[SCRIPT] NPC Bailing Addon v1.7.8 [2010-09-21]

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lepidosteus
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Post by lepidosteus » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 08:14

I played a couple of hours on 20%, although it was less battle intensive than last time I can already say that the bailing is definetly better and looks like what I expected from the script: ships derelicts aren't a "mandatory freebie" when you join a sector but rather a nice bonus you can sometimes find ... And most of times not.

Couple of thoughts:

- I've read in some previous posts something suggesting that your script affects not only npc vs npc IS and OOS battle, but also battle between the player and its opponents. Is that true ? If yes, how easy would it be to disable it (or at the very least give it a distinct bailling rate) ? If that's possible, I would want a much slower rate of bailing for npc vs npc that for player vs enemy (game's default rate works for me in PvE).

- If you add derelicts scavengers, please either make it another script (requiring this one) or allow us to deactivate them. As I said, I don't care about racing for ships and all, I just wan't some nice lost treasures here and there, so for me scavengers would kill the fun.

- So far the claim issue seems either fixed or reduced, haven't had a single issue with it when I tried in 100% rate for testing. Will report if it comes back.

Soryy for all the options asking, but I guess this is something that every one enjoys in a different way, and since you seem to actually listen ... :wink:

Great work, and thanks again for this script. I will report back when I will have a chance to play again in some heavy battles (which shouldn't take long, considering the career I'm taking ... gotta love those Cutlass :D)

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 11:25

Great feedback, thanks.
lepidosteus wrote: - I've read in some previous posts something suggesting that your script affects not only npc vs npc IS and OOS battle, but also battle between the player and its opponents. Is that true ? If yes, how easy would it be to disable it (or at the very least give it a distinct bailling rate) ? If that's possible, I would want a much slower rate of bailing for npc vs npc that for player vs enemy (game's default rate works for me in PvE).
Yes, when you personally attack an enemy the same script is fired,as well as the possibility of normal bailing. You mention you want bailing more often with player vs. NPC, well that is the effect this will have. An option to not run NPC Bail Addon if the attacker is the playership is easy to add, though, if that's what you wanted?


lepidosteus wrote: - If you add derelicts scavengers, please either make it another script (requiring this one) or allow us to deactivate them. As I said, I don't care about racing for ships and all, I just wan't some nice lost treasures here and there, so for me scavengers would kill the fun.
Yes, I was thinking yesterday I would release as an independent script, but with strong ties to this one (since NPC salvagers wouldn't be much use without this script). So not to worry.

lepidosteus wrote: - So far the claim issue seems either fixed or reduced, haven't had a single issue with it when I tried in 100% rate for testing. Will report if it comes back.
Awesome, thanks for testing that out.

mufflink
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Post by mufflink » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 11:34

Hi,

Been using this script for the past day or so, excellent piece of work!

Everything is working very well, just 1 issue though.

Any way you could add a timer to the bailed ships so they are removed after a (user determined if possible) set period of time? I've got close to 100 bailed ships lying idle around the universe and this keeps expanding, there is no way I could claim them all without some sort of remote claiming device.

Regards,
Mufflink.
When in doubt.......cheat.

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 12:16

mufflink wrote: Any way you could add a timer to the bailed ships so they are removed after a (user determined if possible) set period of time? I've got close to 100 bailed ships lying idle around the universe and this keeps expanding, there is no way I could claim them all without some sort of remote claiming device.
Oh dear, I considered this might be an issue, but I hoped the engine would take care of that automatically. As I've mentioned before, my preferred solution to such issues is to have NPC salvager ships to clear up the mess. But that might not be for a while. As a stop-gap solution I will add some sort of timer in, as you ask, asap.

milp
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Post by milp » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 14:37

My 2 cents on this are:


- Add an optional Salvage claim software please, yesterday i had an Elephant (Stationtransporter) Bail, and a Xenon P and i had no way of claiming them because im too stupid to use the Marine bailing (does it even work with stationtransporters?), i didnt manage to hold down the shields while my ship launches marines or whatever, this is too complicated for idiots like me :(

- Id say the Equipment damage variable should be more of a priority in the script, capping ships without equipment on them is almost useless in my eyes, ships are easy to get, the real reward is usually whats inside.

