[AL Plugin] Litcube's Phanon Corporation V1.21

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 00:22

Hrmm.. Good point...

How about just a total military count? Not all military is actually held in the HQ sector . Hunters are out there looking for your property.

Also, soon, I'll be asking for community help to write short messages in a T file. The messages will be played at random, 5% of the time that you take out one of their assets. Just to let you know that "interested parties have lodged a formal complaint with joint institutions informing of your recent aggression..." "Stop, or I'll say stop again".

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 01:21

Since you have *no choice* but to be in a state of total war with Phanon... Why? They will attack your assets. Taking them out is simple self-defence. If they were to offer an amnesty for, say, a day or two realtime (with an incentive to let them off the hook) then there would be a real point to it.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 02:13

Targ Collective wrote:Since you have *no choice* but to be in a state of total war with Phanon... Why? They will attack your assets. Taking them out is simple self-defence. If they were to offer an amnesty for, say, a day or two realtime (with an incentive to let them off the hook) then there would be a real point to it.

More details required.

Also:

Update

0.93b - No restart req:
- Report issued on company assets every 240 mins (can be changed via T file)
- TL Real Estate tasks now return to home sector once deploying station

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 06:21

Hey, it's your mod, you choose how to implement this (and whether to implement it). Phanon *will* attack you if I understand this right, even if you build complexes purely for private use, right? So it behooves the player to wipe them out. I wouldn't mind the added flavour that Phanon messages would give, but there would come a point that this is just message spam unless some kind of possible functionality is built in, even if only sometimes.

Why not let Phanon use company TLs for deployment? Relying on race TLs can mean major losses if they try to go through hostile space.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 06:30

Ah! I think I see what you're saying now. Why have these messages if it's assumed that you're in a state of war?

Humour, I suppose. The messages that you recieve from them are modern day corporate style feign ignorance B.S. PR at its best.

Figured it'd add the flavour.

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 06:40

True; but if you're overwhelmed you'll try to sue for peace, right? Why would Phanon be any different? They seem to have no problems finding allies, after all!

On a side note, it would be nice to have a random element to where they start up (user definable, say five or six sectors) so you have to hunt a little for them.

Company Destroyer fresh from the shipyard three days in. I *do* like to move fast you see!

And TandiTech is no more. That was some... serious shielding on that base.

You say that is level *one*? Good grief. What with the higher levels having much greater resources to draw upon, one wonders if a single M2 will be enough!

Latest in... That was a wonderful reward! It will certainly come in useful. No spoilers here, you'll have to find out for yourselves, but I think you'll like it.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 4. Jun 10, 17:11

0.95b - No restart req:
- TL RealEstate minor tweaks
- TL RealEstate task and Sector Guardian task loading of fighters is now quicker.

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 08:52

Litcube, I'm concerned that one might conceivably chain-restart the AL Plugin while *in* the start sector, accruing chain rewards. Given the incredible wonderfulness of the reward, this has obvious questions for balance. I suggest that the TandiTech reward is either only given *once*, or removed entirely to prevent exploitation.

Sadly, Nova Corp went the same way as TandiTech. I imagine Phanon will now look on my organisation as a serious threat. For my part I remain indebted to my mysterious sponsor who has greatly accelerated the plans of my own company through means best left for people to find out for themselves.

If I may make a couple of suggestions, you may want to consider a couple of points:

Allowing the player to define Title and CompanyName could allow for much more creative applications for adding flavour.

Ministry of Finance Business Post

Recently a new corporation, Phanon, has been making waves in the business sector with hefty investments in all manner of trade and services. According to GenerationChief of Generation, a subsidiary of the Phanon Corporation, "We have built up a strong financial base planetside as a company and believe now is the time for Generation to expand our products to serve the valuable spacers out there who protect our worlds from the marauding Kha'ak, foul Xenon and vile Pirates who, left unchecked, would soon invade and violate our worlds. The opportunity to grasp the stars has been granted us and soon you will have the chance to eat at Generation eateries, buy wares at Generation stations and use Generation products with the same confidence in flawless service as you can on Planet, Planet, Planet or Planet."

"Our orbital headquarters are in a secure and secret location. Because of security concerns intruders will be shot on sight."

When asked about PlayerCorp, GenerationChief replies, "We are sure Generation will get along fine with PlayerCorp, provided PlayerCorp does not intrude on our activities. Rumours of hostility between our organisations are just that - rumours - although if provoked we will of course be forced to protect our assets."

We asked PlayerTitle PlayerName of PlayerCorp what PlayerCorp's policy towards Generation would be. "We will defend our interests and we see Generation as in direct conflict with those interests and a direct threat to the health and well-being of PlayerCorp employees, traders, and facilities. We have had friction with this organisation in the past - and the only law in unmapped space is the law you bring with you. We will respond to any signs of aggression from this organisation with lethal force and remind them to ensure that the FFID on their traders does not identify our ships as foes, or they *will* be fired upon - if something on the Gravidar is red we have a 'shoot first and don't *bother* to ask questions afterwards' policy."

