02-05-2019, 07:00 PM
Farewell, the decade-long and wonderful journey that is Discovery Freelancer has ended for me. I had many breaks, some of which were lengthy, but I always planned to come back at a later date. This time I made a final decision to close this chapter and move on. All good things come to an end eventually, but it's been one hell of a joyful ride. I quite literally grew up with Discovery (I started playing when I was 12), it was and still is by far the most influential video game in my life on which I spent thousands of hours, directly or indirectly. It taught me many things, primarily writing and speaking English as well as giving me a lot of real life experience. It taught me how to express myself, be somewhat decent at writing stories (I always lacked imagination), argument with people especially if they oppose your opinion fiercely, be tolerant and respectful so long as the other side is too, meet countless good and hardworking people with amazing potential who all came here same as we all do - to have fun. It taught me how wonderful people can be but also how far some are willing to go when it comes to mistreating people or screwing them over just because of pixel power. Even the people I strongly disliked have taught me what not to be and gave me experience to deal with people similar to them in real life.
If I had to say the recent coup by the development team didn't affect me it'd be a lie. It makes me sick what people are willing to do for just that tiny bit of extra power in a 15 year old space shooter. However it is just the straw that broke the camel's back (a bigger straw but a straw nonetheless), truth is ever since I lost dozens of hours worth of roleplay in a forum rollback 2 years ago I had little motivation for doing anything else other than PvP (which I still consider as one of the best combat experiences out of any game and it was the main reason why I haven't left already). I certainly condemn their actions and find them equally bad, if not worse, than the heavy decision crisis that happened over 2 years ago. In another timeline this coup could have worked fine, but with the people leading the development team being as unstable, parasitical and destructive as they are, it's one step forward and two steps back. But I digress, this topic isn't about that neither does it matter to me anymore. If I could ask just one favor out of anyone reading this it's that you think before picking a side or supporting someone, as well as allowing both sides to give their point of view. Mindlessly following someone like a spineless sheep is a bad mentality to have.
Personal experience, nostalgia for veterans and self-bragging paragraphs below:
I joined in early 2009 after playing Crossfire 1.6 for about 2 years. The main reason I joined is because a friend from Crossfire persuaded me to give it a try. My earliest experience was playing on the UK server which had 50 players on average because the main server was hacked and down for months. That was already a big shock to me because I was used to seeing 15-20 players on Crossfire. When the main server came back up I immediately swapped to it and was just stunned. I couldn't believe there are 200 people actively playing Freelancer at the same time. I encountered so many people on a daily basis and the realism of a roleplay environment made it that much better.
I remember earning my first millions through mining Helium in a Rhino where a helpful person was helping out newbies in Pennsylvania. I then purchased a Percheron and did NPC pirating in Omega-3 which used to pay 5 millions per load of H-Fuel or Superconductors before saving up for a Stork and trading Gold ore from Dublin to New York or Munich. My first PvP experience was dying to a Spatial because I thought jousting it in a VHF was a good idea, and then I kept re-engaging him just to die 5 times more. I also swore to him on PM in Croatian. I never got sanctioned for it.
My first official faction was BHG| (+BHG|Core) which I joined because I loved the combat and made most of my money through bounty hunting (bounty hunting was a legitimate source of income back in the day). My most famous character was also a bounty hunter, Eva Mendez, working for the Corsairs in a Roc. I roughly remember earning at least 3 billion credits worth of bounties on that character alone, that's how good the pay was. I was in factions such as the Indians, Rorry's Renegades, Ageira, I don't even remember them anymore. I was a 13-15 year old that only visited the forums to post bounties and not much else so I didn't know what was happening outside of the game.
My first capital ship was a Thresher I bought for BHG|Core to raid Toledo. Toledo raids were common back then because Order had a huge playerbase and they often did missions together. I sold it relatively quickly because capital ships back in the day were bad and I enjoyed flying snubs more. I also got destroyed by Battleship Isis chainfiring mortars because NPC stations used to get increased refire rate depending on how many players were near it. I remember the old KNF vs BAF war as well as Liberty vs Rheinland Texas fights and Outcast vs Corsair fights in Omicron Eta. Delta and Iota had old layouts, ones I still prefer over the layouts currently in the game, and flying in the Omicrons made me feel creepy.
