[Mod] Brand-X Station Capture, beta

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Brand-X
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[Mod] Brand-X Station Capture, beta

Post by Brand-X » Sun, 13. Aug 06, 16:23

This is a mod, I'm afraid. I needed to get the Assault Troopers into the x-universe, with a volume of 3, cost 100,000cr, and be available for hire at all EQ Docks and Pirate Bases. That's the only 'mod' part of this script.

This mod will allow you to hire Assault Troops, and with the use of a transporter equiped ship capable of carrying Large freight, invade and capture stations belonging to other races. No special equipment is required.

After a successful capture the player has the option of operating the station himself, or returning it to the races control for proxy operation, taxed and sublect to commandeering by the player at any time.

To capture a station the shields must be reduced to below 50% and the troop ship must be within 5 km. Sufficient troops must be used, according to the target station type and the owner race, in order to effect a successful capture.

There is a small chance of the station surrendering if it's shields are reduced to below 10%, also a small chance of it self-destructing if it loses the battle, and if captured, a small chance of it rebelling at some time in the future.

This is an early release, mainly for testing both the concept and the long term game effects. The readme's are included, as are the code texts, and explain things in much better detail.

An .spk file or a self-extracting .rar file can be downloaded from here:

http://www.xai-corp.net/node/874
Last edited by Brand-X on Mon, 14. Aug 06, 21:43, edited 2 times in total.

russbo
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Post by russbo » Sun, 13. Aug 06, 18:26

I was just looking at this last night on Xai Corp's site; was wondering when it was going to be posted on the forums here. I look forward to using this. I'll give it a try.

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Mon, 14. Aug 06, 01:46

Let me know how it goes, Russbo. I've only tested it with 1.4 on my own machine. Hopefully it will install ok and everything.

I appreciated your efforts with Nirwin and Desert Eagle's reworking of the Sector Takeover script. This is sort of my way to solve the god engine problems that you experienced.

If you keep most of the stations that you capture in the 'Controlled' status, then the game engine can still use them to balance the economies, yet you can step in at any time. Fair, I think, since you've expended the effort to capture the station. :)

russbo
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Post by russbo » Mon, 14. Aug 06, 10:37

Well, this is all very exciting. It appears to be very well thought out, and no doubt will add a completely new dimension to what is already a superior game. I have two questions, if I may.
On these stations there exists the possibility of rebellion, with the station reverting totally to race control and making the player an enemy.
You state that if there is a rebellion, and the station reverts to the original race control, that the player will then become an enemy. Doesn't the player become an enemy when he starts attacking the station? Doesn't the attack affect the player's reputation with that race, and make you an enemy of that race initially? Or, can you take over stations without having your notoriety altered?

The other question, is there any way of adding this to an existing game?? With a few hundred hours invested, even though I don't do well with the money making aspects of this, I have gotten quite attached to my fleets and other conquests. If I have to tell my Thai gf that I'm starting X3 over, oh, I really don't want to think about that....

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Mon, 14. Aug 06, 18:06

Well, as soon as you start attacking a races stations, your rep drops like a rock. I've done nothing to alter the game play in that area. I set the station to make you an enemy upon rebellion because it might be some time before the station rebels and you may have repaired your relations with the race during that time. Yet if a station is rebelling against you, they must consider you to be an enemy.

As to if, after a bit of time, the station will come to view you in the same light as the race as a whole, I don't know. Maybe not. I may need to remove that 'set you to enemy' thing and just have it fall in with the races opinion of you. I guess it would do that.

And thanks for pointing that out. That's the kind of info I need to tweak this. Due to the nature of this mod, the long term game effects are hard to test, which is why it's a beta.

A couple issues I do know about:

After a station has surrendered or been captured, the M6's I used in testing would cease fire, but the M3's amd M4's would continue to attack. I had set those to attack all enemies while I oversaw the assault. These are capable of destroying a station once it's shields have been reduced significantly. Keep an eye on them and give them something else to do, if possible.

After a capture, some 'Controlled' stations will soon turn red again. They have not rebelled yet, but have been hit by stray shots or are under attack by an errant fighter. Targeting the station and changing ownership to 'Captured' briefly will get them back in line. I've found that it's best to get all my sector station capture business done and my ships back under tight control before I set any captures to 'Controlled' status.

You'll also notice an oddity when you first target a Shipyard, EQ dock, or Trading station. You will see an immediate surrender demand, without having fired a shot. That's because, for some reason, the shields of these objects are set initially to a negative value. -43 for a Trading station, and -7, I think, for the Shipyards and EQ docks. I have no idea why that is. If you watch during a bombardment phase, you will see the Trading station shields increase in negativity to about -68 or -69, at which point they will turn positive and count down normally. Consider it a free shot at owning a major station, because I have set the surrender demand to become possible at 10% shields or below.

