Tue Mar 18, 2003 1:39 am
The Freelancer Openended project.
Is the Freelancer Single player "open ended"?
Yes and No, mostly Yes.
There are 4 limits built into Freelancer that effect your freedom:
1. Money - you can't buy what you can't afford.
2. Level - you can't buy what you don't have the "level" for
3. Faction rating - you can't buy from factions that don't like you
4. jumpholes artificially closed - you can't jump through "restricted" jumpholes.
In the beginning, you must do the first mission in the campaign or you have no ship. Not a bad trade off, one mission for a whole ship...
The first few campaign missions get you familiar with Freelancer and open up the entire Liberty space. They are worth doing.
Once you can travel freely in Liberty space, you are semi-free of the campaign. Ignore Juni's calls and she will just continue to wait. I made 100,000 credits before I went back and then did campaign missions. However, you are only semi free. The jumpgates AND jumpholes are artifically "closed". Probably to stop people from getting in too far over their heads. Most, if not all, of the equipment in Liberty is available to low level players and the Liberty heavy fighter is very cheap so you can buy everything you want just by ignoring Juni and getting some cash.
However, you are still restricted by Faction rating. If you decide to become a criminal early game, you probably would find it hard, if not impossible, to continue the campaign. I have not tested this, maybe the campaign missions fix your rating so you can complete?
Once you are on the run from Liberty space, there are NO "artificial" restrictions on movement, only Money, Rating and Level. You may use every jumphole and jumpgate you would like. At this point (level 9) I ignored Juni, traveled up and down almost all of Kusari space (in a Dagger!) doing missions, finding abandoned ships, having a blast.
Then I went back did ONE mission for Juni (so I'd be level 10) and bought a Dromedary. Then I went through all of Liberty space, pirating and plundering, having a blast (and ignoring Juni). When I had 1,000,000 credits (say it with me: "One Millllllliiiooooonnnn credits"
, I went back to find Juni, and got the "Go to Battleship Hood" mission, which pulled me back into the storyline. I know this mission is the "race" so I bought the Flying Fish and tricked it out, then did the singleplayer missions again until I could get a Dragon (in both level and money).
I noticed that there are scripted times that you are told: "go off and make yourself useful to someone", regardless of how much money you had. I had a Dragon, and 1.3 million credits and when we landed at the Dragon's base, they still told me to go make approx 20,000 more credits for some reason.
At this point, I decided to just wrap up the campaign, in my Dragon (I LOVE that ship).
When I finished the campaign, I was level 18 (IIRC), after the last mission, it said:
Congratulations, you are now level 34.
All in one jump based on the 1.6 million credits I had.
1. The money restrictions are well done, but I'd argue that some things are too cheap. When the campaign was over, I had made all the money I would ever need and only adventured to adventure.
2. The artifical jumphole restrictions are not so bad, concidering that Liberty space is pleanty big to explore in the beginning.
3. The faction restrictions are well done, but its possible (I have to test this) to foul up your single player campaign if you are an enemy of a faction that owns the base you need to land on. I would like to test this, anyone know if its possible? Maybe this is why they make Juni so insistent?
4. The level restrictions are ok, but seem artificial sometimes. Of course, it wouldn't be good for mission balance to have us all in Titans during the last battles, but it would be nice.
There are reports that Juni disappears, but I havn't seen it. If someone could track that down, that would be interesting....
Me no gun
Yes and No, mostly Yes.
There are 4 limits built into Freelancer that effect your freedom:
1. Money - you can't buy what you can't afford.
2. Level - you can't buy what you don't have the "level" for
3. Faction rating - you can't buy from factions that don't like you
4. jumpholes artificially closed - you can't jump through "restricted" jumpholes.
In the beginning, you must do the first mission in the campaign or you have no ship. Not a bad trade off, one mission for a whole ship...
The first few campaign missions get you familiar with Freelancer and open up the entire Liberty space. They are worth doing.
Once you can travel freely in Liberty space, you are semi-free of the campaign. Ignore Juni's calls and she will just continue to wait. I made 100,000 credits before I went back and then did campaign missions. However, you are only semi free. The jumpgates AND jumpholes are artifically "closed". Probably to stop people from getting in too far over their heads. Most, if not all, of the equipment in Liberty is available to low level players and the Liberty heavy fighter is very cheap so you can buy everything you want just by ignoring Juni and getting some cash.
However, you are still restricted by Faction rating. If you decide to become a criminal early game, you probably would find it hard, if not impossible, to continue the campaign. I have not tested this, maybe the campaign missions fix your rating so you can complete?
Once you are on the run from Liberty space, there are NO "artificial" restrictions on movement, only Money, Rating and Level. You may use every jumphole and jumpgate you would like. At this point (level 9) I ignored Juni, traveled up and down almost all of Kusari space (in a Dagger!) doing missions, finding abandoned ships, having a blast.
Then I went back did ONE mission for Juni (so I'd be level 10) and bought a Dromedary. Then I went through all of Liberty space, pirating and plundering, having a blast (and ignoring Juni). When I had 1,000,000 credits (say it with me: "One Millllllliiiooooonnnn credits"
, I went back to find Juni, and got the "Go to Battleship Hood" mission, which pulled me back into the storyline. I know this mission is the "race" so I bought the Flying Fish and tricked it out, then did the singleplayer missions again until I could get a Dragon (in both level and money).
I noticed that there are scripted times that you are told: "go off and make yourself useful to someone", regardless of how much money you had. I had a Dragon, and 1.3 million credits and when we landed at the Dragon's base, they still told me to go make approx 20,000 more credits for some reason.
At this point, I decided to just wrap up the campaign, in my Dragon (I LOVE that ship).
When I finished the campaign, I was level 18 (IIRC), after the last mission, it said:
Congratulations, you are now level 34.
All in one jump based on the 1.6 million credits I had.
1. The money restrictions are well done, but I'd argue that some things are too cheap. When the campaign was over, I had made all the money I would ever need and only adventured to adventure.
2. The artifical jumphole restrictions are not so bad, concidering that Liberty space is pleanty big to explore in the beginning.
3. The faction restrictions are well done, but its possible (I have to test this) to foul up your single player campaign if you are an enemy of a faction that owns the base you need to land on. I would like to test this, anyone know if its possible? Maybe this is why they make Juni so insistent?
4. The level restrictions are ok, but seem artificial sometimes. Of course, it wouldn't be good for mission balance to have us all in Titans during the last battles, but it would be nice.
There are reports that Juni disappears, but I havn't seen it. If someone could track that down, that would be interesting....
Me no gun
