[MOD-TC]Ship Rebalance Mod:Continued v1.10b (27/6/11): Now Discontinued...

[taskforce3]

Finally got back to playing X3TC again.. I stop playing shortly after you release 1.02.. Glad to see you are still working on this project.. Keep it Up

Just one question though.. the answer is probably buried within somewhere.. but ..

Are the maintenance pods suppose to have automated repair? I tried the nanite hull repair script, but it doesn't do anything. There are quantum tubes in the cargo hold and the lasers are mounted.

Thanks..

[Osiris454]

Finally got back to playing X3TC again.. I stop playing shortly after you release 1.02.. Glad to see you are still working on this project.. Keep it Up

Just one question though.. the answer is probably buried within somewhere.. but ..

Are the maintenance pods suppose to have automated repair? I tried the nanite hull repair script, but it doesn't do anything. There are quantum tubes in the cargo hold and the lasers are mounted.

Thanks..

No they don't have any auto repair capability. It's more of a ship that you keep docked in your "playership" and hop into when something needs repairing. With it being listed as an M5 class, even an M6 can dock 1 externally.

[paulwheeler]

first, some of my ships (eg. PX) have an issue with unremoveable IREs installed on their turrets...

Download the cheat pack. It comes with a command that clones an existing ship, right down to its installed equipment and the contents of its freight bay. However, it will create the new ship using the data from the latest cat/dat file, so the clone command can be used to "update" individual ships that use the stats of a previous version.

The cheat pack is really more of a debugging tool when you get into modding. It fixes 90% of the problems caused by updating or otherwise changing installed scripts and mods.

Thanks for your answer. I downloaded and installed the Cheat pack, and tried the clone command.

Meanwhile I wrote a script that clones a ship, and managed to attach it to a hotkey and it's actually faster than with the Cheats pack. What my script doesn't do is to clone Union pilots, and CODEA/MEFOS personnel and configuration. If the 'clone' command supports that (I haven't tried it on CODEA carriers yet), I'll use it for capitals. BTW, it does clone the nonexisting IREs into proper wares (which I have to get rid of - curiously my script doesn't copy them). Maybe I'll just borrow the code and copy it into mine.

The question was if there's a better solution ready... say I have 200 ships to fix, it gets quite boring to clone one a time. Expecially ESTs, CAGs and the like, or caps with all CODEA configuration. If LV cheats don't support those, and if I can find the time to dig into CAG/EST/CODEA etc. code, I may write a single script that clones all ships that need to be fixed (I already have one that detects buggy ships - it goes thru all ships of mine that have an IRE installed, tries to switch it off the gun, if it fails it's a buggy turret), still is quite a good amount of time to invest. Expecially studying all other scripts configuration... I have to copy every single local variable, and there's no way to get a list (that I'm aware of), other than reading each script (well, luckily most of them already have copy/move pilot, I can borrow those pieces of code maybe).

I just was hoping such a script was already out there...

That sounds like a very handy script!

The problem is with turret changes. The game can't handle the number of gun parts on a ship increasing on an existing ship. The game puts IREs in these new guns that you can't remove. A simple clone fixes it. The ships will still work fine, they just can't use these broken guns. Shield bay changes and external docking cause something similar.

[paulwheeler]

So my idea it to take a fighter, let's say a Perseus, consider a typical loadout, add room for a few missiles, and that's it. Say, limit cargo to 50. Even w/o missiles, if it's full of weapons and has max shields, it has barely enough room to jump 1-2 sectors away.

This is less extreme than making the cargo class of a jumpdrive XL. An M3 can fit a jumpdrive, just it's range it reduced. And you can emergeny jump, just not too far away.

There's also some kind of flexibility, if you want extra room for ECs, you can strip some military equipment off. If you fell more like an explorer and not a hardcore dogfighter, you don't need all those weapons, right? Drop them, use a single 25MJ shield, 4 IREs, and you have an almost civillian version of an Perseus, with extended jump range.

BTW, instead of just reducing cargo space that much, you can get the same effect by increasing lasers & shields size at the same time... which I think it's a better idea. Double all sizes, and make the cargo of a Perseus something like 100. With a full loadout, it has very little room for ECs. A minimally equipped one, tho, is able to jump 7-8 sectors. Or, use the extra room for missiles and you have a bomber version... Bombers being long-range not engaging kind of ships, it doesn't matter if they don't have heavy weapons on board.

