Changelog Shadow of Fear

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Actual Version 2.0 build 8842 RC4

Gameplay changes

• greatly improved AI
• hide and seek Mission (missions to do over several Systems with several sub Missions)
• 20 Story driven new high looting wrecks placed in special Zones (riddles have to be cleared, reputations altered and hints followed to find them) one of these Wreck Spots actually is a Fleet of 29 Wrecks.
• Wingman Support
• Faction Support
• “New Player” protection by token System can not be harmed when flying 2 types of Ships but also can not harm other human Players
• undocking kill protection
• Bots
  • 30+ different Bots are helping or hunting you
• Mass effects per Solar/Ship/Equipment/Good
• “player looting”
• death penalties (also partly transfered to the winner of a pvp)
• Player dockable Carriers
• Player location infos
• Player Storage
• Player driven Bountyhunt
• Players can build Items
• Player Banking System
• Player Item Transfer
• Reworked kill Statistics
• New Ranking System
• Group Marks on Targets
• Player Marks on Targets
• Fuel consuming jump drives (not activated yet)
• and, and, and

Technical changes

• FL Flak Hook 1.67
• System Channels cancled (you are chatting in the Universe Channel)
• several new Intro Sequences

new Factions

• United Stars Organization
• United Stars Military
• Alliance
• Alliance Military
• Coalition
• Coalition Military
• DOM
• DOM Military
• Faction related Stories told by the Freelancer way in Rumors
• hundreds of new Rumors per Faction
• Reputation is also harmed in pvp
• Token System
  • buyable Tokens change your Affilation making you to a real Part of the Faction you want to be in:
    • all major Houses
    • most pirate Factions
    • most coorporations
    • all new Factions

Enviroment

• HD Starspheres
• HD Icons
• HD Freelancer Planets
• HD Music
• new rendering Sub System
• Navmap improved
• new Cursor Set

SOUND

• working 3D Sound
• new Sound effects
• New Music in the new Systems
• New Sound Zones

Effects

• Itano Circus Effects
• new stunning Jump Effect
• new Tradelane Effects
• new Egine Effects
• new Weapon Effects
• new Light Effects

Trade

• 30+ new Commodities
• upgraded mining profits
• dangerous but valuable Super Routes
• Credit Chips for paying Missions or store money

Weapons

• 50+ new Weapons
• completly rebalanced Weapon behavior matching the Ship types

Stations

• 199 new Stations
  • additional 73 Player Stations for player dockable Ships with buyable Equipment while transported by your buddy
  • Every vanilla System contains special Playerstations where new stuff can be bought.
  • Nomad Stations in every vanilla System
  • hundreds of new NPC’s buying, selling and telling thounsands of Rumors

