[AL-Plugin] Unified Capture by Brand-X

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Brand-X
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[AL-Plugin] Unified Capture by Brand-X

Post by Brand-X » Sun, 6. May 07, 15:37

Unified Capture Script V1.11j & 1.20j - by Brand-X

This script set is implemented as a standard X3 AL plugin. As such it should be compatible with most other mods and scripts. Although that is an area we hope to get some feedback on with this initial release.

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What it does:
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UniCap v1.xx allows players to attack and possibly capture stations and ships which cannot normally be captured in X3 game-play. Version 1.xx allows this to be accomplished through use of sheer firepower alone. Reduce a targets hull percentage to a certain level and there is a possibility that the target will surrender. There is also the possibility that the target will simply explode, or, in the case of ships, will jump away to escape.

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How it works:
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Races have been assigned relative values of combat ability and willingness to fight. This is used to determine the point where an object belonging to a particular race might surrender, explode, or escape.

Ships have also been assigned combat values according to the size and nature of the ship. Military type ships will fight much longer that civilian types, and larger ships will fight longer than smaller.

Stations are assigned a defensive value, much like ships, and that is used to determine the chances of a station surrender. The higher tech a stations product, and the more military in nature, the greater a stations defensive value will be, and the less likely a surrender will occur.

These values are combined and used to assign a point and a frequency at which one of a number of possible events will occur.

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Ships:
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A ship can perform one of a number of events.
-- It can try to jump away to escape.

-- The crew may simply abandon ship, leaving the vessel to whatever fate awaits it.

-- The crew may surrender and remain on board, found in the cargo bay as slaves.

-- The crew may also abandon ship after setting a delayed self-destruct timer, although there is no warning of that.
-- There is also the chance that the crew will only pretend to surrender, waiting for the player to approach before coming back to life and opening fire, if any undamaged weapons remain, or trying to close and ram if there are none.
The frequency of these events are tied to the owner race and the size and nature of the ship.

If none of these occur then the ship will simply explode at some hull percentage other than 0%, but generally below 50% hull.

When a ship surrenders, or if the crew bails, a portion of its weapons, wares, and extensions will remain, depending upon the amount of hull integrity remaining. If a ship is destroyed, either by result of battle damage or self-destruction by the crew, the weapons and wares that were undamaged during the battle may be left behind as flying wares. In the case of large ships, this can amount to a respectable amount of loot.

If a ship jumps, well, it's out'a there. It may be that the player can relocate it in the nearby sectors, but it's gone from this one.

This script has a couple of difficulty levels that control the range of hull trigger points, the frequency of events, and the amount of wares remaining after an event. There is also a level that limits this script to only bigships and stations.

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Response fleets (DDBH Compatibility):
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As an added benefit, elements of the Deadly Bounty Hunter scripts have been integrated with the Unified Capture scripts to deploy a "Civil Defense" response squad when TP and TS ships are attacked. Version 1.2.4 of the DD.BH script package is included as an "optional install", and comes with a complete readme file. It can easily be installed using the Cycrow Script Installer. The deployment of the Civil Response squad in defense of TP and TS class ships is fairly random, and does not occur every time. Further, the combat difficulty of the response squad can be set by the player.

The DD.BH scripts will use the standard Egosoft ships unless DDRS is installed, in which case the custom DDRS ships will be used. The size and composition of the Civil Defense squads, as well as the configuration of the weapons loadout they use, is controlled by a special DD.Difficulty setting.

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Stations:
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Stations do not have so many possible endings. They basically either surrender oe explode. There is no delayed self destruct with stations.

Once a station has been captured, it can be kept and operated by the player, who bears all responsibility for running it and gains all profits. Or the player can return the station to that race for proxy operation. Proxy stations are taxed and the player is able to assert his ownership of them at any time, to make use of their wares and docking facilities. On these stations there exists the possibility of rebellion, with the station reverting totally to race control and making the player an enemy. The only way to reassert player ownership is to conquer it again.

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How to Play:
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Essentially, just fly around, select a target, and start shooting.

==> Auto-trigger:
A cool feature of version 1.20 of this script is its ability to initiate the battle script on viable targets simply by firing on them, thus taking a bit of burden off pilots during intense fights. It does not work on stations, where battle must be initiated with the Battle key.

==> Manual Activation:
Version 1.11 requires that the player physically push that button. One press of the 'Battle' key will start the battle script running on the target. Another press will stop it. You must be within firing range of the target in order to begin a battle.

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What's in it for You:
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This script provides a number of different endings to combat engagements besides the usual Ego fare. Not to mention fighter response levels that range from 'easy' to 'sudden death'.

This script can be used in many ways. It can help in the early game by giving the player a 'leg up', as the capture rate is a bit better than the standard Ego model, with a few more wares being left behind.

