[X3AP Bonus Plugin] Trade MK3 Blacklist Manager

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jlehtone
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[X3AP Bonus Plugin] Trade MK3 Blacklist Manager

Post by jlehtone » Thu, 15. Dec 11, 00:02

Trade MK3 Blacklist Manager

Version: 0.9
Scripter: SymTec ltd.
Thread for development version
Bonuspack index

Image

Overview

Blacklisting function for Trade Command Software MK3

Default MK3 Blacklisting

Mk3 traders are able to maintain a blacklist of sectors that they won't pick as destinations for any flights. With this blacklist, they also avoid having two or more ships fly to a station for the same deal (as only one ship ever makes that deal). All sectors and stations are only locked temporarily, and will unlock again after a few minutes.

Blacklist Manager

The Blacklist Manager is an plugin to the blacklisting system, that gives you the power to add your own sectors and stations to a permanent blacklist. Stations in the blacklist, and stations in blacklisted sectors, will not be picked as targets for trade runs.

Image

Usage

Opening the Manager
The manager can be started from every MK3-trader's ship command console. First open the command console and scroll down to Additional Ship Commands. Then, select 'Start MK3 Blacklist Manager'. The Manager offers the options to add sectors and stations to the list, remove them again, and to view the automatic blacklist that is managed by the MK3 trading software.

Adding sectors and stations
To add an item to the blacklist, select the corresponding menu entry and choose a sector/station from the map that opens then.

Removing sectors and stations After selecting Remove Item, you can choose the item to be removed from the current list. Note that you cannot remove items from the automatic list, as those entries are being managed internally by the vanilla MK3 software.

Automatic blacklist
You can only view, but not edit the automatic blacklist. If you select a station or sector from the menu, you get the chance to look at the sector map, to get an idea of where the sector/station is and if you can spot enemies nearby.

Donziboy2
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Post by Donziboy2 » Tue, 20. Dec 11, 17:25

Very nice!!! :thumb_up:

But um will this stop MK3 traders from flying into hostile sectors?
Like when they take shortcuts thru xenon space and die.....

Cycrow
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Post by Cycrow » Tue, 20. Dec 11, 17:44

it will only prevent sectors/stations from being used as thier destination.

aquatica
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Post by aquatica » Tue, 20. Dec 11, 18:38

I had a funny issue just now. My UT decided to fly to Omicron Lyrae, which is on my blacklist. Should the command remain as a special command or give any sort of message that it actually is OK? Automatic blacklist does work (at least it shows sectors in it). And no, it was not just flying through; it was headed to sell stuff in there!

Megalos
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Post by Megalos » Tue, 20. Dec 11, 20:18

Hey all.

Just downloaded the BP, and installed. Accessed the universal Blacklist manager, via the "other commands" menu, where I set the sectors I wish my UT's not to visit.

When I set it, there doesn't appear to be anything in the "other commands" slot on the UI (it's gone back to the default "none"), is this supposed to happen, as I'm not sure if it has been acknowleged? Is it now something that will go on behind the scenes, so I don't have to set it for all my UT's?


Thanks in advance

aquatica
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Post by aquatica » Tue, 20. Dec 11, 20:31

^
Apparently, yes. However I figured out several bad issues...

1) Ships seem to want to do these stupid "coffee break" stops at Trading Stations / Stock Exchanges on a blacklisted sector (??) and when its in enemy territory or warzone... well that doesn't really end up well :)

2) With the blacklist (note, WITHOUT it no problem?!) my ST's, CAG's and UT's all fail to use Jump beacons properly in certain areas; like in Terran space. I got couple factories up at Pluto, and when the guys want to go shopping in Saturn 2, they go by Asteroid belt. Not through Uranus, which happens to have Jump beacon :O but... in the case that they want to go to Saturn, they *sometimes* use the Beacon, sometimes fly (try to fly...) through Asteroid Belt and Jupiter.

Now, I understand it doesn't affect that from where it goes around, but I find it quite curious that just unblacklisting sectors change the behavior of the CAG's Jumpdrive usage?
Spoiler
Show
PS. Is there any way to stop the AI attacks on Warzones with higher rep? Marshal of Mars but still ATF Suspected AGI Programmer 82% and my AI-flown ships are always attacked in Warzones... And then I lose my rep because they defend and even manage to kill the attackers every now and then. Started as Humble merchant.

