Posts by Drakon

On a related note, does anyone know what is on Battleship Bismark (i.e. new ships or equipment)? I'm tempted to destroy all the cruiser escorts so I can come back and dock with the station, but A) I don't know if the cruisers respawn and B) have a nagging suspicion that it's just a regular Rheinland battleship and isn't worth that much trouble to get access to. xD

Michael: I'm not sure that they're inhuman so much as Utopia is restricted airsp- er... spacespace. The weapon platforms near the jump hole turn NPCs red, suggesting that prying civilian eyes are unwelcome. Similarly, the cruisers at the checkpoint tend to turn Bismark and police patrols red. That would make sense given they are trying to keep us away from Triangulum. Evidence in the system suggests that heavy weapons are tested in the system as well, meaning that the people who run the system have a vested interest in keeping classified hardware concealed from meddling freelancers. Fortunately, the defense measures are rather weak.

bostick2003:

fraid2:

1. Choose your Multiplayer Character (new chars only)
-Selects your appearance on bases when visiting bars, equipment dealerships, and so on.
-Crossfire Trent is essentially Trent in an Order uniform.
-SWAT_OP-R8R looks like the NPC bartender found on Planet Blood, Custodian System.
-Other options from the menu are vanilla Freelancer storyline characters you may choose from.

2. Choose how Juni should look like
-Classic outfit is the original police uniform.
-Sexy Outfits 1 and 2 are rather self explanatory.

3. Choose your Intro Music
-Some of these are rather self-evident.
-The music can be found in Crossfire 1.80 -> Data -> AUDIO -> MUSIC.
-My best guess is that Crossfire intro 1-10 are NEW_SEARCHING MISSION 01-10 in that folder... but I'm not sure.

4. Choose your HUD
-Provides you with five options for colored themes to your in-game windows and toolbars.
-The Orange HUD is a bit too bright and does not contrast with text well for some people (just a warning), but so far I like it.

5. Which Singleplayer mode do you want?
-This setting allows you to choose between the FL vanilla storyline or playing OpenSP.
-Some folks find the vanilla storyline to be too difficult on CF, while others enjoy it. OP has tried to make it a little easier in 1.8.

6. Which set of Intro scenes do you prefer?
-Sirius (Alliance), Earth (Sol System), and Altair (Coalition) are all regions of the CF universe.
-Rotating ships is rather self explanatory I imagine.
-I do not know what Story 1-3 or The Race are.

7. Which cursor set do you prefer?
-To be honest, I have really no clue what the different cursors look like or which is which.

8. Enable Screen Capture settings?
-I do not know what this feature does either.
-It is unclear to me whether FL will capture screenshots as it normally does without this.
-Rumor has it that selecting "No" can resolve client-side crash-to-desktop problems.

9. Which system backgrounds do you prefer?
-High quality is for eyecandy system backgrounds.
-Standard FL is for increasing an older computer's performance.

10. Choose particle color?
-Eight options to choose from.
-As far as I can tell, it changes the look of tradelane and jumpgate energy visuals.

11. Advanced Shader (might cause problems)
-I don't know what these settings do, but it is obviously graphics-related.
-Deactivate if you wish to avoid current "triangles" issue with asteroids near jump gates.

12. High quality effects
-Enable for quality, enhanced eyecandy.
-Disable for increased performance on older computers.

13. Dynamic lights
-Enable for quality, enhanced eyecandy.
-Disable for increased performance on older computers.

14. Movie options?
-Original FL Intro + CF Intro is the same introduction as in CF 1.7
-Alt. FL Intro + FL story prequel shows the Nomad attack on Sol and Syd's theft of the Dom'Kavash artifact from Planet Sprague.
-Starlancer: Sol Wars trailer is a Starlancer trailer.
-Skip movies is rather straightforward.

15. SWAT-Portal Recticle Mod
-Switch from default setting if you are color blind.
-Otherwise, this setting is not particularly important.

16. Compatibility mode for old graphics cards
-Rumor has it that some client-side problems can be resolved by selecting "Activated"
-Deactivate if your graphics card is pretty old or is going apes*** in-game.

Hope this helps.

