XTC Mod How to Change a Ships Docking Values

[Dreamora]

OK Well As promised when i figured this out i would share with the rest of the world.

Here is how to Edit Existing docking ports for ships in the XTC mod.

Required Resources:

1) X3 Editor 2

2) Dummy File Flags

Step 1)

After installing the X3 Editor 2 you will need to locate the CAT file that contains the "Dummies.pck" File. In my instance it was located in 15.CAT

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Step 2)

Once you have located the Correct CAT file with the "Dummies.pck" file (usually the highest numbered CAT file with a dummies.pck file in it) you need to open up the Dummies File with the TDebugger option when prompted.

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Step 3)

Now that you have the File open you are ready to change the properties of the defined docking ports, for all ships that use the m6 or ts docking ports we can easily swap them out.

Select the Docking port you want to edit, and then simply change the ship docking flag to match the class of ship(s) you would like to dock in this slot.

As mentioned above you can find all of the flags on THIS PAGE.

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Step 4)

Finally all that is left to wrap up this change is to simply save the Dummies file over itself allowing it to overwrite the existing file.

(Remmeber that any changes made WILL NOT EFFECT EXISTING SHIPS in the game, you will need to Perchase/Spawn/Cap a new one after the engine has had time to create the new ships.)

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[expnobody]

look into dummies.txt

[Dreamora]

Updated - Thanks for the hint

[DrBullwinkle]

Thank you for doing this, Dreamora (and expnobody)! Not only does it work as you describe, but it also gave me the missing clue that I needed to figure out how to edit a ship's scene file to control which docks are installed.

While docking works smoothly, I seem to have a problem with un-docking Hugeships (M1, M2, M7, TL). In some tests, I could remotely undock an AI-piloted Hugeship. But when I try to undock while I am "driving" the ship, it gets stuck in the dock (with shields noticeably reduced).

In other tests, even remote undocking fails. The ship just sits in the hangar, running the "idle" command (or whatever).

At first I thought that it might be the size of the docked ship. But, then, I thought that clipping is turned off during docking and undocking? So I tested that by changing the sub-type of an M7 to M3, and it could dock and undock without trouble. So it seems to be something else.

Any ideas of what to investigate?

[Dreamora]

Well I will have to do some research on this, I am still learning how the engine works. But if I can figure it out i will send you a pm.

That is an interesting problem indeed.

I believe i remember having this same issue in X3 Reunion though i never bothered to look into it.

[DrBullwinkle]

Scene files for carriers have entries for docks. You can recognize them by the dock ID, which relates to an entry in Dummies, as you discovered. Common IDs are 19026 for launching fighters and 19027 for landing fighters. So one might change those to 19098 and 19099 (Standard docks), for example. The result is that only one ship is now changed from fighter docks to standard docks. In my limited testing, this part works as expected.

I only have trouble when I change a FIGHTER dock to the HUGESHIP flag. Or, when I change a 19026 to 19040, which is the Hugeship dock used by the Goner Aran. (Also, the SHIPS flag appears to not work. Perhaps it is no longer supported?)

EDIT:
External docks work best for docking large ships. If you make the above change to TDummies, you may notice that some ships larger than M3 will have trouble docking and undocking from some carriers. To solve these problems:

• Docking: Use Docking Lockup Fix.
  
  Undocking: Should only be a problem when you pilot the ship. In that case, first launch the ship by commanding it to Idle (Navigation Menu), then transfer to the ship via transporter device.

In any case, I really appreciate someone treating this topic seriously, Dreamora and expnobody. Thanks!

[expnobody]

standard internal launching and docking WILL NOT WORK with anything larger than M3 (even M8s will stuck without modification on the model, which i've done)

if standard dock wont work, then you must use external dock, it's more like a parking spot. AI wont have trouble because they are AI.

[DrBullwinkle]

standard internal launching and docking WILL NOT WORK with anything larger than M3 (even M8s will stuck without modification on the model, which i've done)

OK, I trust you. (Although a Claymore and an Osprey appeared to work, but my testing was very limited).

if standard dock wont work, then you must use external dock, it's more like a parking spot. AI wont have trouble because they are AI.

What is an example of an external dock? Is the Aran's 19040 what you are talking about? (It even *looks* like a big parking lot hanging off the back of the ship). Or do we need something non-vanilla to do this?

[expnobody]

aran's dock works (it should, but i am not sure the dock has a model or not), but usually in mods, ppl just use a dummy without a model as a docking point, and definition of the dock's property is all defined in dummies.txt