have you read Drizzts ship tutorial? It is VERY helpfull if you follow step by step.

DSQrn - exactly what are you trying to do? Most fall at the hurdle of trying to make something like a faction for their first mod!! You cannot start reading and expect to create a Full conversion overnight.

So state ONE thing you would like to start off with, a simple thing (so no - not a faction, that is advanced modding and not for beginners forums!)

One other thing that you might like to try is pouring over the Proof of Concept mods. These have been specifically designed to be as simple as possible but allow people to pull apart the mod, check how things have been done, and see if they can take that idea and do something they really want to do with the same sort of changes.

Most of what I learnt about modding I learnt just by looking at the mods already in play. I started out with some simple changes, like upping the cargo capacity and hull strength of specific ships, and then went from there. Sure, you're going to make mistakes along the way, and some things you will fail a great many times before you finally see it work, but the feeling you get when you see a fully functional mod of yours on Lancers and people saying how much they like it will make the trouble seem trivial.

If I can make one small suggestion, it would be to leave off the NPC characters in the first instance. Freelancer is quite tolerant of you making one or two mistakes when you add a ship or equipment for sale somewhere so that you as a player can buy or use it. It is VERY intolerant (crashes actually) if you give that ship or equipment to a NPC faction. That was the single biggest hurdle I had to face when modding and once I got the hang of it I never looked back. Still, I crawled before I walked and I would recommend that to everyone.

Just my thoughts.
Acid.

ok, I think the easiest way to begin to mod is to do it in its purest form. You are going to need bini or sdk and of course flmm(freelancer mod manager). This is the way to do modding without scripts, you will have to learn how to eventually but at your early stages of modding learning to just edit ini files is what you need to know how to do. Ok to start out you will need to know your ini files and such. Just look at all the helpful little things that have been posted in these good forums on that subject. After you have the basic graspe go into your freelancers folder in c:\programfiles\microsoftgames... you get the whole smeal. In the freelancer folder you will notice that there are 3 basic folders DATA EXE and DLLS. in the DATA folder is where most of modding happens. Now minimize the folder, open up flmm freelancer mod manager, a very essential part of our modding breakfast , go to tools on the upper bar and go to open mod folder. This will take you to where all of the mods are stored. You can look at how the certain people did the mods that use etc. But, you can do that later . Ok Make a new folder in that mod directory named without spaces the name of your mod. Now flmm will recognize your new folder but you have to tell flmm what to do. Make a folder within your new folder called DATA. See what I am getting at? Flmm will now go into data. Now Create a folder called EQUIPMENT inside of DATA. now if you go back into your minimized freelancer folder you will notice that if you go into data there is a folder called equipment. Go into there. Look for a weapon_equip.ini. If you double click on the ini you will notice that it is just a line of code this is where bini comes into play, if you have sdk it will not be code if you installed it correctly. If you have bini copy weapoon_equip.ini into your bini folder and then drag it and drop it ontop of bini you will soon see that you have a weapon_equip.ini.txt file now that was created. when you open it up you can easily read it. k copy this new file to your created folders. Now flmm knows what file you are going to edit we will have to change the .ini.txt to just .ini but that can wait for now if you want to go ahead and do it feel free. ok open up the .ini.txt file in your new folder what we are going to do is edit the justice mkI the starting weapon. The gun has its own nickname and we are going to have to search it out go to edit at the top bar and go down to find/search look for li_gun01_mark01 which is just the nickname that the game uses to identify the gun. ok You should find the ammo first this is what it should look like. closing brackets will be missing these forums don't display them.
lets go through each line

