[AL Plugin] Breaking Point: Capping Expansion V4.1 Patch/Fix Added

[joseph99]

This is now an AL Plugin based on expanding the capping system in an attempt to make a few things more realistic. It adds aditional capping scenario's, a "push em till they break" capping engine and the ability to let other ships in your fleet cap ships as well as just yourself. The plugin i've created is def very effective and alters the face of the game a fair bit. Def one for those who fancy capping/piracy as a way to play the game but who dont want it all handed to them on a silver platter.

PLEASE NOTE:
This is still very much wip. Although every menu, scenario, piece of script logic and switch has been heavily tested before release, its possible that i might have suffered a brain cramp at some point and a small bug or two may remain. If you find one, please report it on thread so it can be tracked down and fixed. Thank you.
Also to add. I'm aware there's better ways to add al menu options. What you see is intended. Its done to add additional handles that may potentialy be needed. I'm also aware that some of the script can be streamlined better but there is still some "patchit" script in this. Ie handles are left open, some parts of script are only temp. Remember, this is wip and it will all be tidied up even nicer in the final release.
Added a bug patch as opossed to a new version. This fixes a small bug and a major bug with v4.

Plugin features:

-With this mod, you can cap any ship by keeping pressure on them and pushing them to breaking point.
-It now gives basic, good old small ship capping abilities to all other fighter ships in your fleet, subject to the same rules and conditions as you. Ie pilots will ocasionaly bail on them as well.
-Your fleets "pilots" are race based and will send you varying, race based, incoming messages giving you specific details of where a ship bailed on them.
-HINT Intelligent, strategists will find its much more usefull to have wings when capping ships lol
-Every ship with a basic ship class is cappable. Large ships included. You just gota keep the pressure on for long enough...
-Small ships will bail as always, ejecting a space suit etc using the in game bail system.
-Large ships dont bail. Instead there is now 2 scenario's. On rare circumstances, the captains may turn over full controle to you. Most times though, captains will surrender, stand down, lower there shields and invite you to attempt to board there ship, thus including the in game bording system into the mod. Each instance of this can be toggled on or off via the AL menu, allowing you to custom tailor the mod to suit your tastes.
-Forcing large ships in to basic surrender triggers 1 of multiple race oriented and familiar feeling messages of surrender. They also warn that if you refuse there surrender and continue attacking, they will respond with deadly force...
-Races respond to ship cappings with varing force. If a distress call is sent out when a ship is capped, others of the same race, in that sector, will answer. This can be toggled on or off via the AL menu.
-Pilots wont always bail or surrender. Sometimes they will offer you the location of very rare abandond ships in return for letting them keep there own. Tbh, there cowards. There lifes not part of the deal. You could take that info then be nasty or nice. Choice is yours hehe

-The script runs perminantly in the background via the AL system. No interface is needed other than to play the game.
-This plugin is heavily race orientated and uses stats such as player rank, ship class and target ship race etc to play whats basicly a game of chance.
-It creates an aditional capping game or expansion to the games origional in built engine and by the chaos (random) based nature of the script and the ever increasing number of scenario's and possibilities being added, it adds loads more variation and as such, a much more realistic feel to ship capping.
-The whole mod was re-wrote to AL and was broken down into a more modular like form. The cores were stripped and minimalised to a good degree to stream line the whole mod. Functions stored seperatly and shared etc.
-The plugin was always smooth and fast enough but as each version is released, more and more cpu load is reduced and despite the extra aditions, the mod keeps getting easier on cpu and memory.
-The new version brings big gains to performence due to a restructure of certain area's of scripting logic. This has reduced hundreds of un-necisary data/function/script calls/comparisons per script core cycle with no actual effect on the "feel" of the plugin.

Basic Rules and Technicals:
-Player combat rank plays a direct influence. Ie the higher your fight rank, the quicker they will bail for you.
-The race of the ship plays a part as each race has a base capping strength.
-The class and size of the current player ship plays a direct influence. Ie the larger and more powerfull your ship, the quicker they will bail for you.
-Ships must be damaged first before the pilot will concider bailing
-This mod effects all enimes that are close around your ship and those of your fleet. You dont need to target a ship to cap it because of this.
-You must be in direct combat with the enemy before they will bail
-You need to stay close to them and use your intelligence to keep them and yourself alive long enough. Ie keep the pressure on them.
-Large ships tech and equipment is still always scuttled as normal in one scenario and minus shielding in the other.

