Freelancer is a fantastic game that combines cool space exploration with lots of fun space dogfight combat. More importantly, it features some gameplay elements that are quite similar to the callapsars from the novel The Forever War (by Joe Haldeman) AND some other gameplay elements that are similar to the Web from the novel The Dragon Never Sleeps (by Glen Cook).
Please notice that this game is FREE! It isn't available in any online shop, but it can be downloaded for free from some Internet sites. Well worth a try! The game is old and somewhat flawed, but still very fun! More importantly the game has very low computer requirements, which is very much to my liking.
Please notice that I recorded all the movies below after obtaining the spaceship Eagle – the best spaceship with good manoeuvrability (you can obtain it only after the end of the main story). I also changed the sounds for the guns Skyblast B, because they were annoying to me – I replaced the file “fire_photon5.wav” with a copy of the file “fire_photon4.wav”.
1. Pre-fire activities
Before you even try to hit an enemy you have to execute several pre-fire activities, which is very cool on its own. What’s even better, you have to do it very quickly because enemies are detected only when they are quite close to you – usually you have only 3 or 4 seconds to start performing evasive manoeuvres). The pre-fire activities are so important that I assigned them to the to the crucial keyboard keys (given in brackets).
When I am in the “Go-To mode” (F2) that I always activate AFTER activating the “Cruise mode” (T) and then some enemies are detected in front of me (for example during a combat mission) I do these things:
1) leave the “Go-To mode” by activating the “Free Flight mode” (SPACE),
2) leave the “Cruise mode” by activating the Engine Kill manoeuvre (A),
3) activate the “Mouse Flight mode” (S),
4) start performing evasive manoeuvres to avoid enemy gun fire by turning slightly (drifting slightly sideways) and then activating Afterburn (E) for a short while,
5) launch Countermeasures (R) against incoming missiles (some enemies don't use them),
6) select the Closest Enemy (F) or the Next Enemy (G),
7) go past the enemies still performing evasive manoeuvres,
8) minimize HUD (W) to have a better view (optional),
9) try to get behind the selected enemy by turning as tightly as possible and then activating Afterburn (E) for a while in order to start moving towards the enemy and in some cases (if the enemy slows down significantly) by activating Reverse Thrust (D) for a very short while, not to zip past the almost stationary enemy.
NINE pre-fire activities! AWESOME!
You can actually make the list shorter by leaving the “Go-To mode” right after zeroing in on the mission waypoint, but to keep the maximum speed (300) you have to activate the “Cruise mode” BEFORE activating the “Go-To mode”. Otherwise after leaving the “Go-To mode” you will also leave the “Cruise mode”, which will slow you down to a crawling speed of 80 (see last point – point 23 to learn about speeds in different flying modes).
Some battles, especially during random encounters, start in different circumstances, for example right after leaving a Jump Gate, so the list of pre-fire activities can be somewhat shorter, but this can actually be worse because your controls are unresponsive for a short while, which can make you disoriented a little. It’s still very cool because you feel as if you were caught off-guard – as if you were caught in an ambush.
2. Great space dogfight combat.
The combat is extremely fun – it's frantic and enjoyably difficult, but definitely not frustrating. In most cases it requires almost constant tight turning, so it's very similar to dogfight combat from the World War II, but sometimes you have to also avoid missiles by using countermeasure flares. Some people say that space combat should be different, but thanks to this combat system the game isn't all about spaceships and/or equipment, but also about pilot skills. Cool.
In the vast majority of battles, including random encounters, you have several enemies against you, so you have to change direction and/or speed almost constantly to avoid their attacks, but you still have to find time to shoot at one of them. Your enemies are quite good at dogfight manoeuvres too – they can both turn tightly AND change their speed. Sometimes they turn right after slowing down, which makes them easy (almost stationary) targets then, but to catch them doing this you have to manoeuvre better than them! Fantastic combat!
