[SCRIPT] GTS: Group Targeting System | v1.01 | 12 Oct 06

[Serial Kicked]

======================
[Script] Group Targeting System
======================
French Topic

Idea from Admiral Tigerclaw

This script adds 3 keyboard shortcuts to make dogfight against ships in formation more fun. You do not any additional software to use those, atm. You can set the keys in the "Controls" menu / "Interface" panel / "Extensions" (at the bottom).

• GTS: Target Threat - If the currently targeted ship fly in formation, the key will now aim the strongest ship of this formation. If nothing (or a station) is targeted it will first search for the nearest enemy ship. If no enemy ship is found it will try with the nearest ship.
  
  
• GTS: Target Next - will target the next ship in the selected formation.
  
  
• GTS: Missile Assault - will launch a missile against each ship of the selected formation. It will use the currently selected missile, and will wait 2 seconds between each missile.
  

These commands are mainly designed to deal with Kha'ak clusters and pirate groups.


Compatibility:

This script should run on any version of X³ Reunion, but as usual it's better to have the latest version. It should be compatible with all other mods and plugins and no restart is needed. When uninstalling, check the readme file for shortcut removal instructions.

Downloads:

• Download Link
  

Enjoy !

[Serial Kicked]

Commands used : none

Textfile used : 8518

Supported languages : English, French

Changelog

[Jaga_Telesin]

Very nice SK, now I won't have to manually target and launch against each ship in a cluster, and can terrorize squads of pirates easily. Will give this a go tomorrow!

[Serial Kicked]

Thanks

Sorry, but i've included version of a file in the archive preventing the script from targeting friendly ships. Please, redownload the file.

[russbo]

SK, I'll try this new one, but, the first version had a problem retargetting enemy ships, once you've sent out missiles to all enemies. For some reason, I could not lock onto an enemy using your hot keys (biggest threat, or next), after the multiple missile key was used (which, by the way, works very well). Seems like, once you've locked on to someone, and lose that lock, you can't get it back.

I'll play with this new version. Love the idea. Will most definitely be a must have addition.

EDIT: Let me rephrase this. There is an issue with this latest version. when you are approaching an enemy group, and hit the "biggest threat" hotkey, it will target the largest threat. You can send multiple missiles at the entire group, two seconds at a time. Works great. But once you destroy the "biggest threat", and your scanner locks onto an asteroid instead of the next enemy, you cannot lock back onto anyone in that enemy group using the "next enemy" or "biggest enemy" hotkey. This can be a problem....

[Serial Kicked]

I can't reproduce the bug with the current version, so i guess it's corrected aswell

[russbo]

SK, try it in Farnham's legend, near asteroids. Once I kill the "biggest threat", and my ship targets an asteroid, I can't use that hotkey to lock onto anyone in that group. I don't understand it. using Egosoft's "next enemy" key works fine however.

EDIT: the issue seems to be with your "next enemy" hotkey. I don't use it, and the other two work just fine. I'm using the standard Egosoft "next enemy" key without any problem in its place. Again, if you destroy the "biggest threat" and you inadvertently lock on to an asteroid, you can't use the biggest threat hotkey, or your next enemy hotkey, to lock onto anyone in that group.

The multiple missile thing is neat, but, I've noticed that it will send out mulitple missiles to all ten enemies in a sector, even though you only see one in the group, and even though it's 50 km away. Something to keep in mind.

[Serial Kicked]

First just to be sure it's a bug and not a misundertanding of the script functions here's exactly how it should work:

- Pressing the "Target Threat" (example: key B) command should

1. If no selected ship, search for nearest enemy else nearest other ship
2. Check if the ship is in a formation
3. If YES record the ship-list of this formation
4. Check for the strongest ship of the formation (not always the wing leader)
5. Select it in the crosshair.

- The "Target Next" (example : key N) should:

1. load the recorded ship-list and the currently targeted ship
2. Select the next ship from the ship-list in the crosshair

target.next won't do anything if all the ship in the list have been destroyed. Or if there's only one ship in this list.

- The "Missile Assault" (example: key M) should:

1. load the recorded ship list
2. fire one missile on each escort ship and two on the leader


Now, as an exemple:

- if you see a bunch of pirate ships following each other (1 Pirate Nova, and 2 Buzzards). Selecting any of them then pressing [B] should select the stronger ship of the formation (Nova). [N] should cycle between ships of the formation (Nova-> Buzzard-> Buzzard-> Nova-> ...). Pressing [B] again should reset your selection to the Nova. [M] should fire a missile on each ship and 2 on the Nova (no matter what ship is currently selected).

- The same idea should also work with exploded khaak clusters, as long as they fly in formation (not tested).

I'll test again but i'm pretty sure it works right atm.

By the way, it's right, no distance check before launching missiles. I may add one in the next update (and maybe some sounds also).

[russbo]

Fully understand how it works. And it works as you have described.

However, the target list must get disrupted, or put away, or something, IF, you destroy one of the targets, and your ship locks onto something else outside of the target list, ie, an asteroid, a gate, etc. You then cannot use your keys to lock onto anything, in that target list, again.

You have to use the standard Egosoft "next enemy" key (whatever you chose that to be), to lock onto an enemy that was in the initial target list.

You can lock onto enemies, using your script keys, that were not in the initial target list, ie, enemies in another part of the sector.

As I see it, when the target list is created, it can only be used once, and if you for some reason, lock onto something outside the list, the list is then unusable by your script keys. I don't understand why this is, but you should, as you've created these target lists with your script.

I don't think that it's something in my game. My game is working fairly flawlessly, with XTM, and over forty scripts. All work well together without conflicts. Not sure if this script is conflicting with any other script though. I don't know how to look for that, other than Cycrow's script installer. According to that program, this script does not conflict with anything I have running.

Hope this helps.

[Serial Kicked]

1.01 (12 Oct 06) released, added various failsafe checks, updated a file that wasn't supposed to still be here. It seems that the script works flawlessly. And the "target next" will now select a new group (like target threat) if the whole selected wing is dead or now OOS instead of doing nothing in this particular case.


Cheers.

I know that missile timing isn't perfect, so avoid to use big 'area of effect' missiles yet

[russbo]

SK, it works very well.

Noticed something interesting about the missiles, really kind of beneficial, actually. If you have three enemies, and you kill two of them, using the "multiple missile" key will sometimes send out three missiles at the remaining enemy.

I love that....

[MarkusXL]

Sorry to bump,

but both the download links in the first post are broken - 404.

[Serial Kicked]

Link updated