[SCR] [X3:TC/AP] [v1.9.8.12] [03/23/14] Galaxy Explorer

[gnasirator]

"I believe you, but that is hard to test. How can I watch what the explorer is doing if I cannot watch him?!"
You can, in your assets view. If you see the explorers flee and instantaneously change their current sector, they 'cheatjumped'.

about the library, I see no problem in unwrapping my code into a library, because I try to build my programs the same style - put everything in small packages. For the escaping library, I would need scanEnemies, flee.*, isplayerwatchin and manage.sector.old. that SHOULD work already with other scripts, more or less.
Only needs some adjustments in internal script calls, e.g. when restarting after a successfull escape.

Okay, so todo would be:
- Avoid getting stuck with enemies on both sides of gates
- escape jumps with more than 1 jump

Let me see, what I can do

new results:
I couldn't reproduce the getting stuck of my explorers. That must have been fixed long time ago in v1.9.3?! I put enemies on both sides of a gate and they behaved correctly, watched and unwatched.
simply because when fleeing watched, they filter out the gate to sector.old as the very first step and then decide into which other gate they could escape best.

and about:
Case: Explorer flees into a sector that the player discovered. That sector is full of enemies, with no explored gates beyond.
Only choice is to jump two (or more) sectors back to safety.

This is what's happening already - only not in a direct form. Explorers jump 1 sector back, and if there still are enemies around (COULD be, that they are currently busy, chasing other ships), they jump one sector again, away from the dead end.
So I don't see the need to jump more than 1 sector at once. Especially as that would ONLY happen if the ships are watched, which is usually not the case. And it would mean a LOT of work. I would actually have to create another script for just that, let alone finding the correct conditions when to trigger it (stuck in a dead end AND just escaped from hostile ships via jump drive).

BUT what I found is that I need to build the dead.end.sectors.whitelist array dynamically to fit other universes. That is what I'm doing right now. That will prevent explorers from getting stuck around one gate with explore.hostile false and one sector friendly, the other hostile and an enemy on the friendly side.

So wait for 1.9.7, that will have all problems solved

edit: alright, NOW it should work. I tested it and got no more explorers stuck at all anymore. Can you confirm, Bullwinkle? To make sure, please run an explorer and let him auto-update himself, or delete the gal.ex.sectors.whitelist global var with prop mongler manually. THEN reinit script caches or just save and reload. The new whitelist is then generated. Takes some secs until finished.

[FalconGrey]

Just came across this thread and script. Nice to see it's working out for you. My curiosity in the differences between the one I'm working on and yours is does yours seek and claim derelict ships and rescue downed pilots? I glanced through some of the postings along the 18 pages but well it is a bit much to read and nothing of salvage scripting in the main page.

I'm simply asking to see if I continue my work with the Universal Explorers Continued scripts which also incorporate salvaging in their explorations. One person in a previous post mentioned that UE doesn't go back to sectors that it skipped to put satellites back in or replace lost satellites. Untrue, it does but it takes time. Part of the scripting is that it looks at if a sector was marked 'hostile' due to a single ship or marked 'hazard' like a xenon sector. If it was marked 'hostile' eventually it goes back to check if it is all clear and if yes, it will explore that sector and if it has a satellite in inventory will place it... so long as the experience is there to do such.

The speed and time it takes to go back and look to previous sectors depends a lot on the experience of the pilot. Pilots with experience under level 8 tend to not go back. Might be 10, I'd have to look, but I think it was 8.

That raised another question, does the explorer pilots in your script have a level base and experience as they explore the galaxy? If not, that would definitely make our two scripts different and fill a role depending on how people like to play.

[gnasirator]

Hi falcon,

to answer your questions:
1. no, my explorers don't find and salvage ships. But it's a nice idea, actually ...
2. And the explorers also are not working level based.

So if you want, I can skip the salvaging feature, but if not, I could as well build it in.
Well, to be honest, I'll surely try it ... just for the fun of programming

[FalconGrey]

Up to you on that. It's a whole lot of work! I'm also working to have the Universal Explorer integrate with TECSG's scs scripts so if they are installed it expands the features and abilities of the universal explorers.

