AL Plugin : Escort 1.71 13/10/06

unfunfofmpc · Post by **unfunfofmpc** » Sat, 12. Nov 05, 19:58

I have the same problem as Kraki. Strangely enough, the script worked fine at first. Only after a couple of escort missions did it start showing the same symptom as Kraki described.

LV · Post by LV » Sat, 12. Nov 05, 19:58

any missions that are already running will not be changed

AfroOfDoom · Post by **AfroOfDoom** » Sat, 12. Nov 05, 22:55

haven't had a crash since I installed 1.1, have had a truely epic battle in atreus' clouds against some yaki, but failed the mission as in my excitement to capture a couple of their suparnovas(or whatever they're called) i let the transport through the gate.

Oh well, i gues the million or so credits i just got will be some comfort

Kraki · Post by **Kraki** » Sat, 12. Nov 05, 23:28

LV wrote:any missions that are already running will not be changed

alright, that fixed all of the problems i'd been having.

Thanks!

Bane_v2 · Post by **Bane_v2** » Sun, 13. Nov 05, 00:22

It seems to be working okay now. I've done a couple more, haven't docked alongside the ship I'm escorting as Lothmorg suggested and I'm getting paid.

It's a pretty fun script ya got here LV.

One suggestion: have the script check what type of ship the player is flying before having other ships ask for an escort. I received a couple of invitations while doing some trading in my Mercury. I don't think TS or TP class ships should receive these invitations as they would make poor escorts, but maybe that's just me.

DemaeRamen · Post by **DemaeRamen** » Sun, 13. Nov 05, 01:51

I'm still getting the yaki jump in right next to the mark from time to time.

Also I have had a few moments where the mark wouldn't pay up. He just docks then, eventually, leaves... without paying me.

Not always though.

My thought is that the attacker should have weaker weapons but still jump in close. I like the chaos of that but the ease with which they take out the mark is frustrating. Either weaker weapons or better shields.

Ps: I know I mentioned it but the PM notification does get a bit annoying. BBS would be much better.

Good work though.

AfroOfDoom · Post by **AfroOfDoom** » Sun, 13. Nov 05, 04:53

Could i suggest a touch more leniency in the "out of range" related mission failure. In the heat of battle you can end up getting dragged away from your freighter (or maybe i'm too pro-active on interception).

Maybe have it not check on range if the player ship is in combat (if that's even possible)?

Kraki · Post by **Kraki** » Sun, 13. Nov 05, 05:47

Bane_v2 wrote:have the script check what type of ship the player is flying before having other ships ask for an escort. I received a couple of invitations while doing some trading in my Mercury. I don't think TS or TP class ships should receive these invitations as they would make poor escorts, but maybe that's just me.

i think that's a great idea

Post by **BlackRain** » Sun, 13. Nov 05, 06:07

Excellent script, this really adds so much to the game, along with the arena script this game has become far more fun!

Fusey · Post by **Fusey** » Mon, 14. Nov 05, 11:10

Vulture wrote:I love the script, my only gripe if there is one is that the attacking ships need IMHO to spawn further away to allow time for you to intercept them before they can attack their target.

I say this for two reasons,

1) The TS ships that i have escourted have all had very low shielding, so even a m5 ship can rip through the shields very fast, usually faster than i can catch it.

2) It stops the ship running for cover so often.

I would agree with this 100%

Also, could you change what appears in the log? Its currently printing the accept/decline buttons in there along with the mission description..

Cheers,

Fusey

xalien · Post by **xalien** » Mon, 14. Nov 05, 11:46

A suggestion: it would be reasonable if pirates would attempt to eliminate escorts first before taking on the helpless freighter, at least that's what I'd do if I were a pirate. This way you could have a stronger attack force and still remain capable of protecting the freighter. However if you run away for your life or just move too far away during combat some pirate may decide that you're no longer a threat and turn his attention to the freighter

Baleur · Post by **Baleur** » Tue, 15. Nov 05, 10:25

Very nice script =) Finally a good way to make money for us fighters, something to compete with ore trading runs.
(Capping ships could compete with that, if i had more than 1/30 ships ejecting)

son of cronus · Post by **son of cronus** » Tue, 15. Nov 05, 13:30

Brilliant script LV. One litle problem I have found. If im flying around following a ship or on autopilot on my way to dock, when some punk hails me, my ship targets the ship asking me for help. This is very annoying. Can you make it so the ship only auto targets once the escort mission has been accepted, or if its rejected the target stays locked where it was?

Other than that Wicked script.

peace.

Uncle B · Post by **Uncle B** » Tue, 15. Nov 05, 14:09

What son of cronus said.

It happens when I'm fighting and throws me off.

LV · Post by LV » Tue, 15. Nov 05, 14:31

Ship only tagged on acceptance now, also less activity with ships will little value in the cargo hold

A few other minor tweaks done, Arena and Escort Plugins now both updated.

Please update from frontpage links and overwrite existing file

Sandalpocalypse · Post by **Sandalpocalypse** » Wed, 16. Nov 05, 05:44

Sooo..

