Take Half-Life for example. Valve is still making lots off money off of it because of what? The built in mod support, and mod encouragement.

It makes viable business sense. Its sensible in the two biggest ways for a development team: Income, and Pride in a job well done.

~Kru Out

Thraka: First of all WOAH! I use that name a lot in online games so when I saw it I had to do a double take ("hmm I don't remember posting this thread... Oh wait, that's someone else."

Second, I agree totally. I think DA really needs to release some tools at best, and at the very least some DOCUMENTATION so we know what files do what.

They could at least tell us HOW to do things and show us what the different files are for and which values stand for what.

It is already lame enough that they have NO COMMENTS in the friggin ini files. Programmers who don't comment their code are an ATROCITY!!!!!!!!!

well, there's comments in some of the ini's...there's even a readme in the mission1 directory...

Yeah, if anyone from DA or an affliate or friend or anyone with a little influence on DA is reading this: Please, please, please, open up freelancer for modding as far as you can.

Most critical would be to add different random missions. And this seems to be one of the things not modable, but it's the one thing that could extend the longterm fun so much. To make the random mission code widely moddable now surely is a hell of work, but it's the one thing to do ...

I hope DA doesn't follow the M$ way of "It's released, so move on" but help build and support a cummunity ...

BTW: Half-Life actualy was just a modded Quake 2 ... Modded on code level, but based on the fantastic, modable work by John Carmack. If he would make a space sim, oh my god ...

It's beginning to look like random missions may be moddable to a degree...at least exposing some of the ones that were removed for whatever reason during development. There are a number of .ini files in the Encounters folder that appear to be unused...including some gunship encounters (possibly more, still digging)...in these .ini files is a line that reads 'mission_eligable' with TRUE or FALSE after. Its probably safe to assume this makes the encounter available to the random mission list. Whether all the necessary resources (description text etc.) is still included in the game remains to be seen, but at the very least we may be able to have random encounters with some larger ship classes. See the thread called 'Encounters & possible how-to' for more info.

Here's to hoping...now back to hacking....

p.s. Half-Life is actually based on Quake 1 code. The colored lighting and other Q2 style effects were added by Valve. By the time HL shipped, there was very little of the original Quake code left...so saying that HL was essentially a mod is a bit of an understatement...but the point still basically stands...MODability is important!

-sb

'I know a song, would you like to hear it?...Dai-sy...dai-sy...'

Yeah, I sometimes get carried away when talking about John Carmack and his great work. If I'ld like men, i'ld love him Quite embarasing I got it wrong about Quake, should have known. Though, I knew, it was way of an understatement, as Half-Life had been very much improved, as you said ...

Anyway, about the random missions: Does anyone know if we could at least change the level of random missions you can get a at base ... the core systems are just boring now ... tune up the mission level to the ~39 you have on the edge and i'ld love to fly a mission once in a while, even if DA wouldn't patch anything ... now i'm bound to the edge, mostly 2 systems actualy, to have at least a little challenge ...

The best solution would be if the leveling wouldn't end and the missions anywhere would be relative to your own level ... but that could only be done by DA ... sight

Look at the DOOM 3 Engine!! ohh damn gonna be some serious ass kicking there!
about half-life! i'd still have that game installed and I still play that game! lol

Admin For Macross Saga Server.

yeah, that's what i'm talking about ... he's always the first to get new tech running ... the doom 3 demo looks so damn cool ...

now imagine id making a game like freelancer ... high end graphics and totaly modable ... oh yeah ...

dont forget id also made diakatana

Diakatana was NOT made by ID.

no but it was made my the self same john romero

Look How much modding potential ID software's Engines.. liek the quake , Quake 2 engine, Quake 3 engine! see all how many software company bought their game engine to make a game?? know why?? Because it's MODDIABLITY TO be modded!!! hehe.


Admin For Macross Saga Server.

The quake engine's "Modablitlity" was heavily influenced by the gaming community and the gamers. The game wasn't just instantly modable and any of us that remember the early days know how much work it was to get information.

FF, how could you blame ID for Daikatana!

John Romero was nothing but a level designer for iD. He had the incredible good fortune of being there early, so he was able to take a lot of credit for things he did NOT do. He parlayed this creative historical revisionism into convincing some very stupid people in large gaming publishing companies to trust him with a pile of money to make his crappy games.

Back on topic:

We *REALLY* need to get some word from DA about the situation here. Our best bet is for the site operator to forward some of our comments and concerns here to them, and encourage them to come read THIS forum (I'd say they should ignore the discussion, multiplay, etc. forums).

What we need, probably in order of priority and feasibility are:

1) DOCUMENTATION: Tell us what files do what and what values mean what. This should be the EASIEST thing for them to give us since all it requires is having people write up a few explanations regarding what the various files do and what the values stand for (sadly, this stuff should have been in the comments of the files themselves).

2) TUTORIALS: There should be tutorials written by DA for how to do stuff like: add new missions, add new systems, add jumpholes/jumpgates, add new ships, add new weapons, add new shields, add new factions. These are BASIC things that should each have their own tutorial so modders can just GO NUTS and majorly extend the lifespan of this game. Again, all this requires is some writing, it doesn't require actual coding by the DA staff.

3) SDK/Tools: This is the hardest since it would require actual "work" by the DA staff. Having tools and/or an SDK would be a godsend, but I am not holding my breath. Even if they only release a few simple tools (like something for adding systems and placing planets, trade lanes, jump gates, etc) would be a TREMENDOUS help and a huge boon to the community.