[Scripts] Apricot Mapping Service Scripts, MD and mini-mods [APv2.5.1/TCv3]

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smac1975
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Post by smac1975 »

Mr. John Slice (aka Timothy), CEO

I enjoy very much your work, this game is fascinating and you guys (those that mod and script) can make even more fascinating.

I have this question about you Extended PQH v3 patch: is there a way of me without bugging you change the speed times of reverse eng. and building times? I'm as slow as my 150bps internet service and as soon as i order something in the HQ it pops up suddenly!! So I take a lot of time preping my Auto Prep Ship to give the correct upgrades to my fleet! Idling ships/machines is losing money in my profession!! Dumb and slow as I am and to make it a little more realistic, according to my standards of course, i would like to increase RE/Recycle/Building maybe 4x.

I know nothing of scripting and modding tbf, and i don't have the time to follow the guidelines to do it so... how can i do it?

(Now comes the part where i kiss your ass for a nice answer)

I read the last pages from your X3-Handbook and i could not agree more with you regarding all the work you and all the others that are credited in the script/mod list from this forum.

I use some scripts/mods in my game that i play part-time during working hours ;) most of them are from:
Cycrow
apricotslice (you)
Lucike
Graxster
and others that i cannot remember now (i'm sorry...)

My history to X3 comes from December 2006 (this is important tho it doesn't look like it). Since then I bought:

1 X3R copy - 9,90 Eur
1 X3R copy - 5,90 Eur (i moved to another country and had to buy another copy cuz i forgot my first one!!)
1 X3TC copy - 20,38 Eur
1 Farnham's Legend book - 10,38 Eur (didn't read the book yet)

The info above is important just for the simple reason that your X3-Handbook compilation improved my game experience much more than the Egosoft original manuals, it saved me time on the trying/re-trying thingy that we have to do on most PC games.
Now for the final part, I don't know how much is worth your work, because it's invaluable, but i will donate (via paypal) the average value from the 4 items i officially bought. (i will use the email adress you posted on the last pages of your handbook so please be sure that it's the correct one).

Thank you and the others all for your excelent work. And keep up!

Best regards,

smac1975 (playing X3TC somewhere in the southwest africa!!)
smac1975
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

smac1975 wrote: I have this question about you Extended PQH v3 patch: is there a way of me without bugging you change the speed times of reverse eng. and building times? I'm as slow as my 150bps internet service and as soon as i order something in the HQ it pops up suddenly!! So I take a lot of time preping my Auto Prep Ship to give the correct upgrades to my fleet! Idling ships/machines is losing money in my profession!! Dumb and slow as I am and to make it a little more realistic, according to my standards of course, i would like to increase RE/Recycle/Building maybe 4x.

I know nothing of scripting and modding tbf, and i don't have the time to follow the guidelines to do it so... how can i do it?
You would need to edit the PHQ file, which is hq.xml, in the types directory of the game. You can do this with notepad.

For production, the time is set in 'production time="10"' on line 7. To speed it up further, reduce the number. Although I cant see you can get much improvement on that. Its already producing at 1/10th of the normal speed. In theory, setting it to 1 should be the fastest it can go. I'm not sure what 0 would do if you used that.

Most people by the way want it producing slower, not faster :)

For reverse engineering, its the same value. So nothing extra to do.

For recycle time, its 'recycle time="2" on line 21. Change it to a 1 to make it faster. However, I'm not sure this will be noticable, as recycling is already very fast.

Once you change the file, within the game, you would need to delete your PHQ from the game (make sure you take everything off it first), and then script yourself a new one into a TL, and drop it normally again. Only a PHQ dropped after the changed hp file is added to the game will use the new settings. Old ones will continue as the settings were when created.

I'm puzzelled by your reference to net speed. You dont need the internet to play the game. The general speed constraints are CPU and graphics card. If too much is happening for them to keep up, then certain events may get delayed.

I'm glad the Handbook helped you :)

Donations are always welcome :D
smac1975
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Post by smac1975 »

apricotslice wrote:
You would need to edit the PHQ file, which is hq.xml, in the types directory of the game. You can do this with notepad.

