[MOD] Manual Command Extension v0.10.2 {Discontinued}

gabry90 · Post by **gabry90** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 15:35

hi, the command "Escort Me" not work of my Arwan, why? The ship not move

Cebullus · Post by **Cebullus** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 15:45

I had to edit my savegame, there was an old (broken?) formation set wich seems to break the escort script for me. After removing the <formation>-part for the playership the command worked nicely. (used that save quite a while with some patches/mod updates)

Cebullus wrote:Try to use the newest version of Manual Command Extension along with CSE and you may get good results like this:
(just a short example)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXeawSw_Rfs

(Taranis was just set to escort me, the heavy sul attacked me).

Wavey · Post by **Wavey** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 16:36

Opera Jack ,just seems to be the mods in the main list wasnt like it yesterday
I have found one link that works

this is what i see http://xrebirth.nexusmods.com/mods/133 http://i.imgur.com/0cT9Kwu.png
just have to be careful and click correct part lol

kinetic915 · Post by **kinetic915** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 20:19

Just a suggestion here. I know attack is already on the drawing board. Maybe consider various stances for ships? Hold Ground, Defensive, Aggressive. This may address fighters being able to destroy capital ships. Maybe it is possible based off the hold position code? Otherwise this mod makes this game playable!

kinetic915 · Post by **kinetic915** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 20:22

Cebullus wrote:I had to edit my savegame, there was an old (broken?) formation set wich seems to break the escort script for me. After removing the <formation>-part for the playership the command worked nicely. (used that save quite a while with some patches/mod updates)

Cebullus wrote:Try to use the newest version of Manual Command Extension along with CSE and you may get good results like this:
(just a short example)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXeawSw_Rfs

(Taranis was just set to escort me, the heavy sul attacked me).

what does CSE refer to?

Jack08 · Post by **Jack08** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 20:30

kinetic915 wrote:
Cebullus wrote:I had to edit my savegame, there was an old (broken?) formation set wich seems to break the escort script for me. After removing the <formation>-part for the playership the command worked nicely. (used that save quite a while with some patches/mod updates)

Cebullus wrote:Try to use the newest version of Manual Command Extension along with CSE and you may get good results like this:
(just a short example)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXeawSw_Rfs

(Taranis was just set to escort me, the heavy sul attacked me).
what does CSE refer to?

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=353715

Petroph · Post by **Petroph** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 20:31

kinetic915 wrote:Just a suggestion here. I know attack is already on the drawing board. Maybe consider various stances for ships? Hold Ground, Defensive, Aggressive. This may address fighters being able to destroy capital ships. Maybe it is possible based off the hold position code? Otherwise this mod makes this game playable!

He already has a similar type of method in there. AKA Battlestate Red, and Blue. He just doesn't have then activated as it's still a work in progress. If you know how to do it, you can unlock those hidden commands

On that note, Battlestate Red works kinda. But he is getting there

Mad_Joker · Post by **Mad_Joker** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 21:00

kinetic915 wrote:Just a suggestion here. I know attack is already on the drawing board. Maybe consider various stances for ships? Hold Ground, Defensive, Aggressive. This may address fighters being able to destroy capital ships. Maybe it is possible based off the hold position code? Otherwise this mod makes this game playable!

I think that is what Jack talk about with battlestates. We have actually found out what the aggressive/defensive switch does, but right now my modification for the escort script does not take that into account.

For the interested here: What I did to fix capital ship escort is this (well, it's actually affecting every kind of ship, but easiest to see with caps): When a ship escorts another ship, it goes into follow mode, and then waits until it finds an enemy or a ship in the formation is attacked. However, once it finds an enemy, it checks, whether that enemy is in 4km distance. If not, it goes into wait mode again. However, it never checks again for that enemy. That means, even if that enemy gets on kissing distance, without attacking, the ship won't do anything. So I added a tracking mode. That means, when a ship finds an enemy, it goes into a special state where it checks its gravidar every second. If there are enemies in <4km distance, it attacks. If it is >10km, it stops tracking. Otherwise, it tracks.

So, to incorporate battlestates into this, one could simply remove the "enemy found" check as well as the tracking when in defensive mode, and leave it as it is for aggressive mode. Hold Ground would obviously require more work, since the whole combat script is based on the ship moving. Therefore, a lot of stuff would have to be added.

I am actually thinking of doing a full rewrite of either capital ship or fleet AI, but so far I couldn't convince myself that it would be worth it (since Ego may patch these issues).

