[SCRIPT] Military Base Response revamp v2.16 [2011-10-27]

[Novia Star]

im running improved races mod and was wondering about if there were interference issues with the race resopnce?

[Varek Raith]

im running improved races mod and was wondering about if there were interference issues with the race resopnce?

Using Improved Races with this mod or Race Response Fleets is a really bad idea.
Choose only one of those three.

[hartza76]

Hi,

Just wanted to get some more info about Invasions and race reputations.
So do invansion mean random attack to the opposite faction or do they try to take over that system? Secondly will this work with the default race relation setting ie. are they X3TC settings (so basicaly cold war?) and only tickling each other with few missles time to time .

Or if i have to put the ralations way i like them? have been runing this mod only few game days from clear start i see fighting ie. Paranis vs. Argon in ore belt , but i have manual set the race relations on all races.
i have tried to put the X universe war setting so noting fancy like boron vs. argon.

Can npc faction push the Xenon back if the military stations are in use in AL settings?

Sorry if this is dublicate questiong, been lately too much on mod section reading and game in backround so not much gaming and wanted to ask this.

Thanks in advance.

[Catra]

-theyll attack the opposite faction, no takeover sector script in this one.

-youll get bad results if you keep em as the defualt.(like thousands of military ships hanging out in a single sector)

- sometimes.

[ThisIsHarsh]

Update v2.8

Been a while, but I'm back with a few updates to some of my scripts, starting here...

Updating: open up config menu and hit "Install/update". It may be advisable to hit "Uninstall" in the config menu first, since the Rearguard system has changed so much, and especially if you are currently experiencing problems. However, "Uninstall" will disrupt your game for a while as all military ships must respawn.

Added player ship reconnaissance uplink. Your personal ship can now act as a Recon scout via a new command that runs under your Additional Ship Commands menu (see OP for more details). Since your ship sends enemy fleet info every 2 mins, the general effect is much greater than that of a normal race Recon/Relay ship. You can easily determine the outcome of a battle just by your presence in a sector.

Rearguard token and spawning code has been completely rewritten. Tokens are now per-race rather than per-outpost (i.e. outposts now share tokens), allowing tokens to be spent where they are needed. An upshot of this rewrite is an end to any remaining 'ship respawn spamming' problems.

[Varek Raith]

Very cool.
Though I have a problem. I can't comm the outpost in Black Hole Sun. I know ECS is working because I tested it on a pirate. It worked as it should. When I tried it on the outpost, nothing.

[ThisIsHarsh]

Very cool.
Though I have a problem. I can't comm the outpost in Black Hole Sun. I know ECS is working because I tested it on a pirate. It worked as it should. When I tried it on the outpost, nothing.

Hmm, ooo err, only reason I can think for that, unless I've made a mistake packaging the plugin, is if the outpost is very recently spawned, or the script just installed for the first time, or you've just started a new game.

Basically, the outpost has to be called for defense/invasion at least once to cause a necessary flag to be set for ECS to work. This never takes long to happen.

Can you try again in a few mins ingame time and/or try comming other outposts? If it still doesn't work I'll have to look into it when I get back to my PC.

[Varek Raith]

Very cool.
Though I have a problem. I can't comm the outpost in Black Hole Sun. I know ECS is working because I tested it on a pirate. It worked as it should. When I tried it on the outpost, nothing.

Hmm, ooo err, only reason I can think for that, unless I've made a mistake packaging the plugin, is if the outpost is very recently spawned, or the script just installed for the first time, or you've just started a new game.

Basically, the outpost has to be called for defense/invasion at least once to cause a necessary flag to be set for ECS to work. This never takes long to happen.

Can you try again in a few mins ingame time and/or try comming other outposts? If it still doesn't work I'll have to look into it when I get back to my PC.

Well, this is a very new game.
Also I did have to use the SPK explorer to extract the files, since it would not install with the beta version of the plugin manager...
Could that be a problem?

[ThisIsHarsh]

Very cool.
Though I have a problem. I can't comm the outpost in Black Hole Sun. I know ECS is working because I tested it on a pirate. It worked as it should. When I tried it on the outpost, nothing.

Hmm, ooo err, only reason I can think for that, unless I've made a mistake packaging the plugin, is if the outpost is very recently spawned, or the script just installed for the first time, or you've just started a new game.

Basically, the outpost has to be called for defense/invasion at least once to cause a necessary flag to be set for ECS to work. This never takes long to happen.

Can you try again in a few mins ingame time and/or try comming other outposts? If it still doesn't work I'll have to look into it when I get back to my PC.

Well, this is a very new game.
Also I did have to use the SPK explorer to extract the files, since it would not install with the beta version of the plugin manager...
Could that be a problem?

