[Script] Universe Explorers v1.0.1: Update Apr. 16

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Should the following be added?

Hire Explorers from the BBS
11
12%
Options to customize satellite deployment
17
18%
Both!
60
65%
Neither, go make some other script 7ate9tin11s
4
4%
 
Total votes: 92

7ate9tin11s
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[Script] Universe Explorers v1.0.1: Update Apr. 16

Post by 7ate9tin11s » Thu, 28. Feb 08, 06:43

Universe Explorers v1.0.0

No updates, just re-uploaded for those looking to download it...but there may be updates in the future.

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The universe explorer scripts allow you to hire a pilot to automatically explore the universe for you. These explorers will gain experience and skills as they traverse the universe to open up new methods of finding unexplored sectors, and more. There are 24 levels in all which are explained in more detail below.

Download
:!: Version 1.0.1
ZIP (includes SPK) can be found at:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=4264 ... 49b5870170

Overview
  • Player owned M4, M5, and Goner Rangers may hire a pilot by choosing "Start Universe Explorer..." from the navigation commands. The ship must be equipped with Explorer Software from the official bonus pack.
  • If an explorer enters a sector marked as 'Foe' in their ships friend/foe settings they will retreat and try to find a different unknown sector. I always put pirates as Foe so they survive.
  • As the pilot gains experience they will learn methods to increase the speed of exploring a sector. As with the original Explore Sector command the speed of the scan is very dependent on the installed scanners and speed of the ship.
  • With experience comes more methods of finding unexplored sectors, everything from random known gate wandering to using the players satellite network to communicating with other ships to get directions can eventually be used.
  • Explorers will automatically begin to build up the players satellite network, if one is not in place already. They will also maintain the players satellite network when they notice missing satellites. This feature and the type(s) of satellites used can be toggled in your artificial life menu.
  • Experience also brings wisdom, the pilot will purchase wares needed to explore more efficiently and, eventually, will just order in wares to the edges of space so they never have to stop exploring. Then again their new addiction to exploring is just as bad as their old space weed/fuel addictions due to the 10% delivery surcharge!
  • While Cartographers (level 20) are very efficient at exploring the universe, an explorer can join the ranks of the Goner if certain conditions are met and work their way up to being a Priest (level 24) with full access to the Goner universe guide to aid in finding those last few sectors.
  • When an explorer reaches level 13 and cannot find an unexplored sector to explore they will scan asteroids (once they buy a mineral scanner).
  • Universe explorers can be moved between ships using the 'Move Universe Explorer Pilot...' command under the 'Start Universe Explorer...' command in the navigation commands menu.
  • As they gain experience your explorers will learn to defend themselves by noticing enemies and purchasing items for their defense.
  • Those lucky enough to get high level explorers will see them use jump drives to traverse the universe to quickly replace satellites or find new sectors.
  • :!: Your explorers will now drop short-lived beacons in sectors that they find dangerous to prevent other explorers from entering those sectors.
  • :!: Any ship owned by the player with Navigational Command Software installed can drop a permanent navigational warning beacon to prevent explorers from entering a sector. Elena's Fortune in XTM is a good example sector for this. The command can be found under in your Navigational commands menu and these beacons cost 2000 credits to pay for the permits and raw materials needed.
  • :!: You can now hire explorers and their ships directly from the BBS, different races generally have different levels of explorers available with the pirates being lowest and Goner being highest.
  • :!: Ships with the default "Your ShipType" will be renamed to "Explorer ShipType" automatically as the explorer software runs. Changing the name of the ship will prevent this.
Change Log
2/29/2008 - version 0.7 beta
1. First public release.
3/2/2008 - version 0.8
1. Tossed beta tag as it works fine.
2. Fixed a bug in the enemy sector retreat function.
3. Stopped explorers from scanning asteroids while in enemy sectors.
4. Verified full working functionality with XTM mod 0.7.3.
3/19/2008 - version 0.9
1. Jump drives now used
2. Goner comm debug mode disabled
3. Video enhancement goggles now do something
4. Ship purchase routines reworked to fix purchase rates and discoverer raider problem
5. Some explorers may have pilot names familiar in this thread...
6. Intelligent enemy responses
7. Move pilots command
8. Spelling error corrections
3/20/2008 - version 0.9.1
1. Fixed free xp error upon seeing any gate, known or not
2. Fixed allowing explorer pilots to be moved to invalid ships
3. Increased range of purchasing before choosing to order a ware
4. Stationary ships like nav. beacons and squash mines are now plotted
5. Flying wares are plotted when an explorer is level 7+
6. Unknown missile types will no longer be ordered. However, once you purchase the information Terran missiles can be purchased via delivery service
7. Minor voice prompt bug in XTM resolved
3/24/2008 - version 0.9.2
1. Added satellite options to AL menu
2. Fixed f/f bugs...I think ><
3. Fixed attack response bug when there were no landable stations and the enemy was between the explorer and the gate
4. Reduced purchase rate of space weed/fuel slightly to 1 in 21 + 7 * Rank. Addiction now ends at level 13 instead of 15.
5. Fixed potential bug in moving pilots causing a ship to get stuck executing a command.
4/8/2008 - version 1.0.0
1. Added BBS offers and AL option for them
2. Added explorer warning beacons
3. Added permanent warning beacon drop command tied to navigational software
4. Explorers now purchase navigational software and shields at level 1
5. Goner Rangers now carry more missiles and drones than other explorers...but it does not help them much ><
6. Extensive rewrites of movement, scanning and retreat routines to greatly increase survivability
7. Added automatic ship renaming
8. Fixed renaming pilots upon ship change
9. Added a few more bonus pilot names
10. Added an xp leak to speed the level of low level explorers in an explored universe
11. Fixed some minor bugs I found
:!: 4/16/2008 - version 1.0.1
1. Permanent navigation beacons will now be available