Personally, I'm thinking this project (Universal Explorers) may have been easier from a scratch point of starting than to take someone's abandoned scripts and continue their work.

[gnasirator]

Personally, I'm thinking this project (Universal Explorers) may have been easier from a scratch point of starting than to take someone's abandoned scripts and continue their work.

THAT is so true .... And the reason why I'm happy, I did the Galaxy Explorers completely on my own.
I just had to recode the MK3 trader from scratch for exactly that reason.


edit: new feature!
Explorers now check if they found any disabled ships and can capture them if wanted.
Captured ships will immediately fly to a safe station after bein captured and then wait for instructions.
The player will be notified by a subtitle text and logbook entry.

For those of you, who use the Sat spawn mod, please download and install it again. I adjusted it to work with the new feature.

[Aegyen]

Have to toss the bug report in here..

On your latest version, I am getting a read text 7600-3900 in the config menu for where you enable/disable the abandoned ship option. That's the only mistake I can find thus far.

Fantastic utility script for those of us that like to fire and forget the exploration part, and get those 1st sats out there.

I really don't think you modders get enough praise.. you guys mod, like I play....

Anyway, next major update, don't forget to update the 't' files..

[gnasirator]

Hm strange, I thought, I had that text id added .....
my backup folders all have it in.

Anyway, redownload please.
That should fix it?


and thanks for the praising .... I like hat

[Aegyen]

There was a difference in the size of those 2 archives, so who knows..

Anyway, redownloaded, installed, took a look, and the menu is now perfect, once again. BTW, the galspawn0 file, the plugin open menu script in there is smaller than the one in the 1.9.8 file, yet the spawn option is in 1.9.8? Integrated, now?

Again, thank you..

[gnasirator]

hu? You mean in the standard 1.9.8 release version, sat spawning is enabled?

well, just to make sure, I reupped it - again.

Still, I can't imagine, how this could have happened? I even develop without sat spawning enabled. How could the spawn file slip into the release package?

Nevertheless, should be fixed now ... -> redownload, again please

[Aegyen]

All appears to be perfect..

Now, so long as the scripts don't blow up and wreck my game, we will be good..

Thanks again..

[gnasirator]

Great! Perfect is just how it's supposed to be!

[Joubarbe]

Thanks for this great mod, deploying satellite is easy as it should be.

Would it be possible to give to recently captured ships a "Go to nearest shipyard" command ?

[gnasirator]

You mean, instead of just flying to the next safe station, they should automatically fly to the next shipyard?

Why not, sounds reasonable and better, than the current solution. But first, I have to get the MK3 script bug free ...

[DrBullwinkle]

The nearest station is usually in-sector. The nearest shipyard may be several sectors away, often past enemies. Do you really think it is "better" to fly an unshielded and unarmed ship farther than necessary?

If you really want to *keep* the found ship, the safest thing to do is simply mark it. Any attempt for the explorer to claim it puts the found ship at unnecessary risk. At the very least, you might want to keep the claiming part optional.

[Aegyen]

In the old Universe Explorer, they were sent to the closest shipyard, and you usually lost more than half your salvage, that way. I prefer the closest station, and if the automatic claiming were off, a tone and message that an abandoned ship had been found.

[gnasirator]

Even better ideas! I like your input.

I'll do it like following:
Capture ships turned off -> mark position
On -> Fly to nearest safe station.

The ships can be sent to a shipyard afterwards, if they are to be sold.

[DrBullwinkle]

Perfect.

(Also send an email to the player when marking an abandoned ship.)

[gnasirator]

But not today anymore. Good night

edit: done!

[Joubarbe]

Thank you

[Joubarbe]

A little request...

That'd be great if you can make explorers more intelligent. Mine goes and back from PTNI HQ to Credits Received for more than an hour now (because Credits Received is a hostile sector, and PTNI has already been satellited). I already gave him a manual destination but he returns to PTNI, and then to Credits Received !!

Also, the "go to nearest factory" is not the best option IMO. An option to go to nearest shipyard would be appreciated (I'm using NPC Bailing addon, and my only concern when capturing a ship is to sell it).

And another one to deactivate mailbox messages !