Posts by Franco428

I've played just about every MOD out there (almost) and yet, there has been so much talk about CF 1.8. It will get here when it gets here - right?

The one thing I spotted in the replies was the "requests" for changes to CF 1.8. Sounds like we need CF 1.8 when it is practical and CF 1.9 with all the latest requests for changes.

If there really is that much interest and requests for different upgrades, maybe a CF 2.0 is also in our future.

Personally, If I were King....complete one upgraded MOD at a time. The folks who want more and more bells and whistles can wait until the next MOD...if I were King, but I'm not.

So, we will get CF 1.8 when it is ready and not before. I have read at least ten times that very statement by our SWAT OP-R8R. It cannot be more clear...It will be here when its here, and not before...unless we use the TARDIS. I think that is how it is spelled. The Britts among us will know for sure.

If you want a MOD sooner, help or donate some cash for expenses, but don't complain. You could always make your own new MOD - right?

I'm retired, so if it takes several seasons to get CF 1.8 here then fine. I don't use a calendar anymore, just the trees outside my window. If I die before it gets here, then I'll play it in Heaven...although the upload times may be long, but then will anyone really care?

The world ends 21 Dec 2012, according to many seers and nutjobs. If you don't get it out by then...who cares???

Cheers,
Franco428

I just picked up a copy of Space Traders by Meridian4. Its rated for teen, but I wanted to see the graphics it was supposed to have on board. I pushed the graphics out to the max and I must say they did an excellent job of the graphics. However, the moving from place to place inside buildings just to buy and sell stuff is boring. Let me pull up to a warehouse and pick and choose...they could have had an option for Teen or Adult type of play action.

The game is similar to the old ProtoStar game in the type of adolescent game play. I'll probably give it to my grandson to play since I don't have time to navigate my old butt all over some base building looking for stuff to buy or clues to play.

Great graphics - silly game play. Not for adults unless you have nothing better to do and your hand is already too tired to play choke the monkey again.

Cheers,

Franco428

I tried the Discovery MOD a while back. It was very plain, common and needed a good coat of paint...so to speak. After playing Discovery for about three hours, my computer rebooted on its own. I yanked all the Discovery files off, did a serious virus scan and restarted my computer to work on other projects. I heard a strange sound coming from the back of my computer and noticed that my now non-Discovery Mod computer was licking its asshole as fast as it could. When I typed an inquiry to my system as to why the ass licking, it replied: that it was just trying to get the taste of the Discovery Mod out of its system files. Seriously, I've tried many Mods and only two mods I use now are the Crossfire 1.7 and the Frontierspace 1.75. Each has something worthwhile to ad to the FL community. Some of the other mods were fun, but didn't keep my interest long enough. That doesn't mean they were bad, they were just not right for me.

The "kids" at the Discovery Mod site have lost track of the reason we mod....to continue the FL experience. It is unfortunate that they have to use totally vulgar names and make threats to anyone. A perfect mod doesn't need to advertise that it is better than everything else. If it is, we'll all find it out on our own. If not...well, we will find that out too. Crossfire 1.7 is not perfect and has never claimed to be such. However, those of us who use the Crossfire 1.7 mod know it truly is at the top of all FL mods.

I feel sorry for the Discovery Mod community. To be told over and over again what a wonderful world they live in, and then they find the rest of the FL mods. It is like using sugar for the first time in your life and you see what you have been missing. It really is all about Freelancer and extending the whole experience.

It appears the leadership of the Discovery Mod crew really do ride the short yellow school bus. Don't forget to fasten your helmets kids.

I'm am sorry if I offended anyone who really has to ride that short yellow bus, you can't help your situation.

I guess we all discovery things we do not care for in our lives - the Discovery Mod is now at the top of my "scrape off my shoe" list.

Regards,

F. Hensley
Washington, DC

For those of you who never had the chance to play ProtoStar, here is some info.