When reminded that attack of civilian ships is illegal, PlayerTitle PlayerName responded angrily, "Generation is a military organisation with military aims, even if it may not seem obvious... We have intercepted transmissions and been informed of certain operations by anonymous informants. We will treat their ships as military vessels and if they list us as 'foe' they will be shot. If they seek no quarrel with us they will set their FFID accordingly, and we can be *guaranteed* to respect that - we never attack allied ships, as a flawless record of service to allied factions will show."

Clearly this is a quarrel that will not be settled any time soon as these two companies square up to each other.

In other news sales of weaponry have trebled in recent Wozuras in response to increased Xenon activity in all known Xenon sectors which appears to have been triggered by an assault on Core Xenon space, far to the Galactic West. Trade runs along known Xenon migration routes can bring great profit but we at the Business Post recommend travelling with an armed guard until the situation settles down...

[The remainder of the paper appears to hold little of interest and you soon discard it.]

One final suggestion - suggest giving the Generations a few bomber squadrons at start, and encouraging the Generations to purchase more. Considering the rewards (not least keeping *your* space safe) there should be much, much greater risk in attacking these guys.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 17:08

Very interesting points.

Targ Collective wrote:Litcube, I'm concerned that one might conceivably chain-restart the AL Plugin while *in* the start sector, accruing chain rewards. Given the incredible wonderfulness of the reward, this has obvious questions for balance. I suggest that the TandiTech reward is either only given *once*, or removed entirely to prevent exploitation.

You know, I did think about this. Your suggestion of removing/reducing *just* the TendiTech reward is brilliant. They have to get through a whole generation to redeem the Nova award.

This is partly the reason for the ~18 hour recoup time that the Phanon Corp. takes to rebuild a subsidiary. But I'm thinking of other options to entice the player to stay clear of that sector. Now that I've opened up the T file optional start sector can of worms, a litter of laser towers between generations is out of the question.

Targ Collective wrote:Sadly, Nova Corp went the same way as TandiTech. I imagine Phanon will now look on my organisation as a serious threat. For my part I remain indebted to my mysterious sponsor who has greatly accelerated the plans of my own company through means best left for people to find out for themselves.

Did you find Nova more difficult? Was there a greater resistance? Did you find that they expanded more quickly? How was the shielding? Was it a single M2 operation?

Targ Collective wrote:If I may make a couple of suggestions, you may want to consider a couple of points:

Always.

Targ Collective wrote:Allowing the player to define Title and CompanyName could allow for much more creative applications for adding flavour.

In the T file maybe?

Targ Collective wrote:Ministry of Finance Business Post

Love that story! I wish there were a way to incorporate new blips like that into the game, reacting to the game state. The only viable thing to do right now is just send messages like the Phanon Asset Report, but generated by reporters throughout space.

Targ Collective wrote:One final suggestion - suggest giving the Generations a few bomber squadrons at start, and encouraging the Generations to purchase more. Considering the rewards (not least keeping *your* space safe) there should be much, much greater risk in attacking these guys.

I'm on it.

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 18:00

I 'nixed Nova very quickly, with a single underarmed but very well shielded M2. The story I wrote you would go very well at the *start* of a subsidiary, and reacting to the game state can be done - player factory count and Phanon factory count is recorded, as is ship count (even by type). If you want more material I will need some parameters to work around though.

It was a two or three carrier and one M2 op. Really, they should be better defended than this. The shielding slowed me down a little mind - but not quite twice as strong. How about some strong regen so that it needs more damage output than a single M2 can bring to bear to crack? Just a thought.

At least eight bombers just for TandiTech, sixteen for Nova, with higher generations having real fleets of the things... Otherwise you can waltz in, do the op and waltz back out again with very little real challenge. I say this having only gone as far as L2, great challenege might await me yet!

I leave the game running in the background continuously, so they will generally get at least a few hours (realtime) before I strike. But the player knows where they are based, has a strong motive for striking and is informed the instant they begin ops... Strong defences - I'm talking M2 killer defences - are needed here. Add bombers to the mix in great numbers, M7Ms maybe and definitely an OWP or ten just for looks.

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 18:21

Hey Lit... how about using the Galactic News Network? Maybe have it spit out stories about the corporations and what not and how they are progressing. Or when something happens, like when and if the player affects them

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 18:35

While certainly possible, don't you think that this would be a little beyond the scope of what Litcube is trying to achieve here? What you suggest would entail getting to grips with a new, unfamiliar script which affects all of known space. I have no doubt that Litcube would be perfectly capable of using this as you suggest, but one wonders at this stage whether it would be worth it. When I have written the other 159 stories, maybe.

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 19:35

Heh, I haven't gotten around to using the mod yet but I'm just throwing out ideas and stuff that might work in tandem with the mod. Since the team working on the GNN made it possible to mod and put your own stories in it and even say something about what the player is doing in the game

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 19:39

And good on you for doing that (and maybe I'm being overly cautious here). Though I confess I'd rather see Litcube working on the next version of this wonderful little mod than struggling with a whole new news system.

