Random Contacts
 

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO DOWNLOAD THE FLEET MOD
Edit: Updated to version .04

There are quite a few important files that you must go through in order to understand this script. These are the Randomcontacts.script, the create_flight_2.script, and the activate.script (located in each and every sector)

The Randomcontacts.script is highly interwoven with the create_flight_2.script, so if I say something without elaborating, chances are I am talking something in create_flight_2.

I have been doing a lot of researching of Random contacts as of late. My first initial expeirments consisted of merely doubling the number of random contacts (in order to better understand how they work) and adding KFNI patrols in certain MSF Systems. Both of these experiments have been successes (Well, adding the KFNI did not produce the desired results, oh well), and my study of the Randomcontacts script has yielded results.

Random contacts are -always- fighters, there is not even infestructure set in place for random contact bombers or capital ships (Although it should not be too difficult to set up). The only exception to the rule is trader flights, which consist of mixed capital ships (transports) and fighters.

Random contacts also have a 'strength' modifier. The strength modifier is different from the power modifier, in that it goes through a special script that generates a random number from the strength modifier, which than becomes the power modifier. The degree of randomization can be anywhere from Strength minus 4, to Strength plus 3. So a Random contact with a strength of 17 can generate flights with power levels as high as 20, and as low as 13.

Another thing that is important is Portals. Each randomcontact has a list of portals that they will enter and exit. They will ignore all other portals.

When Random contacts enter a sector, they have a specific set of waypoints that they must follow, and once they reach all the waypoints, they will than head to a portal and exit the sector.

Finally, there is a probability modifier. To better understand this, one must go to this little tidbit:
StartRandomContacts(80, 60);

All sectors with random contacts have this. It basically tells the random contacts to start. The first number is the initial interval, in which case, the game will wait 80 seconds before triggering the first spawn of random contacts.

The second number is all intervals after that. After the initial 80 seconds, it will call a spawn every 60 seconds. The 'probability' part of each registered random contact is the probability of that random contact spawning.

I know this might seem like cutting it short, but it is all I have for now. I have several goals I am considering going after, including:

1: Adding military convoys. These transport convoys will be carrying mainly weapons, equipment, and ships. Probably the easiest, since I can use the Trader code as a guideline.

2: Adding fleets.

3: Adding more conflict.

playing the second time,
run into a 5k hunting mission in the first session,
and a 10k hunting mission this time

in general, this piece of universi is tooooo quiet, is there any way to make a lot of noises(conversions) out of docking direction, rejection and confirmation; discover of enemy; call for help; priate's demand; and so on?

i do love to have a much more interactive space.

Can I get the actions? Yeah. But the dialogue on top of that? Nope. All of the dialogue files seems to be under some kind of wierd encryption that I do not understand. It seems to be hex-based, but directly converting it to ascii has gone nowhere for me.

Dialog files that use coding have header "FILETYPE DYNAMIC". If you change it to "FILETYPE STANDART" you can write plain text messages. Of course, if you change existing coded dialog to STANDART you must copy all dialog options from the game and retype them, otherwise, you will see that strange sequences of signs in the game . That's why I've made new dialog files for my motherships buying script.

New header "FILETYPE MODDING" will help you ;)


"FILETYPE STANDART" wouldn't work properly with "active dialogs" tasks

Thanks a lot! I was thinking why some of the dialogs work but others not. I wonder if you know another useful tricks?

so there is no way to add some sound file to make the space more "human"?

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6814/starwolves7.jpg

Well, Mediocre success. I managed to fully impliment Pirate military convoys, however, my original plan called for the military convoys to be divided into four tiers, starting off with the rookie stuff and eventually ending with very high-quality gear (well, for pirates), with the level of escort determined by the quality of the goods inside the transports.

However, RandomContacts really, really, -really- dislikes tiered systems, and unless I modify large sections of randomcontacts.script (which I am not comfortable enough with Lua to do). On top of this, I had difficulty getting any of my scripts to work properly. They would properly add modules to a ship's inventory, but for some odd reason they would not add ships despite having the correct function.

I eventually gave up, and decided to modify the already-existing FillTraderSimple function to my needs. It works, quite well actually, but it means that the tiered system I originally planned for is gone (Although it works with randomcontacts now), thus all Pirate convoys are rather heavily guarded with Third and Fourth generation ships.

The only thing that is left is to clean up the mess I made a little, and impliment convoy fleets for all the major factions, and than modify all the location scripts so that they spawn.

So far, I only plan on introducing USS, Triada, Inoco, Patrol, Pirate, Old Empire, and New Empire convoy fleets (the remaining factions are too small to bother with). Convoys will be heavily defended, Pirate and Patrol convoys will have mainly third and fourth generation ships (mainly because neither faction has any fifth generation ships), while the rest will have fourth and fifth generation ships guarding them (corporates would be more fourth-generation heavy, while both Old and New Empires would be heavier on fifth generation). Loot inside the transports is randomized, and can be anywhere from First generation to fifth generation, weapons are randomized the same way.

