[MOD] Human Resources - [DISCONTINUED]

[Vim Razz]

HUMAN RESOURCES v1.4.1 -- Better Tools for Employee Management

10/11/15 Update: Version 1.4.1 for Rebirth 3.61

- Details on update 1.4.1 are available here.

10/11/15 Update: Version 1.4.0 for Rebirth 3.61

- Details on update 1.4.0 are available here.


-- Download --

Nexus and Workshop downloads:

[ external image ][ external image ]

DropBox Download: Human Resources v 1.4.1

-- Uninstall Information --

This mod is savegame-safe and can be disabled without consequences and removed by simply deleting the file folder.

-- Localization --

Partially localized. Suggestions for improvements over my current labels and translations are welcome.

Thanks to Fazer for help with the German files.


-- Description --

I like the idea of managing your assets though employee interaction, but this area of X Rebirth isn't particularly well fleshed out.

This project seeks to improve employee utility and versatility within the game by adjusting their interaction menus.

More specifically: This is my personal gameplay menu mod, focusing on using employee interactions to interface with various elements of the game. It's a constantly evolving work in progress and not everyone may like or agree with my particular ideas and preferences, but I've decided to share it with anyone who might be interested.

-- Core Features --

• - NPC menu re-write -
  
  • It started as a few menu tweaks: adding a useful link here or a shortcut there... Moving a button to on occasion to make menu layouts more consistent across various types of employees... Eventually, though, this project developed into a full re-write of the NPC Employee interaction menus.
  • Bear in mind that this reflects my own playstyle and notion of what information is useful to have up front. The overall goal is to reach desired game features or information as quickly and easily as possible.
  • Human Resources juggles access between a number of mods that may have UI conflicts with itself and each other given the the limited space available in the game's radial menu system. More information on this is found in the mod compatibility section below.
  - Worker Mobility -
  
  • Employees can be moved around in a greater variety of ways than in the vanilla through the "Employee Management" menu, assuming they're not currently busy with something that can't be interrupted.
  • Employees can be told to simply stop what they happen to be doing, or take over the duties of other workers on the same ship or station.
  • If an employee being replaced is running an expense account, that account will be transferred to their replacement automatically.
  • Employees provided by shipyards (or some mods) without standard communication scripts configured will be initialized as they're interacted with, eliminating the two-tier employee system.
  • Employees not actively assigned to a job don't have to remain on the Skunk. They be moved freely as passengers across all player properties.
  • For now this is still restricted to the same zone that you're currently in, but expanding on that is part of the next major addition I'm working on.
  - Hiring and Firing Flexibility -
  
  • Employees will be hired directly to the ship or station you're standing on if it belongs to you. If no job is available for them then they'll hang around as a passenger.
  • Employees hired in free space or while on NPC properties will move to the Skunk as normal.
  • Engineers can be hired for your stations as well as your ships.
  • Employees can be fired wherever they happen to be, assuming they're not tied up in the middle of something.
  • You'll be asked to confirm all firings in case you've changed your mind or clicked the button by accident.
  - Exceptions -
  
  • Pilots or Captains in the middle of carrying out specific orders or architects in the middle of a station construction phase cannot be made to leave their duties unattended.
  • Human Resources will refuse to move or replace employees actively being used by mods it recognizes that run custom scripts.

-- Other Menu Features --

• - Engineer Drone Management -
  
  • Since Rebirth 3.0 drone transfers have been a part of the vanilla game. This wasn't always the case, so at one point I put engineers in charge of managing drones. They retain this functionality as sort of a legacy feature.
  • Engineers on ships or stations can store or activate drones in storage, or transfer them to other ships or stations in the same zone.
  • Drone transfers currently happen instantaneously. This is something I hope to change, but the sort of implementation I want has been slippery.
  - Filtered Squad Broadcast Commands -
  
  • A 3-stage "Filter" switch in the broadcast commands menu controls whether orders are transmitted to all of the ships in your squad, to combat ships only, or to non-combat ships only.
  • Broadcast commands are available in the main conversation menu of every member of your squad under the "Squad Commands" option.
  • This feature is available as a stand-alone mod for anyone who might be interested in it but not HR's full menu re-write.
  - Managers can call the Shipyard -
  
  • OOz shipyard contacts are now part of the vanilla game, but that wasn't always the case. (deja-vu.) I was uncertain as to whether to keep or cut this feature, but I've decided that I like being able to reach the shipyard while chatting with the manager, so it's staying in.
  • Managers of shipyards can put you in contact with the ship dealers at their stations, allowing out-of-zone access to shipyard services.
  • This feature is available as a stand-alone mod for anyone who might be interested in it but not HR's full menu re-write.

