[SCR] MARS Fire Control (v5.25 - 16.02.13)

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gkx39
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Post by gkx39 » Mon, 27. Oct 14, 21:46

Hi DrBullwinkle,

I see. That is what I figured. But I am just curious because the Mars light is mentioned in the manual.

But thank you !

Darkone8752
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Post by Darkone8752 » Tue, 4. Nov 14, 21:23

Raye94 wrote:I also have the ReadText0-250 problem. I have tried to install MARS several times with XRM. I used the 7054-L044 replacement from XRM and omitted the repair drones cat/dat. I just can't seem to get it to install properly, even after enabling the script editor, saving, and restarting the game.
This will show up until you save and reload, AFAIK. Well, A ReadText will, not sure if it's the same one :P

@GKX39/Bullwinkle:
I use it to launch goblins manually on my own M3/4/5 :)

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Urschleim
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Post by Urschleim » Wed, 5. Nov 14, 19:03

Is it possible to run MARS with Litcubes Universe?
And how?

(I'd searched the net for 1 hour about that but found nothing helpful)

Raaaak
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Post by Raaaak » Wed, 5. Nov 14, 23:21

Urschleim wrote:Is it possible to run MARS with Litcubes Universe?
And how?

(I'd searched the net for 1 hour about that but found nothing helpful)
No, at a minimum someone would have to update some files for LU laser data. And there may very well be some incompatibilities with command slots and such.

Moreover MARS does not fit well with core LU values. Specifically performance and heterogenity in ship capabilities. MARS is a very demanding script, and allows a single M2 to fullfill both anti fighter and anti capital duties. If you want that in LU you are supposed to bring a fleet instead.

And even then MARS wouldn't work well. I always fires the heaviest weapon that is likely to hit, and uses ammo based weapons to manage energy requirements. This would run you out of energy very fast in LU where ammo based weapons do not exist, and heavy weapons are both extremely energy demanding and have high bullet speeds.

MARS would have to be rewritten to switch to lighter weapons to manage energy demands instead.


Now the goblins though, those are very nice and I'd like something like them in LUV.

Geckomeister
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Post by Geckomeister » Mon, 24. Nov 14, 09:50

Hey guys, moved a question from the XRM forum to this one.

Basically have XRM running with a few mods using the plugin manager.
I have added the MARS mod, which seemed to work before, and it doesnt seem to be there at all......as in no hotkeys are available under the controls>interface menu.

Besides adding the archive to Plugin manager, is there anything else I should be adding?

Cheers
Gecks
Cheers
Gecks

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DrBullwinkle
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Mon, 24. Nov 14, 10:10

Hotkeys are sort of a weak point in X3. Missing hotkeys is not a guarantee that the rest of the script is not installed.

Did you get the message, when loading the game, that MARS is installed? That should happen, once, when your installation is correct. After "installation" it takes 2 minutes and 1 save/reload of X3 for MARS to completely activate.

Other indicators that MARS is installed include:
  • An Artificial Life Plugin (ALP). In space, press Esc until you see the Option Menu in the lower left corner of the screen. Choose Gameplay, then Artificial Life Settings. Is MARS on the list?
  • Motion Analysis Relay System ware available for sale at most equipment docks.

Geckomeister
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Post by Geckomeister » Mon, 24. Nov 14, 10:13

I just worked it out....I needed to add the MARS file from the XRM link to plugin manager. After that it comes up in the AI menu.
Cheers
Gecks


eben
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Post by eben » Sun, 7. Dec 14, 19:12

Hello there,

I have a serious problem with MARS recently.

To clarify things beforehand let me state that I've been playing this game for years and using MARS for almost as long.

Also I'm using a heavily modifed game which may or may not have caused the problem.

Now to the issue itself:

I've been happily blasting away with my MARS upgraded ships for almost 9 days of game time. Then suddenly (after a particularly intense firefight as far as I can deduce) the MARS started malfunctioning.

The symptoms are as follows:

* The "attack shields" option in the MARS menu started to do nothing. So does the regular "attack shields" command in the combat menu. What happens is when I designate a target to take down the shields the turrets go silent. When I taget the hulls again they resume firing.

