drawing board for Corporate Contracts

[shanejfilomena]

In trying yet again to re-build Corporate Contracts using many valuable lessons learned from members and experimenting with ideas driven by suggestions to see if I can make them work :
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Corporate Contracts has several interesting features that I thought I would like to see : competition between companies ;
a virtual war between manufacturers....a Black Market shipyard that actually ships stuff.....and what about the "others"?
I mean naturally you would think that the Pirates / hostiles have some kind of commerce / trading / shipping system going on to supply their stations and generate income other then simple piracy because you can only steal so much before it gets to the point that if you do not upgrade your ideals for your " society" you will stagnate your population because fighting and dying gets very old very fast when the populations your preying on are generating defenses almost explicitly because of your activities : if you do not evolve you will die.
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I remember reading in a BOOK ( not that I am "that" old, I found one in some space junk ) about a monastery that repeatedly rebuilt after centuries of attacks to the point where it became a virtual fortress : so much a fortress that when it was under control of the German Forces during the Earth Wars that it required the largest air strike in the history of earth on a SINGLE BUILDING : the walls in some places were 10 feet thick, the structure was a virtual bunker that kept the inhabitants safe through the longest bombardment in history.......and the Germans "walked away" after it was over. the Allies never " took" the area by force, the German Paratrooper division simply left after the battle .
it was the costliest battle in the war of the 1940's ( that is the battle where many Allied soldiers froze to death waiting for the air strike and the orders to attack, the air strike itself was delayed by bureaucrats and politics ): The Battle of Monte Cassino was one of the finest displays of the courage, tenacity and skill that the Fallschirmjäger became known for.
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So, I generated shipping between several stations for Pirates and hostiles : several manufactures have shipping and a "war" going on with rivals : the shipping stations I have in Eridani do not employ the player : the player can not handle the dual trouble of pirates AND rival company ships with a starting equipment load ( not everyone flies Player ships by TheLastBrunnenG ).

so in Eridani you can get to see the companies and action : you can check out the general idea of what lies ahead because while the friendlies have their side and it livens up the system:
the "others" also have an increased presence which can add to kill stats, income and increase the " motion of life of the universe ".

I used to take the fact that most hostile forces stayed at their stations and you only randomly met up with patrols : but after awhile the entire idea of attacking a station simply because they were hostile to our friendlies was not exactly "it" for me. so I took to the idea that I wanted the player to get "closer" to explore the hostiles, see more of them as a people and not just a target : then kill them.
lol
I did "cheat" by re-using ships between stations that are not exactly at war : so a few of the hostiles will employ the same ships simply because it was easier to duplicate something that worked then build new ships.

I was thinking of trying to take Luminous Drone ideas to the other factions but it did not work out too well for the standard weapons to compete with ships that were getting stronger faster then the player would normally upgrade based on levels : I know the concept of " stronger " is a drive by those that build weapons and shields, but not everyone does that and sometimes flying a regular ship reminds us that "strong" is a relative term that only applies to what and how your flying.

[shanejfilomena]

Updated: the friendly shipping companies have been evicted from Eridani for endangering the player : the competition obviously can get very strong in some cases and a starting player ship caught near a fight can take enough damage to allow a raider to sneak up and dust them off.

I think it would be very embarrassing to have " killed by a Centauri Raider " in the stats

However i will do a spoiler since i used the word " friendly" : the Centauri have a shipping system of their own.

[Hatsuya Kanzaki]

Shall I make the Kanzaki Corporation appear? Consider them as Allies of Teratons & Taikons?

[shanejfilomena]

I was thinking of how what I do , even in an adventure affects a scripted system like Charon: I am dealing with randomly generated stations and those can pop up in some interesting spots.
== the way the game plays ===
You get to Charon and meet a poor station being attacked by hordes of Pirates, a dying person gives you a map to avenge the station : you risk your ship trying to make the Pirates Pay for what they did.
after you defeat the Pirates, Korolov station is being re-built and you dock with it to be rewarded with whatever they have laying around that maybe you can use...
no missions , not much for trade options in the system......you either mine for awhile and snipe pirates that try to sneak up on you or you gate out to the next system.
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Korolov is never re-built completely in your game, is it ? .......in Corporate Contracts Korolov shipping returns to active duty shortly after you undock.
What I did was use the same method that changes out the station to the one under construction , then again to activate a timer after you undock to replace that with a working shipping station.

