[AL Plugin] Universal Banking "The Financial Revolution Continues" v502 26-01-11

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TrixX
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Post by TrixX » Tue, 8. Feb 11, 17:20

For a start get the 1.30 RC1 as it's got a lot of updates since 1.20 and is considered stable, just not released as stable yet. It is required for some new stuff to work :)
"If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original."
Sir Ken Robinson

felgorn
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Post by felgorn » Wed, 9. Feb 11, 10:24

*crosses da fingers* Please don't kill my game, Please don't kill my game!

Thanks, will give it a go.

---------------------
Edit:

One sexy script! If there was a kudos button or a thumbs up it'd be clicked!

No game meltdown using [BETA] X Plugin Manager Lite : 1.30 RC 1 http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=256718 ... So far :P

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Sun, 20. Feb 11, 05:03

hi all,

sorry for the late reply, been away in queensland helping family after the cyclone.


Deniskos

not quite sure what you were trying to do, but as ypou only have 1 ship, that being your player ship, this will probably be your problem. please don't try to sell the playership, not a good idea. other than that, i will need more clear info to be able to help you.


felgorn

glad you got it working and like the script. will consider myself thumbs upped.


TrixX

thanks for helping out with the answers to questions in my absence. appreciated.

marcon

ps. darn, come back only to find my shift and ctrl keys not working ...

taigen
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Post by taigen » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 05:59

I don't know if something is bugged or this is just how the script works, but my experience with UB so far feels very close to cheating.

I am useing it with the extended mod (which may be part of the problem, but so far everything seems to work fine other then the behavior I will describe), and the mod started me with a TL already loaded with a PHQ. I think to myself, what better way to start a game then with some strong funds but a huge debt, so I promptly built the HQ and immediatly mortgaged it for 151 mil. I used the loan to start a small manufacturing empire and tried my best for the first day playing to work towards paying off my debt.
The first thing I found to be odd was that the debt neither had regular payments nor did interest increase. I went way over my hour term but no repo on my HQ or late fees.

Then it came time to go to bed, and having set things up to be pretty self sustainable for my factories I set it on SETA, parked way off the grid, and let it run, but first I dumped all but 10 mil of my cash into a bank account to draw a little interest to supplement my profits, which was about 30 mil.

When I woke up, my factories had grown my 10 mil to about 40 mil, but I was very shocked to find my bank account was now 300 mil! My debt still hadn't grown, no nasty telephone calls from debt collectors, no teladi mercenaries ready to put me in carbonite. So I payed off the 170 mil or so that I owed and felt, well, kinda cheated. I had started this game not intending to cheat, but I felt like I had definately cheated... so this brings me to ask. Are debts supposed to grow like bank accounts do? Are bank accounts really supposed to compound hourly?

If this is the intended way for the script to run, could I ask for a few more options to configure it? I am not expecting bounty hunters or the like, but I was kinda hoping for payments on loans, maybe a repo of the mortgaged property if you miss to many, late fees, etc. Also would be nice if the 'hour' term on loans and accounts could be more like an in game month, or at least have the option to set it that way.

The script seems promising, but as it functions right now, it is too good to be true (either that or I have it screwed up somehow on my system).

-Taigen

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 07:27

Hi taigen

First, thanks for such a good explanation of your situation.

Second, You will be happy (maybe) to hear that Yes you have a problem and No that's NOT how the script is suppossed to work. :shock: It's suppossed to work more how you said you would like it to.

If you morgaged your PHQ and missed an hourly interest payment, you should have got pestered by reminders to pay it for the next hour (in game time). After that you should have had your assets seize upto the value owed. Starting with credits and working through frieght on your ships and stations, then ships and stations siezed. Also you should have taken a hit to your credit rating.
taigen wrote:I am not expecting bounty hunters or the like, ...
I tried so hard to have exactly that type of responce, but couldn't get it to quite work well enough without being a bit buggy, so didn't include it in the release version. :cry: (but i still have the code if i get more time to work on it and figure it out)


The interest you described seems to much also. If you have reporting turned on (it's on by default) you should be able to see the interest payments made and at what percentage ("View Bank Transaction Report :"), you can see if the amounts paid and at what intervals (should be hourly) seem correct.

A lot of what you said you would like is how the script should work. It will add depth to the game and bring you good credits if used wisely, but it shouldn't be a huge money tree.

Next time you are in the game can i get you to open the Universal Banking 'Options" menu and turn 'Debugging' ON, let it run for 5 minutes or so and then turn it Off. This will produce a debug report in 'My Documents\Egosoft\X3TC\log09750.txt' . Can you please email that file to me at the email addy available from the link at the bottom of this post.

