NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Freelancer (computer game)

Freelancer is a space simulation computer game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft. It was released on March 3, 2003 for Microsoft Windows. The primary distinguishing feature of the game is that it does not end when the last in-game story mission is completed. At that time the player has only explored a small part of the game universe, and is then free to continue to explore the rest of it. PEGIs logo Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is a European video game content rating system. ... In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ... â€œWindowsâ€ redirects here. ... The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (ROM)) is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. ... â€œWindowsâ€ redirects here. ... CPU can stand for: in computing: Central processing unit in journalism: Commonwealth Press Union in law enforcement: Crime prevention unit in software: Critical patch update, a type of software patch distributed by Oracle Corporation in Macleans College is often known as Ash Lim. ... Look up RAM, Ram, ram in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... The CD-ROM drive can also be called a CD-ROM player. ... A graphics/video/display card/board/adapter is a computer component designed to convert the logical representation of visual information into a signal that can be used as input for a display medium. ... A sound card (also known as an audio card) is a computer expansion card that can input and output sound under control of computer programs. ... Operating a mechanical mouse. ... An Apple pro mouse A pointing device is any computer hardware component (specifically human interface device) that allows a user to input spatial (ie, continuous and multi-dimensional) data to a computer. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ... Broadband in telecommunications is a term that refers to a signaling method that includes or handles a relatively wide range of frequencies, which may be divided into channels or frequency bins. ... Lan can stand for several things: A local area network Lan (airline) formerly LanChile Lan Peru LÃ¤n, a kind of administrative division used in Sweden Lan Mandragoran, a fictional character in the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. ... Space simulation is a term used to define a piece of software that simulates space and/or space flight. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Digital Anvil was a computer game company. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... â€œWindowsâ€ redirects here. ...

Plot

The player character is Edison Trent, survivor of a space station disaster. The player begins with few resources, and must find a ship and a job. Lonnigan, a debtor to Edison Trent, owes him a million credits. He and his fellow survivors are brought to Planet Manhattan. The player then begins searching for a job, and finds a Liberty Security Force (LSF) officer, Jun’ko (Juni) Zane, who needs some help from a freelancer. She provides the player with a very basic ship and some credits. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

After launching, the player joins the mission with CO, Michael King. While the player is in space outside Manhattan, the Rheinland cruiser RNC Donau, carrying Admiral Schultzky, is about to dock with Newark Station for a meeting with the President of Liberty. Five fighters appear out of nowhere and demolish the cruiser, killing Schultzky. The player helps fight the enemy fighters and returns to the mission. They escort two convoys with supplies to Planet Pittsburgh, and was later revealed that it was a ruse to draw pirates. The commanding officer (CO) is the officer in command of a military unit. ...

The player launches once more and joins a squad of LSF fighters. A prison ship is attacked. After the player defeats the pirates, they continue their search for a possible pirate base. With the help of another LSF ship, they find out coordinates that may be near the base. The base is destroyed, and the freelancer's first mission is completed.

In the next segment, the player captures an artifact smuggler named Sean Ashcroft, escorts another convoy to Willard research station, encounters Lonnigan, who gets sedated by a security team, answers a mayday from Willard research station, and Jun'ko reveals that people around her are disappearing. Arrests have quadrupled within the LSF. Jun'ko says she will try to find out more. After a while, the player returns to Manhattan to find Lonnigan, who warns Trent to get out of Liberty before running off.

When the player goes to meet up with Jun'ko again, a thief appears to speak to Trent. They are the only left survivors of the attack. He shows Trent a strange alien artifact, claiming it's what the attackers were after. Suddenly, the thief is shot. The shooter, an LSF officer, threatens to do the same to Trent. Jun’ko arrives, asserting the officer to arrest Trent as he gets the right to a free trial. The officer tries to shoot Jun’ko, but she kills him first. They launch to space but are intercepted by what seems to be the entirety of New York's navy contingent. Just as the player and Jun'ko are about to lose hope, Walker, a cruiser captain met earlier, and King, destroy one of the battleships and allow the player to escape. Jun'ko and Trent go through the Magellan jump gate. After that, they get attacked by Bounty Hunters, and stranger still, they get help from the Lane Hackers, a criminal organization. After killing the Bounty Hunters, they go to the Hackers base. They get attacked by Rheinlanders, again. With help from the Lane Hackers, Jun'ko and Trent destroy them. Jun'ko and Trent split up after that. Trent goes to Leeds to talk to his old friend Richard Tobias.

