Posts by AestheticDemon

Strictly speaking, animated cargo bay doors are a fairly low priority, getting the main sur to take hits is far more important, as for the need for a multi part sur, I wonder, some of the vanilla turrets for example have scfire anims, but only have single part surs as the anims take place entirly with in the boundry of the sur, soooooo....

If the bay doors fold INWARDS, they dont need their own surs but can hapliy animate within the main hull's sur?

Frankly, if the worst comes to the worst, I'll just make the doors a fixed part of the main mesh, baydoor anims are icing on the cake.

So, real question, could the failure to pick up hits in the center of the ship be a radius problem?, or something else?

Quote from SWAT_OP-R8R

i assume that its a spliced sur - right?

Nope, custom fit sur mesh, made, as was the ship mesh, in C4D, then exported to Milkshape for fl format conversion.

Single skin, the sur exporter added a 'shrink wrap' style large ship shield around that, loads fine in hardcmp, all seems to be there, and it doies seem to pick up hits and collisions at the extremities...

There is an animation node in the cmp, but I havnt edited it yet to change it from the mesh names of the source ship (li-freighter baydoor1 baydoor2) to the meshes on the new ship (ad-dest-01-bay-port ad-dest-01-bay-star) since cargobay doors wernt my first priority. the mesh names all seem to be ok, first thing i checked.

The cmp files UTF tree

Nah, cargo bay doors, two of em, 15m long 2.5m wide each are on the underbelly, in the belly between the lower for and aft turrets. Cargobay is big enough you could carry a Liberty Patriot in there without scratching the paintwork...

Just an FYI...

Master or Orion was an old old old space fleet/empire building game...
One of it's best features was that you could design the loadouts for your fleets ships, tailor different classes and models to different roles within your fleet.

There were 3 versions of MOO that I knew of, in fact when I saw the thread title, I thought "Hey, a MOO TC mod for FL, hmm"

Ok guys, here's the problem...

Made my first Freelancer ship mesh...

Exported it from C4D as an obj file...
Imported to Milkshape...
Re assigned the materials names MS didnt bother reading from the obj file, sorted out the direction of the mesh normals MS didnt bother reading from the obj file...
Exported meshs from MS as a cmp and sur...
Added the missing part info etc, that the exported didnt sort properly, also added con/rev node and data for baydoor anim support, and added an animation node via the utf editor.
Created a mat file...

Ship loads ok in hardcmp, looks ok, everything there, sur file viewable, and fits.
Ship loads in FL, its hardpointed, basic script done to make it flyable, loadout with some temp turrets that dont look right till the custom ones are done.

BUT...
Bay doors seem to be missing, have no clue where they have gone to...
and the surfile isn't picking up hits, except for the occasional one at the extremes of the bow and stern, I think it's a radius problem but I'm not sure.

Ship is 140 m long, fairly even centered plus/minis 70, 22m high, 27m wide, flmodeltool suggests radius of 89.9, so I set it to 90 via the utf editor, only time it takes hits is bow stern collisions, real rare shots as the npcs aim for the center of the hull, 70 m away, or collisions in debris fields.

Other than that, it seems to work fine, handles ok, the mass settings in the sur seem to be about right, its just the missing doors and the dammed shots sailing through the hull...

Like I said this is my first FL ship so I've probably done something stupid, so, anybody got any ideas?

http://lancersreactor.org/inde…hotoID=435#profileContent

Thanks.

A good 'programmer grade' multi document tab text editor... I use NoteTab Lite, but there are plenty to choose from.

One of the 'unofficial' FL patches, many people use 1.3, or 1.4, I use the 1.4 advanced, these patches fix certain bugs in the xml ini files left unfixed when official work on the game stopped, AND, some of them convert the binary ini files to plain text ini's so you can read the existing code and see what you need and or want to alter.

FL Mod Manager, you need this to install your mod for testing , uninstall it so you can fix the bugs, package it so you can share with others. 3 main versions, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 beta, most people use the 1.3 or 1.4. Personally I'd recommend the 1.5 beta, has some new features that make your mod script a little more compact and easier to code (and debug), and rumor says there MAY be a new version someday, and that will probably be more like 1.5 than 1.3.

