06 May 2014: LIFE-V0.95b: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uqdh1bvlujrw5ze/fCGDguWIO3
- Globals have changed, so you will have to redo your configuration settings.
- A new automated installer is available for beta testing, it provides functionality to generate correct payloads and to deposit them into the correct locations for a number of different installation configurations.
- * Vanilla or light to medium modified X3TC 2.5
* Vanilla or light to medium modified X3AP 3.1
* Medium to heavily modified X3AP 3.1 with XRM 1.30d
* Medium to heavily modified X3 with TC plots 2.2a for AP 3.1
- * Do NOT run the installer on your only copy of X3, even though it's extremely unlikely that it will corrupt your X3 installation, I will not be held responsible if it does.
* Backup your saves, backup your scripts, backup your mods and backup or have the means to re-install/re-download your X3 installation, just in case the infinitely improbable does occur.
* Do NOT run the installer over scripts that have names that could match to the following wildcard pattern, *plugin.LIFE*xml; the first thing the installer does is blow away any old installation files using the above brute force wildcard pattern. If you do have files that could be caught by this monstrosity, then back them up, then install LIFE, then restore them.
* The installer should cater for most mod configurations, but if you are merging LIFE with a mod that has it's own conversation file that I haven't catered for, then you still need to use the old insert method described in the conversations merging readme.txt file.
* The installer checks for the X3TC.exe in whatever X3 folder it is given, (through the registry or the user), and will not install if it does not find this file; if you really feel the need to set up some kind of crazy hacked sandbox, then just create a dummy X3TC.exe file and install away.
* No matter which installation configuration you choose, the installation folder is always the root folder of X3 where X3TC.exe is contained. Do NOT point the browse dialog into your addon folder or your pr0n directory, it shouldn't install, (because of the X3TC.exe check), but if it does I can guarantee you it won't work.
* The installer creates a LIFE folder in your X3 root folder, which for now houses the uninstaller. Eventually there will be a wad of extra files providing company to the uninstaller, but for now if you want to uninstall using the installer, this is where you will do it.
- Added 'Disable or Enable Player Race Actor Names:' in Configuration -> Audio; this option replaces the Player's Name for all Player Owned ships, (when they initially try to speak), with names based on the 'Player Actors Speech/Face/Race' option. This option should not be used for mods that do their own renaming of pilots, (e.g. CODEA).
- Added a 'conversations_XRM.xml' file to the conversations bucket, I somehow inadvertently missed that XRM has a minor change to the mission conversations. *Note* the installer automatically does everything for you, so this shouldn't cause too much drama.
- Added 'Completely Deactivate LIFE:' to Configuration -> System; this is used for a complete uninstallation of LIFE. When using this option, make sure you give any wayward scripts or MD cues around 60 seconds to deactivate, then save, quit and uninstall using the installer or manually. Once you restart X3 and re-load your new LIFEless save game you should be golden without having to endure any save game corruption.
- Added a 'Missions' option to the Configuration menu; all mission configurables will now be available here.
- Added 'Bailed Pilot Chance as a percentage:' and 'Bailed Ship Hull Damage as a percentage:' to Configuration -> Missions; these options allow you to change the frequency of 'Little Class' ships bailing from none to lots, setting either of the values to zero should effectively stop all bailing.
- Moved 'Disable or Enable Popup Messages:' from Configuration -> System to Configuration -> Missions.
- Fixed, (mostly), Bailed Pilots showing fight and trade icons during MD windows of opportune spazness.
- Fixed Neutral races leaking into News generation.
- Fixed Drones, Astronauts and Spaceflys causing spurious G.O.D. events due to null killers.
- Configuration: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=365070
- Old Updates: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=362139
Summary:
- LIFE's current version is 0.95b, where 'b' signifies Beta.
- LIFE is a set of MSCI scripts and Mission Director XML files that, well, tries to awaken the rather static X3 Universe.
- LIFE has currently been tested on X3 AP 3.1, X3 TC 2.5 and XRM. LIFE will not work with X3 Reunion. See PDouma39's excellent posts for more compatibility results: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 1&start=31.
