[quote=' Wrote:I've started editing and creating systems myself recently, and as I'm using the same program that most of you are using - Freelancer Explorer - I guess it's worth to mention a few points that should not be forgotten.
First of all, a general point - Freelancer Explorer is far from ideal. Even though FLExplorer often seems very convenient and easy to use, you'll still edit many things manually. So,..
New system = shortest_illegal_path.ini, systems_shortest_path.ini and universe.ini generated by FL Explorer + Separate folder in \Universe\Systems\ with .inis for system itself, bases and rooms + Jump holes from other systems, entries in other system .inis + Infocards.
1) Object Placement
Explorer does not allow you to move objects by Z axis, down and up. I don't insist on making a totally 3d systems, this will be too unlike original systems, but adding a bit of 3d touch will be nice as original systems are generally 2d. So you'll have to add depth to objects manually.
How you make 3d object placement look nice and logical? Easy. First of all, do not make bases and settled planets too far away from Z=0. If you do, make sure to give clues how to get to them.
Placing large solars, like suns and planets, far below other solars will make navigation confusing. Players are used to the fact that objects are all in one plane. Imagine a planet 50k above Manhattan for example. Nice? Yes, but if you never dogfight above Manhattan or nearby you'll never even see it. Generally objects that are down from player and up from player are not seen. Solution? Move those objects to remote places of the system.
2) Zones
What if you create a sun in FLExplorer and move it 8 km above Z=0? Well, fine, but don't forget to move death zone along with it.
Note about asteroid field+nebula objects (like Badlands, or many ice clouds). I've read that placing two ellipsoids in one place causes crashes. So I usually move centers of two objects some 50 units away from each other (for example, one is 40000, -4000, -70000; another is 40050, -4000, -70050).
3) System Size
Don't make large Border and Edge World systems! Better make smaller more dense one, with more objects etc., that's why players love existing Border Worlds.
4) Sun(s)
Don't forget death zones.
Add rings to sun if you wish. The good way to do this is to place a ringed planet inside a star (I'm not absolutely sure if it works, but it should).
Take care when creating multiple suns. A red giant near a blue dwarf may be astronomically explainable. But it doesn't look very good in most environments.
5) Planets
Do not add spin. I'll make a standalone Spinning Planets mod for Discovery. The spin should be low, like original planets.
Rings? rings are good, but when adding them you'd better check if the ring .ini you are going to use has 2nd entry for what the ring contains. Otherwise flying through your ring will be an annoying experience - for example, a lava.ini ring looks like a transparent plastic disc that you can fly through. On the other hand, rings like Fuchu.ini and Ross.ini contain asteroids within.
Ring angle is a major problem, I was unable to figure out how to make it exactly the way I want. I suggest using angles from existing rings and test, sooner or later you'll find the version that you like.
6) Bases
That's where you should use FLExplorer as much as you can. Lazy to add all NPCs with custom names? Copy existing base NPCs and rooms in FLExplorer. There's nothing too bad about it, however don't forget that copying planet rooms into a base is a bad habit, and vice versa. Wanna window with LA cityscape in commodity trading room of a remote asteroid base ? Well, if you explain how these guys live in a matrix...
To make a real good base, however, you'll need custom NPC names, rumors and descriptions. Read further for additional explanation on infocards.
Base = universe.ini entry + (separate .ini within your system folder + rooms, at least 2 room .inis should be present) + mBases.ini entry + market_ships.ini, _commodities.ini, _misc.ini + optional nebula and asteroid fields .inis.
For \Interface\InfocardMap.ini
7) Nebulas and asteroid fields
That's a complicated part.
Nebula/field entries are found in primary system .ini file, like all other objects. But these objects will need new .ini files that will be located in \Solar\Asteroids or \Solar\Nebula. Or both, if you are making a nebula+asteroid field (which is good).
There must be two sections for each nebula/field in system .ini file - [Asteroids] or [Nebula] and [Zone]. [Zone] in system .ini file determine size, placement of the nebula zone and encounters within. [Asteroids] or [Nebula] is located in the beginning of the file, there you should provide a link between a zone and nebula/field separate .ini file. Like this
[Asteroids]
file = solar\asteroids\Ys01_Your_ice_asteroid_field.ini
zone = Zone_Ys01_Your_ice_asteroid_field
If the Ys01_Your_ice_asteroid_field.ini file does not exist or if the zone does not exist, you'll get crashes when trying to get to new system.
Ys01_Your_ice_asteroid_field.ini is the file where properties of your field are specified. You'll probably want one of the existing asteroid fields for this. But why not link your zone to an existing asteroid field .ini, like iw04_corcovado_ice_crystal_field.ini, without creating a new one? Reason is simple: the file for Corcovado contains
[Exclusion Zones]
section that specifies zones in Iw04 system that should be excluded from the nebula. These zones surely don't exist in your system, therefore you'll get crashes - to resolve it, make a copy of iw04_corcovado_ice_crystal_field.ini (if you want to use this pattern), rename it to Ys01_Your_ice_asteroid_field.ini and then delete, comment out or change all entries in [Exclusion Zones] section. If you ever added jump holes with FLExplorer, you've probably noticed that it places small zones around the jump hole. You may add these zones to [Exclusion Zones] if jump hole is located inside a specific field. This is a good way to clear area around the jump hole from asteroids. It's a good idea to exclude zones for smaller fields within the larger field, zones for planets, suns, bases and other objects.
8) Encounters
I won't get into depth with encounters right now, just the basics...
Encounters are located in system .ini and consists of two essential parts.
