[Script] Fighter Base Commander V1.10 (04 Feb 2006)

djssuk · Post by **djssuk** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 19:34

Quick post before I try and check out a few things.

If my memory serves me ( I will check again anyway) , I added the 10mil on the prompt (after the prompt for the shipyard). I wil check this again though as I may have had a further script or something running which conflicted (although my station already had around 1.5mil at the time).

I waited and notices the money was at 1.8mil somewhat shy of the 11 mil I expected, so it was either used up somewhere or did not accept the amount when I entered it at the prompt.

The Argon Mercury was sitting there whilst the station had about 20 mil in the bank.

Anyway, it was late last night so I will double check everything from fresh in 3 mins and report back later tonight.

Many thanks for the update and progress.

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 19:44

If my memory serves me ( I will check again anyway) , I added the 10mil on the prompt (after the prompt for the shipyard). I wil check this again though as I may have had a further script or something running which conflicted (although my station already had around 1.5mil at the time).

Right, that prompt doesn't *add* money, it merely tells the FBC how much you want the FBC to leave as an operating reserve in your station. The FBC will then use any cash left in your stations account for his own purposes. So in this case, he wont buy anything until the station has at least 10m in the bank.

The Argon Mercury was sitting there whilst the station had about 20 mil in the bank.

That's a little more worrying as there is 10m more than the amount you told it to keep, so plenty of free cash to spend.

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 20:35

Does anyone else have the same problem as dj?

I've tried to replicate it, but no luck (although I did spot a problem where the TS was not renamed, hence the update).

If you can send a save game to dwgharris@yahoo.com dj, I'll take a look and see f I can spot what's causing it.

Saint-Ashley · Post by **Saint-Ashley** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 21:24

I have not had problems with the TS actully tradeing even if it doesnt supply my ships... see below

Fighter base comander hired at Home of Light
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Eagle Squad Ship 1 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 3, Eagle Squad Ship 2 and null on a combat tour
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Image Recognition Production Complex alpha(Argon Prime)
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitter from IRE Production Complex alpha(Depths Of Silence)
Bought 2 1 MJ Shield from Light shield Production Complex alpha(Elena's Fortune)
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Great Reef)
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Eagle Squad Ship 5 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 4, Eagle Squad Ship 6 and null on a combat tour
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Great Reef)
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Great Reef)
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Great Reef)
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Great Reef)
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Eagle Squad Ship 9 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 7, Eagle Squad Ship 8 and null on a combat tour
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
Eagle Squad Ship 3 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 1, Eagle Squad Ship 2 and null on a combat tour
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
Bought 2 25 MJ Shield from Medium shield Production Complex alpha(Rhonkar's Fire)
Eagle Squad Ship 5 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 4, Eagle Squad Ship 6 and null on a combat tour

So far I only have M5 class craft and the TS is attempting to buy godly amounts of 25MJ sheilds? Also even worse... the TS freight bay contains 0 25 MJ sheilds... it does happen to have the 2 beta impulse rays and the 2 1 MJ sheilds. What I curently find quite distrubing is my fighters are going on patrols with 1 MJ sheild and NO WEAPONRY. Im guessing because the TS is stuck buying 25 MJ sheilds I am haveing this problem. Will continue to check a new game and see how that goes.

Also djssuk, your $ problem is that you didnt "ADD" cash to the base (whatever it may be) when u hired a FBC, the prompt just supplies a minimun cash value to have AT the base, hence if you had ~1.5 mill and u set 10 mill at the prompt your FBC is complaining in the log00010 "No cash". This log is found in the X3 Reunion directory.

P.S. wow... this script seems to update fast as well as the fourm... now to DL the 1.04 and make a new game...

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 21:29

Hmm, sounds bad...

It will buy the 25MJ shields for itself, but obviously it shouldn't be continually doing so! I probably broke the upgrader when I fixed the shield issue. I'll put a new version up ASAP.

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 23:10

OK, there were actually two issues...

The first was a bug where the upgrader dropped out after looking for the shields. The second was me using a wrong search parameter which included items for which you dont have the notoriety to buy (I suspect all those 25MJ shields weren't actually bought, it was just trying to buy them and failing).