Convoys will be mainly located in systems where the faction in question has a strong presence, mainly to prevent the situation of free loot coming about because an MSF fleet stumbled upon a New Empire convoy.

Ultimately, the reason why I implimented them is that I wanted to give the player more ways to acquire fighter hulls other than either buying them, or attacking a faction's warehouse for them. If you do not like a faction, you are free to whack their convoys for free ships and loot, and even law-abiding neutral citizens can join in the fun by whacking pirate convoys (Although Pirates and Imperial Patrols generally have lesser loot, you wont ever find any fifth generation ships)...

I am considering adding an SOS system for Military convoys, but that might be thinking too far ahead.

what tricks do you want to know? ;)

explain yourself please :)

that is, to find a way adding radio comm sound file to docking procedure
say, if ok, u will hear a vioce "please go to docking bay 7"
if not, then u might hear "docking request denied", or what ever it suits the situation.

:rolleyes:

the internal code doesn't have such possibilities for now

I just completed implimentation of the Military convoys. They can only be found in secure sectors (although a few iffy sectors have Patrol/Pirate convoys), and have approximately a 20% chance to spawn. Patrol convoys may spawn in some MSF-dominated systems, but with only a 10% chance. Pirate convoys may spawn in some Triada-dominated systems, but also with only a 10% chance. Convoys are mostly the same, having very heavy escorts.

In addition, I also made most stations in the universe indestructable. This is to solve issues with stations accumlating damage because of ship AIs (Random spawns, usually, although a few systems like Kruger even the normal spawns have this issue) colliding with them and causing them to slowly accumulate damage (as there is no way to repair stations, and stations themselves do not have self-repair) as they are collided with again and again.

Although I may replace the indestructable code with code that instead sets the HP of all alive stations in a sector to 100% every time you enter a system. This would solve the issue as well, and still allow you to blow up stations, but considering blowing up most stations produces no tangible award, it is kinda pointless (and I am not that good at lua, the more complex the code the more likely I will screw it up).

Cargo Containers are still destructable though, but they are largely exempt from the original issue since AI ships never get close to them.

You can easily add sound nearly anywhere you want. You need only this line

Is nobody interested in random contacts? :(

What these convoys do except bringing more life to the space. They give missions or something?

You can kill them for fighters and weapons.

wow!!!
in which file?
and what does position mean? is it only triggered by position?

It's not the same thing ;)

the same as what?

you place "wav" file in the ..\Data\SOUND folder.
position is the source of the sound e.g.:
will make horning mothership at max volume :grin:. You have to place it in the right function or create own trigger to activate it.

if you want to add this to trade station dialog you can search dockstation.script for function: "__TradeStationDock_Ok". This function is executed when you click "V" when asked for docking. Function should look like this:

As example I've added horn3_2.wav that exists in the sound folder

for "X" there is function:
between these two lines you can add another sound.

I don't know why but FILETYPE MODDING doesn't work at all for me. It gives "unknown file type MODDING" in the log.

wait for 1.12

Are you from dev team? Do you know something more about upcoming patch?

Just got done doing some playtesting... the convoys are very strong, and their loot fairly reasonable. My early-game group of Ternie, my main character, and the Mastiff can barely take down a Pirate convoy, and this is with my Mastiff equipped with Kali, Smog, and Tungsten as well as a single Helios turret and a Vindicator turret (Yay for Paymaster's loot!), my fighters were first generation excaliburs equipped with third generation equipment (Stronghold, Squall, and Avenger cannon). The Pirate convoy was very difficult to deal with none the less, and required a lot of luck and quite a few retries in order to finally take down.

Killed about 3 convoys, from the first convoy I got two Pirate Yaris, a bit dissapointing considering the difficulty... from the second convoy I got a Naginata and a Cleaner, also somewhat dissapointing but at least the Cleaner was an improvement on the Excaliburs I was using. From the third convoy I got a Black Stormcrow and a Gunslinger.

Other than the ships, I got nothing really noteworthy, a lot of vendor food (containers) and a LOT of S-32 Hellstorm rockets.

Overall, the difficulty and the loot seem very balanced, with even pirate convoys (being the weakest as they lack fifth generation fighters and generally are poorly equipped) being quite a challenge.

If any of you guys want, I can post the mod.

What are you waiting for? Give us the link.:)

This should contain everything it needs to work, on top of adding convoys it also makes all stations in the universe indestructable (except those that have to be destroyed for plot/objective purposes). The reasoning for this is that, for one, theres not much reason to destroy stations anyway, and the second reason is that stations have a tendancy to accumulate damage, that cannot be repaired, due to AI colliding with them.

