How to make a new DLL for infocards
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Yes i am. I’m not trying to convert the Captain here, but i am a fan of scripting. Others are not. For me as stated already, it’s a matter of convenience as you can put all the files in one place, bit like adding a ship. Easy to amend as well.
Best example of scripting i’ve seen due to the explanations involved was Argh’s Toolkit. Learnt a lot from that. I see evidence of the knowledge in that in many mods, mine included.
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It is certainly a much simpler way of infocarding, but (unless there’s a method I’m missing) it requires the use of FLMM while modding, which can be a bit of a pain if you’re used to modding directly to the game.
However, to be honest using FLDev is just as easy (as I recently found out), and that inputs the infocards directly into the existing dlls.
I guess in the end it comes down to preference, both ways work fine.
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I’ll take a look into all that after work and see what I come up with.
On a semi-related note, if anyone could point me to a tutorial on FLMM scripting, I’d very much appreciate it.
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Capt.Morgan wrote:
I’ll take a look into all that after work and see what I come up with.On a semi-related note, if anyone could point me to a tutorial on FLMM scripting, I’d very much appreciate it.
See the documentation of FLMM
It gives examples, you then play around a little and experiment to fully understand it.When it comes to using “options” - then either a tutorial or good example can help.
I made a mod called “starting points” or something that was, at the time, relatively complicated use of the scripting compared to what most used it for… alternatively the Open SP contained some script options.
However, I’m way behind the times so there may be additional functionality and whatnot, and maybe a tutorial out there too. I just learnt from what Matt wrote in the FLMM help/readme etc.
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cant wait….
And be prepared to learn it all again when v2 comes out…
obvious question time, will our current scripts work with ver2.0?
got me worried now
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Some changes may be required. In particular, all the section methods must begin with a [header] line. I’ll be going through all the mods I have and making updated scripts available (but with so many, I’ll only make sure they load, activate & deactivate, they still might not actually work).
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Capt.Morgan wrote:
I’ll take a look into all that after work and see what I come up with.On a semi-related note, if anyone could point me to a tutorial on FLMM scripting, I’d very much appreciate it.
Meanwhile, while you wait, flmm comes with a good build in documentation with lots of examples of how to use the scripting commands…
Mainly the ones you’d need are the ones detailing how you add the mod data to the target files, the examples are very good on this.
As the mod code it’s self, its just standard ini file entries mainly
the important bit for info cards, ship names whatever, text lookups of many kinds is this
ids_name = 0 ;GENERATESTRRES(“AMS Imperatrix”)
Just stick your text in the quote marks and flmm makes an dll entry for it
ids_info = 0 ;GENERATEXMLRES(“<xml><rdl><push><text>This Geb Cruiser,</text> <tra data=“2” mask=“2” def=”-3"><text>AMS Imperatrix</text><tra data=“0” mask=“2” def=“-1”><text>, which is under construction, is one of the newest, and most modern warships in Liberty space.</text><para></para></tra></tra></push></rdl></xml>")
You can use the xml commands you’d use when doing an info card.
As for the advantages of “ini copy” mods vs “scripted” mods, depends on how much you are changing or adding, for a TC, ini copy, if you’re adding to the base game, then a scripted might be better, (and a smaller download for your players)
Alternatively, there is an empty dll available for dl, you just use flid to put your entries in it, rename it to something else “mynewmod.dll” and add a line for it in the freelancer.ini file.
Personally I like the scripoted method, means I dont have to go look up an id number to remember what I called a new gun or ship, or to change those names. I can read them and edit them right there in the mods xml script files, also means I can make a mod, modular, all the stuff for new ship x can co in Ship-newshipmane.xml, engines, powerplants custom guns effects entries npc classes and faction prop assignments, pilotsd, everything for a new ship or new base or new faction in its own easy to edit file.
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There is, however, a penalty in activation speed when using FLMM’s built-in generation, since the DLLs must be recreated every time, as well as a penalty for building the mod itself (needing to activate/deactivate each time DLLs change).
Traditionally, one makes a new DLL by copying an existing DLL and emptying it. There have been downloads of such DLLs, but apparently they are not here anymore, so I went ahead and attached the one I had from Giskard in this post. Just copy it, rename it, add it to your DLLs list and you should be set. It has a few “dummy” entries, but FLDev can quickly remove them.
