theres only one ending when youve send the [TOP SECRET on the [TROP SECRET which opens a [TOP SECRET and all the [TOP SECRET then the [TOP SECRET are safe

its called "free" - lancer but its actually "on-the-rails" lancer... you have to do what you're told if you want to progress, and the systems get more difficult as you go through the range of identical missions so that as you do increase your ability, you have no incentive to go back to earlier systems... usually the odds are set up in a way so that when you can access a system further on, the ships there are way too powerful and - for some reason, even though they haven't a clue who you are - attack you on sight: so you can't really explore forward either... and bloody way-points keep popping up when the game wants you to do a 'story' mission even if you don't want to that mission now... so eventually the game tunnels you down to the direction it wants you to go... Not very "opened-ended" at all....

Go look at pre-release info of "X2" at egosoft.com for a much more interesting sounding game...

This scripted stuff is just the tutorial/campaign, and there you have to take a few story missions to advance. You need to do the first to get a ship, obviously, and the second to get jumpgate access. But between missions you can do what you want. So you could destroy a few ships or depots of enemies of the Liberty Rouges and the Rogues stop shooting at you; they even sell you one of the nicest fighters in the game if you can find their base.

In free play you start with the Starflier and $2000 cash (so you could buy the Patriot right away if you wanted) and nobody tells you what to do. You can fight, trade, pirate, mine, loot, smuggle ... whatever you want. No mandatory missions, just need to get rich in order to level up.

BTW, after the first couple of story missions you can explore as far forward as you want. If you get obliterated then this is a sign that you need to improve your skill and/or get a better ship, but mostly the former since even the lowly Patriot can go anywhere in Sirius except for a couple edge worlds dominated by the Corsairs and the Outcasts. And some people have taken the Patriot even there ...

As regards hostility of factions not encountered before: these factions may be allied with factions that you have attacked, or they may be enemies of factions that you did favours for. Some of the criminal groups start out slightly hostile but most are merely unfriendly (i.e. not shoot-on-sight) and only go hostile if you shoot their friends or do missions for lawful factions (especially house security and certain powerful corporations) {P.S.: and the Bounty Hunters, of course; all unlawfuls regard them as enemies}. Of course, the story has a way of upsetting your rep sheet, so don't invest too much into your reputation before the end of the campaign.

There is a lot of useful info in the spoiler forum that really should be in the game manual, but that's just the way it is.

Edited by - Sherlog on 17-06-2003 01:40:48