"God I love archons. "
-AQD3
|
| Freelancer: The Adventures of Team Rater | | | Author: | | | IP: | CPE00080XXXX | | Date: | 07/19/04 02:07 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 4, Max: 9, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |   | 
Welcome! I decided to write another battlereport, for the following three reasons:
- I finally bought a new computer ( gasp ), after about 4 years of sluggish internet access, boring 2-D games and accumulated viruses.
- The site is undergoing a dramatic revitalization, and I figured I might as well help add to that.
- There needs to be at least one or two |]agomar reports a year, or the expansion of the Universe decelerates and all of existence collapses back in upon itself.
That said, most of you are probably wondering just what exactly Freelancer is. Here's the answer: remember that Escape Velocity: Nova craze of about a year back? Well, the two games are very, very similar. Graphically Freelancer is massively superior, and has astonishingly cool features that EV:N sorely lacks - oh, plus there's multiplayer, which makes the whole production far more reportable. Unfortunately - or fortunately, for EldritchEvil - Escape Velocity has far more ships to choose from, and allows you to play in any number of alien storylines. With Freelancer, you start out the same way every time, and while you can choose to be a pirate or a policeman, a soldier or a merchant, your options are a bit more limited. Ah well - as I said, it's still much more reportable.
So it is that, after days of begging from LuckyNewbie and a week of playing the Demo I finally got my grubby Dutch hands on a copy of Freelancer. After a quick install and a short yelp at Keanu_Reaver, all three of us were ready to roll. That's right, folks. This series of battlereports ( I intend on a trilogy for now ) will cover the exploits of Lucky, Keanu and myself through a dangerous, unpredictable Universe. While the single player campaign is nonexistent in the online version, the team atmosphere more than makes up for it. So lets have a bit of an introduction to our players before we launch into our galactic adventure!
 Keanu_Reaver: Known to his friends as Mehdi and his enemies as, well, Keanu_Reaver, this brave pilot is both experienced and competent in all manner of spacecraft. Relations between the man and his mistress, Mattzarella, have been stronger than ever as of late, and his recent acquisition of rater powers have only added to his capabilities. A friend of |]agomar for a couple years now, he is not to be underestimated.
 LuckyNewbie: Perhaps the most experienced member of the group, LuckyNewbie ( now devoid of his cherished tongue ), or "Dan" usually knows his way around the Galaxy - emphasis on "usually." He is gnarled, weathered and resourceful, having survived more than his share of dogfights and ambushes out in the nether regions of the Universe. Perhaps the low point in his usually glorious existence came when |]agomar tricked him into visiting the illustrious www.tubgirl.com system. Though the encounter permanently scarred him, he and his compatriot have nevertheless been online friends for some years.
|]agomar: Lo and behold, we come to me. I'll be honest here: I'm a relative newbie at this game. While the others know their way around most systems ( more or less, I guess ), I don't know a single good trade route. I do know the basics of space combat, and can usually fight my way out of a situation or two. Obviously I'm the most experienced battlereporter, so it's no surprise that I'm the one stuck writing this :P. Also, I'm good at looking annoyed in pictures taken by my girlfriend's horny ex-roommate.
So, now you know what three of your beloved raters look like . . . which is probably a whole lot more than you wanted to know. In any case, perhaps the knowledge that none of us are anorexic, sickened or drugged out in any way, shape or form will make you feel better about knowing us.
Alright, with all that out of the way, we can finally get on to the game!
After about 20 minutes of continual crashes, changed servers and random cursing, we finally downloaded the right patch, restarted enough times and changed servers sufficiently to get our game started. It isn't usually that hard - no, it isn't ever that hard - to get a multiplayer game started, but with three raters all feverishly attempting to play you know something will go horribly wrong. It probably takes at least 5 raters to screw in a light bulb, and goodness knows how many it would take to flick the switch.
Hopefully that won't earn me a 1.
