[GAMESTART] Pirate Starts now AP compatible (V1.30 - 04/01/2012)

[TEKing66]

Ever wanted to be a pirate? Well become one and pillage to your hearts desire with these game starts.

"Your pirate clan destroyed and you only barely escaping with your ship and you life. It's now time for payback. Lead a life of piracy and make the universe yours by what ever means necessary."

Description
This Mod adds four game starts for playing a pirate.

Two if the starts are regular pirate starts.
The other two starts are Yaki pirate starts.
And you are allies with the Pirate and the Yaki.
All other races attitudes towards you vary depending on the game start you select.
Starting ships, equipment and credits all vary depending on the start selected.
Each start places you in a different sector, the captain starts have a few sectors already known.


Plots are enabled in these starts, though it may not be easy to get them, it is possible.

Notes
These game starts were created with Serial Kicked's "Pirate Guild" and "Yaki Armada" scripts in mind. And it seems fitting to install those when playing one of these starts, as they will add more depth to this type of game play.
Not to mention that without them, these might just be a near impossible starts to play.

Pirate Guild - By Serial Kicked

Yaki Armada - By Serial Kicked


* This mod is free to be reused in your scripts/mods as long as you say thank you in your topic.

Installation

SPK Version
Use Cycrow's X-Universe Plugin Manager Lite to install. The files will be placed in the X3 -TC folder as a "Fake Patch".

ZIP Version
Just extract the PirateStarts.dat and .cat to your X3-TC "mods" folder. They may also be used as a fake patch by changing the CAT and DAT file names to the next higher number in your X3-TC folder. (Example; if X3TC folder has 12.cat and 12.dat as highest numder, then rename the PriateProwlerStart.cat and .dat to 13.cat & 13.dat and place them in the same folder)

File Download Links

Thanks go out to CraterFace for making AP versions available.
Albion Prelude Compatible Versions
Pirate Starts fo AP based on V1.3 ZIP Version

X3TC Versions

Version 1.3
Pirate Starts V1.3

Files Modified / ID's Used
gamestarts.xml & starts.xml

Gamestart ID's used are; 226, 227, 228 & 229

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Changes
Version 1.30
1) All four starts now start you out as neutral to everyone, you are not liked nor disliked.

Version 1.20
1) Replaced variables for engine and rudder tunings with their Max amount. (variables were not actually setting to max.)

Version 1.10
1) Tweaked the "Pirate Prowler" start.

2) Added the "Pirate Captain" Start.

3) Added the "Yaki Grunt" start.

4) Added the "Yaki Captain" start.

Version 1.00
1) Initial Release.

[TEKing66]

***RESERVED***

[Serial Kicked]

Thanks for this release

Would work great with my scripts, as a good pirate start is definitively lacking in TC (since the bankrupt assassin has annoying bounty hunters who are ruining the pirate reputation and are often mistakenly assumed as "my" bounty hunters).

[TEKing66]

Maybe the inclusion of a good Yaki start should be the next addition to this.
Start off as a lowly Yaki fighter pilot, then people could work their way up to a Yaki M1 captain.

Might be worth looking into. Matter of fact, I may just do that.

[Ragemaster9999]

hey I got sick of my old savegame crashing due to military base stuff soooo I started a new one using this. Thanks, Ill let you know how it goes! Yay finally I can be a real pirate.

[X3Gimp]

Sounds really cool.

I like the name. Hah.

[Ragemaster9999]

So far so good on this... been playing it for the last several hours, have gotten about 500 k credits, a caravel and some misc captured fighters, just erected my first station a dream farm m with the help of a teldai TL i found sitting around. I got my teladi recogniziton to real high, by killing endless amounts of khaak scouts during escort missions...

Quick question though, is there any place that sells jumpdrive and related special command software type stuff that you can get being a pirate?

Correct me if I am wrong, but jumpdrive is only argon/boron? Am i SOL or is there a workaround either ingame or can i add jumpdrive wares to pirate bases somehow? Perhaps through a warefile list?

Gonna be hard to build a empire of CAG traders without a jd...

[TEKing66]

As I mentioned in the OP, this start was setup with "Pirate Guild" in mind.
Serial Kicked has put jumpdrives & other stuff for sale in the Pirate bases in his script.

I really would recommend it, as it has a lot to offer for this style of game play. I us it and his "Yaki Armada" scripts. As well as his "ADS" script, which helps the pirates to protect there bases better. If you don't have those, I highly recommend you check them out.

On the rare occasion you might find a jumpdrive on a captured ship, or course other equipment can be had by that means as well.

Happy Pirating!

[TEKing66]

Version 1.10 has been released.

Enjoy the new starts, the Captain starts may be of particular interest.
Starting equipment and property is pretty decent with those.

