AL-Plugin (DE+EN): Bounty Hunter

[mq]

Somestimes the server is down, wait and try again
At the moment it should work.

greets,
mq

[jmcavoy]

Are there any things that do not work correctly (for example appearing Mammoths and Astronauts, not attacking ships, wrong/not appearing messages, ...)

Afetr I updated to the new bounty hunter script I am not seeing any Argon Mommoths and messages are apperaing.

If you play longer, is this script annoying (or some features of it), what can you do avoiding this

The first time I got attacked was after about one hour of play. I am not a good fighting pilot and they killed me twice before I could kill them. I decided to use a script to give myself an Ospray for when they attack me a second time. The second time they attacked me after about 45 min of play. I destroyed them all, wasnt very hard in my new Ospray. The third time they attacked me something odd happened. A Boron Hydra that was in the group kept disaperaing off the map. I could see it only when fireing at me, also the third attack was only after 10 min from the second attack. They made very short work of me.

Is the enemyforce too weak / too strong (balancing)

From what I have seen so far they seem to be stronger when your flying a Nova or some other same class ship. ( I was killed a lot more when flying a Nova ) Maybe tone down the appearance of the Ion and PSG when your using a Nova or other M3. In both versions pirate attack and bounty hunter at least one ship of the 4 that attcked had an Ion Disrupter and another had a PSG. I died a lot in my Nova, but again im not a good fighter pilot
On the other side when I had my Ospray the second attackers where not very hard to kill. They attacked me with a Split Dragon and 2 Paranid Perseus.

The third time when they attacked me with the disapearing Boron Hydra and 2 Paranid Perseus they made short work of me. I think that happened becouse I couldnt find the Hydra.

Both the second and third fight i set my ship on autopilot to attack all enimies.

Should I really include the station-calls-hunter-function? I am not satiesfied with this function...

I havnt treid this out yet.

Should the messages always be directly displayed

I think they should, becouse if your next to a gate that they jump in to ( right on top of you ) your not going to have time to goto your message log to see whats going on. Some scripts I use send messages, and for something that is as urgent as bounty hunters attacking you I think should be viewed right off, without waundering what other script is sending the lower priorty message.

Should the hunters of one group really be of different orignis, too? It looks cooler, if they are not, but it is more difficult, if they are

I think that if a certan race hates you they should send ships of the same origin. After all they are the ones who want you dead For example, if your an enemy of the split, the bounty hunters ships should be of split origin, on the other hand if pirates hate you and want you dead, then I think they should come at you with a mix of different race ships since the pirates are of different races. It would be cool to see it this way, I think, but im happy with it the way it is set up now.

I like this script very much, but I think that it is a bit unbalanced as far as when flying a Nova the bounty hunters are a bit to tough, as opposed to flying an ospray (excluding the third time I got attacked ) they are a bit to easy. Again im not a good fighter pilot, so my observation is one sided.

As for the disapearing Hydra I will play some more to see if it re-occurs. I also want to see what I get attacked by when flying a Destroyer and how well it works out.

Nice job overall on the script.

[smiley]

I have finally got round to sorting out the RAR stuff (thanks folks), and have successfully managed to get the thing working. Had trouble with the language file like others but have that sorted now too.

At the moment I would say that the attacks come way too often. For instance, I was attacked immediately after I loaded the script and then twice more within the next hour. If you include SETA (at x6) that's 3 times in about 10 minutes. Is this normal or have I just been excedingly unlucky? I also am thinking that the strength of the attack is abit on the heavy side, but my opinion of that may change as I get used to it (it's the Ion Disruptors and PPCs that are the real difficulty).

My main gripe, which may be very difficult to fix, is that the bounty hunters announce themselves. I would prefer them to sneak up on you. But I suppose if they have the race 'Pirate' then they are immediately flagged as an enemy. Is there no way to have them not being pirates but still wishing to attack you? Maybe there strength and numbers could be less, but they could only announce there intentions when they are within weapon's range (ie not appear as red blobs as soon as they are within scanner range).

Maybe I am just a bit peeved because I was just wiped out in one pass by a Hydra, and we all know how good they are!!!

Smiley

[mq]

First of all: Big thx for your great and valuable feedback!

Had trouble with the language file like others but have that sorted now too.

Still trouble? In the current version it should work without problems

At the moment I would say that the attacks come way too often. For instance, I was attacked immediately after I loaded the script and then twice more within the next hour. If you include SETA (at x6) that's 3 times in about 10 minutes. Is this normal or have I just been excedingly unlucky?

Hm a bit unlucky, though I can make them appearing less often. At the moment the intervall is a random value between 20Minutes and 2 Hours. Maybe I should raise the first value.

I also am thinking that the strength of the attack is abit on the heavy side, but my opinion of that may change as I get used to it (it's the Ion Disruptors and PPCs that are the real difficulty).

The Ion Ds are a very important factor concerning difficulty. It is a tightrope walk, they shouldn´t be to hard and frustrating for less experienced fighters but also shouldnt be cannon fodder for experienced fighters. They should be challenging, but not godlike.