Every weapon can inflict two different kinds of damage: to the shields OR to the hull. As long as the shields are active the hull is not damaged at all. To destroy a target you have to hit it multiple times, first to disable shields and then to destroy the hull. There are two nice gimmicks that allow weaker players to survive a little longer than they should – shield batteries (instantly restoring damaged shields) and nanobots (instantly repairing damaged hull panels). The AI enemies don't use them, so it's a clear help for weaker players, but it's also quite positive for better players who are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies too (especially during the main story missions towards the end of the game).
Shields regenerate slowly on their own, but hull panels don't regenerate at all. Please notice that hull damage is a complex issue – when hull panels are damaged then particular pieces of equipment and/or parts of the spaceship get damaged too, HOWEVER nanobots repair only the hull panels. It's actually logical – nanobots are automatic repair mini-robots, so they are able to repair only the simplest things, not complex mechanisms. It means that during combat the shields are crucial. By the way: radiation damages only hull, so even if you didn't lose your shields at all you still have to repair your ship a little.
Here's a very good example of combat, starting with pre-fire activities (only the 5th one was not executed because the enemies didn't use missiles):
Detailed comments to the movie above (in chronological order):
1) I shoot in very short bursts because I perform evasive manoeuvres throughout the combat. It's crucial to get hit as seldom as possible while fighting against numerous enemies!
2) After an enemy spaceships explodes I use the Tractor Beam (All Items) (Q) to try to gather all the salvageable items from the destroyed enemy. The message “tractor failure” means that there is no room for a particular item to be stored inside your spaceship (this message usually concerns shield batteries or nanobots).
3) Some enemies run away from you! In this case a single unharmed enemy wanted to join her remaining comrades, but I have also seen badly damaged enemies simply run for their lives!
4) I activate the “Cruise mode” (T) BEFORE activating the “Go-To mode” (F2).
5) The “Go-To mode” works in a proper way only after you deactivate the “Mouse Flight mode” (S).
6) After zeroing in on the second waypoint I left the “Go-To mode” by activating the “Free Flight mode” (SPACE) – I checked if it worked by hovering mouse cursor on the Manoeuvre Bar at the top of the screen (which is set on auto-hide). I remained in the “Cruise mode” only because I activated the “Cruise mode” BEFORE activating the “Go-To mode” (see point 4).
7) Enemies near the second waypoint worked as a team – the single one was a little closer, but she was a bait. If I turned around to attack her the 3 other enemies would attack me from behind, which would be VERY bad for me. This is why I ignored her and went past the other enemies. While I was passing them by I changed my target by selecting the closest enemy (F) again (at that very moment a different enemy was closer than the one I had selected just a moment ago).
8) When I was fighting against the last enemy I didn't have to perform any evasive manoeuvres, so I was shooting in longer bursts then, but it brought my energy levels to the bottom. You can see that only 2 guns were firing then instead of 6.
By the way, other keyboard shortcuts that I sometimes use are: Shield Battery (B), Nanobots (N), Change View (C), Display Current Objective (H), Cancel Target (Y), Turret View (V), Strafe Left (Z) and Strafe Right (X).
3. Simple but fun space navigation.
When you end a mission in the middle of nowhere, especially in a dust cloud, you HAVE to use navigation help like this:
4. Engine Kill manoeuvre
In Freelancer there are two “flying modes” – “normal” (default) and “special” (after activating the Engine Kill manoeuvre). The first one is very annoying because you move always in the direction that you are looking at. It feels like flying a normal plane, so it's totally unrealistic because there is no air in space. In the second “flying mode” (after activating the Engine Kill manoeuvre) you can look around while maintaining the same flying vector, so it really feels like moving through space. Well, some details are still not quite realistic, but overall it's very cool!
By the way, when you turn around to look back during the Engine Kill manoeuvre the speed is shown as negative (for example -180) because the vector of the speed is opposite to the direction at which you are looking at. When you slide (drift) exactly sideways the speed is shown as 0, because you aren’t moving at all in the direction you are looking at. Great game design!
