[AL PLUGIN] Pirate Guild 3: Dynamic AI and Guild System - v1.59 - [2010-07-22]

[vampirecosmonaut]

Ran the debug, it didn't change anything for me.
I get a reward from the Pirate Guild for destroying any enemy ship anywhere.
I jumped into a Xenon sector and got a reward 2 times for every ship I destroyed.

Here's what the log says:

Code: Select all

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* Scanning Race : Yaki
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* Scanning Race : Terran
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* Scanning Race : ATF
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* Scanning Race : Player
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* Scanning Race : Goner
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* Scanning Race : Kha'ak
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* Scanning Race : Xenon
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* Scanning Race : Teladi
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* Scanning Race : Paranid
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* Scanning Race : Split
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* Scanning Race : Boron
- Boron Military Barracuda Sentinel - R: 15000, T: 0, M: null
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* Scanning Race : Argon
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ARRAY ( null, 8513, 1, 2, 30, 35, 1500, 12, ... )
PlayTime 951208
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PB: Rehabilitation Facility M alpha(LooManckStrat's Legacy) - 0 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Nyana's Hideout) - 16 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Treasure Chest) - 17 - Friend
PB: WPirate Guild ShipyardX(Maelstrom) - 0 - Neutral
PB: Duke's Haven(Unknown Sector) - 10 - Friend
PB: Pirate Anarchy Port(Hatikvah's Faith) - 7 - Friend
PB: WPirate Guild ShipyardX(Desecrated Skies) - 1 - Neutral
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Unholy Descent) - 15 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Unknown Sector 7-4) - 31 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Unknown Sector 15-7) - 18 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Bright Profit) - 26 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Gaian Star) - 14 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Acquisition Repository) - 30 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(New Income) - 14 - Friend
PB: Pirate Base(Unknown Sector 12-5) - 4 - Foe
PB: Pirate Base(Olmancketslat's Treaty) - 3 - Foe
PB: Plasma Burst Generator Forge alpha(Maelstrom) - 0 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Unknown Sector 7-5) - 16 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Unknown Sector 12-5) - 21 - Friend
PB: Plasma Burst Generator Forge alpha(Unknown Sector 12-5) - 0 - Friend
PB: Rehabilitation Facility M alpha(Unknown Sector 12-5) - 0 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Hollow Infinity) - 17 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Moo-Kye's Revenge) - 15 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Bluish Snout) - 12 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Heretic's End) - 11 - Friend
PB: Plasma Burst Generator Forge alpha(LooManckStrat's Legacy) - 0 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Sanctity of Corruption) - 14 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Family Zyarth) - 14 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Unknown Sector 17-0) - 12 - Friend
PB: Incendiary Bomb Launcher Forge alpha(LooManckStrat's Legacy) - 0 - Friend
PB: Pirate Anarchy Port(LooManckStrat's Legacy) - 10 - Friend
PB: Pirate Guild Outpost(Maelstrom) - 17 - Friend
-------------------------

[Serial Kicked]

You still get the "rewards" *after* running the file ?! This is the twilight zone, script laws doesn't apply anymore in your game .

Please upload your savegame somewhere on the internet (rapidshare, 2shared, mediafire, whatever) so i can give it a look, i really need to understand what's going on for my own sanity.

And give me a list of the scripts/mods you are running, so i can have the same config as you.

[paulwheeler]

I had a slight problem last night, but I'm not sure if its related to this script or not.

I have a medium sized complex in Treasure Chest (about 12 component factories) with a couple of wings of assorted corvettes and fighters patrolling. Last night the Guild Mobile HQ entered the system and launched about 20 fighters.

First I want to say this was great as this was exactly the behavour I was hoping for from this script... but...

No matter what I did the game crashed every time I tried to jump into the system in my Collosus. I even tried setting all graphics to minimum - even a lower screen res and it still would not let me in. Luckily I saved before I tried to jump. I haven't had this problem before.

