SW3 - Storyline ending, free play (spoilers!)
 

I finished SW3 for NESF and im wondering when is last moment where im able to play free without completing story missions.

After returning from precursor system there were a bit of free time before rescuing abducted Ternie. Is there any chance to play free after rescuing Ternie? (for example different choices by shipyards and so on)

Are other storylines so different from NESF so it is worth to load older save and play for other sides? If so, when are those moments of choices.

Thank for reply :-)

All the storylines are quite different but the decisions to get them are made quite early in the game.

for me is not so important to try different storyline, but to have possibility of free play before game ending missions (dockyards, SAM fight) so im trying to figure if there is any choice in dockyards mission or i have to load older save before rescuing Ternie.

maybe this will help you.

Thank you, but i dont want to cheat, and after last mission i think im too overequipped to be continuing gameplay fun.

I propably load some old save before choosing NESF storyline and will try other choises.

btw. it is still great game but I hope that datadisk will ad more RPG, story and freeplay (and less game triggered destruction of player ships, that sucks and always forcing player to reload save)

Whenever the game asks "You are about to embark on a long distance journey, skip directly to destination?" choose NO to get there manually. There's your free play right there. iirc your first chance is right after you pick up Greyhair. You can also detour as soon as you've replaced the pirate ship.

If those instances are too early for you, wait until the Precursor mission arc: when you reach X203 grab Joseph and instead of proceeding to the rendezvous point, backtrack to X297 and from there it's free play.

Scripted auto-destruction happens when you're in the middle of a mission or at the end of the game. But by the end game I've had my fill of roaming around already so I'd rather just get the story over with. There's no real point to "free play" anyway since other than looting and training, there's little to do once you've toured the place and exhausted the secrets.