[Script][AP] Advanced Patrol [v1.1.2 01/09/2012]

[rusky]

English (only atm)

Advanced Patrol
Based on Point 2 Point Patrol by ITFUncleDave

There is a certain lack of more advanced patrol scripts around. Most notably, I could not find a single one that would actually try to keep your ships alive and not go for the simple "spot enemy, attack enemy" approach.
With ITFUncleDave's script offering a perfect platform to build this on, I jumped at the challenge and got what I hope is a nice result.

Requires
Albion Prelude Only

Download


Version 1.1.2

NOTE: If updating from a 1.0.0 version, any ships that were running Advanced Patrol will stop after reaching their next waypoint. This is because I have updated the way local data is stored. You will need to re-issue the patrol commands for your lead ships.

SPK
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.RAR Archive
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Version 1.0.0

NOTE: This version should be TC compatible but it contains a number of bugs and issues. I may add a fixed TC version in the future.

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Description

Installation

Unpack the archive in your x3terranconflict/addon folder.

OR

Use the Plugin Manager to install the SPK file.


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Main Menu

Add Point
Selecting this allows you to choose a sector and a point to add as a waypoint.

Clear Points (Confirmation window)
Selecting this will clear all waypoints.

Range to engage enemies at (Between 10K - 100K)
This allows you to select the range that your patrolling ship will engage
enemies at, an enemy will not be engaged if it is not within sensor range
of player owned ships/stations/sats.

After Reaching Final Point
Allows you to specify what the patrolling ship does after reaching the final point.

Safe Patrol

What I always wanted in a patrol script ! Brains !

Enabling this will make your ships consider the strength of the enemy force they are about to engage, and compare it to the force of their own patrol formation and any other friendlies that may engage.

Zone of Engagement in KM

This is the area around detected enemy ships that your patrol ship will scan for enemy and ally forces in order to determine whether to engage.

Rally Point

If, after engaging or being engaged by the enemy, the zone of engagement becomes too dangerous (enemy force too great to handle by combined patrol and ally ships in zone ), the patrol ship and all accompanying ships will attempt to disengage and retreat to this location, before resuming patrol duties.

Rally Ship

Same as the point, only it targets a ship instead. Useful for running off to a slow M2 when things get too hot for your small fighter patrols.

Start
Begins the patrol.
The patrolling ship must have Patrol Command Software.

Safe Patrol Details

When a patrol ship running Advanced Patrol with Safe Patrol detects an enemy ship, it will scan for any ships present in a sphere with a set radius (Zone of Engagement range).

All ships (enemy + player owned + neutral that are enemy to the target) in the zone will have their shield dps, hull dps, current shield strength + approx. regenerated shield over 1m based on power generator and current hull strength calculated.
The patrolling ship and all ships flying in formation with it will also be considered.

Based on those numbers and this formula:

Code: Select all

$EnemyTTK = ($PatrolShieldValue + $NeutralShieldValue) / $EnemyLaserShieldValue + ($PatrolHullValue + $NeutralHullValue) / $EnemyLaserHullValue
$FriendlyTTK = $EnemyShieldValue / ($PatrolLaserShieldValue + $NeutralLaserShieldValue) + $EnemyHullValue / ($PatrolLaserHullValue + $NeutralLaserHullValue)

..the TTK values are calculated for the enemy group and the friendly group (patrol ships, other player owned ships, any other neutral ships that are hostile to the target).

If the friendly TTK is lower, the target will be engaged.

The scan is repeated throughout the engagement. If at any point the enemy TTK becomes lower, your patrol ships will retreat to their designated rally ship or rally point, or the next waypoint in their patrol.

If the formation leader ship (the one running the patrol script) is killed during the engagement, the slowest ship flying in formation with it will take its place and resume patrol once the engagement is over.
A log entry will inform you if this happens.

See this post for more details: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 86#3945586

Future Improvements

I am considering adding the following to this script in the future:

- Better functionality for fighters and carriers. (I don't think a carrier with docked fighters is properly scanned for firepower at the moment).
- Auto repair option for damaged ships. Ships that are damaged in an engagement will fly to the nearest friendly shipyard and conduct repairs (perhaps up to a set sum, otherwise sending a message to the player), then resume patrol.
- Khaak cluster values (currently clusters appear as weaponless ships I believe).

