Motherships Mod v0.1

[Nanaki]

Heh, you use the final battle with El in Star Wolves 1 as a guideline for your custom system, intriguing.

Currently the mod feels more like debug tools than anything else, but it is a great start

Here is what I would recommend:
1: Keeping it to maintenance stations... having to go halfway across the galaxy to purchase a new mothership is a pain in the butt (Especially when you do not have insta-hyperspace), and maintenance stations could use a little spice.

2: I am not sure about pilots... As long as there was a way to get rid of them in order to make room for the storyline pilots, I did not see anything.

3: Disabling the purchase of motherships until after you get the repainted (non-pirate) Mastiff, and disabling it again after you get your final mothership, will eliminate all of the issues with "World is unfair. Game over." error. The game only makes exactly 2 checks between the acquisition of the repainted mastiff and the acquition of your final mothership. One of these checks is in the optional Astarte mission, the other is in the outofmission.script file.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

1: Keeping it to maintenance stations... having to go halfway across the galaxy to purchase a new mothership is a pain in the butt (Especially when you do not have insta-hyperspace), and maintenance stations could use a little spice.

I'm planning about 5-6 entries to my system. 4 portals in the corner systems of the map and 1-2 in the center. It's easier than converting stations. Portals that will lead you back will be added too. Name the systems you like.

Originally Posted by Nanaki

2: I am not sure about pilots... As long as there was a way to get rid of them in order to make room for the storyline pilots, I did not see anything.

There is nothing bad about pilots until you use one of each. I can add removing function. It's not a problem. I can even add warnings before critical quest which could possibly add a storyline pilot. EDIT: warning can come along with dialog which will fire pilots of your choice. Is it good enough?

Originally Posted by Nanaki

3: Disabling the purchase of motherships until after you get the repainted (non-pirate) Mastiff, and disabling it again after you get your final mothership, will eliminate all of the issues with "World is unfair. Game over." error. The game only makes exactly 2 checks between the acquisition of the repainted mastiff and the acquition of your final mothership. One of these checks is in the optional Astarte mission, the other is in the outofmission.script file.

You mean adding whole thing to the quest system. Unfortunately, I'm having some problems with quest tracking. For now mod will stay directly attached to the locations. IMO It's easier just to disable one checking function in some quests than making their own. I'll take care of it.

[Nanaki]

There is nothing bad about pilots until you use one of each. I can add removing function. It's not a problem. I can even add warnings before critical quest which could possibly add a storyline pilot. EDIT: warning can come along with dialog which will fire pilots of your choice. Is it good enough?

My original point was that it was too incomplete to decide either way on, but yeah, that is good enough.

I'm planning about 5-6 entries to my system. 4 portals in the corner systems of the map and 1-2 in the center. It's easier than converting stations. Portals that will lead you back will be added too. Name the systems you like.

It took me five minutes to convert every maintenance station in the galaxy... and the changes I did meant that I could remove your modified location folders without harming the script.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

It took me five minutes to convert every maintenance station in the galaxy... and the changes I did meant that I could remove your modified location folders without harming the script.

If you only change activation parameter - yes that's easy. But it's not all. Script contains reactivation of portals after you bought new ms. It will work only in the system with the same portal names like in Elio. I other systems you'll get a lot of errors.
Second problem is original maintenance stations behavior. If you want to keep stations acts normally and use my shop dialog at the same time it needs some more changes. Buying firmware upgrades is still useful option.

[Nanaki]

If you only change activation parameter - yes that's easy. But it's not all. Script contains reactivation of portals after you bought new ms. It will work only in the system with the same portal names like in Elio. I other systems you'll get a lot of errors.

Portals do not use very complex names... always something like PORTAL_A and PORTAL_C and PORTAL_E... Doing a blanket activation of A through Z should fix that. It may cause a little slowdown and generate some internal log files, but otherwise would work perfectly. You could eliminate the internal errors by just adding checks for each portal, Something like if PORTAL_D exists, then activate PORTAL_D else null.

Also, I kept the original maintenance station behavior with what I did. Basically, all I did was add a sixth option to original Maintenance station dialogue which, upon selecting it, takes you to the Goblin Shipyards dialogue script.

Here is the code:
<DialogAnswer name="ans06">
<answer>#L_DR5_msg00</answer>
<lua_function>OnStationStartGW</lua_function>
<go_message_name />
<multi_pass>true</multi_pass>
<sound_name />
</DialogAnswer>

[Goblin Wizard]

hmmm...nice ideas here. Thanks a lot. This should make all script more universal.

[wmaynard80]

what would i have to edit to be able to add the mothership pack from sw2 to your shipyard goblin.thanks

hmmm...nice ideas here. Thanks a lot.

Originally Posted by Nanaki

3: Disabling the purchase of motherships until after you get the repainted (non-pirate) Mastiff, and disabling it again after you get your final mothership, will eliminate all of the issues with "World is unfair. Game over." error. The game only makes exactly 2 checks between the acquisition of the repainted mastiff and the acquition of your final mothership. One of these checks is in the optional Astarte mission, the other is in the outofmission.script file.

What is the purpose of these checks; to prevent players from wandering outsystem until the mission script is done?

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Trucidation

What is the purpose of these checks; to prevent players from wandering outsystem until the mission script is done?

I suppose it's additional check in case of something goes wrong. For example you can break the script if you hit "B" exact the same moment when dialog is activated. I've done this during Astarte mission. All items and pilots were transfered to new mothership but I didn't get the control of the new mothership. Only naked ms without turrets, pilots and everything else left. Load a saved game was an only option.