Drone Carrier Software 2 (DCS2) v2.07a

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 00:18

Yeah, you *should* get a refund when you turn off "build drones".

I will check that for the next version.

builder680 · Post by **builder680** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 00:59

Ah. If it's a known bug that might explain some things I saw. Sorry about that!

Still would like to get my RTB hotkey working so I don't have to use the menu for it every time.

Overall though, using this script is allowing me to play carriers much more aggressively and I like it!

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 01:06

Yeah, that is the heart of it. Before DCS2, carriers were somewhere between annoying and frustrating. With DCS2, carriers become truly practical for many purposes.

I am glad that you are enjoying it.

PS: 11 million credits is nothing at all for carrier operations. See the Requirements section of the OP.

builder680 · Post by **builder680** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 01:13

Yeah, I know. I've played this game a few years ago doing the TC Hub, HQ, and all the other plots. Had hundreds of billion in income and ridiculous amount of stations. Chip plants... Thank goodness for complex cleaner back then! Haven't decided if I'll use that or FDN this time... /offtopic

This game I just started is from picking the game back up recently and taking my sweet time. As a result I'm still pretty poor but I don't mind... I just need to manage my expenses as best I can and that means watching where my money is going. 11 million is nothing for sure but I still want to know where it's going!

EDIT:

Trying to narrow down what causes my game to hang. It just did it again.

I approach a group of enemies (Kha'ak). 1 TM, several fighers.
My drones launched and went after TM.
I got in my personal M3 to help.
After enemy TM died, drones stood around doing nothing about the leftover enemy fighters (apparenlty a documented bug).
I kill the fighters with help of M7 on "Protect Me" command.
Once fighters are all dead, game hangs.

In common with my last hang, I had switched ships in the fight. It also hung after all enemy targets were dead and presumably the script wanted to find the next command to issue to the drones.

EDIT 2:

Just fought the same battle (I'd saved just before for testing). This time I did not switch ships to my M3. I stayed in my M7. Drones still took out the TM then did nothing. I killed everything else with my M7, at which points my drones autodocked.

So it seems to have something to do with switching on/off the drone carrier while its drones are deployed? I dunno for sure but that's what I see happening.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 04:10

It is not clear from your description whether DCS2 is involved in the hang that you report, but I will look into it.

Most hangs are caused by sound issues. See the stickies in the Tech Support forum for more info.

The second-most-common cause of hangs is something that you *un*installed.

Here is my favorite combination for building complexes:

Complex "Cocktail"

Complex Cleaner Re-Packed for Plugin Manager
TCM Tubeless Complex Mod - a.k.a. more performant complex tubes
Advanced Complex Hub Mk2 (Zeron-mk7) or Advanced Complex Hub (Saetan)
Optional: Increase SG_MAX_DISTANCE_BUILDCOMPLEX;500000; // was: 20000 in types\Globals (or addon\types\Globals for AP).

Alternative for Closed-Loop Complexes Only
If you build closed-loop complexes, then Litcube's Saturn Complex Hub is an alternative to the above combination. Some people love closed-loop complexes, but I prefer open-loops that stimulate the NPC economy.

builder680 · Post by **builder680** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 05:42

Stimulating the economy with stand alone factories is exactly why I'm considering going with FDN this time around. I also remember being a bit intimidated looking at Saturn Hub a couple years ago, which is why I wound up using CC for my closed loop plant that produced everything my fleet needed. Not going that route this time though.

With regard to the DCS thing, I'm just gonna work around it by not letting DCS actually control my fighters. I'll set to Protect or Attack from the Wing Command console and then I guess I'll just use the DCS menu to get them to dock afterwards since I am having trouble getting the hotkey to work. Even with the workarounds it's still awesome.

DevilishMoney · Post by **DevilishMoney** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 11:33

DrBullwinkle

Complex Cleaner has a version of Tubeless Complex Mod built in, it says so on the first page of the complex cleaner forum and I have tested it and no tubes appear when you use complex cleaner or not.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 11:47

Hmm... I always assumed that was just for *inside* the module container. I guess I never tested it for the complex hub.

Cool.

DevilishMoney · Post by **DevilishMoney** » Thu, 13. Feb 14, 11:53

Hi DrBullwinkle

It works for the module container, complex hub and works also for all stations that you complex together but don't use the complex cleaner on.

