06-06-2017, 09:13 PM
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Be part of a progressing story!
There are multiple layers of how intensively you can play your characters. There are people who use their characters as means to the end, to make use of an ID or a ship they like to play. And then there are people who pay more attention to character development. Both ways to play the characters you make up are legit, however many people will appreciate interacting with an outfleshed character with a history instead of having encounters that only give you the absolute minimum of required roleplay to get to kill each other.
Character development is a great way to boost your longterm motivation of Discovery. You not only set yourself, the player, goals, but also set goals for the character you play. Keep in mind that those goals are set to keep you motivated. The idea is not rushing through the goals, but develop a story around how you and your character achieve the goals. What matters are the interactions you have to get what you want. Because this is a multiplayer game, and people always look for interactions.
Character development is a great way to boost your longterm motivation of Discovery. You not only set yourself, the player, goals, but also set goals for the character you play. Keep in mind that those goals are set to keep you motivated. The idea is not rushing through the goals, but develop a story around how you and your character achieve the goals. What matters are the interactions you have to get what you want. Because this is a multiplayer game, and people always look for interactions.
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Creating a character
Choose a race! |
![[Image: jZhYJWW.png]](http://i.imgur.com/jZhYJWW.png) | ![[Image: 08QyNZM.png]](http://i.imgur.com/08QyNZM.png) | ![[Image: nB15m2K.png]](http://i.imgur.com/nB15m2K.png) |
Human | Robot | Nomad |
Difficulty: Easy | Difficulty: Hard | Difficulty: Hard |
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Humans
Playing a human is the pretty and always welcomed standard role in Discovery. You probably start off somewhere as loner who seeks to find fortune in space, however in the dystopian setting of Freelancer,that often comes with sin, pain and death.
Sub-classes of humans are Cyborgs, Psionics, Maltese, Infected and Hybrids.
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Robots
Freelancer has robots almost everywhere. While they usually are servants of mankind, it wouldn't be the first time a robot or android got the gift of forging its own destiny. They can become sentient, however usually in a different, more structured way than the human sentience. Roleplaying as a robot or android is something only experienced people should try, as it is way more difficult and takes away some of the interactions you could have as human character (as robots, for example, don't know what love is).Sub-classes of robots are service robots (the ones we know from the bars), androids (human-looking), Gammuian AI (Planet Gammu's AI, PRIME), combat or other specialised drones, viruses, ship AIs or also holograms.
Important! Beings without human brains are usually unable to communicate with nomads. Nomads use telepathy, which requires a human brain to be understood, and nomads usually neither communicate via visuals nor audio or text-communication. Those encounters usually make use of descriptive roleplay rather than dialogues.
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Nomads
Nomads are beings of light and crystal. What we call a nomad, is usually the shell, the ship the nomad uses. Technically, a human couldn't tell any difference between multiple nomads apart from their visual look and the way they communicate telepathically. However, ingame everyone treats you after the name and the tag of your ship, so don't go too hard on people. Nomads see themselves as the Light, and they see humans as the Darkness, as they corrupt the home space of the Light with their never-ending expansion. Thus, the nomad hive, the Mindshare(s) treat the humans usually as enemies, especially when they dare to enter the pure nomad territory (Iota, Major and Psi). Nomads will use any means to destroy mankind, either offensive with ships or from within with incubi.A tutorial for nomad speech can be found here: Link
Keep in mind, this only counts for the usual nomads, the K'hara. The Vagrants use a different way of talking as they have evolved differently than the K'hara. However, starting up as a Vagrant nomad character is not possible (or rather nonsense) without being member of the Vagrant faction.
Important! Beings without human brains are usually unable to communicate with nomads. Nomads use telepathy, which requires a human brain to be understood, and nomads usually neither communicate via visuals nor audio or text-communication. Those encounters usually make use of descriptive roleplay rather than dialogues.
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Since robots and nomads are usually something for people who normally already know something about character creation and development, this little guide will focus on humans.
So, a human it will be for now. In the following, you will find some aspects to shape your human. It begins with the obvious things and will get more into detail each time. It is, of course, up to you how much detail you want to give your character. The more you give it, the more you need to keep in mind. That's why having an overview over your character in form of a character creation form is usually a good idea.
So, a human it will be for now. In the following, you will find some aspects to shape your human. It begins with the obvious things and will get more into detail each time. It is, of course, up to you how much detail you want to give your character. The more you give it, the more you need to keep in mind. That's why having an overview over your character in form of a character creation form is usually a good idea.
