Freelancer – A modders guide | www.frontierspace.co.uk

By meaning “a modders guide”, it means a guide to all things Freelancer from somebody who has been looking through the game files and has played the game to a great extent. It isn’t about cheating, hacking or cloaking, you won’t find anything on these matters on this website at all.

This guide is for Original Freelancer, not for any which are modded and changed in any way.

Shield Types

Shield Bias	Ship Type	Class	Capacity	Regeneration
Graviton	Light Fighter	8	5404	120
Molecular	Light Fighter	8	4050	90
Positron	Light Fighter	8	4050	90
Graviton	Light Fighter	9	7398	164
Molecular	Light Fighter	9	5550	123
Positron	Light Fighter	9	5550	123
Graviton	Light Fighter	10	10127	225
Molecular	Light Fighter	10	7600	168
Positron	Light Fighter	10	7600	168
Graviton	Heavy Fighter	8	5890	130
Molecular	Heavy Fighter	8	4420	98
Positron	Heavy Fighter	8	4420	98
Graviton	Heavy Fighter	9	8063	179
Molecular	Heavy Fighter	9	6050	134
Positron	Heavy Fighter	9	6050	134
Graviton	Heavy Fighter	10	11038	245
Molecular	Heavy Fighter	10	8280	184
Positron	Heavy Fighter	10	8280	184
Graviton	Freighter	8	6891	153
Molecular	Freighter	8	5170	114
Positron	Freighter	8	5170	114
Graviton	Freighter	9	9434	209
Molecular	Freighter	9	7080	157
Positron	Freighter	9	7080	157
Graviton	Freighter	10	12914	287
Molecular	Freighter	10	9690	215
Positron	Freighter	10	9690	215

One of the problems with classic unmodded Freelancer, is that the shield types are broken. The Graviton shields are so much better than the others that they the best choice regardless of the enemies weapons. The class 9 and 10 graviton based shields are not buyable in original freelancer, though some server-side mods have them being dropped from set locations

To compare the highest buyable shield types:

Shield Bias	Ship Type	Class	Capacity	Regeneration
Graviton	Heavy Fighter	9	8063	179
Molecular	Heavy Fighter	10	8280	184
Positron	Heavy Fighter	10	8280	184

Just because the shield is a class 10 positron based shield does not mean it is better than the graviton class 8 one. Against the likes of the GMG with their high level photon weapons, a class 8 graviton is more effective.

Weapon modifiers

You may see mention of how a weapon is more or less effective against different types of shield. What this means in game terms is that the right weapon will do 120% damage, the wrong weapon 80% and the neutral weapon (or no bias) 100%. This can be shown below:

Weapon Type	Attacking shield	Damage modifier
Positron/Laser	Positron	120%
Positron/Laser	Molecular	100%
Positron/Laser	Graviton	80%
Particle/Plasma	Positron	100%
Particle/Plasma	Molecular	80%
Particle/Plasma	Graviton	120%
Neutron/Tachyon	Positron	80%
Neutron/Tachyon	Molecular	120%
Neutron/Tachyon	Graviton	100%

Effective weapon configurations

There are a couple of different styles that players use when arming their ships. Some choose a guns only approach, with a max level pulse weapon supported by the highest weapons available. This works well as the cost of the missiles isn’t removed from the profit from whatever job you are doing. This is also the best choice against enemies that don’t have shields, as long as you remove the pulse weapon and add an additional weapon to do the damage.

Others prefer using a similar configuration with a high level solid slug (non-homing) missile to do the main amount of damage. I’ve used this one myself and get very good results with it. You can load up on catapult or lancer missiles and attack ships up to the lower level sabre classed ships. You use a max class pulse weapon to strip their shields, then hit them with the highest level missile you can. Its enough to get either a straight kill or to blow a few weapons off to reduce their ability to fight back. This configuration works well with light fighters where their lack of weapon hardpoints means that the all guns approach wouldn’t work well enough.

As a rule, pirate weapons are far superior to all other weapons. GMG are the exception as they can actually make weapons that are worth using. Corsair and Outcast weapons are the best of their type, with Kraken 2′s being the highest damage for any other the counter gun based weapon.

