[SCR] NICE Interface Enhancement (v2.80, 31.12.11)

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Gazz
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[SCR] NICE Interface Enhancement (v2.80, 31.12.11)

Post by Gazz » Sat, 31. Oct 09, 18:42

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Navigation, Interface, and Cockpit Enhancement (Advanced Single-key System)

Overview
  • This script installs 11 hotkeys.
    On 10 of them you can save an object each.
    1 is for the message system and config menu, through which you can control multiple ships as well.
  • Once locked in, ships are accessible from the whole universe, not just in sector.
  • Each object can be commanded using shortcuts or the regular command menu (!) and can serve as a target for other functions at the same time.
  • Pressing a hotkey multiple times activates different functions.
    If the script misunderstands you because you are clicking too slowly, increase the keypress delay in the config menu.
  • "Notify when orders completed" - with eye tracking!
  • Attack queue
    You can queue an attack order for a ship.
    That means that it will immediately attack the target you want with extreme prejudice.
    Even if attacked, it will never switch targets to anything else until this primary target is destroyed.

    When the target is destroyed, the ship will continue with whatever it was doing before.

    You can leave your wingmen on Protect, only ordering them to attack special targets as needed. That way they always switch back to protecting you... and never get lost!
    You never have to rebuild the chain of who protects who.

    You can queue at least 100 such attack orders for every single ship.
    The ship will work through the list in reverse order, always giving your last order the highest priority.
    So whatever your ships are currently doing - you can always send them after special targets without having to fix their orders afterwards!
    They automatically go back to their previous orders...
  • In (nearly?) all cases these hotkeys work equally well on the sector map.

Usage
  • Hotkey 1x : Target saved object + get command access
    • For four seconds, this object can be the target of the following hotkey shortcut.
      If you are in Paranid Prime and bring up Terracorp HQ, you can order a freighter to fly and dock there - never leaving the cockpit.
    • It does not matter where the ship is in the universe or if it's docked or not...
      Betty briefly displays the ship in your target window so you can see name, shield, hull, and current command.

      If the ship is not in your sector, she tells you where it is and always tells you the ship type (short), and if the ship is landed.

      "Argon Prime, Caiman, Landed"
      "Heretics End, Elephant"

      During that time you have full command access to the ship!

      You can give explicit commands to the fighters that are docked at the carrier you're flying.
      You can give direct commands to ships that are 5 sectors away...

      This is not limited to some hardcoded instructions I included. The full command menu is accessible!
    • This hotkey can even be useful on the sector map.
      It briefly puts the ship in the sector map's ship list so if you're quick you can catch it there and open the command menu.
      Order OOS ships from your sector map. =)
    • If you activate your ship's autopilot while such a target is displayed, your ship automatically jumps / flies there.
      A quite intuitive way to save / use navigation waypoints.
    • Note:
      While stations are displayed in the target window, you do not have command access for them.
      Please do not drop freight from the remote ships while they are displayed in the window. Wait a second or two and even that will work remotely.
  • Hotkey 2x : Heel! / Stop
    Saved ship will jump/fly to your sector and move to your current position.
    Obviously this only works on your own ships.

    If that ship happens to be a wingleader in the carrier you fly, it will launch because of the move to order.

    Issueing the same order again stops the ship... and aborts the jump sequence if you're fast enough.

    I mostly use this to call in my support ship(s) to refuel, pick up cargo or ships... or whatever chores I want done.
    No more searching for them in the property list!

    Once my support ships have jumped to my sector I can change their orders easily enough because I have quick target keys for them.
  • Hotkey 3x : Attack target
    • If you activated another saved target during the last 4 seconds, your
      ships will attack the saved target.
      Else the ship attacks your current cockpit target.
    • If you did not provide any target or had the ship itself targeted, it will Attack All Enemies.
    • If the ship had a homebase or had to launch in order to do this, it will return to base as soon as the order is completed and said base is in the sector.
      Until that happens, the ships continue to Attack All Enemies.
      If the carrier that launched them enters the sector later, they will return to it...

