[Mod] "Simoom's Lantern" - Ultimate Cheat Menu

[Nikola515]

Would it be possible to add items necessary for hacking stations as well

[Simoom]

Would it be possible to add items necessary for hacking stations as well

Yes, that's easily done.

I just added the following (for the next release):

• Jump Drive (all parts for the X-Perimental mission)
• Security Decryption System
• Gift (Red Water, Haze, Paranid Jewellery)
• Weapon Mods (High-grade, Medium-grade, Low-grade)
• Virtual Seminar (Any skill)

Feel free to list other rare items you feel would be useful for your gameplay, I'll consider adding them.

[Nikola515]

Nice

I just noticed some more problems with stations..... When building station from CV (nor summoned station and I bought CV in shipyard). I noticed that we cant add engineer to it. Also when doing upgrade crew it wont add specialist..... I was building construction shop and it was only 50% finished. Would it be possible to add engineer in station with upgrade specialist if it is not possible to do it manually ???

[Simoom]

I just noticed some more problems with stations..... When building station from CV (nor summoned station and I bought CV in shipyard). I noticed that we cant add engineer to it.

This is not a bug. Crew assignment behavior is kept vanilla, which means there's no option for assigning engineers manually.

To enable this I would basically have to integrate w.evans' mod "Station Engineer" into mine (or write the exact same codes he wrote, but I would be copying him either way), and at the moment I do not have the permission to integrate his mod into mine. He probably won't mind, I just haven't gotten around to ask about it.

For now if you want to assign Engineers to stations, simply download w.evans' mod: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=377068

Also when doing upgrade crew it wont add specialist..... I was building construction shop and it was only 50% finished. Would it be possible to add engineer in station with upgrade specialist if it is not possible to do it manually ???

This is also normal. I disabled specialist-spawning behavior for player-owned stations when you run "Upgrade Crew", for reasons I outlined here: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... 56#4609356

The main reason for disabling it is because the spawned crew's macro selection is based on the station owner's race/faction (so a Teladi station would spawn Teladi crew, and Split station would spawn Split crew).

Dynamic definition of actor macro selection is currently only possible via CharacterDB, not actor groups (which would be preferable, but it's just not possible under current MD implementation). CharacterDB expects a faction to be specified, which I set my script to use whoever the owner faction of the station is.

The problem is there are no racial definition for the PLAYER faction, which means a script that dynamically generates crew based on owner race/faction won't be able to generate actors properly for player-owned assets.

In other words, I would need to write an add-on segment in the script on how to handle adding crew to player stations ONLY, which I feel is redundant given the fact that the player can already spawn any crew he wants through "Summon Personnel".

[Nikola515]

Thanks for info. So only stations that we add with your mod will be able to have engineers.... I just wanted to test this on new player built stations and see if it works

[Simoom]

MAJOR UPDATE 5/5/16:

• [New Feature] "Legendary Weapons": Finally got the weapon mods patches working! Spawn some High-Grade weapon mods with this feature and you'll see what I mean. Unfortunately the changes do affect all weapon mods spawned in the game (even ones you get from missions and containers), because MD script currently does not give any sort of ability to control spawned weapon mods stats. If you feel the changes are too cheaty for you, simply remove libraries/weaponmods.xml from the mod folder.
• [Improvement] "Summon Stations": Got the Upkeep Mission patches working as well! Upkeep missions are no longer generated for stations that shouldn't have them (weapon platforms and non-factory stations).
• [Improvement] General Upkeep Missions: As a side bonus to the Upkeep Missions patch I had to do for "Summon Stations", I also patched out Upkeep Missions for adding mining drones to mining ships (because mining and trading ships can be used interchangeably; if a player wants to use an Onil as a freighter, they should be able to without being badgered). Additionally, for "Assign Trade Ship" and "Assign Mining Ship" Upkeep missions, either a trade or mining ship will now satisfy the requirement (again, because they can be used interchangeably). The script will still check to make sure the ship you assigned can carry the appropriate cargo type, but it no longer restricts you to use ships with either "Trade" or "Mine" specialty.
• [Improvement] "Grant Treasures": Added many more rare items! You can now spawn Security Decryption System, Gifts, Virtual Seminars, and Weapon Mods.
• [Bug fix] "Change Faction": Terracorp HQ station manager will now be assigned the generic NPC manager script, rather than the warehouse one (apparently the warehouse script is written specifically for only three stations, and Terracorp HQ isn't one of them).

