"Modding" Elite Dangerous on PC

Old Duck

Old Duck
Is there any way to mod ED on PC? I'm not talking major mods like we see in Skyrim, but easy, simple things. For example, I hate how the Adder sounds, but I love how it looks. Is there a way to copy the sound for the Hauler and make it the sound for the Adder? Other things that drive me nuts is some of text presented to me, be it the stupid "Top 1% of all liners" or having to shoot rocks to get a very common material like iron. I'd love to come up with my own names for materials (rare stuff that obviously wouldn't be found in the markets), some of the NPC comms, etc. I'd also like to change "Anonymous Protocols" to "Restricted Access" and "Analysis Mode" to "Stupid Mode". Okay, I'm just joking about that last one :p

So, is this possible, or is ED so tightly locked down that nothing at all can be changed? Again, I'm just looking to change simple things that affect what I see and hear, not anything about how the game plays, which would obviously constitute as cheating (which I do NOT condone).
 

gooddoc

gooddoc
Old Duck said:
Is there any way to mod ED on PC? I'm not talking major mods like we see in Skyrim, but easy, simple things. For example, I hate how the Adder sounds, but I love how it looks. Is there a way to copy the sound for the Hauler and make it the sound for the Adder? Other things that drive me nuts is some of text presented to me, be it the stupid "Top 1% of all liners" or having to shoot rocks to get a very common material like iron. I'd love to come up with my own names for materials (rare stuff that obviously wouldn't be found in the markets), some of the NPC comms, etc. I'd also like to change "Anonymous Protocols" to "Restricted Access" and "Analysis Mode" to "Stupid Mode". Okay, I'm just joking about that last one :p

So, is this possible, or is ED so tightly locked down that nothing at all can be changed? Again, I'm just looking to change simple things that affect what I see and hear, not anything about how the game plays, which would obviously constitute as cheating (which I do NOT condone).
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One of the main problems with modding is it's not too long before mods appear that give a player 'God modes'

It'll never happen in ED!

Edit: Well not without using cheats anyway!
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
gooddoc said:
One of the main problems with modding is it's not too long before mods appear that give a player 'God modes'

It'll never happen in ED!

Edit: Well not without using cheats anyway!
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I definitely don't see ED supporting modding via tools like Skyrim Creation Kit, but I wondered if there was a way to edit things like ini files (as the other poster stated, we can "mod" HUD color this way) to change simple things like link to sounds files and text shown in our display. For example, many programs have localization files where they store all the text that is displayed on a per-language basis. If such files are in a human-readable format somewhere, then I could go in and change "Iron" to "Uranium" for example, and "We're the top 1% of all liners" to, well, something that makes sense, LOL.

I also could see linking the Adder to the Hauler sound if either the sound files or their descriptions were accessible on PC. None of these things would constitute as cheating. It might be pushing the boundaries of the EULA, but in America we're starting to get Right To Repair laws passed, and I'm just "repairing" all these mistakes in ED, so I'm covered ;)
 

askavir

askavir
Only visuals can be tampered with. HUD colors, installing reshade presets, sweetfx, etc. There's also some tweaks to increase numbers of visible stars, nebula resolutions, etc.

Oh, and increasing the field of view. You haven't truly experienced ED until you've changed the FoV to 80 in the ini files. It actually drastically changed how much I appreciated several ships, once I could actually see much more of their cockpits at once.
 
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Old Duck

Old Duck
askavir said:
You haven't truly experienced ED until you've changed the FoV to 80 in the ini files. It actually drastically chaged how much I appreciated several ships, once I could actually see much more of their cockpits at once.
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Doesn't that create a fisheye effect?
 

askavir

askavir
Old Duck said:
Doesn't that create a fisheye effect?
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It's safe to use at least up to 80, 85. I prefer to stick with 80.

edit: here's a pic I took just now from my Clipper with a FoV of 80, and another from my DBX.

Screenshot-0149.png

Screenshot-0150.png

Some ships look incredible with a larger FoV, like the Courier, or even the Python.
 
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Spaceman Si

Spaceman Si
+1 for increasing the FOV. I whacked it up to 80, and it makes everything very much more visible and enjoyable. There is no appreciable barrel distortion (fish eye) at that level.

Askavir’s comment about enjoying the cockpits more at that level is spot on.
 

Schmack

Schmack
I expect eventually FD will offer mods like this at the store. Allowing folks to alter the game code would be removing a potential revenue stream.

I agree though, having different ship sounds would be pretty nice. Same with weapon sounds and other things only the player hears. Once it affects what everyone hears and sees, you can run into issues. Imagine seeing a bunch of NSFW items flying around in space... for example.
 

M00ka

M00ka
FD already sell engine colour kits, they could sell engine sound kits. Think of it like 34th Century exhaust kits (in other words, big tins with a hole in them tacked on to the muffler lol)
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Considering it absolutely is possible to change the paint of your ship on your pc, I am pretty sure it is also possible to change the sounds. Havent bothered to look, but its all stored locally anyway.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Schmack said:
I expect eventually FD will offer mods like this at the store. Allowing folks to alter the game code would be removing a potential revenue stream.

I agree though, having different ship sounds would be pretty nice. Same with weapon sounds and other things only the player hears. Once it affects what everyone hears and sees, you can run into issues. Imagine seeing a bunch of NSFW items flying around in space... for example.
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What you 'mod' on your pc isn't transmitted. I can use any paint I like, but nobody but me can see it. If I want others to see it it has to go through the store. I dont think Bigmaec is interested in how other people hear his ship. :p
 

B.Roberts

B.Roberts
askavir said:
It's safe to use at least up to 80, 85. I prefer to stick with 80.

edit: here's a pic I took just now from my Clipper with a FoV of 80.

Screenshot-0149.png

Some ships look incredible with a larger FoV, like the Courier, or even the Python.
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Yeah, this looks nice in the Clipper. Cozy cockpit it is. I wish we could have few optional HUD styles though (not just inverting some colors on the existing one). I mean something like on the good old Microsoft Flight Simulator where you can just throw another "sound" or "panel" folder in the aircraft directory and that's it, go fly Piper Cub with 737 cockpit. LOL
 

ShimEnki

ShimEnki
I am signing off on the mod that pays via direct 3303 wire transfer technology the same time we get notification of a successful assassination mission.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
Ian Skippy said:
Considering it absolutely is possible to change the paint of your ship on your pc, I am pretty sure it is also possible to change the sounds. Havent bothered to look, but its all stored locally anyway.
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But isn't it all encrypted and / or obfuscated? It seems most of the files are in the Win64 subdirectory under scrambled or encoded names. I don't see anything that looks like a normal sound file. However, this doesn't mean some clever person hasn't found something hidden somewhere.
 
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