Despite fierce competition among numerous mods from many other games and other Freelancer mods, the Shattered Worlds::War-Torn mod received the prestigious honor of being one of the ModDB’s Top100 mods of 2009.  Many thanks to the entire Freelancer community, active player-base, the ModDB staff, and others within the FL community for voting for us, we appreciate your support!

Having said that, SW-WT are now in the running for the Top 5 mods of 2009 and they need your support.  Please go to our ModDB page and vote for them.  Every vote is needed!  They are competing with many newer games and many mods which have been around longer than they have.  I strongly feel that they can make a strong showing if the entire community bands together and votes.

I also highly urge the server veterans who have not played recently to check the mod out.  Many things have been improved since the initial release.  Many feel that the current Version 1.2 is a drastic improvement over Version 1.1.  If you have not checked it out, I encourage you to do so.  The community has grown to over 4000 forum accounts and you’re sure to meet new players on the server.  With Version 1.3 coming soon, I’m sure we will take Freelancer mods to a whole new level, continuing the cycle of growth and our commitment to Freelancer modding excellence.

For those that haven’t seen it. Here is the SW-WT Trailer.

he mod is designed to expand the boundaries of original Freelancer. Story continues 16 years to the future from the Freelancer single-player campaign events. Like most FL mods these days, Discovery has a set of relatively standard enhancements like numerous new ship models, weapons, equipment and NPC improvements. Some of the distinguishing features are more than 70 new populated systems, with large new regions like the House of Gallia and Nomad space, enhanced trade system, and improved RP potential.

Along with Crossfire, Shattered Worlds and Freeworlds, Discovery recently became one of the Freelancer mods that reached ModDB.com’s 2009 Mod of the Year Top-100. The Starport was one of the websites that promoted the Top-100 vote among the community members; the site also gave the Top-100 finalists a chance to post a main page feature article describing their mods, which we are doing now. We would also like to thank everyone who voted for Discovery and other Freelancer mods on the Mod of the Year contest. The voting within the Top-100 still continues, and there’s still time to vote for your favourite candidates!

Generally, what is new in Discovery 4.85? The year is 817 After Settlement (A.S.), 16 years after the single-player campaign of Freelancer, and one year after Discovery 4.84 took place. A Sirius-wide war is on the brink of engulfing the sector. While Kusari pushes its onslaught against Bretonia deep into the Leeds system, Bretonia attempts to surround Kusari forces in Tau-31. Liberty attacks Rheinland in Bremen and Hudson, and Rheinland has to pull back to defend its own borders. As if this was not enough, in late 817 the Independent Miners Guild encountered a large number unknown ships in the Orkney system. The ships belonged to a rebel group formed within the long-lost House of Gallia, the existence of which remained unknown for centuries. Creation of a path into Gallia adds a new, powerful, player to the scene, and no one can tell what goals the new House will pursue in these troubled times. Rumors arise that the nation of France was betrayed during the Exodus, making historians and politicians of various Houses search deep into archives to find out what truly happened more than 1000 years ago in Sol.

Increased development time and an increased number of developers allowed to finalize all features we were planning to implement, and make 4.85 the largest ever update for Discovery mod, which now became of the few mods that actually add more to the game than the original has. We introduced 79 brand new ships with new models, with over 30 previously included ships completely re-designed. Accurate hitboxes had been implemented for almost all ships, old and new. More than a hundred new weapon and equipment types have been added, many having custom models of their own, as well as custom weapon projectile and hit effects. Out of eight dozen new systems Discovery has, more than a half received significant updates, and 11 new ones were included, all of them following much higher quality standards than in previous versions.

The mod has a renewed balance system for weapons, equipment and ships, plus a fully revamped economy system that provides profitable routes for all locations and factions. To add depth to the new economy, 46 new commodity types were introduced, and nearly all commodities (including original ones) received new detailed icons. The role-playing ID system (used on the official server and most other servers running our mod) has received 53 new IDs with clear and detailed descriptions. The new version also contains about 7000 new and rewritten infocard texts for various new and old ships, items, and places.

For those who love numbers, here are some statistics:
- 260 player flyable ships in the game total, of which 225 are introduced by Discovery;
- About 110 new player flyable ship models introduced by version 4.85;
- 134 systems in the game total, of which 79 are introduced by Discovery;
- 11 new systems in 4.85, with about 30 systems receiving significant updates in the latest version;
- 448 bases in the game total, of which about 275 are introduced by Discovery;
- 91 factions in the game total, 44 new factions added by Discovery, of which 11 were introduced by version 4.85;
- Over 100 new weapons introduced in 4.85, upping the number of new Discovery weapons above 200;
- 46 new commodities introduced in 4.85, with multiple new trade routes;
- 117 role-playing IDs in Discovery, of which 53 introduced by version 4.85;
- About 10,000 new infocard texts introduced by Discovery, of which about 7,000 added or rewritten for 4.85.

