[MD] Extended Horizons. New Sectors add-on. (Compatability Update 4 Mar)

InvrSmall · Post by **InvrSmall** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 00:57

Extended Horizons: Map Plugin for X3TC.

(Update 4th Mar) The Galaxy map has been updated again with sector layout changes and Extended Horizon Sectors now have gatelinks. It is now included in the RSM_TSOG patch, just download again to apply.

(Update 28th Feb) Now compatible with RSM. Random Sector Management and TSOG Missions.
See Update notes at bottom of first post for the patch.

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What this Map Plugin does:
Have you ever wished that Egosoft had added an area of the X-Verse where you could trully call your own, away from troublesome neighbours, empty sectors to build big complexes in, do you want to hide in the far corners of uncharted space or just have somewhere new to explore?
Well then, this might just be for you.

http://www.axfd00.dsl.pipex.com/mission ... rizons.zip

This map addon loads in a further 15 new sectors for you to explore and make a home in. All these sectors have computer spoken names and they show on the Galaxy map.

You will recieve a message, when you load your game, from the USC Recon Intelligence Network informing you about a lost Recon Pilots last garbled message. Or if when you start a new game, the MD file will wait for 2 minutes before it loads the map so that others scripts n stuff get time to initialise.
When you get the message, this means that the new sectors have loaded.

Now, can you decipher the message and find the new Gate location leading to uncharted space?
If you can, "That's the spirit!"

If not, just look in the Spoiler folder for a small map or check the Spoiler below for the location of the new gate.

Spoiler

Show

You can find the new gate in the second unknown sector beside Unholy Descent at the location (0,0,-70km)

Known Issues.
Some of the new sectors swap the right and left directions on the galaxy map when you pass over them.
Now fixed ->There are no connection lines on the Galaxy map between the new sectors.

No part of the existing X3TC map has been altered as the Nexus_b29 Map file only contains the new additional data. A new TBackgrounds file is also in the package so it's gonna clash with any other Mod that alters the X3 sector backgrounds, there is a Cat/Dat archive that holds the 749.bod galaxy map and the 't' file used is 8930-L044.

Important! - Make sure you back up all savegames before you start as new Sectors cannot be deleted from the game after you have saved.

Install instructions,
- Unzip Extended Horizons (which contains the folders; director, types, maps, t, spoiler) into your X3TC directory,
Rename the Extended_Horizons.cat and .dat files to make it run as a false patch, eg in my game they are named 15.cat and 15.dat
Load the game and play!

Uninstall instructions,
- You can't. except reloading an old game save and removing the Mission director file and TBackgrounds.

Updates:

Feb 28. I have now added compatibility for the mods RSM and TSOG.
Download the following link and replace the original Extended_Horizons.Cat/Dat with the new one in the download.
Since RSM places it's Galaxy file in the X3 Terran Conflict/objects/cut folder you must navigate to that folder and delete the 00749.bod file before the new one will show. The Galaxy map in the patch is a modified version of Sunblades Flat Galaxymap which RSM and TSOG Missions use.

http://www.axfd00.dsl.pipex.com/mission ... atible.zip

Feb 26. Finished RSM and TSOG compatable patch.
Feb 26. Deleted the old low resource map. Only the Higher res map is now available.
Sept 28. Added Higher resource map.
Sept 21. Added Galaxy map.

InvrSmall

Wintersdark · Post by **Wintersdark** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 01:44

Intriguing! I'll definitely have to check this out. These sectors all have their own unique names, right? Not just a whack of Unknown Sectors?

And they don't belong to any existing races?

InvrSmall · Post by **InvrSmall** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 02:04

Yeah, All the sectors have individual names so that you can find them in your property map e.g

Unknown Sector Alpha, Unknown Sector Gama, Unknown Sector Epsilon etc.. and Betty announces the sector names too.

As for System ownership, all Sectors bar 1 have ownership set to unknown.

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 02:34

hmmm... after you discover them... exactly how do you expect to I don't know use the jump drive to get there then if they don't show up on the galaxy map?

