[Script] Bribe A Pilot by Nividium v1.0 12/11/2008

[manx]

Just downloaded this today and am having a lot of fun with it so far, but...

So, I love this mod. I really do, but I found a serious bug. I had about 3mil credits when I installed this. And of course I used it. After about an hour and a half of flying around and thinking that I'm getting some great deals since I hadn't been rejected for not having any money, I looked...and I was at zero. So there's the bug. You can still bribe, and be successful, when you have no money. So I've stopped using it unless I know I have enough for the ship, or else I feel like I'm cheating.

I'm having the same issue as KHCreason; doesn't seem to matter whether I have money or not (although they'll take it if I've got it ).

Additionally, I can only make one attempt to bribe each ship. After they reject my first offer, hitting the hotkey again just produces the same tone I hear if I push it while not targeting anything (but otherwise does nothing). I thought saving and exiting the game might reset them, but it didn't.

[manx]

Nevermind, works fine now... maybe it needed time to settle or something

[oceanmist667]

love it u can even bribe khaak pilots

[costi]

Nice idea, but I'd love if the bribe offers were extended to M7 and M7M classes.

[Edit]

Sorry for the double post, but I just had to share this.

I stumbled upon an Argon weapons dealer in one of the Paranid sectors. Since he was flying a Blastclaw Prototype, I decided to bribe him.
It took 2.5 milion, but after looking in the cargo hold, the price was definitely justified - the guy had 208 Hammerhead missiles on board
Those are now mine, of course, and I really regret there's no "pay up or be shot to hell" mechanic in the game

On another occasion, I met a not-so-happy pirate that decided to change colours for a mere 600k (Blastclaw Prototype again).

Still, you might consider upping the bribes a bit - at the moment it seems kinda too easy - click, click and you get a fully armed and shielded ship for no more than about stock price.

[Edit]

Triple post...

So, I bribed a Paranid Military Hyperion Vanguard today. It cost me about 32.5 milion - kinda harsh for an M6 (even if it's a special one). Bug, or is it designed this way?

Still, I'm not complaining - IMHO the bribe shold be, on average, about 130-140% of the ship stock value. It'd somewhat balance teh fact that with a few key presses you get a fully functional, fully equipped ship with no notoriety loss.


{Please use the edit button. - Terre}

[amtct]

Sorry for the double post, but I just had to share this.

Triple post...

There won't be four posts in a row
BTW ,use the edit button or a moderator will use the delete button


{Better late than never. - Terre}

[ozias]

Is there a line that can be edited in the script to make the prices higher for bribing?

I bribed a Osprey for 1.2 mil, and was able to sell it for 12.5 mil.

I think my bribe was just a little on the low side, and would rather of had to pay 10-12 mil for the ship, especially since the freight is free. You could just spend the day bribing and make an awful lot of credits rather quickly with deals like that one.

Maybe I just lucked out, but some of my other bribes were just as good, bribed a TS, paid 88,900 for a Vulture SF, and sold it for 1.1 mil, which is a huge profit margin.

Both ships I was able to make at least 10 times what I paid, and that doesn't include the freight or shields, which sold separately brings in an even greater profit.

I like the script, but would really like to see the bribe cost a lot more than what it currently is.

[MegaBurn]

Hi, I'm working on a massive script build with tons of minor tweaks and came up with some ideas to improve Bribe a Pilot, mostly resolving the issues noted in this thread.


-- Add subtitles which report the current/opening bid amount, next bid amount, include estimated value of everything included if the player has a freight scanner, and include the target pilots morale value if the player has a bio-scanner, add meaningful text color coding for each value – or display any reasons for why a bid cannot be placed.
-- Change default hotkey behavior to only display the subtitle information.
-- Add hotkey double-tap behavior to place all bids.
-- Add a sanity check on player funds, if they have less than the bid amount throw an insufficient funds error, also change the subtitle text for the next bid amount to NSF.
-- Add support for all ship types (including G0) and generic enemy, neutral, and friendly races.
-- Block Kha'ak and Xenon ships regardless of race.
-- Investigate adding safety checks to block ships with mission scripts, invulnerability flag, and mission critical cargo including plot passengers.
-- Expand ship value check to include all equipment, cargo, marines, and docked ships.
-- Increase the upper bid range to ~300% market value, tweak average to around 120-150% of market value.
-- Add a chance that the bribe attempt will offend the pilot enough to turn hostile, or if they are already hostile increase their confidence values enough to prevent ejection.
-- Ensure shield and hull values influence the required bid amount, someone loosing a fight is likely to accept the offer rather than die or eject, but not always.


All of that amounts to a lot more than minor tweaks, my only interest here is in seeing the potential of this concept fully realized - turning a potential enemy into a confirmed ally is always a sound tactic. I'm still fairly new to X3 scripting, not sure of some of the engine quirks, its a lot to research.

Are there any better scripts which cover most of those ideas or expand PC-NPC interaction at all? If not, is anyone interested in either overhauling this script or helping me expand it?

[quixlor]

I recently bribed a mercenary Osprey, and could not get it to disengage the autopilot. Apparently it could be due to the ship being in a wing when I was bribing it, so it is still taking orders from the wing, even though the wing is computer controlled. Dunno if this is fixable though.

[x30n]

The script works like a charm, however I've noticed something strange happening.

Whenever I use it successfully on a specific type of ship (e.g. M3) the total number of M3 ships seems to decrease within the area of at least a few sectors. Sectors that where once flooded with M3 patrol ships grew really empty all the sudden.

Speculating even further, I feel as if the total number of ships decreased. Thats not because I bribed 100 pilots or so but seems to be effective right after the first sucessful bribe.

Does the script behave this way or is that a bug?

Using X3 AP on a Mac Mini (Steam Edition).

[Labyrinth]

Hi!! I'm new to this forum, but I play the Xuniverse games since the first one. I took a break for several years but now I decided to catch up, so I'm playing Terran Conflict. I've never used mods or plugins before and I thought I'd give it a shot, starting with Bribe a Pilot. I really enjoy it, but the reason I'm writing this, is because I'm very very excited.... I got a KHAK FIGHTER for 90something thousand credits. But I had read that it doesn't make deals with Khak!!!
I was leaving the station with a Heavy Dragon, heading for the South Gate in Two Grand. I see something red coming from the gate. I thought it was a pirate maybe. The first ship i bought with "bribe.." was a Pirate Centaur and I thought that perhaps It could be a good deal too. But I saw it was a Khak, not pirate but it was still.far away ( about 19km). I thought "what the hell" and I pressed the Bribe Hotkey. I thought I would hear the rejection 'bling' sound, but no! He/she/it started thinking... no responce. I pushed the button again. Thinking... no responce ...and out of nowhere I recieved a message!!! How is that possible ? Not that I'm complaining.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Labyrinth: Hello and welcome. That situation was reported 10 years ago just above in this thread (here). Since then there has even been a suggestion by Megaburn in this thread proposing to block bribing of Xenon and Kha'ak ships as a matter of common sense, but obviously the author and Megaburn have moved on and it hasn't been changed since then).

[Labyrinth]

Oh I get it! That's why I got a Xenon L too yesterday! Thanks!