Several problems involved:
1) There are no jump gates/holes in the FP7 system.
--they could be added, but where in FP7? There appear to be at least 2, the one the transport heads to, and the one your escape pod heads to. And to where? Leeds? A nearby system?
2) You'd need to activate random encounters, or space would be devoid of traffic.
--You'd need to add encounters to the Freeport 7 system, as it has none.
3) There is no command that allows one to acquire cargo prior to a mission.
--you could provide Trent a fully loaded freighter to begin with.
--this requires a loadout in loadouts.ini, and a ship setup in data\missions\m01\npcships.ini and m01.ini.
4) There is no actual base interior for Freeport 7.
--You could set it up in the FP7 folder and system ini's.
--You'd have to add entries in the various market ini's, unverse.ini, etcetera.
5) There is no animation for Lonnigan/Trent making a deal.
--you could simply direct Trent to meet Lonnigan on Freeport 7.
--an example would be when Trent is to see Juni on California Minor, in m03.ini.
6) You would need to have Lonnigan ON Freeport 7, in the M01.ini file.
7) You would need to destroy Trent's ship, disable the Freeport 7 system's random encounters, and then activate the original story.

Except for the interior of Freeport 7, which would be completely new files, the entire mod could be scripted quite easily.
I would estimate that the entire mod would be less than 100kb.

and, no, I'm not interested in doing it. ;D

Watch your 6!

Edited by - warzog on 3/22/2006 12:25:06 AM

It's not difficult to do indeed, as you say, only point 6 and 7 are a bit cryptic for me, I'll figure out.
--My question would be how you make the first mission Open SP until you do something like speaking to a character (in this case accepting an offer from Lonnigan).
--I don't know if there are problems related to leveling... please, do you know what happens after you reach level 40? Do you stop to gain experience, or do you continue to reach the same level 40 every time you (re)gain the necessary amount of money? I mean, suppose you play till level 40 and then start the story, since Juni "calls you" for new jobs when you reach a new level, will the story crash if you are already to the max level?
Thank you

by 1001

Ok, here's a better explanation of what I have in mind:

1) start from Leeds with a Starflier and 500 $. Your mission: none until you reach level 32 (that means make a million if I'm right), and a good way to do it would be selling boron at FP7 (where is bought at, say, 10'000 per unit). Or you can just try it the hard way.

2) anyway when you reach level 32 you fall in two possibilities: you are either at FP7 (if you sold your boron) or not.
Here comes the hard part, I don't know if this works, but I propose: If you are at FP7 you trigger the first story mission when you click to undock. If you're not there you'll be prompted to reach FP7 and docking to the base will activate the story. (but this could generate an infinite cycle in which you are prompted to dock/undock forever, don't know...)

This should use the same mechanism that allows you to do random mission between "Juni calls", basically setting you free from the start to a specific level... but I have to look for which .ini do this...

By 1001

I love the idea! However, I'm not much of a programmer.(yet!) Anyway, if you wanted to do anything with FP7, don't bother with the FP7 system imho, just use Sigma 17 - it is almost the same system. i.e. you can see the FP7 wreackage near Atka. Just delete the debris and you could easily set up FP7 there.

What's your favorite letter?
Mine is the squiggly! (erm, tilde)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I've already set up things in Omicron Major (that's FP7 default system) and the base is fully operational... but here comes an idea you give me, Xen()morph: after FP7 destruction I could change the base with the debris, then leave the system open (instead of locking it as I intended to) just for show.

By the way, some things will be changed in BEFORE FP7 MOD, due to hardcoded parts not moddable:

1) You won't have to raise 1 million or reach level 32 before you can start the original story.
--Instead you will be free to go to FP7 and talk to Lonnigan from the very beginning (if you survive the trip).

2)Lonnigan has a mission for you that's worth 1 million $, but you'll never see that money (guess why... ).

3)Before FP7 destruction all the money you earned from your freelancing will NOT be cancelled, so when you'll land on Manhattan as a survivor you could either be a rich man or a poor one, depending on your precedent choices.

That's all for now, I'm working on Lonnigan's mission, I'd like to involve Planet Kurile in it (you can read Trent's diary for details), and make the mission as dirty (= illegal) as possible .

by 1001

Author of:
LIGHTSOURCE 1001 MOD