About this time, the colonies are at the brink of war, sparked by the Rheinlanders. In the search to find out just what the artifact is, the player finds Sinclair, the assistant to a Xenoarchaeologist, Quintaine. She cannot analyze the artifact without Quintaine's help. Upon finding him, the player is intercepted by Rheinlanders numerous times and forced to abandon Leeds with the artifact, Jun'ko, Sinclair, and Quintaine himself. More base-hopping ensues as the player runs from his or her pursuers and eventually ends up in Kusari. Xenoarchaeology is a hypothetical form of archaeology concerned with the physical remains of past (but not necessarily extinct) alien cultures. ...

Trent falls in with the Blood Dragons, a pirate group determined to restore their honor and return control of Kusari to its rightful owners; them. The player retrieves the Proteus Tome, an alien scroll required to analyze the artifact, from Kusari Governor Tekagi, who has been acting oddly and possesses a remote planetoid in the very remote system, Tohoku, which only one Jump Hole leads to from Chūgoku.

The player finds out that the Chancellor that was attacked to get it has been infected by a creature called a Nomad, who have the ability to possess humans and give them super-strength and abilities. The Nomads had already possessed leaders or key authorities in each system, so there is little hope left at this point. It is revealed that the terrorist organization, the Order, who destroyed the Donau, was actually a group founded to protect the colonies from Nomads. The Nomads plan to infiltrate the colonies and have them go to war with one another until the colonies are weakened enough for the Nomads to take over. Rheinland has been almost completely taken over by Nomad-infected leaders who have imposed martial law: the Order knew that the meeting with Jacobi and Schultzky was only a means to infect the president of Liberty, so she may too become a Nomad. This is why they destroyed the Donau.

Trent then travels to Rheinland to extract an Order operative named Herr von Claussen. While in Rheinland, Trent aids von Claussen in destroying several Nomad battleships being built by Rheinland. An Order battleship, the Osiris helps them in a very large fight with the Rheinland Military while attempting to leave. After landing, Trent meets with Jun'ko, King, and the leader of the Order, a former Liberty operative named Kaspar Orillion.

Trent joins the Order and battles the Nomads for some time, gaining a Nomad power cell needed to activate the artifact. Sinclair and Quintaine made a discovery: the artifact is actually a star map of the empire of the alien Dom'Kavosh. Their empire stretched to many galaxies and had Hypergates, which are very powerful Jump Gates that can send any ship instantaneously to another galaxy. Gaining a plan, Trent and the Order stage an attack on the Nomad home world in an unknown and distant system, where they discover a Nomad city encapsulated within a Dyson sphere. The artifact, in Trent's possession, starts making a shield-like barrier around his ship. He goes near the city, and the Hypergate is activated. The Nomads are unable to take the transfer of power from them to the Hypergate, and are sucked in, devoid of engine power to resist. They are apparently not gone; they have merely been sent to another galaxy. The Order vows to watch the Hypergate to make sure they never return. A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shellâ€”a variant on Dysons original conceptâ€”1 AU in radius. ...

After this last mission the player is free to explore all the other systems in Sirius space with few limitations on what can be done. The player is free to take on missions, become a trader, a pirate, a smuggler, or a hero, and do as he or she pleases. The game never truly ends. These lollipops, above, were found to contain heroin when inspected by the DEA. Smuggling is illegal transport, in particular across a border. ...

