Alright. Sorry for the long post (and posting it here, I can't post it under Discovery Developers Forum - Freelancer Modding Tutorials), but I have SO MANY questions regarding FL Modding.
So I saw Groshyr's screenshots and I'm having wet dreams about this. I want to start modding Freelancer, more specifically FL Discovery. I have a fairly good background in modding so I'm not starting from scratch, but I don't know the FL architecture yet. There's many thing I need to know in order to achieve my goals.
1- Most important of all, I don't want to get banned by the over-sensitive anti-cheat. Which files are SAFE to edit or which files are NOT SAFE to edit? If I do ever get banned on accident because I goofed somewhere, are the admins comprehensive about this or is it a mess to unban the account? Basically, how risky is modding my FL Discovery? (I need a really precise answer on this, if possible by a staff member)
2- I want to start off with the easiest and client-sided aspect of modding: texturing. Nothing that would change any gameplay in any way. If I do ever get good at it, have enough time and passion for it, would it be possible to kick it up a notch and start developping other assets of the game like designing bases, ships, systems, etc and submitting the work for implementation into Discovery server? (Basically giving the offical Devs some work and the community can decide if they want to see that in-game or not.)
3- That arise another question, (I doubt there is, but we never know...) Is there any beta-testing grounds on the FL Discovery server were Devs test out new systems, ships, etc? If not, or if I need to test my own stuff right off the bat, is there any way I can have a private installation of the discovery server (kind of an offline beta-testing platform I guess? Like a Single Player installation, but working with the Discovery assets and gameplay?) Again, if all of this is not possible, I'm assuming I can install a stand-alone Vanilla installation of Freelancer on the side and tinker with that?
I won't write a wall of text or guide but don't edit *.ini files. Server or client (no idea what exactly) check it and if they were changed - you got an auto-ban. That's why most graphic mods like SWAG are dangerous to be used.
Safe rule is to never touch any .ini files. Doing so will either trigger anti-cheat or just crash Freelancer as you try to play single or multiplayer if you dont know what you're doing. Graphics should be ok for everything.
From my own experience as ex-dev, a functioning "beta" exists for developers-only via github as devs apply their changes to the most recent build over time until they decide to release it as a patch.
That's a start, but I really need to be sure editing the rest won't get me banned. Durandal said not to touch .ini or .cmp files, anything else I should not touch? Kinda need to be 100% sure. I would be really sad to see my account banned just because I tried to make my game look pretty...
I will probably start off with a stand-alone installation of vanilla FL to begin with, but eventually I will like to port my textures to my Discovery installation.
Heya.
Not an admin so I can't give you all the answers you're looking for.
But I'm happy to see new people interesting in modding, especially the visual part! While I don't see myself as a professional graphics designed or modder, I've done some Freelancer/Discovery modding myself. So if you have questions on the technical modding part, especially for textures, UI elements and icons, I'll be glad to help out.
Also you can get away with editing quite a lot of files without getting banned. Not to sound like a self-promotion, but the graphics pack I've put together stands as proof. It won't get you banned.
![[Image: CORSAIRS.png]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/598639624277065757/653375155719897088/CORSAIRS.png)
![[Image: E9d8RnV.jpg?1]](http://i.imgur.com/E9d8RnV.jpg?1)