X3TC / X3AP Patch 2015

[LTerSlash]

I gona make a final reply with a resume of everything i did post and i will add some more, this is my final reply in this thread.




Bugs:

-undock -> destroyed bugs, thats just silly that those still happening. For example the Phoenix will get destroyed when undocked from PHQ.

-There is one that if you launch all Marines from a M7M and them order the ship to jump, even if on the same sector, the boarding will fail because the pods will be destroyed on contact with the target ship.

-The Mosquito missile has a tendency to get bugged and start to miss everything 100% of the time, only fix is the close the game and reload.

-Teladi M4+ has wrong shields.





Small changes/tweaks:

-Add nvidium to mobile mine

-Add a way to make mobile mine automatic if the ship has a home base, something like a "auto repeat" option while setting the sector and the mineral to mine. Right now, we can workaround this by using a CLS ship, so there is nothing to be gain by not having these options built-in on the mobile mine system, it just makes things very messy.

-Add Ammo to "Save Loadouts" at PHQ, we can save everything but ammo.

-Add ability to move the 2nd player HQ as well, after getting the player sector.

-Can the 2nd player HQ be changed so it has one global storage limit and we can set the limits with the Dock Ware manager? just like in the 1st PHQ, it will make it a lot more usable.

-If the Goner Ranger cargo is changed to XL, it will turn a 100% useless ship to something more usable as short range freighter, as its description says.

-Add more interesting things to unfocused sectors, check for what people look for at late games, for example Khaak Weapons, Alpha/Beta kyons, but just not lying around, you may bring back the Khaak presence at unfocused sectors from TC at a very very low chance. Same thing for Phased Array laser Cannons, Plasma Beam Cannons, etc, just not lying around in a box in order to play space pac man.
Maybe add more special ships that are already in-game but we cant get? abandoned Khaak Capitals that can be boarded? just an example, there are several unused ships that will really not affect the game balance...

-On "Command: landed Ships" that every station that we have ships on, it just allow to cchange homebase, etc, it does not actually allows me to give a AP command to all docked ships, if you allows to also give commands it will be very handy after buyings ships at a shipyard, we can equip them all at once, but for ordering to go somewhere i have to do it one by one.

-Something must be done about the Yaki, if i want to help them to rebuild their stations, they will just shoot other race transports, only Teladi transports are allowed, and that just does not work well, even using the Hub and my own transports to help them, this at least need to see if Yaki transports can be introduced and make them disguese as other race transports like the pirates do, in order to get supplies and sell products.






New features:

-Finish M7C

-Add some way to produce ships at PHQ with upgrades already applied, makes no sence that i can produce a ship, after a VERY long build time, and them having to go and look for 4 different equipment docks, its too much micro-management.
Maybe make that we can buy "upgrades for ship production at PHQ" the same way we can buy ship schematics, example, i buy the engine tunnings schematic, all my ships produced at PHQ comes fully upgraded on engine tunnings.

-Add ability to RE wares, stations, weapons and missiles at PHQ, that will yield the schematic for the station, example if i re a disruptor missile, it will give me the disruptor missile fab schematic.


-New Mini-plot: Goner plot related to the Aran, something that will start after retuning the Aran to known space, the idea could be to step up the Aran for the original use it was intended to, ship repair, after finishing the plot the Aran will be able to repair ships the same way the PHQ do, it will be also nice if the Aran could produce corvettes and below just like the PHQ as well...
This could be also a good chance to re-introduce the Truelight Seeker and tweak the Goner Ranger to something that is actually usable as a short range freighter for ships that cant land a TS and need a supply ship.

[Cursed Ghost]

Hi

Here are a another couple of things I think could use some improvement.

First how about adding a priority system to the AI combat routine what do I mean by priority system? Consider the following scenario you have ships on guard and then an enemy fleet jumps in.

Now currently player ships that are under AI control seem to select targets based on what is in range this approach is in my option flawed and often leads the computer doing r******* things like m2s chasing fighters they cant catch mean while the enemy capital ships go on the rampage it would be much better to select targets based on priority and threat level.

