Wed May 05, 2004 2:44 am
**Tutorial** - Adding Factions
Key phrases for Search Function: factions, adding factions, how to add factions, custom factions
NB LightRogue promised to proof-read and test this
. Until further notic, this tutorial is to be cosnidered a Beta-version.
Begin Edit: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
LightROgue has sent me a list with corrections, most of them spelling erros, several grammar errors, and some thing which aren't clear right now (my excuse: English is not my native language ) So please take note that you will encounter these errors.
He also proposed to re-write the tutorial into html, which might be a good idea.
This will of course take some time. No idea how long, but I estimate at least a week.
O, btw, I often use the abbreviation NB . This stands for Nota Bene which is latin for "take good notice". As it is latin, I assumed it was part of the international vocabulary -- but LightRogue says he doesn't know the expression, so I guess my assumption was wrong. So, where I use NB , you should read Please Note.
End Edit: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Of course, people other than LightRogue are free to proof-read this as well.
Please also report typo's and lay-out/make-up errors. This forum lacks a preview function and I have a type-overload now, so I'll probably overlook any error at this moment.
0. DISCLAIMER / MY PERSPECTIVE / REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE
As far as I know, I found out most of the things about how to make a faction by just studying the info-files. But also read a lot on this forum, so obviously I owe a lot to other people. When reading the forum and looking at mods, adding custom factions seems to be a general thing. This tutorial certainly does not pretend to be the authority on adding factions. It's just my attempt to explain how I've done it, to people who apppreciate to read that. There are more tutorials out there that cover this subject, so pick the one that makes most sense to you.
I am building my mod over Xerxes' OpenSP mod. In the proces, I found out, thanks to Nephilim, that custom factions are 100% neutral towards anything in the game - you have to play the mod in MP to actually have them actively participating in combat. You can do this by setting up your own LAn server and log in to that, and then play.
The discovery that custom factions are always neutral in OpenSP, poses the question whether it is necessary at all to build a mod based on OpenSP: because the mod has to be played in MP anyway, I guess it might not be necessary to bypass all of the SP stuff (what OpenSP basically is all about). But because I only know how to do it this way, I can't tell exactly how to create custom factions when not building a mod over OpenSP So, if you don't build your mod over OpenSP, you might want to study that excellent mod and implement it in your mod, or else try to convert this turorial to your own mod.
I can't say anything about SP, have never played that, neither modded nor unmodded. When a friend tipped FreeLancer as the game, we started to play in MP, and that's how I like it: just fly around, trade some stuff, fight some guys, and explore the universe. So I really can't tell how a custom faction will behave in SP.
Please let me know if there's anything incorrect, or missing (preferably with the correction and addition - not just "hey you didn't tell how to ..."
Now, I assume that the reader does know how to build a mod in IGx89's FLMM (which is one of the Holy Tools of Modding!). So any reference to a file that needs to be modded, will actually take place in a copy of that file, in your mod folder.
I also assume the reader knows about ids_name and ids_info values, and how to implement them.
Furthermore, I assume that the reader knows that this forum does not display the closing bracket (the mirrored version of [ , but that it of course needs to be there at the end of any tag that opened with it a [ .
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Edited by - moonhead on 5/5/2004 4:24:57 AM
Edited by - moonhead on 5/5/2004 2:47:06 PM
Edited by - Chips on 10/31/2004 7:24:40 AM
Edited by - Chips on 10/31/2004 8:04:53 AM
NB LightRogue promised to proof-read and test this
. Until further notic, this tutorial is to be cosnidered a Beta-version.
Begin Edit: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
LightROgue has sent me a list with corrections, most of them spelling erros, several grammar errors, and some thing which aren't clear right now (my excuse: English is not my native language
) So please take note that you will encounter these errors.
He also proposed to re-write the tutorial into html, which might be a good idea.
This will of course take some time. No idea how long, but I estimate at least a week.
O, btw, I often use the abbreviation NB . This stands for Nota Bene which is latin for "take good notice". As it is latin, I assumed it was part of the international vocabulary -- but LightRogue says he doesn't know the expression, so I guess my assumption was wrong. So, where I use NB , you should read Please Note.
End Edit: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Of course, people other than LightRogue are free to proof-read this as well.
Please also report typo's and lay-out/make-up errors. This forum lacks a preview function and I have a type-overload now, so I'll probably overlook any error at this moment.
0. DISCLAIMER / MY PERSPECTIVE / REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE
As far as I know, I found out most of the things about how to make a faction by just studying the info-files. But also read a lot on this forum, so obviously I owe a lot to other people. When reading the forum and looking at mods, adding custom factions seems to be a general thing. This tutorial certainly does not pretend to be the authority on adding factions. It's just my attempt to explain how I've done it, to people who apppreciate to read that. There are more tutorials out there that cover this subject, so pick the one that makes most sense to you.
I am building my mod over Xerxes' OpenSP mod. In the proces, I found out, thanks to Nephilim, that custom factions are 100% neutral towards anything in the game - you have to play the mod in MP to actually have them actively participating in combat. You can do this by setting up your own LAn server and log in to that, and then play.
The discovery that custom factions are always neutral in OpenSP, poses the question whether it is necessary at all to build a mod based on OpenSP: because the mod has to be played in MP anyway, I guess it might not be necessary to bypass all of the SP stuff (what OpenSP basically is all about). But because I only know how to do it this way, I can't tell exactly how to create custom factions when not building a mod over OpenSP
So, if you don't build your mod over OpenSP, you might want to study that excellent mod and implement it in your mod, or else try to convert this turorial to your own mod.
I can't say anything about SP, have never played that, neither modded nor unmodded. When a friend tipped FreeLancer as the game, we started to play in MP, and that's how I like it: just fly around, trade some stuff, fight some guys, and explore the universe. So I really can't tell how a custom faction will behave in SP.
Please let me know if there's anything incorrect, or missing (preferably with the correction and addition - not just "hey you didn't tell how to ..."
Now, I assume that the reader does know how to build a mod in IGx89's FLMM (which is one of the Holy Tools of Modding!). So any reference to a file that needs to be modded, will actually take place in a copy of that file, in your mod folder.
I also assume the reader knows about ids_name and ids_info values, and how to implement them.
Furthermore, I assume that the reader knows that this forum does not display the closing bracket (the mirrored version of [ , but that it of course needs to be there at the end of any tag that opened with it a [ .
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Edited by - moonhead on 5/5/2004 4:24:57 AM
Edited by - moonhead on 5/5/2004 2:47:06 PM
Edited by - Chips on 10/31/2004 7:24:40 AM
Edited by - Chips on 10/31/2004 8:04:53 AM