[Script] JumpPoint v1.40b (19/10/2011)

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BinaryBoy
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[Script] JumpPoint v1.40b (19/10/2011)

Post by BinaryBoy » Sun, 15. Mar 09, 20:46

you can download Jumppoint from here
[ external image ]

or download the zip version from here
[ external image ]

This script allows you to place multiple Trans-orbital accelerators or Gates anywhere on the universe and link them afterwards. All you need is special command software and 57million for each Gate/TOA

version 1.40b introduces a gate/TOA converter which will allow you to convert single gates or even the entire universe, also, it doesn't use hardcoded gates like other converter scripts so the converter will work with mods aswell. see further down for details.

Introduction
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OTAS recently planted a spy in the ranks of the terran people, this spy managed to gather a fair bit of information on technology, weapons and, of course, trans-orbital accelarators, this was of great intrest to OTAS, and so they tried to make own, many Mazuras of failures past, until one day, they didn't only succeed, but managed to create an all in one package that could be mass produced, self deploying or self repacking and could fit in any cargohold using the latest in miniturization technology, the JumpPoint Flatpack was made.

Install
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make sure you have Cycrows plugin installer installed, then doubleclick the spk file, it should be very simple after that.

Gate Removal (Important, use as a last resort)
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If you've used this script, it's likley you've deployed or linked afew Jumppoints, to remove jumppoints, go into the special>jumppoint>Remove/Rollback Gates menu and select 'Remove Gate' this option will remove ANY gate you select along with it's destination gate, this will also spawn a Jumppoint flatpack or two (one at each gate removed), if you select the wrong gate you will have to rollback the gate, this requires a flatpack per gate rolled back, to rollback, go into the special>jumppoint>Remove/Rollback Gates and select 'Rollback Gate', this will restore the last gate removed back to it's original place. Please don't use this on hub gates.

Instuctions
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once you have 57 million, send the deploying ship into the sector you want to deploy in. to deploy a Jumppoint, go into the command console, select special and choose Jumppoint, you will be given three options, at this point only deploy will do anything, so click deploy and select the position you want the new Jumppoint to be in. the jumppoint will rotate depending where it's placed, if it's near gates it will relocate itself 10km away.

Be careful with newly deployed, unlinked JumpPoints, if you go through them it is a one way trip to a Xenon Core sector.

If you don't like it's position, go back to the special>jumppoint menu and select repack, this will transfer your gate back into your cargohold (aslong as it is your gate, otherwise it wont work).

So now you've placed two or more Jumppoints, a new menu should then appear this will allow you to link jumppoints together, if you want to link them later you need to go into the special>Jumppoint menu and select link, you will be given a list of all sectors where you have jumppoints (sectors can appear twice if more than one jumppoint is in a sector)select the sectors from the list to link the jumppoints in those sectors together, don't disable autopilot during linking or they wont be linked.

congratulations, you have a new route to use.

Gate Converter
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This feature i pretty self explanitory to use, the Converter menu is seperated into two main catagories, 'Converter' and 'Mass Gate Converter'. with Gate converter, the script focuses on a single gate/TOA to convert and maybe the destination gate aswell. Mass Gate Converter will change an entire sector or even the entire universe from Gate to TOA and vise versa.

Another note to make about this converter is that unlike all other converter scripts out their (or atleast all converter scripts I know of), this script doesn't use hardcoded gate creation, what this means is that any non vanilla gates/TOA's or any mods that have added gates/TOA's can also get their gates converted.

Changelog
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v1.4b
New Convert gate(s) Feature
cleanup of OTAS Shipyard and Encyclopaedia

v1.33
removed flatpacks
removed stock script

v1.3
type of gate now automaticly stored when using gate remover
stock script should check itself every 10 minutes and stop running if nessesary
OTAS shipyard should restock every 10 minutes
null values removed from link list if unlinked gate was removed using gate remover
flatpack will spawn if gate(s) are removed using gate remover
you can now select the gate type (TOA or Gate) you wish to create

v1.2
bug fix where gates would be placed if player didn't select a position
bug fix where gates would be moved 10km away regardless of position
bug fix where flatpacks would get removed from cargobay even when no position had been selected
destroy/uninstall feature replaced with Remove/Rollback Gates(see Gate Removal)
Jumppoint flatpacks should restock every 30 minutes at the OTAS shipyard
Special Command software actually needed now

v1.1
Rotates Gates to face either NESW depending where placed
pops up a menu on second gate deployed
will check if it's near another gate, and will move TOA away from gates close by
delay on linking gates
6 gates in a sector limit

v1
creates TOA's
Links TOA's
Repacks TOA's

The Future
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multiple language files

I'm also open to suggestions

Notes
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if you quit the game and reload, you may lose the varible that stores all the created TOA's, disallowing repacking, the remove/rollback gate should sort that.

