Scripts and mods that add life to the game

[Boringnick]

This is a continuation of this thread:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... sc&start=0

I am trying to create a game that is teeming with life and action between the various factions and have so far collect these mods:

Phanon Corp.
LIFE
Improved Races 2.0
Pirate Guild 3
Yaki Armada 2
Improved Khaak 2

Are there more scripts that make the game more dynamic and make the factions more active?

[soulmata]

You don't specify TC or AP, so I assume AP. FWIW in the newest version of AP, I have found Yaki Armada (but NOT Pirate Guild) to be quite bugged, particularly these few issues:


* Yaki motherships are always TLs (and thus easily destroyed)
* Bounties for YA ships get erroneously applied to tons of other ships, such as random Xenon
* If you destroy a mothership, it's "children" will then sit idle in space forever doing nothing, even if you shoot them

The former might not actually be a bug, except that I never see any Yaki M1s anywhere.

I personally have found MBRR to be more immersion-enhancing than IR, as well. That's just my opinion.

[Boringnick]

You don't specify TC or AP, so I assume AP.

Yes, AP.

I personally have found MBRR to be more immersion-enhancing than IR, as well. That's just my opinion.

What's the key difference?

[soulmata]

Mostly I like that MBRR has greater fine-grained control of AI behavior, such that you can disallow Teladi and Boron to invade pirate sectors (the Teladi being generally neutral with pirates and the Boron being pacifist, it makes sense), and it doesn't require a separate chunk for Xenon - Xenon use more or less the same sets of behaviors. The token system ensures that there is constant action, and you can easily give Xenon more tokens for greater challenge.

At the default 2x Tokens for MBRR, Xenon are more or less static, as they are in vanilla. With 5x tokens, you see them invading border sectors a lot, and travel becomes more dangerous. At 10x tokens, they will steadily take sectors from commonwealth. At 20x tokens, they will most likely take over the entire universe without your help, though I found 20x too insane to deal with, and 10x felt pretty good.

MBRR also lets you adjust inter-racial behaviors, as well as sector invasion/takeovers per race, for instance, disallowing Xenon to invade pirate sectors (else Xenon take over all pirate sectors in the first few hours of the game). It uses ECS and the prestiege system gives you some control over your own races' behavior, which makes the AP war more interesting.

Disclaimer: This is all my opinion.

[soulmata]

I went and dug up my notes from when I was using IR (yes, I take notes on games I play. I'm a nerd, what do you expect?). I had a list of unusual bugs with IR too, namely:

* Xenon invasions would produce weird "Xenon Unknown Object" that were ships with no laser recharge and huge amounts of hull that would float around Black Hole Sun and do nothing
* I occasionally would get invincible Xenon ships roaming through Commonwealth space

I can't conclusively say IR was the cause, only that when I replaced IR with MBRR, I didn't see the behavior again.

[PDouma39]

I use some of the named mods too, except for phanon, IR and Kha'ak.
Instead of IR I use MBBR, which is less bugged (or none most of the time at all), to claim sectors I use the claim unknown sector script/mod.

And I edited the jobs file(after many try-outs) the goner and yaki have several different civ-ships too and the yaki also have some traders etc flying around which makes things more interesting. And by placing through script a yaki equipmentdock in Senator Badlands the Yaki are also trying to trade with my advanced complex hub which is several sectors away.

I made sector patrols stronger by adding m6's also in the jobs-file.
And when things get boring:), I allow the Xenon, option in MBBR, to invade pirate sectors etc., but not take over, makes them (sort of) migrate again and attack more often, at least in my advanced AP game.

True, in my game the Yaki Armada mostly exist of TL's, but also of Shuri's but then again the RRF makes short work off them very fast, but makes things interesting especially when you are in sector with them and using LIFE.

[Boringnick]

OK, will look into MBBR.

Is it conflict-free with the other mods in this list? I am thinking especially about LIFE, since it's using the Galactic News System too.

[Boringnick]

By the way, what would happen if Improved Races AND Military Base Response Revamp would be active?

