[SCR] Super Tractor (v1.07 - 24.12.08)

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Wed, 13. Oct 10, 23:12

Also might I point out... the super tractor is SUCH a great and powerful weapon? Tractor a station or a asteroid and start flying around wildly until all your enemies are splattered against it

See a massive fleet of Khaak? swat the bugs with your personal giant fly swatter

Simoom · Post by **Simoom** » Mon, 15. Nov 10, 07:33

Gazz wrote:Correct.
But with that script it's implied that the station is deconstructed completely. All scripts and ships amd wares that interact with it, are expected to stop doing so.

Now imagine I would allow to tractor a station through a gate. Players would rightfully assume that it's the same station with "nothing changed".
That is just plain impossible to do.
So instead of answering again and again why the ST script sucks so much and why the towed stations are so buggy, losing their assigned ships and whatnot... I decided to just not allow it. =P

Tractoring gates would be even worse. That's high magic!

Hey Gazz! Just letting you know I really love your script.

Been towing high-yield asteroids to the Unknown Sector where I am putting all my factories into.

I do have a question regarding towing factories to another sector though - I know it's impossible to duplicate a factory with all of its wares/assigned ships, etc. - but I was wondering if there's a way to script it so that it allows you to tow/jump a station elsewhere (losing all of its wares in the process, which I really don't care about)

I am currently using the Factory Repacker script and it's a nice script, but the fact that I have to empty all the wares from it drives me crazy (ever tried deconstructing a 30-factory complex and emptying all the wares? Then repacking each one into a TL? Not fun)

I really like to keep my factories organized, so it would help me a lot if your script could allow the jumping of factories (or even complexes?) across sectors, that way I could easily move my factories around without having to 1) Empty all the wares manually or 2) Blow up my old factories and buy new ones (which defeats the purpose of "moving" them)

Like I said, if I don't mind losing the wares that are stored in the factories or having the ships lose their homebase assignment, would such a feature be possible in your script?

Many thanks!

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Mon, 15. Nov 10, 19:48

Sounds like you need a new feature for the Station Packer script.
Merely to skip the entire "check for station inventory" routine...

If the designer really insists on "saving" the inventory he could spawn it outside in cargo pods.

It would also be trivial to write a script that empties every (non-complexed) own station you target.
20 line tops, I guess.
The real work is the interface and distribution part, finding/registering command slot, maintaining thread and download stuffs...

Thrawn-a-be · Post by **Thrawn-a-be** » Mon, 6. Feb 12, 16:06

Would it be possible, with use of this mod in conjunction with the cheat scripts to latch on to a pirate station using a TL, then jump to a sector heavily populated by any one of the major races and watch the station get blown to pieces by the local military ?

filippe999 · Post by **filippe999** » Wed, 4. Apr 12, 18:28

i feel like catching argon one and towing him to xenon 101 ,unhook and jump back

greypanther · Post by **greypanther** » Wed, 4. Apr 12, 23:01

Gaz will this be compatable with XRM do you think?
I am trying to put together a package of mods that suit me, but find the lack of knowledge regarding compatability, annoying! ( Mine I know, must read more )

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 4. Apr 12, 23:08

It's just a script.
If you're looking for incompatibilities, look for mods.

Rekalty · Post by **Rekalty** » Wed, 4. Jul 12, 06:15

Trying to figure out, why my Jumpdrive gets removed, every time I jump with a asteroid hooked up. If it was to make it more expensive to move them around, that would be fine, but doesnt seem intended.

Cavemonkey · Post by **Cavemonkey** » Wed, 4. Jul 12, 22:35

Bookmarked this page.

Oh, and Kadatherion, the temple is indestructable, so good luck not dying before it does!

kurush · Post by **kurush** » Thu, 5. Jul 12, 00:06

Rekalty wrote:Trying to figure out, why my Jumpdrive gets removed, every time I jump with a asteroid hooked up. If it was to make it more expensive to move them around, that would be fine, but doesnt seem intended.

Check your message log, I think it is intended.

ptb_ptb · Post by **ptb_ptb** » Tue, 20. Nov 12, 14:05

I tried using this with X3 AP, a mobile mining base ship and an Ore Mine L.

Didn't work.

It seems to send my ship off wandering away from the target while my Ore Mine stays exactly where it was. :-/

If the tow ship is in the same sector as the towee it will fly to this target and leash it. That is all the navigation this script will do.

Maybe it has trouble navigating with big ships and big targets?