As for your use of "extended", i have had no reports of bad behaviour from other users using Universal Banking and extended together. So i doubt it's that.

MarCon

orion84
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Post by orion84 » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 10:06

This is something i've always wanted. :)

I'll give it a try and see how it does. I've been using Lucike's station manager for fund "banking". Do you think they'd conflict? since 2 scripts target station credit management. :D
***modified***

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 11:11

Hi orion84

Yes they would definatly conflict. You should only use one or the other unless you can target individual stations with Lucike's script ( i don't know, i've not used it) as you can with Universal Banking, then if you were REALLY carefull and only had a station asigned to 1 management script at a time, you might get away with it. Otherwise, choose one and if you don't like it then switch to the other and give it a go then use the one that suited you best.

The other functions of Universal Banking, like the bank accounts, interest, loans and morgage/sell station will work Ok with Lucike's scripts installed.

Also remember not to be using the standary X3TC Auto credit transfer functions on a station being managed by another script.

Report back any probs you have if you find any.

MarCon

orion84
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Post by orion84 » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 11:16

wow thanks for the quick reply! :)

yeah i think i can fore go Lucike's station manager as the money transfer has an on/off switch.

wait, are you playing with the bonus pack? station management is part of the Commercial Agent script.

Anyway, i'll keep you posted. :)
***modified***

LarryBurstyn
Posts: 295
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x4

Yeah a problem.

Post by LarryBurstyn » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 14:32

I think 2% a HOUR interest is way to high. My credit union only gives me a small percentage per DAY on the amount in my account. And my money market account only earns 3.5 % APY (annual percentage). Is there a way to reduce the percentage return to PART of a percentage per hour--if you want to keep the per hour interest. I have not looked at the scripts myself. Maybe the percentage should be .002% per hour.

Such high percentages in interest would only occur in places with very high inflation rates--something that is not happening in the X-Universe.

hlking
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Post by hlking » Wed, 2. Mar 11, 17:00

I would have to agree with the above post, I think 2% is a bit too much aswell.

Also, is there a way to increase the time you get to repay a loan? I think 1 hour is too low. I usualy take a loan when I need money to start up new complex or station, and then I need way more time then 1 hour to make it profitable and earn me enough money to repay the loan.

Other then that I love this script, good job!

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Thu, 3. Mar 11, 09:58

@ LarryBurstyn

So you want me to change a big part of the script for someone who says, and i quote,
LarryBurstyn wrote:I have not looked at the scripts myself.
nah .... not gunna happen.

(for those that do use it will know you can turn bank interest 'Off' on the options menu.)



@ hlking
hlking wrote: ... is there a way to increase the time you get to repay a loan?
If you want loans over a longer time, then take out some small loans consecutivly and pay them back on time. This will get your credit rating up to a point that you will get offered loans over unlimited time, just make the hourly interest payments and pay them back when you are ready. If your credit rating is high enough you will get offered loans over 1hr, 2hrs and unlimited time. Just choose the one you want.

------------------------------------------------------------

In general i will not be making big changes to the scripts interest rates at this time. There are to many ways people play the game to suit everyone. Many only have very limited time to play and don't want to be taking forever to get measly interest returns. Others only want to get income to buy missiles to fire while fighting and have no interest in having to build lots of factories to support missile consumption costs. If you don't want the higher interest, turn it 'Off' in the options.

MarCon

justabloke
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Post by justabloke » Mon, 14. Mar 11, 14:02

Hi,

Every time I use the Plugin Manager Lite to install this, it says installed but then isn't available in the game. When I exit the game, it has disappeared.

I installed it at the same time as Factory Complex Constructor, which also isn't showing up in the Plugin Manager but is showing up in the game (even got the in-game instructions for it).

The plugin manager is showing:
Explorer Command Extension
Explorer Command Extension - Deploy Sats
Free Jump (Credits)
Ware Hunter.

I have Cycrow's V1.2 of the Plugin Manager Lite

Also have the Bonus Pack installed...

Thanks ahead of time

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Mon, 14. Mar 11, 19:24

@ justabloke

You need to use Plugin Manager Lite 1.30 RC1 or you will have the problem you describe. The newer Plugin Manager uses a different compression than the old one.

The v1.30 RC 1 is available from here .

And, i just noticed that the link provided in the OP was for the wrong version of Plugin Manager. Fixed now, so my apologize to all for that. :oops:


MarCon

justabloke
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Post by justabloke » Mon, 14. Mar 11, 22:53

Thou art a marvel of modern technology!