As for the ships going out unequipped, that's deliberate. Not only do all-M5 patrols not engage enemies (thats part of the cpilot script), but the upgrader is deliberately inefficient... it will get there in the end, but it'll be far better if you do it manually

Saint-Ashley · Post by **Saint-Ashley** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 23:24

Okay new game started out much better, but this may help resolve the problem here...

Fighter base comander hired at Home of Light
No cash
No cash
No cash
Bought ship Mercury for -398284
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Eagle Squad Ship 1 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 2, Eagle Squad Ship 3 and null on a combat tour
Bought 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitter from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought 2 1 MJ Shield from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought 2 5 MJ Shield from Split Mercenary Warez Supply(Unknown Sector)
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
Bought 2 5 MJ Shield from Split Mercenary Warez Supply(Unknown Sector)
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263
hire pilot for
Hired pilot Unknown Object
Eagle Squad Ship 5 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 6, Eagle Squad Ship 4 and null on a combat tour
Bought ship Discoverer for -66263

Yes! it bought 10 Mosquito Missiles, 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitters, 2 1 MJ sheilds and 2 5 MJ sheilds. The problem here is the TS goes back to the base and sits there and spams the command (says in game) "Figher base upgrade tender" repeatedly (Im assumeing this is suspose to be the process to transfer items to ur ships?) Anyway to cut it short nothing is being transfered to fighters from the TS. And as you can see. youve fixed the TS problem as it was the first ship bought. By the way this is going to be an excelent script once the bugs fly away

Great work.

Heh edit

script was updated... that was with 1.04

djssuk · Post by **djssuk** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 23:26

Yes, the above. Thanks for pointing the above out, I assumed it was a transfer of funds and not a max, my mistake.

A big post from me too, even if it covers some of the above.

A bit of a diary of events here to cover step by step.

Loaded and jumped to a new section just in case of script re-init issues.

Selected my Equipment Dock and started the process. However, no matter what I did, nothing happened. Unfortunately, I also had two Wingmen Novas docked by chance and it renamed these Training Hsip 1 and 2, although the are the wrong class and I would rather them not be used either as they are wmy wingmen

a minor issue of using ships which it should avoid? Also, I think it was premature namng two M3 craft at this ealry stage. Minor issues I am sure you can tinker with.

I tried this again in a different sector and a different race, but nothing happened. I tried letting it buy ships and I also purchased ships, but nothing happened. I set their home base, sent them home and tried everything, but nothing was happening. Unfortunately, the only thing which does happen is it renames any ships assigned to the station, but does nothing more than that. (Ship1, 2, 3, etc. but they do nothing and will not take on pilots). In all cases, the station had 20 mil and set the price to 20 mil too.

So, I tried again, but with my Solar Plant and bingo all started running. It started buying ships and sent them home for pilot and stocking.

Also, I must have overlooked this but it stared using one of my ships which was redundant (and Argom Merc.). It probably did this before, but because it retained the old name and just appends 'goods' on the end it is possible I overlooked it before. I have 30 ships assigned to the Solar Plant and they all have names like ' AM Solar - Hauler - Ore', one for each station, so a ship called 'AM Solar - Hauler - Crystal Goods' was probably overlooked, sorry.

How about renaming this ship too match the combat trainee names. For instance, my trainees are renamed to 'Training Academy Ship 1'and so on, so maybe rename the goods ship to 'Training Academey - Goods' or something like that?

Anyway, the final issues, which are covered above, but in my words, just in case of anything new...

My goods ship set off whilst M5 ship one was on way in. M5 ship one landed and goods ship returend, but it had purchaed some 5MJ hields (forwarcd planning?) which it used some itself (and it may have also purchased and installed a 25MJ shield too, which is an odd mix). IT then set off to buy some lasers which were the right type. Then m5 ship two landed. Goods ship returned and transfered lasers but no shields and set off. M5 ship 3 landed and waited. Goods ship returned with 1MJ shields and kindly transfered them to the remaing ships and set off to get lasers. However, the trainees set off on comabt, but only one had lasers (although eveything else was fine. Odly two had some mosy misiles but the other didn't).

I hope the aobe makes sense, but in summary.

