Is it hard to mod? What basic knowledge do you need to have?

Centurion_ wrote:
Lets say that I want all the systems gone, so no more New York or New Berlin or yet again Tokyo or London. How can I do that to have a ‘clean and empty’ universe in which I can test stuff? What do I need to delete (or modify)?

And can someone make me a brief list of what I need (in matter of tools) ?

Deleting all the systems shouldn’t be so hard using Freelancer Explorer! Theres a special feature for that!

And it’s the best way to crash your mod.

DO NOT USE THAT FEATURE IN FREELANCER EXPLORER.

since your planning what appears to be a Total Conversion one thing i would suggest you do is download a copy of a freelancer sdk either: 1.3 , 1.5, or JFLP sdk (they are all available in the downloads section of this site). These provide decompiled mostly clean and bug fixed ini files, and in the case of JFLP also includes decompiled THN scripts so that you can easily edit them in any text editor. JFLP also includes a few fixed/adjusted dll files as well.

something i always do also is create a fresh fl folder. what i mean is go to (typically): C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\

make a new Folder call it whatever you like EG: Freelancer-2. Copy everything from the Freelancer folder into this your new one. then useing one of the sdk’s you downloaded extract it to your Freelancer folder overwriting any file when asked. then your:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer

install will be clean and have all the ini files human readable ready for you to build your mod.

The Freelancer-2 folder you created acts as a backup copy of your freelancer install just in case something untoward happens and you need to restore from it for some reason.

but before you start actually modding the game, start poking around the ini files, check them out to see what is what. And use the wiki here or posts in the forums under the ‘shipyard’ section of the forum to guide you through what some of the stuff in the ini files do.

–—

When it comes to system editing/creation it is always a good idea to know how to create and edit them using nothing but notepad. learning how to do this will help you understand how FL works in a large way.

there are a ton of good tools you can use as well to help you do certain things. FLDev is a good program to use to lookup/edit ids information in dll files.

While i would not use FLExplorer to do any of the intricate system editing it is a good tool to use to create basic system layouts, add new entries to your mod’s dll resource file.

you may also want to get yourself a copy of the UTF editor Version 1.4 (check the downloads section) this allows you to edit the mat/cmp/3db/txm files in a easy to understand manner.

other tools you will need:

Milkshape 3d (+ CMP Exporter and Mat Exporter)
obj -> sur convertor for creating decent sur collision meshes.
HardCMP for editing/adding hardpoints to freelancer cmp/3db models.
FLModelTool is a great tool for rescaling sur files, cmp models, and correcting some issues in both that can occur from the cmp exporter for milkshape.

i know i probably missed a few that others may suggest but this should get you started.

FriendlyFire wrote:
And it’s the best way to crash your mod.

DO NOT USE THAT FEATURE IN FREELANCER EXPLORER.

Yeah, I remember I tried it once… Anyway, I didn’t try it on this specific version! Right, don’t use it until I try…

rasauul wrote:
Beginner tutorial to Freelancer modding by SWAT_OP-R8R
What is changeable
…
snip

A little education, History 101 if you will

http://www.the-starport.net/archive/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=30021

Chips wrote:
A little education, History 101 if you will

Currection: Fleducation.

Chips wrote:

rasauul wrote:
Beginner tutorial to Freelancer modding by SWAT_OP-R8R
What is changeable
…
snip

A little education, History 101 if you will

http://www.the-starport.net/archive/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=30021

lol, so OP took your tutorial and then reposted it under his name?

Nice.

w0dk4 wrote:
lol, so OP took your tutorial and then reposted it under his name?

Why do you speak bads about him?

PolarBear wrote:

w0dk4 wrote:
lol, so OP took your tutorial and then reposted it under his name?

Why do you speak bads about him?

Why are you still here, DVDMan?

How did you just call me? You…

I mean why do you straightly start insulting? You don’t wanna talk about it? Just say so!

Hm… Everything becomes clear now… Never mind. Just ignore this if you don’t understand.

Back to the topic eh?

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Yeah I have: WHY THE…?
Don’t you have anything better to do? Or you just had some spare time to make someone’s life mizerable?

Several reasons.

1. I am a ball buster. Ask anyone. I bust balls.

2. By doing what has obviously done, you have attempted to lie to the community. I’m not sure how many you actually duped, but I know a large number of us were not fooled for nary a second. You have persisted to be an ass to new and old members, you have continued to talk with an air of authority that you have not earned, and as evidenced by some of the things you say, do not deserve.

You are a 14 year old child that needs to man up, take responsibility for his actions, apologize to those you’ve insulted, both as your time as Polar Bear and as DvDMan, and move on.

I have no problem with you being here, but chill out, realize your place, and be a man.

3. You spoke even remotely well of OP. That’s a no-no.

Good job Sizer!!! <claps>BAN THAT FAT BEAR BOYS!!!
Oh and BTW my ModDB profile wasn’t updated something like 3 years.

And look whose talking ANUBIS!

That was the last of them!</claps>

Everyone knows I’m anubis. I changed my name cause that’s the name I use for FW:ToW.

Now, as for that MDB profile, The moment you changed your name here from DvDMan to Polar Bear, guess what changed? Your MDB.

BEFORE

AFTER

Just let me end my job here and I’m gone OK?

TheDvDMan wrote:
Good job Sizer!!! <claps>BAN THAT FAT BEAR BOYS!!!
Oh and BTW my ModDB profile wasn’t updated something like 3 years.

And look whose talking ANUBIS!

That was the last of them!</claps>

As for fat bear?

REPRESENT, LOUD AND PROUD.

Lol, drama on TSP. Who’s got the popcorn?

DvDMan, a friendly meant advice: I somehow can understand why you did change your name, because of your last actions. Changing to another name was a simple option to avoid trouble. But I believe you are running away from problems. In my eyes, it is better to face them.
The best chance to get respect back is by apogolizing. If you truly apogolize and aren’t causing any major issues in the future, I imagine most of us folks are able to forget about your incident earlier on.