Technical Details
Command slot used: COMMAND_TYPE_NAV_31
Command slot used: COMMAND_TYPE_NAV_32
:!: Command slot used: COMMAND_TYPE_NAV_33
Text File Used: 448971
Text ID Used: 8971

:!: Leveling
Marked as spoiler for those that don't want to know how to power-level their explorers :p
Spoiler
Show
Discovering a sector - 6 xp
Discovering a sector owned by 'Unknown Race' - 40 xp
Discovering a station - 1 xp
Discovering a gate - 2 xp
Scanning an asteroid with >25 resource - 1 xp
Scanning an asteroid with Nvidium - 100 xp
Placing a satellite in a sector without one - 1 xp
Explorers also have a chance of gaining 1xp upon entering any sector, this change decreases as their level increases.

So sectors with lots of stations are the best way to level up your little explorer and, later in life, asteroids add up quickly. Eventually the entire universe will be known though and level progression, besides satellite replacement, will come to an end.
:!: Level/Upgrade Chart

Code: Select all

Lvl - Upgrade
01 - Random wandering search, Slow spiral exploration, Navigational Command Software, Shields
03 - Smart wandering search, Duplex Scanner
05 - Gate corners faster search method
07 - Remember passed unexplored sectors, Triplex Scanner, Fight Command Mk 1, missile purchases, plot flying wares
09 - Micro-sector fast search, Communicate with other ships to learn route to their destination
10 - Fight Command Mk 2, Fighter Drones
13 - 1 Sector Satellite Network Usage, Mineral Scanner, No more addiction
15 - 2 Sector SatNet Usage, Delivery Service, small Goner rep gain for discoveries
17 - 3 Sector SatNet Usage, Video Enhancement Goggles
19 - 4 Sector SatNet Usage, more Goner rep for discoveries
21 - 5 Sector SatNet Usage, Communicate with goner ships for route to unknown areas
23 - Jumpdrive
24 - Access to Goner universe maps to know how to get to remaining unknown sectors, but the player cannot know until you visit them!
Rank Names

Code: Select all

1	Goner Reject
3	Traveler
5	Journeyer
7	Finder
9	Explorer
11	Adventurer
13	Discoverer
15	Pioneer
17	Scout
19	Cartographer
21	Believer
22	Disciple
23	Missionary
24	Priest

Special Requirements for Final 4 Ranks
Spoiler
Show
21 - Must have communicated with a Goner Ship and been 'converted'
22 - Must have found a sector owned by Unknown race
23 - Must have a Jumpdrive equipped
24 - Must have found a Nvidium asteroid
Known Bugs
1. Your bug here! Tell me if you find any bugs please

Planned Features
1. Submitted for signing...bet I have my work cut out for me


Compatibility/Conflicts
These scripts have been tested on X3 version 2.5 with the bonus scripts pack installed and also tested with the XTM mod and the random mix of other scripts I like to play with. This script is using a claimed command and text id according to the sticky in this forum and should not cause conflicts with any other script unless the same text id or command is used.
Reported Conflicts - Unverified by me!
1. Devest's Satellite Deployment script - Reported to remove Explorer Software from trade docks
2. New Horizon's Mod

If your using one of the above and it is working please let me know.
Last edited by 7ate9tin11s on Wed, 20. May 09, 18:29, edited 19 times in total.

