How to make BBS missions using the script engine

[DeltaWolf]

Thank you so much Burianek.

[DeltaWolf]

Just one question:

The news.id varaible - if you only have one type of news article, would the varable always contain the same number?
And for one type of news article, do you start at 1 or 0 ?

edit:
another question - the "maxoffertime" and "maxtime" - what's the difference, and is the time in seconds, milliseconds, hours?

[giskard]

Cycrow:

Thanks for the example overtune scripts. I got ordinary news working using your scripts by removing all the overtune code and the last 2 arguements from the script the register statement called. I didnt use the overtune scripts that actually do the work though, eg the engine upgrade ones.

Formatting the artical was a problem though, trial and error. So i'll think i'll look at Burianeks post in more detail later and see if i can take the trial and error part out of the equation.

Giskard

[alphalvr]

wow ifeel new bbs missions coming....hurrah...c`mon stop chatting and get on with it

[Cycrow]

Cycrow:

Thanks for the example overtune scripts. I got ordinary news working using your scripts by removing all the overtune code and the last 2 arguements from the script the register statement called. I didnt use the overtune scripts that actually do the work though, eg the engine upgrade ones.

Formatting the artical was a problem though, trial and error. So i'll think i'll look at Burianeks post in more detail later and see if i can take the trial and error part out of the equation.

Giskard

Np glad its of some help
remember, the method used for the overtune script is mainly for quests and missions

whereas Burianek's is for news articles, which you can have a question with replys in, like you can with the quest scripts

[Burianek]

The news.id varaible - if you only have one type of news article, would the varable always contain the same number?
And for one type of news article, do you start at 1 or 0 ?

Yeah, if you only have one type of article, you'd always use news.id 1. Not zero, since zero kind of means generic when it's applied to event numbers.

edit:
another question - the "maxoffertime" and "maxtime" - what's the difference, and is the time in seconds, milliseconds, hours?

I don't know, sry.

[al_main]

So what scripts do you need to make to have a working news article?
I understand how to make the t file (and have already started making / made one) but what do u need to script to register the news article so it appears on the BBS, etc? and does it matter what the scripts are called?

Can someone post a REALLY simple script for a news article example that just puts a random news article on the BBS, something that just puts a BBS article saying "this is news" or whatever then i can see how it works and go from there.

Cheers (The scripts i'm gonna make will be worth it, i've got a few in mind!!!)

[Cycrow]

most of the effort for simple news articles goes into creating the t file

to script it in, theres only 2 commands that you need
you will find them both in the gernel commands menu nr the bottom

theres the display news article: page= command
this command is what read the news article from the t file and adds it into the game engine
and it will return a reference to the created article

you then use this reference to actaully display the article, which u use the command, change event news availabitly: $reference
and you set how many jumps and what sector it will display in

if you read Burianek's first part of the post, he describes how to do it there

[TECSG]

I've converted one of my scripts to use the BBS instead of menu commands, so it appears that someone is advertising their services, but I can't get the advert to show up very often. I gave it an instance count of 500 and prio of 1000000, but I had to visit about 30 stations in various sectors to find it.

There has been no mention of the values for instance and prio, does anybody have any figures?

Ideally, what I want is for my 'advert' to show up all over the place, until it's selected, then not show up again until the script has run it's course.

I know the way to prevent it showing up, (just use a global variable to indicate whether or not the script is active), but I need to know some values for instance and prio.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[DeltaWolf]

Here is what I've done - it's not the most elegant, but it works

The Text file:

Code: Select all

<page id="7351" title="" descr="">
 
 <t id="101">Argon</t>
 <t id="102">Boron</t>
 <t id="103">Split</t>
 <t id="104">Paranid</t>
 <t id="105">Teladi</t>
 <t id="106">Pirates</t>
 <t id="151">Argon</t>
 <t id="152">Boron</t>
 <t id="153">Split</t>
 <t id="154">Paranid</t>
 <t id="155">Teladi</t>
 <t id="156">Pirates</t>

 <t id="10000">[author]\033G$CompName$\033X[/author]</t>

 <t id="10100">Come visit us at \033Y$Name$\033X in \033Y$sector$\033X for the best prices of \033G$ware$\033X</t>

 <t id="200000">[From][MSG]</t>
 
 <t id="210000">$ware$</t>
 <t id="210001">$sector$</t>
 <t id="210002">$CompName$</t>
 <t id="210003">$Name$</t>