My main gripe, which may be very difficult to fix, is that the bounty hunters announce themselves. I would prefer them to sneak up on you. But I suppose if they have the race 'Pirate' then they are immediately flagged as an enemy. Is there no way to have them not being pirates but still wishing to attack you? Maybe there strength and numbers could be less, but they could only announce there intentions when they are within weapon's range (ie not appear as red blobs as soon as they are within scanner range).

It is possible that they are first assigned to a normal race and when they come nearer (maybe about 3km) they are assigned to pirates. The message should appear anyway, but maybe a bit later (that means another endless loop and some work )

Are there any things that do not work correctly (for example appearing Mammoths and Astronauts, not attacking ships, wrong/not appearing messages, ...)

Afetr I updated to the new bounty hunter script I am not seeing any Argon Mommoths and messages are apperaing.

Very good.

If you play longer, is this script annoying (or some features of it), what can you do avoiding this

The first time I got attacked was after about one hour of play. I am not a good fighting pilot and they killed me twice before I could kill them. I decided to use a script to give myself an Ospray for when they attack me a second time. The second time they attacked me after about 45 min of play. I destroyed them all, wasnt very hard in my new Ospray. The third time they attacked me something odd happened. A Boron Hydra that was in the group kept disaperaing off the map. I could see it only when fireing at me, also the third attack was only after 10 min from the second attack. They made very short work of me.

That the Hydra kept disappearing... is strange, I wonder if that this is a bug in the script or in the game. Other reoccurenced would be interesting. Note that the enemy force is stronger when you are flying an Osprey than when you are flying a M3. Maybe I should make the M6 force a bit stronger and the M3 force a bit weaker.

Is the enemyforce too weak / too strong (balancing)

From what I have seen so far they seem to be stronger when your flying a Nova or some other same class ship. ( I was killed a lot more when flying a Nova ) Maybe tone down the appearance of the Ion and PSG when your using a Nova or other M3. In both versions pirate attack and bounty hunter at least one ship of the 4 that attcked had an Ion Disrupter and another had a PSG. I died a lot in my Nova, but again im not a good fighter pilot
On the other side when I had my Ospray the second attackers where not very hard to kill. They attacked me with a Split Dragon and 2 Paranid Perseus.

Well... I try to balance this, at the moment Ion Ds is a 1:1 chance for each laser bay and PSG 1:2. Unless I doesn´t want to change whole "scriptnetwork", I have to find percentages that fit for all cases
Maybe I lower each of them by one.

The third time when they attacked me with the disapearing Boron Hydra and 2 Paranid Perseus they made short work of me. I think that happened becouse I couldnt find the Hydra.

As I said above, reoccurences would be interesting.

Both the second and third fight i set my ship on autopilot to attack all enimies.

Should I really include the station-calls-hunter-function? I am not satiesfied with this function...

I havnt treid this out yet.

Should the messages always be directly displayed

I think they should, becouse if your next to a gate that they jump in to ( right on top of you ) your not going to have time to goto your message log to see whats going on. Some scripts I use send messages, and for something that is as urgent as bounty hunters attacking you I think should be viewed right off, without waundering what other script is sending the lower priorty message.

I wanted that to be changed in the next version, but maybe you are right and I let it unchanged.

Should the hunters of one group really be of different orignis, too? It looks cooler, if they are not, but it is more difficult, if they are

I think that if a certan race hates you they should send ships of the same origin. After all they are the ones who want you dead For example, if your an enemy of the split, the bounty hunters ships should be of split origin, on the other hand if pirates hate you and want you dead, then I think they should come at you with a mix of different race ships since the pirates are of different races. It would be cool to see it this way, I think, but im happy with it the way it is set up now.

I think that this would be possible without a lot of work, and I think I will do it as you suggested

I like this script very much, but I think that it is a bit unbalanced as far as when flying a Nova the bounty hunters are a bit to tough, as opposed to flying an ospray (excluding the third time I got attacked ) they are a bit to easy. Again im not a good fighter pilot, so my observation is one sided.

I´ll try to give it a better balance.

As for the disapearing Hydra I will play some more to see if it re-occurs. I also want to see what I get attacked by when flying a Destroyer and how well it works out.

Nice job overall on the script.

Thx

Again, big thx for your feedback, I will try to keep it all in mind.

greets,
mq

[smiley]

smiley wrote:

At the moment I would say that the attacks come way too often. For instance, I was attacked immediately after I loaded the script and then twice more within the next hour. If you include SETA (at x6) that's 3 times in about 10 minutes. Is this normal or have I just been excedingly unlucky?

Hm a bit unlucky, though I can make them appearing less often. At the moment the intervall is a random value between 20Minutes and 2 Hours. Maybe I should raise the first value.

If I had to make a choice I would say vary the attacks from 1 hour up to 10 hours, but of course it's your patch, so take the majority decision or just do what you think best.

