Properly Modd on FL Discovery

[Teknishun]

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?

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