How to start the Aldrin missions in your X3:TC 2.0 game

[Painman]

The Aldrin missions for X3:TC, much like the Bala Gi missions for X3: Reunion, require a number of prerequisites before they will be triggered.

The following story/plot lines must be completed prior to triggering the start of the Aldrin missions:

-Terran Conflict (The Terran/"Main" plot)
-Operation Final Fury
-The Goner missions

In addition, you will need to have started the "Hub" plotline, and will need to have progressed along this line to the following point:

-400 Computer Components delivered
-500 Microchips delivered
-Capacitors repaired
-First Hub gate set relinked
-150,000 Teladianium delivered
-450,000 Ore delivered

Once you have achieved ALL of the above you will be notified that you are to contact a Terran by the name of Craig Armston; the mission strand will have begun, and you will receive mission guidance directions hereafter.

Have fun, and bring some Big Guns.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

The Aldrin missions can be completed in 7-8 hours (possibly less).

Personally, I completed most of the missions in my Springblossom... I switched to my Terran Tokyo for one mission, and my Split Cobra for another... although an M2 wing will come in handy (I used a wing of 4 Boreas), you can possibly manage with either less M2s or none at all.

[Painman]

What combat rank were you at? I'm pretty sure I was @ Warlord when I started them. I thought the big patrol mission in TUS 1 was fun... I jumped my Ray into the sector and let it run around killing stuff while I flew the Springy.

Anyway, I just started this thread so that the reqs for the new missions would be in one place that people could point to... the question is bound to come up frquently during the next couple weeks.

[amtct]

The Aldrin missions can be completed in 7-8 hours (possibly less).

Personally, I completed most of the missions in my Springblossom... I switched to my Terran Tokyo for one mission, and my Split Cobra for another... although an M2 wing will come in handy (I used a wing of 4 Boreas), you can possibly manage with either less M2s or none at all.

7-8 hours I finished those missions in only 3.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

What combat rank were you at? I'm pretty sure I was @ Warlord when I started them. I thought the big patrol mission in TUS 1 was fun... I jumped my Ray into the sector and let it run around killing stuff while I flew the Springy.

Well as per my current signature

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Trade: Industrialist (~75%)
Combat: Battlemaster (~50%)

Anyway, I just started this thread so that the reqs for the new missions would be in one place that people could point to... the question is bound to come up frquently during the next couple weeks.

Good idea, though I think the deluge of threads has already started

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

7-8 hours I finished those missions in only 3.

Ah well, I was taking the scenic route

[Pisces1]

Ok, I've completed all those pre-requisites & been playing for about 7 hours after doing so & I still haven't been notified. I've completed several later hub quests while waiting & been to both terran & aldrin sectors looking for the quest to trigger.

I have the mod that changes the hub requirements & the shipyard scripts installed.

[Painman]

There might be things yet unknown about the trigger... or maybe some bad interaction between the modified Hub requirements and the Aldrin mission MD files. Will have to take a look.

Potential issues (right off the top of my head) could be your rep with Boron and Paranid. Or Teladi.

Edit: What Shipyard script?

[Pisces1]

My boron and paranid rep are max; teladi is second to top. I may try maxing goner, split and teladi rep tonight while I wait for a solution.

I installed the modified hub requirements while collecting teladianium and installed 2.0 while collecting the reduced amount of ore.

The shipyard scripts are Marauder, OTAS, Yaki and ATF shipyards. The ATF shipyard script had changed my ATF rank to command access rather than Earth access, so is another potential, but unlikely conflict.

[Carlo the Curious]

I'm fairly sure it doesn't check anything beyond the things stated in the OP.

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        <cue name="L2M02 Version 2 Mission" delay="6s">
          <condition>
            <check_all>
              <check_value value="{value@Terran Plot Complete}" exact="1"/>
              <check_value value="{value@Goner Plot Finished}" exact="1"/>
              <check_value value="{value@Khaak Plot Complete}" exact="1"/>
              <check_any>
                <check_value value="{value@HUB Set 1 Unlocked}" exact="1"/>
                <check_value value="{value@HQ Start}" exact="1"/>
              </check_any>
            </check_all>
          </condition>
          <timing>
            <time exact="5m"/>
          </timing>
          <cues>
            <cue name="L2M02 Version 2 Mission Wait" version="2">
              <condition>
                <cue_is_complete cue="L2M02 Version 2 Mission"/>
              </condition>
              <cues>
                <cue ref="L2M011"/>
              </cues>
            </cue>
          </cues>
        </cue>

When you say 'modified hub requirements', do you mean apricotslice's one? It might be that it is not setting one of the flags (although I wouldn't have expected that bit to change).

