[MOD] [XRM:AP] TC Plots in XRM:Albion Prelude

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Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Wed, 28. Jun 17, 19:58

I am trying to get to the bottom of this, but I have not had much luck yet. What makes things complicated is that not all Destroy Convoy missions have the missing briefing bug. I even have a save where in the same station there are 2 people who give Destroy Convoy missions, however one quest giver has the bug while the other one does not. To make things even more complicated, if I accept the briefing-less mission and then try to view the briefing from the "Missions" menu, then the briefing works fine!

UPDATE: Without being able to see all the changes made step by step between the various versions of TCAP and the official AP patches, my current limited understanding of the system prevents me from determining the root cause of the issue. As a result, I have updated the TCAP patch for AP3.2 to Version 2.0: It restores the most recent official versions of "0.27 Destroy Convoy" and "2.127 Generic Destroy Convoy" MD files, which seems to resolve the issues with those generic missions. This is save-game compatible, but you will need to also reapply "Updated XRM-TCAP files for AP3.2 and TCAP2.2a.zip"

If you are already using these files (e.g. by manually extracting 0.27 from X3TC 13.CAT and 2.127 from AP 04.CAT) you don't need to download and install the new version.

SirNukes
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Post by SirNukes » Mon, 3. Jul 17, 00:37

The AP version of sector management is in addon/03.cat. The Shady Business stuff looks to cover lines 81-98 and 104. The better sector randomization covers lines 153-246, and seems like it replaces lines 1029-1060 in TCAP. Hidden special ware spawning (tunings and PALCs) are on line 248-265, and can just be copied over. There is another minor change at line 424 to include player docked ships for some energy crate spawning decisions, but that is not too important. There is also non-UFJD stuff at 672-692 about counting terran ice miners, present in 03.cat but not TCAP; I don't know what its purpose is, but it might be safest to copy it over.

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Mon, 3. Jul 17, 01:48

Thanks for that, there was something funky going on with my X3 Editor, but I reinstalled it and is working now. I will take a look, thanks for the pointers! Did my updated version of the files fix your missing mission briefings issue?

UPDATE: Combining the two Sector Management files was easy. The only thing I removed from the UFJD generation is the completion of Shady Business, since completing the Goner Plot also provides a UFJD and wouldn't want to lock the player out until Shady Business is completed as well. The updated version (V2.0) of the XRM-TCAP patch for AP3.2 is linked in my signature.

SirNukes
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Post by SirNukes » Mon, 3. Jul 17, 04:55

Looking at that Shady Business code closer, I think the AP Sector Management code should be fine as-is (keeping line 104 in there). The value "Shady Business Enabled" is only set to 1 for the story step between getting the Acinonyx and escaping the xenon ambush shortly afterward. There is a small window where the player can do an unfocused jump before flying to Lost Order, getting a sector with a few wrecks in it, but I think a UJ during that window is unlikely to happen and not a big deal if it does.

In my own play through I left the "Shady Business Enabled" checks in there and things worked fine: normal UJ sectors when I wasn't on that SB plot step, and the special xenon sector when I did do that plot step.

Looking at your edit, I am thinking your version would cause the standard unfocused jump sector stuff to spawn into the shady business story instance, which might be amusing until some Kha'ak find your busted up Acinonyx. This might be pretty similar to what would happen in the TCAP version of sector management as well, except that wouldn't have the xenon wrecks from SB map file.

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Mon, 3. Jul 17, 15:56

That makes sense - thanks for the feedback and additional info. I updated the version again (V3.0 now), restoring the missing check.

FriendlyFirePhoenix
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Post by FriendlyFirePhoenix » Tue, 4. Jul 17, 12:07

Nice work, v3 installed. I assume unless explicitly stated that a new gamestart is not required.
one quest giver has the bug while the other one does not
This is probably a stupid question but did you wait for the old quests to expire before testing your new code?

Also found a small bug. The sector north of Argon Sector M148 is called Enduring Light. This should be Unknown Sector, as per Kha'ak plot. It appears to be empty of stations, as it should be in TC plots.

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Tue, 4. Jul 17, 16:15

Yup, no need for a new start, unless you already have the UFJD. Even though, I think it should be ok anyway.

Yeah, they were showing up on a new gamestart - it was really weird. No matter, it's all taken care of.

I know why the Unknown Sector has a name; it was named in AP. To be honest, unless you have found that it interferes with the plot in some way, I may not bother with it, unless I find out how to force a sector name change via the MD.

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Wed, 5. Jul 17, 04:40

So, while I was poking around to find a way to use the MD to change a sector name, I found a critical error with the New Home plot as was included in XRM-TCAP: It was pointing to the wrong sector coordinates for the player sector (x=19 y=10, instead of x=20 y=9). I have updated the "Updates XRM TCAP for AP 3.2" to version 4.0 to address the issue. As always, it should be savegame compatible unless you have started the plot.

