[MOD] [TC/AP] X3 Rebalance Mod (XRM) - Total conversion - v1.30d (02.12.13)

[MacrameGod]

That is usually caused by installing the cat/dats to the base TC folder not the AP (addon) folder. Please recheck your installation ensuring you follow the AP installation instructions (the second set).

Ok, I did another clean install of TC/AP and followed the installation instructions perfectly, making sure to install all the files exactly where they needed to be, but it still freezes at the loading screen when I start a new game. It says it should only take about two or three minutes but it's been ten now and still nothing. Something's wrong. What am I forgetting?

[d_ka]

@Boredom:

My experience with "Cargobay Shielding" weren´t really good, i´ve lost Police Licence once, or twice, hm...
But there is a good trick ( an exploit, perhaps? - i see it as a substitute for non working cargo bay shielding), how you can utilize SOS + hacker chips while flying a Corvete: All you need is a ship wich a docking place for 1 small M5 scout. Install the SOS on that ship, and put the chips into its cargo bay, and transfer them when needed. Once you get the scrambler, there will be no need for the software transfer any more.
Paul is right, many Pirates drop hacker chips when destroyed; you can gather quite an amount in a short time, and store all of them in your docked scout.
I´ve managed to hack even some bigger ships, without any need for reloads. Here are my exp. values:

1. Don´t even start hacking with enemy ship hull over 50% - your are wasting your time and chips
2. Always use a ship that is 1 class bigger then your target - i use my Boreas for this purpose.
3. Once you´ve significantly damaged the hull, use Borong ion weapons, to just stunn the enemy, and keep it´s shields down; while this weapons still continiue to damage the hull, but not that much, your chances for hacking are climbing.
4. Don´t give up on trying once the connections has been severed; the lower the hull, the faster the process, and eventually you got good chances to get your pray.
5. I´ve managed to hack a Kaakh Corvete too, even an Advance Corvete, while flying a Heavy Hydra. I´m not sure, if there is a ranking within ship classes ( like: standard Corvete counting a "lesser" ship than an Advanced or a Heavy one ) concerning the hacking process, but it was much easier to get the normal version then an advance from the Khaakh.

My last attempt was to get a Xenon M1 while flying Boreas, and even though i already was about to hack it´s computer ( for the second time ), i had no succes yet ( lat time a damn Minotaur popped up from somewhere and killed the J... ). J´s hull was about 28% at my first good attempt, and 10% at the last.

Speaking of ship classes: Is M1 considered a higher class ship then M2? I´m curious, because if so, i can give up trying to get a J with my M2.

EDIT:
@MacrameGod
The only time i´ve experienced such a long freeze, was when i updated XRM and loaded a save. In the upgrade instructions it has been said that a particular ship class shouldn´t have been present in sector when upgrading, and i suppose i had one of those ships there ( i couldn´t check it though, because the game refused to load ). So, i´ve loaded a previous save, and everything went OK.

EDIT 2:
@Avent1s
If you use the new XRM SOS ( System Override Software ) you won´t need any other scritps running; you also do not need a bailing script if you want to enter ( Marine thing ) the ships, afaik....

[Advent1s]

I have a question, that has likely been answered, however...1000 pages is insanity.

About the bailing script recommendation, can you capture capital ships only if it is included or does it just make it easier?

I find the newest (though rather old now) edition of it, seems to bail way too many ships.

If i dont require it, then ill be happy.

[x3fan5322]

Hey, I just wanted to ask, is there anyway to disable the swarm missiles, or a way to limit them? Idk if it's a glitch or something but everytime I get into a fight I get killed by a bazillion missiles within seconds even with a full row of flak turrets on MD. Oh and sorry if this question has been asked already.

Other than this I have been enjoying this mod very much and look forward to it's future

Cheers,

[StoogeR]

I'm wondering if RRF (included with AP right?) with XRM is working as it should. Paranid military invaded home of light (2 x m2, 2 x m7, m6, few fighters) and destroyed both small terracorp OWP (for now...) without any reaction from argon ships. Argon military m2's are flying around neighbouring systems (red light, presidents end, argon prime) but none came to help. I've seen only 1 wing of argon m3's with wing leader but they were just flying somewere else (and jumped to ore belt).

[paulwheeler]

That is usually caused by installing the cat/dats to the base TC folder not the AP (addon) folder. Please recheck your installation ensuring you follow the AP installation instructions (the second set).