Anyway, we get started in the Manhattan system, the home planet of the Liberty House. If you're interested, the game's background imagines a two century war between two great powers - the Coalition and the Alliance - beginning in the 22nd Century. After hundreds of years of terribly destructive warfare, the Coalition gains the upper hand and crushes the Alliance. Just before all is lost, however, the Alliance launches five sleeper ships into the stars to start their respective societies anew. The quintet arrives in the Sirius sector ( you know, the vicinity of that white giant 21 times more luminous than the sun . . . for you fellow Astronomy nerds ) and poof, 800 years later we have 5 massive empires. The Liberty Empire is one of those and, not surprisingly, is founded by the Americans.
Well that's enough background for now. Here's a picture of the starting world:
On Manhattan you can visit the ship hanger if you wish to purchase a new vessel ( obviously, as in all games like this, you can't purchase certain ships or weapons until you reach a certain level, which is usually determined by the missions you complete or, in multiplayer, your kills, vessel and financial status ). Or, you can choose to visit the Equipment depot for all manner of weapons, armour, shield batteries, ammunition . . . the list goes on. You can visit the bar if you like, to find a job, uncover information, watch the news broadcasts ( which are very cool ) or just chat to the rather interesting characters that linger there ( the game has 2000 NPCs ). You can even visit the commodity trader to exchange any number of tradable goods you've acquired. Finally, there's the launchpad, from which you can blast off into the rather busy realms of interplanetary space.
Since we all started off with a tiny civilian light fighter and a measly 2000 credits, our options are extremely limited. I add a third gun to my flying mote - a class two lavablade, if I remember correctly ( a lavablade is a weapon that delivers a big punch but has a long cooldown rate. For that matter, Justice guns are exactly the opposite - short cooldown, low damage. I have two justice cannons as well - one's a level two, the second remains at level one. Each level up offers decent upgrades in firepower, cooldown and sometimes range. Oh, and each weapon does more or less damage to different classes of shields, but frankly that's still too complicated for me. Time for these brackets to stop ). In any case, soon enough I'm good to go. I saunter over to the launch pad, strap myself in, engage my little engines and slip off, up, up and away, through the atmosphere, the robotic docking rings, and out into space.
Dan and Mehdi are already done and hover together in orbit, not far from one another. I cruise on over and soon enough we figure how to all join the same team. Babysteps . . . babysteps. In any case, there we are. We have our ships, we're equipped - oh, wait, we need a mission. Lucky hops back down to the planet and finds us one. Before long he rejoins us in space, and a waypoint appears. This is one of those basic missions, similar to those I completed back in Escape Velocity: we're to follow the waypoints given to us by the operations commander. In this case, once we arrive at our destination we've got to kill a squadron of rogue ships. When they're all gone, we get a relatively small reward - just enough to upgrade our weapons a notch or two. We'll probably be ambushed, and survival is most definitely not assured. Ah well. A pilot's got to earn credits one way or another.
The mission's rather far away, which means we need to take a traderoute. To get to the traderoute docking point, we activate our cruise engines. To activate cruise engines, your weapons go offline for a short amount of time to power up ( usually just enough to get blown apart by a pursuing enemy ) while you drift ahead into space. Once the engines are energized you zip forward at a brisk 300 m/s, which is more than quick enough to escape a battle or reach your destination quickly. Then there's the traderoutes. Once you contact a docking lane you can slip through the hole and enter the super high-speed tradelane, which blasts you around the system dozens of times faster than you could ever travel in cruisemode. The catch? Traderoutes can be disrupted, and they take some time to enter . . . and ambushes are all too common in Freelancer.
Regardless, soon enough all three of us are in formation, humming along towards the traderoute ( you can choose to enter formation with a friendly ship at any time, provided you're close enough, and so follow that ship through its every movement ). We plunge in through the docking rings without incident . . . and then . . . surprise, surprise, there's no ambush. No, instead Lucky somehow accidentally kicks himself out of the traderoute, and me with him. Keanu emerges unscathed through to the other side, and so Lucky and I are forced to take on a squadron of waiting Liberty rogues by ourselves. The battle isn't exceptionally easy ( I end up losing all my shielding ), but lo and behold we emerge relatively unscathed. Together we re-enter the traderoute at the nearest docking ring and meet Keanu a few seconds later.
