Suggestion(s): Couple of sensible ideas.

[Ryuujin]

After chatting with Stonka for a bit, I've got a couple issues/suggestions I thought I could raise, maybe someone better a scripting could come up with something.



Supply/Demand fix:
First up to bat, the equipment dock's arn't unloading like they did in X2. A single mosquito factory will quickly overload all nearby equipment docks and be rendered unprofttable. Same presumably goes for other weapon classes.

The best solution would simply be to have a script that every now and then deletes part the inventory of the equipment dock.



Civilian Ships:
Is there any way we can remove the blueprints to the civilian ships, stop them spawning, or delete them easily? - It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure all those M5's buzzing about are a needless distraction/waste of CPU. Cutting them out would make lfie that bit more bearable on the memory front.



Sector "repairs":
Quite a few people've complained about sector's like Akeela's beacon. Maybe once the Galaxy editor is working with X3, we should get people to pip in their thoughts about sectors that got changed for the worse, and then make a custom universe fix that changes those sectors?


Anyway, that's my contructive 2 cents. Not saying anyone has to take 'em but, but those ideas mgiht be worth expanding on.

[Burianek]

The fix to number 2 is easy.

X3 has a listing of the 'genetic makeup' of the ships in the universe.

It's called jobs.pck. (listing of how many ships and behavior for each type of ship job)

unpack this file and search for the lines with the comments 'civillian ships'

The number just after this comment is a measure of how many of these ships will exist in the universe. (at game creation, and whther or not to respawn them if they get destroyed)

Lower that number and pack the new file up into a mod.

Then, either start a new game, or fly around and kill all the civ ships

You can alter the numbers and behaviors of almost every type of ship in X2 very easily with this new file.

(Who said modding X3 wsan't light years ahead of X2?)
Cheers.

[Burianek]

Here's a listing of the types of things that can be controlled with the jobs.txt file:

• JobID
  Comment
  Quota
  Max. Quota per Sector
  Function
  Configscript
  Job Text ID
  Unique Shipname
  Overriden NameID (Voice)
  Show Race Name
  Show Corpsname
  Show Shiptypename
  Show Variationname
  GroupID (Sheet)
  Shopping Basket (sheet)
  Jump Range
  Idle Rate
  Spawn Time
  Ship subtype
  M1
  M2
  M3
  M4
  M5
  M6
  TP
  TS
  TL
  Argon
  Boron
  Split
  Paranid
  Teladi
  Xenon
  Pirate
  Khaak
  Goner
  VAR 0 Basic
  VAR 1 Vanguard
  VAR 2 Sentinel
  VAR 3 Raider
  VAR 4 Hauler
  VAR 5 Miner
  VAR 6 Super Freighter
  VAR 7 Tanker
  VAR 8 Tug
  VAR 9 Luxury Cruiser
  VAR 10 Slave Transport
  VAR 11 Military Transport
  VAR 12 XL
  VAR 13 Extended
  VAR 14 Tanker2
  VAR 15 Superfreighter2
  Hue Modifier
  Saturation Modifier
  Chance Shiptyperace is Rand
  Is Owner sector
  Is Core
  Has Yard
  Has owner stations
  Is not enemy sector
  Is Border
  invers
  Sector X
  Sector Y
  Create in Shipyard
  Create in Gate
  Create Inside Sector
  Create outside Sector
  Create NULL
  Chance Ship is Docked
  Freight ext.
  Speed & Steering ext.
  Other expansions
  Rot Accel Limit
  Argon
  Boron
  Split
  Paranid
  Teladi
  Xenon
  Khaak
  Goner
  Is Pirate
  Shield
  Laser
  Use Drones
  Not Use IRE
  Not Use PAC
  Not Use HEPT
  Not Use PPC
  Not Use KE
  Use Mass driver
  Use PSG (wide area)
  Use Ion Disruptor
  Use Flak
  Use IH
  Use Mining
  Use Tug
  Use Repairlaser
  Select weapons
  Trade skill
  Agression
  Morale
  Fight skill
  NPC ID
  Is Invincible
  IsHiddenPirat
  DestoryOOS
  Rebuild Select New Sector
  Fly with AVRSPEED
  Militär
  Trader
  Civilist

Quota controls the number. You guys can play around with the rest of them to figure them out. Note that this listing may not correspond to the file 1:1, there's still a lot of trial and error work to be done. I don't have all the answers, only pieces of them.
Cheers.