Ok, I did another clean install of TC/AP and followed the installation instructions perfectly, making sure to install all the files exactly where they needed to be, but it still freezes at the loading screen when I start a new game. It says it should only take about two or three minutes but it's been ten now and still nothing. Something's wrong. What am I forgetting?

Can you post a screenshot of your installation folder? It will make it easier for me to see what's going on.

[paulwheeler]

I'm wondering if RRF (included with AP right?) with XRM is working as it should. Paranid military invaded home of light (2 x m2, 2 x m7, m6, few fighters) and destroyed both small terracorp OWP (for now...) without any reaction from argon ships. Argon military m2's are flying around neighbouring systems (red light, presidents end, argon prime) but none came to help. I've seen only 1 wing of argon m3's with wing leader but they were just flying somewere else (and jumped to ore belt).

Most of the military ships you will see are those on local patrols, not RRF (there are only five RRF M2s per race for example). Most should respond to threats when they finish their current task as order by their military base. Some (e.g. the argon prime ships) are fixed to a specific sector.

RRF should respond quicker, but due to their limited numbers, they may be busy elsewhere. RRF does not prioritize sectors for defence. It wont prioritize core sectors over border sectors and treats them all equally. They should get there eventually.

Having said that, as the Paranid are not enemies to the argon, I've found that RRF sometimes ignores them. That's why the xrm paranid incursions never get any bigger than an m6 and fighter wing, so the local defences can handle it without the need for RRF.

[paulwheeler]

Hey, I just wanted to ask, is there anyway to disable the swarm missiles, or a way to limit them? Idk if it's a glitch or something but everytime I get into a fight I get killed by a bazillion missiles within seconds even with a full row of flak turrets on MD. Oh and sorry if this question has been asked already.

Other than this I have been enjoying this mod very much and look forward to it's future

Cheers,

I may look into ways of reducing the numbers of swarm missiles spawned so that single warheads are more common....

[paulwheeler]

I have a question, that has likely been answered, however...1000 pages is insanity.

About the bailing script recommendation, can you capture capital ships only if it is included or does it just make it easier?

I find the newest (though rather old now) edition of it, seems to bail way too many ships.

If i dont require it, then ill be happy.

You only get bailing from bigger ships than m3s with the bailing script. You can configure the script to reduce the number of bails. I find I need to seriously reduce the m3 bailing frequency down to 3 or even 2.

[StoogeR]

Most of the military ships you will see are those on local patrols, not RRF (there are only five RRF M2s per race for example). Most should respond to threats when they finish their current task as order by their military base. Some (e.g. the argon prime ships) are fixed to a specific sector.

RRF should respond quicker, but due to their limited numbers, they may be busy elsewhere. RRF does not prioritize sectors for defence. It wont prioritize core sectors over border sectors and treats them all equally. They should get there eventually.

Having said that, as the Paranid are not enemies to the argon, I've found that RRF sometimes ignores them. That's why the xrm paranid incursions never get any bigger than an m6 and fighter wing, so the local defences can handle it without the need for RRF.

Thank's for clarifitacion. I've used RRF long before AP and I remember there was no problem with multiple sector invasions. At last I've never seen a sector beeing attacked without response.

Can you tell me if I can do something about it? Like installing stand alone version of RRF or adding MBRR to the mix? Is this going to work with AP and XRM or I have to play TC version?

Or... can I do something about race relations? Stopping large invasions between paranid/argon? Anything to stop surprises like that in the future or to make races prepare for them.

[Boredom]

@Boredom:

My experience with "Cargobay Shielding" weren´t really good, i´ve lost Police Licence once, or twice, hm...
But there is a good trick ( an exploit, perhaps? - i see it as a substitute for non working cargo bay shielding), how you can utilize SOS + hacker chips while flying a Corvete: All you need is a ship wich a docking place for 1 small M5 scout. Install the SOS on that ship, and put the chips into its cargo bay, and transfer them when needed. Once you get the scrambler, there will be no need for the software transfer any more.
Paul is right, many Pirates drop hacker chips when destroyed; you can gather quite an amount in a short time, and store all of them in your docked scout.
I´ve managed to hack even some bigger ships, without any need for reloads. Here are my exp. values:

1. Don´t even start hacking with enemy ship hull over 50% - your are wasting your time and chips
2. Always use a ship that is 1 class bigger then your target - i use my Boreas for this purpose.
3. Once you´ve significantly damaged the hull, use Borong ion weapons, to just stunn the enemy, and keep it´s shields down; while this weapons still continiue to damage the hull, but not that much, your chances for hacking are climbing.
4. Don´t give up on trying once the connections has been severed; the lower the hull, the faster the process, and eventually you got good chances to get your pray.
5. I´ve managed to hack a Kaakh Corvete too, even an Advance Corvete, while flying a Heavy Hydra. I´m not sure, if there is a ranking within ship classes ( like: standard Corvete counting a "lesser" ship than an Advanced or a Heavy one ) concerning the hacking process, but it was much easier to get the normal version then an advance from the Khaakh.

My last attempt was to get a Xenon M1 while flying Boreas, and even though i already was about to hack it´s computer ( for the second time ), i had no succes yet ( lat time a damn Minotaur popped up from somewhere and killed the J... ). J´s hull was about 28% at my first good attempt, and 10% at the last.

Speaking of ship classes: Is M1 considered a higher class ship then M2? I´m curious, because if so, i can give up trying to get a J with my M2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I used the scout trick earlier in the game while still flying the PX; this also works in XTC and AP, so i would not consider it an exploit at all. I figured there is always too much that can go wrong in capturing targets of opportunity, so i won't be doing it just because i have a shot at it, not anymore. Most of the time it ends up being just a waste of time trying.
Here's a little story:
I was passing through a pirate sector, and there's this Yaki Chokaro being attacked by 3 Pirate M5, that weren't doing almost any damage to it. I thought it was just too good to be true, M5 keeping it's shield down while i hack it so i went for it, got its shields down and hull to 50ish%, saved, and started the process. The M5 decided to shoot me instead, but didn't bother that much; I managed to use a single Kyon to keep it's shields under control and not do too much additional hull damage. Took me like 10 tries to get to the final hack sequence, and saved. With all the back and forth, the Chokaro got close to a gate, and then the unexpected (or not) happened, a Privateer M6 joins the fight and blows the s*** out of the Chokaro with missiles. The following sequence of tries was to save the situation by blowing the Privateer up before it blew up the Chokaro, required some training to get the first missile salvo first, but i got it. So back to the Chokaro. Saved again, got it's shields down again, and resumed the hack. And then a whole Pirate wing comes through the gate, blows up the Chokaro and then me. I was just so close they spammed me with missiles. So i Loaded to deal with the already expected unexpected, but no way i could claim that Chokaro. Most unfortunate. A very nice example of pure waste of time
This was only a target of opportunity tho. Anyway, jumped into the unknown sector where in building my first complex, and ...aha!!! another Chokaro, ripe for the picking, and this time nothing around!!! I lured it 20k away from the gate, saved, and started the process. Shields down, hull to 50ish, and hack away. Then, a red blip on the map. A Khaahk Military transport coming this way i moved in to intercept, i wouldnt take one, would take the other. The brave Chokaro followed me, of course, and while i was busy not seeing anything with all the kyon and missile spam, a wing of Pirates come in from i can't figure out where, blow up the Chokaro and join the fight. SO i killed all the Khaak fighters, the Pirates, and off to hack the Transport. With all the mess, my shields were down to 10%, so i lured it away for a bit to get my shields up a bit, saved, and started the hack. 25 tries, between running out of chips, energy and reloading, and couldn't hack the darn thing. Blew it to pieces. With all that, i spent hour and a half of doing absolutely nothing useful but killing a few Pirates reloaded right before the second Chokaro, started luring it away and fired up the script editor. Removed EC check, lowered random time for hack stages and upped shield threshold a little bit, and off to hack the stupid thing out of revenge. Took me a few tries, but i got the damn thing. Then killed the Khaak transport, the Pirates, repaired the Chokaro and sold it.
Honestly, I didn't quite like changing Paul's work, so i changed it back to original values. But it does look like there is a little bit too much randomness involved, and it would be nice to have it tweaked a bit for the sake of wasted time with load spam and failed attempts because of random events like the above, sometimes it takes so long between stages, also to be fair competition to Boarding (well, boarding transporter extension for improved boarding is too darn expensive to be an option right now), even clunky as spacewalks are, it takes way less time to capture something, and chances of success are higher. Not to mention the no need to keep shields down... so we can defend it while its being captured.
Idea:
Remove need for energy cells, and the need to keep shields down while hacking. Hackerchips could be transported aboard the target ship using a transporter device, after the shields are down, and the link with the SOS would not be severed by shields. Because it's a radio signal, and we use radio all the time with our shields up. And then just wait for it. Hacking mechanics are the same, but once we have them beamed aboard we can fly away and wait, instead of having to stay there and take pot shots, and avoid collisions while keeping shields down, and get p**** because of everything else that may go wrong. Still won't be easy, but it won't be near impossible, if someone is as unlucky as i am