Now star systems in FreeLancer - particularly the larger ones - are structured somewhat like a subway system, I suppose. Traderoutes connect with one another and allow for quick, efficient travel between waypoints. So it is that we hook up with another trade route and hurtle along to our final destination. We take out another few rogues in the gap between docking rings, but the battle is unspectacular and I didn't capture any screenshots. Regardless, soon enough we emerge in a dark, seemingly forsaken haunt that I've never seen before. A sinister purple hue taints the nearby space, and large black shards of rock loom up out of the darkness. It takes a sharp eye and a quick wit to avoid dashing your ship to pieces on their jagged edges.
Lucky powers up his cruise engines and the rest of Team Rater follows behind in formation. At first I trust our leader to guide us safely through the rocks, but after a few catastrophic collisions that completely total my shields I quickly re-evaluate my approach. It isn't long before we reach our mission's destination and break formation. Not surprisingly, a swarm of enemy fighters is there to greet us. Because my forcefields are effectively gone I'm forced to use a shield battery to recharge them to full strength. A shield battery is a fairly expensive piece of equipment that, when used, fully restores your shields. Conversely, nanobots are devices that completely repair your hull. You start out with three apiece, and, naturally, can buy more depending on your vessel's capacity.
In any case, Dan launches heroically into battle by smashing straight into my ship:
Just like a true pro. Unfortunately I couldn't get the best screenshots of the resulting dogfight, between whirling about those dark asteroids, evading blaster fire and desperately trying to get in a few shots I didn't find much time to tap the PrintScreen button. I tried to dodge between the rocks to take cover and surprise my enemies, though it usually ended up costing me my shields: all I'll say is that in the darkness it's easy to misjudge distances. In addition, Lucky got a phone call in the middle of the battle and Keanu was beset by a swarm of popups. Not exactly the most promising beginning to our adventure. However, in the end we emerged victorious, and every last enemy bit the spacedust. With our first profits of the game under our belt, things were beginning to take form.
Good, good, good. With a quick smile I re-enter formation with the esteemed Lucky and follow him on back to the traderoute docking ring. The rocks rocket by ( and thanks to Dan's flying, I only hit - what - three maybe? ) and we chat a little bit, until our wing leader comes to the little realization that he didn't know where he was going. That's right, we lost the traderoute. Oh, and we're in rogue territory. Plus there's a huge wing of enemies descending down upon us from the asteroids.
That's right - another ambush, and this time there's no chance of escaping. More frantic action follows, with explosions going off left and right, and a whole lot of blaster fire zipping past me from all directions. I finally remember to tractor in the loot, this time ( you can employ a tractor beam to gather up any useful debris resulting from ship explosions ) which makes me feel a touch better about losing the last of my shield batteries. In any case, though the battle is our toughest yet it's soon resolved, and not a moment too soon.
Of course, we're still flailing about in the middle of nowhere. Before we find the traderoute, we're ambushed again - twice - though these fights are far less spectacular than the previous one. A random pubbie called Destructo wonders where all the rogues are, and while Dan tries to coax him to find us, no help is forthcoming. Then it appears: shimmering out of the dark purple haze our traderoute emerges at last. Lucky and I dive in as fast as our engines can take us, but Mehdi's some distance away still. A half dozen ships hammer away at his shields before he can slip through and join us in our escape. It's a close call, and it won't be our last.
As you can see from the previous image, our goal is to become pirates and raid the spacelanes for all they're worth. In order to do so, however, we'll need some serious cash. After all, you can't be much of a pirate if your ship isn't powerful enough to dent the hull of an enemy freighter, and you certainly can't be one if you don't have a vessel large enough to haul away the loot. So we come to our decision: since I perform better with a larger, bulkier ship I'll be the one to pilot our future freighter, while Dan and Mehdi will give me backup. When we're able to, we'll swoop down upon unsuspecting convoys and snatch their cargo. I'll escape while covering my rear with turrets, and my wingmen will cover my retreat. Then, in the end, we'll join the pirates in the badlands.
