[Discussion] Generic X3TC S&M questions I

[Cycrow]

there is no steam registry entry.

what you have to do, is get the regular steam path and append the correct directory to it.

the entry is in Software\Valve\Steam\InstallDir i think

then you add, steamapps\common\x3 terran conflict

[ollSNAKEllo]

Ok, here comes two beginner questions.

Im still a bit of a n00b in comparison to you guys, as X3:TC is my first X game (i did play Freelancer, which i loved).


Background:

According to xfire i clocked 54 hours in X3:TC (vanilla).
I started as a Terran deffender: i have a Vidar as my personal ship, a Nova Raider and a Pirate Falcon guarding my complex (2x M Space Fuel Dis & 2x M Wheat Farm) in a unknown sector between Montalaar and New Income that gives me a nice profit. And having a Zephyrus that i use too jump in and collect my capped m3/m4/m5's. I was just beginning with boarding useing my Vidar and five 4star marines (except in fighting) and succesfully boarded a TM.

Situation now:
Since i bought the game (+/- 2 weeks ago) i come to these forums every day to read the post and getting tips. I always end up on the script page looking at some scripts that look awesome (boarding script, ship-repairing marines, scripts to make straight and semitrical complexes). And now im thinking about starting a new game with these nice game-experiance-adding scripts.

I downloaded the script manager yesterday but i wanted to ask two questions first.

1. I heard about the Modified tag, so i searched for it on the forums and found little pieces of information.
So when i use the code to unlock the script manager:
-I get a modified tag under my personal stats ingame?
-I can't upload to uplink annymore?
-It doesn't activate a banner (like i read it did in X2)

2. Does a new official patch interfere with scripts so i have to wait with patching till the scriptmaker update's his script?

Sorry for such a long post for two little questions like that, but this game is just so awesome i couldend stop typing my story.

[Carlo the Curious]

1. Yep.
2. It depends, but usually not.

[Thomas Freitag000]

is there an pluginmanager for x3tc?

Have you checked the Community Downloads sticky in this forum? I'm pretty sure that's where I got Cycrow's.

No I didn't checked it so far...^^ I had found a beta but there many people said that they have problems with the weapons because of the new ones in TC so I didn't tested it by myself... maybe I should do so:D

thank you

greetings from Germany
and a merry Christmas and a happy Yew Year:)

[s9ilent]

I've got a question about AL Plugins...

Have I made the script wrong? Or has the system changed? I can't seem to be able to turn off my AL plugin....
From the AL plugin menu, I started a new custom game, thereshallbewings, its on, and when i press enter or the arrow keys, it says <<Yes>> and wont switch to no. And clicking the arrows doesn't work either

Script Below (the al plugin is registered by a different al script, with just the register line in it)

Arguments

* 1: al.PluginID , String , 'Plugin ID'
* 2: al.Event , String , 'AL Event'

Source Text

001 $version = get script version
002 $al.state = get global variable: name=$al.PluginID
003
004 if not $al.state
005 |$al.state = array alloc: size=2
006 |$al.state[0] = $version
007 |$al.state[1] = [TRUE]
008 end
009
010 if $al.Event == 'init'
011 |al engine: set plugin $al.PluginID description to 'S9ilents Vocal Control'
012 |al engine: set plugin $al.PluginID timer interval to 3 s
013 |@ = [THIS] -> call script 'plugin.svc.add' :
014 |
015 else if $al.Event == 'reinit'
016 |@ = [THIS] -> call script 'plugin.svc.add' :
017 |
018 else if $al.Event == 'start'
019 |$al.state[1] = [TRUE]
020 |
021 else if $al.Event == 'stop'
022 |$al.state[1] = [FALSE]
023 |
024 else if $al.Event == 'isenabled'
025 |$al.ret = $al.state[1]
026 |
027 else if $al.Event == 'timer'
028 |skip if $al.state[1]
029 ||@ = [THIS] -> call script 'plugin.svc.main' :
030 end
031
032 return $al.ret

[quodus]

Hi all

Just outta curiosity , What language is used for x3tc I am assume that looking at the script files that have been posted that they are XML.

Also Just interested about the models are they effectivley square blocks floating around? or are they segmented up like guns engines turrets front back left and right up down etc

Also would it be possible for the ships to display a course when on auto pilot ? i.e a line of the path that it is taking ? Could this be manipulated ?

Could this also be done for the auto aim ?