I suppose I could fix that by making a small app that would search out all of those stations in the galaxy, and set the shields to 100% individually. I don't know if that would have any bad effects on the rest of the game tho.

As for making this thing into a script, I guess I should, as the mod thing is very limiting and puts a lot of people off. I was just unhappy about my troopers not having the proper volume, price, and availability. Cycrow did say that it would be possible, if I understood correctly, to alter a little used existing ware, say from the EMP, and make the troops available on the BBS, still with a volume of 1, tho. For the sake of your relationship with your girlfriend, I'll look into it. :)

Anyway, I'm gratified that you found this entertaining. :D I have some thoughts about enhacements that I might try to impliment. I'm trying to avoid too much complexity, tho.

It ain't singing and dancing yet, but it is humming and shuffling a bit. :)

Cheers

One other thing, the sight of your hard earned station self-destructing at the very point of capture is a joy that must be experienced to be appreciated. :)
Last edited by Brand-X on Mon, 14. Aug 06, 19:00, edited 1 time in total.

russbo
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Post by russbo » Mon, 14. Aug 06, 18:41

Turning this into a spk would make it far more available to people. I think I understand your concerns about the volume of your troopers, but, if I'm thinking of this correctly, you could offset this issue by increasing the numbers necessary to overtake the stations, and, change the price required for them. There are always other ways to deal with these things; I have no doubt that you'll get it set up the way that you want to. What you've done so far is very impressive.

The "making enemy" issue basically turns this mod into a war related one. It does not accomplish the "taking out the competition" aspect of what you described (which, with my poor business skills, I was really looking forward to a more "mafia" approach to dealing with the game engine's competition, which, I might add, is doing a number on me). Maybe it would be possible to alter the mod a bit, to enable one to take over stations, maybe, for extra money, or, with a higher reputation necessary or what have you, without turning them into enemies, and therefore disrupting the rest of the universe?? Just a thought. With what you have done already, you can really take this in other interesting directions.

I would be more than willing to help play with this, but I discussed the whole starting a new game throwing away the old one with the Thai girlfriend. Not sure that went over well. :)

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Mon, 14. Aug 06, 20:35

Russbo,

That 'set to enemy' thing only applies to that particular station. At least that is my intent. It shouldn't affect your relations with the race as a whole. I think. And the only time that should occur is when a station rebels and you have no more control of it anyway.

Ah. You want the station to revert to whatever level of relation you have with the race as a whole, so that you may trade with it if possible? A bit cheeky of you, don't you think? Subjugated slaves one moment, trading buddies the next? Just kidding. :P

Whatever damage to your rep that occurs stems from your attack on a races property. As I said, I've made no alterations to the gameplay in that respect. If you go around attacking their stuff, it's gonna piss them off.

I didn't think it fair to simply set race relations to a friendly level after all that. I may have to rethink that if you feel that it is too much effort to expend all those resources capturing a station and then a bunch more time repairing your race relations.

If you are wanting to capture some stations for economic motives, then retain operation of them by keeping them in 'Captured' status. They will not rebel, then. You will be responsible for running that station, however, but it's wares and profits will be yours. It will take some time for you to repair your relations with that race, but it can be done.

Just don't try to keep and operate too many of a given races stations, as that could give rise to the same sort of behavior you found with the sector takeover script. 'Captured' status causes the station ownership to be set to Player and removes it from use by the game engine, just as destroying it would. I just have things set up to remember who the original owner was so that it is possible to return it to their operation or control.

I think that the game engine will act to compensate for a loss by building a replacement station of that type somewhere, though I may be wrong. If you aren't out to conquer the universe by brute force, and so not allowing that to happen, then it should not be a problem.

At least these are my intentions, and my understanding of how the game engine operates. This is my first scripting effort of any sort and I may have made some bad assumptions, but I think I'm ok so far. If you spot any behavior that is inconsistant with what I've described, please say so.

Cheers :)

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Mon, 14. Aug 06, 20:37

I forgot to say that there is an .spk version. It's just that in my fumbling around on the xai site, I didn't get it set up correctly. Going to fix that now. :) Fixed. :)

Look at the release notes and you will see both versions listed at the top.
Both are v1.0 now, as they should be. v1.01 was the rar version of v1.0. My mistake. :oops:

Hieronymos
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Post by Hieronymos » Thu, 30. Nov 06, 02:07

Now if this was a script..[You could use the cargo size 1, but rename the troopers to "combots" perhaps--keep them pricey]

..and if it could also be used for capping ships [as per LV's 'HAT v1.b'--last updated in Spring '06]

..then you'd have the most amazingly fabulous capture script OF ALL TIME!!!
......................

FYI, being unable to change the price and cagosize of 'military personnel' was a major drawback to realism in LV's HAT script. By tweaking the ware price and number of boarders needed to capp specific targets..[along with a random % of operation failure]..creates a realistic "economics" of capping/piracy.

