[CUSTOM GALAXY] The Syndicate - v1.0 2005-11-11

[nuclear_eclipse]

Sorry guys, I ended up going home to Ohio for a few weeks for Christmas and my wife's birthday. I will be right back on the Syndicate within the next few days, and I have a LOT of new things in the works, and should be able to keep everybody happy for quite some time....

[Augustini]

I just downloaded the mod.

I have encountered these issues:

- Many stations appear without name. Instead it states: readtext*somenumber*

- There appear to be no Xenon left in the game. I flew through X347 and the only xenon there was the station, which didn't launch any fighters at me for attacking it.

- Allmost no ships in the game. Only place ships were encountered were in the terran sectors.

[nuclear_eclipse]

I just downloaded the mod.

I have encountered these issues:

- Many stations appear without name. Instead it states: readtext*somenumber*

- There appear to be no Xenon left in the game. I flew through X347 and the only xenon there was the station, which didn't launch any fighters at me for attacking it.

- Allmost no ships in the game. Only place ships were encountered were in the terran sectors.

This is because the last release of the Syndicate was created for X3 v1.2.01. I will be releasing an updated version soon that is designed for 1.3, as well as having tons of new things added. Check back soon.

[Kroyon]

I just downloaded the mod.

I have encountered these issues:

- Many stations appear without name. Instead it states: readtext*somenumber*

- There appear to be no Xenon left in the game. I flew through X347 and the only xenon there was the station, which didn't launch any fighters at me for attacking it.

- Allmost no ships in the game. Only place ships were encountered were in the terran sectors.

Also make sure that the mod is enabled, it sounds to me as if it isn't. I know because I've made the same mistake and the game was like you're explaining.

[dwb1]

Hiya Hiya:

I have been playing the Syndicate Mod for quite some time with v1.3. 1.2 to 1.3 crashed my game big time so I reloaded the game and upgraded 1.1 to 1.3 and everything works fine, don't need to enable the script editor just download and start a new game in the Syndicate galaxy. Now I am playing with Cycrow's Guild Pack, everything is fine, now I've added the Tera-corp scripts, all is well
So far I have not had to use the script editor to activate any of these scripts. I can not activate the script editor without scripting myself some free stuff Lack of character I guess. Not a big deal just a few stations here and there but it does take away from the game!!
The point is--upgrading X-3 from 1.2 to 1.3 can be a big problem but upgrading from 1.1 to 1.3 (different upgrade) works fine.

Keep up the good work, I can't wait for your upgrade, I love your work too--

DWB1

[PSNH98]

YOUR FILE THAT I DOWNLOADED ( TWICE ) IS A .RAR TYPE FILE THAT DOESN'T WORK ON MY MACHINE ! CAN YOU PUT THE FILE IN A ZIP FILE THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD USESES ???????

[nuclear_eclipse]

YOUR FILE THAT I DOWNLOADED ( TWICE ) IS A .RAR TYPE FILE THAT DOESN'T WORK ON MY MACHINE ! CAN YOU PUT THE FILE IN A ZIP FILE THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD USESES ???????

CAN YOU DOWNLOAD A FREE PROGRAM CALLED 7ZIP OR WINRAR?

seriously though, I use .rar files because they compress much better, whcih saves on bandwidth. Just get 7Zip, it's 100% free and a small download.

[Galaxy613]

Or you could turn off caps lock and download WinRAR.

[dwb1]

nuclear_eclipse:

I have been messing around with your Syndicate Mod (just for my education not for pub). I noticed the syndicate shipyard sold the Pleasure complex and I bought one and filled it with energy and it just sits there. What I wanted to do is have the product as Slaves and the resources as Energy, Space Fuel, and Space Weed. The only way I made it work was to spawn the factory into the sector (using the galaxy editor) at the begining of a new game and everything starts working but the Syndicate owns it It did not work if I added the product and resources to the complex in the shipyard and bought it. The same is true when I tried it with the weapons complexes, only 1 product is made instead of 2. SO ------ How did you activate the weapons complexes so they worked correctly? Can they be added to a shipyard and made to work if bought? Can you change the product and resource of a Complex (food instead of wepons)? and how do you set the owership when a complex is spawned?

I opened the Editor and look at what happens!! I guess I want to know everything

DWB1

[nuclear_eclipse]

nuclear_eclipse:

I have been messing around with your Syndicate Mod (just for my education not for pub). I noticed the syndicate shipyard sold the Pleasure complex and I bought one and filled it with energy and it just sits there. What I wanted to do is have the product as Slaves and the resources as Energy, Space Fuel, and Space Weed. The only way I made it work was to spawn the factory into the sector (using the galaxy editor) at the begining of a new game and everything starts working but the Syndicate owns it It did not work if I added the product and resources to the complex in the shipyard and bought it. The same is true when I tried it with the weapons complexes, only 1 product is made instead of 2. SO ------ How did you activate the weapons complexes so they worked correctly? Can they be added to a shipyard and made to work if bought? Can you change the product and resource of a Complex (food instead of wepons)? and how do you set the owership when a complex is spawned?

I opened the Editor and look at what happens!! I guess I want to know everything

DWB1

The problem lies in the fact that only certain types of stations will be set up properly on their own by X3 when purchased and placed. For the other types, you have to write a script that places the proper products and resources into a station and then activates the station tasks. I will be including a script with the next version of the Syndicate that will do just that.

[boomer]

Hello Nuc,

I'm playing X3 in your mod for quite a while now (dec first week), and I am enjoying it fully. I didn't look at my fighting rank very often, but when I did today I was a "combat ace 3rd grade". I thought this was an X2 rank. Is this because of the mod or should I look somewhere else? I vaguely remember that the previous ranks were all according to X3.

please advice,

Many thanks

Boomer

[nuclear_eclipse]

I didn't look at my fighting rank very often, but when I did today I was a "combat ace 3rd grade". I thought this was an X2 rank. Is this because of the mod or should I look somewhere else? I vaguely remember that the previous ranks were all according to X3.

