[script] Security Services r2, Updated Aug. 3

The place to discuss scripting and game modifications for X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

Moderators: Moderators for English X Forum, Scripting / Modding Moderators

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

[script] Security Services r2, Updated Aug. 3

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 01:24

Security Services r2
Overheard Pirate Communications wrote:Nah, we better look for a different target, I hear Legitimate Enterprises went and hired Chris' 132nd Mercs for protection. Even their freighters have those bombers guarding them, I don't have a death wish!
Security Services allows you to hire a security company to protect your assets for a fee. You can choose a company to hire and the contract details by selecting the 'Station Security Services' command on of your stations or 'Ship Security Services' on one of your Freighters. You will need to enable security services on all of the assets you wish to be protected.

Download
Revision 2
ZIP & SPK: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=4264 ... 6e282a0ee8

Premise
This will allow the player to hire a security service which will guard their assets and provide incursion response when the sectors get too unfriendly. This service is based upon the fighter response forces in Improved Races and was originally suggested by Chris0132.

Activation
To activate SSS open on your stations, open their command menu and select the 'Station Security Services' command. For ships you will need to look in the additional commands slots and choose 'Ship Security Services'. The menu will come up and you can enable SSS on that asset. To see the menu again you can select the command again on the ship or station, toggle the AL menu item, or use the community configuration menu. In order to activate or disable assets you must use the station or ship command.

Friends and Foes
The security company will use the friend and foe settings of the asset they are guarding to determine who to attack. The ship or station itself will also look for large groups of enemies and call in forces from other assets running the security services as needed. So this means you can have pirates be an enemy at your station in Argon space and Argon be an enemy at your pirates station. The security force will respond appropriately depending on which station they are nearest.

Customizable Security
Don't like the company you are using? Choose another! Don't like any of them? Make your own by editing the T file :D

Depending on your reputation you can choose from a multitude of different security companies, each company has a variety of attributes that requires you to balance out your choices.

Race - Each company belongs to a certain race in the game, if your reputation with that race is too low you will not be allowed to hire them. Also if they are hired and your reputation drops too low they will cancel the contract with you.

Ship Races - Every company has one or more ship types they prefer to fly. There is even one notable company that prefers Xenon and Kha'ak ships!

:!: Ship Types - The companies have certain types of ships which they fly. Most like M3 or mixed Fighters, while a couple prefer bombers and corvettes...remember you pay by the ship value!

Extras - Certain companies like certain technologies like mines, missiles, and drones. While they help kill things it is you that pays for them!

Hostility - Some companies have a bit of history with another race and will rarely attack them if they have nothing else to do. It does not affect your reputation, but can be bothersome if it was a trader going to buy from your stations.

Reputation - Most companies have a reputation of a sort. Be it specific weapons they like or even a chance to overcharge you from time to time. While the hiring screen lets you know what it is, there is no explanation so you will need to figure it out yourself :fg:

:!: Squadron Size - While the squadrons slowly bring in more ships as you have more assets to protect they do have a finite size. From the pitiful 34 ship maximum squadron to the overwhelming horde of up to 200 ships. Normal squadrons are limited to 100 ships.

If your looking to make your own company to hire you will need to edit 8973-L044.xml in your /t folder. Just add yours in the following 2 area (setting the numbers correctly, ie 413 in the top section become 413X in the bottom!):

Code: Select all

<t id="415">The Long Company Name</t>

<t id="4150">Company Race</t>
<t id="4151">Ship Types, remove key for Vanilla 5</t>
<t id="4152">Secondary Ship Type</t>
<t id="4153">Extras to use: Missiles, Drones, Mines, None or All</t>
<t id="4154">A Race to Hate, remove key for none</t>
<t id="4155">Company Reputation: Expensive, Cheap, Mercenary, Religious, Pyromaniacs, Energiaphobic, or Normal (default)</t>
<t id="4156">Short Company Name</t>
<t id="4157">Preferred ship class: M5, M4, M3 (default), M6, M8, or Fighter (mix of M3-5)</t>
<t id="4158">Squadron size: Pitiful, Weak, Normal (default), Strong, or Horde</t>
Make sure to look at the other companies for examples too. If something is mispelled or not known it will assume: Teladi for races or the default otherwise. Once you have made your own and know it works post it in this thread and it may get included in the next release :D

Contracts
There are three flavors of contracts available and they will determine the number of fighters guarding your assets. Thanks to Gazz for the idea.

Standard Contract - The fighters will max out when you have 20 stations being protected.
Excessive Force - Only 10 stations will get you to maximum squadron size.
Credit Saver - It will take 40 stations to get to cap out the company.