[EncounterParameters]
nickname = area_nomads - Nickname that you'll use for encounter
filename = missions\encounters\area_nomads.ini - File with encounter properties
+
[Zone]
...
toughness = 19 - Level of encounter (for original Freelancer 19 is max)
density = 5 - How many ships may be in one location at one time. Set up to 25-30 for huge battles.
repop_time = 20 - Time between ships respawn
max_battle_size = 8 - Unknown, but I prefer to set it equal to Density.
pop_type = nonlootable_ast_field - Type of population
relief_time = 25 - Time between ships respawn (?)
faction_weight = fc_n_grp, 5
faction_weight = li_n_grp, 2 - List of factions and their 'influence' in the zone.
encounter = area_nomads, 19, 0.250000
faction = fc_n_grp, 1.000000
encounter = area_assault, 19, 0.150000 - Encounter nickname, level and % chance of spawn.
faction = li_n_grp, 1.000000 - Factions, you may list several "faction = " for each "encounter = ". Number is % chance of spawn, this time it's 100% Liberty Navy. You may set several faction here, but sum of chance numbers must not exceed 1 (100%).
9) Infocards
Install and use fled-ids. Don't trust FLExplorer in name assigning.
Discovery infocard numbers:
476*** - Capital ships
5000** - New ships
5004** - New commodities
501*** - New systems
DO NOT add names and info with the same number. In several cases it might be unsafe. Better keep them apart.
That's all for now, will add more later.
10) Reference
System coordinates
-- | +-
---+---->
-+ | ++
Angles
180
|
-90 ---+---- 90
|
0
' Wrote:This tutorial is meant to be a brief source of information for everyone willing to create their own systems for Discovery mod. You may also use this info for editing any other systems, but most information presented here is Discovery-specific.
Part I. Basics
Freelancer Explorer (FLE) is a free tool that allows to edit systems in Freelancer. Since it's free, it is far from ideal, but this program is effective in many ways and... well, it's the only one we can use.
I. Opening Discovery in FLE
If you try to open Discovery mod directly, you won't succeed since FLE will crash. This happens due to additional files that are present in Discovery package. Besides, I won't recommend to edit Discovery 'original' files since you'll need backup copy to review changes you've made.
So, what's needed to open Discovery in FLE?
1) Open FLMM mods folder (usually C:\Program Files\Freelancer Mod Manager\mods) and create a new folder with a name like 'EditDiscovery'.
2) Open Discovery mod folder in FLMM mods. You'll see 4 folders and 6 files (for 4.81). Copy only two folders:
\DATA
\EXE
into EditDiscovery.
3) Launch Freelancer Explorer. You will see a 'Do you want to continue editing an existing Mod?' dialog, choose Yes. Then you may see another dialog, 'The dll DSSYSTEMS.DLL has the explorer signature. Do you want to add names to it if necessary?'. Choose No.
4) Select DiscoveryEdit foder and open it.
You will see a huge universe map of Discovery. Ready to start?
II. Getting Around
There are 342 systems total (18x19) in Discovery, 289 of them are added by the mod. 53 systems are original.
When you point your mouse at one of the systems, you'll see its code (IW14 in our screenshot) at the top of the window, and its name (Cassini) near the system itself.
In the right of FLE window you will see system description infocard.
When you right-click any system, you will see a dropdown menu and several options in it. To edit Discovery systems, use only Edit, all other options are completely useless.
When you select Edit, a system editing screen will appear. On this screen, most of system creation and editing takes place, so you should be attentive to every element it has.
Here's what a typical empty Discovery system looks like:
We will return to this later, and now... how do you know what system to edit? For this, I will share a part of Discovery design document, part responsible for systems. You can get the file here:
This file contains all systems, both original and Discovery, in one large list. There are several columns in the file, and I'll explain briefly what each one means.
Column A = Code of the system
Code is the main attribute of a system, it determines the name of system folder in \DATA\Universe\Systems. Code is also listed in system ini and in a number of other ini files.
There are several codes in Freelancer, and I did not add any new ones. In DiscoveryDesign.xls codes are listed alphabetically:
BR** - Bretonia
BW** - Border Worlds
EW** - Edge Worlds
FP7 - Freeport 7
HI** - Hispania (Outcasts and Corsairs)
IW** - Independent Worlds (worlds between Houses and Liberty)
KU** - Kusari
LI** - Liberty
RH** - Rheinland
ST** - Omicron (Nomand and Order worlds)
** is a number of system in each code group. First numbers belong to original systems, following numbers belong to Discovery systems. You will see the division clearly in system list.
Column B = Name of the system
Players don't see code, they see only the name. Name is an infocard string stored somewhere in Discovery.dll.
Column C = Infocard
This is the number of infocard where system name is stored. And also the beginning of infocard list for every new system. There are 100 infocards reserved per each system, more than enough for a basic layout.
For example, Huygens system with code IW13 (Liberty Rogue faction system) has its infocard at 465500. Next comes Cassini with code IW14, infocard number is 465600.
465600 is system name (Cassini).
465601 is system description.
All of the following numbers are free, unless there are other objects in the system. So you may add new names/descriptions with number 465602, 465603 etc., until you reach 465700 (Tau-111 infocards start here).
I will explain how to add names later, and now let's proceed with the xls file.
Columns D, E, F = Starspheres of existing systems
You needn't change the starspheres, but if you would like to, here's your reference.
Column G = Suns
Type of sun for each system. More information about suns is available from 'Suns' sheet in the xls document.
Column H = Factions
If the system belongs to some specific faction, this faction is listed here.
Next columns may contain some additional numbers that I used for technical purposes.
This is all for now, I'm locking this thread and will unlock/add/edit it later when I'll have time. If you find it necessary to comment or ask on this post, start another thread or PM me.
' Wrote:Well, you aint a hotshot till you learn this foo.