In addition, it also doubles the rate of spawning in the universe, and fixes some bugged spawns.

it's minor update
some mission bugfixed
modding option unlocked (filetype modding)

busy dis week, will try later
thanks anyway:cool:

Yeah! I've managed to avoid this problem. The solution is simple. You can place your "loc" files in the main ..\LocData\English folder. All files there have "FILETYPE STANDART" header so your new file won't mess up the whole folder. It works there even it's not right place (mine should be in the Trade folder). This folder holds core loc files so I think all files there are executed at the start of the game.
At last I've got clear log.:-)

There are many ways to "avoid problem" :grin:

You can place all your loc-files in English folder
You can place all your text in ONE loc file
But all methods have their own issues


And you have tried this method?;)

"ONE loc file". Which one? Any special?
Could you tell more about these issues? I've got clear log so I assumed that's all right.

Yes. I've tried. It works and gives clear log (I try to be serious when advising someone). I'm not so much interested in this so I haven't made more tests. I feel you have something to say about this, don't you? ;)

No, not special. Simple "loc" with all dialogs placed in one file
Dialogs aren't working properly, sometimes players answers are played as npc answres and vice versa


Yes, i have something to say ;) Your script isn't work properly. Activating docking procedures disabled wav file executing

I've just checked and you are wrong. Docking at station doesn't stop wav file playing. Playing second wav file doesn't stop first too. I can't see why my script isn't working properly. It does exactly what I've expected.

Thx a lot Nanaki, Random contact with major fleet was something which was lacking in the game !

A bit of an update...

I have been studying the modded fleet random contacts script of the RealSW2 mod, All in all there is about 150 kilobytes worth of code, and unfortunately getting it to work with SW3 will not be easy, if possible at all. I studied the code a lot, and there are a lot of differences between it and similar SW3 code. Creating a hybrid of that and similar SW3 might be possible, but is far beyond my capabilities in lua.

The more I think about it, the more I am thinking I should tackle this problem in a different direction. Instead of trying to adapt a modded SW2 script to work with SW3, I think it would be easier to simply modify existing SW3 script.

Aww
 

I'm very interested in where you're going with this Nanaki, I even stopped trolling and registered to dl your mod =)

Lately I have been experimenting with number randomization and using them in createflight scripts. The results are encouraging.

The only thing left is to figure out how to properly spawn and delete escorts. Spawning them and giving them orders is easy enough. The hard part is getting them to recognize that the parent ship is despawned (after passing through a jumpgate) and despawning along with it.

Unfortunately, with the way I plan things out, if the parent capital ship is destroyed (and not despawned), the escort ships will permanently stick around in the sector. There is no way to avoid this, as the only alternative is even worse: Ships despawning the instant the mothership dies.

You probably tried "died" and "f_died" triggers so what about despawning them simple by trigger when they are near the gate (while before escorted object jump). just an idea.

What you really want them to do when the escorted ship is destroyed?

My current thinking is taking it along the lines of, when the mothership jumps, it will return a 'True' condition to the triggers of the escorts, causing them to jump as well.

I have not written the script yet, though. I spent most of yesterday doing additional experiments with specials.script.

If the mothership dies, the escort Fighters will stick around until after the battle is finished (no more enemies on the scanner), than jump out.

Yes, that's tricky. SetAllDied function needs all flights to be called by name but you don't know which flight the escort will meet. Now the only idea is time trigger like about 5 mins after escorted ship died all remaining escort goes out. It should be more than enough to end the battle. Not really a solution but still better than instant despawn or infinite hanging in space.

Infinite hanging in space is probably not all that bad, it already occurs with trader fleets/Convoy fleets that lose their mothership, usually the remaining escorts are destroyed by other random contacts.

True, and unless you can't manage to kill escorts within 5 mins then it means that you're running away!

Either way, once the host ship is killed either the escorts win or they have to rabbit... 5 mins is more than enough to see if a conflict is going your way, however I wonder at a random variable being introduced that might call for convoy-specific faction re-enforcements.... somewhat like ternie's call for precursors but occurs on a random 1-10 chance of the convoy host despawning/destroyed?

Any further progress nanaki?

I tried actually implimenting the script, and it ended up being a total failure. I cannot figure out why even a basic flight spawn script fails to spawn anything whatsoever. Logs are telling me nothing, so I have no clue why its not working.

At this point, I am very close to just giving up on the whole thing.

local escort1 = NewNavyFlight(groupName, "escort1_"..__formation_number, currentContact[3][portalStartIndex]:GetEntryPoint(10), 1, 6, currentContact[3][portalStartIndex]:GetOrientation());
local mainship;
mainship = getglobal("flight_randomformation_"..__formation_n umber);
local _pilot = mainship:GetPilotByNumber(1);
local _ship = _pilot:GetShip();
escort1:Escort(_ship);

This was directly inserted into the trigger generator function.

This is the most simplified script that generates no errors. This is -supposed- to spawn a Old Empire flight with every random contact, and escort the flight it spawns with. However, when I actually go in-game, nothing happens.

It's really hard to say anything. Looks like some tables are involved too. IMO If it works in SW2 you should start modifying there until you understand every part of the script.

I do not have SW2 installed.