Protostar: War on the Frontier was produced by Tsunami Media. The game is commonly described as an unofficial sequel to the Starflight series.[citation needed] Updated 3D graphics, a faster pace of play, and enhanced musical scores are some of the primary changes from its predecessors.

"Protostar is one Tsunami Medias best known games. A bestseller in its time, this game is known to many fans as the forerunner to many, many other popular game franchises. The genre is generally classified as Simulation but it could just as easily be placed under Action and Adventure. I mention the latter because of the familiar point and click interface we all remember from the old Lucas Arts adventure flicks. The former is also named because of the occasional shooting and rapid reflexes that are needed in the game. But game is, and will remain, at its heart a space flight simulator.

Now, on to the plot:

The situation is surprisingly complex. You are a star cruiser commander in the far future. Earth calls on you for aid, because the Human Alliance is under attack by an alien race called the Skeetch. Your job is to encourage trade and friendship with the other powerful, but xenophobic alien species. If you can begin trading with them and using their militaries, you may be able to put a significant dent in the massive Skeetch fleet. Because the Skeetch will surely attack an important military leader such as you, you travel under a secret identity. Several corporations on the edge of the galaxy have refused to join the Human Alliance. You take an identity under the name of the largest corporation, Newfront. Because this company is not allied with the humans, the Skeetch will hopefully leave you alone.

The catch to all this is that in order for Newfront to allow you to use their identity, you must support them financially with some of your trade. You must also support the defenses of Earth regularly.

Okay, whew! Got that out of the way. At the beginning of the game, you are located at a large space station. You have to talk to the locals, gather information, and then board your ship. Dont worry about crew members; you will pick them up on the way (you have to pay them, too. It seems all you do in this game is pay, and not earn). On your ship, the controls are difficult to use and confusing, but after a while you get familiar with the controls and the crew stations. It is on this ship that you will spend quite a lot of your game."

My grandson says I'm too old to play games. I told him that playing Freelance with the Mods, helps keep my mind sharp. I got tired of Delta Force games since they went to an arcade style of RPG.

I'll retire soon - over 62 years old - is that too old???

As soon as my grandson can be patient and play well with others on-line, I'll make him his own system with a new copy of Freelancer with Crossfire Mod installed. I hope he gets his butt kicked enough to know that you can't win by yourself and you can't lose with friends.

I sure do hope one of you out there is older than me. My wife says I'm so old - my birth date is in Roman Numerals. Someone out there must have their birth date written on a cave wall somewhere - right?

To the Crossfire Community - Take Care and Stay Safe - May you all play forever!

If they have Crossfire in Heaven...the trip will be worth the wait.

Never miss a chance to make someone laugh. Cheers!

Friends,
Have any of you ever played ProtoStar? It was released between Elite and Privateer. They had missions, commodities, weapon and ship upgrades, mining and salvaging, and crew stations.
There is nothing wrong with having an engineer, medic, weapons officer, supply officer and others helping out - either as actual players or AI.
Freelancer can expand its universe forever. How about expanding the ship and crew possibilities too?
I, for one, would like to tractor in someone's engines and other equipment when I defeated them in battle.

In the old ProtoStar, you could travel along the planet's surface looking for minerals, plant life, animals, other thing of extreme value.

Why not have the docking ring in the air so you could fly down to the planet's surface to find a landing pad. We have many palces to dock in space..so why not have different landing pads to choose from? Just a thought.

Do any of you youngsters remember ProtoStar? It may have been before your time. It was way before Pentium chips. My first computer I build had dual Z80 cpu's; one for the cpu and one for the keyboard. 4 bit CPUs were hot stuff back in the days before cellphones, DVDs & GPS.

It would be good to hear from some older and more experienced gamers on ProtoStar.

Question for the masses....?
Do any of you remember the H-8 computer? Or the H-89? Both were from Heathkit and were assembled by the owner. You had to solder most of the components to the motherboard. You had a choice of colors for the CRT - Green or Amber. I made my H-89 into an H-90 by piggy-backing the 1K memory chips, for a total of 56K or RAM. Of course, the 100K hard-sectored 5 1/4" floppy was essential for making games in Assembly Language.

