Not to belabor a subject or hijack your thread, but check this out.
Maybe we can solve this in another way, play along with the game instead of against it.
It struck me when nirwin spoke of his taxation script, that perhaps the way to conquer the x-universe is not to destroy all of a races stations and replace them with your own, or even to capture and claim player ownership of them.
Instead, attack a station, invade it, capture it, loot it, then (after repairing the damage) return it to the races control, (and repair your race relations to at least a barely civil level) so that they could continue to operate it, but now as your subject, stiffly taxed and allowed to exist only at your sufference. Set a flag in the game somehow, showing that you control that station or sector, and maybe have the controlled objects be outlined in yellow on the maps and when targeted by your HUD.
Set things so that when you dock at one of the subjugated stations, ownership would change to the player for as long as you (or one of your ships) is docked there, and then revert back to the race when you leave. That way you could freely stock up on his wares without a hassle, and you might even be motivated to ensure certain stations always had a good supply of resources.
This could be done on a sector level, as well. Go for the trading station, or whatever structure that seems to house the local government, assault and capture it. Beat off the initial counter attacks, then turn your attention to the races other stations in that sector.
Because their local government is in your hands and their military at least temporarily beaten, some stations (depending on race and station type) would be inclined to surrender upon demand, some would require a little 'persuasion', and some would never give up, thus needing invasion or simply destruction. Only after you had dealt with all of a races stations in that sector could you claim 'control' of that sector and set your 'flag', while leaving it essentially in the games hands and hence not upsetting the God engine. Reset your race relation a bit, then rest up and regroup for the next sector.
You could even have sector revolts among your subjects, from time to time, rebellious stations, maybe acts of sabotage and treachery, whatever. However much detail as you care to add.
There would still be massive battles, but on a sector by sector scale. And after you had 'pacified' a sector, race relations could settle down to an uneasy truce, allowing you to plot your next move.
I think that in this manner you COULD conquer entire races, leaving the governments in place as your puppet.
This is the path that I am working towards with the station capture thing, but there are many details to work out. I am still caught up in the mechanics of a believable station capture, and have not taken the time to consider the possible problems of integrating it into other peoples mods, or into the x universe itself. Or with making a slick player interface.
I would appreciate any insights anyone cares to share. Is it doable? Is it a good idea? Will this will actually work? I don't think that it's going to be that hard to actually script. As I said earlier, it plays along with the x universe model, instead of trying to overcome it or modify it in major ways. I just have zero scripting experience and it's taking me forever to get things done.
Can you give me an alternate source to get the script?
