[BBS Plugin] X3 BBS Project 2

Buck_Rogers · Post by **Buck_Rogers** » Thu, 10. Apr 08, 10:22

Is this compatible with the other BBS extra scripts. (cycrows and LV's) at least I think thats the others I have

moot · Post by **moot** » Thu, 10. Apr 08, 10:58

Buck_Rogers wrote:Is this compatible with the other BBS extra scripts. (cycrows and LV's) at least I think thats the others I have

Yes. Cycrow's and LV's (and many others') scripts are actually BBS quests. As far as I know, my script is one of the 3 to 4 BBS message scripts in existence (the others being the German X3 BBS Project, and loose BBS components from XTM and XFP.)

ephemeron · Post by **ephemeron** » Thu, 10. Apr 08, 16:47

I like the variety -- seeing the same news stories again and again was getting old, and XUniversifying real news stories is a clever way to liven things up.

You might consider one little tweak, though: I got a story about "one of the largest entertainment companies in Xenon Sector 472". The idea of killer AI's watching "Spacefly Effect II" does have a certain charm, but maybe the Xenon sectors should be taken off of the list of places to set news stories.

moot · Post by **moot** » Thu, 10. Apr 08, 18:11

ephemeron wrote:You might consider one little tweak, though: I got a story about "one of the largest entertainment companies in Xenon Sector 472". The idea of killer AI's watching "Spacefly Effect II" does have a certain charm, but maybe the Xenon sectors should be taken off of the list of places to set news stories.

Just a question: did you load a save game from a salvage-insurance save in Xenon Sector 472, or were you docked in a station in Xenon Sector 472? (If the latter, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING THERE?

Interesting bug, I think I know where it comes from- line 5:

Code: Select all

$thissector = [PLAYERSHIP] -> get sector

The problem comes because $thissector$ is generated at the point of loading the save game , not when you actually dock at the station. So if you loaded your save game from Xenon Sector 472, $thissector$ would still be Xenon Sector 472 even if you're half a galaxy away from it.

If anyone can point out how I can get $thissector$ in real time, I'd be grateful.

ephemeron · Post by **ephemeron** » Thu, 10. Apr 08, 19:52

moot wrote:Just a question: did you load a save game from a salvage-insurance save in Xenon Sector 472, or were you docked in a station in Xenon Sector 472? (If the latter, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING THERE?

Yeah, it was a salvage-insurance save. I'm not quite crazy enough yet to try building in Xenon sectors, and for some reason the locals won't give me docking clearance.

Sounds like the bug that's already been ID'ed, then.

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Fri, 11. Apr 08, 10:42

So... if I am reading this right it is pretty much compatible with everything? Reason I ask is that I believe the XTM mod (which I use) are adding a few info BBS messages. Will this work even though you use other scripts adding messages to the BBS whether they be missions or just plain info and news?

Wonderful script - will install and play. And if you say there incompatible I will use an old save hopping for future compatibility

Legionnaire · Post by **Legionnaire** » Fri, 11. Apr 08, 11:07

I'm Running XTM, this and a couple of other BBS scripts, and non of them seem to be causing problems with any others. so as far as i can tell you can use this happily.

Legionnaire

moot · Post by **moot** » Fri, 11. Apr 08, 11:16

Locksley wrote:So... if I am reading this right it is pretty much compatible with everything? Reason I ask is that I believe the XTM mod (which I use) are adding a few info BBS messages. Will this work even though you use other scripts adding messages to the BBS whether they be missions or just plain info and news?

It might crowd out the other BBS-based scripts a little. As far as I understand, there are a finite number of BBS messages that can appear at any one time. Adding more BBS scripts or increasing their frequency means seeing less of the others.

I used to have an XTM version of my script: one of the main motivating factors for creating this script was that BBS news from XTM felt way too frequent, and was turning the BBS into an X-universe Jane's. My version basically replaced XTM's script and t file, and limited XTM's ship/weapon-related articles to pirate stations.

I might ask the XTM team for permission to do that later, before making it available.

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Fri, 11. Apr 08, 12:02

Thank you both - that was fast

Sooo, there is no way to make stations show more BBS messages at a time? And ofcourse one would wish for the endless repeat to stop - "hmm, I read this statement from the government three weeks ago and yet they haven't implemented the speed limit", kinda deja vu experience.

Anyway - thanks alot, will now play

moot · Post by **moot** » Fri, 11. Apr 08, 12:16

Locksley wrote:Sooo, there is no way to make stations show more BBS messages at a time?