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s9ilent
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Post by s9ilent » Thu, 28. Feb 08, 07:33

Out of curiosity, how do you level him? As I'd imagine that you can only explore the galaxy once.

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Thu, 28. Feb 08, 07:58

I knew I forgot some details :lol:

For leveling the explorer gains experience by:
Discovering unexplored sectors (Bonus for unknown race sectors)
Discovering stations that the player does not know of
Discovering jump gates
Discovering high yield asteroids (Bonus for any Nvidium asteroids)
Placing a satellite also gives a tiny bit of xp

and you are right, you can only explore the galaxy once. Once you have done that you don't really need the explorer anymore unless you like the satellite replacement services. I am currently in the process of balancing the xp gained for each object (part of tonights testing).
There will be no more adventurers when there are more adventures to be had.
-7ate9tin11s[/quote]

StormRazor52
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Post by StormRazor52 » Fri, 29. Feb 08, 02:03

Really sounds like a script I can use, hope to see it posted soon. It is perfect timing for me for I just started Rougeys V3 Mod and the explorer would take a lot of the work from me in finding sectors and let me build my empire. Good one just bring it on. :D

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moggy2
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Post by moggy2 » Fri, 29. Feb 08, 02:19

how about using the ship's friend/foe settings to decide whether a race's sectors are enemies.

xTemon
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Post by xTemon » Fri, 29. Feb 08, 03:24

Any chance you can make the deployment of satellites optional; to be honest, I really don't like them - they clog up my ownwd property menu :wink:
:headbang: Microsoft

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 29. Feb 08, 03:57

@moggy2

They already do that, but I better put it in the first post :)

@Endremion

There is a specific setting in the owned property menu to shut off the display of just satellites, but making it an option could be put into the next version.

@everyone

The testing went well and I will be uploading it as soon as this test run finishes. There will be 1 unfinished piece at this release:
  • Jumpdrive usage is not yet enabled, it is level 23-24 only so not a big loss at this point
I am currently adding in and testing the following:
  • If they cannot find a new sector to explore they will scan un-scanned asteroids in their current sector before moving on (when they are of rank to do asteroid scans)
-7ate9tin11s

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 29. Feb 08, 12:18

Phew,

I finally worked out a couple lingering bugs and have posted version 0.7 beta to *Edit: Beta link removed, please get current version from first post :D *. This file contains both the scripts and the SPK (Which I hope works since I don't use them). The link in the first post has also been updated.

The next steps I have in mind are to:
1. Make the high level explorers actually use their jumpdrives and buy the energy they need.
2. Make the explorers respond to enemy attacks by running away.
3. Further adjust the explorer leveling system and leveling rate.

Oh, for those wishing to quickly play with and evaluate this script, there are 2 cheat scripts of mine that can be used:

plugin.ux.cheat.create - Makes new ships with optional overtuning, equipping, amounts, etc. that will start exploring right away.

plugin.ux.cheats.modify.xp - Will alter the raw xp amounts of an explorer and allow you to set the special prerequisites needed for levels 21-24. The xp required for levels is roughly:

Code: Select all

lvl	xp
1	17
2	25
3	39
4	59
5	85
6	117
7	155
8	199
9	249
10	305
11	367
12	435
13	509
14	589
15	675
16	767
17	865
18	969
19	1079
20	1195
21	1317
22	1445
23	1579
24	1719
and the specials are binary or'd values using 1,2,4 and 8. So for all specials use 15.

Happy exploring!

-Fallen (Who also goes by 7ate9tin11s :roll: )

Edit: Removed beta link.

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Sun, 2. Mar 08, 10:07

Version 0.8 Release Report
Release reports are a bad habit from work, they detail changes made, reasons, etc...ignore it if you want, read it if you want :p

Changes

plugin.ux.lib.locate - 101 - Added call to plugin.lib.retreat into unexplored sector check to take care of a problem when the player alters their friend/foe settings after a sector is marked for exploration.

plugin.ux.lib.locate.asteroid - 101 - Now checks sector friend/foe status before looking for asteroids to scan, fixes another possible friend/foe problem.

plugin.ux.main - 100 - No Change - Existing universe explorers will automatically begin using new scripts without the need for user intervention.

Also made a response to add this script and its resources to community scripts sticky.