 <t id="1000000">[From][br/][MSG]</t>

  </page>  

The script file:

Code: Select all

Arguments
1: ware , Var/Ware , 'Ware' 
2: sector , Var/Sector , 'Sector' 
3: CompName , Var/String , 'Comp Name' 
4: Name , Var/String , 'St Name' 
5: news.id , Var/Number , 'news id' 
6: race , Var/Race , 'Race' 
Source Text

001   load text: id=7351
002   $stname = $CompName + ' ' + $Name
003   
004   * define variables for news article
005   $news.array =  array alloc: size=4
006   $news.array[0] = $ware
007   $news.array[1] = $sector
008   $news.array[2] = $CompName
009   $news.array[3] = $stname
010   
011   $occurences =  = random value from 5 to 10 - 1
012   
013   * ad bbs news articles to relevant stations
014   
015   $key =  display news article: page=7351 newsid=$news.id occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race race2=null customarray=$news.array
016   
017   if $key
018    change event news availibility: $key race=$race sector=null jumps=null
019   end
020   return null

All this does is display the following:

"Come visit us at $Name$ in $sector$ for the best prices of $ware$"

Where
$Name$, $sector$ and $Ware$ are passed to the script via the arguments.

PS. As there is only one type of news article, the "news.id" variable is always 1

[Cycrow]

I've converted one of my scripts to use the BBS instead of menu commands, so it appears that someone is advertising their services, but I can't get the advert to show up very often. I gave it an instance count of 500 and prio of 1000000, but I had to visit about 30 stations in various sectors to find it.

There has been no mention of the values for instance and prio, does anybody have any figures?

Ideally, what I want is for my 'advert' to show up all over the place, until it's selected, then not show up again until the script has run it's course.

I know the way to prevent it showing up, (just use a global variable to indicate whether or not the script is active), but I need to know some values for instance and prio.

Any help greatly appreciated!

the instance is how many times it will show at any given time
so an instance of 500 would mean that it could be in a total of 500 stations at once

the problem with that is, if you accept it from one station, then it could still be available in alot of other stations, so setting it as 1 will be better.

so far i have found no way to make it show up all the time, but if u put the biggest number you can, ie, putting all 9's, then it will show up quite frequenctly, not at every station but after viewing a few stations it will show up

to make it so it doesn't show up for awhile after you accept, what you need to do is store the time you wnat it to start showing up again as a global varible
so if this time hasn't been reached yet, you return the prio of 0
its how my overtune BBS works

[TECSG]

so far i have found no way to make it show up all the time, but if u put the biggest number you can, ie, putting all 9's, then it will show up quite frequenctly, not at every station but after viewing a few stations it will show up

to make it so it doesn't show up for awhile after you accept, what you need to do is store the time you wnat it to start showing up again as a global varible
so if this time hasn't been reached yet, you return the prio of 0
its how my overtune BBS works

So what IS the biggest number? (ie, how many 9's?)
I personally thought 1000000 was quite big!

I see your point about the instances, but it does seem a major drawback that if you want your BBS article to show up frequently (or at least, quickly), you have to have the possibility set that there can be hundreds (if not thousands) of instances, thereby negating the possibility of a 'one-off' mission (that wouldn't take years to find!)?

Given the choice of 'showing up once', or 'showing up quickly', I'll go for the 'quick' one, and just have my script disallow any more than one copy running at a time.

Rather than returning a prio of 0, I was just going to set a global that said 'my script is running', and have the script reset the variable when it had fniished, but that does exactly the same thing.

[Cycrow]

just type 9 till u cant type anymore

it will change to something like 1471......

well, i set my instance to 1, and had the prio the highest, and they did display within about 5-10 stations at the most

basically what happens, is when you goto view the BBS it then calls al the bbs scripts to get the prio and works out weather to display them or not most likly based on a random chance depending on the prio
if you goto view the BBS again in the same station, the messages will be the same as there were b4, ie, no prio event is called a second time so its best to travel around differnet stations.

The BBS is reset once you leave a sector, so when u go back into the sector each station will then call the prio events again and display differnet messages on the BBS

The instances come in when the message is currently being displayed, so if its not displayed yet its still on the first instances, and the number of instances doesn't seem to effect how offten its displayed just how many there can be. Obviously, if you have 1 instance and its currently being displayed, you wont c it in another station until its removed.