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What is your human? |
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Name: Nicknames: (Sub-class): Gender: Profession: Year of birth: Place of birth: Current stay: Finances: Education: Faction: Religion: Sexual orientation: ____________________________________ | Name: Ezrael Vertiga Nicknames: Ez (most people), Ezzy (rarely), Verty (Sombra), Lord Captain Handsome (himself), Feckboi (Sombra), Makohugger (himself on Cuddles.net), Makobutt (Maren) (Sub-class): Normal human Gender: Male Profession: College Teacher (Biology, Physical Education) Date of birth: March 14th, 792 A. S. Place of birth: Planet Curacao (Neo Lagun) Current stay: Planet Curacao Finances: Billionaire (inheritaged) Education: Biological Studies Graduation, University of Curacao Faction: Unaffiliated Religion: Atheist Sexual orientation: 99% heterosexual ____________________________________ |
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Body Height: Body Weight: Fitness: Muscularity: Eye type: Hair type: Skin type: Features: | Body Height: 1.85m Body Weight: 90kg Fitness: Far above average Muscularity: Above average (athletic, not too buffed) Eye type: Green Hair type: Long straight black hair, sometimes with single deep red highlights Skin type: normally browned, thanks to his rare visits of Curacao actually pale Features: scar reaching from above his left eye to the cheek below it, the eye is unharmed |
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Dreams: Likes: Dislikes: Fears: | Dreams: Coexistence of mankind with humans in their respective regions; orgies Likes: flirting, sex, healthy women, wine, curacaoan fruits, Curacao, surfing, beach volleyball, hoverbikes, racing, kick-boxing, clubbing, leather, porn, curacaoan maritime wildlife, nudity, cats, gran canarian blue pandas Dislikes: children, drugs (apart from wine), violence, conflicts, lack of table manners (Maren) Fears: insects (especially big ones), nomads, gallic invasion on Curacao, getting infected |
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Family: Friends: Love interest: Rivals: | Family: no family left Friends: Maren von Westefeld (fiance), Nancy Sweetwater, Leon Isley, Sombra Hookier, Paige Hale (Hot Gear), Sherry Aguilar (Apahanta 2iC), Elena Voigt, Nesrin Khan, Thallia Thorn, Eliza Valdez, James El Harady, Finn McCool Love interest: Maren von Westefeld (fiance); Nancy Sweetwater; Sombra Hookier Rivals: Sapphire Raven, Joshua Hunt, Noah Xonnel, Jared Nomak, Cordelia Lyell, Kaze Dagon, Enma Loyola |
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Philosophy: Hobbies: Talents: Traits: | Philosophy: Hedonism Hobbies: Sex, Flirting, Clubbing, Hoverbikes, Surfing, Movies, Poker, Kick-Boxing, Athletic sports in general, Wine, Research (Biology, Psychology) Talents: Sex, Flirting, Hoverbike Racing, Seduction, Battleship Commanding, Battleship Management, Procrastination Traits: Optimistic, extrovert, idealistic, chivalry, charming, playboy, impatient with children, borderlining oversexualized, patient, unregretting, open-minded when faced with facts, overall reasonable, tends to speak only when necessary in public, philanthropic, calculating, pacifistic |
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Goals: | Goals: - Settling down with Maren on Curacao to live in peace and plenty and sin - Providing a safe home for Nancy Sweetwater - Preventing Nancy Sweetwater from turning into a Reaver again - Defending Curacao from the Gallic Invasion - Defending Maren and her incubus Valery from harm - Preventing Maren and her incubus Valery from harming others - Establishing Hot Gear as sirius-wide stellar player for motorsport products - Trying to keep Maren close, maybe even marrying her if she accepts his promiscuity - Selling the Apahanta once they could live a safe life - Reaching neutrality with the Lane Hackers (right now kill-on-sight) - Reaching neutrality with Auxesia (right now rather untrusting) - Increasing the Apahanta's range (legally entering house space) - Enabling the Apahanta to cloak for infinite amounts of time (IRG) - Visiting Altair without getting infected or trapped there (Wilde) - Many more... |
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The example shown here is my main character Ezrael Vertiga, by now a character with one consecutive year of character development.
