[MOD] Terran Conflict plots 2.2a for Albion Prelude 3.1

i64man · Post by **i64man** » Sat, 23. Jun 12, 12:07

Moonrat,

if and when U fininsh and release the mod to add the TC plots to the IEX/XRM, would they need a clean start? And what about the PHQ & Hub plot that AP has on the ver 2.0, if a player has already finished them, would the mod overwrite those two plots?

dillpickle · Post by **dillpickle** » Sat, 23. Jun 12, 13:27

Vacuity wrote:Hmm, wandered into the Goner sector and found that I couldn't start the plot for them. The blue book symbol is there along with the NPC to contact, but the dialogue option to start the plot doesn't exist when you comm that character.

As I recall, the Goner plot had no particular requirements to start, right?

Sounds like you have something that isn't quite right - If the mission is there, but the conversation isn't, then that would suggest you have something taking precedence over the conversations file in the mod - either in a later CAT/DAT, in the Mod folder, or loose in the addon/t folder. Might also account for your missing sector in the galaxy map.

What else do you have installed, or perhaps left over from previous mods?

i64man wrote:Moonrat,

if and when U fininsh and release the mod to add the TC plots to the IEX/XRM, would they need a clean start? And what about the PHQ & Hub plot that AP has on the ver 2.0, if a player has already finished them, would the mod overwrite those two plots?

As far as I'm aware Moonrat isn't doing a mod to add TC Plots to anything.
What he does is IEX - AP/TC Sector Visual Enhancement which creates new sector backgrounds for the existing Universe, what he said is he's considering making an IEX compatible map for the XRM universe, and maybe one for this mod - which he's welcome to do.

As for making this mod compatible with XRM, I won't be doing it. XRM changes and adds far too much to make it an easy or viable conversion. Plus the fact that I'm not prepared to run through all the plots every time XRM is updated (approx. every two weeks) to make sure they still play OK.

Vacuity · Post by **Vacuity** » Sat, 23. Jun 12, 16:34

dillpickle wrote:Sounds like you have something that isn't quite right - If the mission is there, but the conversation isn't, then that would suggest you have something taking precedence over the conversations file in the mod - either in a later CAT/DAT, in the Mod folder, or loose in the addon/t folder. Might also account for your missing sector in the galaxy map.

What else do you have installed, or perhaps left over from previous mods?

I don't think I have anything "left over". I have numeric ranks, scan target object hotkey, Marcon Clone Station, the scripts that accompany Scorp's X3 map program and this mod installed. This mod is installed via the mods folder and I have no fake patches. I don't really see how any of those other mods could be interfering with the plot, but maybe I can reinstall stuff and check. I'll post (or edit) back with the results later.

Thanks for paying attention to support in any case!

Edit: Confirmed by deleting the AP folder, getting Steam to re-download the files, then reinstalling the above stuff (minus Marcon Clone Station as I wasn't using it anyway) and went back to talk to the Goners. Exactly the same situation. Just to confirm in case it has any relevance, I am using the English version of the game.

I'll try starting a new game and flying over there asap to check on it.

Edit2: Ahh! Interesting! I used the Argon Patriot start and upon leaving Omicron Lyrae was offered the bridging mission to start the Terran plot. This didn't happen with my existing game, but I assumed that was because I was still harmless, but in the Argon Patriot start I am also harmless and have much lower Argon rep than I had in my save game. Entering Elysium of Light I contacted the big Goner ship and successfully started the mission.

So in summary: Both the Terran and Goner plots (and possibly more?) are buggered in my existing game, but are functional with a new game. I should probably have checked the new start before deleting and reinstalling everything, shouldn't I?

What would cause that? Would that be something to do with updating from v1.0 to 1.1 of this mod? Would it be something to do with the Humble Merchant start? I guess I'll have to start a new game (again), but I suppose I'm a little concerned that I'll get hours into the game before discovering the plots are broken again...

Moonrat · Post by **Moonrat** » Sat, 23. Jun 12, 19:15

dillpickle wrote:As far as I'm aware Moonrat isn't doing a mod to add TC Plots to anything.
What he does is IEX - AP/TC Sector Visual Enhancement which creates new sector backgrounds for the existing Universe, what he said is he's considering making an IEX compatible map for the XRM universe, and maybe one for this mod - which he's welcome to do.