[LV]

s9ilent

download one of my smaller plugins as a template to use, bountyboost or medusa don't use too much code in the 3 AL scripts but i can say that i call all my scripts via the event plugin and you appear to be calling via the main al script

quodus

I have no idea on the language other than the engine was written using KC which i think is a C++ derivative but i could be way off

as far as displaying a path for a ship it is possible using the set command and set destination variables (trade or fly menu) in the SE but if you wanted it to say "$ship heading to $sector/station and currently in $ sector via this it would

a) but too long a string to display
b) be a pain to code in without some messing about

[quodus]

Thanks for your reply. LV

The Auto pilot line would be only displayed on the sector that you are currently in , so in example if I wanted to plot a course using the auto pilot from S gate to N gate and there is a station in the way I would like to see the intended path of flight when I click the Autopilot. I would then like to see if this can be manipulated in the hud via mouse. If you can imagine photoshop where you can bend a line that has 2 ends fixed.

Question ,. do you know about whether the ship models have different segments that can record hit damage or are they just one big shape effectively ?

Thanks

[s9ilent]

Thanks for the help LV.

(Gah... I forgot to put the set local variable in the "if not $var" line)

[KaZTek]

Dropping questions here instead of opening a new thread for it and clogging up the forums:

I'm looking into the TShips file atm and I'm seeing the part that makes the ship move, turn, etc.

I'm noticing that the trend is that ships will have more yaw than pitch. Why is this? I can understand if a big ship has to maneuver, it'll just turn, but for fighter craft, nothing screams "buzzkill" when I've done all my maneuvering ala RL fighter jets (bank + pull).

Also, what is the correlation between speed vs acceleration? I'm noticing that ships often go BACKWARDS during a turn when hitting the backspace key to chop throttle to zero. Also, what does "Angular Acceleration" stand in for in the X3 Editor? Is this the inertial factor of the ship?

[s9ilent]

@KaZtek

Speed ~ Acceleration. Acceleration is a percentage of the ships top speed (always). So if you have a ship with 10 acceleration with 100 speed, and you over-tune the speed to 500, the acceleration will go to 50.

Next, ships will always acceleration (i.e. change velocity and direction) to where the ship is pointing (ie fowards) at the ships max acceleration (unless your using boost extention, in which case it does the same but at 4x acceleration or what ever the multiplier is)
I've also noticed ships do sort of... bounce back a little when you throttle off. No idea why/how. No idea if there is any correlation to anything.

And lastly, angular acceleration... to be honest.. I have no idea what this is for, perhaps its for strafing? But it does NOT change how fast a ship accelerates in tangental directions. I've experimented a lot with that using extreme values, and it only seems to be determined by the actual acceleration.

[XDrake]

I have a few ideas about a script for jumping to targets. Before I start, I have read most of the MSCI Handbook. (Just learning about the AI Plug-ins now)

Here are my questions.

1) I noticed thumbing though some of Cycrow's Lib files he makes references to .ccs delimited files. Is there another way of reading information into a script other than the normal text files?

2) Writing a log file, is the information stored on the HD or in memory? If the info is stored on the drive, can it be read back into the script? (I did not see commands for this in the editor)

3) Is the life of a global variable only good as long as the initial script is running, or is the variable accessible from out side the initial script?

Basically I want to create a running list of stations that the player can use to jump to when called on. Not completely understanding the vitally of variables this maybe hard to script correctly.

4) I have looked through the postings. Is the \033? tag in ship names and the incoming message not appearing, a hardcode issue, or is there a workaround? I have created my first naming script (with a menu!) to find the Incoming messages don’t work!

5) Just thought of another question in the back of the MSCI hankbook, there is a listing of all the audio ID#s. The book was written for X2. Has anyone listed out the Audio ID#s for TC?

Sorry for the long post I have been saving up my questions for a while…

XDrake

[tomf]

I can answer a couple of these

2) Writing a log file, is the information stored on the HD or in memory? If the info is stored on the drive, can it be read back into the script? (I did not see commands for this in the editor)

The log files are stored in \Documents and Settings\yourUser\My Documents\Egosoft\X3TC

3) Is the life of a global variable only good as long as the initial script is running, or is the variable accessible from out side the initial script?

Global variables are permanent they are stored when you save a game and will be loaded when that save file is loaded.

