ANNOUNCING FREELANCER: REDEMPTION's PUBLIC BETA DEMO (SEE LAST POST)


(MOD SUMMARY) {not all features are widely implemented!}

Freelancer Redemption is intended to be the new SDK, and
unofficial expansion pack to Freelancer. It uses modular XML
code to quickly create the complexly interdependent files
of freelancer with a minimum of frustration for modders. The
benefit of this, of course, is that modders can focus on
modding and not debugging. To these ends, the entire
game's code has been reorganized, tagged, recoded
with XML and in other places greatly reduced. But this MOD
is also intended to excite your imagination, and nearly
a dozen new exploits found in Freelancer will help accomplish
this; from dynamic base prices to scattering plasma rounds,
faction+costume selection to gravity zones, this mod probably
uses every hack and modding tool known to the community
but a few malicious ones, and NPC wingmen (pending)

(unusual features)

Unique powerplants have been replaced with
a two part system, reactor & battery - the reactors
mount externally like a shield generator, and are
therefore prone to imploding after enough abuse.
Fission reactors which produce more energy are particularly
vulnerable to catastrophic meltdown.

The battery, as well as armor, ammunition, extended
scanners (<50KM), and tractorbeams take reasonable
amounts of cargo space to make carrying all the 'best'
upgrades impossible.

EXE hacks:
LODrange in multiplayer pushed to 100 miles(or kM),
max money 999 billion, max good-value 999 billion,
faction-joining threshold lowered to allow players
to join by getting a good rep, tradelane speed
increased by 1000kps, speed-meter cap removed,
only targeted ships have brackets around them.

Capital Ship consideration:

Capital ships have been given special attention,
with custom fuses for each that allow the ships
to be destroyed piece by piece, and new simplified
capship armaments that allow capships to do massive
amounts of damage without overpowering smaller ships.

Capital ship handling has been ruggedly tested and
improved; the familiar problems of spinning from ship
impacts, or bouncing around chaotically in asteroid
fields, are things of the past.

Capships have hardpoint classes to limit their
potential damage and lag while allowing users to
experiment with different guns and tactics.
House capweapons have themes that make each houses
weapons advantageous in different confrontations,
depending on the enemy's composition. Some houses
prefer refire, or damage, or range, or tracking-speed -
finding the right balance of the four is up to you!

Fighters have not been neglected either - their speeds have
been raised to between 250-375m/s, existing destructible parts have
been tweaked for fairer play and mod ships likewise have destructible
parts and wireframes and accurate surs, helping to level the
playing field for original Freelancer ships. Stock armor of all fighters
is 5000hps, but upgraded armor offers up to 75000 points of protection,
or less depending on available cargo space- figuring out your
armor protection no longer requires a calculator, or math- simply
read the label on the armor. Thrusters have been replaced with
engine-mounted afterburners that have new energy-jet effects.

Shield selection has been simplified and shields rebalanced
to encourage players to rely on them less;but shield upgrades
have been created to compensate somewhat, with a proportional
sacrifice of available power.

Weapons ranges are slightly extended and velocities are
standardized to the weapon type; only three velocities are used
to make gun-matching easier. These velocities are spread across
all three shield busting efficiency groups (positron, graviton, molecular)
Mines are powerful, and fast-tracking but a little more expensive.

Every gun has been rebalanced, as well as missiles. Missile
and mine ammunition capacities are determined by cargo hold
space, so players should carefully weigh armor vs power vs ammo

Nanobots and Shield Battery capacities have been reduced a lot,
and their repair value increased.

"Completeness/Freelancer Purity"

Modships have destructible wings and fins, new unique SURs,
and wireframes. New stations and solars likewise, have
wireframes.

All the icons have been replaced, for aesthetic reasons- the new
icons are vividly colored and more 3-dimensional, and fit well
with the reworked User Interface.

The neuralnet voice has been replaced with a more appropriate robotic one.
Annoying, loud, and repetitive interface noises have been altered
quieted or muted completely (ex: 'mounted' noise, shield-destroyed warning, etc)

!!!!!!!!!!!WONDER FEATURES FOR THE KIDDIES!!!!!!!!!!!

+++>>>>New *persistently* Destructible base concept eliminates
crash & respawning flaws in some approaches.

+++>>>>'Warp' Buoys generate powerful fields that accelerate
a warp capable ship very fast in cruise, but slow it to a crawl under normal impulse
- getting cruise disrupted here means certain death.

+++>>>>Dynamic Debris Fields - fields of debris are alive with movement.

+++>>>>Scatterguns! Some weapons have random-accuracy (such as antifighter-capship turrets)
and others such as plasma cannons fire in shotgun patterns.

+++>>>>Explosions have impulse; when your ship is caught in one it will react violently.

+++>>>>Nebulas With Drag - Nebular gas will slow your ship down, and makes fighting in these Scanner-blindspots a dicey proposition.

+++>>>>Bases feature modules that can be looted.

+++>>>>Planets spin, have orbiting satellites, atmospheric drag and Gravity Skip™

+++>>>>New horizontal tradelanes make navigation less frustrating for capital ship owners
and merchants alike (american-style orientation, but perhaps I will make reversed ones for the Brets wink.gif )

+++>>>>I've expanded the scope of my CVFC Roleplay mod to include singleplayer, and updated the code to make activation faster.

Edited by - Cold_Void on 1/20/2007 8:58:32 AM

Edited by - Cold_Void on 1/20/2007 8:59:34 AM