Liberty and Nomad Backstory

[Praetyre]

The Jump Drive was placed in each of the sleeper ships to allow them to travel at light-speed (like a trade lane). If you listen for rumors on Planet Malta, you'll hear an Outcast talk about eight sleeper ships and how three were destroyed before they could activate their Jump Drives. Also, since Atticus Rockford was a general, he probably had a cruiser or battleship that he used to come to Sirius. You can also see him clearly arriving and landing on Planet Manhattan from 5:40-5:50 of the Freelancer Extended Intro, which obviously shows that he had to be alive to pilot his ship down there. He could have had enough supplies just for himself while he flew through space. After all, he is in a crusier/battleship capable of supporting an entire crew. The only reason the sleeper ships were so large was that they had to support thousands of colonists. A cruiser/battleship could easily support one man.

Considering this bartender couldn't even get the number of sleeper ships right, I don't think we can consider him a reliable source. Furthermore, cruisers and battleships would require a lot, lot, lot more than one man to even pilot or operate.

Where did you hear this? Although I will believe that Sol was destroyed, I still want to know where you found this info because I can't find this in either the Liberty or Nomad Backstories. The Liberty Backstory says "They fled for the stars, away from the final spasm of war that swallowed their first home in fire and then in blackness." This doesn't necessarily point to the Nomads.

Sorry about all the questions, but I'm just really into the history of Freelancer.

Heard it from a friend who owns the Bonus CD, full of concept art and material, I think.

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[Klaw117]

Considering this bartender couldn't even get the number of sleeper ships right, I don't think we can consider him a reliable source. Furthermore, cruisers and battleships would require a lot, lot, lot more than one man to even pilot or operate.

The Liberty Backstory says that there were indeed eight sleeper ships. He could have still made it in a fighter. Maybe the cryopod and Jump Drive are energy efficient, but the ext. intro definitely shows him arriving and landing.

Heard it from a friend who owns the Bonus CD, full of concept art and material, I think.

Oh cool. Wish I had that stuff...still dunno why the Nomads would want to blow up Sol if they live there though...

I guess it doesn't really matter. You can believe what you want and I can believe what I want. Since there's no hard evidence to back this up, it's free to different interpretations.

To admins: Please pin this!

Btw, did I manage to Rick-roll you? Or I guess I should say, Brian-roll you.

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Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams
Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction
Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid
Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space
Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits

Liberty and Nomad Backstory, Very interesting - read it!

[Magoo!]

Ahem, if I may.

"... In desperation, the Alliance launched five Sleeper ships..." - Ext. FL Intro

Now, this may very well be why they cut that part of the intro. Actually, they cut most of it. We can't go off of a video they didn't use, as the information would have likely been changed for more accurate in-game interpretation.

The Liberty Backstory says that there were indeed eight sleeper ships.

I'd lean toward this. Since they wrote the backstories after the game was made, and isn't another scrapped idea.

Also, judging by the fact that the Ext. Intro was scrapped material, Sol may very well still exist
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So, playing along with the idea that the extended intro information is accurate...

In relation to the dock its moored on, the General's ship is most definitely not a fighter. More likely a cruiser or battleship.

"Somebody had to warn the colonists about their true enemy! The Nomads!"

Implication: He went to warn them.

"We have grown, we have flourished, but we will never forget."

Implication: He successfully reached them and told the tale. Otherwise, how would he know that they flourished?

Oh, original thing... That is definitely the General's ship landing on Manhattan. And it is Manhattan, or... It wouldn't make much sense if it was another planet and it transitioned Manhattan over the Sleeper Ship building.
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Now, he says that by blind luck a young General, blah blah. Speaking in third person as we later find out because, "I knew then that I was spared for a reason..."

But then he proceeds to say, "That was 800 years ago. Since then we have grown..."

An 800 year old General... Right... Anyways, need I mention any other flaws in this plan? As cool of an intro it is, and as much as I admire it, it is pretty sketchy with the details.

[Praetyre]

The extended intro has been stated by the developers to be canonical, ergo everything within it happened in the FL universe.

We also only see 5 sleeper ships in both the short intro and the canon one, as I recall. We get a total view of all the colony ships in the canon intro as I recall, and there were 5.

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[AdamantineFist]

We also see some ships (possibly gunboats, and I think they were Coalition) that look suspiciously like Corsair lunchboxes.

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[Praetyre]

Hmm.. on the number of ships, it specifically says "The Alliance launched 5 sleeper ships" in the canon intro, plus this;

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[Klaw117]

But in the Liberty Backstory, which is probably also canon (after all, it was written by one of the developers), it says:

Eight great ships were launched during the Exodus, each protecting their precious cargo of humanity deep within their metal wombs.

In the next paragraph:

Eight great ships. Four were lost to accidents, to conflict, to the void. The names of the other four have become legend: Kusari, Rheinland, Bretonia, and Liberty...

As for the 800 year old general, that was probably just a minor mistake on the developers' part.

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Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams
Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction
Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid
Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space
Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits

Liberty and Nomad Backstory, Very interesting - read it!

[Treewyrm]

Magoo, don't take everything literally, just because the same voice actor was voicing narration and spoke in first person doesn't mean that everything spoken was part of that character. Not at all. Distinguish where narration goes and where not. Far fetching assumptions of what might have happened afterwards and nitpicking don't float the boat in my opinion, but that's just my own. It's a game, not life, we aren't talking about real world history here, but even so any history can have contradicting interpretations voicing opinions and drawing cause-effect conclusions that may at times negate each self out.

@Klaw117: yes. Four became legend. Fifth one, Hispania, was assumed to be lost, like the other three. However it wasn't, and from it came two pirate houses. There is no 800 years old general, just try to listen and understand where goes third person narrative and where it is spoken from the character itself. Because it happens to be the same voice actor it gets confusing at first. The fate of other there sleeper ships remain unknown. I suppose developers left them in the state of uncertainty to be used in sequel, a game which was intended to be but was never made. Seems most logical and typical method of leaving hooks in story for possible expansions/sequels.

[Praetyre]

Is the canonical intro or the developer material higher in hierarchy? That would ultimately decide the sleeper issue. Since we have two clearly contradicting sources.

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[Klaw117]

both could be canon. maybe the ext. intro left them out because they weren't important. The Liberty Backstory goes more in-depth, so they decided to put it there while there was no need to place it in the ext. intro.

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Carlos Rivera: Corsair Brotherhood Pirate - Retired, shifted to Tripoli Shipyard's Research and Development engineering teams
Anthony Cameron: Guild Core Bounty Hunter - Killed in Action, committed suicide after being trapped in Omicron Minor following its destruction
Juan Ruiz: Outcast Ghost of Razgriz Pirate - Killed in Action, killed by the Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army during Bretonian piracy raid
Michael Winchester: Liberty Security Force Agent - Missing in Action, likely killed during Rheinland espionage mission or trapped in Rheinland Space
Eric McCormick: Order Pilot - Retired, shifted to planetside training of new recruits

Liberty and Nomad Backstory, Very interesting - read it!