Getting started in Discovery

Welcome to Discovery Freelancer!

We are an online, English-speaking roleplay community that welcomes experienced and inexperienced roleplayers alike.
Our story expands the Freelancer universe, 34 years after the single player campaign.
Discovery tells a story of conflict across Sirius - pirates, traders, military and aliens frequently clash in Player Versus Player (PVP) combat.
Please check out the server rules.

Useful links

Basic Details

From the main menu, click Multiplayer and then join the "Discovery Freelancer RP 24/7" server.
Click 'New Character' and type in your ship name. Please do not use country tags (such as [UK], [GER], [RUS], etc) or pop culture references.
Your account can contain up to 7 different ships. You can generate extra accounts through the Discovery Launcher.
Join the server with your new character. You will begin your journey in the Pennsylvania System, Liberty.
Press Y to see the players that are currently online. Clicking a player's name will target them for a direct message.
Press enter to open the chat box. Hitting enter again will send your message. By default, message are sent 'locally' to players in sensor range.
Press F1 to open the game menu. Here you can quit the game (only do this when docked) and check settings or controls.

Roleplay

Roleplay is simply imagining a character, then playing and chatting the way they would.
Your roleplay can be as straightforward or complex as you like - we welcome both lite and heavy roleplay.
Choose a role for your character. Some basic examples for inspiration include:
- Trader: An ambitious House merchant who wants to get rich and climb the corporate ladder.
- Military: A proud soldier who despises criminals and enforces the law at the barrel of a gun.
- Pirate: A ruthless marauder who is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve wealth, power and infamy.
- Freelancer: An idealistic explorer who wants to push back frontiers and discover new wonders.
All the public messages you send on the server should be "in character". If you need to send an "out of character" message, type "// " before your chat text.

Getting Started

Your new character begins their journey on Planet Erie in Pennsylvania, Liberty. You have a fully equipped Kestrel freighter with a Freelancer ID.
Click on the ship icon in the starting Spaceport area and you'll launch to space.
Check out the new player buoys outside Erie, then get used to moving around.
- Left click selects objects.
- Right click fires any active weapons.
- Mouse wheel controls impulse speed.
- TAB activates thrusters for a short speed boost.
- Z kills your engines, letting you drift and turn without changing velocity.
- CTRL + W disables your guns and activates cruise engines - a much faster way to travel long distances.
- F2 activates GO-TO mode. Your ship will autopilot in a straight line to the selected object.
- F3 activates DOCK mode. If you are within 20k of a dockable object, your ship autopilot will dock with it.
- F4 activates FORMATION mode. You will fly alongside an NPC or player you are grouped with, copying their movements.
Now you're comfortable navigating your ship, you need to make some credits. You have three main starting options:
- Mining.
- Trading.
- Combat.
It is recommended that you set up a character for trading or mining that you can use to fund your other characters.

Mining in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has fields of Helium to mine. After you undock from Erie, turn to your right and follow the trail of navigation buoys.

The mining zone contains a buoy labelled "Mineable Zone" and is surrounded by Hegemon mining ships.
Hint: If you can't find the trail, look at your contacts panel (bottom left) and click into the "Structures" tab. This will display any nearby bases or static objects. You'll be able to select the first navigation buoy from there.
This will lead to the Meadville Ice Asteroid Field (Sector 5C on the NavMap).
Deactivate your guns by either clicking on them one by one on the weapons panel (bottom right) or pressing "2" to swap to an empty weapons group. Activate the Mining Laser that comes pre-installed by clicking on it.
You can now shoot the small moving asteroids to drop Helium. Your cursor will turn into a rotating white crosshair when you have an asteroid targeted.
Mining asteroids will deposit Helium directly into your cargo bay. When you are full, you can either trade the Helium to a NPC base (see the Trading section), sell it to a player, or sell it to a nearby Player Owned Base (POB).
POBs are bases that have been constructed by players on the Discovery Freelancer RP 24/7 server, with player-set prices for commodities. Nearby examples include Emlenton Storage & Exports and Pennsylvania Freeport.
To sell your Helium (or any other cargo you've come across), land on a base and click on the Commodity Trader. Clicking the Trader NPC will open the Commodities screen where you can buy or sell goods.

Basic Trading

Start out by obtaining a full cargo load mined of Helium (see above). Next, we'll be leaving Pennsylvania and crossing Liberty and Kusari to head to the distant Sigmas.
Open your Inventory (F7) and go to the Commodities tab. Select your Helium and then press the "Show Routes" button. This will give you price data about every station you already know, or have docked on.
Select Helgoland Station in Sigma 13. Your NavMap will zoom in it - click it to bring up the map context menu, then select "Set Best Path". You will now have a trail of waypoints leading to your destination.
This route will take you through Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, Galileo, Shikoku, New Tokyo, Honshu and Sigma-13. Sell your Helium for $40 per unit when you arrive, making $24,000 in total.
Buy MOX from Helgoland Station, and take it to Gas Miner Naha one Trade Lane away.
Pick up H-Fuel from Gas Miner Naha. H-Fuel is very expensive because it is a High Risk Commodity (HRC) - a full load is a big investment, but selling it is a massive reward. You will likely only be able to afford half a cargo hold - for this tutorial we will head back to Planet Erie with it.
Having completed this trade run, you should have around $46,000 credits. Continue to explore the local area to buy commodities for low prices, and sell high.

Combat in Pennsylvania

Factions and IDs

Discovery has 68 different factions. Each of these has its own diplomacy, including allies and enemies.

Press "F8" to open your Inventory, or "O" to scan another player. The ID is in the "Internal Equipment" tab.
You can see factions you have encountered in your Repsheet by pressing F8. Clicking on a faction will provide more detail.
When you kill NPCs, that faction will like you less, and their enemies will like you more. Hostile NPCs will attack you on sight.
You can join a faction by buying and equipping their ID. IDs contain rules around what that faction can do and where.
The ID you have equipped may have "rephacks" set. These are used to lock your rep with certain groups, for example keeping your faction's enemies hostile.
You can improve your reputation with a faction by killing their enemies, taking Bar missions for them, or through buying a Bribe.
Bribes are offered by NPCs in station Bars (the NPC will show a "$" symbol when you mouse over them) which lets you pay for rep improvements.
When you have maxed out your rep with a faction, it will be set as your IFF - this means that faction will be displayed in front of your name to other players.
Your IFF will be listed at the top of your Repsheet (F8) and flashing yellow. If you have accidentally ended up with the wrong IFF, type /droprep to clear it.

Encountering Other Players

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Flying with others

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Game /commands

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Making credits

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