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

[ThisIsHarsh]

@Hektos: you know what, I completely agree. Also, I'm not keen on just using "Rearguard" for Argon.

So...

Argon = Rearguard (?)
Boron = Navy
Paranid = Crusader
Split = Enforcer
Teladi = Privateer
Terran = USC (?)
Xenon (ships) = Auxiliary (?)
Xenon (bases) = ?


I'm thinking something technical, but also very simple for Xenon. I don't mind USC for Terran, it just seems like a bit of a cop out. No idea what to do for Argon.

Maybe something like "Neural Cluster" for Xenon bases, though that sounds a bit too biological, using the full "Neural Network Cluster" is bit long-winded. I've got a book from back in 1992 at work all about Artificial Life, maybe I'll get some inspiration from that.

Hmm, that just mad me think about Cellular Automata. How about "Automata" or "Automaton" for Xenon ships?

[TrixX]

Why Crusader for Paranid? Crusaders were a recon and offensive force rather than a rearguard. The Justicar would be the one leading a rearguard...

If any should use Rearguard I think it should be Terran. Argon are a bit softer though so Defenders would probably suit better.

For Xenon, Bases could be the Servers, and the Ships the Switches

[ThisIsHarsh]

Why Crusader for Paranid? Crusaders were a recon and offensive force rather than a rearguard. The Justicar would be the one leading a rearguard...

If any should use Rearguard I think it should be Terran. Argon are a bit softer though so Defenders would probably suit better.

For Xenon, Bases could be the Servers, and the Ships the Switches

Yeah I read wikipedia about Justiciars in English history. They were more like leaders than soldiers, plus noone would get the reference without looking it up. Though the word itself is pretty cool, yeah sod it, best suggestion so far.

Yeah the whole "Rearguard" thing... I dunno if they really class as Rearguard any more. I mean, they are only called in when needed, so maybe "Reservist" - though that implies they're a weak force compared to the main military. "Taskforce" or something is perhaps more appropriate, but I think IR uses that so I don't want to add confusion.

I like the direction of "Server" for the Xenon base, but could do with a better word than that - kinda why I liked "Cluster" as in "Server Cluster", combined with "Neural" as in "Neural Network", hence "Neural Cluster"... but that doesn't sound great.

=====================================

So, updated:

Argon = Justiciar
Boron = Navy
Paranid = Crusader
Split = Enforcer
Teladi = Privateer
Terran = USC
Xenon (ships) = Automata
Xenon (bases) = ?

[TrixX]

Xenon Array for bases?

I like Automata for the ships.

As for people not knowing what a Justicar is, maybe they'll take an interest in words and find out

Seeing as it's more of a task force then that alters possibilities. TDF for Terrans would work (Terran Defence Force) as a sub-group of the USC.

[ympcylo]

here is my take on the force names...

Argon = Justifier
Boron = Naval
Paranid = Templar
Split = Enforcer
Teladi = Rackateer
Terran = Ranger
Xenon = Sentinel
Pirates = Raider

Call the Xenon base X.A.N X-Access Network or Procesor Unit

For the Argon I do think Justifier is a great name cause they are ligally called in when there is a herrasment going on in a system. Befor they goes in they all yell `for JUSTICE`

And teladi i really think it should be Racketeer because it is A person who commits crimes such as extortion, loansharking, bribery, and obstruction of justice in furtherance of illegal business activities.
It is all for the ISKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

[TrixX]

Incorrect use of Justifier. The role you are talking about is that of a Justicar in actuality

X.A.N. for Xenon would suit I must admit

Teladi aren't Racketeer's though, they are out for profit and therefore Privateer suits them better.

[Eightball Maniac]

I was reading through a few sector descriptions earlier today, and came across an interesting possibility for the Teladi. The description for Two Grand mentions that one of the moons in the system was used as a training ground for Profit-Protection units.

While it sounded more like foot troops, it could be used for ships as well. Change it to Profit-Protector/Profit Protector and it sounds fitting (at least to me). Possibly a bit long, but from the eyeballing I did with existing names it should fit for any of the Teladi ships (except for Advanced/Prototype/Enhanced models, which I think are filtered out of the MBR list anyway).

Another option to throw into the mix, at least. I thought I saw another potential name for a different race during my reading sweep, but I can't remember where it was (or if I'm imagining it...). I'll see if I can find it, though.

[Catra]

so.....
are pirates capable of reclaiming their sectors?
as i can see this being a problem with how YA and PG works.

[Eightball Maniac]

I don't think MBR touches pirates at all, so no. Either their sectors are all swallowed up by the other races or you disable the ability for pirate sectors to be capped in the MBR options.

Wouldn't mind seeing pirate retaliation added at some point, though. At least to annoy the other races by destroying a few stations or something.

[Requiemfang]

I second that though PG and YA do retaliate for destroyed assets ships/stations and the more money the PG has more ships I believe it can send out during these raids. The bigger and more powerful the base is the more they can send I think. I'm not sure though and we can't get confirmation from Serial seeing how he's disappeared during the past few weeks

[Eightball Maniac]

I use both PG and YA, and while I do see groups of their ships poking around in various sectors from time to time, they never seem to do more than kill a fighter or two that gets near. Really irritating when I have them set to be difficult.

