Posts by StarTrader

  • Mysterious Crash

    Is it a crash or are you being kicked for suspected cheating?


    That will happen if you buy the same ship on the base and then take off if you have the MS 1.1 patch.

  • What Patches?

    Yes its not needed for SP but it has extra cheat detects and its good to keep it all together.


    I release my mods in full, I don't like to cut out client-side from server-side.


    I never used the QuickFix patch but others have also said they had problems.


    It's always good to stay away from known problems, there are far too many bugs and unknown problems to find already! :D

  • What Patches?

    In fact this is a misunderstanding.


    Modders have normally installed MS 1.1 and SDK 1.3 first on plain Freelancer before starting to make their mod.


    When they release the mod, only files that are changed are included with it.


    So any MS 1.1 or SDK 1.3 files that the modder has not changed will NOT be included with the mod. So there may well be missing files unless the player applies the MS 1.1 patch followed by the SDK 1.3 on plain Freelancer, then the mod can be activated over these.


    This is how my RRJDS mod was made too.

  • Bans lifted

    A good gesture Swat.


    We should all be able to cuss and be grumpy and even peck at each other a bit from time to time but there are limits, and hopefully others will see the sense in not going too far again.

  • Constant Crashing w/ OSP FrontierSpace1.75

    FLSpit just filters out some messages and bits of messages, so we can read the remaining messages more easily.


    Unfortunately most mods are not fixed well enough and there may well be thousands of lines in FLSpit.


    What can cause the crash you describe on startup is old saved game files if they are incompatible with your installed version of Freelancer. This will happen because the saved game files are always generated, and they will have unrecognised equipment in them, for example from a mod, or when you are running a mod and the plain freelancer equipment has been removed from it, or when you are running a different mod. These files are not deleted automatically when you re-install Freelancer. Freelancer always reads them during startup, so this is when that crash should always happen, but crashes can be intermittent sometimes and you may get further into the game before it does crash.


    They are normally found (in XP) in your account's My Documents\My Games\Freelancer\Accts folder - just delete or rename the entire My Games\Freelancer folder and try again.


    See also this post: Clean install CTD on Windows 7


    If that doesn't clear the problem then I think in fact you have pointed out your own cause here, the anti-virus programme being the only difference? There are many problems with almost all modern antivirus progs because they read every file before passing it to the programme that requests it, and this delay is causing various crashes and "disabilities" if we can call them that. SOme players don't have problems, where others with exactly the same antivirus do.


    It should be possible to disable Kaspersky temporarily, I don't have it to advise you how.


    Also you will need to disable Microsoft Security Essentials if you have it on your machine?


    An finally Win 7 uses IPv6 for networking by default, instead of the older IPv4 specification - FL doesn't like IPv6, so you should disable that to see if it is another possible cause. I think there should be a method here, otherwise search on Google for the method.


    I hope one of these is your solution to get you up and running.

  • What Patches?

    Just to keep things tidy...


    The official Microsoft 1.1 patch is worth installing.


    I would not install the unofficial 1.4 patch, most mods are not based on it.


    By all means install SDK 1.3, it fixes many bugs in plain Freelancer. Install the MS 1.1 patch first.


    Do NOT install the SDK 1.5, it has many bugs and is unstable.


    The QuickFix patch has additional features you may not want, and has been suspected of causing problems - I am not so sure myself, but you may want to avoid it in favour of MS 1.1 patch and SDK 1.3

  • A Second Freelancer Install

    You can also use this same method to have plain FL and two or more mods on your machine at the same time. Then you save time, no need to use FLMM to de-activate / re-activate a mod and risk dirty deactivations - just double-click the right shortcut.


    To do that:-


    1. Make a fresh and tested installation of plain Freelancer which has never been modded (but you can apply the official MS 1.1 patch and/or SDK1.3 but not SDK1.5 because it has a lot of bugs)


    2. Copy that virgin Freelancer folder, rename the new copy (I use "PlainFL1.1SDK1.3Original") and keep it safe - copy it to a CD or memory stick too if you like.


    3. Install the mod you want, and then copy that Freelancer folder to where you want (see my folder structure below) and rename its parent folder to the mod name.


    4. De-activate the mod, and delete the previously-modded Freelancer folder (because many mods don't remove all of their files or folders).


    5. Make a fresh copy from the original virgin Freelancer folder copy you saved in step 2, and rename it Freelancer again.


    6. Activate the next mod into it and repeat.


    7. Edit all of the Freelancer\EXE\Freelancer.ini files to add the Global List Server patch so you can see online servers - just look for the following 2 lines in the [ListServer] section:-


    hostname = fllistserver.zone.msn.com;GUN server in Redmond (DNS entry)
    port = 2300


    and change them to:
    ;hostname = fllistserver.zone.msn.com;GUN server in Redmond (DNS entry)
    hostname = gun.fllistserver.com; New Global List Server 2nd March 2008
    port = 2300


    You can of course remove all lines starting with the semi-colon (;) and all characters after a semi-colon, because they will be ignored by FL anyway. They become "comments", for human readability, or for remembering previous settings and values.