Correct, I've left the noble task of getting the TC plots into AP to far greater minds. My mod alters the backgrounds, fog, suns, lighting, planets & moons. ie. All the non man/alien-made galactic physical elements.

My obligations to RL will shortly drop off in a week or so when spouse & sprogs head to Europe leaving me with 4 weeks of glorious isolation with only Luna for company (yes even the dog has a galactic theme). I am currently completing the finishing touches to IEX 13.a and I will release it soon. Time permitting I shall then produce a fully up-to-date map for use with XRM (with required 'T' files etc.) and then one for the TC plots mod for AP. My original quandry was which 'TC plots' mod to target. This thread or the one by Black147 [MOD] [AP] Terran Conflict plots for AP (TCAP) - v1.1 Work in Progress (05.05.2012).

Eventually IE & IEX should be numbered after the 'TC Plots for AP' otherwise the map (with extra stuff) for IEX will not be active having been supceeded by the 'TC plots map'. If this is done now it'll throw a spanner in the works. It is for this reason why I need to make a compability mod. so that a player gets IEX elements with the plots. The only currently viable combination is the order IE+IEX+TCplots... the plots should be fine but you'll lose some (but not all) of the IEX beautification.

dillpickle · Post by **dillpickle** » Sun, 24. Jun 12, 08:14

Vacuity wrote:Edit2: Ahh! Interesting! I used the Argon Patriot start and upon leaving Omicron Lyrae was offered the bridging mission to start the Terran plot. This didn't happen with my existing game, but I assumed that was because I was still harmless, but in the Argon Patriot start I am also harmless and have much lower Argon rep than I had in my save game. Entering Elysium of Light I contacted the big Goner ship and successfully started the mission.

So in summary: Both the Terran and Goner plots (and possibly more?) are buggered in my existing game, but are functional with a new game. I should probably have checked the new start before deleting and reinstalling everything, shouldn't I?

What would cause that? Would that be something to do with updating from v1.0 to 1.1 of this mod? Would it be something to do with the Humble Merchant start? I guess I'll have to start a new game (again), but I suppose I'm a little concerned that I'll get hours into the game before discovering the plots are broken again...

Curious... The fact that you are getting the Blue Book mission icons in your current game suggests the mod has installed OK, considering you are also getting the correct conversations with a new game start means the mod has the correct conversation file, the question then is why is the existing game not reading the correct file...?

I'm not sure if you use the Plugin Manager, but a couple of fixes in Cycrow's update for it yesterday were to do with the conversations file, and looking back it seems it may have been doing odd things with it.

One thing you may like to try for your existing game is I have uploaded the mods t file, as well as a small director file to 'refresh' the Goner and Terran Link initial conversations. If you extract it to the addon folder, then as it's 'loose' it should be the file the game reads, and see if you get the conversations in your existing game.

AP_TC_text_files.zip

Vacuity · Post by **Vacuity** » Sun, 24. Jun 12, 09:40

dillpickle wrote:One thing you may like to try for your existing game is I have uploaded the mods t file, as well as a small director file to 'refresh' the Goner and Terran Link initial conversations. If you extract it to the addon folder, then as it's 'loose' it should be the file the game reads, and see if you get the conversations in your existing game.

Tried that. Entering Elysium of Light I am presented with two Goner TLs both offering the blue book, both with the relevant comm person. One person (presumably from before the refresh) doesn't offer the dialogue option to start the plot, the other does. Clearly all the necessary files are present and correct, but the "existing" plot-relevant objects aren't set up properly or something. Sorry, I know very little about the internals of this game, though I've started learning.
To confirm, entering Omicron Lyrae again now presented me with the relevant intro to the Terran plot bridging mission. I also noticed that there were now two Exterminators, though neither offered a mission start (but I think that's because I have a fight rank of Harmless)

I did a little more digging in that savegame after that last post and I suspect that *none* of the plots are properly initialised as I don't seem to be able to begin any of the corporation "plots" either. The only missions being offered at corporation headquarters seem to be regular station-based missions.

I do use the plugin manager, yes. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. It seems like my AV software doesn't like something in the update though...

