[mods] kuertee's (RPG, QOL, UI): 27 Oct 2024: 7.x updates

[kuertee]

New update. Many bug-fixes to Kuda - in particular: re-enabled Kuda behaviours during attacks, debugging tool for the player, bug-fixes to vector determination for the avoid (while heading to the ship's destination) behaviour


Updates v6.2.009, 17 Dec 2023:

UI Extensions and HUD https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/552

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-New feature: Lua files of mods are now loaded when the base-game lua files are loaded. i.e. They don't need a signal from the Mission Director like in previous versions. Mods that use the old method still work, so there's no need for the mod author to update their mod. This new version allows modifications to lua files that are not in-game specific. E.g. customgame.lua.

KUDA AI tweaks https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/839

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-New feature: Debugging: When "Debug log" is enabled in kuertee: Attack AI Tweaks Extension Options, the ship's behaviour will be labeled with Kuda behaviours WHEN they are using Kuda behaviours. Note: Determining if a ship is using Kuda AI or base-game AI is easier. See one of the screenshots on Nexus Mods to see how this looks on the map.
-Tweak: Re-enabled Kuda behaviours during attacks. In the last version, only the avoid behaviour was enabled. I.e. Move to engage position, withdraw and step-forward were disabled.
-Bug-fix: An instance of the avoid behaviour was not getting used even when the ship should avoid.
-Tweak: Optimisation: use the $jumppath var from move.generic when determining next move position instead of recalculting it.
-Bug-fix: Avoid/withdraw determination: sort gravidar contacts in ascending distance order from the ship.
-Bug-fix: Avoid/withdraw determination: shield test and ship purpose vs stations.
-Bug-fix: Corrected the vectors for the avoid (while heading towards the ship's destination). In the previous version, the vectors were sometimes wrong - based on the orientation of the object to avoid and the ship's destination. I.e. some vectors were correct. This math (based on the autopilot AI of my Autocam and Autopilot mod) is corrected in this version.
-Bug-fix: Do not use Withdraw behaviour except during attacks. i.e. Withdraw behaviour moves exactly away (180 deg) from the object. Avoid behaviour moves around (about 90 deg, more or less) while heading towards the ship's next destination.
-Bug-fix: Taking risk determination: vs a target, other nearby big enemies.

[kuertee]

Updates v6.2.0093, 24 Dec 2023:

KUDA AI tweaks https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/839

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5LmrKyHHtI
Last night, I updated my and DeadAir 's Kuda mod to 6.2.0093. My portions of Kuda (kuertee Attack AI Tweaks (kAAIT)) were disabled, broken, or only partially working since the base 6.x was released earlier this year - a very long time. I apologise to its users for it. It was only the last two that I was able to dedicate some time to it. Above is a sped-up 3-min video of 5 transports finding their way through an obstacle course of 4 Xenon stations. (Note that DA's portions of Kuda have been working since the 6.2 compatibility update some months ago.) I'll release 2 other videos (strike craft without missiles circling their high-risk target and attack only other strike crafts, and capital ships attack behaviour) in the next few days.

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-Bug-fix/returned feature: encircle target instead of moving around it for attacks and attack small target in this avoid order instead of the general attack order;
-Bug-fix/returned feature: move to engage position: move around previous destroyed module to target new module target uses avoid ai
-Tweak: find smaller target doesn't require 'Attack all enemies' anymore because they would often attack nearby stations instead of circle their original station target after attacking smaller targets.
-Bug-fix: avoid and withdraw: better assessment of whether new attacker should be ignored, attacked or avoided.
-Bug-fix: determining if object is in the way: in some cases the larger arc is getting used rather than opposite smaller arc of within -45 and 45;
-Tweak: avoid or not: assess if target is in the way only if taking risk;
-Bug-fix: get is take risk: bug-fix test of low shields;
-Tweak: get avoid vector: limit pitch to between -15 and 15 of avoid target.
-Tweak: get in the way: test only if obstacle is within max radar range AND obstacle is nearer than destination.
-Tweak: avoid or not handler: always evaluate if ship will take risk;
-Tweak: avoid and withdraw: add station/ship size to distance to avoid/withdraw
-Bug-fix: encircle AI clockwise/anti-clockwise direction doesn't changes once set for that attack.
-Tweak: assess avoid or not at start of protect, escort, attack and move orders;
-Bug-fix: avoid, withdraw, stepforward orders: when interrupted by another attacker, capital ships do not get distracted by smaller ships.

