[Script/software] AP - Overtuning ships, the way of UFJD. Vanilla-friendly toolkit

[kurush]

As some people here might already know, we now have engine and rudder tunings in UFJD sectors. It is apparently expected that we map UFJD sectors in 200 km radius and cover them with advanced satellites to get those lucky finds. In practice it is not that exciting

I realized that I need to automate the process after jumping to about 20 UFJD sectors manually in search for tuning crates.

Two scripts are included:

1. A modified version of EJ's script that searches for containers. This version searches ONLY for tunings and also in the current sector ONLY. If it finds something, it opens a text input box to block any further input. You need to type "exit" in this input box or it will re-open. This is to block actions from the second script. It also jumps your ship far away from the sector center to avoid death by Xenons (death will close the input box). The script is named aaaaa.findwares.conditional and should appear as the first script in the list for script editor.
   
2. A script for Authotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com/) . This scripts repeatedly jumps you to UFJD sector and back. Once in UFJD, it saves, activates the script editor, runs the first script and then reloads. If the first script is blocking the input, it won't be able to reload and the action will stop with a save available in UFJD sector with a tuning container.
   

What you will need:

• Autohotkey installed
  
• A lot of salvage insurance (1000+)
  
• A lot of EC (1500 should be sufficient to get at least one hit even if you are very unlucky)
  
• UFJD mapped to the right windows key (or some other key, but then autohotkey script will need to be changed)
  
• A ship to overtune
  
• Advanced Satellite
  
• A moderately fast computer that can load a save game in less than 30-35 seconds.
  

Download URL: http://tiny.cc/tunings

Installation.

1. Copy aaaaa.findwares.conditional.xml to addon/scripts subfolder of X3 installation
   
2. Install and start autohotkey
   
3. Right-click on autohotkey icon in the system tray and select "Edit this script". Notepad will open, replace what you see in it with the the contents of Autohotkey.ahk and save (you can also just copy this file into your windows Documents folder).
   
4. Right-click on autohotkey in system tray and select "Reload this script"
   
5. MAKE A BACKUP OF ALL YOUR SAVES
   
6. Note that the script will repeatedly overwrite the 1-st save on the list.
   
7. Start X3AP, activate the script editor, make sure aaaaa.findwares.conditional.xml is the first script on the list. If not, either rename it with more aaaaa or change the autohotkey script (look for the comments there).
   

Running

1. Reload a game that is not modified.
   
2. Make sure CAPS LOCK is OFF. The autohotkey script uses CAPS LOCK as a toggle to switch itself off.
   
3. Make sure UFJD is mapped to the right windows key (normally, the one right of the right Alt). You can change the key in autohotkey script as well.
   
4. Jump into a relatively empty sector that doesn't produce a lot of lag upon entry
   
5. press Alt N. You should see SETA being activated after short period of time.
   
6. After this DO NOT TOUCH THE KEYBOARD. You cannot minimize the game. If you want to stop the script, turn on CAPS LOCK. Once you activate it, the script will stop running after some time.
   
7. Once you see a popup box on the screen saying 1 Engine Tuning or 1 Rudder Optimization in the title, congratulations, you found a crate. Stop the script by activating CAPS LOCK (wait a bit for it to actually stop) and then type "exit" to close the input box. The script will print the coordinates of the tunings container. Write them down or remember them.
   
8. Reload the game from the 1-st slot and order your ship to go to the coordinates you recorded. Engine Tuning will become visible once you get close, for rudder optimizations you will need to drop an advanced satellite before you can see them.
   
9. Once you collected your crate, jump away manually and save your game to a slot other than the first. It is a good idea to check that your game is still not modified in case something went wrong.
   
10. Repeat as needed
    

[sadron]

I gotta bookmark this so I remember when I try to use it. Thanks for making this topic.

[Lord0bsidian]

nice macro, but i think it can run more efficiently if you make it load from a different save state. for example, before you start the macro, make a save in slot 10 (assuming you have no autosaves) then instead of loading from the top load from the bottom with input (pgdn). then you can cut out the entire part after the load where you jump back into the known sectors. plus this way you don't need a million energy or insurance and you don't waste game time jumping in and out while the rest of your ships start idling or run into enemies.




for anyone who can't figure out what to change, this is what the end of the edited macro looks like starting from after it runs the script, so basically everything from the shift L to the bottom

[kurush]

[sadron]

I think I did it wrong, I can't get it to work...

[kurush]

[Lord0bsidian]

first tell us what you did. make sure the button presses in the macro matches your in game hotkey setup. then if you feel up to it sit through one cycle and try to see where it's messing up. if you did the setup right, chances are your computer is taking longer to save or jump than the macro allows for so you'll have to change the times. the times in the macro are in milliseconds.

[sadron]

I think the script for autokey isn't being run when I run the ingame script. Plus I don't have whatever is needed for the Alt-N hotkey combo.

[kurush]

[sadron]

Sorry I should have clarified, I DO have Autokey downloaded. I'm just saying it didn't catch, so as far as I know the script wasn't running.

[kurush]

[Lord0bsidian]

[kurush]

[sadron]

I did try all this, I might have just missed something. I'll go over the steps and see if I can get it running again sometime soon.

[Gaidin]

I ran this script for quite a while and nothing showed up. After each run, "NOTHING IS FOUND" message is shown even though i can see Energy cells in sector map. Is this script supposed to list everything in sector but only show a popup if an engine tuning/rudder optimization is found, or list only the engine tuning/rudder optimizations but nothing else?

*edit* ok it works fine, seems i was on a unlucky roll, after 4 hours it gave me 1 engine tuning