Discovery Freelancer mod for Freelancer

Overview

The development of Discovery 4.85 has taken 1,5 years to complete. Now we, the newly formed Discovery Development Team, present to you the result of our work. The wait is over. After months of online beta testing, Discovery Freelancer 4.85: Reunion is released and available for download.

Year is 817 After Settlement (A.S.), 16 years after the single-player campaign of Freelancer, and one year after Discovery 4.84 took place. A Sirius-wide war is on the brink of engulfing the sector. While Kusari pushes its onslaught against Bretonia deep into the Leeds system, Bretonia attempts to surround Kusari forces in Tau-31. Liberty attacks Rheinland in Bremen and Hudson, and Rheinland has to pull back to defend its own borders. As if this was not enough, in late 817 the Independent Miners Guild encountered a large number unknown ships in the Orkney system. The ships belonged to a rebel group formed within the long-lost House of Gallia, the existence of which remained unknown for centuries. Creation of a path into Gallia adds a new, powerful, player to the scene, and no one can tell what goals the new House will pursue in these troubled times. Rumors arise that the nation of France was betrayed during the Exodus, making historians and politicians of various Houses search deep into archives to find out what truly happened more than 1000 years ago in Sol.

Storyline is just a portion of the progress taking place in Discovery 4.85. As it was with previous Discovery versions, we created the mod as a full-scale expansion pack that adds diverse new content and yet remains balanced for online play, is stable, and is as bug-free as possible. Discovery 4.85 is the first version of the mod that was developed from the start by the Discovery Development Team, a dedicated group of 3D and 2D artists, coders, designers, writers, and testers.

Increased development time and an increased number of developers allowed us to finalize all features we were planning to implement, and make 4.85 the largest ever update for Discovery mod, which now became of the few mods that actually add more to the game than the original has. We introduced 79 brand new ships with new models, with over 30 previously included ships completely re-designed. Accurate hitboxes had been implemented for almost all ships, old and new. More than a hundred new weapon and equipment types have been added, many having custom models of their own, as well as custom weapon projectile and hit effects. Out of eight dozen new systems Discovery has, more than a half received significant updates, and 11 new ones were included, all of them following much higher quality standards than in previous versions.

The mod now has a renewed balance system for weapons, equipment and ships, plus a fully revamped economy system that provides profitable routes for all locations and factions. To add depth to the new economy, 46 new commodity types were introduced, and nearly all commodities (including original ones) received new detailed icons. The role-playing ID system (used on the official server and most other servers running our mod) has received 53 new IDs with clear and detailed descriptions. The new version also contains about 7000 new and rewritten infocard texts for various new and old ships, items, and places.

For those who love numbers, here are some statistics:
- 260 player flyable ships in the game total, of which 225 are introduced by Discovery;
- About 110 new player flyable ship models introduced by version 4.85;
- 134 systems in the game total, of which 79 are introduced by Discovery;
- 11 new systems in 4.85, with about 30 systems receiving significant updates in the latest version;
- 448 bases in the game total, of which about 275 are introduced by Discovery;
- 91 factions in the game total, 44 new factions added by Discovery, of which 11 were introduced by version 4.85;
- Over 100 new weapons introduced in 4.85, upping the number of new Discovery weapons above 200;
- 46 new commodities introduced in 4.85, with multiple new trade routes;
- 117 role-playing IDs in Discovery, of which 53 introduced by version 4.85;
- About 10,000 new infocard texts introduced by Discovery, of which about 7,000 added or rewritten for 4.85.

The integrated Discovery automatic updater allows to download and apply new updates easily without having to re-download and re-install the whole package. The updater does not restrict offline play, and you will still be able to play single-player or on a local LAN server without an internet connection.

If you prefer online play, you are welcome to join the official Discovery Freelancer RP 24/7 server and a number of other servers running Discovery. Currently active servers include Discovery USA RP 24/7, Discovery UK RP 24/7, Discovery Server Berlin, Discovery Kansas, Discovery of Discovery, Rise of the Fallen Empires. Server operators are welcome to run Discovery mod without any restrictions, IONCROSS data files are included, and we provide help and support for all servers running the mod. All servers that run our mod are listed in dsupdate.cfg file located in Freelancer\EXE folder to allow quick connect to all of them without using shortcuts or patches. To add another server, you simply need to add its address to dsupdate.cfg.

