[X3TC] Undocumented improvements in recent update?

[RAVEN.myst]

I don't know whether this might more properly belong in the thread announcing the recent update, but here goes.

I started a new game of X3TC post-patch (as it happens, I hadn't unlocked a couple of the more demanding game-starts since my most recent HDD crash, so I decided to get onto that), and noticed that the "GoD" appears to have been updated to the X3AP "standard": the Marine Training Barracks no longer get GoDded out, and neither now do the EEMPC forges, along with all Aldrin stations (well, I have 22 of 23 mapped in, at any rate.) In fact, all the Terran stations are more stable (SPPs no longer blink on and off like Xmas tree lights, for instance, and the rarer missile factories are also hanging around.) These observations are after a week of in-game time, and on my separate, boxed version install of the game (ie. the one that does not share anything with my X3AP installation.)

Additionally, in the Aldrin 2.0 (TREC) campaign, the mission pointer at the about-to-be-opened gate between Aldrin and Aldrin 2 no longer shows "Fly to something.object.mumble-blart.garble" (well, not verbatim ), but instead now indicates the (inactive) gate correctly - and I'm pretty sure there were a couple more little details like this, that appear to have been fixed.

Thank you, EgoSoft! While the text fixes and the like may be a minor enough thing (they do, however, add polish to the experience, so not to be underestimated, in my opinion), the "GoD" thing is fairly major, especially for those who like to play as Terran or using/engaging with the Terran economy. Very very nice indeed!


To that "thank you", allow me to add a little "please". Now, this set of updates so far down the road are much appreciated and I wager nigh-unexpected by most (I certainly wasn't expecting any more updates!), so the off-chance that you folks decide, at some point, to shine a little more of the chrome, might I suggest the following, which is already addressed in X3AP (so perhaps the relevant code may simply be transplanted, if compatible) - when changing the property list's asset sorting from 'by sector' to another (I use 'by ship type', in which this issue manifests) mode, hired TLs stop showing up; they stay hired and reachable as normal, but are merely hidden. Given the low (realistically speaking) odds of further updates, I'm not holding my breath, but I thought I'd just throw this out there in case something more does get done.

[Hemmingfish]

Wow, that's nice. I didn't know about GoD changing. Do you know if it will replace previously removed stations? My Terran sectors are (or were) all at almost the bare minimum of stations and Aldrin is missing quite a few as well.

[RAVEN.myst]

Sorry, I can't say for sure, as my game is fresh, started after the update. However, SPPs should reappear, as they did so previously in any case - I can't answer about the rest, though. I was particularly pleased about the Marine Training Barracks, as those had a nasty habit of vanishing and then never returning, unless one remembered to park an anchor-ship there in time - and since I use only marines of the same race as my game-start, it would annoy me mightily when my race's MTB would disappear. (Of course, Boron don't even get one in the first place... damned hippie wets! )

[RAVEN.myst]

ADDITIONAL: It seems that gate visibility distance has been upgraded (I became specifically aware of this regarding the E-gate in TUS3, leading to Xenon Sector, which appears some time after the end of Aldrin Expansion plot - previously, I always had to hunt around for it, even though I knew where it was, now it's visible clear from the W-gate.) Again, this seems like a back-port from X3AP, and again, it's very welcome. Asteroid viewing distances ("pop-in range") appear to be unchanged, sadly - oh well... c'est la view (intentional)

[SirNukes]

So, I have been super frustrated lately with failing to find the station removal logic in the KC files, and then I remembered this post. Grabbing the current TC obj file and diffing against the prior version, and seeing that the only changes were to version numbers and a tweak on ship jumping state checks, I realize the code I want must be buried in the exe somewhere. So many hours lost looking, but at least I can finally stop and move on. That is my long way of saying thanks for posting about the changes.

[CBJ]

Um no, the station removal logic isn't in the EXE, it's in KC. I'm not sure how much access you have to the original names/locations used in the code, but it's in a function called InspectSectorTask that is part of the GOD engine.

Regarding the supposed changes, I don't think much of what RAVEN.myst has described is actually new in this version, as the changes were pretty much limited to those documented. There may, possibly, have been some undocumented improvements in the previous update that weren't noticed until now.

[SirNukes]

Thanks for the correction. I've been working off the assembly, mostly aided by the names in the symbol table and checking the posted X2 KC documentation for some guidance, so some sections can get hard to follow when it isn't clear what they are trying to do or how they fit into an overall X3 system. InspectSectorTask was my primary suspect, though I was having trouble tracking down the actual station deletion mechanism and was thinking I was barking up the wrong tree.

[RAVEN.myst]

Regarding the supposed changes, I don't think much of what RAVEN.myst has described is actually new in this version, as the changes were pretty much limited to those documented. There may, possibly, have been some undocumented improvements in the previous update that weren't noticed until now.

And yet I played a game just prior to the patch, and the Terran SPPs were blinking on and off like Xmas tree lights as I've always known them to, and a couple of the Marine Training Barracks vanished before I could remember to park ships there.

I then started a game immediately post patch, and the Marine Training Barracks, every one of them, has persisted for weeks, and the Terran SPPs act more like those of CW stations, and the EEMPC forges also seem protected. BTW, I haven't parked ships at any of the stations in question (and those EEMPC forges were notorious for sometimes disappearing before the player could even get to Aldrin - and I didn't rush my playthrough, so I was particularly slow getting there.)

Since you represent the dev team, I have to assume that you know whereof you speak so I think your last sentence is probably the case: it may be I never got around to applying the previous patch (I have two X3TC installations, an older standalone from my boxed copy, and the one with X3AP - I had lost track of which I'd been playing, so it's likely I had Steam-patched the AP version and forgotten to do the standalone version - which is the one I actually play TC off! lol) Thanks for the clarification, CBJ.

In any case, X3TC has gotten even better for me, so whatever the truth of it, I'm happy Thanks, ES!