[SCRIPT] Improved Boarding : V1.23 : 30-06-2010

[Cycrow]

This script improved the boarding aspect of the game by adding several new features

Installing:

• 
  
  To install, load the downloaded file into the Plugin Manager.
  
  Requires: Plugin Manager TC
  Requires: Ware Manager
  Requires: Hotkey Manager
  Requires: Community Plugin Configuration

Features Include:

• Boarding Hotkeys - Quick access commands to board ships
• Marine Accelerator - Speeds up marine space suits so they can get to thier targets quicker.
• NPC Ship Marines - Adds more marines to NPC ships
• Boarding Transpoter Extension - Adds a new device allowing you to board ships using the transporter device
• NPC Boarding Parties - Adds NPC Boarding parties that will attempt to steal your ships

Configuration:

• Using the Config Configuation Plugin, you can change various settings for the script.
  You must have the plugin installed, and a hotkey assigned to it.
  
  
  
  In the config menu, you will have a seperate section for Improved boarding, all the options available will be listed there
  
  There are also several options in the Artifical Life Settings to enable/disable some features
  
  

1. Boarding Hotkeys:

• There are 3 new hotkeys available for boarding, you can configure these like any other hotkeys from your controls menu.
  
  
  
  The first is to launch marines from your current ship. You can only launch marines from M6 and TP class ships, or the OTAS Sirokos
  To lauch the marines, the target must be a captial class ship, M6/TM and above.
  You must be close enough to the target, about 1k away (depends on ship size)
  And the targets shield must be below its threshold (around 10%)
  
  If any condition isn't met, you will get both audio and visual feedback. The subtitle messages will display the reason why it failed.
  
  The next hotkey is to launch targets from another ship other than the one your flying. The conditions are the same as above.
  When activated, you will be displayed a list of viable targets and thier range from the target. Select the ship and thier marines will be launched if possible.
  
  The final hotkey is to launch marines from all of your ships. Your ships must be in range of the target to launch, any ship in range will launch thier marines against the target
  for a coordinated boarding operation.

2. Marine Accelerator:

• This will increase you marines movement speed when launching, giving them an acceletored launch. Thier speed will slow down eventually over time.
  This ability is applied automatically when using any of the boarding hotkeys

3. NPC Ship Marines:

• Adds marines on board NPC ships. In the standard game, not all ships will have defending marines, this will add them making boarding more challenging
  You can configure how many ships will have marines on board from the Configuration Menu.
  
  You also need to activate this option in the Artifical Life Settings menu.
  Once enabled, it'll take abit of time for the marines to get added

4. Boarding Transporter Extension:

• This is a new upgrade for your ship that links to the Transporter Device.
  You can purchase it from all good Split Equipment Dock.
  
  Once installed on your ship, you can assign a hotkey to use. The device can only be used on the ship your currently flying.
  
  You can only activate the device when the shields are low and you are within 1KM of the target.
  
  Once activated, it will take time to complete, with the current progress being displayed as a subtitle. Once it reaches 100%, the marines will be on board and will start to fight through the decks to the core
  The time it takes depends on your marines mechanical skill, the top 3 will be used.
  
  
  
  During the boarding process, you must remain within 1km of the target ship and keep thier shields down. If you stray too far, or the shields raise too high, the process will stall and start to reverse if you leave it too long.
  If you do no resume after it reaches below 0%, the marines will be beamed into obvlivion and the process will fail.
  
  
  
  You will have visual information displayed for the whole process.

5. NPC Boarding Parties:

• You can enable boarding parties for the AI to use, these will attempt to board your ships.
  You first have to enable this in the Artifical Life Settings. It will take time for the boarding parties to be created and start boarding.
  
  There are also several options in the Config menu to change the settings for NPC Boarding.
  
  Boarded Message Time: The time in ms to display the message when one of your ships has been taken
  • Boarded Message Time: The time in ms to display the message when one of your ships has been taken
  • Boarding Ship Idle Time: This is the time the boarding parties spend idle, during this time they will not be trying to board your ships
  • Max Boarding Parties: This is the maximum number of boarding parties that will appear in the universe

Future Additions:

• Make boarding defense available to the player
• Add boarding pod ability to the boarding hotkeys

[canslow]

Thanks for this Cycrow, I am going to try it out right now!