      A homebase is optional. The ships always return to where they launched from.
    • This uses my Attack All Enemies upgrade where ships actually find the enemy.
      If you see an enemy on the sector map, so will your ships. Always.
      Scouts and satellites do now have a purpose.
    • If the target is not in the same sector as the ship it will Move/Jump there.
    • If the ship is in the same sector as the target when the order is given, it will not switch targets until it's primary target is destroyed.
      This is intended for small scale operations when you want your wingman to attack this target right now instead of playing with a few random M5.
    • If the ship is not docked and in the same sector, this command queues an attack order.
      This way you can force your wingmen to attack targets in a certain order, never doing anything else - until completed.
  • Hotkey 4x : Protect
    • The ship can protect objects that are not hostile in any way and that the ship is not hostile to.
    • If you activated another saved target during the last 4 seconds, your
      ships will protect the saved target.
      Else the ship protects your current cockpit target.
    • If you did not provide any target or had the ship itself targeted, it will protect you.
    • The hotkeyed ship will assist the leader when there is nothing to protect against.
    • If not, the hotkeyed ship will Protect you. (the Playership)
    • If the target is not in the same sector as the ship it will Move/Jump there.
  • Hotkey 5x : Jump / FlyTo / Dock
    This one is even more flexible than what you saw before. =)
    • If you activated another saved target during the last 4 seconds, this will be the destination.
      Else your current cockpit target is it.
    • If you did not choose a destination, your personal ship will engage the autopilot and head to the target.
      If the object is your PHQ, you now have a feature for "Home, James!".
    • If the ship (and all it's escorts!) can dock at the target it will do so.
    • If not, they switch to Protect/Follow, depending on how friendly the target is.
    • If the destination is not in the same sector as the ship it will Move / Jump there.
  • Hotkey 6x : Save current target to this hotkey.
    On each of them you can save an object, like one of your ships.
    Pretty much every targetable thing can be saved and recalled but since ships are the most useful items, I usually refer to those.

    You can also target things universe wide if you choose to.
    You may not be able to aim at OOS ships or station... but your autopilot can!
    Clear your cockpit target (t 2x) and give your ship an order to protect, attack, or dock at some OOS object.
    Now this remote autopilot target can be locked to a hotkey just like your cockpit target.
  • Hotkey 7x : Notify when orders completed : Activate / Deactivate
    This has nothing to do with the Egosoft "Notify when orders completed".
    • There is a hotkey to display a list of ships without order and the same hotkey selects them from the list.
    • To activate/deactivate this feature you have to assign a ship to a target hotkey (1-10) - at least temporarily - and press it 7x to activate the message system for this ship.
      This feature stays enabled if the ship is no longer locked onto a Hotkey.
    • If a ship then finishes it's order it will send an audio message to you.
      Instead of a meager "Incoming message" you might hear
      "Kingdom End, Mercury, Successfully docked".
      It also sends a more detailed message to the NICE message log.

      This menu can be viewed with pressing the Message Hotkey once.
      [ external image ]
      Super freighter 4 has just bought EC. (I used "Best Buy").
      Hauler 6 just stopped in space 28 sec ago.
      With Hauler 3 I was manually trading at a weapons fab.
      Sold some EC and bought the weapons.

      All this data can be called up again - until you send the freighter on a new mission.
      Then it takes a snapshot of it's cargo bay before heading out and compares to that when the order is finished again.

      Remote trading is now... easier.

      This menu has 2 hot areas for each ship.
      The one or multiple lines for the cargo manifest switches between 3 display modes.

      The other 3 lines target the ship so you can issue commands manually.
    • In the log, every entry is preceeded by something like 2x :.
      That means: Press the same hotkey 2x and the ship that sent the message will pop up.

      So if you just want to give orders to the last ship that completed it's orders - no need to go through the menu if you don't want to.