Costs
They do not fight for free, there are a variety of costs you will have to pay from replacement ships to the energy used in jumping from sector to sector.

Lost Ships - Thankfuly the security company has insurance meaning you only have to pay 60% of the cost of the replacement ship when the previous one was lost protecting your stations.

Consumables - Missiles, mines, drones, ammo and energy cells are charged directly against your credit balance. No discounts allowed, but certain companies have been know to overcharge sometimes.

Wages - You will pay wages to the security company every hour based upon about 0.025% of the net worth of all the ships protecting you times the number of stations being protected (A complex counts as a single station).

Response Force Size
Standard Contract and Normal Squadron Size
For each station you add to the defense network more fighters are added to the pool, with diminishing returns. The actual equation used is "Fighters = 100 - ( 20 - Stations ) * ( 20 - Stations ) / 4". The table below summarized the growth pattern and expected costs with 1k/h M3s and 2.5k/h M3+ as min/max ranges:

Code: Select all

Stations   Fighters  M3/h   M3+/h   
    1         10      20k     25k
    2         19      76k    190k
    3         27     162k    405k
  ...        ...      ...     ...
   19         99    3762k   9405k
   20        100    4000k  10000k
   21        100    4200k  10500k
Thus a fighter would have to live for 40 hours with 20 stations for the player to have a loss vs buying the fighter outright. At 1 station the fighter has to live for 800 hours for a loss :o . Ah look, I invented bureaucracy the larger it is the more inefficient it is :lol:

:arrow: :arrow: :arrow:

Have any suggestions? Post them below!
Last edited by 7ate9tin11s on Mon, 3. Aug 09, 13:01, edited 4 times in total.

Galluskek
Posts: 44
Joined: Sat, 11. Jul 09, 05:24
x3tc

Post by Galluskek » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 02:04

Two suggestions, kind of related.

When a Security Company goes out of business, pirates or Yaki or someone who hates you should take the opportunity to strike at your soft-underbelly now that it isn't guarded.

Also, when Pirates "go out of business" the security forces should not just disappear, they should turn into vicious, blood-thirsty red pirates who know your stations inside and out and relish the opportunity to stick it to the man. (The man being the hire-er, and owner of the stations) They should also be cheaper, since "legitimate business" usually tries to significantly undercut the competition, and then cut the competition if the going gets tough :P

Other than that, I hope to try it out for myself soon :D
Too much sensor information? Try Sensor Suite information Centre. It'll clear it right up.

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 03:20

*snip*

This was added to the first post, well most of it was :D
Last edited by 7ate9tin11s on Sat, 1. Aug 09, 07:43, edited 1 time in total.

Feuerriese
Posts: 204
Joined: Thu, 28. Sep 06, 12:25
x4

Post by Feuerriese » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 10:32

Glad to see you eventually are trying to help the player :) R10's response fleets sort of terminated all my trading in pirate sectors in less than 30 minutes but I'm not going to play without them anymore :wink: So here's my 5 cents:

I'd suggest dropping the station command thing - that's not really merc-ish. Maybe make that an option for race sectors (thus letting the player pay for military protection, like taxes, and use the standard response fleet).

Mercs should have a base of operations which you must find first, i.e. a normal trading port, an old wreck in Trantor or a moving HQ (aka carrier). If you happen to find one you call the whoever-is-responsible and hire the corp. Somewhat like the Traveling Mechanic by Teladidrone. This will make them available on the newly built menu entry in Cycrow's configuration menu. There you choose the corp and the sector (or sectors) they should protect.

So every merc corp owns a different pool of ships which means some can protect only a single sector (and may not even agree to work outside Argon space etc.)
For example, the Lame Losers' HQ is a Magnetar and they only fly 4 poorly maintained novas (less tunings?). You can give order to clear sector 101 and never hear from them again...while the Astounding Aces own a battle fleet, wipe out every gameboy in space and make sure you never break the 2-billion-barrier.

Ok, that's like 10 cents...now hurry up and give us something to test :D

someone else
Posts: 2972
Joined: Sun, 18. Jun 06, 13:37
x3tc

Post by someone else » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 11:41

Mercs should have a base of operations which you must find first, i.e. a normal trading port
imho that is controlled by MD... anyways if it is possible I think is better to have a representative of the available Merc corps in each Trading station. Every sector has a trading station. Having to scout out all the universe to find them is a bit bad for their business, they WANT to be found and hired.

p.s. can you correct the 4070 entry? to something like this:

Code: Select all

<t id="4070">Argon</t> 
<t id="4071">Split</t> 
<t id="4072">Xenon</t> 
<t id="4073">All</t> 
<t id="4074">All</t> 
<t id="4075">Pyromaniacs</t> 
Trade, Fight, Build, Think, Modify.
Ship Rebalance Mod
OOS Rebalance
Resized Aldrin Big Rock
SIDE/TOP/FRONT Ship Size Comparison
Remember young Padawan: money stolen can be, time cannot.

