Hey everyone,
I've been working on a little hobby project that I'd like to share with the community. I have to say, I am an IT Professional but not an software engineer, so this is my first "big" project, however I like scripting in powershell and cmd, bash etc. but python is a nice language too. FLEditor (Name not final, if you have ideas, write them here 
) is a graphical system editor for Freelancer, built entirely in Python using PySide6 (Qt). Its def. not final yet and until all my wanted features are complete, I guess this will still take some weeks / months of work.
The Freelancer Explorer is a great tool, but unfortunately it causes some issues for me on Linux. So I decided to write my own editor from scratch, fully cross platform, running on Windows, Linux, and macOS without any dependencies on Wine or Windows-only libraries.
It's still a work in progress, but it already has quite a few features. I'd love to hear what the community thinks and what features you'd like to see. My first approach is to implement all features which are needed to create and modify systems. But maybe I will extend this to other parts of FL modding.
Current Features:
2D System Map – Interactive map view of any system with zoom, pan, and color-coded objects (suns, planets, stations, jump gates/holes, asteroid fields, etc.)
3D System View – Optional 3D rendering of the system with orbit camera, pan, and a translation gizmo for moving objects along individual axes
Universe Map – Overview of all systems with connection lines (jump gates in blue, jump holes in yellow), double-click to open any system
Object Editing – Select any object and edit its properties: position, rotation, archetype, loadout, faction/reputation — all with dropdown menus populated from the game files
Zone Editing – Click on zones to view and edit their properties; zones are displayed as semi-transparent overlays with color-coding (death zones in red, nebula in purple, debris in brown, etc.)
Create New Objects – Place new solar objects (stations, planets, etc.) anywhere on the map via point-and-click
Create Jump Gates & Jump Holes – Full workflow: choose destination system and type, place the gate/hole in the origin system, then place the counterpart in the destination system — both sides are created automatically with all required fields
Create Zones – Create new asteroid fields and nebulae with a dialog that lets you pick from existing reference files
Create New Star Systems – Create an entirely new system from the universe map, complete with sun, background, music, and all required INI files
Delete Objects – Delete any object, including jump gates/holes (automatically removes the counterpart in the other system)
Move Systems on Universe Map – Drag systems to reposition them, save changes back to universe.ini, with undo support
Shortest Path Generation – Automatically regenerates systems_shortest_path.ini, shortest_legal_path.ini, and shortest_illegal_path.ini when connections are created
3D Model Preview – Open and view CMP/3DB model files in a 3D preview window
Backup System – Automatic .bak backups before any file is written
Built-in Help – HTML documentation accessible from the toolbar
Works with mods – Tested with Freelancer HD Edition and Crossfire
Tech Stack:
Python 3 + PySide6 (Qt6)
No compiled binaries, runs anywhere Python runs
Case-insensitive file resolution for Linux compatibility
Feedback and feature requests are very welcome.
Have a nice day.