      You can view / select the ship as often as you like.
    • If you use a target hotkey to pop up an object (like Terracorp HQ), this will be "the destination" for the next 4 seconds.

      Now pressing the message key to pop up a freighter will directly send it to jump/fly/dock at this destination.

      This overrides Eye Tracking.
    • Eye Tracking
      When doing remote trading you will often want to call a trader to the sector map you are currently watching.
      (You just found a factory full of cheap AHEPT there...)

      If you are watching any sector map (including the sector your personal ship is in), pressing the message key will not pop up the freighter without orders.
      Instead it will jump/fly directly to the sector you are watching.

      So basically, you snap your fingers and a freighter goes to the sector where you want to buy those cheap AHEPT.

      This is also useful if you are done buying things with your trader.
      If you go back to the sector map and use the message hotkey for that ship, it will again... undock and fly to your sector.
      You don't have to issue lenghty undock orders if you have more plans with that ship...
    • This log is never spammed. Ships / Messages that have orders again are automatically removed.
      Instead of the "galactic stardate" (does anyone use this?) those messages directly tell you how old they are in Min/Sec.
    • If the ship that sends the message is the leader of a fighter wing that landed on your carrier then the message is delayed until all ships of the wing have landed.
      You can quickly check if all fighters are safely home before you jump the carrier out.

[ external image ] Download (ZIP)
Last edited by Gazz on Sat, 31. Dec 11, 21:14, edited 10 times in total.
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Post by Gazz » Sat, 31. Oct 09, 18:42

** reserved **

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Post by Gazz » Sat, 31. Oct 09, 18:43

** reserved **

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Post by Gazz » Sat, 31. Oct 09, 18:50

This is a 100% port of the Reunion script.

Some things have changed since then. The whole "graphical menu" system in this script can no longer function because TC has forgotten how to display colours in log messages.
Or dropping cargo pods OOS now works "properly" in TC so the workaround, that this script uses, needs to be removed. There is no Wing-support (didn't exist in R). Rough edges...

In short... the core features work but it's not as pretty as it's supposed to be.

However, the broken items aren't mission critical so the bulk of the script functions - and their interaction with one another - can already be tested.

Converting the message system to a TC style menu isn't terribly hard, either, because it essentially uses the same approach.
Every line you see in the screenshot is added to the message.
So what if every line is instead added to a menu...
Basically a simple conversion but from a menu I'd expect more functionality than merely a display. And that part takes a bit more brain sweat. =)
(I'm always open to donations of alcoholic beverages!)
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surferx
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Post by surferx » Sat, 31. Oct 09, 19:42

Thank you! I'm going to try this out now. I love hotkeys, much more efficient command system. I'm already using several of your scripts including MARS which is awesome. Where do you find the time to implement all these ideas?
[EDIT] Have you considered making a super script package of all your scripts?
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If you want to go far, go together.

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Post by Gazz » Sun, 1. Nov 09, 16:25

Yeah, right. The Gazzus Pack. =P
Script tastes differ too much to make any collection worth the effort. I'm so not going to write a windows installer for that.
Besides, for every little fix to any one script, the collection would have to be rebuilt and updated as well.

Doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me.
surferx wrote:I love hotkeys, much more efficient command system.
Hotkeys alone can help but are no major improvement. This thing now combines object bookmarks with commands and allows to link them together.



Version 2.77 released.

Menu system works again with better formatting than ever.

Configuration menu added and expanded, AL-Plugin has become obsolete and will uninstall itself.
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Post by xelland » Mon, 2. Nov 09, 12:39

hi,

thanks for this nice script. i didnt try the last version yet, but in the previous one i have a problem. I assigned my codea carrier to the hotkey, sometimes if i issue a task or just select it (by hotkey oos) one of the followers get destroyed and i do not ge any messages or whatsoever about this fact, it is like the ship (tender, corvet etc) never existed before. i witnessed it many times.

