X4 5.1 HF3 (479084) - 2022-06-13
DLC - Split Vendetta
DLC - Terran Cradle of Humanity
DLC - Tides of Avarice
* * * V1.4 is available on NEXUS and the STEAM Workshop * * *
*** Encounters v1.3 onwards - Please note that within Inner Terran & Windfall/Avarice sectors, 'encounter' behaviour is more selective and sometimes removed altogether (this is to follow X4 lore) ***
Prologue
"Encounters" in deep space... love them or hate them? It was once said ...
"You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time..."
Sorry EGOSOFT it's mission impossible ... or maybe you can please everyone?
Where do we start...?
Description
Once you leave the busy part of a sector the game engine (via the MD Encounter script) starts to jump small groups of enemy ships (out of thin air) right alongside you every ~60s, one group after the other... endlessly!!
This mod changes this annoying behaviour and adds more variance to the game experience in "deep space". Deep space is anything >130km from the sector "centre". Egosoft designed the 'encounter' dynamic to transport (unseen) ships already built in another part of the universe to make the large empty spaces between far-flung stations beyond seem less empty. A nice idea... and it keeps the economy functioning as per design... but unfortunately it's not been very well implemented...
Browsing the various forums I have noticed the "encounters" 'fans' have asked for...
Code: Select all
Less of them Now every 9-10 minutes instead of every 60 seconds
No more ships jumping right next to you Now radar-range aware, they appear just when they should... not before
No more ships always in your path Now more variation in positioning ahead
Always the same, regardless of play progression Encounter instances vary per encounter now based on fight rank
Pirates always ignoring you Hotshot traders beware, pirates prefer rich businessmen with a high trade rank!!
Khaak should be rarer They appear less often but now sometimes there are lethal swarms
Missing Xenon threat Ooops... you folks should have kept quiet ... now sometimes destroyers & frigates
Pirates not a threat More variety and now they've brought their friends along to play with you
Too many criminals loitering at space stations Fewer criminals with more/less Police (for each race)
Changelog
v1.4
- New : New sector defence jobs - local allied forces now interdict (more as player's reputation drops)
New : Advanced missile munitions added to some station and ship encounters (EMP, Smart, etc)
New : New vanilla wares added to re-worked crate ware lists
New : Tide of Averice specific wares added to crate ware lists
New : Debris/Wrecks now have scrap yields based on the size & local sector economy
New : Paranid object & ship encounters now accurately reflect the state of Trinity unification (or not)
New : Increased Khaak ship encounters with deepspace distance
Mod : Reworked balancing of crate wares between encounter categories (trader/military/criminal)
Mod : Sector economy level now influences the type of defence base present
Mod : AdSign spawns are now affected by sector economy level
Mod : Increased AdSign chance near spawned station objects (x2)
Mod : Encounters for high-speed player ships rebalanced
Mod : Lockbox association added for minefield & probes (low probability)
Mod : Better relationship between object sub-types & wares with fading sector Security/Economy levels
Mod : Reduced distance of detection which blocks new object creation (-25%)
Mod : Warped encounter ship distance filter increased to prevent repeat encounters (+100%)
Mod : Existing crate object selection is now based on sector size, not radar
Mod : Reduced large wreck probability (-25%)
Mod : Non-Terran ships no longer spawn within Terran inner core sectors
Mod : Increased encounter ship aggression to players with negative sector owner relationship
Mod : Small performance improvements
Fix : Full range of AdSigns is now available
Fix : Mining ship encounters within sectors without resources no longer occur (excluding resource scouts)
Fix : Object ownership in unclaimed & player sectors corrected to have neighbouring race alignment only
Fix : AdSigns are no longer generated within Khaak, Xenon or ownerless sectors
Fix : Ensure all minefields & defence grids contain at least one weapon object
Fix : Corrected "minus" probability error for Outposts
Fix : Game startup errors (lookup errors for non-existent variables)
Fix : Fixed errors in the log associated with Lockbox spawns
- New : Tides of Avarice compatibility (adhering to X4 lore)
New : AdSign objects
Mod : Vessel encounter 33% uplift (due to 5.x game changes)
Mod: Object encounter 20% uplift (due to 5.x game changes)
