Quantico Special Marine Base [Script][TC][AP]

[DrBullwinkle]

I asked why there were not more community-developed projects, in the spirit of open-source development? LV immediately volunteered this script. He also volunteered me to be the current maintainer (and you know how he is, with that Sith Lord grip thing, so my only choice was to comply).

So, without further ado, here is:

Quantico Special Marine Base
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[ external image ]
Download Quantico Special Marine Base


Features

• It's a Marine Base. You can hire Marines here. No training; just hiring.
  Highly trained Marines.
  Some Marines have SEAL-level fight training (100 fight skill)
  Extra cost for highly-trained Marines (100 skill costs 3x normal)
  Located in randomly-chosen pirate sector (toggle the Artificial Life plugin to change sector).
  Custom sales menu because vanilla system does not allow us to change price of trained Marines.

History

• v1.02
  - Added German language file (thanks, Paddyy!)
  
  v1.01
  - Added French language file (thanks, mystermask!)
  
  v1.00 = Initial Release, LV
  Current Maintainer = Bullwinkle

Community-Developed
Means that you are free to download and use as you see fit. If you make an enhancement that would be useful by others, then post it or send it to me for consideration in the main fork. In case of multiple simultaneous contributions, I will attempt to merge as appropriate. So please comment your code and use meaningful variable names.

Contributors will get credit for their work, of course.

This is an experiment in Community Development. I do not know whether it has been tried in the past, but it seemed to make sense at the time.

Suggestions and test reports are welcome, in addition to contributions to the code.

[DrBullwinkle]

*Reserved*

[DrBullwinkle]

**Reserved**

[joshyp00]

can this be used in AP?

[DrBullwinkle]

can this be used in AP?

Whenever anyone feels a need to ask that question, the obvious answer is:

Try it and let the rest of us know your results.

Also, most TC scripts work in AP, so why do people keep asking?
(Mods may or may not.)


Bottom Line: Yes.

[Nividium]

Why does it cost 3 times normal cost for marines of 100 skill? It would seem that part of the reason for using this script would be to save time vs waiting days for regular training. Taking days to train marines is a game design flaw and this script fixes that flaw. So why have the player be penalized for using the script by charging 3 times the normal price?

[DrBullwinkle]

Taking days to train marines is a game design flaw

Ha! I wonder if the developers would agree? After all, they have had plenty of opportunity to fix it.

My thought on many of the game's design choices is that they work OK at one stage of a game, but not at another. Marine training is OK, IMHO, later in the game, when the player has unlimited credits and can afford to have a hundred marines in training. The long training time makes Marines the most precious thing in the game -- much more effectively than any pricing could. I am pretty sure that is intentional.

However, the long training time *is* a problem early in the game. At that time, credits are also an issue. Fortunately, the player does not need highly trained marines early in the game. For normal boarding operations, 2-star marines suffice. Sometimes even no-star marines can do the job.

Only Xenon, Terran, and ATF boarding ops require the highly trained marines. (Or targets with internal defenses and/or their own marine squads).

Overall, I think that highly trained marines *should* cost a bit more than typical marines. However, at current pricing, some of these marines can cost over ten million credits, and that may be a bit steep.

Would 2x be better? 1.5x? 1.25x?

I'm open on the subject, and I know that it was LV's biggest unanswered question. So what pricing would you choose?

EDIT: Oh, and there is a workaround. If you are low on credits, then consider hiring not-quite-fully-trained marines. They are cheaper. For example, I sometimes hire marines from the special base with about 90% fight skill. I then complete their training at a normal military base.

The result is a 5-star but not-quite-4x100 marine, at reasonable cost.

I think of them as "Force Recon" rather than the 4x100 "SEALs", although I am not sure whether those titles have international appeal.

[Aegyen]

I notice that you say this spawns in random pirate sectors, in my universe those are pretty dangerous places. Will it respawn upon destruction, in a new sector?

The Tortuga's are not well-known for their hospitality to outside military forces...

[DrBullwinkle]

]Will it respawn upon destruction, in a new sector?

Yes.