Thats all, great script so far!

lepidosteus
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Post by lepidosteus » Mon, 27. Oct 08, 17:31

- Add an optional Salvage claim software please, yesterday i had an Elephant (Stationtransporter) Bail, and a Xenon P and i had no way of claiming them because im too stupid to use the Marine bailing (does it even work with stationtransporters?), i didnt manage to hold down the shields while my ship launches marines or whatever, this is too complicated for idiots like me
Instead of reinventing the wheel all over again, use cycrow's cheat package, target the ship, open cheat menu, "take ownership".

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 02:36

Update v1.2

NOTE: uninstall any previous version before installing this one.

:arrow: There are now more bail rate options (10%, 20%, 30%, ..., 90%, 100%). Please let me know which setting you personally use - it helps in future balancing.

:arrow: Bail rate now has much higher disparity between the settings. At 20% bail rate there is no difference between v1.2 and v1.1, but at all other settings there is now an exponential difference (in my testing I found that the difference between the settings was very small in v1.1).

:arrow: There is a new config option to configure equipment damage rate. There are only two possibilities: "Default" or "Extra". "Default" is as it was in previous versions. "Extra" will keep more equipment depending on hull damage. I would appreciate feedback on this.

:arrow: Ships will now explode after spending 2 hours unclaimed.

:arrow: For extra tuning, the more technically minded can check out a bunch of code in plugin.npcbail.bail.xml at the bottom of the script, which is currently commented out. If you uncomment these lines, you will get subtitle messages telling you: how many ships have bailed since you loaded your savegame; how many seconds have passed since you loaded; and how many ships per min and per hour have bailed.


Soon be tweaked enough to take the 'beta' tag off the name... But need your feedback!

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 03:01

Apologies to those 4 people that downloaded v1.2, please redownload.

There was an error in the t file meaning some of the new bail rate options would display "20%" instead of the actual percent - the option still works correctly though, it was just the text that was wrong.

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 03:25

Ditto again, found a last minute bug in the script (equipment damage option didn't work). Sorry if this is the third time you have downloaded this version. My noob mistake, apologies again.

milp
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Post by milp » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 04:16

Hm you said the old versions should be uninstalled, how exactly do i properly uninstall the old scripts?

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 04:29

milp wrote:Hm you said the old versions should be uninstalled, how exactly do i properly uninstall the old scripts?
Use Cycrow's plugin manager an click uninstall... or just delete the files if you extracted seperately. It's not a critical issue, there will just be redundant script files not being used for anything if you don't uninstall first.

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Malakie
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Post by Malakie » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 04:33

ThisIsHarsh wrote:Update v1.2

NOTE: uninstall any previous version before installing this one.

:arrow: There are now more bail rate options (10%, 20%, 30%, ..., 90%, 100%). Please let me know which setting you personally use - it helps in future balancing.

:arrow: Bail rate now has much higher disparity between the settings. At 20% bail rate there is no difference between v1.2 and v1.1, but at all other settings there is now an exponential difference (in my testing I found that the difference between the settings was very small in v1.1).

:arrow: There is a new config option to configure equipment damage rate. There are only two possibilities: "Default" or "Extra". "Default" is as it was in previous versions. "Extra" will keep more equipment depending on hull damage. I would appreciate feedback on this.

:arrow: Ships will now explode after spending 2 hours unclaimed.

:arrow: For extra tuning, the more technically minded can check out a bunch of code in plugin.npcbail.bail.xml at the bottom of the script, which is currently commented out. If you uncomment these lines, you will get subtitle messages telling you: how many ships have bailed since you loaded your savegame; how many seconds have passed since you loaded; and how many ships per min and per hour have bailed.


Soon be tweaked enough to take the 'beta' tag off the name... But need your feedback!

Very Nice work... Really adds to the game and the new features really give it some configurability..
Take it light.....

Malakie

----------------------------------------------------

999-JAY-999
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Post by 999-JAY-999 » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 08:59

Groooovvvyyyyy.

Love where this script is going .... top notch :)

Will test tonight after work.
System Spec :-

AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Duel 6000+ (3.01GHz)
Windows XP Home Ed. SP 3
ATI Radeon HD 4850 (512)
Creative X-FI Soundard
2.00 GB of RAM
G9 RAZOR Mouse

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Vandrine
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Post by Vandrine » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 14:04

Going to give this sucker a try when I get home! Sounds great.