[paulwheeler]

Most of the military ships you will see are those on local patrols, not RRF (there are only five RRF M2s per race for example). Most should respond to threats when they finish their current task as order by their military base. Some (e.g. the argon prime ships) are fixed to a specific sector.

RRF should respond quicker, but due to their limited numbers, they may be busy elsewhere. RRF does not prioritize sectors for defence. It wont prioritize core sectors over border sectors and treats them all equally. They should get there eventually.

Having said that, as the Paranid are not enemies to the argon, I've found that RRF sometimes ignores them. That's why the xrm paranid incursions never get any bigger than an m6 and fighter wing, so the local defences can handle it without the need for RRF.

Thank's for clarifitacion. I've used RRF long before AP and I remember there was no problem with multiple sector invasions. At last I've never seen a sector beeing attacked without response.

Can you tell me if I can do something about it? Like installing stand alone version of RRF or adding MBRR to the mix? Is this going to work with AP and XRM or I have to play TC version?

Or... can I do something about race relations? Stopping large invasions between paranid/argon? Anything to stop surprises like that in the future or to make races prepare for them.

That depends on what you want...

Do you want races to have inifinite resources and respond to every threat regardless of what else is going on in their territory? Or do you want races to be balanced with a finite military strength so that if they get attacked on more than one front they become stretched?

Don't forget the Argons are at war with the Terrans. Their RRF is likely busy with the Terran fleet, not to mention the Xenon, Kha'ak and pirates.

The original RRF spawned ships as and when they were needed - I don't believe this is a particularly balanced way of doing things and leads to a very stagnant universe.

The way XRM is set up enables enemies to make significant incursions into race territory, but the military will always deal with them eventually.

There will be no large invasions by the Argon or Paranid against each other - as I said, the XRM incursions are at the most an M6 and a few fighter escorts. If you are seeing anything bigger, then another script you have installed is causing it.

There is a chance in the XRM that a military outpost will send a force into opposing territory if one of its ships gets destroyed there, but I've never seen more than a lone M1 and its escorts, and it is usually recalled by the outpost fairly quickly.

The full RRF is not compatible with AP or the XRM. MBRR can be used if you wish.

I suggest you hang on. At the start of a new game, all race militarys are fairly stretched. Things will quieten down after a while.

[paulwheeler]

Idea:
Remove need for energy cells, and the need to keep shields down while hacking. Hackerchips could be transported aboard the target ship using a transporter device, after the shields are down, and the link with the SOS would not be severed by shields. Because it's a radio signal, and we use radio all the time with our shields up. And then just wait for it. Hacking mechanics are the same, but once we have them beamed aboard we can fly away and wait, instead of having to stay there and take pot shots, and avoid collisions while keeping shields down, and get p**** because of everything else that may go wrong. Still won't be easy, but it won't be near impossible, if someone is as unlucky as i am

I would like to hear opinions from others as to how balanced SOS is. Do others find it too hard? I'm certainly open to suggestions on what needs to be done. I've had some feedback, and it was mostly positive about the balance, but if people feel its too hard please let me know. I don't want it to become an easy way to steal ships though. It needs to be on a similar level to the vanilla boarding in terms of frustration and time so as not to make that method redundant.

[kvmetternich]

I've a really, really noob question. I installed the xrm over x3tc (fresh install) and i cant find any ts ship (mercury) near the Argon Prime or paranid sectors .

The xrm change the avaibility of the ships ? because in the x3wiki is stated that i would be able to find at least one of this ship type in Argon Prime .

I must raise my trade rank or is a matter of balance...or a bug?

Thank you and sorry. ..im new to this game!


Edit: i started my game as a fighter ( with the elite ship)

[paulwheeler]

I've a really, really noob question. I installed the xrm over x3tc (fresh install) and i cant find any ts ship (mercury) near the Argon Prime or paranid sectors .

The xrm change the avaibility of the ships ? because in the x3wiki is stated that i would be able to find at least one of this ship type in Argon Prime .