I understand every part of the script, the Table is the randomcontacts list, which is stored in Randomcontacts.script and used multiple times in the function I modified (Check it out for yourself, look at the trigger_generator_Action function)

I inserted the code between
local flight = currentFunction(groupName, "randomformation_"..__formation_number, currentContact[3][portalStartIndex]:GetEntryPoint(10), strength, currentContact[3][portalStartIndex]:GetOrientation());

- This spawns the random contact.

and
__formation_number = __formation_number + 1;

- This adds 1 to the formation number (Each spawned random conctact will be named like Flight_Randomformation_1, Flight_Randomformation_2, etc. etc. etc.)

No reason why it should not work. None.

For higher purposes uncle Torrent can help you.;)
I don't want to be rude or something but if this script is supposed to work but you can't managed it to work - you don't understand all of it. The engine has been changed (SW2/SW3) so it can handle same functions different way (guess work only). Maybe it collides with other flights in the system. Try to make your own blank system and add part by part. I think SW2 will be really helpful.
---- EDIT----
Hmm... the whole problem just get me interested. One thing I've found - your inserted code has the same variables names as are used for TRADER_FLIGHT (near the end of this function). This may effect with no escort and even no trader flights. IMO you should avoid using the same variables names for different purposes in the same function.

I own the game from Steam, just I do not have it installed.

I cannot see how SW2 will be useful when I never modded anything on it.

Tried changing variable names, still does not work.

--EDIT--

*HEADDESK*

MY SCRIPT WAS WORKING THIS ENTIRE TIME.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5411/starwolves8.jpg

I edited the Tug the player gets in the beginning to have 100000 Sensor length (basically, the whole map) and 0.2 Sensor resolution. I figured that would be enough to detect anything.

Nope. Had to change sensor resolution to 0.0 for it to properly detect the escorts spawning becide the random contacts.

You are wrong:-P Some functions are added and none of them removed:) It's possible to remove all new optimized functions and copy old sw2 functions to have 95% working version of SW2 on more stable sw3 engine

At last good news:) Congratulations Nanaki.

Let me know one thing - Is it possible to have 2 pilots in mothership like in SW2? and how?

Grats nanaki, good idea with the tug; excellent debugging tool!

It's not possible at all. This functionality was remove. But are we speaking about engine or scripting ? ;)

Well, now I have to figure out how to do the despawn script. Unfortunately, I have not the foggiest idea on where to start. I have been trying different ideas but all of them have failed so far.

Basically, I need the escort ships to despawn whenever the primary capital ship passes through a gate. The hardest part is making sure im despawning the correct escorts. My current attempt is focusing upon naming escort ships the exact same names as their parent ships, and adding an _escort1, _escort2, etc. etc. etc. at the end. Then, when the script is called to delete that random contact, it would also call deletion scripts for its escorts:

function trigger_inside2portal_Action()
--SLOG("Action done....");
local myTriggerContext = GetTriggerContext();
local flight = myTriggerContext:GetFlight();
flight:Delete();

local escort1 = flight.."_escort1"
escort1:Delete();
end;

Only problem was, it spat out an error:
[ScriptSystem] error: attempt to concat local `flight' (a table value)

So the triggers use tables? Getting data out of it is going to be harder than I thought, it seems.

Thanks for the answer but I'm afraid this discussion will get us nowhere. Let's make it clear: You are generally right. The SW3 engine was changed but it can handle all functions the same way as previous SW2 engine.

Your answer has encouraged me to check the whole thing. I've been thinking - IMPOSSIBLE?? I CAN DO IMPOSSIBLE;)). Short story - I have Brina and KT back with two perk trees combined. I can even tech them new perks. It's better - I can teach any AI new perks. It's a little tricky. Because AIs can't gain skill points they use points stored by one of your other pilots. When one of your pilot has gained enough exp you go to my maintenance station shop and buy a perk. Nice and simple. The only problem is that you have to keep track of all bought perks somewhere outside PC (you can't see AI perk tree). I'm just testing it. Script needs some polishing.

Update:
Script is now fully operational. It properly spawns capital ships, their escorts, and properly despawns them as soon as they hit the jumpgate. It can spawn anywhere from one to four escort flights (two and one being the most common). Power has no effect on how many escorts spawn (so even a cap flight of a power level of 1 can have 4 escort flights... that is a lot of brigands)

Escort flights are random in power (although they do have an upper and lower cap, dependant on the Strength level of the randomcontact), and have a 66% chance of being a fighter flight, and a 33% chance of being a bomber flight.

After I finish making sure the script has no bugs, and perhaps cleaning it up a bit, I am likely going to revamp the ship spawning script, specifically the capital ship tables. As it is, almost half of the capital ships spawned in the table are freighters, and a freighter leading a fleet to the front lines is not really appropriate.

Update:
The mod is mostly finished. I modified most of the location files and added fleets, convoys, and flights to many of them. Many of these random contacts also have additional waypoints, which means they will loiter in a system longer and visit more places. Certain randomcontacts in certain systems had broken waypoints, so that was fixed as well.

