[MOD] [TC/AP] X3 Rebalance Mod (XRM) - Total conversion - v1.30d (02.12.13)

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 12. Apr 12, 23:51

Litcube wrote: the main AL script isn't closing out properly. I'd wager TestUnknown's game is now damaged and requires a restart.

Ooh, that sounds bad. Is it insufficient to fix whatever bug causes the script to not close properly, then delete the running versions of the script (in the script editor)?

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Thu, 12. Apr 12, 23:53

Phanon Corp runs a corporation. There's a lot of stuff going on. Phanon corp has nearly zero performance impact on a running game, even at huge late game corps. This is possible by the use of big global arrays storing all the data, and only being acted upon when required by the use of a tick system.

These big arrays are likely corrupt.

greypanther · Post by **greypanther** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:02

Can you please explain your reasoning behind making the docking computer XXL now? Also why stop the flail being a swarm missile?

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:03

Litcube wrote:These big arrays are likely corrupt.

Oh, that sounds bad, too.

Would it be possible to delete the arrays and re-start Phanon, rather than restart the entire game? Either with PropMongler or by a fix-up script?

I ask because I am trying to learn how to not make similar mistakes myself.

(Also because Marine Repairs has similar symptoms in my game when I enter Undefined Space)

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:06

Oh. Yeah, turning off phanon will reset the arrays. And it will remove all traces of Race 1 too.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:14

Litcube wrote:Oh. Yeah, turning off phanon will reset the arrays.

Even better.

Shame about breaking Phanon, though. I hope that TestUnknown keeps his older save files.

Sadly, toggling the AL does not fix my problem with Marine Repairs, but that is not your problem.

I was just curious. Thanks.

BTW, I have been using Phanon Corporation in two games, and I like it a lot. I especially appreciate how the AI seems to improve as the level increases... there are many little surprises, and the surprises add fun to the game.

paulwheeler · Post by **paulwheeler** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:15

I hate the idea of ships teleporting into a dock - way too much like cheating for me. If it wasnt for the pain in the butt that docking a capital ship is, id have removed it completely. So i decided to make it cap ship only.

Personally, had i designed the game, the docking computer would have been the autopilot. Without it, youd always have to manually dock, a la Elite/Frontier.

As for the flail - with the new turret missile scripts it was way too powerful as a swarm - not to mention a frame rate killer. An XRM M7M can fire 16 - 20 flails at once. If it were a swarm, that would be 128 - 160!!! Not to mention that the AI has a hard time shooting down swarm missiles due to their spinning trajectory.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:17

DrBullwinkle wrote:BTW, I have been using Phanon Corporation in two games, and I like it a lot. I especially appreciate how the AI seems to improve as the level increases... there are many little surprises, and the surprises add fun to the game.

Thanks.

It was originally a performance proof of concept. Could you get a living entity in the game that acts like the player: buying ships, selling wares, trading, factory building, fighting, all with minimal performance impact?

The answer is I have no idea.

greypanther · Post by **greypanther** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:24

Well I see where your coming from regards the Flail.
Not the DC though. Manual docking is a pain in the butt too after the first dozen or so times. If it is a cheat, so is SETA! Several other greater cheats too. In what way is it beneficial to watch the autopiolot dock for the thousandth time?

Also must report a bug. Got told to dock at a Nove Sntinal to pick up a fair, by Jonferco! Me in A M6 too.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:24

Litcube wrote:The answer is I have no idea.

Haha! Yep, I have no idea, either, because I have gotten into the habit of getting most of my EST's by capping Phanon transports. So Phanon grows slowly, if at all.

I can say that I have not experienced any performance degradation from Phanon.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:41

I do plan on fixing moral of transports to keep them from bailing. Also, Phanon corp on higher levels is much more challenging.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 00:51

Litcube wrote:I do plan on fixing moral of transports to keep them from bailing.

