[MD] Lost in space - mini plot and a new ship variant

[Falconek]

Background
Disappointed with poor combat performance of the Dragon corvette, Split navy started looking for new ways to utilize this ship. It turned out, that the Dragon has simple construction and is easy to modify. Taking this in mind, Split Navy decided to use this corvette as a platform for testing new weapons and alien technology.
The main visible difference between regular Dragon and the Experimental variant is a four-barrel turret on top, which replaced old bottom-mounted cannon. This is an universal turret, designed to hold unusual weapons, even those yet unknown. The ship is also equipped with Terran-made generator, which resulted in higher weapon reload rate and slightly increased speed and agility. This all comes at a cost of reduced cargo space.
So Splits now have the testing platform, but the question is, where do they get their weapon samples from.

[ external image ]

Download
[ external image ]

Mod - compatibile version:
Replaces Experimental Dragon with regular Dragon, other than that plot and rewards are unchanged.
[ external image ]

Installation
1) Run exe installer and install mod into your X3TC folder, i.e. C:\Program Files\Egosoft\X3 Terran Conflict\
2) Run X3TC and on splash screen click "Select Mod Package"
3) Pick "LostInSpace" or "LostInSpaceComp" from the list.

The installer will unpack mod files into proper folders and make backup copy of 00044.pck .

Plot overwiev
-Three missions of think and fight genres
-carefully ballanced combat encounters (no more things, like "protecting" indestructable Boron Angel against endless waves of Xenon Q, or spawning 10 random ships with "attack player" order upon player entering area)
-player fulffills specific tasks as a part of NPC fleet. Follow your leader's orders, protect your wingmen and keep situational awareness.
-More challenging combat. NPC M8 fire proper missile salvos, M5 employ hit and run tactic, fighter wings will focus fire on specific targets, NPC carriers will properly use their fighters.
-No artificial ships. Most of ships participating in the mission are set on the beginning, and some encounters can play themselves without player participation. Survivors will return to their sectors and it's possible to meet them later. If a mission-critical ship dies, it's over. No infinite respawning.
-170 lines of radio chatter for better immersion
-Two different endings (three counting final failure) changing ballance between races in different ways and providing different rewards. Future missions will branch out from here.

Mission start requirements
Split Friend

What this mod contain
A plot, that tries to recreate gameplay of space sims such as Freespace 2 or Tie Fighter, with their tactical depth and complex objectives
New ship variant Dragon Experimental
Three new sectors with unique names, descriptions and hidden secrets to discover
Job entry for spawning Experimental Dragons in Split sectors
Teladi Kite shield compatibility changed from 5MJ to 25MJ

Work in progress (to be relased soon)
- Final mission, that will conclude the storyline
- Teladi mission to populate new sectors and make them part of universe economy.


Resources used
The following strings for MD: L2810, L2811, L2.810, L2.811, L2812, L2.812 and the files 2.810 Lost in space.xml, 2.811 Falco Missions.xml, 2.812 Infiltration.xml, 2.813 Memories.xml, 2.814 Escalation.xml

Text page 7826 and text file for english version 7826-L044.xml
Text page 7827 and text file for english version 7827-L044.xml

The new Dragon's turret comes from Killjaeden's Shipexpansion and is included in package along with other turrets.

Compatibility
Terran Conflict 3.0.0 or higher required.
Basic mod is not compatibile with mods that add new ships, or any mod that changes Tships and Tcockpits and Jobs.
In such case, you can use compatibility version, which replaces Experimental Dragon with regular Dragon and still finish the plot and claim other rewards. Note, that if your mod increases ship speed, it may lead to strange results, as some events timing is based on speed of participating ships.

Credits
Killjaeden for Shipexpansion mod
All the helpful people, that were answering my questions on Egosoft forum

Changelog
1.0.2
- Betty voice for new sectors
- exe installer
1.0.1
- performance improvement
- some bug fixes
1.0.0
- new mission
- 3 new sectors
- many bug fixes
0.1.0
- compatibility with X3TC 3.1
- fixed inability to build complexes
0.0.2
- fixed inability to dock more than 3 ships to Griffon
0.0.1
- initial relase

[Ketraar]

Good to see more missions poping up. Here a few comments on the code after a brief look at it and some suggestions.

Code: Select all

<load_text fileid="0001"/> 

No need to do this, 0001 text file is automatically loaded, plus you did not provide any, so not sure why you would load it.

Code: Select all

<complete_cue cue="L2.810 Dragon Ex St"/>

I see you use this often, no need to either, as every cue will complete it self once action is done. This just used unnecessary additional bytes, suggest you remove it in future updates. Same goes for stuff like popup="0", as its default, you don't need to extra mention it.

You also have Text directly in the MD file, but part of it in a t-file, suggest to have all text in t-file, should make your life easier in a future translation, as an example.

You also named all objects global, strongly suggest to use local names, I know its more work, but its also better performance.

For when you need to create several ships of same type, I suggest you use do_all exact= count=, where in exact you can specify the amount of ships being created and with count you can name them if you really need unique names (name="my.ship{counter@mycounter}, this will return my.ship1, my.ship2 etc). If you just need a bunch of ship spawned, consider using group and put them all there, if you don't need them to do stuff individually.

Keep those missions coming.

MFG

Ketraar

[Falconek]

Thanks! I'll keep it in mind

[dannyxx30]

Sorry for being picky, but the normal dragon m6 has a turret on the top not the bottom

[Falconek]

Fixed problem with docking to Griffon - seems I used older Dummies.txt

[Falconek]

Merged files for compatibility with 3.1, fixed inability to build complexes and problem with mission not always starting.

[Locksley]

Sounds like a fun story; I can see all kinds of complications for the Split storywise

Might not be able to test it though; was a long time since I modded X3-TC so I am not sure I remember all the steps to merge this with other mods I got.

I, like Ketraar, love to see more MD missions popping up. I even started out myself but dropped it after being ambushed by time...

Cheers!

[Falconek]

Sounds like a fun story; I can see all kinds of complications for the Split storywise

Might not be able to test it though; was a long time since I modded X3-TC so I am not sure I remember all the steps to merge this with other mods I got.

I, like Ketraar, love to see more MD missions popping up. I even started out myself but dropped it after being ambushed by time...

Cheers!

Since few months i was beeing ambushed by certain MMORPG game, thus no progress in this mod, but since I'm back in X3, work should move forward now, and I have few mad ideas for storyline

[Falconek]

Mission 2 is finally done, and is a bit different, than usual X3 missions. Read more in first post.

Also, there is a mod-compatibile version, which adds only MD files, leaveing TShips and other T files untouched.

[Falconek]

Added voiceover for new sectors, and replaced .7z archive with exe installer. The latter change is due to the fact, that voiceover requires replacing original 00044.pck file. Installer will automatically create backup and save you burden of manually renaming this file.