The removal of the BBS messages happens after a set time, not sure what the time is, but its not all that long

[TECSG]

Thanks Cycrow,

I'll have a play with it and see what I can do.

[TycHouse]

I personally use 1500 for testing, i have seen no benefit in using bigger numbers. In fact when i used 5000 or 10000 it didn't display at all !
If you select station bbs and your mission is not displayed, just leave the last message displayed (ie 8/8) and wait for an update (takes 30 secs to a couple of minutes), then almost always my mission is there. If it's not i just dock at another station or two, i always get it within 5 minutes.

On a side note, i'm wondering whether the 'prio' number is more than just a number. For example, using binary as flags for something (race sector or station type). In other words if you return '10110' (22dec) and you are in a Split Silicon Mine if bit 4 (the zero) is not set then you won't be offered the mission ? Hmmm i've not explained that very well, but i think you get my drift.
Just a thought, it might explain why some peeps testing are ok but on release peeps are not seeing the mission. Maybe returning 65535 would be better as this is all the 1's in binary ?

TycHouse

[Burianek]

Here is what I've done - it's not the most elegant, but it works

The Text file:

Code: Select all

<page id="7351" title="" descr="">
 
 <t id="101">Argon</t>
 <t id="102">Boron</t>
 <t id="103">Split</t>
 <t id="104">Paranid</t>
 <t id="105">Teladi</t>
 <t id="106">Pirates</t>
 <t id="151">Argon</t>
 <t id="152">Boron</t>
 <t id="153">Split</t>
 <t id="154">Paranid</t>
 <t id="155">Teladi</t>
 <t id="156">Pirates</t>

Be careful, I screwed up my post when I first wrote it. Pirates are actually '8', not '6'.
I think 6 is xenon, can't remember. I updated my post a while ago to reflect the correct numbers, but it was wrong for a few days.
Cheers.

[Burianek]

I got this pm from StarTrekMarc, and I wanted to post it here so others could learn from it.


----------------------------------------------
Hi Burianek,

i have read you tutorial about the bbs system great work.

But i have some questions:


This is my t-page for argon news.