Apart from his finanical status as billionaire, he earned most of his physical possessions and his relationships to other characters during the last 14 months. The goals of this character have changed a lot, with some having been reached, other not. Again, the most important thing about the goals is not the goals themselves but how you reach them. My character started out as a rich playboy, to justify how he managed to get his hands on a capital ship. It is up to you to decide with how much power and experience a new character starts up,
but keep in mind nobody likes almighty characters and nobody likes characters without conflicts. You could start at a bum who got his hands on a Stargazer and has no idea where he could get his next meal, his next stay or anything. That would be the absolute minimum of starting situations. Of course you could also start a few levels higher, with a certain starting budget and equipment. The more you can achieve, the more you feel the progression, though. Don't start as someone who already has all the equipment he needs - be it the equipment of your ship, or inRP equipment.
The most important aspect of achieving goals is to have people help or antagonize you while doing so. Without challenge, the achievement isn't worth much.
Apart from his finanical status as billionaire, he earned most of his physical possessions and his relationships to other characters during the last 14 months. The goals of this character have changed a lot, with some having been reached, other not. Again, the most important thing about the goals is not the goals themselves but how you reach them. My character started out as a rich playboy, to justify how he managed to get his hands on a capital ship. It is up to you to decide with how much power and experience a new character starts up,
but keep in mind nobody likes almighty characters and nobody likes characters without conflicts. You could start at a bum who got his hands on a Stargazer and has no idea where he could get his next meal, his next stay or anything. That would be the absolute minimum of starting situations. Of course you could also start a few levels higher, with a certain starting budget and equipment. The more you can achieve, the more you feel the progression, though. Don't start as someone who already has all the equipment he needs - be it the equipment of your ship, or inRP equipment.
The most important aspect of achieving goals is to have people help or antagonize you while doing so. Without challenge, the achievement isn't worth much.
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Goals
In a sandbox like the Freelancer Discovery universe, you need to set your own goals. For newcomers, that is usually the first piracy, the first bounty, earning enough money through trading to get a battleship and what not. However, there will be the time when you realize that without the roleplay, things are pretty repetitive.
Where is the fun in hundreds of hours of powertrading? Where is the fun in doing hundreds of NPC missions? Where is the fun of sitting dozens of hours at trade lanes, hoping for a juicy trader to come by? You need to spice things up for yourself. Have something you can show off later. Here are a few examples of goals you can set yourself:
Where is the fun in hundreds of hours of powertrading? Where is the fun in doing hundreds of NPC missions? Where is the fun of sitting dozens of hours at trade lanes, hoping for a juicy trader to come by? You need to spice things up for yourself. Have something you can show off later. Here are a few examples of goals you can set yourself:
![[+]](/forums/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Goal Suggestions˩
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Become part of the flow!
Sometimes, you don't need need to log to progress with your currently set goal. Sometimes,
saying hello is already enough to have something starting. So, fly around, greet people. You have nothing to lose if they don't greet back. Sometimes, take your freelancer and offer an escort for a transport. Sometimes, take your transport and ask freelancers to escort you. Sometimes, ask your enemy why he or she does what they do. Question their motives. Question your motives. Question the motives of your allies. In Freelancer, everyone is hero and villain.
From the nomads' point of view, the Darklings are the evil ones, because they ventured deep into nomad territory and took what was not theirs. Corsairs are pirates because they need food for their people, as Crete is not very good on producing food. The slavery on Malta is a pretty outfleshed and working social construct - nowhere in Sirius will slaves have a better living than on Malta - especially not on Crete or Pittsburgh. Literally everything in Sirius has another point of view that just waits for you to try.
While you aim for some of the goals I suggested, people will also have their influence on you. So over time, there will be new goals, new friends and new enemies. Especially if you play as Freelancer, you will have a very dynamic living.
saying hello is already enough to have something starting. So, fly around, greet people. You have nothing to lose if they don't greet back. Sometimes, take your freelancer and offer an escort for a transport. Sometimes, take your transport and ask freelancers to escort you. Sometimes, ask your enemy why he or she does what they do. Question their motives. Question your motives. Question the motives of your allies. In Freelancer, everyone is hero and villain.
From the nomads' point of view, the Darklings are the evil ones, because they ventured deep into nomad territory and took what was not theirs. Corsairs are pirates because they need food for their people, as Crete is not very good on producing food. The slavery on Malta is a pretty outfleshed and working social construct - nowhere in Sirius will slaves have a better living than on Malta - especially not on Crete or Pittsburgh. Literally everything in Sirius has another point of view that just waits for you to try.
While you aim for some of the goals I suggested, people will also have their influence on you. So over time, there will be new goals, new friends and new enemies. Especially if you play as Freelancer, you will have a very dynamic living.
