Battleship Mod!!! (98% DONE) <------ NEED HELP!!!!

Thu Apr 17, 2003 1:06 pm by Jackel

Hey Nephilim, and whoever else might read this, I'm taking the entire Battleship "encounter" tutorial and putting it into an installer. Now, don't get your hopes up. I don't know how to make any kind of fancy dancy mod program but I do know how to make an EXE file (dos based) that will modify the INI files for you, while making backups of the origionals. It won't look like much but it will take all the work out of adding/removing this specific mod and allow you to give it to your friends as it's only around 5 files and under 1 Meg in size. The install and uninstall of this mod will be flawless as long as certain rules are followed, specified in the readme that will accompany it.

I'm almoast done it as I wright this, just have to add some encounter locations. Basically I'm trying to create a war between the Rheinland and Liberty factions. The Liberty factions will be backed up by the Kusari, of course.

I'll have the Kusari fleet around Dashima station and lending aid to the Liberty fleet in Colorado. The bulk of the Liberty fleet will be in New York and Texas fending off Rheinland battleships. I'm gonna give Rheinland the upper hand in Hamburg though, they have to be winning somewhere.

I have to wright the actual system modifications, "Li01.ini" and such, and do some extensive testing on my Win98 and WinXP boxes but I hope to have it done by later today. I havn't slept yet, having been working on this since I woke up (around 3PM yesterday) and as I look at the clock I keep saying to myself "Go to Bed", but you know how it is when you get on a roll. Hopefully I don't make a major screwup in my sleepyness, but sofar everything is editing properly (in my Freelancer test folder which only contains the directory structure and the files to be modified). It should work for both Server and Client ends, as far as I know, and since it's so small it will be easy to distribute for those who want it but are too -lazy- to code...

You know who you are!

I'm using the code in the main tutorial you give there, if there are any IMPORTANT modifications to that procedure please let me know IMMEDIATELY so I can get the changes made and this baby completed (with hopefully no crashing issues).

At any rate, speaking of code, I could use some locations to put the battleship encounters in. I want to have one battle going on between Rhindland and Kusari around Dashima station. A Liberty/Rhindland battle approxamately 3 tradelane rings away from Manhatten. Two battlezones in Colorado, one at the Galileo jumpgate between the Liberty and Rhindland and another by the Rio Grande between the Kusari and Rhindland. I'm wanting to have a large Rhindland fleet in Hamburg being assulted by a small Liberty fleet. As you can see, a rather large war. Now I just need to figure out the code, hopefully with your help.

This is your baby, I'm using your code, any suguestions on other locations to make a cooler war happen? I need code, as I said, because I'm having troubles thinking straight right now and couldn't find my way off Manhatten. *LOL*

~Jay~

P.S. Please don't fill up this topic with requests for this mod file. When it's done I'll post on the forum and make a download location available. Thank you.

Edited by - Jackel on 17-04-2003 14:59:13

Edited by - Jackel on 5/13/2005 7:39:37 PM

Edited by - Jackel on 5/13/2005 7:40:22 PM

Thu Apr 17, 2003 1:28 pm by Jackel

Helped out so many other people I almoast lost my own topic to the void...

--B--U--M--P--

~Jay~

I've just had the most disturbing encounter with a mad woman on the Holodeck. - Holographic Doc

Edited by - Jackel on 17-04-2003 14:57:48

Thu Apr 17, 2003 2:30 pm by Nephilim

I'm using the code in the main tutorial you give there, if there are any IMPORTANT modifications to that procedure please let me know IMMEDIATELY so I can get the changes made and this baby completed (with hopefully no crashing issues).

*stares at ceiling, whispers innocently*

I'm determined to see this thing through, so watch my thread closely for any new developments

Thu Apr 17, 2003 3:19 pm by steveo

Jackel,

Thanks for the work. Are you going to put that in the downloads section when you are done or should I look here for the download location?

Thu Apr 17, 2003 3:31 pm by Jackel

Hopefully it will be in the downloads section. Right now I have about 800+ lines of code doing the modification and I still need to send two INI file replacements along with it (the detailed edits) because my program simply can't do a detailed seek to figure out where to put the proper info. I can seek to the end of a file and add information there, but to locate a specific line is somewhat beyond this language's ability. *L*

~~EDIT~~

Correction, I can seek using the program but I can only locate a specific word and not a series of words. Furthermore, the program language I'm using (called Turing) is somewhat limited in the number of lines you can use in your program because it automatically limits memory use (while designing the language). I can use an option on the program startup to change the "Stack" limit, which is automatically set to 32kb. I changed that stack limit to 64kb and it appears a little better, although I still can't have it run BINI until I compile the installer because it's still too dam big. See what I mean?