Ships

• dockable Capships
• dockable Transporters
• +22 new USO Ships (several of them are Player Carriers)
  • Viper USO military LF
  • Cobra MK I USO military HF
  • Cobra MK III USO military VHF
  • Krait USO civilian LF
  • Sidewinder USO civilian HF
  • Python MK I USO civilian VHF
  • Mamba USO civilian LF
  • Gecko USO civilian HF
  • Fer de Lance MK I USO civilian VHF
  • Freighter civilian
  • Transport civilian
  • Battleship KOL military
  • Cruiser KODIAK military
  • Gunboat KROSOV military
  • Military Very Heavy Fighter ASP MK II
  • Military Heavy Fighter Constrictor
  • Military Light Fighter Viper Interceptor
  • Repairship
  • Mining Ship
  • Gunboat Javelin military
  • Corvette Cobalt military
  • Dreadnought Marza military
• 1+ new Alien Ship
  • AOran’sctko Alien Light Protection Fighter (NPC only)
• 2+ new IMG Ships
  • Spectre IMG civilian LF
  • Arrow IMG civilian HF
• 3+ new GMG Ships
  • Nova VHF
  • Discoverer HF
  • Buster LF
• 2+ new Interspace Ships
  • Buzzard LF
  • Cargo Tanker XL Transporter
• 3+ new Outcast Ships
  • Nova Pirate VHF
  • Discoverer Pirate HF
  • Buster Pirate LF
• 3+ new Coalition Ships
  • Lagg LF
  • Basilisk LF
  • Hornet LF
• 1+ new Admin Ship
  • Asgard Admin HF
• +43 new flyable “normal” Ships
  • CSV
  • Escape Pod
  • Train
  • Prison Liner
  • Luxury Liner
  • Heavy Lifter
  • Large Transport
  • Small Transport
  • Mining Ship
  • Repair Ship
  • Armored Transport
  • Rheinland Battleship
  • Rheinland Cruiser
  • Rheinland Gunship
  • Rheinland VHF Harlequin
  • Order Battleship Osiris
  • Nomad Battleship
  • Nomad Gunship
  • Nomad Fighter
  • Liberty Dreadnought
  • Liberty Cruiser
  • Liberty Gunboat
  • Liberty VHF Liberator & Liberator MKII
  • Liberty Predator
  • Kusari Battleship
  • Kusari Destroyer
  • Kusari Gunship
  • Kusari VHF Hydra & Hydra MKII
  • Dragon VHF
  • Diablo HF
  • Heretic LF
  • Katana LF
  • Serafina Fr
  • Mule Fr
  • Starblazer
  • Startracker
  • Bretonia Battleship
  • Bretonia Destroyer
  • Bretonia Gunship
  • Bretonia VHF Covenanter
  • Depot

   

• -> of course everything above in addition to the whole Freelancer Fleet!

• +7 new Ships – Type pursuit LF (additional Vanilla Light Fighter with new class behavior)

• HD Freelancer Ship Textures

• all Freelancer Stations (20+) player flyable

• all Freelancer Support Ships player flyable

• all Freelancer capital Ships players flyable

• general Ship behavior for following Types
  • Freighter
  • Transporter / Transporter XLarge
  • Trains
  • Support Crafts
  • pursuit Light Fighter
  • Light Fighter
  • Heavy Fighter
  • Very Heavy Fighter
  • Gunship / Gunboat
  • Cruiser / Destroyer / Corvette
  • Battleship / Dreadnought / Battleship XLarge
  • Station

• 88Flak Ship behavior completly reworked
• several new Harpoints for every Ship
• Light Maps

Special Equipment (lootable and buildable)

• 9V Battery
• Advanced Generator
• Advanced Scanner
• AMS (Tractor)
• Anti Camp Shield
• ANNUBIS POWER SUPPLY
• BFG
• BFS
• BACKEDPOTATO
• Black
• Blue
• BOUNCYBALL
• Bubblebob!
• CANNON A
• CANNON B
• CANNON C
• CAP.GEN I – X (10 different Parts)
• COCONUT
• CTS
• Delivery
• DRAIL
• FIREVIPER SNIPING SYSTEM
• Frying Pan
• Generator
• GODHAND
• HOLLOWPOINT
• Hurricane
• ID5
• LONGBEAM
• LOOT GRAB THING
• MOONRAIL SNIPING SYSTEM
• MTU
• NOMAD CRUISE DISRUPTOR
• Nomad Dyson Turret
• NOMAD HUNTER
• PDS
• PHÖNIX
• POPCORN
• RED
• REGEN BLOCK MK I – X (10 different Parts)
• ROUTER
• STARFURY SNIPING SYSTEM
• STUNPOINT SNIPING SYSTEM
• THUNDERBOLT SNIPING SYSTEM
• X800
• Dreadnought Shield
• Transport Shield
• Gunboat Shield
• Cruiser / Destroyer Shield

Planets

• +60 6 sided different HD Planets in the new Systems
• HD Freelancer Planets

Suns

• +12 Sun Surfaces

Systems

• +14 new and heavily populated systems
• +3 arena systems
• +3 task systems
• Entry System “The Nexus” leads to every major House choosable Faction Status before the Game is entered