Yacek · Post by **Yacek** » Sat, 5. Jun 10, 21:35

Possible conflict with the script Weapons Quickswap by Tatakau:

Code: Select all

 <page id="8500" title="Litcube's Rival Corporation Artificial Life" descr="">
    <t id="1">\033BLitcube's Rival Corporation: Phanon\033X\n</t>
    <t id="2">Phanon</t>

Code: Select all

 <page id="8500" title="Weapons Quickswap by Tatakau">
  <t id="0">\033BWQS\033X - Select Weapons Group 1</t>
  <t id="1">\033BWQS\033X - Select Weapons Group 2</t>
  <t id="2">\033BWQS\033X - Select Weapons Group 3</t>
  <t id="3">\033BWQS\033X - Assign Weapons Group 1</t>
  <t id="4">\033BWQS\033X - Assign Weapons Group 2</t>
  <t id="5">\033BWQS\033X - Assign Weapons Group 3</t>
 </page>

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Sun, 6. Jun 10, 02:21

Update Majoris.

0.96b - No restart req:
- Page 8384 now used in T file to avoid a noted conflict
- Reward for 1st generation reduced to avoid camping
- Task Trader: Refuel now more efficient
- Task Sector Guardian: Rewrite. More efficient, intelligent.
- New Task Sortie: New task assigned for stations requesting military assistance.
- New Task Bombers: I had to write a new combat script for these guys, as the default ego ones make m8s look like prancing fairies picking angel-bells at the Lilith fair.
- T file now includes 12 possible sectors to choose from at generation start. See notes at bottom.
- Thanks to Yacek, Targ Collective for their input.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Sun, 6. Jun 10, 02:27

Targ Collective wrote:I 'nixed Nova very quickly, with a single underarmed but very well shielded M2. The story I wrote you would go very well at the *start* of a subsidiary, and reacting to the game state can be done - player factory count and Phanon factory count is recorded, as is ship count (even by type). If you want more material I will need some parameters to work around though.

Well, these new bombers will make you pause. Plus, the shielding in the upper generations is quite serious. So, you'll be taking a beating while you're hammering away at it.

Targ Collective wrote:At least eight bombers just for TandiTech, sixteen for Nova, with higher generations having real fleets of the things... Otherwise you can waltz in, do the op and waltz back out again with very little real challenge. I say this having only gone as far as L2, great challenege might await me yet!

3 for Tandi, +2 per generation to start. After that, they go into Phanon Corp. shop list at a 10% ratio to M5s (M5s are the benchmark, when nothing else is to be bought, buy an M5).

Targ Collective wrote:I leave the game running in the background continuously, so they will generally get at least a few hours (realtime) before I strike. But the player knows where they are based, has a strong motive for striking and is informed the instant they begin ops... Strong defences - I'm talking M2 killer defences - are needed here. Add bombers to the mix in great numbers, M7Ms maybe and definitely an OWP or ten just for looks.

OWP will be next.

Requiemfang wrote:Heh, I haven't gotten around to using the mod yet but I'm just throwing out ideas and stuff that might work in tandem with the mod. Since the team working on the GNN made it possible to mod and put your own stories in it and even say something about what the player is doing in the game

I'll be looking into this. Sounds like a good idea, as Targ will be writing all of the text for it.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Sun, 6. Jun 10, 02:42

Targ, if you want to try writing the intros, use ids 600 - 800. Only five variables per ID, and I can put in whatever data you need in its place.

We'll see how it goes. If it works, I'll implement the player company name as a line in the T file.

Targ Collective · Post by **Targ Collective** » Sun, 6. Jun 10, 02:58

Whoa there boy. Ah'm a writer, not a scripter, ya hear? Ah can give you whutever fancy wording y'need but Ah'm leavin' the coding ta you.

Seriously, it will *need* 160 separate articles if there is any desire to do a proper job of this - ten randomly selected for each startup and hostile annihilation - and that is not counting special requirements to make it seem more relevant to the player (detecting if both PHQ and Aran are owned for including a scene where e reporter looks into the HQ for example). Even something basic like detecting total player asset worth and writing around that would spawn a fair few different ways of writing articles (even if variables are used to insert the appropriate content.)

This will come to many many words, although I'll start with just sixteen (one for each startup/shutdown) to test the principle.

Also there is the matter of my fee...

Um, if anyone else wants to help with these let us know. But it'll have to be high quality I imagine. I'll post up a shutdown article for Litcube tomorrow, and see if I can do a startup for Litcube as well (the text I provided yesterday should do for Nova unless you want to use it for a later corp). PM me the names and titles of the subsidiary heads and also the names of all the subsidiaries too for my reference please.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Sun, 6. Jun 10, 03:09

Ok. I'll look into the galactic news thingy first. Once I implement that, then it should be fair game for anyone to have a go.

Let me know how the bombers work out for you.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

[AL Plugin] Litcube's Phanon Corporation V1.21