[REQUEST]/[HELP] Savage Spur highway restoration

[Kadatherion]

Hi all, been back for a few days now due to the DLC, and there's one thing that's bugging me to no end: the one way highway connection between Savage Spur I and II. That's fine and dandy for plot reasons, but the inability to restore the normal two ways connection at the end of the plot makes the area much less usable for setting up shop than it could be. Worst thing is how a one way connection can screw up with the AI scripts for automated traders/miners etc (if they start from I, they think they can go work into II because it's just one jump away, but the way back then becomes NINE sectors away ).

I've mostly only dabbled with modding ship stats/loadouts here, a little bit more back in X3 but I never really messed with map editing, so I'd be grateful if somebody could help me figure out how to fix up a quick and dirty mod to place the missing highway from Spur II to I. No scripts and fancy things to delay or trigger it under specific conditions (it would probably be wiser to restore it only after you're done with the plot, as I guess the design decision must have had reasons to ensure the plot works as intended... although in reality I've seen it actually looks like it has the opposite effect at times, but I digress), as I'd just apply it myself once I'm ready.

Could anyone point me in the right direction, or perhaps give me an example, maybe with some other similar mod I could use for learning?

[RPINerd]

If it were me, starting out with no idea how to implement this, I'd download DeadAirRT's gate system overhaul and inspect how those XML files are designed and how different gates are set up and linked. Then maybe work backwards from there?

But this is all just off the top of my head brainstorming

[Kadatherion]

If it were me, starting out with no idea how to implement this, I'd download DeadAirRT's gate system overhaul and inspect how those XML files are designed and how different gates are set up and linked. Then maybe work backwards from there?

I believe his Gate Overhaul mod only uses gates instead of highways, iirc, I'm not sure if they work kind of the same way. Savage Spur is two systems under the same sector/cluster/whatever it's the right definition in X4, so... but yeah, if I can't find any simpler pointers I'll probably try to reverse engineer other mods that add several sectors. It's just they can be a bit overwhelming since they do much more than just adding a connection here and there, so it takes longer to find your way through

[tomchk]

This should be quite easy, actually. I'm not sure any released mods for X4 use superhighways, but some XR ones do, like Lost Sectors. They are almost identical between the two games, so you could learn it there. You can ask for help on the discord. UniTrader helped me learn a lot about them--they are seriously so easy once you get the idea. It's just a few lines in a few XMLs for any given superhighway.

[sprIder]

Hi,

I don't know if you already found a solution but since this situation also annoyed me, i tried some trial and error and eventually found a solution and made an own mod. You can find it in Steam.

Maybe it helps you.
sprIder

[tomchk]

I don't know if you already found a solution but since this situation also annoyed me, i tried some trial and error and eventually found a solution and made an own mod. You can find it in Steam.

I haven't actually tried adding superhighways to old saves. I was hoping it would work, though. This worked for you? Did you do anything special? I'll take a look at your mod sometime.

[tezboyes]

Sounds interesting, I've been wondering about starting a game with the DLC, but with the Gates to Split/Terran disabled initially - to be activated later.
Also seeing if it was possible to cut parts of the main Superhighway at times, and restore later.

[sprIder]

@tomchk: I think, i did nothing special. Just adding some code to and replacing some code of the Egosoft scripts you find in the "map"-folder of the terran dlc. There are no additional init-scripts or similar needed

@tezboyes: The gates to the dlc-areas are something special, as far as i know. They are activated in/with the setup_dlc_split and setup_dlc_terran files in the respective "md" folder of the dlc.

[tezboyes]

Cheers, I will have a poke around at the weekend.

[DeadAirRT]

@tezboyes: The gates to the dlc-areas are something special, as far as i know. They are activated in/with the setup_dlc_split and setup_dlc_terran files in the respective "md" folder of the dlc.

They are actually the exact same except the boneyard one. Nothing special other than some of the dlc map stuff is in a different named file so it's more hassle to diff them

[BigGreenThugs]

If the super highway is bidirectional, would that change how NPC's path to that part of Savage Spur? Would it be easier for the Terran faction to wipe out the Yaki? It seems like that one way gate plus the slog of Xenon you have to go through to get there is the only thing keeping the Yaki base alive.

[sprIder]

Right, that seems to be one of the biggest problem with the second highway. So it may only be save to have the second highway if you want to wipe out the yaki or take over the sectors or plan both

Another is, that there may be problems with the Terran/Yaki plot. So it is probably safer to use this mod or a similar one only after the plots are completed.