Hey, I have a question, I am making some ships, but i cant afford any good programs like photoshop to make my own, so i was wondering, is there any way to acsess the origonal TGA texture files from freelancer that are used in the game, if not, is there a place i can download them??

Use the UTF Editor to access the .mat files - these contain the textures for the models they are referenced to. You can export them using this tool for editing or whatever.

When do you use the Z coordinate?
Is it even used anywhere in the original game?


Quoth the Raven Nevermore!

It's not used for things like bases and planets in the game, because they are all on a 2D plane in line with the tradelanes. It does work though, I created a 3D system with vertical tradelanes, and I have seen one made by Chips as well.

But anyway, yes it is implemented and no it is not very useful!

Hi, what progs do I need to edit my files? All my ini files seem to be encoded.

There are three main progs that you can use for editing Freelancer, depending on how much you want to do:

1. (For easy modding) BINI - This prog can be used to uncompress the .ini files in Freelancer. To use, simply drag the .ini file into the BINI icon, delete the original file and rename the file that has been created from file .ini.txt to just file .ini. You can get BINI here

2. (For harder modding) Fled-ids or another dll editing prog - This program can be used to read and change the entries in dll files, for example to create new ship names or random mission offers. You can also get this prog in the download section.

3. (More advanced) UTF editor - This prog can be used to edit things such as hardpoints on ships if you are creating your own ships, compressed voice files and generally any file ending .utf It is also available in the download section, somewhere...

I recommend just using BINI to start with until you get the hang of it, if you need any help just post here again, welcome to TLR!

Edited by - Accushot on 3/15/2004 11:37:08 AM

Hello, I'm a modding newbie! I know that my answers are somewhere within this forum, however, unsuccessful in finding the exact instructions. I don't wanna mess up. I just need to know how to adjust or 'mod'ify a ship, any ship that freelancer provides. Increasing Engine Speed/booster, Increasing Shield/hull, adding hardports for different weapons, and level 10 stats. Much appreciated!

Hello, I'm a modding newbie! I know that my answers are somewhere within this forum, however, unsuccessful in finding the exact instructions. I don't wanna mess up. I just need to know how to adjust or 'mod'ify a ship, any ship that freelancer provides. Increasing Engine Speed/booster, Increasing Shield/hull, adding hardports for different weapons, and level 10 stats. Much appreciated!

For Ship stats and harports edit the shiparch.ini
for Ship Engine --- engine_equip.ini
for Ship Power Supply --- misc_equip.ini

for easy editing ... use FLMM and Freelancer SDK which is in the Download Pages.

---

---------------- E·N·D O·F M·E·S·S·A·G·E ... ----------------

---

Editing Engine speed
Look in DATA/EQUIPMENT/engine_equip.ini, and find the engine for yor ship. E.g. the code for the starflier is "li_fighter", so search for this and you should find an engine called "ge_lf_engine_01". The values in here are fairly obvious, max force is the maximium speed it can attain.

Shield/hull
You need to look in DATA/SHIPS/shiparch.ini. Find the ship you want to modify and change these:

"hit_pts = " <--- The hull strength
"nanobot_limit = " <--- Max nanobots
"shield_battery_limit = " <--- Max shield batteries

Adding hardpoints for different weapons
Again, you need shiparch.ini. In the section for a ship there should be several lines that look something like this:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_3, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04
hp_type = hp_thruster, HpThruster01
hp_type = hp_mine_dropper, HpMine01
hp_type = hp_countermeasure_dropper, HpCM01
hp_type = hp_torpedo_special_2, HpTorpedo01

These define the hardpoints. In the first example, the "hp_gun_special_3" part is the name of the hardpoint, and the other parts are the class of weapon that can be fitted. So this hardpoint can take level 1,2,3 and 4 weapons. The other lines are examples of other types of hardpoint.

Therefore to allow a ship to use weapons up to and including level 10 you would change this line:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_3, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04

to:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_3, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04, HpWeapon05, HpWeapon06, HpWeapon07, HpWeapon08, HpWeapon09, HpWeapon10

Thanks, I have another question. WHat do all the numbers in marketships.ini mean? I think this is the one I edit to sell ships at diff places - could you help me out?

market_ships.ini - Changing the location of ships

This is fairly easy, as long as you are only planning on using the pre-made ships in FL.

Search the file for the base you want to add a ship to. When you find it you should see a bunch of text that looks meaningless, but its not.

This example is from Planet Manhattan:

[BaseGood
base = Li01_01_base
marketgood = gf1_package, 0, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = gf2_package, 4, -1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1
marketgood = gf4_package, 13, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = gf5_package, 24, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = gf6_package, 30, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bwf_package, 4, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bwe_package, 20, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bwe2_package, 30, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bwfr_package, 10, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = cof_package, 8, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = coe_package, 28, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = coe2_package, 32, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = lf_package, 1, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = le_package, 2, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = lfr_package, 1, -1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1
marketgood = bf_package, 6, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = be_package, 8, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bfr_package, 4, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = kf_package, 10, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = ke_package, 13, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = kfr_package, 10, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = rf_package, 20, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = re_package, 22, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = rfr_package, 20, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = pf_package, 2, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = pe_package, 13, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = pfr_package, 4, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bhf_package, 4, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bhe_package, 13, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = bhe2_package, 26, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1
marketgood = oe_package, 16, -1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1

Each package that is referred to is the name of a ship and the accompanying weapons etc. that come with it when you buy a ship. If, for example, you wanted to add the Titan very heavy fighter to Planet Manhattan you would add the following line:

marketgood = coe2_package, 32, -1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1

Generally speaking, to allow a ship to be sold at the base you change the last 6 numbers to:

-1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1

To stop it being sold there you change the same numbers to:

-1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1

Thats about it really.

Note: If there is already an entry for the ship you are adding DO NOT add a new entry, overwrite the existing one otherwise your game will screw up.

Another Note: You can only have a maximum of three ships available on each base. Delete a ship for sale if you already have three, otherwise the new ship will not show up.

Hope this helped, good luck...

ok iv read and read and read but i still cant find my answer so im just going to post my question.

First off i did the whole create a station(<a href="http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=19693&forum_id=18&Topic_Title=%2A%2A%"> here </a> and it didnt work, i belive i found my problem but dont knowt he answer. in the DATA\UNIVERSE\SYSTEMS\LI01 there were 2 diffrent ini files, a .ini.flmm something.. and a li01.ini which i made the changes to.

But i have a second question. I wan the Rheinland gunboat to be sold at Kuyoto base. I have downloaded the Rheiland gunship mod by ChrisV. I read the changing the ship selling thing and i know the name for Kuyoto but i dont know the package thing can anyone explain that?

Thanks for the help

1)Look for the packages set to sell at the base you can buy the ship at (manhatten - check for the packages there, and find what they are. The odd one out is the one your looking for.

2)Hope into newbie questions 2 thread, and check the "index" on the first page. now find the one about adding new bases, and go read it. It does planetary conversions and bases from scratch (like a station etc). IT also includes your mbases.ini file - so its fullly loaded for ya

ok thanks i got that all working but now i have another problem.

My wreck wont die! i dont mean go BOOM die. I mean just low enough for it to drop the loot. it doesnt even lose a bit of HP. WHY IS THIS?!