[Script] Litcube's Bounce V1.7: Player Owned Autopilot Fix

[BlackRain]

Is this working with every ship? Or is it just a test now and only works when you run the test script?

[Requiemfang]

BlackRain, this is a test atm to see if there are any bugs and kinks for Litcube to iron out before he does anymore with it so it can only be run via the script editor.

When you go into a sector... any sector the script destroys everything so the sector is clear. Then the testing of the script commences and you sit back and watch and then here you report the results.

The basic results Lit was looking for was whether the script would run okay and work fine as opposed to having bounce off which leaves the auto-collision detection on for ships. With auto-collision on ships tend to ram into the target they are attacking, BOUNCE turns that off and allows ships to go into a avoidance routine (evasion)

[Killjaeden]

This model is transparent so the player can't see it. But because it's there, and it's large, the idea is that ships will avoid sooner, thus avoiding the embarrassing collisions. Some mods in this forum include them (SRM, XTC

Just to clarify things:
XTC doesnt use transparent models. The boxes are not there physically. In fact, if you open them in gmax you wont see anything.
They use the "proper" way of making collision avoidance like ES did it.
XTC models don't suffer from the missile-thingy As long as the missile has proper values. Too fast and it will never hit. Because there is no additional invisible physical volume like with the other methods the missile will target the physical &visible volume of the ship. If it doesnt hit then its the missile stats that are not good.

Same with too fast ships-> too fast and they will always crash into the obstacle. That's why M5 usually crash against capitals (not sure who sends m5 against capitals anyway)

I tested the collisions for the new capital ships in XTC (vanilla are still vanilla) with fast m4 and m3 because thats the minimal class to do damage anyway. For really big m2 only m3 where used.

[Litcube]

XTC models don't suffer from the missile-thingy As long as the missile has proper values.

I tested this extensively with XTC vs. Vanilla, and I come to a different conclusion. XTC versus vanilla, XTC will miss with missiles on the same ship. Sometimes it's not noticeable if the collision box is lined up with the model properly in XTC, but if the trajectory takes the missile on a course where the collision box extends beyond the hull, which happens on most XTC ships, the missile will miss on its first pass. It will then circle around, and come back for a second attempt. On some cases, the missile will circle until it expires.

A one off test might not show you right away that this problem persists in XTC. You'd have to fire a volley of mosquitoes, for example, at different angles until you see the result. Preferably at a large ship (Titan).

[Killjaeden]

the Titan was not changed in XTC ...

You can easily tell if a ship model uses custom avoidance by looking into the scene. If you see an entry with "...XTC\props\col\..." then it uses new avoidance. If not then it does not use new.

[Katorone]

Test 1:
100 Mamba Vanguard against 10 unarmed Boreas' : 0 Losses. (~60km view distance in sector)
Lots of low shields though, presumaly friendly fire. :-/

Test 2:
100 Mamba against 10 armed Brigantines : 7 losses. (~100km vieuw distance in sector + rock debris in the area)

Test 3:
Same as test 2, now without bounce.

This last fight lasted a bit longer, also a lot more casualties. About 60 Mamba's were left.

Didn't notice much difference in framerate.


Edit: test performed in XTC.

[Litcube]

@Katorone: Nice test! Sincerely, thank you for making a contribution! Every test helps.

[Katorone]

Thank you for giving me an easy opportunity to find out if fighters are actually worth it against destroyers.
In the 5+ years I'm playing X2,3R,3TC I've NEVER used capital ships besides an M2 now and then. Never did a patrol or sector defense...
I was actually surprised how strength in numbers can take down a cap ship that fast.

Oh, btw... I had MARS enabled on all cap ships. (so the 7 losses really are very low)

[Ikaruga]

I did 3 scenarii, all of them at SETA 900 and unarmed enemies

Scenario 1 : Aero Fighters

Enemy : 1 Leviathan

Ally : 30 Barracuda

No bounce
4 losses

Bounce
0 losses


Scenario 2 : Bad dudes VS Dragon Ninja

Enemy : Aquilo

Allies : 4 Split Dragons (M6)

No bounce :

1 of them lightly damaged due to collisions
Another one with low shields

Bounce :

Nothing !

I watched the different fights and apparently, the ships bounce correctly off the enemy and don't fire and are immune to collisions during a short time.

Also, I didn't experience lag or freezes at any time.

Conclusion :
Needless to say, your script is really useful and makes life much easier ! Great work so far, can't wait for a playable version of this !

[Litcube]

I was actually surprised how strength in numbers can take down a cap ship that fast.

