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Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 05:47
by StormMagi
That is one of the effects. It either prevents launching to start repairs or if they are in space, prevents them from repairing and returning to dock.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 09:19
by wwdragon
StormMagi wrote:That is one of the effects. It either prevents launching to start repairs or if they are in space, prevents them from repairing and returning to dock.
Are you saying that Show Skills is screwing up repairs???? :o

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 09:49
by StormMagi
Yes, it somehow is. I confirmed it with a clean install, merchant start and just damaged the freighter you get. It prevents engineers from starting repairs and cancels repair operations in progress (which if you then remove the mod the urvs are perma stuck in a loop and won't listen to any commands).

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 10:49
by w.evans
I posted the code a page back if anyone wants to take a look.

@StormMagi Should I take that down, by the way?

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 11:25
by w.evans
StormMagi wrote:NESA was "Never Enter Stations Again" and was pre 2.5 (iirc, which was when Egosoft added similar functionality).
I know. I meant, could this:

Code: Select all

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../../../modding/md.xsd"
have been carried over from NESA, and could it now be causing problems?

Like I said, I don't really understand how XML works (yet?), but that looks like a path, and as far as I know, the file "md.xsd" is in the "libraries" folder.

Downloaded NESA, and it is so stated there. Also noted that the line could automatically be generated by an xml editor when associating a script with an xsd.

However, checked a couple of other mods, and this line is stated as:

Code: Select all

xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="md.xsd"
in other mods, as well as in Egosoft's own scripts.

Don't know if that'll fix anything because I don't know what it does, but I thought it looked odd.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 13:15
by wysiwyg
My gut feeling (not able to test right now) is that this line shouldn't make a difference to how the mod runs. If the xml parser can't find that path it should have a default XML schema to fall back on which is likely to be the current .xsd and .dtd files found in the /libraries folder.

If you're up for some testing then just change that line to what is currently shown in another of Ego's stock md scripts and see if it works.

Also turn on the debug log and check for any errors relating to unknown data variable or data types as this is essentially what the XML schema does.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 14:39
by w.evans
Hi wysiwyg,

Can't properly test it though, because I have never observed the problems described here. That is, engineers failing to initiate repairs.

In any case, I set it so in my personal copy of the mod; but as far as I can tell, it's working as it always has.

edit: just realized, you were talking to StormMagi, weren't you. I'm an idiot.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 14:40
by dez505
I have always used this and never had such an issue.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 14:47
by wysiwyg
w.evans wrote:Hi wysiwyg,

Can't properly test it though, because I have never observed the problems described here. That is, engineers failing to initiate repairs.

In any case, I set it so in my personal copy of the mod; but as far as I can tell, it's working as it always has.

edit: just realized, you were talking to StormMagi, weren't you. I'm an idiot.
Hey no problem - I was just making a general comment to all you guys. It's so good to see so many new faces interested in modding. I'm learning too but have been doing this for a bit longer than some of you so just passing on my thoughts ;)

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 14:51
by w.evans
Hey wysiwyg,

could you pretty pretty please take a look at the code of this mod that I posted on page 3 of this thread? Really can't find anything in there that would cause the problem described, but StormMagi said that he verified it as being caused by this mod.

It's a really useful mod. Would be a shame to lose it.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 15:49
by w.evans
Just thought I'd report: I'm not getting the "Show me your skills" option in conversation at all anymore. I then tried it with the clean version from the Steam Workshop, and I'm still not getting the option in conversation.

edit: Sorry, must have been my mistake. I exited the station, and the option comes up in conversation again. Works in both Steam workshop version and my personal copy.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 17:24
by wwdragon
StormMagi wrote:Yes, it somehow is. I confirmed it with a clean install, merchant start and just damaged the freighter you get. It prevents engineers from starting repairs and cancels repair operations in progress (which if you then remove the mod the urvs are perma stuck in a loop and won't listen to any commands).
ARGH!
That sucks so bad.
This has always been one of my two Must-Have mods.
I don't wanna have to remove it. :(

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 18:11
by StormMagi
Neither do I! 8)

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 23:12
by wysiwyg
Sorry folks I've had a good look at this and I can't see any reason why it should cause the behaviour it does. My thoughts are that it may have something to do with the new stat that records how many staff the player hires having already unlocked the skills through smalltalk.

