Well guys, I haven’t made any updates in a long time because I’m a lazy person and my morale is pretty low. So I decided to release an alpha version so you guys don’t get dissapointed. Also I will host a hamachi server so you can try the game multiplayer. ETA 2-3 days.

It’s gonna be hard. Just as the other people said. The modding community is pretty much dead. All I can advise you is to read a lot and dig deep.

Finally! After weeks of torture I finally figured out how to make SURs properly. Thanks to Skotty for his SUR tutorial.

Working on the systems now.

Alright guys , I need someone to help me make SURs. I just need SURs for bases ( Carriers, motherships) so it’s not going to be much work. Anybody who’s willing to do can reply or send me a private message!

Thanks in advance!

Skotty. wrote:
You cant replace single ships mat files in game.

Can you make it like a module? So when you buy it , it coats the ship in the different coloured texture. Anything like that?

Hello ! Looking for a way to change ship colors , that means changing ship mat files in-game. Is that possible?

More pics :

Sizer wrote:
Looking good. Some real nostalgia inducing imagery going on. Are you gonna stick to the Exodus-era, or move on to the Empire era?

Personally, I’d love to see a Dust Wars (original HW2 script) version done.

Well I don’t really know at this point, The end product is supposed to be post-cataclysm era. Where players can play the Beast, Somataaw , Imperial and Republic Taiidani aswell as the Kushan/Hiigaran and Kadesh. But the first version will include only Kushan , Taiidan, Turanic Raiders and Kadesh. Since it’s going to take a lot of balancing.

That fixed it! Thank you good sir! Here’s a picture of the finished product!

Great Wastelands

Gah, I can’t get it working! Can anybody tell me what I’m doing wrong?

1. I make a sphere in Milkshape, texture it , and then I invert it so the texture is displayed from the inside.

2. I export the model as a ship and export the .mat file into it.

3. I increase the model size to 90 and lastly I modify the system ini file and make it use the starsphere I made.

I launch the game and tested it but instead of the texture I wanted it to be it only turned black…
Here’s a download link so you can download the starsphere model.

Download

Thanks in advance.

I need some help again. I’m working on systems right now but I never get my starspheres (system backgrounds) working properly. Does anybody know where I can find a decent tutorial on how to make starspheres? If you don’t know any , leaving some advice here would be helpfull too!

Thanks in advance.

CK256 wrote:
These lines list the weapons the ship is equipped with

equip = li_gun01_mark03, HpWeapon01
equip = li_gun01_mark04, HpWeapon02
equip = li_gun01_mark04, HpWeapon03
equip = li_gun01_mark04, HpWeapon04
equip = li_turret02_mark01, HpTurret01

li_gun01_mark03 is the Justice Mk III (Class 3) and

li_turret02_mark01 is the Lavablade Turret Mk I (Class 1)

There’s several ways to limit the gun firing time, one is to have a limited ammo gun (say 50 rounds) but once the NPC fires these it’s empty.
Alternatively set the power requirements for the gun high enough and it’ll be able to fire for a few seconds then have to wait for the power-plant to recharge before firing another salvo.
The two previous suggestions will work but the DATA/MISSIONS/pilots_population.ini might be a more elegant solution, but it’s not an area I’m familiar with so I’ve no idea of the results

[GunBlock]
nickname = gun_fighter_easy_style_a
gun_fire_interval_time = 0.200000
gun_fire_interval_variance_percent = 0.500000
gun_fire_burst_interval_time = 2
gun_fire_burst_interval_variance_percent = 0.500000
gun_fire_no_burst_interval_time = 2
gun_fire_accuracy_cone_angle = 5
gun_fire_accuracy_power = 1.100000
gun_range_threshold = 1.100000
gun_target_point_switch_time = 0.500000
fire_style = multiple
auto_turret_interval_time = 0.200000
auto_turret_burst_interval_time = 1
auto_turret_no_burst_interval_time = 2
auto_turret_burst_interval_variance_percent = 0.500000
gun_range_threshold_variance_percent = 0.300000
gun_fire_accuracy_power_npc = 6

I used this tutorial for adding custom music, the vanilla music files are 500kb to 1Mb typically it’s all down to quality, I’d guess you have a much higher quality setting than FL uses perhaps 128k?

Custom Music

Author:BBalaz’s

Adding custom music to freelancer. In the tutorial, we’ll add a custom ‘space’ music, the one which plays when you are freely exploring space, and there are no hostiles to be seen anywhere.