Grand visions, but for now we're still stuck in three dinky little crates headed for New Manhattan. We exit the traderoute at Westpoint Military Academy, not too far from the planet. There we upgrade a weapon or two, make repairs, and complain about our current ships.
Alright, so the plan is as follows: we make for the Texas system pronto, complete a mission or two, and give all our accumulated cash to yours truly. With that money I should be able to buy a Rhino-class freighter, Liberty's version of a transport truck. The Rhino is fairly well armed, and relatively mobile ( though not compared to a fighter ), but obviously its primary asset is a good-sized cargo hold. With that decided we take the traderoutes to the Texas jumpgate. It probably doesn't require explanation, but jumpgates are to interstellar travel what traderoutes are to interplanetary travel: a subway stop. Get in the jumpgate, travel through some really cool lighting effects ( see the title picture ) and before long you'll be orbiting a distant star - and, usually, ambushed by a smattering of pirates.
We emerge near the Texas jumpgate before much time has passed, and there stumble upon another human player wandering about the system. His name is Eulogy, and, well - I fire on him without second thought, thinking I could get in through the gate before he even realized what happened. I hit him a couple times as I pass, just for kicks. I don't think he liked that much - he hits me once from my rear and I explode in a blaze of fiery glory.
UGH. That's annoying. I respawn at Westpoint, angry and somewhat frazzled. Turns out I'd chosen to mess with the wrong pubbie. Seconds before Lucky said "Don't mess with Eulogy, he could kick our asses" I'd chosen to open fire, and I'd paid the consequences. Figures that he'd be level 14 - 13 more than any of us. I'd say that's GG. A quick shot of the my shields failing and his weapons screaming by was all I'd managed to get of the action - though I got more than enough pictures of Dan yelling at me.
The worst part of the whole mess is that as I'm hurtling back towards the Texas jumpgate, I get ambushed by no fewer than five rogues, all of whom are more than happy to blast me with a token missile. I fail at dodging all but one of those missiles, and - you guessed it - get blown to bits a second time, even with Lucky scampering back to help. Oh well. It takes a long while, but before long we're all sliding in through the Texas jumpgate. An dazzling flare of white light blossoms around us, and the traditional wormhole graphics unravel into their full glory. A few moments pass and then, at last, we're staring at a faded yellow sun nestled in an orange nebula. Clusters of debris float about us, but luckily no ambush is forthcoming. Soon we're orbiting Planet Houston, and Dan hops down to the surface to find us a job.
Our task is the same as last time: take out a squadron of enemy rogues. Not too hard, is it? Both of us take off to follow Mehdi, and on the way there we discuss our devious plans.
The battle, when it occurs, is pretty standard, really. Not much different from the previous fights, though the enemy ships seem a touch tougher. Apart from Mehdi screaming at us for accidentally firing at him instead of the enemy ( it was all Lucky, let me assure you! ) the dogfight is routine and our foes are quickly vanquished. We each get our cut of the profits, and soon enough we're heading back to Houston to find us another job.
I'm the last through the traderoute back, so it makes sense that I'm the only one to be ambushed! There's no hope for me to win through combat, so I'm forced to get out of the vicinity through a combination of my afterburner and my cruise engines ( once I can get far enough away to not have them disrupted ). I beg for help, and Mehdi arrives about a minute later. Together we manage to put down those pesky rogues and escape back through the traderoute's nearby docking ring. No worse for wear we arrive at Houston seconds later. Lucky's already on the planet's surface trying to find us another job, and before long he joins us in orbit. I should probably note that he was feeding his dogs while Mehdi and I were fighting for our lives, and wondered what was going on when he got back. No comment!
In any case, our final task before we get me a freighter is fairly simple, but a little more complicated than last time. We've got to clear out all enemies, again, but this time there's a space station involved as well. We need to take it down. Should be doable, though our little blasters will have a tough time with the base's strong hull. Off we go, team rater, once more into the breach.
Of course, it's never as easy as simply getting to your destination in Freelancer: there's always some new twist thrown your way. In this case, all of us end up rocketing straight into a massive field of radiation that simply devours our hull plates. Desperately, we seek escape, but it's still a long while before those hideous little green particles are past us. Shaking my head, I'm forced to employ an expensive nanobot to repair my armour - after all, you can't go into a tough firefight badly damaged.