First there was "Elite" then "Protostar" then "Privateer" then Freelancer.

I've played Freelancer hundreds of times and with so many configurations I lost count.

I play to relax after work. I've been working with computers since 1982 and I have several at home for work and play. My Freelancer / RPG computer is a screamer and I enjoy just turning it on. After a long hard day at work, I can sit down for an hour and play until I forget about the problems and buttheads I had to deal with all day.

After I retire in two years, I'll still have Freelancer with one Mod or another to keep my mind sharp and my fingers nimble.

When old memories haunt me from my days in Vietnam, I hop into Freelancer and fly until I'm free again. A real bitch to understand if you haven't been there, but it is my place of solitude.

I keep one computer with Win95, just so I can still play Privateer when the urge hits me.

I think the bottom line is...I play Freelancer because it is the best and most realistic. Your Mods make it even better. May you never stop modding. Freelancer is forever, or until I die.

Thanks for your time.

Franco428
Dumfries, VA, USA

My cash problem is having too much after playing for a long time.

It would be nice to have a bank or two to deposit or hide some away...just in case.

Not many would have this problem, but having a safety deposit box to dump gold, diamonds, credits, etc., would be a valuable resource.

With my money, I could open a bank and make loans too.

Just a thought....

I have received a lot of email about the upcoming CF 1.8, but so far, I haven't seen an estimated release date. I know y'all are working hard on the software and want to make it a near as perfect as possible, which we all support.

Do you think it will be released by March 2009? I'm scheduled to go to an overseas assignment where our internet access is very limited, so the SP version will have to do for practice.

I have played the SP version many times with many different ship capabilities and a new version of CF would be more than welcome. Of all the MODS out there, CF is on top of the "must have" list.

As a side note, I just wanted to say "Thank You" for all that y'all are doing to keep the Freelancer Universe alive. That makes waiting for the CF 1.8 much easier.

Freelancer for Life! Crossfire IS the Universe!

Y'all are correct in the "it just won't work" arena. Even smaller attempts at merging some single player features failed and required me to wipe all files off the drive and start over.

It was an experiment using old technology that just did not work. In a way, it settles a lot in my mind that I need to leave the designing to the experts. I discovered you can't make a turkey from a chicken no matter how much stuffing you cram into it.

My experiments are done for two reasons...it won't work and from what y'all said, its not allowed. That is good to know. Who reads fine print anyway? Well, its obvious that some of you do.

So. End of discussion. It was a dumb idea anyway!

Fellow Freelancers,

Being an old Dos weenie, I've tried to do something out of the past...merge different files (mods) together for a most unusual single-player mod.

I took the Frontierspace Mod and concatenated it with the Crossfire Mod to see if it would work. Both mods are unique and have excellent features. I was looking to see if a Super Mod could come out of the mess I made.

The simple answer is I pooched it very well. However, I tried changing my starting location and the dual mods worked for short periods. System alignments, gate positions and trade lanes were often doubled up.

There are so many mods out there that have merit in one or more features. That's why I tried to do a most difficult task using an old trick.

I would still like to see a couple super mods that would cut down on a lot of development time. Unfortunately, people who own their mods often do not want to see anything they did not design or agree to.

The concatenate did not fully work, but it gave me a lot of ideas. If I were a lot younger and had the time, I'd work on a super mod, giving credit for whose work I borrowed, and see what y'all think of it. Like I said, I'm working on single player first since it is easier.

My next step is to merge some ship designs and weapons just to see how hard it is to build a smaller merged mod. Rest assured, I will not distribute anyone's work as my own nor download it unless everyone concerned approves.

A Super Crossfire with over 2,000+ planets is possible, maybe not by me, but somehow and by someone...someday

If you have constructive comments on the possibility of a Super Mod, ( e.g. Crossfire + Frontierspace + etc... ) let us all see it.