History

Upgrade 8842 RC3 to 8842 RC4

Category: Maintenance Release 8842.4 via Installer

Description:

• 20 Story driven new high looting wrecks placed in special Zones (riddles have to be cleared, reputations altered and hints followed to find them) one of these Wreck Spots actually is a Fleet of 29 Wrecks,
• The MP Entrance fee for the contest systems was reduced,
• Navigaton Map Update,
• several new Zone Sounds,
• Server sided improvements,
• several solar object fixes,
• several Wreck Infocards updated,
• Buzzard Surface reworked,
• Lagg Surface reworked (thanks to Erzengel for the investigation),
• Basilisk Surface reworked (thanks to Erzengel for the investigation),
• 90 Models fixed for a better Game Performance,
• Capital Shield mounting/dismounting bug fixed,
• Zoners Token fixed,
• Heretic, Diablo and Predator suspended (due to Game balance),
• Harlequin and Covenanter suspended (bugged – NPC’s are still using the Ship),
• Battleships are able to mount Cruiser and Gunboat Turrets now (usefull for AF Turrets on Battleships),
• Torpedo hull damage halved, energy damage set to zero (meaning: no shield damage on torpedo impact anymore but your ship will be pushed dependend on it’s mass),
• several Ship Dealer Pictures added,
• Vanilla Wrecks completely reworked – they loot much more now,
• Completely reworked ranking System,
• Repair Ship is holding 499 batteries and nanobots now,
• USO Repair Ship is holding 999 batteries and nanobots now,
• USO Repair Ship lost it’s active turret mounts due to a possible exploit,
• All(!) Radiation Zones reworked by Hackenbusch,
• Liberator (Defender IIa) (HQ FL Model) is replacing the 88’Flak Liberator while the old one will kept in for NPC’s,
• Hydra MK II (HQ FL Model) is replacing the 88’Flak Hydra while the old one will kept in for NPC’s,
• DirectX 9 Interpreter update,
• several typos fixed
• Base Version for 8843

Upgrade 8842.1 to 8842 RC3

Category: Maintenance Release 8842.3 via Installer

Description:

• Fighter Turret Slots unhidden on military Fighters contains various new possibilities while equipping these ships.
• NavMap updated
• Capital Ships are now able to move in Turret view (via arrow keys for example) while still keeping their “move to the position where the player is looking to” behavior.
• Color changings for certain text messages
• New and updated packing library for faster crc checking
• New and updated effects, enb library updated
• several Text Informations updated and renewed
• several ship behaviors fixed
• Tradelane dock range changed to a nearer distance, so small ships may dock smoother but capitals are still able to dock the lanes.
• Electra wrecks changed so they take damage now.
• Fixed a few unwanted Superroutes so trading may become not that easy anymore.
• The pathfinding system is working now.
• Cobra MK III, Fer De Lance MkI, Javelis and Cobalt updates and fixes
• Constrictor is not crashing the client when purchased anymore.
• Basilisk is not crashing the client when purchased anymore.
• Hundrets of Rumors was reworked by Grampahun
• Electra, Irkutzk and Dublin updated
• Jettison Bug fixed.
• Server related updates.
• Version updated
• Nova VHF
• Nova Pirate VHF
• Discoverer HF
• Discoverer Pirate HF
• Buster LF
• Buster Pirate LF
• Buzzard LF
• Coalition Hornet LF
• Cargo Tanker XL Transporter
• Asgard Admin HF
• Cloaking Devices are mountable and reworked
• Usage of Cloaking Devices in Single Player
• Player friendly Market File
• Admin Station
• Credits Directory with several files
• New Installer with a much higher packing ratio
• a few Adminnew, related Weapons
• rework of Soryns Ships to get proper mount points
• complete rework of the Coalition Colony Ship
• fix of a few Death Zones
• USO Stations now have Depots near
• a few Effects updated
• more player friendly loot settings
• new Planet for testing purposes
• Start of the Coalition Sector
  • +10 new Planets
  • +Colony Ship as Station
  • initial Story Start
  • new Coalition LF Fighters
    • Lagg (M)
    • Basilisk (M)
  • initial Coalition special Market
  • +6 new Music Tracks
  • initial Coalition LF Engine
• Main screen reworked
• new Cursor
• skipped the Missions again (to hard even in lowest settings)
• Titan VHF settings reworked
• Player buildable Station Mod initialized and activated for later use
• Freelancer Ship Yard II
• several death zone updates