Modding FL sooner or later, involves setting up ships, and that means, regardless of where those ship meshes come from (recycled vanilla ships, old custom ships or brand new made em yourself meshes) that you will need to edit hardpoints, so a copy of HardCMP is essential.

It's also a good idea to have the FLModelCloner and the FLModelTool, for cloning an existing mesh as a new ship (so it wont conflict with the original, and for resizing/recentering ship meshes, or resizing an existing sur file for a new ship, assuming you havnt got custom surs.

FLID is essential for setting up things like info cards for ships and equipment, get the empty dll as well.

FLThorn for extracting thn files and converting them into editable lua scripts for things like custom intro animations, or cutscenes, or just messing around with station bars

Also useful is a UTF editor, get version 2, its better. You use this to do stuff like add animations to cmp files (cargo bay doors, recoil on gun barrels etc, and for editing mat files, extracting and replacing texture maps, setting 'glow' effects for windows etc.

Thats a basic setup

You might also want to add, later, a system editor, a faction editor, an ale editor (custom engine effects for example), or start dabbling with flhook.

Those are more advanced topics, for a first start in fl modding get the basic set, and work with vanilla models, or stock custom models. Download a few of the small to medium sized mods and take a stroll through the code to see what they are doing and how, read the forums etc, keep it simple, start with a SP mod, so you can test stuff out, see what changing stuff does, either in a story game, or open sp.

Sine you are doing a TC mod, probably easier to do a custom shipyard dealer interior with a custom 'bvar script' so to speak... ALL the ships are outside the window in the docking area, and you and the dealer stand in the window looking out at them, with no glowy anti grav rings under the mount...

Doesnt matter what the scaling of trent to ship is, if you set the 'false' perpective up right... and solves the capship-in-a-closet problem, also means you dont then have to kill yourselves remaking EVERY interior to match the rescaled trent...

Hmm, textures... can't paint worth a damm, though I can cut-n-paste frankenskin like a... Demon...

Modeling, well that's another story... Problem is I use C4D, not max/milk, so no cmp/sur exporters... I'd need somebody to convert formats for me from obj to cmp/sur.

Once it's in an fl format with a mat file, I can then hardpoint, remat, script etc to get it ingame...

What was it you wanted making anyway?

The numbers are first and last in a range....

So... fl-id says that 999001 is "Titanic", 999002 is "Bismark", 999003 is..., 999020 is "Tirpitz"...

How many names varies, 40-60 is common for last names, first names, might be a 100, large ship names, 20 would probably be ok, since you are unlikely to see more than 20, actual ships from one faction in one place.

Remember, for static battleship type solars, the name is not taken from these lists, its part of the station definition, same as the names of the outpsts and planets, you dont even need a dll for those, use the flmm script command

0 ;GENERATESTRRES("Put Name Here")

to add those to your system ini files instead of an id number thus...

[Object]
nickname = Li01_warship_Detroit
ids_name = 0 ;GENERATESTRRES("AMS Imperatrix" Doloris)
ids_info = 0 ;GENERATEXMLRES("<xml><RDL><PUSH/><TEXT>This Geb Assault Cruiser, </TEXT><TRA data="2" mask="2" def="-3"/><TEXT>AMS Imperatrix</TEXT><TRA data="0" mask="2" def="-1"/><TEXT>, which is under construction, is one of the newest, and most modern warships in Liberty space.</TEXT><PARA/><POP/></RDL></xml>")
pos = -92445, -325, -12025 ; -92447, 182, -13495
rotate = 0, -90, 0
Archetype = solar_geb_battle
reputation = fc_uk_grp

Thats why Most of the time, using house specific female names or last names works ok.

Pirate ships called 'SS Lucy' or zoner 'MV Elizabeth' or new faction 'ECS Adams', etc.

So, Battleship 'Feugo de Cordoba' parked by a hispanic jumpgate, edit the system ini and add your solar.