* Mars turrets started to disregard the limitations set in the t file (size and damage). I set some custom weapons not to fire on capitals but mars began to ignore this. Before hand it obeyed perfectly.

* Restart MARS scripts option decided not to work anymore.

* Whenever a MARS equipped ship is missing the necessery weapons to mount the ships issued COMMAND changes to Mars.defend or Mars.attack instead of whatever it was doing.

All other MARS features function perfectly fromwhat I can see.

Now to explain further:

This has happened twice during my last two games. The first time I managed to fix it only by reinstalling the whole game and the mods, scripts etc.

And after a time in my second game it happened again. I've tried restarting the game, reinstalling mars, disabling or unistalling likely conflicting mods and scripts to no avail. Whatever I do MARS is now half broken.

I have two possible causes in mind, on which I will elaborate.

First is (because of the conditions this problem manifested) I suspect the workaround for performance is somewhat permanently altering something and this somehow persists through new starts and new installations of MARS sript.

Second is, I'm completely wrong abaout how this problem started and a mod or another script is causing this. But I have checked every mod and script I use file by file and nothing seems to override mars scripts and mars is not changing any vanilla files. So this is not likely.
Unless: MARS is using some vanilla and/or third party libraries and these somehow get changed by the mods I use.

Another thing I maneged to glean using MARS test mod is this:

When I designate a target for "shield attack" MARS test report shows this:

"Attack Shields active for Target: ARRAY ( null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, ... )"

I hope these can help you help me because I cannot fix this for the life of me!

PS: I did not list the mods and scripts I use because it used to work perfectly beforehand. But will do so if required. And thanks for this magnificent script.

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DrBullwinkle
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Sun, 7. Dec 14, 22:02

eben wrote: * Whenever a MARS equipped ship is missing the necessery weapons to mount the ships issued COMMAND changes to Mars.defend or Mars.attack instead of whatever it was doing.

This has happened twice during my last two games. The first time I managed to fix it only by reinstalling the whole game and the mods, scripts etc.

And after a time in my second game it happened again. I've tried restarting the game, reinstalling mars, disabling or unistalling likely conflicting mods and scripts to no avail. Whatever I do MARS is now half broken.

I suspect the workaround for performance is somewhat permanently altering something and this somehow persists through new starts and new installations of MARS sript.

"Attack Shields active for Target: ARRAY ( null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, ... )"
It sounds as though some state variable is getting stuck and not being cleared properly.

Does reverting to a saved game from before the first occurrence of the problem fix it?

eben
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Post by eben » Mon, 8. Dec 14, 00:20

DrBullwinkle wrote:
It sounds as though some state variable is getting stuck and not being cleared properly.

Does reverting to a saved game from before the first occurrence of the problem fix it?
My last save before it happened was almost a day prior so I never tried that. Buy considering it even persists after starting a new game I shouldn't think so.

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DrBullwinkle
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Mon, 8. Dec 14, 00:56

Variables are stored in the saved game.

If it is a variable that becomes messed up, then reverting to a previous save should fix it.

If the problem persists in a new game, then it is in your game files. Most likely suspect would be something wrong in a language file that you edited. MARS is quite mature and I have never heard of a conflict with another (released) script. (although it is not impossible).

The game can be picky about xml syntax. A small error can cause the entire file to not be read. Visual Studio (including the free version) allows you to View Errors which will show any xml syntax errors in your language files.

Given the amount of installing and uninstalling that you describe, it is entirely possible that you had *both* problems at some point in the process. So try your previous save, and check the file(s) that you edited for syntax errors. Then proceed from there.

eben
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Post by eben » Mon, 8. Dec 14, 12:16

DrBullwinkle wrote:Variables are stored in the saved game.

If the problem persists in a new game, then it is in your game files. Most likely suspect would be something wrong in a language file that you edited. MARS is quite mature and I have never heard of a conflict with another (released) script. (although it is not impossible).