Resources Used
Text Files:
8251

Text Pages Modified:
8251
2008
2010
2011

Command Slots:
331

Languages
Currently the only supported language is English (44).If anyone wants to do a translation just send it over to me and I'll add it to the pack.

Known Issues

- Possible division by 0 in TTK formula can result in unpredictable patrol reactions when enemy group has no weapons (e.g. Valhalla running off from recon drone). Fixed in next release.

Suggestions
Suggestions/feature requests are welcome.

Thanks to

• ITFUncleDave for making Point 2 Point Patrol. I can't stress this enough really, if it wasn't for the excellent P2P Patrol script I would have never bothered to do this.
  Alkeena for the excellent insight into OOS combat mechanics.

[rusky]

Change Log

Advanced Patrol v1.1.2 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed another debug log issue >.>

Advanced Patrol v1.1.1 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed debug log showing up when TTK is calculated. (sorry for the spam if you got v1.1.0!)

Advanced Patrol v1.1.0 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed menu bug causing range selections to not be considered
  - Fixed range selections not being saved when selecting various menu options
  - Fixed some menu data being saved in local memory even though start was not selected
  - Fixed game freeze when starting AP on a ship that was already running AP
  - Fixed game freeze when an AP ship would attempt to rally to an out of sector rally ship
  - Fixed game freeze when starting AP with no waypoints
  - Fixed mistake in escort retreat script causing retreating escort ships to stop and idle for 20s while being shot instead of running
  - Fixed patrol ship sometimes skipping a waypoint when resuming patrol after an engagement
  - Fixed patrol ship going to next waypoint coordinates in current sector after an engagement even if current sector is not the correct sector

Additions / Modifications:

• - Due to usage of AP only script commands, Advanced Patrol is now Albion Prelude only (OOS data).
  
  - Changed the way local data is stored
  • - A single array containing all local data for an AP ship is now used.
    - The new format should be better for performance and will help with future functionality.
  - Updated menu code
  • - Added right aligned values for better visibility.
    - Menu data is now temporary. Unless "Start" is selected, no data changes will be saved.
    - All local data stored on an AP ship will now be loaded when opening an AP menu.
  - Added handling for a ship running AP being destroyed.
  • - If ship had escorts, all AP data will be transferred to the 'slowest' escorting ship, which will become the new patrol leader.
    - This is intended to keep patrols together, and running, after a lead ship is destroyed.
    - A special log and subtitle entry will be shown when this happens. (possible spam issue when losing many ships in quick succesion)
  - Implemented new Zone of Engagement assesment logic. See http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 86#3945586 for details.
  • - New assesment uses OOS laser values for OOS and IS values for IS situations.

Advanced Patrol v1.0.0 - 26/08/2012

- First Release

[joelR]

Great job man. This is now in my list of must haves.

[Baronfuming]

This should be very useful. I like to set up a defense 'meat-grinder' in my player sectors against the pirate scum, and this should help to increase the efficiency of my patrol group tremendously.

[starsearcher72]

Great job. I can hardly wait to try it. I did however encounter a "thing" getting stopped by my antivir softw when dl. I didnt really notice what,i just clicked close on the popup,thoug i should prob taker a closer look. I do not know if it has anything at all to do with the page,if someone is trying to ruin our fun,or if it was a mere coinsidence.But i do feel obligated to let you know so you can see if someone is trying to put something onto the page.It would be wrong to not say something,but gotta say it does not feel good to write this.I love the x universe with all my heart and have a ton of respect for all the hard work you and all the others have put into it, and im most gratefull
Thanks,and keep up the good work, you make my days an awfull lot better.

[rusky]

The archive contains only xml files so, to my rather limited hacking knowledge, I do not know how to pack a virus in one of those

If you meant the site they are hosted on, i've used mediafire for a while now and never had any issue with it.

[rusky]

So a quick update from me:

I've been running the script on 5 different patrol ships so far, and I haven't noticed anything bad happening (no game freezes, or ships doing anything weird).