I ended up having to take the Guild HQ out OOS (M7Ms are your friend!). Once the HQ was gone I could jump in without the game crashing to clean up the remaining fighters, but it was very slow. (luckily I only lost 1 fighter and 1 corvette)

Now my system is not that slow (E6600 Core 2 Duo - 8800GT GPU - 4GB ram - Vista 32) and I would have thought it would cope with the graphics reduced a bit.

I also have RRF (there was just 1 Titan in the system), OOS combat rebalance, Ship Rebalance Mod (with compatible trails and cockpits), CMod3, X3 Unleashed (which just optimises the jobs a bit to improve performance) and various other small scripts. I am also still running version 1.51 of the PG.

Any ideas what I can do to solve this so I can fight off the HQ next time it comes calling? Was it just due to having a complex in the system? I've tried the mod that reduces the complexity of the complex tube models with no luck. Is it worth trying the mod that completely removes the tube model?

Thanks

[Serial Kicked]

You know it's funny. When my releases were labeled as Beta, RC or even Stable, no one, except me, found a single bug. Now that I'm working on something else and that they are labeled as "Final" I am nearly doing a new release every day. So next version will be labeled as Beta version again so i can finally work on YA and ADS in peace. And, admit it people, you do not want another plugin published from me ! (yeah i know, i really need some sleep)

I got vampirecosmonaut's savegame. But if anyone experience the same issue i'd be glad to know about it.

@paulwheeler:

For this kind of bug there is 2 possible causes:

- A bug in my Guild HQ job script. Basically a faulty jump procedure may lead to such behavior. But i'm pretty sure it has already been checked several times. I'll do another check anyway.

- I highly suspect a bug related to the latest version of RRF combined with PG. I've already got a few errors with RRF 1.7 when used with PG. It is known that RRF may sometimes cause a crash when or just before RRF ships are beginning to jump in the sector you're in (or when you're jumping in a sector RRF ships are ready to deploy in).

Just a question, let's say you let the Guild HQ goes loose for like 5 or 10 minutes and then jump in, does it still hang? And does RRF ships jump in?

Now my system is not that slow (E6600 Core 2 Duo - 8800GT GPU - 4GB ram - Vista 32) and I would have thought it would cope with the graphics reduced a bit.

As a matter of fact it is 3 times better than mine, wanna swap ? The issue is definitively not related to any hardware issue. It's technically not possible, so you don't need to change your display settings.

Is it worth trying the mod that completely removes the tube model?

No, it's not related.

What you may try, to give me a hand, is to follow the Guild HQ (toggle debug mode on, it will help). And see if the game hangs or not when you are jumping in its sector. It should not when it's patrolling or refueling. But try to catch it when it's invading another sector.

[paulwheeler]

Ok. Well ill keep the save from the crash point and let the hq ship go for a while and then see if i can jump in.

is it worth ditching rrf and trying the military base responce revamp mod instead?d

[Lamiadon]

Hi,
one of the german users has experienced a problem:
He destroyed a pirate base and got a message, saying he got 500,000Cr as reward but the money never was added to his account.

liegt wohl am skipt aber wenn man eine piratenbasis zerstört kommt ja die nachricht das man 500000 Cr bekommen hat nur landen die nicht auf dem konto

[Serial Kicked]

@paulwheeler: If RRF is the culprit, then yeah you can give the other plugin a try, i've not tried it myself so i don't know anything about it. However, i'd suggest you to wait the end of the weekend as i'll probably publish one last "final" version of PG once i'm done beta testing it.

@Lamiadon: Thanks for the report, i'm checking the file right now, and yeah i dunno why but the reward as been set as a comment, so he is right, no money. Tell him it will be fixed monday in next release.

