Posts by Finisher

Marshal, can one assume that you prefer CODENAME guns over PPC's? Do you find the significantly lower projectile speed somewhat of an impediment?

One of my ships has 4 PPC's. Another has two DBMKII and two Nomad Energy Cannons; actually a pretty formidable matchup what with the identical projectile speeds and the zero power usage of the NEC. But, for me, switching from the PPC-equipped ship to the one with the slower guns requires an adjustment. And there's just no way I can score hits with the same frequency I do with the PPC's, although the DBMKII-NEC configuration does more damage when I actually do connect. Works fairly good as long as you have disciplined aim combined with a semi-automatic or short-burst, make-each-shot-count firing style. But those PPC's tear through the distance with a vengeance.

Both my ships have at least one pulse cannon. However I do not use Tizonas with the PPC's because of the vast discrepancy in projectile speed. Adv. Debilitators have faster projectiles, and a higher damage/power-consumption quotient, although they do less damage. To me they seem more elegant for use with PPC's.

I haven't had much opportunity to try myself in PvP. What's this "Top Gun" server event I always see advertised on the Multiplayer server? I scanned the forum but could not find any posts regarding it. Could use some (ahem) <i>gentle</i> practice -- but actually I'll take any form of practice I can get. If I get ripped a new one a few times, oh well -- I am a fairly fast study.

I hope this discussion keeps going a little while longer. I am curious to find out people's thoughts on this type of stuff, and see how different are people's philosophies and fighting styles.

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<i>Using guns that quickly reduce shields are good versus NPCs but don't help that much in PVP </i>
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Interesting. Is that true? Because it seems like at least one pulse cannon is a part of everyone's arsenal. I would hear more of these PvP tips. Sincerely.

Hi,

I'm no expert, but even I can ascertain that a fighter reloading against a train is bad form, without question. If what you say is true then there is a tremendous amount of hypocrisy here. KRT needs to sign on to this discussion.

A few weeks ago, KRT's King Arthur and I chatted awhile. He seemed like a decent guy, enthusiastic about his new clan and its role in the Crossfire universe. He was recruiting members. We discussed the possibility of my joining, but I never followed through with it. I had some unanswered questions that I never got the chance to resolve. I am nothing if not deliberate in my choices. (Some might say I am <i>too</i> deliberate.)

I was informed that the KRT clan was a fighting clan that helped new players and helped protect against this-or-that sinister group. Sounds perfectly reasonable for a clan titled "Knights of the Round Table." Fitting. A good concept.

I personally have had no negative experiences with KRT. But there are a number of people on this forum telling some less-than-flattering tales about them. Some have accused them of "unknightliness," of acting as pirates disguised as police, waylaying smugglers and then tractoring in the blown illegal cargo for their own gain.

And now this. KRT needs to step forward and clear their name. Perhaps there are some "Black Knights" spoiling an otherwise promising clan. Or else perhaps they could change their name and call themselves BKRT? Maybe be a pirate clan? KRT turns to "the dark side." That might be kinda cool, actually.[bat]

I keep seeing a message online: "Type /? to get a list of console commands."

I am embarrassed to even ask, but....

...am I the only one that can't figure out how to open a console window and use console commands? Whaddya whaddya?

Your three VHF's listed above seem fine. I tried that F-190 Malice (also known as F-190 Dagger) and found it to be quite agile for a ship with such a high hull rating. It's not a bad looking ship, either. Four Class 10 mounts and two Class 9 mounts, but no turret -- I guess that's the trade-off for having very good hull strength <i>and</i> agility. Seems fair to me.

As members have mentioned in several other posts, most of the VHF's will give you a fighting chance, although some might tend to be rather challenging due to slow maneuverability, particularly in PvP.

I have not heard anything bad about any of the three choices you named.

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<i>There you go again DS.......shooting the story down.</i>

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Heheh I am guilty of the same thing.