Haven't gone into the Yaki sectors much, but the PG does mount a nice defense when you attack one of their strongholds and have ADS installed. Shame they don't show the same bite when retaliating...


EDIT: Got around to looking through the sector descriptions (knew that list would come in handy some day!), and made note of a few possibilities for the new Rearguard replacement scheme.

For Teladi, there's mention of the Profit-Protection troops (Two Grand) and the Company (various sectors). Examples:

Teladi Profit-Protector Phoenix
Teladi Profit-Protector Heavy Osprey
Teladi Company Condor
Teladi Company Gannet

Both options could work, in my opinion. The Teladi are more likely to send in the mercenaries to do all the dirty work, only risking their own forces as the last line of defense.

While it'd be more work, the Teladi could be adjusted somewhat to include mercenaries (using a variety of ships, not just Teladi) as their main forces, with Company/Profit-Protector ships holding the rear and mopping up. Would add more character to the Teladi, but may be a bit beyond the scope of MBR's plan. Worth a mention, though!

Also, the Boron. One of the sectors (Depths of Silence) mentioned being a system of the Royal Boron Military Defense. Absurdly long for an addition to a ship string. RBMD would certainly fit, but there would be constant questions as to what the heck it stood for. But perhaps a replacement for their Military Outposts? Something like 'Royal Boron Military Defense Post' or similar.

Haven't considered options for the other races much yet, but there's a nice list of possibilities building up over the last few pages. I'll post more ideas if anything else comes to mind.

[Drewgamer]

hey ThisIsHarsh,

Is there any way you can add an option to only have Xenon invade other sectors? I'm playing a kinda "everyone unite against the AI menace" game, but commonwealth races keep sending huge forces to invade pirate sectors, leaving their other sectors to be taken by Xenon forces (which are only set at x1 )

Of course this also creates a "problem" with Pirate Guild, as I prefer killing the pirates myself when I build up enough fleet, which is hard to do when they are wiped out by day 2

I guess what I'm asking, is if you could implement an option to have all Commonwealth only DEFEND their sectors, and to have Xenon invade. I enjoy my stead source of baddies to kill.

Or if not that, perhaps someone could recommend some settings to use? I'm looking for more of "stalemate" fighting, where battles take place often, but sectors don't really get wiped out.

Thanks for any help,
Hektos

[ThisIsHarsh]

There are a few options to limit invasions of pirate sectors, though I don't think there is an option to completely prevent them. Not too difficult to add an option for that, I'll put it in the next version.

You can turn off invasions altogether. Xenon invade sectors regardless, the setting only applies to the main races. However, doing so with sector takeover enabled will mean Xenon take over sectors, and other races do not attempt to take them back.

[Drewgamer]

There are a few options to limit invasions of pirate sectors, though I don't think there is an option to completely prevent them. Not too difficult to add an option for that, I'll put it in the next version.

You can turn off invasions altogether. Xenon invade sectors regardless, the setting only applies to the main races. However, doing so with sector takeover enabled will mean Xenon take over sectors, and other races do not attempt to take them back.

So if I set invasions off, Xenon will invade still, but commonwealth won't (which means pirate sectors will be "relatively" safe?)

I also noticed that Grand Exchange tends to get obliterated, If i set all races friendly to Teladi, will they go to help defend?

Lastly, if all races are friendly to each other (and against the Xenon) would 1x multiplier be enough for Xenon to make invasions or would the combined Commonwealth forces be to much?

Appreciate all the help, apparently I knew a lot less about this sorta stuff than I imagined

Hektos

[ThisIsHarsh]

So if I set invasions off, Xenon will invade still, but commonwealth won't (which means pirate sectors will be "relatively" safe?)

Yup.

I also noticed that Grand Exchange tends to get obliterated, If i set all races friendly to Teladi, will they go to help defend?

Yeah they'll go to help, though it may take a while (a Recon has to spot the danger, then there has to be enough ships available to help out).

Lastly, if all races are friendly to each other (and against the Xenon) would 1x multiplier be enough for Xenon to make invasions or would the combined Commonwealth forces be to much?

1x isn't really enough, though they will try.

In my game I got Xenon multiplier set to 3x, with invasions enabled (so pirate sectors are invaded), PG on hard, IR (Xenon and Khaak only), and all notorieties at default.

The Xenon have taken quite a few sectors in the north-east of the map - their two territories have nearly linked up (just two sectors between them). I think about 6ish sectors taken in total.

Not easy when I'm doing the plot and just put satellites in Khaak-infested Split sectors (IR controled), then have to meet a Terran Odin (plot controled) in Ocean of Fantasy, which happens to have been conquered by the Xenon (MBR controled). I go there and there is a Teladi assault fleet (MBR controled) and the plot Odin fighting swarms of Xenon (both IR and MBR controled).

Managed to make it out of there in one piece after chatting to the Odin, but forgot about the M3 I was given, which just sat there and got torn to shreds.