However, I did notice one of my patrols, 3 Cutlass M3's, getting shredded by a Hydra Sentinel (XRM).
In XRM, the sentinel M6 versions have a lot of turrets (usually all 6 banks).

The ships did engage, because its laser strength is low (only 13k), but since it had good shielding and a lot of turrets (apparently) they never managed to do any damage and got destroyed.

I'm thinking if I should rethink the engagement logic. Maybe make it consider more variables ? Shield strength ? Number or guns ?
If anyone with any experience regarding OOS battle calculations in AP could give me a hint I'd appreciate it greatly.

In other news, I'm hoping to get an updated release out this weekend, hopefully containing an exciting new feature:

Auto-Repair!

Well, not so much magical auto-repair as a very configurable means of making your patrol ships more self-sufficient with less direct intervention from you.

Basically, I noticed that sometimes, some of the ships in a patrol would get damage, and then I had to manually order them around to repair them.

I want to add an option that makes them seek out the nearest friendly shipyard (or one set by you), fly to and dock at it, get repairs (by paying for them from your account ) then flying back and rejoining the patrol.

I'm curious if it is possible to make it so that they add themselves to the repair queue of an HQ type dock, in case you have the HQ or any other HQ like station with resources acting like a repair station.

[Alkeena]

So a quick update from me:

I've been running the script on 5 different patrol ships so far, and I haven't noticed anything bad happening (no game freezes, or ships doing anything weird).

However, I did notice one of my patrols, 3 Cutlass M3's, getting shredded by a Hydra Sentinel (XRM).
In XRM, the sentinel M6 versions have a lot of turrets (usually all 6 banks).

The ships did engage, because its laser strength is low (only 13k), but since it had good shielding and a lot of turrets (apparently) they never managed to do any damage and got destroyed.

I'm thinking if I should rethink the engagement logic. Maybe make it consider more variables ? Shield strength ? Number or guns ?
If anyone with any experience regarding OOS battle calculations in AP could give me a hint I'd appreciate it greatly.

In other news, I'm hoping to get an updated release out this weekend, hopefully containing an exciting new feature:

Auto-Repair!

Well, not so much magical auto-repair as a very configurable means of making your patrol ships more self-sufficient with less direct intervention from you.

Basically, I noticed that sometimes, some of the ships in a patrol would get damage, and then I had to manually order them around to repair them.

I want to add an option that makes them seek out the nearest friendly shipyard (or one set by you), fly to and dock at it, get repairs (by paying for them from your account ) then flying back and rejoining the patrol.

I'm curious if it is possible to make it so that they add themselves to the repair queue of an HQ type dock, in case you have the HQ or any other HQ like station with resources acting like a repair station.

I'm actually responsible for the OOS balance in XRM =)

You can generally expect to need about 6 M3 to compete against a single M6 OOS--even then, you may end up losing one. It's far from ideal, I know, but there were a lot of tradeoffs that were necessary to ensure that most fights came out roughly as would be expected and there is literally only a single knob that can be turned...smaller classes still perform relatively better IS than they do OOS [i.e. they are weaker OOS than you might be accustomed to], though with adjustments I made for XRM it's not nearly as bad as it was before I touched it.

Below the linebreak I've typed up a quick description of OOS combat for everyone's benefit. Since I doubt you'll want to read all of it here's my suggestion based upon what I know:

Calculate the OOS time to kill for the attacking and defending groups. Only engage if the patrol group has a lower time to kill against the target group than the target group has against the patrol group.

- Calculate time to kill as (defending shield value+~1 minute worth of shield recharge)/total attacking DPS (preferably the OOS values, described below, if they are script accessible).

- Take the time to kill the target group for the patrol group and add x% (~10%?)

- Add y% (~1%?) to the time to kill the target group for the patrol group for each small ship class in the patrol group (to account for attrition)

- Take the time to kill the patrol group for the target group and subtract x% (~10%)

- compare TTK the patrol vs TTK the target. If the patrol wins (by the 2x% safety margin) then engage. If not, notify and run.