Local variables are also permanent, but they are associated with the object that created them

Now I just hope someone can help my my question below

[tomf]

I am having a problem launching a boarding pod

I am using the command

Code: Select all

$marines=$ship->get marines array
$fireRes=$ship->launch boarding pod at target: victim=$target marines=$marines

Tha call returns false and no pod is launched

$ship is a Cobra carrying boarding pods and marines
$target is a Ryu which has had its shields stripped

I have tried launching the skript both from a hotkey and as a script running on the cobra and my personal ship

Does anyone have any idea what is going on?
Does anyone have a script that does launch pods that I can look at?

[XDrake]

tomf,

Thank you for your help. I sorry I have very little knowledge of what you asked.

Just thought of something... you may what to use:

Code: Select all

$marines= [THIS] -> get marines array 
$fireRes=[THIS] ->launch boarding pod at target: victim=$target marines=$marines 

My understanding is that [THIS] is the target that the script is running on.. don't quote me on it. It makes no sense sometime. I can put the script's target into a variable and it will not run, but for me this works 90% of the time.

XDrake

[Stu Austin]

In MD, I've got a very simple briefing set up. Under start Humble Merchant, I've got it set up for "fly to Argon Prime". Everything comes up nicely. I've got the orange guidance arrows pointing to Argon Prime. Once I arrive in Argon Prime, I still have it showing as active. Once I arrive in Argon Prime, how do I get the briefing to go "away" and not show it as still active?

Code: Select all

 <cues>




    <!-- ******************************** BRIEFING EXPERIMENTS ************************************ -->

    <cue name="my_briefing" >
      <condition>
        <check_all>
          <check_age value="{player.age}" min="5s" />
        </check_all>
      </condition>
      <action>
        <do_all>
          <show_help text ="loading mission briefing into your mission menu now" force="1"/>
          <!-- This provides stepping through missions with multiple stages. We only have 1 in this example -->
          <set_value name="my_briefing.Step" exact="1"/>
          <!-- This sets the objective in Briefing menu -->
          <set_objective cue="my_briefing" noabort="0">
            <briefing cue="my_briefing" step="{value@my_briefing.Step}"/>
            <mission level="easy"/>
            <flyto>
              <sector x="1" y="3"/>
            </flyto>
          </set_objective>          
          <!-- This is the mission details -->
          <create_briefing cue="my_briefing" title="Fly to Argon Prime" text="Commander. We need for you to fly to Argon Prime." background="station_argon_space_fuel_distillery.tga">
              <mission level="easy"/>
              <objectives>
              <objective step="{value@my_briefing.Step}" background="station_argon_space_fuel_distillery.tga">
                <flyto>
                  <sector x="1" y="3"/>
                </flyto>
              </objective>
              </objectives>
          </create_briefing>
          <complete_cue cue="my_briefing"/>
        </do_all>
      </action>
    </cue>
  </cues>
</director>

[Observe]

Hi Stu.

There are a couple of ways to achieve what you are trying to do. In your case, all you need to do is detect when you've reached your destination, and then apply the following code:

Code: Select all

<remove_objective cue="my_briefing" status="complete">

We can discuss in detail when next we chat.

[XDrake]

Is there a list of tags for sprintf command: I see the tags in this statement.

Code: Select all

<t id="201">[author]%s[/author][right]%s[/right]\n[right]%s[/right]\n[right]%s[/right]\nHelp %s,\n\n</t>

In the handbook it stated that this is form of a C libary? This looks more like HTML/ XML tagging.

Is \n a carrige return/ next line tag?

Can someone send me in the right direction.

XDrake

[tomf]

Is there a list of tags for sprintf command: I see the tags in this statement.

Code: Select all

<t id="201">[author]%s[/author][right]%s[/right]\n[right]%s[/right]\n[right]%s[/right]\nHelp %s,\n\n</t>

In the handbook it stated that this is form of a C libary? This looks more like HTML/ XML tagging.

Is \n a carrige return/ next line tag?

Can someone send me in the right direction.

XDrake

The format is indeed related to C, try here for reference
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clib ... rintf.html

sprintf replaces tags like %s with arguments supplied as parameters

the [author][/author] etc tags above are not rlated to sprintf, they will appear in the output string and be interpreted by x3 when it formats the string message for the user

\n is indeed the new line character

[s9ilent]

In the context of the wing commands, what does the following line do?

030 if ! $size

(Where size is the size of a custom menu array, Line 30, from !wing.cmd.attackshield.pl.xml)