First off, I'm quite new to modding fl, so I can only give you a bit of info, and only on ship making/editing. However, I know the frustration involved in trying to dig out useful info from thousands of posts. Here's what I found in general for making ships from scratch.

Tools: -milkshape to cmp converter (converts a 3d model into a .cmp file that fl uses as the ship model)
-bini.exe (you will need to edit some ini files, most of which are compressed. This file uncompresses them)
-utf_edit.exe (creates .mat file which fl uses as ship texture file. Utf edit also used for editing hardpoints)
-milkshape (3d modeling prog)
-3d modeling prog of your choice (not needed if you model directly into milkshape)

-bini, utf, and converter can be found in dloads section of this site. Milkshape (demo)can be dloaded from milkshape.com

Ship: -build your ship in your 3d program and export to milkshape (skip this step if ship modeled in milkshape)
-texture entire ship using only 1 square (preferrably tga)graphic with dimensions that are some power of 2. Name that texture something different than any group on your model (groups discussed in a bit)
-create 2d triangles and place them at where you want hardpoints to be. (these act as markers for the cmp exporter, which automatically installs hardpoints on points on the surface of your ship closest to each triangle)
-milkshape lets you give names to groups in your model. Each 2d triangle must now be named after the hardpoint it is meant to be. They can be Hp/Fixed/* or Hp/Revolute/*, fixed being non rotatable. The * is replaced by some hardpoint name, hardpoint names look like HpWeapon01, HpEngine01, etc. For listing of hardpoint names, use utf_edit and open up one of fl's original ships. Hardpoints can be such things such as weapon mount points, lights, where ship is mounted upon landing, contrail starting points, etc.
-size the ship and its triangles so that the entire ship cannot be seen even when 2d viewing windows are zoomed out to max extent
-make sure the front of the ship faces down in the upper left viewing window
-turn ship and triangles upside-down
-your ship should be listed in the groups list as either a single entity or a bunch of parts. Make sure the first group shown in the groups menu ( which is arranged alphabetically) is a ship/ship-part and not a hardpoint triangle. Name that first group the name of your ship (dunno how to name a ship beginning with a letter farther than h). Cmp exporter probably uses this first group to name the ship for freelancer.
-once you are good to go, use cmp export and save the .cmp file somewhere you can find.

continued...

And God said,
E=mC²
And there was light.

Edited by - Imagine on 06-08-2003 00:37:40

Texture: -now for the texture. The .mat file must be created from scratch. Open up your utf editor, create a file that looks like this
(antioch is the name of my texture)
-in the dt_name branch, store a string with the name of your texture file, e.g. mine is "antioch.tga"
-in the type branch, store a string "DcDt"
-in the MIP0 branch, import your texture file
-save this utf file with same name as your cmp file, except with extension .mat
Ini: -now for some ini editing. decompress your data\ships\shiparch.ini file with bini
-stick your ship cmp and mat in this location: data\ships\"yourgroup"\"yourship"\"group"_"ship".cmp, data\ships\"yourgroup"\"yourship"\"group"_"ship".mat
-Easiest way to test your ship is to replace one of the other ships, eg patriot. It's the first ship group in shiparch.ini.
-replace the entry for DA_archetype with the location of your ship cmp
-replace the entry for material_library with the location of your ship mat
-go to hp_type parts
-example: hp_gun_special_3 is ability to mount lvl 3 guns. The hardpoints listed after it are which hardpoints have that ability. Check out the other ships' hardpoint entries to find out what types there are. Hint: hp_torpedo_special_2 is torp/cd hardpoint while hp_torpedo_special_1 is cd only
-delete all the [collision and [simple groups for the patriot

That's it, you should be able to go to manhattan and buy your ship. But this is a bare bones tutorial, just enough to get your model into the game. Things this tutorial does not cover but which you can do anyway:
-create icon gfx for your ship
-edit ship's info
-put ship in w/out displacing another ship
-letting ship have a hull collision box
-letting ship have shield collision box that fits it
-changing appearance of engine flame
-changing angle at which camera follows at

And God said,
E=mC²
And there was light.

Edited by - Imagine on 06-08-2003 00:38:47