Feuerriese
Posts: 204
Joined: Thu, 28. Sep 06, 12:25
x4

Post by Feuerriese » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 12:21

someone else wrote: they WANT to be found and hired.
You're right, some sort of general merc representative should be available at any trading port but not all corps should be waiting to get hired, I mean, what kind of corp is that waiting for the player to hire it? :? They should have other contracts, either simulated by making them unavailable for X days or real contracts, why not let the pirates hire the Astounding Aces to clear that unknown sector next to Montalaar...? Improved Races R11! :lol:

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 12:41

Almost ready to start testing :roll:

And some changes/additions to the text file...

Code: Select all

<t id="407">Someone Elses Solutions</t>
<t id="4070">Argon</t>
<t id="4071">Split</t>
<t id="4072">Xenon</t>
<t id="4073">All</t>
<t id="4074">Teladi</t>
<t id="4075">Pyromaniacs</t>
<t id="4076">Some</t>

<t id="412">Feuerriese Responders</t>
<t id="4120">Split</t>
<t id="4121">Pirates</t>
<t id="4122">Split</t>
<t id="4123">None</t>
<t id="4124">Argon</t>
<t id="4125">Mercenary</t>
<t id="4126">Feuery</t>
The XXX6 is the short name for the company so ships will show like 'Some Response Mamba'

someone else
Posts: 2972
Joined: Sun, 18. Jun 06, 13:37
x3tc

Post by someone else » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 12:44

another tiny correction, I know I'm a bugger :P
instead of "Some" could you place "SomeElse" or "SomEls"?

I'm impatient to try that! :D
Trade, Fight, Build, Think, Modify.
Ship Rebalance Mod
OOS Rebalance
Resized Aldrin Big Rock
SIDE/TOP/FRONT Ship Size Comparison
Remember young Padawan: money stolen can be, time cannot.

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 31. Jul 09, 12:46

For now I think I will leave it as some...I find it funny :D

Some Guardian XL
Some Resupply Boa
etc...

Since it is in the text file you can always modifiy it at any time :P

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Sat, 1. Aug 09, 07:37

r1 released, see the first post for details.

enjoy! :D

Feuerriese
Posts: 204
Joined: Thu, 28. Sep 06, 12:25
x4

Post by Feuerriese » Sun, 2. Aug 09, 18:29

While creating a new corp I noticed you can't really specify any fighters...that's quite alright until you think about this:

Code: Select all

<t id="414">GoonFleet</t>

<t id="4140">Argon</t>
<t id="4141">Argon</t> <!--here I would like to exclude everything BUT Argon M5s! -->
<t id="4142">Escape pod</t>
<t id="4143">None</t>
<t id="4144">All</t>
<t id="4145">Really bad</t>
<t id="4146">Goons</t>
:lol:

Other than that - good work! Haven't seen any stations/complexes getting bashed by a lonely pirate lately :)

Rheikon
Posts: 40
Joined: Sun, 19. Jul 09, 07:47

Post by Rheikon » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 00:18

Cool script. thanks!

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 03:09

Feuerriese wrote:While creating a new corp I noticed you can't really specify any fighters...that's quite alright until you think about this...
To be honest the security squads only use M3 and M3+ fighters to maximize their ability to protect both in and out of the active sector. ...anyways most M5 cannot use a jumpdrive or hold the ecells needed :D

I could add a reputation factor to downgrade a company to m4, or even m5 (and they would just kinda ignore the fact they could not honestly have a jumpdrive).