It makes things a bit more challenging at the beginning, and makes it worthwhile to buy a TM as a mobile base for your fighter (or with a TS and an extra Jumpdrive, you can load the weaponery on the TS and jump in your M3, having the TS follow you - refuelling after each jump. It works better with a Transporer Device, tho).

This is for M5/M4/M3 only, of course. Any thoughts?

The problem with this idea is the way the game handles cargo when it spawns ai ships.. If cargo space is short, the game tends not to spawn weapons before anything else, even if there is still room. For some reason the game tends to want to keep a percentage of the cargo hold free. This is the reason why in vanilla you never see a fully stocked Tyr - its cargo is too small and I increased it in the srm to fix this. I think that if I did this, you'd have a lot of unarmed ai perseuses flying into battle.

Besides, I think that at the start of the game when a player only has a fighter, they want to be able to survive a fight and trade. Severely limiting cargo means you can only do one or the other.

The SSRP is going to be fully merged into the XRM. I may look at its harshness, although I'm not going to allow jumpdrives back onto fighters.

[Sorkvild]

Hi, will you add a few more ships into srm?

[paulwheeler]

I will add more ships if more become available. I know cadius has more on the way, so I will certainly add them.

[Viviox]

Hi paul, just want to ask you about Yaki M7s. I recently got to Yaki space and saw that one of their M7 is identical to Paranid M7 Hyperion, and the rest of their M7 also identical to other race's M7. Don't Yaki have a unique set of ships?

[paulwheeler]

No. In vanilla they share models with argon ships. In the srm I switched them to use paranid ships as this fits their location in the universe and the fact that their fighters are paranid designs. If you look closely you'll see they have their own unique yaki skins courtesy of Mizuchi.

[dienadel]

I just was hoping such a script was already out there...

That sounds like a very handy script!

The problem is with turret changes. The game can't handle the number of gun parts on a ship increasing on an existing ship. The game puts IREs in these new guns that you can't remove. A simple clone fixes it. The ships will still work fine, they just can't use these broken guns. Shield bay changes and external docking cause something similar.

Yup, it would be very useful. I remember fixing my savegames on X3:R using an X2->X3 converter, adapted to do X3->X3. It saves a file with a dump of your empire (stations, ships), and you can load it on a newly started... of course it caused all kind of troubles with CAGs and the rest of the scripts, as it wasn't dumping the configuration.

This is a similar task. The biggest problem is to support all scripts. Every script has its own variables. What's really missing is a script function

Code: Select all

$object -> get local variable names as array

that would be immensely useful in writing an universal 'clone' script.

[dienadel]

The problem with this idea is the way the game handles cargo when it spawns ai ships.. If cargo space is short, the game tends not to spawn weapons before anything else, even if there is still room. For some reason the game tends to want to keep a percentage of the cargo hold free. This is the reason why in vanilla you never see a fully stocked Tyr - its cargo is too small and I increased it in the srm to fix this. I think that if I did this, you'd have a lot of unarmed ai perseuses flying into battle.

Uh, ok... if that can't be fixed my idea can't be implemented.

Besides, I think that at the start of the game when a player only has a fighter, they want to be able to survive a fight and trade. Severely limiting cargo means you can only do one or the other.

Well, the point being you can't trade with a fully equipped fighter. A trader would sell a fighter to buy a freighter, and if you really want to trade in fighter drop the military equipment. I don't see many people use F-14's for box moving. Well, if you completely remove all the military stuff, guns & EW, and use missile bays for small containers, maybe you can use it to deliver goods - very fast. Still a hell of an expensive way to deliver goods.

The SSRP is going to be fully merged into the XRM. I may look at its harshness, although I'm not going to allow jumpdrives back onto fighters.

Then, I don't understand. Really, I'm lost.

If you don't allow jumpdrives on fighters, then you're limiting their trading capabilities even more than with my idea. There's no point talking about 'using a fighter for trading'. A fighter becomes useless for trading. If you own a JD a jumpless fighter becomes the slowest ship in the galaxy, for trading. In TC most trading routes are 3-4 sector long (minimum), a Mercury would cost much less than an M3 and is JD-compatible.

It seems to me that "I want people to be able to trade with a fighter" and "I'm not going to to allow jumpdrives back onto fighters" are kind of mutually exclusive.

