Posts by zimtonix

    Sorry for being a necromancer, but, I've already asked if it was OK to throw in my two cents anyway.

    So the future of clan bases is on the line, then what's the facts? Facts are... Population is low, and running a server ain't free. It is clear that clan bases doesn't cut it anymore as there aren't enough people make clan bases a sustainable source of income, yet they don't actually cause any problems still being there that I'm aware of. There's probably somewhere close to a 150 systems to pick from where 10 of them is occupied or "held" supposedly in case of any veterans returning. To me, it's very noble of OP to keep a few pieces of history intact, even if nobody can access those bases. It gives me a peak into the past of how big this mod was, which is incredible.

    I don't see a reason to change how clan bases work or how much they're paid for... Maybe, considering the population it'd be a welcoming change to lower the amount of resources it takes to build a base but that would probably be more work than it's worth. If you think about it though, back then there were probably 10 people shipping goods compared to today where one is lucky if there's 3 people shipping goods to construct the various modules.


    What about a different source of income?

    I think personal bases is the future. The foundation is already there with the clan bases, now just make 'em, smaller, cheaper, not as powerful... I haven't done any deep-dives into the other mods such as Discovery but I've tried it, and I remember they had personal bases in there - I just don't know to what extent they serve, but they've got the idea anyway. And I think the "admin station" sort of work they way I'm trying to picture here but I don't think I ever tried to launch one during my time as a GR.


    A funny coincidence too, there's another game I usually return to on a regular basis, one that I have referenced almost as much as I've played it, Planetside-2.

    While its main gameplay-loop is to shoot some noobs and take over continents by converting pieces of the interactive world-map, there is an entire gameplay-loop dedicated for those who doesn't enjoy the chaotic battlefields... Base building. You can spend hours just building a base and collect materials to construct new parts of the base, very much like how our Clan Bases work, except they're designed to be run by 1-2 people and they aren't permanent. The personal bases in Planetside-2 is modular too, which means you can help expand another players base to fortify its defenses, create more spawn points, construct vehicles or long-range weapons like orbital strikes. Some of the craziest bases I've ever seen in that game were run by an entire platoon (aprox 40 players) who kept expanding upon one players base.

    Problem with this idea is of course that people could view this as pay-2-win depending on how the payment is laid out. But, I would personally be happy to contribute and pay to deploy a mobile spawnpoint knowing the money goes into even more development and server upkeep fees.
    But why on earth would someone pay for bases in Crossfire when there's other mods which lets you build bases for free? Well that's where Crossfire's bases need to be different, and worth a few bucks.

    And also, somewhat related to this... I would like to suggest OP to add an international payment service such as Payop, I know other private servers for games like WoW and Aion uses it and/or similar services, which makes paying a lot easier than having to deal with IBAN numbers. This payment service also have quiet a fitting name, doesn't it? PayOP :D

    I can agree to disagree... While you make good points there's also good counter points, personally I think it's fine as it is but also, once you think your product is done/finished is when it's officially dead. There's a thumb-rule for successful products to never become satisfied.

    But, realistically speaking, here's a couple of answers.

    1. I agree that most of everything mainstream should be sold at a wide variety of stations/planets, but also, the scums of the underworld doesn't often take their blueprints to mass production... For example, I can't see Corsairs sharing their design with Hessians, or Outcasts basing their weapons production on Planet Manhattan.


    2. Pretty much same as above, realism... If you punch Elon Musk in the face I don't think he's gonna want to make deals with you later, or if you go into Wallmart and harm someone you're not gonna be welcome again. Pretty much the same applies to factions in FL, if you're unfriendly they're not gonna want to make deals with you.


    3. I'm not a veteran Crossfire player like many of you are, but there are extremely valuable BMG's, just gotta know when and where, most clans knows and are willing to share that info with their clan members. Hokkaido->Omega7 as far as I know are always pretty good, and sometimes you can haul diamonds on your way back via Frankfurt. I agree with mining tho, and maybe even a look into personal bases (?).


    4. Re-playability is important, personally I enjoy the journey more than the destination. And starting from scratch is good, it gives you more room and depth for RP experience to branch to your liking. Best alternative imho should be to randomly spawn with a new character at any base/planet in Liberty space, and maybe even random affiliation tables for more randomness.
    Sol just doesn't feel like the place to start in as that's where we escaped from, according to the lore.


    5. Indeed it does, idk if that's good or bad but it's realistic, and it gives tradelanes a purpose. They could speed up tradelanes if anything.


    6. Totally agree, and I think their shields are too damn poor as 1 VHF can take down a warship single-handed. And I'd also like for these warships to be able to fire all around, as far as I know there's no warship that can fire behind itself.