The integrated Discovery automatic updater allows to download and apply new updates easily without having to re-download and re-install the whole package. The updater does not restrict offline play, and it is still possible to play single or run a LAN server without an internet connection.

Right now, development of the next version of Discovery, 4.86, is in progress. We have plans to complete the central systems of the House of Gallia, add a number of other new systems, continue to improve the role-playing system, trade routes, and balance. Version 4.85 is also regularly updated. Three updates were released to date, and Update 4 is still being actively worked on.

For more information on Discovery and the other 3 Mods that made it into the Top 100 of 2009 MOTY Awards head over to The Starport.

Although we won’t be able to catch up with Half-Life 2, it looks promising that we hold onto our 2nd place spot right up until the final whistle which will then place us into Phase Two of the ‘MOTY Awards’.

Phase 2: Top 100

On January 6th the Top 100 mods and indie games you voted for in phase 1 will be announced and a second round of voting will commence until February 21st. Again, it is up to you, to vote for your top 3 in this list – so we can narrow the top 100 down to a handful of winners…

Keep going everyone! This a fantastic to see!

The actual figures now show Freelancer to still be in second position with over 31,000 votes.

This is incredible, and I can’t begin to express how amazed and pleased the entire community is with this. 2009 was a great year for the community and with this, hopefully 2010 will be even better.

The Starport will be providing coverage of the entire event here.

MODDB, a site that houses thousands of mods for many games, is running its annual mod of the year award. This is a fantastic time to gain some attention to all the hard work that has been done over this past year for your mods and Freelancer. I encourage all mod developers to post weekly updates of the latest happenings in their respective mods to gain some popularity with the masses. Lets all try to make a constructive effort to show the gaming community what Freelancer still has to offer!

For more details on the awards: Mod of the Year 2009

Considering my time spent active within the Freelancer community, I will be doing all I can to support Freelancer again this year which always makes it into the top few, even after 7 yeards since it’s initial release.

So good luck to all the sites and servers taking part this year.

The following is from the MODDB website;

Welcome to the 8th Annual Mod of the Year Awards – the premiere event that celebrates the best creations within the modding and indie gaming scene. Developers have delivered plenty of great gameplay experiences this year, and now it is our turn as gamers to nominate and recognize the best of 2009.

From now until Feb 20th, we shall be sharing a year in review and showcasing the editors’ picks of 2009, culminating in the announcement of this year’s best mod and game as voted by you. The top mods and games will win the honors of being placed alongside other projects that have gone on to become commercial successes and cement their place in ModDB’s hall of fame. And to the winner goes the spoils; ModDB has teamed up with a whole lineup of sponsors that have provided prizes ranging from software to servers to beanbags. Everything to help budding developers excel at their craft.

We are pleased to announce that throughout the week beginning 23rd November 2009, and ending 29th November 2009, staff at Monkey Universe will be hosting an ‘Events Week’ for all players. Lined up for your enjoyment we have the … FFA (Free For All event), BDE (Base Destruct Event), Capital ship BDE, Fugitive Hunt, Monkey Universe General Knowledge quiz, Grand Prix De Abyss, [KoS] Target Hunt, Monkey Lotto, Banana Find Me, [NOMAD] Incursions, and more!

A lot of preperation and planning has went into this wonderful opportunity for players, past present and new, to enjoy and experience Freelancer the monkey way! This one off week will be hosted by our dedicated staff, and some of our very own players who have given up their free time for your entertainment!

Come along, show your face, and partake in this exciting opportunity for all things monkey. Times, prizes, rules, and any other details can be found in the ‘Planned Events‘ of the forum.

Double prizes are on handout, as well as the chance to be entered in a draw for a fabulous prize unique to the winner only (it can’t be purchased anywhere!). If that isn’t enough, additional prizes will be awarded to the clan which enters and wins the most events, and the top performing player of Events Week!

In other news…

We at Monkey Universe have been working our banana skins off lately with a new version of the Digital Brilliance AutoUpdater by Lancer Solurus.

Finally our hardwork has paid off and as from today you can now download the latest version of it. But wait thats not all. We now offer the autoupdater to cater for all your needs. Not only does it come in standard and widescreen versions as it did before but it also comes in “High Definition” after Tigers hard work got the directx converter to work. As well as that we also offer the widescreenHD in a number of different resolutions.

So whether you need to dust off your discs or are playing now check it out in the “latest news” section.

Woah where do you think your going? You think these crazy monkeys are done? Helllllll no, theres more……..

Coming to you for xmas 2009 we bring you the “South Seas Project” which sticking to vanilla as much as we can gives you a look at how things came to be from a different perspective. You can meet up with the “South Seas Tigers” or have a drink with the local pirates. Or check out your shopping needs at the “Cox’s Bizarre”.

For more details on the SSP get out your Monkey specs and check out the story by MPA Druid.

So come on dust off those discs, peel those bananas, get out your Monkey bibles and come along and play freelancer in the only place where you can play it the Monkey way………Monkey Universe.