So an enemy m2 is going to represent a high threat and high priority target so your capital ships are going to select the enemy m2/m1 first then frigates then corvettes then fighters

Conversely a ship like the griffon is designed to combat fighters with its many flak mounts and clearly due to a lack of anti capital weapons is no threat to enemy capitals and if it tries to attack one its going to get flattened because the computer cant fly therefore a ship like the griffon would prioritise fighters/corvettes first then frigates and would stay away from enemy capitals unless specifically order to attack them by the player.

This has a couple of effects first off it just makes the AI combat routine a bit smarter, second it stops capital ships from trying to chase down targets they can’t catch when there are more important targets near by, third it improves the OOS combat results because you no longer have capital ships attacking fighters when they should be attacking the enemy capital ships

Obviously this priority system only applies where the computer is in control of the ships and the player is free at any time to override this and order the ship to attack specific targets this is more a general enhancement to the computers smarts so that it stops doing r******* things like have an m2 chase fighters it cant catch while there are more important and dangerous target near by, it also prevents ships from getting blasted in to space dust by target against which they are no threat like in the case of a griffin attacking an enemy m2

The second thing I’d like to suggest is a further enhancement to the OOS combat mechanics now at the moment each round targets fire and damage is sustained by the opposing target and all hits are automatic now this is fine if you are talking about capital ships fighting capital ships OOS but leads to some incorrect results when dealing with smaller ships OOS

Consider the following scenario Springblossom vs a group of fighters now in sector the Springblossom wins why because the ship is so fast the enemy fighters can’t hit it and even if they do they can’t do enough sustained damage to breach the Springblossoms shields plus the Springblossoms flak cannons will make mince meat out of the fighters in seconds unless that is the numbers game is really stacked against the Springblossom like if a carrier ship launches its entire fighter wing against a single Springblossom good as the Springblossom is even it isn’t going to win again 60 to 1 odds

However consider the same scenario but this time OOS and this time you end up with a very different result that same group of fighters that the Springblossom so easily trounced in sector now murder the Springblossom OOS so the question then becomes why?

Now I’m sure we can all agree that if the springblossom wins in sector against are hypothetical fighter pack then surely against the same fighter pack it should also win out of sector but that’s isn’t the case and I think I know why its because the OOS mechanics don’t do an evasion check so all hits are 100% automatic so the primary advantage the Springblossom has its speed is lost OOS and so the Springblossom loses because its shields aren’t enough to stand up to the damage OOS damage that it shouldn’t even be receiving in the first place and wouldn’t be receiving if the OOS combat mechanics did an evasion check to see if damage that round is a hit, miss or partial hit

So my suggestion is add and evasion check to the OOS combat mechanics to more accurately simulate what would happen in sector

I'm actually kind of surprised you didn't already think of this one already because an evasion check is a pretty important part of every game I've ever played, that involved combat of some sort and missing it out is a rather silly over site on your part

[Greenhorn]

What keeps me playing ap,is the use of mods,in order to highest to lowsest all together, npc bailing addon,the marauder shipyard,x-tra-shippack,marine-repairs and traning,then goes in later, pirate guild 3,yaki armada,and to top if off, XRM.the first 4 are a must have.with my play style.if egosoft wants to scale smaller sector ranges, there too large to fly in there,especially terran sectors,. > maybe, thatlly help cpu with graphic drawing pictures improvements.goodday devs and players.

[RomanRichter]

Edit: Plese consider update tc with ap features or add tc plots to ap officially!