You should try to get into the unknown systems to get the alien weapons that they drop. But make sure that you are ready to go there and have a maxed out ship, otherwise it might get a bit frustrating. The alien weapons have abilities superior to all other weapons and use no energy at all.

Missiles

Missiles in Freelancer are also a bit broken. The homing missiles aren’t good enough to be worth the extra cost of buying them and their damage is around half of a sold slug non-homing missile. You’d be better off sticking with the normal missiles and to practice using them effectively. Pulse missiles too are a bit rubbish, I can’t think of any situation where they would be worth using. They really don’t compare well to a decent pulse weapon/turret.

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Liberty Police, Inc.
Liberty Police, Inc. (LPI) is a private company that handles the policing of Liberty space to interdict the importation of contraband and to prevent attacks on civilian and commercial traffic.

Liberty Security Force
The Liberty Security Force (LSF) is the intelligence branch of the Liberty Armed Forces, operating in secrecy to ensure the free flow of goods and services in the Liberty economy.

Liberty Navy
The Liberty Navy is responsible for protecting the economic well-being of Liberty through military force, both within the boundaries of the colony and in the independent systems that border its territory.

Bretonia Police
Officers in the Bretonia Police Authority are well-trained, well-armed, and widely considered to be a bastion of incorruptibility.

Bretonia Armed Forces
The Bretonia Armed Forces has a long history of serving as the first and last line of defence for the great nation Bretonia.

Kusari Police
The Kusari State Police is a disciplined force of career personnel assigned to guard the borders of Kusari space and protect Kusari commercial interests.

Kusari Naval Forces
The Kusari Naval Forces is highly organized and possesses all of the considerable technological advantages inferred by Kusari industry.

Rheinland Police
The Rheinland Federal Police is an impressively well-equipped organization acting as the primary security force in Rheinland space.

Rheinland Military
The Rheinland Military continues a proud tradition of military service that stretches back several centuries.

ALG Waste Disposal
ALG Waste Disposal is based in Rheinland but operates throughout the colonies due to its outstanding reputation for industrial clean-up.

Border World Exports
Bowex Shipping Company is a pioneer in the exploration of the Border Worlds and the exclusive supplier to the Bretonian military and police.

BMM
Bretonia Mining and Manufacturing (BMM) is one of the largest commercial concerns in Bretonia, a network of semi-autonomous operations that range throughout Bretonian space.

Gateway Shipping
Gateway Shipping is a Bretonian firm catering to smaller companies that hauls raw materials across the Border and Independent Worlds.

Cryer Pharmaceuticals
Cryer Pharmaceuticals is headquartered in Liberty and markets a wide array of both commercially available and restricted-class drugs.

Interspace Commerce
Interspace Commerce (IC) is one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies and insures cargo carried within the colonies and into the Border Worlds.

Daumann Heavy Construction
Daumann Heavy Construction is the largest mining and manufacturing firm in Rheinland.

Kishiro Technologies
Kishiro Technologies is one of the great Kusari keiretsu -- sprawling, vertically integrated companies that control whole industries.

Kruger Minerals
Kruger Minerals works in partnership with ALG Waste Disposal to mine the valuable resources within Rheinland and its neighbouring territories.

Deep Space Engineering
Deep Space Engineering has an exclusive contract with fellow Liberty company Ageira Technologies to build Jump Gates and Trade Lanes throughout the Sirius Sector.

Synth Foods, Inc.
Synth Foods is the Liberty firm responsible for the revolutionary Food product Synth Paste and a highly successful line of Food-producing bio domes.

Orbital Spa and Cruise
Orbital Spa and Cruise operates an array of resorts and luxury liners throughout the Sirius Sector.

Republican Shipping
Republican Shipping manages a substantial majority of all cargo transported within the borders of Rheinland.

Samura Industries
Samura Industries is one of the great Kusari keiretsu -- sprawling, vertically integrated companies that control whole industries.

Universal Shipping
Universal Shipping is one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies and specializes in the shipping of high-risk, high-value cargo.

Planetform, Inc.
Planetform Inc. specializes in the terraforming of non-viable planets in Bretonia and elsewhere.

Ageira Technologies
Ageira Technologies is one of the "Big Three" Liberty companies and is responsible for the development of Jump Gate and Trade Lane technology.