One of my favourite things to do is take out capitals in Revelation with fighters. If you have some good macro management scripts, it's a dream, and so much cheaper.

I watched the different fights and apparently, the ships bounce correctly off the enemy and don't fire and are immune to collisions during a short time.

Also, I didn't experience lag or freezes at any time.

Good eye.

Conclusion :
Needless to say, your script is really useful and makes life much easier ! Great work so far, can't wait for a playable version of this !

Me too. There's one final issue that needs to be sorted. Something Jack08 brought up offline, but it should be easy to remedy. It involves a PLAYER M2 versus ENEMY fighters.

[BlackRain]

So when will this be available to use for normal play?

[Litcube]

So when will this be available to use for normal play?

How did your test results go?

[Firewrath]

Well, i had to test something in CMOD so i threw this in too (with SRM),
and did a Pirate-Yaki Captain start,
i must say, this is very nice, though ships like kestrels still plow right into huge ships (a phoenix in this case) SETA didnt seem to make a difference,
(but, theyre kestrels, its to be expected ^-^)
the barracuda raiders did rather well though, i didnt lose any of them from collisions,
buuut i lost a dragon by it ramming into Me, and another one ran into a Khaak capital ship, i didnt catch it because i spawned 3 of them and 20 dragons, though it was in my message logs,

i will say, im impressed with the lack of noticeable lag, specially since i dont have the best computer to be running TC on,

there is one Minor annoyance though,
i dont know if its due to me using SRM, but my ships dont always spawn with Fight Command MK1, and even though theyre set to 'Attack all enemies' sometimes they wander off in the sector and i have no way to tell them to attack a ship, unless i do 'command all ships in sector' But that doesnt always seem to work,

[Katorone]

So when will this be available to use for normal play?

How did your test results go?

I'd really like a "karma" thingy on this forum, just for things like this.

[Litcube]

though ships like kestrels still plow right into huge ships (a phoenix in this case) SETA didnt seem to make a difference,
(but, theyre kestrels, its to be expected ^-^)

Hmm.. They still shouldn't What was the test configuration? That's odd. I'll throw in fight commands with the next version.


Edit: OOHh! They probably fly out of range... I'm just using the vanilla attackallships command. I can fix that.

[Firewrath]

heading to bed right now, so real quick:
i used the phoenix mk1 (probably should have said that in my first post, -_-; ), which im guessing is from SRM, no weapons, 20 kestrels and bounce was on, lost two of them within the first few attack runs,
all my test are normally 1-3 big ships, no weapons, VS 20 or so ships with bounce on,
...
*Sigh*
i hate when i start testing stuff, sec, *starts up the game*
Me: "....ok, now why wont it start? >.<"
~5 minutes later~
"Ohhhh, riiight, turn it on in the AL settings,........"

Anyways,
50 kestrels VS 1 normal phoenix, no loses, ...except 4 to asteroids,
i did play with it a little and with 50 VS a deca, one did slam itself into the deca,
but i should be going to bed so i didnt spend more then 5min running it, which isnt enough time for a proper test imo, so i'll try it again later,

[Litcube]

@Firewrath: Thanks for getting back to me with that.

Yeah, currently, Bounce uses the engine's "size" attribute plus a third of the "size" again, as a virtual collision sphere. It's not all that great (for our anal standards, as it's still way better than vanilla). It works for most ships, but some stick outside the virtual sphere too far. The Odin is a good example.

Pretty easy to tweak!

[BlackRain]

No reason to be a dick. I am just curious when you think it will be ready for use. I have no intentions of testing it, not because I don't want to be helpful but just I don't have the time.

Edit-- Perhaps I am misunderstanding something here though. I am confused as to whether this works on all ships all the time, or it only works when you run a certain script and is just a test. If I put the Bounce plugin on in the AL menu, does it work for all my ships?

I tried turning on Bounce in the AL menu and 2 of my ships changed their name to bounce at the end, however the bounce stayed on their name, even after I docked them, it never changed back.

[Requiemfang]

Believe this is the first testing phase, next phase will begin once Lit is satisfied with the results. This might be in the testing phase for a while or for a short time depending on how many people test it and what they report results on and also find glitches and bugs can't forget reports on it's affect on the game performance wise

[BlackRain]

I understand it is in the test phase and I wasn't asking when will it be done or anything like that. I just wanted to know if it worked for all ships all the time or only when you run a script and run a test. If it works on all my ships always and is in test phase, that is fine. I will use it in my game and report back if it is working but if it is just for just limited use and only works when running a test scenario in game, then I will wait till it is working for all ships.