Lets see M4 would be a repuation of 'Cheap' and M5 would be...hmmm...'Worthless'?
:lol:

Feuerriese
Posts: 204
Joined: Thu, 28. Sep 06, 12:25
x4

Post by Feuerriese » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 07:40

7ate9tin11s wrote: Lets see M4 would be a repuation of 'Cheap' and M5 would be...hmmm...'Worthless'?
:lol:
That's exactly what I was trying to hint at...I wouldn't mind having a corp using tiny ships but lots of'em :D
And how about letting some of them (the more expensive ones) use some sort of leader flying a M6/M8? Like a boss wing.

someone else
Posts: 2972
Joined: Sun, 18. Jun 06, 13:37
x3tc

Post by someone else » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 10:04

works as a charm here... no more "OMG a Kestrel is shooting at your 100000000 stations complex".... in fact they devastated a xenon Patrol with a Q... (IS) :D

just a thought.... :roll: do they already escort your station owned TS and UTs?
that would be another cool optional (not for free obviously, this one is quite risky).
station's TS are quite defenceless with your Improved Races activated. :D

another thing.... "sector defence patrols", they make secure the station's sector by killing every squishy pirate/khaak/xenon that tries to enter, for a price obviously.
Maybe a feature available only on your Trading stations/equipment docks/PHQ (this will be a "make secure your homebase sector" or something like that).
Trade, Fight, Build, Think, Modify.
Ship Rebalance Mod
OOS Rebalance
Resized Aldrin Big Rock
SIDE/TOP/FRONT Ship Size Comparison
Remember young Padawan: money stolen can be, time cannot.

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 10:23

someone else wrote:just a thought.... :roll: do they already escort your station owned TS and UTs?
Easy enough to add as a ship special command, they could be hired to protect anything really. Even good old [PLAYERSHIP] :o
someone else wrote:another thing.... "sector defence patrols", they make secure the station's sector by killing every squishy pirate/khaak/xenon that tries to enter, for a price obviously.
They already will if the sector gets enough enemies in it. Take a few combat missions in one of you protected stations sectors and you will get a hand, may take them a couple minutes to respond apropriately though :D

someone else
Posts: 2972
Joined: Sun, 18. Jun 06, 13:37
x3tc

Post by someone else » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 10:32

they could be hired to protect anything really
I'd restrict them to merchant ships (TM, TL, TS, TP)... they are bodyguards, not soldiers..... :roll:

maybe creating a new script to have "mercenary" fleets to take over sectors. (mmmmh... maybe not :roll: )

another interesting thing.... some selected companies could offer some unique services:
pirate ones could offer the "sabotage the competition" (for a high enough price)
the poor ones could offer you "sell us your heavily damaged ship at a discount price"
and so on. :roll:
Trade, Fight, Build, Think, Modify.
Ship Rebalance Mod
OOS Rebalance
Resized Aldrin Big Rock
SIDE/TOP/FRONT Ship Size Comparison
Remember young Padawan: money stolen can be, time cannot.

7ate9tin11s
Posts: 813
Joined: Fri, 11. Nov 05, 23:18
x4

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 11:00

Feuerriese wrote:While creating a new corp I noticed you can't really specify any fighters...

Code: Select all

<t id="413">The Goon Squad</t>
<t id="4130">Argon</t>
<t id="4131">Argon</t>
<t id="4135">Cheap</t>
<t id="4136">Goon</t>
<t id="4137">M5</t>
:roll: :roll: :D

Hmmm...what is that XXX7 tag...I see it can be M5, M4, M3 (the default), Fighter (M345 mix), M6, or M8... :o

/By the way, if you only specify a XXX1 race they are limited to that race, only a XXX2 and they get ABSPT and your sepecified race :D
//Wonder what effect that cheap tag has...

Feuerriese
Posts: 204
Joined: Thu, 28. Sep 06, 12:25
x4

Post by Feuerriese » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 11:18

I think this is the first time of coding being faster than brainstorming :D
BUT (as it seems you need more work) couldn't there also be a XXX8 tag - small|medium|large|horde|swarm so a small corp gets 20 ships total (i.e. for cheap corps or m6 using elites) and swarm having, uhh, well, swarmingly many ships.

Code: Select all

<t id="415">Forsaken Khaak Breed</t>
<t id="4150">Khaak</t>
<t id="4151">Khaak</t>
<t id="4155">Cheap</t>
<t id="4156">Breed</t>
<t id="4157">M5</t>
<t id="4157">swarm</t>
Something like that :wink:

someone else
Posts: 2972
Joined: Sun, 18. Jun 06, 13:37
x3tc

Post by someone else » Mon, 3. Aug 09, 11:21

BUT (as it seems you need more work) couldn't there also be a XXX8 tag - small|medium|large|horde|swarm
agreed... 100 M5 protecting your stations are way less powerful than 100 M3/M3+.
Trade, Fight, Build, Think, Modify.
Ship Rebalance Mod
OOS Rebalance
Resized Aldrin Big Rock
SIDE/TOP/FRONT Ship Size Comparison
Remember young Padawan: money stolen can be, time cannot.

Post Reply

Return to “X³: Terran Conflict / Albion Prelude - Scripts and Modding”