iTrafficCreation and iScriptedOrders

I think if the radius of disruption is large, it should not be a problem. And something like 100km should be pretty easy, because in LDS you are moving so fast, you are unlikely to be near anyone. (Part of the script can avoid doing the disruption until the player is 1000km or more away from a station or lpoint).

Once everthing works the way you would like it, it would be worth structuring the code to follow the design of other scripted orders (if possible).

Pods:
The main reason for letting the player drive pods is that it is the easiest way to code the feature so the player gets to put the pods exactly where he wants. This is important when escorting multiple freighters around.

The next level of complexity would be to write a tagging function. And then add the wingman order - load cargo pods. And allow the player some way to refer to himself.

Don't wish to pull the thread off topic, but I've finished my testing and have some news to report which may assist.

If you could keep the original traffic scripts... would you? Or do you expect to alter them greatly for use in Epic (to the point where you'd be better off writing new ones)?

I ask because I've built the Diomedes cluster for Asylum... and I have loads of traffic at stations and L-points. Freighters arrive, load/unload, and leave for another destination. The L-point queue lines are almost silly with wait times.

This traffic is created by the original EoC traffic scripts. No pogging required. I'm not sure it would work (entirely) for Epic, but here's what I did.

I built my cluster and linked it to Santa Romera with a new L-point. Then went in and made sure everything worked right. Every time I left Santa Romera and entered the Diomedes cluster a smattering of traffic would follow me... appearing in the new cluster's L-points.

When watching this traffic 'spill-over' I got the idea the EoC traffic generator must rely upon the default cluster names to operate. So, when I finished tweaking the major issues with the Diomedes cluster, I completely replaced the Badlands cluster with it.

The Diomedes cluster is comprised of nine systems... same number as the Badlands. So, I renamed each of my map files to match an existing Badlands system. My Viridian system was renamed to Eureka... my Sere system to Mwari... etc. My Lilith system became Santa Romera (since the player's base is located in Lilith).

The Diomedes cluster data is the same. It's just a map file identifier that's changed.

Then altered the cluster.ini to place the systems in their correct places. And altered the text files to give the original systems the correct names.

To enter the mod, I just load up a savegame. I use my Free-form Santa Romera save since the program will crash if a save is used which places the player base in Hoffer's Wake or Formalhaut.

Everything works. Lucretia's Base doors, the back-to-base feature, traffic, offloading of pods, Jaff functions, etc. The more stations I add, and the more population I add, the more traffic appears in the systems. But it has to be roughly balanced; Place a bunch of residential habitats in a system and you won't see much. Put some water refineries and food production stations on the other side of the cluster and you'll see some more traffic. That sort of thing.

GrandpaTrout; I'd be happy to send you the Asylum mod if you'd like to take a closer look at it.

Cheers,

Shane

On the Pirate code: I am looking to set it up so that you provide the function with a package/function call that would be used to deal with the creation and ordering of the pirate attack group. Since the pirate stuff is centred on the player this should work fine calling a function in this manner with no parameters as the called fucntion only needs to center on the player and determine what ships are in the immediate vacinity that have been LDS inhibited/disrupted, then decide on an appropriate attack group and orders.

Other parameters I am looking at as part of the initalisation of the Pirate monitor task would be:
* the size of the sphere around the player to scan,
* the base percentage chance of a attack,
* adjustment to the base probability for each freighter/utility in the ships under escort,
* adjustment to the base probability for each armed ship also in the escorted group (i.e. other combat capable craft),
* the base minimum delay in seconds between an attack (i.e. so that you don't have a chance of getting hit by another pirate attack again for say 120 seconds)

NB: I have the code already taking into account these things, I just need to expose these as parameter options.

Sound like a plan??

Cheers,
Joco.

The main reason for recreating the traffic scripts is to allow new ship models to be used. And to change the composition of ship groups (removing things like mass tug escorts). What I had in mind was to first duplicate the PS traffic scripts - so modders have a starting place. The ships and traffic script choices would be cutomized by editing INI files.

After that, add new types of scripts. Such as the pirate script and so on. Possibly add distress calls. And a little better reputation handling.

The population connection is a really interesting finding. I always wondered why some stations were so busy, and some never had any traffic.

Ah well... didn't know if it'd be of use. But thought I should report it.

I've kicked the population levels to very high on some of my stations (in the area of 49-56 units) and arrived to find very large groups of traffic there. And freighters all fully laden with goods. However, I did notice that some of the goods do not yet have a station responsible for their creation in the cluster yet... so the cargo creation in the traffic scripts is definately not based on what stations exist to produce it. It seems just to be created on the basis of 'what this station needs' instead of 'what exists to serve this station'.

Shane - very interesting. Making traffic scripts that made that kind of connection would be rather cool. It would allow the econmic flow of shipping to refelect the resources and production of the cluster setup. NICE!

Now ... wonder who is game enough to take THAT one on.