Hey. I am trying to play this mod. I gone through the prequel, it was nice, except for the crashes in the Leeds system. But how on earth I am supposed to play storyline? Even on the level 1 missions, NPCs are mowing me down in no time, before I can even scratch their paint.
I guess it is because I am flying the starting ship. But it seems impossible to get a new one, the prices are absurd. How I am supposed to gathes MILIONS if I cannot fly the missions, and the cargo hold is so small that making enough money by trading would take weeks of real time.

Or:
http://www.dos486.com/freelancer/free-rep.html

Well, I consider managing of reputations the most fun aspect of Freelancer.

Anyway, to repair the rep with Junkers you may attack Hogosha (-0.2) or Li. Police, Xenos (-0.1). Also Blood Dragons, Br Armed, Br. Police, Farmers, B. Hunters, L. Navy, LSF, Rh. Police but it is not really worthwile as it gives you only -0.05 of the rep lost with the attacked entity.
No point of attacking corporations.
On the other hand, you can do missions for the Junkers’s allies: Cosairs, Outcasts, L. Ruges (+0.15), Hessians, Mollys (+0.1), Golden C, Hackers, LWB, Unioners (+0.05)

If anyone is interested, after I started to load my other mini mods the “moving ray” of neutron star effect tended to disappear, after several seconds. It seemed to be related to other changes I did in effect_types.ini file.
Eventually I traced it down to EFT_JUMP_GATE_EFFECTS. For some weird reason if this EffectType is set to update = UPDATE_OFFSCREEN the “moving ray” disappears. If it is set to cull update, everything is all right.

Thank you very much, it worked.

Thaddeus wrote:

I still get a problem where by the effect is only partially visible from a distance - from gamma and omega 11 jumpholes. A clear line cuts across the effect where its not visible beyond a certain range. I dont know if this is a problem with using the baxter hazard box rather than the neutronstar solar, I’ll check later. anybody else get this?

Also, I did not noticed any partial visibility (unless it is something minor, I don’t really know what you mean) and I didn’t tampered with ale file. However, some time ago, I extended visual cutoff ranges of effects, by editing freelancer.exe according to Limit_Breaking_101

I dont want to spam “Effects showroom” topic anymore but I still cannot get the effects to work.

Timmy51m wrote:
and if I make this entry in Ew03:

[Object]
nickname = Ew03_neutron_star_fx
ids_name = 261048
pos = 50, 0, 262
rotate = 30, 0, 0
Archetype = neutron_star
ids_info = 66164

I get the neutron star effect.

Thank you, but did you try it or it is just a theory? Don’t work for me.

Gibbon wrote:
@ Timmy51m

To attach an effect you need to define something to stick it onto, talking of the neutron star, it still would need an FX hardpoint on it, or however many you want to add to add as many effects as you want.

Then it needs defining in select_equip.ini, plus the solar loadouts.ini, effects.ini, relevant system ini file not forgetting the relevant ale file, in the neutron stars case, the space_ale.ini file.

@ Zefiryn

The neutron star efffect is defined in space_ale.ini already, so you only need to do the entries in loadouts, effects and select_equip.ini plus the EW03 file to get it working. I did this a while back, link here to my video where you can see it in action at the 25 second marker.

http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_id=3459&forum=19

In solar loadouts.ini I put.

[Loadout]
nickname = neutron_star
equip = neutron_star, HpFX01

In EW03 I put:
[Object]
nickname = Ew03_neutron_star_fx
ids_name = 261048
pos = 50, 0, 262
rotate = 30, 0, 0
Archetype = neutron_star
loadout = neutron_star
ids_info = 66164

I have tried also with fuchu_core in EW03 and solar’s loadouts.ini. but to no avail.

In select_equip.ini there already is:

[AttachedFX]
nickname = neutron_star
particles = gf_neutronstar

Do I need put there something more?
Effects.ini already has entry:

[Effect]
nickname = gf_neutronstar
effect_type = EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED
vis_effect = gf_neutronstar

What else should I do. Is it possible to do it with ini edition only? Or I need to somehow open model of solar and add there FX hardpoint?