This is a simple tutorial that should help one and all to make custom hitboxes for their ship models they create. one of the reasons of this tutorial is, you dont have to rely on a few number of people to make so many hitboxes, but anyone can learn and do em.
Making hitboxes is not hard whatsoever. trust me, if you can model, you CAN hitbox. to make things VERY simple for you, here is a download for the most essential tools i use (and you will use too in due course of time):
To install the milkshapes, simply run the installer, and follow the instructions to install. Once the software are done installing, its better if you register them. since both versions have their own keygens, you can proceed with registering the products safely. just remember, you CANNOT have the keygens running while you try to register your milkshape, it just wont work, so your best option is to write down the name you use and the key generated and enter it manually AFTER CLOSING THE KEYGEN.
To install the .dll files, simply open the folders where milkshape is installed. for example, the default location will most probably be C:/Program Files/Milkshape *version number*/
just copy + paste the .dlls into the folder, and close it. restart milkshape if you have it running, and when you open it after installing the .dlls, you should find the plugins working (check the File < import and export tabs to see that the plugins worked, and check the Tools tab to see if the convex tool plugin worked).
------------------------
Creating hitboxes for ships, or that matter anything in freelancer is easy. just remember one key point- you CANNOT have concave shapes in any hitbox you make. concave shapes render the hitbox useless (Freelancer's game engine seems to hate concave shapes). This is where the convex tool comes handy. no matter what shape you create, once your done with the task, select the box/cylinder/sphere you made, and click on the Tools tab, and then the Convex tool, and watch the magic of the tool unfold. if your shape has any concave shapes, it will beat it into a convex.
Right. to work then! Lets have a look at our interface first eh? Generally when doing hitboxes for freelancer, its best to stick to boxes and cylinders. spheres are rather complex and tend to go wrong almost everytime if you havent got the foggiest what your doing.
in this example, i will show how to make a hitbox for the infamous lane hacker gunship, model created by none other than our own Dude42. the first step will involve importing the CMP. after all, without the CMP, you cant really make a good fitting hitbox can you? we are'nt magicians!
by clicking on the CMP importer, a new window opens as the screenshot below shows. click on the Model button, and locate where the CMP for the hacker gunship is located. open it, and click import. having done that, you will now see an object fill the four small windows of milkshape.
normally, the first thing i do is click on the materials tab in the top right corner, and create a new material. i chose blue to help me differentiate between model and hitbox. you can choose any colour of your choice. the next step i normally do is save the current project. as Angel of Mercy suggested, i followed suit- i name all my projects in this format: *name*_sur. so in this case, it would be named something like Hacker gunship_sur, but you can choose any naming convention that fits your need.
now, lets begin making the actual hitbox. as you can see in the image below, i have used a series of cylinders and boxes to create a hitbox that covers the model rather well (there are a few parts of the model that can be seen through the hitbox, but regardless, if the hitbox works, the shots will register)
heres a screenshot of the completed hitbox:
however, to be on the safe side, im going to use the convex tool over my hitbox just to make sure that there is no concave shape in the hitbox ive created. notice how the hitbox i created is covered by a new set of boxes and cylinders, and notice in the groups list, you have names such as 'box01 convex', and 'cylinder01 convex'. this means that the convex tool worked its magic and edited the boxes and cylinders you made to make sure they remain convex. you can now delete the older boxes and cylinders you made, and select all the new boxes and cylinders that have the addition 'convex' to their name. once you select all the boxes/cylinders, save your work.
Congratulations, you have completed making a custom hitbox for your ship/model/base/etc. now, the second step. you need to export the model you made as a .SUR so that it works as a hitbox.
---------------------
You will need to delete any and all objects that are NOT part of your hitbox (in other words, the CMP needs to be deleted, not the boxes/cylinders you made to represent the hitbox) once you do that, click on the groups tag, and while having all your objects selected (done via ctrl + A, or by going to the Edit tab and finding the option in the list), you need to group them together. this is done by clicking on the Assign button above all the number buttons, and then clicking on the number 1. if done correctly, when you click click the 'Select' button, and then click on the number 1 button, you will be able to select all the groups you made altogether (since they are grouped as 1).
next step involves exporting the hitbox. click on File > Export > Sur Exporter 1.1, and you see a new window open up, with loads of options to tinker with before you end up exporting the hitbox.
you ONLY have to edit the options that ive highlighted in the screenshot below:
1. Name of the SUR will be the same name assigned to the CMP (which you will have to locate in the freelancer directory)
2. Scale down value must always be at 1
3. The 'Back to Front' option must be selected
4. The check-box next to the 'Disable DirectX Mesh Reduction' must be selected
5. You need to fill in the correct mass of the ship you made a hitbox for. (in this case, Shiparch states that the LH gunship's mass is 300, so i filled in 300 as the value)
This is where you will need to refer to the Shiparch.ini found in the freelancer directory, since you fill in some options when trying to export your custom hitbox. I normally export the hitbox to the desktop so its easily found, and would suggest you do the same. apparently, exporting the hitbox directly to the folder where the CMP (and old SUR) is present doesnt seem to work.