I understood what you wrote about changing the values but my main problem is I don't have the hq.xml file in my X3tc directory and maybe that's because i haven't started the PHQ plot yet. I used your 2 scripts (PHQ in Boron SY and the Extend HQ patch v3) to get it to my use.

I must apologize for my baaaaaad english and it gets worse when it's 2am :p

I do want to make RE/RC/Building slower than your patch makes it.

About my inet connection, well it is so slow that takes long time browsing thru these forums ;) The 3rd world is where I live!! And you have no idea how much i pay for this inet connection hehehe

Thanks for your time.

smac1975
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

Download the Merge Mod v2.04 fix file, unzip it into the main TC directory. This creates a types directory and in it puts the hq file. You can then edit this with notepad.

To slow things down, increase the values I mentioned before. So for production, try 50 instead of 10. This makes it half the normal speed instead of 1/10th.

After you change, you need to delete your existing hq and use the cheat scripts to replace it as I said before.
Kittani
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Post by Kittani »

I'm trying to add more buying options to your add PHQ and Military Outpost to shipyard script... namely adding the OTAS and Argon federal shipyards to it so I can add those to my sectors, but when I add a shipyard it has no ships in it... doesn;t even have the trade option in it. I just duplicated the section for the military outpost and added it below changing the station type to the OTAS shipyard... is there another part of the script that needs to be there for ships to be added?
=======================
In Space, noone can hear you scream....
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

Player shipyards are a paperweight. They dont have anything on them except docking bays.

You dont get free ships. You cant sell ships to npc's. They dont do free ship upgrades.

They are a paperweight.
Kittani
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Post by Kittani »

apricotslice wrote:Erk. Maybe it isnt. I never outfit ships that way anyway, I do it all by script these days.

Which station is this from ? If the shipyard or eq, then very likely. Try the sales dock, or the superstore dock.
if you add upgrade items you have to add a qty of 1 to the dock as well to tell the station it's actually supposed to sell it. I have a script that gives an equipment dock of your chosing every upgrade possible for ships and it requires 2 lines per item.

THIS -> add product to factory or dock: WareName
=THIS -> add NUM units of WareName

the first is under the for stations subsection of trade commands and the second is under trade commands itself. I do not know if that causes the station to replenish it's stock but you can always hotkey it to perform on selected station and go from there...

EDIT... oh and so is the PHQ... I've been sitting here for an hour trying to RE a Discoverer and it isn;t doing anything.. the paintjob doesn't work either. I bought the station from the boron shipyard, loaded it into my mammoth, placed it... and nothing works... back to the drawing board.

Ok I figured out the RE bug I made for myself... interestingly enough some other ship docked with the station and "apparently" the station decided to RE that one... muahahah.... it basically ate an npc ship. and I think i have another script interfering with something on the production. I messed with alot of scripts... prolly broke something. I'm trying really hard to get a working player shipyard outta this. there has to be a way.
=======================
In Space, noone can hear you scream....
smac1975
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Post by smac1975 »

apricotslice,

thank you for the answer for my question.

Regarding the PHQ RE/Building time I was unable to change anything yet. You suggested me to download the Merge Mod v.2.04 fix file but i couldn't find it... there was this PHQ fix file in your download directory that i tried to change but didn't work.

I'm downloading the Merge Mod v2.05 package (89MB) and try to move from there.

But... maybe i did something wrong. The procedure sould be:
1) delete old HQ and save game;
2) install changed hq.xml in tc types directory;
3) load game put new HQ;

Is this what i have to do?
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

Thats the one. I'd forgotten I renamed it.

Thats the procedure, yes.

One must question if your types directory is spelt correctly, or placed in the right place. If not, it wont be seen by the game.

Is the file still called hq.xml ? If its been changed in any way, the game wont find it. Last time someone couldnt get it to work, it had been inadvertantly changed to a txt file. So check you didnt do that.

The file in AMM 2.05 is the same as in the fix file. So the PHQ fix file is the same as in the mod. So either extracted from the zips is fine.

Can you post how you changed the file ? Maybe you changed something wrongly and the whole file was rejected by the game as a result ?

Edit : On second thought, the files in the 2 zips are not the same.

The AMM 2.05 has the latest mod version.