The game can be picky about xml syntax. A small error can cause the entire file to not be read. Visual Studio (including the free version) allows you to View Errors which will show any xml syntax errors in your language files.
The real interesting thing is once the problem occurs, it will persist with a new start and reinstall of MARS. Meaning there are no edited t files. Also bear in mind that the script worked perfectly with edited files until the problem started. Besides what I did was add 3 custom lasers and MARS continues to recognize and use them after the problem started. The only problem with the custom lasers is; it does not adhere to target size restrictions. But just to be sure I'll check with visual studio even though I use notepad++ with xml plugin.

PS: I've checked the t file no syntax errors as I suspected.

redagent
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Post by redagent » Wed, 25. Feb 15, 03:51

Dear Moders, I need your help!
Finally I decided to test MARS, and after installing it found a little annoying issue.
I use in my game enlarged fonts and due to this I cannot see the options in MARS Configuration menu. I see only "..." instead of "on/auto/off" options.
Where and how I can change the size of this window to expand it, if it possible without hardcoding? I am far from from it. Very far.
Yes, I can easy to change fonts back to original, but those ones were pure torture for my eyes (Was the BDSM invented in Germany?)
I play X3:AP 3.1.

---------
Also I wanted to confirm the game crashes(freezes), while using MARS in particular situations. Now I think it is the issiue mentioned at this post
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 06#4007806
connected to "Bounce" script from Litcube. But I am not shure, because I use a lot of other mods. though they were properly worked together for a long long time. And a few mods along MARS were installed recently - Sector Takover (STOv1.57), BounceV1.7 and Anarkis Defence System (ADS 265).

So the freez-issues only happened in sectors with Xenon ships - Xenon 598 and neighbor ZAyart's Dominion. And I fought in the same places with active mars turrets earlier without freezes. But I've made two things right before it happend (and continued to happen after same time after each reload):
- Installed Sattelite pattern with goblins using MARS Hotkey in Z.Dominion.
- activated mars turrets on a four M7-Agamemnons equipped with drones MK-2 and gathered in one wing assisting me in the battle. Also I had my carrier Xenon-J with 50 fighters operated by ADS. There was not so much ships in the space when freez happened - most of the fighers were docked on my carrier. And there was about 20-30 Xenon ships. when I turned off MARS turrets on all my four AGamemnons - all became ok. Finished that battle - kill all xenon in 598 and flew back to Z.Dominion.
After few minutes xenonn appears and drone started from my ship - game have freezed. - reload, jump to Z.dominion - freez again. Reload game, stop MARS On my ship - jump - fly few minutes in Z.Dominion - Freeez.
I tryed to stay in 598, jumped in other sectors - no changes - after every reload I got freez in few minutes.
So I load previous save and continued to play. Still then I have played about 6 hours (ingame time) and didn't use MARS turrets on my nonplayer ships and didn't start SAT-pattern. All stable. Bounce was enabled all this time
I just knew about issue with Bounce and going to repeat all the same without bounce. But I have dicided to write here first and maybe get some valuable information about all this stuff.

P.S. Sorry for my grammar - english is not my first language... niether the second.

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DrBullwinkle
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Wed, 25. Feb 15, 04:09

"Hard-coding" usually refers to compiled code. That requires resources to which most modders do not have access.

The menus are in scripts, which you can modify with the in-game Script Editor or X-Studio Script Editor.

If you are playing AP, then you could try changing the "open custom menu" lines to "open custom info menu". Info menus are the wide menus that you see in AP.

Freezes are usually caused by a bad loop in a script. Typically they are true bugs.

Stutters, which are momentary freezes, can have a variety of causes -- most of them performance-related. They may be unintentional, but may or may not be true bugs.

MARS is cpu-intensive, so stutters may be unavoidable during large battles, especially if you have MARS running on many ships.

Personally, I don't know of any freezes related to MARS. But I certainly do not know everything. :)

redagent
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Post by redagent » Wed, 25. Feb 15, 15:28

DrBullwinkle wrote:"Hard-coding" usually refers to compiled code. That requires resources to which most modders do not have access.

The menus are in scripts, which you can modify with the in-game Script Editor or X-Studio Script Editor.

If you are playing AP, then you could try changing the "open custom menu" lines to "open custom info menu". Info menus are the wide menus that you see in AP.
Thanks for clue, DrBullwinkle! It helped and menus have changed to suitable shape!