Do not take the Gate removal command (remove/rollback gate) lightly, I recommend using it only as a last resort.

Creating gates is extremely expensive and cost in the range of around 50M, this is on purpose.

the text file is currently only in english

I'm constantly testing this script but if you happen to find a bug, please PM the bug details to me.

Technical
--------------------------------------------------------------
uses pageid 8050
COMMAND_TYPE_SPECIAL_47
Last edited by BinaryBoy on Mon, 3. Jun 13, 23:54, edited 17 times in total.

dubnium
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Post by dubnium » Sun, 15. Mar 09, 21:25

the debris repair and utilization script has an algorythm to determine the correct "direction" of a gate based on where it's placed. you might want to look into that.

pelador
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Post by pelador » Sun, 15. Mar 09, 21:34

Trans orbital accelerators are just that they allow you to accelerate to enourmous speeds allowing small emulating "jumps" in Sol.

The jumpgates are different they allow gravimetric wormholes between two points in space.

Considering that a jump gate doesnt neccessarily mean that two points in space in neighbouring sectors are close to each other compounds the problem.

They were made by an ancient race and the technology isnt fully understood.

http://argonopedia.ppcis.org/tech.php?tech=3

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=222431


Just feel you are changing lore unless you explain some form of theory how the races have now understood gate technology which up till now has been a mystery.

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BinaryBoy
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Post by BinaryBoy » Sun, 15. Mar 09, 21:51

luckly they still don't understand jumpgates, this script uses TOA's. however, earth made their own jumpgate and my intro does mention that a spy was sent to terran space.

pelador
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Post by pelador » Sun, 15. Mar 09, 23:01

Well my point was that TOA's dont allow universal jumps.

However, its all creative license at the end of the day so if you are happy with it I wont press the issue.

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Post by Krewzur » Sun, 15. Mar 09, 23:55

pelador wrote:Trans orbital accelerators are just that they allow you to accelerate to enourmous speeds allowing small emulating "jumps" in Sol.

The jumpgates are different they allow gravimetric wormholes between two points in space.

Considering that a jump gate doesnt neccessarily mean that two points in space in neighbouring sectors are close to each other compounds the problem.

They were made by an ancient race and the technology isnt fully understood.

http://argonopedia.ppcis.org/tech.php?tech=3

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=222431


Just feel you are changing lore unless you explain some form of theory how the races have now understood gate technology which up till now has been a mystery.
i just had an idea............. is it possible to have two TOA's in one sector that are linked to eachother? So you could have traffic lanes like in freelancer? This would allow you to have absolutely massive sectors, with all the stations and points of interest linked together with TOA's. And hidden stations, asteroid fields, etc in between.

Good idea?
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BinaryBoy
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Post by BinaryBoy » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:10

yes you can, this script allows linking of TOA's in the same sector.

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Post by Krewzur » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:12

BinaryBoy wrote:yes you can, this script allows linking of TOA's in the same sector.
what i mean is redesigning the whole game universe to have areas in the same sectors linked together via TOA's, making all the sectors absolutely massive!!
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Post by pelador » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:14

amurph0 wrote: i just had an idea............. is it possible to have two TOA's in one sector that are linked to eachother? So you could have traffic lanes like in freelancer? This would allow you to have absolutely massive sectors, with all the stations and points of interest linked together with TOA's. And hidden stations, asteroid fields, etc in between.

Good idea?
Unsure if the question was directed to me or not but in theory, yes.

Gates are simply given gate destination objects as part of their mechanisms so if you have an entry and exit in the same sector I would imagine it will still work as gate jump/acceleration.

However they wouldnt physically accelerate the ship to high speeds as the game mechanics would just "warp" the ship to a new gate. So bypassing objects physically which goes against their standard defined use.

Also I'm unsure if AI (NPCs) would use them, as the code used in various gate useage likley just finds the gate to use between sectors and would likley ignore internal sector shortcuts as a result.

You could emulate fast speeds similar to how the Advanced Hyperdrive script works but it would mean the gates would need to have clever scripting to operate on ships when they get within the defined space for acceleration, how this would effect performance having several is uncertain.
Last edited by pelador on Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:27, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by semiliterate » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:27

do autojumping ships ever jump to other gates within sectors? from what i know of the pathfinding code, it seems that they literally draw lines to calculate distances, with the fact that a gate lies across that line being irrelevant - i've seen scripts saying "if so and so is less than 25km in the next sector, they'll fly rather than jumping". if so, they might figure out in-system gates.

but isn't the hardcoded limit 6 gates or TOAs per sector?