Be Warned
This mod isnt simple. It can take alot of time, skill and patience to cap ships. Especialy the larger ships.
If you cap a ship in a sector with alot of the same race (core sectors), be prepaired to battle not only for your life, but to protect the ship you just capped.
As always, it all costs notoriety with the race you steal from.
In other words, this is NOT a cheat script. You gota work realy hard to earn yer caps and they can cost dearly.

Install:
This is now an .spk, installable via the mod manager. There is also a manual install set for those who prefer it.

Aditional technicals:
-This mod uses text file id 9768. Plese notify me, via this thread, if this conflicts with any other mod.
-The games origional cap system still runs, uneffected. This only expands on and adds to it.

To do:
-Still to add universal wide race responses to capped ships.
-Still to add pilot error while being pressured.
-Gona expand more on mechanical issues as well, just to keep it all random. Weapons systems failure, shield recharge failure, engine failure, engine core meltdown.
-Add some of these factors to global combat ai. Ie you will be subject to them also.
-Add loads more variation to messeges and events
-Never ending bug hunt and optimisations

4.1 Bug fix patch added:
-Added as a bug fix patch. This will be in the next version as standard. Appologies in advance for these couple of bugs but this is an effective beta atm.
-Fixes a small flaw in the fleet core scripts logic. This now sees ships in your fleet only subject to the hull damage condition, only if they are in your sector. Helps address an issue with the mechanics of how the games engine deals with ships in your current sector vs else ware in the universe.
-Fixed a majour bug with the 'offer ships in return for safety', scenario that led to rare script failures when trying to cap terran/atf/pirate/yaki/xenon/kha'ak ships. Now restructured properly so that every race is covered and all but xenon and kha'ak will offer race specific special fighters in return for there safety.

Version 4 Added:
-Added second scripting core to give basic capping to entire fleet
-Added a new scenario to all forms of playership capping. Pilots will offer secret ship locations in an attempt to keep there lives and ship.
-Rewrote and restructured loads of script, massivley reducing cpu load. So much so, this release is faster than all previouse versions, despite having an aditional scripting core running.
-Fixed a bug that saw space suits not being destroyed when the script told em (nasty little beggers, die suit die lol)
-Fixed a bug that saw m7 ships wrongly classed as large caps
-Added a missing function that was accidentaly left out the previouse version. Used for purging a global array of capped ships of dead/destroyed/sold/rev engineered ships. This fixes a pottential "never ending array" bug.
-Minor rebalence to variouse parts to help acomodate the new core and keep a cap on certain areas.

Version 3 Added:

-Added new senario to large caps.
-Converted to AL
-Switches added to disable either/or large caps scenareo, as per requested. Acess the switches in the AL menu.
-Switch added to disable race capping response. Incase it's a bit strong for some. Switch added to AL menu.
-Rewrote the whole core and mod. Broke the core down to a smaller engine with event library calls when needed
-Fixed a bug with race responses that stoped them working properly
-Fixed bugs with global variables when i implimented the AL system
-Started adding .spk version for mod manager installation
-Added a signal that instanatly kills the older script versions in the global script task list.
-Rebalenced race base capping streangths. Now covers every race in game.
-Loads more stuff i cant remember at this time lol

Version 2 Added:

New in this version:

The X-Factor:
-Added race personalities. Different races have different base capping strengths. It works in the following order. From weakest to strongest. Boron, Teladi, Split, Paranid, Argon, Terran, Khak, Xenon.
-Race responses. Capping a ship causes every able bodied fighter, of the same race, in that sector, to come after you and attempt to scuttle the ship you just captured.

Ballance fix:
-Combined with race personalities, i've improved the overall balance of the mod and made it more difficult.
-Fixed combat ranking handy cap. Didnt acuratly reflect the upper regions of combat rank, making it easier as soon as you gained a few ranks. Now it's spread very wide but will only go so far. Ie once you achive a certain rank, you dont gain any more benifits.



