[Mod] "Simoom's Lantern" - Ultimate Cheat Menu

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Tue, 10. May 16, 16:05

Update 5/10/16:
  • [New Feature] "Claim Territory": Changes the ownership of the player's current zone to the player. This is more or less just a "fun" feature for people who wants to feel like they can actually own a piece of the galaxy and forge the frontier the way they like (used in combination with "Self-Destruct"'s ability to disable NPC stations, one could effectively pacify Xenon sectors and make it a haven for the player empire).
  • [New Feature] "Station Management": Players now have the ability to restock or empty a selected station of production wares! Includes ability to select a station from the Property list, or use your current target (intelligent targeting behavior applies - any module or surface element will do!)
  • [Improvement] "Construction Vessel Restock/Undock": Added intelligent targeting behavior when using "Target Object".

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Tue, 10. May 16, 16:09

:thumb_up:
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

icanfly
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Post by icanfly » Tue, 10. May 16, 18:02

Hi Simoom you have been busy :) I have to look here more often, since the last time i downloaded your mod lots of stuff was added and fixed. However i do have some suggestions.

1. Would it be possible to build/spawn npc stations on npc buildlocations? Similar to the function in your mod for building/spawning the Devries Plot Stations or the Mod "Build Stations Mission". It is possible to build a station and change the owner to npc, but at the moment i have to give up my valauble building spots. I do know that i could build in empty zones but i don't realy like it because there are not many empty zones with a good highway connection and it also irrates me when my capships fly through other empty zones und if you have an economy going you actually can't see the original sectors on map :( Don't know if it only irrates me but i would be glad if someone could make something against this "Empty Zone" illnes.

2. Is it possible to connect zones or sectors via script. For example build in a empty zones and connect the empty zone with another zone or sector or even put up a new gate?

3. Could you make a funtion to destroy/sell all ships in players squad. This would be a great time saver, especially if you have Shipyard Mods or CWIR and start to produce massive fleets but have to sell all the ships one by one, really annoying.

... no further suggestions, keep up the good work :)

Greetings icanfly

UniTrader
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Post by UniTrader » Tue, 10. May 16, 19:00

not my mod but can still provide some answers ^^

1. doesnt make much sense without adding more npc buildspots since the ones defined in the Game are all used (afaik 5 total exist, all in DV: the 4 commonly known Stations and the PMC overwatch - thats it for NPC buildspots afaik) EDIT: just re-checked: 8 total in the Core Game (without DLC) if i counted right.

2. afaik nope.
if not stated otherwise everything i post is licensed under WTFPL

Ich mache keine S&M-Auftragsarbeiten, aber wenn es fragen gibt wie man etwas umsetzen kann helfe ich gerne weiter ;)

I wont do Script&Mod Request work, but if there are questions how to do something i will GLaDly help ;)

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Tue, 10. May 16, 19:13

3) Are you trying to create artificial sink with player shipyard or just to make money? I personally had problems with this too becuse i had huge empire and no sink for it (in DV). I used Shipyard to build ships and sell them for profit. Anyway what you can do now is turn shipyard to NPC and it will start building ships creating sink for your stations. Also this mod will change Shipyards production in DV from 2h to 20m (something like that). You are not going to make as much as money by sell ships your self but you can always cheat money in ;)
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

icanfly
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Post by icanfly » Tue, 10. May 16, 21:13

@UniTrader: Thanks for the answers. Is it possible to make that allied capital ships that are boosting from sector to sector don't trigger this empty zone sectors when you open map?