However: because I always hated the fact that Korolov was so terrified of Pirates, the station that spawns on the timer after you get your reward and undock is NOT locked to pirates : it is Korolov edited the way I made the Original version of Masak : "erase and conquer".
So If you are a Legend, a Hero, a Frigate Killer and a Pirate's worst nightmare : they will still let you fly missions. Pirates will still come after the freighters and you : including Frigates. You will NOT be asked to destroy a stronghold ( since you already did that )
and the stations I put in the system should keep it "alive" before and after your adventures with avenging the destroyed station.
( yay for me, I finally did something that works )

[shanejfilomena]

ok: this is the plan: for Corporate Contracts : in Charon :
as the story goes , the station gets destroyed and your mission is to avenge it : after that the station switches to one under construction.
the story basically stops there.

In Corporate Contracts : the station you dock with to get your reward will be " normal " : your first clue it is not exactly "normal" is the lack of patrolling ships and the new stations near it : the new stations are "maintenance stations" built just for Charon, they will not show up anyplace else.
with them comes a set of ships that explicitly operate for Korolov and the station in Charon : I say it that way because I am not exactly sure if those ships are showing up at other Korolov stations in the game: they are regular ships, freighters and Korolov can commandeer them for missions if it wants ( I learned when I first built Masak that Korolov can steal any regular freighter it wants for a mission so the traffic I built for the Charon system can blend into a regular Korolov station if it happens that way. )

The new Korolov station that spawns after you take your reward ( on a timer so you can go do other stuff as well ) will let you fly missions, dare pirates and make some credits.
the new "maintenance stations" will trade with you as well the random stations that show up in Charon : the "maintenance stations" will spawn with the "under construction station" but remain after the station changes to an active Korolov.
ALL traffic carries the code adjustment by alterecco : Note: the pasted code at http://paste.neurohack.com/view/YQr9d/ is for 1.06a so only use the piece below in your other versions ( 1.01 does not understand " (and (not (objIsRadioactive theObj)) " )
However, in the Galactic Princess I sat on stations waiting for stocked freighters to make drops : I have not done that in Corporate Contracts ( at least not yet ) but I will be testing to be sure it is working.

Code: Select all

  ; Compose a list of all loot on board that the station
 63               ; might want to buy from us.
 64               
 65               (setq allLoot (filter (objGetItems gSource "*U~m")
 66                 (objGetBuyPrice dockedAt theItem)
 67                 ))
 68               )
 69             (block Nil
 70               (enum allLoot theItem (block nil
 71                           (objAddItem dockedAt theItem) 
 72                         (objRemoveItem gSource theItem) 
 73                                  )
 74               )
 75             )
 76             )
 77           ; Figure out what to do next

[shanejfilomena]

I spoketh too sooneth .

the new stations are "maintenance stations" built just for Charon, they will not show up anyplace else.

I did create Mission stations that resemble the ones in Charon and "shadow" shipping companies so you do have the chance to blow stuff up ( the competition ) but these stations will be random : also on a mission, destroying the competition, you can do it without causing a crime on your record:
However......the Black Market has a shipping station : so the mission stations MIGHT find a regular Black Market station in the system and target it .....a regular Black Market station has a 250K credit penalty and bounty hunters to chase the player, this is just something that "happens" the original intended target is the Black Market Shipping ( but I had to be a tiny bit Evil and set the Attribute for the mission as 'blackMarket )

I just HAD to get more missions and could not fit them into the shipping companies ( I am lucky anything works sometimes )

[Yama]

....a Black Market shipyard that actually ships stuff.....

Hi Shane,

I truly admire the degree of realistic behavior you're striving for in this mod. As always, you really think BIG.

The one thing you may be straying on though, is Black Market shipyards that "ship" stuff: The main function of shipyards is building ships, and sometimes, as a sideline, providing major repair services for ships in the 'yard's drydock. Of course this doesn't mean that there's not a useful and interesting role for Black Market shipyards in your breathtakingly dynamic economy.

The nature of Black Markets being what they are, these shipyards will gladly supply ships to anyone with money, other than the folks who are trying to shut them down (i.e. the Commonwealth authorities). Major purchasers can even license these shipyards to build, under contract, ships that they aren't able offer for sale to Black Market members. This could explain where some of the factions that apparently have no shipyards of their own (Charon, Centauri, Kobol, etc...) get their proprietary ships from.