-- Mod Compatibility Notes --

This is a menu mod. By it's very nature and purpose it is horribly and shamelessly greedy when it comes to the NPC employee interaction menus. So, of course, dealing with any potential conflicts is an ongoing struggle.

Human Resources runs a small set of scripts at gamestart and gameload to register active mods with known UI conflicts and reconfigures it's menu structure as needed, activating or deactivating compatibility buttons that link to supported mod's functions.

HR does not contain functional components of these mods and cannot ensure that every mod eventually listed here will be functionally compatible with each other -- it only contains buttons that link to them in order to guarantee that they will be accessible without being hampered by UI conflicts.

• - Core compatibility conflicts -
  
  • Station Population 2015 by J3ANP3T3R
    - There are multiple version of this mod.
    - Those versions with passenger features will conflict with similar features in Human Resources, causing problems for both mods -- they're effectively alternatives to this mod with some similar features and lower menu footprints.
    - The version that only spawns NPCs on stations doesn't conflict with HR.
  - General Mod-Related Menu Adaptations -
  
  • If any recognized free trading or free mining mods are installed, a "Extensions" menu will be available in the "New Orders" menu and relevant compatibility buttons will be found there.
  • If only one possible entry for the Extensions menu is available, then it will appear in place of the Extensions Menu instead.
  • Ships in the player Squad will immediately be removed when any extension option is chosen.
  • Human Resources will do it's best to protect recognized mods from unintended interference by refusing to remove or replace employees currently being used by them. There's only so much I can do in that regard, however.
  • Ships running known mod scripts are given non-standard communication menus (if the mod in question has not already established custom menus) in order to make it clear what they're doing and reduce the risk of unintended interference or re-assignment.
  - Specific Mod-Related Menu Adaptations -
  