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Your character, a tamagotchi!
Ask yourself, what do you need for a nice living. Don't forget your character is also just a human with needs. To give you an example, I'll take my character Ezrael. Pretty balanced in most aspects, a fit body, a fit mind. When Ezrael's parents died - tragic backstory! - he inherited the company of his parents. Seeing himself unable to deal with it, he sold everything. So, his starting budget was a bit more than 5.000.000.000 Credits. To the player, that isn't much. Just enough to outfit two battleships. To one person inRP, this is insanely much money. Ezrael is a billionaire. But money alone isn't everything. There are basical needs everyone has. You need a home, food, water, oxygen.
Ezrael was blessed with being the owner of an OS&C themed Corvo-class ship, the Hoffnungsschimmer. Initially, that ship was nothing more than a giant party bus to him, and later it turned into his home. A mobile home. Pretty cool, but also something not everyone can afford. Other people usually have their homes on planets (there are 42 planets you can land on right now, even more have inRP bases on them, like Nauru), their faction's bases and battleships or, like most space-faring civilians, live on non-affiliated stations (the Barrier Gate Stations, Heisenberg Research Station, Monte Carlo Freeport and Newport Station) or Zoner freeports and stations (including Ames, Bethlehem, Corinth, Livadia, Corfu and of course the bases run by the Omicron Supply Industries in Omega-49 and the ones run by the Temporary Anonymous Zoners in Baffin. Of course, you could also base off of other stations like Trenton or other corporate stations. However, in the latter cases, you should try to earn your character's home(s) by interacting with the housekeepers. Want to have a room on Trenton? Contact Universal Shipping and ask how much they want!
HOME: CHECK!
Ezrael is a man of high standards. Most people in space eat Synth Foods' products, either the cheap Synth Paste, which keeps you alive while killing your sense of taste with artificial flavors, or the expensive Synth Gel, which is nice, but still just synthetic stuff. Nothing Ezrael really wants. He is a man who likes fruits and cereals for breakfast. The fruits he likes are naturally grown on Planet Curacao, his homeworld. His Corvo has a big storage bay, so usually, Ezrael only needs to visit Curacao once a month to get food supplies. Once a month, he goes shopping on Curacao! Luxury food, check. Tea, check. Of course, he doesn't only buy food, but also other stuff from Curacao.
OXYGEN: CHECK!
WATER: CHECK!
TEA: CHECK!
SYNTH GEL: CHECK! (Just for emergencies!)
LUXURY FOOD: CHECK!
Those are things you can buy on Planet Curacao ingame. Of course, as inRP character, you can also get stuff the planet imports. You'd just pay a bit more than on other worlds. While Ezrael usually only spends the interest created by his billions of money, he doesn't waste his money if he can prevent it. Some things are cheaper in other systems. Bretonia is big at exporting all kinds of consumer goods. A man like Ezrael needs shampoo. So, let's grab the Hoffnungsschimmer and move to Bretonia!
But wait. While Ezrael has his needs, the ship has needs as well. The Hoffnungsschimmer has some solar panels on the outer hull, yes, but that energy is barely enough to bring a ship from A to B. Our ship needs fuel. There are many different types of fuel, each for different types of ships. Some use OSI's Deuterium from Omega-49, some use GMG's H-Fuel from Okinawa, some use Krüger's DT-Fuel from Frankfurt, some use Oil from Ile-de-France, some use BMM's Mox from Manchester, but the Hoffnungsschimmer uses ALG's Thorium MOX from Köln to power the mighty engines and shields. Thorium MOX can be exported from Köln (ALG, Unioners), Poole (Mollys), Omicron Gamma (Corsairs), Honshu (Kishiro), Puerto Rico (Junker Guard), Omicron Rho (Core), New Tokyo (Samura), Omicron Alpha (Maltese) and Cassini (Liberty Rogue Guard). Pretty much all of those places are inaccessible for Ezrael, as they are either unlawful or too far away or restricted or the laws of Kusari and Rheinland are in the way. Back when he was cool with the Core, he used to buy it cheapily from them, but that is by now, as he defected from them one year ago, pretty much not an option. So here he has to bite the sour apple and just buy it as consumer from one of the points that imports Thorium MOX. Best options for him here are Cardiff in Cambridge, Aland Shipyard in Omega-3, Freeport 2 in Bering, Beaumont in Texas, Lanzarote in Omega-49, the Hood in Dublin, Rochester in New York, South Shields in Newcastle or Freeport 11 in Delta, with the Aland Shipyard in Omega-3 being the absolute best spot as they import Thorium MOX there for 1.218 Credits per barrel. Since IMG is a bunch of greedy farts, they won't sell it to him for the import price, so let's pretend they sell a barrel for 1.350 credits. Let's say each month the Hoffnungsschimmer needs 1.000 barrel (if it was used to move through Sirius on daily basis), so each month Ezrael pays 1.350.000 Credits for fuel from Aland.
