[AL PLUGIN] The Marauder Shipyard - v0.5 - updated: 23.01.2009

[trioxane4321]

I just got done installing the new game with the CD version and when I downloaded the Maurader shipyard mod into the spk file system, I got a system error reporting issue. I believe this is the issue with the mod not working correctly. here is a little information for you. I will uninstall the xpminstaller.exe and reinstall it to see if this fixes the issue.

AppName: xpminstaller.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: ntdll.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.5512 Offset: 0001aa01


exception information
code: 0xc0000005 flags: 0x00000000
Record: 0x000000000000 address: 0x000000007c91aa01

system information
windows nt 5.1 build: 2600
cpu vendor code: 756e6547 - 49656e69 - 6c65746e
cpu version: 00000f29 cpu feature code: bfebfbff
cpu amd feature code: 00d6e824

module 1
xpminstaller.exe
inage base 0x00400000 inage size: 0x00000000
checksum: 0x00000000 time stamp: 0x49144ed8

[Teladidrone]

Teladidrone,
so it's not possible to create a pirate SY like the other race's SY, wherein pirates won't destroy "their" SY?

If it were possible to make a pirate SY that pirates would not destroy, what would have to happen?

Pirate sectors are a dangerous place - a lot of crazy ppl lurk around there you know.
One can never know what some pissed off pirate is going to do next, even turn on one of his own stations...

Seriously, Pirates may nuke about almost anything in their path at times - however I dunno if they would attack stations owned by the neutral or friendly race, too.
Or one can always set the invincible flag on a station to protect it but that wont prevent wannabe raiders from attacking anyways...

I just got done installing the new game with the CD version and when I downloaded the Maurader shipyard mod into the spk file system, I got a system error reporting issue. I believe this is the issue with the mod not working correctly. here is a little information for you. I will uninstall the xpminstaller.exe and reinstall it to see if this fixes the issue.

AppName: xpminstaller.exe AppVer: 0.0.0.0 ModName: ntdll.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.5512 Offset: 0001aa01


exception information
code: 0xc0000005 flags: 0x00000000
Record: 0x000000000000 address: 0x000000007c91aa01

system information
windows nt 5.1 build: 2600
cpu vendor code: 756e6547 - 49656e69 - 6c65746e
cpu version: 00000f29 cpu feature code: bfebfbff
cpu amd feature code: 00d6e824

module 1
xpminstaller.exe
inage base 0x00400000 inage size: 0x00000000
checksum: 0x00000000 time stamp: 0x49144ed8

The spk package itself is ok, these dumps are all the fault of the crappy Plugin manager application and a lot ppl get them.
I am to wrong person to help you here - you may want to go and fry Cycrow for this...

You can always manually unpack the spk and copy its files in the correct location though.

[trioxane4321]

How would I manually unpack the files and to which directory/folder would I put them in? thanks for your help as well.

[Hieronymos]

Teladidrone,
For DDRS mod, we had the Special SY's spawn their own little defense fleets: 1 M2, 2-3 M6's, + fighters...which'd patrol area around SY. To help keep out of trouble, all SSY's would be spawned fairly far from gates; which kept them out of the shipping lanes, and made them harder to find...and required more 'clues' being provided to players to help locate them. Eventually a cheat script was created that would list coord's of all 6 SSY's..

The defense fleets were just enough to thwart low-level Kha'ak/Xenon raids, or light pirate incursions...Which resulted in lowe incidence of SY's scragged.
And saved lots of time answering the inevitable player posts of those who hadn't RTFM: "where's the $%&@ing SY got to?!!?"

[Teladidrone]

Teladidrone,
For DDRS mod, we had the Special SY's spawn their own little defense fleets: 1 M2, 2-3 M6's, + fighters...which'd patrol area around SY. To help keep out of trouble, all SSY's would be spawned fairly far from gates; which kept them out of the shipping lanes, and made them harder to find...and required more 'clues' being provided to players to help locate them. Eventually a cheat script was created that would list coord's of all 6 SSY's..

