[script] Improved Kha'ak 2: The Revenge [Updated: 2013.05.17]

[DrBullwinkle]

All great theme ideas, 789. I don't know what they mean, in terms of gameplay, but they sound great.

Mainly, I was looking for your scripts to add a bit of intelligence and aggression to the enemies, as well as whatever magic your evil mind comes up with. Perhaps you could give us some idea of what you can do?

For example, with Jobs and OBS, we can easily increase *numbers* of enemies. However, beyond a certain point, greater numbers do not create a greater challenge. For example, the only difference between 10 M2's and 100 M2's is time; because no more than 10 M2's can be within firing range of the player at any instant in time. The rest just spend their time in collision avoidance or mostly-uninteresting NPC-vs-NPC battles.

However, there are examples of smarter enemies that increase challenge. The Tyr chase, at the end of Balance of Power, features unusually aggressive and tenacious M2's; resulting in perhaps the best combat challenge of the vanilla game.

Other examples include:

- The smarter and more aggressive enemies of Phanon Corporation
- ADS fighters which teleport back to their carrier for repairs when damaged
- In-sector Point-to-point jumps to evade attacks
- Generally increased "Aggression" or "Missile fire probability" settings (especially on M8's).
- Missile-spamming RRF M8's and M7M's

Obviously, stronger ships and weapons are nice, as well, although they fall more into the "mod" category rather than the "script" category.

What else can you do to increase combat challenge of the enemies?

[SirDeathwalker]

Idea 1

"Perhaps we look at the Xenon in the wrong light. We know their programming was to protect humanity and develop us planets. What if they are protecting us? What if keeping us busy and contained with their little skirmishes is to keep us ignorant and happy? What could be that outside threat?"

-Professor Paranid, shortly before execution by priest king

What if they found a ancient machine that was old before dinosaurs walked the earth... and it was powerful enough to wipe out it's own creators and their contemporaries long ago and "oh, look, more stupid carbon-forms to destroy" Maybe it reprograms the Xenon to be smarter, tougher, even more aggressive.


How about a swarm like invasion timer, set to attempt to actually take over a sector (race responses would make this interesting), single swarm, that if successful, then attempts to wipe out the next sector... and so on until destroyed. The timer can be set for hours or days, and it is outside the normal routines of the in game Xenon.


I also like the miniaturization option.... make Xenon capable of "capturing" a ship (by transferring either a program or nanobots to a ship in combat)

make them capable of subterfuge, a captured buster shows as argon until within say 3 k or less, maybe require a bioscanner to confirm.(and does not turn red until detected as Xenon) -imagine a small fleet of captured ships, all coming in looking normal and friendly, suddenly they swam attack a station or ship....

[TouchMyNipple]

I love the migration idea. Especialy if combined with some type of a revenge protocol like "some creatures are interupting our supply chanels. These should be wiped out to secure communication".
Especialy great if those migrations could be some sort of transport convoys. Like 3-5 TLs and a HUGE fleet backing them up and securing their safety.

[7ate9tin11s]

All great theme ideas, 789. I don't know what they mean, in terms of gameplay, but they sound great.

A story will make one think and extend it on their own, whereas a fully fleshed idea is hard to change and is generally met with only approval or disapproval. In essence, if you want and need ideas it is better to feed imagination then to invoke rational analysis.

Anyways, I always think in stories so it is easier for me to present initial ideas this way.

----- End Pseudo-Psychology Lesson -----

Thanks for all the idea so far! I hope to begin looking into script creation while my work is closed next week (This week is a bit harsh with all the end of year tasks).

The most important question for me in evaluating options is how the different Xenon activities can make the game more fun within the framework of the basic ways to play X: Fight, Trade, Explore, and Capture. As an example, IK2 adds to Fight (obvious), Capture (eggs to get ships you could not otherwise in a balanced manner), and explore (p2p jumping for speed!), but damages Trade with random or targeted sector cleansing.

-7ate9tin11s

[Yacek]

I, of course, leave the mechanics of such a world to your imagination. What is your dream for the Xenon?

Really Improved Xenon?

As for me Idea 3

[SirDeathwalker]

I will say this, the swarm is persistent... Kept jumping to catch me...
it seems it will stay in sector as long as anything lives... (even if it can't find it)

sweet

(and it looks like it plays with TC with the multiworld mod, only you have to assign all the ships to the swarm)

when you said armada, you meant it.. sheesh...

[SirDeathwalker]

I did notice the behavior of the KI v1.4 where the station would summon fighters to shoot incoming missiles. I would like to see an improvement on that behavior for Xenon, maybe with drones. Possibly a capture ability...

Overheard in a Bar from a drunken conversation between a teladi and a human...