Thanks in general for all of your hard work on scripts, mods and th X Plugin manager, bloody brilliant work!

[Malakie]

You is on a roll my man! ... BUT I still wantz to add me Stargate ships to me game!

[JackSlaughter]

I'm guessing you have to be flying the ship at the time. Is there any chance that you can make it so when you launch the function that it would search for ships with marines in it in the sector your in, and send the same code to that ship???

Cuz it's kind of hard to keep the shields down of a ship, while being in the TP vessel.

If your not in the TP vessel then it's even as hard as sending the command to tell the other vessel to board the ship while attacking the enemy vessel to keep the shields down.

I've also noticed that the attack shields command doesn't work. I've used it and the friendly ships just continue to attack the vessel until it explodes.

[Cycrow]

I've also noticed that the attack shields command doesn't work. I've used it and the friendly ships just continue to attack the vessel until it explodes.

i have actually explained the reason for the attack shields commands.

it does what its sposed to, but you need to make sure your ships are correctly balance.

the ships try to guess when they should fire, if the shields are down, they stop. However, they will have some bullets already in the air which ends up damaing the ships.

if your using weapons like EMP's, then they do large hull damage, and its very difficult for a group of ships to just keep the shields down.

so you need to use the correct number of ships for the ship your targetting.

if the target ship has weak shields and yours have powerful weapons, u'll end up killing the ship before they relise the shields are down

[canslow]

Works like a charm Cycrow, great work.

Yes, the shield attack command DOES work, but like Cycrow said, you must use weapons that do not do a lot of hull damage, and depends a lot on the ship you are targeting. I found Ion Disruptors to be very effective using that command (they dont fire bullets per say). Load em up with ID's and let her rip, works great on M6's and TL's.

[lastebil]

Thanks Cycrow mate, now the Borons are going to pay ^^

[Goldfinch]

Excellent, this should make boarding less frustrating.

[KRM398]

You Da Man Cycrow..I need to stay away from the modding forums, I keep picking up new stuff, this is going to be a great game..lol

[mpcribeiro]

Hi Cycrow

any chance of biff up marines speed?

They hardly keep up catching a K for that to happen the ship almost has to "land" on the K... beside they are far too easy target for K's small guns at current speed.

Would be nice if marines could have a turbo booster on their back

another matter...

once the target goes up in a bang.. could they return to the ship? They seem to think otherwise. Cheers

[Cycrow]

New Update Available: 1.10

Adds turbo launch to hotkey, so marines will have an increase in speed

Adds 2 more hotkeys, one will launch marines from all ships in range similtanously. The other will ask you what ship to send marines from

[mpcribeiro]

Superb many thanks Cycrow

[Zippe]

If someone needs a german translated Textfile (V1.10):

http://www.speedshare.org/download.php?id=6FC13FFD13

[Cycrow]

Thanks, i've included the german text file in the spk file now

[Dreamwind99]

The ultimate would be to have one of the unused frigs like the skiros fitted with ION weps that can sensibly use boarding pods.

As well as a legit way of making them.

[KRM398]

Dang, Cycrow..do you ever sleep? lol ok, then another new boarding script, sooner or later everyone will learn how to make these wprk, any hints as to the final speed of your 'turbo'd troopers?'

[Goldfinch]

Is the turbo boost thing optional?

[nemesis1982]

What plugin manager should be used?

Cycrows plugin manager only excepts exe files named X2 or X3 while the steam instal names the exe X3TC.

edit:

Is the turbo boost thing optional?

As far as I've been able to tell it's been hard coded into the script.

Basically set the local var named boosted to FALSE. The file is called something like dropspeed.

[Cycrow]

nemesis, u need to use the beta version from the sticky in this forum, not the one from the download site. That site will be updated eventually with the new version. But for now you have to get it seperatly from another link.

it should be version 2.20, which is TC compatable. Also remember the scripts. This is only temporary until the final version of the plugin manager is available. Which will be when ever i've fixed the ship installing


Goldfinch, no the turbo is not optional yet, i will add some configure options later when i add the rest of the script.


The max speed can go upto about 150m/s. However, this will decrease over time. Ie, they launch at full speed and thier speed will slowly drop back to 24m/s eventually. If you close enoguh they will prolly board before that happens

[nemesis1982]

Thanks Cycrow. I'll try that

Edit:

Works. Just capped my first m6