Edit2: Fix Albion Prelude shuttering with new AMD drivers

[BloodBrain]

So many things in game which aren't REALLY in game:

The Kite only being a Buzzard in disguise

The beam weapons hardly (or not at all) optainable

The M7C ships not being drone carriers


I'm sure I missed more of the stuff which is half-in but not really - but it should

[Cursed Ghost]

something else that would be nice is if you where able to store ship upgrades like normal cargo because i have about 60 cargo life support systems plus various other ship upgrades that have recover from captured ships and the only way i can store them until needed is by building m5s and then parking them at the local trade station as argon/telardi trade stations as they have unlimited storage for fighters which is annoying i should be able to store these at the player EQ docks or at my Corp HQ/Player HQ

[TTD]

I was hoping there was something finished by now


I really want to get back playing X3...but as I have done most things in the game, I am waiting for something new...no, not Rebirth

[Mental_Matt]

Supernova changed everything including technology fallback thus having turned the game into X Retro actually. May be within next three years that a new one might overcomes its crisis and we'll move towards neural fast interfaces without time-wasting conversations which take a place today.

A final farewell patch wouldn't take whole year to be implemented, y'know... so I doubt it will happen eventually. Termination on the thread.

[glenmcd]

I just wanted to say something about the undocking issues as that has come up so often for me recently. Here are some options:

1. Immediately / easy: disallow docking where it is known that the ship is unable or unlikely to be able to undock without damage. A bit ugly but heaps better than perhaps losing your game going back to last save. Especially for the DiD start where there is no going back
2. Slightly less ugly: turn off collisions on IS ships for a short period of time on manual undock. Even if (3) is implemented, this still might be good.

3. Make reverse use of the docking computer possible. If you can morph into a station from 4KM, technically you can do so in opposite direction. Leave it up to the player whether he wants to undock manually or use docking computer to undock. If docking computer, ship is placed using existing code that moves ships a suitable distance away from anything solid unless positioning is "forced". A "very nice to have" would be making use of docking computer on player ships that player is not flying at the time. We already have autojump, add autodock. Autodock should work for playership also, when autopilot is active. That would eliminate issues with small ships destroying themselves on Teladi trading ports, whether they have player as pilot or not.
4. Do the full fix which means lots of testing and a burden of continued testing every time any ship or station is added or changed. Even if the full fix is done, consider options (2) and/or (3) in parallel. If Egosoft doesn't have test scripts for test undocking every ship type on every hook at every station type, then write it. Run it during Octoberfest

[Cursed Ghost]

A "very nice to have" would be making use of docking computer on player ships that player is not flying at the time. We already have autojump, add autodock. Autodock should work for playership also, when autopilot is active. That would eliminate issues with small ships destroying themselves on Teladi trading ports, whether they have player as pilot or not.

nice idea would be nice if my UTs/CAGs could make use of the docking computer

it would also be nice if the computer could actually use the freight scanner so that i can set up a bunch of m5 and then have then scan ships in a sector would make the scan ships for illegal cargo missions much easier, this could be done by adding 2 commands to the special command software scan ship, scan all ships in sector these two commands would obviously only be available if you have the special command software and a freight scanner installed.

I'd also remove the scan asteroids command from the explorer command software and add it to the special command software so that any ship that has a mineral scanner can use it with out needing the explorer command software

also it would be nice to have the ability to switch the freight and mineral scanners to automatic mode so that they will auto scan objects as soon as there in range again makes life a little simpler

also one really really really irritating issue I've encountered is when the ai countermands the players orders

what do i mean ok consider the following

ship is trying to dock at a station and is attack the correct behavior is to ignore the attacker and continue the docking obviously turrets should fire back but under no circumstances should the docking be aborted because most of the time that will result in the destruction of the ship which is unacceptable

or ship is ordered to fly through a gate and about half way across the sector the ship is attacked the correct behavior is to continue doing what its was orders to do which is to fly through the game under no circumstance should the computer override the players orders and try to fight the aggressor unless the player orders the ship to do so obliviously turrets should fire back so long as the aggressor is in range but otherwise the ship should ignore the attacker and continue doing what its ordered to do

also when a ship is attacked and i order the ship to disengage and run away that means STOP FIGHTING WITH THE ENEMY AND RETREAT RIGHT NOW DAMMIT !!!! under no circumstances should the computer overrule my orders and continue to fight with the aggressor obliviously turrets should continue to fire back so long as the enemy is in range but otherwise the ship should do what its told and disengage

also when i initiate a jump sequence on a ship that's under attack the ship should continue to runway at full speed until such a time that the gate clears and the ship can jump away under no circumstances should the ship stop because that will result in the destruction of the ship which is unacceptable

would also be nice if ships didn't have to wait in a cue to jump because when ships are under attack time is of the essence and the ship should jump as soon as the count down gets to 0 failing that player owned ships should always be first place on the cue regardless of what other ships are currently waiting to gate through the gate which would have a similar effect.

