[MOD] Crew Academies

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Mackan
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[MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Sat, 18. Apr 20, 01:27

Crew Academies

What it is
This mod adds 4 different station modules that, when attached to shipyards, will increase the level of new crew hires. The level increase will depend on how many unique academies you have built and how far you have upgraded them.

Each main race has their own academy variant and the skills they increase are different.
  • Argon Public University: Increases morale, up to 4 stars if fully upgraded
  • Teladi Center of Commerce: Increases management, up to 4 stars if fully upgraded
  • Paranid Institute of Technology: Increases engineering, up to 4 stars if fully upgraded
  • Split Naval Academy: Increases boarding, up to 3 stars if fully upgraded
What about piloting?!?!?!!?!
Piloting starts at roughly 2 stars for the first academy you build and will increase with each subsequent unique academy you add to your shipyard. Upgraded academies will add even more to piloting level. Multiple academies of the same type will not stack.

How do I build them?
Academies are unlocked through research. Research is unlocked through missions. The mission objectives are simple; deliver a group of skilled crew members to your headquarters. There are 4 different groups in total, one for each academy.

Once you have delivered all groups and researched all academy blueprints, you unlock the missions for tier 2 upgrades. These follow the same pattern as the academy missions, but this time with higher skill requirements.

To get started, simply research any academy module from your research menu and the missions will be automatically added to your mission manager. Further details on requirements can be found in the mission descriptions.

Will NPC ships built at my shipyard also get better crew?
No. As an anonymous egosoft employee put it: factions keep the best pilots for their professional fleets. ;)

Technobabble
The way this mod currently works is that whenever you build a ship at a player-owned shipyard, the level of the crew will be directly set based on how many academy modules are built and which research upgrades have been researched.

Ideally, you'd have different tiers of workforces that would increase at different rates, where higher tiered workforces would populate slower. And you'd then be able to select which workforce you'd want to use for each ship build. This currently seems to be beyond the scope of mods though. We'll just have to wait and see what egosoft will do with shipyard workforces. Right now it's very basic.

Is it save safe?
No. But because of a bug with mod dependent saves, this mod is currently flagged as safe to uninstall. This will most likely change once the bug is fixed. Until then, if you want to risk an uninstall you should at least remove the academy modules from your stations first.

Known issues
  • Very rarely crew members you deliver will fail to change faction and won't be flagged for deletion. They'll just hang out at the landing pad and the game will simply let you move them back to your ship again. If this happens... lucky you, I guess?
  • Sub-missions have their abort button enabled. This is unintentional. Aborting is disabled in the script however, so clicking abort won't do anything.
Changelog

Version 0.30
  • Korean translation added, provided by Merhaf (https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198049443990)
  • Conforming to 4.0's new encyclopaedia-based research unlock system. Should still be compatible with 3.30.
  • Changed the research ware UI sort order since the old value is now used by egosoft. (OLD: 501, NEW: 5501)
  • Made mission script start cue condition a bit more stringent.
  • Minor string fixes.
Version 0.25
  • Attempting to prevent naughty pilots from stealing your ships after delivery
Version 0.20
  • Attempting to fix NPC factions using the academies as habitation modules
Download (REQUIRES SPLIT VENDETTA)

Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2064683679

Direct Download (fixed link): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ey6h9G ... sp=sharing
Last edited by Mackan on Mon, 28. Dec 20, 20:29, edited 3 times in total.

Sirilius
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Sirilius » Sun, 19. Apr 20, 14:01

Nice one

I never get to point in the game where I have my own empire, but if I ever do I’d defo use this. Could you post a preview of what the station modules look like?

As someone who likes to role play a certain race and only use race specific ships and station module, would it be possible to have an option where they use the same look?

Eukatae
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Eukatae » Sun, 19. Apr 20, 21:25

I love the idea and have confidence that it is implemented well. I'll report back when I have no issues and feel it is perfectly balanced!

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Mon, 20. Apr 20, 12:48

Sirilius wrote:
Sun, 19. Apr 20, 14:01
Nice one

I never get to point in the game where I have my own empire, but if I ever do I’d defo use this. Could you post a preview of what the station modules look like?

As someone who likes to role play a certain race and only use race specific ships and station module, would it be possible to have an option where they use the same look?
The academies use the admin centers as models, converted into habitation modules under the hood.

As for the race specific looks. I elected to not make the modules race agnostic as currently it's not possible for the player to specify race composition of new crew anyway. If or when egosoft decide to make crew composition based on workforce type rather than faction definition, I'll be sure to make a version that reflects this. Also I just had way too much fun fanwanking lore and flavor text for each race specific academy.

Eukatae
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Eukatae » Wed, 22. Apr 20, 18:32

I still don't have all the modules built but so I cannot yet comment on the end result; although it is clear you did a quality job. Surprises me there isn't more interest. An interesting, realistic, and involved way to achieve something that for me has always been a problem.