It provides the capability to capture bigships and stations, so that the player may own such objects without the need for much tedious (to some) trading and race relation concerns.

The station capture aspects allow the player to possess stations that might be impossible to own under normal circumstances, perhaps providing a needed ware that is difficult to obtain. All station types are capturable. Used in the extreme, this capability allows the player to conduct 'economic warfare' or control the economies of entire sectors.

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Other Thoughts::
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This version 1.xx is strictly a 'shooter'.
It is quite possible to play an entire game by sheer combat ability alone, doing no trading and caring nothing for race relations. Carried to it's fullest extent, it is even theoretically possible to control every station in the game, essentially conquering the universe, although that is certainly an extreme application of it's capabilities.

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Coming attractions:
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Version 2.xx will introduce ship and station capture using 'Assault Troopers', which will allow victims to be captured in much better condition than the 'shoot them till they give up' model of the shooter version. And will add many new aspects and nuances to the capture of bigships and stations. Essentially a rewrite of my old Station Capture mod, expanded to include ships as viable targets. And introducing some specialized ships into the game.

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Credits:
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Hieronymos and DeadlyDa for the concept of Unified Capture, and for renewing my interest in the whole 'Capture' idea.

DeadlyDa for his 'plugin' and fighter response scripts. Also for his ideas and efforts in solving the problems associated with this script. And for hosting this project on his excellent site.

Hieronymos for a great many of the ideas that were incorporated into this project.

Red Spot for major technical assistance in solving many problems specific to this project.

KayEss, Falion, Mailo, neumanf15, and the rest of the DDRS Beta Team for their beta-testing, suggestions, and ideas.

The ideas and suggestions by these people have made this script what it is.

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Assitional Credits:
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LV for his HAT script, upon which this script is loosely based, along with elements from my old Station Capture mod.

Cycrow for knowing the answer to every question I've ever asked him.

B-O'F for his work with the Extensions and Wares, which I used to control what remains after a battle.

Klyith for his color text work, which I used for the station names.

Doubleshadow for his excellent set of X3 tools.

Serial Kicked, Moggy2, nuclear_eclipse, Xenon Slayer, Bunny, Fud, Stevio, - the list is nearly endless. Just about every scripter worth his salt has answered my questions at one time or another.

Egosoft for writing this excellent game, and for including the amazing SE with it.

Kurt Fitzner for writing the MSCI Handbook. Simply outstanding work.

If I've forgotten anyone, it's not from ingratitude but from the fact that there were so many. I've freely used many of the tutorials, ideas, and concepts found on the Ego boards, and many people there have answered my questions. Thank you all.

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Download Links:
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Here are the download links for Version 1 of the Unified Script:
The manually-triggered version:
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/wolf/images/ ... h-DDBH.rar
The Auto-Trigger version:
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/wolf/images/ ... h-DDBH.rar
Last edited by Brand-X on Sun, 6. May 07, 20:01, edited 1 time in total.

pja
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Post by pja » Sun, 6. May 07, 17:51

tried the link but it says the topic does not exist.

cloppy007
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Post by cloppy007 » Sun, 6. May 07, 17:57

Can I capture the terran Odin?

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Sun, 6. May 07, 20:03

Sorry, I forgot that the site requires log-in. These links go straight to the download.

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Sun, 6. May 07, 20:22

Can I capture the terran Odin?
I've only included the normal vanilla races and stations in this preliminary release. Any type ship, even custom ones, that belong to one of the usual races is cappable, as long as they belongs to one of the normal ship classes. If there is enough demand, I will add a race or shipclass.

Special stations must be added. I am also uncertain how this will work with massive complexes, but hope to get some feedback about that.

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Mon, 7. May 07, 23:54

I forgot to say that this was written using X3 v2.02. :)

pja
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Post by pja » Tue, 8. May 07, 20:47

I am trying to get this to work with the XFP mod.
First up, the bounty hunters script does not seem to be compatible, or at least, none of its options appear in the al menu.
Also cant find any readme's after unpacking the spk's.
Have activated the unified capture plugin (v1.2) via the al menu, but how does it work? and how can I change the difficulty level? there doesn't seem to be any ship commands.
I have found the hotkey commands to activate, but how does the "autoactivation" feature work? At the moment if I shoot at anything, its speed drops to 0 and it just sits there, while I slowly whittle away at the hull untill it blows up. Should I perhaps just bring the hull down to say 50% and then wait or what?

matches
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Post by matches » Tue, 8. May 07, 23:28

What a slick idea!! Can't wait to try this out!! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with matches?"