I must raise my trade rank or is a matter of balance...or a bug?

Thank you and sorry. ..im new to this game!


Edit: i started my game as a fighter ( with the elite ship)

All civilian ships such as TSs, TPs, TLs, etc. are for sale in corporate showrooms, not military shipyards.

[Boredom]

Another point of view:
The SOS could provide an estimate of the success rate for a specific capture by inspecting the target's systems first, linking with the freight scanner and using EC in the process, taking time to do it and requiring the ship to be within certain range. This would be detectable onboard the target ship, applying to current rules of being illegal or not depending on police license for the territory's owner. Since this is not just a simple freight scan, there's a chance the pilot of the target ship will be a little upset. In the event of multiple prey present, the player has to choose which one to pick. After an attempted or successful capture, the system has to go through a reboot period, since it had to deal with adapting to and overriding a unique target system.
The success rate is the same roll method, applying the same rules on the current hack script. Just used to narrow down fail chances, then a second roll decides if it's a success or a fail.
The option to use a cooldown is always a player option, implying making the decision and being responsible for the choice, reducing frustration. This could bring in a little more certainty factor to the dreaded rock-paper-scissors method and also maybe helping saving out SSD from a premature death through excessive saving

I'm done with silly ideas!!!

[StoogeR]

That depends on what you want...

Do you want races to have inifinite resources and respond to every threat regardless of what else is going on in their territory? Or do you want races to be balanced with a finite military strength so that if they get attacked on more than one front they become stretched?

Don't forget the Argons are at war with the Terrans. Their RRF is likely busy with the Terran fleet, not to mention the Xenon, Kha'ak and pirates.

The original RRF spawned ships as and when they were needed - I don't believe this is a particularly balanced way of doing things and leads to a very stagnant universe.

The way XRM is set up enables enemies to make significant incursions into race territory, but the military will always deal with them eventually.

There will be no large invasions by the Argon or Paranid against each other - as I said, the XRM incursions are at the most an M6 and a few fighter escorts. If you are seeing anything bigger, then another script you have installed is causing it.

There is a chance in the XRM that a military outpost will send a force into opposing territory if one of its ships gets destroyed there, but I've never seen more than a lone M1 and its escorts, and it is usually recalled by the outpost fairly quickly.

The full RRF is not compatible with AP or the XRM. MBRR can be used if you wish.

I suggest you hang on. At the start of a new game, all race militarys are fairly stretched. Things will quieten down after a while.

Yet I'm certain seeing 2 m2's, 2 m7's, 2 m6's and one wing of m3's right now. All paranid.

I have only XRM, MARS and marine repairs script installed (fresh game install, no remains of other scripts/mods).

I'll fly around and see what will happen next. Maybe it's one of those rare invasion fleets sent by military outpost.
You are right about RRF ship numbers, makes much more sense than races with unlimited reserves.


Thanks for responding and for all the hard work Fantastic mod

[paulwheeler]

Does the lead paranid ship have a destination assigned? It may simply be enroute to another sector and has run out of energy cells/has a damaged jumpdrive.

[x3fan5322]

Hey, I just wanted to ask, is there anyway to disable the swarm missiles, or a way to limit them? Idk if it's a glitch or something but everytime I get into a fight I get killed by a bazillion missiles within seconds even with a full row of flak turrets on MD. Oh and sorry if this question has been asked already.

Other than this I have been enjoying this mod very much and look forward to it's future

Cheers,

I may look into ways of reducing the numbers of swarm missiles spawned so that single warheads are more common....

Sounds good, look forward to it. Thanks for the quick reply.

[greypanther]

For me the balance of the SOS is reasonable, but to me it also should only be usable on the Xenon and Khaak. It just seems wrong and a little silly that a ship with a large biological crew, should not have a single member who does not notice the hack. Worst still they get ejected into space afterwards! Silly! ( The Xenon seem made for such a hack, as do the Khaak as they are a hive mind. )

One thing that I feel would be a change for the good, would be that you only get a limited number of attempts to capture the ship, then you get locked out. ( It sometimes seems to take sooo long. ) Also perhaps having a reasonable chance of the hack succeeding, whilst the hull is still reasonable. I have lost count of the number of ships I have lost to friendly fire, after a hack is complete!

One more thing, could you add a script to get friends to back off as you attempt a hack? I know perhaps too much to ask, but you never know...