Whispers, you can get neutral, even friendly with the corsairs by killing IMG and bounty hunters..

True..but if you follow this plan you don't have any guns.

I'm just about hostile with the Bounty Hunters anyways.

And getting Carmandine past police is easy...just get into the nearest trade lane ASAP.

In reply to the original title, such and such in 2 hours; I understand your pain. Why did this happen? Some things can never be answered. Perhaps your next try will be successful, and you will enjoy the game instead of finding the loophole, or the fastest way, or big power exploit. Perhaps you will actually "win" the game, which most of the time has nothing to do with ticking off the accomplishments or having the big ship with the big guns. Try again, maybe you'll get lucky and it will take you 120 hours. Better luck next time!

Browclops

So you spend an hour or two doing a few dull trade runs in dull ships with no guns then head off and buy one of the ships that make almost every sector easy to play in and no challenge. You go from no fighting to easy fighting. Funny, that's not why I bought the game.

I've flown around in an Eagle with a bunch of level 10 weapons (all acheived before even looking for a freelancer website), and I sometimes drop back a few saves to use it. At the moment though I'm in a Banshee. Not exactly weak, but life is a whole lot more interesting.

"I do so relish these times of peril"

I started a new character, killed a bunch of Bounty Hunters, got nuetral with the Corsairs.

On my second run back to Cambridge a group of Mollys disrupted my trade lane and made short work of me. Now the new character that I just spent a few hours building up is useless.

/me goes back and starts hauling drugs again

All that Cardamine and never got searched once or turned any police red? How many reloads did it take to do that?

I just goto Cardiz (corsair base) and get alien artifacts for $135, goto new london, sell for 1100 or whatever... at new london buy light arms, go back to Cardiz and sell.. repeat the process. In a clydesdale you make 125,000 or so with the artifacts and 60,000 with the light arms. Do it a few times and you can buy a titan :0

Whats the details behind this? When you destroy the cargo holds, does it give you JUST enough rogue faction but JUST not kill the navy faction? Because I am right now maximum bad with rogues and may have to kill tomany tanks and then get hated by the navy?

Gets boring after a while though if you do that.

Im just doing trade runs with my Little (britonia transport. Forgot name.)

But when you kill your Factions, your really forced to do what I do, and have to kill lots and lots of police :\

In response to the original post, I have a suggestion which, though unlikely to be included in Freelancer, might add value to a sequel:

Other 'space trader/warrior' games have used a supply-demand dynamic economy. If a trader dumps enough of a particular cargo at a particular port, the price drops, while scarcity at a particular port will slowly increase prices. To add interest, particular events like famines, materials shortages, or special projects can create opportunities for 'once-in-a-lifetime' deals - like the kind Trent was after prior to the events of the SP game.

In my experience, this added another layer of interest and complexity to the game, and encouraged exploration and opportunistic thinking - which fits Freelancer perfectly.

Anik

One of my alltime favorite muds used a supply/demand trade economy. It was a space-themed (loosely Star Wars based), and was skill-based rather than level-based. I believe there were roughly 15 or 20 systems, with several planets or bases in each system. Each planet had a list of items that they could buy and sell, and as the trade pilots would shuttle cargo back and forth the prices would change. During peak times, it was hard to stay on top of things - if 4 traders notice a good sell price at the same time it's pretty much a race to get there first.

To complicate matters a bit, there were also drone freighters which would periodically run needed cargo to different worlds to keep the economy moving (and to keep the colonists from starving, for example). If you had enough skill at picking locks, you could stow away on those and go for a galaxy joy ride

Yakk...talk about breezing through. When I get into a system I haven't been in before I locate the nearest base, land, save, then proceed to explore every little nook and cranny I can find, be it a new mineable zone, a shipwreck, base, jump hole, etc...I try to talk to everyone in every bar I go into...And I've actually made a few of the bartenders run out of things to say because I've talked to them so often.

I have the intention of mapping out every little bit of space dust in Freelancer. Yes, I bought my sabre, but I spent over 60 hours(including SP) to get to it...and I have to say I've enjoyed it the whole time(except perhaps the racing mission...I'm still a little tweaked at that being in there).

Maybe it's your thing to rush through as fast as possible(and that certainly is a pastime...finding the quickest routes to the best gear then reporting them), but I feel deprived if I leave an area without seeing every part of it.

Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless

Officer: "Freelancer, what happened to the transport you were escorting?"
Me: "He told me my ship looked wierd...I invited him to have intimate relations with my SunSlayer"

Yes, this is true,
But you still have the possability of PvP if you are on a server that is worth while. For example ; I would have jaked you as soon as I saw you hauling Carmadine. I belong to a group of criminals on a couple of servers. We have litteraly bought organized crime to a new level in the game. The other side of course is wise to our clan and has formed an equal but opposite resistance to us. This is what the game is about. Try playing the game as an RPG not an action and you will soon see the light.

I'm with Blitz I don't see why people can't do this. They just must suck. I've gotten to dromedary stage on three different servers, all PvP, with others playing without being searched except for one time, and by the time the police was halfway through the "I'm scanning you" message - I was out of range for the last half of the message in a trade lane. If you know a few things about scan range (It's 1300m for those of you who are clueless) you can avoid ever being scanned. I merely exit the trade lane seconds before the final gate - allowing me to engage cruise engine immediately (normally you have to wait a few seconds while the text stating the station/system you are in to appear). I keep at least 1300 meters distance between myself and any military/police unit unless I am within 2000 meters of a base or planet where I can dock to keep them from catching me.

It's about playing smart and working the system. Blitz's example is very basic - people trying to follow that plan exactly are fools if they think they can slip by and hope to not get scanned when they are within 1300 meters of police. Get a clue people - think like a criminal. Evade and elude. Don't fly right by them.

*edit*
LOL. I just had some idiot chase my naked Dromedary around for 7 systems on a PvP server. Guy was so dumb I could have caught him coming around on my third route back to Montezuma. He left when I passed him at the New York/Cali jumpgate and he didn't even see me lol...

Think like pirates, mateys

Edited by - convenienthappenings on 08-04-2003 08:27:56