The first years overall definitely gave me the best enjoyment when it comes to the game specifically, mostly because I was a newbie overwhelmed by all the things Discovery had to offer. As for later years I won't go into detail because it'd be an even bigger wall of text but if I had to sum it up it would be play the game, join and leave factions, take breaks, come back. I took a long break in 2012 and came back in 2015. From mid-2015 to today is the person almost all of you know me as. The only official faction I lead was Aoi Iseijin in 2017/18. I was in countless official factions, HCs, etc. It was all good experience and I enjoyed all the factions I was in, even for a brief period. I organized many PvP events that I saw people were enjoying so I kept rolling with them.
What's my impact on the mod as a whole? Mostly my work as a balance developer where I did hundreds of changes and had major impact on some things such as standardizing capital ship classes. Before I joined the team in 2016 there was no balance, especially within a class. - ships and weapons were all over the place and the concept of "balance" didn't exist at all. When I initially initiated the long set of changes to improve the game and make it more fair and enjoyable for everyone I didn't think we'd get this far. I certainly couldn't have done it without a number of people that helped me and vice versa, doing it all as a team. Looking at it today we can, despite all the setbacks and bad changes that would stall the progress or reverse it, see how much in just over 2 years we've improved. Those who were here and aware of the situation in early 2016 or earlier will know what I'm talking about.
I'll also have a memory of over 100 of youtube videos all related to in-game gameplay which will serve as the best reminder that'll live on for a long time. A lot of them were recorded for personal enjoyment but turned out to be tutorials for those willing to improve. Without mastering all the classes I wouldn't have been able to help so many people improve and get to the level they wanted to. Heck, a bit more than a year ago a newbie was asking me for tips just to be a capital ship ace nowadays. And that's just one example, there were more. Some of the videos were specific tutorials such as the fighter groupfight and mine tutorial and some were funny experiences or encounters. If I have anything to say regarding skill it's that being an ace, especially an ace in multiple classes, is a result of nothing but hard work, determination and efficient learning. I spent countless hours studying others, asking questions and gathering experience by dying over and over again to get to the point where I am. It's a good principle for real life as well - if you truly wish to master something, be ready to invest a lot of time and effort into it. Nothing comes easy (Discovery PvP certainly isn't easy to get into or master) which is why it's a good rule of thumb in life.
And finally I hope to be remembered positively by as many people as possible, in one way or another. I won't get into personal relations here too much, but I can only hope I influenced you in a positive way, even if just a tiny bit. You all certainly did it to me. I'd reference the people I enjoyed playing with and influenced me the most but there's so many of you that I just can't be bothered.
Thank you Discovery. Thank you everyone. If someone still feels offended by my previous actions, I sincerely apologize. You all helped me in some way, even if we had fierce arguments, and made me a better person. It's been a joyful and invaluable experience and one that'll impact me for the rest of my life. I'll still be around in some chats on discord and play other games. I handed over all my ships to various members of the community before someone asks and I'm also truly not coming back, Freeport 7. See you somewhere else in the future perhaps.
If I had to say the recent coup by the development team didn't affect me it'd be a lie. It makes me sick what people are willing to do for just that tiny bit of extra power in a 15 year old space shooter. However it is just the straw that broke the camel's back (a bigger straw but a straw nonetheless), truth is ever since I lost dozens of hours worth of roleplay in a forum rollback 2 years ago I had little motivation for doing anything else other than PvP (which I still consider as one of the best combat experiences out of any game and it was the main reason why I haven't left already). I certainly condemn their actions and find them equally bad, if not worse, than the heavy decision crisis that happened over 2 years ago. In another timeline this coup could have worked fine, but with the people leading the development team being as unstable, parasitical and destructive as they are, it's one step forward and two steps back. But I digress, this topic isn't about that neither does it matter to me anymore. If I could ask just one favor out of anyone reading this it's that you think before picking a side or supporting someone, as well as allowing both sides to give their point of view. Mindlessly following someone like a spineless sheep is a bad mentality to have.
Personal experience, nostalgia for veterans and self-bragging paragraphs below:
I joined in early 2009 after playing Crossfire 1.6 for about 2 years. The main reason I joined is because a friend from Crossfire persuaded me to give it a try. My earliest experience was playing on the UK server which had 50 players on average because the main server was hacked and down for months. That was already a big shock to me because I was used to seeing 15-20 players on Crossfire. When the main server came back up I immediately swapped to it and was just stunned. I couldn't believe there are 200 people actively playing Freelancer at the same time. I encountered so many people on a daily basis and the realism of a roleplay environment made it that much better.
