Ex Noob Speaks out!

Sat May 03, 2003 4:33 pm by giskard

Hello all.

2 Weeks ago I was a noob at this Freelancer editing lark. Now with my mod at version 2 I find my self having so much fun with it I cannot imagine doing anything else.

Some of the tutorials make moding sound deceptively easy and quick but my own experience of freelancer is that that deeper you go, the more complex it gets. Modders really need to maintain notes on what they changed just so they can keep track of everything.

I know there are a lot of noobs out there wanting to get into editing so I thought I'd offer them some advice.

Do it!
Its great fun, just be sure to make notes and keep track of your changes because things always go wrong when you forget youve changed something.

Also Biniq is great for uncompressing the ini's, just load and save the file without changing them but if I where you i wouldnt use it for editing the file directly. Get a decent text editor and use that once its extracted. I cannot count how many times i opened 4 inis in biniq and due to the way it works, saved my goods.ini over my shiparch.ini without noticing and lost everything.

If you need a really good text editor for modding try this.
http://www.fixedsys.com/context/
I use it all time on any mod I make and found its features very useful. It supports line number and can open multiple docs in the same window which is very handy indeed.

Giskard

Sat May 03, 2003 10:02 pm by bakedpotato

Thats a good tip and the context program works well and best of all it's free.
Heres another good program also free to help save you time when your comparing files or looking at the difference between mods. CF141_19.zip I got my copy from download.com
Giskard the install program works great and should be the standard for all mod installs making it easy for newbeeies to install mods. If mods were made this easy to install more people would be able to use them. Any chance of getting one made for my mod. Nice touch having the option to install in a folder of your choice. Rated ***** by me.

Edited by - Keith on 04-05-2003 13:53:22

Mon May 05, 2003 2:23 am by giskard

Theres a guide my MW4 team wrote about using make installer for MW4. We used the registry to find the Mechwarrior install so the player only had to click next next next. Thats it. Dead easy. Not found the right reg key for freelancer yet plus most mods dont use the registry, cannot say im overly keen on programs that do anyway but it is handy sometimes.

When you install the mod, take a look at the last screen, its an advert for people who created the installer. Go to there site and download make installer, whilst your there, download patch maker too. Nice little programs both of them.

When your ready to use it.

Email me again and talk you through it, its not hard but some advise never hearts. You will need to make ghost directory structure up and copy your mod files to it. You can see how the install packs the directories too and judge if its right or not easily, so when it unpacks, it always unpacks to the right place.

The Click team programs are great and are free if you choose the advert at the end of the installer option.

Wait a sec, found the link to click team. Take a look.

http://www.clickteam.com/InstallMaker/US/

Giskard

Mon May 05, 2003 3:59 am by bakedpotato

Giskard Thank you. I did see the add but would definately need your help to do it anyway. That is not my area of experience if I tried something like that it would probably turn into a project like learning the inner working of this game. I' m more with building and upgrading for the local tribe. What do you think of turning your install program into the standard install for all mods, or would every program have to have a license from the click team.

Mon May 05, 2003 5:28 pm by giskard

Its not my program but making it a standard is a good idea. We tried that in the mw4 community and it worked to some extent. We recieved high praise for the ease of our installs for our packs.

The click team installer is not hard to use either. Its very easy, you just need to learn to make a fake directory structure so it can copy it and install the files correctly.

As a rule, The installer ignores the directory you select and packs everything under it. For instance mine is like this.

Mods/hostileuniverse/data
Mods/hostileuniverse/exe

When packed it looks like this.

hostileuniverse/data
hostileuniverse/exe

And creates a folder called Hostileuniverse where it is unpacked too. As well as all folders under the Data directory its important to include them too)

Because I wanted to support mod managers i added my mods own name as a directory so when extracted to the mod managers mods folder it was ready to go. However if i just put data and exe in the Mods folder and packed them up then the mod would install directly into the freelancer folder and work without the need to use a mod manager.

However, this would be short sited and its work supporting the standards others have already created I feel. Basically all you have to do is edit the mod info that gets displayed on the installer. Choose a full screen or small install, add an optional background pick, enter optional reg key, then click build.

You may have noticed i didnt use the option bits but i have in the past and they are cool.

Giskard

Edited by - giskard on 05-05-2003 18:31:30

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