Characters

Beverly Hills 90210 was a popular primetime television soap opera that aired from October 1990 to May 2000 on the Fox Network in the United States and subsequently on various networks around the world. ... Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-born actress who has been doing voices for video games, animation, commercials, radio promotions, anime, and movies since 1993. ... John Rhys-Davies (born May 5, 1944) is an English actor best known for his supporting roles as the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films, and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (in which he also voiced the towering Ent, Treebeard). ... Raiders of the Lost Ark, also known as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, is a 1981 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas and starring Harrison Ford. ... The Pretender is an American television series that aired on NBC for four seasons between 1996 and 2000. ... Tony Jay (February 2, 1933 - August 13, 2006) was an English/American actor. ... George Hosato Takei (IPA: ) (born April 20, 1937) is an American actor known for his role in the TV series Star Trek, in which he played the helmsman Hikaru Sulu on the USS Enterprise. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... Heroes is an American science fiction drama television series created by Tim Kring. ...

Gameplay

There are two distinct game environments; either the player is in space or landed on a planet or station. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

The space environment is visually rich, with immense backgrounds created from sources such as images from the Hubble Space Telescope.^{[citation needed]} The space around the player is populated with planets, stations, nebulas, Trade Lane rings and many other objects. Computer-generated ships (police and other patrols, cargo convoys and so on) move around on whatever business the relevant faction would be involved in. The space around many planets is a veritable hive of activity, with orbital stations and trade lane terminuses often in orbit, generating considerable traffic. The environment is rendered very realistically (within the rules of the game universe). The player can switch between various viewpoints. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope in orbit around the Earth, named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. ...

In space, the player is in control of a ship and is generally trying to get from one place to another without that ship being destroyed. Control is through a mouse and keyboard; the game does not support a joystick interface. Maximum speed in normal flight is 80 of the in-game velocity units, but a thruster can also be used to boost speed for a period. ("Kill Engine" allows the player to drift at high speed, while forward, backward and side Thrusters allow the player to stay at KE). In cruise mode the speed increases to 300 units but in this mode all weapons are disabled. Any ship in cruise mode is usually difficult to hit but special "cruise disruptor" missiles (which, rather obviously, disrupt a target's cruise engines for five seconds during which the target can be attacked or destroyed) are available on the market. Trade Lanes allow a player to move across a system very quickly (2500 units/s). Ships have four flight modes - free flight, go to (a kind of autopilot that will fly a ship to a selected point avoiding obstacles), dock (used to land on planets and stations and to travel along Trade Lanes and through Jump Gates), and formation (in which a player can join a convoy and will automatically adjust position to match the convoy's Speed/orientation). An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. ...

While landed, a player can trade weapons and ammunition, commodities and even buy a new ship. Players can also visit the bar to pick up gossip, have their reputation "hacked" (see Factions and Reputation) or select a mission from the job board to pick up a little money. The word commodity has a different meaning in business than in Marxian political economy. ... Neighborly gossips in the Altstadt in Sindelfingen, Germany Gossip consists of casual or idle talk of any sort, usually slanderous and/or devoted to discussing others. ...

There are several ways to make a living. A ship can be flown to take on missions from the job board to gain money, or the player can move cargo around, ideally buying low and selling high. Some asteroid fields can also be mined by firing on small free-floating asteroids, garnering commodities to sell. However, mining takes great amounts of time to fill even the smallest fighter's cargo hold if the player is unwise in choosing a mining site, and so is often not as efficient for monetary gain as other activities.

Ships and equipment

There are many ships to choose from. There are two basic types: fighters and freighters. Fighters are further subdivided into Light Fighters, Heavy Fighters and Very Heavy Fighters. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 339 KB) Summary Screenshot of the Sabre very heavy fighter in the game Freelancer. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 339 KB) Summary Screenshot of the Sabre very heavy fighter in the game Freelancer. ...

Fighters are more maneuverable, have more energy for weapons, and are the most commonly flown. Freighters, however, are used almost exclusively by traders (You are only allowed to have one ship at a time). They generally have more weapon hardpoints and are far more heavily armoured, but cannot use high class weapons and are unable to support as much fire power as a fighter. Although they are less maneuverable, they can attain the same speed as the fighters. Like the names suggest, fighters have limited cargo capacity (The largest is 70), while freighters have much larger holds (The largest capacity being 275).