I logged onto the server briefly to make a character, and I was given a mission to go to the Custodian System. At that same moment, I was invited into the group and the mission was declared a success as I switched to the ship dealer. Not sure if this is supposed to be the case, but otherwise things seem alright. (Edit: returning to the server this evening, taking off from Planet Manhattan in a Rhino resulted in a blank, non-responsive brown screen with the sounds and music still running but no visuals).

As for OpenSP, upon starting a new game the screen flashes orange, brown, and a motley green before showing the landing sequence of the Starflyer on Planet Manhattan. Except, the text giving my location doesn't appear (but I can hear the letters being "typed") at the end of the sequence. From there, there is no toolbar or navigation displays. The only things on the screen are the starflyer, the city, and the passing ships. Attempting to F1 made the screen go orange - no options appeared for me to select from. The first time I eventually crashed to desktop, the second time I force-quit after a few minutes of trying to leave the landing pad or return to the game menu.

Edit: sorry for the non-related post; given that neither SP or MP properly functions for me, what at first seemed like a potential bug must be client side.

To be honest, I'm not sure whether this is a good thing.

James, the most rapid means of accumulating credits in Crossfire is through trade using a Soulforge train. The most popular trade routes of 1.7 were traditionally found in Rhineland, but I can't vouch for the status of these routes now. If you want to earn your living in a fighter, however, I would recommend taking missions from Planet Crossfire in X-3043. Taking missions against the CSF is harder but the pods are worth more, whereas missions against the Outcasts or Corsairs tend to be easier fare (provided you're flying a VHF). Three of the adjoining systems have prisons to sell to, so feel free to explore a bit. Hope this helps!

I generally don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to troubleshooting, but did you try to run it in XP compatibility mode?

Saxon, OP mentioned in the meeting on Jan 1 that he intends to give people a two week RP-free buffer zone to build up characters before RP begins - at which point he will also get personally involved in orchestrating RP events on the server. There is a new approach being taken and it has the potential to improve the quality of gameplay.

That having been said, somebody mentioned downloading the "fixed" version of the mod again. Just to clarify any misunderstanding, how does one know that they have the fixed download?

V

IX

Voted in the next round!

I'll try to tackle this if it isn't time sensitive, but for the next three or so weeks my course load is rather heavy. Alternatively, if someone is willing to write a draft of such an article and send it to me via PM I would gladly help edit, revise, and polish it.

XI

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Originally posted by Sam-Arrow-Thomas
What's the point in having so much starting money in SP ? and be friendly with everyone ? What, you want a navigable database to search for every new stuff without getting into trouble ? I doubt OP will offer you all CF1.8 secrets so easily, you'll have to face danger to explore my friend. Even if it is SP or MP.

And besides it's always more fun to rush sometimes, otherwise you get bored pretty quick !

To play Devil's advocate for a moment, customizable money settings can give people the freedom to choose whether or not to "rough it out." Money is not particularly difficult to make in Crossfire but, to give an example, I avoid illegal commodities and fly fighters to strictly adhere to my police role. It takes... awhile to make 150+ million credits via missions and escape pods. "Trade, Explore, Fight" can be a great catchall, but for those who have made dozens and dozens of characters over the years these things can become rather mundane while character building. Trade has become "fly back and forth from New Berlin to Stuttgart." Explore starts with "dock at every vanilla station and map every vanilla object for the n'th time." Similarly, Fight begins with "avoid combat with most NPC factions to protect your multi-million credit rep hacks, safely trade, and buy top-notch equipment without being denied landing clearance." That is not to say that starting over from scratch isn't exciting, but rather that it is much less fun to do in OpenSP alone than it is on the server with one's m8s. Just because a few players think their style of gameplay is superior does not mean that those who don't want to replicate the "rags to riches" story in OpenSP again should be forced to conform. It's not a big deal of course, but Radu certainly wasn't offering a bad idea.

Anyway, once I've gotten a char built up and have experienced some of the new features I will offer my thoughts on them. From what I have heard thus far I suspect that my appraisal will be quite upbeat and positive.

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What do you mean, OP? I didn't catch your post here until partway through the download. ?)