[ejsaunders]

Buri, I don't suppose you can say which way I should edit two of the variables please?

I'm interested in the Idle Rate and Spawn Time - should they be lower or higher? As in, if I set the idle rate from say 10 to 5 will it halve the time the ship does nothing or will it increase the idle time? Similarly, does the 90 spawn time for most of the ships mean that they take 90 (seconds?) to respawn/spawn. So, if I want them to spawn sooner, should I decrease this or increase this figure?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Burianek]

Sorry, no idea.
I didn't create this file.
My best advice would be to play around with the values and see what happens.
Cheers.

[BlackRain]

where is the jobs.pck file located and how do you unpack it? Also anyone figure out how to change the variables as in what numbers to put to increase spawn rate of pirates, idle time etc.? Do you lower the number or higher or what?

[BlackRain]

Also how is it packed up into a mod? Sorry if this is shown somewhere else, I haven't seen it.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Look into my Syndicate mod for more info on how the jobs get integrated into galaxies. I included all of my source files in the download, and you should be able to figure it all out that way.

[BlackRain]

hey nuke, well I have never tried doing any modding before in x2 so I have no clue how to do anything. I was reading in the x2 scripting forum you need a tool called x2tool to extract files from the dat files in X2, but can I use the same tool to extract the jobs.pck file from x3 or do I need another tool? I briefly looked through your jobs.syndicate.txt file but most of it I dont really get, I just want to change the spawning of enemy vessels and their idle times.

[nuclear_eclipse]

hey nuke, well I have never tried doing any modding before in x2 so I have no clue how to do anything. I was reading in the x2 scripting forum you need a tool called x2tool to extract files from the dat files in X2, but can I use the same tool to extract the jobs.pck file from x3 or do I need another tool? I briefly looked through your jobs.syndicate.txt file but most of it I dont really get, I just want to change the spawning of enemy vessels and their idle times.

Yes, the x2tool should extract any .pck, .pbd, or such just fine. As for editing the jobs file, I can't really help you much, as I couldn't really figure out all too much on my own either. THhe most I figured out is that I could'nt really do what I wanted with it anyways, since the Jobs file will only allow the universe to create ships belonging to the main races (Argon, Boron, Split, Paranid, Teladi, Kha'ak, Xenon, and Goner) while I wanted to be able to make jobs for the custom races (Terran, Yaki, Syndicate, etc).

So I just copied over the default Jobs file for use in my mod, then wrote my own basic 'jobs' script for my mod in order to handle basic sector patrols for the Syndicate and Terrans.

[BlackRain]

sorry to bug ya again but what is the command to extract the file? I tried the command it says in the x2 thread but that didnt work

[nuclear_eclipse]

sorry to bug ya again but what is the command to extract the file? I tried the command it says in the x2 thread but that didnt work

I don't actually know. I personally use X2Modder for all of my de/recompressing needs, as well as for extracting and packing cat/dat files.

[BlackRain]

I actually figured it out, now I am going to look at the jobs.pck file and see what I can figure out


-edit ok im looking at the jobs.txt file I created and I see a lot of numbers, so um how do i know which to change?

[ejsaunders]

I posted my edited Jobs file in another thread if anyone wants to use it. It increases the Khaak and pirates in the universe, by sector, jump rate and reduces some of the 'fluff (civilian, don't do much) ships'.

I would advise against increasing or decreasing the spawn time particularly if you increase the amount of ships and the jump level, otherwise you'll be sucking rocket sanwich every few minutes from a big invasion force.

Don't edit the special pirates tho, otherwise you'll have loads of pirates in the plot storyline missions.

[Puruco]

I posted my edited Jobs file in another thread if anyone wants to use it. It increases the Khaak and pirates in the universe, by sector, jump rate and reduces some of the 'fluff (civilian, don't do much) ships'.

I would advise against increasing or decreasing the spawn time particularly if you increase the amount of ships and the jump level, otherwise you'll be sucking rocket sanwich every few minutes from a big invasion force.

Don't edit the special pirates tho, otherwise you'll have loads of pirates in the plot storyline missions.

Hi ej: Where I can get your thread?