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Thu, 23. Apr 20, 12:24

Eukatae wrote:
Wed, 22. Apr 20, 18:32
I still don't have all the modules built but so I cannot yet comment on the end result; although it is clear you did a quality job. Surprises me there isn't more interest. An interesting, realistic, and involved way to achieve something that for me has always been a problem.
Glad you like it so far!

As for perceived lack of interest. The problem this mod is looking to address has already been solved entirely or in part by other mods, such as Faster Crew Leveling or Professional Crew. The only thing that sets this mod apart from those is the implementation. Other than that it doesn't really offer anything new, so it flying a bit under the radar isn't all that surprising. :)

dnatabar
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by dnatabar » Thu, 23. Apr 20, 16:16

I havent tried this mod yet, but it definitely sounds vastly superior to the other mods that "solved" the same issue.
Mainly because the other mods does it in a more simplistic and boring way, where this is far more realistic ( in my opinion ).

Although, a bit of a mix between this and then a bit faster levelling the normal way would make sense, as you ought to get better from experience after all :P

Eukatae
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Eukatae » Thu, 23. Apr 20, 23:51

Mackan wrote:
Thu, 23. Apr 20, 12:24
Eukatae wrote:
Wed, 22. Apr 20, 18:32
I still don't have all the modules built but so I cannot yet comment on the end result; although it is clear you did a quality job. Surprises me there isn't more interest. An interesting, realistic, and involved way to achieve something that for me has always been a problem.
Glad you like it so far!

As for perceived lack of interest. The problem this mod is looking to address has already been solved entirely or in part by other mods, such as Faster Crew Leveling or Professional Crew. The only thing that sets this mod apart from those is the implementation. Other than that it doesn't really offer anything new, so it flying a bit under the radar isn't all that surprising. :)
This feels so much less cheaty. Would be grand if you could assign professors to the schools; that would take a fair bit of work I suspect and you would have to build each facility as a separate station (as far as I know you can't assign a role to a module? But I would add a nice element, finally get that 5 star marine, using their talents would feel nice.

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Fri, 24. Apr 20, 00:38

Eukatae wrote:
Thu, 23. Apr 20, 23:51
This feels so much less cheaty. Would be grand if you could assign professors to the schools; that would take a fair bit of work I suspect and you would have to build each facility as a separate station (as far as I know you can't assign a role to a module? But I would add a nice element, finally get that 5 star marine, using their talents would feel nice.
Actually, doing this might be easier than it seems! You wouldn't need to use any station roles, you can just spawn a custom NPC based on the template of the crew member you would want to turn into a headmaster and then delete the crew member. And there are already office rooms in the game, so you could just take one of those, slap it onto academy modules somehow and stick the custom NPCs in there. They could periodically produce 4 star crew seminars for you or something so that they aren't just boring headpieces.

It sounds pretty interesting so I'll look into it. Shouldn't take that long to figure out either as plot missions already have this functionality. Cool suggestion!

Eukatae
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Eukatae » Fri, 24. Apr 20, 16:17

Mackan wrote:
Fri, 24. Apr 20, 00:38
Eukatae wrote:
Thu, 23. Apr 20, 23:51
This feels so much less cheaty. Would be grand if you could assign professors to the schools; that would take a fair bit of work I suspect and you would have to build each facility as a separate station (as far as I know you can't assign a role to a module? But I would add a nice element, finally get that 5 star marine, using their talents would feel nice.
Actually, doing this might be easier than it seems! You wouldn't need to use any station roles, you can just spawn a custom NPC based on the template of the crew member you would want to turn into a headmaster and then delete the crew member. And there are already office rooms in the game, so you could just take one of those, slap it onto academy modules somehow and stick the custom NPCs in there. They could periodically produce 4 star crew seminars for you or something so that they aren't just boring headpieces.

It sounds pretty interesting so I'll look into it. Shouldn't take that long to figure out either as plot missions already have this functionality. Cool suggestion!
I was thinking they would raise the effectiveness of the training provided. But doing academic research (seminars) is also a thing professors do :)

TekDragon
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by TekDragon » Fri, 1. May 20, 05:37

How do you actually deliver the people?

I built a large habitat at my HQ, and even provided it energy, food rations, and medicine. Yet when I dock my behemoth at the HQ with a whole pile of 3+ morale crew - none of them are allowed to transfer to the station.

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Fri, 1. May 20, 21:56

TekDragon wrote:
Fri, 1. May 20, 05:37
How do you actually deliver the people?