Random spawned encounters with transports, frigates and cruisers... pick from the list time, because there is no way to guarantee that a name will be assigned to the same type of ship twice in a row, shorter less memorable names are useful, more likely to forget that you saw a transport called 'Lucy' 2 hours before seeing a frigate with the same name, than if they were both called 'Santiago de la Compostela'.

Shame the catgirls have been dropped...

FL needs more catgirls!

; *** The Order ***
<data file="data\missions\faction_prop.ini" method="sectionappend">
<section>
[FactionProps]
affiliation = fc_or_grp
</section>
<source>
npc_ship = Ptah_Gunship
npc_ship = Maat_Corvette
npc_ship = ADSutekh_elite
formation = sc_gunships, gunship_box
; *** this is the bit you want for the script...

large_ship_desig = 0 ;GENERATESTRRES("OS")

;Liberty Names, Female and Last
large_ship_names = 226808, 226952
;large_ship_names = 227008, 227307
;Bretonia Names, Female and Last
;large_ship_names = 227508, 227575
;large_ship_names = 227708, 228007
;Kusari Names, Female and Last
;large_ship_names = 228808, 228890
;large_ship_names = 228908, 229207
;Rhineland Names, Female and Last
;large_ship_names = 228208, 228407
;large_ship_names = 228408, 228663
;Hispania Names, Female and Last
;large_ship_names = 229308, 229340
;large_ship_names = 229408, 229459
;Unknown Names, Female and Last
;large_ship_names = 229609, 229609
;large_ship_names = 229608, 229608
scan_for_cargo = commodity_alien_artifacts, 0
scan_announce = false
scan_chance = 0.300000
</source>
</data>

If you want to make 'special' names rather than say just use female names (better for thinls like pirates for example, or independant traders... 'MV Elizabeta' ) Then get the empty dll from the downloads section (?) and make a list of your own, then specify it in the same way...

large_ship_desig = 0 ;GENERATESTRRES("MV")
large_ship_names = 999001, 999020 ; *** edit numbers to match the range in your dll

Thanks for link...

Just as long as people are aware, its cool...

Just a heads up...

Just tried downloading 88 flak 27-135 rc from their site, and when I tried installing the mod to flmm, my av popped up with a trojan removed warning on one of the dll's

healing.dll

I'm not a member of their forum, if somebody else is, can you let their admin know so he can check out the file, might have slipped in from a dev team members infected machine before packing...

The thing about online multiplay games is... You pick one that will have other players, nothing more pointless than a mp game where you are the only player...

So, a 'famous mp game' with a reputation for having lots of players, and which has won an 'pm game of the millenium' award, is going to atract most of the neos, old old hands who care more about gameplay than hype, might take a look, but they will go for the more specialised games/mods, where emphasis is on gameplay, where they can play how they want to play...

So, back on track...

Here, now, we have recently had an inruch of disco-bunnies, in self imposed exile, planning a 'new ground breaking innovative mod' etc...

"Son of Disco - This time it will be ok - No. Really!"

We get disco bunnies talking down to us because we don't always agree with the code of the 'Way of the Disco', all that "we Disco-Bunnies are very very experienced in RP, so you shouldn't talk to us or post on this thread" crud.

If a non disco posts something you'd rather not hear, ignore the post and pretend it wasn't said, perhaps congratulate a fellow disco-bunny who said something similar, some time later, all that.

The whole 'enforced rp' thing really really bugs me, nt just if its enforced or not, but the attitudes of the conformists...

Complaints that "some people dont rp, they just powertrade/powermine till they can buy a big tough ship" for example.

Fact is, a player who chooses to be an independant freighter jock, and then works his fingers to the bone scrounging up cash for a better ship, with greater survivability, a decent cargo size, and enough scratch to buy a cargo to put in that hold, who then runs in safish sectors where the law enforcement units keep the pirate rabble out of the shipping lanes...

Such a player is a far far better roleplayer, than some muppet who whines that freighternoobs are hanging out in the safer sectors, doing their chosen trades rather than kiting out into "Online Titanboy Genocide Clan Teritory" to volunteer to be used for target practice by arrogant rp clan-rabble.