@Nikola515: Well i suppose since i am already using this mod i could do it the way you described and still be able to buy ships. The thing is before this cheat menu i actually build my own shipyards (CWIR) and then bought lots of small ships to get the economy going and to make money. But after selling the ships a few hundred times it got very annoying :(

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Wed, 11. May 16, 01:42

icanfly wrote:Hi Simoom you have been busy :) I have to look here more often, since the last time i downloaded your mod lots of stuff was added and fixed. However i do have some suggestions.
Hello again! :) Yeah I am trying to stay on top of this until I am satisfied enough with it for a proper Nexus/Steam release. There are still two issues I am trying to tackle at the moment ("Remove Upkeep Missions" and "Unlock Ship Information"). But yeah, I do accept feature requests that I deem feasible & sensible, so you should see an update every few days until this thing is out of BETA.
icanfly wrote:1. Would it be possible to build/spawn npc stations on npc buildlocations? Similar to the function in your mod for building/spawning the Devries Plot Stations or the Mod "Build Stations Mission". It is possible to build a station and change the owner to npc, but at the moment i have to give up my valauble building spots. I do know that i could build in empty zones but i don't realy like it because there are not many empty zones with a good highway connection and it also irrates me when my capships fly through other empty zones und if you have an economy going you actually can't see the original sectors on map :( Don't know if it only irrates me but i would be glad if someone could make something against this "Empty Zone" illnes.
UniTrader's answer is correct - currently there are only a small number of NPC build locations, and they are all in DeVries (these are only used in vanilla if you are on a campaign save, though if you use the "Canteran Plot Stations" feature in my mod, the spawned Canteran stations are properly connected to these NPC build locations).

Roguey's map has NPC build spot info, so does X Rebirth Builder 2.0's minimap tool.

Aside from this, yes a feature like what you suggested would be very easy to implement if there are actual NPC build locations on the map (they are located differently in MD script from player build locations. I already have an NPC build location detection written for the "Canteran Plot Stations" feature).
icanfly wrote:2. Is it possible to connect zones or sectors via script. For example build in a empty zones and connect the empty zone with another zone or sector or even put up a new gate?
Not to my understanding. This sort of thing would require patch files that modify the actual zone maps (specifying new jump gates and highways, and their connections); currently there are no MD script functions that would allow for the creation of the type of objects such as jump gates and highways (it's certainly possible to implement something like this into MD script, but Egosoft would have to be the one to implement them).
icanfly wrote:3. Could you make a funtion to destroy/sell all ships in players squad. This would be a great time saver, especially if you have Shipyard Mods or CWIR and start to produce massive fleets but have to sell all the ships one by one, really annoying.
If you place all the ships you want to destroy into a separate squadron, you can simply target the squad commander and issue "Self-Destruct". This will blow up all its subordinate units as well.

Mass-sell through a NPC ship dealer may be possible through a combination of custom UI menu + ship dealer script modification (for example allowing you to check-box all the ships you want to sell, then sell the whole batch), but something like that is beyond my coding abilities at the moment (UI menus use LUA scripts and they confuse the hell out of me; and they don't have the kind of extensive documentation that MD scripts have). :(

VincentTH
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Post by VincentTH » Wed, 11. May 16, 06:04

I've got 2 simple questions:

- I am playing CWIR, and there is a need to destroy those CVs.

(1) Do I have to be in zone to issue Self-Destruct ?
(If so it is impossible to do, as FPS drops to 0.1, and the game is a __slow__ slide show that update the screen every few minutes).

(2) After I am done with destroying those CVs, does my save game still have a dependency on the mod (otherwise speaking, can I just remove the mod?)

Thanks

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Wed, 11. May 16, 07:43

VincentTH wrote:I've got 2 simple questions:

- I am playing CWIR, and there is a need to destroy those CVs.

(1) Do I have to be in zone to issue Self-Destruct ?
(If so it is impossible to do, as FPS drops to 0.1, and the game is a __slow__ slide show that update the screen every few minutes).

(2) After I am done with destroying those CVs, does my save game still have a dependency on the mod (otherwise speaking, can I just remove the mod?)

Thanks
Hmm, currently "Self-Destruct" applies to the player's target (so you have to be in-zone). Originally, it did come with a "Through Map" function, but it was abandoned due to limitations in Ego's map menu. The Map menu can only be set into three modes: SelectPlayerObject, SelectObject, and SelectZone. Unfortunately the first two modes are mutually-exclusive (no way to allow the player to select both player and NPC objects in a single mode). This meant I would need to incorporate two separate map menu modes, depending on if the player is trying to remove his own property or an NPC property.

