[X3T] Guide to training CAG and CLS1&2 pilots in Terran Conflict

[Kor'ah]

Updated: 17JUN10

Overview: A short Guide for traing AI pilots to fly Commercial Agent (CAG) and Commodity Logistics Software MK1&2 (CLS1,CLS2) controled ships. No need to ever let a clueless rookie touch your money makers again. There will be some changes made to this guide to make it look better and add any addtional information.This guide is best used for the mass production of these pilots in large numbers (10-infinity) quickly. If you only need one here, and one there, there is other altrnitives also detailed in this thread you might want to consider.

Warning: Please make sure you are useing the latest version of the bonus pack (V4.1.01 or later) released the same day as the X3:TC V2.7. First Version of the bonus pack had a bug in the "Automatic Naming" routine of these scripts that triggered the "modified" flag on your game. The current vrsion of the bonus pack has corrected this, or at least I could use the feature and not get my game flaged as modified.


Updated useing "Bonuspackage 4.1.01" and X3:Terran Conflict V2.7


The ship:

Discover S (Any M5 will do. Discover is the least effort. Block buy 5-10 for best results)

Max Rudder Tuneings
10x Engine Tuneings

Commodity Logistics Software MK2
Navigation Command Software MK1
Duplex Scanners (optional)



Accessing the CLS2 Options:

1: Select ship
2: Orders
3: Commands
4: Trade
5: Start External Commodity Logistics

*Lots of options. Most I won't bother to discuss. These steps will be repeated often in this guide.*


Setting up the way points:

1: Waypoints
2: Add Station
3: Universe map will pop up. Pick the target system and station.
4: Fly to station

Repeate steps 2-4 untill the full route is entered.

5: tap "Esc" untill you are back to the CLS2 main menu


Saveing your Work:

1: Data Storage
2: Save Data
3: Pick the top, or the bottom, slot
4: Name it "Training Course"
5: tap "Esc" untill you are back to the CLS2 main menu


Now to start the training:

*For this first pilot we are working with just hit "Start external commodity logistics" now. New pilots will do the following.*

1: Select ship
2: Orders
3: Commands
4: Trade
5: Start External Commodity Logistics
6: Data Storage
7: Load Data
8: Select "Training Course"
9: ESC to CLS2 main menu
10: Start External Commodity Logistics

Watch the little Discoverer(s) go. Once it hits "Logistician" rank order the ship to dock somewhere safe. This will take 10 hours of flying time and with the 60 second wait at each waypoint the total time will be ~10.5 hours.


Cleaning up the Mess: *Optional*

1: Select ship
2: Orders
3: Commands
4: Trade
5: Start External Commodity Logistics
6: Trader settings
7: Delete accounting information
8: Confirm "Yes"
9: ESC to CLS2 main menu
10: Waypoints
11: Delete all waypoints
12: Confirm "Yes"

This will clear his waypoints, any financial data from the training and leave you with a totaly blank pilot ready for work. The waypoint information is tied to the pilot and not the ship. Just move him over to his TS ship and start training a new pilot with the discoverer.


Moveing the Pilot to another ship:

1: Have both ships docked in the same station
2: Select the ship with the trained pilot you want to move
3: Orders
4: Commands
5: Trade
6: Start External Commodity Logistics
7: Trader settings
8: Reassign trader
9: Pick the target ship you want the trained pilot to move to.

If the pilot is transfered to the new ship the game will give you a friendly beep.


Recomended Route:

Waypoint 1: Cloudbase Southwest - Free Argon Trade Station
Waypoint 2: Cloudbase Southeast - Free Argon Trade Station
Waypoint 3: Antigone Memorial - Free Argon Trade Station
Waypoint 4: Three Worlds - Free Argon Trade Station

For Terran sectors look at the following post


Final Tips: (more will be added as time goes on)

-Homebase the training discovers at any factory you own. This allows you to use that factories "owned ships" list to keep track of them. M5s are near the bottom of the list so more imporant ships will always be above them. Pilot's paycheck can be set to come from your personal account or the factory's account. Default is personal account.

-If you don't use the "Recomended Route" Then have another thought out before hand. Just make sure it's low risk with no xenon and little (if any) pirate traffic. Lots of places to do this now.

-Watch out for those annoying red lasertowers when planning the route.

-If you happen to be hostile to the Argon and can not buy the CLS software from them. The Paranid Communications Facility in Priest's Pity is the only non Argon station that sells the CLS software.

-Currently it seems these pilots don't take a training course untill they have reached/docked the last waypoint in their flightplan. Could be helpfull to place this final waypoint at, or near, where the ship swap will happen.

-As it's been pointed out in this thread and the documentation threads for these scripts starting the training in the Herron's Nebula Trade Station can give a head start. Be warned it can become highly aggravating when trying to train 10+ pilots at once. You'll be fighting a RNG with a 1 in 4 chance of getting the correct pilot rank (Cargo Messenger) the whole way.

