"Hoshikaze 2250 - Stars of Call" Adventure Project

A place to discuss mods in development and concepts for new mods.
User avatar
Mutos
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Near Paris, France
Contact:

Hi all,


A new post to up the topic and let you informed as dev is nearing the 006 release !

This time I just coded a basic behavior for police ships : they wander through the system until they encounter a pirate ship. Whether or not the pirate is disguised as a regular freighter doesn't matter. It is detected up to 100ls and attacked.

I'm currently refining this behavior. Then I'll upgrade pirate behavior so that, instead of directly targeting a ship, they will wander just like a freighter. If they come within 100ls of a freighter, they will attack it, loot it and jump out.

After that, I intend to release version 006 of the Adv Mod. Then I'll try to soup up some behaviors, that is for instance : have interstellar freighters select between staying insystem and jumping out, police ship call for reinforcements and all ships in combat evaluate the odds to choose between keeping on the fight or retreating.

I also achieved to code a specific dock screen for creating ships. Now I'll try to use selection panes and number boxes... Slowly learning the UI ^-^

Also, I intend to split the stellar system traffic level data so that they are not coded all in the same global, but rather data for a system are coded in the system definition itself. It would be far more consistent than now.

EDIT #1 : just achieved a proper police behavior. It's fun to see them pattrolling around and attacking pirates whenever they encounter them. Now I'll do the same for the pirates themselves. They will pose as regular freighters, wandering and docking with stations. Then, if they encounter a freighter, they will attack it, loot the wreck and jump out faster as possible. After that, I'll have to balance the ship types so that combats don't last an eternity. A pirate should be able to quickly dispatch any freighter and a solo police, but it would be overwhelmed if more than 3 police lock onto it...
@+

Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
Hoshikaze 2250 Project
User avatar
Mutos
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Near Paris, France
Contact:

Hi all,


The 6th testbed release of the Soc Adventure Mod is finally out ! I just updated the ZIP on the Xelerus Mod Reporitory.

The screenshot changed since 4-5th posts to show new ships. Main changes are the following :
  • - Police patrol ships,
    - Redefined AI code,
    - Still more testing.
Image

It features the following :

Code: Select all

Topology with systems, freighters, pirates and police for the Adventure Mod "Stars of Call" set in the Hoshikaze 2250 universe.

WARNING : copy your saved game before entering the Adventure, because it will be overwritten !!!

In this 6th version of the Stars of Call Adventure Mod, you begin to do some stuff, but mostly observe the traffic in the systems :
	- Fly around the Core League systems,
	- Observe traffic in the system you're flying in :
		- Insystem freighters coming and going among the settlements,
		- Interstellar freighters coming through the systems,
		- Pirate ships wandering in systems, attacking freighters they encounter, looting their wrecks, then jumping out,
		- Police ships patrolling systems, attacking pirates they encounter, then resuming patrol.
	- Check overall traffic stats in the debug log,
	- Create new freighters, pirates and police ships around your position,
	- Attack ships and loot wrecks to see how they react and what they are made from.

Author :
	Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
	http://hoshikaze.net
	
Thanks :
	First of all, George Moromisato for making Transcendence and authorizing me to make this mode,
	F50, schilcote, evilbob, Periculi, Wolfy, OddBob, digdug and darksider for their advices,
	Particular thanks to :
		Periculi for the ATA mod on which my hyperjump network is based,
		schilcote for the graphics that initially helped me a lot.
		darksider for the graphics improvements and the extensive testing.