Ships can be equipped with a shield and a thruster. These are technically optional and can be upgraded, but the player would be extremely foolish to take to space without these items. The shield protects the hull from weapons fire but each hit knocks the shield capacity down; if the shield is disabled, enemy gunfire will cause damage to the hull until the shields reactivate - this usually takes about twenty seconds. The shield regenerates over time. Shield batteries, which can be bought when landed or often tractored in from destroyed ships, can be used to recharge the shield instantly. Similarly, hull damage can be repaired using nanobots, which again can be bought or salvaged. A nanobot is a nanotechnological robot nanomachine, also called a nanite, which is a mechanical or electromechanical device whose dimensions are measured in nanometres (millionths of a millimetre, or units of 10-9 metrer). ...

The thruster gives ships a boost to a top speed of 200 for a short period of time. There are four types of thrusters, only differing in the amount of power drain. Like the shield, the thruster regenerates over a period of a minute or so.

In addition to guns and turrets, the player can also mount missile and torpedo launchers, countermeasure and mine droppers and a cruise disruptor, a specialized high-speed missile designed to temporarily disable an enemy's cruise engines. All weapons and shields are separated by classes 1 through 10. Most Liberty Ships hold up to class 3 weapons while most Very Heavy fighters can hold up to class 10, though class 10 weapons must be found by the player, as they are unavailable through conventional means. The torpedo, historically called a locomotive torpedo, is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. ... RNAFs F-16, firing countermeasures (flares) during a solo display at Radom Air Show 2005 A countermeasure is a system (usually for a military application) designed to prevent sensor-based weapons from acquiring and/or destroying a target. ...

There are also various wrecks in space, containing small stockpiles (known as "loot" in the game) of weapons (including the coveted class 10 weapons), equipment or commodities. Typically, the more valuable the loot is, the more difficult it is to reach the wreck that contains it, often being located in dangerous radiation pockets.

Third party modifications often contain additional ship types, equipment, and/or altered specifications or physics which can affect game play. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Character status

Character status is based on "worth" - the sum of the value of a player's ship, weapons, cargo and cash reserves. As a player's worth reaches certain thresholds, the character level goes up. Higher-level characters are able to buy more powerful ships. The highest level attainable in single player is thirty-eight (38), while some multiplayer modifications can extend this to eighty-nine (89) or three hundred(300). This level usually means more than $950,000,000 worth. A player's cash cannot exceed $999,999,999 unless the game is modded; if modded it can reach to any value. Online gaming redirects here. ...

Factions and reputation

As one progresses, he or she will meet other characters, each of whom belong to one faction or another. There are dozens of factions; the police and naval forces on one side, the pirate factions such as the Outcasts and the Corsairs on the other, and many commercial entities such as Bretonia Mining and Metals and the Gas Miner's Guild in-between.

How these factions treat a player depends on the player's reputation with them, influenced by actions against them. They may be friendly, neutral or hostile based on a sliding scale. Neutral factions may scan a player's ship and order him or her to give up cargo or fight for it. Hostile factions won't bother scanning or warning - they'll attack on sight. Friendly factions will leave the player alone and (if the player's reputation is good enough) may help out in a fight. Players can't land on hostile bases/planets and may not be able to buy certain high-powered weapons unless their reputation with the seller is good enough. A faction is a group of people connected by a shared belief or opinion within a larger group. ...

Reputation with any faction changes every time a player interacts with another character. If a player destroys a Corsair fighter, for instance, his or her reputation with the Corsairs will suffer accordingly. Attack their enemies and it will improve again.

Factions are interlinked and have allies and enemies. Destroying an Outcast ship affects a player's reputation with the Outcasts, of course, but also makes enemies of the Outcast allies, the Liberty Rogues. At the same time the player's reputation with the Liberty Police will improve.

Reputation hacking is something that a player can often do in bars on planets and stations. For a fee (a bribe, really), a player can have his or her reputation with one faction or another significantly improved; this usually incurs a reduction in reputation with enemy factions.