You're nearly done now! all you have to do is resize the hitbox using the fl Model tool i provided you in the .RAR To start off, you need to open the freelancer directory to where the CMP for the ship is located (in this case, since it is the hacker gunship, i open dude42's folder). copy and paste the hitbox you made into this folder, replacing the older hitbox with your new one. if you have hard CMP installed, you can open the CMP for the gunship and check the new hitbox. if you exported the SUR correctly, you should see the custom hitbox you made for the ship.
open the FL model tool, and in the CMP tab, open the CMP for the hacker gunship. in the SUR tab, open the custom hitbox you made. Click the Resize button. you should see a new window open up. click on the Scenery button in the 'SUR type' option, nothing else, and click OK, and then save it. you will get a prompt asking if you wish to replace the original. click yes, and close the fl model tool. if done correctly, you are now done making a custom hitbox for your ship, and it should work in game just well. congratulations, you are now officially a hotshot! *thumbs up*
---------------
things to remember:
Only fighters will use a shield bubble. shield bubbles for any capital ships you see will be disregarded by freelancer, since in game, any capital ship is classed as a freighter, and freighters use the actual hitbox as both a shield bubble AND actual hull- hitbox.
even though the convex tool helps remove concave areas, try to stick to making rough convex shapes. remember, tools are there to help and fix errors, not redo all your work for you if you screw it up.
always save your work on a regular basis. the worst thing that could happen to you is you putting collosal effort to get something done, and in the end you lose it all by some accident and your failure to save it.
if you decide to take up modelling ships or bases for freelancer, do try to make a hitbox for it. after all, all those beautiful models you make deserve an excellent hitbox, not some shabby makeshift and awefully deformed and disfigured hitbox nicked from another ship model.
if you decide that this tutorial helps ya, ill give you a cyber cookie.
Hope it helps, happy hitboxing!
Oh and i almost forgot. CREDITS!
yes, i didnt learn this all by myself, instead i had a variety of mentors too. Treewyrm (Yuri), Angel of Mercy (Ringo), and Silent Assasin (Chris) all helped me on my learning curve, and id like to thank em for it. kudos, dudes!
' Wrote:As I have said said in other threads I have been helping in the conceptual department on another mod called Shattered Worlds. Since it was SW's goal to be a completely vanilla mod I have contacted various Discovery ship wrights for permission to use their work so that since there are many great FL artists in this community. Part of the deal we made with the modelers was to exchange working custom .SUR's and tools required to make them.
Since there is a high demand among all teh members or discovery to know how to fix .SUR's, the knowledge is yours. It is only fair since are using a portion of your ship. Cudos to anyone brave enough to try this, from what I understand sur's can be finicky and take allot of trial and error.
This tutorial was written by SW mod leader Foresaken.
Quote:This tut is not for the weak of heart. This isn't the only way to make SUR's either. There are those that think that this method is BS, but it works... and this is the best way to make EXACT matching SURS. Ive made over 50+ SURs for ships and they all seem to be working great. I SOOOOO hope someone takes the time to learn this. If you can do it, you will be one of the few in the FL community that can, and we can drink shots together and talk about the making SUR's lmao j/k...
' Wrote:This is a tutorial that will help everyone willing to participate in creation of commodities for Discovery mod. Or, to be more precise, not commodities but trading routes for those. If you will do good, then your routes will be included into the final version of Discovery - after my checks and modifications, of course.
I.
Trading routes for new Discovery commodities (well, most of them) is located in a Goods.xml file that you will find in Discovery mod folder root. This file is processed by FLMM - information from it is extracted into market_commodities.ini file in Freelancer/DATA/EQUIPMENT folder. This file contains information about trading routes in Freelancer - what bases sell and buy certain things and what is their price on each base.
The structure of Goods.xml and market_commodities.ini is similar - each have separate sections with lists of commodities for bases. Difference is that xml file has xml syntax, and does not contain all Freelancer bases (only the most important ones, around 50% of bases total). If you need to add commodities to bases that were not yet listed in Goods.xml, you are free to do so.
Entry for each base/planet in Goods.xml looks like this:
indicates to what base will the main part be appended. Each base in Freelancer has a number like this. I will further provide full list of bases for reference.
This part:
MarketGood = commodity_marijuana, 0, -1, 0, 0, 1, 2.16000
MarketGood = commodity_passengers, 0, -1, 150, 500, 0, 1.20000
MarketGood = commodity_mlieutenant, 0, -1, 0, 0, 1, 0.80000
MarketGood = commodity_mcaptain, 0, -1, 0, 0, 1, 0.80000
MarketGood = commodity_mgeneral, 0, -1, 0, 0, 1, 0.80000
is the main one. It adds actual new commodities that the base Li01_01 will be buying and selling. This section will not replace any existing original commodities, but rather amend the original commodity list.
II.
Ok, let's go in for some more details. Look at this entry:
"MarketGood = " is the start of any commodity line.
"commodity_passengers" is the name of your commodity.
"0" - don't change.
"-1" - reputation needed to buy or sell. Do not change, it must be -1.
"150, 500, 0, " - This part indicates if the commodity is for sale or to buy.
[color=orange]150, 500, 0, means that commodity is sold on the base. 0, 0, 1, means that base buys the commodity.
If the commodity is sold, the base will buy it for the same price it sells it. If base only buys the commodity, you won't be able to buy the commodity from it - only sell.
"1.20000" - it's the last number. It indicates the price of commodity. If commodity is sold (150, 500, 0,), it will be buying and selling price. If the commodity is only bought (0, 0, 1,), it will be only buying price.
The number indicates the difference between base price for each commodity (which is fixed) and price on the particular base.
III.
So, you probably wonder where is the commodity itself? Well, the name, base price and icon for commodity are specified in two other ini files that Goods.xml does not modify. To keep it simplier for you, I'd better do those entries myself.
So, what should you do?
1) Make up a name for your commodity. For example, Armchairs.
1a) You may make some kind of description that will be displayed along with the commodity in-game, or leave this part to me. 2) Make up some a commodity id. For armchairs it should be "commodity_armchairs".
3) Specify the base price. Note that base price is the price for which all bases that you do not specify will buy your commodity, so do not make your base price high! For example, for cardamine it's 300.
You don't need to edit any files for the first three, just send me text.
Then open Goods.xml and start editing.
