Advices & Hints & Tips


Info: look into first menu in right sidebar for list of advices in this wiki section.


How to avoid graphic problems,
while playing Freelancer

(Guide by Daywalker)

Forum thread: HERE.

Freelancer had it´s Release in 2003. You might think, well, perfect my Graphic Card is from 2009 this Game will run perfect within my High End Gaming System. But unfortunate this old Game may not recognize your Card. For this Louva-Deus (cudos man) updated the File which is responsible for the detection of you graphics card on a regular base. Unfortunate the File is now outdated.

But it is not that hard to do it yourself. Just follow this manual step by step to put your graphic card into the database, so the game will proper recognize it. First of all you need the manufacturer and the vendor of your Graphics Card. With a freeware Tool called GPU-Z it will be easy to find out. Download this tool by using this GPU-Z latest version Link. It´s an .exe file, you do not need to install anything. Simply double-click it wherever you downloaded it to (on Vista and above with Admin rights please).

You will see something similar like this:

click to open GPU-Z screenshot

The marked parts are what you need.

  • Now open your mypathtofreelancer\Freelancer\EXE Directory in your Explorer.
  • Search for a file named flconfigdatabase.txt and open it with for example notepad (if the file is write protected you need to disable the write protection first).
  • Search your manufacturer in the file - in my case NVIDIA
  • Have a look where your type of Card is listed - in my case GeForce
  • Scroll down to the last GeForce (or ofc. your Cards type) entry - in Crossfire 1.9 it´s: 0x0398 = "GeForce Go7600 (??)" // added by Louva-Deus for the GeForce Cards.
  • Now insert your Graphic Cards Vendor by using the second marked part of GPU-Z which is in my case 0A34 - simply put a 0x before and the correct name of your Card without the name of the manufacturer behind it so it will look like this for example: 0x0A34 = "GeForce GT 240M" // added by Daywalker
  • Save the File.


You will notice that several glitches will not exist any more. Also you will be able to see the Mega Asteroids which makes mining more profitable and some more things. In many cases where spawning NPC´s stuck the Game it also went away.


Have fun.



What and where to sell "Escape Pods" ?

Once you kill NPCs and tractor loot, you probably will have the escape pods in your ship's cargo. Those escape pods have different ranks depending about killed NPCs level and theirs ship - killing NPC battleship will give the highest rank escape pod. Those escape pods should be delivered to prison stations located in Sirius Sector or Altair Sector for higher price ($10.000 - $400.000). Nearest prisons for New York are located in Texas. Click next spoiler button for location of all Crossfire Universe prison stations.

Prison stations list


Good hunting!


Limits for "Storage"

If you already played Crossfire (MP) for quite some time, you might think about using one of your characters as a "Store" in order to exchange equipment between all of your chars, trading or helping other players. What you need to consider is the fact that the freelancer engine has some "limits" for storing equipment and credits on your characters in your accounts.

These limits are:

  • Amount of equipment: The more equipment, the higher the risk for your character or ID (account) to become corrupt. When this happens, you will not be able to login with this character or ID to the server anymore. In addition to this, to repair your account one of your characters must be deleted and with that the chances are good that this will be your "storage".

    Warning: NEVER place more than 100 unequipped items on one character and not more than 300 on your entire account/ID (all characters)!


    Note: To avoid this problem use separate IDs with with only one character and keep a maximum of around 90 unequipped items (guns, shields, etc.) on it. Guide how to create more IDs is written in portal FAQ here (What is the "Multiplayer-ID" and may I have more than one?).
  • Amount of money: For one character it is 2 billion credits.


Power Generator safe removal

How to safe dismantle any Power Generator ? ... Once you buy and install any Power Generator (PG) it becomes an integral part of your ship while replacing your original ship reactor. If you want to safely dismantle the PG (like when you want transfer it to another character), then you need to buy any cheap small ship that will have its original reactor and move your PG to "new" ship storage and DO NOT INSTALL/EQUIP IT!