Realspace Backgrounds http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=180848

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Wed, 9. May 07, 04:55

pja,

I just checked the downloads again myself, and the readme's are there. I don't know what method you are using to install the script, though it sounds like you are trying to do it manually. If you would make a temp folder on your desktop, extract the rar's to that, make a couple sub-folders, one for UniCap and one for DDBH, then use Cycrows Plugin Manager to extract the .spk's to those. R-click on the spk, chose extract, point to folder. You should find some readme folders. There is one for the UniCap scripts and another for the Bounty Hunter add-on. Both readme's are quite thorough. I suggest, after you've had a look at the files, to use Plugin Manager on the spk's to install them to your game directory.

The auto-trigger automatically locks onto a ship you have targeted and opened fire on. You will hear some engagement tones when that happens. When the engagement has been resolved, one way or another, you will hear some disengagement tones, and the next vessel you target and fire on will activate the battle script. Or you can target a vessel and press the 'Battle' key to initiate an engagement, or to disengage from an unwanted one.

Set the Unicap difficulty level by targeting nothing and pressing the 'Target Info' key to cycle through the levels.

When a ship surrenders, it will turn blue and slow to a stop, with the crew having bailed or not. It's name will no longer have any race attached. You may claim that vessel for yourself any time after that by approaching to within 200 meters and pressing the 'Claim' key.

It sounds as tho Unicap is working correctly, you just don't know how to use it because you couldn't read the instructions. It may have been an error to have put the readme's inside the .spk's instead of in the 'rar's themselves. Try extracting them like I said and check out the readme's. If you still have problems, just let me know.
Last edited by Brand-X on Wed, 9. May 07, 05:05, edited 1 time in total.

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Wed, 9. May 07, 05:03

One other thing. If you decide to simply use Cycrows Plugin Manager and just install the .spk's, then the readme's will appear in the Main X3 directory, in the Readme folder.

pja
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Post by pja » Wed, 9. May 07, 18:40

Brand-X wrote:One other thing. If you decide to simply use Cycrows Plugin Manager and just install the .spk's, then the readme's will appear in the Main X3 directory, in the Readme folder.
Actually that is exactly how I installed, made a little more complex by the fact that I have seperate X3 instals for DDRS, XFP and unmodded versions. I installed and tried this on all three, in each case there is an empty readme folder for this plugin. On opening the spk with Cycrows manager I see that a readme.txt file is listed but its size is 0 kb. I have redownloaded but it is still the same.
Thanks for your reply. I will keep trying.

Squelch
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Post by Squelch » Wed, 9. May 07, 19:58

I have just checked my spk install and it does have a valid readme. Your problem sounds most odd.

Is it possible the download has been corrupted or an old version is being fetched? This can sometimes happen with certain ISP's that have broken proxy servers. Try uninstalling the spk, delete the copy you have, and redownload again after a hard page refresh (ctrl+F5) which should force the cache to refresh.

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Wed, 9. May 07, 23:40

Yeah, that is odd. I have about 7 installs yet never have a problem using Plugin Manager, though sometimes I forget to make certain I have selected the proper source and target directories.

I can post both here for you to copy, in case others have this problem also.

Unified Capture Script

Readme For Version 1.11j and 1.20j

This scriptset is a true script in AL plugin form. As such it should be compatible with most other mods and scripts. Although that is an area we hope to get some feedback on with this beta release.

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What it does:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

UniCap v1.xx allows players to attack and possibly capture stations and ships not normally capturable in X3 gameplay. Version 1.xx allows this to be accomplished through use of sheer firepower alone. Reduce a targets hull percentage to a certain level and there is a possibility that the target will surrender. There is also the possibility that the target will simply explode, or, in the case of ships, will jump away to escape.

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How it works:
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Races have been assigned relative values of combat ability and willingness to fight. This is used to determine the point where an object belonging to a particular race might surrender, explode, or escape.

Ships have also been assigned combat values according to the size and nature of the ship. Military type ships will fight much longer that civilian types, and larger ships will fight longer than smaller.

The RaceComVal and the ShipComVal are used together to determine the point at which the target will perform one of the described actions, with large military ships of a combative race being very hard to capture.

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Race rankings:
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These are purely my own perceptions of the relative combat values of the various races. You may or may not agree, but its is how they're set in the script. From least to most combative:

Goner
Boron
Teladi
Argon
Split
Paranid
Pirate
Yaki
Xenon
Kha'ak

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Ship rankings:
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Again from weakest to strongest:

Goner ship
TP
TS
M5
M4
M3
TL
M6
M7
M2
M1

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Ship Logic:
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When a ship surrenders, some or all of its crew may bail, if any have survived the attack, and the ship will slow and stop, with it's ownership set to neutral. It must be 'claimed' by the player in order for him to take possession of it. Likewise a portion of its weapons, wares, and extensions will remain, depending upon the amount of hull integrity remaining. To claim a vessel, the player only needs to get within 200 meters and press the 'Claim' key.