All of this is doable, but in the end I decided to axe that ability because it made the usage of the feature unnecessarily complicated (I am anticipating the usage of thus feature to frequently be during battle, so a quick target selection and activating the menu options without needing to navigate layers of dialogue is desirable).

In any case, for the current CWIR bug.... I can write a clean-up routine of some sort that targets all unattached CV's in the galaxy that have no orders, and destroy them all... I'll see what I can do and post it in the CWIR thread.

Oh and no, this cheat menu is completely safe to uninstall, as stated on the OP.
Last edited by Simoom on Wed, 11. May 16, 08:27, edited 1 time in total.

VincentTH
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Post by VincentTH » Wed, 11. May 16, 07:54

Thanks for the reply. That was very helpful, and I appreciate it.

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Wed, 11. May 16, 11:06

Update 5/11/16:
  • [New Feature] "Remove Upkeep Missions": Removes any leftover Upkeep Missions on a ship or station, after it has been transferred over to a NPC faction. A backdoor had to be added in md/Upkeep.xml for this feature to work, so try not to remove this XML patch from the mod (though still save game-safe if you did).
  • [Improvement] "Change Faction": This feature now automatically cancels any unfinished Upkeep Missions if a player asset is transferred over to NPC control. This only applies to the main target, however - if the target's subordinates also have unfinished Upkeep Missions, use the "Remove Upkeep Missions" feature to manually clear them.
  • [Improvement] "Self-Destruct", "Claim Target", and "Change Faction" now affects not only the subordinates of the targeted object, but the subordinates of those subordinates as well (this is as far as I will go in taking care of the command tree structure, though).
  • [Bug fix] Summon Stations: Fixed a minor bug where the station crew is being created on $StationDock, instead of $StationDock.component (which is the proper format). Actual functionality is unchanged (since all station crew now exist in the station's control room, instead of any dock location anyway), but you will no longer get debug errors on station spawn.
With Remove Upkeep Missions functional, I am now one feature away from a release candidate for Nexus/Steam! :) Just need to figure out how to get that stupid "Unlock Ship Information" to work...

Also, for those of you using CWIR and experiencing the CV glitch caused by CWIR beta 1.1, I wrote a small utility to remove all glitched CV's at game load. Check this post for details:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 19#4611119

icanfly
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Post by icanfly » Wed, 11. May 16, 19:29

thanks for the update, downloading it now :)

Edit: Found some bugs.

1. The Overwatch Station has 6 Towers behind the round circle yours has only 3, meaning the docklocations for products are floating in the air.

2. Your modification to legendary mods applies to all weapons except Plasma Canon MK3 and Railgun.

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Thu, 12. May 16, 14:31

icanfly wrote:1. The Overwatch Station has 6 Towers behind the round circle yours has only 3, meaning the docklocations for products are floating in the air.
Hmm... the "floating components" issue is a symptom of an incomplete build for landmark stations (they have strange build plans). I'll check the build plan and make sure no sequence/stage value is missing. :)
icanfly wrote:2. Your modification to legendary mods applies to all weapons except Plasma Canon MK3 and Railgun.
Do you mean you got some Plasma Canon Mk3 and Railgun mods, but they did not have the modded bonus values? Or do you mean you are not able to get weapon mods for those weapons to spawn at all through this mod?
In the first scenario, it's possibly a load order issue (my mod being loaded before the DLC's). If that is the issue I will have to add dependency values to my mod.

Edit - Confirmed and fixed both issues! :) Updated the files on the server as well as the new patch note. Thanks for the report!
Last edited by Simoom on Thu, 12. May 16, 15:34, edited 2 times in total.