[Topchris]

Hello Serial Kicked, I'm having a strange issue that I've seen people post about (In regards to RRF) in the past, and possibly with using LV's and your script combined

Note: I did not test the latest version 1.53, which I am hoping will fix my issues. I have no time to do that until tonight but I wanted to get feedback as to if you know what might be causing this for me.

I've run the game with script editor enabled without specifically enabling any of the AL scripts, and it runs fine.
So then I turn your script on, and it runs fine as well, maybe a little drop in FPS.
Then I turn on RRF with it, and when I run SATA, all ships in the sector stop moving, and the sector map freezes. I read in the past that this has something to do with Strings in the script editor, but the most helpful (And most recent posts) I've found on the issue are from 2006ish.

Running RRF by itself does not cause this issue.

I also have other AL-enhancing plugins running, none are by themselves very intensive.
Is this because I just have too much stuff running at once? Or too many ships? Incompatibility? Any Ideas? I will test 1.53 tonight as soon as I get back.

Thanks



PS: I like your script alot and it provides a nice flavor to the universe, wouldn't play without it. Oh, I've never been able to get the Extented Communication System to work though. The hotkeys just don't seem to do anything.

[scaseman]

PS: I like your script alot and it provides a nice flavor to the universe, wouldn't play without it. Oh, I've never been able to get the Extented Communication System to work though. The hotkeys just don't seem to do anything.

I would suggest that you target a Guild ship or base before using the hot key. If you are already doing this then I apologise for my interference.

[Topchris]

I would suggest that you target a Guild ship or base before using the hot key. If you are already doing this then I apologise for my interference.

Of course I already did this I've targeted just about everything in the game and used my ECS hotkey, nothing. Even if I set the pirates to friendly, I get no response.

[Lamiadon]

two issues from the german thread:

Is it usual that all piratestations in same sector (Fortress and Port) just turn enemy while they are fighting against the Borons and you shoot an Argon Buser? It happened to me once.
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Ist es normal das die alle (Piratenstationen im selben Sektor = Piraten Bollwerk + Hafen) aus unerfindlichen Gründen feindlich werden, wenn sie gerade Krieg gegen die Boronen führen und man einen Argon Buster abschießt? Mir ist das jetzt einmal passiert.

Could it be that the Buster was a stealth pirate?

edit: he mentioned just now that he hit a jumpgate as they turned hostile. this causes notoriety loss with all races and was maybe the reason ...

A Question about the headhunters: I'm not member of the guild or even an enemy of one of the races (no Kills but Story, Xenon and Kha'ak and no other enemies)

Is it usual, that unexceptional every race hires headhunters, that are hoistile to me?

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ne Frage zu dem Kopfgeldjägern; Ich bin weder Mitglied in der Gilde, noch bin ich zu einem der Völker feindlich eingestellt, soll heissen Ausser dem Story und Xenon/Kha'ak Abschüssen hab ich keine Gegner.

Ist es also normal das ausnahmslos alle Völker Kopfgeldjäger anheuern die mir gegenüber Feindlich sind?

Got no clue.

[EmperorJon]

Love it! First real thing I've downloaded, and I was so amazed I had to make a DiD themed using it!

[paulwheeler]

Just to update you on my problem:

I uninstalled RRF and installed the Military Base Responce Revamp script instead and...

da...da...da...

No more problems. I just jumped into a sector with the guild HQ and no crashes. So it seems RRF was the culprit. I'm sure I get less stutters and pauses too.

I have to say the MBRR script is great with PG as it sends you messages if you have a police license when a military base detectes a threat in the neighbouring systems.

Its great if you are playing against the pirates as you can be a kind of vigilante listening to police radio and ready to pounce!

[Lamiadon]

Another problem: Another one of the german users found a pirate M7 with readtext-error. ID was 134. that one is missing in all text-files. Did you forget to put it in?

[Serial Kicked]

Sorry, i had some trouble with my internet account (again), it's now resolved (hopefully). I am writing 1.54 right now and it should be uploaded in a few hours.