    Theoretically a Dreadnought should be able to take down alien ships solo, they have fleets and motherships with what appears to be cloaking technology as they pop up in your face... Enough to worry about on its own imho.

    I use Pale Moon, it's based on the old-style Firefox but with all the bloat code removed, even more secure as they have disabled some things that nobody should still be using... It doesn't have has much customization as Firefox does but that's a decent sacrifice :)

    It has its own set of addons as many of those for Firefox doesn't work with Pale Moon. Also, I prefer the UI in this one.

    Yes, it's always available in MP tho but completing SP gives you good knowledge :)
    I lost my save files so I can't check myself but I think if my memory doesn't play tricks on me, Hiruga will be available later in SP.
    (edit:) Friendly suggestion tho, there's a maze in there and if you want to get out or even in, be prepared to draw a map and use the NavMap wisely.

    One known individual reports white textures with the new shader updates, even with vanilla shaders. Asked him to post some screenshots in the thread but we'll see... If this update was specific for the "1804" build, could it cause trouble for other builds of Win10?

    I have no issues in Win7. Win8 user reports no problems either... So far it's only limited to him, nobody else currently online have any issues.


    Asked the person to come here and post some screenies and report the problem but we'll see...

    Well next time you see me online you know you can count on me not to reply with a "check wiki" response. The wiki is good for 99% of the questions but there's ofc times when you just don't understand the wiki, or maybe you don't find the info you're searching for... Checking the wiki first is a natural thing to do and I think most ppl do it.

    Personally I think people asking if they checked the wiki is as dumb as ppl asking if I've installed/updated graphics drivers... You just don't miss that part, just as you don't miss checking wiki. So I'm on your side! But I'm about to hit the bed, tho, don't think I won't answer any questions online if you ever need to know something :)

    There is sirius sector, altair, sol, inner core and canis, and to get to one from another is not always easy.


    Going sol from sirius you need to know that all start from Dublin Hyperion then sol... Getting THESE information are on this forum even on google, pain in the ass.

    Sorry, I never had this problem as I took notes during my time in SP campaign. It's actually worth it, they spent a lot of time building a story behind it all.

    There's also players online to ask for advice in-game, we won't bite, at least I won't :saint:

    I think you may have missed that the entire galaxy sector is also called "Inner Core", not just the black hole system.

    There's both a star system and a galaxy sector called Inner Core...

    Documented some while i was in SP...



    Crossfire 2.0 Travel Guide

    -> Warpgate/Jumpgate

    >> Hypergate

    *> Rift/Anomaly/Hole

    # Map Sector


    ---- Alliance Space ---- -System- -Destination- -Info-

    Sirius Sector >> Inner Core : Omega-3 - Black Hole (kill Ancient Drones in Dervon for entry)

    Sirius Sector *> SOL : Hyperion - SOL #G5


    ---- Dom'Kavash Space ----

    Inner Core >> Altair : Phanchdar - Menton (Hyperspace*> in between)

    Inner Core >> Canis Sector : Sorror - Assris


    ---- Coalision Space ----

    Altair *> Sirius Sector : Yakutsk - Unknown (Omicron Gamma, rift closes on entry)

    Altair *> SOL : Styx : SOL #C4

    Altair >> Inner Core : New Hongkong - Inner Core (thanks to Wanderer for reminding me :D)


    ---- Order Space ----

    SOL -> Sirius Sector : SOL #G5 - Hyperion

    SOL *> Altair : SOL #C4 - Styx


    ---- Unknown Space ----

    Canis Sector >> Inner Core : Assris - Sorror

    The FLMM activation does not stuck... the process is still running eventhough it looks like not responding.

    Agreed, it's a very large mod and while this process seem to get stuck, it's actually unpacking 6.5 gigabytes.

    If anything goes wrong in this process tho, it is recommended to check the log at the bottom and repeat the process to see if ppl get the same error...
    Same error means there's something wrong, but if you get an error just once or two different errors it could be due to a random hickup with the activation process, repeating the activation in LFMM usually works just fine if the game installation is clean and FLMM has the right version.

    "Microsoft Knowledge Base

    If you click Apply changes to this folder only , the Read-only attribute is changed for all the files in the folder. However, the Read-only attribute is not changed for the folder, its subfolders, or any files in its subfolders. If you click Apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files , the Read-only attribute is changed for all files in the folder and all files in the subfolders. However, the Read-only attribute is not changed for the folder or its subfolders."


