Sat Mar 08, 2003 9:29 pm
Getting ORGANIZED
Hey folks,
I hope this post won't be considering "presumptuous" since I am a newbie modder, but I wanted to make a few suggestions to help "our" modding community get off the ground.
It appears that this game is very moddable, but the degree to which there are good mods depends largely, imho, to the community working together to decipher the meanings behind values and developing tools to improve the process.
I see a lot of similarities in modding this game with modding Diablo 2. For both games, there was no SDK, but instead you had to modify "data" files that the game read when it loaded.
Diablo 2 has an excellent mod community that has produced TONS of tutorials, file explanations, and mod tools. The ultimate Diablo 2 mod resource site is called the "PHROZEN KEEP" which is located here:
http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~phrozenkeep/site/
If you go there you can see how they organized things to provide all sorts of information for modders.
I would like to see us develop detailed explanations for the various .ini files, what goes where, etc. as well as tutorials for some of the more commonly sought after modifications like: 1) editing values for existing ships 2) adding new ships 3) making existing ships pilotable/buyable 4) Making better engines/scanners/etc. buyable, etc.
If we could get organized like this, people would spend less time "re-inventing the wheel" and more time figuring out new things.
I imagine that so far most modders are duplicating the work of other modders simply because they don't know what exactly has been done already.
Anyway, that is my suggestion and I hope other people can see the merits in having information organized in this manner for FAQs, File Explanations, Resources, Tools, etc.
P.S. It would also help if the Freelancer and Starlancer editing tools and files were in completely separate places. That can be a tad confusing.
I hope this post won't be considering "presumptuous" since I am a newbie modder, but I wanted to make a few suggestions to help "our" modding community get off the ground.
It appears that this game is very moddable, but the degree to which there are good mods depends largely, imho, to the community working together to decipher the meanings behind values and developing tools to improve the process.
I see a lot of similarities in modding this game with modding Diablo 2. For both games, there was no SDK, but instead you had to modify "data" files that the game read when it loaded.
Diablo 2 has an excellent mod community that has produced TONS of tutorials, file explanations, and mod tools. The ultimate Diablo 2 mod resource site is called the "PHROZEN KEEP" which is located here:
http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~phrozenkeep/site/
If you go there you can see how they organized things to provide all sorts of information for modders.
I would like to see us develop detailed explanations for the various .ini files, what goes where, etc. as well as tutorials for some of the more commonly sought after modifications like: 1) editing values for existing ships 2) adding new ships 3) making existing ships pilotable/buyable 4) Making better engines/scanners/etc. buyable, etc.
If we could get organized like this, people would spend less time "re-inventing the wheel" and more time figuring out new things.
I imagine that so far most modders are duplicating the work of other modders simply because they don't know what exactly has been done already.
Anyway, that is my suggestion and I hope other people can see the merits in having information organized in this manner for FAQs, File Explanations, Resources, Tools, etc.
P.S. It would also help if the Freelancer and Starlancer editing tools and files were in completely separate places. That can be a tad confusing.
