Combat Tricks: Increasing Combat Challenge (OBS Mod and Guide)

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sat, 15. Feb 14, 17:37

DrBullwinkle wrote:Always rounds down.

Thank you.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat, 15. Feb 14, 18:33

Tom5Cat wrote:... is it always rounding down, or up too?

... always down, like the doc said, ´cause integer values are (afaik) 32-bit values, one bit is "space" for a "zero" or "one" (dual system)
... afaik 31 of those "bits" are space to store dual numbers and the first one is the "sign" ("+" or "-"), that´s the reason why (at least) terran conflict can count until 2147483647 (around 2 billion or 2^31)
examples:
--> player account
--> sector size: if you fly to coordinates x=2147483647 y=0 z=0, you will be "teleported" to x=-2147483648 y=0 z=0
--> shields with about 2GJ to 4GJ are defect (don´t function correctly, they will unload themselves)

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 03:17

So that's why... I always wondered, playing Reunion, why oh why they put a limit of 2 billion on the player account. Always thought it to be very silly. So it's the same in TC (didn't get there yet because mostly focussing on fighting).

So it all comes down to 4 bytes.

Don't quite follow you on the shield thing though. What do you mean by that?

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 03:19

He means that shields with greater than 2 billion Joules overflow. For the same reasons.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 03:26

Ah, ok. But... wouldn't that be 1000 shields of 2 GJ? What ship or station has that anyway? But I do get your drift on the principle

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 03:27

GJ = GigaJoule = Billion Joules

So 2GJ is about the maximum that the game can calculate with signed (long) integers (which is what scripts use for all calculations).

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 04:16

I thought:
1 MJ = 1000 Joules
1 GJ = 1000 MJ = 1000000 Joules
so 1000 GJ = 1000000000 Joules

No? My bad!

But then how come my multiple 2 GJ shields on my scripted cap ship work just fine? And what about the 10 GJ shields in X3:Reunion?

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 04:46

K = Kilo = thousand
M = Mega = Million
G = Giga = Billion

The integer limit is slightly greater than 2 billion, so 2 billion is a legal signed int. Programmers use a variety of tricks to do math on numbers that exceed the limits of certain data types. There are also other data types available that can handle larger numbers (in the game engine; not in scripts).

I don't know about Reunion, but there are several ways that larger shields could be made as long as the rest of the game supports them.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 16. Feb 14, 05:02

So it's confirmed... I AM an idiot!

Of course, KB, MB, GB. I should've known! Sigh!
Thx for the heads up, again

I know that in Reunion a strange occurrence took place when you pre-installed 10 GJ shields on a ship. They (indeed) wouldn't work... until you transported them over to another ship and back again, at which point they would start loading up. On the other hand, the Teladi Phoenix has a 10 GJ shield in Reunion (only one in the game that does) and it works just fine straight away buying the ship off a shipyard. But I guess this is stuff for another thread. We're getting way off base here

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 23. Feb 14, 20:53

Hi DrB.
Was just wondering if you had made any progress yet adepting the script to solve the issues with higher fighting skill levels? Don't mean any disrespect! Don't know if you meant working on it somewhere in the future, or as we speak. Hence my question

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 23. Feb 14, 21:24

I do intend to work on it soon, although some real life stuff has taken precedent.

In the meantime, just use a low-ish MaxMultiplier. Anything greater than 1 will make enemies stronger than vanilla, so you should be able to find a happy medium value. My guess is somewhere in the 3-10 range should be good, but you will have to experiment to be sure.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Mon, 24. Feb 14, 04:03

Keeping it at 2 for now, as to keep the number of fighters somewhat in check (50-ish), awaiting your enhancements and wishing you the best in those real life endeavors.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Fri, 21. Mar 14, 02:03

DrBullwinkle wrote:I do intend to work on it soon, although some real life stuff has taken precedent.

Still in the pipeline?

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 21. Mar 14, 23:02

Update

Combat Tricks OBS

Version 3 Highlights:

Further reduced generation of fighters above BigShipsOnlyThreshold (default is Fight Rank 7). (Tom5Cat)
Lowered the default MaxMultiplier, to make things a bit easier for some players.
Allow generation of M7M's.

Thanks to Tom5Cat for patient and thorough reporting, I was able to greatly reduce the number of fighters generated at high fight ranks.

@Tom5Cat: This worked great at my current fight rank of 19. Try it in your game, experiment with the settings a little, and let me know how it works for you. Thanks for the help.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 30. Mar 14, 12:38

The very next day after my last post... BAM... life unexpectedly threw a whole heap of work in my lap, so I humble apoligize for not having been able to get back sooner. I do realise it must have seemed unrespectful, first asking about the update and then disappearing for a while, but I assure you, no disrespect was intended!

On a brighter note... witness the joy of a 44 year old turning 13 again, as he logged on and found the updated OBS had arrived in the mean time. Santa DOES exist!

Atten-tion! Officer on deck! Back to business... Got me some pirates to kill, check out the brand new OBS enhancement doing so...

Will get back to you in a short time, reporting findings... O goodie

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Sun, 30. Mar 14, 12:44

No problems, Tom5Cat. It's a game... and most of us have real lives to deal with.

Tom5Cat · Post by **Tom5Cat** » Sun, 30. Mar 14, 18:11

Ok, my report...

Since my former report I've progressed another level in combat skill, so I'm at level 28 now. I adjusted the settings to (respectively) 2/4/3/3/1, since this was doable playing with version 2, apart from the many fighters that brought. Now, I get a nice spread of different cap ships, mostly something like 3 k's, 5 j's, 3 Q's and 1 P, and about 20 fighters. Taking care of 7 waves of these makes for a very nice, challenging and entertaining combat streak.

So, after a few hours of gameplay with version 3, trying out lots of different (combat) missions, ... well, there's no beating around the bush... it's just perfect!

Absolutly great job DrB!!! Thank you!

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 26. Feb 15, 16:01

Update

Combat Tricks OBS v4

v4 (2014-12-01)

Better (quadratic) equation creates much gentler starting multipliers and smoother curve.
A spreadsheet (with graph) is included to assist in tuning for your game preferences.
Configuration option allows turning off M7Ms. (ID 106 in addon\t\8563-L044.xml) (imortalvalk)

imortalvalk · Post by **imortalvalk** » Fri, 27. Feb 15, 08:16

Very nice, once again Bullwinkle you are awesome.

Barricade Prime · Post by **Barricade Prime** » Mon, 28. Aug 17, 22:28

anyone still got the link? its broken ._.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Combat Tricks: Increasing Combat Challenge (OBS Mod and Guide)