Is it possible to Install the Game & FLMM Twice on the same computer?

Moonhead

Hello folks,

After a couple of years, I rediscovered this wonderful game.

And now I am wondering: is it possible to install the game and FLMM twice on one computer (in fact, a laptop)?

I like to play around, modding the game, but I also want to try out a couple of the bigger mods, that often require a fresh install, and i don’t want to do that a couple of times a day. Hence my question.

My gut feeling is that it’s not really possible because some of the game data would get into trouble (the stuff in the ‘documents and settings’ and similar folders).

Thanks in advance!

Alex.

Sure, but you don’t need to install FLMM twice.

Install normal Freelancer, take a copy of it, KEEP YOUR UNMODDED VERSION (so you can make more FLs later).

Then change your Freelancer path, which is in your registry, to where the copy is. Activate the mod, then you can safely remove the registry entry that says x mod is activated, and change your path to a different place again.

Sorry if this is confusing, but hope this helps,
Alex.

Moonhead

=Alex= wrote:
Sure, but you don’t need to install FLMM twice.

Install normal Freelancer, take a copy of it, KEEP YOUR UNMODDED VERSION (so you can make more FLs later).

Then change your Freelancer path, which is in your registry, to where the copy is. Activate the mod, then you can safely remove the registry entry that says x mod is activate, and change your path to a different place again.

Hope this helps,
Alex.

Thanks!! Yet I need some clarification.

You mean there is a Freelancer path in the windows register, and can manually adjust this path using RegEdit? How (I mean what search phrase should I use) should I find the Freelancer path?

And where / how can I find this registry entry that says x mod is activated?

Btw, take your time, I won’t be doing this right away (am @ work now, it’s not guaranteed I have all the time I need to get it done)

oZed

i have never bothered to change the registry, although i keep my mess around copy on a flash stick and work it of their, although you have to be careful if you use single player in both because this can cause crashes

adoxa

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\1.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Freelancer Mod Manager

I don’t think Freelancer itself uses the AppPath entry, but many tools do (my own included). Mods are listed under their directory name (“mods\…”).

Mirkha

more simple is to have one folder for each mod you play
one with the original freelancer and the other(s)
after that each “mymod.zip.flmm” is just a zip …
so delete the .flmm extension and extrat the zip in the right folder.
then play

adoxa

Sure, provided the mod doesn’t do any scripting. I even went one step beyond that and just used hardlinks to copy everything that wasn’t modified.

Moonhead

What I did:

1. renamed the \Freelancer folder to \XFreelancer
2. fresh-installed FL in the proper folder (being a newly created \Freelancer)
3. activated 88 Flak (which I had gotten curious about after reading about it) and its auxillary mods. And took a quick look, to experience it exceeded my expectations :worship:
4. renamed this \Freelancer folder to \88 Flak, and created a shortcut to the freelancer.exe in there that is called 88 Flak.exe
5. Renamed \XFreelancer back to \Freelancer, only to find I can’t play 88 Flak.exe at this point (the game CTDs on startup), but I’m sure I can fix that by renaming its folder back to \Freelancer (having renamed the other one before that), (which, btw, I haven’t tested yet because I had to have some sleep, and, after awaking found my girlfriend in distress because our fridge had died, which meant I had to order a new one and carry all the stuff that was in it to the shed :roll:)

Anyway, my routinely penalty for having both an installed large mod to play, and a freelancer test folder, seems limited to renaming two folders. Simple

Maybe I should delete the autosave.fl before I startup 88 Flak, but I forgot where it is located. But I’m confident someone here can inform me on that one.

sonicthehedgehog

Beeing totally non-programmer and noob i just keep a copy of my FL path. whenever i tried a mod i didn’t like and which didn’t uninstall properly i just copy from my backup.
As for my own mods i try keep all files that i changed in my mods folder so i can restore 'em if i want. I don’t use the FLMM for my own mods, i simply copy files over cuz in most cases i am working on those files so they keep changing anyways.
But editing windows is probably the ace solution, much faster than copying the whole folder all over again.

Mirkha

Moonhead wrote:
What I did:
at this point (the game CTDs on startup), but I’m sure I can fix that by renaming its folder back to \Freelancer

i think it’s more the “my documents\my games\freelancer\accts\singleplayer” folder that is not compatible mod to mod
you need one singleplayer folder for each mod i mean

Quarks

I always have the Freelancer I use and a fresh backup (I simply copied the whole folder after installation). After deactivating any huge mod I delete the game and copy the backup to replace it.

Since all the Freelancer’s use the same save game folder I wouldn’t use different mods at the same time.

Moonhead wrote:
Maybe I should delete the autosave.fl before I startup 88 Flak, but I forgot where it is located.

Documents\My Games\Freelancer\Accts\SinglePlayer

Moonhead

Quarks wrote:

Since all the Freelancer’s use the same save game folder I wouldn’t use different mods at the same time.

IIRC, FLMM makes different (sub)folders for each mod, right?

At least, 1.4 does, if I remember correctly.

Quarks wrote:

Documents\My Games\Freelancer\Accts\SinglePlayer

Thanks!!

Moonhead

Mirkha wrote:

Moonhead wrote:
What I did:
at this point (the game CTDs on startup), but I’m sure I can fix that by renaming its folder back to \Freelancer

i think it’s more the “my documents\my games\freelancer\accts\singleplayer” folder that is not compatible mod to mod
you need one singleplayer folder for each mod i mean

I had overseen this post. Hmm that might suck :-? Yet, I could activate and play one of my little mods after renaming the folder (and having played 88 Flak for a very short while).

Can’t look into it now because I’m transferring my FL files to this comp (and my AV prog keeps being triggered by every keygen that comes across, while my firewall keeps being triggered by my AV prog :roll: )

EDIT

Mirkha wrote:
the “my documents\my games\freelancer\accts\singleplayer” folder

That one seems the folder with a subfolder for every mod! Although 88 Flak is not there. Maybe the creators of that mod disabled it

sonicthehedgehog

Yes FLMM does create folders for each mod or better say mod combination but… i don’t trust it! i lost some savegames still. thats why i keep the important ones in my own folders as a backup. The impotant one’s beeing those who i like testing my mods with

Quarks

Moonhead wrote:
IIRC, FLMM makes different (sub)folders for each mod, right?

At least, 1.4 does, if I remember correctly.

It does, but it will always move the saves of the current activated mod into the SinglePlayer folder and back up the others, so if you have different freelancer setups all will use the saves of the last activated mod - unless you move them yourself.

Moonhead

Quarks wrote:

Moonhead wrote:
IIRC, FLMM makes different (sub)folders for each mod, right?

At least, 1.4 does, if I remember correctly.

It does, but it will always move the saves of the current activated mod into the SinglePlayer folder and back up the others, so if you have different freelancer setups all will use the saves of the last activated mod - unless you move them yourself.

Or make sure the name of the mod (or an abbreviation) is in the custom name of the savegame.