Marine Repairs and Training [TC][AP][ALP]

[DrBullwinkle]

How much damage to the M6?

Immediately above your first post is a discussion of a possible bug under certain (unusual) circumstances. Otherwise, the marines normally consume resources before credits.

They may consume microchips last -- after hull plating and nividium.

[bbgun77]

Another e.g,I caputure a M7(9%) so marines repaire the ship,use my case,I trans marine to my m6,use supply ship to m7 microchip Niv,then I let marines back to m7,untill the ship to 100% microchip an niv dont been used for repaired.

May be I test it at a vanilla.

[DrBullwinkle]

Is there Hull Plating in the cargo bay of the M7? I think that Hull Plating is used first, then nividium, then microchips.

Otherwise, I do not know why the marines are not consuming the wares.

For curiosity, what happens if you change id="311" to >yes< (Consume wares only)?

[bbgun77]

<t id="311">yes</t> <!-- Consume resources ONLY (do not use cash). Default = no. -->

and then still use case not resouces...

did u test it at XTC 2.0?

[DrBullwinkle]

XTC ships repair themselves automatically. No marines required.

If you are using XTC then you should have said so.

[bbgun77]

I test my backup X3+XTC2.0+Marine repair,and then still use case....

ok I download x3 from steam and test again...

[bbgun77]

How can I use marines in XTC?I like it

[DrBullwinkle]

I have not had an opportunity to try XTC yet, but I believe that most of its features can be turned On or Off. If you turn off XTC's automatic-repair function, then you can use Marine Repairs as you normally do.

Probably.

[bbgun77]

XTC automatic-repair function only for myself ship.and marines repaire for all my ships.The only problem is to not use resources,in addition, all are fine.

[DrBullwinkle]

OK, great. Thank you for the report(s), bbgun!

[d_ka]

I have replaced the original Marine Repairs with your version, Dr.B and it´s working pretty well; my ships get repaired quite quickly, most of my marines are maxed in their skills ( though i can´t comprehent why "hacking" is improving? ), so, basically, i´m quite satisfied.
Except for one thing: i´m bankrupt now!
These hard working marines of yours have spent 80 millon of my cash within 2 hours or so.... It felt almost like cheating to use the free repairs of the original version, so i decided to change it, but haven´t expected suck a financial desaster

EDIT ( i can´t reply at your post, it seems... ):
Yea, i had some fun hacking all major Xenon capital ships, and one Advanced Destroyer ( just to have it, even one Kaakh Corvete is already a cheat ship per excellence ).

Btw: does the Boron Organic Hull mod add up with Marine Repairs? Might bee quite a deadly combo, even usefull during a combat situation, i gues.

One more thing: You have created this Drone Carrier, and i have one question: is it possible to give Xenon Carriers the ability to "replicate/build/cheat script what so ever, their fighters "on the fly", so to say? The idea behind it: It´s an ex Terraformer AGI, and it "replicates", and this ability would make Xenon Invasions as deadly as hell. As long as the Xenon Carrier is not destroyed, one would face unlimited fighter waves, and thus make their formation nah impossible to break.

[DrBullwinkle]

Well, you must have had a lot of repairs to do all at one time.

By default, the marines give you a discount over repairs at a shipyard (you can change this setting in the t file). However, they incur training costs similar to training at a Military Outpost. So, if you do a lot of repairs *and* training, then the costs can be steep. It is only temporary.

The on-the-job training includes repairing computers as well as hulls, so their computer skills improve -- hence increased "hacking" skill(z).

[d_ka]

After some testings with Marine Repairs of yours, i have found couple of things:

1. The repairs will continiue even if a player has no more cash.
2. The Marines on NPC ships don´t seem to repair them.
- it would be cool, if NPCs could gain the same "privilege" as a player, especially because many of them fly around with quite damaged hulls after some major battles ( if possible, of course ).

3. Though related to your "hacked" Advanced Boarding, i´ll post it here to spare another post:
- the transporter ability of the tool seems to intervene with Space Loot Transporter devise. In the interface menue i first couldn´t find the keys to assign, but after a reload, they appeared, and while the key for the Space Loot Transporter is still there, it doesn´t show in the AL plugin within the interface controll anymore. I know, the initial tool is not made by you, but since you are a specialist here, i thought i´d share this with you so you might fix this, perhaps?

[DrBullwinkle]

1. Yes, marines will lend you the cash to do repairs even when you are broke.

• (This will be configurable in a future version.)

2. No, other races do not have marine repairs (or training). They do, however, automatically repair their ships when they dock, which is something that your ships cannot do.

3. The version of SpaceLoot Transporter that I use is just a hotkey. There is no menu or ALP to be interfered with. Can you give me a link for the version you are using? (and please do it on Bullwinkle's List).

• (If you have the AP Hotkey Bug from an older game, then it is your saved game that is slightly broken. The link will give you some tips to help fix your game. Starting a new game will also fix it because the bug itself was corrected in AP version 2.1.)

• (I am working on a hack for SpaceLoot Transporter as well. )

[d_ka]

It´s a "Space Loot Transporter" by Huefte, RWT-V3.7.1-TC.pck ( can´t find the link right now, will post an edit if i´ll do ).

Concerning the HotkeyBug: i´ve started a new game today with one of XRM pirate starts ( Formidable Freebooter ), and my version is up to date, boch for AP and XRM, so this shouldn´t be an issue, but thanks for providing the link

My question from a previous post ( see edit ) was how marine repairs coup with regenerating Boron hulls? Will the effect be doubled?