Edit: Oh, and thanks for the assistance. I'll have to consider whether I'd be better off with a new game or taking my chances with a game that seems to have issues inside it. I'm not that far in, so I'm not too bothered about starting again, particularly as I've now learned how to make functional custom starts.

lordmyst · Post by **lordmyst** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 05:05

dillpickle - Egosoft should give you a commission. I bought AP just so I could play with this mod. Never got around to finishing TC and I wanted all the new bells & whistles that came with AP. Thanks for your hard work!

veryinky · Post by **veryinky** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 08:46

Vacuity wrote:I'll have to consider whether I'd be better off with a new game or taking my chances with a game that seems to have issues inside it. I'm not that far in, so I'm not too bothered about starting again, particularly as I've now learned how to make functional custom starts.

Personally, I would recommend starting a new game since there's no point in using a TC plots in AP mod if none of the plots work.

That said, I've had to restart myself and to minimize the pain I wrote down everything I had; reputation, money, equipment, ships, then used Cycrow's Cheat compilation 1.62 to re-create my character in the new game. (Then disabled the cheat script to remove the temptation)

i64man · Post by **i64man** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 11:41

Dillpickle, If I understood right, the war is disable on this mod. I was just wondering wouldn't be possible to create a condition to activate the war and do the plots from AP after say the completion of the balance of power plot from TC.

Vacuity · Post by **Vacuity** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 12:26

veryinky wrote:Personally, I would recommend starting a new game since there's no point in using a TC plots in AP mod if none of the plots work.

Well, it seems they can be made to work, but at this stage I'm intending to add Cadius' Extra Ships mod and that seems to require a new start anyway, so I suppose no major harm done, just some time spent.

Aegyen · Post by **Aegyen** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 18:07

What zip program are you using, dillpickle?..

I've downloaded this twice, and had Izarc tell me the zip has a bad header, both times. 7z just refuses to even touch it (just calls it an invalid archive)

Izarc reports that the crc doesn't match up on your .dat file. So, even after trying a repair, I can't get the .dat extracted.

I want to try this with eldyranx3's missions in PM to see how PM is handling the conversations.xml, so everything works. ( Besides having a copy for my own modded game

)

Vacuity · Post by **Vacuity** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 18:12

7z works for me just fine with this mod. What version of 7z are you using?

Aegyen · Post by **Aegyen** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 18:27

The last stable version of it: 9.20.

dillpickle · Post by **dillpickle** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 18:49

Vacuity wrote:Tried that. Entering Elysium of Light I am presented with two Goner TLs both offering the blue book, both with the relevant comm person. One person (presumably from before the refresh) doesn't offer the dialogue option to start the plot, the other does. Clearly all the necessary files are present and correct, but the "existing" plot-relevant objects aren't set up properly or something. Sorry, I know very little about the internals of this game, though I've started learning.
To confirm, entering Omicron Lyrae again now presented me with the relevant intro to the Terran plot bridging mission. I also noticed that there were now two Exterminators, though neither offered a mission start (but I think that's because I have a fight rank of Harmless)

That shouldn't have happened from that fix I posted - unless you used Gameplay -> Mission Director -> Reset Mission Director, which will reset everything to game start conditions as far as MD is concerned and will create these ships again.

lordmyst wrote:dillpickle - Egosoft should give you a commission. I bought AP just so I could play with this mod. Never got around to finishing TC and I wanted all the new bells & whistles that came with AP. Thanks for your hard work!

i64man wrote:Dillpickle, If I understood right, the war is disable on this mod. I was just wondering wouldn't be possible to create a condition to activate the war and do the plots from AP after say the completion of the balance of power plot from TC.

There may be a way to activate the war, I'm still looking into that, but once it's on that'll probably be it - no going back.
I am still looking at adding the AP plot when I get some spare time, but the other two are superfluous, as the TC Hub and PHQ plots are there.

Aegyen wrote:What zip program are you using, dillpickle?..

7zip 9.20

Aegyen wrote:Izarc reports that the crc doesn't match up on your .dat file. So, even after trying a repair, I can't get the .dat extracted.

If you're trying to unpack the CAT/DAT you should be using X3 Editor 2 - the standard program for packing the CAT/DATS.

Aegyen wrote:I want to try this with eldyranx3's missions in PM to see how PM is handling the conversations.xml

Some of eldyranx3's conversaions are already in my conversations.xml...

Aegyen · Post by **Aegyen** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 19:12

I should have been more exact: I wasn't able to extract the .dat from the archive...

