[SCR] Super Tractor (v1.07 - 24.12.08)

vampirecosmonaut · Post by **vampirecosmonaut** » Sat, 17. Oct 09, 03:15

I am currently running 2.5 and every time I try to cross a sector while towing, the ship that's towing the object continues through the gate and the towed object remains behind. Betty says, "Malfunction." and that's it. Doesn't work while jumping or driving through the gate. I cannot get this to work at all, and it was working for me.

EDIT: I cannot tow stations. I can tow asteroids everywhere, but no stations.
They cannot be towed out of sector. Is that intended?

EDIT #2: I just remembered that you can not move stations between sectors. So Nevermind.

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Fri, 8. Jan 10, 20:36

It's a another great and useful script.

Used it to tow broken Jumpgates to another part of the sector.
(Then I repaired and link them with another broken gate - twice - and it's real nice.

Some snotty-nosed pirates got me PO'ed and I grabbed their Forge and tried to tow it back to a nice safe sector where I can use my boarding parties(Self-trained 5 star marines) to practice boarding & capturing Stations ,with nearby fleet protection. But Atlas.. it was a nogo with the advance jumpdrive. Maybe by towing it back thru the gates I will have more luck.

lamoyja · Post by **lamoyja** » Sat, 9. Jan 10, 03:28

Wonder what would happen if you placed asteroids all around the gates of a major trade hub

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Sun, 10. Jan 10, 00:02

lamoyja wrote:Wonder what would happen if you placed asteroids all around the gates of a major trade hub

Some Teladi comes up and starts a junkyard..

and makes: Prooofffiiiiittss!

ClastMalon · Post by **ClastMalon** » Sat, 13. Feb 10, 11:53

I'm also unable to use this script to transport stations to other sectors, I get the "malfunction" message after I jump, and station is left in the previous sector.

Roady1976 · Post by **Roady1976** » Sat, 13. Feb 10, 12:08

ClastMalon wrote:I'm also unable to use this script to transport stations to other sectors, I get the "malfunction" message after I jump, and station is left in the previous sector.

OP states that you can only use this to jump Ships or Asteroids.. but you can move stations within a sector.

ClastMalon · Post by **ClastMalon** » Sat, 13. Feb 10, 20:02

Thanks for clearing that up Roady1976, the description in the index currently says "Moves everything, even asteroids to other sectors".

Any chance this could be used in future to transport stations? Most I'm sure would have less mass than an asteroid, although it could be argued that a station is too flimsy and would break apart when jumping...

BTW thanks for the mod, I'll just make sure next time I shift my asteroid BEFORE I build a mine on it

I also won't make the mistake again of self-destructing the mine and expecting the asteroid to still be there

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Sat, 13. Feb 10, 21:46

ClastMalon wrote:Thanks for clearing that up Roady1976, the description in the index currently says "Moves everything, even asteroids to other sectors".

Where exactly does it say that?

To me it looks more like
"A Jumpdrive can be used when towing ships or asteroids. Yes, the cargo will jump with your ship."

Any chance this could be used in future to transport stations?

Extremely unlikely.
*insert whining about X3's hardcoded features not seeing reason*

ClastMalon · Post by **ClastMalon** » Sat, 13. Feb 10, 22:44

By index I meant the mod library threadhttp://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=216690 it's quoted as I said in there. No matter though

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Sun, 14. Feb 10, 01:45

Yah, and that's completely true. The meaning you apparently read into it would require another comma (after asteroids) in there.

tasev1 · Post by **tasev1** » Sat, 20. Feb 10, 23:25

Just remember, the ship has to have E-Cells to tow a station/asteroid. I know that was my problem at first.

Now I have a bigger one. Regardless if I use standard jumpdrive, or advanced hyperdrive, I loose my station in the jump and get a 'malfunction'. (the station ends up very far away in its original sector.

I was trying to move my ore mine so I may complex it with my shield facility.

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Sun, 21. Feb 10, 00:01

It's till may be an ecell issue. I was using ufjd and it costs thousands of ecells to bring back a 20+ point Nividium roid. Plus the effort usuall blows the regular jumpdrive.
But for the cost of the jd, it's worth the value of a high price roid.

I need to try it on the Aran when I find one.
Jump it back to a sector where I can take it over in one of my own sectors.

tasev1 · Post by **tasev1** » Sun, 21. Feb 10, 18:01

Yeah, that might be a good idea. Even though jumping with a roid might me unrealistic, you gotta pay for it somehow!!

I have to agree with the JD loss on something so big.

dpadula · Post by **dpadula** » Sun, 20. Jun 10, 13:23

Is there a formula for how many E-cells are needed? I was also curious because I use Cycrow's Adv. JD so I never need energy cells. I guess I need to stop up on them and I will have to save before I test it. I do not want to lose my Adv. JD. That thing was about 9 million.