Blood Dragons
The Blood Dragons are a terrorist organization supposedly descended from the royal guard of Shogun Hideyoshi -- deposed during a coup several centuries before -- and are dedicated to the overthrow of the current Kusari government.

Bundschuh
The Bundschuh are a populist political faction that has been declared "enemy of the State" by the Rheinland Reichstag.

Corsairs
The Corsairs are believed to be the largest criminal organization operating in Sirius -- frequently attacking civilian, commercial, and even military targets.

Farmers Alliance
The Farmers Alliance is a Kusari political organization formed to lobby for government subsidies and restrictions on the sale of foreign Food.

Gaians
The Gaians are a terrorist faction opposed to any alteration to the natural environment of a planet, specifically those brought about through terraforming.

Golden Chrysanthemums
The Golden Chrysanthemums are a terrorist organization seeking to the overthrow the Kusari government and institute a matriarchy.

Hogosha
The Hogosha are a quasi-legal organization that ostensibly exists to promote the "welfare and prosperity of the Kusari people."

Junkers
Junkers are an itinerant population of unknown origin who comb debris fields looking for scrap and equipment that can either be repurposed or sold for cash.

Lane Hackers
The Lane Hackers are a criminal group with the technical expertise to monitor and disrupt Trade Lanes for the purpose of seizing valuable cargo.

Liberty Rogues
Rogues are a motley assortment of petty criminals who operate mainly in Liberty, attacking targets of opportunity or occasionally working for larger criminal organizations.

LWB
The LWB, or Landwirtrechtbewegung (farmers' rights movement), is believed to be engaged in attacks on Synth Foods operations and sympathetic government officials in retaliation for Rheinland concessions to the Liberty Food conglomerate.

Mollys
The Mollys are a separatist group committed to freeing the Dublin system from Bretonian rule through violent attacks on civilian, commercial, and military targets.

Outcasts
Little information is available about the Outcasts, but they are believed to be heavily involved in the trafficking of the drug Cardamine.

Red Hessians
The Red Hessians are a criminal group composed largely of unemployed miners operating out of Rheinland space who attack civilian and commercial targets of opportunity.

The Order
The Order is a terrorist organization of unknown size whose agenda has not yet been determined.

Unioners
The Unioners are a terrorist group composed of dispossessed Rheinland shipyard workers who engage in brutal reprisals chiefly against Republican Shipping.

Xenos
The Xenos are a loosely affiliated terrorist organization opposed to any trade or other interaction with foreign entities.

Gas Miners Guild
The Gas Mining Guild (GMG) is a tight-knit professional organization that acts as the primary supplier of H-Fuel to the four major Houses.

Independent Miners Guild
The Independent Mining Guild (IMG) is a loose confederation of miners who work those fields that have thus far remained undeveloped by the larger mining companies.

Zoners
Zoners are a diverse group of individuals who, for various reasons, have decided to live in the wild and unregulated systems outside of colonial control.

Bounty Hunters Guild
The Bounty Hunters Guild originally began in Texas but has spread to almost every system in Sirius, providing a broad array of security-oriented services for a reasonable fee.

Liberty

Five great ships launched during the Exodus, each protecting precious human cargo deep within their metal wombs. They fled for the stars, away from the final spasm of war that swallowed their first home in fire and then in blackness. Somewhere out there they would make a new home. They would begin again. This time...this time they would not repeat the mistakes that had been made before.

Five great ships. One was lost en route. The names of the other four now are legend: Kusari, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Liberty....

Pre-Settlement

In the tumult of the Exodus, The Liberty launched before the other great sleeper ships. Colonists whisper, even today, that the launch date may have been intentionally moved forward against the explicit wishes of the Great Planners. Early launch would have guaranteed the Liberty free access to the worlds of the Sirius Sector before the other sleeper ships arrived, but all proof of such a betrayal of trust was lost along with Earth. Even if the Liberty did launch early, there is little that can be done about it now...but there remains a lingering feeling of resentment among the other houses: a vague feeling that, somehow, Liberty does not entirely deserve the position of superiority it enjoys eight centuries later.