Download from mediafire. Contains rar'd .spk for install via mod manager. 266KB:- http://www.mediafire.com/file/t0rw513kb ... ersion.rar

Download from mediafire. Contains rar'd origional script files and t file for manual instalation. 35KB :- http://www.mediafire.com/file/e7tb05e6l ... nstall.rar

Download from mediafire. V4.1 Bugfix patch. Important. Contains 2 replacement/fixed script files and a t file. Overite the origional files with the patch files, after you install version 4. Folder locations are kept. 11KB :- http://www.mediafire.com/file/af1arxo ... PATCH.rar

[HotSake]

Not to discourage you or anything, but are you aware of the existence of the venerable NPC Bailing Addon?

[joseph99]

Yes i am. This is intentionaly done differently. Its much harder to play and is more focused on pilot behavure and emulating realism.

What you see here is an unfinished artical. Its only a working core and is still very much wip. The next version of this will include...

The human element
Pilots will panic. They will try and run. They will fumble and bumble and make mistakes when the pressure is on.
Under certain circumstances, pilots will stand down, open hailing frequencies and offer hidden stashes/wrecks in return for keeping there ship.

The x-factor
Each race in the game has there very own personality based on the rpg elements that are promoted in game. Boron arnt big on fighting so they tend to be cowards but a paranid flying a hyperion is gona fight you for hours at a time.
Races will respond to you capping a ship. You shouldnt and musnt be allowed to transport a capped boron ship through a boron sector wiout police and military attempting to scuttle the ship ( expansion of a behavure thats already in play with the origional core )


Fyi, the above additions to this are already done. There being debuged and tested atm. I only released the basic capping core, seperatly as even on its own, it makes a huge difference to game play. Ultimatly though, this will be part one of a three part scripting overhaul.


Edit: To demonstrait just how much fun and difficult this is. From my own experience of playing with this script.


Scenario 1: Found a hyperion vanguard flying around a particular paranid sector. Though " i want one of those" then chased after it with an advanced eclipse id salvaged. Well for an hour and a half straight i chased this ship up and down the length of the sector. I had to fight off police etc in the process. Had to keep breaking of and running due to low shielding etc. I finaly got it but b the time i did it was battered and bruised and so was my eclipse and what little rep i had with the paranid.

Scenario 2: Visited the unknown sector just south of heavens asertion. The dukes base. Decided i wanted that military zeus for the hell of it. This took over 2 hours and several reloads. Several ships interviened. I had to take all his escort out in front of him, dodge his weapons and keep on him. Over 2hrs of battle and frantic maneuvering later, i was left with a badly battered zues and sweaty, cramping hands lol.

[Nividium]

...Under certain circumstances, pilots will stand down, open hailing frequencies and offer hidden stashes/wrecks in return for keeping there ship...

I like this bit. Looks pretty good. Will watch/wait for further development.

[Drockt1]

It sounds like you have a pretty cool idea here, and i like most of it. Im not a fan of big ship bailing at all tho, and to me(everyone has there own opinions), big ship bailing is unrealistic. These are basically war ships with 100s to 1000s of crew members, bailing would not be doable in almost any quick battle circumstance. I don't mind m6 bailing to much. cause to me a m6 is a crew of 5-10, and could possibly bail, anything bigger then that to me is out of bounds without marines.

With that said, would there be any sort of configuration with your mod, allowing players to disable certain bailing events(like large ships). ?

[joseph99]

It sounds like you have a pretty cool idea here, and i like most of it. Im not a fan of big ship bailing at all tho, and to me(everyone has there own opinions), big ship bailing is unrealistic. These are basically war ships with 100s to 1000s of crew members, bailing would not be doable in almost any quick battle circumstance. I don't mind m6 bailing to much. cause to me a m6 is a crew of 5-10, and could possibly bail, anything bigger then that to me is out of bounds without marines.

With that said, would there be any sort of configuration with your mod, allowing players to disable certain bailing events(like large ships). ?

Sure, i can add this in. Perhaps even tie it in to the al system so you would have a basic menu to disable.

