You need to get the INI converter.

In order to view the ini files, you need to uncompress them. There are a few programs floating around the forums, but the most used one is called Bini. You can find it in the Utilities section of this site. It.s called "FreeLancer INI uncompressor (command line, v1.1)". After getting this program, place it in the directory where the ini's are (recommened), then drag the ini over bini.exe. What this does is it decompresses the ini and it pops out as "whatever.ini.txt". This is a plain text file. In order to get the game to read your uncompressed ini, you need to rename it from "whatever.ini.txt" to just "whatever.ini". There is no need to recompress it.

NOTE: ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR ORIGINAL INI's FIRST! I suggest you do this by creating a new folder called "BACKUP", then create subfolders for all the INI's (e.g. EQUIPMENT, SHIPS, etc.), then copy all the original INI's into their respective folders.

As for editing them, I will not go into detail about how to do that. I suggest you spend a day reading throught the forums and reading through the INI's. I learned how to mod Freelancer in one day by asking Q's on the forum and reading through everything.

And a suggestion to all you newbie modders/editors out there: DO NOT ask a question about how to do something withough reading through the ENTIRE forum. If you cant see the older topics, go up to the top of the page and where you see "Show topics from last 30 days (or whatever it says), change it to "Show topics from last year". That way, you can see EVERY topic anyone has ever posted.

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SuPaFrEaK
Editor-In-Chief/Webpage Designer
Freelancer Software Development Kit

This is very helpful except where do i find the ini's , I did what you said and none of the files i put over the bini thing worked , it said that this didn't appear to be an ini. So my problem seems to be finding where all those ini's are hiding . Please help me out here.

Most of the *.ini files are in the directory tree your_install_dir\data\..

e.g. c:\..\data\equipment\weapon_equip.ini

ok thanks i'll look.

the file did not pop out as whatever .ini.txt it poped out with whatever.ini

the file was in the format of text and i was able to change stuff , but the program won't recognize it and it already has Shiparch.ini as the file name. So how do i get the program to recognize it?

Just one little piece of info, if you are using Windows XP then the INI files will be Configuration files (with the little gear thingie)

well reading thru alot of posts I read that another person had a similar problem and then he stated what he did to fix it. Seems that the hide file types was checked in xp which is why i wasn't seeing the ini extention or any others for that matter so I went in and unchecked it and low and behold the .ini.txt poped up. So it was a matter of just removing the txt part and now the game recognizes my script . But still having problems with the game recognizing all the changes. Nano's and batts set to 100 only increase by 30 and cargo still remains the same. I wonder if cargo is related any to the actuall size of the ship , perhaps the mass? I'll try increasing the mass and see if the cargo changes then.
Another thing is the information does not show on the info of ship chart , 45 nanos still shows as 14. In fact nothing changes in the ship info on bases or the ship I'm flying . Any thoughts.

i had this problem and only just got over it today. okay first go to tools menu folder options then view there should be a hide extensions for known file types take that off then it should look like this
xxxxx.ini.txt take away the .txt and it should look like this xxxxx.ini now press enter and now it should be an ini congrats on me

The venga bus is coming all the shot gun are coming out now it called the nothing heheheh

if u are a newbie,start with modifying just few essencial files to change a ship,for example, like shiparch.ini , goods.ini and market_ships.ini...

once u descover how to add new ships without crashing all the time than try to see their loudaout in loudout.ini or loudout_special.ini so u can learn about hard points ,engines,shields and weapons....

i suggest always to start making a simple thing,then if it works (like buying and flying a battleship) then try adding shields and weapons...after u manage that u'll already know how to create new shields,weapons and engines...

beleive me...im not a programmer but with lot of patience i did it....

JUST HAVE FUN!!!!
and dont get crazy if it doesnt work,take a break and smoke a cigarette, it will help..!!!!

Edited by - SoulForge on 17-03-2003 20:31:52

i can't have a cigarette i got asthma

The venga bus is coming all the shot gun are coming out now it called the nothing heheheh