Total chaos?

Apparently the maker of MBRR intended it to work alongside IR:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 66#3024166
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 69#3394769

[PDouma39]

I use Pirate Guild, Yaki Armada, LIFE and MBBR together in my AP games, also one game with the mod TC for AP, works great.

I had problems with IR, and did(as long as I can remember) never use them together, I guess things will surely get interesting when you use them together, hope your pc or graphics card is up to it when IS when the races are having a 'small' picknick of a batlle.

I guess MBRR and the rest of your mods won't be an issue, just to be sure use a different clean copy of your game install and then try out those mods together.

[Boringnick]

You guys are more experienced with MBRR - are the default settings reasonable (lore-wise etc)? That mod has lots of options, more than IR.

Are there more AL-plugins that let the X-Universe dance?

[Boringnick]

Instead of IR I use MBBR, which is less bugged (or none most of the time at all), to claim sectors I use the claim unknown sector script/mod.

When you talk about IR, do you mean the original IR or IR 2.0? Is 2.0 bugged as well? (compared to MBRR)

[soulmata]

When you talk about IR, do you mean the original IR or IR 2.0? Is 2.0 bugged as well? (compared to MBRR)

I was using the most recent IR 2.0 by Jack08. It did have a few bugs.

You guys are more experienced with MBRR - are the default settings reasonable (lore-wise etc)? That mod has lots of options, more than IR.

Are there more AL-plugins that let the X-Universe dance?

The default settings are alright and loosely give you an improved vanilla experience. The one part that was missing was Commonwealth invading each other, but I believe that is due to AP, not MBRR. The one thing about the vanilla MBRR install I didn't like is that Pirates get an immediate genocide on them by all sides - Commonwealth, Terran and Xenon collectively dogpile on Pirates until they are wiped out. That's why, for "lore-friendliness", I disable the Commonwealth invading pirate sectors, and often Xenon too, or Xenon will end up owning all pirate sectors. Note you can also hand-choose exactly the aggression settings you want, per race.

There is one piece of MBRR that is not lore friendly which you can't avoid, which is that ships you otherwise shouldn't be able to access will spawn as part of invasion forces. Examples include seeing Springblossom well before you've opened up Aldrin, or seeing unique ships like the Falcon Sentinel spawn regularly.

I personally see the latter as mostly a good thing, since you get to see rare ships in combat and (with, say, NPC Bailing) the chance to get one for yourself.


I also suggest NPC Bailing coupled with NPC Salvagers. That alone can turn the early game into a fun salvage race, where you are zipping through active warzones trying to pop out of your ship and steal some salvage before your many, many competitors swoop in to take it.

[soulmata]

Other great mods I think that add a lot of immersion. All of these I'm currently using in my AP game.

TC plots for AP by dillpickle - One of the best mods of all time, IMO. It gives you the best of both worlds. You get all AP improvements, but have plots from both TC and AP available. Great integration. Really, really nice if you want to try and play all plots through from start to finish.

Marine Repairs & Training by Bullwinkle - turns Marines into what they should have been. Gives them more uses other than for stealing ships. Marines can repair your playership, letting you ignore the occasional mass driver damage or avoid a time-consuming trip to a shipyard just because your shields were dropped. Lets you repair bailed or capped ships with spacewalks or transferring crew over. I love putting a marine crew on all patrolling ships, since now, provided they survive a fight, they will slowly repair hull damage themselves. Very balanced, extremely useful!

Bounce by Litcube - removes a lot of the death by stupidity for AI ships. I've found it actually to be a bit unreliable in when it turns on or not, but it's far, far better than the alternative. Makes having ships escort you actually worth it.

Phanon corp by Litcube - it's nice to have business competition and not just combat.

ToA to Jumpgates (Graxster?) - lets you avoid spending 57 hours idling through Terran space. not being able to jump to terran sectors was a poor design decision, especially when their sectors are so huge! Another alternative is project bifrost, which sticks more ToAs and jump beacons in every sector, but I've found ToAs breaks Phanon Corp.