Thanks

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sat, 1. Mar 14, 20:45

So, DrB, as promised, my report (up till now, because I didn't seem to get very far yet):

To all concerned: The following report follows a discussion/conversation held on another thread 'CODEA' (http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... start=1785). I decided to bring it to the thread were it actually belongs, out of respect for the op of the other thread.

Report:

First of all: I play Terran Conflict atm, fully patched up, flying a scripted carrier M1 running CODEA on it, using my scripted M3's as fighters. Both my M1 and M3 can't be bought anywhere in the universe (not added to any shipyard, using Cycrows PM).

So I found DCS2 under the combat menu, clicked it to make adjustments. Both "Drone building" and "Engage enemies" seemed to be set as active as standard, so I immediately clicked "Engage enemies" to deactivate it. For some reason, my autopilot became active, flying my ship somewhere. Mind you, I just deactivated "Engage enemies" AND there were absolutely NO enemies iS, so I have no clue as to why my autopilot engaged. Anyway... I closed the menu and deactivated the autopilot. Went back into the DCS2 menu to have a look at the other settings...

For the life of me, I could not change the choice of fighter to be used for drone creation. I tried it about ten times, each time trying another fighter (my scripted M3, vanilla M3's, vanilla M4's), DCS2 kept building its preconfigurated M4's and the M3 Falcon Hauler as bomber. Bummer!

I also found a problem in the maximum drones setting... It was set on 3 when I first opened the menu screen. My CODEA carrier has room for 101 ships, but already carried 98, so only room left for 3 extra, which seems correct. But, you told me that the default setting for this is the maximum minus 1, in order for at least one slot to be left open for a personal ship. I do already have 4 personal ships on my carrier and want to leave one extra slot open just in case, so I tried to alter this setting to 96, but entering that the script brought it down to 6, which seems a quite odd number. It did already mention 6 as to be the maximum in the heading of the input screen, but I thought just to try 96 anyway. So, 6 it turned out to be. The result was that, the 3 drones that were already built and I had ordered to a position just outside my carrier, so I could check the types of ship they were, these 3 drones were soon part of 6 in total, the 3 extra ones having been built in the 3 empty slots in my carrier. So now I have only 3 slots for drones, but 6 drones in existence! Maybe, for starters, this setting should represent the absolute maximum of drones allowed to be in existence at a time per carrier (dependant on max slots of the carrier in question of course), rather than the maximum only/just taking into account how many slots are free at that time?

The only other thing I was able to do so far was to check if and how I could change certain settings, as discussed:

DrBullwinkle wrote:You can also configure the type of bomber that you use, so your "bombers" can be the same as your "interceptors" (ID 310). If you do this, you will want to also set the bomber lifetime (ID 305) high, so that the bombers do not automatically recycle. (1 billion seconds is 31 game years, so that should be sufficient. Just do not exceed 2 billion.) If you do the above for CODEA, then you might also want to set the "Maximum Peacetime Bomber Percent" (ID 309) to 100. This will build all "bombers" instead of "interceptors" (remember, they are the same above), so that no ships will ever be replaced (other than due to combat losses). That should reduce some headaches from replacing pilots.

DrBullwinkle wrote:One more tip for CODEA players: it has been reported that Homebase should be set to "yes" (ID 401).

I hope I am correct in thinking these settings can not be altered ingame (well, they of course can in the script editor, but that's not how you configure your scripts as far as I know), but rather have to be changed in the t-file using the X3-editor. I'm also guessing that, since I play an English language game, I need to alter the 8562-L044 t-file, and not the 089 that has DCS2... added as content. But that's about as far as I (script noob) got.
The setting for ID 401 is "auto", so I guess I am to change it to "yes" (as to double-click it, delete "auto", type "yes" and enter)?
ID 305 is set to 600. Change it to 1.000.000.000?
ID 309 is set to 30. Change to 100 I guess?
ID 310 is set to 293. No idea what this references to, so no idea what to put here in order for my bomber drone to change.

And then there's still this...

Tom5Cat wrote:Does it automate ..., weapons loadout, turret commands...?

DrBullwinkle wrote:Yes, DCS2 does the heavy lifting. Of course.

I have yet to find out where exactly I can change these settings. Where can I choose what weapons the drones should carry and use? They seem to already carry weapons as they are build. Are the weapons themselves build too, or where do they come from? Are they taken out of the cargo hold of my carrier (which would not be ok as the carrier might need them itself,unless this is known and the player can take certain precautions so he has ample stocks onboard). Where can I command them "en masse" (as discussed) to use a certain turret command, like "defend ship"?

