Speciality Modding

Aye, FLDev has a CRC/Hash tool too. It even finds spelling mistakes ;D

(Doesn’t do CMPs though, those are another story altogether)

Year, im trying to make a new effect just like the laser in the intro movie, thats a really fun job for me ;D

@Geramy:

There is a Function where the script can get the ID from the charname

Is there any function where I can check if there exist a ID

for example I Have The ID 1 and want to check is on the the server a person with ID 1 ???

You should be able to call Players.FindAccountFromClientID with the client ID to check if there is someone on the server with a certain client ID - if there isn’t then the pointer to the returned CAccount should be 0, so```
if(!Players.FindAccountFromClientID(iClientID))
//No player with client ID of iClientID
else
//There is a player with client ID of iClientID

@Geramy: > Is there a print-function where you can print a message to all players? Yep, check out PrintUniverseText and HkMsgU.

Out of the box, enbseries still looks best with FL IMO.

Ive not seen a setting yet that is not too bright or too dark. The standard setting is a perfect middleground.

@OPR8R:

wouldnt it be enough just to change the name format of the faction_props? (removing the first and last names but only keeping rank and faction name)

Well, first, I’d prefer not to butcher NPC names - however, that aside, marked NPCs would just then show up as “Rogues - Ace” or something like that in the radar list.

Part of the reason display of ship names is so important is because sometimes players need to prioritize certain target types - like bombers etc. - which is much harder to do when you just have arbitrary rank/name in the contacts list.

my biggest ALE problem is the tradelanes tbh, its hard, all the ALE are linked (in tradelane effect, for example, changing the tunnel to lightnings is IMPOSSIBLE so far as ive digged into it 😛 )

When you say FTL drive, do you basically mean a command, or that a player will say for example be able to type a command, say for example:

/hyperdrive New York

Which would result in a time lapse say of example 1 minute to stop abuse, and then the ship gets transported there?

I was hoping for something similiar for uberlancers mod project.

The initial hyperspace idea is still sound whereby there would be certain hypergates which you’d require a Type A Hyperdrive to access, once in subspace/hyperspace (kind of like a nexus of invisible exit holes) you navigate to an exit point and walla, you’ve travelled across a few systems.

If we can create a FTL plugin that would allow the higher end ships to use a Type B Hyperdrive where you would use a command, wait about 1 minute and then your ship would launch into subspace at custom positions (depending on which system you came from) then that would be awesome.

I would literally kiss your feet

the codes are in the player files weather in muti player or single player. at least thats what i know.now you go documents, my games, freelancer and if you have files there you have to decode them. the info is in the player file accts.

Do you perhaps want “set” randomness? I haven’t looked at FL or .ales in a LONG time now so I don’t remember how the color part of the ale looks but I know I made missile trails that would constantly change colors. Not totally random though, just I added more lines of varied colors and had really small time increments of like 0.00000500 and so on.

I think it would look like this sort of

1.00000000, 1.00000000, 0.50000000, 0.00005000
0.80000000, 0.50000000, 1.00000000, 0.00010000

and so on. r,g,b,time
r,g,b,time
etc.

I had alot of lines. But sorry, its not really “random”. You all probably know this anyways.

later

::) ;D
… and i thought, i m just 2 silly 2 set it up.

it works now thanks.

Ah, OK, thanks. Good to know this anyway.

Well done bud.

As is understand it the FL engine is not able to generate shadows itself like other engines.
They need to be done by hand which is not possible in space.

Why’s Guide to Duplicating Effects!

Duplicating effects is one of the most important things an effects modder needs to do. It took me a long while to figure out the full process, but I know it now, and here goes.

First off, pick your effect. For this tutorial I will use the ku_missile02_drive.

First things first, extract the ku_missile02.ale from FX. ALE files actually tend to contain multiple effects, so you will typically not find exactly the effect name you are looking for, but something very close.

