Well, if you feel like looking for other ships for some reason, then you goto the patrol routes.

If you form up w/ some friendlies, you'll notice that they will fly on the friend patrol routes (taking you with them)

If you wanna kill enemies, goto a point where a few enemy patrol routes cross, there'll be a higher concentration of baddies flying through there.

I guess you could also dodge Police patrols or whatnot when smuggling stuff

And you can also use patrol routes to find things. Say you're looking for a rogue base, and in a certain area all their patrol routes start from 1 place... I would check that out, wouldn't you?

Hey dude,

Since I've played the game for several days, well since yesterday, but it seems like several days since I haven't stopped playing Freelancer, hehe ... I could maybe shed some light to your questions... plus I'm the middle of 80K trade lane, hopefully it won't get disrupted, so I got the time, hehe ...

From what i've learned, the sole reason why they show you the patrol routes is basically for smuggling purposes...

Knowing where the police will be via the patrol routes, is key to avoiding uncessary battles, and sometimes it could indeed get crazy out there, espically if your carrying commodity that's illegal. On the other hand, it can be used to denote your enimies as well, as knowing where they will be would also lead you to a good chance of avoiding getting shot at...

hope it helps!

Mike

The patrol routes can be helpful if you care to use them. But, you don't have to really use them at all and you can still get things done.

Use 1) Avoidance.
If you know that the police are very likely along certain patrol paths and you don't want to get caught with the cargo hold full of cardamine, then, avoid the patrol routes like the plague. Find alternate paths to the target that don't go very near the patrol routes, which, often means avoiding the trade lanes since they're always on them (at least in New York Sys they are).
As a side, you can at least expect attacks from enemies at those spots, so, you won't be totally unprepared.

Use 2) Hunting.
So, you're looking for a fight, go hang out along one of the enemy patrol paths and wait for a bit. Usually won't take too long for someone to come knocking around looking for you.

Use 3) Finding the really cool bases/places.
If you uncover enough patrol routes, for say, the Junkers near Manhatten, then, you'll notice they all sorta spoke out from one central location within the Debris Field. If you head over there, BANG, you found the Junkers base in the New York System (they're tag line is open to everyone except Xenos, or something to that effect). As long as you're on semi decent terms with the Junkers, you can land there. Get on better terms and do missions for them.
Same goes for an outcast base in the badlands. Other times, it'll lead to a jump hole that isn't on the "official" maps.

More often than not, I use it for #3. though, I think I'm gonna start trailing some military patrols so that I can do some reputation building once we're far enough from a base that no one will miss the patrol anymore. Gotta get in good with the Outcasts again.... damnit.

Cool, I didn't really think it through, i guess. I followed some bounty hunters and killed allong with them when we ran into baddies, however my rep with them didn't change (neutral). They won't touch me at the differtent ports when it comes to missions. Any insight into rep building with particular groups? Not spoilers, just suggestions.

"It takes a little more to be a rebel than going down to your local video store and renting Easy Rider" Dennis Hopper.

There's a bunch of ways to improve specific faction feelings.

The easiest is doing missions for them (i.e. bounty hunter sponsored missions) will improve your faction standing with the bounty hunters.

But, if your rep with them is too low, you won't get any missions.

So, the second easiest way to build rep with a faction is to attack their enemies. Just check their info in the F8 screen to figure out who they hate, then, shoot those folks at any opportunity.

So, if you're interested in getting in good with the liberty rogues, say, then start gunning down Bounty Hunters, for instance. Because the bounty hunters are pretty neutral everywhere, you can get away with fighting them outside of a major police base without the base attacking you too. But, the bounty hunters are EVERYWHERE. so, don't expect a free ride if you go this route. This'll actually improve your rep with almost ALL the criminal orgs I believe.

I'm not sure how effective it is to get really good with their allies. I know, though, that making enemies with their enemies is really effective really fast.