Some factions, such as the Blood Dragons, play an integral part in the game's storyline. Blood Dragons, who are descendants from royal guards that protected a deposed shogunate, operate in a hollowed-out asteroid called Kyoto base. Towards the latter stages of the game, they assist Trent in dealing with the Nomad threat. At the storyline's end, Trent's reputation with factions will be restored to the level they were before Trent escaped from Liberty, except the Blood Dragons, who will remain friendly with Trent.

Trade Lanes

Trade Lanes are a network of free-floating satellites that allow for extremely fast travel within the confines of a star system, allowing the player to travel between system features (planets and stations usually) in less than a minute, instead of having to traverse the area using the comparatively slow "cruise speed."

Trade Lanes are susceptible to being disrupted by concentrated weapons fire aimed at the satellites, although the Trade Lane rings themselves are technically immune to damage, only having a shield rating. When the Trade Lane is disabled, any ships in transit not yet beyond that section of the lane instantly decelerate to normal speeds. In addition, they are generally required to fend off the attacking pirates who caused the disruption until the Lane recharges itself again, at which point they can escape.

Trade Lane rings are equipped with light turret weaponry designed to assist any friendly vessels that are ambushed in this fashion, though they are somewhat ineffectual compared to ship fire.

Multiplayer

To play in this mode, a player must connect to a server (the server program is installed with the game so that one can play on a LAN). There are a few basic differences between multiplayer and single player modes:

Universe

The Sirius Sector contains 51 star systems divided into seven political regions: Liberty, Bretonia, Kusari, Rheinland, the Independent Worlds, the Border Worlds, and the mysterious Edge Worlds.

Each system contains a diverse mix of planets (many of which can be landed upon), space stations, Trade Lanes (for rapid travel within systems), asteroid and debris fields, dust and ice clouds, and many other stellar miscellany. Many of the planets and systems are named after places on Earth. For instance, the capital of Liberty is named Manhattan, and the system Manhattan inhabits is known as New York. This is presumably because the colonists do not want to forget their original home (a war-torn Earth). (This is supported by the intro movie: "We have grown, we have prospered, we have flourished. But we will never forget..."). Other notable planets include New Berlin (capital of Rheinland), Crete (home planet of the Corsairs), Malta (home planet of the Outcasts), Houston, Leeds (a polluted yet densely populated planet), New London (capital of Bretonia), Pittsburgh (a desert planet with mines), Stuttgart and New Tokyo (capital of Kusari).

The government systems of the four houses are generally taken from their original nations' histories. For example, Liberty is a democratic state with an elected President, while Kusari returned to a feudal system with the Shogun as the ruler of all Kusari and minor lords overseeing their own territories. Bretonia appears to be a constitutional monarchy, ruled currently by a Queen. Rheinland displays the militaristic tendencies associated with the old European state of Prussia and has a Chancellor as head of state. For other uses, see Prussia (disambiguation). ...

Travel within each system is fairly simple — there are many ways to get around over long distances. The first is to use the onboard cruise engines, a powerful inter-planetary drive that propels the player at fairly high speed, at the cost of the ability to use weaponry. The second method is to use Trade Lanes, high-velocity shipping lanes that propel a ship at extreme speeds. The disadvantage to this is that pirates always know where the player is in a Trade Lane, as Trade Lanes are static, unlike the usually random courses that cruise engines are used for. A pirate group can disable a Trade Lane ring segment in front of the player, dumping the ship out of the channel and in range of the pirate's weapons. The third is Jump Gates and Jump Holes. A Jump Gate/Hole is the only way to move from one system to another. Jump Gates are normally found near Trade Lanes, while Jump Holes are usually hidden a good distance away, inside an asteroid field or nebula, mainly used by criminals. Jump Gates are man-made technology, while Jump Holes are a natural phenomenon, similar to a wormhole. Liberty Space is in the center of the Sector and is the "safest" area to be in as the local villains don't have ships with any great firepower. Life gets harder as the player travels farther from Liberty; wandering into one of the border systems in a basic ship or with basic weaponry is a certain way to get the player character killed very quickly. The rough level of difficulty, in order from least dangerous to most dangerous, is as follows: Liberty, Bretonia, Kusari, Independent Worlds, Rheinland, Border Worlds, Edge Worlds. The asteroid belt is a region of the solar system falling roughly between the planets Mars and Jupiter where the greatest concentration of asteroid orbits can be found. ... The Triangulum Emission Nebula NGC 604 The Pillars of Creation from the Eagle Nebula For other uses, see Nebula (disambiguation). ... Freelancer is a space simulation computer game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft in March 2003 for Microsoft Windows. ... For other uses, see Wormhole (disambiguation). ...