DCS2 does take care of the homebase setting "en masse", since they are already in the carrier when scripted into the game, which is great already! The problem with CODEA is that, when you have dozens of fighters sitting in space that you want to add to your CODEA carrier, you have to set their homebase to the carrier one by one in order to get them in the carrier "en masse" (with the command "transmit command to al fighters in sector" and "fly home") or you would have to order them in the carrier one by one. I do believe CODEA automates homebase setting once they are in (not sure though). Anyway, the getting them in part was what was troublesome, but DCS2 sure does that neatly

Sorry for the big read (again). You know me a little by now

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sat, 1. Mar 14, 22:00

I added a section for "Configuring DCS2" to the first post which should answer those questions.

my autopilot became active, flying my ship somewhere.

You were piloting the carrier? If the carrier has no other orders when you first start it, it gets the "Defend Sector" command. Doing almost anything should cancel the command. I will prevent the automatic command on the playership in the next version. Thank you for the report.

I could not change the choice of fighter to be used for drone creation.

Interesting. Many players use custom interceptors. You are the first to report having any trouble.

ID 305 is set to 600. Change it to 1.000.000.000?

Without punctuation, yes (if you do not want bombers to recycle).

I have yet to find out where exactly I can change [loadout] settings.

DCS2 automatically selects the best equipment for your fighters. Turrets are automatically set to "Missile Defense" (which is the only setting that makes sense for fighters).

Hope that helps, Tom5Cat. Kaplah!

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 05:41

So you're a trekkie too

A small note to begin with:
In the first post, in the new portion you inserted, you're talking about t-file 8526. That should be 8562. Just so you know

Why use notepad++ to make changes and not just the x3 editor? Is there a special reason not to?
Oh and there was no +/-1 between the ID's of the t-file or the Tships file.

Ok, here goes...
After a while, I realised that I had to change all 3 bomber ID's in order to get the right ship every time, so that's settled. But, I'm still getting intercepters too (mostly even, unless an enemy M2 is in sector), so changing ID 309 to 100 (%) didn't quite cut it to make sure only bombers get build. How to solve this? I thought about asking you the ID's for the interceptors, so I could change them too, but as you said before...

DrBullwinkle wrote:you might also want to set the "Maximum Peacetime Bomber Percent" (ID 309) to 100. This will build all "bombers" instead of "interceptors", so that no ships will ever be replaced (other than due to combat losses). That should reduce some headaches from replacing pilots.

Using the ingame function to change the type of ship for interceptors simply does not work with me. Just in case... I'm going to "combat" section, click the DCS2 function at the bottom, click "Optional Interceptor Type: <Select Interceptor Type>", scroll the list to the type I want and Enter. Right? Should I see any change in the menu? (might be nice for future versions, so the player gets confirmation) Anyway, I keep getting Sabres and stuff (all M4's). Maybe it's broken?

I can verify that the turret command is properly set at missile defense (hoorah!!)
Concerning homebase setting, I noticed it is not set when the drones are still in the carrier. It gets set as soon as they leave the carrier. As I understand it, DCS2 has been tried by other CODEA users, so it's propably ok.

Another thing worthy of mentioning...
I quickly scripted in a bunch of enemies and made my CODEA fighters go after them (not the drones, they haven't been added yet), as to make room in the hull for drones. I then altered the setting for maximum drones to whatever the highest setting was at that moment. The result was that drones were built and after a while, when the CODEA fighters had done their job, they came back to dock, as they ALL did! What I mean to say is that by now, I had 142 fighters in my carrier that can normally only dock 101!!! So I guess this needs some work too.

I also noticed that my drones got automatically outfitted with Electro-Magnetic Plasma Cannons, of which I'm not that big of a fan. It's true they can carry them, but I prefer them carrying and using other weapons. Actually, I prefer Pulsed Beam Emitters for AI-interceptors, for two important reasons:
- Measured in damage per second, only CAP-ship guns do more damage to shields and once the enemy's shields are gone, the hull is pretty easy anyway (slows them down from that point on anyway, so they get easier and easier as a target).
- They have a short range, which I believe is perfect for the AI, from a point of view regarding friendly fire. If they can't shoot far, chances are they won't accidentally hit anything they shouldn't.
So, is there any way I can change this? (apart from changing the models' specifications as to what weapons they can (only) carry, because that would be something I'd hate to do (too risky during a game too).