I remember earning my first millions through mining Helium in a Rhino where a helpful person was helping out newbies in Pennsylvania. I then purchased a Percheron and did NPC pirating in Omega-3 which used to pay 5 millions per load of H-Fuel or Superconductors before saving up for a Stork and trading Gold ore from Dublin to New York or Munich. My first PvP experience was dying to a Spatial because I thought jousting it in a VHF was a good idea, and then I kept re-engaging him just to die 5 times more. I also swore to him on PM in Croatian. I never got sanctioned for it.
My first official faction was BHG| (+BHG|Core) which I joined because I loved the combat and made most of my money through bounty hunting (bounty hunting was a legitimate source of income back in the day). My most famous character was also a bounty hunter, Eva Mendez, working for the Corsairs in a Roc. I roughly remember earning at least 3 billion credits worth of bounties on that character alone, that's how good the pay was. I was in factions such as the Indians, Rorry's Renegades, Ageira, I don't even remember them anymore. I was a 13-15 year old that only visited the forums to post bounties and not much else so I didn't know what was happening outside of the game.
My first capital ship was a Thresher I bought for BHG|Core to raid Toledo. Toledo raids were common back then because Order had a huge playerbase and they often did missions together. I sold it relatively quickly because capital ships back in the day were bad and I enjoyed flying snubs more. I also got destroyed by Battleship Isis chainfiring mortars because NPC stations used to get increased refire rate depending on how many players were near it. I remember the old KNF vs BAF war as well as Liberty vs Rheinland Texas fights and Outcast vs Corsair fights in Omicron Eta. Delta and Iota had old layouts, ones I still prefer over the layouts currently in the game, and flying in the Omicrons made me feel creepy.
The first years overall definitely gave me the best enjoyment when it comes to the game specifically, mostly because I was a newbie overwhelmed by all the things Discovery had to offer. As for later years I won't go into detail because it'd be an even bigger wall of text but if I had to sum it up it would be play the game, join and leave factions, take breaks, come back. I took a long break in 2012 and came back in 2015. From mid-2015 to today is the person almost all of you know me as. The only official faction I lead was Aoi Iseijin in 2017/18. I was in countless official factions, HCs, etc. It was all good experience and I enjoyed all the factions I was in, even for a brief period. I organized many PvP events that I saw people were enjoying so I kept rolling with them.
What's my impact on the mod as a whole? Mostly my work as a balance developer where I did hundreds of changes and had major impact on some things such as standardizing capital ship classes. Before I joined the team in 2016 there was no balance, especially within a class. - ships and weapons were all over the place and the concept of "balance" didn't exist at all. When I initially initiated the long set of changes to improve the game and make it more fair and enjoyable for everyone I didn't think we'd get this far. I certainly couldn't have done it without a number of people that helped me and vice versa, doing it all as a team. Looking at it today we can, despite all the setbacks and bad changes that would stall the progress or reverse it, see how much in just over 2 years we've improved. Those who were here and aware of the situation in early 2016 or earlier will know what I'm talking about.
I'll also have a memory of over 100 of youtube videos all related to in-game gameplay which will serve as the best reminder that'll live on for a long time. A lot of them were recorded for personal enjoyment but turned out to be tutorials for those willing to improve. Without mastering all the classes I wouldn't have been able to help so many people improve and get to the level they wanted to. Heck, a bit more than a year ago a newbie was asking me for tips just to be a capital ship ace nowadays. And that's just one example, there were more. Some of the videos were specific tutorials such as the fighter groupfight and mine tutorial and some were funny experiences or encounters. If I have anything to say regarding skill it's that being an ace, especially an ace in multiple classes, is a result of nothing but hard work, determination and efficient learning. I spent countless hours studying others, asking questions and gathering experience by dying over and over again to get to the point where I am. It's a good principle for real life as well - if you truly wish to master something, be ready to invest a lot of time and effort into it. Nothing comes easy (Discovery PvP certainly isn't easy to get into or master) which is why it's a good rule of thumb in life.
And finally I hope to be remembered positively by as many people as possible, in one way or another. I won't get into personal relations here too much, but I can only hope I influenced you in a positive way, even if just a tiny bit. You all certainly did it to me. I'd reference the people I enjoyed playing with and influenced me the most but there's so many of you that I just can't be bothered.
Thank you Discovery. Thank you everyone. If someone still feels offended by my previous actions, I sincerely apologize. You all helped me in some way, even if we had fierce arguments, and made me a better person. It's been a joyful and invaluable experience and one that'll impact me for the rest of my life. I'll still be around in some chats on discord and play other games. I handed over all my ships to various members of the community before someone asks and I'm also truly not coming back, Freeport 7. See you somewhere else in the future perhaps.