Not to mention that putting high-end guns in the XL/XXL range already limited the effectiveness of fighters as traders. I thought that's part of SRM rationale. And I totally agree on that, it made no sense to me to put a CAG (an advanced commercial pilot) on a fighter, yet in vanilla some fighters make very good high end weapon sellers.

Well maybe it's just me, but in my style of playing I do jump a lot in a fighter, even if most of the times in the same sector... it's useful tactics, w/o an area weapon it's possibily the best way to get rid of a cluster - break it up, kill as many as you can, when your shields drop jump to a gate in the same sector, wait for the scouts to reach you, kill as many as you can, jump to another gate if necessary, rinse and repeat.

There are a lot of tactical uses for a JD in a fighter... maybe not in your style of game, but surely in mine. The problem isn't the JD, what's wrong (IMHO) is the ability to jump from Argon Prime to Getsu Fune in one jump, no refuelling necessary. A fighter is a short range ship, long range jumps should be prevented.

Ideally, there should be a JD Mk1 for small ships, with a limited range (say, 4 sectors), and a JD Mk2 for big ships with unlimited range. But I think jumping is hardcoded in the engine and can't be limited in MODs.

[paulwheeler]

Remember the AI does not generally use the jumpdrive for trading. This levels the playing field somewhat and also makes the universe feel bigger. In x3 the gate system is largely redundant for the player. The SSRP makes it part of the game again. In X2 the jumpdrive was far less accessible than it is in x3 and the game was much stronger for it in my opinion, especially at the start of a game.

Anyway, its a very simple edit to change the waresize of the jumpdrive. You can always alter it yourself. The SRM and the XRM will be tailored to suit my style of play because I am the one making it.

[Viviox]

Hi paul, can you tell me which M7s can dock M6? So I don't waste money trying to find the right one. Thanks

[Osiris454]

Hi paul, can you tell me which M7s can dock M6? So I don't waste money trying to find the right one. Thanks

I believe none of them actually, but I maybe wrong.

@Paul: Have a look at the message drone. Wouldn't it make an excellent Advanced Argon fighter?

[joelR]

Hi paul, can you tell me which M7s can dock M6? So I don't waste money trying to find the right one. Thanks

I believe none of them actually, but I maybe wrong.

@Paul: Have a look at the message drone. Wouldn't it make an excellent Advanced Argon fighter?

Actually the cerberus and panther can. Im sure theres more.

[Osiris454]

Hi paul, can you tell me which M7s can dock M6? So I don't waste money trying to find the right one. Thanks

I believe none of them actually, but I maybe wrong.

@Paul: Have a look at the message drone. Wouldn't it make an excellent Advanced Argon fighter?

Actually the cerberus and panther can. Im sure theres more.

D'oh! I completely forgot. You're right Joel they can. How could I have forgotten that, I've use the Cerberus for a very long time.

[paulwheeler]

The docking info is either in the BSD thread (the docking mod that was merged) - theres a big list in the third post down:

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 47#3008847

Or in the in-game encyclopaedia description itself for Cycrow's ships.

[Hardscript]

I cant seem to get the shipyard or the Arms dealer scripts to work, doesnt seem like they activate/install so they arnt in the plugin manager and i cant control them

[paulwheeler]

I cant seem to get the shipyard or the Arms dealer scripts to work, doesnt seem like they activate/install so they arnt in the plugin manager and i cant control them

Go to the Artificial Life settings in the main in-game options and turn the AL Plugins on. They should then appear in the plugin configurator menu.

[Hardscript]

I am also having some serious game freezing.
I installed a fresh x3 3.1
Installed srm 1.1
Installed cmod 4.13
installed ess + the srm jobs
Installed mars
installed shipyards and weapons dealer.

Everytime i play the game it will lock up within 20 mins of start.
No errors nothing in the event viewer either.

Edit: I just got the shipyard and arms dealer working however when i went to edit the shipyard settings it crashes the instant i tried to turn on mod ships.

[daemonik]

I am also having some serious game freezing.
I installed a fresh x3 3.1
Installed srm 1.1
Installed cmod 4.13
installed ess + the srm jobs
Installed mars
installed shipyards and weapons dealer.

Everytime i play the game it will lock up within 20 mins of start.
No errors nothing in the event viewer either.

I have the very same issue, and I believe few folks in the Vkerinav Jobs thread do too
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=294532

So it appears there's something wrong in jobs v4. What works for me is an earlier version 3.6e
http://www.thexuniverse.com/attachment. ... 1304517010

(I used "Unleashed" flavor)