Also, sorry for hijacking your thread, Jack

Petroph · Post by **Petroph** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 22:50

Mad_Joker wrote:
kinetic915 wrote:Just a suggestion here. I know attack is already on the drawing board. Maybe consider various stances for ships? Hold Ground, Defensive, Aggressive. This may address fighters being able to destroy capital ships. Maybe it is possible based off the hold position code? Otherwise this mod makes this game playable!
I think that is what Jack talk about with battlestates. We have actually found out what the aggressive/defensive switch does, but right now my modification for the escort script does not take that into account.

For the interested here: What I did to fix capital ship escort is this (well, it's actually affecting every kind of ship, but easiest to see with caps): When a ship escorts another ship, it goes into follow mode, and then waits until it finds an enemy or a ship in the formation is attacked. However, once it finds an enemy, it checks, whether that enemy is in 4km distance. If not, it goes into wait mode again. However, it never checks again for that enemy. That means, even if that enemy gets on kissing distance, without attacking, the ship won't do anything. So I added a tracking mode. That means, when a ship finds an enemy, it goes into a special state where it checks its gravidar every second. If there are enemies in <4km distance, it attacks. If it is >10km, it stops tracking. Otherwise, it tracks.

So, to incorporate battlestates into this, one could simply remove the "enemy found" check as well as the tracking when in defensive mode, and leave it as it is for aggressive mode. Hold Ground would obviously require more work, since the whole combat script is based on the ship moving. Therefore, a lot of stuff would have to be added.

I am actually thinking of doing a full rewrite of either capital ship or fleet AI, but so far I couldn't convince myself that it would be worth it (since Ego may patch these issues).

Also, sorry for hijacking your thread, Jack

Are you saying, your doing more work then what Egosoft did for the AI?

TheRealBix · Post by **TheRealBix** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 22:53

Petroph wrote: Are you saying, your doing more work then what Egosoft did for the AI?

I think this game is kind of Open Source now xD

kinetic915 · Post by **kinetic915** » Sun, 24. Nov 13, 23:24

Mad_Joker wrote:
kinetic915 wrote:Just a suggestion here. I know attack is already on the drawing board. Maybe consider various stances for ships? Hold Ground, Defensive, Aggressive. This may address fighters being able to destroy capital ships. Maybe it is possible based off the hold position code? Otherwise this mod makes this game playable!
I think that is what Jack talk about with battlestates. We have actually found out what the aggressive/defensive switch does, but right now my modification for the escort script does not take that into account.

For the interested here: What I did to fix capital ship escort is this (well, it's actually affecting every kind of ship, but easiest to see with caps): When a ship escorts another ship, it goes into follow mode, and then waits until it finds an enemy or a ship in the formation is attacked. However, once it finds an enemy, it checks, whether that enemy is in 4km distance. If not, it goes into wait mode again. However, it never checks again for that enemy. That means, even if that enemy gets on kissing distance, without attacking, the ship won't do anything. So I added a tracking mode. That means, when a ship finds an enemy, it goes into a special state where it checks its gravidar every second. If there are enemies in <4km distance, it attacks. If it is >10km, it stops tracking. Otherwise, it tracks.

So, to incorporate battlestates into this, one could simply remove the "enemy found" check as well as the tracking when in defensive mode, and leave it as it is for aggressive mode. Hold Ground would obviously require more work, since the whole combat script is based on the ship moving. Therefore, a lot of stuff would have to be added.

I am actually thinking of doing a full rewrite of either capital ship or fleet AI, but so far I couldn't convince myself that it would be worth it (since Ego may patch these issues).

Also, sorry for hijacking your thread, Jack

considering how well their stock code works after 7 years of development I am not too sure!

I find if a cap ship is around too many targets with the escort me command enabled, it cycles between "blue" and "red" states every 10 or so seconds.

foxtrot76 · Post by **foxtrot76** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 08:28

First of all thanks for this breath of fresh air! Finally saw my capitals shoot stuff!!!

I noticed a couple of things while messing around with your mod:
When you initially activate the mod the turrets of the capital are blue AKA not in combat mode. As soon as an enemy appears and starts shooting your capital or the player ship, the turrets keep switching from blue to red and back again like if their is some kind of counter order given. The result is that they do not fire at the enemies. Edit: Reading trough both your code and CSE I noticed this behaviour is triggered by your script switching between battlestate blue and red.

When using manual command extensions and giving the command to escort you, the turrets will suddenly activate as soon as a hostile shoots at the player ship and only at the player ship. At this point the turrets remain red and will shoot at any hostile from this point on even if no enemies are around. Once you issue the command follow me or take me to..., turrets turn blue and become once again unresponsive as far as I can tell.