FUEL: CHECK
So now that Ezrael is already close to Bretonia, he moves to New London, as there is one of the biggest space-borne shopping malls of Sirius: The Kensington Shipping Platform. You go there and end up with a container stuffed with all kinds of production-only priced Consumer Goods for around 120 Credits per container. The prices vary as usual, but 120 Credits is the average per container.
SHAMPOO: CHECK
ALL KINDS OF OTHER NORMAL QUALITY STUFF: CHECK
However, Ezrael can't go clubbing in a cheap Adidas tracksuit. As a rich playboy he also needs some stuff to show off, to signal the women he is the man they want to orgy with. Next stop: Planet Los Angeles, where Luxury Consumer Goods are produced. There he gets his tailored clothes, good black jeans, some good T-shirts with designs of his choice, a good leather jacket for the bad boy image and the perfume water that catches the esprit of Curacao.
LUXURY CONSUMER GOODS: CHECK
Let's sum up: Ezrael has a nice home, food of his standards, water, oxygen, fuel for his ship, his fruit shampoo, perfume and pants. While the latter isn't that necessary in his opinion, it is good to have them. Let's have another look at the maslow' pyramid. We covered breathing (oxygen), food, water, sex (partially), sleep - he has a big bed in his bedroom, where the former usually happens as well - homeostasis and since the Hoffnungsschimmer has a plenty of toilets, Ezrael also has excretion. He could poop all over the place. Next level: safety.
Security of body: He is not in danger. He has his ship, nobody can touch him there. The Hoffnungsschimmer, in fact, is one of the ships with the biggest focus on defense, as it has both the ability to use a battleship cloak and cruiser shields while using gunboat weaponry and having the size of a medium transport. He is also protected by lawfuls - especially in Cortez, where Bretonia, Liberty, Crayter and the Hellfire Legion as well as the OS&C Security protect the people of Curacao, no matter if visitor, employee or Curacao-born people.
Security of employment: Ezrael doesn't need to worry about employment. He has enough money for a bunch of livings and usually only spends the interest of his wealth. Even when he invested three billions in the Apahanta and one billion for the Hot Gear etat, he still has enough money for a good living. Other characters don't have that fortune. Tal Ravis can't even pay the bills for Eliza Valdez.
Security of resources: The Hoffnungsschimmer has a big cargo bay and many empty rooms. Theoretically, Ezrael could live for a few months without the need of resupplying. That of course would change if he had a full crew on his ship that needs to be fed and equipped.
Security of morality: Apart from his unbothered opinion about promiscuity and nudity, Ezrael is pretty sane. Knowing there are unlawful groups everywhere, he learned dealing with it. On an alignment chart, Ezrael started from lawful neutral and slided over the last months down to chaotic neutral.
Security of family: We're past that point. However, with the death of his parents, his friends became his family and thus he tries to keep them all safe. For example, he tries at all cost to make sure Maren, his infected fiance, can live a normal living. He also protects the ex-Reaver and bretonian terrorist Nancy Sweetwater.
Security of health: Ezrael let OS&C build a gym into the Hoffnungsschimmer. He eats preferably iron-rich fruits, does work-outs on a regular basis, surfs and dives in the filtered waters of Curacao rather often. There aren't many people more healthy than Ezrael, and he loves to annoy people until they start eating healthy and doing work-outs as well.
Security of property: His money is untouchable, his ship well defended and he doesn't roam around in dangerous areas that often. Well, until later.
So the second level is okay as well. Ask yourself whether your character is that blessed as well. If not: Go and change it! Log, move to stations and planets and get what you want. If it is about bigger things, don't hesitate to contact corporations and other factions to get what your character needs - they welcome chances to roleplay with you. Otherwise they wouldn't play their roles. And try to talk to other people on the way. Have interactions. It isn't singleplayer. Does your character know where you can get the stuff you need? Don't open up the Wiki, don't look it up in FLStats. Ask people's characters ingame!