Enforcing rp does not work, instead of stopping open ooc talk about the game, where the killer npcs lurk etc, you just get secret ooc talk about how clan x are a bunch of admin-butt-kissing snitches, and how there is this radical new server on the other side of the web, where they let you PLAY the game...

There are reasons why online gaming like this, is in decline... There are reasons why the number of people downloading client mods with either open sp, or story sp compatabiity/extension, is far larger than the number of mp players on the servers...

We get demands that the good ships should be unrealistically expensive, and not available to anyone who wasnt a beta tester on the version 0.9.36.24.36 release candidate for two weeks prior to v1.0 coming out because "they dont deserve good ships, they are unsuitable". Why are thay unsuitable? Because they work their fingers to the bone trying to get a well armoured ship with a hold big enough for all the high grade ore they are digging out of the roid fields, and enough guns to srag any pirate who tries to take teir ore from them. Bad bad people, not proper rp Disco-bunnies, not the Way of the Disco

It's a game, it's supposed to be fun, if you make a lot of stupid rules to eliminate other peoples fun, they wont play with you, simple as that.

I have never played disco, never appealed to me, but... To be fair, I felt I should take a look, so yesterday I downloaded disco485, installed it and took a peek at it in opensp mode, before poking through the files.

Files first, there are some pretty decent new ship meshes in there, and it's nice that even when the mesh is an old retread seen in hundreds of mods, somebody has taken the time to make new surs that actually almost fit.

But there are a lot of retreads in there, now I use 'retreads' in my stuff, because I dont use the modeling software with cmp export capablities... But I dont go around claiming to have "introduced" these retreads into FL.

When you get in the game you start seeing why disco fails, start the game with a Piece-o-Crap space inferiority fighter and a few thou in cash, you havnt a hope in hell of getting a reasonable ship untill you've gone out and let the Titanboys slaughter you a few times.

The Titanboys are flying single seat SVHF's with glove compartments larger than your cheapo freighters cargo hold, if you stay where they dont go, you are failing to rp correctly, if you tool up to survive in their world, you get a nasty slang expression tagged onto you, and they plot either new server rules to take what you have from you, or plot a new mod where you wont be allowed to get it in the first place.

Disco has 'pilot licence' commodities...

If you buy licence x you can fly here and do this, doing that with out the licence is a SERVERCRIME, having a licence and forgetting to 'mount' the thing is a SERVERCRIME, buying a better icence without selling the old one first SERVERCRIME.

Insane... Want a capship, Able to afford a capship, have the faction rep to buy a capship, you cant buy a capship, unless you buy a capship licence firstm, pointless, complexity and red tape not for beneficial reasons, but to give petty minded people the 'right' to tell you how to enjoy the game experience.

Thats not "Freelancing", it's everything Freelancer should not be.

Games like FL grew out of the 'Elite' tradition, an open ended game, where the choices you made MATTERED, upgrades so you can be part of a universe where you were not the only actual human player. If you systematically remove the choice, you defeat the very purpose of the games existance, you are just conscripting other people to be extras in your own admin level sci-fi fantasy...

Remaking your favorite film or tv series, the way you you thought it should have been, with unpaid slave-actors.

Don't write a 437 page "Background Story" wiki, with a hotlink from a moddb advert page, write a damm novel and get it published.

Quote from PolarBear

This is so damn wrong... But somehow, miracliously, it works!

Thing is... Once you realize that a Microbloat OS is just a very complicated and very dull video game, then you can start modding till it plays the way you want it to...

I just reinstalled FL last week after downgrading from XP to vast/7...

Trick is NOT to install to prog files/microbloat/freelancer

Install to users\username\games\freelancer

stick flmm in as a sub dir of your fl folder, it works perfectly, none of that uac rubbish about activating a mod, but without turning off the uac protection...

This DOES work guys, trust me.

Quote from PolarBear

Quoted


You are registered as BAD_IP by Protector.
This restriction will be expired on 2038-01-19 04:14:07

Quote from PolarBear

Are you ready? Here we go:

A 27 year ip ban?

What did you do? Widdle on their iceberg?

LMAO...