Warning: IF you MANUALLY DISMANTLE and SELL this PG (except cases when you buy another one), YOU WILL IRREPARABLY DAMAGE YOUR CHARACTER!


Note: Please do not buy PG for any big ship like trains or battleships or special ships with build-in equipment like Mining ship. These vessels have already PG with unlimited energy ...





Fast dock and undock


Fast dock: ok, so you probably know that you can dock fast with battleships, cruisers and similar type ships ... they have a relatively big dock point and therefore you need to move your ship only near this dock point and press F3 (and you are immediately docked). What is less known is the fact, that you can also dock “fast” with train type ships. This docking is much harder (compared with battleships), because you need to move your ship very precisely to the dock point which is very small. The best way how to learn this point is to watch your ship (train) thruster_flames position exactly at this moment when you start to undock (it will take some experience before you will master this). However it is good to know, that you cannot fast dock on bases which use "reverse" docking (you will learn in game quickly what this means once you will try docking a train on Fort Bush).


Fast undock: and now something that was discovered by real coincidence. It was first discussed as kind of "bug", but because it is not possible to prevent its usage, it was decided to make this public knowledge. All that you need to do is use your key for "Free flight". When your ship departs the base and you see the space loading bar, press "Free flight" a few times and you will have immediate control of your space loaded ship ... no more "Autopilot slow turning"!! You may find this trick very useful in some situations ...


Happy trading!



Rising reputation with base's faction without undock

Info given here can help in situation when you will sell equipment at base equipment dealer and (mistakenly/upgrade) will be sold equipment which is necessary for take-off, and you cannot buy it back (or buy better version) because owner of the base is not friendly enough. If this will happen, keep please cold head and ask your friend or someone else in space for help. First you will need to form a group with your helper. After this he will need to fulfill missions for faction which is owner of the base. Your both reputation with this faction will be raised up with each successfully done mission. Once is reputation with faction higher as -3 bars, you will be able buy necessary equipment on base and undock.


Safe journey pilot!



Trading Guide


Trading Guide by Moorhuhn, original thread: HERE.


Well, I think the hardest part is the beginning *until* you can afford a Soulforge Train. Once you have it, money are no longer an issue ... So if someone starts from very beginning and wants to make the money completely on it's own, that's what I would suggest:

Part 1: Getting neutral

  • Somehow gather 2 mio credits with the first char (podding, trading, helping other players with transfers)
  • Create a *new* char, transfer the money to it with help of another player and buy Lavablades for the Starflier or Patriot LF, if you want be more agile (note: this char mustn't shoot any NPCs!)
  • Shoot 2 Containers (of 4 on depot) from Liberty Police, Inc. near Planet Manhattan (Trade-Lane to Detroit Munitions) - die (or if you earlier bought Patriot LF continue with next point)
  • Shoot 2 Containers DSE at the same place as before - die (or with Patriot LF just evade and run away)
  • Buy a Junkers Bribe on Rochester Base in New York for 1 mio creds (re-dock until the guy offers the correct one)
  • Buy a Zoners Bribe on Neutro Station in Custodian for ~700k (re-dock as above)
  • Now this char is neutral to all human factions in Sirius - can fly everywhere (almost) without troubles

Part 2: Creating a ship to look up prices

(as prices/routes change daily - aka dynamic economy)

  • Use the char from step 1 and buy a Dromedary (freighter) on Planet Monoc in Custodian for 80k creds
  • Trade a bit along the way, 'cause we want another neutral char, so we need 2 mio again
  • Start exploring Sirius and dock on every single station
  • Buy every commodity and put in 1x into your hold (perishable commodities ofc a bit more)
  • You can look up trade-routes inside your hold for every station you have visited!
  • For having a trader with max. amount of free cargo, create a second trader as mentioned above and use this one for the trades you've looked up with the "price-looking-ship"
  • Trade until you can afford at least a Transport, goal is a Soulforge Train, ofc...


Cheerio




Huge font in menus after mod activation


In case that you have after mod activation huge font used in menus and your ship have missing speed indicators, then please try load this fonts package and install them.