Includes :
	Adventure Cover Screen based on the Rosetta Nebula given by schilcote, with added scroll text
	Adventure End Screen based on the regular Transcendence End Screen
	28 systems belonging to the Core league, one of the main Human states :
		Based on actual stars, hyperlinked to fit the Hoshikaze 2250 universe,
		For now, 10 systems, including Sol, are fully modded,
		Other systems are just stars with Gate and Startup Markers orbiting around,
	Startup markers in each system :
		Startup system can be changed at will,
		One has only to edit the startupSystem field in PlayerShip tags,
		Useful when exploring and testing systems.
	Planetary "standard orbit" markers allowing docking with planets :
		Testbed for docking screens, menus and actions,
		Redefined graphics, thanks to darksider's posts
	Redefined StarGates graphics to make them appear as Hoshikaze 2250's JumpPoints,
	Player ships (badly, I know that still must be improved) rebalanced,
	SystemWide Freighters specific to the Hoshikaze 2250 universe :
		Based on the Antares I stats, modified for Hoshikaze 2250 integration,
		Uses renders from existing DoGA-CGA 3D models,
		5 ships :
			"Shire-IS" with a blank texture and a stained texture,
			"Caravelle" with a blank texture and a rusty texture,
			"Percheron Escort" with a specific texture,
			"Percheron Heavy Freighter" with a specific texture,
			"Hauler" small freighter.
		Simple behavior functions :
			They actually move insystem between the parking orbits,
			When attacked, they strike back at the attacker,
			When attack cease, the freighter has a growing chance to give up.
		Redefined dock screens to create new SW freighters near the player ship.
	InterStellar Freighters specific to the Hoshikaze 2250 universe :
		Same graphic design as SystemWide Freighters,
		Modified behavior :
			Enter the system by a jump point,
			Seek a random destination and dck to it,
			Jump out by a random jump point.
		Redefined dock screens to create new IS freighters jumping in from the jump point nearest to the player ship.
	Pirate ships specific to the Hoshikaze 2250 universe :
		Basically souped-up freighters,
		Specific behavior :
			Upon entering the system, they wander in a random fashion, disguising themselves as harmless freighters,
			When they encounter a freighter, they scan it and attack it,
			They attack that ship until it is destroyed,
			When target is destroyed, they loot the wreck,
			When looting is over, they jump out by a random jump point.
		3 classes based on "Shire-IS", "Caravelle" and "Percheron" freighters,
		Redefined dock screens to create new pirates jumping in from the jump point nearest to the player ship.
	Police ships specific to the Hoshikaze 2250 universe :
		They endlessly patrol the system,
		When they encounter a pirate ship, they scan it, reveal its true nature and attack it,
		When done destroying the pirate, they return to patrolling.
	Traffic Manager Station :
		Created once in each and every system by the OnGlobalSystemCreated event,
		Hold static data relative to the extent of traffic in every system,
		When created, extract the data relative to the current system and the number of dockable stations in the system,
		Compute min and max number of ships for SW Freighters, IS Freighters and Pirate Ships,
		Create a startup insystem traffic consisting of a random number of SW Freighters,
		On a recurring event, may create IS Freighters and Pirate Ships to match traffic level with system-specific data.

Systems List (see http://wiki.hoshikaze.net/index.php5?title=Core_League for full details)
    * Cradle/Capitol Systems
          o Sol				Modded with distances reduced to keep graphics performances bearable
    * Planetary Colonies
          o Hope			Not Yet Modded
          o Heaven			8 Planets including a Human colony, 3 Asteroids Belts
          o New Earth		Not Yet Modded
    * Multiple Hub Systems (more than 3 jump points)
          o Barnard's Star	2 Asteroids Belts, no Planet
          o Gl 229			Not Yet Modded
          o Gl 399      	5 Planets
          o NN 3622			Not Yet Modded
    * Other Hub Systems (3 jump points)
          o Gl 252			2 Planets & 1 Asteroids Belt
          o NN 3660			Not Yet Modded
          o Gl 651			Not Yet Modded
          o NN 3753			Not Yet Modded
          o Gl 902			5 Planets, including a gas giant w/ trojans
          o NN 3006			1 giant Asteroids Belt
          o Wo 9209			Binary, Not Yet Modded
    * Simple Link Systems (2 jump points)
          o Gl 534.1		Binary Star w/ 2 Asteroids Belt & 2 Planets
          o Gl 121			Not Yet Modded
          o NN 3076			5 Planets
          o Gl 387			Binary, Not Yet Modded
    * Dead-End Systems (only 1 jump point)
          o Alpha Corvis	3 Planets, 2 Asteroids Belts
          o Gl 380			5 Planets, including a full gas giant system
          o GJ 1001			11 Planets
          o NN 3001			7 Planets
          o Wo 9615			Binary, Not Yet Modded
          o Wo 9220			Binary, Not Yet Modded
          o NN 3079			Not Yet Modded
          o Gl 302			5 Planets
          o Wo 9185			Not Yet Modded

ID notation
	My Modder ID	: 0xD410
	Entity IDs		: 0xD410TNNN
		T	: Type
			0	Adventure/Extension
			1	Stellar System Type
			2	Station Type
			3	Ship Class
			4	Item Types
			5	Sovereigns
			6	Dock Screens
			F	Resource String
		NNN	: Number in type
	Extension IDs
		0xD4100TNN
			T being one of the above type
			May be 0 if mixed types defined
			in the extension

Needs :
	Entirely based on Periculi's "Adventure Topology Accelerator", aka "ATA",
	Includes ATA's 2 files : ATA-GateGlobalsD8.XML and ATA-StarSystemsD6.XML.

