Serious Attempt to get into X4 as a Totally Blind Player

[CaplinCaplin]

Just a quick update on how things are going. I've managed to raise around 300K credits doing a mix of transport, repair, and mine destruction missions. THey've all worked as expected, including the ridiculous transport mission in which I had to chase down a ship which was apparently moving faster than I could. I also was able to successfully spacewalk to target my ship with the repair laser, when was nearly destroyed by one of those mines.

All in all, this seems like a good start. I haven't tried combat, mining, or intelligence missions yet, but am excited to see how things progress. I'm not in a ship with much cargo space, so suspect delivery or build missions are out of the question until I can buy a bigger ship and possibly get some mod support for required screens. Combat is probably going to be tough to do on my own, but hopefully the one-star chump I hired can help with that.

[kuertee]

ahhh! that's good news.

I investigated the incorrect NPC display after taking a transport mission bug.
And, yes, it is a bug. But its not game-breaking nor is it a show-stopper.
The NPC display at the top may be incorrect, but the NPC that you speak to when you select the "Talk To" command is always the correct NPC.
I'll release a quick fix later.

The process for getting the NPC to take control of your ship so that they can fight for you is a bit "janky":
When you hear that your ship is taking damage,
1. Save your game.
2. Get up from the controls (Shift-D or Ctrl-D, I can't remember) and let the NPC control your ship. He'll fight for you.
3. When the fight is over, retaking control is the difficult part.
4. Exit to spacewalk then re-enter the ship.

But I've thought about protecting the ship from combat.
In the next update, not the quick-fix that I'll release later, but in the next update:

1. I'll prevent the Game Over screen by making the ship invulnerable.
   I'll also disable the base game's auto-eject feature.
   Just FYI: With that feature, you'll be saved from the explosion when the ship ejects you out to your spacesuit but you will find it difficult to get back into the game.
   I.e. navigate to the nearest station, buy a new ship (for now, anyway), etc.
2. As a gameplay mechanic (and as a give-and-take for having an invulnerable ship), I'll teleport the ship to the last station you docked at.
   The ship will have low health - which will be a small deterrent against exploiting this feature.
   Docking at stations will have this other benefit.
   Spoiler

   Show

   Just FYI: I've not thought that dying then reloading a saved game is a sufficient penalty to dying in games for a very long time.
   I think reloading a game is not a penalty whatsoever - it's just an annoyance.
   I have mods that remove that feature in 3 games.
   Specifically, in X4, my mod Alternatives To Death (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/551) saves you from death - preventing the Game Over screen, but offers alternatives to death and reload:
   E.g. respawn as a clone (with an inheritance minigame), respawn as a distant relation (with the same inheritance minigame), teleported to safety by an employee, assimilation by the faction that killed you, etc.
   But you can still lose your ship in that mod.
   For Accessibility Features, I'll make the ship you are in invulnerable.
3. I'll add the "give controls to the NPC pilot" and "retake controls" functions to the Navigation Computer.
   By the way, you can train your NPC pilots easily by giving them training seminars.
   These can be bought from NPCs at Traders Corners at stations.
   I visit these NPCs every time I land at stations in my game.

I'm also *hoping* to get my previous plans in the next update:
1. the purchasing of ships
2. the purchasing of plots / establishing a station

But I'm dividing my time between this and my other mod (Galactic Councils), so I can't promise all the features.

[oasis1701]

Hi there
Thank you, these are very exciting features, I'll be home today so i can fire up the game and play, I was planning to use the functions that you've added to get credits, and then purchase a miner ship and ask it to auto mine for me.
Is purchasing ships inaccessible in your opinion so that you're considering to make it accessible with your mod? I've not seen the interface myself

[oasis1701]

had another question, can anyone describe how to clear, or change a hotkey in the game with keyboard only?
What keys do i need to press after focusing on the control that i'd like to add or clear the hotkey from.

[CBJ]

The Delete key removes the binding.

[oasis1701]

thank you CBJ; Is the mouse required to change/add them?

[CBJ]

No. You should be able to do it entirely with the keyboard, assuming it's keyboard keys you're trying to bind.

[oasis1701]

kuertee the new nav computer is very awesome. i've done two missions so far, destroy enemy traffic and repair leaks.
My third mission however had some sort of issue, i don't know if it's the mod's bug or the game
IT's a fast flight transport mission, i got it from a signal leak. when I accepted it, my mission target is set to a large ship maintenance bay. I can't dock with it, or fly inside is using the spacesuit, so I'm not sure where this npc is hiding. i tried the equipment dock, the nearest station to the bay, but she wasn't there as well.

[oasis1701]

Some more feedback:
Do you think you could bring back the "turn to face object" in the interaction menu?

With it being gone, now it's very hard to turn towards the asteroid to shoot at it, or turn towards any target to fire at them.
edit: by targets i mean the ones that are small like asteroids, or the ones we can cycle through with the targetting system.