4) In Goods.xml, start creating trade routes by setting the commodity for sale and to buy on different bases for different prices.
For each base you are interested in, add commodity_armchairs entry to the list of new commodities, like this:
Then decide whether it will be bought or sold. There must be more places where you can sell the commodity than where you can buy it! Note that maximum prices should be only for selling - no player will buy commodity for the maximum price.
If you want armchairs to be sold on Li01_01 (which is Manhattan, by the way), add appropriate numbers to the armchairs entry:
If you want Manhattan only to buy armchairs, add other numbers:
MarketGood = commodity_armchairs, 0, -1, 0, 0, 1,
All bases where there's no entry for armchairs will buy them for the base price, and won't sell them. This is why it's very important to set base price with care.
If you want armchairs to be sold or bough by Manhattan, than you want price to be different from base price. So, you need to decide what this price will be exactly.
For example, base price on armchairs is 200. Then, if you set 0.9 as a price modifier:
DO NOT reduce sell price far below 1! It will cause players to buy the commodity and sell them at nearby bases, where price remains unmodified and much higher. For example, you add 0,1 price modifier to Manhattan and don't add entry for Trenton Outpost. This will cause players to buy armchairs for 20 on Manhattan and sell them for 200 on Trenton. To avoid this, you'll have to reduce prices on armchairs all around Liberty, which is hard to do.
It's a better idea to set low base price and add price modifiers ABOVE 1, thus multiplying buy and sell cost of any commodity.
For example, that's how you make a specific base buy armchairs for 300 credits:
If you want good trade routes (which you should want, otherwise your editing will never be used in the mod), you should think about the area or areas where the commodity will be produced, and where prices on it will be low, and areas of high demand where prices will be high. Areas of production are areas where players will buy your commodity. Areas of demand will be places where they sell them. It's better to make versatile prices to make trading more interesting, so that fewer bases have same price. The longer and more dangerous is the route, the more money difference you can make.
Avoid short and profitable routes. All routes with profit 1000 per unit and above must be long, 5-6 systems to pass or even more.
Prices within one system, especially for bases close together, must have minimum difference.
' Wrote:LIBERTY BASES
New York
Li01_01_Base - Planet Manhattan
Li01_02_Base - Planet Pittsburgh
Li01_03_Base - Battleship Missouri
Li01_04_Base - Benford Station
Li01_05_Base - Ithaca Research Station
Li01_06_Base - Trenton Outpost
Li01_07_Base - Norfolk Shipyard
Li01_08_Base - Newark Station
Li01_09_Base - West Point Military Academy
Li01_10_Base - Detroit Munitions
Li01_11_Base - Fort Bush
Li01_12_Base - Buffalo Base
Li01_13_Base - Rochester Base
Li01_14_Base - Baltimore Shipyard
Li01_15_Base - Battleship Osiris SP ONLY
California
Li02_01_Base - Planet Los Angeles
Li02_02_Base - California Minor
Li02_03_Base - Battleship Yukon
Li02_04_Base - Willard Research Station
Li02_05_Base - San Diego Border Station
Li02_06_Base - Alcatraz Depot
Colorado
Li03_01_Base - Planet Denver
Li03_02_Base - Battleship Rio Grande
Li03_03_Base - Ouray Base
Li03_04_Base - Pueblo Station
Li05_01_Base - Prison Station Mitchell BRETONIA BASES
New London
Br01_01_Base - Planet New London
Br01_02_Base - Southampton Shipyard
Br01_03_Base - Battleship Suffolk
Br01_04_Base - Waterloo Station
Br01_05_Base - Canterbury Station
Br01_06_Base - Thames Outpost
Br01_07_Base - Kensington Ship Platform
Br01_08_Base - Trafalgar Base
Manchester
Br02_01_Base - BPA Newgate
Br02_02_Base - Birmingham Station
Br02_03_Base - Sheffield Station
Br02_04_Base - Liverpool Border Station
Br02_05_Base - Kingston Border Station
Cambridge
Br03_01_Base - Planet Cambridge
Br03_02_Base - Cambridge Research Station
Br03_03_Base - Battleship Norfolk
Br03_04_Base - Cardiff Mining Facility
Leeds
Br04_01_Base - Planet Leeds
Br04_02_Base - Stokes Mining Station
Br04_03_Base - Battleship York
Br04_04_Base - Glasgow Outpost
Br04_05_Base - LD-14
Br04_06_Base - Durham Border Station
Dublin
Br05_01_Base - Battleship Hood
Br05_02_Base - Mining Station Glorious
Br05_03_Base - Graves Station
Br05_04_Base - Battleship Essex
Br05_05_Base - Arranmore Base
Edinburgh
Br06_01_Base - Luxury Liner Shetland
Br06_02_Base - Aberdeen Border Station
Br06_03_Base - Islay Base
Br06_04_Base - Perth Station KUSARI BASES
New Tokyo
Ku01_01_Base - Planet New Tokyo
Ku01_02_Base - Narita Outpost
Ku01_03_Base - Yokohama Shipyard
Ku01_04_Base - Roppongi Station
Ku01_05_Base - Shinagawa Station
Ku01_06_Base - Shinjuku Station
Ku01_07_Base - Kabukicho Depot
Ku02_01_Base - Fuchu Prison
Ku02_02_Base - Battleship Myoko
Ku02_03_Base - Deshima Station
Ku02_04_Base - Planet Junyo
Ku02_05_Base - Ohashi Border Station
Ku04_01_Base - Planet Honshu
Ku04_02_Base - Osaka Storage Facility
Ku04_03_Base - Yukawa Shipyard
Ku04_04_Base - Kansai Research Station
Ku04_05_Base - Aomori Station
Ku04_06_Base - Akita Border Station
Hokkaido
Ku05_01_Base - Battleship Matsumoto