Smiley

[mq]

If I had to make a choice I would say vary the attacks from 1 hour up to 10 hours, but of course it's your patch, so take the majority decision or just do what you think best.
Smiley

For myself I can change the value as I want, when signing the script it is important that you all like it so I will keep this in mind, too. But 10 hours is maybe a bit long, as some players use seta very rare.
Btw: It is another time a forgotten developmenttest that they appear directly after activating the plugin. I have to look more for those stupid bugs.

[smiley]

My main worry is that though this is about the first script that adds a new complication (or bit of excitement) to your X2 life, it may not be the last. If there were say 3 more ideas that made it into the game, then these unusual event would start to take over. The mid point of 20 mins and 2 hours is 70 minutes. If there were 3 more script with the same random intervals then you would be seeing things every 15-17 minutes. This would allow little time for doing the missions (for what they are worth).

I guess I would like lots and lots of different random events happening, so if there were lots of new scripts (my dream) then each script would have to have a much longer delay between events. If something happens too often then it ceases to be special.

Smiley

[mq]

My main worry is that though this is about the first script that adds a new complication (or bit of excitement) to your X2 life, it may not be the last. If there were say 3 more ideas that made it into the game, then these unusual event would start to take over. The mid point of 20 mins and 2 hours is 70 minutes. If there were 3 more script with the same random intervals then you would be seeing things every 15-17 minutes. This would allow little time for doing the missions (for what they are worth).

I guess I would like lots and lots of different random events happening, so if there were lots of new scripts (my dream) then each script would have to have a much longer delay between events. If something happens too often then it ceases to be special.

Smiley

A very, very good point, you are completely right! As I find 10 hours still a bit long, maybe 4 - 8 hours is a good value?

greets,
an accretive mq

[smiley]

As I said, it is your script, but 4 - 8 hours sounds fine to me.

And by the way, I don't know why you are worried about your english. I had to look 'accretive' up just to make sure I knew what it meant (I was almost right).

Smiley

[mq]

And by the way, I don't know why you are worried about your english. I had to look 'accretive' up just to make sure I knew what it meant (I was almost right).

Well... that might be because I looked it up, too

[mq]

And a bigger Update:

- the bounty hunters are now flying in formation (or something like that)
- the bounty hunters will be tarned as a normal race until they are close to you
- a station will only in 33% of cases send bounty hunters
- The intervall of appearing is from 20-120 minutes set to 240-480 minutes because 1. keep realism and gameplay 2. not to compete with other (future) plugins
- the enemy force for M3s is weaker, for M6 and M2 stronger
- The risk that the enemys are equipped with Ion Ds and PSGs is noticeable lower
- f the bounty hunters are sent from a specific race or station, they are all of the same race. Are they sent from the pirates, they are mixed

Pleasy still test the things above

Just for those of you who want to test it more than one time in 4-8 hours, just download this file and extract it into x2/scripts folder, overwriting the original one.
http://www.stoerbild.de.ms/files/other/ ... k.main.rar
Now every time you enable the plugin, the plugin will directly be started.

greets,
mq

[StevesX2]

-- BUG REPORT --

I was playing X2 + the script earlier and I had one attack which was fine.

but then a while later I had 5+ at once!!!!!

I got 5+ messages one straight after the other and when I'd okayed them all I saw a HUGE fleet. must be near to 30 ships

Heres a grab - the ships listing goes down several pages. and I'm still in my Nova

http://www.something-odd.co.uk/x2screen45.jpg

[mq]

I was playing X2 + the script earlier and I had one attack which was fine.

If I understood you right, not the actual one? Try it, it should be fixed. It was probably a problem with my testfunctions, I had forgotten a lot in the last version.

greets,
mq

[edit]Damn it, there is again a bug I have to fix .
It should be a matter of some minutes.[/edit]
[edit2]No, there is no bug, I have just forgotten that they are tarned [/edit2]

[StevesX2]

ok, trying latest version now.


btw thanks for adding all the cool new stuff.. this is really sweet

[mq]

btw thanks for adding all the cool new stuff.. this is really sweet

No problem, I am happy if you like it

//edit
I have to sleep now, although I want to test and code and test and code...
good night

[jmcavoy]

The new script is working great
I like it.

[Greyhawk1]

Quick question - is the appearance of the attacks related in any way to your rep with a particular race? I'm just wondering why I would have a bounty if I've done nothing wrong?

Maybe linking it to race rep should be looked into...

[mq]

The bounty hunters are depending from the relations to the races (enemy or neutral/friend), mostly only the pirates will be enemies, so mostly its only them who send bounty hunters.
As I wrote above, it is unfortunately not possible to get the rank per script

greets,
mq

[StevesX2]

The new script is working very well

Its better balanced now, not too hard but not too easy.


Excellent!!

[mq]

Very good
I wonder if this script has actually a chance to be signed or makes sense for being signed
But I don´t want to bother mkess or ticaki until it´s at least nearly error free and useable.

greets,
mq