[dougeye]

Why does it cost 3 times normal cost for marines of 100 skill? It would seem that part of the reason for using this script would be to save time vs waiting days for regular training. Taking days to train marines is a game design flaw and this script fixes that flaw. So why have the player be penalized for using the script by charging 3 times the normal price?

because your paying for the extra experience. its like hiring someone for a job in realy life, do you hire the newcomer on a basic salary who is half as effective as the old pro who works twice as fast but on double the salary?

Your now given the choice, pay for experience or wait for them to gain experience.

I mean 3 times the usual cost of a marine is only around 500000 mabye?

[DrBullwinkle]

3 times the usual cost of a marine is only around 500,000 maybe?

Actually, it can be over 10,000,000 for marines trained to 100 in more than one skill. Which is a bit steep, I agree.

But the 3x multiplier is applied only to marines trained to 100. Marines trained to 99 have a greatly reduced multiplier.

Nividium is an experienced player/scripter, and I take his input seriously, although he never answered my question about what he would prefer for pricing behavior.

I have been experimenting with the pricing and will probably adjust it. Eventually.

There is an easy exploit (at least in my game) -- send a ship (not your own ship) to the Special Marine Base. When the "Buy" menu pops up, press escape (Esc). If the ship remains docked, then you should be able to buy marines using the vanilla trade interface (which does not adjust marine prices).

Because the exploit is so easy to find, I have not rushed to update the pricing module. If the exploit does not work for someone, then I may expedite an update.

[Vayde]

An avg 4 star fighting marine bought from any of the known races costs about 320k to 350k. Admittedly they are hard to find without sats in sector and constant checking. Training that marine up in all other skills to 4 stars will cost anywhere between 3-5 mil and take a lot of game days to do. Which for me, a gentle and peaceful trader, is not an issue

This set of scripts however can dramatically reduce that time and allow the not so peaceful trader to enjoy the game at their own pace but at a much higher cost. Once you are capping those elusive ships with all that nice cargo on board the costs of hiring the marines will be refunded.

On a side note:
Has anyone tried and been successful in getting a TP assigned to a trading station or EQ dock, to go and buy the best marines it can for any price?

[DrBullwinkle]

for me, a gentle and peaceful trader...

Yeah... when I see a "gentle and peaceful merchant ship" approaching that is painted entirely black, with 20 five-star marines in his hold, and the name "Black Pearl" painted on the side, I run.

Very, very, fast.

On a side note:
Has anyone tried and been successful in getting a TP assigned to a trading station or EQ dock, to go and buy the best marines it can for any price?

I don't think that traders can detect whether one good is "better" than another. Unless you meant writing a script to do that. Which would be cool!

[Vayde]

You guessed correctly Dr B I was planting a seed and I hope it will grow

[X2-Illuminatus]

But the 3x multiplier is applied only to marines trained to 100. Marines trained to 99 have a greatly reduced multiplier.

If it's just a factor that the normal price is multiplied with then you could make it changeable, for example by reading it from the text file. That way everyone can decide on his own, what the best factor is.

[DrBullwinkle]

If it's just a factor that the normal price is multiplied with then you could make it changeable, for example by reading it from the text file. That way everyone can decide on his own, what the best factor is.

Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind.

The script that does the pricing is a bit more complex, but the factors or range limits could be read from a t file.

Or I might just remove the pricing thing completely. To my eye, the vanilla interface is prettier. I'm torn on that point; I think that the pricing should be increased somewhat, but I really like the vanilla interface. There is no way to have both, unfortunately.

The current exploit is a compromise. Which is part of the reason that I have not rushed to fix it.

[DrBullwinkle]

French Language Update

Quantico Special Marine Base

v1.01
- Includes French language (t) file from mystermask. Thanks!

[Damian Swift]

How do I add this to my game?

I try to download it and get a list of files...

Where do I put the files? (I am used to using plug-in manager)

all advice apreciated

[X2-Illuminatus]

I try to download it and get a list of files...

That's the list of files included in the zip-file. By clicking on the menu option "File" at the top of the site and then on "Download", you can download the whole .zip-file. You can extract/install that archive then like any other archive with the Plugin Manager.

[Damian Swift]

Ahh sorted Thanks