Upgrade 8841

Category: Initial open Beta III Release

Description:

• Shadow of Fear got it’s own Installer.
• HD resampled Music implemented.
• A new and reworked Hook version is running (ofc. 88Flak compatible).
• Several lootable commodity parts for item build support.
• New and buildable: Weapons (25+), Power Generators (15), Shields (15), Shield Generators (15), Scanners (5), Tractors (5)
• New Interface bars to adjust settings more detailed.
• Looting System reworked, loadouts of all ships and solars reworked.
• Marza and Kol updated.
• New Bot Nomad Gunboat to make certain bots stronger.
• USO Refinery and Tradeport updated.
• 14 Systems updated.
• Shadow of Fear dll content reworked (beta).

Update 8840

Category: Development Update

Description:

• The second set of USO Systems are playable now – contains 3 new USO Systems with unique locations, Rumors, Ships.
• Shiparch 2.2 by Chris initiated
• all USO Ships (22) are buyable now, for some of them you need to get a key to the stations holding them.
• rwork of all damage Zones
• new HD Icons by Hrimthur
• fixes
• Travelling Systems are now leading to Alaska (+4 Systems +2 bases), all Alaska tokens are out of order, you may sell or jettison them.
• Numeric Display of strength is present now (Adoxa)
• new wrecks with rare ship upgrades are present in the new Systems
• Capital Ships Kol and Kodiak was updated
• New Solars, Starspheres, Suns and Planets

Update 8839

Category: Development Update

Description:

• Maia Development Release including unique loactions
• Shiparch 2.2 by Chris initiated
• New Ships Rollout
  • USO Military Very Heavy Fighter ASP MK II
  • USO Military Heavy Fighter Constrictor
  • USO Military Light Fighter Viper Interceptor
  • USO Repairship
  • USO Mining Ship
  • USO Gunboat Javelin
  • USO Corvette Cobalt
  • AOran’sctko Alien Light Protection Fighter (NPC only)
• several Dock Mounts of Stations fixed to the 88Flak style
• new Traderoute for Alien Goods
• Taygeta fixes
• new crosshair set

Update 8838

Category: Development Update

Description:

• Taygeta Development Release
• Sterope -> Taygeta Jumpgate locked
• Shiparch 2.0 by Chris initiated
• New Ships Rollout
  • USO Fer de Lance VHF civilian Fighter
  • USO Gecko HF civilian Fighter
  • USO Mamba LF civilian Fighter

• several minor fixes
• Marketfiles partly reworked

Update 8837

Category: Bug Fix

Description:

• Installation Issues fixed for new installed Clients
• Version enumerating for exsisting Clients

Update 8836

Category: closed Beta 2 maintenance, rollout and improvment Update

Description:

• USO Refinery Dockmount updated
• Nikopolis Bar Background changed to match the System
• Gramps Mining Station Asteroid exclusion Zone initiated
• Added HP Baydoors to every custom Ship to avoid crashes while dropping internal Cargo
• Vanguard Wreck changed so it matches both wrecks, vanilla and SoF
• Warna Bar Background changed to match the realistic System Enviroment
• Cobra MK I Wireframe reworked
• Memphis Bar Background reworked so it matches the System Enviroment
• Prisoner Run initiated, new picture, new routes
• VIP run initiated, new picture, new routes
• drop rate of the Subaru Field in NGC 1432 decreased
• Adrianopel NPCs reworked to match their work
• Planet Storms reworked
• Juneau Shipyard opened and reworked – there are two Juneau Shipyards now, where the secret one still holds the only place to buy the Osiris
• Docking Character Gramps Mining reworked
• Sterope Sun grafical bug lowerd (still work in progress)
• New Symbols for Prisoners and Vips
• System Infocard Atlas written
• Commodity Trader of Research Center Tyros reworked
• Alcyone Sun Infocard written
• Bacchuscloud Infocard reworked
• Kol Stats pointer set
• all custom Ships got their Stat’s and Infocard reworked so you now can see the Stats also in the buying windows
• USO Mamba LF new civilian Ship
• USO Gecko HF new civilian Ship (buyable in 8837)
• USO Fer de Lance VHF new civilian Ship (buyable in 8837)
• IMG Spectre LF new civilian Ship – thanks to Sorin Industries
• IMG Arrow HF new civilian Ship  – thanks to Sorin Industries
• Battleship Pythagoras Trader reworked
• Freeport 15 Name repointed to the Station
• Taygeta docking restricted (hopefully)
• Korinth Spin rate changed
• Profit for Fusions Weapon Components raised to match the same profit as for Heavy Water
• All dockmounts of smaller custom Stations are now above the Stations to keep the undocking of flyable Stations and Capitals possible
• Bartender Soryn and several other Typos fixed
• Hudshifting problem with older monitors fixed
• Vanilla Tradelanes are all back in the Game
• several market files updated
• All Damage Zones Vanilla, 88Flak and SoF reworked they deserve their name now
• serversided improvements

Upgrade 8835

Category: Initial Beta 1 Release

Description:

• initial closed Beta Release

Update 8834

Category: Test Release

Description:

• internal closed Beta Release
  

Update 8829 – Update 8833

Category: Alpha Updates

Description:

• Alpha Updates
  

Update 8828

Category: Alpha Release

Description:

• Shadow of Fear first Alpha Release on Top of 88Flak

 ’88Flak Feature List and Description

What it is:

So what is it? At it’s core, Flak is a complete rebuilding of Freelancer’s gameplay from the ground up. With the goal of creating an immersive universe that looks and feels real, coupled with the most intense engagements to ever be seen in Freelancer’s humble engine. All of this done while keeping the original games universe intact. The ship and system list consists almost entirely of the original games’. If you ever found yourself wanting a better Freelancer; this is it.

First of all, ship classes. Most important of this feature is the fact that there is no longer a best ship. In vanilla Freelancer the level 10 ships, particularly the Eagle, were very arguable the best ships in the game. Sure you could be successful in other ships, but you only did that to prove how skilled you were, not because other ships were better. That is completely done away with in Flak. Every ship now falls under distinct ship classes with defined roles that support and complement each others weapon systems and capabilities. Each ship class flies completely differently. So differently in fact that you will find yourself gravitating toward one or the other as you play and discover where your talents lie. An Ace of any one of the combat ship classes can be a nearly unstoppable force. The physics of all ships are also very different, and more based in reality than vanilla Freelancer. You will not see ships accelerating from 0-200 in an instant. Every ship flies with weight behind it that you can feel. Combine this with the powerful strafe thrusters and you will see some very interesting maneuvers coming out of your fellow players.

The game is no longer centered around the fighter classes as well. While you can most certainly play the entire game from the perspective of a fighter pilot, other players will want to see the game from the other end of the scale. Every ship you see in vanilla Freelancer can now be yours. Ever wanted your own Transport? Luxury Liner? Dreadnought? Cruiser? Newark Station? Go for it, it’s flyable. The capital ships are large and rightly powerful. Just as there is a definite interplay between the fighter classes, there is an interplay between the capital classes, and all the classes as a whole. All ship classes must rely on the support of other classes to be successful. Also new in is the ability for Battleships to act as mobile support bases. Players can dock to rearm and resupply on friendly player battleships, meaning the loss of a battleship in combat will be especially painful.