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Thu, 12. May 16, 14:39

Update 5/12/16:
  • [Improvement] Mod is now split into a "Main Mod" package and a "Supplements" package. XML patch files that are deemed not essential to the main mod's features have been moved to the "Supplements" package (see "Game Asset Changes" in the first post for details).
  • [Improvement] Added several XML patches providing the following benefits:
    • aiscripts\engineer.player.xml - Adds the ability for an Engineer assigned to the Skunk to repair hull damage (up to 100% for 5-star).
    • assets\props\SurfaceElements\Macros\enginebooster_player_01_macro.xml - Significantly increases the speed, acceleration, and maneuverability of the Skunk's boosters. Also removes the 10% shield requirement for boost activation.
    • assets\units\size_l\units_size_l_xenon_01.xml & units_size_l_xenon_01_macro.xml - Adds a dock location to the Xenon K. If the mod/patch were removed, all ships spawned while the patch was activate will retain their dock module (those spawned after won't have one).
    • assets\units\size_xl\units_size_xl_xenon_01.xml & units_size_xl_xenon_01_macro.xml - Adds a dock location to the Xenon I. If the mod/patch were removed, all ships spawned while the patch was activate will retain their dock module (those spawned after won't have one).
    • libraries\ships.xml - Makes all Xenon K and Xenon I spawned by patrol jobs boardable.
    • md\NPC_Engineer.xml - Provides a necessary change to overcome an Egosoft oversight (custom Engineers are still assigned a timeout value). Without this patch, there's literally no way to spawn an Engineer NPC who's not assigned to duty, and not have him despawn immediately after being assigned somewhere and the player leaves the zone. Also provides a tweak to allow Engineers to be assigned to player stations via dialogue (special thanks to w.evans for lending me his codes).
  • [Improvement] aiscripts\trade.shipyard.xml completely re-written for improved compatibility with other mods.
  • [Bug fix] "Legendary Weapons": Fixed issue with Plasma Cannon Mk3 and Railgun not receiving attribute boosts via the XML patch. Turned out to be a dependency issue (my mod was being loaded before the Home of Light DLC, so the <replace> wasn't being applied to those two weapons).
  • [Bug fix] "Summon Stations": Fixed some missing stages on the summoned Teladi Overwatch station (shouldn't see more floating components).
  • [Bug fix] "Summon Personnel": Engineers spawned by this feature no longer disappear when player assign them somewhere and leaves zone. Issue was traced down to yet another Egosoft oversight (tons of inconsistency in NPC MD scripts...) Unfortunately a XML patch was necessary this time to address the issue, so aiscripts\engineer.player.xml is now a mandatory patch.
[SPECIAL NOTES]
  • engineer.player.xml: Initially, I looked inside the codes of the only mod (that I am aware of) that offered Skunk engineer hull repairs, Hull x3 Skunk, just to see how it's done... and I was shocked to find that the author of that mod simply replaced engineer.player.xml with an EXACT copy of engineer.ai.xml. This is... really not good... so I started from scratch and wrote my own. I tested it in-game and it seems to work; feel free to look over my codes and see if I did everything right, though.
  • Xenon capital ship patches: These files are essentially a very trimmed-down version of Xenon Hunt, allowing you to board and dock at Xenon capital ships. The differences are...
    • My patches do not add any additional surface elements to the ships aside from the dock. Xenon Hunt's files add drone bays, jump drives (unnecessary since 2.5 really... since vanilla Xenon capships gained jump drives already), Universal storage (may be a bit excessive), several additional turrets and component shields (for Xenon I), and waypoints for drone traffic (during repairs).
    • My patches do not add any units (drones and marines) to spawned job ships (not possible without drone bays, anyway). Xenon Hunt adds a number of combat drones and marines to increase boarding difficulty.
    • My patches do not modify md\Boarding.xml. Xenon Hunt modifies this file to increase boarding difficulty, but this creates compatibility issues with other mods that also modify this file (such as the popular "Marines Rebalance" mod). My patches will not have this compatibility issue.
Last edited by Simoom on Thu, 12. May 16, 18:01, edited 1 time in total.

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Thu, 12. May 16, 16:36

Sorry me again.... :oops: I just noticed that engineers keep disappearing when assigned to ships.

1) I boarded one of pirate ships in DV. (25hp left).

2) Added crew (summoned with cheat).