Fraid not.

nd ofcourse one would wish for the endless repeat to stop - "hmm, I read this statement from the government three weeks ago and yet they haven't implemented the speed limit", kinda deja vu experience.

Offhand I can think of at least two ways--one is to divvy up stories according to plot progress (isn't it strange how the Paranid <censored> is so major in the campaign universe, yet there's no mention of it in the vanilla game?!!), and another is to allocate them to playing time. This feature, of course, is two script updates and 300 more articles later.

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Wed, 23. Apr 08, 14:54

Got some testing done for ya. Got some scripts installed, XTM amongst others; dunno if it affects your BBS entries, shouldn't really should it?

Let's see:
1.Galaxy network - Galnet (Cloudbase south east - in the trading station)
Terrecs urged to buy back "cheap". - Got two $person1$ not showing correctly.

2. hm, cant read my own scriblings... BBS Errook? Gobanis Monisessas - Violent creditors Emerge amidst credit boom. First section is a $thisector$, should be $thissector$ ?

Thats it so far, thought I had a third but it was a duplicate of the first.

Borlange.... du är från sverige va

moot · Post by **moot** » Sat, 26. Apr 08, 09:41

Ok, both bugs have been squashed.

New version release!

Script is now an AL plugin
Bugfix for commodities news: Now they should (finally!) appear on the BBS.
Bugfix for non-docked save games: Messages are now generated only when docked, rather than when a game is loaded. This avoids news "originating" from Xenon and Khaak sectors
More entries added, miscellaneous bugfixes and article edits

Installation/upgrade instructions:

To get the plugin, just go to the first post and download.
For those with the previous version installed, just follow the same installation instructions. Deletion of setup.bbs.news.project2.xml from the script folder is not necessary but recommended.

arcana75 · Post by **arcana75** » Sun, 27. Apr 08, 14:47

Just popping in to say hi from a fellow countryman

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Tue, 29. Apr 08, 11:03

Feedback - Got lots of info for trading opportunity's. Some lag when starting game. Does the script only kick in when you are docked? Hope so and seems so.

- testing - - XTM sector Haruna, EQ dock. Posted by: Tumulis Yuyamados Gutosos X, PTN - Pax terra nova. In the line "tougher to get cocaine $GOVERNMENT2$"; guess it might be something to do with the sector being Yaki and added by the XTM mod?

Cheers!

moot · Post by **moot** » Tue, 29. Apr 08, 12:43

Locksley wrote:Feedback - Got lots of info for trading opportunity's. Some lag when starting game. Does the script only kick in when you are docked? Hope so and seems so.

So do you think I should reduce the frequency? I've already throttled business news back quite aggressively but I need feedback on whether you guys want more or less of it.

The script does run in space--scans the entire universe, station by station, ware by ware. Only the actual news generation is conditional on docking. It's either this, or I leave the scans for when one is docked, which is not ideal. Let me try inserting longer/more waits and see if that helps.

- testing - - XTM sector Haruna, EQ dock. Posted by: Tumulis Yuyamados Gutosos X, PTN - Pax terra nova. In the line "tougher to get cocaine $GOVERNMENT2$"; guess it might be something to do with the sector being Yaki and added by the XTM mod?

Yaki sector?! Cocaine? Urgh. Bug-fix time.

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Tue, 29. Apr 08, 23:05

Jay for longer waits or station only running.

1. Odd syntax in one BBS message. Akeelas Beacon - Solar plant gamma. Posted by: Yvona Selek - Central Business News Net - CBNN
It starts out with: "Majaglit Argon says about 12 advanced satellite factory alpha(Proxima Centary) stations have run out of majaglit...". Now, Proxima Centary is also a XTM sector so they might have named the principals funny? Well, that's it; it just reads out funny.

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

I accidentally opened my door to a Jehovah's witness and jabered with him 20 min or so (I am not mean spirited to the weak of mind....) and was docked at a station at the time. When I got back it had gone molasses on me! Opening the BBS took about 30sec or more before it popped up, and then it was slow to recognize button being pressed. Also in the same game docking at other stations hiccuped the welcome phrase a bunch of times before you got in and could start trading, checking BBS and such. And then it was slow and unresponsive.

This disappeared when restarting the game - did not test an other sector.

Other thoughts, in gameplay and such.
I thought I noticed some lag in space too but not as bad as in stations. But it doesn't matter if it lags somewhat in stations couse then your not in a firefight. In space you might need every CPU cykel you can get out of processor (or half in this case since X3 only uses one core) this is why I would like it to be run only when in stations.