So far, in most systems, flights have a 50% chance to spawn every time it runs the script (varies by system, usually 60 seconds), Fleets and Convoys both have a 10% chance to spawn. Pirates in the Triada systems have a mostly 25% chance of spawning a flight, and a 5% chance of spawning a fleet/convoy, so caution is recommended when travelling in Triada systems.

My Convoy script was gutted and redone to be exactly like the Fleets, except that they have 2-3 escort flights as opposed to 1-4 escort flights. Convoy flights are easier to poach, but the added fleets make gate camping risky and forward reconnassiance a must, since you have no idea weither a convoy is going to come out of a gate, or a very angry fleet consisting of a capital ship and four flights of fighters.

Overall, the only thing that is left is making changes to capital ship loadouts (such as equipping GKGuns to Pirate motherships) and testing the mod.

Update2: It seems like something broke... escorts are not spawning anymore.

I agree, space is entirely too damn quiet for a war to be going on - this mod sounds freaking awesome but is it still giving you trouble? I noticed that the convoy mod you posted a couple posts back is larger than the fleetmodbeta attachment.

The fleetmodbeta attachment was meant for other people to look at to see if they can fix the issue, unfortunately im just not good enough with Lua to fix it myself. It only comes with the barebones script and does not completely work on its own (it is missing the randomcontact entries for the convoys and fleets). I did complete the work on the location files, but I figure theres no point in distributing a full version of the mod until I (or someone else) figures out how to fix this very serious bug that the mod has.

The issue lies with the GetRandomPortalIndexes function, listed below:
The script works fine as long as portalCount does not equal 1. However, if Portalcount equals one, the despawn script for the flight's escorts prematurely triggers, which results in a capital ship's escorts despawning literally milliseconds after they spawn. Thus while this script works perfectly in certain systems (especially with multiple jumpgates), all capital ship spawns that are limited to only one jumpgate will spawn with no escorts whatsoever.

Here is the despawn trigger below:

It annoys me because I know what the problem is, but I have not the foggiest idea how to fix it.

Nanaki
i need this mod !!!!
do anything what u cn becouse is a little to quiet in space
good luck with modding

Nanaki, if I understand correctly, GetRandomPortalIndexes is to set a destination portal for a convoy/fleet? So in a system with only 1 portal, the destination portal = start portal, right?

I think the problem is when the fleet spawns it also runs through the "are we at the destination portal yet?" check, so it despawns immediately. We need a way of telling the fleet to NOT check for destination until it's reached at least 1 waypoint.

The problem is that Triggers are the only way to have code remain with ships persistently... SW triggers are really limited in what they can do. The only decent solution I have come up with so far involves attaching a timer trigger to the despawn trigger, where it will only activate after 60-120 seconds. Now, if the spawned fleet hangs around the gate for longer than that for whatever reason (fighting, traffic, etc) then it will still bug out, but considering that is mostly rare for the most part, it will definatly reduce the issue to a minimum. Wont eliminate it entirely though, im afraid.

So no flags to check whether they've moved at least 1 waypoint before triggering the despawn?

Oh well, a timer is fine too. The only issue I see is if the spawn is hostile; when the player portals in and fights them, they'll despawn in mid-battle when the timer is finished, right?

Nope. Triggers are rather limited on what they can and cannot do.

That is correct. As I said, its not a perfect solution, but its the best one that I can do given the limited knowlege and tools at my disposal.

Is any way to incrase numbers of fighters in pirates patrol
i ask becouse fights are to easy even when i take hard difficult
max what i saw was 5 fighters
is any way to make 10 fighters patrols without complicated script modding?

Every sector has his own activate.script. You can find there lines like this:
NewPirateFlight("PiratesGroup_1", "pir01", Vector3(0, -10, 0), 1, 14, Vector3(3, 0, 1));
"14" stays for quantity and quality of fighters being spawned. It's further modified by difficulty level. You can choose value between 1 and 20. Without modifying tables you won't get more than 6 ships in a group.

Inside RandomContacts.script you can find:
local strength = ComputeRandomInvervalValue(power-4, power+3);
change this line to:
local strength = 20;
and randomly spawned groups will always have max power.

six is better than five but what file i have to lookin for to make this changes?

im quite dummy with scripting

just try to find "activate.script" or "randomcontacts.script" file inside SW3 folder. When you will find these files just open it and search for the lines (given in my previous post).

thank u Goblin Wizard

now i have a little more fun :)

Huge Success.

I fixed the problem. Switching the trigger over to a timer trigger was trickier than I had originally expected, but it works like a charm. One thing I do recommend, however, is to not engage fleets near portals. Luckily, I set up the spawns so that NPCs usually will not fight eachother near gates, and most of the fighting (If there is any fighting) occurs in the middle of the sector or at mission-critical spots.

The only thing thats left is to finish setting up the spawns for the Debris cluster, and I am going to test this script some more and make sure no other nasty suprises come at me.