Can't seem to use Equip Docks or Trading Statios still.
REnames ships if assigned to statio even if not m5 or set as Wingman.
The Goods ship name may need changing.
The Tainees set off too soon without a full complement of weapons.

I hope this helps and look forward to the next version. This is looking great, so I hope you don't take my comments as anything other than observations and ideas.

Thanks

djssuk · Post by **djssuk** » Wed, 25. Jan 06, 23:29

Sory if gone over some of the above ground, but was typing the above when the above two posts went on...

I forgot to say, the command to start the script is 'Fighter Base Camander' and not 'Hire Comander'. Obvious enough though and not easy to mix up...

Saint-Ashley · Post by **Saint-Ashley** » Thu, 26. Jan 06, 02:47

In all cases, the station had 20 mil and set the price to 20 mil too.

Id like to point out that haveing x amount of cash aviable and haveing y amount of the minimum cash amount (asked for input when hireing commander) uses this formula x-y=z if z happens to be 0 (ZERO) you have NO cash for the commander to spend, henceforth he cannot do anything but spam your logfile in game directory saying "No cash".

Solution to this problem:

Put in the base 10 mill
Set min cash (asked for durring prompt) to 5 mill

This will alow the commander to spend 5 mill, and the base will always keep 5 mill on hand.

REnames ships if assigned to statio even if not m5 or set as Wingman.

The script deals with the classes of M5/M4/M3 and one TS (it may change factory based TS names) The script alows 9 M5's 6 M4's and 3 M3's, so if you have one of those class ships set to the homebase it will rename them and later the script should transfer a pilot to the ship (as the pilots at start cannot fly a M4/M3 until after they get rank ups.

Equipment docks do work as it is the only station I have tested it on. It just makes sense for an equipment dock because its the biggest station a player can buy without using cheats. I also wouldnt want to deal with a factory using this because of the use of only 5 docks. Although certain tradeing stations also give unlimited fighter docks it doesnt logically make sense for a tradeing station to be a command post for a military organization.

Also dwgh, is it possible to force the scripts to only buy ships in the form of L? (which are rarely aviable to shipyards), instead of S which would require additional upgrades. BTW all the scripts seem to work like I beleive you planned except the upgradeing

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Thu, 26. Jan 06, 09:14

Also dwgh, is it possible to force the scripts to only buy ships in the form of L? (which are rarely aviable to shipyards), instead of S which would require additional upgrades.

Shipyards sell ships in a weird way... when you get the list of tradeable wares it only lists the ship, not the amount of S/M/L available. Therefore, the only kind that you can guarantee will be available are the S ones. Now I could cheat and have it buy maxed ships only, but I'm really not keen on that idea.

I will investigate to see if there is a way to find whats available indirectly, but for now the S only option will have to stay.

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Thu, 26. Jan 06, 09:28

Can't seem to use Equip Docks or Trading Statios still.

If you're using the latest version and this still happens, please send me a save game to look at as I can't replicate this. You must have something slightly unusual

REnames ships if assigned to statio even if not m5 or set as Wingman.

Well, it *is* a fighter base

As time goes by, pilots will need ships up to the M3 level, so the FBC will take them given the chance and start getting them ready for occupation.

I could block wingmen, but I can see this may then cause a potential problem if people then stick unwanted wingmen in the base and they then wonder why nothing happens to them. I'd suggest you either choose a new homebase for them or simply remove it using the command in the special menu.

The Goods ship name may need changing.

Nothing to do with my script. All ship names have the pre-fix of the fighter base name, not the station.

The Tainees set off too soon without a full complement of weapons.

As mentioned earlier, M5 patrols will not engage enemies so waiting for the upgrade is a waste of valuable training time. Of course, there is a potential for badly equipped M4s to be sent out. I could do a check to see if they are maxed first, but they may be sitting around for quite a while.

Also be aware that due to the limited number of docking ports, ships awaiting patrol orders may well be sitting outside the station anyway. Given they are vulnerable out there anyway, maybe going on patrol isnt so bad.

That all said, I rather suspect most people will want them upgraded first. So I'll include it in the next upgrade.

Keep the feedback coming, it's all welcome

djssuk · Post by **djssuk** » Thu, 26. Jan 06, 20:07

Many thanks for the progress and work done to get this to version 5 (I am still on 1.03 as of last night...).