UI Extensions and HUD https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/552

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-Bug-fix: Trigger an init event from UIX even if no mods have custom lua files loaded in case the event is required by a mod's MD.
-Bug-fix: The github releases were crashing the game due to github changing the line feed character in the XMLs and likely in the cat/dat files. ref: https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/ ... ne-endings

[kuertee]

Updates v6.2.011, 18 Feb 2024:

Work is from the last month and a half.
Particular highlights are:
UI Extensions: new callbacks to support two upcoming mods (one from Mycu and another one from Erixon), and Forlyeor's work that makes Unitrader's old mod, Advanced Renaming, compatible with UIX.
Kuda: many bug fixes. Especially (1) the "Unknown ship" name bug that I introduced in the last 2 updates which DeadAir fixed and (2) optimisation tweaks.
Alternatives to death: Ironman mode. This requires my new Grouped save files mod (which is fundamentally a save file game id manager).
Autocam: 75% to 90% of the code that manages the cutscene playback has been tweaked. And all of the actual cutscenes have been retweaked - allowing consolidation of 15 to 20 or so cutscene files to 5.



UI Extensions and HUD https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/552

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-New feature: (by Erixon) New callbacks for smart_supply mod to be released by Erixon soon after this release.
-New feature: (by Forleyor) New callbacks for UniTrader's Advanced Renaming mod (https://github.com/UniTrader/ut_advanced_renaming).
-New feature: (by Mycu) New callbacks for 'Verbose transaction log' mod to be released by Erixon soon after this release.
-New features: New callbacks for Grouped save files mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1310) that is required by the new Ironman mode feature of the Alternatives to death mod (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/551).

KUDA AI tweaks https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/839

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-Bug-fix: The name of ships were getting cleared. My bug. Fixed by DA. Most ships should "fix" themselves on first use of this version. The rest will eventually get fixed as they use the AI files that were affected by the bug.
-Bug-fix: The player's Interact menu settings of Avoid and Withdraw/Step forward were getting reset in previous versions.
-DeadAir updates: Updated to match vanilla class selection that previously omitted class.ship_xs.
-DeadAir updates: Added missing check that may have prevented patrol ships from assisting same owner assets in sector owned by separate faction.
-DeadAir updates: Other minor updates.
-Tweak: Coordinated attack: ships avoid untargeted high-risk enemies like they do when with normal Attack AI.
-Tweak: Strike craft (with no missiles and no torpedoes) encircling their high-risk targets will use their skill-based avoid distance instead of the much shorter distances of previous versions, which were not far enough to avoid enemy turrets when the VRO mod is used.
-Tweak: Optimisation: Fleet commanders share their big enemies list with nearby subordinates. In previous versions, all subordinates ping their radar for big enemies. Note that this is specific to Kuda behaviours. The ships' base-game radar functionality is unaffected.
-Tweak: Optimisation: Strike craft finding smaller target (while circling their high-risk target) is now based on the nearest small target and the nearest big enemy. In previous versions, this process loops through each object in both lists to identify the most appropriate smaller target.
-Tweak: Optimisation: Withdraw behaviour: Reactions to hit frequency reduced from one every 0.25 seconds to one every 1 second. This can be changed in the Extension Options but only when Debug Log is enabled. Enable Debug Log in the mod's Extension Options menu. Exit the menu. Then re-open it. Remember to disble Debug Log again after changing this setting.
-Tweak: Optimisation: Avoid behaviour: Reactions to radar contact frequency reduced from one every 0.25 seconds to one every 1 second. This can be changed in the Extension Options but only when Debug Log is enabled. Enable Debug Log in the mod's Extension Options menu. Exit the menu. Then re-open it. Remember to disble Debug Log again after changing this setting.