My goal was to have a Freelancer game that never ends. You can't imagine how many versions of Freelancer I've played. I have my grandchildren starting to get the Freelancer bug.

Forever a Freelancer!

Franco428

Thor - VHS (Very Heavy Scout)

A design based on a Liberty heavy fighter, the Thor Scout was made generally for long-range recon missions to find and identify hostile bases and new trade routes. It is very fast stealthy, heavily armed and lightly armored. The tractor beam has the longest reach of all single pilot ships. The cargo hold is detachable with an encrypted beacon for post contact pickup. The Thor is ideal for exploring and hunting down hostiles.

Odin - VHF (Very Heavy Fighter/Bomber)

An Order-based Spook shop design ship was originally a prototype for a heavy bomber. It was modified to switch from attack to convoy defense missions. It has four missile/torpedo hard points, laminated armor to protect against most offensive weapons, four engines with two being used just for shield / weapons, and dual shields. The quad engines can be reconfigured at a base for ship speed when the Odin is in its attack mode configuration. As a defensive ship with heavy armor, the Odin is a slower but more powerful ship. As an offensive ship with speed and quad torpedoes, the Odin is almost unstoppable in the attack. Hostiles would do well to avoid any contact with an Odin in either mode.

Finger of God - SHF (Super Heavy Fighter)

The FOG contains both borderworld and ancient derelict designs. There is no information on the armor plating but one battleship captain was left scratching his head after they hit the FOG several times with their main gun and no ill effects were noted. The offensive weapons appear to be some type of plasma that envelopes the attacked ship. Fortunately, the cost of a FOGs will prevent all but the very rich from enjoying the safety this ship provides. With its long sleek design it looks more like a cargo ship than a super-sized fighter. At first glance its impressive size and no visible weapons will be enough to lure in the uneducated. This ship should be avoided if contacted. We can expect it to be used to transport the families of the rich and powerful.

I have a triple screen setup with the Matrox triplehead2go unit. Has anyone done any work to get this type of system to work with Freelancer or it Mods?

Great Mod!

But I seem to be missing the story line for this mod,

unless there isn't one.

After completeing the Freelancer front end and then

continuing on to the CF frontier, finding all the gates, holes, planets and wierd things

just don't seem right without a good story line and missions. The "old home world" visit

was interesting for astronavigation, but except for that one special spot, what is the

point? Just flying around in single player mode should have a little more aventure and

nearly impossible jobs to do.

Fur us non-German sprecken people, Ich finden das CF

mod a great gamen mit lots of fun and excitementen. Go ahead and laughen at mine

fingergapoken on da keyborden. I spent ten years in the Netherlands and worked in Achen,

Heidelburg, Ramstein & Dusseldorf. I enjoyed many good times at guest houses all over

Germany. Garmisch-PK will always be my favorite place. Great people, good firends and

humor you don't find in France, Belgium or England!

Now that the CF mod is

complete and tweaked. What is your next project? More Freelancer mods I hope.

As a Freelancer, I found the FireFly series and Serenity movie as close to

being a part of the Freelancer universe as any shows I've seen.

I've played Elite,

Privateer, ProtoStar and others before finding Freelancer. The Serenity Browncoats are as

close to being freelancers as any other fictional group.

The Crossfire mod is

fantastic. For an old guy, actually a really old guy, I get to relieve workday stress by

playing Freelancer/Crossfire games. Watching Serenity and Firefly and playing Freelancer

are a daily event. That is normal right?

Just for some info on who plays CF....how

many of us, besides me, are over 55?

How many combat vets play? I'm a Nam Infantry

Vet with two tours.

Since my mom was from Slovenia and my dad was an American

Indian, that makes me one heck of a Freelancer! Well, an old Freelancer anyway!

Fly

on brothers (and sisters)!

Franco Hensley
Speingfield, VA, USA