  • UT Player Logos & Faction Logos v0.90 by UniTrader
    - UTLogos's menu options will appear in the bottom left conversation slot when speaking to the engineers of appropriate player owned capital ships, or in the "Ship Options" menu when talking to the Skunk's engineer.
  • Universal Comm Menu v2.01 by Berserk Knight
    - Universal Comm Menus will be accessible in the "New Orders" or "Extension" menus, depending on the number and type of mods installed.
    - Removing the BKUniversalCommMenu/md/NPC_Staff.xml file is recommended as it no longer serves any useful purpose -- even in the vanilla game.
  • Safe Squad Join v1.01 by Cammus
    - Human Resources will suppress it's conversation return on "join my squad" in favor of Safe Squad Join's command menu feature.
  • Manger Call v0.6 by euclid
    - A "Log Reports" submenu will appear in the manager's conversation options that contains buttons linking to Manager Call's functions.
    - "(Logged)" indicators will appear on the Manager Call compatibility buttons to indicate that the log request has been sent without exiting the conversation.
  • AutoTrader v0.9 by euclid
    - An "AutoTrader" option will be accessible in the "New Orders" or "Extension" menus, depending on the number and type of mods installed.
    - Calling the captain of an AutoTrading ship will provide an alternate menu in order to prevent UI interference and to make it clear that the ship is currently running a script.
    - A "Stop AutoTrade" button will still be available to reset ships that may get frozen in the event that AutoTrade is abruptly uninstalled.
    - AutoTrader's "Alt Trigger" is be disabled to limit interference with other active mods.
    - AutoTrader plays it fast and loose with tracking variables, so HR may get confused by ships that have run AutoTrader before HR was installed. Stopping and restarting the ships will clear the problem.
  • Yet Another Trader v1.2 by Yorrick Vander
    - "YAT Free Trading" or "YAT Free Mining" options will be accessible in the "New Orders" or "Extension" menus, depending on the number and type of mods installed.
    - While this feature makes for an effective "quick start", modifying or reconfiguring YAT trade options will still require using Yorrick's Primary YAT menu interface.
    - Calling the pilot or captain of a YAT ship will provide an alternate menu in order to prevent UI interference and to make it clear that the ship is currently running a script.
    - A "Stop Free Trading" or "Stop Free Mining" button will still be available to reset ships that may get frozen in the event that YAT is abruptly uninstalled.
  • Autonomous Universe Traders and Prospectors v0.36 by JeanLukePicard
    - The "Universe Provider" option will be accessible in the "New Orders" or "Extension" menus, depending on the number and type of mods installed.
    - Calling the pilot or captain of a Universe Provider ship will provide an alternate menu in order to prevent UI interference and to make it clear that the ship is currently running a script.
    - A "Stop Universe Provider" button will still be available to reset ships that may get frozen in the event that Universe Provider is abruptly uninstalled.
  • MT Station Logistics v1.30 by wysiwyg
    - Calling the pilot or captain of a MT logistics ship will provide an alternate menu in order to prevent UI interference and to make it clear that the ship is currently running a script.
  • Space Station Destruction and Recycling v0.10 by jth
    - The "Destroy or Recycle Station" submenu will be offered by the station's Defense Officer.
    - The "Backdoor Trigger" option menu is disabled.
  • Ultimate Fleet Overhaul v0.6.1 by MadJoker
    *** Not currently working with Rebirth 3.50+ ***
    - Calling the pilot or captain of a UFO-controlled ship will provide an alternate menu in order to prevent UI interference and to make it clear that the ship is currently running a script.
    - Toggle switches on the dialog menus of every fleet member allow for fast or hold formation vs break and engage settings.
    - These buttons will read from the settings of the ship's fleet commander -- not the individual pilot -- and apply changes to every ship in the UFO fleet that the ship is a part of.
    - The Fleet Management menu -- for adjusting fleets, issuing UFO orders or more complex stance/formation arrangements -- is available from the dialog menu of every UFO-controlled ship.
    - A filter is applied over UFO's "available ship search" to remove ships currently being used by known mods or other ships or stations to facilitate fast fleet building without worrying about interfering with other mods.
  • VR Skill Evaluation v1.0 by Beans
    - The skill evaluation options will be available for potential employees, or for passengers on player properties if their skills are not yet visible.
  • Capital Ship Bridge by Litauen
    - CSB's "Crew Taxi" feature will be overwritten by HR's passenger system. If this feature were a stand-alone mod, I would call it a smaller alternative mod to HR -- direct compatibility with it is not possible.
    - The "Call Architect" option in the captain's menu will be re-enabled while in the bridge of a CV, because I have no idea where Litauen put his architect.
  • (HR v1.4.0) Buy Trade Subscription (or the "cheat" version) v1.02/1.03 by SilentStorm/XGamer
    - The shipyard option in the manager's dialog for NPC stations will remain hidden until station information has been purchased -- or the station fully scanned -- to allow room for Buy Trade Subscriptions buttons.
    - OOZ Shipyard calls are still possible through the map menu if the information has not yet been purchased.
  • (HR v1.4.0) Not Another Trader / UT Command and Control v0.1 by UniTrader
    - The Convert to UT CAC Manager option will be available in the Employee Management submenu.
  • (HR v1.4.0) Repack Construction Vessel v1.0.1 by mihaib
    - the Detach from Station menu option will be available in the architect's Equip or Detach Station submenu when construction is not in-process.
  - Notes on compatibility with some other mods -
  
  • Canteran Refinery Ship v1.13 / Ice Refinery Ship v1.0 by innesbrad
    - Unfortunately, the brothers are too busy to work on this mod any further. I've been unable to get the things they wanted to do to work, so compatibility with this mod is on ice.
  • Carriers by Marvin Martian.
    - Checking compatibility with recent updates to Carriers is going to be a focus of the next version or HR.
  • Station Engineers by w.evans
    - Station Engineer's menu tweak will get over-written by HR's implementation of the same thing.
    - alexalsp's suggested changes to the engineer ai script are completely unaffected by HR.
  • Populate Player Stations, BlackRain's Spawn NPC or similar
    - HR is written to accommodate hiring employees in-place on your own stations.
  • Exploration Software by Phipsz or Tefara Free Trade by tefara
    - The lack of reliable asset markers in these mods makes it too much trouble to write a specific compatibility profiles for them. I've been down that road with AutoTrader, and I have no interest in dealing with it again.
    - HR 1.4 introduces a framework for the authors of these sorts of mods to add buttons to HR's New Orders -> Extensions from the outside if they're interested in taking the time to do so. Documentation on this will be available when it's ready for prime-time.