Background

The Exodus

A war between two major factions, the Coalition and the Alliance, has been waged in the Earth's solar system for decades (see Starlancer for the video game based on this conflict). Eventually, the Coalition gains the upper hand and the Alliance, sensing defeat, builds a group of eight sleeper ships in secret on Pluto. Each ship represents one of the major members in The Alliance: the Kusari (Japan), the Rheinland (Germany), the Liberty (America), the Bretonia (Britain), and the Hispania (Spain). Before reaching the Coalition Blockade three of the Sleeper Ships are destroyed at Sol before using their cruise engines, while the rest head toward the Sirius sector carrying thousands of colonists and crew members. This article is about the Solar System. ... Starlancer is a space-based science fiction flight simulator computer game, created by Erin Roberts, under the auspices of Digital Anvil. ... The Rhineland (Rheinland in German) is the general name for the land on both sides of the river Rhine in the west of Germany. ... Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic - President George Walker Bush (R) - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...

The original introductory video to the game, which was not included in the finished product, implies that Earth was destroyed by an alien power not long after the Exodus. The video also states that a single ship survived the nova and went after the sleeper ships to warn them of the aliens. The fact that someone is narrating the events implies that the ship made it. In this version of the video, the phrase "We will never forget" has a completely different meaning. It is important to note however, this video may have been cut from the game for a reason- it could be that the developers decided against revealing the fate of the solar system and so in the final story of the game the solar system may be intact, though probably under Coalition control. But, if the player talks to certain NPCs, he may hear the rumor that the Sol System was destroyed. However, the fact that The Order only makes the headlines near to the beginning of the story suggests that the original storyline was scrapped, that the Nomad threat was only learned of at the beginning of the game's storyline. The most likely conclusion is that there was conflict in the Sol System, but the Nomads only arrived in Sirius after a long time.

The sleeper ships arrive at different times, in different locations. The Sirius Sector is a region of space with many star systems surrounded by four distinct landmarks. In the 'north' is the gas, oxygen, and hydrogen rich Crow Nebula. In the 'south' is the volatile, yet mineral rich Walker Nebula. To the 'west' is the rocky Barrier, a massive and long asteroid-filled region rich in useful metals. And finally, to the 'east' is the mysterious Edge Nebula (in which part of the singleplayer mission campaign is located, fighting the Nomads)

Liberty

Of the five sleeper ships, the Liberty arrives first. This allowed the colonists to choose a centralized location with a mix of resources and habitable worlds.

In time, Liberty became the most powerful House militarily because of the size of their navy (even though in-game their ships are actually the weakest), and developed the lowest crime rate. (This can also be explained from a story progression. Liberty corporations Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering discovered ancient alien artifacts, and from them, developed the underlying technology behind Jump Gates and Trade Lanes, to which they hold exclusive rights.)

Rheinland

Arriving after the Liberty, the Rheinland selected the region adjacent to the Walker Nebula for its resources, specifically diamonds. This article is about the mineral. ...

In time, Rheinland grew to have the second most powerful navy (although in fact with the strongest mainstream ships in the game), with a corresponding crime/terrorism rate. However, after the 80 Year War with the Gas Miners Guild and the exploitation of Rheinland's military by the Nomads, Rheinland's economy collapsed and the fleet was reduced to a single battleship.

