[Mods] First Person Gameplay Overhaul

[UniTrader]

Redundancy isn't always a bad thing.

Blackboard tags are easier to use for diverting dialog and managing compatibility between mods than checking against a list every time a conversation starts, but having a list somewhere is pretty important, too.

List/Group is required anyway, and asking if an Actor is part of a List/Group is imo not more difficult than asking if a var exists on an actor, just a little bit longer:
md.$PlayerCrew.indexof.{$actor} (treat this as boolean - if its 0/false the Actor is not part of the Crew, for any other Value (s)he is )
for comparision:
$actor.$IsPlayerCrew? is about 10 letters shorter (ok, pointless compariosion )
Also having only a single List is always unambigious. if we use a List and a local Var how should the Cases where both are out of Sync be treated? (Var set without Entry in the List or Entry in the List without the Var set) - i know that this shouldnt happen with proper managment, but considering the popularity of Savegame Editing and emerging Modders fiddling around with the Scripts i prefer it this way

[Vim Razz]

md.$PlayerCrew.indexof.{$actor}

That's a good usage! It helps me elsewhere, too. Thanks!

For this application, it does seem sufficient. I'm looking forward to seeing what your more recent build is like.

[Cyb3rNinja]

So i tested your bridge command mod for about 3 hours now and i have to say, although i noticed some weird behavior it works pretty well
Regarding the weird behavior:

-Sometimes when giving the order to fly xx km in a direction, the ship will start maneuvering like crazy, often ending up in the opposite direction... It almost looks like if the ship is trying to fly evasive maneuvers to prevent a collision, however this also happens if there is nothing near by.

-For some reason the "fly to object" command wont work for me, simply because i can't find any objects... It doesn't matter if i'm 10km 20km or 30km from a Station, even if i'm directly next to it and pointing to the center, it always shows me "0 Objects found".


Now some suggestions, of which i think they would fit pretty well in your mod (i dont know if these are even possible, my scripting abilities range from extremely limited to non-existend ) :

-It would be cool if you could add a "Turn in direction" command, so that the ship turns in the direction you are pointing without moving forward/backwards. I'd imagine that this would be really useful, especially when using the bridge mod which limits your field of view quite a bit. This way you could simply turn the ship if you want to target something outside your FoV.

-Adding some audio feedback from your captain like when you give orders via the com-menu. While this is not too important i think it would be cool to see in game.

Anyway thanks for your work!

[UniTrader]

-Sometimes when giving the order to fly xx km in a direction, the ship will start maneuvering like crazy, often ending up in the opposite direction... It almost looks like if the ship is trying to fly evasive maneuvers to prevent a collision, however this also happens if there is nothing near by.

no idea how this could happen. i know that the Position i pass to the Moveto-Script is accurate, but it may be moved to a safe position by the flyto-Script. Does the Position and Rotation when the Ship is done fit with your Destination? (i not only pass a Psition to the movetopos-Script but also a Rotation, so your Ship should look in the same Direction as you looked when giving the Command in the end, except for Roll and extremely high Pitch Values - the Game doesnt like them for some reason)
Also noted: will add an Abort condition if the safepos is farther away from the current pos than the target pos..

-For some reason the "fly to object" command wont work for me, simply because i can't find any objects... It doesn't matter if i'm 10km 20km or 30km from a Station, even if i'm directly next to it and pointing to the center, it always shows me "0 Objects found".

works probably better from a Distance - you have to look exactly where the Station Anchor is in the Zone.. may be not the geometrical Center when the Station is only partially built. And Variation from this position is the same as for all other Objects. i think i will change the method for aquiring Stations to the <check_line_of_sight/> i just noticed in the commands.. wanted to change the Station Commands anyway in such a way that you can Interact with the Station (Trading, Comm and more i can think of) this way instead of only a Fly-To-Command (this is just a Placeholder)

-It would be cool if you could add a "Turn in direction" command, so that the ship turns in the direction you are pointing without moving forward/backwards. I'd imagine that this would be really useful, especially when using the bridge mod which limits your field of view quite a bit. This way you could simply turn the ship if you want to target something outside your FoV.