IIRC, you're the guy who uses the zip extension on a 7z file. My program coughs on that, because it tries to use Zip compression to handle the archive. Must be something in the way 7z sets itself up as a default.

I'll know in a minute, downloading again. I shredded the other downloads..

Yep, as soon as I changed the extension to .7z, my 7z program opens it right up.

I ran into this once before, and recalled that a bit ago. You're the only one whose archives I run into that with. Gonna put a sticky on one of my monitors..

Awesome work here! I have wanted other missions available as well to go and do, and this is perfect for AP.

Aegyen · Post by **Aegyen** » Mon, 25. Jun 12, 21:56

Hi again..

SPK'd this into PM to see how it gets handled, and I noticed one thing you might want to put on your OP for installation.

Since you have eldyranx3's conversations for Stealing Logi, and Gate to Far merged in yours, you don't want people to install his conversations. His will upack 'loose' into the t directory, and override your's in the fakepatch.

OTAS · Post by **OTAS** » Mon, 2. Jul 12, 18:21

Greetings,

I really love this mod as it allows me to enjoy the TC plots in combination with the improvements of AP.
However, I have noticed one or two problems and I hope someone will be able to aid me with some advice.

Yesterday, I have started the Terran plot. Right now, Jackson wants me to form a squadron consisting of some Terran Rapiers + 2 NPC Sabres in order to patrol some Argon sectors. However, this mission is broken.

The game sends me to:
1. Circle of Labour - here, I have to kill two very fast Xenon ships with those stupid and slow-firing Rapiers. When I finally manage to kill them, the game sends me to:
2. Omicron Lyrae - here, I kill some more Xenon ships and afterwards, I am sent to:
3. Treasure Chamber - same procedure and the game then wants me to patrol:
4. Black Hole Sun - here, nothing happens.

According to several walkthroughs, the plot is supposed to end in Treaure Chamber by meeting/killing some Terraformer #decas. Unfortunately, they never appear.
Of course, I have reloaded and restarted this scenario several times. Yesterday, the game was completely reinstalled but this plot is still broken.

The mod description says that the plot manager might be able to help, so I entered "PlotManager" as player name, but this only leads to a text error on the bottom of the screen (maybe due to the fact that I'm using the German version?) Besides, the problem seems to be deeper.

Can anybody help me to fix this error?
Is it an old error caused by Egosoft? Or is it a new one introduced by this still-in-progress mod or is it even the fault of my mod collection (mostly Lucike's stuff and other scripts)?

Theoretically, it should be possible to look into the script file to see what needs to be done so that these #deca ships show up. Somehow, I always tend to "lose" those Terran Sabres accompanying me or to be more precise, the AI (artificial Idiocy) goes away or picks a fight with Argons thus getting destroyed OOS.

If we encounter the error, a fix could be created and implemented into this mod. Or am I the only one with this problem?

Vacuity · Post by **Vacuity** » Tue, 3. Jul 12, 19:58

I presume that this minor bug is related to one of the MD files included in this mod.

After completing a transport passengers trade mission I received the "Well done, you have transferred all the passengers and here's your dosh"-message as usual, but it was sent by "actor.name@L2M130.OfferActor" which I am fairly sure isn't right...

Otherwise it's all smoother than a buttered baby...

Alex Corvis · Post by **Alex Corvis** » Tue, 3. Jul 12, 20:08

Not sure whethter that's a mod related error. I remember once having had similar problems in TC at this part of the plot. So maybe it's the original MD file that does not trigger always correctly.

OTAS · Post by **OTAS** » Tue, 3. Jul 12, 22:27

I have found out two new pieces of information:
1. As soon as I enter the first Argon sector south of Heretic's End, the Argon military ships feel provoked by the two Terran Sabres following my patrol. Therefore, a Response Strike Force appears to kill the Sabres. I think they are plot-relevant and should survive. Their relations to the Argons need to be fixed.

2. The Terran Sabres only follow me to the gate leading to Black Hole Sun. They don't fly through it, although I am ordered to do so by the mission system via the yellow markers. Something is wrong there.

This plot is clearly screwed and it would be great if it gets fixed so that I can continue with this game.

egosoft.com

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[MOD] Terran Conflict plots 2.2a for Albion Prelude 3.1