Detector (Finds Abandoned Ships, Tunings, Hidden Objects) [TC][AP][ALP]

[DrBullwinkle]

So far I saw no problems caused by removal of the array.

You would need the array if there were other, normal, wares in the system. But, no matter... the array is no longer necessary in the new version.

Thanks for the test reports, Charon! And thanks for the test script, EJ!



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Update:

v1.04: Better detection of Engine and Rudder Tunings.

History

• v1.04 (2012-07-04)
  - More reliable and faster detection of tuning kits (Charon_A)

[Charon_A]

DrBullwinkle, tested for few days and can't come up with any more complains Job well done!

[Jaga_Telesin]

Looks like a fun non-cheatery script. Thanks for the suggestion and the work invested in it DrB.

[Nacroma]

I'll try to be as precise as possiblw. I downloaded your script since the Abandoned Ship Spawner thread suggested it to me along with that other script. I installed both scripts via X Plugin Manager a few days ago (so, latest version) and running Albion Prelude 2.5.1 bought via Steam pretty much normally. I did install MARS and the bonus pack, also a little on-command script to find ships and crates (the one mentioned in this thread). MARS and the tracking script were just put in the according folders, the Detector and A.S.S. were installed via X Plugin Manger.

Now the to the results: MARS is working fine, the tracking script, too. The Ship spawning is working as well. The detector does detect Nividium (a little in game config menu to turn off/on the search for separate stuff would be nice, I don't care about mining) and rudder/tuning crates as well. However, it does not detect ships - my actual point to install this script. Neither spawned by A.S.S. nor abandoned through active fighting nor pre spawned (left a Khaak ship floating in space here and there). Also it didn't make a difference if the ship was flagged by a satellite via the other script or not flagged (reloaded a save after taking a look). This is a bit disappointing, I must admit and renders the ship hunting a bit pointless.

Hopefully you can help me solving the problem. If you need further details, I can submit them asap. Thank you very much.

My save is 10 days in, Argon Trading dude (Hari Gul), all plots completed, mostly flying the mediocre Centaur since ages because I'm too greedy and lazy. That's why my Astraios is flying around trying to get shields and weapons to actually be my new ship. Aside of the HQ (with some blue prints) and the HUB, I only possess a single complex building turrets, micro chips and computer components, self sustaining.

[DrBullwinkle]

[Detector does not detect ships in AP 2.5]

Hmmm.... Detector does not suffer from the issue reported in EmperorJon's thread. I have not updated to 2.5 because of some of the reports about it (and because I uninstalled the Steam client).

Can anyone else reproduce this report? If so, then I will suck it up, update, and fix it.

Thanks for the report, Nacroma. Hang in there; we will get to the bottom of this issue.

[Lemant]

A simple question: Will this mod/script also work on Mac?

[DrBullwinkle]

Will this script also work on Mac?

If you get any scripts running on your Mac, then this one should work, yes. It uses only common commands and wares that should be available in all versions of X3.

As you may have surmised, I have owned Macs in the past. However, I do not currently have one to test with, other than a Hackintosh setup on a netbook. It would not run X3.

In other words, "I think that Detector would run on a Mac, although I cannot prove it."


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@ Everyone Else: I am still looking for confirmation about whether Detector finds abandoned ships in AP 2.5. Please report either way.
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@Nacroma: Another question about your report: How did you test whether Detector finds abandoned ships in 2.5? Did you try Detector in a sector where there was a known abandoned ship (one that you could find on your scanner)?
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[Nacroma]

@Nacroma: Another question about your report: How did you test whether Detector finds abandoned ships in 2.5? Did you try Detector in a sector where there was a known abandoned ship (one that you could find on your scanner)?

Exactly. I tried various stuff after I grew some suspicions about Detector working properly (no offense, I just wondered if I never traveled in a sector chosen by A.S.S. after some hours in-game [the three modifiers being set to 30/30/0]).

First, I had a fight with some pirates in a "protect station" mission in Light Water (german version, I just translated it -I'll look for an english map). I managed to bail out the pilots of a Nova and a Discoverer. Detector did not noticed me about that. I left them in space, took the gate and came back in the sector. Still no sounds.

After that, I jumped to the Unknown Sector south of the Xenon Sector (without number). The tracking script revealed an Interceptor some days ago and put a satellite there, so I knew. I never managed to pick it up, since my Centaur doesn't have docking ports and I was too lazy to jump my Zephyr there. Anyway, you can guess the outcome.