If a ship is destroyed, either by result of battle damage or self-destruction by the crew, a portion of the weapons and wares that were undamaged during the battle may be left behind. In the case of large ships, this can amount to a respectable amount of loot.

If a ship jumps, well, it's out'a there. It may be that the player can relocate it in the nearby sectors, but it's gone from this one.

There is also a delayed self-destruct that may occur at from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. There is no warning. This events frequency depends on who owns the ship and what type it is, with the more warlike races and bigger ships being more likely to do such a thing. I have limited self-destruct to one instance at a time. A second will not be able to occur until the first has ended.

I have also included the possibility of a fake surrender, where a target will wait for a random period of time, then revert to it's original ownership, turn red, and approach the player ship. If it is still armed it will open fire on the playership, otherwise it will simply approach and explode. (I had really wanted to add a ramming capability for the target ship but I'm told that it is impossible to turn off the collision avoidance, which makes a ship veer off at a couple hundred meters.)

These events will 'timeout' after a minute or two if the victim is unable to get close to the playership, and the victim will simply explode. They are also a separate task unrelated to the Battle script, once set in motion, so the player is able to engage other targets while these may be ongoing.

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Station Logic:
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==> Station defensive values:

The various station types would have built-in defensive measures, the extent of which would vary according to the technical and military value of the ware it produced. These could range from simple station design with choke points and separated, secure production and storage areas to built-in automated weapon systems, defensive interior shields, and large, well trained security forces. Again from weakest to strongest.

- Goner Temple
- Lowest level commodities; energy, wheat, ore, etc
- Higher level commodities; cahoonas, space fuel, crystals, etc
- Non-military tech; chips, satellites, drilling system, etc
- Low level military; shields, ammunition, drones, mines, etc
- High level military; weapon systems, also stations that store any military wares- Trading stations, EQ Docks, and Shipyards.

RaceComVal and StaDefVal are the factors used in setting a stations surrender/destruct point. The higher tech a stations product, and the more military in nature, the greater a stations defensive value will be.

==> Stations in the game will fall into one of four categories:

1. Race owned and operated stations that have not been captured. No specific designation is given to those.

2. Player 'Owned' stations are those legitimately built and operated by the player. Ownership of these cannot be changed.

3. Player 'Captured' stations are those that have been captured from another race but are operated by the player, who bears all responsibility for running it and gains all profits. Upon capture the station name will be displayed in blue and it will be shown among the player assets on the sector map. When a station surrenders, ownership will be set to player and the station will be placed in 'Captured' status. These can be returned to the original owners for proxy operation.

4. Player 'Controlled' stations are those that have been captured from another race and then returned to that race for proxy operation. These stations are taxed and the player is able to assert his ownership of them at any time, to make use of its wares and docking facilities. Proxy stations are listed on the sector map along with all the other stations owned by the races, still in blue.
On these 'Controlled' stations there exists the possibility of rebellion, with the station reverting totally to race control and making the player an enemy. The only way to reassert player ownership is to conquer it again. When a station rebels, its name will turn yellow and it will be listed in the middle of the sector map along with all other enemies.
One detail you should know is that if one of your 'Controlled' stations is hit by chance during a battle, there is a possibility that it will turn red, but it has not really rebelled. Its name remaining blue will signify that. All that needs to be done to rectify that is to cycle the station through the ownership states, using the 'Claim' key.

It is advisable to keep most of your captured stations in 'Controlled' status, run by the race. This allows the game engine to use these stations to keep the economies of X3 healthy and functioning properly. You may want to keep a few stations of special interest to the player, but an attempt to keep all stations to be operated by the player ('Captured' status ) may cause problems for the game engine.

'No Match' is a message that you will get if you target a station that is not listed in the text page, or if a spelling error has occurred. I think I've added all the standard station types to the text file but I may have missed some. Also, if a new station type has been added to the game, you may get that message if the TargetInfo or Battle scripts try to run on it. It will need to be added to the text page in order to be used by this script. If informed, I will add the entry and will post the updated text file for you to use to replace the current one, or I will tell you how to add the proper data yourself, if you are comfortable using Doubleshadows X3 tools. The first option is probably the best, as simply swapping text files is real easy.
Likewise, if you are a scripter/modder that has added stations to the game, please let me know so that they can be added to the text page.
You'll also notice that it takes a second or two for the information window to pop up after the TargetInfo key is pressed. That's because there are well over 100 station types, not counting the size variations, listed in the text page, and the speed of display depends upon where in that list the needed match is located. The higher tech stations, shipyards, trade docks and EQ's are at the bottom of the list.