- LIFE is made up of a number of different modules:
a) The old school X2 news articles provided by the Galactic News System, (GNS), see: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=260555.
b) A live real time dynamic news system built on top of the GNS that provides system wide information on station attacks/destruction, bounties, skirmishes, conflicts and outright wars. These news events are not faked in anyway, battles in sector or out of sector are recorded in real time and used to generate flavoured news. The news will also display articles for special events, such as the following, (for NPC's as well as the player's involvement):
- * sighting/destruction of UFO's.
* missing ships in Unknown, Xenon and Khaak sectors.
* hit and runs of astronauts and bailed pilots.
* ships/stations destroyed by explosion shock waves.
* same race violence.
* deaths of well known bounty hunters.
* rescuing of bailed pilots.
* suicides.
* collisions with stationary objects.
* death by mines.
* death by the Galactic Obliteration Device.
c) A bounty system that generates the top 8 fugitives per race, (accessible within that race's sector or from a race's station that contains a news representative), showing the number of victims they have slaughtered, their last known position, (sector), and the bounty on their head. Also displayed is news about bounties that are collected, (by NPC bounty hunters as well as the player), if the player kills a fugitive with a bounty on his head, then the player is rewarded by that race's news representative the next time he accesses that race's news.
d) A sector wide emergency broadcast channel that only friendlies can use and listen too; using the unused voice samples within X3's data files to attempt to liven up the normally all too quiet sectors. Ships under attack, (in sector), will use this emergency broadcast channel for a number of different situations, including:
- * under attack, (different voice samples are used based on ship class, shields/hull damaged and even being attacked by missiles).
* death scream.
* smack talk after finishing off an opponent.
* movie quotes for leveling up.
f) NPC leveling; NPC's are able to level based on the number of kills they obtain, this works OOS as well as in sector. As an NPC ship levels up it's abilities also increase, with level 10 being the maximum which provides a 50% increase to an NPC's speed and turning ability. A leveling NPC will receive maximum equipment, tunings, shields and weapons by the time it is level 5. Each time an NPC levels, it's hull will regenerate to 100% over a user defined period of time, (default 30 seconds, it can be disabled), and will receive a fresh compliment of it's most deadly equipable missile in an amount equal to half of it's remaining cargo space; this continues even after level 10.
g) Dynamic mission generation; civilian as well as military craft will issue maydays and provide missions to kill their current attackers. None of this is pre-generated, this mission system reacts in real time to current sector events. Rewards for these dynamic missions are not generated out of thin air, the rewards generator attempts to use the current possessions of the NPC's cargo hold/weapons bay/shields bay. Dynamic conversations are generated, (they are optional and are provided purely for flavour and they will be expanded), based on the state of the current attacked ship.
h) Pilots of class little ship can and will bail in fights independently of the player, some of them will become available for dynamic missions involving their rescue from certain death, (i.e. lack of oxygen, radiation poisoning etc). Remember to have cargo space and life support unless you like hearing them splat on the windscreen of your M6. News articles are generated based on the results of these missions and even if the bailed pilots are killed/run over.
i) Preliminary Station News has been implemented, this will develop into a fully fledged mission system involving scenarios like:
- * save the station from it's attackers, (any ships docked to the station will undock and support your efforts).
* save the hundreds of bailing station occupants, (these will appear as swarms of astronauts bailing out of a near death station), and get them to safety.
* save defending ship's pilots who have bailed out of their wrecked ships.
* setup defences against further attacks whilst the station is repaired.
* provide raw materials in large quantities for the repair of the station.
