The client is not buggy at all. The only bugs you might experience are when you ignore the installation instructions and do not use a perfectly clean installation of the original game. After meanwhile more than half a million downloads there are almost no complaints about any of such issues. The "long updates" are not for nothing... they have a purpuse... such as updating the game with new content or updating the dynamic economy and dynamic universe. The DX10/11 render runs slow? ok, cool... then pick one of the other 20 options we provide. Not every option is compatible with every hardware these days (after 20 years the original game is not even fully compatible with modern dx version), that is why we have provided a large selection of options to choose depending on what hardware the player has.
And no, CF not only uses HD textures as you claim... it contains hundreds of new unique systems, the most complex new storyline that in the past 20 years has been created for the game, hundreds of new features (many of which after being first introduced in CF have found their way into other mods), hundreds of new ships and of course yes... new textures which unlike a simple HD upcale have been hand crafted.
To even compare the 700mb original game with this ~10gb mod is ridiculous and just proves that you did not even bother to play this mod and experience all that is new in it.
But feel free to give it 2 out of 10. The vast majority of players that really have played it do know better and have a very different oppinion.
Due to all the dynamic components of the MP mode it is not possible to release a server version for private use but the official server is up an running. You are free to join.
probably late reply... but you will need a no-cd exe to run the game on windows 10 and 11.
The copy-protection used on the FL-CD no longer is supported by modern windows versions. Most mods however, already a workaround build in for this case.
Certainly a bit speculation involved but yes, the existence of unused price variance variables and market files with a more complex structure than actually is used could indicate that a more complex market system was originally planned for the game.
Sorry I am not checking moddb daily (not even weekly actually). If you need instant help with something I suggest to use the forum or the discord channel.
The mission you mentioned was patched a few years ago but I heard that people still have problems with it sometimes. As result it will be reviewed and if necessary redesigned soon. Right now the only suggestion I can give is to follow the instructions given during the closely. That should be enough to complete it.
The recommended download version would be 2.0.1 since it has an improved installation process which makes sure that everything is perfectly working. The 2.0 version however still would work. It just isn't as comfortable to use. Both version update the mod to its latest version.
The dynamic market was introduced to the mod due to player feedback/request and like I said you are the very first to complain about it. You are free to have your own opinion about it... that however does not mean that you are right and all the others are wrong. Crossfire always was build based on the feedback of active players of our community. If such a feature would get negative community feedback it wouldn't be in the mod.
To be honest I have the feeling that you don't even know the mod that well when you write that there are no prison stations, that there are no new stations and only a few systems. The mods has hundreds of new stations and planets in its well over 100 new systems. To claim there are no Kusari or Bretonia prisons is also not correct. Fuchu Prison is located in Kusari main space and Ghats Prision clearly is a Bretonian one. When I say that every main faction has prisons then I mean it this way.
The "perfect" trade system had the tendency players only use the known most profitable trade routes and ignored the rest of the game. We introduced the dynamic market about 10 years ago and the overwhelming majority of players seem to like it as it encourages them to actually try to find new routes. Infact you are the very first person complaining about it since its introduction.
Escape pods are considered to be one of the most valuable resources in the game. They can be traded at every prison station and every major faction has multiple of these.
The static trade system was replaced by a dynamic one. The offers change aswell as the prices for the goods.
This added a gameplay value the old system did not have.
I said it before and I will say it again. DSO did NOT replace anything FL related. Not FL itself and not project lonestar (which was not even a real thing as it as nothing but a stupid cheap tech demo done by some DA employees waiting for their dev studio being closed or moved.
You can not be a replacement for something that did not even exist. There was no official project... and it also never was Microsoft stepping in with the wish "oh this DSO could be a replacement".
If you want to tell fairy tales about such stuff... cool... but don't expect people to believe that crap.
You said "open-world first person space-ship games"? Wait... I am scrolling up.
No you did not.
This being put aside the list I have provided contains plenty of open-world space games that you did not have on your list. And to get it totally right, let me correct you once more. Freelancer is no "first person" game, the primary flight mode is 3rd person.
And yes, I did read your presentation. I just do not agree with it in many ways.
The only thing DSO was better in were the graphics (which is no surprise considering that there were 3 years between the games release dates and therefore even different uses of graphic APIs). Everything else was either unspectacular equal or even a downgrade to FL. The gameplay was slow and boring, the AI even worse than in FL, no multiplayer at all... just to name a few.
You think that modders can add multiplayer to DSO? Are you serious? That is not how modding works. It is easier to create a whole new game than to "mod" multiplayer into it.
The list I have provided does contain standalone games. What you call mods was released as standalone game... not as mod. Therefore the list is valid the way I posted it.
And to correct you once more... You did not make clear that you where talking "franchises", you did specifically ask me for "games". Scroll up and read it yourself. Don't twist the stuff that was written to suit your needs.
You really have a strange view on what happened back then.
Just because DSO was added to the Microsoft XBox makes it a successor to Freelancer? Are you kidding me? Microsoft was nothing more than the provider of hardware and at best a publisher just like Sony is for Playstation and you hardly can claim that Sony is responsible for the development of PS games. These companies take care of hardware and distribution of games created by the real game developers and Ascaron never really had any ties with Microsoft or any Microsoft projects other than having their game ported to a MS console.