Code: Select all

<page descr="bbs.news.project" id="8550" title="bbs.news.project.argon">
  <t id="101">Argone</t> 
  <t id="102">Borone</t> 
  <t id="103">Split</t> 
  <t id="104">Paranide</t> 
  <t id="105">Teladi</t> 
  <t id="106">Pirat</t> 
  <t id="151">Argonen</t> 
  <t id="152">Boronen</t> 
  <t id="153">Split</t> 
  <t id="154">Paraniden</t> 
  <t id="155">Teladi</t> 
  <t id="156">Piraten</t> 
  <t id="3000000">Alana Seison</t> 
  <t id="3000100">Raumsprit gefährdet ihre Gesundheit!</t> 
  <t id="3000200">Ein Fall, der uns allen sicher Tränen in die Augen treibt, ist wieder einmal eine unsere Meldungen.\n\nDoch dieses Mal sind es Tränen des Lachens und der Schadenfreude.\nDer Pirat Klinkotek flog wie gehabt durch "sein Revier", wie er uns mitteilte, im Sektor 'Rolks Los'. Wie immer war er auf der Suche nach einer leichten Beute, die er, so glaubte er, in einem Schul-Shuttle der Bluma-Schule, einer boronischen Grundschule, gefunden hatte.\n\nUnter den Piraten des Sektors war er schon immer als Schluckspecht bekannt und so auch bei diesem 'Fischzug'.Was dem Piraten nur zum Verhängnis wurde, war seine starke Fahne, die selbst den Polizisten die Farbe von der Uniform zu bleichen schien.\n\nEin kleiner Defekt im Steuermodul der Dämpfungsfelder, der mit einem minimalem Funkenschlag im Cockpit zu Buche schlug, entzündete die alkoholischen Dämpfe in der Kehle des Paraniden und liess ihn, gepaart mit dem Ausfall der Dämpfungsfelder, wie eine Rakete durch das Cockpit gleiten.\n\nVerbrennungen zweiten Grades wurden diagnostiziert und immer noch behandelt.Danach erwartet Klinkotek eine Entziehungskur im split'schen Entgiftungs-Heim Drt'Nra.\n\nDer Arzt des Instituts gab bereits eine Stellungnahme:"Wir nicht mögen die Boronen, aber trotzdem wird Pirat nichts gute Zeit haben. Wir ihn kriegen schon trocken und wenn müssen auswringen. Ausserdem er Feige, weil greifen Kinder an. Die Insassen sich schon freuen auf Duschen mit Neuzugang."\n\nKlinkotek bittet um Unterbringung in einer argonischen Anstalt, was ihm jedoch verwehrt wurde. Experten für Raumschiffsysteme fragen sich allerdings, wie das Hochsicherheitssystem der Dämpfungsfelder Funken schlagen konnte, dies sei so gut wie unmöglich.</t> 
  <t id="3000300">PDP - Prime Daily-Press</t> 
  <t id="3000001">Laurence Casei</t> 
  <t id="3000101">Fortschritte im Kampf gegen die Xenon\nNeuerliche Erfolge lassen hoffen</t> 
  <t id="3000201">Nach dem jüngsten Vorstoß der ersten Angriffsflotte der Argonischen Förderation gelang es, die Xenon in dem von ihnen beanspruchten Sektor 101 so weit zurückzudrängen, dass das Sprungtor nun ganz in den Händen der Völkerallianz ist.\n\nDie wenigen, verstreuten Feindverbände, die den konzentrierten Angriff der zweiten argonischen Offensivstaffel überlebt haben, sind nach neusten Meldungen nach wie vor auf der Flucht und haben nicht die Aussicht, aus dem Sektor entkommen zu können.\n\nOberst Militsch Kojama berichtete: "Es war einfach großartig. Die ganze Operation verlief perfekt und unsere taktischen Überlegungen haben sich als richtig erwiesen. Die Flotte der Xenon konnte vernichtend geschlagen werden. Die übrigen Verbände, die allerdings keinen allzugroßen Widerstand mehr leisten können, werden wir in wenigen Tazuras sicher auch aufgerieben haben!"\n\nNach diesen Worten zu urteilen kann man darauf hoffen, den von den Xenon besetzten Sektor demnächst wieder zu argonischem Staatsgebiet zählen zu können. Schon jetzt laufen die Vorbereitungen an, eine durch einen Zerstörer gesicherte Aufbauflotte in den ehemaligen Sektor zu entsenden und diesen urbar zu machen.\n\nMan ist sich sicher, schon in wenigen Mazuras das Staatsgebiet der argonischen Förderation um einen weiteren Sektor erweitern zu können. Allerdings scheint man den Meldungen, dass die Xenon darauf mit einem massiven Gegenschlag im Bereich von Schwarze Sonne antworten könnten, keinen Glauben schenken zu wollen, sodass dieser Sektor im moment viel zu schlecht bewacht wird.\n\nExperten auf dem Gebiet der Xenologie raten deswegen von Reisen nach Schwarze Sonne ab, vor allem, wenn es entgegen der Meinungen der Regierung zu erhöten Aktivitäten der Maschinenwesen kommen sollte. Erst gestern, drei Tage nach dem Scheinsieg in 101, beobachtete man, wie Späherschiffe der Xenon in erhöhter Zahl auftraten.\nDennoch bleibt ungewiss, was passieren wird.</t> 
  <t id="3000301">Laurence Casei, Pax Terra Nova, Frontreporter</t> 
   [... and so on...]
  <t id="200002">[Author][Headline][Report][Byline]</t> 
  <t id="1000000">[author][Author][/author][title][Headline][/title][br/][text cols='2'][justify][Report][/justify][/text][br/][br/][Byline]</t> 
  </page>

I want to generate static articles, and so i maked it easy for me to add them, using the template add the end.
I think all is correct, but it don't works can you plz tell me whats wrong?

And here my Script:

Code: Select all

001   * Load the new texts into x3
002   load text: id=8555
003   
004   $race.argon = Argonen
005   $race.boron = Boronen
006   $race.teladi = Teladi
007   $race.split = Split
008   $race.paranid = Paraniden
009   $race.pirat = Piraten
010   
011   $occurences =  = random value from 4 to 15 - 1
012   
013   * add the new BBS texts to the stations
014   $key.argon =  display news article: page=8550 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.argon race2=null customarray=null
015   $key.boron =  display news article: page=8551 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.boron race2=null customarray=null
016   $key.teladi =  display news article: page=8552 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.teladi race2=null customarray=null
017   $key.split =  display news article: page=8553 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.split race2=null customarray=null
018   $key.paranid =  display news article: page=8554 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.paranid race2=null customarray=null
019   $key.pirat =  display news article: page=8555 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.pirat race2=null customarray=null
020   $key.all =  display news article: page=8556 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=null race2=null customarray=null
021   
022   * change availability
023   skip if not $key.argon
024    change event news availibility: $key.argon race=$race.argon sector=null jumps=null
025   skip if not $key.boron
026    change event news availibility: $key.boron race=$race.boron sector=null jumps=null
027   skip if not $key.teladi
028    change event news availibility: $key.teladi race=$race.teladi sector=null jumps=null
029   skip if not $key.split
030    change event news availibility: $key.split race=$race.split sector=null jumps=null
031   skip if not $key.paranid
032    change event news availibility: $key.paranid race=$race.paranid sector=null jumps=null
033   skip if not $key.pirat
034    change event news availibility: $key.pirat race=$race.pirat sector=null jumps=null
035   if $key.all
036    change event news availibility: $key.all race=$race.argon sector=null jumps=null
037    change event news availibility: $key.all race=$race.boron sector=null jumps=null
038    change event news availibility: $key.all race=$race.teladi sector=null jumps=null
039    change event news availibility: $key.all race=$race.split sector=null jumps=null
040    change event news availibility: $key.all race=$race.paranid sector=null jumps=null
041    change event news availibility: $key.all race=$race.pirat sector=null jumps=null
042   end
043   
044   write to player logbook $key.argon
045   write to player logbook $key.boron
046   write to player logbook $key.teladi
047   write to player logbook $key.split
048   write to player logbook $key.paranid
049   write to player logbook $key.pirat
050   write to player logbook $key.all
051   
052   return null

It would be great if you can help me

Thanks,

and Greets,
Marc

[Burianek]

First off, check my above note. Pirates are 8, not 6.

You're calling:

Code: Select all

014   $key.argon =  display news article: page=8550 newsid=null occurrences=$occurences maxoffertime=null maxtime=null placeholder:race1=$race.argon race2=null customarray=null 

You can't call this with newsid=null. Event numbers must be non zero. (I'm pretty sure)

There's also a problem in your t file
from the tutorial:

Ok, event specific text ids have 7 digits and always start with the number 2.
2010000 - The first two numbers define the event that the text is used for. You would never have 00 here since there are no generic entries for event specific texts. (that wouldn't make sense)
2010000 - These numbers denote the first segment, which was defined above in the line <t id="200001">[Event Comment]</t>. If I had two segments in there, I'd need to define at least one entry for both.
2010000 - The last two numbers are the unique ids, just like they always have been.

This is the same for event linked texts (the ones starting with 3 that you use in your t file)

You have 4 event linked segment types, that's fine.

But you have all your texts set up as all specific possibilities for event '0'. Like I said, I don't think you can have an event 0.
Change all of your t ids that start with 300...... to 301...... so that they all refer to event 1.
Then you should be ok. I'm assuming you always want to call the newsengine with the same event number and then let it pick which article to display at random correct? If you wanted to be able to select the newsids to feed into the newsengine you'd have to change your t ids to reflect different event numbers rather than different instances for the same event.
ex. you have 3000000, 3000100, 3000200, 3000300 for one news article
3000001, 3000101, 3000201, 3000301 for the next etc.

If you wanted to set them up as different events, you'd need to make the second batch:
3010000, 3010100, 3010200, 3010300
and so on.
Does that make sense?

[StarTrekMarc]

Yes, it make sence

a very big "Thanks"

Thanks Burianek

Greets
Marc

[Wizlawz]

is there a way (as this is all greek to me ) to have the BBS News advertise your (my) activities;.. IE: last week (Player Name) attacked and destroyed; (etc) and have the races react to what you are doing; IE: Player is now on the Assasins list or the Bounty Hunters list;.. ye along with the noteriety but the ships call for assistance and none show up

Last week (Player) was found to have sold space fuel to (so and so) resulting in trade lanes coming to a halt in front of the gate (at whatever sector) but actually having it happen IE: for every action there is an equal reaction? (ahhh those "reactions" i guess are going into a whole other dimension yes?)

I guess other than just the "BBS News" the reactions would call for a whole entire rewrite of something.

Anyway the BBS News on the Players' actions would be cool at any rate.