I think it is fine on lower levels. They don't bail any more frequently than Duke's transports, but it is more fun to cap Phanon's because, if I don't, then they eventually become quite annoying.

Also, Phanon corp on higher levels is much more challenging.

Yeah, that is what I meant about the surprises. They are now much more challenging to cap than Duke's, because I have to chase them through multiple jumps (until they run out of energy cells?) before I can cap them. Big fun!

Also, if I do not cap them, then I destroy them. So reducing capping just makes them less interesting prey. And morale does nothing for gameplay -- it mainly alters the capping ratio -- there is little skill involved. I vote for leaving morale as it is.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 01:15

Phanon Corporation is already pretty great.

The only soft spot I have observed is that their home sector is a bit too easy to find and invade after the first time.

My first experience was incredibly fun. I had not yet discovered their home sector, and they eluded me for weeks. I kept looking for them, and could never find them (mostly because I missed the gate to their unknown sector on my first pass, and did not use any automated scanning/exploring scripts).

I finally found their home sector by accident. When I invaded, the fight was epic! Those missile-spamming bombers toasted me several times before I was able to deal with them. It probably helped them that I gave MARS only to enemies in that game.

So the only thought that I have for improving Phanon might be difficult to achieve reliably: *create* a new sector for each corporation level, and make it hard to find.

Litcube · Post by **Litcube** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 01:21

Well, Phanon corp already comes with the ability for you to add as many sectors as you want in the text file. The instructions are in the first post, I think.

Creating sectors, though, that's an interesting idea. Would need MD help on that.

delray · Post by **delray** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 02:00

How come this thing never got its own subforum? I think when you reach 800th page, it's quite a hint.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 02:14

Litcube wrote:Well, Phanon corp already comes with the ability for you to add as many sectors as you want in the text file.

If I create new sectors for my own game, then there is no challenge in finding them.

I was thinking more along the lines of new, secret, random sectors. MD, as you say. Ketraar's Random Sectors Management (RSM) probably has most of the code that you would need. That should reduce the problem to finding a way to hook Phanon into one of his new sectors. Ketraar might be able to help with that.

Jack08 · Post by **Jack08** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 02:24

delray wrote:How come this thing never got its own subforum? I think when you reach 800th page, it's quite a hint.

Two reasons; Fairness and the egosoft board cant support sub forums (too old)

Teleth · Post by **Teleth** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 07:06

Found some time to boot this up on my poor old laptop.
i7-2630QM-2Ghz @ 2.7Ghz (Turboboost on 2 cores) with Radeon 6770.

It's a completely different experience from my Phenom 550; I've got 15 capitals (of the horribly overpoly'd ATF kind) and 75 other ships wailing on my hull in a warzone and it's still smooth(~20-25 at a guess) on highest viewdist. The sheer volume of impacts were enough to kill me even though I was in 'godmode' haha.

Too bad the CPU runs around 75 degrees C while doing so. I guess I could cut the turbo down a bit, as running at 2.0ghz seems to have little impact on minimum FPS.

So yeah, modern CPU power is nice to have.

Requiemfang · Post by **Requiemfang** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 08:45

75c ? lol your pretty safe there... at around 90C is when most CPU's take a crap and decide to do an auto shutdown of your computer or start taking real effect on the hardware, usually damaging it.

Teleth · Post by **Teleth** » Fri, 13. Apr 12, 09:29

Requiemfang wrote:75c ? lol your pretty safe there... at around 90C is when most CPU's take a crap and decide to do an auto shutdown of your computer or start taking real effect on the hardware, usually damaging it.

Yeah, but I'm trying to make my laptop last longer than six months haha
Also, it's pretty cold here at the moment, and during summer I imagine it will hit 85+ and then I will actually be very worried

Most likely won't stop me from playing X3 on it however, because I'm not sure I can back now!

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

[MOD] [TC/AP] X3 Rebalance Mod (XRM) - Total conversion - v1.30d (02.12.13)