Installation:
- LIFE is now trivial to install; download and execute the installer, choose the appropriate installation option for whatever major mods you are running and voila done. You can download the installer from here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uqdh1bvlujrw5ze/fCGDguWIO3
- If you are playing X3 in a language other than English, then you will need to rename the "t/9500-L044.xml" file, (after you have installed), so that the last two digits of the filename represent your language; use the language identifier table below:
- 49 - German
48 - Polish
44 - English
42 - Czech
39 - Italian
34 - Spanish
33 - French
07 - Russian
- For those of you who prefer the old manual installation method for language file or conversation file hacking, then you still have access to the original separate archives, "LIFE-VX.XXx Director.zip", "LIFE-VX.XXx Scripts.spk" and "LIFE-VX.XXx Scripts.zip". You can download these three archives from here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uqdh1bvlujrw5ze/fCGDguWIO3
a) Navigate your way to your X3 AP 'addon' directory and create a 'director' directory within the 'addon' folder if one does not already exist.
b) Within LIFE-VX.XXx Director.zip you will find two directories, 't' and 'director', copy the contents of the zip's file 'director' folder into the 'director' folder you just created/found.
c) Copy and rename the appropriate conversations_XX.xml file from the contents of the zip's file 't' folder into the 'addon/t' folder, (read the readme.txt file for specific instructions for integrating LIFE's conversations.xml file into AP or TC or an external mod). *NOTE* for most mods, (i.e. XRM), simply copying the appropriate conversations_XX.xml file and renaming it to conversations.xml is all that is required.
d) Copy the 9500-L044.xml file file from the contents of the zip's file 't' folder into the 'addon/t' folder.
e) Use Cycrow's plugin manager to install the "LIFE-VX.XXx Scripts.spk" into your X3 AP installation or alternately do it manually yourself using the LIFE-VX.XXx Scripts.zip archive, (unzip to addons/scripts).
f) You can now launch X3, there will be a visual indication of LIFE's installation and initialisation success through a dialog box.
g) Assign a key to 'LIFE: configuration' in the controls/extensions menu and optionally assign keys to the other LIFE keyboard shortcuts.
h) For TC do exactly as above, but without the addon extension in the shown folder paths.
Compatibility:
- See PDouma39's excellent posts about mod compatibility, (yes LIFE is compatible with XRM): http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 1&start=31
- LIFE has been tentatively set as BSG compatible, subject to some serious play-throughs.
- LIFE has been tentatively set as Terran Conflict plots 2.2a for Albion Prelude 3.1 compatible, subject to some serious play-throughs.
- LIFE has been tentatively set as Phanon Corporation compatible, subject to some serious play-throughs.
Dependencies:
**LIFE-V0.57a onwards no longer have the CommunityPluginConfiguration dependency**
- LIFE has one inbuilt dependency, the GNS which is fully integrated into LIFE. i.e. there is nothing for you to install or worry about when it comes to dependencies.
Configuration:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=365070
Known bug's:
- *FIXED* Very rarely explosion shock-waves are sending hapless victims clear across the sector, this is most likely an overflow issue with my fixed point maths calculations.
- *FIXED* Rare X3 hang in the MD instantiation spawning for attacked ships.
- *FIXED* Spontaneous combustion in Kingdom End; see Update 0.71a
- *FIXED* Bailed pilot dynamic missions not stepping to rescued after being scooped up by player; see Update 0.71a
- *FIXED* M8's and TM's are not stepping from combat to reward as part of a distress mission, it's not possible to have a valid actor and hence a conversation with the way Egosoft have defined the M8 and TM's class. This was fixed by excluding them from dynamic distress missions.
- *FIXED* Occasional ships are intermittently stepping through their dynamically generated mission incorrectly, leaving a ship with an invalid conversation offer.
- *FIXED* It was reported that the Player's MD Queue ship was visible, (I couldn't reproduce this finding in my test beds), nonetheless I added some extra switches to the MD Queue ship creation code.
- *FIXED* Lots of race/notoriety issues with news representatives and the news hotkey.
- *FIXED* Goner's news representatives do not spawn correctly on Goner temples.
- *FIXED* TC activation bug: current workaround is to disable and then re-enable LIFE in it's configuration menu.
TODO's:
- Reserve a LIFE specific t/text file, this only needs to be done for mods that modify the original GNS t/text file.
- Bounties need to be offered on the player's head, not just NPC heads.
- More variety in the emergency broadcast system; this one is tough as even though there is a wealth of untouched samples within X3's audio data, it's non trivial to access all of it in a standardised way from both the MD and from the MSCI. There is also the potential to record more voice samples, but it won't be me doing or organising that.