That way, you're reaching level three. Friendship, Sex, Intimacy. Now, it is really up to you how far you want to go with your roleplay. I'd say from here the roleplay reaches a point where you start moving the medium from ingame to either forum or Skype/Discord. While it is absolutely possible to roleplay certain interactions that are not based on ships ingame, simply by docking or finding a quiet place to RP in a group chat,
I am personally used to roleplay everything we can't RP ingame and don't want to spam the forum with to RP in Skype, in a group chat. There, for a year now, the daily living on the Hoffnungsschimmer was roleplayed. The important bits get summed up in Defending the Delta. As usual, it is up to you what you are going to roleplay out fully and what will just be summed up. I myself think there is a legit fun in roleplaying anything that is beyong ingame interaction, be it a dinner with the Maltese Queen B****, a meeting with a badass Bretonian Intelligence Agent or a romantic night on Curacao, the everyday living on your ship with minor crew interactions and what not. Some people just enjoy that kind of belles lettres. And yes, that sometimes contains more adult content. However, if you don't want to turn things too graphical, friendship and relationships inRP can also simply displayed by not mentioning the details.
Friendships of your characters can be displayed ingame very nicely, as your character simply can do stuff together with their friends. For example, take your friend with you to a meeting with a creepy person or help your fiance getting a big load of Cardamine to satisfy her needs or investigate alien sites together or visit or even partake in AFC races with them. Let your character help their friends to achieve their goals, and they might help you with your goals.
FRIENDS: CHECK
ORGY: CHECK
Over time, your characters start to evolve. They suddenly become part of the story, known names all over Sirius. Meet Eliza Valdez, a weird Maltese girl with a special sense of humor. Meet John Silverstone and his hands on your female chest. Meet the sassy Sanada Junko, meet Icarus Augustopolos and watch him self-mining. Meet Pepe "El Comisario" Ladron, just don't dine with him, as you could be the pig on the table. Drink a cup of cardamine flavor tea with Admiral Hall, get extorted and humiliated by Goro Yoshida, have a Liberty Ale with Uncle Willy and have Concordia dance for you. And maybe you will appear in a list like this one day. The most important thing to do so: Log into the game, become part of the flow, do stuff for people and give people stuff to do. There are more than 300 different commodities out there, dozens of guns and other equipment for your ships, and if that isn't enough, hire a shipyard, haulers, engineers to build you a bigger ship as an SRP. Or try your luck with a PoB.
There is always something your character needs. There is always something another character needs. Freelancer is a sandbox, but the roleplay aspect makes it incredibly flexible and fluent.
Ezrael was blessed with being the owner of an OS&C themed Corvo-class ship, the Hoffnungsschimmer. Initially, that ship was nothing more than a giant party bus to him, and later it turned into his home. A mobile home. Pretty cool, but also something not everyone can afford. Other people usually have their homes on planets (there are 42 planets you can land on right now, even more have inRP bases on them, like Nauru), their faction's bases and battleships or, like most space-faring civilians, live on non-affiliated stations (the Barrier Gate Stations, Heisenberg Research Station, Monte Carlo Freeport and Newport Station) or Zoner freeports and stations (including Ames, Bethlehem, Corinth, Livadia, Corfu and of course the bases run by the Omicron Supply Industries in Omega-49 and the ones run by the Temporary Anonymous Zoners in Baffin. Of course, you could also base off of other stations like Trenton or other corporate stations. However, in the latter cases, you should try to earn your character's home(s) by interacting with the housekeepers. Want to have a room on Trenton? Contact Universal Shipping and ask how much they want!
HOME: CHECK!
Ezrael is a man of high standards. Most people in space eat Synth Foods' products, either the cheap Synth Paste, which keeps you alive while killing your sense of taste with artificial flavors, or the expensive Synth Gel, which is nice, but still just synthetic stuff. Nothing Ezrael really wants. He is a man who likes fruits and cereals for breakfast. The fruits he likes are naturally grown on Planet Curacao, his homeworld. His Corvo has a big storage bay, so usually, Ezrael only needs to visit Curacao once a month to get food supplies. Once a month, he goes shopping on Curacao! Luxury food, check. Tea, check. Of course, he doesn't only buy food, but also other stuff from Curacao.
OXYGEN: CHECK!
WATER: CHECK!
TEA: CHECK!
SYNTH GEL: CHECK! (Just for emergencies!)
LUXURY FOOD: CHECK!
