Shiparch.ini file - is a file that contains all the information needed by the game to dicatate what the ships have or have not got (in the way of gun mounts, turning rate, the information/name you see in game, hold size, amount of hull, shield mounts etc).

Its called an ini file - cause its an ini file format . They are encrypted, but they can be decrypted. however, there are THOUSANDS of ini files in the game (as it uses them for everything), so EOA Players Consortium made a "SDK" - where they decrypted all the ini files for modders to use. You just install it. This means you can read it as its in "english" (kinda).

What happens is that the ini files hold all the information needed by the game, along with graphics files. They are all interelated, and referenced to by the game engine to yield the information to play the game. That is why you can change a value easily and see a change.

The file is located inside:
Freelancer\Data\Ships

Inside the ships folder you will find the file. Once decrypted you can open and save with a good text editor (notepad or something - but not wordpad!!). To decrypt them manually (if you don't want SDK) - you can use BiniQ - available in the downloads section. See the first page of this thread for details about that

Hope that helps ya

Thanks it did help...another question though. Can I add hardpoints for guns to a premade FL ship, and if I can can I put guns in them automatically so I dont have to go buy them?

Yes, you will either:

A) Have to create new gun hardpoints - need a tutorial as i am not going to explain it here - its TOO long...however, I think accushot went over it on the first page of this thread

Use existing hardpoints (lights ones are good for this) and declare them in the shiparch.ini file

C) add the guns to the goods.ini package for your ship on the specified hardpoints. When you buy, it will come with those guns you specify pre-mounted - BUT it will also increase ship price too!

Option A - Adding new hardpoints
(Mostly copied from page 1)

You'll need BINI and the UTF editor, both available in the downloads section.

Open the .cmp file of your ship and expand the tree. IMPORTANT - Make sure you have selected "Float array" under interpret data. Each node in the first expanded section is a section of your ship. If youre creating a completely new ship there should be some entries for the meshes but none for hardpoints

To create a new weapon hardpoint:

There are two types of hardpoint, fixed and revolute. Fixed is where all the immovable add-ons go, such as thrusters and mine-launchers. Revolute is where you stick all the add-ons that move, even if just a tiny bit, for example guns, turrets and torpedo launchers.

For this tutorial lets create a new gun hardpoint. Browse to the fuselage part that you want to add the hardpoint to and expand it. Highlight "Revolute" in this node and click "Add node". Rename "New node" to one of the following, where XX is the next available number of that hardpoint:

HpWeaponXX ---> For a gun or missile mount
HpTorpedoXX --> For a torpedo or cruise disruptor mount
HpTurretXX ---> For a turret mount.

For this example use HpWeaponXX, in your case probably HpWeapon01 if you havent got any hardpoints already.

Create 5 more nodes under this one, renaming them, in this order:

Axis
Max
Min
Orientation (Make sure they are spelt correctly)
Position

First edit "Axis" using the "edit" button. This defines which axis the gun is able to rotate on - it is in the format X, Z, Y. So for a turret able to rotate left and right you would input:

0.000000
1.000000
0.000000

Now edit "Max" and "Min" . Both these nodes have two entries each. The first is the rotation limit in radians. Use a negative number for Min and a positive number for Max, for example -3 and 3. If you dont want a rotation limit enter -6.283185 in Min and 6.283185 in Max (2*Pi).

Next edit "Position" . This node requires three values, one for each axis. The values are as follows:

Value 1 --- X-axis, left and right across the fuselage
Value 2 --- Z-axis, up and down through the fuselage
Value 3 --- Y-axis, up and down across the fuselage

The co-ordinates are relative to the part of the fuselage they are mounted on, so to create a hardpoint in the middle of a wing, say, you would simply enter:

0.000000
0.000000
0.000000

Its not usually that simple though, youll have to experiment.