[Drewgamer]

thanks for that, just the info I was looking for

*runs off to watch the carnage unfold*

[Scoob]

Hi,

Some observations from my (crash free!) game of several days...

i) Sector Takeover. New owner race tends to just rebuild the factories that were there previously. I.e. Boron BoGas gets rebuilt as Split BoGos, Boron Equipment Dock gets rebuilt as Split Equipment dock. Factories are named as the new race, and belong to the new race, but the product list is the same.

ii) Linked to the above; Certain "special" stations such as "Jonferco HQ" get rebuilt as Equipment docks, but still have the old Corporate HQ product list. Additionally I entered the sector where such a change had taken place and initially stations was listed as "Jonferco HQ" but it changed as I flew towards it! Odd.

iii) Similar vein as above really; when a Xenon sector is taken over, the friendly race rebuilds any Xenon stations. The Xenon sector near Eighteen Billion in my game has a Teladi owned Xenon shipyard with Xenon ships availble to purchase as per my Teladi rank.

iv) Every sector with a Military Base has LOADS of large ships patrolling - I've counted over 5 pages worth of M1/2/7 class ships often enough. Despite this surplus sectors that have been taken over by the Xenon (for example, my game has lots of this going on!) rarely send a sufficient force to take the sector back even though they could destroy the Xenon occupiers with ease.

v) I've got Xenon tokens set as 1x (down from 5x earlier in the game) yet Xenon invasions still often send up of 20 M1/M2 ships to take a sector, along with several labled "Controller". Even sectors bordering over-populated Military Outpost sectors fall quickly as insufficient response is sent.

Other than the above things are running well & I'm still having a blast despite the issues above. I am loving the way the Xenon are the big threat in my game (despite that 1x token multiplier.) I've role-played that the previously battling races (Argon vs. Paranid and Boron vs. Split) have downgraded hostilities to "Grudge" due to the Xenon threat. The Kha'ak are a bunch of wimps so far, barely an annoyance.

Oh, one more thing re: takeover. I've had situations where say Argon have lost a sector but their allies the Boron (Friend +10,000) recapture the sector. If they did this on their behalf, then the Argon recolonise, that'd be cool. As it stands the Boron now own the sector, and with the truce drawn up (mentioned above) the sector(s) will Stay Boron. If the war between the Races was still on the sector would have to be Captured by the Split, before the Argon could take it back. Note: I had settings Argon vs. Split (-10, grudge) and Boron vs. Paranid (-10, Grudge) to keep their alliances correct. Now the Xenon are taking over, even Argon vs. Paranid and Boron vs. Split are noew set to simple Grudges.

Adds a lot to the universe this script you know - politics, with Destroyers - gotta love that

Cheers,

Scoob.

[ThisIsHarsh]

For sector takeover, rather than destroy newly spawned stations I had the conquering race seize control of them. Hence Split BoGas factories. The conquering race will also build their own stations, as well as capture the respawning enemy ones. Maybe I should change this and just destroy them, sounds like some unintended effects are occurring (i.e. corporation station issue you mention).

Hmm, ships hanging around outposts, that's an annoyance I thought I'd rectified. Outposts will always be busy, patrols start and finish there. Only reason they should get too crowded is if there are no docking places, so they're stuck waiting. I'll have a look in my game, see if I can spot any such sectors (any hints would be welcome?).

Ships will only be sent if they have enough ecells to jump, plus enough fighters (for carriers) and enough missiles (for M8/M7M). So the fact that outpost sectors are busy could be related to lack of response, since the ships resupply at the outpost.

Are you seeing more than one Xenon Controller being sent to take a single sector? This was a bug in previous versions, but was fixed for the most recent version (did you remember to hit "install/update"?).

I will perhaps allow allied races to retake sectors for their friends, rather than themselves, yeah, good idea that.

[ThisIsHarsh]

OK, found a little bug. Thanks Scoob for pointing me in the direction. Turns out ships sent to attack illegal stations weren't working, instead they just potter around aimlessly. This could explain why there is an eventual buildup of ships and lack of response.

For the moment just hit "install/update" if you notice large amounts of ships doing nothing useful. This will 'refresh' the ships' orders.

I'll release an update asap.

[ThisIsHarsh]

Update v2.12

Updating: open the config menu and hit "install/update".

Added a new submenu to ECS comm of outpost to detail available uses for prestige points.

This now includes an "Expense claim", where you can trade in your prestige points for credits. You can now play an entire game as a mercenary, no trade empire required!

Changed Rearguard ship names and Xenon base names as follows:

Argon = Federal
Boron = Navy
Paranid = Crusader
Split = Enforcer
Teladi = Company
Terran = USC
Xenon (ships) = Auxiliary
Xenon (base) = Nexus

Can change these again if anyone comes up with better names.

Modified takeover behaviour so that enemy stations that spawn in captured sectors are destroyed rather than seized. Also, sectors captured by a race that is allied to the original owner will give it back to them, rather than take it for themselves.

Fixed a bug where ships called to attack illegal stations would just idle and be unavailable for subsequent calls. Hopefully this solves the buildup of idle ships.

Modified the default prestige points required for certain things upwards somewhat. This will not affect your settings, unless you hit "Reset options to default", or start a new game.