Ku05_02_Base - Ainu Depot
Ku05_03_Base - Chugoku Gate Con Site
Ku05_04_Base - Sapporo Station
Chugoku
Ku06_01_Base - Kyoto Base
Tohoku
Ku07_01_Base - Ryuku Base
Ku07_02_Base - Tekagis Base RHEINLAND BASES
New Berlin
Rh01_01_Base - Planet New Berlin
Rh01_02_Base - Oder Shipyard
Rh01_03_Base - The Ring
Rh01_04_Base - Bonn Station
Rh01_05_Base - Dortmund Station
Rh01_06_Base - Essen Station
Rh01_07_Base - Brandenburg Border Station
Rh01_08_Base - Kreuzberg Depot
Rh03_01_Base - Planet Stuttgart
Rh03_02_Base - Planet Baden Baden
Rh03_03_Base - Freiburg Station
Rh03_04_Base - Ulm Border Station
Rh03_05_Base - Konstanz Border Station
Rh03_06_Base - Darmstadt Depot
Frankfurt
Rh04_01_Base - Planet Holstein
Rh04_02_Base - Mainz Storage Facility
Rh04_03_Base - Mannheim Station
Rh04_04_Base - Fulda Border Station
Rh04_05_Base - Bruchsal Base
Dresden
Rh05_01_Base - Leipzig Station
Rh05_02_Base - Bautzen Station
Rh05_03_Base - Pirna Border Station
Rh05_04_Base - Vogtland Base INDEPENDENT WORLDS BASES
Bering
Iw01_01_Base - Pacifica Base
Iw01_02_Base - Freeport 2
Hudson
Iw02_01_Base - Barrow Base
Iw02_02_Base - Dawson Base
Iw02_03_Base - Battleship Osiris SP ONLY
Magellan
Iw03_01_Base - Freeport 4
Iw03_02_Base - Mactan Base
Cortez
Iw04_01_Base - Planet Curacao
Iw04_02_Base - Montezuma Base
Kepler
Iw05_01_Base - Ames Research Station
Iw05_02_Base - Nome Base
Galileo
Iw06_01_Base - Leiden Base
Iw06_02_Base - Padua Base BORDER WORLDS BASES
Omega-3
Bw01_01_Base - Planet Sprague
Bw01_02_Base - Freeport 1
Bw01_03_Base - Rugen Station
Bw01_04_Base - Douglas Station
Bw01_05_Base - Baxter Research Station
Omega-5
Bw02_01_Base - Cadiz Base
Bw02_02_Base - Ronneburg Base
' Wrote:Since the ideas about new missions are floating around, I'll make a brief tutorial on how it's all done.
1. Population zones
To enable some area of system for missions, you have to add population zone there. Population zone should contain the type of NPCs against whom you are making your mission.
Population zones are created using the "Zone Population" tool in Freelancer Explorer. You can later adjust the code used for the zone, for example, change encounters and make it oval instead of round-shaped. Use pattern from other systems to do this. It's a good idea to copy some original/Discovery encounter into your zone.
2. Adding mission zones to systems
Missions cannot exist without zones where they take place. Look here:
The green zones of standard size (10000) are mission zones (so-called vignette zones). Mission zones must reside within boundaries of population zones. Size is the same for all systems, and Freelancer Explorer allows to create standard mission zones using "Mission Targets" tool.
Note that one of the zones has a small yellow exclusion zone right in the center. This zone is for stations. Its size is 600, and it should be located precisely in the center of the mission zone (optional).
This code would be the same for all such zones: shape = SPHERE
size = 10000
sort = 99.500000
And all the rest FLEx will prompt you to set up.
"Mission Targets" has two sets of parameters.
First set is related to location of the zone:
1. exclusion - zone in an asteroid field with an exclusion zone in the center
2. open - zone in open space (and possibly nebulas as well)
3. field - zone in asteroid field
Second set is related to lawful/unlawful status, it's possible not to use it at all, or experiment with different values depending on the faction(s) you are creating your mission(s) for.
3. Adding missions to mbases.ini
Specified in the base faction parameters located in the start of mbases.ini entry for each base. For example:
Let's look on one of the entries: mission_type = DestroyMission, 0.000000, 0.112387, 30
"mission_type = DestroyMission" is standard for them all.
"0.000000, 0.112387" specify complexity of mission. The numbers should be copied from the base that you use as "pattern for complexity". So, if it's very easy, you use Manhattan and Liberty stations, if it's most complicated, use Malta, Crete or Tripoli etc.
Last number ("30") is percentage of missions that particular faction will give out on this base. If there's one faction, put 100 there like on Malta. If there's more than 1, you can set the share of each faction. Sum must be 100, and I won't suggest to put 0 there. So, it could be 10+90, or 50+50, or 20+20+20+20+20.
' Wrote:To give the models a bit more realistic view it will be nice especially for windows, nozzles and other parts of the skin to have glowing characteristics.
Therefore i made this small tutorial. The Base was the tutorial made by Argh on lancersreactor.com.
So try and enjoy the results or flame me, if this tutorial isn't to understand.
1. You will need the UTF editor available on lancersreactor.
2. In the UTF editor load the Mat file. You will see two nodes : "material library" and "texture library". You will need the "material library" only.
3. Open the "material library" and you will see all textures as subnodes.
4. Open the texture you want to glow. For example: "CorsairWindow01", which is one of my window textures. You will see another three subnodes: "Dt_flags", "Dt_name" and "type".
5. Add three more nodes to the existing three and name them "Et_flags", "Et_name" and "Ec". Therefore in UTF editor you have the button "Add nodes".