The defense fleets were just enough to thwart low-level Kha'ak/Xenon raids, or light pirate incursions...Which resulted in lowe incidence of SY's scragged.
And saved lots of time answering the inevitable player posts of those who hadn't RTFM: "where's the $%&@ing SY got to?!!?"

I get that - but the situation for The Marauder is different: I want the shipyard to change its location from time to time and I am counting on crazy pirates to relocate it for me.
The Don has no friends anymore these days and is always on the run - there is no save place for him and his shipyard in this universe...
Oh, and on top of that I deliberately install low shielding when the station is spawned to make it even easier for small pirate/Xenon/Khaak/whoever raiding parties.

How would I manually unpack the files and to which directory/folder would I put them in? thanks for your help as well.

Already answered just a few posts up:

Sure there is - you will have to unpack the spk and manually copy its contents into the right places (scripts, director and t subdirectories of your TC installation).

If the Plugin manager is installed, it adds an "extract" entry to the context menu of any spk file.
And there is the command line tool SPKTool.exe in the ...\Program Files\X Plugin Manager\Tools directory which can be used to unpack spk files, too.

[Hieronymos]

Even though the Don has no more pirate friends, he doesn't like it when player wastes pirates--even those who are trying to kill him..

Maybe you could use the MD to create a few stock missions that could bump up player's rep with him (he's 'neutral race', right?)..whenever he gets irritated with player.

The Marauder would work great with Serial Kicked's "Pirate Guild" plugin for 3R. Too bad he's not modding anymore...

Keep it comin' Teladidrone...Your plugin is the best!

[Knetter_Gek]

I'm pretty sure I am missing something but after reading the whole thread again I just have not spotted it:
I have space weed and I have a ship, yet whenever I dock at the Marauder, there's no Ganja.
I have restarted the script twice, I have tried upping my combat and trading ranks as well as lifted my Boron rank to the highest possible, and yet, still...
Ganja won't talk to me
What have I done to make him hate me so and what do I need to do to win back his heart, or at least his tuning?
I've got some female Borons in the hold to sell as slaves - he can have those if he wants

If I load one of my older games, Ganja is there, so it's certainly something I'm lacking, but I can't figure out what.

One thing - one restarted spawned the Marauder in Loomanckstrat's and it was not there, ANYWHERE in the sector (I had five Kestrels mapping the damned thing to find it... not there, seriously) and it also did not respawn.
Easy enough to fix but possibly something is wrong there

[Black_Shade]

I'm pretty sure I am missing something but after reading the whole thread again I just have not spotted it:
I have space weed and I have a ship, yet whenever I dock at the Marauder, there's no Ganja.
I have restarted the script twice, I have tried upping my combat and trading ranks as well as lifted my Boron rank to the highest possible, and yet, still...
Ganja won't talk to me
What have I done to make him hate me so and what do I need to do to win back his heart, or at least his tuning?
I've got some female Borons in the hold to sell as slaves - he can have those if he wants

If I load one of my older games, Ganja is there, so it's certainly something I'm lacking, but I can't figure out what.

One thing - one restarted spawned the Marauder in Loomanckstrat's and it was not there, ANYWHERE in the sector (I had five Kestrels mapping the damned thing to find it... not there, seriously) and it also did not respawn.
Easy enough to fix but possibly something is wrong there

I've had similar problems with the shipyard disappearing and not respawning in the sector that it said it was in, a quick restart of the script and it got back to normal.

I also have the Ganja problem, although it's slightly different. For me, he is always on the shipyard but he has never given me a new mission. I took his initial one, completed it, and tuned up one ship, but since then he has stopped talking to me. I can only ask him where the nearest shipyard is- which is incredibly useful since he is sitting in it.

[Teladidrone]

Ok, lets shine some light on Ganja:

He will contact you and ask for some Space weed when you dock at The Marauder for the first time.
He will ask you to bring him 25 Space weed for his service.

