doesnt pay to keep track of old games

[KRM398]

with everything in steam I figured go back and play AP for a while. But the mods section is out dated badly, many scripts are missing, some like the npc bailing doesn't work, someone added a version in zip on the last page that doesn't work either, and some of the hotkeys are all 404 now...so playing the older games is a waste it seems. There used to be a script I used all the time called Bailing System Extension...that isn't even mentioned anymore..lol that's what I get for playing old games.

[CBJ]

Do you actually have a Tech Support question, or is this just in the wrong forum? If your issue is that external links in the Scripts and Modding forum no longer function, then it's the owners/creators of the relevant threads that you need to contact as clearly we have no control over what people do on their own pages.

[Alan Phipps]

I'll move this to S&M because Tech Sp is for issues with the vanilla games anyway.

(BTW, I'm happily playing the even older X3 Reunion again at the moment and having fun doing so.)

[Reven]

I have recently played all the way from X2 through to X3AP. I have to admit, I did find the broken links and difficulty getting information on the older games frustrating - I can relate to the OP. It's not anyone's fault - no one can be expected to maintain all the links in all those threads over more than a decade. However, I do think that Steam and GoG are both breathing new life into these games and perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to mount a community effort to go over these things to freshen them up. I would be willing to pitch in.

Another thing I found frustrating was the limited forum search capability. There is probably no question that hasn't been asked at one time or another, but unless it's in a sticky thread good luck trying to find it. I was around back when Egosoft lobotomized the search engine - the reason being that the index was too large for hardware at the time. Server hardware and drive space is cheap now though. Perhaps we can lobby to have this decision revisited - I know of forums with full search capabilities that are several times larger even than this one, it shouldn't be terribly expensive.

Finally, the X3Wiki site is a fantastic resource for X3TC/X3AP. Another thing I would suggest from Egosoft is to either negotiate to in-house that site, or to do their own and then expand it to cover all titles. That way there is one stop shopping the community can contribute to that won't disappear. There are certain things that are being done by the community in the forum here, like the MSCI reference, which just aren't well suited to a forum (especially one where you can't search properly).

[X2-Illuminatus]

There is already an Egosoft Wiki for X3 here, and some people have started adding information to it.

As for searching the forum, a forum restricted advanced google search usually allows to find the important topics much more quickly. To do so, simply add the term "site:forum.egosoft.com" to your search term(s) in the google search as follows:

Code: Select all

search term(s) site:forum.egosoft.com

Additionally, you may also be able to search specific topics by adding the term "inurl:topic id". (The topic id is the number which is displayed at the end of the url (behind the "viewtopic.php?t=" part), when you click on a topic title in the forum view.) For example the following google search input will result in a google search for the word "plots" limited to the egosoft.com forum and the XRM topic.

Code: Select all

plots site:forum.egosoft.com inurl:304158

Finally, as for finding download links to old scripts and mods, this FAQ article has some useful suggestions.

[Reven]

There is already an Egosoft Wiki for X3 here, and some people have started adding information to it.

This is fantastic. I had no idea it was there. I will be contributing to it.

[/quote]As for searching the forum, a forum restricted advanced google search usually allows to find the important topics much more quickly.[/quote]

Indeed. This is something I have taken advantage of more than once. It still isn't as good as a forum's built-in search though. Google, even on site-specific searches, still ranks results based on clicks, link-ins, and results are heavily skewed in favour of newer content. Even using google searches, I have found it immensely frustrating digging up old information - knowledge I know exists because in some cases I contributed to it in the past. Knowledge that I can't locate because the key words are removed search terms. What was common knowledge in X² scripting ten years ago is almost impossible to find now. I'd suggest that the lack of search adds more to forum bloat from re-asked questions than the index would have taken up.