In response though. Here was my logic in doing this. It stands to reason that if any captain of any ship was to realise there out gunned and out matched and that you were trying to force a surrender rather than destroy them, that they and there crew would surrender to your controle. That the captain would do what he could to save his crew. To add to that feeling, the captain gives final orders to his crew before he bails. "Destroy all tech and intell and if you can, scuttle the ship". And as such signals are sent out etc and your engaged in another huge battle to save yourself and the ship you just capped.

Least thats the logic i'm working with on this...

[Lord Dakier]

I like the whole idea and all but Split 3rd strongest what the hell? Maybe fleet wise but individually Split and Paranid are both comonly know for being the 'least cowardice' out of the commonwealth races.

[joseph99]

I like the whole idea and all but Split 3rd strongest what the hell? Maybe fleet wise but individually Split and Paranid are both comonly know for being the 'least cowardice' out of the commonwealth races.

Lol aw cmon. The split are like bully boys. Hard as nails against people they know they can win against. Hence the reason why they abuse the poor boron so much.

As for the paranid? Well they showed there yellow streak against the argon and terrans during the story in reunion. hehe

Fyi, in the stories that surround the x universe, both the split and the paranid have tried and failed against the argon so in my books that puts the argon a little shade above them. Oh and the argon always seem to be either the first there or the only ones there during large plot based battles.

Naw, am just kidding. Reality is its based on personal opinion but is left open to feedback. In other words, those who demand it will get it in future versions

[Cycrow]

there is one main problem that i can see if with your script.

if you update it, then anyone whos been using it since the beginning will have to uninstall it first, then reinstall to make use of the update.

thats because the original script will be cached in thier save game and will be permanatly running, and the newer version wont run as the older one is still running.

to fix this, you can use something like this in your main loop

Code: Select all

if  is a new script version available
  set global variable: name=$xrunning value=null
  @ = wait 2000 ms
  @ = [THIS] -> call script 'Plugin.caps.main' : 
end

also note, that your global variable is wrong.
the name is a string to store the variable in, not an actual variable.

because $xrunning is not declared, it sets the string to "null"
if you try having multiple variables like that, they end up overrighting each other, as they are all called null.

instead, either change them to 'xrunning', or set the variable at the top

Code: Select all

$xrunning = 'xrunning'

u could also simplify the loop abit better by only using the 1 get variable line

Code: Select all

while  get global variable: name ='xrunning'
 ...
end

of course, a better way to do it, and remove the need for a uninstaller, would be to create it as an AL plugin on a timer. But thats abit more complicated to achive

[expnobody]

cant wait to see finish product..

[Catra]

iunno.

i think just unequipping the shields on capitals so you have an easy time of sending your capping team over would be a far more better approach, and it would still make marines relevant.

[joseph99]

if you update it, then anyone whos been using it since the beginning will have to uninstall it first, then reinstall to make use of the update.

I get what your saying but for whatever reason, that wasnt happning. The origional was stopping and the new one took its place. I watched it in the task lisk at the main page of the scripting menu and watched only one instance running. Dont ask me why lol. Advice taken though and will be incorperated into the script.

also note, that your global variable is wrong.
the name is a string to store the variable in, not an actual variable.

Yip. Already spotted that one when i went to add a switch for the large caps. Spent the last 3 hours trying to figure it out. Thought you declaired the variable as such then the value, not the string name of the variable then the value. In my defence, im not new to scripting, just certain behavour/syntax/layout of this scripting engine. Its a little... different at times. Al sorted already and will be in the next update.

of course, a better way to do it, and remove the need for a uninstaller, would be to create it as an AL plugin on a timer. But thats abit more complicated to achive

Already been looking into that. This would run so well as an AL plugin. Just gota debug a bit more, figure out the AL setup then start testing it as such...


Btw, theres another bug. A minor bug with the race responses that stoped them all coming after you under certain conditions. Thats been fixed, waiting on the next update.


Oh, and btw, thanx for the info and advice.

[joseph99]

Right, via playing version 3, av picked up on 3 small bugs, also noticed a few areas, wi a fresh head, that the script can be reduced on. The bugs are as follows...