... I detected a small fleet of Xenon moving in a odd direction deep in a sector and discovered an ancient jumpgate... after a few minutes, I followed them through.... They were halfway across the sector heading for another jumpgate.. No, I have no Idea where, it wasn't in any of the charts... after a couple of more gates to unknown sectors... (i had lost them 2 gates back)
I get to this sector... dark.... just filled with debris... some of it completely unknown configurations and materials. after navigating through the twisted hulks, i see the remnants of the Xenon fleet, still burning...
No!... You don't understand... it was THE PLANET!!! I saw a massive beam come from the planet surface and just slice the last Xenon I in two.
The only thing that saved me as I retreated was hiding in the debris, it is thick enough to completely block the line of sight to the planet from the gate.

that was 3 months ago... and now the Xenon are acting.... "differently"...

3 days ago in Priest's Pity, a Split freighter docked with a station and within minutes, the station went dark... and Xenon transmissions were detected coming from it. All the ships docked were later detected as having Xenon transmissions and no pilots...

Basically, Xenon sector takeovers with the assimilation/capture twist.
Colonize and build and economy, even if it is to conquer. (maybe trigger the "diplomacy" function after 5 sectors have been successfully colonized)

Possibly subsequently becoming a member of the commonwealth, with rights and treaties, trade even... Or they can become even more systematically ruthless and destructive, just conquer the Universe one Sector at a time.

(who knows, maybe these New Xenon wage a war of conquest against the other Xenon.. You're in sector for a defend station against the xenon mission, and a second group of Xenon jump in after the first and start attacking them and then communicating with you offering peace)

[SirDeathwalker]

Functionally, I like some of DrB's suggestions...

would it be possible for the new Xenon to be able to detect and take advantage of other useful scripts, like ADS, DCS, MARS, Smart Turrets, etc...
Basically give it access to the kind of advantages the player gets.

The Idea that it's expansion is resource based like Litecube's Phaenon Corp, could be a useful limiter and plot handle (player is requested to do missions by the Xenon)

(maybe Xenon comes to the player's aid to start the plot, you mentioned thinking differently about the Xenon... but then the Terrans will hate this )

[Torren]

"The Xenon are machines, but they were developed for one purpose. To terra-form worlds for us so we could expand and thrive as we went. Something went terribly wrong, and they became hostile. Perhaps even aware. But is not self-awareness a sign of individuality? And are not the Xenon ships simply extensions of a much larger self-aware system? Perhaps, and I use this theory very lightly here, there is not just ONE Self-aware Xenon system but several, and who is to say they all agree with one another?"

~Unknown Argon philosopher

Here's how I see it, the Xenon are simply one form of AGI system developed by the Terrans. Who says that they can't have spun off several other versions of themselves since they seem to act like a rapidly evolving life form. The idea is, really, that each ship in a single collective is simply like a cell in a persons body, carrying out instructions that are given to it by its own RNA/DNA as well as nerve responses from the brain.
What's to say there isn't more than one kind of Xenon out there, and no one said they had to be nice but perhaps they, like people, may not nessicarily like each other either.

From a gameplay standpoint, they wouldn't NEED different ships, though that would be a nice touch. You could have one Xenon Brain utilize a blend of Commonwealth/Khaak/Xenon ships but you might want to find someone who can do some modeling just to make them look a bit off from their original forms to add to that "feel" more.
Ideally having a variety of vessels scripted to work and mesh well in a combat environment would be the place to go with this. A swarm of M3s, M4s, and M5s isn't a challenge because generally they come at you head first. But the game also really fails to take advantage of the faster M5s as turret fodder while larger and slower ships start their approach and bombard the crap out of you.
Just my two credits worth on this one, do what you will with it :3

[Boredom]

"The Xenon are machines, but they were developed for one purpose. To terra-form worlds for us so we could expand and thrive as we went. Something went terribly wrong, and they became hostile. Perhaps even aware. But is not self-awareness a sign of individuality? And are not the Xenon ships simply extensions of a much larger self-aware system? Perhaps, and I use this theory very lightly here, there is not just ONE Self-aware Xenon system but several, and who is to say they all agree with one another?"

~Unknown Argon philosopher

Based on this, one of the Xenon "factions" in sector Xenon 101 would revert back to their original programming, triggered by the imminent threat of the Khaak against the galaxy, thus, against themselves; one way or the other, they will always be next in line, a certain path to extinction. Their only hope is to ally with the other galaxy's races.
That faction's fleet would often be seen helping defend against Khaak swarms, and even open trade routes and their technology to other races, as a pledge of loyalty.

[milytar]

God script,but to me appears one bug,when i want look middle of battle locale map then game crash.Its happens only when i am on battle sector and middle of battle!