Beta version of plugin manager... I am out of the loop... I'll repackage asap to make it compatible. But anyway, as long all the files were extracted correctly it should still work.

EDIT: ah ok, I remember the beta plugin manager. Would have thought it would be backwards compatible, though. If that is the case then it could indeed be a packaging problem on my end. I'll look into it closer when I get back, unless I hear evidence to the contrary in the meantime.

[Varek Raith]

Cool.
I'll wait and see.
This is Black Hole Sun. Shouldn't take too long for trouble to appear.

[ThisIsHarsh]

OK, done some testing, and it seems like the beta plugin manager could cause problems. Though I kinda borked my script list switching back and forth between stable and beta, so I'm still a bit confused whether the beta can handle stable version spks.

However, like I said, extracting the SPK probably should have worked. If you're still having problems, try the current stable plugin manager/spk explorer.

I've repackaged (using current stable packager) and uploaded the spk, just in case, so first easiest thing to try is just redownload and reinstall.


I would very much appreciate if anyone else can confirm this issue of ECS comm not working, or indeed any other problems...

[Varek Raith]

OK, done some testing, and it seems like the beta plugin manager could cause problems. Though I kinda borked my script list switching back and forth between stable and beta, so I'm still a bit confused whether the beta can handle stable version spks.

However, like I said, extracting the SPK probably should have worked. If you're still having problems, try the current stable plugin manager/spk explorer.

I've repackaged (using current stable packager) and uploaded the spk, just in case, so first easiest thing to try is just redownload and reinstall.


I would very much appreciate if anyone else can confirm this issue of ECS comm not working, or indeed any other problems...

To be completely sure, I'm going to reinstall the game along with the scripts I use.
Was needing to clean house, anyway.
I'll report back any problems.


EDIT
I can now confirm that comming of military outposts works as it should.
So, all is well.

EDIT THE SEQUEL
I have invasions turned off and the Boron just invaded a Pirate sector.
Is this normal?

[ThisIsHarsh]

Ah, OK, I've found two situations whereby an invasion can be called even if you have invasions disabled.

1) The new player ship recon uplink does not check if invasions are enabled before calling one.

2) If a station is attacked it will call for help, regardless of whether invasions are enabled. Chances are there were race owned stations in the pirate sector that got attacked and called for help, resulting in an invasion (a station calling in a defense fleet to an enemy sector is seen as an invasion).

Do either of these cases seem plausable? I'll work on fixing these asap.

[Varek Raith]

Ah, OK, I've found two situations whereby an invasion can be called even if you have invasions disabled.

1) The new player ship recon uplink does not check if invasions are enabled before calling one.

2) If a station is attacked it will call for help, regardless of whether invasions are enabled. Chances are there were race owned stations in the pirate sector that got attacked and called for help, resulting in an invasion (a station calling in a defense fleet to an enemy sector is seen as an invasion).

Do either of these cases seem plausable? I'll work on fixing these asap.

Yep, it definitely seems like the 2nd one was the cause of the errant invasion. To note, I've been testing this on seta for several ingame days and that was the only invasion to occur with invasions off.

[logician]

Ah, OK, I've found two situations whereby an invasion can be called even if you have invasions disabled.

1) The new player ship recon uplink does not check if invasions are enabled before calling one.

2) If a station is attacked it will call for help, regardless of whether invasions are enabled. Chances are there were race owned stations in the pirate sector that got attacked and called for help, resulting in an invasion (a station calling in a defense fleet to an enemy sector is seen as an invasion).

Do either of these cases seem plausable? I'll work on fixing these asap.

Ahh..that could explain why pirate bases across the galaxy got whacked in my current game..I was a bit puzzled where they all went and already looking for a mod, or a cheat to prevent that from happening.

-Logician

[logician]

I would very much appreciate if anyone else can confirm this issue of ECS comm not working, or indeed any other problems...

hmmm, ECS is not working for me either, yet - I'm not quite sure if there's a bug involved though, either way I took the following steps overall:


(prior steps)
1) installed GalacticNewsSystem-V1.02-19.04.2010.spk
2) installed JSONparserlibrary-V1.0-20.10.2009.spk
3) packaged ECS 2.5 [2009-12-10] into spk-format
4) installed ECS 2.5
5) installed CommunityPluginConfiguration-V1.41-17.01.2010.spk
6) installed MilitaryBaseResponseRevamp-V2.7.2-27.04.2010.spk
7) activated the relevant AL plugins & configured the scripts ingame
8.) played with MBRR 2.7.2 for approx. 2 weeks
9) uninstalled MBRR 2.7.x (upon 2.8 release, using "uninstall" in the game first)
10) installed MilitaryBaseResponseRevamp-V2.8-19.08.2010
11) hit "install/update" @ setup menu
12) Assigned hotkeys to ECS & Galactic News System
13) played 2-3 game hours (not using MBRR in any way)

...