Freelancer stores the music in a 22kHz MP3 format. Note that the extension is .wav - however, the music is not in “wav format”. To be correct, there is no such thing as a wav format. Wav is merely a container. Generally, what you would call a “wav format” is actually called PCM. The music files of Freelancer are MP3 files, in a wav container, using a 22kHz sampling rate, and the Fraunhofer codec. Yes, you will notice, that if you use some other mp3 codec (like LAME, which is the default of, for example, Audacity), FL will not play the music correctly. Also, I’ve been fiddling around with different versions of the Fraunhofer codec, and they don’t seem to work correctly, either. Adding music to Freelancer, however, is not that complicated.

Let’s get down to a simple-to-understand, step-by-step tutorial.
1: Create your music file. It is generally a good idea to keep ‘space’ type music to about two minutes long, ‘bar’ type music to about one minute in length, and so on.
2: Save it as WAV (PCM). When you are satisfied with your file, export it (or save it) as wav. Sampling rate, so far, doesn’t matter, you can keep it as high as you wish.
3: Check the volume of the music. It is a good idea to go to FL’s music folder, and open a music file, say, music_li_space, or music_bar_li02. Then, open up your own WAV file and check if it is loud enough. If it isn’t loud enough, you’ll need to amplify it. Check the appendix at the end of the tutorial. If your music file is loud enough,
4: Open it in WINDOWS SOUND RECORDER. Yes, that simple, seemingly good-for-nothing application. Once your file is open, go to File ==> Properties, then click the “Conversion…” button.
5: Convert your file. Select MPEG Layer-3 as a format, Attributes should be 56 kbit/sec, 24 000 KHz, Stereo. That should work. Click OK and wait for the application to finish converting the file.
6: Save the file! It is generally a good idea to use ‘Save as…’ in case you might want to get back to the original PCM wav file. You will also notice, that the extension to your MP3 will now be WAV.

At this point, we are done with the file itself. Let’s get it working. In the tutorial, let’s say our file will be saved as… tutorial_space.mp3 (Creative, isn’t it?)

1: Copy the file (tutorial_space.mp3) into Freelancer\Data\Audio\Music.
2: Make sure the file Freelancer\Data\Audio\Music.ini is not write-protected.
3: Open the file “Music.ini” in a text editor. Note that I assume you are using the SDK. If you aren’t, you will need binitools, or some other bini decoder/encoder application, but I won’t get into that now.
3: You will see blocks of ‘Sound’ entries. Do a search for music_li_space.
4: Copy and paste music_li_space’s block to the end of the file.
5: Now, change the entries:
nickname = music_tutorial_space (<== the nickname you will refer to in the system file)
type = music
file = audio\music\tutorial_space.wav (<== the name of your file!)
attenuation = -6 (<== this is meant to be some sort of volume adjustment, but I found little to no effect when modifying the value… Play around with it)
streamer = true (<== makes your music fade in and fade out)

6: Save music.ini
7: Open up a system file. We will be using the New York system. Go to Freelancer\Data\Universe\Systems\Li01 and open up Li01.ini
8: Replace the music theme. Scroll down to the ‘Music’ entry (or do a search for it) and replace
space = music_li_space
with
space = music_tutorial_space (<== NOTE: This is the NICKNAME you defined. Not the filename.)
9: Save the file. That should do it.

APPENDIX:
1. It is ALWAYS better to make backups of all files you modify, and don’t EVER work in the game folder, with game files; ALWAYS use copies. This is a general rule of the thumb, and you should stick to it.
2. Windows Sound Recorder can be found in Start menu, All Applications, Accessories, (Entertainment? sorry, my Windows is not English).
3. If you use binitools, remember to ‘bini’ the files back (encode them) after you ‘unbini’-ed them.
4: Increasing/Decreasing music volume. Sound Recorder is capable of doing that under “Effects” - but I’ll also give you another example. I use Audacity, a simple audio editor for my files. When your file is open in Audacity, press Ctrl+A (Select All), go to Effect menu ==> Amplify. Set Amplification to a positive or negative value. That will increase or decrease the volume. Note: You might need to “Allow Clipping” to be able to increase the volume - this, however, will have an impact on audio quality in the louder parts of the file.

Thank you very much , this is very helpfull!

CK256 wrote:
Looking good!

To get the NPC’s to use Ion cannons you need to create a HW ship entry for each ship you intend to use

Look in DATA/MISSIONS/NPCSHIPS for the ship entries and pick a vanilla ship that matches the Hp and loadout of your new fighter and make a copy and rename it.