[kuertee]

I've updated the mod. I've not been able to test the protection from destruction feature because my other mod, Alternatives To Death, was active. And it ran through its death process - preventing Accessibility Features from running its protection from destruction code. So let me know your experiences with it.

Accessibility features (https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/748)
by kuertee

Updates:
========
v1.0.7, 3 Sep 2021:
- New feature: Let your AI pilot take the ship's controls. Take the ship's controls from your AI pilot.
- New feature: Your AI pilot will obey your autopilot, dock and undock commands.
- New feature: You can order your AI pilot to attack any objects in space.
- New feature: Your current ship is protected from destruction. If it's hull is damaged to 1%, it will be teleported (i.e. respawned) at the last station it docked.
- New feature: The NPC's faction allegiance and title and/or occupation are now listed with their name.
- New feature: The faction owner of the sector is now listed.
- New feature: Object hull percentage is listed.
- Returned feature: Target And Turn To Face X on the Interact Menu.
- Bug-fix: The autopilot to sectors now send you to the nearest friendly station in the sector's center. This prevents the ship from getting stuck on superhighways.
- Bug-fix: The correct NPC data is now shown when you talk to an NPC.

...IT's a fast flight transport mission, i got it from a signal leak. when I accepted it, my mission target is set to a large ship maintenance bay. I can't dock with it, or fly inside is using the spacesuit, so I'm not sure where this npc is hiding. i tried the equipment dock, the nearest station to the bay, but she wasn't there as well....

Its easy to lose the actual mission target because setting any object as the autopilot target will set that as the mission target.

BUT the objects listed in the Mission Targets group in the Points Of Interests List are always the actual mission targets. When navigating the galaxy for mission completions, always use the objects in this list.

To get the mission targets list, re-activate the mission from the Ongoing Missions list.

EDIT: also, your docking target may not have the correct docking bay size for your ship. It's best to always use a small-sized ship for taxi missions. Transferring the passenger between ships is a bit problematic. I don't know if Egosoft has allowed that. In older versions of the game, it was impossible to transfer passengers.

EDIT 2: Or take taxi missions only to other stations.

EDIT 3: I've re-read your previous post properly and realise that you've not even spoken to the passenger yet. Reactivate the mission. And the NPC will be listed in the Points Of Interests > Mission Targets list. Talk to them, select your ship, then wait for them to board your ship. They'll let you know when this happens. You can then board your ship and taxi them to their destination.

[oasis1701]

kuertee thank you so much, the game is suddenly a lot more playable now and we're going around and getting credits and reputation!

re: the bug i found. I saved the game, re loaded into the game, set the mission to active again, and this time the target mission showed me argon equipment dock, however, IT was very odd, as the mission target took me a little bit (5 KM) away from the station itself. when i wanted to dock though, it wouldn't let me. I then turned around, used the navigation computer to go to the station and docked in, but the npc wasn't there.
This might just be a bug, i'll try to pick another transport mission from the signal leaks. I had the fighter ship that young gun start has.

[CaplinCaplin]

Hi there,

I've tried the new version of the mod and run into a few issues. First of all, when ordering a pilot to do something, the ship just seems to sit there. I'm aware that there is a command to "start executing orders," or something similar, in the ship info screen, and suspect this might not be triggering properly.

Second, for some reason, clicking on options seems a lot less reliable in this version of the mod. Often I'll click on something like autopilot to X only to have nothing happen. Most of the time I can use arrow keys to select the option with the keyboard, but it isn't 100% reliable. Note that I ran into this with the previous version but it seems a little more frequent now. I've mentioned this problem before, but it seems much more noticeable lately for some reason.

Other than that, things continue to work quite well. I did not yet get the chance to test the death alternative, but will let you know when I do. Thanks as always for all the work won this.

[kuertee]

...re: the bug i found. I saved the game, re loaded into the game, set the mission to active again, and this time the target mission showed me argon equipment dock, however, IT was very odd, as the mission target took me a little bit (5 KM) away from the station itself. when i wanted to dock though, it wouldn't let me. I then turned around, used the navigation computer to go to the station and docked in, but the npc wasn't there. This might just be a bug, i'll try to pick another transport mission from the signal leaks. I had the fighter ship that young gun start has....

yeah, that's weird. i didn't test taxi missions from signal leaks - expecting them to work the same as normal missions. i.e. npc is at the station, you speak to the npc, the npc walks to your ship, then you taxi them to their destination.

can you check it with an offered taxi mission? these missions are offered anywhere in the sector, so you'll need to go to the station the NPC is at. unlike taxi missions from signal leaks. the npc of taxi missions from signal leaks are at the station the signal leak is at - which is by the way, how that bugged mission is, as your previous message reads. the "large ship maintenance bay" may actually be the station's dock. if you had re-entered your ship from spacewalking, you may have been able to dock with it - being connected to the (nearest) station. which your post just now sounds like the equipment dock.