AFAIK, X3 uses *some* of the old X2 ranks, but not all, and the Syndicate has definately not changed any of them.

Cheers

[nuclear_eclipse]

Feedback:

I'm tweaking some of the Syndicate scripts, and I want to know your opinion on a couple matters, specifically on the subject of resources/products for the unique stations offered in the Syndicate HQ.

Pleasure Complex - what product should be made, and what resources should it use? I'm open to anything, especially creative, but usefull ideas.

Spacefly Farm - I know it should produce spaceflies, but what resources should it use? What would you feed baby spaceflies? Also, I know there's a ware named Spacefly Eggs, but is there anywhere in X3 to get these so as to use those as products as well?

Also, are there any other unique or illegal type of factories you'd like to see placed in the Syndicate HQ? I'll be removing the Pirate Base due to the way the game engine 'steals' it from you as soon as you place it (sorry to anyone who found that out the hard way). But I'd like to stick to pirate-type of factories here....

As for when to look for the next release: I'm probably going to hold off until patch 1.3.1 is released. I have plenty of work to do in the meantime, but I figured I'd give you all an update on that.

One last thing, if there's anyone here who would like to bug test the initial plot phase for the Syndicate, drop me a PM or catch me on AIM, and we'll discuss what I need you to do for me.

As always, any and all feedback is appreciated. Cheers.

[Seven05]

I saw spacefly eggs in a BBS transport mission before, IIRC. I think those would make a good product for the Spacefly Farm that could be purchased by the Split, perhaps.

Not for any particular station, but it might be interesting if the AI versions all consumed slaves as a secondary resource.

[boomer]

Hello Nuc,

I agree with seven05 that slaves should be included in all pirate factories. Slaves should be obtained through the pleasure complexes. Input for the pleasurecomplexes should be space fuel, space weed and may-be a foodsource. Slaves are also to be obtained by catching pilots in space. Furthermore the pirates use sidearms, hackerchips and are able to hack stats of races and / or factories. This may be an industrie as well.

I'm playing your mod for about 9 weeks now and enjoy it fully, better than I enjoyed the original.

Hope it helps to put you on some thoughts about the matter.

Greetings,
Boomer

[TheGreatest]

For the other types, you have to write a script that places the proper products and resources into a station and then activates the station tasks. I will be including a script with the next version of the Syndicate that will do just that.

can I ask how you're implementing this? I'm not so sure I like the way I did it for my mod. (which a whole 4 people downloaded)

[nuclear_eclipse]

@ Seven & boomer - Thanks for your input. I had been toying with producing slaves at the PC, but I'm not sure I want to make it a resource for every pirate station, just perhaps a couple, and only as secondaries.... But I still like the idea. Now what would baby spaceflies eat and need to grow?


@TheGreatest - I created a subroutine loop that runs on a taskID at the Syndicate HQ (a shipyard). Every couple seconds, it loops over the player's factories and if any of them match the special factory types, it checks for a local variable. If the local variable doesnt exist, it adds the proper products and resources to the station and starts the production commands, then sets the local variable so it wont do it again for that station. If you want the source, I'll be more than happy to post it...

[Red Spot]

Nuke .. you remember us talking abou the 'station idle command' ....

wouldnt that be much easier ..??

just add something like 'if stationtype == 'blabla custom station'
'add product + resource and start producing .. end' ...


wouldnt that be much easier than checking for 'potential' stations every couple seconds ...??



G

[nuclear_eclipse]

Nuke .. you remember us talking abou the 'station idle command' ....

wouldnt that be much easier ..??

just add something like 'if stationtype == 'blabla custom station'
'add product + resource and start producing .. end' ...


wouldnt that be much easier than checking for 'potential' stations every couple seconds ...??



G

True, but I really hate replacing Egosoft scripts.... And since you can't quite override it in anyway, I'd much rather run a background script and leave the Ego scripts in tact.

[Seven05]

@ Seven & boomer - Thanks for your input. I had been toying with producing slaves at the PC, but I'm not sure I want to make it a resource for every pirate station, just perhaps a couple, and only as secondaries.... But I still like the idea. Now what would baby spaceflies eat and need to grow?

Slaves?

On a (slightly) more serious note I think it would be nice to use some of the less common wares. For example the Space Fly farm could consume lots of Majaglit ( sp? ) and a very small number of spaceflies to produce spacefly eggs.

By pirates stations consuming slaves I was more or less thinking along the lines of the AI stations only and in those cases things like weapon factories and mines in particular. Something about delivering slaves to a mine so they produce ore quicker just sounds like a good "black market" option to me. Perhaps even things like a "Slave Ore Mine" that would consume a few slaves directly instead of larger amounts of energy cells. It might add an interesting twist to suddenly start buying slaves from Pirate bases instead of only selling captured pilots there. If this was the case I definately wouldn't have any station that produced them. I guess I just think that slaves should have more of a use in the game rather than simply trading them for cash at a pirate base. And like all illegal goods, if you increase the potential use of them it makes smuggling a better option for players. Imagine running a dozen slave mines in Ore Belt and having to bring your slaves in from several pirate stations including ones on the other side of heavily patrolled core sectors.

Unfortunately you run the risk of players simply building those mines next to pirate stations which is why it would be best to keep them as AI only stations. Since you have a custom galaxy it should be possible for you to ensure players can't run in and built "standard" mines in the sectors with these slave mines. Might be a little more difficult with other factories though.