It should look like:
material library
|------------CorsairWindow01
.................|----------Dt_flags
.................|----------Dt_name
.................|----------type
.................|----------Et_flags
.................|----------Et_name
.................|----------Ec
6. Click "Dt_flags" and hit the edit button. Copy all values into "Et_flags" and hit the "Update" button. Do the same with the values of Dt_name. Copy them into Et_name.
7. For Ec (emissive channels) you will need to edit three values manually for the RGB channels.
1.000000 (red)
1.000000 (green)
1.000000 (blue)
This setting means the brightest white, but please avoid values of 1.00000, because it may produce game crashes.
Better is:
0.800000
0.800000
0.800000
Thats it. Everything else is up to you and the emitted colors you want. I show you one more example.
For Zoner Destroyer windows i used Rheinland capship windows and these are my settings for the RGB values:
0.700000
0.800000
0.600000
This is a light yellow with a small green touch.
To get the best color value it is helpful to open Photoshop, GIMP or whatever you have to edit images. Go in the color settings. The bright white will be shown there as:
255 (1.000000 in UTF editor)
255 (1.000000 in UTF editor)
255 (1.000000 in UTF editor)
Now set the color in your image editing program as you want, then use a bit of mathematics to enter the value in UTF editor.
For example my Zoner Destroyer windows again:
0.700000 in UTF editor = 179 in Photoshop, GIMP and so on for red channel value.
0.800000 in UTF editor = 204 in Photoshop, GIMP and so on for green channel value.
0.600000 in UTF editor = 153 in Photoshop, GIMP and so on for blue channel value.
Just one word of advise: Textures you want emissive characteristics for, avoid dark colors. They cannot emit light.
Finally save the overworked mat file and test it in HardCMP or in-game.
Hope this tutorial is easy to understand and helpful.
' Wrote:A very small part of my upcoming ship design/making guide, this little article covers one very small but also very important aspect of ship design and looks, namely smoothing groups and how they work in Freelancer.
---
Surface smoothing is a technique used to create seemingly smooth, curved, relation between two and more polygons by grouping them into smooth groups. Most 3D modeling packages have this feature, and support it one way or another.
Freelancer supports surface smoothing but there is a difference in the way it works. Interestingly enough instead of grouping surfaces use UVW mapping to determine which polygons to group. I do not know whether it is because of 3DB/CMP exporter or is it how things work in Freelancer, but fact remains the same. Basically the rule is that if two adjacent polygons share edge in UVW map it will be smoothed. Break it and the shared edge will become hard. It's pretty simple.
Here is illustration to show you exactly. Bold green edges are UVW seams, they are hard edges. Thin white edges are smoothed in the resulting model in game, they are soft edges. I've also turned on hidden edges so you can see them as well.
Notice the short trim on the side across the main hull, as you can see shared edges are white and merged in UVW map, in the in-game model they will be smoothed, while bold green edges will be hard.
Knowing this you can now avoid unwanted smoothing and switch edges between soft and hard modes where you need them to be. Unlike smoothing groups in 3D modeling packages this method used in Freelancer has many limitations and in general requires specific approach to ship skinning. As I've already told before developers did not really skin those ships, instead they had many small seamless textures they used to give surfaces specific patterns, and through careful texture mapping creating the ships in the original game.
You can verify smoothing groups without going into game by importing back from CMP your model to Milkshape 3D.
Here is the Seth Karlo handy guide at how to get any ship into SP. I accept no responsibility AT ALL if it messes up or CTD's.
Right, I am going to show you how to put a Spatial into open SP. Reason? I just did it so I could fly around in the spatial blowing up Tekagi's forces (Forgot how much fun that was).
Ok, things you will need:
-Ioncross Character Editor. (Available from my FL pack)
-Disco Ioncross files (Available in your mod)
-Notepad
Ok, go to Start>My Computer. Then to Program Files>Freelancer Mod Manager. Then Mods>Discovery484>IONCROSS
Select all the files in that folder and COPY them. Now go back to program files. Go to Program Files>IONCROSS Character Editor.
Paste those files here. Overwrite when nessacery.
Now, open IONCROSS Char editor, select which ship you want etc etc, it's pretty user friendly. I selected the Spatial, gave it a couple of Excaliburs, couple of Archangels, 2 Nuke Mines, a SN cannon, Infinite powercore.
Now, save your changes. DO NOT START THE GAME YET.
Spatial, like Gunboats, Cruisers and Battleships etc, is "big". I.E.: Freelancer doesn't let it use Docking rings or ordinary docking bays.
What we're going to do is fool it into thinking it can.
Go to your Freelancer Directory (Usually Program Files>Microsoft Games>Freelancer)
Go to Freelancer>DATA>SHIPS and locate a file called Shiparch.INI.
Right click on it, select properties and uncheck "Read-Only".
Now open it. Press Ctrl+F, and type in "Spatial". Voila! There is the Entry for the Spatial (It'll say dsy_spatial)
Underneath that will be a bunch of data, skim through it until you see the words "can_use_med_moors". Itshould be about 5 lines under dsy_spatial.
Now, change "can_use_med_moors" into "can_use_berths"
Save.
NOW open the game and play to your hearts content. Your ship can now use docking rings, and FL will try and put it into regular docking bays.
Therefore, using a Battleship won't really work... I think...
If you get stuck when docking, after about 10 seconds press Esc, and it SHOULD skip it, and send you straight in. Also, try and quick dock.
Good luck guys, and REMEMBER TO CHANGE IT BACK BEFORE YOU PLAY ONLINE!!!
Or even better, save a copy of shiparch somewhere before you edit it.
Seth Some basic INI editing tutorials
To start we shall change where a ship is sold.
BACKUP market_ships FIRST!!!!!