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Setup:
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Activate the SE, install the scripts, and enable the plugin in the 'Artificial Life' section of the 'Gameplay' area in 'Options'. You may need to dock and reload in order for the plug-ins to show.

==> There are three "hot keys" associated with this program. (Note: These must be set in the players configuration menu):

1. The "Target Info" key. Pressing that key will cause a popup with information about the targeted object to appear. I have not limited this key to any particular type of object and you may find odd bits of information available if you use it on objects other than ships or stations.

2. The "Battle" key. It is used to initiate battle with stations, which are not triggered by the auto-trigger function. This key can also be used to begin a battle with any other viable target, and also is used to end a battle that a player may want to quit before it has reached one of the scripted conclusions.

3. The "Claim" key. It is used to change the ownership status of captured stations. All the player need do is target the station in question and hit the key. The station will change from 'Captured' to 'Controlled' or back again. This is handy for setting 'Controlled' stations to 'Captured' so that the player can make use of the station freely, and when done, set it back to race operation. One of the perks of being a conquering warlord. When a station is initially captured it goes into the 'Captured' status and must be set to 'Controlled by the player. Taxes are assessed every half hour or so, but don't expect to get super rich from them, unless you have a bunch of high value 'Controlled' stations. The taxes range pretty much like the populations x10, from about 3000 cr for a small SPP to 25000 or so for a shipyard.
This key is also used to 'Claim' a ship that has surrendered. A player must target the ship and approach to within 200 meters. Hitting the key will cause the ship ownership to be set to player, and it's all yours.

Upon installation of this plugin, these keys will appear in Options/Controls/Interface, way down at the bottom. Here you can select which key that you want to perform each of the three functions needed to use this script. Be sure to dock somewhere after selection, so that the keys are 'set' in the game.

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Difficulty levels:
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There are 3 difficulty levels. In Level 1 the wares are fairly plentiful and the events other than simple Destruct happen frequently. In Level 2 the wares are not so plentiful, the events occur less often, and the hull trigger points have been lowered by 10 hull %. Level 3 is strictly for big ships and stations, using the same values as Level 2. To cycle through the difficulty levels, just target ('t') on nothing and press the TargetInfo key. A popup will inform you of the level you have chosen. All ships are capable in Levels 1 & 2.

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Response fleets (DDBH Compatibility):
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As an added benefit, elements of the Deadly Bounty Hunter scripts have been integrated with the Unified Capture scripts to deploy a "Civil Defense" response squad when TP and TS ships are attacked. Version 1.2.4 of the DD.BH script package is included as an "optional install", and comes with a complete readme file. It can easily be installed using the Cycrow Script Installer. The deployment of the Civil Response squad in defense of TP and TS class ships is fairly random, and does not occur every time. Further, the combat difficulty of the response squad can be set by the player.

The DD.BH scripts will use the standard Egosoft ships unless DDRS is installed, in which case the custom DDRS ships will be used. The size and composition of the Civil Defense squads, as well as the configuration of the weapons loadout they use, is controlled by a special DD.Difficulty setting.

To adjust the DD.BH response levels, go to the 'General' tab in the Command menu and you will see an option listed for Deadly's DDBH. Select that and you will receive an Incoming Message. Open that and make your choice. Deadly has broadened the range of difficulty levels, making some easier, so that there is actually the possibility of surviving the easier ones, maybe.

Upon installing DD.BH, there are additional combat events that will be initially active. The player can easily de-activate any of the DD.BH combat events in the standard X3 AL menu (e.g. if you only wanted Civil Defense).

The ability to separately set difficulty levels for the event frequency/hull trigger percent, and for the intensity of the Civil Defense squads, make this script difficulty fairly flexible.

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How to play:
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Essentially, just fly around, select a target, and start shooting. When the battlescript launches the player will hear a three-toned chime, signaling engagement has begun. An entry will be made in the players log, stating that an engagement has begun and listing the name of the target. The battle script has begun to run on the target, and one of the scripted endings will be the conclusion, unless the player breaks the engagement by hitting the Battle key a second time. In that event, the player will hear three sharper tones, signifying disengagement. The battlescript is then ready for a new target. If the scripted outcome of the battle is complete, the ship, or station, has surrendered, exploded, or jumped, then battlescript will end and the disengage tones will be heard. It is ready for a new target.

If, for some reason, you engage a viable target yet hear no engagement tone, that means that battlescript still has an unresolved engagement in its 'memory'. A quick press of the Battle key will clear the old engagement and allow a new one to begin. Without hearing the engagement tones, you will not be able to capture using this scripts functions.

Remember that the Battle key is a toggle and can be used to begin an engagement and to end one, even if that engagement was begun by Auto-trigger.