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Gazz
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Post by Gazz » Mon, 2. Nov 09, 17:29

But that's impossible...
Why would the followers self destruct just like that? There are no collisions or anything else OOS.
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Post by xelland » Mon, 2. Nov 09, 20:18

yea :lol: thats what i thought first, but i cannot explain otherwise the disappering of my ships. so i am kinda not using the carrier with a hotkey anymore, and now they are complete.

if i understand it right, during hiting the hotkey the clone of the object is created in my sector and then destroyed after 4 seconds. so maybe there is some byeffect during destruction of the carrier... i do not know. perhaps someone else noticed it too.

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Post by Gazz » Sat, 14. Nov 09, 06:45

No, THE ship is indeed briefly put into the sector. That's why you have direct and full access to all it's commands and menus.
The ship is not destroyed at all.

The instant the console opens (or after 4 sec), the ship is put right back so any actual arguments (like position) originate from it's real sector.

Only stations create a visual dummy because they can not switch sectors.

According to Lucike, CODEA doesn't do anything special, either, with all "movement" tasks being task 0.

I see no reason why there should be a problem and can not reproduce this.
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kelmen
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Post by kelmen » Sun, 15. Nov 09, 18:29

this looks useful to me, but i can't seems to get it work out!

say, I have a M2 in Red Wing, the wing only has 1 ship
I saved into hotkey #1 (6x)

now, i at somewhere else, targetting pirate base. Red Wing is doing patrol/attack all/attack...

I want to issue it to attack the base. with the base as my current tgt, I pressed hotkey #1 x3. my targetting seems to flick to show my m2.
but it never jump/fly into where i'm and attack the base.

did i missed something?

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Post by Gazz » Mon, 16. Nov 09, 12:23

I have no idea if that works with "wings".

Wings did not exist when I wrote the script.
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Post by kelmen » Tue, 8. Dec 09, 15:22

something bad happened!

i fly to a sector, going to engage pirate base.
targeting pirate base, calling my destroyer to attack it (3x).....

Message: Your Destroyer is destroyed by Planet in Sector xxx...

:|

eh, what happened?

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Post by Gazz » Tue, 8. Dec 09, 16:38

Oh, pooh.
I've been meaning to ah... do something about that.

When you "call" the destroyer, it's briefly put into your sector so you can access it's command menu.
Now apparently it was put in a rather unhealthy spot.
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Malakie
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Post by Malakie » Wed, 9. Dec 09, 23:09

Gazz,

You seem to be the main person working on Hotkey stuff... Is there any method or way to perhaps create some kind of utility that would 'read' the X3TC hotkeys and allow you to modify them and even more important, PRINT THEM OUT!!

There are so many hotkeys that I just cannot keep up.. if I could somehow print them out, it would make all the difference. I also use a G15 keyboard so I can assign keys up the wazoo but have been reluctant to do so because I cannot remember what I assigned to what.

Is this possible?
Take it light.....

Malakie

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Gazz
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Post by Gazz » Thu, 10. Dec 09, 00:21

No.
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Post by Gazz » Thu, 10. Dec 09, 15:14

Version 2.78 released.

Ships are no longer being destroyed by planets.
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Waylander2
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Post by Waylander2 » Tue, 16. Feb 10, 09:16

Just saw this sript and thought it would be great.

Installed and setup a hot key for 1 fighter press hot key x3 and it just says "jumpdrive" ... the ship has one and energy cells too.

What did i do wrong?

Thnaks
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Post by Gazz » Tue, 16. Feb 10, 12:20

I dunno. Maybe if you described the situation and what you are doing?
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Post by Waylander2 » Tue, 16. Feb 10, 20:27

Ok will try

I was trying to get one of my ships to jump and attack pirates in another sector, i was in the same sector as my ship. So i was looking at the sector map with the pirates in it and pressed the hotkey for that ship 3 times. Then it says jumpdive and just comes over to where i am.

That make sence?

Also tryed it when i was in another sector from my ship and it crashed the game just after the ship i was trying to get to attack appeared in my sector :o

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