[MOD] Realistic Highways (v1.1 - Nov 19, 2013)

[Nifter]

I made a mod to remove some of the mini-game mechanics and unrealistic effect of the highways. Although at this point, maybe I should call it Better Highways instead of Realistic Highways? Anyway you look at it it's not realistic to have a highway in space.


Description
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I split the mod into multiple modules:

1. Remove the speed boosting/drafting gameplay effect.
Gets rid of the mini-game effect of magnetically flying behind ships. Ships now just fly through each other at their regular speed.

2. Remove fake traffic.
Gets rid of the fake ships that appear out of nowhere and disappear at the end of the highway. The real ships (ie. those with a border) will still be seen entering, flying, and leaving the highway.

3. Double your ship's engine boost speed within highways.
Used to compensate for the increased travel time for the extra impatient!

I have made the ship's engine booster unlimited in highways in order to compensate for the reduced speed without the extra traffic or drafting mechanic.


Change Log
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Version 1.1 [November 19, 2013]
- added unlimited ship engine boost in highways
- added double boost speed mod option

Version 1.0 [November 18, 2013]
- initial release


Download
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[ external image ]

I have provided 6 different mod folders. Read carefully and pick the one you want and copy into your "X Rebirth/extensions" folder.

[Hornet108]

Fantastic. The more un-arcadey we can make this game the better. Let's get it back to being a real X game, not some dumbed-down-for-console bull asap.

[MutantDwarf]

Fantastic. The more un-arcadey we can make this game the better. Let's get it back to being a real X game, not some dumbed-down-for-console bull asap.

This mod has nothing to do with arcadey or dumbed-down-for-console stuff, so I'm not sure what this post has to do with this thread.

Anyways, good work. Did you increase the highway speed to compensate for removing the minigame? If so, how does it compare? Is it 'always max speed', 'always half speed', or what?

The way I'd really prefer it is 'you go half speed normally but can boost to max speed, but if you're behind a ship you slow down to match their speed but do not speed up to match it'. That way you don't go sailing through other ships as if they aren't there.

[TheShadowofSins]

Instead of compensating the speed !
Make the boost faster and last longer in the highway, because actually it is not really useful to boost inside a highway, when it last only 2 seconds.

I don't want to see another mod with hyper fast highways and no control on your speed that make you miss your exit. I really appreciate sometimes to take my time and look at the surroundings.

[n!ghtshade]

The highway becomes more opaque where another ship is flying through. Would it be possible to keep that effect and the speed boost without the fake ship and say that it's just an inherent property of the highway system that some lanes are sped up due to some technical reason? That way you still have the mini game providing an optional speed bonus without having to crawl up some ghost ships exhaust pipe.

[Pharoah]

Instead of compensating the speed !
Make the boost faster and last longer in the highway, because actually it is not really useful to boost inside a highway, when it last only 2 seconds.

I don't want to see another mod with hyper fast highways and no control on your speed that make you miss your exit. I really appreciate sometimes to take my time and look at the surroundings.

How about 100% speed during empty space portions of highway, and 25% near exiting portions of highway, assuming that's even possible.

[Bell230]

How about 100% speed during empty space portions of highway, and 25% near exiting portions of highway, assuming that's even possible.

I personally prefer some kind of speed control so you can decide yourself. Combined with an automatic deceleration next to highway exits. For example:
- speed set to 0 -> min. highway speed (not "hiding" behind any ship)
- speed set to 100 (+Booster) -> max. highway speed

At the moment this might be hard to implement but this kind of speed control inside highways would be awesome

[Demongornot]

Great mods but i will not use it yet cause their is nothing for compensating the missing traffic attraction...

Like other say i also expect boost to be use way more longer and give us way more speed, something like 10 seconds for reach the max speed but booster can stand 25 seconds on minimum shield and 5 seconds for loose our gained speed for example...
It mean able to reach high speed (the maximum) but accelerate slower enough to avoid to accelerate too much, booster able to lets us keep the max/same speed for at least 15 seconds and decelerate not too fast for avoid to always between booster burst to need to back from minimum speed but also not too long cause if we reduce boost its most of the time for leave and we can't stand 10 seconds deceleration !

Also no "ejection" when leaving it, leaving it with slower speed and maybe add a small acceleration for NPC ship that leave it, their will not be any bad looking slow traffic at the end of the highway and we will exit at the same speed than them, it mean really see them and get realistic effect !
And it will be perfect !

[Libertine]

nice one...gonna give it a try tonight...the minigame really annoyed me

[Katorone]

I don't want to see another mod with hyper fast highways and no control on your speed that make you miss your exit. I really appreciate sometimes to take my time and look at the surroundings.

Agreed! Personally I'm holding out for a mod that adds a cruise drive to the Skunk that has a warm-up time (so it can't be abused in battle) but no energy usage.
This way highways can be skipped completely.

[enenra]

Use this.

[ external image ]

[Realspace]

I don't want to see another mod with hyper fast highways and no control on your speed that make you miss your exit. I really appreciate sometimes to take my time and look at the surroundings.

Agreed! Personally I'm holding out for a mod that adds a cruise drive to the Skunk that has a warm-up time (so it can't be abused in battle) but no energy usage.
This way highways can be skipped completely.

I did one, see my signature.

My approach is to completely remove the local lanes and let only the super highways, mybe we can share info on this, I'm going to use your mod for removing the fake ships from the super hw, it is needed.

I had completelly missed an highway...xml file inside the libraries, OMG...great, that's why a big active modding community is so useful, you quickly learn the game's little secrets

[Mad_Joker]

On highway speed: I have tried many different things to affect the speed, but nothing worked.

I have changed almost every value in the tubeconfigurations in highwayconfigurations.xml.

I have also changed the basevalues for highways in controlschemes_default.xml. Though I couldn't find the values in the macros that are mentioned in the comments of controlschemes_default.xml.

I wish you good luck with this, since I would really like fast highways without a minigame.

[DaMuncha]

@Realspace

I cant wait till someone makes XR look like the pics from your X3 Backgrounds mod. Perhaps you could port that over or make new sectors using those backgrounds?

[Raider480]

Personally I'm holding out for a mod that adds a cruise drive to the Skunk that has a warm-up time (so it can't be abused in battle) but no energy usage.
This way highways can be skipped completely.

Didn't Freelancer give us (exactly) that something like a decade ago?

[Nifter]

Updated the mod!

Made ship boost unlimited in highways.
Added an option to double the engine boost speed in highways.

[snwboardn21]

Awesome man! Thank goodness, I thought ALL of the traffic in the highways was fake.

[Sturmhardt]

Thank you so much, the fake ships and the stupid minigame really don't fit into an X game.

[Mad_Joker]

The configuration I use has 0.01 traffic density for local highways, 0.10 density for super highways, and 5 times booster speed. Now highways are actually fun.

[WesternGunman]

Hey Nifter,
I was wondering if the highway system could be overhauled. I'd liked to see the Center lane (express lane) with biggest speed boost, and as you move to outside lanes you slow down to exit out side (or top, bottom.. etc). That way you can exit when you want to with some certainty that you're exiting when/where you want to. Is this doable??

I've been an x player for a long time, but I never have really figured out how to mod X directly myself. (which is sad considering I'm a programmer by trade).

Thanks for any comments and/or feedback you give.
RainS'Tol