Already worked on this (when looking at the Floor you would get a "Do a Barrel Roll"-Command instead of the Moveto ) but it didnt work out so i had to dummy it out.. problem is when i give a moveto-Command the Ship is satisfied when it reaches the Target Pos, even though the Target Rotation is not reached yet.. think i will have to make an own moveto-script for that

-Adding some audio feedback from your captain like when you give orders via the com-menu. While this is not too important i think it would be cool to see in game.

noted. in fact though that myself during test runs but first release goal was to reach Functionality & have a clean Debuglog - decoration comes after that

[UniTrader]

sorry for double-post, just wanted to tell that i have added my latest Projects all on Git Hub (i wonder why i didnt do that in the first place)
you can find them here:
Itemtrade Overhaul
Crew Disembarks
Bridge Commands

also uploaded my Logo Mod (thought about continuing this one)
Faction Logos
Player Logos

and because i was on it i also added an older Project i suspended because of lack of Time and Stability Problems
X Fleet Fest


just for Information
note that the GitHub Versions are Development Versions and may not be as stable and functional as the zip-Versions i linked in the first Post ^^

[UniTrader]

-Sometimes when giving the order to fly xx km in a direction, the ship will start maneuvering like crazy, often ending up in the opposite direction... It almost looks like if the ship is trying to fly evasive maneuvers to prevent a collision, however this also happens if there is nothing near by.

i could just replicate this and understand now whats happening: the Direction you look into is used as if the Ship you are on were looking in the north direction because i forgot to calculate in the Ship Rotation

-For some reason the "fly to object" command wont work for me, simply because i can't find any objects... It doesn't matter if i'm 10km 20km or 30km from a Station, even if i'm directly next to it and pointing to the center, it always shows me "0 Objects found".

change: Angle for Stations is now 25deg instead of 5deg for other Object Classes - will keep it 5deg for Ships because this seems to be ok, and also because i dislike to have too many special cases ^^
(may add sub-parts as target in the futuere, too, also but with a 5deg angle or more probably less)

-It would be cool if you could add a "Turn in direction" command, so that the ship turns in the direction you are pointing without moving forward/backwards. I'd imagine that this would be really useful, especially when using the bridge mod which limits your field of view quite a bit. This way you could simply turn the ship if you want to target something outside your FoV.

now that the Move on Direction works as expected this shouldnt be necesary anymore anyway i have added a Distance Setting for this Command*, including a move 5km backwards which should turn the Ship around Rotation only seems sadly not possible, the <move_to/>-Command aborts when the Ship is close to the Target Pos, even when the targeg rot is completely diffrent. but since i want to include a Barrel Roll-Command myself i will keep the Rotation thing in mind

-Adding some audio feedback from your captain like when you give orders via the com-menu. While this is not too important i think it would be cool to see in game.

Done.™


* not sure how the huge Distances over 50km will work out... also keep in mind that these Distances are flown without Boosters since i use only the inzone-Moveto-Command.. i will improve this at a later date


i just synced these fixes with Github (no Dropbox, too tired), if Feedback is positive and no big issues are reportet i think i may also upload it as stable Version on Steam

[oliverjanda]

* not sure how the huge Distances over 50km will work out... also keep in mind that these Distances are flown without Boosters since i use only the inzone-Moveto-Command.. i will improve this at a later date

I hadn't much time for testing recently but I can't imagine why you want to fly 50 km in a straight line with your ship. I see it more as a IZ fine-tuning feature (5-10km)

[Cyb3rNinja]

-snip-

Wow you are fast with fixing / adding suggestions to your mods

I actually wanted to add a more detailed descreption of the problems but seems like i will test the new version instead

[UniTrader]

* not sure how the huge Distances over 50km will work out... also keep in mind that these Distances are flown without Boosters since i use only the inzone-Moveto-Command.. i will improve this at a later date

I hadn't much time for testing recently but I can't imagine why you want to fly 50 km in a straight line with your ship. I see it more as a IZ fine-tuning feature (5-10km)

Menu slots where available anyway and (if i add bosters to it) you can use this for scouting / finding a nice empty place in case you haavent noticed yet: the fly to zone/Sector command only recognizes Zones/Sectors you already know / have mapped ^^

[Vim Razz]

I just started browsing the Crew Disembarks github -- very cool stuff with the placement tags.