Those are things you can buy on Planet Curacao ingame. Of course, as inRP character, you can also get stuff the planet imports. You'd just pay a bit more than on other worlds. While Ezrael usually only spends the interest created by his billions of money, he doesn't waste his money if he can prevent it. Some things are cheaper in other systems. Bretonia is big at exporting all kinds of consumer goods. A man like Ezrael needs shampoo. So, let's grab the Hoffnungsschimmer and move to Bretonia!
But wait. While Ezrael has his needs, the ship has needs as well. The Hoffnungsschimmer has some solar panels on the outer hull, yes, but that energy is barely enough to bring a ship from A to B. Our ship needs fuel. There are many different types of fuel, each for different types of ships. Some use OSI's Deuterium from Omega-49, some use GMG's H-Fuel from Okinawa, some use Krüger's DT-Fuel from Frankfurt, some use Oil from Ile-de-France, some use BMM's Mox from Manchester, but the Hoffnungsschimmer uses ALG's Thorium MOX from Köln to power the mighty engines and shields. Thorium MOX can be exported from Köln (ALG, Unioners), Poole (Mollys), Omicron Gamma (Corsairs), Honshu (Kishiro), Puerto Rico (Junker Guard), Omicron Rho (Core), New Tokyo (Samura), Omicron Alpha (Maltese) and Cassini (Liberty Rogue Guard). Pretty much all of those places are inaccessible for Ezrael, as they are either unlawful or too far away or restricted or the laws of Kusari and Rheinland are in the way. Back when he was cool with the Core, he used to buy it cheapily from them, but that is by now, as he defected from them one year ago, pretty much not an option. So here he has to bite the sour apple and just buy it as consumer from one of the points that imports Thorium MOX. Best options for him here are Cardiff in Cambridge, Aland Shipyard in Omega-3, Freeport 2 in Bering, Beaumont in Texas, Lanzarote in Omega-49, the Hood in Dublin, Rochester in New York, South Shields in Newcastle or Freeport 11 in Delta, with the Aland Shipyard in Omega-3 being the absolute best spot as they import Thorium MOX there for 1.218 Credits per barrel. Since IMG is a bunch of greedy farts, they won't sell it to him for the import price, so let's pretend they sell a barrel for 1.350 credits. Let's say each month the Hoffnungsschimmer needs 1.000 barrel (if it was used to move through Sirius on daily basis), so each month Ezrael pays 1.350.000 Credits for fuel from Aland.
FUEL: CHECK
So now that Ezrael is already close to Bretonia, he moves to New London, as there is one of the biggest space-borne shopping malls of Sirius: The Kensington Shipping Platform. You go there and end up with a container stuffed with all kinds of production-only priced Consumer Goods for around 120 Credits per container. The prices vary as usual, but 120 Credits is the average per container.
SHAMPOO: CHECK
ALL KINDS OF OTHER NORMAL QUALITY STUFF: CHECK
However, Ezrael can't go clubbing in a cheap Adidas tracksuit. As a rich playboy he also needs some stuff to show off, to signal the women he is the man they want to orgy with. Next stop: Planet Los Angeles, where Luxury Consumer Goods are produced. There he gets his tailored clothes, good black jeans, some good T-shirts with designs of his choice, a good leather jacket for the bad boy image and the perfume water that catches the esprit of Curacao.
LUXURY CONSUMER GOODS: CHECK
Let's sum up: Ezrael has a nice home, food of his standards, water, oxygen, fuel for his ship, his fruit shampoo, perfume and pants. While the latter isn't that necessary in his opinion, it is good to have them. Let's have another look at the maslow' pyramid. We covered breathing (oxygen), food, water, sex (partially), sleep - he has a big bed in his bedroom, where the former usually happens as well - homeostasis and since the Hoffnungsschimmer has a plenty of toilets, Ezrael also has excretion. He could poop all over the place. Next level: safety.
Security of body: He is not in danger. He has his ship, nobody can touch him there. The Hoffnungsschimmer, in fact, is one of the ships with the biggest focus on defense, as it has both the ability to use a battleship cloak and cruiser shields while using gunboat weaponry and having the size of a medium transport. He is also protected by lawfuls - especially in Cortez, where Bretonia, Liberty, Crayter and the Hellfire Legion as well as the OS&C Security protect the people of Curacao, no matter if visitor, employee or Curacao-born people.
Security of employment: Ezrael doesn't need to worry about employment. He has enough money for a bunch of livings and usually only spends the interest of his wealth. Even when he invested three billions in the Apahanta and one billion for the Hot Gear etat, he still has enough money for a good living. Other characters don't have that fortune. Tal Ravis can't even pay the bills for Eliza Valdez.