So then comes the one fundamental problem. What happens if you create a team game, but do not have a team to play with? The AI in Flak is like no other. Anything you see a player do and fly, so will the AI. More importantly, this means that you can always have help with you regardless if there are other players around. A lone trader can enlist the aid of AI wingmen to help defend and draw fire while your Transport gets away. Conversely, a pirate can have several pirate fighters fly around with him to help in raids on the trade lanes, you’ll need it. The combat AI is spectacular, fiercely aggressive and difficult, but never feeling unfair. When you fight against the AI it never feels like the AI isn’t trying because the game says this area is easy. The AI will always be fighting as best as they can, no holding back. They fly the same ships you do, and follow all the same rules you do. It works both ways as well, with epic engagements between lawful factions and pirates sometimes escalating into each side bringing out cruisers or even battleships. Which leads me to my next point. The AI flies everything. In some of the more dangerous systems, you can regularly see capital ships flying around. In some of the absurdly dangerous systems, you can sometimes see capital formations consisting of at least four capital ships. When these formations collide fights on an unprecedented scale break out. With the capital ships exchanging heavy blows and fighter craft engaging each other in the crossfire. It’s the Battle of Endor syndrome in a completely spontaneous manner, and it works.

So there you have it. Each ship is important, giving you the chance to declare yourself the Dragon Ace, or Banshee Ace. Capital ships are behemoths of firepower that also double as forward bases, but need to watch out for attacks by coordinated players. The AI is spectacular, never holding back, fighting as hard as they can, but never unfairly. All of this comes together to create the most intense and immersive combat seen this side of the Freelancer engine, and is an incredible game in its own right.

Feature List

Gameplay

• Turns Freelancer gameplay into class-based warfare with insanely fast-paced combat. All ships, equipment, and other gear is balanced so that no player – even a brand new player – is left in the dust. In the end, combat boils down to skill and tactics, instead of best ships and equipment.
• Huge emphasis on teamplay. Unlike normal Freelancer, friendly NPCs will come to your aid in the middle of a fight, assisting you when the going is tough. Got a lot of hostiles on your tail? Retreat to a friendly area and they will be dealt with.
• Enormous fights. Both friendly and hostile NPCs can join fights in progress, meaning a simple skirmish can escalate into a full-scale war if not ended abruptly – factions have both Capital Ships and Mobile Stations, and are not afraid to roll them out when they need to.
• A variable universe – factions are no longer constrained to their simple spheres of influence, and will send ships across a system – even across the galaxy – to deal with issues. Yes, AI travel the entire galaxy, and yes, you can see them doing this. Gaians hate you? There’s a small chance a wing of Gaians could sneak into Rheinland to make your life miserable. Friendly with the Kusari Naval Forces? Perhaps you’ll run into some KNF ships checking up on you in the Border Worlds.
• NPCs can be seen until 25km out, and players can be seen until 25km out, allowing for more PvP opportunities. Group members can be seen until 300km out as well, allowing for easier organization with groups.
• Players can join, and attain special rank in, factions. Not only do you get a tag in your name when you join a faction, but you also obtain a reputation towards other players – for instance, if you joined the Liberty Rogues, and a player was hostile to the Rogues, you would appear hostile to that player. If you approached that player, danger/battle music would even play, which can lead to some rather epic PvP engagements.
• Everything you could do in a mission (attacking a Station, etc.) is just played out real-time. This means you could see NPCs attack – and possibly destroy – a Station right in front of your eyes. Or you could destroy one yourself, and reap the loot reward.
• Full player, NPC, and even Station / Weapons Platform looting. ALL cargo (not just some cargo) will drop off players and NPCs – if a player or NPC is carrying 1207 H-Fuel, then that player or NPC will drop 1207 H-Fuel on death. This means a pirate can make a healthy living hunting player-traders down.
• Death Penalties – approximately 5% of your total equipment and ship worth (NOT bank account) is subtracted from your account when you die – if you can’t pay your fines, random amounts of equipment will be confiscated from your ship. To put it another way, this is equivalent to paying a full on-base repair bill when you die, in an effort to make retreating from battle more cost-effective than just dieing on the field.

