Well, FYI I recall some kind of TC modding starter pack somewhere here.

Also, you might find fitting tutorials in our old archived forums area here or at the wiki.

My Total Conversion Mod Starter Pack is here: http://freelancercommunity.net/viewforum.php?f=44

Try this link for good collection of modding tutorials

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/913966-freelancer/faqs/25096

The section titled "System Building from scratch by giskard" covers system building really well.

Freelancer companion is essential for setting up trade routes

http://wiz0u.free.fr/prog/flc/

A good text editor like Notepad++ will make ini editing a lot easier than using Notepad

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

There's more tools like HardCMP for Hp editing, UTF editor for adding/editing textures but I reckon they fall into the more advanced category.

CK256

For ships & solars (or any archetype really) .. HardCMP is probably your best friend. It wont display everything (some .3db's & very large complex models) but that's pretty rare.

It will give you an exact look at what Hardpoints have been set & enable you to add more.. take some away.. learn this valuable tool 1st then move into tools like the model cloneing & resizing latter when you better understand how a .cmp / .3db is made. Ms3d is possibly the "granddaddy" of them all.. but that's a whole world in itself.

I'll go look for the quick & dirty guide on converting.. and anything else relevant and update below with links..

Now.. a quick word of advice (from someone that's "been there" ) If you really like some models.. PM/email the maker if you can.. or the closest you can get to them (some are no longer active or with us) i spent most of last year chasing permissions backlogged by about 2 years.. i started like you.. but mods have a tendency to grow.. and get a following, even if just for a personal mod.. its always good to have spoken to someone in the know.. makes them happy & alleviates any problems should you actually want to release your mod in the future.

IE: cover your own ass at the start.. and it wont get kicked latter

Exactly that. You have to know that we used forums threads before we started our wiki project.

Old forums area:
http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/viewforum.php?forum=26

Maybe the newly-released FL Mod studio is also worth a try:
http://the-starport.net/freelancer/fo ... t_id=32715#forumpost32715

On a sidenote, FLE shouldn't be used for professional mods. I have reads many complaints about it for not doing it job correctly plus you have WAY more possibilities by INI-Coding, afaik.

You may also find interesting information over at the archives, specifically the modding tutorials forum. While I believe most important tuts have been moved in here, there may still be some nuggets to be found in there.

As far as tools go, I think you're pretty much set for the basics. More advanced modding would require things like UTF Editor and/or HardCMP (depending on which UTF Editor version you'd be using), possibly the ALE Editor or UTF to XML...

Valuable tools to come later on will be things like FLScan or FL Error Checker (unfortunately with Digital Brilliance down I don't have a link for you just yet). These will help you look through your mod for errors that you might otherwise have missed. FLSpit is also a good utility that reads and prettifies FL's logs, though I can't guarantee it'll work on Windows Vista and up as I've never used it on those.

Once you get into modelling, you'll have to either pick up Milkshape 3D with the CMP/MAT exporter or go for the brand new 3ds Max 2010/11 exporter, which is available on the Forge. I can't recommend the latter enough over the MS3D one really, it does a much better job. Likewise, Schmackbolzen's SUR converter is far more robust than the traditional MS3D SUR exporter, though Lancer Solurus' SUR Builder (again, no link because DB is down) is an interesting alternative as it does the SUR for you instead of requiring you to do the mesh, with the tradeoff that it can't do quite as optimized and fitting SURs this way.

Hope this helps and welcome to The Starport!

Just think I should point out, I'm working under 3ds max 9 with this, W0dk4 is using 2011 or 10 don't remember, either way it should work for any version in between, it just needs compiled with the correct SDK.