Conventional Modding

If a mod can delete this post that’d be awsome. I figured it out. Since it was displaying the xml tags with the info, I thought what would happen if I just remove them. Well i did and it fixed that little problem. Now onto debuggin some bases. Thanks.

I remember having “similar” probs with FLE since i use the TerritoryMP.dll… i personally think its caused by the “universe.ini”-entries needed for this plugin but these are just my 2 cents… and its NOT meant to be an offense regarding adoxas masterpiece and maybe I´m wrong !!!

A PM from Skotty prompted me to do a plugin after all - Names - so now you can have all your new factions (and zones) in their own DLL.

I still use FLIDReferrer, but that’s just me…

I can’t find it on the download page but I could email it to you.
With FLIDReferrer you edit the actual dll file (infocard.dll) and when you’re done, save it to another location to include in your mod package.

Alternatively there’s a way to do it via xml. Look up the Argh_XML_Toolkit.
Also check out this thread:
http://the-starport.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4105&forum=27&post_id=45466#forumpost45466

Thanks!

Hello and welcome,
The version you bare using is 1.4 beta I presume?

I am not sure what version of Windows you are using, but regardless I tend do follow my own methods to install mods.

Fist, Mod Manager has to be loaded before FreeLancer.
Then start your mod. The included mod are ok, though limited.

Second, after getting your mod loaded, then open FreeLancer.

I have been using 1.4eta for a while and have had no problems. One thing I do with Vista and Vista 7 is to change the start shortcut to run everything as an administrator. This will insure the programs will have access to the save folders. Windows sometimes gets cranky there!

Another program you may need is WinZip. The limited version is good enough. I never tried to use the Microsoft built-in WinZip, it’s too annoying. I disable Zipped folders as I own a copy of WinZip. Also helpful is 7-Zip, it’s free and for the money can out perform WinZip.

What I do when I install a mod is to un-zip it to a folder and then copy or move it to the Mod Manager mods folder. It can be found by going to the Tools tab and selecting Open Mods Folder. Just remember that after putting the mod in the manager needs to be restarted to recognize the changes.
Another thing I do is to hot-key my shortcuts. They have to be in your start menu or desktop to work, but left-click the shortcut and select properties. Where it says shortcut type a number (1-0) or a letter (a-z). When you want to run the program just type Ctrl-Alt and that digit.

I hope this helps and again welcome to The Starport (Where do you want to go today?) Any othe questions you have we usually get back at’cha pretty quickly. This is one of the biggest site and usually has a lot of people checking in daily.

Pascal05

Skotty. wrote:

There is just one thing you can be sure about: If Freelancer Server

Yeah, the most likely cause

Hello guy.

So, I’m having troubles importing the ships into Vanillia.
I’m not sure if I’m asking too much, but could someone add me on Skypen and prehaps walk me trough the process?

PM me if you want my Skype name.

Thanks in advance.

THANK YOU MATE !
You really saved my day 🙂 !!!

Yes i found out the Gaming Feature is brilliant ! 🙂

Wow!
According to popular belief, that number that doesn’t mean anything actually has a meaning.

Lets use Detroit Munitions as an example.
know = 251760, 253608, 300, 1
knowdb = li01_10

In the first line the 251760 is the NameResources.dll info
DLL #3 - NameResources.dll - Table 3448 - ResID 55152 (This is from FLEd-ids)
“I’ll upload all of the info on Detroit Munitions into your Neural Net”

The second number in the first line, 253608 is the knowledgemap.ini [KnowledgeMapTable] referance

» Each base object has two lines for its description
Map = 253608, li01_10, 31 <–- Name of the object
Map = 253608, li01, 1 <— System of the object

What I found to be even more amazing is that information on a jum hole has three results. One for the NAME, one for the ORIGIN, and a third for the EXIT.
Wrecks have only one result.

When the information is purchased, the resultant information is added to the save file as visit information. This is why the universe map shows the object wheter or not you visited that system or not. The entry for Detroit is
visit = 3197916744, 31

There is usually a second visit, New York being the exception. This is because New York is the primary system and will appear no matter what system you start the game in. (This only applies to vanilla games with NY)
For example Stuttgart wil yeild;
visit = 2281172098, 1 Stuttgart System
visit = 3205329218, 30 Planet Stuttgart

The reason I chose Detroit is because it is the very first entry in the mbases.ini file for knowledge. Not a coincidence, it is also the first entry in that section of knowlwdgebase.ini. Even more, the next entry follows in parallel throughout both files. If Detroit or whatever is offered again, it is a new entry not just the same data.
It was interesting to say the least.