I will take note of the above and check a few grey areas.

I wil check the equipment dock issue as this seems the most odd due to others having o problem.

I will also check the goods ship name thing as my Solar Plant is called 'Your Solar Plant' and the ship was originally manually renamed to AM Solar - Hauler - Crystal'.

I guess I was expecting or hoping it would change to 'Training Academy Goods Ship'? Anyway, I have noted all the comments above and will check this out.

I agree, it seems more balanced to have at least one laser on each ship, just in case (not much use but three m5's against one m5 may occur), but it probably becomes more of an issue as the pilots move to bigger and better things...

Many thanks and keep up the great work.

Saint-Ashley · Post by **Saint-Ashley** » Fri, 27. Jan 06, 02:35

As of 1.05 the tender (TS) seems to be doing a much better job.

Eagle Squad Ship 24 has sent Eagle Squad Ship 11, Eagle Squad Ship 23 and null on a combat tour
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought 2 Alpha High Energy Plasma Thrower from HEPT Production Complex beta(Pontifex' Seclusion)
Bought 2 Beta Particle Accelerator Cannon from PAC Production Complex alpha(Ceo's Sprite)
Bought 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitter from Beta IRE Forge alpha(Depths Of Silence)
Bought 2 Alpha High Energy Plasma Thrower from HEPT Production Complex alpha(Aladna Hill)
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought 2 Beta Particle Accelerator Cannon from PAC Production Complex alpha(Interworlds)
Bought 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitter from Beta IRE Forge alpha(Depths Of Silence)
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought 2 Alpha High Energy Plasma Thrower from HEPT Production Complex alpha(Pontifex' Seclusion)
Bought 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitter from Beta IRE Forge alpha(Rhy's Desire)
Bought 2 Alpha High Energy Plasma Thrower from HEPT Production Complex alpha(Cloudbase South East)
Bought 2 Beta Particle Accelerator Cannon from PAC Production Complex alpha(Profit Center Alpha)
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)
Bought 2 Beta Impulse Ray Emitter from Beta IRE Forge alpha(Depths Of Silence)
Bought 2 Alpha High Energy Plasma Thrower from Boron Equipment Dock(Ocean of Fantasy)
Bought 2 Beta Particle Accelerator Cannon from PAC Production Complex alpha(Profit Center Alpha)
Bought 10 Mosquito Missile from Argon Equipment Dock(Argon Prime)

Unfornately I had set 9 M5's 6 M4's and 3 M3's to the base... I found out the commander will supply the M3's and M4's rapidly and like the script was intended. But the commander doenst seem to upgrade the M5's at all. Though I have seen the trader transfer a few things to the M5's he takes his dear old time in doing so

Great work so far! As this is becomeing into a fairly large script(s).

Edit: I also should have noted I had bought ships of L type so the trader only had to finish off the weapons reserves. That is why no sheilds are in the listing.

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Fri, 27. Jan 06, 18:40

OK, I've adjusted the upgrader so that the tender now buys basic kit in batches of 10 - this should dramatically increase the speed at which the M5s get their equipment.

I've also made sure that M4s wont go on patrol (and hence possible fights) until they are maxed.

djssuk · Post by **djssuk** » Fri, 27. Jan 06, 23:34

Played a couple of hours last night after a starting again with my X3 install and updating all of my scripts one by one.

All is well. Used 1.05 for a while and all is going to plan, or as described. Minor issues with the goods collecter, but you ahve these coverred and the above change should nail most of the isssues.

I will continue to hammer this for a while but I think it is about right and stable enough to move on to any extras.

Keep up the good work, thi sis now one of my five must have scripts...

Saint-Ashley · Post by **Saint-Ashley** » Sat, 28. Jan 06, 00:02

Keep up the good work, thi sis now one of my five must have scripts...

May we all know your other four must haves?

Im just intrested just in case I have missed any, like LV's new WIP with mines (think its almost ready)

By the way the script does seem decently stable. Although I have had a few messages saying the script had to be terminated, weird part that happened in one new game; so I tried another and I couldnt regenerate the problem. Maybe it was just some freakish thing lets all hope

dwgh · Post by **dwgh** » Sat, 28. Jan 06, 01:14

I will continue to hammer this for a while but I think it is about right and stable enough to move on to any extras.

