[SCR] MARS Fire Control (v5.25 - 16.02.13)

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 15. Nov 12, 23:55

Taro8 wrote:English TC, 3.2 with XTM

Double-check your t folder for 7048-L044.xml. That is the lasers file for XTM.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 00:17

Osiris454 wrote:Could MARS be altered so that it doesn't try to use long duration (~2sec beam) beam weapons at fighters?

The PALC works fine, but a Plasma Beam Cannon won't do diddly to an M3. Contact is only maintained for a fraction of a second.

You can disable laser switching. Or you can probably fake MARS out by editing the laser file (7047 for vanilla). You may have to experiment to find the right combination to persuade MARS to not use PBC's against fighters.

Gazz probably knows exactly how to do it. Perhaps he will chime in when he has time.

Taro8 · Post by **Taro8** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 00:38

Those errors do not appear to be from MARS -- certainly not from properly-installed t files.

Double-check your t folder for 7048-L044.xml. That is the lasers file for XTM.

This readtext in AL appears only when I enable MARS in Plugin Manager. If I dont have MARS installed then there is no issues.

7048-L044.xml is in t folder and it appears to be fine. It has MARS related text as well as laser names (I just skimmed through).

Im not deep into X modding so I have no idea is wrong. However it appears I wasnt the only one with this problem.

Black_hole_suN wrote:i downloaded and installed MARS.... but i keep on getting Readtext blahblah on the AL menu... did i do something wrong??? im running vanilla x3tc 3.2

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 00:57

Oh, right, those errors are from the 7046 file. MARS uses two t files.

So make sure that 7046-L044.xml is correctly installed in your t folder.

If the correct t file is in the correct folder, then you should be able to see the names in-game. Language files work pretty reliably, when installed correctly.

(BTW, "ReadText blah blah" is just noise. It may, or may not, be related to your issue in any way. Without the numbers it means nothing at all.)

Taro8 · Post by **Taro8** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 01:10

7046-L044.xml is in t folder as well and also looks fine.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 01:27

The only other thing that comes to mind is the setup script: setup.plugin.gz.mars.xml. As long as the correct t files and the setup script are properly installed, then you should get no readtext errors. At least, not normally.

The MARS setup script is surprisingly complicated -- I suppose that it could have a bug (although MARS has been thoroughly debugged over many years).

Perhaps a list of your "some other mods" would give us another clue?

EDIT: You could try using the Plugin Manager to install the repacked version of MARS that I posted at the top of page 215. That should be a way of double-checking your installation.

EDIT 2: Of course, using the PM to install the repacked version will (temporarily) mess up XTM. I suggest this *only* as a test to ensure that you installation is correct. You will have to use a manual installation in order to get both XTM and MARS to work correctly together.

Taro8 · Post by **Taro8** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 03:38

It's not the other mods. I disabled them all leaving only XTM and repacked version of MARS working, and problem was still there.

I also tried manual installation ie. unpacking files from archive downloaded from gazz's site. Everything went where it should and still nothing.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 03:53

Well, without giving us more information, you will have to figure it out yourself.

In general, if you have the correct t files in the correct folders, and the setup script loads those t files, then you will not experience readtext errors.

If you use the repack with XTM, then do not install the fake patch. The same is true for users of any mod that includes a TShips file.

(The repack will not produce readtext errors, although it could interfere with the TShips file that XTM installs.)

Taro8 · Post by **Taro8** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 04:29

I dont think there is any more information to give. I tried without mods (just XTM) and MARS still didnt work.

I have no idea what is wrong, so I guess I will have to do without MARS, with is a shame.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 04:35

I don't know your experience, but the most common cause of readtext errors is incorrect installation. You keep saying that you have installed MARS correctly, but will not give us the details, so it is in your hands. Either you did the job right and something very unusual is occurring, or you made a mistake somewhere.

Show us screen shots of your installation folders (Windows Explorer) if you want us to double-check your work.

Taro8 · Post by **Taro8** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 05:14

Im pretty sure that I installed scripts and t files correctly as there was very little room for me to screw up. Downloaded files from t folder went to t folder in game directory and scripts went to script folder, there is nothing else I could make mistake on. I already installed 20 mods (quite a few of them from gazz) and all of them work, it's only the MARS that causes problems.

Damn, I HATE having problems like this, not knowing what's wrong when everything should work like a charm.

MonsterMod · Post by **MonsterMod** » Fri, 16. Nov 12, 16:51

Great mod. Just a suggestion: give higher priority to targets with low health and no shields, i.e. if there is a fighter with no shields and 5% health (and is clearly in range), don't switch targets and let him regen his shield. Unless a giant missiles is about to hit you of course!

I noticed many times there would be lots of smaller enemies flying around with lots of hull damage, and full shields, due to switching targets off them at the last moment. This mainly occurs with my large M2 type ships, so its not a major issue, just bring along some smaller boats to counter fighters.

