[script] Improved Kha'ak 1.1: Updated June 10, 2008

[7ate9tin11s]

Update released to turn off the debug messages and change the way sector takeovers work:

0.7.1
1. Turned off a debug message I forgot about
2. Creating a station for the sector takeover is no longer time based. The Kha'ak will slowly donate their ships to the station construction effort amassing a large amount of Nvidium, Silicon Wafers and Quantum Tubes. Once enough materials are available they will become the station. Stealing of these materials by friends or enemies will be harshly dealt with! Sector takeover takes about 33% longer now, but is somewhat random due to the nature of the ship -> resources routine (Large ships provide more).
3. Fixed a bug where a weaponless scout would suicide even if suicide is turned off.
4. Fixed a few other small bugs that are not worth describing.

[Legionnaire]

Just a small suggestion, when uploading new versions of this script and others, name them as per version, ie improved Khaak 0.7.1, as this is th first thing i do when i download one just so that i know it should be the newest version

Legionnaire

[7ate9tin11s]

I'll remember that in the future...maybe!

and now, smileys for your entertainment...



Back to work... ><

[Phier]

When it comes to balance, I'd try to balance it around RRF's as the vanilla AI is just to stupid to be expected to handle this.

Really what you have created is something like RRF but for the Khaak with sector take over so there is no way the AI will keep up without equal help.

Maybe if you limit the number of Khaak ships over all like RRF does so if you beat the snot out of them you get relative peace for a time until they make the next build up level and re-invade.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Awesome stuff... would there be any possibility for a Xenon take on this idea? Where if they obliterate a sector (perhaps they'd actually use their destroyers outside their home sectors...) they start building a station and make it their own until it's taken back.

Personally, I like the idea of a Khaak presence that the AI simply can't counter effectively. It lets me play the hero a bit. Perhaps there ought to be a mode, though, that limits the number of sectors the Khaak may conquer at once. But another that lets them expand indefinitely, unless they are beaten back.

I want to see the Khaak attempt to forcibly take a Xenon sector using this script...

[Deleted User]

I second the idea for a Xenon flavor.
@ Tenlar

heh yeah that's a nice fight to watch, I was able to watch the Kha'ak overrun Xenon Sector 101. In my universe the Xenon only own one Sector now. (and that 596) Other then that the Kha'ak have taken-over almost half the systems. I have them held for the moment, not sure how long I'll be able to hold on tho. I can't resupply my forces fast enough to launch a full out assault with the constant "raids".

[HD the Terran]

I haven't tried DLing or installing this, yet.

I wonder though...

If the Kha'ak in a sector gradually become nvidium floating wares...

If you park a Goner mobile shipyard (assuming you have one handy!) way out in the back of beyond in a sector where the bad guys are unlikely to find it, could you use the LR teleport ability to collect the l3wt?

Heh. You can just see the bugs whipping there heads around going "HEY! Where did our nvidium go?"

HD

[HD the Terran]

I haven't tried DLing or installing this, yet.

I wonder though...

If the Kha'ak in a sector gradually become nvidium floating wares...

If you park a Goner mobile shipyard (assuming you have one handy!) way out in the back of beyond in a sector where the bad guys are unlikely to find it, could you use the LR teleport ability to collect the l3wt?

Heh. You can just see the bugs whipping there heads around going "HEY! Where did our nvidium go?"

HD

[Legionnaire]

@ HD the Terran

i point you towards the bold text in point 2.

0.7.1
1. Turned off a debug message I forgot about
2. Creating a station for the sector takeover is no longer time based. The Kha'ak will slowly donate their ships to the station construction effort amassing a large amount of Nvidium, Silicon Wafers and Quantum Tubes. Once enough materials are available they will become the station. Stealing of these materials by friends or enemies will be harshly dealt with! Sector takeover takes about 33% longer now, but is somewhat random due to the nature of the ship -> resources routine (Large ships provide more).
3. Fixed a bug where a weaponless scout would suicide even if suicide is turned off.
4. Fixed a few other small bugs that are not worth describing.

of course if you would care to try it and let us know what happens, i think we might appreciate hearing

Legionnaire

[Tenlar Scarflame]

I second the idea for a Xenon flavor.
@ Tenlar

heh yeah that's a nice fight to watch, I was able to watch the Kha'ak overrun Xenon Sector 101. In my universe the Xenon only own one Sector now. (and that 596) Other then that the Kha'ak have taken-over almost half the systems. I have them held for the moment, not sure how long I'll be able to hold on tho. I can't resupply my forces fast enough to launch a full out assault with the constant "raids".

The Khaak have made THAT much progress? Wowwwwww. I didn't think the effects would be nearly that drastic! How long has your game been running with IK installed?

EDIT

now here's a thought. If Khaak are beating the crikeys out of someone all the way across the universe, we begin to get a mild case of Schroedinger's Cat.

So what if the Bulletin Board could give updates on the situations in whatever sectors the Khaak are terrorizing? For instance, it could give a report on a sector that has a minimum number of Khaak ships in it, or one where the Khaak have begun to build a station, or one where a station is completed, or one where the sector has been retaken by CoP forces. Just a thought...