I never even had a hint that there was a story-driven element here until after it was too late. (I found some data disk but never got to the bottom of that.)

First thing I did after docking on Earth, was run to the CF Database (shhh!) and jot down the location of the rift.

Almost ruined things for myself, too. No bribe was available the first time on Earth. I ended up flying into Gurm and picking up a bad rep with the Coalition. (They take one look at strangers and put them on their sh*t list.)

Luckily the Coalition rep still talked to me. I have Marshal Cunningham to thank that I even went back and tried to get the bribe.

Maybe there's more to the story that I could benefit from, even though I already found the rift?

Personally, though, just flying around and experiencing all the new stuff is enough for me. Even if I missed something in the way of storyline, I certainly do not feel cheated.

Hi,

I don't think it's a big secret: the CF database tells the coordinates. Every coordinate in Sol represents a huge chunk of space, though, so you might have to fly around a bit.

Be sure and get the Coalition Bribe before flying into Altair.

Well,

I took your advice, even though my rep with the Coalition was well into the red.

I took a couple missions to make some dough and pick up some escape pods for quick cash. I quickly earned the 3+ million I knew I needed to bribe the Coalition (I was tapped out from recently buying Adv. Champion H.F. Shield, shield upgrade, power supply, etc.).

I headed over to Sol (the Neptune and Hyperion warp gates were invisible this time, and not functional; but I just let it cruise and left the pilot's chair for a few, rather than restart). Finally, I landed on Earth. I just <i>knew</i> the Coalition reps were not going to speak to me.

But they did. [10]

Now, I had not fired on any Coalition nor on any Order ships; all I did was go into Altair before getting the bribe. After this, I had a pretty bad rep with the Coalition. I thought my goose was cooked, and I was not thrilled with the prospect of starting a whole new second character to be my primary all-around character. I had always figured, after reaching this point, any new characters would be for support roles.

It's a funny thing, eh? Thanks for talking me through it, Marshal.

P.S.
Another weird thing: I distinctly remember the first time I visited Earth, <i>before</i> going into Altair. There were no Coalition reps around. I remember lingering in the bar scene, listening to the amusing risque dialogue that was cooked up between Trent and Juni, and there were only three other people in the bar: the bartender, a Zoner sitting in a booth, offering a Zoner bribe, and a Blood Dragon female standing near the center. It wasn't until I came back the second time that there was a full bar, with two Coalition reps. I had actually headed back to Nephele after my first visit to Sol; I had heard from someone or somewhere that Nephele was where I needed to be to get the Coalition bribe. After I got the bad rep with the Coalition, and revisited earth, I was able to obtain the bribe. Weird.

Well, it looks like I might have hit a brick wall with this game.

I went through Sol, entered into Altair, and from there into Coalition space. I noticed they were unfriendly towards me.

Now, from reading the posts, it would seem that there is *no way* to get on the Coalition's good side, because I did not get the bribe on Earth before entering their space.

Reading through some other posts, the "cure-all" seems to be starting a new character.

Start a new character?!

You gotta be kidding me!

Just losing the system map alone is enough to make me shout that idea down. You start out with a character, you develop it, you expect it to remain your main character.

If this is the only "solution" to the problem, you are looking at one thoroughly discouraged participant. I just don't see the point in going back and starting an entirely new character. That just does not seem too desirable.

There ought to be a huge warning in the game, like a big flashing neon sign saying "don't go here without bribing the Coalition first."

Am I missing something? Is there any point in continuing? Or have I pretty much locked myself out from further exploration?

If so, then it's a pity that an irreversible trap like this would be left in place. It's a real fly in the ointment.
:lost:

Yes, I missed seeing that Warp gate on my scanners, and cruised all the way in past the giant planets. (I stepped away and left the ship free to cruise on its own for ten or twenty minutes, checking back every few minutes or so.)