    Yes,i have read about,and i have tried everything,even disabled UAC,(and god knows what,maybe i f*** up something in that proces)but i am not pro in this kind of problem fixing.I have play Freelancer on WinXP in past,installed idk how many mods without any trouble,played 2-3 mods in same time. and for all of them recommendation was to install them on root drive (C),so that's why i wanted to install it there,and failed.After i changed install location all works. I am sure that problem was at my side of river and not in mod,but i dont know what was it. :(

    That's how stupid Windows is for you, but the files should have this attribute removed when applying, and this is important for the Launcher to replace change files.
    Otherwise you could end up with "copy error" while trying to launch the game.
    Edit: You could also end up with errors during activation in FLMM.

    The read-only box always remains ticked (filled, to be exact - like in the attached picture) because this attribute can only be changed for files, not folders.


    Once you've removed the tick and pressed apply, some folders still remain read-only, but it doesn't matter as the files inside them are not write-protected anymore.

    Yes, folder does seem to be "Read Only" even after applying but the files are not, check yourself and you'll notice that no file is "read only", just folders.

    That's just Windows being stupid.

    In my experience among friends and other Crossfire players the game can suddenly stop working just by taking a break, or doing a relog.

    It doesn't always have to be the users fault doing something to the files, sometimes it just stops working and the guide above is to prevent it from happening again if it already happened.

    In my case after hours and days spent trying to fix the broken game I found a pattern that worked... All I had to do to mess up my game was to leave for an hour to go shopping, when I came back nothing worked, not even restarting PC.

    So, the old guide is good but does not always apply. Consider this to be a complementary.

    Hallo!

    Without further ado, let's dig in... We're gonna start with the ground-zero basics.


    1. Install Freelancer without patches (v1.0.0).

    2. When installation is complete, go to your newly created folder (Freelancer) and right-click it, make sure to un-tick the box that says "Read Only" and apply to all files and folders within.

    3. Repeat for the folder in Documents/MyGames, there's also a folder called "Freelancer" that needs this to be applied.

    4. Install ModManager v1.31.

    5. After ModManager installation, right-click the newly created desktop shortcut and force it to "Run as Admin".

    6. Install the Crossfire Mod inside the mods folder of ModManager.

    7. Repeat step 2 & 3 for your ModManager folder as well.


    So far, you have not yet launched anything yet and you expect everything to work, it's a clean install... What we also have done is to allow all 3 folders to be written in, extremely important!

    Below is where the problems may occur and how to solve them.

    ____________________________________________________________________

    First of all, notice there are some options during the activation step that is also presented in the Launcher, I suggest you use the same options in the Launcher as you do during activation.

    Also check to see if the log in ModManager says > 'Crossfire Mod 2.0 Client Edition' succesfully loaded

    Let's assume it does and continue... Otherwise you have installed the mod where ModManager can not find the mod or the files were corrupted during download.


    8. Error while activating mod in the ModManager list.

    The solution is to read the log on the bottom and see what caused the error. Sometimes if you deactivate the mod and re-activate it files goes missing from the game directory, like resources.dll.

    9. Restart ModManager and see if the next activation tells you the same error in the log below, or if you get a new problem.

    - If you notice it's the same file that's causing errors, manually go to the troubling folder and search for the file. If you can't find it, a simple "Reinstall" using the disc or ISO does the trick, there's no need to remove the entire game unless you get different errors every time you restart ModManager.

    10. If the mod activates properly, you're good to go to "Launch Freelancer". Otherwise it's recommended to restart PC and repeat steps 8 & 9.


    The mod should now be fine structure wise and no more problems should occur, but for arguments sake let's say you have been playing for a while or Crossfire is not the only mod you play on, you repeat steps 2, 3 and 7, and if new problems occur 8 and 9 as well.

    (A side note from Lancelot; In case of a new Windows installation... He discovered that the Crossfire Installer did not install all of the C++ libraries properly in Windows 10, I'd recommend everyone to double check the required libraries during installation were installed properly and if required download them manually)

    (If SweetFX does not work as intended you'd be recommended to just download an All-In-One package containing all the libraries and DirectX updates, just google it)

    ____________________________________________________________________


    Let's move on to the Launcher and it's problems.

    The first time you open the Launcher it will install 1 file (idk what), and when you launch the game it should install somewhere around 400-500 files, these files will be located in /EXE. If you keep getting copy errors delete, move or rename this entire folder and reinstall game without removing it.

    But before you launch the game make sure you pick the same options as you did during Activation of the mod to avoid possible conflicts.



    THE ERROR CODE(S)

    There are probably a lot of you who gets an error code every now and then and it's very strange... Let's make a list of when this can happen:
    - After fresh install.