The PHQ fix file has the latest unmodded version.

So if you are not using CC, FDN and SSDN, use the PHQ fix version. The AMM version will likely fail as it contains references to stations that wont actually exist. If you are using these, then the mod version is fine.
smac1975
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Post by smac1975 »

Hi apricotslice,

i'm sorry to bug you again :(

I'm not using CC, FDN or SDSS.

Here's what happens when i change the file:
reverse engineering is instant, recycle gives no resources...
With your hq mod (that i use as my 11.cat&.dat, the 10.cat&.dat is EMP-X mod), th HQ works with your default settings.

The hq.xml is saved as hq.xml and is located on the directory c:/programs/egosoft/x3 terran conflic/types

The code on the file is as it follows: (let me add a simple question about the values changed, are they considered as a percentage of the default time? If yes, same as resources and credits costs?)
(my changes are in yellow and red)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<headquarters>
<upgrades>
<upgrade index="0" typename="SS_DOCK_P_HQ" storage="500000000">
<blueprints>
</blueprints>
<production time="50" money="0" resources="100">
<factor class="ship" value="2" />
<factor class="station" value="2" />
<factor class="laser" value="1" />
<factor class="missiles" value="2" />
<factor class="ware" value="1" />
</production>
<repair>
<factor class="ship" value="2" />
<factor class="hq" value="2" />
</repair>
<reverse>
<factor class="ship" value="1" />
</reverse>
<recycle time="20" money="0" resources="100">
<factor class="ship" value="1" />
</recycle>

</upgrade>
<upgrade index="1" typename="APRICOT_BOB" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="2" typename="APRICOT_BOB1" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="3" typename="APRICOT_BOB2" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="4" typename="APRICOT_KHAAK_DEPOT" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="5" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDN" storage="50000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="6" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNL" storage="40000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="7" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNM" storage="30000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="8" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNS" storage="20000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="9" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNR" storage="1000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="10" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNT" storage="5000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="11" typename="SS_DOCK_A_SSDN" storage="10000000">
<blueprints>
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_A_MK2DRONE" />
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_FIGHTDRONE" />
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_USC_DRONE" />
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_SATELLITE2" />
</blueprints>
<production time="100" money="0" resources="100">
<factor class="ware" value="1" />
</production>
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="12" typename="SS_DOCK_A_PCOMP_M" storage="40000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="13" typename="SS_DOCK_A_PCOMP_L" storage="80000000">
</upgrade>
</upgrades>
<resources>
<!-- Time (uses the SETA upgrade as the typename!) -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_TECH231">
<factor class="m5" value="1000000" primary="1" />
<factor class="m4" value="1250000" primary="1" />
<factor class="m3" value="1666600" primary="1" />
<factor class="gonership" value="1666600" primary="1" />
<factor class="freighter" value="500000" primary="1" />
<factor class="bigship" value="2500000" primary="1" />
<factor class="hq" value="2500000" primary="1" />
</resource>
<!-- Money -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_CREDITS">
<factor value="3" />
</resource>
<!-- Energy Cells -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_ENERGY">
<factor value="885" />
</resource>
<!-- Ore -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_ORE">
<factor value="21250" />
</resource>
<!-- Silicon -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_SILICON">
<factor value="28333" />
</resource>
<!-- Nividium -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_NIVIDIUM2">
<factor racemask="khaak" value="170000" />
</resource>
<!-- Cloth Rimes -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_F217">
<factor value="85000" />
</resource>
<!-- Rastar Oil -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_F238" >
<factor value="42500" />
</resource>
<!-- Teladianium -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_R255">
<factor value="28333" />
</resource>
<!-- Crystals -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_TECH205">
<factor value="85000" />
</resource>
<!-- Quantum Tubes -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_TECH206">
<factor value="85000" />
</resource>
<!-- Microchips -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_TECH207">
<factor value="85000" />
</resource>
<!-- Computer Components -->
<resource typename="SS_WARE_TECH208">
<factor value="85000" />
</resource>
</resources>
</headquarters>
smac1975
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

Delete this part of the file....