-- Known Issues --

• I've given up on cutscenes for platform firing or transfers for the time being, so platform NPCs continue to disappear abruptly when fired or transferred during face-to-face conversations.

-- Version History --

[16 October 2015] v1.4.1 (X-Rebirth v3.61)

• - linux/mac compatibility
  - fixed menu return behavior in shipyard menu
  - fixed credit display in shipyard menus and added commas
  - fixed detection error for UFO
  - assorted housekeeping, renamed "HR_ModCheck" mdscript to "HumanResourcs"

[11 October 2015] v1.4.0 (X-Rebirth v3.61)

• - mod compatibility updates for UT-CAC, Release Construction Vessel, and Buy Trade Subscription
  - adjusted menu/property menu link to shipyard to fit HR's format
  - finished framing HR for it's first public experiments in externally definable buttons
  - improvements in German localization thanks to Fazer

[4 April 2015] v1.3.5/1.3.6 (X-Rebirth v3.53)

• - minor fixes and compatibility update

[29 March 2015] v1.3.4 (X-Rebirth v3.52/3.53)

• - Handling added for assigned pilots
  - The "Free Trade/Mining" menu under "New Orders" is now labeled "Extensions"
  - The "Extensions" menu is available for In-Squad ships,but they will be removed from the player squad as soon as a selection is chosen.
  - If only one Extension option is available, it will show in place of the menu rather than inside it
  - Extension options will now show properly for armed Teladi freighters
  - Various missing menu option issues resolved
  - Captains of CVs now show the correct menu during the first stage of station construction
  - some issues where accounts were not being transferred when replacing employees resolved
  - hiring, firing, and transfer log reports sorted. "stopped working" log reports partially sorted -- still WIP
  - voice confirmation of commands partially sorted -- still WIP
  - captains that are passengers onboard various ships should now be transferable even when the active captain is busy
  - the issue where bringing passengers back onboard the skunk caused local control NPCs to lose their jobs is now resolved in a way that shouldn't get immediately broken by other mods attempting to do the same thing.
  - compatibility issues with Bean's VR Skill Evaluation and Litauen's Capital Ship Bridge resolved

[12 March 2015] v1.3.3 (X-Rebirth v3.20/3.50)

• - fixed context filter that caused all stations to be interpreted as shipyards.

[12 March 2015] v1.3.2 (X-Rebirth v3.20/3.50)

• - fixed filter causing staff assigned to ships other than CV's to be treated as passengers
  - fixed employee management menu filter on captains
  - adjusted "no superior" position and appearance
  - added shipyard comm action to station managers

[10 March 2015] v1.3.1 (X-Rebirth v3.20/3.50betas)

• - menu support for out-of-squad orders added
  - "call superior"/"call manager" added to subordinates of other ships or stations
  - "no superior" option added to "assign new superior" menu
  - ship-type filtering added to squad broadcast commands
  - tightened up loose context filters
  - added filters to prevent HR from replacing employees of recognized mods
  - added UFO and MT Station Logistics menu adaptations added

[04 March 2015] v1.3.0 (X-Rebirth v3.20)

• - passenger handling across all player platforms added
  - hiring directly to player platforms added
  - architect handling added when construction is not in process
  - added transfer of accounts when employees are replaced
  - automatic initialization of employees without custom comm handlers implemented for the most common cases
  - menus somewhat reorganized again.