Now, it looks like there is alot of memory free for the editor to use 24.6Meg infact, however when it goes to run a file like BINI it actually decompiles that program and runs it in the editor which uses up ALOT of memory. I need about 50Meg of ram free to have the program run BINI (when it's not compiled into the EXE). As it is the program is already complaining about the length of the file. *LOL*

~~/EDIT~~

As for your comment Nephilim, about updates, that's what Version numbers are for... *LOL*

Thanks for the info you posted on the "Tutorial" topic, I think I'm starting to get the hang of locations although I'm still trying to figure out how to make a battle zone half way between tradelane routes. I don't necessisarily want them right smack dab at a planet or station. There has to be a way because tradelane disruption "encounters" are spawned constantly by the bloody game. I think this may be the reason some people are having troubles with the battleship mod. The ship's are right there when you dock/undock at stations and planets. If you move them away, out of immediate sensor range, I wonder if that would fix the issue. Comments, ideas?

~Jay~

I've just had the most disturbing encounter with a mad woman on the Holodeck. - Holographic Doc

Edited by - Jackel on 17-04-2003 16:57:04

Thu Apr 17, 2003 8:10 pm by steveo

Thanks again Jackel. I will look for it in the dl section. I think it would also warrent being put in the "Freelancer MOD Announcment Forum".

Thu Apr 17, 2003 8:36 pm by Jackel

No prob Steveo... All I'm needing to do is locate where the battleships will appear and I'm hoping that Nephilim can help out with that when he's done at college. I'm still spinning my wheels lookin at these starcharts. And yes, I'm still awake. Although my tired sleepyness has been replaced, strangely, by a happy-go-lucky and very energetic mood. *LOL* Go figure. Anyway, I'm hoping to have it done and into Beta testing later today sometime. My wishlist is to get it handed in no later than tommorow, baring any unforseen problems when I do the testing.

And yes, I've installed a second copy of Freelancer to mess around with so my primary AND VERY IMPORTANT copy dosn't get fragged. *L*

~Jay~

I've just had the most disturbing encounter with a mad woman on the Holodeck. - Holographic Doc

Thu Apr 17, 2003 11:30 pm by Nephilim

Thanks for the info you posted on the "Tutorial" topic, I think I'm starting to get the hang of locations although I'm still trying to figure out how to make a battle zone half way between tradelane routes. I don't necessisarily want them right smack dab at a planet or station. There has to be a way because tradelane disruption "encounters" are spawned constantly by the bloody game.

Lemme get this straight... you want encounter zones in the middle of nowhere?

As in: the empty space between tradelanes? So you'd be knocked out of a TL by a capship?

The good news is that it's no big deal to adapt those pre-existing zones to include battleships and whatnot. The bad news is that I have NO clue how the AI goes about disrupting TL's, so I'll have to some R&D first.

I think this may be the reason some people are having troubles with the battleship mod. The ship's are right there when you dock/undock at stations and planets. If you move them away, out of immediate sensor range, I wonder if that would fix the issue. Comments, ideas?

I'm fairly positive that it's an unrelated bug, as I have edited just about every zone in New York and a dozen or so other systems without incident, but I won't exclude the possibility.

Edited by - Nephilim on 18-04-2003 00:31:09

Thu Apr 17, 2003 11:31 pm by IGx89

Umm, why spend tons of effort making a mod installer when there is one already made solely for doing what you want?

Freelancer Mod Manager lets you activate and deactivate mods with a click of a button, and even automatically downloads and installs mods from a web URL. Also, it can work with regular mods that include the entire modified ini files, or it can replace/append/insert modified lines by use of a custom XML-based script.

Kind of a no-brainer, if you ask me

Also, if FLMM doesn't have a feature you want, tell me and I'll probably add it!

http://lancersreactor.com/t/forum/topic.asp?Topic_ID=10016&Forum_ID=30

Fri Apr 18, 2003 4:21 am by Jackel

IGx89, no offence but I havn't got the first clue how to make a mod that could be installed by FLMM. If I had a detailed layout of the coding I need to seek, replace, append, and remove. As well as some way of compileing the mod file, if that's required, then I would be more than happy to do it that way because it's got to be easier.