So when a system has a Black Market shipyard, replacement ships and reinforcements going to corporate entities and most other factions in that system can spawn at the Black Market shipyards, rather than at the nearest stargate. Other ships sold to these entities and factions can also spawn at the Black Market shipyards and then head off through nearby stargates, presumably en route to nearby systems where the are no shipyards.

[shanejfilomena]

....a Black Market shipyard that actually ships stuff.....

Hi Shane,

I truly admire the degree of realistic behavior you're striving for in this mod. As always, you really think BIG.

The one thing you may be straying on though, is Black Market shipyards that "ship" stuff: The main function of shipyards is building ships, and sometimes, as a sideline, providing major repair services for ships in the 'yard's drydock. Of course this doesn't mean that there's not a useful and interesting role for Black Market shipyards in your breathtakingly dynamic economy.

The nature of Black Markets being what they are, these shipyards will gladly supply ships to anyone with money, other than the folks who are trying to shut them down (i.e. the Commonwealth authorities). Major purchasers can even license these shipyards to build, under contract, ships that they aren't able offer for sale to Black Market members. This could explain where some of the factions that apparently have no shipyards of their own (Charon, Centauri, Kobol, etc...) get their proprietary ships from.

So when a system has a Black Market shipyard, replacement ships and reinforcements going to corporate entities and most other factions in that system can spawn at the Black Market shipyards, rather than at the nearest stargate. Other ships sold to these entities and factions can also spawn at the Black Market shipyards and then head off through nearby stargates, presumably en route to nearby systems where the are no shipyards.

Thankyou, however, I once DID have shipyards producing ships to cover what you described but I removed them for the .xmls I did previously: it creates far too much Lag on the game if several shipyards show up in the same system and a random station can not be counted on for spawning needed ships : you would require a constant element ( stargates are constant elements ) the only way to make a station constant is by building into a global create ( which I had done many times in previous versions of my work) or into the system designs ( never did that ).

And : as for " ships sold at " : that is only done currently in Playership drones : Corporate contracts will be for version 1.01 which does not understand that Mod's codes functions. In a Mod or Adventure where a station or dock screen is over written it CAN affect some items outside of the Adventure or regular game, IF I were enact this spawning it COULD affect the regular game unless I knew from experience how to make it not exactly do that in a (switch for traffic behavior.......
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with that said :
As for exactly what is IN Corporate Contracts in detail would be a spoiler.
I can not confirm or deny anything. but I can remind you that I am Notorious for editing and adjusting the traffic codes in all my work ; I am ( again ) working with shipyards ;

I have always had an "issue" with the source of weapons, ships and the lack of more solid background to the different factions ( which are being worked on by those who are involved in the wiki pages ( finally ) and I hope to see the fruits of their labors become solid game information ).
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[Yama]

.... I once DID have shipyards producing ships to cover what you described but I removed them for the .xmls I did previously: ......

I should've known that you were already ahead of me. Sorry about that...

..... it creates far too much Lag on the game if several shipyards show up in the same system....

That part of the problem can be prevented by adding:

Code: Select all

unique= "inSystem"

to the <StationType section of the xml. This is what prevents more than one Commonwealth Station or Colony, for example, from spawning in any one system. I apologize in advance if I've again pointed out something you're already aware of....

[shanejfilomena]

when ever you are constructing you cause the game to hesitate : as the game executes it's orders the act of locating and placements of spawns, destinations, life left..the act is much much more involved then simply saying " make this ". Lag or hiccups can get very common with construction / traffic calls.

I have crashed games with ideas that the game really does not like repeatedly

[shanejfilomena]

also: before I go on to my latest item : unique= "inSystem" : is only effective if your dealing with ONE station that has abilities or requires the territory of the system. I never do just one...

Now the newest item to add to the fun:
Galactic Shipping returns to Eridani : it will run " normal " without the player: slightly screwy about escorts docking right now ( I am working on it, it's a experiment gone wild mixing two stations together) however there are several ships involved but only one type is for the player to escort : the rest are simply there for the AI ships to escort.