One thing with the scavangers going round (when you do the seperate script), would it be possible to hire one or two yourself to go round the sectors collecting ships on your behalf? Say they go out claim the ship for you, dock it, and when they're full drop them all off to a designated point?
Or am I getting ahead of myself here? :D

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Saber15
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Post by Saber15 » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 21:51

ThisIsHarsh wrote: One thing I ultimately want to do is add NPC salvager ships to compete with. It seems unrealistic the player is the only salvager in the galaxy, given the money to be made. I suppose something similar will have to be done with boarding parties, but that's a much much more complex problem.
There were salvager ships in X3R, but I only saw them in sectors with very frequent combat. (ex: Split sectors boarding Kha'ak in XTM)

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Graxster
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Post by Graxster » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 22:33

Did you add the option to make all ships bail (rather than just small ships), or do we still need to do that in the script editor? Been too busy to d/l and install the updates, or to play much, for that matter. But will check out this newest version soon!

Also, is there any way to turn this script off once it's installed? From my experience, once you install and run a script, then save your game, it's impossible to stop the script from running even with the files deleted. Maybe you can make it an AL plugin?

-Grax

Khaak_Slayer
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Post by Khaak_Slayer » Tue, 28. Oct 08, 23:33

Couple of quick questions for you ThisIsHarsh. Well, first i'd like to say that you have made an extremely well executed script here. In both your skills at creating a fun script, and your ability to listen to feedback and implement changes. This is nice and original too.

Before installing the new version, I am curious - Will this timer, which destroys derelicts, affect the already derelict ships floating about the universe? I am mainly referring to the secret ships hidden behind various asteroids for the player to find. I wouldn't want to lose them!

I would also like to ask a slightly off-topic question with regards to mission ships being non-claimable. Yesterday i used my marines to board and successfully capture a Pirate Osprey during a station defense mission. This mission then became impossible to complete as the game continued to think my Osprey was a pirate needing to be destroyed. If i left the sector, the ship would go back to being hostile, and i'd fail the mission.

So i wonder if there is something in the scripts or what-have-you, that controls this issue? And if it was possible for you to repair the claim issue with smaller ships, could one also theoretically fix my issue?
Rawr.

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Wed, 29. Oct 08, 00:07

OK, quite a few comment, thanks:

@Vanderine: I plan to make the salvager scripts so they can be used as commands for your own ships as well for NPC salvagers (in fact the command may come before the AL plugin).

@Saber: I have seen civilian ships with 'Salvager' in the name in X3TC, but they just fly from station to station and don't actually salvage anything. I am going to look into retasking them to actually do their job, but that might not be the most feasible solution.

@Graxter: No, still only small ships bail, you will have to edit the script. Large ships really need a whole different set of rules and config options IMO.

As for turning the script off, that shouldn't be an issue. If you just uninstall the script then ships will stop bailing, since the signal will no longer be remapped when you start up your savegame.

@Khaak_Slayer: Thanks for the kudos! The normal derelict ships will not be affected at all by this script.

The mission completion issue shouldn't be a problem - assuming egosoft wrote the missions to accept bailed ships as well as dead ships. I think it is less likely that my script will cause a problem than the boarding parties, since it uses inbuilt new bail command which I'm told has the same effect as if you made the ships bail normally. But I can't be certain on this. I haven't come across any issues myself and noone has reported anything so far to this effect. To clarify, the claim 'fix' would not have any bearing on any potential mission completion issue (and may even make it worse, if it does exist).

ThisIsHarsh
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Post by ThisIsHarsh » Wed, 29. Oct 08, 00:16

To all:

I made a noob mistake in the script where it adds a hotkey to your controls options. You will now have the same hotkey option listed several times, one for each savegame load.

I've replaced the version for download with a fixed version, but not changed the version number for such a tiny change. Please redownload this fixed version.

I've asked the sticky boffins if there is a way to sort this out. Sorry guys.

lepidosteus
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Post by lepidosteus » Wed, 29. Oct 08, 00:19

Ships bailing during missions aren't an issue (it happened to me numerous times and the mission always succeeded). I think this issue is specific to boarding, something I've never tried.

The fix for unclaimable ships is working for me, didn't have any issue at all since the lastest version.

As for the settings, I'm now using 10% and extra, I'm not entirely sure if extra is working (didn't pay attention) and the bailing rate is a little too low, but with 20% it is too high (for me) so I keep it that way.

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