-Large ship caps (surrender controle) eject a space suit alot of the times when it shouldn't. [FIXED]
-M7 ships are wrongly classed as large caps [FIXED]
-Large ship caps (basic surrender) has some kind of logic bug am trying to find that prevents certain ships from becoming neutral. Ie, there shields drop, they come to a halt, you get yer message but the ship stays red and still fires on you. Cant find the source of this as of this moment. Believe its to do with the in game scripting more than a bug. Ie certain ships are supposed to stay hostile, irellivent of circumstances.

2/3 of the above bugs av fixed for the next version. Have also added a third scenario to large caps. One av been testing for a while. Large caps offering the locations of rare deralicts in return for keeping there ships. Please note, i've had alot of testing with this and have scripted it so this gives acess to some of the rarer ship builds in game, wiout breaking plot lines.
Also in the process of scripting a second core for all the ships in your fleet. Ie a smaller, stripped core, that runs 10 as less but with 10 higher success rate that gives small cap capability to all ships in your fleet.

This is taking a bit of time, just incase anyone wonders whats going on with it.


Edit: Oh and am concidering scripting it so that when a large ship surrenders, all specialist, anti boarding systems are removed. Ie advanced firewall, internal sentry lasers etc, reducing the need for a 5* specific marine squad being needed to claim a ship thats already surrendered.

[Lord Dakier]

Right, now this is out of its baby steps I think its time I give it a try.

Is it compatible with XRM and her suggested mods?

[joseph99]

Should work just fine with it although i havnt tested that theory out yet. Point is, it doesnt do anything out the ordinary. The gloabal variables it uses are delibaratly overstated and long winded, to stop them conflicting with anything. Only point i can ever see this mod conflicting with is the .t file. The text file number in use with this is 9768. Have no idea if that numbers in use, elseware.

[Nividium]

... Only point i can ever see this mod conflicting with is the .t file. The text file number in use with this is 9768. Have no idea if that numbers in use, elseware.

The text id 9768 has not been used. You can find the list of used and available command slots and text id's in the "Community script and mod download library". The text id's are near the bottom.

[joseph99]

Kl, handy list. Thanx for letting me know. I'd been through there but missed that for some reason. Dont need to rework the txt info


Ok. A minor teething issue with the 4th versions second core. Picked up on this myself through gameplay.
I had to script the fleet core differently due to the way the game deals with sectors that you arnt in. There's a logic flaw in the script that deals with this. Or more to the point i overlooked an odviouse senario and created a minor flaw in the chain of events. It amounts to little more than you seeing alterations you shouldnt see, under very specific circumstances. Ie you in a sector and watching your ships cap other ships in great detail.

Tips and strategy.

Ok. Couple of fun scenarios for you to try. Sort of a strategey tut on how to use the mod. Each scenario takes anything from a couple of mins to a couple of hours dependant on luck, stats, skill, number of save reloads etc...

1) Wings and small caps...
-Make a wing of fighters, 2-3 strong. Fast fighters capable of mounting pbe's.
-Mount 1-2 pbe's on the main mounts, 1 pbe in a turret on "missiles only", if you can.
-Form them into, lets say, blue wing and form up.
-Pick yer small ship target ( fighter, trader etc)
-Order your wing to "Shield Attack" your target.
-Hold back and let them start the attack. As soon as they do, have a light pot shot at your target as well. Include yourself in the equasion.
-Dont shoot any more. Instead, let your wing do the work, you just keep close and keep the pressure on.
-If the oponents hull is being to badly damaged, order your wing to "follow me", break and run for a bit to let them recover a little, then re - initiate the attack.
-Keep this up for long enough and the pilot will bail. Either via your self or one of your wing.
-Having more wing increases your chances of your target bailing, but please note, it also increases the chances of you destroying your target.

2) Xploit the missions...
-You can use wings again for this and again they can increase your chances, but again, they can increase the chances of destroying targets.
-For this example, take one of the "defend station" missions.
-Let all the enemy ships come down and form round the station
-While there attacking it, take pot shots at them and damage each and every one.
-Keep menouvering around the station, taking the odd cheap pot shot at random targets and using the station to play "peekaboo" with the ships who are after you.
-Eventualy, they'll either creater against the station or bail.
-Beutiful thing is, you still get your reward for each ship that bails and also the ship to claim as well

[qcncr]

I'd Love to try this on x3ap but download links are not working.

Can you provide new links?

Thanks