5. Backgrounds Stars (space backgrounds).
Space backgrounds in some star systems are simply beautiful, but in most cases they feel “out of place”, because there is hardly any black space or NO black space AT ALL. It looks like flying in an atmosphere, instead of space vacuum. Even role-playing it doesn't help – it still feels like flying through a bubble inside a space nebula, which is very unrealistic.
What's worse there are some real dust clouds that you can fly into (which on it's own is actually good), but their colours are very similar to the background colours, so you can't see where the edges of the real dust clouds really are. For this very reason I disabled “Background Stars” completely. Here's a very good example:
As you can see in reality there only TWO dust clouds (one rust-coloured and one greenish), but when the Background Stars are turned on it seems that there are FOUR dust clouds (two rust-coloured and two greenish). Unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.
6. Simple but fun trading.
There are many different guns and other items that you can buy and sell. Using Tractor Beam (All Items) (Q) during combat helps you to salvage many things for free, but some enemies, especially at the start of the main story, drop no items at all. Pieces of ship armament, for example guns, can be sold at equipment dealers and other commodities can be cold at commodity traders.
Please notice that commodities have different prices in different star systems (supply and demand model) and that you can see a “bad” price right away because it is marked with red colour. When I salvaged some items for free during combat I usually sell them even for “red” prices, unless there is a place with a better price in a near star system.
7. Comparing weapons.
There are guns, turrets, missiles, torpedoes and mines that come in various types. Some weapons inflict higher damage, but at the same time their rate of fire is lower, so to compare different weapons you have to do some calculations. The speed of projectiles are also different, but according to a logical formula – bigger damage is inflicted by slower projectiles. The range of weapons and their energy consumption are also varied, but these are secondary issues. Most of the weapons are better against the hull, but “pulse” weapons are clearly better against the shields.
By the way, to me the ultimate weapon is the gun Skyblast B because I prefer rapid fire and this gun is the best gun with 8.33 Refire Rate. Actually this gun is the second best gun that you can buy (if you take into account different rate of fires of different guns) and the best gun that you can buy from a legal source. Only the gun Kraken Type 2 is better, but it can be bought only from Outcasts who are bandits and are hostile towards me. There are also level-10 weapons, but they can't be bought and you have to find them in some wrecks or salvage them from destroyed enemies. Moreover they have a lower Refire Rate, so they are not as powerful as it may seem at first (out of 17 level-10 guns only 9 are better than the gun Skyblast B and only 2 are better than the gun Kraken Type 2).
8. You are not always alone.
You can run into a fight between the good guys and the bad guys, so you don't have to kill all the enemies yourself. Here's a very good example:
9. Great space exploring mechanics.
First of all I have to point out that objects in particular star systems are not to scale, but it was the only way to combine all the space exploring mechanics into one whole. I'm cool with that.
To travel from one star system to another you have to use a Jump Gate or a Jump Hole. They allow almost instant deportation over huge distances and are very similar to callapsars from the novel The Forever War (by Joe Haldeman) that I reviewed here:
The Forever War (by Joe Haldeman) re-read
Using a Jump Gate looks like this:
I recorded the movie above at a very practical place – between the star systems Hamburg and New Berlin. Why? After the end of the main story you have to earn lots of money in order to level up and to buy better spaceships and better equipment. The star system Hamburg is a fantastic place to do it! Available missions are relatively easy, but still give you around 10 or 15 thousand credits. More importantly the enemies in this star system drop surprisingly big amounts of Niobium which is very valuable. Even more important is the fact that you can sell Niobium for a very good price at the Dortmund Station that is very close – in the near side of the next star system – New Berlin. Awesome place!