XTM 0.7.3
Started several new games and ran explorers on seta to ensure compatibility...I still cannot get out of the starting sector on Split Militant though :shock: . Discovered and fixed the above problems that existed, but had not been seen in vanilla. Loaded my personal XTM save and built a group of explorers and used them with no problems (I am only 16 hours in...keep getting distracted by that darned script editor! :lol: ).

Leveling
The leveling progression is fairly fast, but works well with their mortality rate. Of my original 5 non-supertuned buster raider explorers 3 made it to level 20 and 3 (including a 20) got killed. I also ended up building a few more to cope with the larger XTM universe and increased hostility from RRF. I guess that is a good sign if I felt that I needed more while actually playing :D .

Future Plans
Pirate harriers really like to kill the explorers as they are looking around sectors, those little groups of 3 are deadly to them. I need to write a basic handler for combat/running away. They currently just keep doing what they are doing without noticing that they are under attack :cry: . Perhaps I will see if Xai Corps Navigational Override Software will take care of it for me :D . Still have to make high level explorers use their jumpdrives too :oops: .

-7ate9tin11s
Last edited by 7ate9tin11s on Sun, 2. Mar 08, 13:34, edited 1 time in total.

Legionnaire
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Post by Legionnaire » Sun, 2. Mar 08, 12:14

Think this might be just about to join my 'can't play without' set of scripts, even better youve got xtm support as im getting close to starting an xtm game wonderful this thread is bookmarked and watched, nice one

Legionnaire

Legionnaire
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Post by Legionnaire » Wed, 12. Mar 08, 01:42

Ok last night started a new game with xtm this and a bunch of other scripts running. no conflicts i can find so thats good, i bought myself 5 disco's and sent them all up to Teladi space for the explorer software equipped and then sent them off as universe expplorers, in the last few hours they have worked theyre way up to the highest now being lvl 15, theyve maxxed out engine tunings, and cargo space, bought duplex and triplex scanners, mineral scannersand navigation relay satelites and ive seen a couple with advanced sats in the cargo bay, even seen a couple buying spaceweed/fuel and then 'idling' for a while:D however when i bought them all that was available was the S variant so thats what was bought, and what i have noticed is though various upgrades have been purchased and in a realistic manner, they havent purchased any rudder optimizations and nor have they upgraded theyre shields. So i was wondering has there been a requirement for these upgrades written into the script or do i want to 'max out' the ships when i get them to start with before i start the universe explorers software?

Hopefully this makes sense, and once again thanks for writing this, my explorers are saving me a lot of hassle in having to find each station and gate myself very slowly :D

Legionnaire

maimer
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Post by maimer » Wed, 12. Mar 08, 20:51

Tried this out today on a few Discoverer Raider's, which come with built-in Triplex scanners. They worked fine until they hit level 7 and wanted buy a triplex scanner, they ended up in a loop traveling from an adjacent sector to an equipment dock.

Great script otherwise.

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Thu, 13. Mar 08, 03:35

@Legionnaire

While I do have libraries in my artificial player scripts that upgrade ships completely, I felt that the explorers don't really think about their safety much so they do not buy shields. Perhaps I will put it in eventually, but considering my explorers die terrible deaths sometimes, the shields do not do much (Kha'ak invader start is rough on explorers :p ). As for the rudder optimizations, they are not really necessary unless your fighting so they are trying to save you a little money :lol: .

@maimer

I honestly did not know that some ships come with built-in scanners :oops: ...I will look into this, the fix should be quite simple.

Legionnaire
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Post by Legionnaire » Thu, 13. Mar 08, 09:28

Its not a problem, with regards to the shields, 4mw is going to make no difference to 1 mw as far as that Pirate Reaver was concerned lol. i was just trying to find out if they did purchase shields and rudder optimisations, they dont thats no problem, however i would think that when they got to a high level say 16/18+ they might think about additional shields reasoning being theres so much more to see out there, and i beleive theyre fully off the weed/fuel by then so they could in theory start having visions of their own mortalitiy :D , however either way im really likely this script. i will be keeping an eye on it to see if anything further happens with it 8)

*edited for spelling*
Last edited by Legionnaire on Thu, 13. Mar 08, 13:04, edited 1 time in total.

Legionnaire
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Post by Legionnaire » Thu, 13. Mar 08, 11:56

ok i have come across an issue i'm afraid and i do hope you can help with it. i am now getting a continual stream of messages formatted as follows

Personal Log Entry

Universe Explorer 1 - Goner Goner Range in range, got directions. Action: ARRAY (Priest Rings,null,null,null)

opening up my property menu to see where this ship is puts it currently in Priests Pity following a Goner Ranger, which i believe it has been doing since i started getting the messages while it was in Priests Pity.