If you accept this first mission and then later dock with 25 Space weed at The Marauder, Ganja will "smell" that good stuff and contact you again offering overtuning service.
This can be repeated forever... however there is no more reminder about it.
If you need another overtuneing session, simply dock with another load of Space weed and he will wake up again.

If you decline his first mission, he is angry about you and will not talk to you again for several hours.
Eventually if you dock at some later time he will contact you again offering his first mission once more.

However, you can NEVER initiate a talk about overtuning service using the station's com menu.
Something like that aint in his script - technical reasons behind this... basically it's because the possibility to add customized com menu conversations is extremely limited; therefore the Space weed in your cargo hold is the "trigger" to wake him up.

[Teladidrone]

I'm pretty sure I am missing something but after reading the whole thread again I just have not spotted it:
I have space weed and I have a ship, yet whenever I dock at the Marauder, there's no Ganja.
I have restarted the script twice, I have tried upping my combat and trading ranks as well as lifted my Boron rank to the highest possible, and yet, still...
Ganja won't talk to me
What have I done to make him hate me so and what do I need to do to win back his heart, or at least his tuning?
I've got some female Borons in the hold to sell as slaves - he can have those if he wants

If I load one of my older games, Ganja is there, so it's certainly something I'm lacking, but I can't figure out what.

One thing - one restarted spawned the Marauder in Loomanckstrat's and it was not there, ANYWHERE in the sector (I had five Kestrels mapping the damned thing to find it... not there, seriously) and it also did not respawn.
Easy enough to fix but possibly something is wrong there

Maybe some Pirate raiders destroyed the station before you could reach the location?
Anyway, the script periodically checks for the station and will respawn it if it was gone for too long.

No Ganja at all or is he just not talking to you?
Is Ganja sitting in the station? Can you see him in the station's com menu?

[Black_Shade]

Ok, lets shine some light on Ganja:

He will contact you and ask for some Space weed when you dock at The Marauder for the first time.
He will ask you to bring him 25 Space weed for his service.

If you accept this first mission and then later dock with 25 Space weed at The Marauder, Ganja will "smell" that good stuff and contact you again offering overtuning service.
This can be repeated forever... however there is no more reminder about it.
If you need another overtuneing session, simply dock with another load of Space weed and he will wake up again.

If you decline his first mission, he is angry about you and will not talk to you again for several hours.
Eventually if you dock at some later time he will contact you again offering his first mission once more.

However, you can NEVER initiate a talk about overtuning service using the station's com menu.
Something like that aint in his script - technical reasons behind this... basically it's because the possibility to add customized com menu conversations is extremely limited; therefore the Space weed in your cargo hold is the "trigger" to wake him up.

Awesome, thank you!!! I figured it was probably something like this, but i couldnt remember what I had brought him the first time to test it out

[Knetter_Gek]

Maybe some Pirate raiders destroyed the station before you could reach the location?

Possible.

Anyway, the script periodically checks for the station and will respawn it if it was gone for too long.

Three real-time hours in which I used SETA in liberal amounts... I think the script "broke" somehow there. I just restarted it and that cured it, but it looks like something did not set a variable that let the script see the Marauder had had an accident.
this is just a teeny weeny little thing though, it's only happened once to me and it's easy enough to fix. Don't dwell on it on my account.

No Ganja at all or is he just not talking to you?
Is Ganja sitting in the station? Can you see him in the station's com menu?

No Ganja. At all. Not in the Comm menu, and I did not get his initial mission the first time I docked.
However, Maybe this is relevant: I docked with 75 units of Space Weed the first time, wanting to get my Enhanced Kea to be Enhanceder.
Maybe it breaks if you dock the first time with space weed in the trunk?

Since then, no matter how many restarts I do of the script he won't appear, is not in the Marauder station, and obviously does not contact me.
Everything else about the Marauder seems to work: it'll sell me Blastclaw Prototypes and everything just fine. It also respawned today, which I went and tested especially for you by luring a Pirate Carrack to it and then jumping out.[/quote]

[Teladidrone]

No Ganja. At all. Not in the Comm menu, and I did not get his initial mission the first time I docked.
However, Maybe this is relevant: I docked with 75 units of Space Weed the first time, wanting to get my Enhanced Kea to be Enhanceder.
Maybe it breaks if you dock the first time with space weed in the trunk?

