Came across a CD at a Staples of all places when I was but a wee lad. Played the game every day after school on the antiquated office PC my father brought home from work one day for me to use. Absolutely loved the game but didn't come back to it once I finished the campaign the first time.
Reinstalled it years later just to dick around in the open world a bit. Found out about FLMM, so I installed that and fiddled around with the packaged mods - speed and money mods for the most part. Then looked for some more in depth mods online and found Discovery. Installed it and was immediately hooked for the next two years. Even got an RL friend into it and we had a blast together. But high school got busy and we kinda burned out on it, so we both quit.
Decided to reinstall Discovery again in late 2019 after not having checked on it at all for the past ~6ish years and was surprised to see it was even still around. Thought I'd get a weekend of nostalgic fun out of it, but then the Covid lockdowns struck in early 2020, server population increased to a respectable ~80 players at peak hours, and it almost felt as alive and organic again as it had been back in the days of 4.85. Encountered a bunch of great roleplayers, created some of the most long-lasting and in depth characters I've ever thought up, and have been addicted to it again ever since.
Regrettably.
What a miserable cesspool this community can be. But nothing quite compares to Discovery or Freelancer, so we just have to take it as it is.
