[Script][V3.03] Taxi-Software MK1

SymTec ltd. · Post by **SymTec ltd.** » Sat, 2. Jun 07, 13:58

arcana75 wrote:Actually this script really doesn't need those taxi beacons does it?

It does, in fact - I have a local variable stored on those. But I can easily kick them out.

arcana75 · Post by **arcana75** » Sat, 2. Jun 07, 16:44

SymTec ltd. wrote:
arcana75 wrote:Actually this script really doesn't need those taxi beacons does it?
It does, in fact - I have a local variable stored on those. But I can easily kick them out.

What I meant was I could imagine not needing those sats to get a ship to traverse between 2 trading stations. But maybe ur script's doing something else...

jumbled · Post by **jumbled** » Sat, 2. Jun 07, 16:49

I find myself trying to pay more attention to the passengers on AI taxis to see what they are doing. Then I saw something interesting... I peeked inside a Teladi prisoner transport. It was full of VIPs. I wonder how "important" you need to be to get into one of those luxury vehicles.

jumbled · Post by **jumbled** » Tue, 5. Jun 07, 02:57

Ok, I have a problem. I'm trying to install the software (now that I have a TP to use it on), put a cargo life support in it, the explorer software and renamed the local AdvSat to "Taxi". The problem is I don't know how to turn the blasted thing "on". There's no "start taxi service" command on any menu.

I also tried it on an M5, same stuff installed, and no cmd to run.

I used your spk to install it, read through the readme (which doesn't help me much), tried looking at the setup script to see if there's a clue in there, and there's a line calling a ware SS_WARE_SW_NEW4 that's used on the "script command ugrade" line. I see in your docs something about a "createwares" script, one copy in an uninstall section and another copy in the script section, but no actual file.

Am I missing something? Cuz there's sure no way I can see to make it work.

[Edit]
Nevermind...I found the problem...

I decided to install the X3 Bonus Pack tonight since there's a couple things in there I felt might come in handy for my new PHQ. In the process, I uninstalled some duplicate items I was using before (separate SPK files I picked up over time), since the BP has new signed versions.

One of them was the Explorer software.

Apparently, I was using v3.1.4, or some such, picked up (no doubt) from the Xai web site, which I thought was the "current" version. On installing the BP, it got "updated" to v1.5 (how you go UP from v3.1.4 to v1.5, I don't know...must be Split math

).

The first Explorer software (in-game) cost me close to a million credits, which I thought was odd since the last time I used it, it was fairly cheap. The new copy was only about 1500 credits, but the kicker is the "original" Explorer software turned into the SOS scrambler ugrade (which I was looking for anyway, but couldn't find) after installing the BP version.

I remember a post in here something about the Explorer changing something...I guess this was it.

Now the taxi works, and I see the cmds in the Nav menu.

Sorry for the confusion...

jumbled · Post by **jumbled** » Tue, 5. Jun 07, 09:51

Ok, just one little question, now that it seems to be working...

Does it use a jumpdrive at all?

I know the docs say 'no' in the case of the tour bus (you WANT people to see the sights in each sector they pass through), and M5's count the jumps for the fare (most are too small for JD's anyway). But what about for the case of a TP doing two-sector traffic. Do those two sectors need to be next door to each other, or can they be several jumps away (in which case a JD might save time)? Or does it also count jumps for the fare?

I'm thinking in terms of like a Greyhound bus doing long distance travel between major cities (i.e. Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York to Wash. D.C., Argon Prime to Kingdom's End...oh wait, those aren't real cities.

).

arcana75 · Post by **arcana75** » Thu, 7. Jun 07, 04:30

None of the taxis here use the JD.

ElTorqiro · Post by **ElTorqiro** » Wed, 13. Jun 07, 09:20

I have an M5 (the free Starburst) setup as a Taxi MK1 in Argon Prime. He does a couple of trips, then once he's dropped off his last passengers he stays in the station and deactivates. The current command is set to None. If I set him back to Taxi Mk1 he starts up again, and we go around this sequence again.

Is this the "seminar" happening? I've left it on SETAx10 for ages and he never seems to go back to Taxi'ing. I don't know if this is a bug or by design - surely I don't have to keep telling the taxi to return to taxi duties?

Also, there is a bug if you set your taxi to operate in a sector which doesn't have any stations you are allowed to dock at. I tried getting my taxi to operate in a Paranid system which I had no dockable stations in (docking denied, presumably race favour) and it crashed the script. The debugging info is: line 066 in the plugin.taxi.movetostation script. I tried this sector first, before setting my guy to Argon Prime, so could this previous script crash be causing the taxi-stopping error above?

madcaddie · Post by **madcaddie** » Wed, 13. Jun 07, 12:11

Why not remove the need for cargo life support as its only needed to carry slaves if you use cargo compression which TPs don't. You can also do BBS taxi missions with out it. Doesn't make much sense to have to go to a pirate station just to set a taxi up!!

-Sumo- · Post by **-Sumo-** » Sat, 16. Jun 07, 23:07

I have claimed the Tucan and the Iguana TP. Set the advanced sat in the center of the sector, installed explorer and started taxi mk1... no way... it say i have to put an advanced sat in the sector. But i have it and i renamed it with " Taxi - Sat "

I used this script for a long time (and i think it's the best around here), then i started a new game with the XTM7a.

Can it be that this script is not compatible with the XTM ?