InvrSmall · Post by **InvrSmall** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 18:32

Requiemfang wrote:hmmm... after you discover them... exactly how do you expect to I don't know use the jump drive to get there then if they don't show up on the galaxy map?

The sectors are there, they just don't have white boxes around them.

Anyway, the sector selection is a 'bit' glitchy because i've not made a new Galaxy .bod and as a result the game engine reverses the layout of the new sectors. So if you are wanting to go the sector to the east, push left. Personally I don't see that as a total game breaker, annoying yes, but I can live with it and have done since X2 when the Galaxy editor was first released.

I could make a new model file for the Galaxy but it would then turn from a plug-in to a Mod, requiring a Cat/Dat and therefore compatability with other Mods would be in the range of Null.

Post by **Ketraar** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 18:35

Just use SunBlades 00749.bod (its listed in the sticky)

It has all sectors within 17x20 iirc. (give or take, its been a while)

MFG

Ketraar

mr.WHO · Post by **mr.WHO** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 19:58

Any chance to have a version compactibile with this:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=267427&start=0

InvrSmall · Post by **InvrSmall** » Mon, 20. Sep 10, 22:08

@ Ketraar
Cheers for pointing that out.

I downloaded it but my new sectors don't show so i've had a look at the file and I can now see how to do it after comparing it with Egosofts stock map. I've already had a quick mess around and so far I've managed to get one sector to show in the map.

Looks like it's not too hard so I should have a working Gal map in the next few days as long as RL doesn't get in the way.

@mr.WHO
I dunno, If I ever download the Mod i'll have a look.

InvrSmall · Post by **InvrSmall** » Wed, 22. Sep 10, 22:25

Update: Now contains a working Galaxy map which shows the New Sectors.

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Wed, 22. Sep 10, 22:58

Neat, I'll look into this now

russbo · Post by **russbo** » Thu, 23. Sep 10, 01:31

So it's save to assume that this will work with saved games using the stock X3 universe?

And if you remove the mod to play again, you need your original, backed up saved games to continue in the original universe.

OK, makes sense. Great concept, adding sectors without having to restart again. Do the NPC traders eventually find these sectors? Or will it be a lonely place to live?

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Thu, 23. Sep 10, 02:24

I assume these sectors are devoid of any of the races and stations which means they are for the player to populate with his/her own stations

jinonfire · Post by **jinonfire** » Thu, 23. Sep 10, 02:32

Ive only had time to see a few sectors, but so far they are quite interesting.

stealthhammer · Post by **stealthhammer** » Thu, 23. Sep 10, 03:00

I take it we have to start a new game for this?

I just answered my own question when I reread your post, thanks though. And I'll try out the MD files soon.

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Fri, 24. Sep 10, 16:59

Did notice when I loaded this, that ANH sector gets gliched...
I can still go thre but not directly..
It doesn't show up on the map anymore.

Wondering if there is an issue/bug that hasn't been seen yet.

InvrSmall · Post by **InvrSmall** » Fri, 24. Sep 10, 18:48

Retiredman wrote:Did notice when I loaded this, that ANH sector gets gliched...
I can still go thre but not directly..
It doesn't show up on the map anymore.

Wondering if there is an issue/bug that hasn't been seen yet.

Thanks, I hadn't noticed that.

I've updated the Galaxy map with a new .bod file.
Just re-download and replace the files and it should work ok.

Let me know if there are any other issues.

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Fri, 24. Sep 10, 22:52

That fixed it.. I can see ANH again.

Thanks & Cheers

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Mon, 27. Sep 10, 00:02

I noticed something odd, I thought sectors were only allowed to have 4 gates in Unknown sector alpha there are more then 4 gates. Won't the game go all crazy on me if there are more then 4 gates per sector?

TrixX · Post by **TrixX** » Mon, 27. Sep 10, 00:59

Nope sectors can have up to 6 gates.

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Mon, 27. Sep 10, 01:05

I see... thanks