Importing TC plots into AP (its like a patch for TC!)

[joelR]

EDIT: As of this edit, two modders (dillpickle, SyncViews) are working on different versions of this concept. "Progress Reports" as well as a working alpha can be found beginning on page 7.



EDIT 2: Black147 has made tremendous progress at importing the TC plots into AP. Please check out his WIP here :

TCAP Terran Conflict plots for AP

[expnobody]

i am thinking just delete everything that's plot related in AP (MD files), make it a fake patch, and put it in TC..

or drop plot related TC MD files into AP..

[Jack08]

Im pritty sure the changes your thinking of are within the KC code, atempting to run the KC files from AP within the X3TC exe will not end well due to the changes that were made to the TFiles, the game wont understand how to load them, you would break OOS combat and thats just the begining

[expnobody]

ok, then what about importing TC plots?

[nielsw]

These are my 3 wishes for X3AP:


1) It would be nice to be able to eliminate the incessant war announcer in AP after a while, it gets annoying and detrimental to regular game play.

2) Some might also like to eliminate the static infinite war spawns, which would practically turn AP into an upgraded, fixed version of TC.

3) Importing the quest lines from TC would also be great.



I don't think any of these 3 can be too hard to do, it might even be possible to do the first two just by deleting/replacing some files: would be nice to find any info on this.


I bet people are already working on importing the TC quest lines, but I'm not sure you can just copy them over straight. I did notice trying to install one of Cycrow's ship files from his site messes up at least all the Terran ships, turning them into Argon units and sometimes partially rendered split looking fragments. After uninstalling, some cockpit artifacts remained... so we know, a lot of internal references got swapped around...

[Jack08]

if you want to shut down the "war" completly, just open up the x3_universe_war.xml and delete its entire contents then place it in the /addon/maps folder - (Not sure but this my also break the AP campaign)

you could attempt to extract all the TC director files and place them in cat03 under the following folder WITHIN the cat:

/addon/director (not use /director when adding it to the cat)

Then extract all the AP campaign director file and wipe it just like the the above universe file and also place it into the /addon/director folder in cat3

[Cycrow]

the TC plots wont work without some adjustments.

as some of them require certain objects/sectors to work which might not exist in AP

[Alex Corvis]

Can certain files in AP be used to "patch" TC? I know there are some obvious incompatibilities between the two, namely the plot from AP. It just seems like a terrible waste having all those really great changes in AP that TC sorely needed be for AP only. I cant imagine I am the only one who feels this way. Am I way off base in thinking this? This clearly wouldn't be for public use, but personal, for obvious reasons.

Speaking of a simple Ship/Station mod it surely is possible. I did that for my own though I had troubles importing the drone carriers as normal carriers (fighters can land but won't undock again; same when player piloting the ship ) But that problem I already had with some other XTC ships ( damned special drone docking scenes ). For experienced modders that might be no problem.
Advantage of a mod like that: while modified anyway you can fix all that strange configurations (M6 with just one single rear weapon? Valhalla Freighter? Drone Frighter )


Importing the new map should be no problem, too. Thoug you might not have spoken ship/sector names.

On the other hand I'm not sure whether Egosoft might allow publishing such a mod.

[Jack08]

Ignore this post, read CBJ's post on the next page - this post is incorrect and didnt actually mean what i ment it to.

as i understand it, egosoft dont care what you publish so long as the boostrap(the exe) is not included.

so long as the exe is not included in the mod you could practically redistribute the entire games data files, and not have a problem because the only people that can use it already own (or should own...) the game.

A AP mod for TC would never function due to the major canges to no only the script and md engines, but also the TFiles... i think ive already said this however, so you cant really get in trouble as even with redistributed files, the person downloading would still require x3ap.exe

[SyncViews]

Taking AP to TC wont work fully and makes little sense (what exactly does it gain?). The interesting concept and somthing I'm already looking at to do for my next game, is to take TC and put that in AP (i.e. TC map, plots and gamestarts) since that way my next TC game will have access to the AP improvements.

[TTD]

Taking AP to TC wont work fully and makes little sense (what exactly does it gain?). The interesting concept and somthing I'm already looking at to do for my next game, is to take TC and put that in AP (i.e. TC map, plots and gamestarts) since that way my next TC game will have access to the AP improvements.

This something I am interested in.

Would be nice to play AP with the TC plots ,and then a trigger for the AP plots when TC plots are completed.

Are there map incompatibilities ?
I know there are some extra sectors,and that Averice is back and owned by Teladi.
I do not know if any sectors are missing etc.

