Ah, I just read that the "mission" qualification is a glich and my level status is based on my total net worth. Therefore, if I keep on I will get to higher level status? I hope so.

It seems that little is known about the specifics of this glitch, except that it used to be of a passing nature. Many people noticed it after loading a savegame (AutoSave?) but it went away quickly. But judging from recent posts, now there are quite a number of occurrences where it is permanent and does not go away of its own. Could it be related to the patch? Side-effect of mods?

One thing worth trying (at least at lower levels): buy a hold full of the most expensive commodity that you can find, then close trade interface. Sell, close trade interface. If that doesn't help and you haven't taken bar missions in a long time, try that. If you manage to get the level unstuck then please report your findings here, so that other people can unstick their levels too.

We are working on deciphering the savegame format but my notebook is on the fritz and so I cannot do anything today. I guess we may be able to program a remedy for stuck levels over the week, next weekend at the latest. If you have no luck with the things I suggested then you can mail me your savegame but please note the following:
- the subject line must contain the words 'Freelancer' and 'Savegame' to trigger one of my watch filters; if it doesn't then your mail will probably get lost in the spam
- please state precisely which version of the game you have (i.e. US, International, localized German/Swahili, whatever) and which patches/mods you have applied to your game
- I cannot access this email account until I unfritz my notebook or go home (I live at $ORKPLACE during the week), whichever comes earlier; this may take a couple of days

There are a couple of threads regarding the savegame format (.FL files) in the Editing Utilities Forum, and there are at least two tools for unscrambling savegames (one by IGx89 and one by Jor). So you could take a gander at the savegame yourself if you want. IIRC there is a section in the savegame that is related to mission status (ship_bought etc.). Perhaps you can spot something that looks like it wants you to change it. The game should be able to load savegames in unscrambled format if they are in the right directory and have the right extension (.FL).

Hey thanks. I may try to look for something myself but I'm a complete noob at editing. I'm a quick study but we'll see how far I can get with it. I'm definetly level stuck and I need to find a way to remedy this. I may have to email you my game but let me try first. I really appreciate the help. I'll email you if I can't make any head way. Thanks again.

Hmmm good to know.
Damn I sound like Trent now, I will keep this in back of my head when I get the full game, I guess I will try to edit the weapons.

Well I found a way to unstick the level status. Basically I just used the FLS1 editing program to edit my level in the save game to something different. I put it at level 38. This way I can at least buy better ships. I'm still carrying around a few level 10 weapons that I haven't sold and one day want to use. I just played and at least bought a falcon with level 8 stuff and it was definetly a step up. Here is how I did it for noobs like myself (however very impressed with myself for figuring out how to use this thing due to a lack of detailed instructions)

1. right click a save game and select "open with"
2. select "other" (cause your list doesn't have FLS1 yet)
3. browse to the FLS1 exe file and select it
At this point it will seam like nothing was done but here is the cool part
4. right-click the save game file again and select "open with"
5. open it this time with notepad and edit whatever and just save it (not save as)

I did back up the original save game incase I screwed it up but it worked fine. Remember, to uncheck the "open with everytime" box so it doesn't open the file with the same program regularly. There it is. Thanks for giving me an insight to how I could remedy this problem.