Tired of having to shift ship selling points?
Bored of using Ioncross to just get a different ship?
Try this simple (enough) technique:
First of all, find the ship you want to use in the Shiparch.ini file. Microsoft Games/Freelancer/DATA/SHIPS/Shiparch.ini
Using the search function (ctrl-f) find the ship you want.
Capital ships etc for the houses tend to be listed with their house tag beforehand plus the dsy tag.
Eg, dsy_rh_battleship is the Rheinland Battleship.
If you were to search for Rheinland Battleship, nothing would come up.
Search for rh and you will get it eventually, though it probably would be better to type battleship instead if you want to do it that way.
Most new Disco ships have their name listed in the shiparch file as the actual ship or the ship nickname.
The Nickname part of the data that you see is the important aspect in this case.
Eg.
You now go to your DATA folder again and to the MISSIONS folder, then M13 folder and the M13.ini file.
Go into the M13.ini file and change the name of the ship mentioned there AND the msn_player_loadout.
I have changed mine to the Rheinland Battleship in the picture, you should have something along the lines of ge_fighter etc. Also change the msn_player_loadout to rh_battleship (Haven't done that in the picture but it is needed)
Now remember to SAVE YOUR CHANGES!
If you encounter issues with saving (it claiming it can't etc) then go back and right click on the M13.ini file in the M13 folder. Go to properties and UNTICK THE READ ONLY BOX!
FLMM has a tendancy of making all modified files read only, so people can't modify them mid game etc. Don't worry, it won't cause any issues when the read only box is unticked.
Now load up Freelancer.
Go to New Game.
Enjoy your ship.
(Warning, certain ships may have issues undocking)
It won't have any weapons on it save 2 Justive MK1s if it can mount them.
If you want a different starting loadout (What you start with etc) simply change the msn_player_loadout to something else in the M13 file. (Not sure on that however)
Looks complicated but this is infact really really easy when you get the hang of it.
Hope this helps:)
Er, if you encounter any errors such as your ship not responding properly etc, do tell.
I've a feeling the loadout gives it an engine too weak to cope with the larger mass of capital ships.