[Ant@Res]

I have a trouble. It's not the first mod I install so I don't even know what to think...
I put .cat and .dat files in X3TC folder, renamed those files to the highest number, but I don't have new starts
I also tried to install it with .spk file and Plugin Manager but it's also not working...
HELP! Please!

[TEKing66]

Just out of curiosity, do you have folder called "director" in your X3TC folder?
And does it contain a "start.xml" file?

If so that will override the one in the mod.

If you delete or rename that file it should work.

Edit: you should also check for this file;
"\X3 Terran Conflict\L\true\gamestarts.xml"
Either or both files could keep the mod from loading.

If your trying to use two different game start mods then problems will arise.
The reason being the fact that all game starts have to edit those two files.
X3TC will use files that are in the folder structure before loading the files from the .cat and .dat files.

[Ant@Res]

Thank you very much! This problem was because of another start: M6 Normandy Start. Now it's fine.

[Varek Raith]

I found a bug that affects all ships in the new starts.

Code: Select all

<ware typename="SS_WARE_TECH251" exact="{player.ship.equipment.SS_WARE_TECH246.maxcount}" />

Edit;
I also noticed that using the "maxcount" code for engine and rudder tunings on the M3s and M4s you get as a Yaki and Pirate captain don't work. I had to specify the exact number of tunings for it to work.
Example, the engine tuning on the Eclipse you get as a pirate captain;
Does not provide max speed, why, I don't know...

Code: Select all

<ware typename="SS_WARE_TECH213" exact="{player.ship.equipment.SS_WARE_TECH213.maxcount}" />

The following below does work,

Code: Select all

<ware typename="SS_WARE_TECH213" exact="18" />

The 18 being the max tunings you can buy.

Oddly, the maxcount code for cargo does work...

[TEKing66]

@Varek Raith,

I find it odd as well, the fact that it works for the cargo but not for the tunings. But then, I'm finding a few things that act a little odd in MD.
Oh well, thanks for the heads up. I'll make changes to hard code the values instead of using the variables. That will be an easy fix. Should be able to get to it in the morning and have the update ready tomorrow.

[TEKing66]

Version 1.20 is available.

Changes are listed in the OP.

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

Something seems to be wrong with the alliance settings. In all the pirate starts, pirates are unfriendly toward me and attack on sight. I also can not dock at any Pirate base.

[TEKing66]

I'll take another look through it, ranks should be pretty high with the pirates.
But, no matter how high some pirates will always be aggressive towards you.
Think competing pirate clans.

I'll look at tweaking a few of the race friend foe settings. A few others have mentioned that they consider quite hard. Personally, I like hard starts. But, others seem to like an easier start. Any who, like I say I'll take a look at them and make a few adjustments sometime in the next few days.

[Mad_CatMk2]

@TheCoolSideofthePillow

Try using Pirate Guild and/or Yaki Armada, might help. There should be a setting in one of the menus to set pirates friendly to you (and I think it works).

@TEKing66

Do sector police/military always turn red if I attack OTHER races ships in their sectors? I.e. I started as pirate prowler, attacked some transports in Ceo's Doubt (but friendly to Teladi) and some Ospreys turned red towards me. Is this normal behavior?

[TEKing66]

In the current game starts this could happen. Rep with all races is pretty low at the start. So attacking someone that the teladie (or any race) is friendly with could make them turn hostile.

I am working on a revision that will make the starts a little easier, yet still true to the style of play. Mainlym by tinkering with the stats. Currently I am very busy with other work and sadly have not been able to devote much time to this or my missions add on I 'm working on. My hope is to have my changes to this project done in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned.

Oh, and any suggestions or ideas would be cool.

[Mad_CatMk2]

In the current game starts this could happen. Rep with all races is pretty low at the start. So attacking someone that the teladie (or any race) is friendly with could make them turn hostile.

I am working on a revision that will make the starts a little easier, yet still true to the style of play. Mainlym by tinkering with the stats. Currently I am very busy with other work and sadly have not been able to devote much time to this or my missions add on I 'm working on. My hope is to have my changes to this project done in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned.

Oh, and any suggestions or ideas would be cool.

Ah, well I use IR (hot war enabled) and made sure Teladi's were neutral to the other four main races...but maybe it'll take some time to settle.

I speak for myself (and maybe others with 10-20+ scripts to initialize):
In the pirate prowler start, when all the setup scripts have ran and my ship is outfitted, there is always this one FRIENDLY pirates medium owp shooting missiles at me even though I'm friendly (thank god they're wasps...). However, once I dock at the nearest station and wait a little its fine. I do understand that the sheer amount of startup scripts could cause this tiny friend/foe recognition weirdness?

Otherwise, I am enjoying my life of piracy!