Nice, really nice. How big are the randomly spawned groups? From my experience any group that have more than 6 ships acts really strange. Looks like game engine has fixed group size to max 6 ships.

You must mean flights, and no, no flight has more than 6 fighters assigned to them. Rather than assign all ships to one flight, like I did in my original Convoy mod, I am using triggers to spawn multiple flights to escort a central ship. These escorts are escorting either a capital ship (in the case of fleets) or a transport (in the case of convoys).

The size of the group depends on what the random generator spits out. Fleets can have anywhere from one to four escort flights. Convoys have 2-3 escort flights. Each escort flight has anywhere from 3-6 ships. So you can have a fleet with 25 ships total max. Although fleets with 1 or 4 escort flights are rather rare, 2 and 3 are more common numbers, which you will usually have roughly 10-15 ships.

Fleets can be found in many places, although convoys can only be found in systems where they are not likely to be destroyed by other random contacts. Certain systems are specifically designed to have the potential for opposing fleets to fight eachother.

Currently, both fleets and convoys are very rare, with a roughly 10% chance to spawn with each spawn check.

By the way, im reading Starrover.ru, I noticed you asked about specials.script, why didnt you ask me? I can help you with anything regarding that script. Would love to register to starrover.ru, but for some reason I am not getting the confirmation email.

I figured out most of things by myself but I was curious if they know any more details.
Do not change forum language to English during registration. You have to do all in russian layout. If this won't help send email to admin. He can register you manually. Just send him your desired login, pass and email. If he won't respond to mails let me know.

Or I could just give you my copy of the Specials.script, I used it to prototype many ideas I had for the Randomcontacts script, as well as doing many other things, such as:

1: Spawning fleets as opposed to single flights.
2: Randomizing the power and type flights spawn at.
3: Adding additional spawn abilities without altering previous abilities
4: Randomizing the faction flights spawn as.

Sure. Send me a pm. I'll be very happy to see some new ideas. Thanks.

Well, I just started testing under normal conditions again. I just watched a Pirate Fleet consisting of a heavily armed Mastiff (including GK Guns) along with four pirate fighter flights enter Torr and rip apart numerous NESF Squadrons stationed around the sector. Unfortunately I could not engage them myself, I only had the Hero, Ternie, and my poorly equipped Mothership. It was brutal, and unfortuantely for the NESF none of their fleets were around to stop the pirate rampage.

As far as the specials.script, here you go. I do not recommend using it in your mod, though, since it needs other files as well in order to work properly.

it this mean that mod random contacts is almost ready?

im so happy

how long it take to prepare ready mod for us simple people??

No idea. I would like to test through it some more, make sure no other serious issues crop up.

Edit:
Things are certainly better. However, two issues have cropped up.

1: Certain transport ships, Pirate Walruses to be specific, are faster than their escorts. This results in significant pathing issues and balance issues (it is very easy to kill a transport when its escorts are a mile behind it...). Best way to fix this would be to slow Pirate Walruses down.

2: Traders. Poor, poor traders. With all the firepower being thrown around between various factions, I have mostly left traders alone, which has resulted in their 2-4 fighter escorts looking woefully undergunned. This results in traders seldom ever reaching their destinations, and tradeship wrecks strewn across the sector.

I'm just reading your Specials.script and have questions:

1. Originally there are 3 types of global variables local_num and init_team (local_num, local_num1, local_num2). I've tried add local_num3 and got error (in line "local_num3 = local_num3 + 1;". You have this local_num3 and init_team3 in one of your functions. Is there any trick involved to get these to work?

2. What about level of summon perks? How to avoid disappearing lower level perks when get higher of the same type?

3. Every flight has two triggers that look nearly the same. What are their roles? First deletes flight when ... all enemies will be dead? But second?

You have to define them at the beginning of the function, like so:
local_num3 = 0;
init_team3 = 0;

Not possible. Each pilot can only have a maximum of 4 seperate summon perks (by using different levels of the four current perks). I attempted to add additional summoning perks a long time ago, but I found out the XML Schema files are hardcoded in the exe, so that is not possible either.

One deletes the summoned flight, the other creates the portal glow special effects used when the summoned flight is deleted.

to be honest i found 114 files wit that name activate.scrpit
have i change them all???

Change these which sectors you want to have better pirate flights. If you want all you have to change every file.

Okay, I refined my mod a bit.

Escort Flights, when approaching within 120 meters of the portal, will automatically fly towards the middle of the portal. When they fly within 10 meters, they will be removed. This is mainly a visual and balance improvement, as before they would be automatically removed within 120 meters, which made it easy to ambush a convoy at the portal.

Trader flights no longer have their built in escorts of 1-4 fighters. Instead they will have escort flights similer to the Convoy and Fleet scripts. As of now, they have 1 to 2 escort flights. I also disabled the SOS Command, as it is no longer necessary.