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Starting the battle script:
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There are two versions of this script, and both are nearly identical, differing only in how the battle script is triggered. Each version has it's own peculiarities.

==> Auto-trigger:
A cool feature of version 1.20 of this script is its ability to initiate the battle script on viable targets simply by firing on them, thus taking a bit of burden off pilots during intense fights. It does not work on stations, where battle must be initiated with the Battle key. This version is always 'on' and so care must be used when firing on targets or you may find all sorts of unintended victims being processed by the battle script. A press of the Battle key will end an unwanted engagement. Approaching a target and firing a preliminary burst will 'set' the target in the Battle scripts memory, where it will remain until that engagement has been resolved or the player disengages by pressing the Battle key, leaving the player free to engage other targets if he wishes, and return to the original at his leisure. The Battle key can also be used to initiate an engagement in the auto-trigger version.

==> Manual initiation:
Obviously, people using the manual version 1.11 can disregard the auto-trigger references. Just target your victim and push that button. One press of the 'Battle' key will start the battle script running on the target. Another press will stop it.

Also, I've made the need to be within firing distance of the victim a requirement for initiating the battle script, and, due to the oddities of the command I used, the target must be fairly centered on the screen in order for it to work. This only applies to starting the battle and is not a requirement for battle continuing. You can fly anywhere in the sector after battle has begun. Leaving the sector will cause the battle script to end, as will the victim landing or docking, or also leaving the sector.

One thing to remember is that the target ship must be in the Battle scripts 'memory' at the moment of event occurrence in order for a scripted ending to happen. If the player initiates an engagement, then flys off and initiates another, the first will end. The player is able to target other ships and stations while a scripted engagement is ongoing, that will only end if the player disengages the Battle script by pressing the key a second time, or one of the scripted endings occurs, or, of course, if the target is destroyed by some other means than the Battle script, a collision or whatever.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Why use it:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This script can be used in many ways. It can help in the early game by giving the player a 'leg up', as the capture rate is a bit better than the standard Ego model, with a few more wares being left behind.

It provides the capability to capture bigships and stations, so that the player may own such objects without the need for much tedious (to some) trading and race relation concerns.

The station capture aspects allow the player to possess stations that might be impossible to own under normal circumstances, perhaps providing a needed ware that is difficult to obtain. All station types are capturable. Used in the extreme, this capability allows the player to conduct 'economic warfare' or control the economies of entire sectors.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Other thoughts:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The two 1.x versions are strictly "shooters".

It is quite possible to play an entire game by sheer combat ability, doing no trading and caring nothing for race relations. Carried to it's fullest extent, it is even theoretically possible to control every station in the game, essentially conquering the universe, although that is certainly an extreme application of it's capabilities.

You'll find that frequently the standard Ego bail routine will occur before the battlescript finishes execution. The script will detect that and stop but you will see some anomalies, such as the pilot of the destroyed vessel continuing to talk, or only part of the battle script completing, if the two events happen nearly simultaneously. This will be more pronounced as the difficulty level rises, especially among the more warlike races who don't bail or anything until a very low hull percentage is reached.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
A Caution:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It is quite easy to destroy the economic balance of a game by indulging in too much piracy of transports, or by destroying or capturing too many bigships and stations.
However, if used with restraint, this script can provide some handy tools to aid the player in his endeavors, without adversely affecting the game dynamics.

Brand-X
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Post by Brand-X » Wed, 9. May 07, 23:45

And the readme for the DDBH add-on:

AL Plugin: DeadlyDa Bounty Hunters

Version: 1.2.4

Credit:

Inspired by the Bounty Hunter V2 scripts and concept originally developed by mq (www.stoerbild.de.ms) for X2.


Summary of Features:

- Standard Bounty Hunter attacks. At random intervals your enemies will send bounty hunters to attack you.
- Station Protection attacks. If you attack a station, they may pay to have a wing of bounty hunters jump in to kill you.
- Marauder Invasions. At random intervals, you will be invited to assist in defending against an invasion of Marauders.
- Civil Defense response wings. On a fairly regular basis, if the player attacks a TP or TS class ships, a wing of Civil Defense fighters will spawn in to defend the transport.
- Player selected difficulty levels.
- Dynamic composition of attacking enemy wings. The number and strength of the ships which make up the enemy wings sent against you will depend on the difficulty level you have selected, and on your strongest ship in the current sector.
- The five main races will use their allocated DDRS ships. The Pirates and Yaki will use the ships of one of the five main races (randomly selected).
- Uses the DDRS custom ship models.

NOTE: This script pack uses DDRS ship models exclusively, which means that it can only be run with version 2.4 (or better) of the DDRS mods.