Within a particular star system you can use Trade Lanes that are similar to highways, but they are actually much better – the speed on a Trade Lane is almost ten times higher than the maximum normal speed. To me the Trade Lane system (within a particular star system) is a small scale equivalent of the Web from novel The Dragon Never Sleeps (by Glen Cook) that I reviewed here:
The Dragon Never Sleeps
The Dragon Never Sleeps re-read (Glen Cook's masterpiece)
A Trade Lane is actually a double lane – there are two one-way lanes going in opposite directions. You can dock to the one with Green light. You can exit a Trade Lane anywhere you want, but to get back into a Trade Lane you have to dock to one of its many gates that are placed along the way (it doesn't have to be the first gate). Using a Trade Lane looks like this:
Please notice that Trade Lanes are taken into account when the mission waypoints are assigned. The automatic pathfinding uses Trade Lanes from start to finish, but you can exit a Trade Lane any time you want, so you can sometimes make your journey a little shorter. Please notice that “flight controls” (keyboard shortcuts) are still active when you look at the map. What's even better, after you exit a Trade Lane the waypoint at the end of the Trade Lane is cancelled!
The normal way of space travelling is the slowest one, but you can go anywhere in a particular star system this way. It's cool when you end a combat mission in the middle of nowhere and you have to decide if it will be faster to go to a Trade Line first or to head straight for the nearest planet.
10. Lots of space exploring.
There are over 40 star systems to explore freely (but not right away) plus several star systems that are accessible only during the main story, so there is lots of exploring! In every star system there are several accessible places like planets, space stations, shipyards and battleships. I can't imagine visiting them all.
11. Unique sandbox game.
Some games are sandbox games with hardly any main story. Some other games are linear games with only the main story. Freelancer is neither – you are to some extent bound to the main story, but not completely. At the start of the game you get a ship for free provided that you will take part in a mission that turns into a series of missions. Between them you can enjoy some free time, but you can't advance more than one level without getting back to the main story. What's unique about the game is the fact that it becomes a classic sandbox game only after the main story ends.
Please, notice that you can theoretically visit most of the star systems after finishing 4 main story missions, BUT any extensive exploring at that point is not really advisable. There are many random encounters, so you have to fight quite often, but you are limited only to ships and equipment that are available before main story mission 5. To buy better ships and/or better equipment you have to level up further, but in order to do so you have to advance the main story further. Moreover during the main story some colonies are hostile towards you, so you can't go there without constant fighting.
12. Great main story campaign.
All I can say without giving spoilers is that right from the start there is a very interesting mystery with LOTS of plot twists. The cut-scenes themselves are quite good for a game that is so old, but the downside is that you can't skip/disable them. The cool thing about the main story is the fact that many things happen during gameplay (outside cut-scenes) and your goals often change on the fly during missions that were supposed to be totally different. Fantastic!
Interestingly, some of the official news seem to be highly suspicious or totally fake, especially when you consider what has just happened to you. Another cool thing is that many important things happen in the background and you can read about them in the news (that you can find in every bar). Here are two interesting examples (without spoilers):
I think it's better not to read any walkthroughs because they contain too many spoilers. I did it read some of them and I was sorry. Believe me, the main story campaign is pretty straightforward and you can obtain all the best available equipment on its way. This is why I make my post so long – I want to cover all the things I was wondering about myself during my first play.
13. You are regularly forced out of the main story.
Some players don't like it, but I found this idea fantastic! After several of the main story missions you have to level up to continue the main story (to get the next main story mission), but in order to level up you have to raise your worth by earning money. You can earn money by trading, mining or doing side quests.
Your worth is equal to your money plus all the money you could get by selling your ship and all your equipment. Well, you can't sell your ship without buying a new one, but you can still see its selling price. Obviously all your selling prices are clearly lower than your buying prices and this is why buying things actually lowers your worth (when compared to having money right before purchase).
Theoretically you could earn enough money to level up and only then buy better ship and/or better equipment, but I wouldn't recommend it because you would end up with hardly any money reserves. It would be especially problematic after the main story mission 8 (if you are a decent man) or 9 (if you have nothing against killing innocent people to gain money). After the main story mission 10 you are tied to the main story completely and there is no way to earn any extra money.
14. In the early game trading and mining are forgettable.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your preferences) in the early game the quickest way of earning money is doing side quests, but they are ALL combat quests. You can also earn money by trading or mining, but it takes much more time and you have to fight anyway because there are many random encounters.
