Official Activity Q4 2025

[Lemon]

Balance killed off solo mission farming too - it's just, sad and bleak and I don't see any way out of this for the very large group who used to fly caps without big fleet fights.

The hate against solo or even just profitable missions for capital ships is something I will never understand. Arguments have been made that Discovery lacks progression (and it's true) and in my opinion one of the few ways we actually had some progression was going from trading in a transport, getting a capital ship, and then grinding money in caps. Without giving trading significant overhauls to make it more exciting than watching paint dry, I just never saw the logic in undermining a form of money-making that was actually somewhat fun. You're not going to make me go back to the lanes if you take that away from me.

Argument was that if they kill casual missions in battleships,.people will only trade for money, which in turn will bring pirates, which in turn brings in navy factions etc.


Honestly I want to tear up at what they killed - you'd come home after work, fire up an account with 7 battleships in 7 regions and just run gunboat missions. If you wanted some excitement, you'd go to Delta, Nomads would then log to clear you and then all hell broke loose. They broke this ecology of the game,.on purpose.

Then battlezonea came, where you didn't have to think about how to collect and store the cargo or get gun drops - you'd have one guy start, and it snowball into up to 20 people farming in the same place while chatting. Then someone would PM for a pew, you end the day with big fleet fight and call.it a night.

A true reason to log, an arcade game that's very easy to learn, easy to enter that offers endless RP opportunities if you dig deep.

It was easy for OF navies to get people in this way, always something to do, without much skill needed, and it was killed as many people said here, because the Devs didn't like how people.played, they lived in their eSports fantasy that wanted to make disco more than what the philosophy of freelancer was, where you need to put in the effort, learn things like dropping shields to even be able to shoot your guns.

It's great, on paper, for someone who does want that complexity, but if I want to escape my reality, relax after a hard day's work and chat with my friends, it's not suitable at all, not suitable for the people who actually do have the vast majority of logging times.

Now there is trade that rules activity - the numbers have proved it and are right there to see, trade that hasn't brought in piracy the way it was intended, that isn't enjoyable for folks who want to play freelancer was designed to be, with trade just a side hustle - a simple arcade pew pew game, with godlike story and endless RP opportunities.


The only way this would be fixed again if someone with that philosophy comes to the helm again. The game as is without a new Barrier will drop off more and more, and especially cap centric factions and OFs will struggle, no matter how the OF system is reworked, outside of allowing the roleplayers to have a say on story if they become official again that would carry the faction.


The data is all there for the reversals and change of direction, very large samples, we just need staff willing to read and act on that data.


It's an arcade pew pew shooter with godlike story and RP, systems, or supposed to be

Actually I did not think I would jump but this post made me do it.
I "came back" to disco, more said Freelancer, because of some very good memories,
especially the Arcade game design in mind, beautiful systems, lots to explore.

When I got told I could target components, I was baffled and was like what the heck, how ?!
I learned some stuff but yeah, yeah.

Back then as kid I wanted to get better and better and beat everyone, wanted to get a cap
to shoot stuff, now I am just glad to F2 and chat most of the time about almost anything, thinking about how I flew with my dad from Nagano to Rheinland selling Platinum, mined Artifacts in Gamma selling in New York I think.

Just wanted to share something, have a great day all!

#BringBackMyNagano, please?

Yeah you felt like you are at the top of the world in your first battleships that felt like a big fat snub with a lot of guns - all intuitive, all easy to understand, easy to pickup coming from freelancer.

And then eventually after a long time you found out you are not as good as you thought - couldn't even hit some cap aces, could dig deep into the mechanics of turret view, weapons groups, hornets, positioning, strafing, blind fire, tricks to actually hit bombers, that there were people like Val or Thunderer willing to teach you - it was exactly the same as with with story, you play the campaign, think you are the end boss and know it all but eventually you discover there's so much more.


Now - components, super slow movement that feel like oil in water and hitting a trade lane a life achievement, less guns, less core, fast death to small ships, everything but intuitive - you try and you give up, and the OFs that used to get folks like you to open the world for you, to show you how to roleplay or play in a team, get better and eventually join them never get the chance.

We looked at something simple and straightforward and said hey - this is not how it should be, we know better than what made people keep coming back to this ancient game! And our hubris killed what made Disco Disco.

RIP indie LNS- Ivans who used to be always the number one or two on the tracker. We didn't know how much we'd miss you, RIP to caps being popular and the biggest big unique draw to the mod. RIP to combat factions having combat, not trade ships dominate their activity.