Well, we finally get there, and soon enough all hell breaks loose - so much hell, as a matter of fact, that I forget to take quality screenshots. In fact, I don't even get a good shot of the base blowing up. You'll have to take my word for it: it really does blow up. In a lot of bits and pieces. And explosions are usually very cool with this game. So, I suppose you missed out. In any case, we finally have enough credits to buy me a Rhino-class freighter! The elation! The sheer joy!
This time it's Lucky who gets ambushed on the way back, mostly because he splits from Mehdi and I and goes around the radiation field. Well, you can't have it both ways. He resolves the conflict rather quickly, and together we meet up again around Houston. I've had to use two nanobots now to repair my hull, which is quite annoying, as the stupid things are very expensive. Ah well. Lucky and Mehdi trade their accumulated credits to my account, and with a feeling of palpable excitement I slide in through Houston's docking port. The resulting dialogue really tells the whole story:
Now hold on, readers, I'm about to use some really gratuitous images of me getting my very first freighter in Freelancer. That is because, frankly, getting and improving ships is probably the most enjoyable part of the game for me. That said, this first image is what you see when you enter Houston's ship dealer. There's three vessels on sale here. See that big, hulking and . . . well, fairly ugly ship? That's the Rhino. The one in the foreground is the Patriot, the fighter used by Liberty's police services. It's quick and mobile but its weaponry is definitely very limited. The larger fighter in the background - the one that looks a little like our current craft - that's the StarTracker, a very competent little ship that can pack a good punch.
Regardless, I make the purchase. Now I've got the Rhino, officially! It's a much tougher and more heavily armed target than the pathetic little StarFlier I had, but still an easy target for a squad of angry rogues. I equip the beast with three new turrets - lavablades, as a matter of fact - which should be more than enough to dispatch the average fighter in a couple shots. When all's done and the last consultations are made with my group I power up my engines and shoot off through the planet's atmosphere.
Then there's another turn of events: Lucky and Keanu get booted from the server for the second time now. They come back in a few moments, but as compensation for their hassle the server rewards them with an enormous sum of money. Thank goodness. This certainly saves us a bundle of time, mostly in the form of drab, fairly routine shipping runs and ambush dodging. I'll still need the freighter, of course, for our ultimate pirate plan, and I'll still need to make a shipping run or two, but we've just dodged a lot of boredom. Not surprisingly, Mehdi, Lucky and I all greedily head back down to the planet's surface to spend some of the money.
I end up buying three new turrets in addition to the triplet I already had, and upgrading both my weaponry and shielding, all while getting a superpowerful afterburner that'll allow me to accelerate as quickly and for as long a duration as I could had I fighter. I also stock up on shield batteries and nanobots before heading back into orbit. Since Mehdi and Lucky are still buying and fully retrofitting ships I'm alone up there - and, of course, vulnerable.
It's not that shocking, then, that a squadron of pirates comes along and demands I give up my cargo. Since I have nothing in the hold besides five tons of scrap metal, I comply. Of course, it's quite irritating to get mugged right after you go about obtaining the best and most heavily armed freighter you can get in the Liberty systems in this early stage of the game.
Ah well. Before long we're all in orbit. Mehdi's bought a ton of hugely expensive mines ( in addition to the new ship, weaponry, and everything else ) and jettisons them out into space to get rid of some of his excess money ( after all, having too much for free is lame ). Of course, when he does that he loses all his shielding - you can't ram things through forcefields, after all, at least not in the 30th Century. The only problem is I decide to tap the "E" key at just that moment, just to see if I remember how to launch a mine ( since I'd bought a Razor mine launcher and 20 units in ordinance ). The mine drifts by my vessel nonchalantly, and before I can curse loudly enough hovers over towards Mehdi. Seconds later, his armour is down to 40%.