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Sun, 20. Jun 10, 19:07

I also use Cycrow adv JD but you definely need e-cell to jump the ship or asteroid to another sector.
I use Caduis Super Baldric for that.

But I only jump asteroids out of UF sectors. (nividium only).
and it usually blows the jumpdrive.

I use the roid mover script and the roid fusion scrip for all mapped sectors.

But it would be nice if I could jump a factory to another system. Would make it easier when I'm taking over a pirate sector and I want to move the prirate base instead of blasting it.

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Sat, 25. Sep 10, 14:17

Called me ModdedFreak.(because I have alot script and mods installed)

A couple of Q's (Due to the lastest mod I installed)

You can jump an asteroid OSS but you Can't jump a factory?

(You can buy a"special" factory, repack it and drop it in another sector. But it changes back to it regular form when rebuilding it elsewhere. _ Those special factories that build freight drones becomes a standard fighter drone factory elsewhere.
Or buying (Property baron script) the Swarm facilities, multi laser factories you can't buy from a shipyard and want to move it to a better sector. Don't like buying a multilaser factory to find out later that it makes wheat elsewhere. (Must be the ore they use, to be special)

Can that be changed somehow? By me in a file or does that entail a rewrite of the Super-tractor?

2. Be able to change the distance the ship is from the towed object.

Spoiler

Show

I have the new added sector mod, one sector is a hub like with 4 fixed gates, I want to change the gates, so when putting in a new one, the gate is not set where the old gate was located. I tow it but run into the "Stops" built into the sector. (That hub wall). My ship if it was closer to the towed objected would be able to align the gate and make it look like the other gates. Make them uniformed within that slot. "Put this into a spoiler because of the second hub like sector info." Don't tell me you don't read spoiler.

3.(least wanted) Be able to jump a "Broken/Non fuctioning Gate" to another system. (I collect these types of gates.I'm starting a sector(s) mueseum and have come across a few in the UF areas- I know the the one gate creator can roll back the gate and it can be repacked and used, but I'm collecting them.)

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Sat, 9. Oct 10, 11:46

Retiredman wrote:You can jump an asteroid OSS but you Can't jump a factory?

Asteroids consist of a type and yield. That's it.
Easy to duplicate.

Stations consist of a boatload of variables, many of which can not be detected and much less altered / recreated by a script.

There used to be a script that allows you to pack up a factory into a TL and ferry it to another sector.

Retiredman wrote:2. Be able to change the distance the ship is from the towed object.

With "an interface" many such things could be done but I decided on KISS.
This is the Stupid People's tractor beam. One button. =P

The distance is always using the bounding sphere radius of both objects plus a little for safety.
With gates, you can obvioulsy be inside the sphere because it's only a flat screen.
But scripts have no way to detect that.

If you programmed it to place the tractored object closer than the safe distance, you'd end up with ships overlaying each other and being destroyed from the collision.

Guess you could hack the script and code an exception, altering the tow distance if the object is of object type jumpgate. (not just gate, which would include TOA)

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Sat, 9. Oct 10, 12:25

Gazz wrote:
Retiredman wrote:You can jump an asteroid OSS but you Can't jump a factory?
Asteroids consist of a type and yield. That's it.
Easy to duplicate.

Stations consist of a boatload of variables, many of which can not be detected and much less altered / recreated by a script.

There used to be a script that allows you to pack up a factory into a TL and ferry it to another sector.

that would be this script which is still usable as far as I know cause I use it myself, check the link

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=224396

just remember to empty all your stations of wares and credits before you repack it, also might be wise to shut down the station or the complex your going to run it on.

Gazz · Post by **Gazz** » Sat, 9. Oct 10, 12:51

Correct.
But with that script it's implied that the station is deconstructed completely. All scripts and ships amd wares that interact with it, are expected to stop doing so.

Now imagine I would allow to tractor a station through a gate. Players would rightfully assume that it's the same station with "nothing changed".
That is just plain impossible to do.
So instead of answering again and again why the ST script sucks so much and why the towed stations are so buggy, losing their assigned ships and whatnot... I decided to just not allow it. =P

Tractoring gates would be even worse. That's high magic!

Retiredman · Post by **Retiredman** » Wed, 13. Oct 10, 18:31

Well Gazz..

I 'll live with what I have.. The Super Tractor is Super.
My comments are suppose to be more inquiry than complains.
I'm trying to understand what the limitations you have to work with.

(Super Tractor & Ring of Fire has won many battles in the Unknown sector, and protected the Mil Base in the Khaak sector during OFF.)

Also I am a complete fan of your "Gazz's Box"
(until you improve it..

then I'll be a fan of that)