But I had to spent more than 1 hour to realize how to make it. Even this actions so simple to you was a "hard-coding" for me )))
I am goblin level one in the World of Scripts. And last code I wrote was a simple shooter on Sinclair BASIC for ZX-Spectrum in 1993.
So far I did all changes in scripts with text editor (AKelpad) and all was ok and worked properly after edit.

I could not find the strings "open custom menu" with text search in mars/scripts folder.
Then I made some investigation about X3:scripting and decided to try X-Studio. But It was a first time I use something more complicated than AkelPad. Spent some time for education... and found the desicion.

Well for those who want to do it but have the same level in scripting I giving this description which helps to spare your time:
Run X-Studio
Open script file from mars script folder plugin.gz.mars.config.xml
(I've found only one file with description "menu" in this folder)
In this file find string "open custom menu":
$Menu.Return = open custom menu: title=$Dummy1 description=$Dummy2 option array=$Menu.Arr
and change it to
$Menu.Return = open custom info menu: title=$Dummy1 description=$Dummy2 option array=$Menu.Arr maxoptions=null
Add text "info" and " maxoptions=null"
save. rewrite this file in game folder.

Now, MARS menu has become even wider, than you need. THat changes had affected on to both windows - ship menu and configuration menu. Covering half of screen space. But it is not a big deal - I am using hotkeys in combat.
Last edited by redagent on Wed, 25. Feb 15, 15:46, edited 2 times in total.

redagent
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Post by redagent » Wed, 25. Feb 15, 15:35

Deleted a stupid question from the lazy player, who do not like to read all those spreadsheets of manuals...
Last edited by redagent on Mon, 2. Mar 15, 11:24, edited 1 time in total.

redagent
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Post by redagent » Mon, 2. Mar 15, 04:35

redagent wrote:Also I wanted to confirm the game crashes(freezes), while using MARS in particular situations. Now I think it is the issiue mentioned at this post
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 06#4007806
connected to "Bounce" script from Litcube. But I am not shure, because I use a lot of other mods. though they were properly worked together for a long long time. And a few mods along MARS were installed recently - Sector Takover (STOv1.57), BounceV1.7 and Anarkis Defence System (ADS 265).
At last I have caught the exact reason of the game crashes.
Bounce it is - with MARS... or MARS it is - with Bounce - you decide.
It happens only if I start MARS in the turrets of my owned ship(s) only in sector and Bounce enabled. not the ship I fly , but any of my AI-controlled ship.

EDIT. I've made few more tests. It doesn't matter how many ships are in sector - game crashes even if there is two of my ships and a few xenon ships.
I had only two ships in sector - my AI Tokyo without any ships in hangars. My own Agamemnon. 1 Xenon attacking me. And 3 or 4 Xenon M3 far away. Sextor Xenon 472. There is Xenon Shpyard and Xenon Station as well.

The only circumstances are:
Bounce 1.7 - enabled
Tokyo (AI) - MARS 5.25 - enabled (offence) in turrets - drones launched from this ship.
Agamemnon (own) - MARS 5.25 - disabled and MY own ship drones also launched by pressing hotkey (launch goblin at target).

The crush happens only if MARS drones were launched from both of my ships (own and AI) simulatenously. Launching them only from AI Ship(s) or only from my own do not causes crushes with Bounce enabled.
Apologize for Grammar! English is not my first language.
Played X2 for months. Played X3 for years. Played XR for one week. Now playing X3...

cpt1silencer
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turrets

Post by cpt1silencer » Mon, 16. Mar 15, 11:59

for some reason MARS isnt working correctly on my new ship, I have 16 starburst shockwave cannons and 12 spots to put them in, 8 main ones and 4 turrets, but mars keeps unequiping all but 1 of the 8 and uses 1 on each of the 2 turret areas, when i manualy equip them MARS takes them off again.

whats going on here? do i have to reload or something. 744 752 756 are the numbers it taged to my ship name.

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X2-Illuminatus
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Post by X2-Illuminatus » Mon, 16. Mar 15, 18:26

From the MARS FAQ:
Gazz wrote:Q: Why does MARS only load 1 laser into a turret when there could be 8?

A: For not doing anything, one laser is sufficient.
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