Cool, will submit to the scripts list tomorrow then unless anyone manages to break it in the meantime.

I have had a few messages saying the script had to be terminated

Ummm, bit worrying, suggests there's an infinite loop somewhere. Will have to keep an eye out.

So... extra bits. I've been thinking about the missile buying and I'm not 100% sure what to do with it. I imagine different players have very different ideas on what to do with AI missiles - putting in a single strategy probably is a bad compromise. Suggestions on that would be welcome.

Next up, then, is the advanced configuration. This will bring up a series of options that you can set. I'm thinking the following:

Change shipyard
Change minimum station cash
Change base name
Change patrol sector (potentially add more patrol sectors)
Change number of M6/M5/M4/M3
(Maybe choose a missile type for each fighter class)

Patrol enemy sector
Intercept enemy

These last 2 will need me to take a closer look at the taskforce scripts before they can appear. The M6 option is going to be useless without them as M3 pilots have to patrol an enemy sector to gain experience - although clearly intercept missions that result in kills should also give them a bump upwards.

It'll probably take me a while to decide how to do the above in a workable way, so don't hold your breath for v1.1

Saint-Ashley · Post by **Saint-Ashley** » Sat, 28. Jan 06, 02:54

Well I beleive I figured out the infinate loop problem, or at least why it happenend. I just happened to have 10 M5's at the base instead of 9, although it did put a pilot in and equiped it, also rotated it on missions. So I went ahead and added 2 more M5's and for total of 12 and it equiped them as well and sent them off. But the downside was a few infinate loop messages. So just got to make sure people dont go over recomended

at least for now.

As for missiles I caint help you. As I am yet to actully spend the cash to buy them and deal with equiping/restocking them myself, (even if I have scripts to take care of this alerdy).

I beleive the change patrol sector will make more people happy right now.

Does the station generate any cash due to kills? I caint recall if it does or not but since the min cash has been giveing so many people trouble it could be effectivly removed (if the actual base is not a factory type) but then again when M6's come around haveing a minimun might be a good idea so scratch that idea...

djssuk · Post by **djssuk** » Sat, 28. Jan 06, 15:12

Just a quick post fo rnow as off shopping

Anyway, I ran a couple of hours yesterday and didn't notice anything new and never got the infinite loop.

I did think though. How about Argon Discos... If you want to use them, can you or is there still a problem with them showing as M4 class? I will try if you guys haven't.

SaintAshley

As for my favourite scripts, well I have loads installed but I particularly jump to using Combat Pilots and Task Force (Terracorp ones) and I also rely heavily on the Station Manager script for stocking stations (automation galore). I also use the Nav Sat distribution script (can't rmember the name but it allows a ship to go to each sector and drop off 8 sat navs in a box grid, buys them and does all of the work.

I don't want to upset anyone so I will send you my main list by PM if you want? I also use the cockpit callback (MOD) and the community Patch.

Quick Ideas...

Very quick as being called to 'get off that flaming computer'...

Option to select individual ships for each class as an option (M5 Pegasus M4 Buzzard and M3 Nova, etc, or at least perhaps diferent stations for different classes (M5 Paranid Prime, M3, Omicron Ly... can't remember the spelling, etc.).

This is probably too much but, how about a stepped upgrade requirment for different classes. It may be personal, but you could say M1 class ships must have a lot more upgrades, form all races whlst the m5's just have the basic? Probably way down the line...

Renaming... Perhapps me alone, but what about renaming the pilots with their rank and then when they get promotion, their new rank? For instance, instead of my M5 pilot being called 'Academy Ship 1' it would be Academy Ship 1 - Ensign? A lot easeir to see from a list of 200 ships than checking the Incoming Messages all the time and then manually renaming them (for Taskforce grouping). You could also quote the ship type so you can then remember to upgrade manually if they are ready for an M6? Perhaps 'Academy Ship 1 - Buzzard - Ensign

Other ideas sound great, will think more about them later (after my four hour testing session

(assuming I don't get forced into housework).

Missiles are difficult and I would agree that it is personal too. For me the Mossy's are enough for Price V Power

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

[Script] Fighter Base Commander V1.10 (04 Feb 2006)