Required tools:
-Notepad
Goto your Freelancer directory (Program Files>Microsoft Games>Freelancer) and proceed to DATA>Equipment.
Within we will find a file called market_ships.ini. Right click, and select Properties. Uncheck the "read only" button. Close Properties.
Lets open it.
You will see a list of bases, in their INI code, and then underneath a list of ships that are sold at that base.
WARNING: NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER put more than 3 ships at a base. EVER. FL can't handle it.
Anyway, where were we? Ah yes. Scroll down until you find Planet Manhattan. It will be called li01_01 (I think, not on a PC with it on atm)
Underneath it will be 3 "packages". The first will be the Startracker, then the Patriot, then the CSV. Note afterwards there are a series of numbers. Don't alter them for now, I'll explain more about what they do later.
Now, think of a ship you want to move to Manhattan. I thought the Titan would be nice, so I proceeded to planet Crete and looked under it. (Will post a list of codes tonight after work)
There will be the titan package. It will be called dsy_titan or summat. Copy ALL of the code and return to the manhattan entry.
Remember what I said about 3 ships max per base? Well, we need to remove one of the others then. I usualy remove the CSV, but whatever takes your fancy.
Paste the titan entry in over top of whichever ship you don't want anymore. Examples will be up later:)
Save, and then proceed in game (NOT on disco server) The titan will now be sold on Manhattan. Enjoy!
Will put more INI editing tut's up later.
How to put a ship you've made ingame
Oh yes, this IS a big one. Make sure you have the folowing:
Right then, I've realised that the ship making tutorial in my pack is being used without the owner's permission, and I am unable to locate him or email him, so it won't be in the next update of the flPack. However, I am now writing my own.
Lets assume you have made your ship in GMAX. I like this program, and it's in my FlPack, so it's nice and simple to get hold of.
Open Gmax, and open your ship that you have made. Give it a name now. I'm going to call mine PwnShip. So, for the purposes of this tutorial, wherever you see PwnShip, replace it with whatever name you've given your ship.
Save your ship first. Trust me, Exporter's can be a pain.
Then, goto File>Export and export your ship either in MD3, or .3ds format. .3ds is nice becuase almost every single model making program supports it.
So export PwnShip.3ds in My Documents. Trust me when I say that the programs will try and save them in the stupidest places on your PC.
Now, open my FLPack and find Ms3d. Milkshape 3D is a very powerful program that is useful to our needs. However, trying to Model in it is about as painful as rubbing your *ahem* private parts against a cheese grater for half an hour. Trust me, Don't.
So, goto File>Import and select .3DS. Find your ship. Oh yes, there it is in My documents where we left it. Perfect. Import it and Voila! There is PwnShip in all it's glory.
Now we need to Texture it. Texture's are made up of .TGA files that are overlapped onto the ship model. Ms3d label's them as "Materials".
Firstly though, if you exported/Imported using .MD3, this next part should be nice and easy for you, as all of the groups you made when creating your model should all still be under the "Groups" tab. (Cylinder 1/Cube 2 etc etc)
If you used .3DS, you have a painful job ahead of you. Use the select tool to select a group of faces and press Ctrl + D to duplicate them. They will appear in the Groups tab as duplicate 1. Rename it to whatever you want, and continue until your model is split up into your groups.
Now to texture!
I decided that PwnShip will have a Libertonian look, so I will use Libertonian textures, however, there are 2 way's of getting our textures:
From the Texture's already in FL
You need to get hold of a program called the Freelancer UTF editor. (Will link later) This program is incredible.
So then, open it up and select "open". Goto your Freelancer folder and then to DATA>SHIPS. Here you make your decision.
For Bretonian Textures, goto SHIPS>Bretonia and open playerships.MAT
For Libertonian Textures, goto SHIPS>Liberty and open playerships.MAT
For Rhienland Textures, goto SHIPS>Rhienland and open playerships.MAT
For Kusari Textures, goto SHIPS>Kusari and open playerships.MAT
For Outcast Textures...you get it.
So, open your .MAT file. In the UTF editor you'll see a tree and then 2 branches. Not literally, but that's what the folder and sub folder's are called.
Expand the Texture library folder, and there will be several textures there. Texture's can either be in .TGA format or .DDS format.
.DDS is Soooooooo much nicer to work with.
expand any branches, and select either MIPS (.dds file) or MIP0 (.TGA file)
As you might be able to see, the .TGA files are actually not one file. There are 8. TGA0 to TGA7.
Oh yes, now you see why .DDS is nicer? There is 1 .DDS file to every 8 .TGA files.
' Wrote:As you might know i am currently busy rendering all freelancer discovery 4.84 ships in high quality and high resolution. Thread
Since this might take a while, i decided to make and post up a tutorial on how to do it yourself. There are some things you need, of which a .cmp importer/exporter. You can find this here. After downloading, just extract and copy the file to the milkshape installation folder; default: "C:\Program Files\Milkshape 3D 1.8.4"
It is possible to create female dealers and bartenders. Each NPC has a "fidget script", different for males and females, that doesn't work with body (NPC model) of opposite sex. Your common NPCs lounging in bars are automatically assigned the right script for their sex, but dealers use scripts from scripts\vendors\ that are all male. There is an entry in mBases.ini linking to that script for individual dealer NPCs. We can change it to use a female script and allow us to make a female dealer.
The bolded part is a path to the fidget script. To make this NPC (li0101_fix_bartender - Manhattan bartender) a female, we just link it to a female standing fidget script. These are scripts\extras\fidget_stand_female_01.thn to scripts\extras\fidget_stand_female_06.thn (numbers 01, 02, ... 06).
This is all you need to get a female dealer working, assuming you use a female model and voice on the actual NPC, but that is quite a different story;)