A few questions, merged in a single thread

Hello everyone ( community and administration / mod developers and everybody else )

First of all, I'd like to express my grattitude for the creation of this masterpiece called "Crossfire Mod" - no words to desceibe how happy I am with the work you guys put in the project... salute you with respect for everything ! I'm considering a donation ( no, I don't want a "p2w", just a donation for the project, to express my grattitude for the mod, so it can keep growing, and expanding ).

With that being said, I have a few, rather silly questions. I have never played Crossfire online ( on the servers provided by the Crossfire team, nor anywhere else ).

I'm runing the game on Linux ( Debian ), and have no issues playing it, at all ( using Bottles, for those interested in how am I playing it ).

What I've noticed is, everytime I start my game ( SP in my case ), the launcher starts do download some files ( 60 files approx. ). So far so good, no problem with that. Today, I decided to see what kind of files is the launcher downloading, for what, and why is it everytime I start the game ( ?! ). Yes, Im using Bottles via FlatSeal ( sandboxing flatpaks, intentionally ).

1. When I looked up the log file, I was wondering... am I blocking the server's UDP response, via FlatSeal ?! -> See the attached logfile.

2. I've tried to connect to the RP server ( followed the instructions by user "FIREDDRAGON478" from April 2011 -> C:\ProgFiles\MS Games\Freelancer\EXE\fldirectip.hta -> added the ip 82.165.193.103, and left the default port in the config file to 2302, saved and closed everything. No success in connecting ( ?! ).

P.S. I'm not using any kind of AV software, and firewall is off

I have an idea, that the reason possibly MIGHT be - Flatseal, since I've configured it to block ANY connection requests when using a flatpak software ( Bottles in that case, to play the game ) -> ( I hate telemetry )

So, I can allow connection requests to Bottles, when using Crossfire ( for online activities ), and see if I can connect to the server, but I'd like to know if there is something else I need to do / add, in order to connect to the server ?

Don't hessitate to explain in details, please, spoilers ARE very welcome !

3. Completed the SP campaign. Basically now I'm hanging around with my Lagg, equipped with 2 W'ar Sy & 2 Nes ( Savage & Nepesh weaps ) with some Yakutsk ( wrecks ) missiles

Decided to take a short cut to IC, via Coalition space ( the hypergate in New HongKong ) - Access Denied. Makes me wonder... is that a result from the last mission, or corrupted AutoSaves of some sort ?

Not a big problem, since I'm using the tactic to kill 1 Ancient, and fly to Omega-3 ( you get the idea... ), but still would be happy to know if the reason is - the last mission, destroying the power source for the 3 Galactic Hypergates ?

Attaching my .hta file ( renamed in *.hta.txt intentionally ) and the logfile.

Thank you for your help in advance

Best ragrds

Offtopic : Im waiting the moment, when we'll have to use these 3 Galactic Hypergates ( Visit some "neighbour's galaxies, ye know )

!! Update !!

Linux users, using Bottles to play the game !

Important, if you want to play on the Crossfire server.

*Download my *hta file and check the IP which I've manually added there - you'll need to add it in YOUR *hta file* ( PATH is : /.var/app/com.usebottles/data/bottles/bottles/*YOUR_CROSSFIRE_FOLDER_GAME_NAME*/drive_c/Freelancer Crossfire/EXE )

Locate your fldirectip.hta file and open it using Chrome based browser ( I've used Brave ) or vim/nano/gedit... whatever, to check if the IP section is empty ( as it should be ).

Add the IP provided in my config file ( using a text editor ), exactly how I added it ( do NOT attempt any other wizard moves or you'll end up reinstalling the whole thing. We're EMULATING, remember ? ).

Side note : While I was playing SP, I choose Win10. Game runs without problems - completed the campaign with no issues ( excluding the transport to Sol xD ).

Now I have changed the bottle to run like Win7 ( no speciffic reason for that, just a theory ). So if, for some reason your game faces any sort of issues after following these steps, try to run the application under Win7 - should work.

RTFM -> read & double read please

Open up Bottles, select the Bottle you are using to run the Crossfire executable ( No, do NOT run it !! )

Scroll down to the "DEPENDENCIES" menu ( for THAT SPECIFFIC BOTTLE ) and select it

Once inside the Dependencies menu, scroll down unitl you see : DirectPlay -> install it

Wait for the process to complete. Close the Bottles entirely ( "killall" if needed )

Open up Bottles again, run the Crossfire Freelancer exe, select Multiplayer, LAN ( ! Not Internet ! ) - voila !

I'd like to thank SWAT_OP-R8R for the help provided.

In order to check if the application ( Crossfire Freelancer exe ) is establishing connection via UDP port 2302, I had to find a way to check it, since Im sandboxing everything ( means, isolating everything via Flatseal ). His answer gave me the exact information I needed

*Check those ports, but no, you're not doing it the "normie way" via terminal ( isolated apps act differently ), use another emulation to "trick" the isolation -> DirectPlay ( flatsealed and configured for my use case. Might not be the same for you, don't worry )

Profit - server should be rite dere ! n'joy, you're welcome