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

The way OOS combat works is turn based. The precise mechanics of this turn based system aren't entirely clear (e.g. there may be an initiative system, or somesuch, that influences turn timing, I don't know), but generally it just looks like the attacker and defender taking potshots at each other with semi-regular timing. When it's someone's turn to attack, they will use literally all of their weapons (i.e. turret facing does not matter) to attack their target. If multiple turrets are available, and there is some degree of overkill, there is the potential to attack multiple targets in a single turn (i.e. a single M5 cannot waste the entire turn of an M2 by forcing it to use all of its guns on it after the first ppc hit would have killed it, like it could in TC).

Laser energy does not matter at all, all ships fire all guns all the time (assuming they have ammo). All shots also always hit (excepting the dodge mechanic explained below). This basically means that every encounter is a damage race of sorts between the amount of firepower and the amount of shields+shield recharge on either side. Fighters in particular perform poorly because of their granular nature--in order to shut down an M2 it might take another M2 5 minutes, during which time the target M2 is doing full damage. To take out a wing of M3s will also take some time, but the loss of total damage output due to incremental ship losses may lead to a snowballing effect where the fighter wing loses much harder than it really should. Shield recharge can also play a pretty significant role--if you cant spit out enough damage to break the shield recharge you will go nowhere. Maybe 2 M7 won't break an M2, so they both die without doing any hull damage. Bring 3 M7 and suddenly the M2 dies without killing a single M7...etc, etc.

There are a couple significant difference between OOS combat in AP vs TC; the biggest of which is that there are separate damage values for the various weapons IS vs OOS. Usually OOS damage values are 20-40% of IS values. These differential damage values are literally the only things that are modable, btw; and I took great pains to ensure they were reasonable for XRM (prior to my tinkering they were assuredly not...if you're interested in precisely what I did, check the XRM thread around page #1000 or so). But basically I accounted for the total number of weapons a ship is likely to bring to bear IS in most cases, as well as the liklihood of them hitting. This results in (in XRM) capital grade weapons having an OOS/IS damage ratio of ~13% while fighter weapons have an OOS/IS damage ratio of ~17%, with weapons lying along (and in some cases, beyond) that spectrum due to various factors. The values I created were tuned to create OOS outcomes that were as close as feasible to IS outcomes, in the broadest number of potential engagements possible. In effect, this leads to a relative boost of fighters, and a nerf to larger ships OOS, relative to their original XRM behavior (though larger ships will still tend to perform better, because it was impossible to make fighters good enough to really be competitive without introducing a bunch of other issues).

Finally, in Vanilla AP there is also a dodging mechanic that takes into account target maneuverability/speed, attacker maneuverability/speed, turrets, bullet speed, etc, etc. (so that an M5 _can_ waste an M2s entire turn, but for legitimate reasons, rather than simply taking all it's firepower to the face) Unfortunately the critical values for that system are all hardcoded, and are set such that they are almost entirely irrelevant to XRM...So in that case they can be discarded. (For reference: because of this system _in vanilla AP_ 25 M5s can kill an M2 after a few minutes taking maybe 5 losses if the M2 has no flak...if it has flak they will all die horribly in seconds).

[DrBullwinkle]

Good post.

.

[rusky]

Wow!

Thank you, that is an awesome write-up. I do have access to the OOS laser values from the script so I should be able to implement what you described.

[rusky]

Version 1.1.0 is here !

Advanced Patrol v1.1.0 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed menu bug causing range selections to not be considered
  - Fixed range selections not being saved when selecting various menu options
  - Fixed some menu data being saved in local memory even though start was not selected
  - Fixed game freeze when starting AP on a ship that was already running AP
  - Fixed game freeze when an AP ship would attempt to rally to an out of sector rally ship
  - Fixed game freeze when starting AP with no waypoints
  - Fixed mistake in escort retreat script causing retreating escort ships to stop and idle for 20s while being shot instead of running
  - Fixed patrol ship sometimes skipping a waypoint when resuming patrol after an engagement
  - Fixed patrol ship going to next waypoint coordinates in current sector after an engagement even if current sector is not the correct sector

Additions / Modifications:

• - Due to usage of AP only script commands, Advanced Patrol is now Albion Prelude only (OOS data).
  