Security of resources: The Hoffnungsschimmer has a big cargo bay and many empty rooms. Theoretically, Ezrael could live for a few months without the need of resupplying. That of course would change if he had a full crew on his ship that needs to be fed and equipped.
Security of morality: Apart from his unbothered opinion about promiscuity and nudity, Ezrael is pretty sane. Knowing there are unlawful groups everywhere, he learned dealing with it. On an alignment chart, Ezrael started from lawful neutral and slided over the last months down to chaotic neutral.
Security of family: We're past that point. However, with the death of his parents, his friends became his family and thus he tries to keep them all safe. For example, he tries at all cost to make sure Maren, his infected fiance, can live a normal living. He also protects the ex-Reaver and bretonian terrorist Nancy Sweetwater.
Security of health: Ezrael let OS&C build a gym into the Hoffnungsschimmer. He eats preferably iron-rich fruits, does work-outs on a regular basis, surfs and dives in the filtered waters of Curacao rather often. There aren't many people more healthy than Ezrael, and he loves to annoy people until they start eating healthy and doing work-outs as well.
Security of property: His money is untouchable, his ship well defended and he doesn't roam around in dangerous areas that often. Well, until later.
So the second level is okay as well. Ask yourself whether your character is that blessed as well. If not: Go and change it! Log, move to stations and planets and get what you want. If it is about bigger things, don't hesitate to contact corporations and other factions to get what your character needs - they welcome chances to roleplay with you. Otherwise they wouldn't play their roles. And try to talk to other people on the way. Have interactions. It isn't singleplayer. Does your character know where you can get the stuff you need? Don't open up the Wiki, don't look it up in FLStats. Ask people's characters ingame!
That way, you're reaching level three. Friendship, Sex, Intimacy. Now, it is really up to you how far you want to go with your roleplay. I'd say from here the roleplay reaches a point where you start moving the medium from ingame to either forum or Skype/Discord. While it is absolutely possible to roleplay certain interactions that are not based on ships ingame, simply by docking or finding a quiet place to RP in a group chat,
I am personally used to roleplay everything we can't RP ingame and don't want to spam the forum with to RP in Skype, in a group chat. There, for a year now, the daily living on the Hoffnungsschimmer was roleplayed. The important bits get summed up in Defending the Delta. As usual, it is up to you what you are going to roleplay out fully and what will just be summed up. I myself think there is a legit fun in roleplaying anything that is beyong ingame interaction, be it a dinner with the Maltese Queen B****, a meeting with a badass Bretonian Intelligence Agent or a romantic night on Curacao, the everyday living on your ship with minor crew interactions and what not. Some people just enjoy that kind of belles lettres. And yes, that sometimes contains more adult content. However, if you don't want to turn things too graphical, friendship and relationships inRP can also simply displayed by not mentioning the details.
Friendships of your characters can be displayed ingame very nicely, as your character simply can do stuff together with their friends. For example, take your friend with you to a meeting with a creepy person or help your fiance getting a big load of Cardamine to satisfy her needs or investigate alien sites together or visit or even partake in AFC races with them. Let your character help their friends to achieve their goals, and they might help you with your goals.
FRIENDS: CHECK
ORGY: CHECK
Over time, your characters start to evolve. They suddenly become part of the story, known names all over Sirius. Meet Eliza Valdez, a weird Maltese girl with a special sense of humor. Meet John Silverstone and his hands on your female chest. Meet the sassy Sanada Junko, meet Icarus Augustopolos and watch him self-mining. Meet Pepe "El Comisario" Ladron, just don't dine with him, as you could be the pig on the table. Drink a cup of cardamine flavor tea with Admiral Hall, get extorted and humiliated by Goro Yoshida, have a Liberty Ale with Uncle Willy and have Concordia dance for you. And maybe you will appear in a list like this one day. The most important thing to do so: Log into the game, become part of the flow, do stuff for people and give people stuff to do. There are more than 300 different commodities out there, dozens of guns and other equipment for your ships, and if that isn't enough, hire a shipyard, haulers, engineers to build you a bigger ship as an SRP. Or try your luck with a PoB.
Meet Picket.
There is always something your character needs. There is always something another character needs. Freelancer is a sandbox, but the roleplay aspect makes it incredibly flexible and fluent.
Just always remember: Discovery is not only about PvP!
Discovery is about fun. And fun is subjective!
Discovery is about fun. And fun is subjective!
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