- The current Dynamic Mission Generation is just the tip of the iceberg.
- Aggressive AI for the NPC's that are capable of leveling up. i.e. they actively scan sectors for dropped tunings, cargo, weapons etc. they actively hunt the player down, (if he is an enemy with a bounty on his head), etc.
- Station Missions, see Summary i) above.
- *PARTIAL* Strafing and some decent aerial/space maneouvers for Leveling NPC's, see: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=359766
- *DONE* News articles need to be generated about station events not just ship events.
- *DONE* Rename GNS specific scripts so that LIFE can co-exist with other GNS based mods.
- *DONE* Add MD and MSCI code to allow player fleets to be part of LIFE, currently there is no activity through the emergency broadcast channel or the dynamic news generation for player owned ships. This makes the Player Information Network in player controlled sectors kind of dull as currently the only reported news is War news.
- *DONE* NPC leveling is functionally all implemented, the only thing that is missing is the adding of tunings to the NPC ships, this is a balance issue that I will leave until later.
- *DONE* A proper reward system that uses items within the current victim's inventory rather than magically generated rewards. So that a kitted military ship might throw you a decent weapon if you save it from certain death, or a civilian might bail on his ship, leaving it for you as it is almost scrap and from his point of view not worth repairing.
Technical:
- If you enable debugging within the LIFE configuration menu you'll occasionally get subtitle debug messages. But if you grab a decent windows tail -f clone, (XTail, WinTail, etc), you can in real time watch the 10 glorious log files and how they interact as the X3 universe unfolds. The log files are situated in "My Documents/Egosoft/X3AP", i.e. one directory up from your save files, named as:
- * 99999 plugin.LIFE.config
* 99998 plugin.LIFE.generate.news
* 99997 plugin.LIFE.station.signal.attacked.killed
* 99996 plugin.LIFE.ship.bounties
* 99995 plugin.LIFE.ship.signal.attacked
* 99994 plugin.LIFE.ship.signal.killed
* 99993 plugin.LIFE.mdcomms.debug
* 99992 plugin.LIFE.mdcomms.queue
* 99991 plugin.LIFE.ship.leveling
* 99990 plugin.LIFE.ship.ai
- I've appended LIFE specific mission conversations to t/conversations.xml, this will probably cause issues with any mod that also modifies this file, but it is trivial to cut the LIFE specific sections out and paste them into the modified one on a per mod basis.
- I have data structures, (Queues), representing attackers and attacked throughout the universe for each race that allow the MD and MSCI to exchange data. These are implemented as wings attached to invisible and indestructible ships in sector 0, 0 at remote positions. I'll need to check that sector 0,0 exists and that there is nothing at those positions.
- I use Neutral Race.notoriety as a signalling mechanism between the MD and MSCI, any mod that uses the Neutral Race's notoriety will cause issues.
Background:
- Why now?
I started this project in the middle of 2010 when I had a three month hiatus from work, as I progressed there was more and more noise being generated about the imminent release of X-Rebirth. A couple of weeks before I had to return to work, I downed tools and began to visualise everything that X-Rebirth could be...
Fast forward to today three and half years later and we have a typical Egosoft new engine release, awesome promise and potential, but buggy as hell with a low performance reality.
I've always loved the X series and I always will, but X-Rebirth needs at least a few solid months of tender love and care until it is ready to be played as it was envisioned. Until then I've decided to pick up where I left off and release LIFE.
Awesome Tools:
- XPluginManager, XCreator
- X3ModManager, X3 Editor 2
- Exscriptor
- X-Studio
- Cycrow's cheat scripts, invaluable for setting up numerous test scenarios
- NSIS Open Source Windows Installer: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page
Shout Outs:
- The above tool developers.
- Cycrow, for being a machine.
- The XTC team, your GNS was what inspired this project in the first place.
- ScRaT, for his excellent menu tutorial and his MD forum insights.
- PDouma39, for his excellent alpha testing, bug hunting and mod compatibility research.
Old Updates:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=362139