Posts by Gibbon

.NET 4.5 is actually the latest as i downloaded it earlier. Well i tried it in compatibility mode for XP sevice pack 3 and it seems to work ok now. Managed to find 2 errors i was looking for so fixed those.

The major problem i had was getting FL Scan to install. I had to install .NET 1.1 first, install FL Scan then run it in compatibility mode. Now it works. Appreciate the help

Anyone know what the secret is to get FL Scan 1.3 to work with W7 64 bit? I installed .NET 1.1 and although FL Scan runs, it has a heart attack about 75% of the way through the mod scan and dies. Do i need .NET 2.0 or later?

Ok, all the price randomizer code has been added, and made OSP compatible. My moddb page has been updated. Three hours of testing and all is well in SP. Should host it now and find some testers

Thanks for the welcomes back. Don't know what's come over me, actually doing some FL modding today. Adding in the price randomizer to all my bases, forgot how many i had and doing the OSP conversion so i can test it. I'll report back with some more info when i have it

I have returned. The reasons for my absence are varied and long, suffice to say i'm now living in a different country with a laptop i'm still learning to use, an operating system i'm still trying to understand, W7 64-bit, and hardly any FL tools to speak of, so work on my mod although almost finished is currently at a standstill.

Having said all that, i plan to release an OSP version of the mod now as i feel the multiplayer side is a bit of a waste, especially as i have no access to my server. With all that's gone on in the space sim games department over the last few months, Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous, seems a bit pointless to me to get involved with the MP side of FL anymore. So OSP is the way i'm going to go. I'll include the price randomizer code which will simulate a dynamic economy in singleplayer and will alter the prices on not just commodities but equipment and ship prices as well. This will take a some time to do, so bear with me and it's nice to be back. For more regular updates feel free to browse my own forum as well.

I've been playing way too much STO recently. Interfering a lot with other projects i'm involved with, namely my mod. There's so much to do in it, it's a bit daunting. Completely different to Freelancer in every way and a comparison isn't even warranted. Two different genres entirely.

Are we talking Lancer Solarus here? If so he closed down his site to focus on his Galaxy Empire game engine. The site is back up, but there's no Freelancer related items on there. All his downloads, mods, tools etc, all gone

While i would normally stay out of this discussion, clearly i'm not now lol. Only reason i am saying something is about a point raised a few pages back about trying to get players to fly other ships. This is something i've run across with my last mod.

I went for a balancing act in it regarding ships, so at the top end were a number of fighters with very similar stats, virtually nothing to choose between them. Players all picked the Eagle. Now the first question plenty of people asked me when they first joined the server, was this simple classic, "What's the best ship?". When i answered there isn't one, it was more about which one you liked the look of, they were confused. "No best ship? How do we know which is best?". I gave up and said the Eagle in the end.

All this proves to me is that hardly anyone reads the stats of a ship, they go with what they know, regarding a vanilla based mod anyway, and variety just confuses them. Tough luck for them in my new mod then rofl

Ok, well thanks again for those, credits are in my readme file. I'll grab the newer ones once you release CF2.0 which will be after i release Genesis anyway.Out of curiosity, you going to update Gasyelcld and the other one, planet industrial from vanilla that aren't normally used? CF2 Manhattan looks lovely.

@ Riebens
ROFL

@OP
I downloaded CF 1.9 and had a dig around in there. I found the vanilla textures and had a look at those, very nice work indeed. So much sharper and better detailed. I've managed to update everything in the game, well almost everything, ships, all texture files for the stations, new game icons, new interface, new in game commodity and equipment icons, new starsphere backgrounds, new music for all the pirate bases, blah blah blah, it was only the planets that were missing an update. If it's ok to grab the ones from 1.9 then i've done so already, if you want me to grab from another version then please let me know. Really appreciate this

I appreciate that OP. I'm not actually after new ones, it really is just the vanilla ones i need. I didn't realise the graphical knowledge required, you clearly need to be a graphics artist of some kind to be able to do those properly. I don't mean getting them into game as that's the easier part of it from my point of view, it's the actual textures themselves, and to get them to close to the detail you have would require graphical schooling of some kind or simply the talent, which in this case i simply don't have.

Are the updated vanilla textures in the current version of CF?