-Sumo- · Post by **-Sumo-** » Sat, 16. Jun 07, 23:08

I have claimed the Tucan and the Iguana TP. Set the advanced sat in the center of the sector, installed explorer and started taxi mk1... no way... it say i have to put an advanced sat in the sector. But i have it and i renamed it with " Taxi - Sat "

I used this script for a long time (and i think it's the best around here), then i started a new game with the XTM7a.

Can it be that this script is not compatible with the XTM ?

DangerDave · Post by **DangerDave** » Sat, 16. Jun 07, 23:44

Smart script. You thought about getting it signed? Also couldnt you get rid of the need for slaves and maybe cargo lifesupport by using an EMP ware for passengers? They have 1 volume and no TC, so would be perfect.

SymTec ltd. · Post by **SymTec ltd.** » Sun, 17. Jun 07, 12:04

DangerDave wrote:Smart script. You thought about getting it signed? Also couldnt you get rid of the need for slaves and maybe cargo lifesupport by using an EMP ware for passengers? They have 1 volume and no TC, so would be perfect.

There are plans being made about all of these points. However, I am not doing any scripting at the moment, as I put my RL first. For that reason, things might take a while...

Skite · Post by **Skite** » Sun, 17. Jun 07, 13:50

This script would have been a nice addition to my washlist of scripts to add even more depth to the game, but frankly it's just outright stupid to make it have advanced satellites everywhere. Too much work and too much money, seeing as other scripts need sats everywhere aswell.

Perhaps you are willing to make a clean version - without the need of satellites?

jumbled · Post by **jumbled** » Sun, 17. Jun 07, 20:12

Skite wrote:This script would have been a nice addition to my washlist of scripts to add even more depth to the game, but frankly it's just outright stupid to make it have advanced satellites everywhere. Too much work and too much money, seeing as other scripts need sats everywhere aswell.

I actually need to agree on one point here...

First, it's very likely you have sats everywhere, anyway, so why not use the existing network?

Second, the new CAG scripts for station traders use AdvSats now for satellite-limited travel (a new option in the BP), but need the names to start with "Advanced Satellite" (there's even a new menu cmd to auto-rename them for you). Since some of my ships have been found in dangerous pirate-infested sectors (and often under attack by a horde of pirates), I've considered turning this on. But if I need "Taxi" in the names of my sats for your script, that causes a bit of a conflict right there.

Maybe you could just look for the presence of sats (since it's less likely that one would choose to keep sats in pirate or Xenon sectors anyway), and/or use friend/foe settings in the case there are sats in hostile areas?

Also, I'd like to ask one more thing... I don't put my sats at 0,0,0, usually cuz they don't last long there. Not so much because they get run over by TS's, but because they're right in the main traffic stream, and pirates will shoot at anything that gets too close to them (and they love to play target practice on sats).

I usually put mine a good 8-10 km above or below the ecliptic, depending on the orientation of the local gates, so (for the most part) they are outside the usual range of pirate traffic. I still lose a few, so in those trouble areas, I'm considering putting them even further outside the ecliptic. Your range of "within 10km" might still work for most areas, but a few would get cut out. (Question is, would I wish to put taxis in those areas, anyway....

)

I'm also starting to consider putting them off-center, to increase their longevity (I'm really getting tired of manually replacing sats, and no script does the job I want, so I may need to write my own). But I'm wondering what you might think of extending the range, maybe to 15km?

(Damn, I really need to stop writing novels...)

SymTec ltd. · Post by **SymTec ltd.** » Sun, 17. Jun 07, 22:13

Today, I wrote a little update... I'm just now working on CIAD-compatibility, release may not be today, but tomorrow or so... Features:

1.: Replaced Slaves with one kind of Passengers,
2.: Removed Satellites (still not 100% sure if it works out

)
3.: More CIAD-stats and translation
4.: Just the usual update stuff

Skite · Post by **Skite** » Mon, 18. Jun 07, 01:11

SymTec ltd. wrote:Today, I wrote a little update... I'm just now working on CIAD-compatibility, release may not be today, but tomorrow or so... Features:

1.: Replaced Slaves with one kind of Passengers,
2.: Removed Satellites (still not 100% sure if it works out )
3.: More CIAD-stats and translation
4.: Just the usual update stuff

Awesome, thanks.

I had a question, what's CIAD?

SymTec ltd. · Post by **SymTec ltd.** » Mon, 18. Jun 07, 16:58

Skite wrote:I had a question, what's CIAD?

Well, the [url=http://forum.egosoft.com/search.php][b]Se[/b]arch[b]Fu[/b]nction[/url] knows CIAD.

CIAD is the Command Information And Description, which gives statistics and information about any command that is running on a ship. This is a perfect thing for me to see the most profitable taxi routes, but also for anyone who does not care to read any readme outside the game.

The only problem with CIAD is that I wasn't able to fully translate the files into English yet, because nobody felt like helping me.

Osiris_sam · Post by **Osiris_sam** » Mon, 18. Jun 07, 18:47

lol what language are they originally written in?

SymTec ltd. · Post by **SymTec ltd.** » Mon, 18. Jun 07, 19:05

Osiris_sam wrote:lol what language are they originally written in?

German?

(It's almost 100kB of plain text)

I now uploaded the new version... just updating my other descriptions before the official announcement.

Osiris_sam · Post by **Osiris_sam** » Mon, 18. Jun 07, 23:03

id be happy to proof read any translated script if you felt that was neccessary. (even though my english isnt exactly perfect, but then, whos is?)