Moizo
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Post by Moizo » Wed, 21. Dec 11, 09:04

I believe it would be a welcome addition if this software made a player's traders not use that system at all, find a way around or see the destination as inaccesible and choose another, then a sector can be blacklisted, like heretics end and all the terran sectors (looking from argon's perspective) become inaccesible for traders with suicide tendencies...

Either way i think your software allready saved like all my current ships and replacement ships i didnt have to get because of it, so i thank you sir!

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X2-Illuminatus
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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Wed, 21. Dec 11, 12:42

aquatica wrote:My UT decided to fly to Omicron Lyrae, which is on my blacklist.
Does he have the fight command softwares Mk1 and Mk2 installed? I might be wrong but I think that the UT need that to fully make use of the blacklist.
Megalos wrote:When I set it, there doesn't appear to be anything in the "other commands" slot on the UI (it's gone back to the default "none"), is this supposed to happen, as I'm not sure if it has been acknowleged?
That should be normal.
aquatica wrote:With the blacklist (note, WITHOUT it no problem?!) my ST's, CAG's and UT's all fail to use Jump beacons properly in certain areas; like in Terran space.
This script shouldn't influence the CAG in any way. As the MK3 trader (including this blacklist manager) and the CAG are different scripts from different authors.
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aquatica
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Post by aquatica » Wed, 21. Dec 11, 12:54

X2-Illuminatus wrote:
aquatica wrote:My UT decided to fly to Omicron Lyrae, which is on my blacklist.
Does he have the fight command softwares Mk1 and Mk2 installed? I might be wrong but I think that the UT need that to fully make use of the blacklist.
Yes, my UT's always have practically everything except Freight/Mineral/Bioscanner and Ore collector installed (Legend's Home where I begin the journey, to Light of Heart's EQ and from there the nearest Teladi Equipment dock).
Megalos wrote:
X2-Illuminatus wrote:When I set it, there doesn't appear to be anything in the "other commands" slot on the UI (it's gone back to the default "none"), is this supposed to happen, as I'm not sure if it has been acknowleged?
That should be normal.
Thank you for the clarification! I thought this would be the case, as the Temporary Blacklist always showed up on all UT's, but I wanted to be sure :)
aquatica wrote:
X2-Illuminatus wrote:With the blacklist (note, WITHOUT it no problem?!) my ST's, CAG's and UT's all fail to use Jump beacons properly in certain areas; like in Terran space.
This script shouldn't influence the CAG in any way. As the MK3 trader (including this blacklist manager) and the CAG are different scripts from different authors.
Now THAT is an interesting thing, really. I know that it should not affect in any way - but it *seems* to affect the pathfinding some. I will try to make some hard tests to see if that is actually the case or is it just bad luck or something totally unrelated :)
Thanks for the quick reply! Love the script, though :)

modo77
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Post by modo77 » Wed, 21. Dec 11, 18:02

Doesn't seem to be working for me either, I've added all the war sectors to the list. And my UT's are jumping into those sectors.
They have fight command mk1 and 2 installed

aquatica
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Post by aquatica » Wed, 21. Dec 11, 18:40

Do take note that they can "fly through" the sectors, like from Asteroid Belt to Jupiter, since there's no actual gate. However as I stated before, my UT's _are_ taking "coffee breaks" at (especially) Trading Stations in Warzones - meaning that after a trade run they decide, for some odd reason, to dock at Warzone-trading station. Helps if you ban the trading stations manually, but it's annoying :) + it doesn't explain the odd pathfinding behavior I've observed, ofcourse I can't confirm it, since it seems to be somewhat random.

PS.
Isn't the panthfinding supposed to go through the Fastest/Shortest route? meaning if there IS a shorter route to a place, it will use that (i.e take Jump Beacon to Uranus and fly through the East gate and be where he wants to, rather than jumping to Asteroid Belt and moving through Asteroid Belt, Jupiter and Uranus? Because either CAG fails with Jump Beacons half the time or something... or it really is this that makes it fail? I don't know, really)

Moizo
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Post by Moizo » Tue, 27. Dec 11, 00:57

I also have a bunch of Ut's getting attacked in those red areas even though their on the blacklist, with fight 12.

They also all have JD's and are pretty much all lvl 25 so should be making full use of it, Omycron lyreacomes up alot, so i also blacklisted the nearby sectors that arent red, but they still go trough there.

