Drone Carrier Software 2 (DCS2) v2.07a

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DrBullwinkle
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Post by DrBullwinkle » Mon, 16. Feb 15, 05:45

As I said earlier, drones don't launch with missiles (carrier task).

They are supplied in the drone task.

HeartlesJosh
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Post by HeartlesJosh » Mon, 16. Feb 15, 08:31

There seems to be some fault in communication here.
I said that I had double checked all the missiles to make sure that something like what I had found earlier in the carrier task, with commonwealth bombers reduced to PBGs and ships like the Spitfyre being completely devoid of weapons due to discrepancies in the constants at the top of the carrier task pointing to the wrong weapons or ships being incompatible with weapons they could use in vanilla.. I was not looking for the equipping of missiles in the carrier task.

Everything in the AddMissile section of the drone task looks like it should work but it's not, so either I can't see the problem in AddMissile, or it's going wrong earlier in the script. You are familiar with your own scripting so I'm asking for your aid in troubleshooting because you will undoubtedly be able to find where the script is hanging faster than I.

I'm a guy with no XML coding experience beyond digging into the files of another game nary a month ago to find out the exact science of how an element in said game works to give that info to other players of the game and it took me a couple hours to get familiar enough with your code to feel confident in making even just a few relatively minor changes (racial weapons in the carrier task, as noted a few posts back). In fact, looking at the edits I did, I need to add a check for whether a drone is a Boron drone or not and if it is, fit Ion weapons, otherwise skip over the fitting of Ion weapons if it is not. The heavier Argon fighters introduced by XRM can fit Ion weapons and thus, get a full rack of them which was not my intention.

My completely newbie impression is that we're just not getting as far as the equipping of fighters so AddMissile is not being called and never comes into play. Even setting the homebase of the drones as their weapon depot and filling the cargo bay with the appropriate missiles, they're not being fitted regardless, which is why I get the feeling the script isn't getting as far as AddMissile. I don't know if there any tools that can monitor a script whenever it's used and see just how much of it is used but those would probably help greatly.

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Mon, 16. Feb 15, 23:58

In the drone task, Torpedoes are only added to ships that have the $drone.is.bomber flag set.

That flag is set in the carrier task in sub DroneType:. Look at lines 990-1002.

It is possible that the flag $drone.is.bomber is not set correctly before line 990, which would cause selection of XRM types from the text file to not work.

Since nobody has reported that problem, including you... well, I don't know why are you not getting torpedoes in XRM.

The simple solution is to stop using XRM. ;)

In the future, I will allow more flexible arming options that should be compatible with any mod.

For now, you can supply the missiles yourself. Set the ship to pull missiles from the carrier. ('g' key).

* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If the $drone.is.bomber is the culprit, then MAYBE you might be able to work around it by adding your torpedoes to the "else" part of the "if $drone.is.bomber" statement in the drone task at around line 426.

MAYBE.
* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Beyond that, you are on your own. I don't play XRM and have no good way to test it. I do know that many XRM players use DCS2. That's all I know, really.

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Post by HeartlesJosh » Tue, 17. Feb 15, 20:20

That still didn't manage to alleviate the issue. I set the types for each of the racial M3Bs to no avail. Drones are just really allergic to missiles. So one last request for assistance, is it possible to comment out drone bomber production? Maybe change the assigned bomber types in the language file to a ship that doesn't exist?

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Tue, 17. Feb 15, 20:33

Change the bomber type to an interceptor (non-bomber).

HeartlesJosh
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Post by HeartlesJosh » Tue, 17. Feb 15, 23:34

Mm, good enough. Was hoping for the ability to turn them off entirely instead of having a Split carrier with Split fighters and Terran "bombers" from playing an earlier save as Terrans.

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Tue, 17. Feb 15, 23:58

You can assign the same ship type to both your custom interceptors and to your "bombers". You just won't get any real bombers, that's all.

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Post by HeartlesJosh » Wed, 18. Feb 15, 02:24

Yes, but if I wanted to play a different save, I would then have to go dig into the language file again and change the bomber appropriately otherwise I would have the fighters of another race being built. As I said, I would end up in scenarios such as flying a Split carrier with Split interceptors but Terran bombers unless I went and changed the designated bomber ship to also be a Split ship. And then go back in and change it once more if I wanted to hop back on the Terran save. Repeat for all races.

This is why I was asking for a way to turn off bomber production entirely and be left with only the interceptors I select in-game as the ships being built.

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Wed, 18. Feb 15, 03:40

It takes less than a minute to change a t file.

Changes take place immediately, in-game.