Thanks :-)

littleheadspin
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Post by littleheadspin » Tue, 29. Mar 11, 00:27

i haven't read every post in the forum but...

I think banking stations would be a good idea. It would add to the immersion and realism, if its possible.

Being able to actually dock at a bank station.

I don't know anything about the script code, nor do i know how to create a station but i think something like this would be awesome.

I think it really depends on how far you want to take it..after all its a good feature that im using a lot now, i but i think it could be the best mod so far with the stations added

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Tue, 29. Mar 11, 16:28

@ littleheadspin

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

I think for now i'll give the stations idea a miss though, it's a lot of work to get it all to work and restrict it to just being available from selected 'Bank' stations. I think you would, or a least many others would, get tired of having to find a bank to be able to perform transactions. I tend to think of it atm a bit like internet banking, all you need is a connection to the network.

MarCon

littleheadspin
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Post by littleheadspin » Fri, 1. Apr 11, 03:45

@MarCon

Its cool, I changed my mind to be fair, after a couple of days I can see how annoying it would be, Its annoying now just having to buy energy cells to jump


I was just wondering, Do you know how you can sell factories, Would it be hard to implement the opposite and buy factories from the npc?

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Fri, 1. Apr 11, 09:49

littleheadspin wrote:Its cool, I changed my mind to be fair, after a couple of days I can see how annoying it would be, Its annoying now just having to buy energy cells to jump
Doesn't take long for the fun to go out of having to dock all the time does it.
littleheadspin wrote:I was just wondering, Do you know how you can sell factories, Would it be hard to implement the opposite and buy factories from the npc?
Um .... good question. I hadn't thought about it actually, I can't think of to many problems really. Something that when i get some time i might have a look into.

MarCon

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Locksley
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Post by Locksley » Sat, 2. Apr 11, 17:47

Hi Mark!

I have a few queries about your plug-ins and thought I'd post 'em in this post.

1. Universal Banking: The Credit rating, does it improve faster with bigger loans? If not, maybe a check for amount so one can not abuse the system with allot of smaller loans.

2. In S.O.C.S.I.: Have I asked you before about the possibility to have the headlines a few spaces longer so the scrollbar is no more?

3. Does the search system only use Advanced Satellites? If not, is there an easy way for me to edit some of the scripts? Had a quick look but could not find what I was looking for. It is especially the search for abandoned ships I want to control, now it includes Lucikes Jump Beacons and I want to try to exclude them.

4. Installed your Stock Exchange script - lets see if I can make any money :D

Cheers!
Projects:
Onhold..... time time....

mark_a_condren
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Post by mark_a_condren » Sat, 2. Apr 11, 18:53

Hi Locksley
Locksley wrote:I have a few queries about your plug-ins and thought I'd post 'em in this post.
No problems :thumb_up:
Locksley wrote:1. Universal Banking: The Credit rating, does it improve faster with bigger loans? If not, maybe a check for amount so one can not abuse the system with allot of smaller loans.
No it improves at the same rate no matter the size of the loan. I did it that way deliberatly so players with only limited playing time could use the 'get small loans' idea to advance a bit quicker.
Locksley wrote:2. In S.O.C.S.I.: Have I asked you before about the possibility to have the headlines a few spaces longer so the scrollbar is no more?
If it is the info at the top of the search results menu's, then i'm sorry there is nothing i can do about it, it will only allow you to show so many 'info lines' and the rest you have to scroll to see (i added those lines as 'menu info lines' with the Script editor rather than ordinary menu lines). I don't like the way it does it and have for quite a while thought that the next update will have that area changed to just be part of the rest of the menu and not as an 'info section'.
Locksley wrote:3. Does the search system only use Advanced Satellites? If not, is there an easy way for me to edit some of the scripts? Had a quick look but could not find what I was looking for. It is especially the search for abandoned ships I want to control, now it includes Lucikes Jump Beacons and I want to try to exclude them.
It should from memory use Adv and normal sats. I can't of the top of my head give you the name of the script you need to modify, I'll have to check which script that particular search is in. I have a fair idea which one just not exactly off the top of my head (it's been a while since i looked in them). I'll get back to you with the info you need, promise. S.O.C.S.I. as a whole needs a really good going over and updating :roll: .

Atm I'm nearly finished a script that I'm doing for someone else on contract, (no it's not a paid contract moderators, just as a favour), so as soon as I'm finished that hopefully I'll have some more time to look at other things.
Locksley wrote:4. Installed your Stock Exchange script - lets see if I can make any money :D
Have fun and enjoy yourself :-)

MarCon

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