[Kor'ah]

Addendum: CLS2 race track for "Terran Defender" and "Argon Patroit" gamestarts.


Overview: Already finished reading the above guide and are feeling miffed you must go way out west to have your instant CAG/CLS army? Don't worry you don't need to go over there if you don't feel like it. In fact you are sitting on a training area that's just as good anyway. First off read the above guide if you haven't. I won't be repeating that information here.

The following is slightly more effort to get going when compaired to the Argon Prime racetrack. The lower startup cost and incresed saftey of these trainees more than merits it.


Prerequisites:

-ATF: Asteroid Belt access (Mars access is better but takes longer)
-Enough Terran race reputation to buy a rapier.
-Docking rights in Omicron Lyre

These should not be much of a problem. I don't recall there ever being a reputation requirement for the CLS2 software. If there is someone will correct me.


The Ship:

Rapier S (best to block buy 5-10. two million credits will cover the cost easy)

Sell back the 1MJ sheild
Max Rudder Tuneings

Navigation Command Software MK1
Now send all these ships to the Omicron Lyre EQ dock to buy "Commodity Logistics Software MK2" .



Recomended Route:

Waypoint 1: Asteroid Belt - Orbital Patrol Base
Waypoint 2: Oort Cloud - Orbital Patrol Base

*At this point you can start the training. When the Terran plot is finished add the following Waypoints*

Waypoint 3: Asteroid Belt - Orbital Patrol Base
Waypoint 4: Earth - Torus

Notes:

-The two Orbital Patrol Bases may not instanly show up on your sector maps. Rather than walking over there untill your scanners picks them up hover your crosshair over the structure and hit "T". Your targeting computer should lock onto it even if it's 100km away in many cases.

-No Kha'ak in terran sectors, so there is no need to keep ahead of the KM3s that lead clusters or interceptors. The 131m/s untuned speed of the Rapier is perfect.

-Discounting player mischief with the ATF/USC. The only time these ships will ever be in the slightest bit of danger is when going to Omicron Lyre that one time. What few Xenon there will be in the training area will be running like rabbits out of terran space and won't be a threat.

-After the pilots have racked up 10 hours of flying time stash them in the Argon Trade station in Heritics End. Even if they're not maxed rank yet they'll gain the final rank when they're moved into their new ship and are put to work.

[Rapier]

If you start the command at the Trading Station in Herron's Nebula, the local office will hire you a pilot that usually has some experience to get you started.

[Kor'ah]

If it's less random that it was in X3R and shaves off a significant ammount of training time I'll include that. I'll need more Terran Conflict specific data on training times with this method first.

[Gswine]

I can't say for sure, but I have been mucking about with inital loadouts of ships before starting CLS at Herrons Nebula.

If the ship has drones and mosqi's before starting CLS I find that I get supplyers and trader ranks more often and that ships without the drones or missiles start more often at cargo messenger.

I know that these things are random but I have repeatedly fired pilots and restarted CLS and the 'empty' ships get the cargo messenger more often.

[jlehtone]

I know that these things are random but ...

... they are random.

[brucewarren]

A very large for taking the time to make this guide. Thank you.

Might I suggest you put in something explaining the essential difference
between using CAG to operate ships and the Logistics 1 and 2 with advice
about how to choose the right one for the job.

[Carlo the Curious]

If it's less random that it was in X3R and shaves off a significant ammount of training time I'll include that. I'll need more Terran Conflict specific data on training times with this method first.

It's purely random, as far as I can tell.

plugin.com.logistics.admin.xml:

Code: Select all

084   |||if [DOCKEDAT] -> is of class Trading Dock
085   ||||if [DOCKEDAT] -> trades with ware SS_WARE_SW_NEW6
086   |||||skip if [THIS] -> get local variable: name='com.logistics.promotion'
087   ||||||$PilotLevel =  = random value from 1 to 4 - 1
088   ||||end
089   |||end

[dbrowdy]

Noob question: I read the descriptions of these three mods and from what I can tell, this doesn't say anything about the CAG software. Does the CL level affect the CAG level?

Also, am I understanding this right that the CAG will buy AND sell at best price at one of my factories so I need (in theory) fewer haulers assigned? Is there really and reason NOT to use the CAG instead of the straight buy/sell?

[Ulan Dhor]

Pilot ranks of Lucike's trader scripts carry over to different tasks, so yes, your CL level will be the CAG level.

And yes, you might save a few ships at your complex. Beginning CAG's can only sell and are very inefficient, which is the reason for the training presented in this thread. Trained CAG's are very good.

[Lorric]

Since CAG is not part of the Bonus pack (i.e. signed), it will always add a *modified* tag to your game, correct?

