why does the FL community need such a tool?

sorry but i cant see the need for a tool that does spoil all the fun... fine use datastorm so you dont need to search for stations, wrecks and all that stuff... fine use this tool here to find the best traderoutes in just a few mins...

fine... and now people are getting bored because they "know" where to find everything... they made lots of money this way... and there is not much left to do
result might be that they simply stop playing

im sorry that i have to post my critics and i still respect ppl which put work into a project but i cant see a positive need for such tools
they just spoil the communities fun and let players stop playing the game (which is the important part of all this here) even sooner

you might disagree now... but what i said is just a logical effect which will happen sooner or later and i can imagine that there are enough admins/mod creators out there which simply would like to "block" this tool the same way i blocked Datastorm with Crossfire just to give back fun to the players

Does this download into FLMM? My flmm says it has an error if it does.

The Freelancer Companion is a stand alone program... it's not a mod.
To use it just double click on the FLcompanion.exe and it will start up.

While it's true that this program can spoil the game for you it's up to the individual whether or not you want to ruin the game. How far to take it that has to be up to the individual using this program. While it's also true that if you cheat you will get bored sooner than if you play the game as it was intended.
It's suppose to be an aid for Traders but Wizou has taken it to another level by adding error messages for mod makers.

I always have trouble making decisions when it involves whether or not to post programs like this. Some characters want them while some don't.
My policy is to post almost every submission, whether it's news, mods or whatever it may be. That way I'm not playing favorites or appearing as the Judge and Jury.

Freelancer Companion version 1.6.5 available !

Cold_Void: Excelcia RPG mod 2.23 is now supported in FLC v1.6.5

Preacher0815: I will try to see if I can detect when a jump hole/gate is locked..
The manual path selection is now implemented in 1.6.5

Dutchy: can you send me an email describing more precisely what kind of option you imagine ("search for commodity" ? what result do you want to be displayed ?

SWAT_OP-R8R: I understand very well your point of view..
What can I say.. I had fun digging in FL files, making this program so small and quick (also to show C# programmers that C/C++ is much much faster .
My intention was not to spoil the gameplay. It's up to the player to be responsible for his acts and not abuse with this tool.
Anyway, I added a spoiler warning in version 1.6.5.

Edited by - Wizou on 8/6/2006 5:56:19 AM

Very cool program, and useful, but it could also double as a map if there were some kind of zoom functionality with the viewer ... some mods have items in close proximity therefore its harder to make them out with them having such close proximity to eachother ...

A nice scroll of the mouse wheel or use of + or - keys would be good, or some kind of button control.

Other than that, great program!

It works with the void mod too, just a heads up ...

Additionally, an option to hide the mod errors box would be ok, so that everytime you ran it you didn't have to actually click X, I know thats probably lazy, but regular users don't need to see it, maybe have it off by default but allow it to be turned on in options...

Just a thought ...

@ Wizou
Thank you for putting in the manual selection of the FL directory.

To see if a hole or gate is locked, take a look into the \DATA\initialworld.ini file.

Explaination:
"npc_locked_gate" are those gates and holes that are locked from NPC use, but can be used by players.

"locked_gate" are those gates and holes that cannot be used by either human players nor NPCs. That's what needs to be parsed.

I have had nothing but trouble with it. I am using Windows 98. At first I got a MFC42U.dll not installed. After some net searching, I found the file and installed it. Now I am getting a "The FLCOMPANION.EXE file is linked to missing export MFC42U.DLL:2504" or it is some sort of invalid format. I tried installing it again and got "a library file" that it was supposed to be using was missing. Until the proper files are included with this thing for it to function, I am going to have to say "stay away from it!!"

Welcome to the DLL hell. Various Programs requiring various versions of a DLL file. If a program tries to access something inside a DLL that's not there (because the version of the DLL on your system is too old), it spits out error messages like yours.

Provided by the download link below are two versions of this DLL file you mentioned from my system. One of them should work, however I'd be surprised to see if there wasn't missing at least one more such DLL file. Only thing you could do is to feed the missing DLLs to the program until it's satisfied.

Normally those DLL files are found inside your Windows system directory, but putting them into the same directory the program is in should work, too.

Here you go:
http://rapidshare.de/files/28363032/mfc42u.rar.html

opwnageo: I will add this option to hide the log on startup (note that if you mod has no problem the log doesn't display)
Are you sure you want me to implement zoom capabilities on the map? My map drawing is not as good as the in-game one but it highlight the selected base in yellow

Preacher0815: thanks for the explanation it will be in the next release

Inteck: I'm sorry Freelancer Companion is compiled in Unicode to be compatible with every language out there, and is therefore not compatible with Windows 98. (MFC42U.DLL or UNICOWS.DLL won't help you)
I have no plan on supporting this OS (which is no longer supported by Microsoft)

Edited by - Wizou on 8/6/2006 4:41:01 AM

I am sorry to hear that there is going to be no support for Win98 for this program, especially seeing that the Freelancer game itself is meant to be played on 98 as well as the other operating systems.
I do have a request: Please modify your file description in the "downloads" section so that those of us that do have Win98 will NOT waste time downloading it. By the way, I didn't know that Microsoft quit supporting Win 98 (sorry) At any rate, my finances do not permit me to upgrade.

Ignor this post



Edited by - Manokiller on 8/7/2006 11:32:02 AM

@Wizou

Highlighting wouldn't work very well as things are so clumped together in some mods (such as things in the voids sparta system, that you can't tell things apart, a zoom would be very useful I think.

Additionally, I think there should be an "any" option for bases, as that coupled with any system should allow it to show the most profitable trade routes anywhere.

Maybe also have an advanced routine that can join the dots as it were between multiple trade routes.

For example on the void you can take gold from new london, to new berlin and buy diamonds, on to tokyo and buy engine components, and then back to new london and repeat, earning you roughly 10 million or so an hour.

I have never seen a trade calculator do this, only individual routes.

As it is a freelancer companion it might be good to include where ships are sold along with equipment and a search box too

Then it would truly be a freelancer companion! But I'm probably asking too much

Edited by - oPwnagEo on 8/6/2006 1:30:00 PM

No problems with the program with my mod running.

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