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

[Barleyman]

Difficulty is fine, people. Adjustable difficulty is just .. dreamy.

After quite a bit of experimentation on the subject of combat challenge (while developing my Combat Tricks OBS Enhancement), I have come to the same conclusion, Barleyman. There is such a wide variety of player styles, skills, and equipment, that it is almost impossible to scale difficulty to fit all possible play styles.

That is why most games have a "Combat Difficulty" setting.

Combat difficulty another issue, but yes, it'd be good to be able to tweak that as well. Your mod pretty much does that, I believe?

My "core" complaint was that there's rather frequent pirate/xeno activity in the "core" sectors that are supposed to be safe. Hence automated ship survivability is rather low. And since it's a core sector, it's pretty suicidal for bad guys too. Perhaps the xenos do not care but pirates should.

I need to check about adjusting the spawn rates. A setting in plug-in menu would be ideal but separate mod/script like the hull modifier would work just as well.

Some places just should be dangerous, it's logical to see lots of bad guys if there's a hostile sector beyond a jumpgate. There's an all-out war in Grand Exchange between Teladi, Xenon, Pirates and Yaki. Good place to be if you want to blow stuff up.

[DrBullwinkle]

For CMOD3, Ulfius had different jobs packs that could be installed to adjust the number of ships, as you suggest. I like his Hard Mode and Xtreme Mode packs for TC. The packs basically alter the numbers of ships for various enemy jobs.

Combat Tricks OBS similarly varies the numbers of enemies. The main difference is that OBS is for missions while jobs is for all of the other ships in the universe.

It might be possible to make the jobs system a bit more sophisticated, so that the numbers of various ship classes could be adjusted from a menu choice. I am thinking along the lines of a "post processor" for jobs -- a script that modifies the numbers of ships created by various jobs.

I have never seen anyone do anything like that, but it could have cool results. Probably quite a bit of work to make the system simple for the player but powerful enough to make it work well. The good news is that it should be easy to adapt for any mod.

I am going to shut up now before someone asks me to do it, because I'm not sure that I want to do it on my own.

[Trip_Fantastic]

On topic on dumb XRM questions.

Is the ONLY way to board to own an M7 which can equip the boarding pod? In other words, there's no way to take over an M6 unless you have an M7?

You can do regular spacewalking boarding w/ a TM or a TP -- it's a pain in the ass, but it's possible. In my personal experience, you do need to make sure that mechanical is above 75 if you're going to board w/o pods. Also, fighting has to be above 75 regardless (again, in my personal experience), else your troops just get wiped out.

For Xenon ships, I suggest you just use System Override -- it feels a little cheaty, maybe, but sure beats reloading multiple times and still having half your boarding party get eliminated.

Edit: Is the Aran still findable with the UFJD, or has it been removed from those sectors?

The Aran is still findable and boardable, though just once, i.e. no more Aran hunting -- you get to board and keep just one before they stop spawning in UFJD sectors. I think that's just regular AP behavior, not XRM specific.

[firestorm79]

On topic on dumb XRM questions.

Is the ONLY way to board to own an M7 which can equip the boarding pod? In other words, there's no way to take over an M6 unless you have an M7?

WRT editing - Yes, possible. Smart, even. I'm just asking turning this into a mainstream supported option.

Also access to some of the ware costs would be nice. 3 mill for mk3 trader that's going to be blown out of the sky unless you also threw in 2 mill for the warp engine AND have a pilot with enough XP to use it.

Difficulty is fine, people. Adjustable difficulty is just .. dreamy.

Do you mean M7M? The answer is yes and no. traditionally (as in non-xrm) you could only spacewalk with TP or M6. M7Ms (missile boats) could launch boarding pods, which made boarding a doddle.

In XRM the Yaki/pirate M2s and M7s (not m7m) can launch boarding pods.

[cjm3fl]

...and M7s (not m7m) can launch boarding pods.

Not in my game (-TC).
Only 1 M7 for the Yaki, their M7M can, and only the Pirate Carrack, which is not an M7M.

The Yaki's only M2 (that I've found in present game) can, but only the "true" Pirate M2 can, the Brigantine.

The Yaki and the Pirates each have one M1 that can launch boarding pods too, the Galleon and the Hoshi.

[Etyneo]

Edit: Is the Aran still findable with the UFJD, or has it been removed from those sectors?

The Aran is still findable and boardable, though just once, i.e. no more Aran hunting -- you get to board and keep just one before they stop spawning in UFJD sectors. I think that's just regular AP behavior, not XRM specific.

I found one, ironically the next UFJD jump after posting that. However, I'd gone through 10+ such jumps and no luck prior to that, so was worried slightly that they removed it from those sectors in the newer XRM versions.

[cjm3fl]

I've gone 50+ jumps without seeing an Aran, in some of my games.

I just got my 2nd (this game). It was flying around Twisted Skies sector (TC map) with full shields and only 3% hull left---I couldn't resist.

