Weapon modding is a good place to start as it’s fairly well isolated from system building which can be quite complex. You can PM me with any questions on most aspects of modding except ship building and texturing never did get round yo them LOL

Get a good text editor for the ini files I use Notepad ++, for system work FL mod studio is my choice

https://code.google.com/p/freelancermodstudio/downloads/list?can=3

another essential tool (primarily for info cards) id FL Dev

http://forge.the-starport.net/projects/fldev/files

If your mod is intended to be quite large you need to have a custom dll to contain the info card data, I assume you’re using the TCM starter pack? it contains several custom dlls set up for you.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-underverse/downloads/freelancer-total-conversion-mod-starter-pack-30

If you want to do a lot of trading I’d suggest FL Companion (especially on modded FL)

http://wiz0u.free.fr/prog/flc/

Although it’s really a tool for setting up and balancing trade routes it’s really handy if you want to get rich fast

This is as close as I could get, perhaps an earlier release?

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/download/singlefile.php?cid=8&lid=42

The mod home page looks to be gone I’m afraid but there are some contact addresses that might be worth following up.

Voted although I’ve got three copies LOL

Star Citizen has stirred up a lot of interest in FL but it’s difficult to get new copies and some people have difficulty getting it to run in Win 8 so an updated download would solve a lot of problems.

Try FL Companion http://wiz0u.free.fr/prog/flc/ it’s a great piece of software, normally used for setting commodity prices and calculating trade routes it can also provide base info i.e. equipment and ships sold at each base.

Look for base information in the view pull down menu

Are you playing vanilla or modded? and are you playing SP or MP? I’ve had mouse issues like that possibly caused by the firewall stopping the game accessing the net.

I’m also using two screens and I have noticed that when the game is running and then paused some mouse functionality is lost on the second (running FL Companion for trading)

Great to have a new recruit to FL have fun and welcome!

Found a link to the Mancer 5 ship pack, enjoy! (view using Hard CMP)

http://the-starport.net/modules/wfdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=5&lid=1564

All that r4zor said and make backups!! Dropbox. Google drive are great for this

Tools

A lot of FL modding is copy, paste and edit, you can do this with notepad (or similar) but my choice for system building would be FL Mod Studio

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2174

Info cards I would strongly suggest you do these as you build the mod and not leave them till last, trust me in large quantities they will be a pain!!! my preferred program FL Developer

http://forge.the-starport.net/projects/fldev/files

Hard CMP for hrdpoint editing

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/download/singlefile.php?cid=2&lid=16

The Mancer SP 5 ship pack has a number of enhanced vanilla style ships but I’ve been unable to find a link so far packs 2 and 3 are available here on SP but contain mostly Star Wars ships although the Behemoth in pack 3 is an evolution of the Humpback.

http://the-starport.net/search.php?query=mancer-shippack&action=results

I have a copy of Mancers SP 5 if you need it but it’s too big to attach to this post PM me if you’re interested.

FL Companion but commodity/trade balancing

http://wiz0u.free.fr/prog/flc/

For Adoxa’s site

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5594&forum=6&post_id=58824#forumpost58824

The original MS FL server was taken down years ago so the vanilla game wont display any servers without a server work a round patch

http://the-starport.net/modules/wfdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=1&lid=6

Had a similar issue with the Starlancer protogate, I fixed it by moving HpDockMountA01 well clear of the gate structure 500 m from the root Hp.
I’m guessing the sur messes with docking process, another possible issue is using the same Hp for the jump_out_Hp normally this is attached to a HpFX Hp (usually the same or similar location but you never know!)

It’s a little bit of nostalgia as it was our first real gaming PC (Dell P4 (2.8GHz), 1 Gb ram, 128 Mb GeForce 6200 cutting edge about 12 years ago LOL)
It’s had the HDD and PSU replaced (both died of old age!) but everything else is original, mind you it’s just about capable of surfing modern websites and of course it plays FL
I’ve several modern PC’s but I still don’t want to retire the old dinosaur

I’m using the d version but all the versions work fine, the later ones have additional functionality, however it does require at least a dual core PC to run smoothly, my old P4 XP system just about falls over running the DLL editor!

FL Dev has a misc tools section that contains a distance/angle calculator, you punch in the initial and final points and it does the math.

http://forge.the-starport.net/projects/fldev/files

You could try FL Mod Studio it can graphically display zones, paths and more recently solar objects.

It’s not drag and drop but you can copy and paste although you’ll need to edit the zone/path parameters.

https://code.google.com/p/freelancermodstudio/

I just got lucky LOL Enjoy the game!

Your PC spec is roughly similar to mine except I’m running a Phenom 955 CPU and a GeForce 450 graphics card.

The only time I’ve had flickering windows (much smaller though and bottom right) is when the game is accessing the internet and the windows firewall is blocking it and it displays a dialogue window.
Have you installed an additional firewall/anti-virus package like Norton or McAfee? if so it could be a dialogue window behind the game screen causing the problem.

I believe the MS 1.1 patch is FL server related, the other patch you mentioned contains fixes for the vanilla game and decrypts the game files into text for editing.

Are you running any other games/software at the same time as FL? remember it’s an old game so there may be compatibility issues with modern software.

I’m also running FL on Win 7 64 bit (and XP before that) and I’ve never seen that kind of bug, but it might be related to a graphics driver issue.

You need to list your PC build, especially the graphics card but in the meantime I’d suggest a clean install
Then try playing the vanilla game and see if the issue is present in an unmodded game.
Also list the mod you’re playing as it may be responsible for the graphical problem.

It’s been awhile since I used FLe but that sounds like the DLL that it’s still write protected, if you aren’t already I’d suggest using a new dll for your mod data
I’ve uploaded one from Dwnundr’s TCM pack, that needs to be located in the EXE folder and listed under the resouces section of the freelancer.ini file in the EXE folder, the lines highlighted in yellow are the new additions.

[Resources]
DLL = infocards.dll
DLL = misctext.dll
DLL = nameresources.dll
DLL = equipresources.dll
DLL = offerbriberesources.dll
DLL = misctextinfo2.dll
DLL = TCMStarterPackDLL1.dll
DLL = TCMStarterPackDLL2.dll
DLL = TCMStarterPackDLL3.dll

Here’s some links to threads on adding ships

http://the-starport.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5485&forum=27&post_id=57885#forumpost57885

http://the-starport.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5431&forum=27&post_id=57363#forumpost57363

There’s not very many well populated servers left and those that are can be a little obsessive about RP, if that isn’t an issue then Discovery is a large professionally coded mod with a universe around 3 times the size of the vanilla game. I’m not sure if the current release is single player compatible although earlier versions were.

One I have enjoyed in SP is Gibbons Genisis mod is add a few extra systems and new ships with HD system backgrounds

http://gizmostudios.proboards.com/

Another I played recently is a total conversion mod based on Elite it’s called Mostly Harmless, it has the elite ships and stations built into the FL game engine and has several hundred systems to explore.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/freelancer-mostly-harmless