That's it for now

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 07:16

Tom5Cat wrote:click "Optional Interceptor Type: <Select Interceptor Type>", scroll the list to the type I want and Enter. Right?

Yes, that is correct. The selected interceptor type will then display on the menu.

For simplicity, the menu shows all ship types. Obviously, if you select anything other than a fighter, then it will be rejected. But any M3/4/5 should work.

What fighter have you got that can mount EMPC's and PBE's? Aamon Prototype? In any case, take comfort in the knowledge that the choice of gun does not matter much to AI-piloted fighters. Or you can change priorities yourself in sub DroneEquip in the carrier task, if you are brave enough to use the Script Editor.

(Also, PBE's are fine for inducing bails, but they are not great for killing enemies. They do not do a lot of hull damage, and they are fiercely energy-inefficient. EMPC's will do a much better job of killing enemies. But suit yourself there.)

Notes added recently:

+ Do not Defend Sector if carrier=playership. (Tom5Cat)
+ Do not Defend Sector if "Engage Enemies" is off (Tom5Cat)
+ Maximum Number of Drones should count drones in flight as well as empty docks. (Tom5Cat)
+ Do not allow docking when docking bays are full. (Tom5Cat)
+ Apply Homebase setting as soon as drone is built. (Tom5Cat)
+ Add PBE's to weapons list. (Tom5Cat)

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 15:41

DrBullwinkle wrote:But any M3/4/5 should work.

It should, but for some reason refuses to do so in my game and unfortunately that's a dealbreaker.

You didn't answer my question how to solve the intercepters still being build, instead of only bombers. If I could fix that, the above clearly wouldn't matter anymore.

DrBullwinkle wrote:What fighter have you got that can mount EMPC's and PBE's? Aamon Prototype? In any case, take comfort in the knowledge that the choice of gun does not matter much to AI-piloted fighters. Or you can change priorities yourself in sub DroneEquip in the carrier task, if you are brave enough to use the Script Editor.

(Also, PBE's are fine for inducing bails, but they are not great for killing enemies. They do not do a lot of hull damage, and they are fiercely energy-inefficient. EMPC's will do a much better job of killing enemies. But suit yourself there.)

A custom fighter (BSG Heavy Raider) with some adjustments.
I think the choice of weapons is relevant for AI's, concerning friendly fire. For arguments sake, outfit a bunch of AI's with Phased Shockwave Generators and witness the collateral damage. Many fighter weapons have ranges of over 2 km. Spraying those lasers/bullets all over the place, especially when you have 70 fighters in combat in a tight spot, it would be almost a miracle for them not to hit anything they shouldn't. They might not hit each other, because they're so small, but you might have bigger vessels nearby, or some factory might get hit. If that factory is precisely what you have to protect in that mission... you get my drift.
For the combat part itself, I fully agree with you. AI's are just plain stupid. The way they fly when fighting... They don't adjust their speed to the target, matching it so they can follow the target and burn away the shields and hull of the target doing so. They just race by and try to land a few hits passing by each time. That's why it takes so long for them to finish the job. Even 40 fighters against 10 enemy fighters seems to last forever. 4 to 1, that should be over in a jiffy. Doesn't matter what weapons they carry, always takes longer then expected.
This is one of the reasons why I'm so interested in a "follow distance script", because mayby this could be of use for combat too, in some script way.
I'll have a go in the Script Editor. I do feel adventurous at times

I must disagree with you on the effectiveness of PBE's. First of all, my Heavy Raiders have ample laser energy to handle PBE's. That's a must, of course. EMPC's do 5.200 damage/sec on shields, PBE's do 18.100. That's more than 3 times as much! So they burn through the shields of enemies much faster. That's the "tough" part of the battle (not with M5's and some M4's, but they're just cannon fodder anyway). The EMPC's do 2.000 damage/sec on the hull, the PBE's only 673, so that's about times 3 in the other direction, but In most situations you will use fighters only against enemy fighters, and their hulls aren't big anyway. Whatever weapon you're using, it will eat away at the hull good enough. Again, as the hull deminishes, so does the target's speed, so they become weaker and weaker targets, unable to escape. Also, when AI's use PBE's, the enemies do not tend to bail that quickly as using them yourself. Mayby 1 or 2 %, is my experience. But the most important feature of the PBE's is of course... speed! A whopping 6.980 m/s. Only the Plasma Beam Cannon en the two heaviest Kyons do better. EMPC's only make 588. That's a huge difference! So the PBE's are way more likely to hit target and, mayby equally important, again because of their speed way less likely to cause friendly fire. However, I fully agree with you that it becomes a whole other story when using fighters against bigger targets than fighters! But I'll take care of those myself