Files included :
	Folder holding all HK resources			HK-resources
	Periculi's ATA Extension				ATA-GateGlobalsD8.XML
	Periculi's ATA Extension				ATA-StarSystemsD6.XML
	This file								HK2250-SoC-006-Refined.txt
	The Adventure itself					HK-001-Adventure-SoC-042-ZIP-006.XML
	Core League Systems Definition			HK-101-Systems-CoreLeague-032-ZIP-006.XML
	Common Station Types					HK-201-Stations-Common-018-ZIP-006.XML
	Core league Station Types				HK-202-Stations-CoreLeague-032-ZIP-006.XML
	Traffic Manager Station					HK-203-Stations-TMS-010-ZIP-006.XML
	SystemWide Freighters Ship Types		HK-301-Ships-SystemWideFreighters-029-ZIP-006.XML

	Pirate Ship Types						HK-302-Ships-Pirates-020-ZIP-006.XML
	Interstellar Freightes Ship Types		HK-303-Ships-InterStellarFreighters-012-ZIP-006.XML
	Police Patrol ships						HK-304-Ships-PolicePatrol-015-ZIP-006.XML
	Specific Shield Items					HK-401-Items-Shields-006-ZIP-006.XML
	Specific Weapons Items					HK-402-Items-Weapons-010-ZIP-006.XML
	Dock Screens							HK-601-DockScreens-003-ZIP-006.XML
	AI Generic Scripts for all ships		HK-E01-IA-Ships-007-ZIP-006.XML
	AI Scripts for stellar systems			HK-E02-IA-Systems-006-ZIP-006.XML
	AI Scripts for SystemWide Freighters	HK-E03-IA-SystemWideFreighters-007-ZIP-006.XML
	AI Scripts for Pirate Ships				HK-E04-IA-Pirates-007-ZIP-006.XML
	AI Scripts for InterStellar Freighters	HK-E05-IA-InterStellarFreighters-007-ZIP-006.XML
	AI Scripts for Police Patrol Ships		HK-E06-IA-PolicePatrol-012-ZIP-006.XML
	Changelog under Excel format			ToDoList.xls

Minor interference with Periculi's Navigation Computer :
	Both Adventure and NavComp work,
	StarGates graphics redefinition as JumpPoints is overriden by NavComp's own StarGates redefinition :
		Would need an override in the Adventure file,
		For now I just don't use NavComp.

Known Bugs :
	Beware of high numbers of asteroids in systems :
		NN 3006 originately used a 5000+1500 asteroids field,
		It made the game crash when jumping outsystem then back in,
		I fixed this by using only 1500+150 asteroids,
		I didn't check all systems, there may be more with similar problems.
	Observed a stargates placement bug :
		I hard-coded the places where stargates should be placed,
		On rare occasions (1/200 runs), all stargates ended up placed around a single orbit,
		Could not reproduce this problem at will.
	Observed a crash problem on extended runs (approx. 50000 ticks) :
		Game crashes at around 40000-60000 ticks, might rarely occur sooner,
		Appears sometimes (1/30 runs),
		Might be causes by an event scripting bug, but for now, origin hasn't yet been discovered,
		Still sometimes happens on my computers,
		Seems more frequent when other softwares are running along with Transcendence,

More to come :
	Rewrite IA with a unified behavior for all ships,
	Rewrite ship classes and ship spawning functions to make them useable with any behavior,
	Adapt Stargate definition for Periculi's NavComp,
	Draw shield image for Caravelle,
	Add a third Hoshikaze-specific player ship to replace the Sapphire-class Yacht,
	Add nodes for ending the game by exiting Core League.