When the Liberty first arrived in the Sirius Sector they found an area rich in resources but lacking in habitable planets. With a hundred systems at their fingertips, they settled on those near the center of Sirius where the highest number of main sequence stars and Earth-like planets existed and a fair number of resources could be easily obtained. Eventually they made planetfall on Manhattan, in the system they christened New York. They began the difficult task of rebuilding civilization two full years before any other sleeper ship arrived.

Bretonia

The Bretonia was one of the last sleeper ships to arrive in the Sirius Sector, almost twenty years after the Liberty, Kusari, and Rheinland had made planetfall on what became their respective homeworlds. In the chaos of Exodus, the starboard engine array of the Bretonia was destroyed, requiring her to limp the rest of the way to Sirius.

By the time the Bretonia arrived, most of the resource rich areas of the sector had already been claimed by the passengers of the Rheinland and Kusari, while the Liberty had settled the lush planets at the sector core. Bretonia was forced to select a less than ideal site near the Barrier, a giant belt of ice that spans the entire western half of the Sirius Sector. Here they established the colony of New London, on one of the few habitable planets in the area. Isolated by the Barrier from the other houses and years behind, Bretonia began an accelerated program of rebuilding their industrial civilization.

Historically quiet in terms of crime, Bretonia is the home of two narrowly focused terrorist groups, the Mollys and the Gaians. Common criminals were quite rare until the recent arrival of Corsairs and Outcasts within the colony, which has severely tested the capabilities and resources of the Police Authority and Armed Forces.

Kusari

As the Kusari sleeper ship approached the Sirius sector, they looked for evidence of high percentages of water, analyzing spectrographic wavelengths of various planet atmospheres. One area in particular looked interesting. Lying near a distinctively shaped blue nebula that the on-board astronomer named the Crow, it was composed of relatively young stars, and possessed at least two planets with high amounts of atmospheric water vapor and oxygen. Planetfall was made on the New Tokyo in 5 AS., five years after the arrival of the Liberty. New Tokyo had plenty of water. What it didn't offer was much land. The ocean planet was dotted with a few small volcanic islands. A culture that had left their cramped homeland far behind had to accept a cruel twist of fate once again, on the other side of the universe.

Shortly after planetfall, the Planners decided to restore the title of Emperor as the leader of the Kusari government after centuries of figurehead status. Strong and absolute leadership was needed to rebuild their civilization. The political maneuvering was intense. There were two rivals - Masamune Samura and Yosai Hideyoshi. Ultimately, Hideyoshi won. As a compromise, Samura was offered the presidency of the corporation that would rebuild the industrial might of the Kusari people from scratch. He accepted, and Samura Heavy Industries was incorporated, the first of the two great Kusari industrial conglomerates that dominate commerce in the region to this day.

By 100 AS., Samura had constructed the Yamamoto Shipyard and established its reputation as the premier shipbuilder in Kusari. Over the next several centuries, Samura expanded its gas mining operations throughout Kusari space, began regular trading with the other houses, and perfected the construction of polymer hull panels and shielding. Samura's contracts to construct ships for the Kusari Military remain highly lucrative, while its commercial transports almost entirely dominate that sector. Throughout its history, Samura Heavy Industries has exhibited many of the traits of its founder: methodical, implacable, slow to change, quick to anger.

The second company had far more humble origins. In 10 AS., a small research company, headed by Katsuhiro Kishiro, genetically modified an existing earth fish species and introduced a super-breed optimized for life in New Tokyo�s alien ocean waters. He also tackled the rice problem. The soil conditions were quite different than Earth, lacking certain nutrients that rice brought on the sleeper ship needed. Again, Kishiro came to the rescue, this time with a new rice strain that could handle the harsh growing conditions found planet side. Kishiro won the adulation of the Kusari imperial family, and thus began the second of the two industrial dynasties of Kusari. Adapting the name Kishiro Technologies for his company, Kishiro espoused a progressive research oriented environment that relied more on brains than sheer size and intimidation, unlike his primary rival, Samura.

In 91 AS., Kishiro Technologies achieved a breakthrough in the development of quantum circuitry that revolutionized the entire economy almost overnight. Just as its founder had originally planned, Kishiro products found their way into almost every consumer, commercial, or military product on the market -- including those made by Samura. With their new found capital, Kishiro Technologies rapidly expanded their manufacturing capabilities and established the Yukawa Shipyard within the nearby Honshu system, devoted almost exclusively to the construction of ships to be used in gas mining operations in the nearby Crow Nebula.