Short trade routes give small profits because particular goods are generally common in a particular star system, so differences in prices are small. To earn big money you have to travel much farther, so it takes more time. Travelling farther is also more dangerous – quite often Trade Lanes are sabotaged and you are slowed down to normal speed while falling straight into a trap. As cool as it sounds it's annoying when you only want to trade.
The worst thing about mining is the fact that during mining there’s actually MORE fighting than during combat side quests! Once I got attacked by several rogues and right after I killed them another group of rogues appeared! I could earn big money for a combat side quest of similar difficulty, but because these were just random encounters I didn't get any money. Well, I salvaged some low-value items from the destroyed ships, but it doesn't compare to the money offered for combat side quests. That ended my “thirst” for mining once and for all.
Combat side quests have a HUGE additional advantage – in every bar there is a job board that describes all the available side quests. You know not only how much money you can earn, but also what is the difficulty rating for a particular side quest and if you will be operating alone or with some help. Fantastic!
Yet another additional advantage of combat side quests is the fact that when they end you don’t have to visit the starting place at all – you get money right away, via electronic transfer to your account. It's cool when you end a combat quest in the middle of nowhere and you have to decide what to do next.
15. Good balance between fighting and travelling through space.
In short: even though all side quests are combat quests there is still much time when you are simply travelling through space. Some people criticise this aspect of the game and say it's a waste of time, but to me it's very climatic – you are literally forced to feel as if you were really going through space. It's actually cool to have some time to relax and rest from the constant fighting, trading and/or upgrading your ship.
During the main story missions lots of important info is given during the space journeys, instead of cut-scenes. AWESOME!
When you you are approaching the final waypoint on a combat mission and you can actually feel a raising tension. As a newcomer I thought that I was supposed to actually reach the final waypoint before engaging enemies, but it's not the case. You have to start manoeuvring soon after your enemies are detected because they start attacking you very quickly.
Well, there is actually a good reason to get quite close to the mission waypoint – if you get too far away from the mission waypoint, even during constant fighting against the mission enemies, your mission commander will detect it (that you are too far away) and will order you to “get back to fighting”. You have 30 seconds to get close enough to the mission waypoint or your contract will be terminated. It's annoying because you have to do it while dodging incoming fire, only to get back to fighting the same enemies right after that! It's also quite illogical – your mission commander knows right away when you finally defeat your enemies, so before that he should know that you are still fighting them. Fortunately such problems happen very rarely.
16. The main story plays very naturally equipment-wise.
Usually you finish main story missions in places where you can buy the best ship for your current level. The biggest problem is the fact that there is no in-game info about ships’ manoeuvrability, so you have to either experiment or use Internet walkthroughs/gamefaqs and/or Internet sites like this:
https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Freelancer/Ships
I prefer good manoeuvrability (because I prefer classic dogfight combat), so during the main story I went with these ships: Starflier, Patriot, Defender, Cavalier and Barracuda. UPDATE: The second time I went only with these ships: Starflier, Defender and Barracuda
The equipment that you can buy along the main story is almost the best for your current level. I prefer rapid fire (best for classic dogfight combat), so in the early game I was buying mostly weapons with 8.33 Refire Rate and 750 Projectile Speed. However at the crucial moment in the main story (before the main story mission 8) I HAD to buy the guns “Sunfury 1” with 8.33 Refire Rate and only 600 Projectile Speed (you can buy them on the planet New Tokyo). UPDATE: The second time I bought four class-6 guns Sunblast A with 8.33 Refire Rate and Projectile Speed of 750 (you can buy them at the Gas Miner Ogashawa in the star system Sigma-19 AFTER you reach level 16).
Before the start of the main story mission 9 I found two “Sunfury 2” guns in the Hokkaido star system, but DON'T read about how to get there before you end mission 8! It will spoil a plot twist for you!