In January 2007, Discovery mod was chosen to receive the Simulation Genre Award of ModDB.com's Mod of the Year-2006 contest (MOTY-2006).

Features

New Content:
- 79 brand new player-flyable ships with custom models;
- About 30 previously added ships received new, custom-designed models;
- 11 new systems in 4.85: Languedoc, Dauphine, Burgundy, Champagne, Lorraine (Gallia); Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ellesmere (Liberty); Tau-39 (Border Worlds); Omicron-81 (Hispania); Unknown system (Nomad Worlds).
- About 30 existing systems received significant updates in 4.85, including Alaska, Alberta, Baffin, Bremen, Cassini, Coronado, Dundee, Frankfurt, Illinois, Londonderry, Minnesota, Munich, Okinawa, Omega-52, Omega-54, Omega-56, Omega-58, Omicron-80, Omicron-91, Omicron-94, Omicron-99, Omicron Iota, Ontario, Orkney, Tau-42, Tau-45, Vespucci;
- 11 new factions, most with their own NPCs and ship lines: Gallic Royal Navy, Gallic Royal Police, Council, Gallic Metal Service, EFL Oil & Machinery, IDF Shipping, Maquis, Unione Corse, Gallic Brigands, The Coalition, Colonial Remnant;
- Over 100 new weapons introduced, many of them having custom models and effects;
- 46 new commodities introduced, with multiple new trade routes;
- 53 new role-playing IDs introduced;
- Customized NPCs on many new bases, NPCs in Gallia have newly designed costumes;
- About 7,000 infocard texts added or rewritten for 4.85, including lengthy news texts and descriptions.
- Revised and detailed Readme.txt and other mod documentation, added the new Discovery system map.
- Included the Discovery automatic updater with an integrated list of Discovery multiplayer servers.   Storyline:
- Introduction of a new house: Gallia, with its own lawful and unlawful factions, and 5 densely populated systems with over 40 bases to explore.
- Fully formulated history of the new House which is embedded in the ongoing and dynamic discovery chronology/history, including rumors, news, and reputation adjustments;
- Dynamical adjustments concerning the war between Kusari and Bretonia;
- Political adjustments concerning Rheinland and Liberty;
- Many detailed news items present on all bases to reflect storyline developments.

Revised Gameplay:
- Adjustments to NPC AI and repair abilities;
- Rebalanced NPC loadouts and difficulty;
- New NPC behaviour that allows friendly fire;
- New wrecks and lore;
- Changed reputation relations between various factions to ensure smooth player reputation development.

Rebalancing:
- Unique and accurate hitboxes (collision & weapon fire hits) for almost all the ships, old and new;
- Revised balance for all ships, and rebalanced weaponry for all ship classes;
- Revised special weapons on capital ships (ship to ship torpedoes, flak cannons);
- Rebalanced damage on explosives;
- Revised equipment (CMs, CDs, Mines, etc.) along with durability, efficiency and functions;

Enhanced Trade System:
- Fully revised and rebalanced trade route system based on logical offer and demand as well as logical placements of commodities;
- Adjustments on profit, danger, flight time, political changes to reflect a complex economy;
- Graphically enhanced commodity icons for a better differentiation.

Graphical Enhancements:
- New weapon projectile and weapon impact effects;
- Large and detailed explosions for ships;
- New custom models for guns, turrets, and other equipment;
- Optional ENB mod that enables bloom (please read documentation and DO NOT enable it unless you are sure what you are doing).

Testing, Performance:
- During 9 months of internal testing and 3 months of public testing, fixed multiple bugs related to new features, as well as few bugs remaining from previous release;
- Ensured maximum clientside and serverside performance, fixed multiple graphic-related issues.

More Information

Please visit Discovery forums at Discoverygc.com, Discovery website at Discoveryfl.com and Discovery Wiki for more details. Also, refer to mod's Readme.txt for installation instructions, troubleshooting hints, information on mod options, credits, and thanks.