  - Changed the way local data is stored
  • - A single array containing all local data for an AP ship is now used.
    - The new format should be better for performance and will help with future functionality.
  - Updated menu code
  • - Added right aligned values for better visibility.
    - Menu data is now temporary. Unless "Start" is selected, no data changes will be saved.
    - All local data stored on an AP ship will now be loaded when opening an AP menu.
  - Added handling for a ship running AP being destroyed.
  • - If ship had escorts, all AP data will be transferred to the 'slowest' escorting ship, which will become the new patrol leader.
    - This is intended to keep patrols together, and running, after a lead ship is destroyed.
    - A special log and subtitle entry will be shown when this happens. (possible spam issue when losing many ships in quick succesion)
  - Implemented new Zone of Engagement assesment logic. See http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 86#3945586 for details.
  • - New assesment uses OOS laser values for OOS and IS values for IS situations.

I tried to get something as close to Alkeena's description as possible, however calculating the proper 1m shield recharge was impossible due to individual shield recharge rates not being available via script (and I do not want to hardcode anything to maintain mod compatibility).
However, I realised that the ship's power generator is close enough and very cheap (performance wise) to use to calculate shield recharge.

I updated the OP with a fresh description for how the Safe Patrol works now.

There is no accounting for attrition for small ships yet, I might add that in the future.
I'm also wondering if I should just add a couple of sliders to allow more direct control over the engagement thresholds IS and OOS (like an IS and OOS engagement threshold slider which would be a direct modifier to the final TTK allowing you to specify if a certain patrol group will be more kamikaze or super safe).

Currently the values for IS and OOS are being used IS and OOS respectively, but there is no way to account for proper turret facing and such IS, so when IS the DPS of the lasers accounts for more than it should in the overall calculation (OOS it's ok since they all fire all the time anyway).

[Alkeena]

Version 1.1.0 is here !

Advanced Patrol v1.1.0 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed menu bug causing range selections to not be considered
  - Fixed range selections not being saved when selecting various menu options
  - Fixed some menu data being saved in local memory even though start was not selected
  - Fixed game freeze when starting AP on a ship that was already running AP
  - Fixed game freeze when an AP ship would attempt to rally to an out of sector rally ship
  - Fixed game freeze when starting AP with no waypoints
  - Fixed mistake in escort retreat script causing retreating escort ships to stop and idle for 20s while being shot instead of running
  - Fixed patrol ship sometimes skipping a waypoint when resuming patrol after an engagement
  - Fixed patrol ship going to next waypoint coordinates in current sector after an engagement even if current sector is not the correct sector

Additions / Modifications:

• - Due to usage of AP only script commands, Advanced Patrol is now Albion Prelude only (OOS data).
  
  - Changed the way local data is stored
  • - A single array containing all local data for an AP ship is now used.
    - The new format should be better for performance and will help with future functionality.
  - Updated menu code
  • - Added right aligned values for better visibility.
    - Menu data is now temporary. Unless "Start" is selected, no data changes will be saved.
    - All local data stored on an AP ship will now be loaded when opening an AP menu.
  - Added handling for a ship running AP being destroyed.
  • - If ship had escorts, all AP data will be transferred to the 'slowest' escorting ship, which will become the new patrol leader.
    - This is intended to keep patrols together, and running, after a lead ship is destroyed.
    - A special log and subtitle entry will be shown when this happens. (possible spam issue when losing many ships in quick succesion)
  - Implemented new Zone of Engagement assesment logic. See http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 86#3945586 for details.
  • - New assesment uses OOS laser values for OOS and IS values for IS situations.

I tried to get something as close to Alkeena's description as possible, however calculating the proper 1m shield recharge was impossible due to individual shield recharge rates not being available via script (and I do not want to hardcode anything to maintain mod compatibility).
However, I realised that the ship's power generator is close enough and very cheap (performance wise) to use to calculate shield recharge.

I updated the OP with a fresh description for how the Safe Patrol works now.

Nice!

