Ship Extension Question ?

[Cursed Ghost]

hi all

I know this might sound like a really noobish question but it's something I've wondered about for a while of all the various ship extensions you can buy for craft in the X games how many of them do NPC controlled vessels actually use ? is there any point in supplying npc controlled ships with anything other than nav, trade, fight and special command software so that each ship has all access to all the basic commands and rudder/engine and cargo bay enhancements

will npc controlled ships actually use a Docking Computer, Jump Drive, Boost Extension, Strafe Drive Extension, Best Buy/Sell Locater, Freight Scanner, Mineral Scanner, Ore Collector, Space Fly Collector, Trading System Extension, SETA Extension, Duplex/Triplex Scanners, Fighter Drones etc if you supply your ship with them.

I know in earlier games some of the functionality was added vie user made scripts like the BHP trade command software and in later games ego cloned some of the user made scripts and added them to the game by default so for example all ships equipped with jump drives and the nav software will automatically use there jump drive if configured to do so.

The special command software also had commands added to it to allow for ships equipped with mineral scanners for example to automatically go survey asteroids in the chosen system, but what about all the other extensions because for the most part I see no evidence that an NPC controlled ship uses them.

for example I tried equipping my NPC controlled freighter ships with docking computers but when I watched them they don't appear to make use of them. what about NPC controlled Fighters will they use jump drives automatically if I equip them appropriately ?

while my question is primarily directed at X2 which is the one I'm playing right now the question applies to all the X games in general

in each of the X games what ship extensions will NPC controlled ships actually use.

one other thing why is it that ego never added beam wares and beam all ware in sector commands to the special command software for ships equipped with a transporter device because the default way of salvaging containers and pilots from space is insanely irritating I know there was user made scripts for this but really this is a function that should have been added by default and I don't understand why they didn't there is nothing unbalance about it it’s a quality of life improvement because the default way of running over objects in order to salvage them sucks big time and often results in npc controlled salvage craft endlessly flying round and round in circles because there to stupid to know they need to stop face the object there trying to collect and then collect it

[EmperorJon]

will npc controlled ships actually use a Docking Computer, Jump Drive, Boost Extension, Strafe Drive Extension, Best Buy/Sell Locater, Freight Scanner, Mineral Scanner, Ore Collector, Space Fly Collector, Trading System Extension, SETA Extension, Duplex/Triplex Scanners, Fighter Drones etc if you supply your ship with them.

In order...

1. Never.
2. Depends on autojump settings.
3. Never.
4. Never strafe at all.
5. Sometimes needed for some commands, I think.
6. As above.
7. As above.
8. As above.
9. I don't think so.
10. As above the one above...
11. Of course they never use SETA! The game would just randomly speed up!
12. Increases scanner range, some commands make use of scanner range.
13. Depends on commands. UTs for example buy them themselves and dump them in trouble. Not sure about if they've been given it though...

[ajax34i]

Well, the problem is that "NPC-controlled ships" only do trading (with Trade Software Mk. 3 or CAG/CLS software), so yeah a lot of the extensions don't apply or aren't useful (and are thus not used).

The NPCs also cheat; for example if you're right there watching a TS dock, it will take the time to line up at the end of the runway lights and then slowly move in until the clamp is engaged. However, if you're in a different sector, it just moves (full speed) right in overlapping the station icon, then insta-docks (as if it had a Docking Computer with a range of 0).

So, basically, some shortcuts were taken in order to make the NPC AI have less of a load on the CPU, while still behaving similarly to how we fly.

Incidentally, Jump Drives, Ore Collectors, Fighter Drones, and probably the Duplex/Triplex Scanners are used, at least in X3TC/AP.

As for quality-of-life stuff, perhaps they didn't have time to add it (like you didn't have time to properly format that last run-on wall-of-text no-punctuation paragraph - why didn't you? It's a quality-of-life feature for us readers - trying to read that last paragraph sucked big time).

They actually slow down / fully stop in X3AP, then slowly advance to collect the crate, btw, so they did fix that.

[Alan Phipps]

By the way, it is worth giving almost all travelling or 'can be summoned' Player-owned ships the basic necessities (SETA, fight, trade, special, duplex, etc) as you never know when you may have to personally jump into another IS ship of yours to do something that the AI cannot manage at all or quickly enough.

[Sinxar]

one other thing why is it that ego never added beam wares and beam all ware in sector commands to the special command software for ships equipped with a transporter device because the default way of salvaging containers and pilots from space is insanely irritating I know there was user made scripts for this but really this is a function that should have been added by default and I don't understand why they didn't there is nothing unbalance about it it’s a quality of life improvement because the default way of running over objects in order to salvage them sucks big time and often results in npc controlled salvage craft endlessly flying round and round in circles because there to stupid to know they need to stop face the object there trying to collect and then collect it

Its funny you would mention that as I was just reading the bonus pack script submission thread yesterday.

The reason seemed to be because to the dev's its a form of cheating because it happens too fast. The argument was that is wasn't 'real'. As in they wanted you to be able to see stuff happening when you beam wares etc. Thats what I gathered from skimming over why it wasn't included in any bonus packs.

If you want more accurate information about that. look here: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 65#2818065

[Mrreg]

I love having the Triplex Scanners on all my ships. When I look at a sector remotely and can't see much of it, it bugs me now. I like being able to use my traders as roving satellites.

Edit: Also, I've started trying to put the Transporter on as many ships as I can. Makes transferring wares or hopping between ships easier.