[Simoom]

Okay folks... for those of you who are knowledgeable in coding, I do have a few help requests.

1. I discovered that it is apparently impossible to restore a station back from a wrecked state if its modules are marked as permanently destroyed... so I was looking for a way to partially-disable a station (but give it an appearance of being wrecked). Fellow modder jth suggested that I try setting the hull value to 1% and kill the station crew, which sounded like a viable solution.
   
   So I wrote this:

   Code: Select all

             <!-- If target is a station -->
             <do_elseif value="$Target.isclass.station">
               <show_notification caption="{10002,4}" details="[{30151,28} + ' ' + {10002,335} + ':', $Target.name]" icon="achievement_dronekill_1" sound="notification_danger" comment="Target self-destructed."/>
               <add_effect object="player.room" effect="'cpfx_cockpit_alert_01'"/>
               <!-- If station has attached construction vessel, disconnect it properly -->
               <do_if value="@$Target.buildingmodule">
                 <set_value name="$Builder" exact="$Target.buildingmodule.container"/>
                 <clear_buildmodule buildmodule="$Target.buildingmodule"/>
                 <disconnect_from_build_location object="$Builder"/>
                 <remove_object_commander object="$Builder"/>
                 <do_if value="($Builder.pilot.exists) and ($Builder.isplayerowned)">
                   <start_script object="$Builder.pilot" name="'player.default'"/>
                 </do_if>
               </do_if>
               <!-- Destroy crew and modules -->
               <get_control_entities groupname="$Crew" object="$Target"/>
               <destroy_group group="$Crew"/>
               <find_object_component groupname="$Modules" object="$Target" multiple="true">
                 <match_parent class="class.station"/>
               </find_object_component>
               <!-- If player station, allow full destroy -->
               <do_if value="$Target.isplayerowned">
                 <destroy_group group="$Modules" explosion="true"/>
               </do_if>
               <!-- Else do partial destroy -->
               <do_else>
                 <set_cover_owner object="$Target" faction="faction.ownerless"/>
                 <do_all exact="$Modules.count" counter="$Counter">
                   <set_object_hull object="$Modules.{$Counter}" exact="1"/>
                 </do_all>
               </do_else>
               <!-- Wreck all surface elements -->
               <set_summarised_adsign_state object="$Target" state="wreck" exact="$Target.summary.numadsigns.all"/>
               <set_summarised_efficiencyupgrade_state object="$Target" state="wreck" exact="$Target.summary.numefficiencyupgrades.all"/>
               <set_summarised_shield_state object="$Target" state="wreck" exact="$Target.summary.numshields.all"/>
               <set_summarised_surfacedestructible_state object="$Target" state="wreck" exact="$Target.summary.numsurfacedestructible.all"/>
               <set_summarised_turret_state object="$Target" state="wreck" exact="$Target.summary.numturrets.all"/>

   Well, I tested it out on an NPC station and it's not working at all. The station crew isn't being destroyed (no error in debug), and all modules stayed at full health, with the following debug:

   Code: Select all

   Error in MD cue md.Target_Manipulation.SimoomsLantern_target_destruct<inst:20018>: Evaluated component 0x2cae 'control_room_macro' is not of class destructible
   * Expression: $Modules.{$Counter}

   Lastly, the summarised surface components aren't even set to a wrecked state... they all show under the station's detail panel as being fully functional.
   