[Kurt Shur'Tugal]

first just let me say, your script delivers , it has made the khaak a threat...a big threat...the kind of threat that u go AHHHHHHHH Holy *&^% .

i think though, that u made need to set some boundaries, like say they can only take over 3 sectors every X amount of hours, because i cant stop them otherwise. i went in with a valhalla, a odin, and a sohnen mantis, and they were like spit on the griddle, they barely lasted 1 minute before everything went boom . the ONLY ship i have that can stop a full blown invasion by themselves (with both hands tied behind its back, blindfolded, and half its guns removed ) is my sohnen scylla, which means you have created a force of destruction so powerful that the only ships capable of winning are the game ending ships of ultimate doom.......thank you you have created a script that has FINALLY given me a challenge


now plz excuse me, i have to mobilze 1st fleet to play roadblock, we shall stop the scourge (or more likely have our ships blown to pieces)

[Admiral-Dyroi]

I am shocked no one else has said this, but i don't mind doing it...FEAR THE KH'AAK.

Sorry ever since i saw the X-play review my perspective has been edged to the giddy side everytime i see something to the effect of "Improved Kh'aak" thought you were giving them blue pills or something...
Aaanyway Very FUN challange, my whole argon fleet of getting slowly ate away lol I only have 4 carriers and 6 destroyers left.(from 6 and 13)


But i have found a way to hold them off, its expensive but it works...Laser towers, many many many laser towers(20+ per gate).
I only have one sector with them in it but man do they help ease my mind, nothing red gets past them, so that might be a tip to place in your main ship producing sector.
Also keep a quick corvette with squash mines handy incase they jump past them start laying them out and lure them into the field for a nice display.
But like i said VERY expensive to do and should only be done in the most important sector you have.

[Deleted User]

@ Tenlar

Have been running this for 18 game time hours. (about Half in SETA when I'm not ordering Fleets, or leading one myself.)
I've finally stopped their advance for the time being, not sure how long it'll last tho. Finally took back two Primary Sectors(Argon Prime, Kingdoms End), Lost 5 fleets in the process..


@ Admiral-Dyroi

Yeah that's about what I've done for 2 sectors of mine. So far not a Single Kha'ak raid on my two sectors have accomplished anything except giving me loot, and a dozen or so captures.
You're not kidding when you say "FEAR THE KHA'AK", with this it makes them the scariest thing in the Universe.

@ Kurt Shur'Tugal

Yeah the idea of limiting how fast they can spread would make it quite a bit more manageable. Like maybe limiting them to 3-5 sectors every 12 hours, would allow the player and other races have a chance to rebuild some of their forces. The Kha'ak seem to resupply extremely fast.
(Could also be the mod I'm running since it does modifiy the Jobs File)

[Scoob]

Hi,

Good script

I do however think it is a little too much! lol

Regarding the swarm behaviour of the Khaak, well I think that's perfect and fits in well with the whole 'Cluster' nature.

Problem is that with their instant jumping to a point within a sector they tend to destroy EVERYTHING very very quickly - I've just seen all the stations & ships in Profit Centre Beta taken out in a matter of minutes - this is with RRF active. Combine this with the fact that in my game Shields charge faster and all weapons do half damage (wanted prolonged battles ) that's saying something.

Could I suggest that maybe some sort of limit is placed on the in-sector jump ability? You say that this feature will not work if a ships hull has taken >2% or so damage, why not make it that using the point-to-point jump facility will do say 1% hull damage, maybe a little less for smaller ships. That way they could enagage several targets right away, then have to fly to the others as normal. This sort of tones things down a little in that when they initially jump in to a sector you're in trouble, but if you can survive the first few attacks & get out of range of their big ships you might just survive. What do you think?

I do love the battles, but jumping in to a sector where an invasion is already under way is, erm, challenging shall we say. For the record I'm taking a Titan, a K, a couple of Cerberus and a Galleon into the fray (XTS obviously.) All these ships are fully equipped & have the TCS software installed so can engage both Capitol and fighter class ships alike but they don't last long.

Cheers,

Scoob.

[Balto]

Wow, this script is...overwhelming.
Very cool, very challenging.
Unfortunately for me it's a little too challenging in the early game.

I hope you don't mind a few requests/suggestions:

1) Add toggles for the swarm targeting and p2p jump behaviours:
The idea being that I can leave these features disabled until I'm equipped to handle them (if thats even possible!)


2) BBS Missions: Destroy the kha'ak overmind/station/whatever:
"<race> intelligence has discovered the location of the kha'ak <target> in sector <blah>."
The xenon cpu missions from XTM spring to mind as a basic model.

Rewards:
-Obligatory cash/rep
-Perhaps destroying the overmind would temporarily confuse the kha'ak ships within a given sector/radius causing them to: stop completely/attack each other/fly in circles/whatever.


3) Consider giving the script a snazzier name:
-Kha'aked and loaded
-Kha'ak, stock and two smoking barrels
-Kha'ak the casbah
-Kha'ak around the clock
...the possibilities are endless!

I have a feeling this script is only a version or two away from becoming a classic!