AI

• AI Bots – 30 unique player-like AI NPCs (spanning 52 unique loadouts) that travel the universe in search of glory and fortune. AI Bots can be placed in to an AI Companion squad for solo or cooperative play. When in an AI Companion squad, they will accompany you wherever your travels take you, and attack any NPC with a hostile reputation to you. You are given four wingmen “slots” – you may assign a bot to each slot, allowing configurable squads of 1 to 4 bots. Additionally, you may create your own companion bot from an existing player!
• Hirable NPC wingmen squads, which stay with you until you die, log out, land, or jump systems. You can obtain wingmen by paying large amounts of cash or by using high faction reputations – which are not easy to obtain.
• Jaw-dropping AI – they don’t just shoot well, they are smart. AI will chase fleeing targets with cruise, use Counter-Measures, strafe and afterburn effectively, and, of course, serve up a good beating in general. AI Bots (mentioned above) possess combat prowess that will best the average player in a 1v1 fight.
• AI has no combat bias, and will attack any target of opportunity – not just players. Factions hate each-other just as much as they may hate you.
• Friends don’t let friends fly alone – gaining friendly status with a faction does more than just paint green targets on your HUD. Friendly NPCs will go out of their way to assist you in combat, excuse any accidental friendly fire, and even assign escorts to guard you for free (assuming you have faction’s unique token, which requires very friendly rep).
• NPC loadouts and ships are the exact same as what players use. AI Bots in particular feature highly customized loadouts tailored to that bot’s fighting style, many of which were built in-game before being exported to the AI Bot’s loadout code.
• In addition to AI Bots, there are also regular Freelance NPCs that carry out simple day-to-day tasks in random selections of ships. They can be trading, hunting ships deep within enemy territory, or just flying on patrol.

Graphics / Audio

• (Optional) High-End Special Effects, where special effects will be drawn at a 20km distance, and also forces the engine to handle 10 times the amount of effects it normally can. Paired with the high-end sound system (below), this makes for an amazingly immersive experience as you see (and hear) battles unfold before you’re even in range yourself.
• (Optional) High-End Sound, where all sound can be heard up to a 6km distance, and also forces the engine to handle more sound channels. Also, the high-end sound system features enhanced doppler effects.
• (Optional) Battledust, which generates fog and debris off fighting, creating dark clouds where heavy combat areas have occurred. Highly recommended, as this adds huge atmosphere to large fights, but may introduce large performance hits.
• (Optional) Subtle Bloom and other post-process effects, via use of the experimental ENBSeries Post-Process Shader by Boris Vorontsov (http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru), included in 88 Flak under non-commercial distribution. Do not be mistaken; 88 Flak’s Bloom integration does not over-saturate the image, reduce clarity, etc. – only does what a correctly configured Bloom should do, and that is brighten specular highlights. Enables DirectX 9 support.
• (Optional) Eye-adaption (post-process) – sitting in a dark area while looking outside to a bright one will dynamically adjust the lighting values – looking straight at the sun will be blinding for a second, until the scene adjusts to a darker image.
• (Optional) Dynamic Lighting on explosions. Capital Ship slugfests (during which there are many explosions) will literally light up the area.
• Loads of effects enhancements by Why485, ranging from Ace Combat-esque Missiles to the mighty Flak Cannon arrays that can easily put dozens of explosions in the air – all optimized to give as minimal an FPS hit as possible while still looking sexy.
• Cool death effects, of course – watch your ship catch fire and tumble before you die, or your Capital Ship go up in a blaze of explosive glory, etc.
• All of these graphics enhancements are optional, and can be easily toggled. As such, 88 Flak’s system requirements are no higher than vanilla Freelancer.