It looks like you plan on resolving the yisha menu issues with "not Yisha" from your April Fools mod?


I did some stuff with framing dialogue management, crew handling, and mod compatibility.


- Edit: This is an an updated version. Yisha moves back and forth properly from repair docks (no luck sorting other docks), and the docking-detection trigger is improved, but....

It breaks the side menu for rest of the game. So, this build is only good with the legacy main menus:

UTCrewDisembarks_VR_testbuild_2.zip

Notes on this test build:

• Dialogue:
  • It has solid dialog framing for Yisha and disembarked crew, though it's mostly just used for random talk to test the menu structure right now.
  • The comm menu cues are built into the UT_Crew_Disembarks_Manager script (below everything else), with minimal splicing into the main NPC scripts.
  • A "get back onboard" option for crew puts them back on the skunk and removes the md.$PlayerCrew entry and placeholder dummy (more on that later) so that they can be handled by OnBoardComm if needed.
  • V2 Edit: To open the main menu while Yisha is on the platform, talk to her about "work".
  • V2 Edit: sending Yisha back onboard allows the main menu to be used normally again (legacy menu only -- the sidebar menu breaks completely).
  • V2 Edit:self-targting conversation sections have been added for more random chatter, because... reasons..
  • I added a very lightweight "work here" option that only appears if the ship or station is missing crew of that type. For active crew replacements or more complex handling, sending them back onboard the skunk that OnBoardComm handles it (vanilla/modded, whatever) is the best way to go for this mod, I think.
  Crew handling:
  • I back-filled the Skunk with dummy crew entities in order to keep crew spaces "reserved" while the crew is disembarked. This prevents over-filling the Skunk with new hires while docked (preventing the disembarked crew from returning correctly).
  • The dummy system is still a bit rough and WIP, but has been showing a lot of promise so far.
  • I un-assigned the Skunk's Engineer and Marine Officer before disembarking them to prevent problems that can happen when parts of the game's scripts aren't sure which control entity on board a given container is the "right" one. The first one back onboard when undocking gets the job back.
  • Un-assigning them also prevents problems when returning to the Skunk if someone hired a new engineer/marine while the 'main' NPC's are disembarked... It's just a much messier situation than this mod should have to deal with....
  • Unexpected control entities or actors marked $InUse are deliberately left behind while disembarking or re-embarking for compatibility purposes with other mods. This mod has the potential to cause serious problems with certain kinds of script mods if no mechanism is left open to "steal" passengers off the skunk for other purposes.
  • The $InUse blackboard marker is something I've decided to start promoting as a generic flag for custom script actors to promote better cross-compatibility among mods that aren't necessarily designed to recognize each other. So, for example, it makes this mod compatible with bradines' pro mining project (which it otherwise breaks) and I should probably talk to Lander1979 about securing better actor script protection for his Katana version of the Skunk turrets mod soon...
  Mod Compatibility:
  • This is sort of discussed in various places already...
  • Compatibility with mods like mine, station engineers, etc, is provided through the "get back on board" function.
  • Structuring the disembarkation and re-embarkation so that passengers can be safely "stolen" from this mod without breaking it is important, imho, because otherwise it monopolizes every single passenger in the base game.
  Other Suff:
  • V2 Edit: Yisha works. sort of. she doesn't break the game completely anymore, but she does break the sidebar.
  • V2 Edit: the trigger on Player_Stand_Up causes fewer misfire accidents than before.
  • V2 Edit: placetags were integrated to see how they work, but I didn't change do anything substantial there.

EDIT: changes to clarify some sleepy grammar mishaps.

[oliverjanda]

* not sure how the huge Distances over 50km will work out... also keep in mind that these Distances are flown without Boosters since i use only the inzone-Moveto-Command.. i will improve this at a later date

I hadn't much time for testing recently but I can't imagine why you want to fly 50 km in a straight line with your ship. I see it more as a IZ fine-tuning feature (5-10km)

Menu slots where available anyway and (if i add bosters to it) you can use this for scouting / finding a nice empty place in case you haavent noticed yet: the fly to zone/Sector command only recognizes Zones/Sectors you already know / have mapped ^^

With boosting, 50km or more makes sense.