And what do these games actually have in common other than being an arcade space game? They have a different universe, different settings, different gameplay mechanics. Everything is different other than the fact that you can fly in space and have mouse controls. That's it.
DSO did not replace FL in any way. The official FL support went on long after DSO was released and I would even claim that today (almost 19 years after FLs release) the playerbase and the community support is significantly stronger than for DSO (or why are you publishing DSO related content in the FL articles here?).
Project Lonestar never was replaced by anything... it was just a small tech demo done by DA, not more not less. There was no official support to begin with from Microsoft.
And to call a game that never was as popular as FL, developed by a company which went bankrupt just 2-3 years later a successor is a far stretch.
What other games exist? Well... just to name a few.
Arvoch Alliance
Aces of the Galaxy
Acamar Rising
The Babylon Project
Battlestar Galactica Online
Black Prophecy
DarkSpace
Everspace
Everspace 2
SpaceForce
House of the Dying Sun
Project Sylpheed
Shattered Horizon
Shattered Worlds
SOL: Exodus
Star Assault
Star Conflict
StarMade
Star Wars: Squadrons
SpaceCombat
Starshatter
Tarr Chronicles
Dark Horizon
Strike Suit Zero
Wing Commander Arena
Elite Dangerous
Rebel Galaxy
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
Evochron Alliance
Evochron Renegades
Evochron Legends
Infinite Space
No Man's Sky
Oolite
Space Engineers
X2: The Threat
X3: Reunion
X3: Terran Conflict
X3: Albion Prelude
X Rebirth
X4: Foundations
Star Citizen
We could debate about Chris Roberts and his role... or we could ignore it completely. I do not like this guy and I do not consider Freelancer a Chris Roberts game. The game many people love even today was not his work but the result of a complete redesign by Jörg Neumann instead. Not even the Freelancer credits mention Chris Roberts in any development role.
My modders perspective would go way too deep for such a discussion here. I know the tools, I now how to use them and I know that they are far from being any good.
IF DSO had a working multiplayer then maybe it would be worth trying to mod and create a community around it. But it is not worth to invest time into something that barely anyone even plays today. Even if you manage to create a good mod you will have problems finding people willing to play it.
DSO did not replace anything. It was not developed by the same company (digital anvil), not by the same developers (the people working on Freelancer), did not use any assets from Freelancer or project lonestar, is not even playing in the same universe as Freelancer.
With other words it is totally unrelated to Freelancer.
The only thing these games have in common is that they are Arcade space games, but that's it. There are meanwhile many of these games and none of them is in any way related to FL.
And yes, modding DSO sucks because the tools are even worse than the ones for Freelancer and the benefit from investing time into modding DSO simply is not there.
Not in terms of "we have it finished".
Earlier this year I released an update that actually is part of the Blackstar update which rebalanced the Cap ships. The early release of that part was required to get some player feedback prior the main release.
As discussed on the official forums the amount of stuff we meanwhile intend to put into the Blackstar update massively increased. Two sectors will get a major overhaul while also further detail changes will be done to a 3rd sector on the stap map. This originally was not planned but will improve the final release massively.
I do not post that much new stuff on Moddb these days as I simply have not that much time for that. I think it is best if I focus on the actual work and on our forums where I frequently publish news about the progress and pictures showing what I am working on.
Deactivate the OpenSP on the launcher.
You have OpenSP active on the Launcher
They start right after completing the final vanilla story mission.
thx, will take a look at it
Bug reports btw. would be best put into our ticketsystem at Swat-portal.com because I don't regulary check the comments here at moddb.
No, the mod runs only on very specific server software that we can not release.
that would be great, yes
FLMM generally is not able to deactivate large mods correctly. Apparently when that tool was created nobody could imagine that such large mods would ever be developed.
Crossfire has much more complex hardpoint requirements, therefore it is not compatible and by default it is not adviced to use any other mods together with Crossfire. Such small mods are designed to work with the default Freelancer but not with a heavy modded one.
No there is no way to host a private server since this is a community mod which requires server/client synchronization. That simply isn't possible when there are multiple servers. The server itself runs as smooth as always. However depending on your location and your routing to the server your personal experience might differ from other players. That however is not the servers fault. Your download speed has nothing to do with your routing to the server. A ping of 170 is not even that bad for Freelancer. More problematic might be a packet loss somewhere between your location and the server.
That are post processing shaders which change the look of the game. Not all shaders work on all graphic cards.
try to select a different shader on the options.
Many items in crossfire have additional weight.
camera settings do not change how the ship turns.
When you open the m10.ini you can see exactly which npcships are used in this mission. All you need to do is to check exactly these ships in the npcship.ini and take a look at their loadouts.
SWAT_OP-R8R
Chris joined
After my first experience with online games in 2000 I've build up and successfully ran several large online clans. In 2001 climbed up the ladder in Starlancer and managed to become one of the most successful players worldwide in that game aswell as leader of the largest clan. Since that I stuck to the Sci-fi game genre. In 2002 the SWAT Portal was founded and since that I am leading this Sci-fi Game Portal that supports a large range of games. One of these games is Freelancer. Not long after its release in 2003 I've started modding the game (my modding experiences with other games reach back to 1993 where I've created my first work). Until now I've created 4 Freelancer mods and assisted countless of other Mod projects. The Crossfire Mod which is currently my main project keeps holding the Top position of the Freelancer mods for several years. Most important for me is the success of the SWAT Community and its members aswell as professional work.