Haegar has finished the new launcher and did the final corrections. Yesterday i was able to include the first part of the file protection (i decided to use the old method since this appears to be the most effective way to protect the mod so you still will get heuristic warnings)
The mod contains a dynamic anticheat solution. The main files are protected by default and can not be manipulated. If there are cheaters which find new ways of file manipulation the protection can get adjusted to cover those cheats aswell. This is a massive improvement towards the old cheat protection method. Furthermore I will include a server solution that prevents that the main anticheat solution gets manipulated.
The installer was compiled last evening and the mod got successfully uploaded this night.
This afternoon (in 3-4hours) i will start to prepare the server and do the final online tests.
If everything works fine you can download the mod this evening.
The server itself will not run in an optimized mode. It requires much more time to prepare all versions of the lag reduction kit. However I have finished to adjust version 1.4 of that serverside mod. You should have less lag than you had with 1.7 already since the mod has a much cleaner code and less bugs. The tests on the first beta showed pretty good performances even without any lag reduction kit.
Like already announced this version of crossfire will come with the option to provide DLC (Download Content) in a better way than 1.7 was able to do. So in fact it is planned to release the sidequests that i did not include (due to the lack of time) and probably special concepts and equipment. These releases will depend on my available time but it is planned to offer 6 DLCs in 2010.
The mod does not come with a cloaking device and also not with dockable battleships. But the mod is already designed to support these kinds of features. When all other features are working i will activate the cloak. The cloak itself is not designed to let you be cloaked for a long time. It does only work for a very short time and it requires rare energy crystals that can only be found in the inner core systems.
The mod contains a the dynamic universe concept that i created with a few fixes that i had to do since the first beta. Now the players can destroy stations without crashing the server and docked players can undock from these stations (so there is no need to worry to get stuck) anymore. Destroyed station appear either as station cores or as inactive stations (depending the loading status of your systems).
You will notice that the mod is way more lively... with hundreds of new enounters which do their daily business. I can guarantee that i took absolutly no care about clans and their needs when i placed these new encounters. You will have to arrange with the NPCs. If notice that i forgot to put a clan billboard into one of the systems then they should contact me. After the past years and changing those logos 5 times meanwhile i absolutly lost the overview and the interest in doing such corrections without knowing what the situation next week is.
If you experience bugs... almost everything can get corrected on the fly now.
The dynamic market and the dynamic universe are currently and for the next weeks out of order. I want to see how the mod is running before i activate such features.
When the download is available i will update this thread.
BTW OP, I have posted several posts about crossfire in some blogs, a few sites such as gamespot (at the forum general discussion) as well as letting all my email friends know to spread the word. I hope this will get more x-freelancer players to return to the greatness that still is Freelancer which imo is now Crossfire 