Pascal

I’m not aware of any relationship in FL coding that could output a defined bank angle, I believe it’s in place to control and damp the bank angle and re centre the ship vertically after the turn.

I think someone on Starport did create a patch for allowing roll control in the FL flight controls but I can’t remember who I’m afraid 😞

Try this link

http://the-starport.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=142&keywords=roll+control

If you don’t have a high enough figure the ship could topple over or oscillate about vertical, at best I’d suggest trying some different figures in Y axis (roll) and note the effect it has.
Remember mass (and also linear drag) will have an impact here too, so a heavier ship (VHF) will behave differently to an LF in that changing these figures may not have such a marked effect

thank you!

Regarding question 1:
I have no idea why it is that complicated, but feel free to experiment with other combinations ;). You du not have to add your new package to all the stations. Adding it to these you want it buyable on is enought.

Question 2:
To make a gun a turret, the only really important thing is on what kind of hardpoint it mounts. You can change the model, as all vanilla turrets strangely use the same one, but this is definatly not necessary!
A different name usually comes with it, too ;).
Another difference between vanilla turrents and their weapon aquivalent usually is the higher projectile speed, probably to make it easier to shoot at targets behind you.
LOD means Level Of Detail, the numbers in there define the distances between camera and model between which differently detailed 2d models are used.
I guess in your case the easiest way would be to give your freighter the ability to mount class 10 weapons on its turret hardpoints?

Question 3:
In Freelancer\EXE you can find several resource dll files which contain the names and descriptions. There are different programs to edit them, which work in different ways or offer different features - have a look for fled-ids, or flDev for example.
So if you just want to add a few things, you should be able to find free spaces inside the existing files, but you can also start a new file - there’s an empty one available somewhere here, I think. The texts themselves are adressed by these numbers you have already seen - I think the best way would be to have a look at existing ones to see how formatting works. Sorry that I can’t give you more in-depth help regarding this topic, but it’s been a longer while since I last activly had to do with this game, and I don’t have the files on this computer to test myself.
Have a look into the different tutorials around, there may not be one exactly for this topic, but it may be covered in system or ship creation. It has to be somewhere, as I learned it via tutorials myself 😉

Yeah, I got a little depressed there when I discovered I still couldn’t code. Sry about that! But after reading your post, it makes me kind of want to give it another shot! Thx so much!

Heheheh… 😉

Iss OK, all cool, none of us read either the Fine Manual, nor the Fine Error Messages 😉

And as you say not all software gives the same or meaningful message. Luckily for when I was starting out, IrfanView does. Then I found out that only a couple of dds editors actually work reliably. That was a long trial and error session.

The quickest way is to look at the file contents in the ASCII window when you click on the MIPS or MIP0 or other image node in UTF editor - a .dds file has “DDS” as its first 3 characters.

Right - you are embarking on a tricky task, so watch out for the following:-

bad texture naming can cause two dissimilar ships to blur, fade, swap texture blocks, or exhibit other weird texture behaviour if they share the same texture name and they come in sight of each other in the game.

the ship icon in the ship dealer can change to the original one if you don’t create a correct new one for your new ship but use the other and just import a new image and rename the icon - you have to fix the hashcodes in the icon.

upside down textures - if you copied a .tga and converted it to .dds you may have to “uninvert”

I think there are others but I’m tired, others can tell us.

Yes, yes, yes! That is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

ImO you can not add more than 7 different parts to a sph file (6 sides + atmosphere) - at least i tried it one time but didn’t made it yet - maybe someone had more success and can provide a working draft for it, such as a second atmosphere entry.

But you can put a cmp around the sph - with a tranparent layer it should be possible to create for example moving clouds and other stuff.

It would just become a problem of performance imO, allthough it would create cool possibilities.

For the other, all ready cleared question, simply make a complete texture for the whole planet and let the planet tool create the tiles (saying it for those who may search this thread in the future).

DirtyLittleGirl wrote:
Does somebody know the method to apply lightmap and cloud layers to SPH planets? Searching forums returned for CMP only.

As mentioned before, storing it again as BINI will gain much more performance. It makes removing the zeros look quite senseless actually.