    - After playing for a couple of days.

    - After being AFK for an hour.

    - After having another mod activated.

    - After being kicked for base idling.

    - After being kicked for possible cheating.

    - After crash to desktop.

    - After computer freeze.


    Just a small list maybe, the reasons may vary but the solution is always the same...

    1. Open ModManager and re-activate the mod just to make sure there are no new missing files, if so you repeat step 9.

    2. If no files are missing during re-activation, close ModManager and go to the Freelancer game folder and delete/move the EXE folder if it persists and reinstall game.

    3. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 7 as done in the section above.

    Done.



    This may seem like a long and boring guide but essentially it's all about missing game files, folders not allowed to be written in, and ModManager lacking administrator rights.

    Always make sure the 3 related folders have "Read Only" unchecked.

    Always make sure everything has administrative rights.

    Always make sure libraries and files are not missing.

    If you get this right, no more problems should occur the next time you launch the game as 99% of all the errors caused before the game runs is caused by a failing file structure integrity.


    There's just 1 more thing you need to do and that is to copy your freelancer ID with either Freelancer Account Manager from ModDb, or saving the entire Freelancer registry by opening RegEdit and CTRL+F for "MPAccountNameSig", right click the Freelancer folder and Export to desktop.


    PS: Always restart the launcher on a daily basis and server restart to avoid server conflicts.

    I may not be active on the replies and will certainly not reply to anyone but those who have actual problems with the launcher or those who can't decode my poor English...

    :king

    There is a couple of issues with the Launcher, the reason is unknown and the solution is not always the same. It's sensitive to file structure integrity, that's all I can say about it.

    But I may have found a solution to this once, and I haven't had a problem with error codes ever since... What I did was:


    1. Installing the ModManager that comes with the package from ModDb.

    (1a. I would go as far as to restart PC when everything is installed )


    2. Force ModManager to start as Admin.

    3. Close everything down and make sure you never get problems activating the mod in ModManager the first time. If you had issues with the activation, you've got file integrity problems and need to re-install both Freelancer and ModManager in a new folder. That means re-installing the mod as well.


    4. Remove the "Read Only" on both the Freelancer game folder, the ModManager folder, and the Freelancer folder in Documents/MyGames/ by right-clicking the folders.


    5. After this, delete the entire "EXE2" folder in Freelancer... This folder will be re-created when Launcher starts up next time. Sometimes you can not delete this folder if you got a copy-error, but you can still move it out of the Freelancer folder and delete it later.


    This is what I did and haven't had copy-errors or any launcher issues ever since. In my case, this is what solved all my problems.

    It wasn't a shader issue, it wasn't Windows issues, not driver issues or anything missing... I just had to play with the Freelancer file structure and got it working.

    In any case where ModManager activates the Crossfire Mod just fine but the launcher fails to do its job, delete EXE2 folder, do some fiddling with the files and try again.

    [EDIT: correction of text]


    Yes, dearly noted. Been talking to ThanhRui about it and we came to the conclusion that it was indeed a rep-fix and not some exploit. Although, Freelancer is not perfect, and the mod is complex, the finding-new-bugs days sure ain't over just yet (if you get my angle), I know a couple that has not been documented yet.

    Finding a character Lv100 you've never seen or heard about before doing remarkable activities in a system where AOs is highly profitable is either a very rare coincidence or the perfect place for exploiting a bug, that doesn't exactly sound like a 50/50 but a 20/80 so I made the call.



    The screenshot provided was during a period of a few minutes, but this was going on for near half an hour if not even more, thus all suicides and relogs does not show.

    If I were to recreate the entirety of the chat it was something more like 1 suicide per 4-7 relogs for a long period of time.


    Also, this is an RP server, logging in and out sort of breaks the immersion and purpose of RP, not only for himself but for others who gets to see chat getting spammed with "New Player" as well. Now, that's not entirely his fault alone as chat was designed this way but one should at least think of others - at least when they contact you and asks you nicely to stop (if there's a way to turn off chat events, pls send a PM, I can't find anything like this on google, I tried).


    In fact, I couldn't have cared less for what he was doing if I didn't have to see his relogs, it broke my immersion. I didn't bother the first 10-15 minutes but when I asked him to stop and the reply was "no", I had to draw the line. I also fairly gave him a warning shot that I were about to file a complaint.


    I was the bringer of news, OP was the judge. I sure may have reported for the wrong reason, but OP banned for the right reason. I didn't think of his suicides but OP did and that's why he got temp-ban.


    Also, this thread was marked as "Solved" on Friday, we've been talking it through and came to an agreement. Consider it as case closed :)