[Munition ; this is saying that it is munition to a gun
nickname = li_gun01_mark01_ammo ; this is the nickname of the ammo/gun
hp_type = hp_gun ; this is saying that it goes to a gun not a turret etc
requires_ammo = false ; this is the line that says if the gun requires you to buy ammo or not

hit_pts = 2 ; this is how many hitpoints your shots have
hull_damage = 16.299999 ;this is how much damage your gun will do
energy_damage = 0 ; this will be half of your hull damage unless you specify differently

weapon_type = W_Laser01 ; This is what kind of weapon it is
one_shot_sound = fire_laser1 ; This is the one shot sound
munition_hit_effect = li_laser_01_impact ; This is the effect of the gun hitting an object

const_effect = li_laser_01_proj ; Another effect
lifetime = 0.800000 ; This is how long the shot can go
force_gun_ori = false ; ? I usually just leave this alone but I bet chips knows what this is

mass = 1 ; The mass of the shot
volume = 0.000100 ; This is how much volume of space the shot takes

[Gun ; saying that this is a gun not muntion
nickname = li_gun01_mark01 ; This is the nickname of the actual gun
ids_name = 263357 ; these are the ids name and info they say what the gun is
ids_info = 264357 ; when someone scans it or looks at it etc
DA_archetype = equipment\models\weapons\li_heavy_ion_blaster.cmp; these are the actual model pieces

material_library = equipment\models\li_equip.mat; same with this
HP_child = HPConnect ; This makes it so it can connect to ports I think, again chips can explain it much better then me

hit_pts = 400 ; This is the hitpoints of the gun if it is shot at
explosion_resistance = 1.000000 ; This is the resistance to exploslion the higher the less of chance the gun will explode when you die or if it is shot off.
debris_type = debris_normal ; This is what kind of debris the gun leaves when it is destroyed

parent_impulse = 20 ; These are the impulses of the weapon has the main one and
child_impulse = 80 ; a little after one called the child
volume = 0.000000; This is the volume of the gun
mass = 10 ; Again this is the mass of the gun
hp_gun_type = hp_gun_special_1 ; This is the kind of port that the gun connects to on a ship the 1 makes the gun a level 1 gun

damage_per_fire = 0 ; this is how much damage the gun does to you whenever fired best at zero

power_usage = 5.090000 ; This is how power is used when a shot if fired from the gun

refire_delay = 0.120000; This is how long it takes if you held your gun mousebutton down before it would fire another shot the less the faster shots

muzzle_velocity = 750 ; This is how fast each shot is fired individually
use_animation = Sc_fire; This is the animation for the gun
toughness = 1.300000 ; Chips again can explain this one
flash_particle_name = li_laser_01_flash ; This is the kind of flash of light that is emited with the gun is fired

flash_radius = 15 ; this is how large that flash is
light_anim = l_gun01_flash ; This is the animation for that flash
projectile_archetype = li_gun01_mark01_ammo; This is linking the gun to its ammo

separation_explosion = sever_debris ; This is the kind of debris the gun ends up being if exploded

auto_turret = false ; This is if you wanted to make it a turrent
turn_rate = 90 ; This is how many degrees the weapon can turn
lootable = true ; This is if it can be dropped and picked up or not
LODranges = 0, 20, 40, 80, 100 ; This is the Level of Depth or the level of detail we should leave this alone for now

Just tinker flash radiuses, damage, muzzle velocity, refire delay , etc do not tinker with flash_particle name or things with specific names until you have developed further.
To finish it off go to file save as make it weapon_equip.ini and make sure it is saved in that same folder delete the .ini.txt file in your folder. Get out of all of your folders even flmm. Restart flmm and it should come up with your new mod enable it start your own server join your little server and test it out. after that just repeat eventually start looking at other weapons and find out other flash_particle names and such and enhance the weapon even more. From there it goes on.

Hope this helps and hope chips helps,
Sheep

a child of five could understand this....
fetch me a child of five

thanks guys, i will get back to you, Chips what my point was i dont get a single thing but i heard making sytems was simple so can we start with that? and yes i did read drizzets tutorial!

Edited by - DSQrn on 9/27/2004 3:27:08 PM

Systems is not simple - its the single biggest area of modding in FL - apart from perhaps the making of ships from scratch (modelling, exporting, and texturing take more hours per ship than a system) - but systems certainly require the largest amount of knowledge I find..