[oliverjanda]

I did some more testing yesterday and it works great!
There is only a little issue with stop command (maybe just an incompatibility with copilot convo). The ship does not stop when i want.
To get the best out of your mod one would need a much more open bridge
(which I failed to create).

[YorrickVander]

there shouldn't be any issue with copilot convo as all it does is pass the command to vanilla ai, although I haven't looked at uni's xml.

[UniTrader]

for the most functions i simply signalled the Objects the same way as EGO to the related Scripts (exceptions are move to position and follow Object for which i had to create a new signal), so its just another way of giving commands. in this concrete case i do just this (its basically the same as the Vanilla Stop current Task-Command):

<do_elseif value="event.param == 'PC_Stop'">
<cancel_conversation/>
<include_actions ref="md.Orders.StopCurrentTask"/>
</do_elseif>

it may be the case that the Ship has to do some cleanup and therefore moves a bit further

[YorrickVander]

I use this method

Code: Select all

    <actions>
        <add_npc_line speaker="player.ship.pilot" line="1031" comment="We will follow you sir." />
        <signal_objects object="player.ship" param="'stop order'" delay="100ms" />

so looking at both there should be no way they can clash.

[Cyb3rNinja]

After testing the new version i can confirm that it works perfectly fine! No bugs whatsoever, but i still consider the "fly to object" command a bit wonky...

Oh and i agree that a command that allows the ship to fly with boosters would be a good addition

Edit:

There is only a little issue with stop command (maybe just an incompatibility with copilot convo). The ship does not stop when i want.

Woops i forgot about that, yes i noticed this too.

[UniTrader]

ok, made a few changes to the Bridge Commands and updated the Links on the first post to point to Github ^^
here the Github Link for the lazy ones
DL-Link is on the bottom right [Download Zip]

Changes to Bridge Commands:
=> finally added t-files and German Translation - (i bet i receive a russian translation by at least tomorrow )
=> Changed Stop Commands into Advanced Commands Category:
-> Hold Position
-> Follow me (the Skunk) (previous behavior of this, as in "Stop Orders and do what you usually do"
-> Withdraw Battle
-> Patrol Zone (without timeout)
note: these Commands (and Category) is intended for Target-Independent Commands - it still lists the total count of Targets found for error reports though ^^

PS @VR sorry, didnt look into your "customized" version of HR yet - was busy with implementing the Xenon Invasion i descripted in the XR Uni Forums.. bus since i am a bit lost there now i will look into it tomorrow
about Yisha i am not entirely sure.. currently makes far more problems than it is useful, so i think i will leave that part out in the inital Version

[Vim Razz]

PS @VR sorry, didnt look into your "customized" version of HR yet - was busy with implementing the Xenon Invasion i descripted in the XR Uni Forums.. bus since i am a bit lost there now i will look into it tomorrow

No hurry, I'm pretty much done with it for the time being. I've got plenty of my own stuff to deal with while you figure out where you want to take things.

It's not a customized version of HR, though, it's a suggested dialog framework for disembarked crew that leaves a lot of flexibility open for developing things in any number of direction, or not.

I also structured it for broad mod compatibility and included a mechanism for "reserving" spaces on the Skunk so that it doesn't get overfilled while the crew is disembarked.

"v2" just hits a few points that had been nagging me in the initial test build -- tightening up the main cue trigger and getting Yisha back onboard when taking off.

about Yisha i am not entirely sure.. currently makes far more problems than it is useful, so i think i will leave that part out in the inital Version

While it's fun to talk to her, this is true. I managed to get her back onboard the Skunk with working function with the legacy main menus, it breaks the sidebar menus for some reason...

Having a "clone" Yisha run around the platform with a custom dialog might still be a more viable approach.

[Cyb3rNinja]

I have an bug report for your new version, instead of a follow and an attack command, i get now "withdraw from battle" twice listed in the commands when targeting an enemy. It's kind of confusing since the command actually still works in it's former way, it's just called "withdraw from battle".

[UniTrader]

thanks for the quick report - i made some mistakes when migrating the text from the script files to the t-files.. was probably too late for noticing this when i tested it.. fixed™