Auto-camera, autopilot, and auto-pause https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/734

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-Tweak: Clean up all cutscenes, cutscene player, and cutscene event manager.
-Bug-fix: Autopilot: pingponging between entry and exit gates sometimes.
-Bug-fix: Autopilot: not entering highway entrance.
-Tweak: Follow and flyby cutscenes keep previous look at target in view

Alternatives to death https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/551

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-New feature: Ironman mode: You can only load from one save slot. Autosaves and quicksaves are exempt. This requires my other mod, Grouped save files (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1310), for its Game Id Manager.
-Removed feature: Dead is dead has been replaced with Ironman mode.
-Tweak: Optimisation: limited hit detection for DPS calculation to 0.25 per second instead of for every hit.
-Bug-fix: Social Standings and Citizenships ratings were not getting reset after a death alternative process.

UI: Grouped save files https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1310

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-Save files of new and loaded games are tagged with unique ids. i.e. a game id manager.
-Save files from the same game are identified and are listed in a group.
-The ids are stored in the mod's own list and are not embedded in the save files.
-This mod is required for the Ironman mode feature of my other mod, Alternatives to death (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/551).

Friendly fire tweaks https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/708

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-Tweak: When in a battle area, friendly NPCs skip the shield test (i.e. less than 25%) in determining on whether to respond to friendly fire from your NPCs. i.e. In battles, friendly NPCs will not respond to friendly fire unless they are actually targeted by your NPCs. Note that this doesn't apply to player's attacks on NPCs. Player's attacks are tested as normal.
-Tweak: Prevented player-owned ships getting aggressive on friendly fire hits. From this version on, all NPCs ship do not react to friendly fire. Previously, only NPC-owned ships didn't aggro, while player-owned ships did - which can still lead to escalating aggro that is difficult to stop.

Social standings and citizenships https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/804

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-Bug-fix: Resetting social standings and citizenships were not resetting to 0 properly. E.g. They are reset when a new character (e.g. a descendant) is created for the player after their death in my Alternatives to death mod.

Reputations and professions https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/636

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-Bug-fix: Map menu breaks when the mod tries to refresh it after generating new mission even if the map isn't open.
-Bug-fix: Sometimes, licences were getting awarded incorrectly.
-Tweak: Defender points awarded to both policing faction and sector owner instead of just to policing faction.

Emergent missions https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/780

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-Tweak: Support patrol/raid missions: force a min 20mins mission time.

Crime has consequences https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/566

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-Bug-fix: fines for lasertowers were getting set at the ship-amount.
-Bug-fix: impounded ship not getting released to player after payment.

NPC reactions https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/497

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-New feature: Support for More rooms mod. (Hopefully working.)
-Tweak: Player-ship radar contact reports obey the Report enemies settings.
-Tweak: Taxi: When hiring a taxi when in conversation with an NPC pilot, the pilot doesn't say "Wel'll be undocking soon." twice anymore. Previously, they said when you confirmed payment then again just before take off.

[magitsu]

NPC reactions
Tweak: Player-ship radar contact reports obey the Report enemies settings.

Thanks for this, the visual spam was a bit annoying.

[taronas]

hi, I have a bunch of kuertees mods and some deadair added to my game.

With that the universal station build method doesn't need hull parts anymore. I went through all descriptions again but could not find out which of the mods is doing this.

Anybody knows?

Oh, and some mod made PIO Freelancers have wingmans. There goes my initial business plan of getting a fleet of Katanas. I can live with that but not needing Hull Parts is ... weird

thanks

[magitsu]

With that the universal station build method doesn't need hull parts anymore. I went through all descriptions again but could not find out which of the mods is doing this.

DeadAir Ware
Here's the reasoning:

Any reason why DeadAir Ware removes Hull Parts as a building requirement from most modules, but leaves in all the Silicon Carbide requirements from Terran modules? Was this an oversight? (Using VRO with DeadAir mods, I apologize sincerely if it happens to be VRO doing this and not DeadAir Ware mod)

Terran have an already huge advantage with their simple (boring) economy. The reason for hull parts removal from stations was to prevent complete economy stall due to shortage of one ware. With hull parts == ships and claytronics == stations, they are much less likely to enter a death spiral.