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Post by HeartlesJosh » Wed, 18. Feb 15, 08:16

Is it not possible to disable bomber production?

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Wed, 18. Feb 15, 08:22

About line 931 in the carrier task, you can try adding:

$rnd = random value between 1 and 7

(Just before "if $rnd < 7 AND $Interceptor.Type")

That should force sub DroneType: to always build interceptors.

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Post by HeartlesJosh » Wed, 18. Feb 15, 10:03

Hasn't worked. Scrapped all the drones to rebuild a fresh carrier's worth and got about half and half bombers and interceptors regardless.

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Wed, 18. Feb 15, 21:11

well, I have given you several viable options to choose from.

Pick one and be happy.

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Post by redagent » Thu, 26. Feb 15, 22:02

Just installed DSC2. After a lot of reading didn't catch few things. So please help me.
In options menu "ADS -Active/Not Active" - What does it mean?

Enable Producing drones, didn't touch anything else and get 49 drones on my Xenon J. It is ok. But I do not understand two things - why there is Bombers M3 (which is unknown object from the first post) and WHY there interceptors M4 with Mass Drivers and EBC - My carrier has no MD, MD-ammo, EBC and EBC-ammo. It is kind a test version of producing and I have to choose exact type of Interceptors? Or mayby it is a special division for enemy harassment?
I didn't touch Weapon Depot option.

One more question - when I gave an order "follow me" to the carrier with active Drone production and Engage enemy he remained standing on the spot. Is it intended?

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Thu, 26. Feb 15, 22:27

redagent wrote:In options menu "ADS -Active/Not Active" - What does it mean?
ADS = Anarkis Defense System.

CODEA and ADS are optional carrier-AI scripts. They are not required. However, if you use them, then there are options on the menu to make DCS2 compatible with them. Mostly the options turn off some DCS2 features that CODEA or ADS replace.

redagent wrote:why there is Bombers M3?
The default drone interceptors are light M4's. They could never kill a large ship. So DCS2 creates a few robust bombers for that job. If DCS2 detects an enemy capital ship nearby, then it will create more bombers and fewer interceptors.

After some time, the number of bombers will reduce back to "peacetime" numbers.


redagent wrote:WHY there interceptors M4 with Mass Drivers and EBC?
Most interceptors have very small laser generators. EBCG and MD use much less energy than other lasers, so they are preferred (IF the ship can mount them).

Ammunition is manufactured automatically by the DCS2 carrier onboard droids. It is supplied to the drones via prototype long-range transporter technology.

redagent wrote:when I gave an order "follow me" to the carrier with active Drone production and Engage enemy he remained standing on the spot. Is it intended?
Not intended.

The carrier may avoid enemies automatically because carriers are expensive and vulnerable; they should not normally get involved in combat. There is a setting in the menu to turn off that feature if you wish.

Other than avoiding enemies, the carrier should accept any order that you give it.

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Post by redagent » Thu, 26. Feb 15, 22:45

DrBullwinkle wrote:However, if you use them, then there are options on the menu to make DCS2 compatible with them. Mostly the options turn off some DCS2 features that CODEA or ADS replace.
Ok. I have only ADS.
BUt What exactly do this compatibility? Which options it turning off and what will happen if I will try to use drones in ADS-fleet without ADS active option ?
DrBullwinkle wrote: After some time, the number of bombers will reduce back to "peacetime" numbers.

Is it automatic system that scraps and reproduces drones to have optimal set of the fighters?
DrBullwinkle wrote: Most interceptors have very small laser generators. EBCG and MD use much less energy than other lasers, so they are preferred (IF the ship can mount them).
Can I choose which weapons will have the default intercepters that costs 100k?
DrBullwinkle wrote:Ammunition is manufactured automatically by the DCS2 carrier onboard droids. It is supplied to the drones via prototype long-range transporter technology.

I had manually sent one interceptor with MD to atack enemy ship but it didn't got any ammo and just was flying around the target without shooting for one minute unless it was killed. what I did wrong?

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Thu, 26. Feb 15, 23:32

The main thing that the CODEA and ADS options do is to turn off "Engage Enemies", which is DCS2's AI for the drones. The drones then become simply ships, which CODEA or ADS can manage. If both ADS and DCS2 try to control the drones, then you will get unpredictable results. :roll:

The CODEA and ADS options may also handle homebasing differently and/or add local variables to support CODEA or ADS, as appropriate.

In both cases, DCS2 cares only about the carrier that it is running on. It does not care about the *fleet*. So you can use Engage Enemies on a DCS2 carrier that is part of a CODEA or ADS fleet -- as long as you do not allow CODEA or ADS to also control the same drones on the DCS2 carrier.