I built a large habitat at my HQ, and even provided it energy, food rations, and medicine. Yet when I dock my behemoth at the HQ with a whole pile of 3+ morale crew - none of them are allowed to transfer to the station.
Delivery is done through comms. If the crew member fulfills the criteria and their ship is docked at the HQ, a conversation option will appear that lets you deliver them when you comm them. No habitat needed. :)

innominate
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by innominate » Thu, 7. May 20, 02:39

Accidentally told the pilot of the build ship I had docked to move to the HQ to fulfill part of the mission requirements; the pilot ended up stealing my ship. The ship and offending pilot were removed from my "or any other" faction by the command and are dead in space, the rest of the crew are still mine but I can't move them. Was able to force the ship back into my ownership using slans cheat script, while piloting another ship nearby. Any way to make ship pilots fire themselves when the order is made, or to block ship captains from being able to take that order?

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Thu, 7. May 20, 09:09

innominate wrote:
Thu, 7. May 20, 02:39
Accidentally told the pilot of the build ship I had docked to move to the HQ to fulfill part of the mission requirements; the pilot ended up stealing my ship. The ship and offending pilot were removed from my "or any other" faction by the command and are dead in space, the rest of the crew are still mine but I can't move them. Was able to force the ship back into my ownership using slans cheat script, while piloting another ship nearby. Any way to make ship pilots fire themselves when the order is made, or to block ship captains from being able to take that order?
Woah, that shouldn't happen. Never had this issue myself in testing but I think I know what might cause this. The code for handling pilots is a bit different from other crew and I probably screwed it up somehow when I copied it over from vanilla crew delivery missions. I'll take a look.

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Thu, 7. May 20, 14:18

Ok, think I tracked down the issue. Delivered NPCs switch owner faction to Civilian. This is intended. Changing owner of pilot NPCs however seems to change the owner of the ship as well (lol). If the NPC fails to despawn, ownership won't revert back to the player. This was the case with pilots of L/XL ships.

Made some changes to how pilots are handled. They will now behave as if they were fired on delivery, which should prevent them from stealing your stuff.

Eukatae
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Eukatae » Fri, 8. May 20, 03:31

I've been meaning to write this for awhile. I don't know if the skill level check in the mission scripts are working, or maybe they are counting total ranks: You can consign a guy with a cumulative score of 9 but a particular score of 5. Discovered by accident but I took full advantage because 12 rank 9 guys per is brutal. Also the space weed and space fuel requirements made me laugh.

chip56
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by chip56 » Wed, 20. May 20, 20:48

Two questions:
Currently it only works for new ships. Any plans that replenishing crew also gives you trained crew?
And would it be possible to to give every crew member management skills so that we can use any crew member as trained station member?

Mackan
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Mackan » Mon, 28. Dec 20, 20:54

Updated to hopefully be compatible with 4.0. The new version should still be safe for 3.30. Also added Korean translation.

And a bit late, but...
Eukatae wrote:
Fri, 8. May 20, 03:31
I've been meaning to write this for awhile. I don't know if the skill level check in the mission scripts are working, or maybe they are counting total ranks: You can consign a guy with a cumulative score of 9 but a particular score of 5. Discovered by accident but I took full advantage because 12 rank 9 guys per is brutal. Also the space weed and space fuel requirements made me laugh.
Hmm. It's been so long now but fairly certain the skill check behaved correctly last time I worked on this mod. I do however now see a case where the skill requirement might lower by 1 star every time a Split tries to pass the test, regardless if they fail or not. I guess "You want Split?" was a rhetorical question. :lol:
chip56 wrote:
Wed, 20. May 20, 20:48
Two questions:
Currently it only works for new ships. Any plans that replenishing crew also gives you trained crew?
And would it be possible to to give every crew member management skills so that we can use any crew member as trained station member?
It's probably possible to have it affect added crew when refitting as well, but it's a bit more complicated unless you're ok with old crew also getting the skill increase.

And management should increase with the Teladi academy. :)

sigma1987
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by sigma1987 » Sun, 14. Nov 21, 23:04

Mackan wrote:
Mon, 28. Dec 20, 20:54
...

And management should increase with the Teladi academy. :)
I'm finding the management and piloting skill increases only apply to the captain of ships I'm building from academy-equipped shipyards. Is that intentional or a bug?

(I'm on 4.10)

Manawydn
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Re: [MOD] Crew Academies

Post by Manawydn » Thu, 18. Nov 21, 00:08

sigma1987 wrote:
Sun, 14. Nov 21, 23:04
Mackan wrote:
Mon, 28. Dec 20, 20:54
...

And management should increase with the Teladi academy. :)
I'm finding the management and piloting skill increases only apply to the captain of ships I'm building from academy-equipped shipyards. Is that intentional or a bug?

(I'm on 4.10)
For me it has always worked as intended in the past, even in 4.1
All crew members would be bumped up to their respective stats depending on which academies I had and the level of research I was at, at least new ones. You may have an an existing personnel who was assigned the slot, I'm not exactly sure how it works under the hood, but I have seen npc crew members pop up in a station after being moved or fired (replaced). I was on said station when it happened.

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