All I'm trying to do is take out the confusion (and work) that seems to be associated with this mod installation. Just like you seem to be trying to do with other mod installations. I'm really not trying to start up a competition between mod installers because my installer only works for the specific mod (having specific Mod-related append, remove, replace, and remove as part of the installer). I don't want to step on any toes, but I do want to help the people who don't have the first clue how to install this mod.

~Jay~

I've just had the most disturbing encounter with a mad woman on the Holodeck. - Holographic Doc

Fri Apr 18, 2003 5:17 am by Jackel

Actually Nephilim, I'm looking to have the war in that space. If they drop you out of the trade lane that's just a bonus. But for now I'm just looking for locations.

~Jay~

I've just had the most disturbing encounter with a mad woman on the Holodeck. - Holographic Doc

Fri Apr 18, 2003 11:09 am by Raesene

Creating a mod to work with FLMM is incredibly easy, even I can manage it. All you need to do is set out the files in the directories they should be in when they will be added to the Freelancer folder and the program does the rest.

For example, I create a very simple mod that combined a few other small mods with a couple of files I altered and called it Freedom Mod.

So to make this installable with FLMM, I went to the /Mods directiory in the FLMM folder, and created a folder call Freedom.

Then I create a folder called Data, and inside that one call Missions, one called EQUIPMENT and one called RANDOMMISSIONS and placed in the modified files.

Then I ran FLMM and that program applied the mod for me, backing up the original files at the same time so I could remove the mod later if I wanted to.

It is quick, easy, and tells you if your mod conflicts with another already installed, so that you don't start corrupting things.

So you don't need to write special scripts or anything like that to get a mod to work with FLMM, just follow the simple guidelines the programs ask of you and you get a nice, easy to install and uninstall mod. If someone like me, who until today had no modding experience what so ever, can set up a mod to use it, then it must be easy and it would be ever so nice if people could decide on a standard format for mods, instead of bombarding us poor Mod consumers with needlessly complex installers, mod managers, etc.

Fri Apr 18, 2003 11:33 am by Jackel

So let me get this straight. All I have to do is create a directory in FLMM called "war" for example and put the already-edited files in it? That's all you do? OMG, that's insanely easy. Let me know if that's the absolute truth and I'll just do that and zip it up. I have to modify the code anyway so my program can build the database and use a "compare" procedure to figure out whats different. Basically I make a program to build the program that will make the adjustments. *L*

-edit-

As well I could probably put my Lambda shuttle (purchased only at Huston for around 320000) in with it as a bonus.

-/edit-

~Jay~

I'm a doctor, not a brick layer! - Dr.McCoy

Edited by - Jackel on 18-04-2003 12:36:58

Fri Apr 18, 2003 12:58 pm by Raesene

Yep, that is all I did for my simple little mod and it works fine. Here is the exact info from the readme for the FLMM program...

1. Put all the modified files into the mods\YourModName directory without using a mod script (script.xml file). This is the simplest way, and works best for the average user to make any mod work with FLMM. If you’re a mod maker, though, you should use option #3 because it is a LOT smaller and easier to manage. The files should follow the following directory scheme:

Program Files\Freelancer Mod Manager\mods\YourModName\data\equipment\market_misc.ini

Program Files\Freelancer Mod Manager\mods\YourModName\data\equipment\goods.ini

Program Files\Freelancer Mod Manager\mods\YourModName\data\ships\shiparch.ini

That is the simplest way to make a mod work with FLMM, and I had no trouble getting it to work, although if other mods use the same files you will have to uninstall them with FLMM before you can get your Mod to work [Or use one of the other options the program suggest, which are harder and I haven't tried doing yet.

Fri Apr 18, 2003 6:21 pm by IGx89

Jackel, download and run FLMM and go to the "Help\How Do I..." menu option. It explains everything about making mods work with FLMM, including options #2 and 3. 2 and 3 involve a mod script, which modifies the existing ini files. It makes the file size of the mod a lot smaller, because if you're just changing one line in a 300kb ini file, takes up <1kb. There are some mods that use a mod script to modify 8+ ini files, and it is only 4kb!

The documentation also details making your mod into an auto-installing mod archive (modname.zip.flmod).

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