@Topchris

Thanks for the input.
Please post your OS / CPU / RAM / Video-card setup.

I can't reproduce your heavy slowdown when RRF is combined with PG but i'm currently "slowing down" (sort-of) the CPU usage of PG in 1.54. I hope it will resolve partially your issue. But to be honest i'm not sure it will be very effective. PG or RRF by themselves don't cause the slowdown. But when PG is toggled on, all my jumpdrive enabled pirate fighters and M7 seems to cause RRF to send its patrols all across the universe in order to (mostly unsuccessfully) catch them. In other words, PG forces RRF to use a bunch of your CPU.

The weird thing is that with a below min-req settings my game still runs correctly (well mostly, at seta x8 max). But i'm not running any kind of empire.

PS: I like your script alot and it provides a nice flavor to the universe, wouldn't play without it. Oh, I've never been able to get the Extented Communication System to work though. The hotkeys just don't seem to do anything.

Weird. My ECS library has been updated in versions 1.20 and 1.50 and each one of those version needed a full uninstall and reinstall of both ECS and PG to work properly.

I'd suggest you to do the following (in this order):

1. Go in AL settings
2. Disable PG, wait a minute or two
3. Disable ECS.
4. A menu is displayed, ask to remove setup and hotkey in this menu.
5. Save your game / quit game
6. Extract latest version of PG in your X3 folder
7. Run X3 / Reload savegame
8. Go in AL
9. Enable ECS
10. Enable PG
11. Set your ECS hotkey
12. play the game a few minutes (or wait 2 minutes in seta x8-10)
14. save the game & reload it (just to be sure changes are taken into account)

I hope it will help. It should, this method worked for several people who didn't update the pre-final releases correctly.

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@Liamadon

Hi, so the 1.54 will fix the PB destruction issue, and the reward for killing a PB will be of 2.5M instead of 500k as it's quite an accomplishment to do so.

Is it usual that all piratestations in same sector (Fortress and Port) just turn enemy while they are fighting against the Borons and you shoot an Argon Buser? It happened to me once.

Could it be that the Buster was a stealth pirate?

edit: he mentioned just now that he hit a jumpgate as they turned hostile. this causes notoriety loss with all races and was maybe the reason ...

Yeah it's jumpgate related. PG don't handle the Anarchy Port at all and there's a check for undercover ships. If he is wondering if i will "fix" this (making the jumpgates neutral), the answer is no. It's a game engine thing that i don't want to mess with.

A Question about the headhunters: I'm not member of the guild or even an enemy of one of the races (no Kills but Story, Xenon and Kha'ak and no other enemies)
Is it usual, that unexceptional every race hires headhunters, that are hoistile to me?

Errr... I'm not even sure i understand the question. But, i'll try to answer.

If you anger a race (even once) by helping a PG ship/base, you'll get a bounty on your head. IF you really have a bounty on your head you'll see bounty hunters in nearby sectors (4 jumps iirc) jumping toward you, the only way to escape them (apart from killing them) is to change your playership.

If he hasn't helped any PG ship, then it's probably an issue related with the plot. Like said in the documentation, it is possible to do the plot while PG is enabled, but it's not advised.

I'd suggest him to disable PG and enable it back to reset friend/foe settings.

Another problem: Another one of the german users found a pirate M7 with readtext-error. ID was 134. that one is missing in all text-files. Did you forget to put it in?

Nope but it's not located between 133 and 135. You did a mispelling in your version :

Code: Select all

<t id="148">Piraten Söldner%s</t>
<t id="134">Piratengilden%s</t>
 
q<t id="149">Piratengilde Vergnügungszentrum</t>

See the little 'q' before 149 ? I guess (but i may be wrong) that it is causing the issue. I've just removed it.

Thanks for the reports.