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Post by pelador » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:30

semiliterate wrote:do autojumping ships ever jump to other gates within sectors? from what i know of the pathfinding code, it seems that they literally draw lines to calculate distances, with the fact that a gate lies across that line being irrelevant - i've seen scripts saying "if so and so is less than 25km in the next sector, they'll fly rather than jumping". if so, they might figure out in-system gates.

but isn't the hardcoded limit 6 gates or TOAs per sector?
I'm honestly uncertain, be encouraging if the standard scripts where intelligent enough to use them.

6 gates limit is a good point, forgot about that, but if you just use the physical objects with advanced speed acceleration you dont have to make them actual gates presumably. Of course then you would definatley not expect AI to use them of course without re-writing standard movement scripts.
Last edited by pelador on Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:32, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Krewzur » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:31

semiliterate wrote:but isn't the hardcoded limit 6 gates or TOAs per sector?
what if they were user made gates? like the ones from XTM?
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Post by semiliterate » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:45

seems like the modification to standard movement scripts would be relatively easy - well, it would be a fairly complex sub, but i suspect it would be the one bit of code for all of them and just need copying to the right place in the route selection routines.

um also if you're into faking it by using similar effects to AHD, you could theoretically just dump the gates along the trade lanes of the sector - so that ships DO move into them along the normal paths.

amurph0 - um, beats me. i remember hearing that gates were themselves hardcoded and you couldn't make something that does what a gate does. on the other hand, i see no reason why you couldn't make something that looks like a gate and moves a ship that goes through it to another location - but again, it's unclear how ai would handle that.

i can't script for peanuts so i'm in the dark here, but i know that the autopilots can figure out new gates that use the standard objects to travel between systems, i've been doing it for the Hub.

mainly it seems like you'd have to test it. whack some of these down (or Advanced Hyperdrive's gates) and see if NPCs will use them to get from one end of, say, Aldrin to the other.

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Post by pelador » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 00:50

semiliterate wrote:seems like the modification to standard movement scripts would be relatively easy - well, it would be a fairly complex sub, but i suspect it would be the one bit of code for all of them and just need copying to the right place in the route selection routines.
Which however you slice it will cause a lot of extra crunch work for a lot of ships, so the effects on performance would be a design issue.

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Post by BinaryBoy » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 01:09

but isn't the hardcoded limit 6 gates or TOAs per sector?
I tested it out just this moment, and yes, your allowed 6 gates in a sector, additional gates can be placed but cant be jumped to, but still usable to go to other places. thanks for the info. I'll put a limit in the next version

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Post by pelador » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 03:09

pelador wrote:
semiliterate wrote:seems like the modification to standard movement scripts would be relatively easy - well, it would be a fairly complex sub, but i suspect it would be the one bit of code for all of them and just need copying to the right place in the route selection routines.
Which however you slice it will cause a lot of extra crunch work for a lot of ships, so the effects on performance would be a design issue.
I'd also like to add that considering the impact to standard scripting it isnt something I would suggest sensible or responsible in approaching for various reasons.

Not merely for the complexities to ensure best operating methods but also the support issue, version change control and also the compatibilty with other S&M design processes that use these features, therefore it would be inconsiderate to modify these when they may potentially "spoil" others work.

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Post by semiliterate » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 13:45

mmm, fair point.

how does the scripting work for things like that? AHD's auto-drive command interrupts normal movement commands and jumps to the nearest point, is there a way to have scripts like that running without the additional command slot?

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Post by pelador » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 14:33

Yes, you'd just likley need a loop on the gate object to detect local objects within a given range/space accordingly then apply the jump process. Consideration to frequency for performance hit dependant on number of gates and monitored ships.

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Post by yakshaman » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 14:49

Are AI ships able to use this?

I suppose you can just recreate a HUB if it is the case.

and it would take a lot less time to do than having to gather the ressources for the regular hub.

say you have 10 or so EST you could build it in no time.

and it would be better than the actual hub because you can link a lot more sectors and very far away sectors.

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Post by BinaryBoy » Mon, 16. Mar 09, 20:12

I've seen NPC/AI ships use the user created TOA's even if there's a gate of the same direction, I also tried the autopilot of the playership, it will also use the TOA's.

AI wont however use the TOA's that are linked to another TOA in the same sector, and it's advisable to place your TOA's not too close to other gates or the AI will try to avoid going into gates all the time.

as for other mods, I knew that other mods might add gates and it might conflict, this mod can safely remove all gates created by this mod (and only the gates created by this mod, so no other gates be it vanilla or other mods gates are removed) by going into the JumpPoint>Destroy/Uninstall menu

there are 2 varibles that store the gates that have been created, the first is unlinked gates, the second is linked gates, this will be passed across versions (so gates created by version 1.1 will be compatible with a version 1 script and so on)

I might replace the usage of gates completely and use static objects that act like gates in the future (although the AI wont reconise them as usable gates), I'd have to think of the best approach to that though, I agree that using a loop to detect a jump would infact slow the game down

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