Welcome!

Just as a rough example...

<data file="data\missions\shipclasses.ini" method="append">

<source>

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_destroyers
member = class_destroyer

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_battleships
member = class_battleship

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_gunships
member = class_gunship
;member = class_gunboat

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_frigates
member = class_frigate

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_capital
member = class_battleship
member = class_cruiser
member = class_destroyer
member = class_frigate

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_fleet1
member = class_battleship
member = class_cruiser

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_fleet2
member = class_cruiser
member = class_destroyer
member = class_frigate

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_fleet3
member = class_frigate
member = class_gunboat
member = class_gunship

[ShipClass]
nickname = sc_fleet4
member = class_gunship
member = class_fighter
member = elite_fighter

</source>
</data>

; ************* Patrols + Capships...

<data file="data\missions\encounters\patrolp_assault.ini" method="replace">
<dest>
[EncounterFormation]
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fighters
pilot_job = assault_leader_job
make_class = class_patroller
ship_by_class = 2, 3, sc_fighters, -1
pilot_job = assault_job
formation_by_class = fighters
behavior = patrol_path
arrival = cruise
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

[EncounterFormation]
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fighters
pilot_job = assault_leader_job
make_class = class_patroller
ship_by_class = 2, 3, sc_fighters, -1
pilot_job = assault_job
formation_by_class = fighters
behavior = patrol_path
arrival = cruise
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

[Creation]
permutation = 0, 3
permutation = 1, 1
</dest>
<source>
[EncounterFormation]
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fighters
pilot_job = assault_leader_job
make_class = class_patroller
ship_by_class = 2, 3, sc_fighters, -1
pilot_job = assault_job
formation_by_class = fighters
behavior = patrol_path
arrival = cruise
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

[EncounterFormation]
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fleet2, +1
pilot_job = assault_leader_job
make_class = class_patroller
ship_by_class = 0, 2, sc_fleet3, -1
pilot_job = assault_job
ship_by_class = 0, 2, sc_fleet4, -1
pilot_job = assault_job
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fighters, +1
pilot_job = escort_leader_job
ship_by_class = 1, 3, sc_fighters
pilot_job = escort_job
formation_by_class = sc_fleet2
behavior = patrol_path
arrival = cruise
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

[Creation]
permutation = 0, 3
permutation = 1, 1
</source>
</data>

; ************* Area Defend

; ** original fighter encounter
;[EncounterFormation]
;ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fighters
;pilot_job = defend_leader_job
;make_class = wanderer
;ship_by_class = 1, 2, sc_fighters, -1
;pilot_job = defend_job
;make_class = wanderer
;formation_by_class = fighters
;behavior = wander
;arrival = all, -tradelane, -object_jump_gate
;allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
;zone_creation_distance = 0
;times_to_create = infinite

; add a second block for encounters with navy patrols with smaller capships n escorts

<data file="data\missions\encounters\area_defend.ini" method="replace">

<dest>
[Creation]
permutation = 0, 3
</dest>
<source>
[EncounterFormation]
ship_by_class = 1, 1, sc_fleet2
pilot_job = defend_leader_job
make_class = wanderer
ship_by_class = 2, 2, sc_fleet3
pilot_job = defend_job
make_class = wanderer
formation = cruiser-4-escort
;formation_by_class = sc_fleet2
behavior = wander
arrival = all, -tradelane, -object_jump_gate
allow_simultaneous_creation = yes
zone_creation_distance = 0
times_to_create = infinite

[Creation]
permutation = 0, 3
permutation = 1, 2
</source>
</data>

It's a npcship class problem all right, you dont have to change the elite_fighter, just add class_fighter to the list, comma separated.

Or, edit the encounder file to use elites instead of regular, or make a custom encounter just for your order fighters, and specify that new encounter type for the faction entry in the pop zone...

Creating your own encounter type is perhaps the best way for something like this, as you can then specify your own patrol parameters for the order ships, so they turn up in 5's rather than 3's or have two types of fighter in the wing or whatever. But its the most work.

Simple fix, just add ', class_fighter' to the end of the npcship class line (without the quotes)