Pirate Walruses now move much slower, in order to remove the problem of these ships outrunning their escorts.

More testing will need to be done to see how these new changes would work. If the tests confirm these functions work, the mod will be packaged and released to you guys.

Here it is, the first official release of the fleetmod. Like all mods, I highly recommend you backup your Scripts and Game folders (in your SW3 directory) before installing this mod.

My mod is, in its default form, is not compatable with Goblin Wizard's mod. However, the only conflicting file is Carcasses.xml. The only changes I made to Carcasses was editing the Pirate Walrus, and adding the Azure Stormcrow (stormcrow_mk3), so with a little editing you should be able to make our mods compatable with eachother.

DO NOT download and use Convoy mod anymore, as Fleet Mod improves on everything Convoy Mod has done.

Edit: I just realized I kinda screwed up, I forgot to include the english locdata file necessary to properly see the Azure Stormcrow's name and description...

it means that i have to not copy carcasses file from ur mod and only copy goblin wizards mod instead with rest of ur files and should be compatible together????

or we have to wait till u or goblin wizard make them compatible

im not strong enough with scripting thats why i asking u guys

Both our mods require the appropriate carcasses entries in order to work, mine because of the Azure Stormcrow and the Pirate Walrus changes, his because of the Raven, Mataris, Bastard, and Scolm he implimented from SW2.

The changes take five seconds to do, but ill upload the zip anyway. Also uploaded is the missing locdata from the original zip.

Download GoblinCompatable ONLY if you plan on using Goblin's Mothership Mod, and extract the file to your Game folder.

Everyone who downloads Fleet Mod should download Locdata.zip regardless of weither you plan on using Goblin's Mod or not, extract the contents into your locdata directory. Make sure you back up your locdata folder first.

im just finish a little tes and is so happy becouse space is not empty

after few combats with pirate fleets i can say GREAT WORK NANAKI

thank u

now i have to wait for improwed gui by goblin wizard and this fantastic game take lots of my time again

thank u again Nanaki

Hello Rastix, do you have any other information on version 1.12?

Was just revisiting some older posts when this reminded me of a side project, adding "locking on target" beeps to missile launches (I played too much Wing Commander when I was young, lol). Not priority though, I haven't found appropriate sound yet. Space is still too quiet.

Edit:
Just realised entries in Rockets.xml have <work_sound> tags. This is a bit odd, as the explosion sound is in the explosion script (need to read through the whole chain of files, it's in the last one iirc) -- so I'm not sure what the work_sound tag is for. Then I saw that Carcasses.xml also uses work_sound tags for some ships' engine sounds. So I'm guessing those tags missiles use is for when the missiles are in flight.

-
Guys, do you know the difference between text that activates the conversation screen (press "L") and text that just appears on top of the screen? It's not easy to explain, I'll show pictures. Screenshot #1 shows conversation screen dialog - I believe the game is paused at this time. Screenshot #2 shows "chatter" - it stays on top of the screen for a few seconds before disappearing, it doesn't take any input from the player, and it doesn't make the conversation screen pop down.

I was wondering whether it's possible to attach triggers to a flight so that, when you come within range, some "chatter" text will display. (Not worrying about sound yet, just trying to see if making chatter appear is possible.)

If making chatter text is possible then I volunteer to find enough text to put in. Heck, if we can find out the relationship / disposition of that flight's faction to the player we can vary the kind of chatter as well (friend greetings, neutral greetings, tell to get lost, etc).

For example function StartDialog("Dialog_file_name") activates conversation.
function pilot:Message("#string_name") just displays text window with pilot face on the left.

All you said is possible. The problem is that trigger reacts only on certain object. Trigger function checks object by id/name. You have to know the object id to set the trigger. You can't make trigger like "if an object in the area is frindly - say this, if hostile say that."
To get it works, you need to redone all flights creation scripts. Every newly created flight (id) has to be added to the dynamic table. Instead of one object the trigger will check the whole table. It's a lot of work. You will have to change every loacation script and all quests.

Oh, only wanted them to "chatter" to player, not to each other -- that would be nice but too much work. Hmm, ID... for the player that would be the mothership right? That's how quests seem to trigger - if you fly to the target area with a fighter nothing happens.

Little things like traders greeting you, pirates telling you to stay out of their way, mercenaries bragging how much they made in the last job, the MSF warning you not to idle around busy flight lanes. If cannot detect relationship (friendly/neutral/etc) is ok, simply stick to using neutral greetings.

You can detect relationship by GetTeamRelation() function.
If you only want other ships say something to you (mothership) it's easy. You attach trigger to certain flight which activates when near mothership.
My explanation was about situation when you want to attach trigger to mothership which activates when near other ship. This is much harder.

In fact this is already in-game and used with the Trader random contacts.

Yes, exactly. I just want other ships to say something when the mothership comes within range. Can this text be chosen randomly from a list? I haven't really looked at this part of scripts.