[Pisces1]

Yes, apricotslice's one. Can I check what "value@HQ start" is? The pre-reqs in this thread mention repairing the second set of gates, which I have done? Is this HQ start? Or is just my imagination that the wording suggests that I need to have started/unlocked the HQ questline?

[Painman]

When you say 'modified hub requirements', do you mean apricotslice's one? It might be that is not setting one of the flags (although I wouldn't have expected that bit to change).

I'm having a conversation with Slice about that mod right now, because in its current form it's based upon a v1.4 (or earlier) MD file. The conversation (at this point) is only about the introduction of the indestructible Dolphin bug into 2.0, but there might be something else in the Hub plot's new MD file that passes on a value (to parts unknown) which is essential to the trigger of the Aldrin missions.

I've located and modded my own (v2.0) MD file for the Hub plot. If I can make time, I'll test andsee if the older MD file is the culprit.

I'm a scripting noob, but I learn quickly.

[Carlo the Curious]

There's no way to check a mission director variable value from outside the MD, as far as I know.

The Hub Set 1 & HQ Start part is an OR - so either condition will do. Hub Set 1 Unlocked should be set when you've delivered the 450K Ore, and HQ Start should be set after you've dropped Ma off in KE.

I'm not sure why it checks both - possibly one flag was added in a later patch.

EDIT: Painman, that seems possible. It looks like I messed up my older extract, but in the current files the gate set 1 flag is set in two places:

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C:\Users\Carlo Mosca\Documents\Games\X\TC\cat\Merge\director>findstr /N /C:"HUB Set 1 Unlocked" *.xml
2.007 HUB Plot.xml:40:          <set_value name="HUB Set 1 Unlocked" exact="1"/>
2.007 HUB Plot.xml:892:
                         <set_value name="HUB Set 1 Unlocked" exact="1"/>
3.02 Plot Missions.xml:407:                <check_value value="{value@HUB Set 1 Unlocked}" exact="1"/>

[Painman]

Hmm, OK.

That value ("HUB Set 1 Unlocked") may very well have no reason to exist in a pre-2.0 MD file for the Hub plot, so we may be getting somewhere.

And you found it in 2.007... The Plot Thickens.

[Carlo the Curious]

2.007 is just the mission ID number.

[Painman]

True that, but point being, the 2.007 Hub Plot.xml file found in 2.0's 07.cat/dat contains this variable/value setting, and the earlier 2.007 Hub Plot.xml file that Slice currently has posted for download does not (I just checked it).

I'll let him know.

[Carlo the Curious]

Yes, it appears it was only added in 007.cat.

In that case, I think users of Apricotslice's modified versions of the HUB will have to complete the whole plot before they can access the Aldrin missions. Unless he releases some kind of patch, of course .

Speculating (since I don't know all that much about how the MD works): I think for vanilla users the Unlocked flag is getting set when the HQ plot is active on loading a game when the 'L2M007.Scene 1 End' flag is already set (which happens after you deliver the ore). If you've already completed the plot then HQ Start is set instead.

[Painman]

Near the top of the new MD file (with a "patch" designation) one finds:

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<do_if value="{value@L2M007.Scene 1 End}" exact="1">
          <set_value name="HUB Set 1 Unlocked" exact="1"/>

As you've already discovered.

Further on, one also finds (also with a "patch" designation):

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<do_if value="{object.exists@L2M007.MaShip}" exact="1">
                                      <set_capturable object="L2M007.MaShip" capturable="1"/>
                                      <set_invincible object="L2M007.MaShip" invincible="0"/>

And apparently this will nerf "Billy" even if you have finished the Hub and gone on to acquire the PHQ (much to SWA's consternation) ... so perhaps certain (main quest) MD files get parsed at load-time no matter what.

[Pisces1]

Ok, I don't understand your conversation, but I do understand that I was right. The stated prerequisites are wrong, and the name "HQ start" does mean the start of the HQ quest like I thought. I complete the hub quests, waited a while, then many whiles later, I recieved the HQ questline start message and then the aldrin start message moments later.

[natha]

I haven't contacted for the PHQ plot yet (because i'm still delivering crystals to HUB) and i have a contact to go to Asteroid Belt and talk to Amstrong so ... PHQ is out i believe. After all it says "check any" for HUB and PHQ plot so the PHQ is added for no apparent reason cause you need HUB gateset 1 to unlock PHQ eitherway.


Is there any chance that Terran Reputation is involved? That of course doesn't fit in the code in above posts .. just a thought ...