But there was something impressive about coming in slow, that really drove home the scale of the solar system. And the way the sun kept getting bigger and bigger.... It is done very well. It has a reality -- there's a different feel to the "fabric" -- that sets it apart from the other systems I have seen in the game. I find it appropriate and satisfying.

Once I got in past the gas giants, I of course spotted the trade lanes, as well as the warp gates leading all the way back to Pluto and the Hyperion gate. Nice!

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<i>Btw, if you liked Sol, you won't beleive Altair. There are nearly 2 dozen systems of similar size beyond the Dimensional Rift in Sol. You'll find aliens, another house, and even a way back to Sirius if you go far enough in. Enjoy the exploration </i>
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Sounds good to me. I found the dimensional rift in Sol, and went through Styx, Mandar, and Gurm.

I finally turned around and headed back to Dublin as there was nowhere friendly to dock. I heard tell of something about a Coalition Bribe. (Now I know what a ping-pong ball feels like....) [wall]

This is really an amazing mod. It's like an expansion pack to the third power.

I only discovered Crossfire two or three weeks ago. Today I entered Sol for the first time.

Damn that's impressive!

Took me awhile to get from Pluto to Earth. (Is there a trade lane in our future?)

That feels like outer space. The way the sun slowly fills the screen and all; like nothing else I have seen in Freelancer.

Op, you did an excellent job there!

The general consensus seems to be, that you should be able to use bots and bats if you are in a freighter, as long as you are not engaging your attacker, but are running.

However, there are some noteworthy dissenters to this line of thinking: Inferno, Tassie, and, most notably, OP himself, who has voiced his intolerance to reloading and repairing in no uncertain terms.

And it seems that the original line of thinking was: no bots or bats in PVP. Ever. No matter what. But now you have a lot of respectable members considering otherwise.

So, is anything resolved here?

If we are taking votes, I would vote for allowing a fleeing smuggler to use all necessary means to protect his cargo. Smugglers, by virtue of the ship they are flying, are not placing themselves in the "jousting course." I would think for a non-combative runner in a freighter, dueling rules would not apply, and if fleeing (with extreme dedication) is not considered dishonorable, neither would invoking all other means of self-preservation.

And it might make blowing away that poor, all-but-helpless flying warehouse (using your highly maneuverable VHF arrayed with PPC's and Tizonas and special equipment) slightly more exciting.

Hi all,

The Global Server is down and as a result it is really, really quiet over in the Crossfire Universe.

I thought I would repost the directions for connecting directly, directions that I found on this forum fairly easily.

<i>Originally posted by darkstalker
...Try to connect directly, To do this open the FL prgram files open the .exe dir and click on the file called fldirectip.hta and enter the server IP (212.227.23.76) and then use the run FL option </i>

Maybe the admin can put those directions in a top-level or "sticky" message for any future GS outages. I mean, things are *really* quiet over there right now. Uncommonly so.

AVG free, as mentioned above, is indispensable. Also, try using a freeware program called "Spybot - Search and Destroy," as an adjunct to Ad-Aware. This program picks up junk Ad-Aware just passes by, and it takes less time to run a scan. Thirdly, you might try running a program called Tauscan. The full version of Tauscan should be available as a 30-day trial.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Three things:

<i>Kill Hogosha, Farmers Alliance, and a whole bunch of Corsairs to fix the problem. </i>

Kill Corsairs? I can do that!

<i>Or if you see one of my characters online give me a shout. I have 3 of those shields in my store that i will sell for the price i bought them. Store is in Manhatan.</i>

Thanks Osiris_72, I will keep an eye open for you.

<i>Or make a new char for this run and buy the Junkers bribe...then you will be ok</i>

This last one is most intriguing. I was going to start a new thread about this but maybe someone can answer it here. I see many people with multiple chars (Character1, Character1_train, Character1_$, etc.) to the point where I suspect they are funneling goods and money into one "uber character." I have no idea how this is done, and might have even been afraid this went against some rule or other. Can anyone verify (and clarify) such arrangements? Thanks!