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@scaseman & @EmperorJon
Thanks
What the heck DiD means, btw ? i've read it several times but never bothered to ask (and googling "did" doesn't help at all )

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@paulwheeler
Yeah i did some tests too about the Guild HQ, it seems to be RRF related as i did get some random and rare crashes too when it's enabled. As a matter of fact the game also hangs randomly when i'm in a sector invaded by RRF even if PG is toggled off. Grumbl, i'm in an awkward position. PG has always been, since X2, the 'counter' to RRF (as it has been designed to be in the first place), but it's becoming hard to maintain compatibility.

I have to say the MBRR script is great with PG as it sends you messages if you have a police license when a military base detectes a threat in the neighbouring systems.

Ohhh, that's good news. I will really give it a try as i was wondering if i needed to do the same thing for people who fight against the guild (some kind of ECS guild news available in military bases).

[Serial Kicked]

As promised here's the 1.54 release.

This is a minor release, people who don't intend to fight the guild or are not experiencing heavy slowdowns may skip this one and wait for a "post yaki armada" release.

It fixes the issue when a player kills a pirate base and doesn't get any reward. The reward for the destruction of a pirate base is now 2.5 million credits (it was 500k before). I think the increased amount is fair as killing a grown PB is quite an accomplishment (especially if ADS is enabled). I will probably scale the reward according to the PB size before you attack it in the 1.6x versions, though.

This version should also fix a small readtext-#### issue in the french and german versions.

The CPU usage may be somewhat lower but i don't think it will be noticeable except on systems that are really below the minimum required system settings to play X3:TC.

Another note about the CPU usage: PG is not really CPU intensive (i've got myself a very very low end system) except when the plugin has just started. It can take up to 1 hour depending on your current game setup. If i slow down my plugin some more i'll have to make to pirate too slow to react and i don't intend to do so. Your problem is probably related to another script/plugin that has a hard time handling my pirates, and i can't / won't do anything about it.


EDIT : See the previous page and my last post for personal answers to the questions asked before. Thanks.

[vampirecosmonaut]

Did you ever figure out what was causing my reward issue?

[Serial Kicked]

I was about to PM you about that, but well. Yeah, i was working on it, and i've a lead. Are your using PG since before the 1.40 release ? Hard to tell from your savegame (which is buggy indeed) but i think so. An exact version number would be nice, but i can do without it.

If it's the case i'll write and test a fix. As it's quite a pain in the ass to write the thing, i ask first

[vampirecosmonaut]

I completely started over, so there's no need to work up a fix for that save game.
I was just curious as to what happened and whether or not I can use the current script safely.

I think I had started using PG from 1.40 on.
If I was to install it now, I'd just the current newest version.

[Serial Kicked]

Oki,

Well, if you've started over I think using the current script is safe. The reward system has been rewritten from scratch, it needed to be anyway. From the feedback I got so far in the various boards there's no complains about it and the few bugs found are trivial and easy to fix. Moreover if any similar issue happened to you or another person, I perfectly know how to remove it (basically by using the script i made you try a few weeks earlier).
Of course I can't guarantee that PG won't cause any issue with another 3rd party script I am not aware of (no scripter can do that ). So, making a backup savegame before installing a plugin as big as PG is always a good idea, if it runs smoothly for a few game hours then you can use it safely.

And for what happened.
I'll try not to get into technical details, but basically I think you got a version released before the 1.40 release.

They were handling the "guild target" ships in a very different way as i was trying to fix a crash that was in fact caused by another script (sic). So between 1.21 and 1.40 all ships in the universe, when killed, called one of my script-files to check if a reward should be given or not. When you updated to a more recent version well something must have gone wrong (and that's probably my fault, writing scripts to update from previous version is not really my cup of tea) so the update mechanism forgot to remove the call to the outdated reward script. But as the variables used between v1.21 and v1.40 to check if you should get a reward or not were also outdated, well "you got spam" for all/most ships in the universe no matter if they are flagged by the guild as enemy or not. (hope it makes sense)