Alright, well, that's enough of hovering above the planet Houston. We decide to make a quick trade run to Manhattan and back again in the hopes of making some easy money. After that we resolve to head into the Brittonia House and its myriad systems, hopefully to make a name for ourselves as true Pirates. Lucky leads us off into the traderoute, and it doesn't take long before we're on our way.
Obviously, we're ambushed, but this time we're in no mood to fight. We engage our cruise engines to escape, and luckily they're aren't disrupted by an errant missile. The following image is a good shot of most of the general flying controls: it details my weaponry, shield batteries and nanobots ( bottom right ), it reveals the hostile ships chasing us ( red icons, bottom left ) and my wingmates, it shows my shield status ( blue bar, bottom center ), armour status ( red bar ) and energy status ( yellow bar ), and, of course, it demonstrates how cool it is to fly through these star systems in cruise mode! Also, the shot was taken in turret mode: if you have a vessel with turrets you can active this mode and control their targeting and viewing while losing power over the trajectory and speed of your ship.
In any case, we end up reaching the Jumpgate soon after, and this time there's a really big swarm of enemies awaiting us. Things get desperate, since we're quite, quite outgunned. I try and get in first but the pattern is full ( that means other ships are cued ahead of me ) and we're forced to wait. I take a simply enormous amount of enemy fire, and if it wasn't for about four shield batteries ( at least ) my freighter would have never survived. All of us are frantic and terribly damaged before we finally - finally - manage to stumble through the gate and into safety. My armour was down to 20% at one point, and my wingmen aren't much better off!
Luckily, then, we get to the New York system in one piece, and arrive at Manhattan not long after. New York is uneventful; nothing to write home about and certainly nothing to post screenshots about. There's no substantive ambush in the works, which is a major surprise, and I pick up about eighty tons worth of consumer goods to haul on back to Texas.
Naturally, since New York was quiet, Texas just had to be brimming with pirates. We're ambushed at least three times before we even get close to Houston! The third time is definitely the worst: swarms of heavy fighter craft belonging to a nefarious group called the Outcasts disrupt our trade lane and pummel us from all sides. I quickly switch into turret mode and fend them off as well as I can, but they just keep coming. Lucky and Keanu pry them away from me, one by one, and another explodes in a brilliant flash off my starboard bow. I activate my afterburners and plummet on towards the nearest tradelane docking ring while Mehdi and Dan take on the remaining fighters. Our goal is to get me to land at Houston: once I've done that we're going to call it quits for the night ( since it's already about 2:30 and I still have to call my girlfriend ). I almost don't make it: my shields are gone, my armour is buckling, but . . . whew . . . there's the traderoute. With a sigh of relief I thunder in through the gate and arrive at Houston moments later.
The damage I've taken is simply ridiculous. No fewer than nine subsystems need to be fixed, and it'll cost me almost a thousand credits! What a thrilling battle - there's no doubt in my mind that if I'd still had that StarFlier I would've been very dead, which is bad indeed since we had but a single team life remaining.
Well, that's the end of the first installment. Smiling and quite satisfied I log off a few moments after setting down on the planet. That was probably the most enjoyable night in front of the computer that I've had in many years, something you continue thinking about a day or two into the future. Freelancer is just such an amazing game, the mix of action and depth is simply incredible!
Alright, I'm signing out for now. I hope you've enjoyed this battlereport, since the second one's in the works. The ships are bigger, the screenshots are far more impressive, and the stakes are higher. We head out into Brittonia to become pirates, almost lose Mehdi along the way, and travel off into the Liberty badlands. Hopefully it won't be quite as long as this one though, this thing took about six or so hours out of my life. Ridiculously enough, that's probably a record for brevity as far as my reports are concerned.
On a final note, I'd like to congratulate JV and the new raters for helping to revitalize this site as well as they've done, not to mention the excellent writers we have now and the continual flow of readers. Hopefully in the months to come we can really turn this webpage into one of the best entertainment-related sites on the web.
Oh, and don't forget to visit my website. A lot of things have been redone, and perhaps some of the artwork could be used in our revitalized website. I'm making some more professional looking art for the page as well, that should be done in a week or two.
Adios for now!
| |
|
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
