Hostile Universe Manual.

Website = http://freelancer.adoxa.cjb.net/

Email = Jason Hood

Hostile Universe was created by Giskard; I've just fixed a few things.

Credits.

Special thanks goes to Lancers Reactor and its staff for being there whilst I was learning how to mod for Freelancer. I would also like to thank Kurgan for submitting several very good ships for use in Hostile Universe early on. The Viper still remains one of my favorite Kurgan creations. Last but not least I'd like to thank all the guys who supported Hostile Universe and helped me track down and fix the bugs in the mod. Especially Phoenix, Wanderer, Victor, Trent, Bogsnot, Circle, Tyrinon and all the other regulars that supported the earlier versions of Hostile Universe before they vanished from the scene. I'd also like to thank Easyhosts for supporting Respawn and providing the bandwidth my site needed to support this mod and a couple of others that proved to be popular all at the same time.

Introduction.

Hostile Universe is a mod that encourages players to explore, hang around bars, trade and shoot things. Basically everything the original Freelancer offered but in Hostile Universe I have taken the ideas further and to some degree to extremes. The huge single player battles are back, as are new bar rumors, a new story line and lots of other goodies for you to find for yourself. Treasures await those who play the game as it was meant to be played because Hostile Universe stays true to the original game and expands on everything that was great about Freelancer in the first place. We also have lots of new ships thrown in as a bonus, but Hostile Universe is not a ship mod. Ships form one small part of Hostile Universe and they have all been integrated into the game. You will find nothing has simply been bolted onto Freelancer, everything has a story, a reason for being there and in some cases offers clues to other features that are waiting to be found. The reason to upgrade your ship in the original Freelancer was a strong one but Hostile Universe has introduced reasons to downgrade again because not all ships will perform all tasks as well as some available ships will. It is up to you to find out what ship is best at what job.

Installation.

Hostile Universe expects to be installed into a mod manager's mods folder and thus is setup to create a folder called HostileUniverse when installed so it will work with both FLMM and Flauncher mod managers. If you do not use a mod manager then you must extract this mod into a temp folder and copy the data and exe folders in the HostileUniverse folder across to your Freelancer directory so they overwrite the files in there. Using the Mouse Right click + Drag and drop usually works best when copying folders.

Please note that in order to support both Flauncher and FLMM I have not used the FLMM file extension.

Technical Data about HU.

Where are the New Jump Gates?

This is probably the most common question and whilst I will not tell you where the new jump holes are exactly (New Mars), I will give you exact locations for the jump gates I have added here.

California to New Mars = Next to the New York gate in the California system.
Frankfurt to New Mars = Next to Planet Holstein in the Frankfurt system.
Leeds to Ringworld = Next to the Edinburgh jump gate in the Leeds system.

Hyperspace jump gates = All found in the primary systems for the different Houses. Here is a list of systems that have Hyperspace gates. Usually around 2k to 5k from the nearest planet or trade lane. Typically they can be seen from a major zone with planets and bases near by.

New London.
New Mars.
New Berlin.
New Tokyo.
Battleship Row (secret system, this is the only clue your getting).
Lost Legends (secret system, this is the only clue your getting).

Shield Changes.

Nobody asks about this but I feel it is worthy of a mention. Some weapons are far more effective against some shields than others. Hostile Universe makes these even more pronounced so a level 1 weapon would stand a good chance against a level 3 shield of the right type.

Weapons Vs Shields Stats.

Laser/Photon/Pulse Weapons:
Vs Graviton shields = Half as effective.
Vs Molecular shields = Normal effectiveness.
Vs Positron shields = 1.5 times as effective.

Plasma/Particle Weapons:
Vs Graviton shields = 1.5 times as effective.
Vs Molecular shields = Half as effective.
Vs Positron shields = Normal effectiveness.

Neutron/Tachyon Weapons:
Vs Graviton shields = Normal effectiveness.
Vs Molecular shields = 1.5 times as effective.
Vs Positron shields = Half as effective.

Other Shield Changes.

Graviton shields = Comes back online faster than any other shield.
Molecular shields = More resistant to explosions from missiles than any other shield.
Positron shields = Requires less energy to regenerate than any other shield.

Localised Commodities.

Water, oxygen and food are now demanded by all stations and available on all planets. Taking any of these from any planet to any station will always give you a small profit. This is to help new players make some money trading early on.