[Tenlar Scarflame]

@ Tenlar

Have been running this for 18 game time hours. (about Half in SETA when I'm not ordering Fleets, or leading one myself.)
I've finally stopped their advance for the time being, not sure how long it'll last tho. Finally took back two Primary Sectors(Argon Prime, Kingdoms End), Lost 5 fleets in the process..


@ Admiral-Dyroi

Yeah that's about what I've done for 2 sectors of mine. So far not a Single Kha'ak raid on my two sectors have accomplished anything except giving me loot, and a dozen or so captures.
You're not kidding when you say "FEAR THE KHA'AK", with this it makes them the scariest thing in the Universe.

@ Kurt Shur'Tugal

Yeah the idea of limiting how fast they can spread would make it quite a bit more manageable. Like maybe limiting them to 3-5 sectors every 12 hours, would allow the player and other races have a chance to rebuild some of their forces. The Kha'ak seem to resupply extremely fast.
(Could also be the mod I'm running since it does modifiy the Jobs File)

I like the idea of time limiting the maximum number of invaded sectors. That at least slows the spread. Like, after between two and four sectors (randomize?) they'll take a breather, and the AI might use the time to muster a counter strike and attempt to take the sector back.

Also, do the Khaak prefer to get a foothold in one sector and expand to neighboring sectors? Or do they just strike at random? I've always wondered why (except for very rare cases in XTM) the Khaak absolutely never use jump gates. Gotta be a bit easier than smoking a few hundred Nividium or Khaak cells or whatever powers their gateless jumpdrives.

It seems like there's a lot of criticism / ideas being tossed repeatedly at the OP, so let me add: This Be Awesome.

[Deleted User]

So far it's been random with the sector they invade. I've had them invade and take 4 sectors at one time. With attacks as fast and as massive as they are it's near impossible to hold you ground, much less push them back for long.

But it positively makes the game more of a challenge. Just a little tweaking and this will be the perfect addition to anyones Universe that wants some action.

[Kurt Shur'Tugal]

so far the invasion in my game is not random, they are procding in a sector by sector advance in my game, smart buggers.... im using Xtm, and the proceeded to invade from the khaak sector that is connected to X space via Kadarak. they captured 2 sectors, then skipped 1 and went to the sector after, where i put a valiant effort, and with the help of the argon RRF (who not so coincidently took ALL the casualties ) stopped them .


on a side note, RRF is practically required if you or the AI is to stand even half a chance against the khaak.


great job overall though man, made the game much more intresting .

You should submit this in my opinion, once uve worked out the kinks (like the everyones gonna Fu*&^%$ die thing, were all scre--boom )

just put some limits on how many sectors they can cap an hour/day b4 continuing and make it so that the former sector owners try to retatke the sector and this should be good.


so whens the xenon version coming out?

[7ate9tin11s]

Holy this generated a few responses

A couple quick notes:

Version 0.8 is 90% done. It is far more balanced and I even had RRF come within 8 ships of winning in Kao's Mistake. Unfortunately, it required a rewrite of the main AL routines and will not be a painless upgrade (You will need to kill 2 global processes or shut down the previous version before upgrade). Some...well...nerfs:
1. Swarm Max reduced to 50 from 100
2. p2p jumps are no longer instant and require charge time like regular jump drives
3. Maximum level swarms will stop receiving reinforcements allowing for them to actually be defeated when close to a Kha'ak sector
4. Extra-missiles has been tuned to provide less missiles and a slightly lower maximum fire percentage
5. The intelligence of the swarm is now dependent on its size. A larger swarm is much more dangerous AI-wise then a small swarm as well
6. Revenge chance reduced to 2.5%
7. One swarm will no longer steal from another
8. *this may change and is in testing* Kha'ak are now purely reactive and swarming will not occur unless a Kha'ak is killed. This greatly slows the spreading, but it makes them kinda boring again.
9. Uninstall routine clears out all swarms now, it used to only clear swarms in takeover sectors.
10. Lots of bug fixes

The only thing I still want to add is difficulty levels which will adjust the numbers for a bunch of things: Easy, Average, Hard, Insane
1. Swarm max: 30, 50, 70, 100
2. Jump 2 Point Time: 7, 5, 3, Instant
3. Jump 2 Point Hull%: 100%, 98%, 90%, 75%
4. Upgrade chance: 10%, 33%, 50%, 75%
5. Sector Takeover Nvidium: 30, 25, 20, 15
6. Revenge chance: 1%, 2.5%, 5%, 10%
7. ect...

Oh, and for 0.9 I do plan to have the BBS messages in, right now you just have to suffer

Oh, as for the other comments, this may be of interest... http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=2435848

I expect version 0.8 to be done by the middle of the week

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Man, you're quite a trooper. Nice that it's nerfed a bit, in my game Home of Light fell within the hour I was quick to reverse that and wait for the next version.

I wouldn't go so far as to make the swarming reactive-only though... I kinda like it when things dog me uncontrollably ^^

And as for Xenon... well, you're everyone's favorite arch villain right now

many thanks for your continued awesomeness.

EDIT

just remembered I also have Litcube's Khaak/Xenon invasions installed... it's ok to be sadistic, right?