It's delay due some minor additional tweaks

I'm feeling sufficiently annoyed with my frustrations on the other scripts to take a break and tackle these instead. However, I haven't looked at missions at all so I'll need some starting clues:

1) \Data\Scripts\Quests\mission_1\ seems like the first place to look, yes? The Dialog files also seem to correspond to the conversations which happen at the start of the game. However... why is there a huge 85kb script ReturnHero.script inside mission_1 folder?

2) Even though the scripts are in that folder, the text appears to be in a different path altogether, \Data\LocData\English\Quests\mission_1\. I can match the various start_message_name (in the script xml) to the corresponding L_D1_msg/ans# (in the FILETYPE DYNAMIC dialog loc). This is correct, yes?

The encoding probably won't be simple but after a few comparisons we'll know. But even if we can't decode them, I'll just try replacing the loc files with custom written FILETYPE STANDART using plaintext and see if it works.

Edit:
There's a chance that will not work, however, according to the German modder Tech who posted at the Elite-Games forum about 3 years ago. Looks like he was trying to mod SW2.

Update:
Well call me Cirno's uncle, that was unexpectedly easy. I decided to forgo deciphering the text first (mainly because each line of dialog was crammed onto one line, like 1,300+ characters) and simply do the FILETYPE STANDART replacement test (screenshot 2). Looks like it worked (screenshot 1).

For reference, this is the original line:
#L_D1_msg00=755C292929292828285C2929285D285B285C2C 5A2C2D2929292F282C285C292E292D285B292F29292C5C2C2D 2B292928292F285C2C2D285B282B282B2C2D295D285B292829 2F2C2D2828285C282A285D285C2828292E2C2D282C285C2829 2C2D292D292F2828292D282C292F28282C2D282B285B292F2C 2D2828295E282C2859285D285C282C2929285D285B285C2C5C 5A5C5A2F592F292C656E0B07
(There aren't supposed to be any blank space in that gunk, I think the forum inserts them to avoid breaking the display.)

That translates into "Attention, transport. Turn off your engines and prepare for examination."

encoded: 312 characters
decoded: 72 characters

Well, didn't say it was gonna be easy. Any crypto guys here feel like taking a crack at this? :D

Tracking down the pilot was easy. Dialog xml file gives <pilot_name>, which you look up in \Data\Game\Pilots.xml, which points to a string in \Data\LocData\English\m_pilots.loc.

In this guy's case, just match the blue stuff:
1) Dialog.xml: <pilot_name> --> VksOfficer
2) Pilots.xml: <GamePilot name="VksOfficer">; and callsign --> #M_pilot_Name_VksOfficer
3) m_pilots.loc: #M_pilot_Name_VksOfficer = MSF lieutenant (whom I renamed, as seen in the screenshot)

The pilot's icon, perks, and all other crap are in Pilots.xml so if you feel like changing more stuff it's all in there.

Changing perk trees is a helluva rollercoaster, considering that you have to also edit pilotdefinitions.script as well as the texture file for the Pilot perks. Although I did make a perk tree with practically every perk in the game on it.

You can also change the pilot face icon for the pilot perks.

This is actually true. Not only active dialogs are affected. It's hard to explain because not each dialog is displayed wrong. From time to time you'll see "#string_name String not found".

Hmm, the definitions are in \Data\Scripts\include\PilotProperties.script, you mean, not "pilotdefinitions.script"? couldn't find that.

I understand what you mean about the UI. \Data\TEXTURE\Interface\Pilot\PerkTree\ pretty much tells me each pilot has to have their own graphic, and the .ini file to show which perk slot goes where.

But this doesn't tell us the prerequisites perks, right? E.g. to learn skill X, skill Y must be learned first <-- where is this determined?
Edit:
Hmm, is it those ugly properties_<pilot name> = { ... } structures inside PilotProperties.script? That does look likely but I don't understand the { numbers } stuff. Wait, I think I got it... the number is the perk's cost in exp points, then anything following that in the nested {} are the prerequisites. Ok, I think I understand.

Yeah, I must have been half-asleep when I originally typed that.

Pilotproperties.script.

Lets grab an example.

F_Weapon_Laser = {50,{"Gunnery_2"},{"F_Weapon_HC","F_Weapon_AC"}},

F_weapon_Laser is the perk.
50 is the amount of skill points required to purchase the perk.
{"Gunnery_2"} is the skill required to purchase the perk. You can have multiple pre-requisites.
{"F_Weapon_HC","F_Weapon_AC"} is rarely used in most perks (usually blank), and it means that if you purchase either F_Weapon_HC Perk, or F_Weapon_AC Perks, then you cannot get F_Weapon_Laser perk.

Haha, edited while edited. Thanks, looks like I got it.

Hmm, it looks like { exp cost, { pre-req1, pre-req2, ... }, { choose one of these1, choose one of these2 }.

The third {} appears to be used only by the gun specialisations (choose HC / AC / Laser). I wonder if we can put other perks in here as well. E.g. choose between Criticals_1 or Hard_to_Kill.