[10 Nov 2014] v1.2.2 (X-Rebirth v2.51/v3.0beta)

• - quickfix for mining and cargolift drones missing from drone storage/transfer menus in 3.0 beta

[04 Nov 2014] v1.2.1 (X-Rebirth v2.51)

• - added "HR_ModCheck" and supporting extension probe scripts for better cross-compatibility with other mods
  - added conversation returns to join/leave squad dialog

[24 Oct 2014] v1.2 (X-Rebirth v2.51)

• - added transfer and store drones menus for engineers
  - added section return function to improve menu navigation speed in some areas
  - added "stop working" option to employees working aboard the Skunk
  - added proper t-files, relabeled everything
  - added "Equip Weapons" to Architect's "equip Station" menu (formerly called "equip drones / Equip ammo")
  - added the ability to assign engineer to player stations
  - added "call engineer" to stations and XL capitals when contacted via the map or property list
  - fixed null-value dubug log spam from station-bound managers and def officers being asked if the ship they're on is a CV or not. "But lo! We're not on a ship at all!", they would cry! Rest easy, for they shall cry no longer.
  - various other stuff, I think. It's easy to loose track over the course of a month.

[28 Sept 2014] v1.1.1 (X-Rebirth v2.50RC2)

• - Fixed missing "show skills" option on unhired marines
  - Fixed "Show Details" behavior after calling Stations or XL Capitals through the map or property menu

[23 Sept 2014] v1.1 (X-Rebirth v2.50beta)

• - added "Employee Management" submenu for all employees and moved work assignment and employee information functions to it.
  - reorganized all employee conversation menus for more uniform presentation.
  - added yes/no confirmation menus before firing all employees.
  - expanded vanilla employee transport options to include direct transfer from one assignment to another without first bringing them onto the Skunk.
  - cut access to contextual situations that can result in script problems
  - changed name from "Human Resources 101" to just "Human Resources"
  - various other stuff

[15 Dec 2013] v1.0 (X-Rebirth v1.17)

• - The original version of this mod, called "Human Resources 101", grew out of a conversation with Kierk and NBCDumb about moving engineers around (which wasn't possible in the early game versions). It added menu options to fire platform employees or transfer them back on-board the Skunk.

[swatti]

Very impressive but considoring all the horrible issues this may cause i will pass for the time being... Im sure those with the lazy-engineer but will be quite happy.

[Vim Razz]

"all the horrible issues this may cause".... did you actually try it and encounter something, or are you just guessing? All the relevant aiscript and control node factors should be cleaned up by the mod pretty thoroughly. Staff or crew recalled to your ship have no remaining commands or control assignments attached to them.

As mentioned in the notes, the only NPC type covered which hasn't yet been thoroughly explored is the question of firing/removing architects from active station construction sites. I expect that the long term affects will be similar to captains fired or replaced on ships with active trade ques: the incoming captains pick up the que list from the ship database when they're assigned the ship control node and get their aiscript activated.

With the Architects, though, I simply haven't had the time to build a new station so I can fully test it out quite yet.

Small ship pilots still do have hanging questions related to their handling, but as I also noted: They're not covered in the current version of this mod for that reason.

[Lugburz]

Hello,

Just installed the mod, I did not have tested it already but you have a little problem to take care of :

Code: Select all

[=ERROR=] LIBXML2: file:///extensions%2Fhr101%2Fmd%2Fnpc_specialist.xml?ext=pck%20xml line 59, error 5: Extra content at the end of the document

There are too much closing tag for <diff>, you need to remove the last one in NPC_Specialist.xml file

[Vim Razz]

oops

Fixed, thank you!

EDIT: ah... lol.... oops not fixed.... The problem was not simply an extra </diff> statement... It's completely the wrong NPC_Specialist file altogether -- one of my earlier draft versions.

I edited and reposted it from work this morning, and I didn't even notice.

I'm currently testing some other changes, and if they work then I'll upload the correct file with them. If the new features don't work, then I'll simply repost with the correct NPC_Specialist file included.

It will be a few hours. Sorry about that.
----------------------------
EDIT #2 -- re-uploaded with the right file. NESA-compatibility is not yet working as intended. That might take a few days.

Also, if the course of playing around, I discovered that it's possible to crash the game by firing someone through remote coms if they're on the same platform as you.

Firing them from the space via remote coms doesn't seem to be a problem, and neither is firing them face-to-face. Just when you firing them by contacting them them through the details menu coms.

[notter]

Have you had a chance to figure out if your mod is compatible with NESA, if not what kind of trouble is it causing?

Thanx.