The third try was a bit more work. I set up the tracking script. It found me a A.S.S. spawned TP (Toucan I guess) in Titan. I reloaded so the ship wouldnt be revealed to begin with and travelled there.

After that, I jumped aimlessly to several A.S.S. spawned ships, revealed by the tracking script. A mobile Pirate Base Freighter and a Condor. It was all the same.

AFTER that, I tested the functionality of Detector in a pirate sector with a revealed crate of Rudder Tunings. It worked.

[DrBullwinkle]

Did you try Detector in a sector where there was a known abandoned ship (one that you could find on your scanner)?

[Yes]

I installed AP 2.5.1, Abandoned Ship Spawner for AP, and Detector. Detector found abandoned ships as expected. (It found vanilla ships as well as ships spawned by Abandoned Ship Spawner for AP).

So it appears that something is wrong with your game, although I cannot guess what might be wrong. If you post your saved game (and list of any mods that you use), then I will try to take a look.

[Nacroma]

How unfortunate. For me, that is. Let's see...

You can find the save in the following rapidshare link. I take it the single .sav file is enough, yes?

Here's the list of the mods and scripts I'm using:
Bonus Pack v5.1.00
MARS v5.24
ej.findwares v1.1 script
X Universe Plugin Manager Lite v1.47, mode set to "modified"
Detector
Abandoned Ship Spawner

For the last three, I took a screenshot and uploaded it as well.

Save:
https://rapidshare.com/files/3831707941/X05.sav

Screenshot:
https://rapidshare.com/files/681283165/ ... Status.jpg

I also tested the script with a new game. I landed, found me a ship with the ej.findwares script, reloaded from auto save and went there, but Detector hadn't changed. It still was finding tuning crates and Nividium rocks though.

[DrBullwinkle]

The good news (for me ) is that Detector was able to find the abandoned ships in your saved game; both vanilla ships and ships spawned by A.S.S.

So why can I find the ships in your saved game while you cannot?

Which sector(s) did you test in (where you could not find an abandoned ship)?

Perhaps a bad installation? You might try downloading the script again and re-installing Detector. Be sure to turn off the Artificial Life plugin before uninstalling (and make sure that it is turned On again after re-install).

(I assume that you made a 8552-L049.xml file? If not, then you should make one. I will include it in the next version.)

[Nacroma]

I suppose that my precise order of installing or changing files (installing scripts) might have cause the problem. However, I did as you told me and uninstalled the script via Plugin Manager, then downloaded the script from here and reinstalled it via Plugin Manager. In both an existing and a new game, Detector was still detecting or not detecting the same specific things.

Regarding the XML: I guess I do not understand what you're getting at. I did not create anything and just let Plugin Manager handle the installation. Of course this installation routine sounds familiar, but the xml was already created without me interfering any further. The file was named "8552-L099 -- Detector" by Plugin Manager. Uninstalling it also corretly removes this file. If it is of any use, I uploaded the xml file as well: https://rapidshare.com/files/2033944905/8552-L099 -- Detector.xml

Of course I am totally dumbstruck with the code, so all I can do is guess here. Anyway, I saw the line with the following content: "033ROff". I do not know what is is, but maybe it has to be "033ROn" or something like the line above?

Edit: My bad, this was 099 and not 049. It's pretty much the same file though: https://rapidshare.com/files/3443762820/8552-L049.xml

Edit 2: I also forgot to answer questions: In my save game I uploaded, I visited abandoned ships in Unknown Sector below Xenon Sector (Interceptor, there's a satellite), Empire's Edge (Condor), Depths of Silence (mobile Pirate Base Freighter) and Circle of Labour (Khaak M4 or M5). Some random new games had ships which I looked for in Atreus' Clouds (Scout), Cloud Base North West (Scout) and Corvette (Savage Spur). Some tuning crates in Farnham's Legend and Nividium rocks in Elena's Fortune were able to be tracked.

[DrBullwinkle]

Regarding the XML: I guess I do not understand what you're getting at. I did not create anything and just let Plugin Manager handle the installation.

Ooh... that is an oversight. Mostly on my part, I suppose. Scripts use language files which are numbered according to your country's international calling code (for telephones). So the German language file should be "8552-L049.xml". The -L099 file is just for documentation. The English language file is 8552-L044.xml.

To make a German language file:

• - Copy the English file to a new file. Name it "8552-L049.xml".
  - Open the new German file with a text editor. At the top, change language "44" to "49".