Code: Select all

<upgrade index="1" typename="APRICOT_BOB" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="2" typename="APRICOT_BOB1" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="3" typename="APRICOT_BOB2" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="4" typename="APRICOT_KHAAK_DEPOT" storage="500000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="5" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDN" storage="50000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="6" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNL" storage="40000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="7" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNM" storage="30000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="8" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNS" storage="20000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="9" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNR" storage="1000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="10" typename="SS_DOCK_A_FDNT" storage="5000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="11" typename="SS_DOCK_A_SSDN" storage="10000000">
<blueprints>
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_A_MK2DRONE" />
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_FIGHTDRONE" />
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_USC_DRONE" />
<blueprint typename="SS_WARE_SATELLITE2" />
</blueprints>
<production time="100" money="0" resources="100">
<factor class="ware" value="1" />
</production>
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="12" typename="SS_DOCK_A_PCOMP_M" storage="40000000">
</upgrade>
<upgrade index="13" typename="SS_DOCK_A_PCOMP_L" storage="80000000">
</upgrade> 
I was wrong. The fix file is from the mod, not a generic file.
smac1975
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Post by smac1975 »

Hey hey,

I did what you suggested and it works now. Thank you so much for your help.
Therefore something funny happened, i changed the hq stats in one of the saved files for that only purpose of deleting/building the changed hq to see the changes, and then i quit the game. When i returned to my "real" game saved file i had no need to delete my HQ because the changes were in effect to it already, great! no need to spend more time deleting and rebuilding it. Is this ok?

But I have a few more questions to you regarding building/recycle/reverse times. With the values i set i have the following stats for some big ships:

Panther:
Prod: 00:35:35

Mammoth:
Prod: 00:22:45
Recyc: 00:09:07

Collossus:
Prod: 01:28:00
Recyc: 00:35:12
Reverse: 00:35:12

Phoenix:
Prod: 01:29:10
Recyc: 00:35:41
Reverse: 00:35:12

(it's weird the fact that recycling takes the same time as reversing...)

I changed the line 7 and line 21 of the hq.xml file like this the rest is like your original code:
<production time="500" money="0" resources="100">
<recycle time="100" money="0" resources="100">

What I need now is to understand the calculus of the variables. For example you said that in your original file the production time was set to 1/10th of the realtime and you used the value of "10", how does it really work?
smac1975
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

As far as I understand, its a percentage. so 500 = 500%.

If you want to really understand it, post a thread asking about it. I never went into how it worked, just what had to be changed to speed things up.
smac1975
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Post by smac1975 »

Oh i see i see, will do a thread,

Man, you were a great help! Now I have Mistrals SF producing in 14 minutes :p

Thanks a lot!
smac1975
mike2003
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Post by mike2003 »

after use cbeam from console i have that:
[ external image ]
whats wrong?
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

It means you dont have enough room in your cargo bay for the container to be beamed.

It also means you probably have an older version of the t file and probably the script as well, as I turned that error message off in the later version.

Download the salvage pack, unpack it into a temp directory, and transfer the text file and the 2 cbeam scripts into your game.
mike2003
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Post by mike2003 »

apricotslice wrote:It also means you probably have an older version of the t file and probably the script as well
downloaded from http://apricotmappingservice.com/X3TCdo ... eam-v1.spk
and transfer the text file and the 2 cbeam scripts into your game.
i cant understand

i must delete old?
what files i need copy? (57 scripts in pack)

maybe create normal "Apricot Cbeam/Abeam/Dbeam" spk?
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

Out of the salvage pack v2.3,

copy apricot.cbeam.xml and setup.apricot.cbeam.xml into the scripts folder of your game.

Then copy the 8686-L044.xml file to the t folder of the game.

You dont need to delete anything.

Alternately, just install the salvage pack, which will update the scripts and text file. But gives a few extra features.
mike2003
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Post by mike2003 »

ok

But now your corrupted script "Apricot Cbeam/Abeam/Dbeam " located in "Community Script & Mod Download Library for X3: Terran Conflict"

You must do something with that! Correct it or delete links.
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apricotslice
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Post by apricotslice »

Its not corrupted. Its a minor bug. Most people are using either one of the mods or the salvage pack, and I've obviously overlooked updating the original script.

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