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- In 1997, Chris Roberts began work on a vision he had since the day he conceived Wing Commander. He aimed to seamlessly integrate cutscenes and gameplay together, and generate a single dynamic world for both single- and multi-player modes with a radically new user interface. The project was officially announced as Freelancer at 1999's GameStock, an annual event showcasing Microsoft's games to the gaming press. Roberts announced it would be shipping by Fall 2000, and showed off a demo of the game. The game's setting would be massively populated with activity which have a direct impact on the economy; cities would be lively with moving transports and changing weather, computer controlled traders would import and export goods in the absence of direct player interaction, and thousands of players would be interacting in the same persistent world as part of this economy. The players could buy and set up their own bases of operation. The game's control would be a purely mouse-driven interface designed to be intuitive to users. With the implementation of the Neuronet, flight maneuvers controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) can be easily initiated a click of a button would keep the player's starfighter on the tail of an enemy, letting the player concentrate on targeting and shooting, another click could send the starfighter taking evasive maneuvers to escape foes. Players would be encouraged to keep earning money to upgrade the power of their Neuronets. Roberts also announced the multiplayer mode would be a separate package. Freelancer was shown at Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) the same year, and won several awards. The first signs of delay however emerged with Roberts announcing the earliest release of the game could only be at the end of 2001. Nevertheless, the ambitious promises were enough for Computer Gaming World to name it as one of the games which would revolutionize the gaming industry.
- Freelancer skipped 2000's GameStock but made another appearance at E3. Journalists queued up to 90 minutes for a glimpse of a demo which consisted of 10 minutes of introduction movie, and 20 minutes of demonstrated game play. Although they were impressed by part of the graphics and the animated facial expressions, they commented the game still needed more work and were doubtful of the promised dynamic economy. The game's shipping date was also pushed back to 2002. The date changed again to Spring 2001 in Robert's later interview with IGN, in which he also mentioned the project's coding was about to be completed at that time, and soon they would proceed to finish adding in the game's contents. Roberts stated they had to split the game into separate single- and multi-player portions as the single-player story would fail to work in the multiplayer setting. The player could still freely ignore the single-player's story, though Roberts felt the team had developed a compelling enough story to make the player play it through. The game's multiplayer was to allow 1500 players trading and fighting each other. To help the less experienced players against player killing griefers, zones towards the center of the concentric game universe would be designed to be safer than those towards the edge. The safe zones would be well policed by AI security forces. If a player is witnessed by them to attack a non-criminal player, a bounty would be placed on the attacker. Police and bounty hunters (AI- or player-controlled) would then attack these players for the bounties.
- Cover of the Freelancer soundtrackIn June 2000, Microsoft started talks to buy over Digital Anvil. Roberts admitted the project's wild ambitions and its unpredictable development time required greater funds which only a huge company could provide. The project had already overshot its original development projection of three years by 18 months. Roberts trusted Microsoft would not compromise his vision for Freelancer, and believed Microsoft's faith in Freelancer selling at least 50,000 copies when finished. Rumors of this takeover however only gained prominence in December with numerous gaming sites speculating Digital Anvil's top executives had left the company, and the Freelancer project would be cancelled or scaled back. On December 05, 2000, Microsoft officially announced their acquisition of Digital Anvil. Roberts was leaving the company but would continue as a creative consultant on Freelancer until its release. Microsoft instructed Digital Anvil to scale down the ambitions of the project, and focus on their strengths. Axed features were mostly Robert's multiplayer proposals. Despite the cuts, reviewers felt Microsoft still kept the team true to Robert's vision.
- The Freelancer team kept a low profile throughout 2001 before putting on a demo display at International Games Festival 2002, which drew large crowds. Microsoft announced the project was on schedule, and would be completed by the end of 2002. Reviewers noted parts of the demo looked unfinished, and dated compared with other games announced in 2002. They also wondered what specific goals players should have in the game's multiplayer mode. Digital Anvil finished adding in all the content for the game in October 2002, and a closed beta test with about 500 testers was conducted. Polishing and balancing the game was the only main activities left before releasing it in March 2003. Preview builds given to reviewers revealed the automated Neuronet AI maneuvers, and the branching conversations and sub-quests were cut. To drum up interest in the game, Microsoft arranged for 30 copies of the functional beta to be randomly given away to interested gamers. Those pre-ordering the game would also receive a Freelancer long-sleeved shirt. The game would finally ship to retailers on March 04, 2003, and would become available online through Yahoo's Game on Demand service. Digital Anvil's last support for Freelancer was on June 06 in the form of a patch to fix server and cheating issues before their redeployment to Microsoft. Sumthing Else Music Works released the games' soundtrack composed by award winning composer, James Hannigan; music group Visual Music Inc.; and Digital Anvil's musician Andrew Sega on November 18. It included a bonus DVD which contained the game's alternative introduction movies, concept art, scripts, and deleted content. Reviewers gave the musical scores mixed reviews, notably in their ability to convey the game's atmosphere to the listeners. Freelancer fans modified the game, allowing them to introduce new ships and planets, and set up their own in-game clans. Examples of notable modifications (mods) include Starfyre Studios' The Next Generation mod hosted at GameSpot and SWAT Development's Crossfire mod which also introduces a dynamic economy, hosted at BigPond's GameArena.
*captured from wiki*
small mistake above:
the FL Patch 1.1 was released in 2003 (May if i remember right) not in 2006
until that release Digital Anvil did host an official DA server for MP tests
before that release server admins had heavy probs getting their FL servers running stable (due to the massive amount of cheaters)