NPC Bailing Addon by ThisIsHarsh - It never made any sense to me why the player, and only the player, could get a bail. It also meant roleplaying a deep-space salvage worker was just unreal, and really, to make a game out of salvaging, your only choice was a combat ship + later on boarding. This mod alone makes it possible to play an entire game as a salvager.

NPC Salvagers - This works exceptionally well with NPC Bailing. With NPC Bailing, you'll definitely get your hands on more "free" hardware than in vanilla - the caveat being you have to go to a warzone, where people have been fighting, to get it - and now, with this mod, you also have competition. It makes SEWN that much more useful, since now if a satellite warns you about a claimable ship, it might already be taken by the time you find it. It gives you a reason to stop *in the middle of combat* to try and rescue a rare ship - because if you don't, an NPC will, and you'll lose your chance.

ADS by serialkicked - in general, this is just very cool to have, and with Pirate Guild, it makes Pirates actually pretty terrifying to take on. Pirate bases are no longer sitting ducks.

Terran Revitalization Project - Terran Marines, access to all Terran fabs. Makes playing as a Terran actually possible, since you can build all Terran fabs. Simplifies building complex chains, since you can, for instance, have all shield fabs using 1 type of food.

[PDouma39]

I was using the old IR one in those times, must be some years ago, you can try out how things work regarding the IR(2) and as Soulmata described you can disable/various options regarding MBRR if you'd like to try that out.

[Boringnick]

Other great mods I think that add a lot of immersion. All of these I'm currently using in my AP game.

TC plots for AP by dillpickle - One of the best mods of all time, IMO. It gives you the best of both worlds. You get all AP improvements, but have plots from both TC and AP available. Great integration. Really, really nice if you want to try and play all plots through from start to finish.

Marine Repairs & Training by Bullwinkle - turns Marines into what they should have been. Gives them more uses other than for stealing ships. Marines can repair your playership, letting you ignore the occasional mass driver damage or avoid a time-consuming trip to a shipyard just because your shields were dropped. Lets you repair bailed or capped ships with spacewalks or transferring crew over. I love putting a marine crew on all patrolling ships, since now, provided they survive a fight, they will slowly repair hull damage themselves. Very balanced, extremely useful!

Bounce by Litcube - removes a lot of the death by stupidity for AI ships. I've found it actually to be a bit unreliable in when it turns on or not, but it's far, far better than the alternative. Makes having ships escort you actually worth it.

Phanon corp by Litcube - it's nice to have business competition and not just combat.

ToA to Jumpgates (Graxster?) - lets you avoid spending 57 hours idling through Terran space. not being able to jump to terran sectors was a poor design decision, especially when their sectors are so huge! Another alternative is project bifrost, which sticks more ToAs and jump beacons in every sector, but I've found ToAs breaks Phanon Corp.

NPC Bailing Addon by ThisIsHarsh - It never made any sense to me why the player, and only the player, could get a bail. It also meant roleplaying a deep-space salvage worker was just unreal, and really, to make a game out of salvaging, your only choice was a combat ship + later on boarding. This mod alone makes it possible to play an entire game as a salvager.

NPC Salvagers - This works exceptionally well with NPC Bailing. With NPC Bailing, you'll definitely get your hands on more "free" hardware than in vanilla - the caveat being you have to go to a warzone, where people have been fighting, to get it - and now, with this mod, you also have competition. It makes SEWN that much more useful, since now if a satellite warns you about a claimable ship, it might already be taken by the time you find it. It gives you a reason to stop *in the middle of combat* to try and rescue a rare ship - because if you don't, an NPC will, and you'll lose your chance.

ADS by serialkicked - in general, this is just very cool to have, and with Pirate Guild, it makes Pirates actually pretty terrifying to take on. Pirate bases are no longer sitting ducks.

Terran Revitalization Project - Terran Marines, access to all Terran fabs. Makes playing as a Terran actually possible, since you can build all Terran fabs. Simplifies building complex chains, since you can, for instance, have all shield fabs using 1 type of food.

Thank you for the detailed descriptions!