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

[Aegyen]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[frostdillicus]

First off, thanks for the work. I wish the improvements in AP were released for TC.

Second, does this mod allow you to keep access to the new ships that were added in AP?

Thanks.

[Ketraar]

The improvements were released for TC is called Albion Prelude.
And no you cant have AP assets in TC.

Get AP and use this kind of modification to add things to AP if you miss them.

MFG

Ketraar

[frostdillicus]

No need for snark.

My point was, I wish something like this weren't necessary to enjoy TC while having the improvements in AP.

[PDouma39]

Hum, I don't hope the new home-sector was that one unknown sector besides Quiet Tides? I uh, hum, allready claimed that one:). I named it Redemption and when I looked at the description I figured out this is an sector which I should have claimed through some kind of mission?

[PDouma39]

I figured it out myself:), very nice mod you've build, love playing TC-style in AP. And all the plots work great. Thanx.

[Vacuity]

This may be a stupid question, but as I only played X3TC a little and never did any of the corporation missions, I'm not really sure.

When doing regular missions for OTAS (I presume the same would be true of other corporations) all I have been assigned so far has been assassination missions. OK, maybe that's just the luck of the draw, but the targets seem to be... difficult. Not as in they're flying M7s while I'm an an M3, but as in shooting them causes military and police ships IS to go hostile. This seems particularly badly thought out when the mark is in Legends Home and completing the OTAS-assigned mission causes the OTAS-owned destroyer to go hostile and respond to my comm attempts with remarks about turning me into dust (or something along those lines).

This means that I'm left with no real choice but to deliberately fail the mission? I don't see an option that allows me to complete the mission, retain my property and not essentially end up starting a war? Is this the way corporation missions were designed in the original TC? My apologies if it is the original design and therefore not relevant to this mod, but... It seems badly designed.

Thanks for the mod in any case.

[Cormyr]

It combines the best of AP (UI, graphics, ships) and TC (plots) - really great mod!

[DrBullwinkle]

shooting them causes military and police ships IS to go hostile.

It's a feature, not a bug.

Also, this is vanilla behavior; not due to the mod.

Corporate missions require you to pay more attention to managing your reputation. You can do it; it just takes a bit of effort. There are ways to minimize rep loss, such as only killing the target of a mission rather than all of the escorts, and ramming targets rather than shooting them with guns. Also, recovering any rep loss is usually just a matter of running a mission or two for the race involved.

The idea of requiring more sophistication in managing rep is good. However, the execution can be repetitive. That is why corporate missions are often referred to as "grinds".

The Guide to the Corporations has more tips.

[Cormyr]

Playing as Terran I get a strange bug sometimes - in Terran sectors, the Terran police tells me to leave the sector and kills me. :/ It's really strange, I've done nothing.

[DrBullwinkle]

That, too, is normal vanilla behavior. Most races will not allow you to enter their core systems until you have sufficient rep with that race.

[Vacuity]

DrBullwinkle, thanks for the reply. I understand that there's a "game" in there in terms of managing reputation, and if this is how the vanilla game works then I apologise to Dillpickle for asking about it here, but OTAS telling me to shoot ships that will cause other OTAS military ships to go hostile to me and my property seems broken.

And is there anyway to kill off a target, get credit for it and *not* aggravate the in-sector police and military? Is ramming the only way? I've never touched the escorts on these missions, so if ramming isn't enough to stop local military capitals from getting angry, I'm going to have to give up on the corporations.

Put another way, losing race reputation is a reasonable trade off, having hostile police and military ships in every sector isn't; it makes any kind of remote property unusable/a big fat loss.

[DrBullwinkle]

As mentioned above, the Guide to the Corporations has more tips.

Also, try playing the game some more. Your assumption, that all is lost just because a ship turns hostile during a mission, is incorrect.

[Vacuity]

I've read the guide before, but I'm happy you brought it up; it doesn't seem to have any hints about how to kill targets without turning local sector forces hostile, only about how to reduce rep loss.

In fact rather curiously all the genuinely useful advice about the assassination missions seems to specifly pertain to "The Starting Missions - Targets for Assassination: Atreus, Strong Arms, & Duke's" (emphasis mine) and then states "These missions are slightly different to the usual Assassination missions given by the Corporations as the target will be of one of the main races as opposed to a Pirate." So why am I getting regular race marks for regular OTAS missions? According to the guide, I should be getting assigned pirate marks?

And I'm well aware that having a single sector's police and military ships isn't the end of the game, but it's certainly the end of my chip plant in Legend's Home, my silicon mine's chance of operating from the adjacent Unknown Sector, and the local traders I have operating from Aladna Hill and Akeela's Beacon are going to have to be reassigned somewhere else as they're going to be engaged every time they enter that sector at least for the forseeable future. This is a trade off for ~15% rep gain with OTAS and a 77K reward? That's not a game; that's shooting myself in the foot for tuppence. And every future assassination mission they and every other corporation assign will do the same thing?

[Cormyr]

That, too, is normal vanilla behavior. Most races will not allow you to enter their core systems until you have sufficient rep with that race.

My ATF rank is "Venus Access" - that should be the sufficient rank to enter Mars, isn't it?

[PDouma39]

I have to agree concerning the rep. loss, I only did those when having a very high reputation with the most races. Just because some ships are not there in the Otas shipyard until you become at a certain level with the Otas HQ, does imo not justice to the rep. loss, but hey, its just a game:). But a beautifull one at that, and this mod makes it even more better.