[Boredom]

I was fiddling around with changing the egg models after some were laid, and the existing eggs (5 large) stopped the counter and didn't hatch at all. Not a big deal, but might not be a good idea to change them if there's good stuff about to pop, just a heads up
This works wonderfully with XRM (since you can capture Kh'aak ships) and Marine repairs v2 (repairs cannibalized hull with cost), and it doesn't feel like it throws off balance at all, as for getting easy cheapo ships.
----
I got very luck on the weekend. I was on a road trip to barter for some missiles for my Kh'aak frigate, and popped into an ongoing kh'aak swarm invading one of the Argon border sectors somewhere, they laid waste to every single existing defending ship on the sector. A big nasty Argon, Paranid and Pirate furball. I just stood back and watched, it was one of the great moments we play X3 for. When the smoke cleared, only a Kh'aak carrier, a couple corvettes and a bunch of fighters were left, and the carrier was severely crippled, hull at ~30%. Close to the North gate, there was a chance i couldn't miss.
Lured it further away, i wanted it! Sluggish to catch up, i had plenty of time to deal with the escorts, and dragged it to a safe distance. I was hoping some of it's guns were already gone. I closed in for the scan, and nope, they were all there. Those filthy gamma kyons hurt, and can't dodge them. I got really close on it's tail, and fired away dropped it's shields and hull to 24%, and start the hack. Fail one, fail 2, i had to get out of there, my shields were almost gone.
Hoofed it back to recharge my shields, and called in for a couple Pteranodons to help with the task. Those long range Gauss would be useful. Got everything into position, and got the M2 to attack the carrier, with its shields almost gone, i went in for the second hack attempt. Guns silent, my 2 M2 were doing a good job of drawing some attention while i kept trying to capture the carrier, fail after fail, i looked at my cargo hold and was almost out of hackerchips. Arghh! I could swear i had gazillions of them, but still, i was using that many... I needed to jump both M2 out before they started to get banged in the hull, no more chips, it would take me a while to find and get more then head back. I really wanted to RPG that one for the intensity of the moment, all the preparation, and, in the end, i had to let it go and hope it would still be there when i got back. So tempted to cheat.
And while i was rushing through all the possibilities, i heard "ship control transferred". Whaaaa! I was so close i couldn't stop without a love tap
That carrier is now laying eggs. It already spawned another carrier, a destroyer, a handful of bombers and many many small fish, but at a cost of hundreds of millions of credits on repairs, and i don't really have enough gamma kyons to arm them M2/M1 properly. Bartering for these is time consuming and expensive, but for Kh'aak ships, it's so worth it

This really is an amazing piece of scripting, and it should be a MUST in everyone's game!

[greypanther]

Well I come to the party late and this sounds like a must have indeed!

I have one question, do I need to install it with a fresh game start? Or will it be compatible with my save game in which I already own numerous Khaak vessels?

Thank you.

[Larxyz]

work fine with old saves
tho, might depend on what mods your using...

[greypanther]

Thank you, I was just concerned by the fact that I already own a reasonable Khaak fleet, including having bought a Khaak Queen, via the Menagerie Shipyard.

[cyrusx]

Hi.
Thanx for nice addon to universe )
There is a misspelling inside the scripts. Fixing removes a random crashes for me (too often while fighting a HiveQueen).

Script: plugin.ik2.hatch.cmd.xml
Line: 62 (70 plaintext)
Wrong code: $ship ->start task 10 with script 'plugin.ik2.egg.cmd' and prio 0: arg1=null arg2=null arg3=null arg4=null arg5=null
Must be: $ship ->start task 10 with script 'plugin.ik2.eggs.cmd' and prio 0: arg1=null arg2=null arg3=null arg4=null arg5=null

[Binesi]

I tried to uninstall this today. I found the laser tower eggs to be too much of an immersion breaker so I changed all eggs to various mines. Seemed a bit better but when I try to target any of them X locks up.

So anyway, as I was saying I tried to uninstall and that went fine but now my X3 AP seems too boring. The new Khaak where the only significant danger I had! So I want it back... Awesome script!

Any ideas why it would lock up when I change the first eggs to SQUASH, and the second to Matter-Antimatter mines?

[cyrusx]

Hi!

...
Seemed a bit better but when I try to target any of them X locks up.
...

I got the same problem but no answers in this topic.

I tried to fix it myself, seems like I got it.

Just share my fixes: ik2-fixes-cyrus.rar

[Binesi]

Thanks for that! So far, so good. Seems like you have it fixed.

[GDI-BOSS]

Where you can put the difuclt of this great scrpit??in x3R you can choose difccult but in this version i dont see..txs