@Syd: Most of the tests, I flied towards it untill ship exploded.

I don’t know if it is the right place to ask, sorry if I am breaking any rule but how one can add an effect to the planet? I thought that adding this neutron star effect would be nice start, but adding HP to a Solar don’t seem to work. Even in Omega 41.
Or is it more complicated?

I d suppose, it also works with sectionreplace
as long as you got identical,
which you can ‘target’.
Therefore we had added the ‘;–-wtsclan’.

maybe just try

No, it do not work. What I’d like to do is something like this:

 <data file="data\FX\effect_types.ini" method="filereplace" numtimes="0"><dest>visibility = CULL_OFFSCREEN</dest> 
<source> 
visibility = EXIST_OFFSCREEN</data> 

This replaces CULL_OFFSCREEN in the entire effect_types.ini

I guess it is impossible to create working script like:

 <data file="DATA\SHIPS\rtc_shiparch.ini" method="sectionmodify" numtimes="0">[Ship] 

<source> 
LODranges = 0, 500000</data> 

It replaces LodRanges for the first ship only, whatever numTimes I put there.
I did have some hopes that it can be possible, because otherwise I have to put one filereplace command for every possible LODrange.
Granted, FLMM don’t even suggest such a possibility, to use multiplier for sectionmodify, so now I am trying to force the Excel to create scripts for me.

Or maybe FLMM can do it, and I just don’t see something obivious.

EDIT:
@Gisteron: I realize that, but the problem is, I’d like it to replace LODranges in all sections, not just one.

Timmy51m wrote:
That’s interesting, you’ve reduced the distance that npc’s spawning will ignore the density cap to the minimum spawn distance. What was the result of this, greater numbers spawning? I’m getting the impression others are increasing it not decreasing, but I can see your chain of thought there.

edit: nevermind, tested it myself, that results in spawnus maximus, going to be difficult to ballance though.

If you keep the default value of spacepop, the spawns itself are still limited. I could go through unbeaten tracksamong asteroids fields for minutes, hardly seeing anybody.
But sure, where it is supposed to be a traffic, like planets or jumpgates, they keep comming, at regular intervals. So if for some reason (like fight), more ships is comming then going away, they can pile up to a great number. But soon one side of the conflict gets superior numbers, weeds out the opposition and starts to land on planet or goes away by jumpgate/tradeline. So far, I like it.

Is it possible to use some sort of multiplier for script command method=“sectionmodify”? Something similar to method=“filereplace” numTimes=“0”

Timmy51m wrote:
The patrol path encounter allows a density of 3 ships, and it was the surviving encounter of the 2 that spawned the initial ships. As a result no other ships are spawning. The jump gate encounter allows 10 ships density and has a quicker repop time so it is obviously not allowed to co-exist with the patrol path encounter otherwise ships would spawn. I wonder if there is something that can be hacked to allow both encounters to continue to spawn?

I had put:
initial NPC min spawn distance = 100
initial NPC max spawn distance = 1775
NPC max spawn distance = 3000
maximum distance that NPCs will persist = 7000
distance over which NPC spawning will ignore density cap = 100

With that, I got constant traffic around the gates and also can see NPC’s shooting and exploding over sometimes great distances (I also edited lod ranges, pbubbles and whatnot). Despite my fears, no adverse effects appeared (yet?)

The problem is, as long as initial spawns hang around somewhere (if they are friendly/neutral), no other ships will spawn for me. Increasing spacepop just gives me more initial spawns.
I think, I’ll decrease distance over which NPC spawning will ignore density cap in SP to 100. I should do it right away but I have been hoping for some better solution. I feel it is bound to have some unpleasant side effects.

Thanks, I’ll give it a try. I want to counteract an apparent decrease of NPC density caused by increasing theirs spawn distances and persistence.

I don’t think editing every zone would work as I want but these populators do look interesting.

I have read here how to hex edit some values, e.g. distance over which NPC spawning will ignore density cap in SP
Is there a way to edit the density cap itself? Where is it stored? I don’t see it in Constants.ini