[Graaf]

Could we get an update on this, now that 4.0 and HoL are released?

[Sorkvild]

Highly doubt in any patch coming for X3. This thread servers more like an idea pool for the next game that was quietly announced by Bernd during his recent interviews.

http://www.nutty-gamer.com/en/interview-egosoft/

Hope they will draw some cool ideas out of this thread and come back with a proper successor to X

[Honved]

Yeah, if the suggested patch for X3 turns into "X4", it's a good thing. If there's no patch, and no "sequel", then it's pretty much a waste of a really long thread.

[Arkblade]

next game isn't x4, xr2 but bit more close x3

for patchs.

engine:
full scrren window mode
4k resolution, and ui scaling option

and it is important,
"modified" don't effect steam archivements it helps many players.
and users can using data fix freely. for future.

data:
remove all MD bottleneck.

[glenmcd]

4k resolution, and ui scaling option

Totally agree.

[Honved]

One change that would save me hours of tedium in every campaign would be to replace the stupid credit increase/decrease buttons with the ability to either type in a quantity, or scroll a specific digit.

Having to transfer 4 Million credits and leave 500K or so behind takes somewhere between forever and forget it. Typically, it starts out by single credits, then suddenly jumps to 10s, then 100s, and all of a sudden you've gone past the amount and have to start over in the opposite direction.

Solution: Click on the Millions digit, scroll up or down a few, and hit "OK". Done.

[Graaf]

You actually can type in the number you want using the numpad on your keyboard.

And it works for both credits and cargo!

[Cursed Ghost]

indeed Graaf is correct you can already type in numbers when you want to transfer a specific amount of wares or credits i do this all the time when supplying ships with ecells for example

i have a mistral super freighter get a full load of e-cells and then when in range to transfer the cargo i open the transfer dialog tap in 1600 or what ever quantity i want to transfer on the number pad if you look at the little blue bar you will see the number you just typed in then i hit the arrow keys to transfer that number of wares or credits then hit ok to confirm the transaction

also you can hit the home and end keys to transfer everything in one go and then hit ok to confirm

[Cursed Ghost]

Something else that should get fixed is the incorrect damage values show in games for missiles and the incorrect power requirements of shields

for example in game firestorm torpedoes damage is listed as 1million but this is incorrect because the actual damage that it does is 1gj which is 1billion

or another example 200mj shields are show are requiring 1500kw but this is incorrect it should be 1500mw or 1,500,000kw which explains why the Hyperion takes about 8 minutes to fully recharge its shields

so would be nice if all weapons shields and missile could show the correct values to the player would make life a lot easier when you are trying to evaluate different weapons/ships etc if the info given to the player was actually correct

would also make it a lot simpler to calculate missile barrages if values given all used the same units of measure

a better simpler way to complex mines together is needed as well because the current system simply isn't good enough and the tractor beam isn't anywhere close to precise enough

maybe a snap function would be helpful so once you get the mines roughly in position you execute the snap function and the computer will automatically adjust all 3 axis and the rotation to make sure that everything lines up of course what would be even better is if we could simply get rid of the current complex building system altogether yes with a bit of practice and patients the current system can work but if players are having to look at tutorial videos and read help guides to figure how how to do it correctly then you the developer are doing it wrong and the system is far to complicated and convoluted and should be immediately overhauled.

[BankruptAssasin]

Is anything actually going to happen with this? The has 2015 in it & we are already in the Spring of 2016.

I think the game just needs a bit of an update with a strong look at the Mods to see what its missing and what people want - Good Wing work would also be good for those that enjoy using Wings.