Playing in Split space so I don't know about the other sectors yet. I get alot of economic news, four out of ten or three out of five, such figures. Playing a trader this is perfect, you get lots of info on where to go and what to watch for. It probably pushes some of the missions to be more scarce though so if your not into trading you will get frustrated jumping to different stations and just get news and finances

EDIT:Played some after writing this. Did a Tour of a lifetime in Getsu Fune and when I returened and checked the BBS there wasn't one single economic hint, and I don't think there was more than two in the same BBS system before that. Guess Family Pride had a very keen interest in financial matters. END EDIT.

----------------------------------- To sum up!

My two credits - make it run in stations only (for the sake of the big battles that can happen in the X-verse)

You can cut back on the economics updates, or make it adjustable on the fly so when you are not trading you can cut back on that info and hopefully get more missions and stuff. EDIT: Seems like it only ramps up the eco news when you hang around a long time in stations and/or sector. Also the script seems more "active" after awhile and thus spam the BBS with more financial info.

Just got back from work so I'll play it some more.
Cheers.

moot · Post by **moot** » Thu, 1. May 08, 17:38

Ok uploaded a new version. I reworked the engine quite a bit, now it only generates news for a random cluster of sectors rather than the entire universe. Also lengthened the waits. The lag should be significantly reduced now.

I'm testing out the little-understood parameters of the news generating function, to see how they affect the frequency of news. The Foundation Guild races (Argon, Boron) now have a different set of parameters from the Profit Guild races (Teladi, Split, Paranid). Let me know which set of frequency you prefer, if you detect any difference at all.

Also added some lines to the t file to include the Yaki. Yaki wasn't covered in pinned tutorials above nor the MSCI manual, so my additions are just conjectures based on what's worked so far. Let me know if you still get "$GOVERNMENT2$" news from Yaki stations. (Sorry to have to trouble you guys on this, I don't have an XTM install to test with.)

I accidentally opened my door to a Jehovah's witness and jabered with him 20 min or so

Now that's a way of testing scripts I haven't heard of!

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Fri, 2. May 08, 01:12

Right. I've installed a false patch for weapon adjustments to save CPU cycles. It ramps up damage and lessen the amount of bullets. Wreck some havoc on the OOS combat apparently but still somewhat balanced - made by one in the XTM team, or in close association with 'em, and it is an alpha

I mention this as that means I wont notice if your script influence the space battles anymore.

Anyhow on with your script, seems like there is somewhat less lag in space and stations so that is positive.

Did you leave some kind of debugging on? I get spammed with messages like "majaglitt", next message "noosedrop" and so on

It just pops up in my inbox, no announcement by betty or some such.

I haven't been playing the trader I just read the BBS; I'll try to get into my Terracorp Vulture and do some trading from the BBS info.

But right now it is mostly work and little play, and I'll be out of town this weekend so no testing then; well I'll be back on Sunday and I am free on monday soo

moot · Post by **moot** » Fri, 2. May 08, 05:45

Locksley wrote:Did you leave some kind of debugging on? I get spammed with messages like "majaglitt", next message "noosedrop" and so on

Ooops. -_-'''' I'll fix that when I get back home. At least that spam tells me the script's working.

I haven't been playing the trader I just read the BBS; I'll try to get into my Terracorp Vulture and do some trading from the BBS info.

Actually my script was designed just for "flavour", rather than to provide useful news. By the way, one new change to this version is that, instead of giving news from adjacent sectors, now the news source is totally random--it's usually from halfway across the galaxy! Not very useful unless you've a omnipresent trading fleet to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. But then you'd have a Trader Mk3 or EST to manage a fleet of that size.

Yeah enjoy your break. Thanks for the rigorous testing and feedback so far.

Edit: Ok debug message removed.

Locksley · Post by **Locksley** » Mon, 5. May 08, 23:14

Everything seems to be plunking along great.

Yaki information works - that is, no $GOVERNMENT2$ or any such.
The trade info is correct and nicely spaced - sometimes none, sometimes 2-3.
Funny and interesting news - working fine.

Only a minor cosmetic annoyance: the text, or words rather, sometimes get rather spaced out. Like three words in one column making it look odd. To bad the BBS engine don't do hyphens

(Well, I've never seen any anyhow)

Cheers!

egosoft.com

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[BBS Plugin] X3 BBS Project 2