[Bonus Plugin] Collect Astronauts

[moggy2]

Name: Collect Astronauts
Version: 2.04
Date: 18.8.2007
Scripter: B-O'F

Overview:

• So, you have had a good time, killed a few baddies. Or, even better, forced them to bail.
  
  Then you went and claimed the 'donated' ships (hopefully with my SOS Claim or SOS Claim and Dock).
  
  You, or one of your ships, have picked up all the 'goodies' lying around.
  
  All in all, very profitable.
  
  But it could be even more profitable
  
  What about the pilots that bailed, they are worth money. Oops, you have lost some profitsss.
  
  With this new software, you, or one of your ships, can 'rescue' them - but only if you have a Cargo Lifesupport System fitted in the ship - to keep them alive.
  
  One unfortunate aspect of this rescue is a downgrading in status from Pilot, but it is certain that any Pirate Base will welcome them back with open arms, and even better, with open wallet. Yes, they will give you a reward for returning their lost brethren - normally around 1400 Cr.

Usage:

• Any of your ships (including the one you are piloting) equipped with the Cargo Lifesupport System will have a new option in the Piracy menu - Collect Astronauts.
  
  All you do is to select this option, and the ship will travel toward the astronaut in the sector. When within range, it will pick him up.
  
  Normally the range is about 500m, but if a Transporter Device is fitted, the range is 5km.
  
  When the astronaut is picked up, the ship will look around for another astronaut in the sector, and proceed to pick him up as well.
  
  This will continue until there are no more astronauts in the sector, or you run out of cargo space.
  
  You will be kept informed of the success or failure of the operation by temporary messages - you can read them, but they are not put into your logbook (no incriminating evidence)...

Hints:

• It is probably safer to get one of your other ships to 'rescue' the astronaut, as on the way to the Pirate Base to return him to his brethren you may get stopped by the Police. The Police do not like you to 'rescue' pilots and return them to their natural habitat, and it will cost you your license (if you have one), as well as the loss of the reward.

[swJawa]

It would be better if there was no downgrading in status.
To make it logical, you could hand them over to some jail or something (I don't know, maybe Argon Shipyard) or if you're a pirate, then to pirate base, as originally.

Btw, good plugin.

[B-O'F]

Hi swJawa,

I regret to say that the downgrading in status is a result of saving the astronaut - it is hard-coded, nothing we can do about it (apart from fiddling things with scripts).

Perhaps the devs decided to teach the incompetent pilots a lesson...... I do not know. They also did not build the jails - but you see Prisoner Transport ships around....

Doesn't it give you a nice warm feeling in your wallet when you 'rescue' the astros.

Glad that you like the script - it can be quite profitable... erm, I mean rewarding..

Boron - Ol Fh'art

[HD the Terran]

This script works well with Brand-X Unified Capture 1.20j, since use of that capture script tends to leave many astronauts floating around from pirates and kha'ak ships, waiting to be picked up.

Having to swoop in and pick up 30+ pre-slaves after a battle gets boring fast, but I just hate to leave money behind.

However, now that I've gotten XTM installed, I can't use the collect astronaut script.

Any chance of an XTM-compatable version of the astronaut collection script at some point?

HD

[B-O'F]

Hi HD the Terran,

I am glad that you like the script, but sorry to hear that it does not work with the XTM mod. And I am sorry for the loss of profits, my wallet bleeds for you.

I do not have the XTM mod installed, as I am writing scripts for another mod and need a 'clean' machine. The script was written to work with standard X3 - what XTM changed to make it not work, I do not know. If someone from the XTM team can explain why it no longer works with XTM, and the required fix does not interfere with it working with standard X3 installations, then a 'fixed' version might be possible.

As I said, I require a 'clean' game for my current work, which looks likely to take a few months - so I will not be able to fix it to work with XTM.

Boron - Ol Fh'art

[R.Bootneck]

@ HD the Terran & B-o'F FWIW

Plugin works fine for me in XTM both in an ES plot & non plot and custom XTM starts (including game saves pre 3.0.7 bonus release and new game starts.)

may be a re-download of the bonus pack and re-install may fix the issue

[B-O'F]

Hi R.Bootneck,

Thank you for that information. If a few other people can confirm (or otherwise) that it works for them with XTM, we may be able to help HD the Terran with his problem....

Boron - Ol Fh'art

[Havner]

Collecting slaves by using this script doesn't alter the "Slaves Caught" statistic, only picking them up by hand (stock method) does. Is it impossible to do by scripting?

[B-O'F]

Hi Havner,

There is nothing that I can find in the script editor that can affect the "Slaves Caught" statistic - this appears to be a hard-coded function.

So the answer appears to be that the statistics will be incorrect, in the same way that the "Ships Captured" statistic is incorrect - as soon as a pilot bails this gets updated, even if the ship is never claimed or is destroyed before you can claim it.

Remember the old saying "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" - this is as true in games as it is in life.

Sorry,

Boron - Ol Fh'art

[Havner]

Remember the old saying "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" - this is as true in games as it is in life.

Sorry,

Nothing to be sorry about

I suspected this would be the case (limitations of scripting system), just wanted to make sure.

Thanks for fast replay.

[JuanCudz]

Just confirming I'm running capture astronaught script with XTM 0.7, and bail system extension , and everything is OK.

[B-O'F]

Hi JuanCudz,

Thank you for confirming that this script works with XTM - and the Bail System Extension.

May you make much profits from this combination, and enjoy using them.

Boron - Ol Fh'art

[Mav'r'ck]

Just confirming I'm running capture astronaught script with XTM 0.7, and bail system extension , and everything is OK.

Sorry guys, just to ouble check, on the XTM site it says the problem is due to an incompatibility with the HCF (heavy capture frigate, an m8 ship that seems to basically run LV's HAT script, or something very similar).

could kudz and/or bootneck confirm that they have tried the HCF in conjunction with the script, as this will then save me trying to find out how to uninstall it seperately?

Thanks very much everyone.

PS...Sorry BOF, but I'm sure you appreciate how it is!

Nice script BTW

[B-O'F]

Hi Mav'r'ck,

I have just checked your reference to to a conflict with XTM. It was a slot conflict with HCF and was for the earlier 'free-standing' version of Collect - not the Bonus Pack version, which uses a different command slot. So you should be OK with this version.

Glad you like the script, and thanks for letting me know about a possible problem.

Boron - Ol Fh'art

[Mav'r'ck]

Thanks a million B'OF -

Especially as your script has great potential to be used in conjunction with HCF and HAT, IE, slaves are one of the raw materials used to make one of the troop types needed for these ships/scripts.

Top stuff, thanks again.

PS -

You may want to check out XTM some time, if only because the Boron are very much the 'bright young things' rather than the 'old farts'

(and the Whale M7 is the best looking ship in the game, IMO - I am going to buy one very, very soon, this was the ship in the previous screenshot of the week.month on this site, the oval wings one.)

[DaFrontlineSpecter]

Why can't we turn him into the warden and pocket a live-bounty for a declined amount of credits? I understand that there's a ton of scripting to go through and it would be frustrating, but it would be awesome.