Need some advice from existing scripters.

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giskard
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Need some advice from existing scripters.

Post by giskard » Mon, 26. Jan 04, 18:58

Hello Scripters.

After reading Revens tutorial Ive decided not to wait for the egosoft docs and to dive in and start scripting the bbs missions ive been thinking about. I need some pointers from people who know what files i should be looking at.

Basically I need to know what scripts i need to read in order to find the commands i need to do the following.

1) Get new bbs news to appear with the option to accept a mission.
2) Randomly choose a system near to the station that is offering the mission.
3) Display that systems name as the target system.
4) Spawn a ship there that will be the target for the player.
5) After 1 hour destroy the ship if the player has not found it.

I need to learn about the commands needed to do all this so point me in the right direction and i'll do rest. :)

Thanks :)

PS i am activily seeking this info for my self so you cannot answer it, dont worry i will figure it out.

One more question: Spawn scripts are just xml right ?

If you know how to change a players ranking upon completion then any information on that would be great too :)

Giskard
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xSiNx
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Re: Need some advice from existing scripters.

Post by xSiNx » Mon, 26. Jan 04, 19:39

giskard wrote:Hello Scripters.

After reading Revens tutorial Ive decided not to wait for the egosoft docs and to dive in and start scripting the bbs missions ive been thinking about. I need some pointers from people who know what files i should be looking at.

Basically I need to know what scripts i need to read in order to find the commands i need to do the following.

1) Get new bbs news to appear with the option to accept a mission.
2) Randomly choose a system near to the station that is offering the mission.
3) Display that systems name as the target system.
4) Spawn a ship there that will be the target for the player.
5) After 1 hour destroy the ship if the player has not found it.

I need to learn about the commands needed to do all this so point me in the right direction and i'll do rest. :)

Thanks :)

PS i am activily seeking this info for my self so you cannot answer it, dont worry i will figure it out.

One more question: Spawn scripts are just xml right ?

If you know how to change a players ranking upon completion then any information on that would be great too :)

Giskard

BBS missions aren't scripts. Not sure I can tell you more than that because what I know comes from the dev.section (mods : I'm at the lowest level and haven't signed the waver... is this info public or not???).

Anyways, join the dev.section (it's free), you'll learn more there without signing the waver to get full access.

Alex.

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giskard
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Post by giskard » Mon, 26. Jan 04, 20:00

Im a lvl 3 my self mate.

Edit: found it, thanks. i had completely forgotten about that. I downloaded the old ref doc too ages ago. Will dig it out.

giskard
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Post by giskard » Mon, 26. Jan 04, 20:37

Looks like the missions are obj files after reading those docs.
I own Visual C++.net but in order to compile them id need some source files that I do not see egosoft giving out.

I think my best bet remains with egosofts docs in the hope that custom bbs missions will be supported indirectly via other means.

Im not really interested in writing ship scripts beyond the need to use them in missions. All this spawn stuff to me is just a way of generating mission targets nothing more. I need a way to offer the mission to the player, have him accept it and then spawn in the targets. Perhaps increasing or decreasing his rank with a race on success or failure of the mission.

My C++ is at the noob stage but my scripting skills generally are pretty good. Straight forward C++ seemed relatively easy when i started studying it. I only it problems when Microsofts commands for VC came into it.

Giskard
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xSiNx
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Post by xSiNx » Tue, 27. Jan 04, 04:28

giskard wrote:Looks like the missions are obj files after reading those docs.
I own Visual C++.net but in order to compile them id need some source files that I do not see egosoft giving out.

I think my best bet remains with egosofts docs in the hope that custom bbs missions will be supported indirectly via other means.

Im not really interested in writing ship scripts beyond the need to use them in missions. All this spawn stuff to me is just a way of generating mission targets nothing more. I need a way to offer the mission to the player, have him accept it and then spawn in the targets. Perhaps increasing or decreasing his rank with a race on success or failure of the mission.

My C++ is at the noob stage but my scripting skills generally are pretty good. Straight forward C++ seemed relatively easy when i started studying it. I only it problems when Microsofts commands for VC came into it.

Giskard
You can sign up to be an offficial BBS programmer in the dev.section... You need to sign the waver, dunno if there are any other requirements.

BTW, C is relatively simple but it has many many pitfalls (main ones are memory management and concequently string manipulation and pointers)... C++ is basically just an extension of C, so if used like C, it's not more difficult than C... The basic object syntax is easy stuff, but it can get extremely complex and there are so many pitfalls it's almost a joke... I've been programming C++ for 10 years now and I still get the oddball bug every now and then caused by a mysterious forgetten almost undocumented rule... hehe... But the power you have... Ahhhh.... I love C++ more than any language, I live for it!

As for the Microsoft stuff you're talking about you probably mean MFC... It was a pile of crap the day it came out and it's now a rotting pile of crap. Stay away from it, it's fundamentally evil :) It's just a shame they messed up the C++.NET... It's alot more natural than MFC, but there are so many keywords you need to use it's ridiculous... It makes the code very hard to read, the syntax as taken over! Arrrgh!

Alex.

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giskard
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Post by giskard » Tue, 27. Jan 04, 15:57

Sin: I tend to agree about MFC and .net. the worst part for me is that cannot decide if their using upper or lower case in their commands.

The NDA egosoft need requires printing and i dont have a printer. I emailed info@egosoft etc etc about it and my email got ignored.

So no printer, no alternative methods of signing any waver no chance of me getting the info i need.

In this age of electronic communication youd think there would be better ways to handle this than snail mail. Especially since egosoft has had my details for years now since i first signed up for the level 3 access and used those same details as my address when i preordered X2 before i canceled it and ordered from SPS (im an EU guy you see).

Giskard
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