Also, do i get it right: The marines will lend me money for the repairs, but won´t charge it back?
Oh, and, the fully trained marines do not train anymore, and therefore the costs for the repairs will go down? I´ve just spend about a million, or even more ( don´t know exactly since i was bartering by Teladi ^^ ), repairing 5% hull of my Carrack. The ammount of recieved training, especially concidering the short time, is very good, i think. But does it matter how many marines are working on the hull, speak: are the experience points lower, the more marines work together, or is it of no meaning?

Thanks for your time, and efforts, to make game experience even more pleasant ( smth. i often forget to say in my postings generally

)

[DrBullwinkle]

how do marine repairs cooperate with regenerating organic Boron hulls? Will the effect be doubled?

They will combine, yes. Not exactly doubled, because organic hulls repair differently than marines. But a player-owned Thresher or Ray with marines on board will repair very quickly.

do i get it right: The marines will lend me money for the repairs, but won´t charge it back?

Mostly, yes. The marines are experienced with deadbeat clients, so they build in a "service charge" to every repair. It covers the cost of the rare repair that is never paid for (like insurance).

fully trained marines do not train anymore, and therefore the costs for the repairs will go down?

Yes.

does it matter how many marines are working on the hull

Yes. The rate of repair is based on both the experience and the number of marines available. As the marines gain experience, they become faster at doing repairs. Cost is based on the amount of repair done, so an experienced squad will repair faster (and add costs faster) than an inexperienced squad. However, total cost will be the same, regardless of experience.

Remember that rates and costs are configurable in the language file. See the first post for details.

Thanks for your time, and efforts, to make game experience even more pleasant

You are welcome! And thank you for your reports and feedback.

You have created this Drone Carrier, and i have one question: is it possible to give Xenon Carriers the ability to "replicate/build/cheat script what so ever, their fighters "on the fly"?

That should be possible when I do the balanced version of DCS. It is a good idea. It would make carriers actually something to fear (rather than just easy targets for boarding ops).

[Nanook]

...

do i get it right: The marines will lend me money for the repairs, but won´t charge it back?

Mostly, yes. The marines are experienced with deadbeat clients, so they build in a "service charge" to every repair. It covers the cost of the rare repair that is never paid for (like insurance)....

So a true deadbeat, such as an Enron board member, could simply hide his assets in an 'offshore' spaceweed complex rather than in his personal account and have his marines repair his ships for nothing. Hmm, sounds very 'Teladi' to me.

[DrBullwinkle]

If you want to cheat, Nanook, the easier way would be to turn off costs completely. It is entirely configurable -- play however you like.

The fact that marines charge for their work is something that I added to the script. Tatakau's original version did not have any costs at all.

• (PS: The reason that marines lend you the credits when you are broke is because I hate scripts that fail to work reliably without telling the user. And the situation is so rare that it was not worth the time to write and test the code to handle it. Nevertheless, I have some future plans that require changing the code anyway, so I will make mandatory costs a configurable option in a future version.)

[Nanook]

If you want to cheat, Nanook, the easier way would be to turn off costs completely. It is entirely configurable -- play however you like.

The fact that marines charge for their work is something that I added to the script. Tatakau's original version did not have any costs at all.

• (PS: The reason that marines lend you the credits when you are broke is because I hate scripts that fail to work reliably without telling the user. And the situation is so rare that it was not worth the time to write and test the code to handle it. Nevertheless, I have some future plans that require changing the code anyway, so I will make mandatory costs a configurable option in a future version.)

Aw, here I was trying to be all funny and clever and you had to go and take it seriously.

[DrBullwinkle]

I was trying to be all funny and clever

Aha. OK, fair enough.

• (If you want to be funny and clever, then lets talk about novice pilots (that are too stupid to fly through a gate) in a game where we usually buy software for our AI computers. That is something that I consider deserving of poking fun at. )

I have been giving a lot of thought to repair costs recently because I am working on a couple of updates to Marine Repairs and Training. My goal is to find a balance that is better than vanilla without being too easy or too hard. It is a challenge.

Perhaps more importantly, the "perfect" balance depends on your style of play. Some people like playing pure "simulation" games (like Risk). For them, the vanilla balance is probably fine, because the value gained from an hour's work is frustratingly small (or negative if you count the inevitable losses along the way). Some people like that sort of thing.

More action-oriented players enjoy an occasional windfall profit, which makes riskier actions (such as boarding a target rather than killing it) worthwhile. For those players, the vanilla costs are absurd.

Players who do a lot of generic missions mostly want a more "portable" way to do repairs (away from a shipyard). They may appreciate a small discount, but the main thing they want is to be able to do field repairs. That is where Marine Repairs comes in.

I am leaning toward a sliding scale. Something like 80% of shipyard repair cost for an M5, and more like 50% for an M6. I'm not sure about larger ships yet... I might want to make them more expensive to repair than an M6.

Or, maybe, I need another factor? Like newbie marines work for a lower rate than more experienced marines? So that the highly-trained marines that you want for boarding ops increase repair costs closer to the vanilla rates?

That way, the repair cost would be more heavily discounted early in the game, but the costs would increase, closer to vanilla costs, later in the game -- when earning credits has become *too* easy?

I am open to feedback from all.