First of all: Welcome to TSP!

Second: Depends on what kind of mod do you want to make? A small one with new systems, ships and weapons, or a major project with new features, new server commands and so? To make basic modifications all you need is knowledge with ini files and xml scripts.

To make your mod "useable even by other players" (don't make it sound too big) all you need is to zip it, upload it to a storage domain (MegaUpload for example) and share the link!

Other questions are welcome.

Wooh, you pissed me off... A little help here? Anybody?

You should start learning inis and practice on making small mods. Until you get to New Universe's level it may take some time, since I can see you have no experience in modding at all.

About Mass Effect: Try to find one person in the world who doesn't know about it!

The crashes youre talking about are probably crashes caused by an invalid code and so. If you check youre code and sure everything is fine, youre mod won't cause a crash.
If youre talking about the crash caused by using FLMM (Freelancer Mod Manager) - when you install a mod, uninstall it and try to launch the game but it crashes - there is no solution I know of.

About the DX Freelancer uses, thats right - Freeworlds: Tides of War's dev team managed to make Freelancer's graphic engine use DX9, and if this is possible, it will be possible to upgrade it to DX11 some day.

I hope it helped, its all I can provide you.

DX8 and DX9 are relatively close to each other, but DX10 is a major retooling, so I doubt you'll see that happen.

Plus, there are very few reasons to want DX10 over DX9. Most of the advancements are things that FL couldn't benefit from without rebuilding the graphics pipeline from the ground up.

Also, FL is very stable if well modded. It'll crash if the mod is poorly made (bad definitions, bad encounters, etc.), but that's the case for just about any game out there. Make a buggy product and you'll get a buggy release!

If you are planning on doing the whole thing yourself (a daunting task), I'd recommend starting with System editing. Perhaps create a very small system, with 1 planet and 1 gate / jump hole. This will start you getting familiar with FL's directories, Infocards, and IDS names / numbers, etc.

There are a few ways to approach this:
1) With a Visual tool like FL Explorer. It can cause errors, but does give you a taste of what you're dealing with. Plus it'll help you learn the coordinate system FL systems use. Don't mess with Encounters for a while, they can really biff your mod if done wrong.

2) Pure INI editing -you'll need a tool to Un-BINI all the INI files, since they're encrypted and compressed - or use the Freelancer SDK from the downloads section. To start, familiarize yourself with what each type of entry contains, which files they're in, and which files reference each other.

3) GUI INI editing, with a tool like FLDev, where it guides you a bit by organizing IDS editing and such on different tabs. Also helps that it can create new IDS Name and Info entries to use in your inis.

Why start with System creation? Even if you only want to add ships, you will need to know which inis define their loadouts / market equipment, engine appearance, market price and location, and ship spec info.
Creating a system usually involves including a base which sells stuff, so you'll dig encounter the market here, specifically the Ship Dealer. This leads to looking up Ship packages, which leads to ship info defining what equipment should be mounted/able, which also leads to Engine appearance, which can later lead you into CRC for effect names when creating new engine and gun effects. So you'll be digging through FL's directories all over quite a bit, and memorizing in the process ^.^

There should be a modder's starter pack lying around here, I know there's a post on it for sure. That should have many of the tools included, just be sure to check the Downloads section for updated progs. Anyways, this will just scratch the surface, but it's a good foundation. Then you can move on to building ship models and custom textures, creating ALE effects, new Market icons, Faction editing, Formations, Patrols, Base scripting, Mission Creation (for Single Player), Tips, Bribes, News, Wrecks, Hidden systems, on and on and ooooon.
The community has unearthed quite a bit, but there are still things which remain elusive. Digital Anvil -the Devs- have passed away thanks to MS, and the code remains closed, so there is plenty left to figure out, but what is possible right now is enough to provide months or years of fun. And certainly months of learning how to mod. Don't get discouraged when something breaks; odds are it's happened to many others before, so search the forums and use google's site search if that fails. EX: in the search field type your search items, followed by site:http://the-starport.net/freelancer/forum/

Once you start seeing your blood sweat and tears show up in the game, it's all worthwhile!

There was a TC beginner's pak at www.freelanceruniverse.com (.org, .net?) somewhere.

I did this actually.

Like changing the engine effect of an Osiris with the Nomad Battleship engine effect.

Or aswell for the ALE. effect of the main gun of a Bretonian Gunboat, using the nice red effect of a Gallic Trebuchet.


Yet again, I made myself a personal version of Discovery, using custom starspheres and effects that Firekiss made for Plasmafire.


And yes, I did tried to change the weapons refire, weapon damage/stats, and other stuff.


I'm currently stuck to comprehend on how to hitbox a ship, to avoid that I'll pass through a station.

Total Conversion Mod Starter Pack right on the front page.

http://freelancercommunity.net/