Finally edit "Orientation" - this is the hard part which requires working with vectors. Each Orientation node has nine entries - three for X, three for Y and three for Z. These values tell FL how the weapon "maps" to the fuselage. It may help to draw a diagram. Since its hard to explain i^ll use an example:

For a gun mounted on the RIGHT of the fuselage facing FORWARDS:

The fuselages X-Axis is equal to the guns y-axis so the first entry is:

0.000000
1.000000
0.000000


The fuselages Y-axis is equal to the guns x-axis in the negative direction so the next entry is:

-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000


The fuselages Z-axis is equal to the guns Z-axis so the last entry is:

0.000000
0.000000
1.000000

So put it all together and you get:

0.000000
1.000000
0.000000
-1.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
0.000000
1.000000

Now youve done this you can SAVE and close UTF edit and open DATA/SHIPS/shiparch.ini to define your new hardpoint.

Find your ship and add one of the following lines:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_YY, HpWeaponXX , where XX is the number of your hardpoint defined earlier and YY is the class of gun you want it to take.

hp_type = hp_turret_special_YY, HpTurretXX , where XX is the number of your hardpoint defined earlier and YY is the class of turret you want it to take.

hp_type = hp_torpedo_special_YY, HpTorpedoXX , where XX is the number of your hardpoint defined earlier and YY is the class of torpedo you want it to take.

This is pretty long-winded so I suggest...

Option B - Converting existing hardpoints

This is much easier. Open up shiparch.ini, and find the ship you want to edit. For this example I'll use the sabre. Look near the bottom of the section, you should se lots of lines like this:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_9, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04, HpWeapon05, HpWeapon06

This line tells FL that you can mount class 9 guns (hp_gun_special_9) on the hardpoints called HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02...etc.

All you have to do is add the names of the new hardpoints to these lines. To find out the names of the hardpoints open up the model file that is specified in the "DA_archetype = " line, using the UTF editor. So for the sabre open

DATA\ships\border_world\bw_vheavy_fighter\bw_vheavy_fighter.cmp with the UTF editor. Then look through the nodes until you find "hardpoints", then look under fixed hardpoints for the name of something like a light.



In the example you can see there is a hardpoint called "HpRunningLight01". Go back to shiparch.ini and change the line:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_9, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04, HpWeapon05, HpWeapon06

to:

hp_type = hp_gun_special_9, HpWeapon01, HpWeapon02, HpWeapon03, HpWeapon04, HpWeapon05, HpWeapon06, HpRunningLight01
Now you should have an extra class 9 hardpoint.

Note: Most of the hardpoints are named similarly for the ORIGINAL FL ships. So there will probably always be a HpRunningLight01 on the ships.

Another Note: Since the hardpoints are used to mount lights, their orientation (direction they are pointing) may be screwed - leading to guns pointing straight up/down/whatever. If you can't find any workable hardpoints you'll have to use option A and create a new one.

Edited by - Accushot on 5/19/2004 6:06:47 AM

Just to ammend "me collegue" - Light hardpoints typically have 360 rotation and orientate therefore, in any way .

If you do add the lights as above for guns - please ensure you remove the lights from the goods.ini file - search goods.ini for the nickname of the ship you mod in the shiparch.ini file and then find its associated package (looks like below)


[Good
nickname = rf_package
category = ship
hull = rf_hull
addon = ge_rf_engine_01, internal, 1
addon = rh_fighter_power01, internal, 1
addon = ge_s_scanner_01, internal, 1
addon = ge_s_tractor_01, internal, 1
addon = shield01_mark05_lf, HpShield01, 1
addon = LargeWhiteSpecial, HpHeadlight, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight01, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight02, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight03, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight04, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight05, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight06, 1
addon = contrail01, HpContrail01, 1
addon = contrail01, HpContrail02, 1
addon = DockingLightRedSmall, HpDockLight01, 1
addon = DockingLightRedSmall, HpDockLight02, 1

Remove the bold lines if your using their hardpoints- ie, if you are converting HpRunningLight01 and 02 to mount guns - then remove those two lines so it looks like this instead:[Good
....extra removed to save space
addon = shield01_mark05_lf, HpShield01, 1
addon = LargeWhiteSpecial, HpHeadlight, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight03, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight04, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight05, 1
addon = SlowSmallYellow, HpRunningLight06, 1
........extra removed to save space

super newbie question:

The CMP and MAT are dlls....where are they placed for proper installation? I can't find documentation, forum topic, anything on where they go.