Edit: Just noticed, there already is code for this:

<t id="20230"> Priority bonus for being able to do hull damage. </t>
<t id="20230"> Stripping the shields off 6 ships does... a whole lotta nothing. </t>
<t id="20230"> Default = 50 </t>
<t id="20231">50</t>

Maybe I just need to play with that.

Edit2: Looks like the laser file provided by XRM mod lists raw damage instead of DPS, so basically all high damage/low ROF guns will get priority. At least, I assume it should be dps and not raw damage, as the file specifies. Is that correct? I would post that in the XRM thread, but it wont let me post for some reason.

Osiris454 · Post by **Osiris454** » Sat, 17. Nov 12, 00:12

@MonsterMod: Find "CapMode" and change it to '0' (zero). That is what controls the fighter survivability. With 'CapMode' on, MARS will leave shieldless fighters alone for a few seconds thinking that the fighter will bail or run away (Unfortunatly the AI is not that smart). However this behavior affects capital ship targets too, but altering 'CapMode' doesn't do anything.

I've changed this from:

<t id="20230"> Priority bonus for being able to do hull damage. </t>
<t id="20230"> Stripping the shields off 6 ships does... a whole lotta nothing. </t>
<t id="20230"> Default = 50 </t>
<t id="20231">50</t>

To:

<t id="20230"> Priority bonus for being able to do hull damage. </t>
<t id="20230"> Stripping the shields off 6 ships does... a whole lotta nothing. </t>
<t id="20230"> Default = 50 </t>
<t id="20231">100</t>

And got nothing. MARS will still allow about 7 seconds for a capital ship's shields to recharge, the ship to bail, or retreate. After that it begins firing again. This causes battles to be won or lost because MARS did not finish off the current target like it was supposed to do but instead switching to another target with full shields.

MonsterMod · Post by **MonsterMod** » Sat, 17. Nov 12, 02:24

Oh wow, that Capmode could explain it. Will play around with it, thanks!

In hindsight, I think it was the weapons loadout that was causing issues. It was an Ion heavy boat, so that is somehow involved. My other M2's are blowing through fighters without having that happen.

X-Morgan · Post by **X-Morgan** » Sat, 17. Nov 12, 19:34

Hey,

I'm having a wee bit of a problem on AP with MARS installed on my Centaur.

Whenever I command all turrets to MARS Defence, as soon as I press 'Enter' they revert back to MARS Offence then go into Standby.

Can anyone help out?

Cheers!

Taro8 · Post by **Taro8** » Sun, 18. Nov 12, 17:59

My problems with mars were caused by conflict with XTC. I switched to XRM and still had a same problem, but after installing 7054-L044.xml provided in XRM thread, MARS started working. However adding .dat files causes my game to crash when loading save. Without them MARS do work.

marcos09 · Post by **marcos09** » Thu, 29. Nov 12, 20:32

well after I installed that script my game starts to freeze on jump screen. god it makes me mad. şt's a great script and i wanna use it so is there anything that i can do?

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Thu, 29. Nov 12, 23:08

Jumping is completely hardcoded so I wouldn't know how to affect it if I wanted to.

Crashes / freezes with that kinda stuff are often sound / graphics related and require a reinstall (disk or Steam).

Deniskos · Post by **Deniskos** » Sun, 2. Dec 12, 05:48

X-Morgan wrote:Hey,

I'm having a wee bit of a problem on AP with MARS installed on my Centaur.

Whenever I command all turrets to MARS Defence, as soon as I press 'Enter' they revert back to MARS Offence then go into Standby.

Can anyone help out?

Cheers!

Nacroma wrote:200+ pages are a bit much, so if the problem occured within this thread, the search wasn't effective enough.

Here's the deal: I've got some in game days down, mostly controlling a Centaur (from the Albion Prelude Argon plot). MARS worked fine and still is. However, since I once changed MARS to from Defense to Offense, I cannot let it switch back to Defense, since it will always choose Offense (and Standby out of fight). OS is Windows 7, game is Albion Prelude 2.5, purchased via Steam. MARS is the only script running besides the bonus pack.

EDIT: Having played around a bit, I found a way to activate defensive mode again. Activating it via the control menu rather than the turret commandos does the trick.

Deniskos wrote:Game X3 Terran Conflict v3.2
I have such problem as at Nacroma.
Commands of turret switched only through the configuration menu.

Commands of turret switched only through the Configuration Menu (Community Plugin Configuration).

Hyde911 · Post by **Hyde911** » Sun, 2. Dec 12, 21:37

Hello I've got some problem with MARS, I use XRM though.
Main turrets (flaks work just fine) sometimes don't work properly. When it happens MARS uses only one turret (side one) while one on front and on another side remain in standby mode, even when there is a target in theirs range. Those inactive turrets are performing "defend station" order. It happens mostly in crowded sectors. What could be a reason??

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[SCR] MARS Fire Control (v5.25 - 16.02.13)