Impressive work!

Been a while since I’ve last seen someone join a modding scene with an actual professional background in what they aim to do. ^^

General advice would simply be to not join too small projects. Probably doesn’t sound all too nice in terms of adivce but it saves you a lot of frustration / demotivation when those projects (as it sadly often happens) go down the drain. Especially with the currently small player base of Freelancer that’s an increasing problem.

Aside from that, as I understand, there is a general lack of hitbox creators around and even if that’s most likely not the most interesting thing to do it would be a starting point to look into some tutorials regarding the matter (or really tutorials about FL modding in general).

EDIT: I just saw that you’ve worked with the UDK and Unity. Can you tell us a little more about it and how each would be suited to create a Freelancer Clone in particular? There’s been a topic about the matter here: http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3779&forum=6

Maverick wrote:

I’m a newbie to FL modding but have done years of modding for the X series (not sure if those games are that know around these parts ) so I’m not completely clueless. ^^

You kidding? I played the X series (got the Superbox! 8-) ) and loved it, especially the graphics. What I liked least was that there is no multiplayer option… Always was curious as to how that game would be on a modded server.

Anyways, welcome to the Starport. I’m fresh myself, looking forward to learning from each other.

Cya around.

Heh, glad there are some people actually enjoying the Superbox. There were so many people raging on the official forums about this and that… Ever looked at the Bonus DVD? That was really the part that took us the longest to assemble. ^^

@sumanuti
Hey to you as well.

@all
By the way, is there a central skype / IRC chat many of the active FL modders are in? For quick questions, help, chatter and the like.

AFAIK the Quake engine is not available as a SDK or that well supported nowadays. Also, it’s quite outdated from what I know. ^^

Yeah, that’s also an advantage when using the UDK.

Generally I think this has lots of potential. However, it might be better to go at it a little differently and first look at how Freelancer works exactly (the technical aspects) and then determine what could be improved and how. Now I’m not talking about gameplay improvements here per se, mainly the stuff that’s going on in the background: The way data is read from files and the whole file structure itself, the way data is stored in files, etc.

Also it’s important to not set the goal too high. It’d be totally fine (in fact, already outstandingly great) if the FL features and gameplay could be replicated. Other stuff like the walking around in person is nice and all but not stuff that should be considered at this stage.

EDIT: I checked and without a license you can’t use C++ with the UDK.

It looks awesome. You’ve got my mental support! Sadly I don’t have the necessary programming knowledge to help out. (Nor the certainly useful knowledge about the way the game itself works - for now.)

From what I’ve read (and that’s not much, just started to browse through the UDK description yesterday evening) the UDK is similar in that regard as most scripting would happen in the UnrealScript language.
Though it apparently also supports C++.

Either way, I’m going to download both Development Kits and have a look at them. Even if it’s just to satiate my curiosity as I hardly know anything about actual coding. ^^

FriendlyFire wrote:
bob… Please. facepalm

Welcome to The Starport, don’t mind our crazies

No problems. We have them ourselves. Me and me that is.

@Bob
Ohayo.

@Chips
Yes. TNBT or X Rebirth as it has recently been revealed.

And yes, TF2 is a positive as well, though I haven’t really played it. Recently donwloaded it again with the F2P update but too much other stuff to do! (like browsing the many tutorials here)

Would it be possible to let players have multiple ships per character using this system?
ie: A “depot” for ships. Also possibly the ability to sell ships to other players.

Well yeah, a quick hi to everyone.

I’m a newbie to FL modding but have done years of modding for the X series (not sure if those games are that know around these parts ) so I’m not completely clueless. ^^

I’ve played FL since its release on and off on a bunch of different servers with different mods. Looking forward to learn some more about modding and hopefully also get to do some myself on a larger scale.

Question. I don’t know much about the topic so sorry if this is a stupid suggestion. ^^

If Unity 3D requires you to pay for using all of its features, would it be a possibility to switch to the Unreal Development Kit? It’s free as long as the product is non-commercial (which it would have to be anyway due to copyright stuff). http://www.udk.com/licensing

It’s also a little more commonly used than the Unity engine I’d say so it’d probably easier to get tools, tutorials, etc. for it.