New Combat Opportunities:

This AL plugin introduces three new events into your X3 game:

1) The main Bounty Hunter event, in which enemy races send wings of ships to assassinate you.
2) There is a high probability that a "retaliation" Bounty Hunter event will be triggered, should you accidentally (or intentionally) attack a station owned by one of the 5 main races. Beware: The retaliation event will also be triggered should you fly into a sector which has one or more stations that already see you as an enemy.
3) Periodic Marauder Invasions, which are launched in random Yaki or Pirate sectors, and proceed to travel to a nearby sector owned by one of the five main races. Once the Marauders get to their destination sector, they will of course proceed to rape, pillage, and burn...as pirates will do ;>) The player can elect to assist or not, without any penalty.
4) Civil Defense for TP/TS class ships. If you want to engage in piracy, and attack a TP or TS class ship, there is a very good chance that w wing of fighters will spawn in to defend it.

The standard Bounty Hunter attacks and the Marauder Invasions are spawned randomly within a 1-10 game-hour window.

Each of the four DD.BH "events" can be activated and de-activated from the standard X3 Artificial Life menu.

If you are engaged in another X3 mission or task, and do not want to be interrupted, you can simply go to the AL menu, and temporarily disable one or more of the four plugins which make up this script pack.

The DD Difficulty System:

This script also includes the DD.Difficulty system. With this system, the composition of the enemy wings that attack you, and which make up the Marauder Invasion forces (e.g. the actual number and class of the ships) is determined by:

1) The difficulty setting selected by the player.
2) The largest player-owned ship in the player's current sector.

The DD Difficulty system is simplicity itself. Go to the General Command menu, and select the entry that says "Set Deadly Combat Difficulty Level". You will hear shortly a "beep" to let you know that you have an incoming message. When you open the message, you will be able to select one of five difficulty levels.

Dynamic Composition of Enemy Wings:

To add a further level of variation, the physical compositions of each enemy wing is dynamically generated, and will vary even within the same race/difficulty setting from one attack to another.

For example, when Split ships are being used, there are multiple M3 available. This means that sometimes you would Cylon Raider Mk2s, sometimes YT02400, and sometimes a mixture,

In addition, the actual classes of ships can vary within a given difficulty setting. If you were flying in an M6, and your difficulty level called for the attacking wing to be made up of 3 M3s, 4 M4s, and 4 M5s...on rare occasions you might get 2 M3s, 5 M4s, and 6 M5s...or even 4 M3s, 3 M4s, and 2 M5s.


Release History:

- Version 1.2 is the initial release.
- Version 1.2.3 includes the new Civil Defense function, and significantly revises difficulty settings.


Installation:

The DDBH script pack is supplied as an SPK, and you will need Cycrow's X3 script installer in order to install it. You can get the X3 script installer at: http://www.xpluginmanager.co.uk/

The individual DD.BH "events" can be activated and de-activated from the standard X3 Artificial Life menu.

Planned:

- Additional "clever" messages from the bounty hunters.
- Player selected spawn intervals for the standard Bounty Hunter attacks and the marauder Invasions.

=====================================
Thanks for trying it out, and please post bug reports in the DDRS Forums: http://www.xforum.chaos.net.nz/

Enjoy!

Deadly

pja
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Post by pja » Thu, 10. May 07, 01:31

OK thanks for the help. I seem to have it working on the vanilla install as an N just baled and then turned back red on me, pity I was really after the P ! A lot more practice needed on my part I think.

With the XFP install on the other hand, everything I shoot stays red and just comes to a halt and stays there firing any turrets untill I blow it up.

Brand-X
Posts: 232
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x3

Post by Brand-X » Thu, 10. May 07, 04:01

With the XFP install on the other hand, everything I shoot stays red and just comes to a halt and stays there firing any turrets untill I blow it up.
That sounds like there is some conflict with the 'signal captured' and 'signal killed' commands used by UniCap and other scripts. Deadly had mentioned such possibilities during developement, saying that there may be some script incompatabilities due to the way those signals are used.

It may be that those can be worked out, or else a player will have to choose which scripts he wants to use. Thanks for that info, tho. I guess I'll have to make a list of incompatable scripts to warn people about.

:)

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Red Spot
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Post by Red Spot » Thu, 10. May 07, 08:19

ships only have 1 of each signal set, what I mean is that each ship can only have 1 signal_killed, 1 signal_attacked, 1 etc etc ...

if you are the last to register global commands/signals your signals will overwrite any previously set signal ..
as UniCap sounds like it comes late in the alfabet I have the impression that that is exactly what it does with some other custom signals previously set by an other custom script ...

the only way to ever get around this without ES' help is by having all scripters use some sort of lib. signalscript, but as I've tried to kickstart this myself even offered to do the main workload and other have later on did similair things and all have generally been ignored by the mayority I dont think such a thing will ever work ...

so any script setting signals is most likelly going to conflict with other scripts doing the same (remember that a signal is just an other type of command, a fancy one as the game may call it by itself (attacked/killed/etc))


G

Thraxwhirl
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Post by Thraxwhirl » Thu, 10. May 07, 17:11

Nadgers. The script's not compatible with XFP? Major bummer. I was so looking forward to using this, as no one ever bails in X3. Ever.