People probabily say easiest because they use FL:E (Freelancer Explorer) - which is a point and click device for making systems..........and its far from perfect, making a system with any details = crashes with that thing.

Are you sure you want to start with systems? The one thing i don't want is to make this all a "copy and paste our entries" modding thing - its got to be explained - which is why systems will take.....erm - a month?

oops i thought cus of explorer it was easy, i got a few chances to use it before me computer crashed? what do you sujest? i was hopeing something easy! uh what about ships? i have th drizzet thing but i cant do it without a decent computer in front of me (the computer i am using now is emac!)

I started modding ship specs, abilities and wep abilities to get started. Then adding things to stations, swapping ships ect. It grows with time.

drives me nuts, cant get any of it *sigh* and i have read so much

Just start with the basic wep change to more poweful or longer range. Then try thrusters ect.

[Munition
nickname = gd_im_gun01_mark05_ammo
hp_type = hp_gun
requires_ammo = false
hit_pts = 2
hull_damage = 212 {to 500 for more damage, rather than making it uber.
energy_damage = 0
weapon_type = W_Tachyon01
one_shot_sound = fire_tachyon4
munition_hit_effect = ci_tachyon_04_impact
const_effect = ci_tachyon_04_proj
lifetime = 1
force_gun_ori = false
mass = 1
volume = 0.000100

[Gun
nickname = gd_im_gun01_mark05
ids_name = 263256
ids_info = 264256
DA_archetype = equipment\models\weapons\li_laser_beam.cmp
material_library = equipment\models\li_equip.mat
HP_child = HPConnect
hit_pts = 4215
explosion_resistance = 1.000000
debris_type = debris_normal
parent_impulse = 20
child_impulse = 80
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
hp_gun_type = hp_gun_special_8
damage_per_fire = 0
power_usage = 63.599998
refire_delay = 0.250000 { to 0.125 for more speed. in fireing rate
muzzle_velocity = 700
use_animation = Sc_fire
toughness = 8.500000
flash_particle_name = ci_tachyon_04_flash
flash_radius = 15
light_anim = l_gun01_flash
projectile_archetype = gd_im_gun01_mark05_ammo
separation_explosion = sever_debris
auto_turret = false
turn_rate = 90
lootable = true
LODranges = 0, 20, 60, 100

Little things like this lead to bigger things. Take one thing at a time and you will gradually pick it up and remember it.



Edited by - Finalday on 9/27/2004 7:25:42 PM

maybe a suggestion to newbie modders:

try to build your own small mod, extand it with the new stuff that you find interesting. may it be ships, weapons, bases, whole systems, whatever.
You will learn from practice, just start with it.

Over a year ago i made my small learning "playground" mod where i just put in everything that i found cool or where i wanted to experiment. I learned a LOT by doing this.

Fjord

---------------------------------
Excelcia Mod Leading Developer

Yes... start small. I started with weapons, just changing the power and speed. One thing about weapons is the range and speed should be all the same on the same ship because the "targeting computer" will not put all your guns on target unless the speed of the projecitle is the same for all weapons. Once I realized this, it was my first priority to make weapons of several "speed classes" but always mount the same "speed class" on the same ship so all the shots would be on target from all the guns at the same time. Try that first. Then play with the power of the weapon, then the refire rate. Finally you will wind up modifying the weapon effects and making the "projectile" specific to your own weapon using beam_effects.ini and effects.ini and weapons_ale.ini. After that, you will have a good idea of how things work when modding ini files and may go on to making ships holds larger, have better shields, change their handling, their armor rating etc. Then you'll probably get into making some station bases in some systems that already exist to sell your weapons and modified ships at... Then you'll start saying to yourself... Hmmm, I can make a system to put more stuff in and you'll find out more about how to do that, but you will have enough experience by then to know what you are looking at. That is how I started and so have many others. With all the excellent tutorials posted on Lancer's Reactor you can get information that is easy to follow for any of the things I mentioned above and in a month or two, will be doing things that would be amazing to you now.