3) I got message that I need another engineer. I wasn't 100% if I had one so I placed another one( ships hp was 44%)

4) 3 minutes later I got another message that I need another engineer.

I will hire engineer now and see if it disappears. Also right before you fixed managers disappearing in stations I had boarding officers disappear in middle of boarding. You might want to check in to this too but I haven't had any problems after this ( I didn't board much ships after that too ).
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Post by Simoom » Thu, 12. May 16, 16:53

Nikola515 wrote:Sorry me again.... :oops: I just noticed that engineers keep disappearing when assigned to ships.
Did it start happening in today's update? Or has it been happening for a while?

I ask because I just integrated w.evans "Station Engineers" mod into the Supplements package. It shouldn't cause the issue you described, but it may help me narrow down the problem.

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Thu, 12. May 16, 17:12

I downloaded update 3h ago..... This is first time it happened so far. Last ship I boarded was Titurel and I didn't have any problems with it. All though I did use cheats to fix ship after boarding. Ship that I boarded now I actually had engineer fix it. I hope this can help....

Edit: I also have save if you like.

Edit 2: It looks like hired engineer works fine.
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Thu, 12. May 16, 18:00

Nikola515 wrote:I downloaded update 3h ago..... This is first time it happened so far. Last ship I boarded was Titurel and I didn't have any problems with it. All though I did use cheats to fix ship after boarding. Ship that I boarded now I actually had engineer fix it. I hope this can help....

Edit: I also have save if you like.

Edit 2: It looks like hired engineer works fine.
No need to post the save, I tracked down the issue... to yet another Egosoft bug/oversight... :evil: Without going into details, there are a LOT of inconsistencies in Ego's NPC MD scripts. In the case of the Engineer script, not only does it fail to check for spawned NPC faction (cancel timeout if faction = player, which Architect's MD script does properly), it also fails to cancel timeout if the Engineer is a custom actor (which NPC_Staff.xml handles properly at the very least).

In other words, it is impossible to spawn an Engineer who is not immediately assigned to duty without him disappearing the moment the player leaves zone.

The only fix is through a XML patch to NPC_Engineer.xml, which I just did, and can confirm the spawned Engineers no longer disappear when you leave zone. Unfortunately this means the NPC_Engineer patch is now mandatory for addressing this issue, so I have moved it over to the "Main Mod" package.

Files on the server are now updated, as well as the latest Changelog.

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Nikola515
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Post by Nikola515 » Thu, 12. May 16, 18:28

Thanks :)
It's not world hunger because we can't feed poor,it's because there will never be enough to feed the rich .....

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Simoom
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Post by Simoom » Fri, 13. May 16, 15:28

Hey folks, got another update here. :) This mod is definitely headed out of beta status, as updates shift away from adding new feature to fine-tuning existing ones and ironing out any remaining wrinkles. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank everyone who's helped me test this mod, your suggestions and bug reports have been enormously helpful!

Update 5/13/16:
  • [Improvement] Added several XML patches providing the following benefits:
    • assets\structures\[...] - Xenon production stations are now actually functional! The files here add actual storage capacity to the Xenon Repository station modules, which is required for the Xenon stations spawned by the mod to be actually functional (Xenon stations are capable of Antimatter Cell production, but have no storage).
    • md\NPC_Architect.xml - Adds proper routine for architect to detect attached station (or lack of one), and generate the correct dialogue options. Architect no longer needs to be shuffled back and forth when the CV is issued an "Undock" order.
    • md\NPC_Staff.xml - Allows captains and pilots to be called back to the Skunk through the "Come back on board" dialogue option.
  • [Improvement] md\Upkeep_Management.xml & md\Upkeep.xml completely re-written to be much more concise, and improve compatibility with other mods that modify these files. Additionally, station Upkeep mission generation now uses the presence of storage modules as a criteria, instead of a simple exclusion of specific station macros. This improves compatibility with mods that add new station types.
  • [Improvement] aiscripts\trade.shipyard.xml completely re-written to be much more concise, and improve compatibility with other mods that modify this file.

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