What is Different

Ranges

Sensor and combat ranges in Independents have been significantly extended over vanilla Freelancer. Maximum sensor range is 10k, four times the range in vanilla. This allows for a significant contrast between light fighter weapons, some of which have effective range of a few hundred metres, and large starships weapons, some of which can reach out nearly to 10k.

There is also a noticeable difference in the maximum scanner range of different types of scanners. Small ships don't have room to carry the heavy sensors and as a result are limited to ranges of less than 10k while large starships can carry sensors that remain effective out to 10k even in moderate to heavy sensor interference.

Fuel

A significant change from vanilla is the removal of thruster fuel and energy regeneration and an increase in the power use by engines. The result is a limit the range of a ship. Once out of energy impulse and cruise engines are reduced to much lower speeds and once out of fuel thrusters won't work. Basically it is possible to end up dead in space if these fuel levels are ignored.

Combat

Combat in Independents features much less accurate weapons than vanilla Freelancer and much lower drag on all ships. As a consequence weapons are more powerful and small ships are faster to give adequate acceleration in a fight. Most weapons also require ammo, so as to not drain too much energy and to allow players to customize how much cargo space they spend on ammo and on shield batteries and nanobots.

Repair Systems and Shields

Of those ships that have shields in Independents the smaller ships have shields with lower capacities and higher regeneration and the larger ships have higher capacities and lower, in some cases even negative, regeneration. The trade off between capacity and regeneration is also what differentiates the three types of shields available.

Shield batteries in Independent are fairly large and are designed for use on ships with high capacity shields. If used to their full effect they are more efficient than nanobots. However, they are too large for small ships which must rely on nanobots for self repair.

Combat Pace

The pace of combat in Independents varies greatly from the small spaceships to the large starships.

On the light end of the spectrum fighter combat is much faster paced than vanilla Freelancer. With fighters capable of dealing over a thousand damage per second and having only slight more total shields and armour, they live and die by seconds. What saves fighters is their speed and the quick rebuild of their shields. Many heavy weapon refire too slowly to score a second hit before the fighter's shields have rebuilt.

As ship size increases total hit points increase faster than weapon damage. Combat at the other end of the spectrum is therefore quite different. Starship combat is slower paced, longer ranged, and tactics come into play as manoeuvres can take minutes and so getting the target ship in the best firing-arc at optimal range can make a real difference.

Trade

Trade in Independents features high priced commodities. Even basic commodities such as oxygen and food are significantly more expensive to buy and high end commodities can cost almost a hundred times as much. The profits however remain about equial to what you get in vanilla.

This means low end commodities are actually the real money makers if you can handle enough volume. It also means that as you move up towards being able to afford high end commodities the risks increase and the return on money spent on cargo decreases.