In any case this is a great step forward compared to what we had in vanilla.

Jack08 · Post by **Jack08** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 10:48

i need to point out here that battle-state code doesn't exist, the currently implemented and disabled battle-state commands were a test of a built in command that didn't work as i expected it to, The code does not run by itself.

As for the turrets themselves, i've seen them shoot when they have blue lights before, i dont think they correctly respond to active/inactive. Im not sure what could be causing the passive-aggressive cycling, ill look into it.

Anubitus · Post by **Anubitus** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 16:31

hey..

i have downloaded the script and the idea is awesome..

but..

how can i know if the commands are actually working..?

so we get this second ship in the campaign, a small freighter..

it insists on following me to the Albion sector, getting destroyed in the process.. so i thought i look for a way to make it stay there.. thats when i found your script..

now i have ordered him to stay put in the DeVries system, and i get a screen saying the order is accepted but when i check the ship details, the order next to the captain is still "follow albion skunk".. even after i have removed it from my squad, it is still saying its following the skunk..

so either one of two things is happening:

the script is working but not changing the order status at the details screen

or the script isnt working or the order is being overruled with the follow skunk order..

how do i check if he is doing as asked..?

thanks

Jack08 · Post by **Jack08** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 16:35

Anubitus wrote:hey..

i have downloaded the script and the idea is awesome..

but..

how can i know if the commands are actually working..?

so we get this second ship in the campaign, a small freighter..

it insists on following me to the Albion sector, getting destroyed in the process.. so i thought i look for a way to make it stay there.. thats when i found your script..

now i have ordered him to stay put in the DeVries system, and i get a screen saying the order is accepted but when i check the ship details, the order next to the captain is still "follow albion skunk".. even after i have removed it from my squad, it is still saying its following the skunk..

so either one of two things is happening:

the script is working but not changing the order status at the details screen

or the script isnt working or the order is being overruled with the follow skunk order..

how do i check if he is doing as asked..?

thanks

If he said order accepted, then he is doing as you order him to do. Ignore the ship status page as at this time the mod isn't setup to modify the captains status, and i dont have a safe way to do so yet.

If he isnt following your order, he will tell you he is busy and reject the command.

Raapys · Post by **Raapys** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 16:53

Is the 'get fuel' command for ships in your group canceled when the player moves to a new zone?

Squelch · Post by **Squelch** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 19:23

Hello,

Thanks for your work on this. It really does help.

I'd like to report a bug/misfeature concerning this mod and construction ships.

You are using menu option 2 for "New Orders" but when an architect is on board a construction ship, menu option 2 allows orders to be given to them. This appears to overwrite the "New Orders" entry therefore making it unavailable.

The upshot is - The construction craft cannot be told to stay put, so will follow the player needlessly as per vanilla behaviour. The "hold position" order needs to be given before an Architect is on board otherwise.

May I suggest you use menu option 4 instead? I haven't seen this used in the "Comm" context for pilots and captains.

Jack08 · Post by **Jack08** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 19:27

Squelch wrote:Hello,

Thanks for your work on this. It really does help.

I'd like to report a bug/misfeature concerning this mod and construction ships.

You are using menu option 2 for "New Orders" but when an architect is on board a construction ship, menu option 2 allows orders to be given to them. This appears to overwrite the "New Orders" entry therefore making it unavailable.

The upshot is - The construction craft cannot be told to stay put, so will follow the player needlessly as per vanilla behaviour. The "hold position" order needs to be given before an Architect is on board otherwise.

May I suggest you use menu option 4 instead? I haven't seen this used in the "Comm" context for pilots and captains.

There is already a patch in the mod for construction craft to use option 4, if you are not seeing it make sure your running the latest version.

Squelch · Post by **Squelch** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 19:31

Jack08 wrote:
There is already a patch in the mod for construction craft to use option 4, if you are not seeing it make sure your running the latest version.

Is there? Please excuse me, I did check on Nexus, but saw the same version as the one I have. I'll grab it again. Thanks for the speedy reply.

Jack08 · Post by **Jack08** » Mon, 25. Nov 13, 19:54

Squelch wrote:
Jack08 wrote:
There is already a patch in the mod for construction craft to use option 4, if you are not seeing it make sure your running the latest version.
Is there? Please excuse me, I did check on Nexus, but saw the same version as the one I have. I'll grab it again. Thanks for the speedy reply.

When trying to talk to a construction ship, ignore the orders button and look directly for option 4 after comming it