How to edit your freeplay files...

Often people ask how to change events in freeplay to change the game to fit their style of playing more then the original game did. This tutorial will break down the important lines and teach you what things to change and what effect they have.

As always BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL FILES FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next, navigate to the folder your game is installed in and go to \Mods\Los Angeles Mod v1.6\Specs

The files are in xml format which is just a text document and easily modifiable. Depending on your computer skill level, you can either open the files directly into notepad by right clicking the file and selecting "Open With" and selecting notepad or wordpad, OR you can change the filename from .xml to .txt

There are 4 files you can change to affect freeplay depending on which version of the game you have.
fp_params_challenge.xml <-- Changes the Freeplay Challenge mode in EM4 and FR
fp_params_endless.xml <-- Changes the Freeplay Endless mode in EM4 and FR

fp_params_challenge_d.xml <-- Changes the Freeplay Challenge mode in Deluxe
fp_params_endless_d.xml <-- Changes the Freeplay Endless mode in Deluxe

You can change all of the files or just the one of the mode you play the most.

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<MinDurationBetweenEvents value = "30.0" />
This is the minimum duration between two events. If things are happening too quickly for you, or one on top of another, you can change this to whatever you'd like. Most people find 120 or 140 to be a comfortable setting

<StartBudget value="150000"/>
<MaxBudget value="400000"/>
<Earnings value="30000"/>

These are the initial amount of money you have, the max amount you can have, and how much you earn each time the game gives you your pay. Change these number to increase or decrease the amount you want.

<InitialEventWaitDuration value="5.0"/>
How long from the time the game starts until you get your first event. Some people like to increase this time so they can get their units on patrol and set up the map the way they like first.


<starttime value="7:30"/>
What time of day the game starts at. Change it to midnight or to noon or to any other time you wish.

<TrainCycle value="240.0"/> <!-- in seconds -->
How often the train comes through. If you find yourself frustrated by the train, you can set it to a high number like 9999.0 to see it less often.

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Editing Events

Some people only like fire events, some like police events, this section will break down an event and all of the factors you can change.

<EFPEventFall>
			<Enabled value = "1" />
			<!-- AverageFrequency: average number of events per 10 minutes -->
			<AverageFrequency value = "0.4" />
			<Worth value = "4.0" />
			<SupervisorStart value = "ID_SUPERV_EVENT17" />
			<SupervisorFinish value = "" />
		</EFPEventFall>

This is a typical event for freeplay

<EFPEventFall> </EFPEventFall>

Opening and closing tags that describe the event itself. This would be a Fallen person medical aid.

<Enabled value = "1" />

1 is enabled, 0 is disabled. Like an on/off switch

<!-- AverageFrequency: average number of events per 10 minutes -->
			<AverageFrequency value = "0.4" />

This tag is debatable, many of us have noticed that incidents with a lower number happen more often then those with a higher number. Setting it to 0.0 also has the effect of disabling the incident.

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There are many other event tags, but for the most part they are self explanatory such as how long a person waits, how far they run, and whether or not they are armed.

Another thing you can change is the weather.

<weather name="fair" changeduration="15.0" minduration="60" maxduration="180">
			<fog intensity="0.0" color="ffffff"/>
			<rain intensity="0.0"/>
			<storm intensity="0.0" speed="0.0"/>
			<flash frequencyfactor="0.0"/>
			<sound name=""/>
			<sound2 name=""/>
			
			<transition state="cloudy" weight="1.5"/>
			<transition state="misty" weight="0.7"/>
		</weather>

You can see that for a nice day, all of the fog, rain, storm and everything is set to 0.0. It also shows that after that, it will transition to either cloudy or misty. If weather slows down your system, or you just accept the fact that in Los Angeles, we go nearly all year without any rain, you can change many of these factors.

You can go down to the bad weather and set them all to 0.0.

You can remove the transition state lines in fair, and then remove all of the other weather types.

Or you can find your own happy medium that you prefer.

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Remember to save the file to the same location and if you changed the file name to .txt, remember to put it back as .xml

I hope that helps,
Mike