Kusari

The Kusari arrived next, and selected the region near the Crow Nebula. Much to the surprise of the colonists (who were hoping for planets with considerable landmass), the bulk of the planets in the area were very similar to their old lands: little land, abundant water. This was a blessing in disguise, however, as the Kusari quickly created businesses to farm seafood and hydrogen gas.

Kusari has the least powerful navy (although second strongest mainstream military) because of the lack of metals in the region; almost all metal used in Kusari is imported from Bretonia or Rheinland.

Bretonia

Bretonia arrived a full 20 years after the Liberty, due to the fact that the starboard engine was disabled during the Exodus. Bretonia chose a region in the Barrier because of the abundance of usable metal.

Bretonia has a slightly smaller navy (the third strongest in game) than Rheinland, but is the most economically powerful House. For example, Bretonia was the first House to pay off the debts incurred by building the Jump Gates and Trade Lanes.

Bretonia retains the royal family and aristocracy that the current United Kingdom supports, along with corresponding grievances such as fierce contest over the independence of Dublin and severe pollution of entire systems by industrial waste. It is headed by Queen Carina, who is 37 years old.

Hispania

En route to the Sirius Sector, the Hispania suffered major damage. Some suspected a Coalition spy, but nothing was confirmed. As a result of internal fractioning, half of the colonists decided to abandon the wreckage by the use of the Hispania's shuttles. The descendants of these colonists became the Corsairs. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 Ã— 768 pixel, file size: 662 KB, MIME type: image/png) Illustration of wreck of Hispania, backstory element/ This is a screenshot of a copyrighted video or computer game, and the copyright for it is most likely... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 Ã— 600 pixelsFull resolution (1024 Ã— 768 pixel, file size: 662 KB, MIME type: image/png) Illustration of wreck of Hispania, backstory element/ This is a screenshot of a copyrighted video or computer game, and the copyright for it is most likely... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

Those that decided to take their chances with the drifting wreck arrived in a system with a habitable planet. The Hispania was unable to take the colonists to the planet, and therefore they used the escape pods to land. These became the Outcasts. Understanding planetary habitability is partly an extrapolation of the Earths conditions, as it is the only planet currently known to support life. ... When the Hispania arrived on the borders of the Sirius Sector (just outside Omicron Alpha), a suspected Coalition spy set off a powerful bomb on the inside of the sleeper ship, causing critical internal damage. ...

While both the Corsairs and Outcasts have since evolved into powerful criminal empires, it is interesting to note that these two factions are bitter enemies, despite (or, perhaps because of) their common ancestry: both factions believe the saboteur was either from the Coalition or another House vying for resources. Outcasts and Corsairs are the fiercest warriors and have some of the best equipment in Sirius.

The game takes place 800 years after the Sirius system has been settled. The Alliance is almost a forgotten concept and the four houses of Liberty, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Kusari compete against each other while pirate activity continues to grow on the frontiers.

Systems and Houses

In the game, there are four houses. Each house has systems, similar to states/cities. Each system has at least one planet, and a few bases. Information about forbidden systems is below. Some connecting systems that are not under a house, are classified as Border World systems or Independent. These include the Taus (Tau-21, Tau-23, etc.), the Omegas (Omega-7, Omega-3, etc.), the Sigmas (Sigma-13, Sigma-17, etc.) the Galileo and Kepler systems, the Bering and Hudson systems, and the Magellan and Cortez systems.

Liberty - Systems include the forbidden Alaska system, New York, California, Colorado and Texas system. The New York system is the main system of Liberty, with its "capital" Planet Manhattan. They have average ships and weapons do minimal damage.

Kusari - Systems include the forbidden Tohoku system, Shikoku, New Tokyo, Kyūshū, Honshu, Hokkaidō and Chūgoku. The capital of Kusari is New Tokyo, in the New Tokyo system. They have fast ships, fast weapons, but do mid damage.

Rheinland - Systems include Hamburg, New Berlin, Stuttgart, Dresden and Frankfurt. The Rheinland capital is New Berlin, in the New Berlin system. Slow ships, powerful armor, powerful weapons.