Of course, everyone has preferences, nobody's ones are the holy grail to all.
A question though, because I'm not sure what exactly the deal is: If one of your AI fighters hits a friendly (allied, so of the other races) ship or factory, does that count the same as if you were to hit it yourself (from the player ship)? I think the consequences are ridiculously high, in that regard. Being at level 10 (top level) with a race and hitting a factory by incident takes you right back several % to the former rank and often (because bullets spray, so a hit rarely comes alone) you loose your police license on top of that. Those last % take so long to build up again, to stupidly loose them so quickly.

DrBullwinkle wrote:Notes added recently:

+ Do not Defend Sector if carrier=playership. (Tom5Cat)
+ Do not Defend Sector if "Engage Enemies" is off (Tom5Cat)
+ Maximum Number of Drones should count drones in flight as well as empty docks. (Tom5Cat)
+ Do not allow docking when docking bays are full. (Tom5Cat)
+ Apply Homebase setting as soon as drone is built. (Tom5Cat)
+ Add PBE's to weapons list. (Tom5Cat)

Making a name for myself

About the docking bays being full... That might be a coördinated problem with CODEA. The drones were onboard, nicely staying below the bay slot threshold. It were the CODEA fighters coming back that overstept that threshold. Still, I didn't check if the drone builder kept building drones to match the so called maximum as the script now is, even though the bay was already full.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 21:43

Well, there you go. You just proved that choice of weapon makes almost no difference on fighters.

(I will, probably someday, allow players to alter weapon choice priorities. Maybe. I just have not decided how to do it yet. It is a low priority because it is easy to change in the script and has little in-game benefit. There are more important things to improve right now.)

How many different M3/4/5's have you tried to choose for interceptors? The only guess that I have about your problem choosing an interceptor is that you are trying to choose something that is not a fighter. Try a vanilla fighter. If that works, then it means that your custom ship is (slightly) bugged (maybe wrong class?).

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 23:33

It's all a matter of interpretation

"Almost" means still a difference

DrBullwinkle wrote:How many different M3/4/5's have you tried to choose for interceptors? The only guess that I have about your problem choosing an interceptor is that you are trying to choose something that is not a fighter. Try a vanilla fighter. If that works, then it means that your custom ship is (slightly) bugged (maybe wrong class?).

I tried 3 different ones, two of which several times:
- My custom M3 Heavy Raider
- Vanilla M3 Eclipse (never touched it)
- Vanilla M4 Buster (never touched it)
None of which changed anything. Kept getting the Sabres and stuff.

Tom5Cat wrote:You didn't answer my question how to solve the intercepters still being build, instead of only bombers. If I could fix that, the above clearly wouldn't matter anymore.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 23:48

OK. I do not know why you are having trouble selecting a custom interceptor. You will know whether you succeed because you should immediately see the name of the custom interceptor on the menu.

If I make a test patch to try to narrow down your problem, would you be willing to test it?

(Selecting a custom fighter *is* the problem that you keep asking about.

)

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 2. Mar 14, 23:57

Sure, I'd tryout the patch!

Oeps, I thought the problem with the intercepter wouldn't matter anymore when we would be able to force DCS2 to only build bombers, since I already managed to make sure those are my custom M3's by changing the ID's. I also thought this (using only bombers) would be essential to not lose pilots (CODEA) for some reason.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Mon, 3. Mar 14, 00:54

OK, drop this into your scripts folder (addon\scripts for AP), reload a saved game, and try to select a custom fighter again. (Don't bother trying to read it; just download it.)

Test Patch for Tom5Cat

The patch does two things:

- Uses a different technique to validate the ship that you chose.
- Tells you *why* it does not like an invalid ship.

Tom5Cat wrote:I also thought this (using only bombers) would be essential to not lose pilots (CODEA) for some reason.

Probably because I said that but, after thinking more about it, it is probably unnecessary to set Max Peacetime Bombers Percent to 100.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Mon, 3. Mar 14, 18:51

DrBullwinkle wrote:OK, drop this into your scripts folder (addon\scripts for AP)

Playing TC, remember? Ok to use still? In TC\scripts I mean.