Thanks!

The CMP and MAT files aren't dlls - they are different entirely
Anyways - to find where they are, look where they are referenced from:

So - for ships - in the shiparch.ini file....

[Ship
ids_name = 237034
ids_info = 66570
ids_info1 = 66571
ids_info2 = 66608
ids_info3 = 66572
ship_class = 0
nickname = li_fighter
LODranges = 0, 40, 60, 140, 300, 1000
msg_id_prefix = gcs_refer_shiparch_Liblf
<!-----edited out some information that makes post LONG!----->
hit_pts = 1300
DA_archetype = ships\liberty\li_fighter\li_fighter.cmp
material_library = ships\liberty\li_playerships.mat

Have a look in the directory that the bold lines are pointing too.....

For weapons:
weapons_equip.ini file
[Gun
nickname = li_battleship_turret02
ids_name = 263380
ids_info = 264380
DA_archetype = equipment\models\turret\li_turret02.cmp
material_library = equipment\models\li_turret.mat

There we go again - look where that location is....

Argh....I didn't explain my question adequately.

I'm still trying to install the CMP and MAT exporter dll's. I don't know what directory I'm supposed to place them in.

Thanks.

YOu mean for milkshape? I just put em in teh milkshape directory - it seemed to work - but not sure if thats what you mean

Can anyone take a look at my post called "My faction..." ?
I'm still anoyed with this and need help.
Thanx in advance !

To whoever can help me,
I am a beginning modder (n00b) and have a few questions. I've only read to about page 20-ish in this thread, so if it's allready been asked give me a link and feel free to verbally abuse me over the net. Right! Here we are:
1.) I made a system in FLE and put a base behind my sun, when I fly to my base in Go-To mode with a waypoint, I don't automatically turn and fly around the sun corona like in pre-made systems; I just slam into it a fry like a hot fritter. Is there some kind of exclusion zone I can add to make things easier??
2.) Does anyone know of a editing program or some sort of converter so I can somehow edit .3db files?
3.) Is it possible to make a mod that changes Trents outfit, and is compatible with old saved game files. Because each saved game holds a copy of what Trent is supposed to look like. Please help! Thank you very much in advance.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The boy stood on the burning deck,
eating peanuts by the peck.
They called him but he would not go,
because he loved his peanuts so.

Another question :
Is this possible to make base's npcs to always say something to you ?
Cause mine are half the time saying that "everything is ok" and don't give me any rumors or missions...
Sounds like a newbie question so i asked it here !
It has possilby already been answered, sorry if it's true !

To Joe_Sixpack :
1) Check if there is a zone called "your system _Sun1_death". If so, check its size : it should be higher than 10000.
2) There is only a CMP converter. I've never seen one that cares of 3db, as the cmp is a compilation of 3db files.
3) Well, Trent's costume reference is in the saved game. So if you rename the trent's costume file to anything you want, and rename the costume file you want Trent to use to the Tren's one's name. Errr... it's not very clear... Maybe an exemple could help :
pl_trent_body.dfm <-- this is the Trent's body
li_scrote_body.dfm <-- this is the Navy's

Rename pl_trent_body.dfm to whatever you want .dfm.
Rename li_scrote_body.dfm to pl_trent_body.dfm.

Simple isn't it ?

Edited by - Archangel on 5/23/2004 12:58:36 PM

I think the "sometimes they do, sometimes they don't" is an inbuilt feature. I've made many bases myself, and in some of them I've had just one person with all the rumours, and this and that, but some of them still say nothing. Although the Bartender will always have something to say, either info or a bribe, at least in most "proper" bases ie not the monkey planet