(most recent)
1) loaded most recent savegame;
2) waited for an attack alert (in this case a Xenon-attack on Teladi sector "green scales");
3) jumped to that sector;
4) tried using ECS to comm an outpost (teladi trade station & others);
5) following no response of any kind, tried ECS on some Teladi ships;
6) tried eliminating the (Xenon-)threat & using ECS afterwards;
7) tried re-assigning ECS hotkey;
8.) tried comming station(s) again;
...
Notes: I have a Teladi police license & notoriety rank +6 reputation-wise, script is set to default race relations.

Besides ECS, also the reconnaisance uplink is firmly set to "OFF" in my player ship, I can't seem to activate it - although I presume that should be due to ECS not having been used yet, to ally myself with a race.

Other parts of the script appear to be working fine.

Best,
-Logician

[ThisIsHarsh]

Thanks for the detailed feeback!

The ECS comm only works on Military Outpost stations now. You should be able to comm an outpost no matter what your notoriety. From your post it sounds like you are trying to comm ships and stations of the wrong type.

The recon scanner operates in 3 modes, OFF, DEFENSE, and INVASION. In order for it to switch from OFF to one of the active modes, you need the minimum requirements as described in the OP. You don't have to ally yourself with a race in order to call defense fleets, only for calling invasions. So in your case, it sounds like the recon uplink *should* switch to DEFENSE when you are in a Teladi sector. It can take up to 2 mins to switch, or alternatively you can restart the command to make it update instantly.

Hopefully this helps, let me know if you're still having problems.

[logician]

Tested & confirmed - no bugs there, ECS working fine.

Also, the Recon Uplink Status correctly switched to "DEFENSE" after a while. As you pointed out, it probably just needed a bit of time to update. That delay doesn't bother me personally, I rather dislike scripts which keep on updating internal variables or values every few milliseconds - while it may not affect frame rates or system loads on modern computers noticeably, it's just a general development philosphy of keeping things neat & clean.

The only (minor) issues I've noticed thus far, could occur under certain race relation settings - In the following scenario, Argon military forces respond to an attack on a nearby Teladi core sector, just after Teladi actually reported "no military forces available to defend", regarding the same attack:

1) a Xenon PX (M6) and a couple small fighters invade Teladi core sector "Grand Exchange";

2) Teladi's nearby military outpost at "Merchant Haven" reports a possible attack on "Grand Exchange" and states that "no military forces are available to intervene";

3) Argon outpost at "Black Hole Sun" reports the same attack and orders two M6 Centaurs to engage the enemy.

The similar alerts are probably no bug, but just Argons "helping out" their Teladi friends, which is perfectly fine & configurable in MBRR's race relations.

Just the message log (screenshot available here) might get a little confusing with such reports in certain situations, for instance if a user sets several race relations to "friend", or if several attacks take place at once.

I'm not sure if it's worth changing, but one way could be to alter the incoming message, to something along the lines of..

"Our good friends, <sector owner>, are currently under attack at <sector>, where they appear to have no military forces available to fight off the attack, hence we are moving to engage with <ships> to assist."

..that would make it a bit clearer, why Argons are suddenly moving to engage enemies in a foreign sector, or why there are two reports concerning the same event.

In the above scenario, I also noticed that the two relevant sectors (Teladi's "Grand exchange" & Argon's "Black Hole Sun") are actually 5 sectors apart - In case the defending military ships do not use jumpdrives, it could take them a bit (too) long to arrive. Sorry if that's documented somewhere, I had to switch computers and couldn't test it further.

Best,
Logician


P.S. Don't mind the language in my screenshot, I've translated the script to german for personal use, so that's intended and not actually a bug.

[ThisIsHarsh]

Update v2.8.1

Updating: simply open the config menu. Opening the config menu will create a couple of new variables. No need to hit "install/update" or anything.

Minor bugfix update for invasion calling. Stations and player ship recon uplink will not call invasions if invasions are disabled.

New menu option allows you to toggle whether stations in pirate sectors can call invasions when attacked (default is disabled). This means you can enable invasions, whilst not worrying too much about poor pirate sectors being decimated.

The recon uplink was not working for calling defense in some cases, because the player ship defaults its friend/foe settings to "Neutral" even if it says "Friend" in the command console.

[supahfly]

Updating: simply open the config menu. Opening the config menu will create a couple of new variables. No need to hit "install/update" or anything.

does this mean there is no need in following uninstall instructions on the first page?