bugs that crop up.

Edited by - WAN_SOLO on 7/13/2004 1:30:00 PM

thamks that clears that one up

We have an upgrade on the Boston Freelancer server to our Boston SuperMod (currently in v1.11). Added is a mission solicited by The Order at Takegi's Base in Tohoku against a mysterious faction called The Terminators. They fly powerful ships - Eagles with level 9 guns, Hornets and Rippers. They also sport level 10 graviton shields complete with bot&bats which make them formidible! So why would you take on such NPC's? Would a million credits entice you? Yes, we have $1M missions! A hint? It is best to bring 3 to 5 friends depending on your skill level. After all even if you have to split $1M five ways, the loot alone could ALMOST make up for the damage to your ship!

To try the missions requires installation of the Boston SuperModv1.11_OICS mod available from the server's home page (link is below). The OICS stands for Opt-In Client-Side which means beyond the original MP, to go to certain places (like to Takegi's Base) and do certain things (buy the Anubis and take on a $1M mission), you must install the mod. It is not required to play on Boston Freelancer server though as any original FL MP server, thus it's an opt-in mod.

Background:
As before the Boston SuperMod (complete details here) adds elements to the MP game from the original Freelancer. This still leaves PvP, especially at high levels, virtually unchanged. This means while the Anubis and level 7 and 8 graviton shields are now buyable, the best PvP ship, the Eagle, (and for those that think otherwise the Sabre and Titan) equipped with Nomad weapons, TdC's, Cannonballs, Rippers and the level 10 positron shield is still the baddest player ship of them all. No relearning how to handle unfamiliar ships, learning their strengths and weaknesses plus no game balance issues except those we all already know with the original game. We are trying to make the game a more challenging Freelancer, not another game altogether. No disrepect of course to those modders who do those other types of mods.

EDIT: Details, details. Got them right now.
_____________
Earendil
SysAdmin of Boston Freelancer server
Server community website & forum: EarendilsPlace.net (server rules)

Edited by - Earendil on 10/12/2004 6:18:58 AM