Fix : Asteroid cluster populations reduced
- New : Various types of encounters are now enabled in some Terran/Pioneer sectors (adhering to X4 lore)
New : Text is now file-based to permit internationalisation (and future extensions)
New : New varieties of race-specific asteroid bases (work in progress)
New : New drops by asteroid bases (work in progress)
New : Terran/Pioneer defence bases (0-9) (new COH compatibility)
New : New Argon defence bases (0-3)
New : Greater variability of Khaak bases
New : New Paranid defence bases (0-3)
New : New Split defence bases (0-6)
New : New Teladi defence bases (0-3)
New : Job to generate Yaki encounters
New : New race-specific crate contents for Terran/Splitsectors (DLC compatibility)
New : Extra inventory items added to crate encounters (due to X4 additions)
New : Setup file inclusion to permit DLCs to be more easily incorporated
New : XR Ships Mod compatibility to ensure new jobs generate encounters
New : Switch to disable defence bases if required
Mod : Better window position within defence stations
Mod : MD script & cues restructure to prevent other mods from disabling the 'encounter' mechanism as a secondary side-effect
Mod : Altered Argon police/criminal race-specific job values
Mod : Free Split race-specific police/criminal job values (new SV compatibility)
Mod : Terran race-specific police/criminal job values (new COH compatibility)
Mod : Change of primary encounter values to rebalance vessel encounter types
Mod : Teladi defence bases - more cargo drones, fewer defence drones
Mod : Split defence bases - more defence drones, fewer cargo drones
Mod : Changed placement of crates around encounter objects
Mod : Ministry of Finance defence stations predominate inTeladi sectors
Mod : Terran Protectorate defence stations predominate Pioneer sectors
Fix : Multiple causes of errors being observed within logfiles
- New : Defence bases for all major races can now form a part of any defence grid (balanced to player fight skill)
New : Asteroid bases for all major races & minor factions (balanced to player fight skill) with new explosion effect (base variety is a work in progress)
New : Drone defence force added to defence bases (balanced).
New : Sector Security fades with distance into deep space to reflect decreased sector control (ie. increased hostile environment and encounters).
Fix : Ship speed now affects the frequency of encounters so faster ships should now see more encounters.
Fix : "xs" class ships are now ignored during encounter sense check so Escape Pods don't disable encounters when the player returns to sector core.
Fix : Slightly higher debris probability associated with defence grids & minefields.
Fix : Reduced probability of Xenon satellites & resource probes.
Fix : Asteroid types now have a minimum weighting to avoid zero-case issue.
Fix : Corrected divide by zero error when a low chance of asteroid generation creates none.
Fix : Reduced chance of Khaak structures within Khaak Sectors
- Addition of sub-encounters which populates space with occasional extra content. This appears either alone or in conjunction with other sub-encounters and/or the basic ship encounter mechanism. This currently includes the following but will be expanded and improved as time (and feedback) directs. All extra content is balanced & generated against deep space distance, player trade/fight ranks, sector security and is player/sector faction aware.
Asteroids (lone or clusters)
Crates (including money loot)
Lockboxes
Defence(s) including mines and laser towers
Navigation Beacons / Satellites / Resource Probes
Salvageable Ships
Wrecks
Others items of interest...
- Jobs file amended for compatibility with X4 3.00
- Now compatible with Linux implementations
- Several minor bug fixes
Download now contains missing top-level folder
- Initial Release
Installation
Drop the "encounters" folder into your "Documents" X4 extension folder, this being...
- D:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Egosoft\X4\94170837\extensions\encounters
I have been developing this mod and testing it during play and I feel the balance between encounter occurrence, difficulty and variety is about right for the coding I have done so far. I want to expand and tune this mod further in 2021, so if folks can give feedback and suggestions about what I got right (if anything) and what's still to do (including any bugs) then please do let me hear. This was my very first proper MD coding so please be nice, it was a great voyage of exploration... and I had many nasty encounters !!
Download Link
NEXUS - X4 Encounters
Thanks to Euclid for giving me a hand when I needed it