Okay. With the information OP kindly provided i have now reached a conclusion. I have no graphical skill whatsoever to do this. My efforts are no better than if you asked a mentally challenged monkey with dementia who is high on coke. I admit defeat with this, my eyes are bleeding from trying to make textures that match, that look anything better than chimpanzee paintings, i've had no sleep, i want to cry

All i wanted to do was change the vanilla planets to something similar to OP's efforts, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen now. I shall resign myself to looking at the vanilla planets for the rest of my life. Not f***ing happy about that prospect

only very slight but i agree its there, more noticeable on the ice texture but working on that

Further to your introducing me to your planet textures, as i mentioned in your thread, here are the first two i did using icemoon.txm and cratermoon.txm. Stuck now so waiting for guidance

Now you're in trouble OP. I've got into this now. Started with the easiest two in the code, icemoon txm and cratermoon txm as they have one texture for the whole planet. Made a 1024x1024 texture for both and got some very good results, way better than standard. Of course my momentum stopped after that as now we're into 3 texture territory and i'm getting lost. I won't post pictures here as this is your thread but i'll post some down in the Genesis thread to show you what i managed to do. Can't wait to find out how you do these. I'm in awe as to how good these planets of yours look, really impressive, but enough back slapping for now, back to my modding shed

Look forward to it

Outstanding OP. Now you're making me look bad lol

You should do a tutorial on how to do planets like that. I mean i can do 3db or cmp based ones using one texture, but i'm assuming these are made like vanilla planets? You can whisper how you do it, nobody is listening...

@ Gunny

There are a few who have tried, Plasmafire springs to mind. Most of us have attempted some form of graphical upgrade, be it interface colours, new buttons and so on. With regard to planets i think Op has changed most of them. From my side i've had a go at least. I concentrated on the ships, and systems in general, asteroids etc, changed the textures on all of those or somehow updated them. If you mean a totally new interface design, then no, not many have tried that for sure.

With the newer graphics cards out there, you can force a lot of FX through that onto FL, something i do all the time which is why i run 16x anti alias and god knows what else to make the game look better. Aa side of things many gamers don't bother with but hope the in game options will do it for them, which on a 9yr old game isn't going to happen.

@OP

With regards to FW, we both know that's a Star Wars game using the FL engine. No, it's not Freelancer as we know it, but we'll just have to see how it turns out.

Can't argue with last night, well played Spain and congratulations to them. It was a surprisingly good game. Shame the Italians switched off after 60mins as they decided at that point they couldn't win so simply gave up. Oh well.

What's next in the world of football? The Olympics lol. I have to get ready for that now...

Just a another thought on doing a community project.

I agree with most of the points mentioned that the Freelancer community was never the same after Lancer Reactor folded. I won't go into details as i was actually an admin on there at the time but it closed and looking back, with how things were at the time, i'm glad it did.

Since that time, the rest of the community, myself included, headed off to our own forums and communities and sat there. Most of us are still sitting there. You look at the larger communities, not a lot has changed. Crossfire deals with it's mod and community, Discovery does the same, and so on. The player numbers swell like the tide on various releases and updates but basically they are unchanged. Younger players are getting older, older players... getting even older. Very little new blood is coming through and the reason for that is a simple one, who the hell wants to play an almost 10 year old game?

Well we do actually otherwise we wouldn't be here. The concept of a community mod is not new, it's been tried and tested many times and failed dismally. Whenever a new game engine is mentioned for a new version of Freelancer, everyone gets excited, the project starts, people realise how much work needs to go into it, project falls apart. This i've seen regularly. With a fractured community with bad feelings still bubbling underneath, that isn't going to change anytime soon.

So what is the alternative? What is happening now is the alternative. Everyone carrying on what they are doing as strangely, there is actual progress. I'm still unsure how the Tides of War mod will implement their DX9 plugin, but i'm willing to hold back on any comments until i see the finished article. Wouldn't be fair of me to say anything before a final release. So there is some hope from that quarter. Op has Crossfire 2.0 in the pipeline which from my humble perspective looks awesome with some excellent features. Much as i'm not the greatest fan of the Discovery mod as i've had many issues with members of its community, only logical to assume they will be upgrading their project with plenty of bells and whistles for their next release. Not to mention a number of smaller developers like the RIP team with their Underverse mod, Nightstalker with his mod, myself and a few others who will still be providing variety and choice for those players still left in the community and who want to play the game using different mods etc.

As for a Freelancer 2 or an updated new game engine? Well that's best left to a very small team of people to make. There won't be much assistance from different communities as their is too much that has been said, so cooperation is unlikely. I've seen more progress in FL in the last few years than i have in a long time. The saddest thing is the lack of knowledge sharing which LR used to be good for. As i've mentioned already, without that, new people wishing to mod the game have no idea where to start and their numbers will fade as they lose interest. It's the old guard keeping the game alive, and even their time is coming to an end...slowly