(Go easy on me, remember I am still trying to claw my way out of the pit of my Newbie-ness.)[7]

Hi all,

I thought I would go to Hiruga and get the Adv. Champion H.F. Shield. Well, I entered the Chugoku system and it seems the Blood Dragons are angry at me, as they opened fire without hesitation.

Later, when I had time to assess my status, I observed that the Blood Dragons are <i>severely</i> miffed with me. What I did to raise their ire, I cannot guess. I have not had much to do with their enemies, and I have not had any encounters with the Golden Chrysanthemums, their only allies.

Is it possible to get a Blood Dragon bribe? If so, does anyone have any suggestions on a good place to do so?

I'm trying to piece together a decent fighting machine, here! [101]

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

[rocket][sleep][rocketq3]
(four out of five doctors recommend <b>Adv. Champion H.F. Shield</b> for a more restful night's sleep)

<i>such crashs are totally unusual... crossfire is known to be one of the most stable mods
and i cant find anything that would cause such crashs </i>

Op, let me add my opinion (here is as good a place as any, I guess), that Crossfire is an extremely well conceived, well balanced mod. It reawakened my interest in Freelancer after years of not playing the game. I had given some other mods a try, but never stayed with any of them as I never saw the point. Many were poorly balanced, the online community failed to interact enough, etc. This mod did the trick. Sometimes a person fails to say "thanks" loud enough.

Thanks for this mod! [35]

Hi Azadur,

There are a handful of ships that will take 6 level 10 guns. Most (if not all) of them do not have a forward firing turret. And most of the ships with 4 lvl 10's and 2 lvl 9's also have a hardpoint for at least a lvl 9 turret -- I think some may even have the turret hardpoint at level 10 -- I think the ship I am currently flying does, in fact. Although I have yet to come across a level 10 turret gun -- maybe when I finally make my way into Coalition space (still quite the newb I am). So it all tends to even out. Personally I sort of lean toward having the seventh gun and live with the two 9's on the wings or fuselage.

The Ceptyr in Custodian has 6 level 10 hardpoints. (Don't worry, BG, I only tried it out in SP!) It is a sweet-looking ship but it turns sort of like a turtle on valium -- or, as another member said in an earlier post about a different ship (and I love this): like Roseanne Barr in a photo booth.

I believe the Scourge in Casius has 6 level 10's (don't worry IOC I only tried it out in SP!). It turns a little better than the Ceptyr. There are a few others, I am sure. Don't recall all of them offhand though.

I hate to bitch and whine, but....

I was playing for a couple hours today. I experienced maybe four or five crashes during that time. It seemed like maybe one crash for every half hour I was playing. Perhaps that is not accurate, but that is what if felt like to me. Two of the times I was 95 percent through a mission. Nothing is more fun than blasting away at wave after wave of Corsair ships, and when you're down to the last one or two ships the game crashes. Twice within about an hour. Sort of a rude nudge back to reality. Grrrr! And WAAHHHH!

I am new here, have only been coming to multiplayer for less than a week. Is this typical server behavior? I read something about some anti-lag measures being put in place. Perhaps that is the reason?

I remember a time when lag was an inevitable part of online gaming, and we still went online and blew the crap out of each other and managed to have fun. The lag sucked horribly sometimes, but we dealt. Now we get ultra-low latency but the game crashes constantly. Ain't technology wonderful.

I hate lag, but this frequent crashing is killing me! Please make it all better!

<i> Neophobos is a free system until we hear something different </i>

Thanks, admin!

BTW I recently bought a new VHF in a different open system. The darned thing is a VHF but it handles like a Starflier. I almost feel guilty about flying it. If I had read the admin's post first I prob'ly would have went and bought the Gunstar. Now, though, I am in no hurry to get rid of the more agile ship I currently own, even though I maintain that the Gunstar is a fine ship and one of the best-looking user created ships I have ever seen.

Thanks again for opening the system!