No, that would not break anything.

However, if Ganja does not show up in the station com menu at all this means that the MD script (Ganja is a MD script) for some reason did not connect the Ganja actor with your Marauder.
Very strange, never experienced something like that - I may need some time to figure out what's going on here...

Could it be possible for some reason that you have more than one Marauder in your universe? Maybe some other script using that same station type for something else?

[Knetter_Gek]

Multiple maurauders... hmm. I don't think so, but it's not impossible. Let's see what other plugins I have.

I've got the Marauder plugin (really!),
as well as amurph0's Yaki v6, ATF v3, OTAS v2 and XenoTec v1 shipyards. These are all the current versions.
Link to the topic w/ downloads: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=228890

I installed these before starting this game. After I installed them the old games still have Ganja aboard.
I guess this makes sense, one of them could be using the same station.

As a test, I might be able to sneak a Kestrel into the sectors where they spawned and see if Ganja went and moved to another shipyard... I'll give that a try.

[Knetter_Gek]

No Ganja anywhere in my space. Believe me, with four races on shot-on-sight this was hard to find out

[Jaga_Telesin]

Had no luck finding the Marauder yesterday despite four hours jumping into all Pirate sectors and flying around.

I think there might be a respawn issue after it is destroyed, which is what I suspect happened in my game. I reset the script and will attempt to find it again today.

[Teladidrone]

Had no luck finding the Marauder yesterday despite four hours jumping into all Pirate sectors and flying around.

I think there might be a respawn issue after it is destroyed, which is what I suspect happened in my game. I reset the script and will attempt to find it again today.

It will respawn on its own somewhere else if destroyed, but this may take some time; and when it spawns you will receive a new incoming distress call with updated location hints.
You can always force a immediate respawn if you turn the plugin off and on again.

Knetter_Gek: check your inbox please.

[Jaga_Telesin]

You can always force a immediate respawn if you turn the plugin off and on again.

After saving my game, exiting and disabling the SPK, reloading the save, and re-saving to "clear" it of the script's contents, I then re-enabled and loaded the clean save.

What happened was not what I expected to happen at all - the Boron sent me a personal message (while I was in Home of Light no less) asking about tunings. The Marauder was not in that sector, and I didn't get any distress message like I noticed when I started this game.

I flew around the universe again looking in pirate sectors for the shipyard, and as expected didn't find a thing. I am beginning to suspect that it doesn't exist at all and is the figment of some imaginative politician's dreams.

7 hours and counting trying to find the Don now... that's about a day of my life down the drain. /cry

[Jaga_Telesin]

Update: apparently the third reset did the trick - the Marauder finally showed up in a place where you'd expect it to.

Not sure if it was a problem with my game, or with the random location it spawned in. Or if it simply got wiped within minutes after spawning those other times.

Might be an idea to put in some redundancy checks to ensure it doesn't spawn way too far outside the gate-ecliptic areas, that it in fact does spawn properly, etc. I don't personally mind a challenge to find a SY, but this was a bit too much even for me.

[Teladidrone]

Update: apparently the third reset did the trick - the Marauder finally showed up in a place where you'd expect it to.

Not sure if it was a problem with my game, or with the random location it spawned in. Or if it simply got wiped within minutes after spawning those other times.

Might be an idea to put in some redundancy checks to ensure it doesn't spawn way too far outside the gate-ecliptic areas, that it in fact does spawn properly, etc. I don't personally mind a challenge to find a SY, but this was a bit too much even for me.

Actually, it should be enough to simply turn off the plugin in the AL menu and turn it on again after a few seconds to trigger a respawn... no need to exit TC, disable spk crap and the like

I thought I did have enough checks in the spawning code of the shipyard to find a valid location but I guess sometimes those are still not enough.
Oh, well, maybe I can fit in even more checks in one of the next versions...