The level of the explorer sending me these messages is 21.

and im receiving approximately 10 every mizura in game ;)

if you need any more info i will see what i can do to supply it. though im afraid my only experience with scripts is using them :lol:

Legionnaire

*Edit*

Now that the Lvl 21 explorer has stopped following the Goner Ranger and is heading for sector Priests Pity the messages have stopped coming in. ill keep an eye on it and see if anything else triggers a similar situation, but it appears to be lvl 21 and following a goner ranger that causes the message spam , at least thats how it appears in my game.

Still love this idea, even if i did just loose a lvl 16 who was exploring Xenon Sector 352. lol

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Fri, 14. Mar 08, 04:27

Whoops...looks like I left a debug message on :shock:

It will be switched off in the next release, but if you want to do it yourself open the script editor, open the file: plugin.ux.lib.locate.comm.goner
find the following line:

Code: Select all

034    write to player logbook: printf: fmt='%s - Goner %s in range, got directions. Action: %s', [THIS], $target, $Action, null, null
and when the line is selected press the delete key to remove it. Next press 'Esc', and choose to save changes. If an explorer is currently following a goner the messages will stop once they reach them, all other cases the messages will not happen again.

In other news I've finished writing the jumpdrive usage routine and just need to finish testing it. Due to the small cargo bay on some M4's I had to make a routine that would hop from spp to spp on the way to the target sector. It seems to work well enough that I will probably replace my other script jumpdrive usage scripts preventing the need for ever buying energy again :p . I hope to release the new version this weekend sometime.

darnthing
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Post by darnthing » Fri, 14. Mar 08, 19:00

Nice script, very useful, a suggestion if I may:

I noticed that when my ship got to level 2 it flew to a trade station and increased the hold space. I'm guessing for the satellites.
Anyway, I'm guessing this is a feature, but when it did the upgrade it only did one unit of upgrade at a time and it took several seconds for each unit. Assuming it's maxing out my cargo cap, can't it just check to see how much money I have and then buy as many as are suitable?
Just an idea.

Looking forward to 0.9. :-)

Legionnaire
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Post by Legionnaire » Fri, 14. Mar 08, 22:48

Whoops...looks like I left a debug message on
hehe not a problem thats what your beta testers are for :lol:

and you said it yourself right at the start of the post
2. Your bug here! Tell me if you find any bugs please
so dont worry its still a damn nice piece of work and a new version on its way , Very Nice :) now just need to get the cash back up for when my remaining Explorers decide to go run to CSE for Jumpdrives lol.

Question for you , is there anyway of transferring them into better ships, as i have managed to 'acquire' a Ranger and seeing as that has some better shielding i was wondering if it would be possible to tell my highest level explorer to get out of his disco and into the ranger. if not no prob was just something i was wondering.

Legionnaire

darnthing
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Post by darnthing » Sat, 15. Mar 08, 00:53

Minor "bug", or at least, it seems like a bug, maybe this is intentional.

I currently have 3 explorers, and one of them (a buster, lvl 4+) went to explore shareholders fortune. It flew around happily, deployed a satellite and then flew to the next system, I didn't interrupt it at any point. Fine, except it didn't find the gate to the north of the system to "The Vault", and despite one of my other explorers tooling around in that part of the cosmos (a starburst) for a while, I had to go and find said gate myself.
Similarly they don't seem to have found the southern gate in Family Whi yet either, despite my explicitly starting several of them off in that system.

7ate9tin11s
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Post by 7ate9tin11s » Sat, 15. Mar 08, 09:14

@darnthing

The current buying libraries I use get items a single upgrade at a time, the next version should fix this :). As for the not finding a gate, that happens and happens less when they have more experience. Basically, the search range in a sector is defined by the distance of the entry gate from the center of the sector and as they level up they add a bit to that to prevent missing farther gates. A simple example I see all the time is that low level explorers will never find the gate to kingdoms end from argon space, because that gate is farther away than the other gates in the sector. For your case, when an explorer comes into shareholder's fortune from the vault it will realize that the gate was not known before and search the sector again with the newly extended distance....though thinking about it they only need to search the perimeter with the new distance and not the whole sector. *rushes off to make a little change for next version* :D

Basically, if they have not detected an object they cannot use it and not all sectors that are next to each other have connections. Don't worry though, they get smarter and if you get a level 24...they know everything! :goner:

@Legionnaire

Hmmm...that would be very easy to do as the pilot is just a bit of data attached to the ship, moving it to another is no big problem. Maybe this version, maybe next version :D

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