Perhaps the mod could/should intercept the event that is fired to open the skills screen, set the skills visible, displays the skills and finally set them to hidden again after the menu closes. This way you can see the skills of any NPC, but they ultimately remain hidden so that you can effectively still unlock them using smalltalk. Also you would be certain to be only running the set_skills_visible command on viable NPC actors.

I'll try and have a play with that as soon as I get chance.

It might also be useful if several people could test with the existing mod to see if this mod is the culprit for the strange engineer behaviour - there have been other reports of this but not related as to weather show skills was running or not.

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 23:25
by w.evans
Just to start out the reports, so they follow your call for reports making them (hopefully) easier to track, I have NOT observed engineers stopping repairs, or failing to initiate repairs with or without this mod active.

Having said that, I just started a new game start with a clean debuglog and Show Skills active. Will let you know if/when I get a ship other than the Skunk, and it gets damaged with an Engineer onboard.

@StormMagi Is the issue always related to repair jobs with drones? Are there any issues with Engineers failing to initiate or stopping repairs on the Balor and the Sucellus?

Posted: Thu, 18. Dec 14, 23:48
by StormMagi
I cleared my saves and started fresh for 3.0 so I don't have a fleet yet.

The main way I tested was with the merchant start and just shot up the engines on the freighter you get. Without the mod the engineer took a little bit of time to analyze modules then sent the construction urvs out to repair. With the mod running it wouldn't go past analyzing modules. When I saved mid repair and enabled mod it reverted to analyzing modules and the construction urvs got stuck in a loop going between both ends of the freighter.

Any tests I attempted on the Skunk ended with the Skunk blowing up due to me not preparing properly or too many enemies.

The freighter tests got the same result as the initial testing on an Arawn according to a mod user on Steam (which I posted earlier).

Posted: Fri, 19. Dec 14, 00:25
by UniTrader
i just had a short look into this issue:

The Engineer is not broken per se, he repairs Components just fine ;) (tested with some hacked in time acceleration) problem is the Display of his Action is not reflecting this, it stays at scanning components even though he is practically repairing. currently doing a search through the whole game data to find out where the commandaction is connected to the t-file or updating the UI because i couldnt find this in the ui, aiscript or md folder, but its getting late here so thats probably all for now..

Posted: Fri, 19. Dec 14, 00:25
by w.evans
Did as StormMagi suggested, and did a Merchant Start:

Blew up an engine of the Styrvok. A Marauding Titurel then appeared, so I thought that I'd test my MarineRebalance mod at the same time, so saved, alt-tabbed out, magicked me some cash, hired a marine officer and some cannon fodder, and moved to board the Titurel. Did not manage to disable the Titurel's engines before the Titurel moved close enough to start hitting my Styrvok.

And both tests successful! Styrvok is launching construction URVs, and Engineer's status shows "repairing Styrvok." And my marines are working as expected.

It IS possible that the Engineer will stop at repairing the hull, and won't repair the surface elements. Will report after it's done.

It might have taken a while though. Time flies when you're dodging turret fire.

Posted: Fri, 19. Dec 14, 00:29
by StormMagi
That would be good to know since I only tested on surface elements.

Posted: Fri, 19. Dec 14, 00:37
by w.evans
Have to keep the Titurel from blowing up the Styrvok, while at the same time keeping the Titurel in one piece first though. Have to get that casualty report.

Way off topic, sorry, but does anyone know how to save edit a capship's hull back up?

edit: no worries. got it.