With the ALE extracted, you now have two files. The ANL, and AEL. The AEL is your structure file. This defines what your components are, and their orders. I recommend you do not touch these numbers, as it is very easy to screw the entire effect up. What we are interested though is duplicating the effect though. You can mess around all you want later. For my example, I am going to make an effect called gf_supermissile02_drive.

Open up the AEL first. Simplest way, replace (Ctrl-H in Notepad) all references of ku_missile02 with gf_supermissile02_drive. Here’s an example of a couple lines.

Type = Layer0
[Section]
; ==> 1

Effect_Name = ku_missile02_drive

ULParams = 0, 0, 1

; *** Param #1
ANL_Nickname = Main_Node ; 0xEE223B51 3995220817
Parent = NULL
FX_Slot = 1
Slot_Flag = 0
; *** Param #2
ANL_Nickname = ku_missile02_drivethrust#1 ; 0xFF03EA94 4278446740
Parent = NULL
FX_Slot = 3
Slot_Flag = 0

And here is after.

Type = Layer0
[Section]
; ==> 1

Effect_Name = gf_supermissile02_drive

ULParams = 0, 0, 1

; *** Param #1
ANL_Nickname = Main_Node ; 0xEE223B51 3995220817
Parent = NULL
FX_Slot = 1
Slot_Flag = 0
; *** Param #2
ANL_Nickname = gf_supermissile02_drivethrust#1 ; 0xFF03EA94 4278446740
Parent = NULL
FX_Slot = 3
Slot_Flag = 0

Simple enough. Now do the same for the ANL. Simply replace all references to ku_missile02 with gf_supermissile02.

Pack up the files using hte ALE editor to create your TALE. Simply rename this to ALE and you are good to go. Plop your ALE into whatever relevant folder, in my case, this would be the DATA\FX\WEAPONS folder.

Not done yet! You have an ALE and effect, but the game does not know how to use it. So open up the relevant folder’s ini. In my case, this would be DATA\FX\WEAPONS\weapons_ale.ini. In this file is a list of all effects and their associated ALEs. Since I copied the ku_missile02_drive, I will find the entry for ku_missile02_drive, and duplicate it.

[VisEffect]
nickname = ku_missile02_drive
alchemy = fx\weapons\ku_missile02.ale
effect_crc = 81439903
textures = fx\smoke.txm
textures = fx\planetflare.txm
textures = fx\sarma.txm

And this then becomes…

[VisEffect]
nickname = gf_supermissile02_drive
alchemy = fx\weapons\gf_supermissile02.ale
effect_crc = 3980468032
textures = fx\smoke.txm
textures = fx\planetflare.txm
textures = fx\sarma.txm

DO NOT FORGET THE EFFECT CRC. This is extremely important and easy to miss. Using the CRC and Hash code generator that you can find on Digital Brilliance, you must generate a CRC value for your effect. Copy and paste the name of your effect, not ALE, into the CRC generator. Then copy and paste the second value that appears in either the Unsigned CRC or Signed CRC fields.

Ok, so now we have a visible effect. The game still doesn’t know how to use it yet though. Now we need to go the general effects.ini which is found in DATA\FX\effects.ini. As before, I find the entry of the effect I duplicated and then copy and paste it, then change the name to match my stuff.

[Effect]
nickname = ku_missile02_drive
effect_type = EFT_MISSILE_DRIVE
vis_effect = ku_missile02_drive
vis_generic = min_missile01_drive

Becomes…

[Effect]
nickname = gf_supermissile02_drive
effect_type = EFT_MISSILE_DRIVE
vis_effect = gf_supermissile02_drive
vis_generic = min_missile01_drive

And that should be all. From there, Freelancer should recognize your newly duplicated effect. Use the effect on whatever you need it to by calling it like you would any other effect.

Doesn’t look like a standard FLServer error message to me, more like one from a server-hooking addon (FLAC perhaps?).

ye…new colors are ok… ;D

Only two ways to implement that atm, via FLHook or FLAC as far as i know