[NPCShipArch]
nickname = li_n_li_elite_d1-3
loadout = li_n_li_elite_loadout01
level = d3
ship_archetype = li_elite
pilot = pilot_military_med
state_graph = FIGHTER
npc_class = lawful, class_fighter, d1, d2, d3

Then look up the loadout in the code block above in DATA/SHIPS/loadouts and make a copy rename it and edit it to suit your new ship, replacing the guns with your Ion cannons.

[Loadout]
nickname = li_n_li_elite_loadout01
archetype = li_elite
equip = ge_le_engine_01
equip = npc_shield01_mark03, HpShield01
equip = infinite_power
equip = ge_s_scanner_02
equip = ge_s_tractor_01
equip = ge_s_thruster_01, HpThruster01
equip = armor_scale_2
equip = li_gun01_mark03, HpWeapon01
equip = li_gun01_mark04, HpWeapon02
equip = li_gun01_mark04, HpWeapon03
equip = li_gun01_mark04, HpWeapon04
equip = li_turret02_mark01, HpTurret01
equip = ge_s_cm_01, HpCM01
cargo = ge_s_cm_01_ammo, 20
equip = LargeWhiteSpecial, HpHeadlight
equip = SlowSmallBlue, HpRunningLight01
equip = SlowSmallBlue, HpRunningLight02
equip = SlowSmallBlue, HpRunningLight03
equip = SlowSmallBlue, HpRunningLight04
equip = contrail01, HpContrail01
equip = contrail01, HpContrail02
equip = DockingLightRedSmall, HpDockLight01
equip = DockingLightRedSmall, HpDockLight02

Thanks for the info , but how do I affect how and which cannon he is going to use? For example , How do I get him to fire the ioncannon for like 3 seconds and then stop? Is that possible?

kosacid wrote:
i added the music all sound efects also all turrets including sound efects and efects
basicly the ion cannons were like in homeworld sound as well
i even included the gates and stations

I’ve been having trouble with the music, it always ended up being 10-30 MB for a single track! Does that apply to yours aswell?

Alright the issue with the textures is fixed. But I’ve got some more questions.

Will the npc’s be able to use ion cannons? And is there a way to customize NPC firing behavior? Thanks in advance.

And here are some more pictures!

http://i.imgur.com/NWvut.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/xDE4s.jpg

Skotty. wrote:
Freelancer doesn’t care where textures are. Inside of the .mat files (or wherever you have them, can be included in .3db and .cmp, too) you must not use the same node names for textures! EVERY Texture needs an unique name, as EVERY Shippart needs an unique name. Unique in meanings of really unique.

Each ship’s texture is named Material01-Material20 for example. Is that where the problem is?
And if yes would it suffice if I rename them into shipname_material01-shipname_material20?

CK256 wrote:
A Homeworld mod nice!

I’m guessing you have a Homeworld folder containing all the custom ships? if so one thing you could try is having each ship in a separate folder (containing that ships CMP, mat and sur files) in the SHIPS folder.

Sounds interesting, what kind of mod work do you need done? also an overview of the scope of the complete mod would help too.

I’d suggest DwnUdr’s TCM starter pack as an excellent basis for a total conversion mod like this.

I’ve already tried putting the ship files in different folders but it only fixed it to the state it’s in now. But i’ll try renaming the folders in more uniqe names.

I’ll need help in creating custom bases, systems as I haven’t got any experience in that yet, and also some help in FLhook would be nice.

For now I’ve added all the strikecraft and frigates into the game. Also thanks for the starter pack. It will sure come in handy.

So yeah, I’ve already started the project and added all of the music( from Homeworld 1 , including sound effects) and about 20 models ( including their original weaponry , turrets,guns etc).

Here are some pictures:
http://i.imgur.com/Kn5Ev.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VED7b.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Zlf2H.png
And a bonus video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBTZ5vVZuUw&feature=plcp

Now for the problem I need help with:

When you fly a vanilla ship on the server ,all the custom ships have the right textures , but when a different custom ship is nearby, one of them will get the textures of the other one.

But once you buy a custom one ,all of the other custom ships will use the textures of the ship you’re flying!

For example : Your ship will appear just fine no random textures,no errors. But other players will see textures of their ship on yours! And vice versa. This applies to NPC’s aswell.

For the textures I use the TGA format, and I used Milkshape for modelling , texturing etc.

PS:
Anybody who wants to sign up and help me with the project can send me a message.