[taronas]

thanks!

[djrygar]

there is something wrong with 2 of the mods;

wear and tear: some ships randomly get their hull reset to 25%.
they slowly get fixed by few % and get reset again.

Social Standings/Reputations (don't know which one is responsible):
licenses are not granted when visiting representative.

I have defender/trusted 100% and militia statuses, I visited representative for rank, but have no +10 or +20 rights (grayed out) and no ability to buy military stuff.

It is quite fresh gamestart with new versions of mods

edit: I forgot to add one thing that may be some clue; after receiving a rank, I am getting spammed with message "You are now considered an ally of Argon", happens everytime when there is some message being output. So it looks like script is stuck in this part.

[kuertee]

there is something wrong with 2 of the mods;

wear and tear: some ships randomly get their hull reset to 25%.
they slowly get fixed by few % and get reset again.

Hey djrygar, do those ships have the required crew? With that mod, service crew needs to be > 50% crew capacity.

Social Standings/Reputations (don't know which one is responsible):
licenses are not granted when visiting representative.

I have defender/trusted 100% and militia statuses, I visited representative for rank, but have no +10 or +20 rights (grayed out) and no ability to buy military stuff.

It is quite fresh gamestart with new versions of mods

edit: I forgot to add one thing that may be some clue; after receiving a rank, I am getting spammed with message "You are now considered an ally of Argon", happens everytime when there is some message being output. So it looks like script is stuck in this part.

I've released updates to both Social Standing and Citizenships mod and Reputations and Professions mod. I think I've fixed that bug with those updates.

Sorry for the very late reply. I had to put my head down and update my mods for 7.x. It took about a couple of months before I managed to get an hour of game time without having to check the debug logs, fix code, etc.

[kuertee]

Last night, I managed to get a couple of hours of game time without checking the debug logs, or bug-fixing, or adding compatibility code, or adding new features.
Took about a couple of months to get to a point where I'm comfortable with the state of my mods post 7.x release.

All mods have been updated for version 7.x of the game, except for Waypoint Fields for Deployment. I've been wanting to totally rewrite that mod for a very long while now. Will attempt to do so from now.

Notable updates since 7.x, 27 Oct 2024
KUDA AI tweaks https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/839:
DeadAir's updates. Bug-fixes to my custom attack behaviours (avoid, withdraw, etc.) bug-fixes. I managed to "ressurect" my advanced game from 2021 with the updates. Kuda used to cause freezes on that save file.

Crime has consequences https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/566:
Crime has witnesses. Previously, crime was immediately reported. In the new version, crime is recorded by same-faction witnesses and then reported when they near a station. Distress drones also carry witnessed-crime and will report them when they near a station. Station witnesses immediately issue fines.

Social standings and citizenships https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/804
These gamestarts set the player's Immigration status as Militia: Dedicated Warrior, Spear of the Patriarch, and Terran Cadet. Players can still lose them when their Social Standing status are poor.

UI: Trade analytics https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/764
Analytics can be listed by hour, which gives a better indication of the stations' performances over time.

Friendly fire tweaks https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/708
Bug-fixed NPC reactions to friendly fire. They simply didn't work in previous versions.

[Scoob]

Hi,

I'm trying out the KUDA mod again in the hope it'll fix a specific vanilla issue. The issue in question is when ships with an attack order (gained via them executing a Protect Position command) zoom dozens of km away from any target before slow-boating back. However, I'm not seeing any improvement with KUDA enabled. Is this a vanilla behaviour you're familiar with? It was a vanilla introduced several game versions ago now, and reported on at the time, but the behaviour remains in the game.