[SyncViews]

Well I got all the files I need to make it run as TC I think, will take a proper look at it later. AP changed some generic missions and stuff, need to see what Egosoft was doing there, and if I can use the new versions or not.

Getting the AP plots to follow on from the TC stuff is a possibility, but would need someone that knows more director stuff than me to fill in the blanks. I guess for example the whole colonisation of albion could be made with some reason why the Albion Alpha gate was never found, then the construction of the accelerators, and then the moving of the gate to Gamma. Would need a custom (slightly edited from the AP one) map as well I suppose...

[paulwheeler]

The mission director can certainly add all the new sectors to the old TC map in the middle of a game. Renaming sectors can be done too I think.

What it can't do (at least I don't think it can) is remove the TC sectors that are not in the AP map (family zyarth for example). Whether this would cause any issues with the AP plot, i don't know. I doubt it. You could remove the linked gates via the md, but the sector would still exist and jobs would still spawn there.

[Jack08]

Taking AP to TC wont work fully and makes little sense (what exactly does it gain?). The interesting concept and somthing I'm already looking at to do for my next game, is to take TC and put that in AP (i.e. TC map, plots and gamestarts) since that way my next TC game will have access to the AP improvements.

We have already completed that for X-Timelines, TC is compleatly compatable with AP - but there a few hoops you need to jump through

First is understanding the issues x3ap.exe has with loading some loose files:
/addon/dds
/addon/objects
these two folders will not be seen by x3ap if they are loose and not in cat/dats, when placing them into a cat/dat you need to remove the /addon/ from the path so that its just dds/ and objects/

However:
/addon/types
/addon/t
/addon/cutsenes
/addon/director
/addon/maps

the above list MUST remain in the /addon/ folder when in cat dat, but the game will read them from /addon/types(ect) loose directory too (dont place them in /addon/addon/types )

Its the MD files that give the most trouble, so far its been dificult to get them to function intially - but i cant provide any more information on this because we've compleatly disabled the MD for X-Timelines

You also have the option of turning off AP's war function if you desire by extracting "x3_universe_war.xml" and deleteing its contents (thanks to Cycrow for that bit of info )

Dont worry about the updates to the Jobs, TBullets and TCockpits files, the game was programed to allow older versions of these files to function, the game should still function fine without updating there structure - i did send a PM to doubleshaodw about the new structures but he doesnt seem to be around at the moment. Im going to take a look at making an AP TFile & Jobs editor plugin for X3E2 later on, Ive been holding off on that because C# isnt one of my strongest languages.

[joelR]

Thanks for the progress update Jack08.

[EmperorJon]

Are there map incompatibilities ?
I know there are some extra sectors,and that Averice is back and owned by Teladi.
I do not know if any sectors are missing etc.

There are at least 2 missing, one being plot related, and a good 2 changed which are plot related.

Porting the plots over won't make much sense. Time is meant to have passed.

[joelR]

Are there map incompatibilities ?
I know there are some extra sectors,and that Averice is back and owned by Teladi.
I do not know if any sectors are missing etc.

There are at least 2 missing, one being plot related, and a good 2 changed which are plot related.

Porting the plots over won't make much sense. Time is meant to have passed.

You mean it wont make sense from a lore standpoint. This thread is a discussion about using AP as a patch for TC. Not importing TC into the AP universe (as far as lore is concerned).

[Cycrow]

dds and objects are read from TC, not from addon.

so all the addon cat files should be in the format as if the files were in the TC Directory, but they are loaded after all the TC ones are

[CBJ]

so long as the exe is not included in the mod you could practically redistribute the entire games data files, and not have a problem because the only people that can use it already own (or should own...) the game.

Sorry, but I need to point out that this is not correct. Permission has not been granted to distribute any game files, and specifically people do not have permission to distribute files originating from X3AP for use in X3TC.

Modifications to X3TC files for use in X3TC are allowed, as are modifications to X3AP files for use in X3AP. If someone wants to take things such as plot missions from X3TC and use them in X3AP then that is also acceptable since owners of X3AP must also own X3TC. Aside from the technical limitations, with required features in the EXE and OBJ files for X3AP that are not available in X3TC, permission is not granted to "back port" features from X3AP into X3TC.

[joelR]

Thanks CBJ. I know you are responding to Jack08 but I just want to be clear that the idea is about "patching" TC by importing the Plots. Its not a true patch obviously but it is effectively the same thing.

I didnt do a very good job explaining that in my posts.