Now I really can't wait. I love a good game, but I love a good, well told story even more. It looks like that CF1.8 will have a story that will make this mod even more unique and innovative putting it above the rest. I've played several other mods, but they didn't really include a story beyond the chapters that you read in the information of the mod. I remember when I first started playing 1.7 I was running all over space like a madman collecting data disks and such. I can only hope that it will be every bit as exciting as reading a well written novel, but better because you won't have to read as much.
Oh, and this is a little OT (but the earlier posts are much...worse), but I won't have my original characters. My dad threw out my current FLID because he thought it was the one I was looking for before I made my current one. I'll have to DL the Account manager, make a dummy user account and get the money and equipment off of his old characters to start new ones. I hate to do this, because it means that the money and equipment I had received is now wasted.