I accept a 700,000 escort mission. It's from a Weapons Dealer, from Split Fire to Menelaus' Frontier, I think. I think, okay. Weapons dealers are reasonably fast and well shielded, this should be fine. Unfortunately I had gotten in the habit of scanning escort targets to check their defenses. BEEP! He turns red, I get an incoming message that said 'you expect to get paid for this??'... you guessed it.. PIRATE.

Sigh. he didn't even eject.

ShoC · Post by **ShoC** » Thu, 17. Nov 05, 02:35

I acccepted my first escort mission in Blackhole sun i think it was 8million unsure cant remember now, im very high standing in ranks,

i thought WOW how cool so i accepted

Well he wanted to go to Thyns abys, yup North if u Really must,

Xenon sector, ARHHHH

maybe he could have taken the long route i couldnt save him from that mass

Baleur · Post by **Baleur** » Thu, 17. Nov 05, 03:34

Man i just had the most amazing route, i'm just about a Fighter or whatever its called, and Retailer in rankings.
So i got this hail, just when i was planning on selling my 1 discoverer wingman and my piloted buster (about 50% damaged, all of them..) in order to buy a mercury super-freighter to finally earn some big bucks and save up for the big stuff..

And just when i realized that i would need 50k more just to afford the ship, (selling equipment at equipment docks included), i got this hail from a boron dolphin super-freighter for 89000 credits..
Blah blah, i was in Light of Heart and he needed to go to Omicron Lyrae..

So of course he went south trough Montalaar, where it was quiet at first, but then 2 pirates arrived from the gate behind us, fortunatly they hunted the other poor traders instead, us just making it out without any attention on us..
Then we enter the unknown sector, this was really, hairy..
We went SETA about into the middle (all manual baby, i rock at piloting)..
There i see 2 busters and one harrier way behind us, closing fast, i was hoping we might make it to the gate, but no.
Then they just swooched past below, i was again hoping they would just attack the npc freighter ahead, but then they did a U-turn and headed straight for us.

So i step on the throttle, swooch past the transporter barely colliding, my 1 discoverer wingman having to dodge hard, and we fire a fast and hard volley at them, setting the throttle to 55 to allow more time to shoot since we are head-on.
They also almost collide with the freighter

and this time they go full on the freighter, firing hard, i manage to make a spectacular U-turn tumbling above the freighter then "landing" down right in the fire-line.
As the fight goes on a Khaak m4 enters, which i had neglected, it takes out the 2 busters

while being destroyed itself in the proccess, the remaining flight was a looooong sigh of relief.

A short flight later he decides he doesnt need our protection anymore and gives me the cash =D
And i fly back and sell the ships, and make the long journey back home in my 55m/s mercury, in which i forgot to buy a SETA device, DOH, back to the equipment dock

NOT to mention the trip back, trough Hatikvah's Faith, with 4 pairs of 2 pirates patrolling the tradelane.. Forcing me to skim the edges of the sector in order to make it out alive.

Does this script add more pirates overall? Are they spawning even if u dont accept the hails?
Lol it may just be "luck", but i'm seeing like twice the ammount of pirates in space now, and i like it!

Sandalpocalypse · Post by **Sandalpocalypse** » Thu, 17. Nov 05, 06:38

Nope! But there are several pirate bases around there.

Bear in mind that only some of the pirates are itching for a fight. The other bunch are pirate couriers and usually don't bother you (well, me at least). There's not really an easy way to tell the difference except if they attack you or not

prodaytrader · Post by **prodaytrader** » Thu, 17. Nov 05, 22:49

I thought I would share my initial reaction of the script. I believe I am useing the latest version, 1.1 prehaps. At any rate, I was pleased that it only took 1 second for the script to initialize. I was barely in the game 1 second before my first mission was messaged to me. The mission length was prehaps 3 or 4 sectors with no activity. The pirates didnt show up until the final sector. I was pleased to see that the pirates spawned about 20 or 25 km away which gave me plenty of time to turn auto pilot off and shove a chili pepper up my tail pipe. What I was not pleased to see was no less then 7 pirate ships ranging from busters, falcons, nova and harriers. I decided to stick it out and see if I could take on the fleet. Since I was by myself I didnt think my odds were all that great. I was able to destroy 3 of them before they finally took out my escort. Unfortunatly with so many targets I was simply unable to shoot them all down before they engaged the escort. Never once did they engage me. They were so fixated on my escort that they couldnt be bothered with me. Since my ship only travels at 130km and they never changed their priority to me, I couldnt chase all of them down in time to save it.

My suggestions would be as follows: Maybe spawn a few less pirates and once they are engaged have them switch their priority to me instead of my escort. With that many ships there is no way I could ever get to all of them in time.

You have the makings of a fine script here. Take all of this for what you will. Dont think your efforts are in vain and dont think for a second you need to change your script if you dont feel like it. I just thought that since you took the time to make and post the script, the least I could do was to tell you what my reactions were.

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AL Plugin : Escort 1.71 13/10/06

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