Bretonia - Systems include Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, New London, Dublin and Cambridge. Bretonnia's capital is New London, in the New London system. Good armor and weapons.

Independent Worlds - Systems include Cortez, Magellan, Galileo, Kepler, Bering and Hudson. They are all located on the Liberty border.

The Border Worlds - These include the Sigma, Omega and Tau systems (except Omega 41 and Tau 37).

The Edge Worlds - These include ALL the Omicron systems, Omega 41 and Tau 37. They have the best weapons and ships.

Unknown Systems - These are the easter egg systems in Freelancer, They are the only place after the storyline that players may find Nomad ships and Nomad weapons. They are located in the middle of the Corsairs and Outcasts burial nebula. This is the hardest system to access due to the nomads (in fact the nomad NPCs are the most powerful even though they have no shields) and enemy factions patrolling in this area. Within one of the unknown systems, 2 dockable planets are included, planet Gammu and planet Primus; one of those is habited by apes, the other one by robots. A virtual Easter egg is a hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. ...

Similarities to real cities/landmarks

These four 'Houses' are based on the countries they represent. A main distinguishing feature of Freelancer is that all of the systems, planets, bases, etc. are named after real life cities or countries. A good example is House of Rheinland which is based on Germany (a section of Germany is called Rheinland because it is situated on the Rhein). In the Single-player mode, Admiral Schultzky arrives from Rheinland in the New York system in a ship named the "Donau". 'Donau' is the German name for the Danube, also a river in Germany. Every system, base, or area is named after (most commonly) a real location on Earth (eg; New York, Dresden, Manchester, Shikoku) or to a lesser extent, an explorer or astronomer (eg; Magellan, Galileo). Rhein may refer to Rhine, a major river in Europe rhein, a substance in the anthraquinone group Rhein im OstpreuÃŸen, a town in Germany, (now Ryn, Poland) Category: ... This article is about the Danube River. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... Magellan may refer to: People Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition to travel around the world. ... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht...

Forbidden Systems

Awards

EÂ³ logo The Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as EÂ³, was an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association. ... The Game Critics Awards are a set of annual awards held after the Electronic Entertainment Expo (EÂ³) since 1998 to current. ...

Soundtrack

On November 18, 2003, Microsoft released a soundtrack of the game, including in-game music^[2] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The disc also offers exclusive content, included on a bonus DVD, not in the game. The disc includes alternate scenes and intros to the game, the making of Freelancer, and exclusive tracks. Many fans mutually agree that the bonus DVD is the main reason for the soundtrack's success.

Modifications

Freelancer supports a thriving modding community, mainly due to the fact that almost all of the architecture of the in-game universe (solar systems, economy, factions, etc.) is contained within editable .INI files. Many mods have been released, from simple mods adding ships or changing speeds, to slightly more ranged mods that add to the Freelancer universe, up to total conversions. One of the most popular modding sites for Freelancer is The Lancer's Reactor, which contains most mods ever created for Freelancer, as well as a wealth of tutorials and utilities for creating mods. Another thing that can be attributed to Freelancer's modding community is Freelancer Mod Manager (FLMM), a program that makes installing and uninstalling mods incredibly easy, thus reducing the risk of damage to the game files requiring a reinstall. Image File history File links Mergefrom. ... Freelancer is an online and single player simulation video game for the computer. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... An initialization file, or INI file, is a configuration file that contains configuration data for Microsoft Windows based applications. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Related games

Elite is a seminal space trading computer game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. ... Top view of the BBC Micro The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ... Frontier: Elite 2 is a computer game written by David Braben and published by Gametek. ... First Encounters is a video game released in 1995. ... Look up bulletin board, notice board in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Descent: Freespace Screenshot Freespace 2 Screenshot Descent: FreeSpace is a space simulation computer game series developed by Volition Inc. ... Darkstar One is a computer game developed by Ascaron, due to be released in august 2006. ... Starlancer is a space-based science fiction flight simulator computer game, created by Erin Roberts, under the auspices of Digital Anvil. ...

References

External links

Contents

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