Kusari was generally poor in natural resources, although the New Tokyo system did contain limited deposits of aluminum and titanium, which enabled Kusari shipbuilders to be relatively self-sufficient, at least for the first three centuries after arrival. The surrounding Crow Nebula had little in the way of asteroid fields found in such abundance in the Walker and Barrier regions. It did offer one key resource, however, that the entire Sirius Sector needed. Virtually unlimited supplies of Helium-3 and Deuterium were present inside the great clouds of ionized gases in the nearby Sigma systems. Both isotopes were quite rare on planets, but essential for the fusion engines that powered spacecraft of all sizes. Kusari soon became the exclusive supplier of H-fuel, as they called it, to all of the colonies. H-fuel was the foreign currency source that allowed Kusari companies to purchase the many raw materials found in the other colonies that Kusari lacked.

Rheinland

The Rheinland was among the second wave of sleeper ships to arrive in the Sirius Sector, along with the Kusari. The Rheinland eventually elected to make planet-fall in an area of Sirius close to the Walker Nebula and with easy access to the resources required to rebuild the Rheinland nation.

Extensive information, including visual documentation, is available for Rheinland space. Addition data has become available on the Walker Nebula Border Worlds and is included below.

The Walker Nebula Border Worlds

Omega-7 lies deep within the clouds of the Walker nebula, filled with mineral rich asteroids and explosive gas pockets. Not really a system, it's more of a waypoint along the Trade Lane that was constructed from Cambridge to Stuttgart in the middle of the eighth century. The long and dangerous construction process took 20 years, with drifting asteroids an ongoing problem.

Five years after the Trade Lanes' completion, a motley crew of independent miners from Bretonia and Rheinland rehabilitated an abandoned DSE construction site for use as a mining base. They named it Freistadt, a free port operated along similar lines as the Zoner run bases scattered throughout the Border and Independent Worlds. In 760, they became official members of the Independent Miners Guild. Over time, the miners discovered significant pockets of silver, copper, and cobalt. Lacking the facilities to refine the minerals, they shipped much of the raw ore to the relatively new ALG smelter in Berlin. The IMG dominates mineral production in the system to this day, although Kruger and Daumann have recently opened mining operations in higher risk areas off the Trade Lanes.

Piracy is an ever present threat in Omega-7. The ongoing attacks by Corsairs and Hessians have led Interspace Commerce to recommend closing the Rheinland-Bretonia Trade Lane unless security can be improved. Little can be done given the complete lack of funding available for Rheinland Military patrol operations.

Omega-11 is a dying and dangerous system located at the southern edge of the Walker Nebula. At its heart is a late-stage red giant, a sun grown huge and hot as it begins to burn off the last of its helium reserves in its final death throes. Most of the planets in the inner system have already been consumed in the fires of the Omega-11 solar furnace, leaving only the volcanic planet of Schutz. Between the sun and the orbital path of Schutz lies the astronomical anomaly known as the Von Rohe Belt, named after the famous Rheinland deep space exploration leader who initially surveyed Omega-11 in 110 AS. Von Rohe theorized that the belt was comprised of the molten remnants of a destroyed inner planet. Rich in diamonds, it has lured miners to Omega-11 ever since.

With the construction of the first jump gate to Omega-11 in 376 AS, commercial exploitation became a priority despite the inherent dangers. Daumann established the Solarius base within the planetary shadow of Schutz, the only area close to the Von Rohe Belt safe from the debilitating effects of the frequent solar storms. Mining the Belt is a very simple process that hasn't changed much in the preceding centuries. Ships make runs to the inner edge of the Belt and literally grab as many of the molten asteroids or loose diamonds as they can before retreating to the relative safety of Solarius.

The system also sits astride the Omega Jump Hole network, so both Red Hessians and Corsairs are frequently spotted in the area. Attacks are common along the tenuous supply line that stretches from Solarius back to the Suttgart Gate. Omega-11 offers great riches, but only to those who are able to take care of themselves in this lawless frontier.