[arnak]

Hi

Could someone answer a quick question please.

MARS: MARS is compatible - Do not use the full repackaged version - either use the manual install and do not install the MARS drones cat/dat - just the scripts. The drones are already merged into the XRM and installing them will break the XRM, or use Bullwinkle's repackaged version for mods that include TShips. You will also need the custom MARS data file above. Simply copy this into your "t" folder ("addon\t" for AP)

In the MARS package there are a lot of t files do I add them all and the XRM data files for MARS or just that data file only?

Arnak

[Barleyman]

Do you mean M7M? The answer is yes and no. traditionally (as in non-xrm) you could only spacewalk with TP or M6. M7Ms (missile boats) could launch boarding pods, which made boarding a doddle.

In XRM the Yaki/pirate M2s and M7s (not m7m) can launch boarding pods.

So TM is NOT capable of launching marines? Or can it do that? How?

I can hire 5 marines but after fiddling for a good while over inert M6 I decided it just does not work.

[Reido]

In the MARS package there are a lot of t files do I add them all and the XRM data files for MARS or just that data file only?

Arnak

The "T" files are the language files and hold the text for any output displayed by script/mod. Each language that's supported by the script/mod has a specific number associated with it i.e. English is code 44. Some T files also hold settings that a script uses and that a user can change to alter certain options.

Long story short, just copy all the T files for a script or mod to the \T folder, they take up very little space.


Reido

[arnak]

Hi Reido,

Thanks for the advice.

Arnak

[Braekyn]

So, I when I first happened upon this problem, after trying a bunch of other things, I did a fresh re-install of AP, and tested it then - the issue did not occur. After installing only XRM, it was back.

Basically, there are NO capital ships anywhere. There's a few TL's (But not an influx of Mammoths like a lot of other conflicts cause), and the occasional M6, but the main races don't have any M1/2/7. An idea why this is occurring?

[Etyneo]

So, I when I first happened upon this problem, after trying a bunch of other things, I did a fresh re-install of AP, and tested it then - the issue did not occur. After installing only XRM, it was back.

Basically, there are NO capital ships anywhere. There's a few TL's (But not an influx of Mammoths like a lot of other conflicts cause), and the occasional M6, but the main races don't have any M1/2/7. An idea why this is occurring?

Sounds like an incomplete install of XRM. Might want to double check to ensure you followed all the installation instructions.

[Braekyn]

Hrm, I've already tried that, but I'll do a full re-download of everything this time, in case I got an old version of something.

[cellsafemode]

I tried to install MARS with the current version of xrm (For ap) a while back. It failed miserably. Instead I went with Smart Turrets ... worked fine. I only do manual installs, no plugin manager.

[Etyneo]

One of these days I'll have to see if I can figure out whether MARS or Smart is more effective...

In the meantime, I'm still wondering if Cargo Bay Shielding does anything more than take up space...

[Reido]

One of these days I'll have to see if I can figure out whether MARS or Smart is more effective...

In the meantime, I'm still wondering if Cargo Bay Shielding does anything more than take up space...

It's very hard to tell which turret script is better but Smart Turrets only deals with turrets and doesn't have all the other options included that MARS has, so it's really comes down as to whether you want the extra functionality of MARS or just a good turret script.

Cargo Bay Shielding does absolutely nothing, from what I understand it's one of the many ideas Egosoft had for the game that never got finished i.e. the scripts to 'activate' Cargo Bay Shielding and make it work never got written.


Reido

[Braekyn]

Sounds like an incomplete install of XRM. Might want to double check to ensure you followed all the installation instructions.

Okay, so, started the game again blank-slate - wiped X3 from the computer, reinstalled, re-applied XRM meticulously following instructions (I have used XRM successfully a while back with TC) with the same result - most ships aren't there. No other mods but XRM are installed.

[Shaikar]

Any idea if the cargo bay shielding works?

It doesn't. The Bankrupt Assassin start gives you a mamba raider with it already fitted but that's not stopped assorted police getting pissy with me on scanning after I've liberated some space weed/fuel/hackerchips from some pirates.

[Etyneo]

Sounds like an incomplete install of XRM. Might want to double check to ensure you followed all the installation instructions.

Okay, so, started the game again blank-slate - wiped X3 from the computer, reinstalled, re-applied XRM meticulously following instructions (I have used XRM successfully a while back with TC) with the same result - most ships aren't there. No other mods but XRM are installed.

This looks like a job for Paul...or someone else with the requisite experience and skill...

However, it sounds like some of the setup scripts may not be working correctly, or maybe some of the jobs.

A couple of things that come to mind:

• You did remember to take the contents of the scripts_ap folder from part 2 and dump them into AP's scripts folder, right?
• You did install everything to the ~\X3 Terran Conflict\addon\ folder right? If you didn't put it in the addon folder, congrats, you modded TC, not AP. I've heard this may have poor results.