Thanks for your work =)

[Alkeena]

I just thought of something that may be problematic: Mass Drivers have zero shield damage but are quite capable of killing regardless. Maybe if you see mass drivers just count them as PACs?

[rusky]

Hmm damn, I didn't think of that.

Treating them as PAC's could definitely work. I'll probably do that. Thanks again !

PS: Should I remove the download links to the old versions when updating to avoid confusion ?

[Alkeena]

Hmm damn, I didn't think of that.

Treating them as PAC's could definitely work. I'll probably do that. Thanks again !

PS: Should I remove the download links to the old versions when updating to avoid confusion ?

I would leave 1.0 up indefinitely since it's the only version that supports TC.

1.1 on I would remove the old download link when you post a new one.

[rusky]

1.0.0 has some bugs that I fixed in 1.1.0 though (in particular the fact that the ZoE Range selector did nothing and a few game freeze and weird patrol behaviour situations).

I guess i'll just add that as a disclaimer until I maybe get around to making a TC version that doesn't use OOS data (I hope that's the only AP only command I used actually though).

[Alkeena]

1.0.0 has some bugs that I fixed in 1.1.0 though (in particular the fact that the ZoE Range selector did nothing and a few game freeze and weird patrol behaviour situations).

I guess i'll just add that as a disclaimer until I maybe get around to making a TC version that doesn't use OOS data (I hope that's the only AP only command I used actually though).

FYI: I'm virtually certain the OOS damage in TC is just the IS damage of the weapons (i.e. in XRM ~10x higher than it is in AP...)

[rusky]

So I seem to have missed a debug log entry, good thing I noticed that in my own game before people got spammed

Advanced Patrol v1.1.1 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed debug log showing up when TTK is calculated. (sorry for the spam if you got v1.1.0!)

Another thing I noticed right after I resumed my regular game.

A 2 M3 escort I had was destroyed by a khaak cluster. They did try to retreat after it broke up but it was too late.
Hopefully I can find a way to calculate the power of a cluster while it is still together.

[Alkeena]

So I seem to have missed a debug log entry, good thing I noticed that in my own game before people got spammed

Advanced Patrol v1.1.1 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed debug log showing up when TTK is calculated. (sorry for the spam if you got v1.1.0!)

Another thing I noticed right after I resumed my regular game.

A 2 M3 escort I had was destroyed by a khaak cluster. They did try to retreat after it broke up but it was too late.
Hopefully I can find a way to calculate the power of a cluster while it is still together.

Yeah, I ran into this problem when messing around with AP fleets. I ended up just writing a special case that treated a cluster like 2 M3 (which the AP fleet then responds to with 6 M3, which seems to be enough to eliminate them without losses). Maybe consider doing something similar?

Since you are counting the kill times find something roughly proportional, similar to my suggestion for mass drivers--maybe for every khak cluster just replace it with 3 or 4 khak M3s (more than the 2 that I used in my example above because in that I was already accounting for the AP fleet systems disproportionate response)?

Also, to my knowledge, there are 3 different types of clusters, each with a different number of scouts in it.

It's a PITA to deal with all the special cases, I know. I hope you don't get frustrated though, because this is honestly one of the scripts that I could forsee most changing my game in a positive way, since I wouldn't be forced to use unimaginable force in every patrol just to account for the random battlegroup (XRM) spawn...

Thank-you again for your work.

[rusky]

And here's another one for the release machine gun

Advanced Patrol v1.1.2 - 01/09/2012

Fixes:

• - Fixed another debug log issue >.>

It's a PITA to deal with all the special cases, I know. I hope you don't get frustrated though, because this is honestly one of the scripts that I could forsee most changing my game in a positive way, since I wouldn't be forced to use unimaginable force in every patrol just to account for the random battlegroup (XRM) spawn...

Oh, I wouldn't worry about getting frustrated. I code crap for annoying people for a living, doing this for myself and others for fun is not bad at all
And yeah, that's why I wanted this too, was upset that the only way I could be fairly sure I wouldn't lose ships to random spawns while patrolling was to have all my patrols be Valhallas

Also, sorry about the update frenzy, I keep missing those damn debug log entries. Need more sleep !