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Player Professions
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When you start a game, your first command decision is a choice of race and profession. The profession you choose determines the ship and equipment you will begin with. Note however that you, as captain, are free to play the game in any way you want to. You are not tied to any particular path or job and as you experience life in the Flatspace galaxy, you can upgrade your ship or equipment whenever you want to and can afford to do so.
There are two races in Flatspace II and professions are mutually exclusive. Set your chosen race and profession on the Character Selection screen.
Below the profession, you can choose between Death Means Death or Undead. If you select Death Means Death, any save games for that character will be deleted when the game is over so the game is more difficult. If you choose Undead, you can reload old games even after your character has died. Note that you can only enter the graveyard, the hall of remembrance for fallen heroes, if Death Means Death. Every other aspect of the game is identical.
Finally on the Character Selection screen you can select the game difficulty. This is the amount of damage your craft can sustain relative to the other ships you will encounter.
A brief guide to the professions now follows.
Human professions.
Trader
As a trader your primary task is to buy cargo from one space station and sell at another. A trading scanner is provided to every trader. Trading ships are generally large in capacity but weak in combat roles, however some initial stock and a reliable means of making a profit balances out any of the weaknesses.
Mercenary
A mercenary is ideally suited to missions or detective work. Mercenaries start with enough money to start customising their ship right away and a tracking scanner is provided to allow mission targets or wanted criminals to be tracked on the map. Mercenaries make excellent taxi or delivery drivers.
Bounty Hunter
The bounty hunter is a desirable but difficult profession. A bounty hunter can instantly make money by being able to scan and identify criminals, and then destroy them to claim any reward. Bounty hunters start with a ship large enough to trade with and agile enough for combat. No radar is provided however, making it difficult to locate other ships, and the process of seeking and attacking pirate ships is inherently dangerous.
Assassin
Assassins start in a well armed agile attack craft with a simple tracking scanner. Perfect for simple assassination missions on offer on some space stations, assassins also make good couriers and delivery drivers due to the fast ship.
Police Officer
Like bounty hunters the police start with a scanner capable of identifying criminals, but this time much more equipment is provided. Police equipment includes a radar, stun missiles and a passenger scoop, allowing live capture of the people inside the spinning yellow and black lifepods. The police can also request back up using the radio. In the game, buy a police vessel to join the force.
Scavenger
Scavengers start with a spacious ship and a cargo scoop, and they can make an instant profit by scooping small asteroids and selling the mineral cargo. Scavengers can also scoop cargo from the pods released by trading ships, and the start vessel is ideal for starting an alternative career in trading.
Scarrid professions.
Warrior
Warriors start with an agile attack ship with good weapons, a radar and a simple flare launcher. Their best hope for instant reward is to attack human ships, particularly taxi or transporter ships that often carry a large number of victims.
Abductor
Abductors start with an agile attack ship with good weapons, a scoop for capturing people and a flare launcher for self defence. Part way between a pirate and bounty hunter, abductors can capture criminals or act as slavemasters or rescue craft.
Predator
Predators are the closest thing the scarrid race gets to police. Like the a human bounty hunter, a predator starts with a basic array of equipment including a scanner capable of identifying criminals.
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