A script that lets us set a homebase for the coffeebreaks/e-cell topoff for the MK3 UT's would be great, but i guess thats unrelated to this script.

I believe though they are all travelling trough, when they should be using their JD's that makes me wonder, but nonetheless i have only lost 1 UT in that area out of 25 thanks to your script.

It could be improved, but is allready very useful. Thanks!

EDIT: I just flew into Omycron lyrea and after a couple seconds one of my Universe Traders jumped in after me, trying to sell silicon wafers to a station In system, even though omycron and 4 systems in every direction is blacklisted...
Is it because i was in system or is there actually a Start MK3 blacklist option i havent found?

Neferdias
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Post by Neferdias » Thu, 29. Dec 11, 08:35

Someone looking at this? cause it's a problem for me to... I've left exploring the war sectors and terran space to last (I have them blacklisted anyways) and trying to explore them now for the achievement is not going so well... so far I've had 6 UT's try to jump into these sectors in the matter of about 10 minutes.

The black list is not working.

infy dev
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Post by infy dev » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 07:57

in my case, I think it was because they were trying to pick up energy cells not as cargo, but because they were low on jump fuel - I manually added the solar plants I could see and the problem seems to be fixed... for now.

it's also possible the add sector functionality just doesn't work but add station does.

Darkhan
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Post by Darkhan » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 16:53

Moizo wrote:I also have a bunch of Ut's getting attacked in those red areas even though their on the blacklist, with fight 12.

They also all have JD's and are pretty much all lvl 25 so should be making full use of it, Omycron lyreacomes up alot, so i also blacklisted the nearby sectors that arent red, but they still go trough there.

A script that lets us set a homebase for the coffeebreaks/e-cell topoff for the MK3 UT's would be great, but i guess thats unrelated to this script.

I believe though they are all travelling trough, when they should be using their JD's that makes me wonder, but nonetheless i have only lost 1 UT in that area out of 25 thanks to your script.

It could be improved, but is allready very useful. Thanks!

EDIT: I just flew into Omycron lyrea and after a couple seconds one of my Universe Traders jumped in after me, trying to sell silicon wafers to a station In system, even though omycron and 4 systems in every direction is blacklisted...
Is it because i was in system or is there actually a Start MK3 blacklist option i havent found?
Same happening to me, Fortunately I only lost 3 UT,s this way, but I get attack notifications (especially Omicron Lyrae) on a regular basis with them carrying cargo (No coffee break).

I'll try blacklist by station, maybe that will fix it.

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kylania
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Post by kylania » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 18:59

I've lost three UTs to the Warzones even though all those systems and EVERYTHING East of them is Blacklisted. What am I doing wrong?

infy dev
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Post by infy dev » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 19:08

well, looks like I spoke too soon - they are still trying to jump into Elysium of Light, even though I've blocked the solar station there.

there's no trading station at all in that sector (AFAIK), just the Goner temple - but watching the trader, he's jumping into that sector to buy meatsteak cahoonas, despite the sector being on the blacklist.

sector blacklisting doesn't seem to work at all.

infy dev
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Post by infy dev » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 19:19

infy dev wrote:but watching the trader, he's jumping into that sector to buy meatsteak cahoonas, despite the sector being on the blacklist.
nope, he's STILL jumping in to go to that solar station I've blacklisted.

it'd be nice if you could restrict the UTs to sectors you have a satellite in (as with CAGs), and also (unrelated) if it didn't occasionally reset the emergency jump parameters.

I guess it's STs with a jump range of 10 all round. that's almost as good as a UT, right?

right?

Neferdias
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Post by Neferdias » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 19:19

I'm not sure the script works at all... I've painstakingly gone through and black listed all sectors AND the stations in those sectors... and my stupid MK3's (all lvl 25) still try to trade in those stations...

infy dev
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Post by infy dev » Wed, 4. Jan 12, 19:21

Neferdias wrote:I'm not sure the script works at all... I've painstakingly gone through and black listed all sectors AND the stations in those sectors... and my stupid MK3's (all lvl 25) still try to trade in those stations...
as far as I can tell, it's the auto-refuelling (and possibly auto-rearming with drones, etc). presumably if I had multi-sector STs nearby, and they had no better source of energy cells, they'd be doing the same thing.

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