Scrambled ini files

Hi guys

As you might know, Legacy is working off the Frontier Space mod. One of the downsides of this mod is that a lot of the ini files look like this:

I have noticed that a lot of the vanilla ini’s look the same way.
What’s the purpose of this? Is it some kind of deliberate attempt from M$ to prevent editing the game files?…

But more important, I don’t particularly like my files being so messy. I’d prefer to have them tidier, with neatly listed entries, like it’s supposed to be.
So does anyone know of a way to sort it, or a program to use for it? I found and tried FlBini v1.6, but it doesn’t seem able to turn it into a neat file.

Timmy51m wrote:
I would have thought bini to decompress yeah, but I have to be honest with you, I think you’re totally nuts making a mod using someone elses mod as a base. That’s just asking for trouble.

If it’s your first mod, then you’re basically starting at someone elses end and trying to work backwards to understand what’s been done to it. EPIC NIGHTMARE!!!

It would make more sense to download the new jflp that as luck would have it has been released today, and work from a clean base with no or at least the absolute minmal amount of errors.

You will know exactly what you have changed, and you will be able to track down any errors as you make them so long as you test frequently. Not only that but you will learn how to mod everything the right way and a lot easier too!

You’re making a very good point there m8. All of what you mention there has crossed my mind regularly lately.
Yes, it is our first mod and our modding skills are perhaps just beyond basic and to be honest, we have talked about starting from absolute scratch (vanilla) with it, for all the reasons you just stated. Stupid problems like this make that option ever more viable for me.
(Although like I mentioned, some of the vanilla ini’s also have this ‘structure’, or lack thereof)

Are you using frontierspace because you’ve played it and are dead certain it’s what you want to use as a base? More importantly perhaps, depending on your ethics etc, have you been in touch with the author to see if it’s okay with him to use it? I couldn’t care what anyone does, but some people might hunt you down, chain you to the toe hitch of their jeep and road rash your ass for 20 miles!

To put everyone at easy, the Frontier Space mod was developed as freeware. It says so in the mod’s readme. We picked it because (from our perspective) it gave us a good foundation to work off of and expand from, as it already has a good amount of content. Initially, the idea was to analyze that mod (and the Plasmafire mod) and learn from it, then create the same (or better) content for our own mod. Our server (which is running our modified version of the Frontier Space mod) is closed to the public.
But, like you said, it also has BIG drawbacks. One of the biggest ones is trying to understand how the modder put everything together each time it goes tits up.

Thanks for your feedback m8, it got me thinking.

I’m still having to deal with the encrypted ini files, which is slowly but surely becoming a p.i.t.a.
I’m sure there is a (probably simple) way to sort it, since most mods don’t have their ini files look like this. There’s obviously a way to decrypt them.

Any help anyone?

@Timmy:
I tried what you suggested m8, but Fl Explorer won’t read my files. Keeps shouting “no game files found - EXITING!” (or something along those lines) at me, no matter what file or folder I select. My mod files are in the default Freelancer location.

I tried the SDK but it leaves some ini’s unchanged. I will have a go at that list of Bini editors. Thanks for the tip.

=Alex= wrote:
These are not encrypted, but stored in the BINI format.

M1C wrote:
Depends on the definiton of encryption, for newbes they look encrypted.

The readme files of a lot of Bini editors refer to it as ‘encrypted’. But you might as well call it scrambled, unworkable, or hocus-pocus lol. I’m not much one with a lot of knowledge for technical terms, and tbh I don’t really care either. Just want them to work.

The Bini edit program worked a charm, thanks again M1C.

I’m pretty sure SDK left a couple of (b)ini’s unchanged, and they were definitely vanilla, since I ran SDK on the vanilla game. Couldn’t tell you which files though, can’t remember.
If you want to know which files they were, I could run SDK again on a vanilla copy.