I managed to finished the main story with “only” Imp. Countermeasure Dropper (80% effectiveness against missiles) and Heavy Thruster (133 energy drain), but in retrospect I would have bought the best (Adv.) Countermeasure Dropper (90% effectiveness against missiles) and the best (Advanced) Thruster (125 energy drain). I did have the best shield available: Adv. Sentinel, H.F. (3143 shield).
With these ships and equipment I died only twice during the whole main story (once in the early game and once towards the end of the main story), but I was very close to dying several other times too. Overall the main story is not too hard, but not easy either.
17. There’s lots to do after the end of the main story.
It’s best to treat the main story as one big tutorial. When it ends you are definitely stronger, so you can visits more difficult star systems. More importantly, you are at least neutral with all the main colonies, so you can find a docking place almost anywhere you want.
At the end of the main story I advanced to level 18, while the maximum level is 32! The best ships are available when you are around level 30! You need HUGE amounts of money to buy them! In other words: you have to fly many combat side quests or find some great trade routes to afford the best ships. Not to mention that there are several other spaceships that are available earlier (starting from level 20), but buying them will lower your worth. I myself bought and maxed out Falcon, before acquiring Eagle.
Please, notice that after the end of the main story the info about the “Next Level Requirement” is reversed! It shows how much MORE worth you need to reach the next level. For example the Next Level Requirement on the screenshot below means that I had to increase my worth by 63,378 credits, so during the main story it would be shown as 177,493 credits.
18. Meta-gaming is overwhelming.
I had found many gamefaqs and Internet sites about Freelancer, but there was so much info that I was totally overwhelmed. After the end of the main story I decided to simply explore every star system one by one. The game shows the best trading prices from all visited places, so it's worth to dock everywhere just for a short while. However after finding the Hamburg system (see point 6) I focused on earning money to buy better spaceships and better guns.
The crucial meta-gaming info to me was:
1) where to find the best high Refire Rate guns after the main story: the level 6 guns Sunblast A and the level 9 guns Skyblast B are available at the Station Naha in the star system Sigma 13 and the level 7 guns Sunblast B and the level 8 guns Skyblast A are available at the Station Aomori in the star system Honshu,
2) where to find the spaceship Eagle: Freeport 9 in the star system Omicron Theta.
UPDATE: The second time I stayed with the spaceship Falcon. The best place to buy Falcon is the planet New Berlin. Starting from this place there is a very easy way to reach places where you can buy the best available equipment for this ship. The first step is Gas Miner Naha in the star system Sigma-13 where you can buy the best shield: Protector H. F. Shield (Class 7). The next step is to reach Aomori Station in the star system Honshu where you can buy the best available (for Falcon) guns with 8.33 Refire Rate and projectile speed of 750: Sunblast B (Class 7) and Skyblast A (Class 8).
I used detailed maps that I found on the net, especially for the star systems mentioned above, and this general map (click to enlarge):
DETAILED tips and info:
19. Little red dot.
When you have an enemy selected you can see his (or her) shield bar and his hull bar, so you can predict how long the fight will last. Moreover you can see a red cross at which you should aim to hit a moving target. This red cross is clearly bigger than a red dot that is barely visible when an enemy is not selected.
20. Mouse Flight mode.
In Freelancer some things can be done only with mouse, so you have to repeatedly switch between 2 flying modes: “normal” (when your ship travels straight ahead and you can use your mouse to do some useful things) and “Mouse Flight mode” (when your ship turns according to the movements of your mouse). In the “normal” mode you can use your mouse to guide your ship too, but you have to keep your left-mouse button pressed, which is annoying and definitely doesn't feel normal. It’s much better to activate the “Mouse Flight mode”.
21. NEVER use throttle.
“Wait. What?”
I repeat: NEVER use throttle.
“But how should I accelerate and decelerate my spaceship?”
Use Afterburn to accelerate and Reverse Thrust to decelerate.
“But, why?”
Because throttle ends the Engine Kill manoeuvre. In other words: because throttle ends the best thing during combat and also during space exploring.