[Carlo the Curious]

Since CAG is not part of the Bonus pack (i.e. signed), it will always add a *modified* tag to your game, correct?

CAG is part of the bonus pack.

[dbrowdy]

Since CAG is not part of the Bonus pack (i.e. signed), it will always add a *modified* tag to your game, correct?

No it is signed, you just can't use the Auto Naming feature apparently.

[Lorric]

Strange, I remember looking at the Bonus Package and wondering why it wasn't there. Am I going blind, or has it been added later?

[Carlo the Curious]

Strange, I remember looking at the Bonus Package and wondering why it wasn't there. Am I going blind, or has it been added later?

It was always there ('always' being the 2 weeks or so since it was actually first released ).

[Kor'ah]

Noob question: I read the descriptions of these three mods and from what I can tell, this doesn't say anything about the CAG software. Does the CL level affect the CAG level?

Also, am I understanding this right that the CAG will buy AND sell at best price at one of my factories so I need (in theory) fewer haulers assigned? Is there really and reason NOT to use the CAG instead of the straight buy/sell?

Let's take a small complex that many players would find usefull early in a game. I picked EBC+GC ammo complex. Good stuff to have, yet annoying to find at times.

Basic EBC+Gauss Ammo complex

Useing the old "Best Buy" script you would need at least three TS ships to keep it produceing, or the player would need to spend more of his/her time doing the supplying via MORT.

Useing the new bonus pack scripts one would only need a single fast TS ship to keep the complex going. When the AI pilot flying this ship is trained he can even sell extra stock on his own for some side cash. Useing fully trained pilots these ships tend to die far less often and at least bother to look for enemies before jumping into a sector if possible.

Even better if the ship this pilot is in has the right equipment he can use the CLS1 script to fill up player owned EQ docks, trade stations, Hub and/or PHQ with the end product. Then go back to playing CAG untill those supplies have been depleted. All the player needs to do is stop one script and start another after the CLS1 side of this has been programed into the pilot.

These new bonus pack scripts are very powerfull tools for the industral mogul. Very helpfull in streamlineing production and distribution. All this guide does is explain the procedure that can train these pilots in unlimited quanities, in the shortest amount of time, in the most simple of terms. The uses of these pilots are up to you to figure out as there is just too many to be listed.

[bbenham]

Setting up the way points:

1: Waypoints
2: Add Station
3: Universe map will pop up. Pick the target system and station.
4: Fly to station

Repeate steps 2-4 untill the full route is entered.

Ok, I see this, and your recommended route, but what I don't understand is why you picked that route. Is it ideal to have a LONG route (I.E. does time in space matter), or is it ideal to have many waypoints vs few waypoints. Or, is this just a possible route you felt was safe?

When it's done with this route, will it just stop.. and stop training as well, until I restart it?


Thanks.

[Kor'ah]

1) It's about as safe one can get. Nothing much red to the argon survives long over there.

2) It's convenient. All stations have internal docking and ship+equipment is found nearby. Terracorp HQ is also in the neighbourhood.

3) It's left over from my X3R guide on the same subject. Couldn't find a good enough reason to change it.

That's why the argon racetrack is the recommended route. Doesn't mean it's unwise to use a different route. In fact due to the player's actions during the game it could very well be unwise to use that route. I do asume they are smart enough to see that on their own and adjust the plan accordingly.

As mentioned in the guide the terran sectors (Oort Cloud <-> Earth Torus) can work as well. Not as convenient but every bit as safe.

As for how they train this is what's happening.

1: They fly to the first sector and station in the list.
2: They dock at that station
3: They wait for 60 seconds
4: They undock and fly to the next sector and station in the list.

Once they reach the last station in the waypoint list they start over again from the beginning on their own. It's pretty much a "fire'n'forget" training routine. Following this guide to the letter it should take about 10H 30M to fully train a single pilot....or ten pilots for that matter.

[XanII]

Time to give this a go again. I think i used Dukes Domain and neighboring sectors for the limited CLSmk2 training in X3:R. Those were good sectors for ST training.

Good guide. Good reminder of a thing that should be quite obvious but isn't.

I still dont have any official training for CLSmk2 pilots in TC. Though i have not been using them for a long time yet. in X3:R they had a decisive role. Soon that will be the case in TC too i think.

[Maverick024]

What benefits does using an M5 have over something slower? If I understand the training scheme for CLS ships right, its time in space and not number of stops or some measure of the transactions performed that matters.

With a 60s stop at each station, the shortest period to train would come from using a ship which performs the least number of stops. A TS Mercury with no engine tunings would therefore complete the training slightly quicker than the M5 Disco? Also, this would have the bonus of reducing the number of friendly M5s flying about at high speed: an event that often ends in friendly deaths on the sides of asteroids/stations/Argon One.

Are there any particular reasons you suggest using M5s over others?