    So your entire [ListServer] section can be only the following:


    [ListServer]
    hostname = gun.fllistserver.com
    port = 2300


    8. Now make a shortcut to your desktop or wherever you want for the \Freelancer\EXE\freelancer.exe in each mod folder, and rename it to match the mod.


    I use this folder structure to keep things tidy:-


    C:\Games\FL\PlainFL1.1\Freelancer
    C:\Games\FL\RRJDS282r3\Freelancer
    C:\Games\FL\TNG276\Freelancer
    C:\Games\FL\Discovery485\Freelancer


    But Remember!! If you play the Single Player game at all, or run an FLServer, FL will crash on startup when it finds incompatible saved game files. So you will need to rename the save games folder each time before running a different mod. It is usually in your account's My Documents\My Games\Freelancer\Accts folder. You MUST delete or rename the "Freelancer" part of the name each time before starting a different Freelancer version. To get back the saved games for the mod you are running, rename back the folder you renamed. Again I use the mod name so my "My Games\Freelancer\Accts" folder becomes "My Games\PlainFL1.1\Accts" or "My Games\FLRRJDS282r3\Accts" and is easy to rename back.


    If you are clever you might be able to write a batch file to rename your saved files folder and start the right version of FL at the same time - let me have a copy please, I'm a Very Lazy Wabbit by nature! ;)

  • StarTrader here

    Hello again pals.


    Back after gaining a few more kilos, like maybe some of you lot?


    SwatOp - I'm ready to help, let me know what I can do for you?

  • StarTrader here

    Hey guys.


    Thank you SirDrake! Hiya Soupman!


    Hey IronHeart - Nobody hates anybody. What's the point? We should be trying to pool our resources guy.


    Me - spy? OK, tell me what you know then I'll kill you and report back, ok? (Shouldn't take long, folks)!


    Heheheheh. rofl


    Swat - let me know what you need that I can do, I'll be back to help after the holidays.


    Good to "see" you.

  • StarTrader here

    Hello all.


    For those who know me, hi again!


    For those who don't know me, I'm an old Mad March Hare, been around the game and TLR and The Starport for about 7 years or so.


    I enjoyed the FL game and joined the RRJDS (Reputation Repair and Judicial Distribution Specialist - we fix your rep but hand out swift punishment if you cross us!) Guild because the guys were there as fun-creating, role-playing mentors and co-fliers, not stupid blast-em-all harassers.


    Then I got bitten by the modding bug and wrote the RRJDS Mod, initially pinching WTS Worlds 2.40 that Crabtree kindly let our Guild have as a base.


    Eventually I was elected to Guild Secretary and charged with running the server. I have done a lot of modding work, nothing spectacular, and my long-term problem and expertise has been in making .sur files, and in prodding programmers to write better tools for making them. None 100% successful as yet.


    Sadly my fellow Guilders were around my age and older, and many have died off or have been denied Internet in their Old Folks' Homes, so basically there are just 2-3 of us left! ROFL


    Our mod is stored on our server at http://downloads.rrjds.com if you fancy taking a look. You are also welcome to run a server, we are about to lose ours which is a commercial server. It is running for now until the provider re-allocates it to a new customer.


    I will drop in from time to time and reply with advice, or blast someone that I might disagree with strongly, with a sardonic sense of humour - that's the Mad March Hare part. :)


    SwatOp - if there is anything I can do to help you organise TLR please ask, I know how difficult it is.

  • What is a good mod for me?

    I am surprised you didn't get floods of replies.


    There are so many mods out there, each has its good and not so good points.


    The only thing I can say is to try several and see which one you like the start of, and the feel.


    Many don't allow you to buy goods until you are friendly with the selling faction, so trade is hard.


    Discovery is the most popular, but I find playing on packed servers is not fun. And to me the mod is not that interesting in the beginning - but that's my personal view.


    So - try mine! (RRJDS 2.82r3 Mod) - http://www.rrjds.com is our (dying) website; http://www.rrjds.com/forum for Info, and the mod is in downloads.rrjds.com


    It has an unusual twist - you start with a shuttle as a space taxi! Then you can buy a small space bus, and then a bigger space liner; take passengers or rip out the seats and take cargo - up to you. If you play it as intended it's hard but very satisfying. Many players use the shuttle effectively for missions! lol


    As for Vista, the main problem people had was due to Microsoft Security Essentials and any other anti-virus, becuase the new ones all cause long delays as they read all data before passing it - so just disable all antivirus, disable IPv6 permanently (find out how on the 'net) and you should be OK.


    Good luck out there.