Installation :
	WARNING : copy your saved game before entering the Adventure, because it will be overwritten !!!
	Unzip XML files and resource folder to Extensions folder,
	Create a New Game,
	Choose the "Hoshikaze 2250 - Stars of Call" Adventure.
As usual, there are still many more thinks on the To Do List :
  • - Mining ships exploiting the asteroids belts and fields,
    - 3rd HK-specific player ship,
    - Redefined AI code to make ship classes generic and assign a role to each ship on creation,
    - Redefined stations for display and/or docking,
    - Marketplaces and shipyards on stations,
    - Hoshikaze 2250 specific ships, stations, items and devices,
    - Add nodes for ending the game by exiting Core League.
@+

Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
Hoshikaze 2250 Project
User avatar
Mutos
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Near Paris, France
Contact:

Hi all,


I discovered my fix for the function error in the New Ship dock menu was only applied on 1 station type out of many. It'll be OK in the next version.

Also, I need advices for a generic ships concept I explain in more details in another post.
@+

Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
Hoshikaze 2250 Project
darksider
Commonwealth Pilot
Commonwealth Pilot
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 6:59 am
Location: CSC Asia

I think it's getting more interesting, but this version seems to have a major problem; Transcendence always crashes just after using a starg... jumppoint to go back to a system the player has already visited.
(Just save and loading in one system didn't cause this)
Judging from debug.log file, it always happens just after "Exiting OnSystemShipsCheck event".
User avatar
Mutos
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Near Paris, France
Contact:

Hi darksider,


I'm also experiencing other crash issues, ressembling yours but not identical. For now I just don't know from where they can come.

I'm currently implementing a debug facility to give more flexibility to debug, ie control debug output via a variable I could access by the debug console and get reliable information about exactly where creshes occur.

As for your debug, it doesn't indicates much, as most debug lines are disabled. It just indicates the crash doesn't occur in the OnSystemShipsCheck Event. For reliable information, you should uncomment all the (setq message ...) - (dbgLog message) lines, which would give you a huge debug.log, and try to dig through it ! And btw, not all functions in my current code got debug lines.

I even may revert to 005 on Xelerus as 006 seems to have major stability issues...

EDIT #1 : replaced the ZIP with one including both 005 an 006 versions. So if anyone wants to test 006, he can, but 005 is not lost !

EDIT #2 : still working on the debug facility but it doesn't work. But yestereve I made a test and something that should have crashed early ran for a steady 50000 ticks. I just don't understand...
@+

Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
Hoshikaze 2250 Project
User avatar
Mutos
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Near Paris, France
Contact:

Hi all,


The great news today is that I finally got the issue that caused crashes when loading saved games, and maybe other crashes. The debug lines tracking every function call told me where it lies. Somewhere I destroy a waypoint and that comes out bad...

I'll post a specific topic once I have analysed the issue a little further. Some tests are still needed as I can't have waypoints stay all the game's lifetime and accumulate. I must sometimes clean up the mess. But it would seem some waypoint pointers become invalid when saving/restoring.

Maybe this is a blatant misuse from me, or maybe it is a symptom of something that would interest George, I don't know yet. But I'll know soon !
@+

Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
Hoshikaze 2250 Project
User avatar
Mutos
Militia Lieutenant
Militia Lieutenant
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:31 am
Location: Near Paris, France
Contact:

Hi all,


It's been some time I've not been here... I was the only developper on the SoC project and it wasn't possible to work on everything at once...

So meanwhile, we decided to concentrate on the edition rather than the gamedev and we actually published 2 books telling short stories from the Hoshikaze universe. We are now setting up our editor activity to publish one book per year.

We also refitted our website, exposed our overall project on a number of Conventions, made periods with some schools and generally got a community of our own up and running.

We may or may not be coming back one day to Transcendence modding, depending on who joins our community. But we have already taken great inspiration from this game to design Stars of Call. So thanks to George and the Transcendence community for all the help and inspiration you've given us !

For now I've downloaded v1.00 ! Hurrah for George ! You finally made it ! You proved that with time and dedication, you always achieve whatever goal you have, if you stick enough to it !

The only problem for me is that our SoC mod no longer works with v1.00 :( Is there somewhere a mods conversion guide from .99c to 1.00 ? Thanks in advance for any hint !
@+

Benoît 'Mutos' ROBIN
Hoshikaze 2250 Project
Post Reply