You should do the same for any other script that you download that does not include a German language file. Without the language file, some parts of scripts may not work correctly. You may get ReadText errors or some things may not work correctly.

In the case of Detector, I would expect it to function correctly without the correct language file, but we should create one anyway. You can do it in a couple of minutes on your end. I will add more language files to the next version of Detector that I post, which will also have a few minor updates.

EDIT: The -L049 file that you posted looks correct. Did you create that yourself, or did the Plugin Manager create it?

[Nacroma]

Plugin Manager created it. But good to know for future installations (if any, but there ARE interesting looking one's here. Gotta love this community.)

[DrBullwinkle]

Plugin Manager created [the German language file].

Nice! Then I will not worry about other language files in .spk distributions. (I will try to include them in .zip archives that I distribute.)

I tested all of the ships you listed and Detector found them all.

At this point we have tried:

• - Starting a new game.
  - Reinstalling the script from a fresh download.
  - Testing your saved game on my computer.
  - We are both testing the same version of the game (AP 2.5.1).
  - Also, you have very few scripts and mods; only Detector and Abandoned Ship Spawner for AP, which are known to work well together.

In all cases, your reported results are different from mine *heavy sigh*. Detector does not detect ships for you, although it does detect ships for me.

I am currently out of ideas, Nacroma.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

[Nacroma]

Well yeah, do not forget ej.findwares, Mars and the Bonus Packs, which were not installed via Plugin Manager, but are working properly.

I guess I am a difficult case - and probably (and hopefully) an unique one. Of course I could uninstall the whole Albion Prelude and Plugin Manager programs and reinstall them (do I have to re-download AP? That would be the biggest pain). But there is the question if it is worth it for me.

In any case, I am grateful for your help. Thanks a lot!

[DrBullwinkle]

do not forget ej.findwares, Mars and the Bonus Packs, which were not installed via Plugin Manager, but are working properly.

EJ's script is not installed, and it does not do anything that should affect either your saved game or other scripts.

MARS is generally well-behaved, and is one of the most mature (thoroughly debugged and developed) scripts on the forum. It could have a bug, although I would suspect almost anything else before MARS.

The Bonus Pack is a possibility. I did not install it on my test version, and the Bonus Packs tend to be buggier than the main TC and AP versions. I have stopped using Bonus Packs for that reason -- if there is a Bonus Pack script that I want, I get it from its development thread.

I will install the Bonus Pack and test again. (Probably later because I need to take a break for real life. )

Since you are using nearly-vanilla Steam version, you could have Steam re-verify your files. That way you will not have to download the game again.

Then reinstall the MARS factory mod. Everything else should not be affected by the Steam re-verification.

[Nacroma]

Oh, of course, do not let my small problem meddle with your RL, I would feel bad

I thought so concerning those other scripts. Regarding the bonus pack, I guess, I'll just use the MK3 sector list manager anyway (why do my ships get shot down by Terran Forces anyway, even with rank +8?). I'll just pray for my save not being influenced by any other bonus pack script, re-verifying the game after uninstalling it (just removing the files would be okay, I guess), reinstalling MK3 sector list manager, MARS and your scripts and then try again. And if the save's not working anymore, but Detector is, I could even try one of the bigger mods like XRM. Well, sounds good, I think.

IF I am not too lazy to do all that. Hmph

[DrBullwinkle]

The Bonus Pack should not affect your saves one way or the other. Scripts do not generally break saves. The most common way to break a save is by UNinstalling a mod. However, some mods require a new game start.

The easiest test for you right now is to simply re-verify your installation and reinstall the MARS factory mod (which is the only mod on your list).

If you do uninstall the Bonus Pack, consider Mk3 Optimization. It includes the Mk3 Blacklist Manager, and has many bug fixes and improvements. Mk3 Optimization makes ST's and UT's work the way that they should.

Your current installation is simple enough that we should be able to get it to work correctly.

[DrBullwinkle]

I tested your saved game with the Bonus Pack and Detector still found the ships that you listed.

Let's try a different test, OK? Copy this script into your addon\scripts folder, reload a saved game, then run "lib.bw.detector.count" from the Script Editor. Press "Enter" to use the default values at each prompt.

It will send you a message saying the number of ships that it found. Then Alt-Tab out of the game and check log8552.txt in your Data\Egosoft\X3AP folder.

It uses the same technique as Detector, but different code. The result will help to narrow down the problem. The result is similar to EJ's script, except that lib.bw.detector.count does not mark abandoned ships with satellites.