For example, I have several Destroyers running a protect position command near a Gate where Xenon periodically emerge from. The generally do a decent enough job but, more often than I'd like, they seem to randomly zoom of 50+ km away while showing they they are attempting to attack a target. This obviously makes them useless as they spend excessive time no where near their patrol area. This happened again just now. I have Battleships (I'm using the Reemergence Mod among others) running Protect Position (21km) near a gate. A Xenon capital ship emerges and the fleet (three Aamon) show that they are attacking said Xenon. However, the lead ship just travel-drived many km away in the opposite direction. Now it's VERY SLOWLY turning around to travel back.

I know this is a vanilla bug, I don't know if it can be fixed via modding, but thought it worth asking. This can be more than a little game-breaking when an entire fleet just zooms off, due to their leader's spurious command. When given direct attack orders, this issue does not seem to occur, only with "Protect Position" behaviour set can they be seen doing this.

Edit: a little more possibly relevant information. Ships running Protect Position seem more likely to freak out and fly off under the following circumstances: Enemy enters their protection range and they gain an attack order. Then the target ship moves OUT of range, but the attack order remains. Ship then tries to move to the target, but gets it VERY wrong, either massively over-shooting (by up to 50km!) or going in the wrong direction by a similar amount.

With your expertise in this area, perhaps you can get to the bottom of it and the behaviour can be improved in KUDA.

Edit 2: One other thing I've noticed since installing KUDA, my Carrier-launched ships no longer obey the "Docked" behaviour, and will launch irrespective of this setting. Might be unrelated I suppose, but it started after adding KUDA to my mod list.

[kuertee]

Edit: a little more possibly relevant information. Ships running Protect Position seem more likely to freak out and fly off under the following circumstances: Enemy enters their protection range and they gain an attack order. Then the target ship moves OUT of range, but the attack order remains. Ship then tries to move to the target, but gets it VERY wrong, either massively over-shooting (by up to 50km!) or going in the wrong direction by a similar amount.

Hey Scoob, Do you have my NPC Reactions mod as well? That also mods the Protect Position order.

Edit 2: One other thing I've noticed since installing KUDA, my Carrier-launched ships no longer obey the "Docked" behaviour, and will launch irrespective of this setting. Might be unrelated I suppose, but it started after adding KUDA to my mod list.

I remember, but I may be mistaken, that this was one of DeadAir's tweaks of previous versions. But I can't find that feature's corresponding Extension Option toggle. Will check with DA.
EDIT: Nah ... it's not DA's stuff. All those carrier tweaks of the previous version no longer exist in the new version.
Do you have Reactive Docking installed also? END EDIT.

[Scoob]

Hey Scoob, Do you have my NPC Reactions mod as well? That also mods the Protect Position order.

Edit 2: One other thing I've noticed since installing KUDA, my Carrier-launched ships no longer obey the "Docked" behaviour, and will launch irrespective of this setting. Might be unrelated I suppose, but it started after adding KUDA to my mod list.

I remember, but I may be mistaken, that this was one of DeadAir's tweaks of previous versions. But I can't find that feature's corresponding Extension Option toggle. Will check with DA.
EDIT: Nah ... it's not DA's stuff. All those carrier tweaks of the previous version no longer exist in the new version.
Do you have Reactive Docking installed also? END EDIT.

Hi I don't have a separate "NPC Reaction" mod installed, it's not integrated into anything else is it? I might add it to see if it improves the behaviour.

I'm not using Reactive Docking either. I have seen this issue in my Vanilla (used for Beta testing) game, indeed, it was during a beta that the issue was first noticed and reported (not by me). I don't think a mod can be to blame, hence thinking a mod might potentially be the fix for the issue. The problem is of course present in my current modified game, here's the mod list:

Google Drive link to screenshot

It's possible that a mod exaggerates the feature of course. VRO ships tend to be a bit faster. I have removed KUDA AI since discovering it didn't appear to help with the issue, I wanted to observe vanilla movement again.

I have made a separate post on this issue, here in the hope of getting other's input on the issue as it does occur in totally vanilla games.

[laser50]

Hey, perhaps a bit of a silly question, but is there any chance you'd be able to make an all-in-one zip pack of your mods? I love many of them, but at this point going through all of them, downloading, putting them in one by one is a rather slow process, and repeating it every update is also a bit of a to-do list with all the mods I use.