[rhohltjr]

I just attempted an engineer swap from my skunk to my freighter.

The freighter engineer went back on board the skunk fine, but the skunk engineer will not leave the skunk and work on the freighter.

I can click on " work here" but i get no animation saying "Yes sir, ....working here..."

Leave freighter and go back in ship and yes both engineers are still on skunk.

Go back to freighter and attempt to call down the skunk engineer and deja vu all over again.....




Update: After saving the game and reloading, I was able to swap the engineers as I wanted. Don't know why it won't work without a game save. Oh well, success is good.

[Wana]

exactly something i wanted. thank you.

[FritzHugo3]

The File Link is broken

[Privata]

The File Link is broken

it works fine for me

[FritzHugo3]

Ubs, yes i have made an (dam, for two seconds i know the words *g*) ah yes, an mistake (sometimes i wondering over myself lol).

I have too many Tabs in my browser opened i meaned an other Modlink, im so sorry.

[Vim Razz]

UPDATE, 27 AUG 2014:

Hey, everybody -

So... I've been away from the game for the last 8 or 9 months. I apologize to anyone who I didn't reply to in that time.

v1.0 of this mod was written for Rebirth ~v1.17-ish and ran into some problems with one patch or another, so I pulled it down last month to fix things up and finish the changes I'd been working on earlier.

v1.1 is pretty much complete and I'm currently testing it out. If all goes well then it should be back up in the next week or so. I've also finally got the NESA version working to my liking (do people still use NESA?), so that'll go up at the same time.

In the meantime, I'm pretty out of touch with what mods are currently in common use. If anyone happens to know of anything this mod might conflict with that I should take a look at, feel free to let me know.

-- Vim

[YorrickVander]

We don't use NESA no, that is all in vanilla now

[Vim Razz]

Thanks -- It seems I'd been so focused on removing specific conflicts that I'd completely overlooked some major changes with 2.0+.

There do seem to be a few NESA features that didn't get incorporated (configurable range limiters, for example), but I guess that's something I don't need to worry about.

[NZ-Wanderer]

Next BIG update is just around the corner too, lots and lots of goodies.. - might break some things in your new update you working on..

[YorrickVander]

Thanks -- It seems I'd been so focused on removing specific conflicts that I'd completely overlooked some major changes with 2.0+.

There do seem to be a few NESA features that didn't get incorporated (configurable range limiters, for example), but I guess that's something I don't need to worry about.

Once the station is 'known' you can convo from anywhere in zone so no worries there. The show npc skills is absent in vanilla, but has been redone as a standalone mod on Workshop.

[Vim Razz]

After spending the weekend checking to make sure commands and contexts work properly, this is finally ready to go, I think. It's grown from a few ~added options~ to a total overhaul of the employee menus for better utility and worker mobility.

The OP is updated with details.

For now it's just a dropbox download at least until Rebirth 2.50 is finalized. Once it's a bit more polished then I'll take a look at putting it up on on Nexus and Steam. Besides, that'll give me a time to take some screenshots so that it's more clear what this mod actually does...


First things first, though! There's a slight conflict between this and UniTrader's awesome Faction Logos mod: we both use the same engineer menu slot for our submenus! Fortunately it's an easy fix for anyone who might be interested in trying them both.

EDIT: There is now a compatibility mod available in the OP to resolve this issue, so manual file editing is no longer necessary. This will move UniTrader's Change Logo options to the lower left corner of the Engineer's main menu dial:
EDIT 2: Compatibility is handled automatically as of version 1.2.1
[ external image ]

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Lovely ideas. A Y/N confirmation for sacking, in particular, was crying out for addition. Thanks!

[Tamina]

Downloaded it and I am going to use it
Can't tell if it is really good or what needs to be better because I still have to discover everything

[Vim Razz]

Thanks! And yeah, the firing thing was the first thing I added to the original version before I got distracted by other shiny games...

@Tamina -- if you could let me know which labels read really badly in German, I'd really appreciate it. I need to redo the labels in all languages, but mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut... ^.^;;


There'll be an update tomorrow with a fix to the third issue listed in the OP, and maybe another feature or two depending on how well testing goes tonight. Also some more screenshots and documentation of the modified menu options.