If you CONSTANTLY ignore throttle then you will learn how the Engine Kill manoeuvre works very quickly. I don’t have ANY keys assigned to throttle, which allows me to bind the remaining useful buttons to other important things.
22. How to use the Engine Kill manoeuvre.
Usually at the start of a particular mission or after leaving a particular structure your ship is moving, which means that throttle has been applied automatically. This situation can be confusing, so please, read carefully.
Press the Engine Kill button once. It seems that nothing happened, but it’s not true. Yes, your ship is still moving with the same speed, but when you turn your ship left or right it will slide (drift) sideways. This is actually a realistic way of moving through space – without air resistance and without using engines a spaceship should be moving with constant velocity (speed and its vector).
To start moving in a chosen direction press Afterburn. Your ship will quickly lose its sliding (drifting) speed and will be moving straight ahead. To stop your ship you should use Reverse Thrust, but not for too long, otherwise you will end up with slightly negative constant speed (-15).
Activating the “Cruise mode” ends the Engine Kill manoeuvre, but it works the other way round too – activating the Engine Kill manoeuvre ends the “Cruise mode”! This way you can end up with a very high sliding (drifting) speed. Please notice that the “Go-To mode” activates the “Cruise mode” automatically, so it's useless to use the Engine Kill manoeuvre then. In other words: you have to activate the “Cruise mode” BEFORE activating the “Go-To mode” and then you should activate the “Free Flight mode” (to get out of the “Go-To mode”) before activating the Engine Kill manoeuvre.
23. Why is the Engine Kill manoeuvre the best thing during both combat and space exploring?
Because the Engine Kill manoeuvre is much more logical as far as speeds are concerned. Please notice that I said “more”, because overall the “speed system” is quite illogical from the scientific point of view. Why? Because there are maximum speeds! In space the only maximum speed is the speed of light, but the in-game speeds are much lower, so as long as the engine is working your ship should accelerate. A possible “role-playing” explanation could be that the maximum speeds are built into a ship design to allow making turns the way it is shown in the game (both with and without the Engine Kill manoeuvre).
Anyway, let’s compare maximum speeds with the Engine Kill manoeuvre (EKM) and without it (NORMAL):
1) NORMAL during Cruise (you can't fire): 300
2) EKM right after Cruise (you CAN fire): 300, but falling slowly
3) NORMAL while using Afterburn with maximum throttle (you can't slide/drift): 200
3) EKM while using Afterburn (you can't slide/drift): 200
4) EKM right after using Afterburn (you CAN slide/drif): 200, but falling slowly
5) NORMAL while using Afterburn with only half throttle (you can't slide/drift): 160
6) NORMAL while using Afterburn without any throttle (you can't slide/drift): 120
7) NORMAL with full throttle (you can't slide/drift): 80
8) NORMAL with only half throttle (you can't slide/drift): 40
Please notice how illogical the combination of throttle with Afterburn is! There is no way of “role-playing” it from the scientific point of view. For example normal Afterburn should increase throttle by a fixed percentage, not by a fixed amount of speed (120). And if the Afterburn were just another engine than it should be included directly in the throttle.
On the other hand the Afterburn during the engine kill manoeuvre works like a normal engine but with a built-in limit for the maximum speed of 200. Well, the falling speed is illogical from the scientific point of view, but it’s a very slow process that is barely noticeable, especially during frantic combat.
Please, notice that the “Cruise mode” during combat has a very limited use because your ship first slows down to 80 and then for around 3 seconds “warms up” the engine before accelerating quickly to 300. During the “warm up” phase you are helpless like a baby, so it’s a real toss up. If you do survive then there is another problem – some enemies use a weapon called Cruise Disruptor which takes you out of the Cruise mode, back to the crawling speed of 80!
In some cases its worth to activate the Engine Kill manoeuvre right after reaching the speed of 300 – you can turn around and shoot at enemies who are still chasing you, maintaining a very high fleeing speed AND, more importantly, the Cruise Disruptor won't slow you down, because you are already out of the “Cruise mode”.
Here are come cool screenshots:
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