Well, hardly ever. Certainly not with the frequency they did in X2. I've had two bails in the full four months I've played X3.

I think there'd be a simple way around this incompatibilty though. A scaled down version of this script that could work on all games/mods.

It WOULDN'T give you the clever trickery of ships/stations pretending to bail; no slave capture; and no detonation, but it could ensure plenty much bailing.

Here's my idea, and it doesn't use signal killed. I've written it out in ROUGH, not using precise Script Edito language, but you get the idea.

Set up a repeating loop of While [TRUE]


Get sector-> [PLAYERSHIP].
Create array of all ships in that sector.
Go through them one at a time. So ship=ships(current).
Get ship's Race(call it orig.race).
Get ship's max hull.
Divide that by, say 10(being the cutoff point). We'll call that minimum.hull.
Get ship's current hull.
$bail = random no. from, say 1 to 10.
if not ship is of type astronaught OR PLAYERSHIP!!
if ship-> shields = 0
if ship-> current.hull <= minimum.hull.
if bail < 2(so you've a 1 in 10 chance when the hull is below minimum).
if not orig.race = Player
Play the comm message for "I'm abandoning ship"-thingy(race specific).
end
ship-> set owner race Neutral.
create ship Astronaught at location of ship.
end
end
end
Then go to next ship in array and do same checks.
After finishing the check on all ships in system.
wait 15000 milliseconds.
Repeat the process all over again.

Job done, and the beauty of it is that, whilst it only works in PLAYERSHIP's sector, ANY ship(except yours) of any race(INCLUDING yours) can bail, regardless of who shot it.

Apologies for not writing it in precise code, but you get the gist, yes?

Thus the AI could force your ships to bail too!! Wicked eh? It'd also mean that you could claim friendly ships, by simply being IS when they bail. Kha'ak are fighting Argon. Argon ship bails. You claim it. :twisted:

You could also, prior to the return on the wait command, get it to run the same processes for stations in your PLAYERSHIP sector. Their owner race could be set to neutral in such an event, and I've written a script that changes a station's race to whatever you want, which affects all docked ships too. You could get it to execute that script, with the parameter Neutral for Race, if you want.

Though, you can't claim stations conventionally, so it would be necessary to write a plugin command for claiming a station. It would then execute the Change station race(including docked ships) once again. And set it to PLAYER this time.

What do you think?

Of course, the downside is that any bailed stations that you don't claim remain Neutral...

...Unless, you have another script running, which checks all sectors in the Galaxy, looking for neutral stations(NOT in PLAYERSHIP's sector, so you never see it happen) once every, say, 10 mins, and, subject to random variables, returns them to original owner.

The "get true race" command would identify who owned it originally. Then it executes the station race changer script again, chosing the original race - or maybe the owners of that sector(which is better), who've claimed it for themselves since it was left abandoned.

If you did THAT, you could make the station claiming plugin a ware/ugrade that you have to buy for your ship. Thus, if you have the upgrade, you can claim neutral stations as and when they bail, and if you DON'T have the upgrade, it doesn't matter. The abandoned station(s) will eventually be claimed/re-claimed by the sector's owner.

What do you think?

Edit: Oh, one last thing - in the checks, both for ships and(DOUBLY important) stations, get it to check the ship/station's TRUE owner. If the true owner is neutral anyway, you don't want it bailling or being (re)claimed by the sector's owner. Otherwise you run the risk of freebies being claimed by the AI; and also, I believe some of XFP's stations(in Enemy Sectors) are Neautral by default.

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Red Spot
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Post by Red Spot » Thu, 10. May 07, 18:59

Thraxwhirl wrote:Nadgers. The script's not compatible with XFP? Major bummer. I was so looking forward to using this, as no one ever bails in X3. Ever.

note that I havent said that, I'm not aware of what signals are set and in what way, not about UniCap nor XFP ...



G

Thraxwhirl
Posts: 683
Joined: Fri, 17. Feb 06, 20:54
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Post by Thraxwhirl » Thu, 10. May 07, 19:41

Oh, I see.

Well, alas I only worked on XFP as a Beta-tester. I didn't set any coding.

Still, what do you think of my suggestion? I reckon it'd be a cool thing to have, since it would enable bailling for everyone(even your ships), and not just as a result of YOUR weapons fire.

What do you think?

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