...I've tried the new version of the mod and run into a few issues. First of all, when ordering a pilot to do something, the ship just seems to sit there. I'm aware that there is a command to "start executing orders," or something similar, in the ship info screen, and suspect this might not be triggering properly...Second, for some reason, clicking on options seems a lot less reliable in this version of the mod. Often I'll click on something like autopilot to X only to have nothing happen. Most of the time I can use arrow keys to select the option with the keyboard, but it isn't 100% reliable. Note that I ran into this with the previous version but it seems a little more frequent now. I've mentioned this problem before, but it seems much more noticeable lately for some reason. ...

Hi, it sounds like the NPC has not taken the controls yet. It takes a few seconds for the NPC to walk from hi internal berth to the control seat. Can you check this, please? In the next version, I'll add a check on that.

If the ship is unresponsive after selecting an action, either:
1. the npc may not yet be in control of the ship, and so the ship does nothing.
2. the mod failed to unpause the game. the environment sounds should be a clue. if you can hear them, the game is NOT paused. if paused, unpause by pressing ESC until you hear the environment sounds again.

can you check if this unresponsiveness is still occurring while you're the pilot of the ship?

[oasis1701]

@kuertee
I also have the same UI issue with the latest update.
I was trying to click on the "auto pilot to turret factory" in the action list but it wouldn't work. Not sure if the mod is refusing to do it or there's some sort of UI issue. would you like a video just in case?

[kuertee]

@kuertee
I also have the same UI issue with the latest update.
I was trying to click on the "auto pilot to turret factory" in the action list but it wouldn't work. Not sure if the mod is refusing to do it or there's some sort of UI issue. would you like a video just in case?

yes, please.

[oasis1701]

@kuertee
I also have the same UI issue with the latest update.
I was trying to click on the "auto pilot to turret factory" in the action list but it wouldn't work. Not sure if the mod is refusing to do it or there's some sort of UI issue. would you like a video just in case?

yes, please.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hkqjnep4dh2mr ... 4.mp4?dl=0

edit: I have no AI pilot in my ship at the moment. thought it's worth to mention

[kuertee]

yup, the mod is bugging out.
after clicking on an action, the nav computer window should close. but it doesn't in your video - at about the half-way mark.

[oasis1701]

@kuertee
do you know if there's a way for us to share the hotkeys we created in your mod with friends? the process of adding a hotkey is a bit difficult -- A friend of mine has bought the game and is joining us, I wanted to share a file so he doesn't have to add it himself.

[CaplinCaplin]

@kuertee
do you know if there's a way for us to share the hotkeys we created in your mod with friends? the process of adding a hotkey is a bit difficult -- A friend of mine has bought the game and is joining us, I wanted to share a file so he doesn't have to add it himself.

Hey,

I was looking at the mod earlier and it looks like it's possible to have it define its own hotkey, so that we don't have to go through the trouble of doing so ourselves. I saw that section of the code was commented out, however. I'm not sure if there was a reason for that beyond letting us find a key that works for our keyboard layout.

I set mine to backslash, which works for U.S. keyboards, and that is defined in a file called uidata.xml, which has a bunch of other stuff in it. I don't know how well copying that file would work, though I guess we could just copy out that section. Still, it's not an ideal solution.

It would be nice if the nav computer's hotkeys were defined in the same XML file as all the game's standard inputs, but I don't know if that's possible. THat's a lot more human-readable than the UIData stuff.

[kuertee]

I've updated the mod. the previous update WAS broken. the bug was caused by a change i made to the code AFTER i test-played it. LOL
anyway, I checked all the commands (for both player and ai pilot) in this version to ensure that they were working.

Accessibility features
https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/748
by kuertee

Updates:
========
v1.0.8, 4 Sep 2021:
- Bug-fix: Autopilot was broken.
- Bug-fix: Asteroid fields weren't getting listed.
- Bug-fix: Player and AI pilot commands were getting mixed up in the internal code.

@kuertee do you know if there's a way for us to share the hotkeys we created in your mod with friends? the process of adding a hotkey is a bit difficult -- A friend of mine has bought the game and is joining us, I wanted to share a file so he doesn't have to add it himself.

Hey,...I was looking at the mod earlier and it looks like it's possible to have it define its own hotkey, so that we don't have to go through the trouble of doing so ourselves. I saw that section of the code was commented out, however. I'm not sure if there was a reason for that beyond letting us find a key that works for our keyboard layout....I set mine to backslash, which works for U.S. keyboards, and that is defined in a file called uidata.xml, which has a bunch of other stuff in it. I don't know how well copying that file would work, though I guess we could just copy out that section. Still, it's not an ideal solution....It would be nice if the nav computer's hotkeys were defined in the same XML file as all the game's standard inputs, but I don't know if that's possible. THat's a lot more human-readable than the UIData stuff.

I commented it out because if the hotkey is set at the mod, it can't be changed in the options screen.
that's what i found anyway. i'll send SirNukes (the developer of Mod Suppor APIs which includes the hotkey features) a message and see if i'm doing something wrong with assigning they key.