Shipyards.

Shipyards as of Version 8 will demand certain goods. Here is a list of those goods. Size is the amount of cargo space each item will take up.

Ships Shield Generators size = 20
Reactor Cores size = 400
Weapon Crates size = 150
Ships Fixtures size = 10
Armour Plates size = 100
Steel Girdlers size = 200
Copper Wire size = 5
Ships Engines size = 300

These commodites can be found in New Mars, Ringworld and several other systems including some Kusari systems. The new commodities are available mostly from new systems so not to disrupt the existing trade system too much. Each item will take up space in your ship, engines being a big item will require a larger cargo hold. Shipyards also sell ships too.

Battleship Encounters.

Standard battleship encounters can be found at the following locations.

Freistadt Base
Pirna Border Station
Cardiff Mining Facility
Glasgow Outpost
Freeport 4
Houston to Hamburg Jump Gate
Ames Research Station
Planet Kyushu (Gunboat only)
Osaka Storage Facility

Fleet Engagements can be found in the following systems.

Ringworld

Battleship missions are available from factions usually found in or around the following systems.

All Rheinland Sectors

Passenger Services.
All passenger services are centered on the primary systems owned by each legal faction. The systems you can find passenger services at for both collection and delivery are as follows.

New Berlin
New York
New London
New Tokyo

Research Papers.

Research papers can be picked up from most Research stations and sold at a profit to buyers who want them badly. All other locations will pay very little for these. Some trade routes for these are one system hops where others cross several systems. Also not all Research papers can be carried by small ships.

Classified Alien Research Size = 10
Classified Military Research Size = 15
Secret Industrial Research Size = 45
Experimental Ship Research Size = 35
Experimental Weapon Research Size= 20
Experimental Troop Enhancement Research Size = 15
Government Research on Jump Holes Size = 5
Classified Artifact Research Size = 10

Profits are better for smaller ships carrying one or two of these than they are for larger ships that could carry more of another type of cargo. The intention of research papers is to allow smaller ships to make money trading them. They are highly illegal and you will be challenged if you are found in possession of them.

HU Ships.

The follow is a list of ships in Hostile Universe, all appeared first in HU.

Fighters or combat ships.

Viper Heavy Fighter
Gropos Gunboat Very Heavy Fighter/Freighter
Narn Fighter Heavy Fighter
Sentari Fighter (the spelling is correct:)) Medium Fighter
Nial Fighter Heavy Fighter
Snub Fighter Light Fighter
SoulStealer Medium Fighter
Starfury Light Fighter
Starfury Omega Heavy Fighter
Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter
Xwing Medium Fighter
Cylon Raider Medium Fighter

Trade Ships

Galaxy Transport Huge Transport
Galaxy Lifter Huge Transport
Dropship Medium Transport
FedEx Medium Transport
Phoenix Small Transport

AI only ships.

Shadow Cruiser (not for players)

Default Ships from Freelancer.

All original Freelancer freighter cargo holds have been increased three-fold. The price is five times higher for freighters. Fighter cargo space has not been changed but the fighters cost three times more than they used to cost.

Tips.

The Lost Legends and Battleship Row systems are hidden in Hyperspace and hold bribes that will allow you to switch alignments easily and thus enjoy playing as the pirate or anything else for a while. This was added because changing alignments takes a long time and sometimes it is just fun to switch quickly and go off and explore new pastures. Each system holds the keys to either legal or illegal factions but neither contain both. So you have to find both to switch back and forth.

Battleship Row is one mean system if you are looking for a fight. Fleets patrol the area around the system's only station. This area is really designed for Multiplayer where teams of players can go and shoot stuff together.

Weapon loot will often more than pay for your costs after any battle now, so using missiles and torps is not such a bad idea anymore. The cheapest weapon is usually 1000 credits, the most expensive you can get is roughly 100,000 credits.

When starting a new game new players can make a fast buck by trading research material. It will speed up your upgrades considerably. Just find the research stations to get started.

The game starts in Manhattan so check the News and listen to Rumors in the Manhattan bar. This is your introduction to Hostile Universe and what you will find there is typical of the sort of minor details I have added in the mod. Once you know what to look for, spotting the rest should be easy. Assuming there is nothing to find in the bar simply means you're playing HU like any other ship mod and thus missing the best parts of HU.