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Discovery Freelancer 4.85 Overview
The development of Discovery 4.85: Reunion has taken 1,5 years to complete. Now we, the newly formed Discovery Development Team, present to you the result of our work. The wait is over. After months of online beta testing, Discovery Freelancer 4.85: Reunion is released and available for download.
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Year is 817 After Settlement (A.S.), 16 years after the single-player campaign of Freelancer, and one year after Discovery 4.84 took place. A Sirius-wide war is on the brink of engulfing the sector. While Kusari pushes its onslaught against Bretonia deep into the Leeds system, Bretonia attempts to surround Kusari forces in Tau-31. Liberty attacks Rheinland in Bremen and Hudson, and Rheinland has to pull back to defend its own borders. As if this was not enough, in late 817 the Independent Miners Guild encountered a large number unknown ships in the Orkney system. The ships belonged to a rebel group formed within the long-lost House of Gallia, the existence of which remained unknown for centuries.
The storyline is just a portion of the progress taking place in the new Discovery version. Increased development time and an increased number of developers allowed us to finalize all the features we were planning to implement, and make 4.85 the largest ever update for Discovery mod. We introduced 110 new ship models, with most new ships receiving custom hitboxes. More than a hundred new weapon and equipment types have been added, many with custom weapon projectile and hit effects. 11 new systems were included, and about 30 previously available systems were updated, all of them following much higher quality standards than in previous versions.
The mod now has a renewed balance system for weapons, equipment and ships, plus a fully revamped economy system that provides profitable routes for all locations and factions. To add depth to the new economy, 46 new commodity types were introduced. The role-playing ID system (used on the official server and most other servers running our mod) has received 53 new IDs. The new version also contains about 7000 new and rewritten infocard texts for various new and old ships, items, and places.
The integrated Discovery automatic updater allows players to download and apply new updates easily without having to re-download and re-install the whole package. The updater does not restrict offline play, and you will still be able to play single-player without an internet connection.
If you prefer online play, you are welcome to join the official Discovery Freelancer RP 24/7 server and a number of other servers running Discovery. Server operators are welcome to run Discovery mod without any restrictions. All servers that run our mod are listed in dsupdate.cfg file located in Freelancer\EXE folder to allow quick connect to all of them without using shortcuts or patches. To add another server, simply add its address to dsupdate.cfg.
New features of Discovery 4.85:
New Content:
- 79 brand new player-flyable ships with custom models;
- About 30 previously added ships received new, custom-designed models;
- 11 new systems in 4.85: Languedoc, Dauphine, Burgundy, Champagne, Lorraine (Gallia); Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ellesmere (Liberty); Tau-39 (Border Worlds); Omicron-81 (Hispania); Unknown system (Nomad Worlds).
- About 30 existing systems received significant updates in 4.85, including Alaska, Alberta, Baffin, Bremen, Cassini, Coronado, Dundee, Frankfurt, Illinois, Londonderry, Minnesota, Munich, Okinawa, Omega-52, Omega-54, Omega-56, Omega-58, Omicron-80, Omicron-91, Omicron-94, Omicron-99, Omicron Iota, Ontario, Orkney, Tau-42, Tau-45, Vespucci;
- 11 new factions, most with their own NPCs and ship lines: Gallic Royal Navy, Gallic Royal Police, Council, Gallic Metal Service, EFL Oil & Machinery, IDF Shipping, Maquis, Unione Corse, Gallic Brigands, The Coalition, Colonial Remnant;
- Over 100 new weapons introduced, many of them having custom models and effects;
- 46 new commodities introduced, with multiple new trade routes;
- 53 new role-playing IDs introduced;
- Customized NPCs on many new bases, NPCs in Gallia have newly designed costumes;
- About 7,000 infocard texts added or rewritten for 4.85, including lengthy news texts and descriptions.
- Revised and detailed Readme.txt and other mod documentation, added the new Discovery system map.
- Included the Discovery automatic updater with an integrated list of Discovery multiplayer servers.
Storyline:
- Introduction of a new house: Gallia, with its own lawful and unlawful factions, and 5 densely populated systems with over 40 bases to explore.
- Fully formulated history of the new House which is embedded in the ongoing and dynamic discovery chronology/history, including rumors on new and old bases, faction adjustments, political adjustments and behaviour of interacting factions;
- Dynamical adjustments concerning the war between Kusari and Bretonia;
- Political adjustments concerning Rheinland and Liberty;
- Many detailed news items present on all bases to reflect storyline developments.
Revised Gameplay:
- Adjustments to NPC AI and repair abilities;
- Rebalanced NPC loadouts and difficulty;
- New NPC behaviour that allows friendly fire (CDs do not cause instant aggression from allied NPCs anymore);
- New wrecks and lore;
- New NPC mission difficulties to reflect a better adjusted difficulty level and to provide more challenges to even high ranks;
- Changed reputation relations between various factions to ensure smooth player reputation development.
Rebalancing:
- Unique and accurate hitboxes (collision & weapon fire hits) for almost all the ships, old and new;
- Fully revised fighter and bomber weapons along with new weapons for these classes;
- Fully revised capital ship rebalanced based on player specifications;
- Rebalanced weaponry for all ship classes;
- Revised special weapons on capital ships (ship to ship torpedoes, flak cannons);
- Rebalanced damage on explosives;
- Rebalanced vulnerability of all ships to achieve equal vulnerability across old and custom ships;
- Revised equipment (CMs, CDs, Mines, etc.) along with durability, efficiency and functions;
- Revamped capital ship patrols are now more appropriately balanced towards their supposed power.
Enhanced Trade System:
- Enhanced commodity system with many new items based on the House economy as well as role-play demands;
- Fully revised and rebalanced trade route system based on logical offer and demand as well as logical placements of commodities;
- Adjustments on profit, danger, flight time, political changes to reflect a complex economy;
- Graphically enhanced commodity icons for a better differentiation.
Graphical Enhancements:
- New weapon projectile and weapon impact effects;
- Large and detailed explosions for ships;
- New custom models for guns, turrets, and other equipment;
- Optional ENB mod that enables bloom (please read documentation and DO NOT enable it unless you are sure what you are doing).
*FLMM is unable to remove ENB mod during de-activation. You will have to remove d3d8.dll from the freelancer/EXE folder manually.
Testing, Bug Fixing, Performance:
- Fixed a number of bugs remaining from the last release;
- During 9 months of internal testing and 3 months of public testing, fixed multiple bugs related to new features;
- Thoroughly tested balance for both old and new ships and equipment;
- Ensured maximum clientside and serverside performance, fixed multiple graphic-related issues.
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