Incidentally, I may have found a way to change sector names, so I am going to see if it's worth the effort and if I can make it so that "Enduring Light" is "Unknown" until the Kha'ak plot is completed.

SirNukes
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Post by SirNukes » Tue, 18. Jul 17, 10:11

I noticed an oddity while poking around the different text files when writing up some code to color sector names for me. File 7027-L044.xml on line 71 has a circular reference: <t id="1023801">{7,1023801}</t>. X3 Editor 2 was crashing on trying to load this file, which pointed me toward the problem. The error appears to be in the original TCAP/XRM merger patch, and is copied into the recent updated files.

The code line in XRM itself appears to be "<t id="1020619">{7,1023801}</t>". Elsewhere, the TCAP/XRM patch edits "<t id="1030619">" to be "<t id="1033801">". It seems Family Zyarth (0619) was renamed to Circle of Deceit (name assigned to 3801) by XRM, along with being given a new description. The TCAP/XRM patch appears to have swapped the new description over to 3801 (I assume where it would not get used, the intention just being to restore Family Zyarth), and restored the original name by swapping the name reference as well, generating the circular reference.

In short, I think the fix is just to comment out or remove line 71 in 7027-L044.xml. If left as-is, I don't know what the X3 engine would do in this case - maybe quietly ignore it, or maybe introduce some subtle bugs.

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 23:37

Thanks for the report. I am on vacation till the end of the month but will take a look at it once I come back!

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Mon, 31. Jul 17, 03:16

SirNukes wrote:I noticed an oddity while poking around the different text files when writing up some code to color sector names for me. File 7027-L044.xml on line 71 has a circular reference: <t id="1023801">{7,1023801}</t>. X3 Editor 2 was crashing on trying to load this file, which pointed me toward the problem. The error appears to be in the original TCAP/XRM merger patch, and is copied into the recent updated files.

The code line in XRM itself appears to be "<t id="1020619">{7,1023801}</t>". Elsewhere, the TCAP/XRM patch edits "<t id="1030619">" to be "<t id="1033801">". It seems Family Zyarth (0619) was renamed to Circle of Deceit (name assigned to 3801) by XRM, along with being given a new description. The TCAP/XRM patch appears to have swapped the new description over to 3801 (I assume where it would not get used, the intention just being to restore Family Zyarth), and restored the original name by swapping the name reference as well, generating the circular reference.

In short, I think the fix is just to comment out or remove line 71 in 7027-L044.xml. If left as-is, I don't know what the X3 engine would do in this case - maybe quietly ignore it, or maybe introduce some subtle bugs.
I reviewed the files and I agree with your assessment. I updated the XRM-TCAP patch with a new version of 7027-L044.xml that has the offending line commented out.

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CoreX
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Post by CoreX » Tue, 1. Aug 17, 15:27

DL Link is down. Please reup. :D

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Tue, 1. Aug 17, 16:32

CoreX wrote:DL Link is down. Please reup. :D
For which file do you mean? The main XRM-TCAP mod, or one of my patches/fixes?

Chokeslam
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Post by Chokeslam » Mon, 7. Aug 17, 23:17

Mythrantar, would you mind to post a load order for XRM, TCAP, and IEX? I'm confused as to where your patch goes and what, if anything, it replaces.

Mythrantar
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Post by Mythrantar » Tue, 8. Aug 17, 00:23

Correct order is: IEX -> XRM -> TCAP -> XRM-TCAP -> XRM-TCAP patch for AP -> XRM-TCAP patch for IEX

Chokeslam
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Post by Chokeslam » Tue, 8. Aug 17, 02:16

Mythrantar wrote:Correct order is: IEX -> XRM -> TCAP -> XRM-TCAP -> XRM-TCAP patch for AP -> XRM-TCAP patch for IEX
Awesome, thank you! So there's no need for the XRMi-TCAP file mentioned in the IEX thread?

Killer199
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Post by Killer199 » Tue, 8. Aug 17, 03:31

The Download Link for the TC plots in AP XRM compability patch is broken.


Chokeslam
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Post by Chokeslam » Wed, 16. Aug 17, 02:25

Mythrantar wrote:Grab it form here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/c6n2x4c7v ... _Final.rar
I was just getting all the files setup in anticipation of installing AP tomorrow, and I noticed that the file you've linked here(which I assume is the one meant to go between the asterisks here: IEX -> XRM -> TCAP -> *XRM-TCAP* -> XRM-TCAP patch for AP -> XRM-TCAP patch for IEX) is not in .cat/.dat form. Will it work if I put the files straight into the addon directory, or should I use the X3 editor to put them into a .cat file so I can control the load order?

I hope my language made sense there.


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