[shanejfilomena]

Galactic Shipping: as I said it returns to Eridani with new code and low pay (to stay " balanced " )
I got the escort docking issue I had worked out : I needed to move a ) and everything is fine.
the station is a mix of TWO shipping station versions : a very early ( .9 something, i forgot where i got it )and more modern ( 1.01 ) Korolov .

you already have met these early version stations flying in my .xmls . I like them because they are continuous ; Korolov is awesome but it has it's place in the game. I always like the idea of trying to fill the void it leaves with something close to it but not exact.

Instead of hard hitting Pirate Corsairs, I run out the Centauri Warlords to attack the shipments : being as they can basically be handled with starting weapons anyway and by the time a Centauri ship catches up to a player you could be halfway to StK LOL.

Freighters available: you will notice there are alot of freighters visiting Galactic : but only ONE is for the player to escort. this will be a Himal Interceptor : one of the " rarest " ships seen in the game .
( because they have a limited spot in the universe. Like the Oromo.)

However, you will get the chance to escort an Oromo as well ( black market runs those ) .


p.s.: THIS was an idea that I replaced with the " Maintenance stations " that you see above in Charon : Originally there was to be a " Head Quarters" for each company and they would give out 'destroy station missions : but I after a few not being near a rival company I decided it was " lacking " and returned to the small station with alternate features like Commerce.
these HQ's did run freighters out but there not for the player, the player would only get missions to kill stuff : it failed, but i died with dignity

[shanejfilomena]

recently in Corporate Contracts: I have been finding ships spawning from the star and not the gate.
I have replaced the database but this did not resolve the issue: so it has to be my .xml.
Corporate Contracts is trashed for a totally new write up

to date I have never seen this event in 1.01 so it was really annoying to be almost finished then find that.

but Ill figure out what set it off.

[shanejfilomena]

ok: update to updates:

right now the shipyards are off the menu until I can get a better mouse trap for them.: I was having a problem with the spawning being a the star if the yards were too far away ( not all the systems are the same size so it creates a problem unless I edit every single option and THAT could cause problems for missions and such so I do not want to go down that road.

I was working on traffic ( still ) and I wanted things that are usually done by adding to a ship: instead I added it to the main traffic calls ( which is technically all the ships , anyway, and it was easier ) However I was having an issue with OnAttacked : trying to prevent the killing of stations with low powered weapons or ships with low powered weapons : so after searching the forums I found a post saying :

ok I found out what is really going on onDamage only activates when your armor is hit not when your shield is hit?

and felt STOOPID i never thought of that . I had worked with ArcoVaughn before and I should have thought of that.

so that is done
I will return to the shipyards once I figure out a new toy for them. other then that it is starting to look good

[shanejfilomena]

I am still here: my internet is not unlimited like it used to be ( gci does not reach me here ) the local telephone company is a Robbery Incorporated kind of thing.
anyway, the kids downloaded huge files for world of warcraft that killed the monthly allowance so that is why I have been quiet online.

In the mean time I have been testing Corporate Contracts ( no Mods other then my Transport which is a wolfen , just looks like the Corporate Cruiser: it is big and hard to hide : alot of area to cover in a fight, a Wolfen would be easier to fly : but I like the challange. :: see image :: )

Anyway: trading and respawning stations, mining, fighting , dying......I built TWO insurance stations to add in on this one and still manage to die without insurance....

but I think it is going along and nothing affects missions: but it will make them harder if your flying around and run into hostiles or a space battle over mining rights or a rival company.....oh..yes,the miners are not tame : they WILL basically ignore the player unless you start shoooting or go near the hostile base : I have them set up this way so you can farm them for ore instead of just shooting rocks
companies at war : yes : each company will tell you who they are if you hit them: such as you hit a Earth Industries ship by mistake it will tell to to " cease fire on earth Industry ships"...
there are a few things i added that I will not tell.....but if you need them to help you out they will be there, but there is a "flip side" ,they will hunt and kill the player if you shoot at them
trade secrets : you will have to find out what they are but they are there to find and several ships have orders to help you see them..

so until next month : I cannot get the 1.07 : so ill continue flying Corporate contracts looking for bugs in the idea or game that is not a random event ( SRS update did crash the game once but I doubt it would happen to someone not trying to cause a huge problem )
so here is the ship im flying: nothing special: just big and harder to hide.