I've made some notes about the Freelancer Servers and how it uses the keys. I'm wondering if anyone can perhaps add information to the configuration information.

Thanks,

Mini-FreeLancer Guide -- FreeLancer Games over Multiple Computers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

by Arcana


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This documentation is released under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. This basically means that everyone can add to it and freely modify it provided that they do not prevent others from doing the same.

GNU Free Documentation License
Version 1.2, November 2002

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt

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FreeLancer is (C) 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights reserved.

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Game Keys
~~~~~~~~~

There are three keys used for Freelancer. They are stored in the registry.

**REMEMBER YOUR InstallKey**. There is no known way to retrieve the keys if you lose them.

You can get the account ID from running the utility "myflaccountid.hta" in the EXE folder of FreeLancer. This utility goes directly into the registry and gets the value there and doesn't actually check if the key is valid despite its claim "Your account is properly installed".

You can also get the account ID from the registry. On Windows 2000/XP, it is located at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\1.0\InstallKey


Explanation of the Keys
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

InstallKey, a 288-bit value. It is likely derived from parameters such as your machine name and speed. (My guess is that the last 4 bytes are used as a checksum for the first 32).

This is the key that is called the "AccountID" by the game. You need a valid one to play but it doesn't seem like the codes need to necessarily match. That is, if you have other valid keys, you can use them in place of this one. You can also change this to another valid key and still play the same MultiPlayer characters (although I wouldn't recommend it). I suspect that this key is used to match your single player accounts.

MPAccountName, a 256-bit value. It is likely a key derived from the Install Key.

This key matches your computer to your characters. If you wanted to import your characters to another computer (for example, after an installation), you must change this key to match the one that you had when you created your characters. It does not seem to need to match the InstallKey.

MPAccountNameSig, a 256-bit value. More than likely it is a checksum for MPAccountName.

This key must match MPAccountName. If it doesn't, the game will ask you to generate a new InstallKey (and therefore new MPAccountName/MPAccountNameSig keys).

SAVED CHARACTERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All saved characters, server preferences, and single-player preferences are stored in the following folder in Win2000/XP:

My Documents\My Games\Freelancer

For most people, the full path is

C:\Documents and Settings\<your login id>\My Documents\My Games\Freelancer

In this subdirectory, your SinglePlayer accounts are stored in "SingePlayer", and your Multiplayer accounts are stored in "MultiPlayer". Each subdirectory corresponds to a character, and is probably generated from the InstallKey or the MPAccountName key of the client.

In MultiPlayer, all characters are stored on the Server machine and no data, except for the AccountID's, are stored on the clients. The proper AccountID's are required before the client can connect to their characters.

The Keys And the Server
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It appears that the server requires no keys. I was able to run it after I deleted the FreeLancer registry keys, and connect to it with my character without any issues.


Porting Characters to Different Machines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Install the game as normal. Save the three keys to a safe location.
2. Play until you're tired.
3. Backup the Server Directory (My Documents\My Games\Freelancer). The files are very small (about 200KB/character) so it shouldn't take too much space.
4. When you reinstall the Clients, use regedit to edit the registry contents. Type "Ctrl-F" for the find dialog, and search all keys for "InstallKey".
5. Paste your keys into the registry.
6. For the server, it doesn't seem to matter. Reinstall the server and copy the backup database into the "My Documents" folder.


Things to find out or get:

- Calculating the MPAccountName and MPAccountNameSig from an AccountID.
- Finding out which playable character on the server corresponds to in-game character data.
- Getting the AccountID and MPAccountName/MPAccountNameSig from character data.
- A registry editor that will add the MP keys based on copy/paste from a file.

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Connecting directly to an IP Address
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If your client, for whatever reason, cannot find the server it wants to connect to, you can specify a server directly using the fldirectip.hta script.

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Configuration Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It appears that the configuration data for new players is located in the file

Freelancer/EXE/mpnewcharacter.fl


There are a number of INI files referenced in freelancer.ini, which seems to include game parameters. Conceivably, it is possible to mod the game by replacing these files (and many people cheat on multiplayer mode by doing so).


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written by Arcana, 2003-04-06

* Please don't ask my any questions. I don't know anything.
* Please read the license at the top.
* Please don't use this information to do anything illegal. I am not responsible for anything you do with the information.