Keep it coming!

Regards,

Hieronymos

Baron von Beer
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Post by Baron von Beer » Thu, 30. Nov 06, 03:03

It seems that both download options are addressing the same file, so the non Spk version is dl'd from both links. ;)

Thanks for this package. :)

rizzo420
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Post by rizzo420 » Thu, 30. Nov 06, 05:33

Perhaps there could be a more expensive or harder way of capturing a station without being noticed?

If all else fails, you can buy race rep now as long as you have enough to dock at the races stations.
Split Say AAAAAAAAA!!!

Cargo bay now contains: Elephant.

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Diablos
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Post by Diablos » Fri, 1. Dec 06, 12:46

Does anyone know if this will interfere with any other scripts/ mods?

fud
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Post by fud » Fri, 1. Dec 06, 14:26

Hieronymos wrote:Now if this was a script..[You could use the cargo size 1, but rename the troopers to "combots" perhaps--keep them pricey]

..and if it could also be used for capping ships [as per LV's 'HAT v1.b'--last updated in Spring '06]

..then you'd have the most amazingly fabulous capture script OF ALL TIME!!!
......................

FYI, being unable to change the price and cagosize of 'military personnel' was a major drawback to realism in LV's HAT script. By tweaking the ware price and number of boarders needed to capp specific targets..[along with a random % of operation failure]..creates a realistic "economics" of capping/piracy.

Keep it coming!

Regards,

Hieronymos
You can adjust their size/price in TwareN (iirc).

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Fri, 1. Dec 06, 18:12

u could just use Custom Wares in the Plugin Manager, and you can set the size, class, price and notority required to what ever you like

Hieronymos
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Post by Hieronymos » Sat, 2. Dec 06, 00:40

If a "Combot" or "Marine" for boarding ops cost cr.150,000. and required 10 L cargo space..then requirements of Combot per Shipclass and Stationtype could be set to make boarding ops (and piracy) economically realistic. As well as operationally realistic.

For example, if requirement for capping an M6 was 10-30 marines or combots..then it'd cost player 1.5 to 4.5 million to capp.

If requirement for boarding was mark's shields reduced to 10%, or under; and 80% hull or under...then a successfully capped M6'd probably fetch 5-7 million..The cargo requirements of 10-30 marines =100-300 cargo, would make it possible for an M3 to capp an M6, but would effectively force player to use an M6 or larger for the job..

But by adding in chances of mark self-destructing (perhaps 10%), and mark jumping out of system and escaping--with your marines aboard (perhaps 15% chance)..then there'd be a chance of expensive capping operations totally failing..
.......................

Same system could work for station capture: combot requirements could be proportional to size of station (S 1x, M 2x, L 5x, XL 10x), station type (fab/forge, trading station, SY/ED), and even race (Split getting +50% bonus for defending against capping..other races like Boron could get a -30% penalty, etc..).

It'd then probably be necessary for cash-strapped players to destroy low value stations and concentrate only on capping high value ones..
......................

So combining Brand-X's station capture script with LV's HAT could result in opening up a whole new game for X3!

Khaak_Slayer
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Post by Khaak_Slayer » Fri, 9. Feb 07, 05:02

What happened to this? D:

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Fri, 9. Feb 07, 16:13

I, along with some others, are in the process of rewriting this script.

We are just about done with a 'shooter' version that allows the capture of big ships and stations by sheer firepower. No troopers needed. Maybe this weekend if we can get a couple little bugs sorted out. A good playable beta, anyway.

Then I'm going to do a version 2, which uses the little troopers. But that will still be a mod, because of the trooper size, and the need to give them some stations to come from.

I've actually been pretty busy with that and didn't notice these posts. Sorry.

:)

Khaak_Slayer
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Post by Khaak_Slayer » Fri, 9. Feb 07, 16:37

It's all good, awesome to hear!

Thanks a lot dude

Yellow Melos
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Post by Yellow Melos » Wed, 14. Feb 07, 14:29

Does it work on Xenon stations ???


has anyone tried it ???

warjager
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Post by warjager » Wed, 21. Mar 07, 01:41

hi all,

Think a got a little problem with the script. When ive done installing the station capture script, in game, my targeting ui went weird!

Under the target recticule, where it is supposed to display range of the target, i got instead something like "somethingIdNotF". Beside this, i also got an "readtxtNoXXXX" in my targeting windows, just before where the range is to be found in this windows.

I dont know what can cause this, but its like the capture scrip was interferring with the targeting thing in game.

Someone can help with this?


btw, i searched everywhere the .spk version but didnt find it anywhere! surely the spk can fix this prob if i can get it, cause i was forced to merge the mod files with my other mod, i it can be why its bugging the targeting reticule!

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