Discovery Update - 12th June 2015 news

Discovery Freelancer v4.88.1 is here! But it’s not the only thing that’s changed. We have had a few changes here at Discovery Freelancer, and with what is hopefully going to be the first news post of many, I’m going to touch on a few points about our latest release, and with the team here at the Discovery Freelancer ModDB page.

The Team

I wanted to start this post by touching on the recent changes, or rather additions, to the team here on the ModDB page for Discovery Freelancer.

• The team here is headed up by our good Admin (from the Discovery RP 24/7 server) King Boo! He’ll be around to help with things, from both you, the player, and us, the team. We may get the occasional snippet from him, so watch this space!
• Those of you that have been watching lately will have noticed many pictures going up. Our graphics and entertainment branch is headed by none other than our very own Discovery 24/7 Community Member Snoopy! Feel like you’ve grabbed a great snap? Send it in to him. Maybe you’ll see it featured here someday soon!
• Snoopy, known better here as Connor, will be backed up by one of our newest Forum Moderators, Cashew. James (Cashew) will also be adding photos, and working with Snoopy on any projects that we might be working on in the future. Be sure to talk to both of them if you’d like to arrange some larger shots, I’m sure they’d appreciate it!
• The Public Relations section is headed up by me, AlphaWolf215 (better known as Joe). I’ll be working on the News Posts, and any announcements we might be making here. I’ll be working closely with everyone to ensure you know about things here at Discovery Freelancer as soon as possible. Please feel free to send me a message if you’d like to see a feature here. I always appreciate a little community insight!

Between the four of us, we will work to bring you news about the mod, snaps and videos from Discovery Freelancer in action, and the latest updates.

Recent Additions

There have been a couple of recent changes to the Discovery Mod in the past couple of months which I’d like to touch on with this first news post. That would be the introduction of the “Civilian Carrier” and the rebalance and reclassification of the Corvo Research cruiser.

I’d like to start by looking at the new Bustard “Civilian Carrier”. This, in previous versions of the Discovery Freelancer Mod, was known as the “Barge”, a gigantic transport that was useful to those with Player Owned Bases as a repair materials storage (in case of a siege). The vessel has been remodelled, rebalanced, and repurposed. The Bustard (as it is known now) is classed as a Liner, with eight (8) Cruiser class hardpoints (Basics only guys. No full Cerberus liners now!), a Transport/Freighter shield hardpoint, Light Battleship core (7 million power capacity), seven hundred thousand (700,000) base armour, alongside a compliment of eight hundred (800) Nanobots and Shield batteries each.

Now let’s try and make sense of this. Some of you will be wondering at this point, “Why has a LINER got a BATTLESHIP core?”. It’s a good question, but it all comes down to the experimental equipment available to it. Thats right, Jump Drives. The Bustard is designed with jumping in mind. Previously, Jump Drives, and their usage, was restricted to factions that either had battleships, or where allied with other factions and groups that had access to battleships themselves. The Bustard now fills this gap, allowing factions to use Jumping technology, regardless of what ships they can fly, and who their in character friends are. As an example, the Xenos. Checking their ID, you find they are allowed “Fighters, Freighters, Transports”. They, from checking their reputation sheet, are friendly to no-one outside of themselves, and aren’t close enough to the Zoners to reliably count on them for jumping assistance. Whether it’s for trade, or moving fighter wings to an advantageous location, the Xenos, as a faction, now have a genuine option available to them in the form of the Bustard. This could also be applied to other groups, such as Freelancers, and various other pirate groups.

These are just some initial thoughts on the usage and roles we might see the Bustard in. I would like to make a final note on it for our Role Playing servers out there. You may recognise the Bustard model as the previous Geb Order Carrier model. Please realise, this model is a placeholder until a final one can be designed and implemented (we’re looking at you, ship modelers). The path chosen here at the Discovery Freelancer 24/7 Role Playing server was to retcon the models place in Order lore, and treat this as an entirely new vessel, and completely unconnected to the Order ship line. I can only advise you to take a similar approach, but that is your decision.

Moving on, I’d like to touch on the Corvos reclassing. The Corvo, in previous versions, was a Cruiser owned and designed by the Zoners, with the justification of being a research cruiser (rather than a combat vessel). Many people argued that it should be open to all (being made for research). After much debate, many discussions (and a few arguments), it has been reclassified! The Corvo is now a gunboat (opening it to most factions). The ship has five (5) gunboat class turret slots, Cruiser core (1.4 million power capacity), Cruiser shield, two hundred thousand (200,000) base armour, and a compliment of six hundred (600) Nanobots and Shield Batteries.

The Corvo also has one “Equipment Slot”, and that is what this ship focuses on. Once again, this ship has been made to work with the “experimental equipment” available to it, this time with hyperspace scanning modules in mind. The Corvo had been redesigned to work as a scanning ship, likely with the Bustard in mind. Having spoke in detail about the Bustard to you already on my thoughts and what it’s potential uses could be, I’d like to hear YOUR thoughts. What do you think the Corvo might be used for? What kind of situations? Where will it be best applied? These are the things I would like you to think about.

So, having touched on the Bustard & Corvo, I want to hear from you! I want to know your thoughts on the ships and their uses, perhaps what you’d like to see and hear about in the next post. Perhaps you have a question you’d love to ask the staff and have answered. Tell me about this, and perhaps it’ll feature in our next newsletter!

Thank you for taking the time to read this ladies and gents. I hope to bring you more exciting news on the developments over here on the Discovery Freelancer Mod!

~Joe

Public Relations

Discovery Freelancer