In other words, use either "Engage Enemies" or CODEA/ADS on the carrier. Not both.

Does that make sense?


redagent wrote:Is it automatic system that scraps and reproduces drones to have optimal set of the fighters?
Yes.

redagent wrote:Can I choose which weapons will have the default intercepters that costs 100k?
No. But you should not need to in a vanilla-based 'verse. DCS2 will pick the best available weapon for each drone type.


redagent wrote:I had manually sent one interceptor with MD to atack enemy ship but it didn't got any ammo and just was flying around the target without shooting for one minute unless it was killed. what I did wrong?
That is odd. Should not happen.

An easy workaround is to stock ammunition on your carrier and configure the drones to automatically load it. An easy way to do that is to set global ammunition reload in your global settings (on the Player menu, P). Then apply the global settings to all ships.

  • (FWIW, I am, slowly, working on an update for DCS2 to better handle equipping and bombers in modified games. I will try to reproduce your error reports when I get to that part of testing. However, it may not be soon, because I have other projects on the list before that one.)

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Post by redagent » Thu, 26. Feb 15, 23:56

DrBullwinkle wrote:In other words, use either "Engage Enemies" or CODEA/ADS on the carrier. Not both.

Does that make sense?

Indeed :!:

And the last qustion - does DSC2 compatible with LSDC v.2 (Light Support Drone Carrier)?
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...

redagent
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Post by redagent » Fri, 27. Feb 15, 19:55

DrBullwinkle wrote:
redagent wrote:I had manually sent one interceptor with MD to atack enemy ship but it didn't got any ammo and just was flying around the target without shooting for one minute unless it was killed. what I did wrong?
That is odd. Should not happen.
Maybe there is an issue with ADS?

DrBullwinkle wrote:The drone carrier is the perfect solution to OOS Sector Defense and Patrols.
How could it be the perfect if chooses ammo-based weapon fighters. AFAIK ammo weapon is the worst desicion for OOS. The best is energy-based weapons with maximum damage per shot. Am I wrong?
So maybe the best solution will set to default production M4-Solano-kind with PAC and M3-Bombers with EMPC? IN this configuration they could fight well both in OOS and IS.
For now DSC2 produces about 40% of EBC/MD-Drones when active in OOS.
They all go to attack enemies without ammo.
Used X3:AP with ADS265, LSDC-V2-19.08.2009, Marine_Repairs_and_Training-V214-2015-01-01
Tested with different choosen options in OOS battle with Xenons in 598.
(build always active)
1.
ADS Carrier - Active
Engage enemies - Active
Carrier retreats - Active
A. ADS Command "Clear Sector" - CArrier Comand "none"
B. ADS Autocarrier - Carrier Command "Defend Sector"
(Conflict - Fighetrs behaviour loops. They coming out and landing back after few seconds.)

2.
ADS Carrier - Active
Engage enemies - Off
Carrier retreats - Off
A. ADS Command "Clear Sector" - Carrier Comand "none"
B. ADS Autocarrier - Carrier Command "Defend Sector"


3.
ADS Carrier - OFF (hangar cleared)
Engage enemies - Active
Carrier retreats - OFF
A. Carrier Command "Defend Sector"
B. Carrier Command "None"

All the same. Ammo-drones went to fight without ammo.

But I have to confess - these drones killed xenons in 598 quickly and effectively!!! It could be done cheaper With 3 terran M2 - they won't loose credits in each fight (if they won't lose themselves). Drones dying constantly, but reproduces with almost the same speed.
And if you need to hold some hot spot without a risk to loose capitals - it is the option. And you don't need to manage anything - just pay! (if you have carrier)

Also it is still the best solution for IS battles! (especially with ammo-based fighter with ammo.)

I must admit - after numerous tests of defferent fighter types for IS battles, my choice became M3-Venti with EBC.
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...

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Post by DrBullwinkle » Fri, 27. Feb 15, 20:04

redagent wrote:AFAIK ammo weapon is the worst desicion for OOS. The best is energy-based weapons with maximum damage per shot.
Old news. Ammo weapons are fine OOS in AP. While it is true that highest damage weapons are best OOS, EBCG and MD are still "good" in that way. And they are far superior IS.



redagent wrote: these drones killed xenons in 598 quickly and effectively!!! ...
And if you need to hold some hot spot without a risk to loose capitals - it is the option. And you don't need to manage anything ...

Also it is still the best solution for IS battles! ...

I must admit - after numerous tests of defferent fighter types for IS battles, my choice became M3-Venti with EBC.
Yep. That is what it is all about.

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