Random Contacts

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

I do not have SW2 installed.

For higher purposes uncle Torrent can help you.

Originally Posted by Nanaki

I understand every part of the script
No reason why it should not work. None.

I don't want to be rude or something but if this script is supposed to work but you can't managed it to work - you don't understand all of it. The engine has been changed (SW2/SW3) so it can handle same functions different way (guess work only). Maybe it collides with other flights in the system. Try to make your own blank system and add part by part. I think SW2 will be really helpful.
---- EDIT----
Hmm... the whole problem just get me interested. One thing I've found - your inserted code has the same variables names as are used for TRADER_FLIGHT (near the end of this function). This may effect with no escort and even no trader flights. IMO you should avoid using the same variables names for different purposes in the same function.

[Nanaki]

For higher purposes uncle Torrent can help you.

I own the game from Steam, just I do not have it installed.

I don't want to be rude or something but if this script is supposed to work but you can't managed it to work - you don't understand all of it. The engine has been changed (SW2/SW3) so it can handle same functions different way (guess work only). Maybe it collides with other flights in the system. Try to make your own blank system and add part by part. I think SW2 will be really helpful.

I cannot see how SW2 will be useful when I never modded anything on it.

Hmm... the whole problem just get me interested. One thing I've found - your inserted code has the same variables names as are used for TRADER_FLIGHT (near the end of this function). This may effect with no escort and even no trader flights. IMO you should avoid using the same variables names for different purposes in the same function.

Tried changing variable names, still does not work.

--EDIT--

*HEADDESK*

MY SCRIPT WAS WORKING THIS ENTIRE TIME.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5411/starwolves8.jpg

I edited the Tug the player gets in the beginning to have 100000 Sensor length (basically, the whole map) and 0.2 Sensor resolution. I figured that would be enough to detect anything.

Nope. Had to change sensor resolution to 0.0 for it to properly detect the escorts spawning becide the random contacts.

[Goblin Wizard]

At last good news Congratulations Nanaki.

Originally Posted by Rastix

You are wrong Some functions are added and none of them removed It's possible to remove all new optimized functions and copy old sw2 functions to have 95% working version of SW2 on more stable sw3 engine

Let me know one thing - Is it possible to have 2 pilots in mothership like in SW2? and how?

[gabriel_braun]

Grats nanaki, good idea with the tug; excellent debugging tool!

[Nanaki]

Well, now I have to figure out how to do the despawn script. Unfortunately, I have not the foggiest idea on where to start. I have been trying different ideas but all of them have failed so far.

Basically, I need the escort ships to despawn whenever the primary capital ship passes through a gate. The hardest part is making sure im despawning the correct escorts. My current attempt is focusing upon naming escort ships the exact same names as their parent ships, and adding an _escort1, _escort2, etc. etc. etc. at the end. Then, when the script is called to delete that random contact, it would also call deletion scripts for its escorts:

function trigger_inside2portal_Action()
--SLOG("Action done....");
local myTriggerContext = GetTriggerContext();
local flight = myTriggerContext:GetFlight();
flightelete();

local escort1 = flight.."_escort1"
escort1elete();
end;

Only problem was, it spat out an error:
[ScriptSystem] error: attempt to concat local `flight' (a table value)

So the triggers use tables? Getting data out of it is going to be harder than I thought, it seems.

[Rastix]

Originally Posted by Goblin Wizard

At last good news Congratulations Nanaki.


Let me know one thing - Is it possible to have 2 pilots in mothership like in SW2? and how?

It's not possible at all. This functionality was remove. But are we speaking about engine or scripting ?

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Rastix

It's not possible at all. This functionality was remove. But are we speaking about engine or scripting ?

Thanks for the answer but I'm afraid this discussion will get us nowhere. Let's make it clear: You are generally right. The SW3 engine was changed but it can handle all functions the same way as previous SW2 engine.

[Goblin Wizard]

Originally Posted by Rastix

It's not possible at all. This functionality was remove.

Your answer has encouraged me to check the whole thing. I've been thinking - IMPOSSIBLE?? I CAN DO IMPOSSIBLE). Short story - I have Brina and KT back with two perk trees combined. I can even tech them new perks. It's better - I can teach any AI new perks. It's a little tricky. Because AIs can't gain skill points they use points stored by one of your other pilots. When one of your pilot has gained enough exp you go to my maintenance station shop and buy a perk. Nice and simple. The only problem is that you have to keep track of all bought perks somewhere outside PC (you can't see AI perk tree). I'm just testing it. Script needs some polishing.

[Nanaki]

Update:
Script is now fully operational. It properly spawns capital ships, their escorts, and properly despawns them as soon as they hit the jumpgate. It can spawn anywhere from one to four escort flights (two and one being the most common). Power has no effect on how many escorts spawn (so even a cap flight of a power level of 1 can have 4 escort flights... that is a lot of brigands)

Escort flights are random in power (although they do have an upper and lower cap, dependant on the Strength level of the randomcontact), and have a 66% chance of being a fighter flight, and a 33% chance of being a bomber flight.

After I finish making sure the script has no bugs, and perhaps cleaning it up a bit, I am likely going to revamp the ship spawning script, specifically the capital ship tables. As it is, almost half of the capital ships spawned in the table are freighters, and a freighter leading a fleet to the front lines is not really appropriate.

[Nanaki]

Update:
The mod is mostly finished. I modified most of the location files and added fleets, convoys, and flights to many of them. Many of these random contacts also have additional waypoints, which means they will loiter in a system longer and visit more places. Certain randomcontacts in certain systems had broken waypoints, so that was fixed as well.

So far, in most systems, flights have a 50% chance to spawn every time it runs the script (varies by system, usually 60 seconds), Fleets and Convoys both have a 10% chance to spawn. Pirates in the Triada systems have a mostly 25% chance of spawning a flight, and a 5% chance of spawning a fleet/convoy, so caution is recommended when travelling in Triada systems.

My Convoy script was gutted and redone to be exactly like the Fleets, except that they have 2-3 escort flights as opposed to 1-4 escort flights. Convoy flights are easier to poach, but the added fleets make gate camping risky and forward reconnassiance a must, since you have no idea weither a convoy is going to come out of a gate, or a very angry fleet consisting of a capital ship and four flights of fighters.

Overall, the only thing that is left is making changes to capital ship loadouts (such as equipping GKGuns to Pirate motherships) and testing the mod.

Update2: It seems like something broke... escorts are not spawning anymore.