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 21. Nov 12, 15:37

The X3 engine has major issues with big objects.
Most likely the ship is "evading" the mine a lot...

That's why Aldrin is such a war zone. A war against your autopilot.

ptb_ptb · Post by **ptb_ptb** » Wed, 21. Nov 12, 17:17

Gazz wrote:The X3 engine has major issues with big objects.
Most likely the ship is "evading" the mine a lot...

That's why Aldrin is such a war zone. A war against your autopilot.

I tried radically increasing the distance allowed ... got a "Locked On" once, but it seemed to lose lock after that(?). How about dropping the 'navigate to target' bit and just require the towing ship to be within 10km of the towee?

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 21. Nov 12, 17:28

Some (especially terran) stations alone are bigger than 10 km.

This was a Reunion script and worked well when object sizes were more... reasonable.

But of course, feel free to rewrite the script any way you want. I'm not sure I have a working version of TC any more. It's not current for sure.

ptb_ptb · Post by **ptb_ptb** » Wed, 21. Nov 12, 17:54

Gazz wrote:Some (especially terran) stations alone are bigger than 10 km.

Yeah, but the way 'distances' work is pretty weird. Does the number given by the script command give the same value as that given with the in-game targeting system? If so then you can get to 10km of 'nearest docking point'(?) even on the Terran Shipyard.

But of course, feel free to rewrite the script any way you want. I'm not sure I have a working version of TC any more. It's not current for sure.

Thanks. I take it that if I get it working (to my satisfaction, anyway) you wouldn't mind if I put up a version here with a "based on work by Gazz" tag?

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 21. Nov 12, 18:12

Size is the one that's a bit strange. The bounding box of those spindly stations can be 20km or more...

Distance (center to center) works fine.
Distance between object surfaces is not available.
The usual approach is to add
Size(object 1) + Size(object 2) + 300m
That gets you a safe distance.

It's just that this distance can end up being 20+ km which looks a bit odd for a tractor beam. =)
Maybe the script simply has some "reasonable" distance limit built in...

If you want to rewrite it, feel free to butcher it any way you like. If you can follow the twisted logic of my code, you could have written it yourself anyway. =P

ptb_ptb · Post by **ptb_ptb** » Fri, 23. Nov 12, 10:56

Gazz wrote:If you want to rewrite it, feel free to butcher it any way you like. If you can follow the twisted logic of my code, you could have written it yourself anyway. =P

Yeah, I'm not so sure of that. :lol:

I did make a few changes and got it working for my purposes (largely moving asteroids to more useful sectors / locations). I haven't tried moving terran shipyards with it yet, but if anybody wants the altered version (works within 11km of target, does not use any autopilok navigation) then post in this thread and I'll upload it somewhere and start a new thread.

jinkstjb · Post by **jinkstjb** » Wed, 29. May 13, 01:01

Hi there.

I'm trying to use the Super Tractor in AP 3.0 and I ran into the same problem as Fragile Ego on page 3 of this thread.

I can drag some ships through a gate, others make the game crash.

So far I have no idea what the actual problem is (the code looks simple enough). As an example: I'm in Third Redemption with my Hyperion Vanguard. I fly up to a roaming Paranid Supply Hercules, snag it up and drag it into Gunne's Crusade. So far no problem. Over there I snag an Argon High Tech Trader and try to drag it back through the gate -> BOOM, game crashes.

It almost looks like the forced transport throws something running on the target ship into a loop, but I have no idea what that might be, or how I could find that out. Any help (also in debugging this) is greatly appreciated.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Wed, 29. May 13, 18:18

Transporting the ship anywhere shouldn't be a problem.

What can be a problem is when the target is running a script. Some script instructions do not expect a sector change "from the outside".

In this case, stop the script on the target ship before you transport it.

jinkstjb · Post by **jinkstjb** » Fri, 31. May 13, 01:02

Gazz wrote:Transporting the ship anywhere shouldn't be a problem.

What can be a problem is when the target is running a script. Some script instructions do not expect a sector change "from the outside".

In this case, stop the script on the target ship before you transport it.

Is there a generic way to do that which could be incorporated into the Super Tractor without "destroying the AI"? I guess most of the time it's pretty likely for any given ship to be "doing something" while out and about.

(I noticed the Hercules from Third Redemption also managed to crash my game when I dragged it away while it was attacked by pirates, so I guess it was in "defence" mode.)

Are people so rarely dragging ships around or why doesn't this crop up more often?

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[SCR] Super Tractor (v1.07 - 24.12.08)