Temp security ID's - hacking stations for commissions

[Little]

Have started new topic per mod request,

Hi all,

I'm just finding as of right now it's far too difficult to collect 3 security keys in a station. As it appears to be totally random, every time i've tried it appears to be impossible.

This is aggravated by "empty" cases & boxes spawning

or

entire air vent systems being empty.


I've been in many situations where i've found two in one airvent and then wasted half an hour trying every other pad on the station to only come up with spacefly eggs.

I'm trying to see what happens if you hack a free commercial port terminal.

Does it give you a commission for all traders that dock at the port? does it give you a commission for personal items you sell to merchants in first person? Is there any way to gain a commission with first person traders?

[Requiemfang]

Far as I know there isn't a way to gain commissions with first person traders which I find to be rather ridiculous. If this is true the devs screwed up majorly with their little small talk minigame if it doesn't offer a option to choose a "give me a commission." option like the "give me a discount." option. I could be wrong, someone please tell me otherwise.

as for the trade console you can hack, what that does is give you a commission or discount for your trading ships.

[Snafu_X3]

This is aggravated by "empty" cases & boxes spawning or entire air vent systems being empty.

Unfortunately it still takes a little time to 'populate' the zones with random NPCs/events. Rather than boosting straight to the station, try hanging around a bit first. Do some personal housekeeping or similar for 5 mins before you dock.. if the residents will let you

The respawning of random stuff was fixed in a previous patch (pre-3.0 IIRC) as it was too 'heavy' (eg 50x captains appearing at the station within a couple of hours IZ).. maybe it needs to be addressed again

I've been in many situations where i've found two in one airvent and then wasted half an hour trying every other pad on the station

I feel your pain: I too have been frustrated by the randomness of those particular spawns

I'm trying to see what happens if you hack a free commercial port terminal.

I'm not quite sure which terminal you're referring to. If it's the one that requires the above temp security stuff, it

Spoiler

Show

sabotages the station's production for a while (required for a TO semi-plot mission)

other (hacked) terminals may produce other results..

AFAIK there's no way to gain a commission from FP traders; you can only gain discounts through smalltalk or faction rep

[UniTrader]

AFAIK there's no way to gain a commission from FP traders; you can only gain discounts through smalltalk or faction rep

well, the type for it exists, here all available types from the scriptproperties.html:
hack_all_turrets
hack_buildmodules
hack_discount
hack_dronelaunchpads
hack_flakcontrollers
hack_longrange_turrets
hack_midrange_turrets
hack_missile_turrets
hack_production
hack_shieldgenerators
hack_short_range_turrets
hack_storage
hack_watchdogs

[Little]

Very interesting. I greatly appreciate the input.

I'm a little confused snafu, by what you're saying about population time.

An example of where I am it would be the ROC shipyard in darn hot air - it's been fully discovered previously & i've definately been in sector for more than a few minutes, it appears to be correctly populated but i will still find plenty of those small black cases that are 'empty' IE when you look at them it literally says 'case' & nothing is added to inventory.

Of course, if this is working as intended, IE dud spawns, thats fine. I just feel that egosoft needs to increase the spawn chance of the security keys because it's just not working on more than one in a million

[UniTrader]

chance is better than that if i understand the related file correct then there is a 40% chance that all parts are created when docking at a station the first time, but always in the best-hidden cases (80% they are in a topsecret case and 20% in a secret case for each of them).. so you may have missed one..

[Snafu_X3]

IMO the 40% 'dud spawns' for chests/cases are WAD & make sense WRT gameplay; the 'population time' is a bit difficult to pin down, but it seems that if you land on a platform capable of holding 20 NPCs very soon after entering the zone, only 1 or 2 NPCs may be spawned

[UniTrader]

IMO the 40% 'dud spawns' for chests/cases are WAD & make sense WRT gameplay; the 'population time' is a bit difficult to pin down, but it seems that if you land on a platform capable of holding 20 NPCs very soon after entering the zone, only 1 or 2 NPCs may be spawned

40% was for the parts of the temp sec key, for duds its 60% in obvious boxes, 30% in hidden ones and 0 fo both secret and topsecret ones

EDIT: regarding the <populate_platforms />: the command is run 3 times on gamestart (for the very first zone) and 2 times on Zone Change , but no idea how it works internally.. and i think in earlier versions it was called periodically, which resulted in the increasing amount of aactors..

[Little]

if i understand the related file correct then there is a 40% chance that all parts are created when docking at a station the first time, but always in the best-hidden cases

cool, i find your knowledge of the scripts fascinating unitrader, thanks for your time.

If anybody can find a lot of info on the specific 'best hidden' locations i'd appreciate it, maybe investigate this a bit more. Again, it really does seem as if the third one just doesn't spawn.

It would make sense to have a couple of extra keys spawn on other platforms to at least make it possible, no?

[UniTrader]

just found more info on that in libraries/parameters.xml:
inv_templocalsecurityid is needed for the following hack panels:
hack_production
hack_engineer
hack_discount

inv_securitydecryptionsystem (i think that is far easier to get and not bound to a station) is needed for:
hack_all_turrets
hack_dronelaunchpads
hack_shieldgenerators
hack_watchdogs

[Tamina]

if i understand the related file correct then there is a 40% chance that all parts are created when docking at a station the first time, but always in the best-hidden cases

cool, i find your knowledge of the scripts fascinating unitrader, thanks for your time.

If anybody can find a lot of info on the specific 'best hidden' locations i'd appreciate it, maybe investigate this a bit more. Again, it really does seem as if the third one just doesn't spawn.

It would make sense to have a couple of extra keys spawn on other platforms to at least make it possible, no?

Found those temp security keys now multiple times.
It is really not that hard to find them. Of course you need skill and knowledge of the hiding spots.

A few cases are very good hidden in the technician room (with the robot) and in the manager room as well as in the bar.
Of course it also makes a difference if you are in Albion, Omycron, Devries or TeladiOutpost.

Make sure also to use the "crouch" and "jump" key to find all cases. They are very often only visible then.

cases and boxes on the gangway are also often hidden very well. Try looking behind some plants, on top of aquariums or soda machines.


It is a reasonable amount of effort as you get a huge discount of 12% i.e. when hacking the trading terminal.
So it can grant you a huge advantage when used wisely on a station you are buying a lot of expensive materials from once and is not some form of easy-cheat because you get granted "accidentially" such keys and you use them all the time.


*Edit:
I should maybe mention to the above that I am probably aware of every single box and suitcase on those stations since lino teased us to find them a few months ago. Even suggested one more which was then added. Thanks Lino <3