Ships

• 122 pilotable ships in total, almost all from the original Freelancer game – only the Serafina Freighter, by Asmo, was added. NPCs use all ships as well.
• 56 Fighters/Freighters, 17 Capital Ships, 31 Stations, 9 Weapons Platforms, 2 Liners, 5 Transports/Trains/Lifter, the Repair Ship, and finally the unique Storage Depot. Yeah, those are all from stock Freelancer, minus the Serafina Freighter mentioned above. Aside from Planets and Stars, if you saw it in the original Freelancer, you can fly it here.
• Mobile docking – players can dock with player-flown Battleships/Stations by using a /dock command in chat near the targeted player; the player may resupply or even logout in the belly of his/her friend’s Battleship/Station.
• All ships received the best balance possible – no one ship is truly worse than any other ship. This creates very diverse fights against both other players and NPCs that aren’t just one-sided equipment-fests.
• A more realistic flight physics engine, where instead of simply bouncing off objects, a more logical collision will occur – scrape a wing on an asteroid, and you will be turned slightly towards it.
• Because of the way ships bank when turning, complex evasive maneuvers like barrel rolls can be pulled off with ease.

Systems

• No Trade Lanes. Nope. None. Cruise travel speeds are faster, but travel requires one to manually truck it everywhere. If you’re worried about finding new bases, Trade Lane Buoys now mark where Trade Lanes used to be, and all of them show up on your NavMap from the start.
• 18 dockable bases that are available for purchase in various systems. You can not move them from their spots, nor do anything else with them for that matter, however they’re excellent re-supply / respawn points, carry every gun and shield in the game for sale, and they DO shoot at other players / NPCs. Very handy for clans, but be wary as you may be sharing the space with unwanted guests.
• Complete re-do of asteroid fields – asteroids can now be pushed around – and mined – by ships. No more jamming your Battleship on asteroids, they just bump out of the way. No un-used asteroid models or poor pop-in distance on the asteroids either – the fields will look just as good as they did before.
• 3 PvP Arenas, using the last few levels from the SP campaign – the Lair, and the outside / inside of the Dyson Sphere. Arenas can be used for Death Penalty-free combat against other players and AI Bots.
• A unique hub system that allows players from all corners of the universe to meet up, trade rare items, and engage eachother in the connecting PvP Arenas (mentioned above). However, players can only exit the hub from the sector they entered from, and can not trade or drop commodities, meaning normal trade and travel balance is not affected.
• Unique challenge systems (high-end dungeons, basically), where players are pushed to the limit against insane bosses with unique rewards. For example, one challenge system requires players to travel roughly 400km of “Mine Maze” tunnels, which will instantly kill the player upon contact – players must navigate the tunnels, with waves of hostiles attacking them, to eventually fight a superboss at the end.
• Locked systems such as Tohoku have been unlocked, and transformed into fully-functional, NPC-populated systems.

Misc

• Multiplayer support of the singleplayer storyline event system, making it possible to write scripted storyline missions for multiplayer. (extremely beta, work-in-progress)
• Custom 88 Flak FLHook (or FlakHook), designed by M0tah, integrated directly into the mod. Seamless integration technique requires absolutely no setup. FLHook was originally developed by mc_horst, with continued development by w0dk4 and various other coders in the FLHook community – see Thanks To section for other FLHook contributors.
• 84 collectable rare items, which are gained at random off killing NPCs. These include things such as cool guns, shield modifiers (modify your shield capacity or shield regen), power modifiers, scanners, tractor beams, and even ships.
• Extended configuration, both client and server side. Options include whether you want so see objects across a system or not, what types of NPCs appear, NPC population limits, etc.
• Possibly the most in-depth playable Nomad system – small buoys in each system allow you to resupply while maintaining proper hostility towards all factions, with the added ability to take Nomad AI wingmen (as per all other factions) with you on raids.
• Special “quests” that demand a bit of riddle solving, and a bit of time on your hands. However, the rewards for accomplishing these are worth it to say the least.