   This makes me wonder if the only reason player-owned stations are even being successfully wrecked is because the modules themselves are blown up (and in those cases, I get debug output about the game trying to move the station crew to the control room, and is unable to do so - implying that the station crew is indeed not being destroyed prior to module destruction)...
2. My "add ammo" script still isn't working on ships for some reason.. and I am VERY sure the script segment itself isn't at fault (it works perfectly fine for stations, and is pretty much the same script used by Egosoft in InitUniverse.xml:

   Code: Select all

                 <!-- If target's missile bay isn't full, replenish it -->
                 <evaluate_ammo_storage object="$Target" type="missile" capacity="$LauncherCapacity" macros="$AmmoMacro" amounts="$Amountlist"/>
                 <do_if value="$LauncherCapacity gt 0">
                   <do_all exact="$AmmoMacro.count" counter="$Counter">
                     <set_value name="$CapacityFactor" exact="($Amountlist.{$Counter})f / $LauncherCapacity"/>
                     <set_value name="$Wantamount" exact="$CapacityFactor * ($Target.ammostorage.missile.basecapacity + $LauncherCapacity)"/>
                     <do_if value="$Wantamount gt 0">
                       <set_value name="$Haveamount" exact="$Target.ammostorage.{$AmmoMacro.{$Counter}}.count"/>
                       <add_ammo object="$Target" macro="$AmmoMacro.{$Counter}" amount="$Wantamount - $Haveamount"/>
                     </do_if>
                   </do_all>
                 </do_if>

   The odd thing is, as a test, I removed that whole section and simply replaced it with a simple <add_ammo> command (with the macro for V Crusher), and tried it on an Arawn... and THAT didn't work either (which makes zero sense).
3. I still can't figure out why my "Unlock Ship Info" isn't working:

   Code: Select all

           <do_elseif value="event.param2.{1} == 'ships'">
             <find_ship groupname="$Ships" space="player.zone" primarypurpose="objectpurpose.fight" multiple="true"/>
             <do_all exact="$Ships.count" counter="$Counter">
               <reveal_object object="$Ships.{$Counter}" exact="100"/>
             </do_all>
             <add_effect object="player.primaryship" effect="'scfx_wave_01'"/>
             <play_sound object="player.primaryship" sound="'scfx_result_good_01'"/>
             <add_npc_line speaker="player.computer" line="900" comment="Long range scanner activated."/>
             <add_npc_line speaker="player.computer" line="801" delay="0.5s" comment="Object information added to ship computer database."/>
             <show_notification caption="{10002,900}" details="[{10101,4573} + ':', {1001,6} + ' ' + {1001,2427}]" icon="achievement_notoriety_up" sound="notification_unlocked_hack" comment="Ships Information"/>
           </do_elseif>

   I have tried setting the ships themselves to "Known", their crews to "Known", nothing works. To my understanding some military ships just show ??? status because they have a secrecy status (level 1 usually), and there's no reason why <reveal_object> wouldn't work in this scenario...

If anyone can figure out what's wrong with these, I'll give you a giant hug...

[jth]

1) Have you tried repair_component to hullfaction 0.01 ? where the component is the production module

jth

[Simoom]

1) Have you tried repair_component to hullfaction 0.01 ? where the component is the production module

<repair_component> requires the use of a buildmodule, so it probably wouldn't work on stations with no CV attached.

I noticed that setting the hull value directly for the station itself seems to affect the hull value of all station modules (may be a UI display issue...), but the modules don't look wrecked, and again, all crew and surface elements are still present and functional.

[Simoom]

Hey folks - finally got the "partial-wrecking" of NPC stations figured out, and as the result was able to properly implement the "Repair Station Wreck" function as well. You have NO IDEA how long I've struggled with this one... had to jump through many hoops and hunt down many elusive script oddities.

For those who are interested: Apparently the reason the NPC station crew weren't being destroyed by my script was because all NPC controlentities are set to "resurrect" upon death (as defined by GenericMissions.xml, under "PersistentPlatformActor"). In order to break their Persistent status, they must first be unassigned from their duties before a <destroy> command is issued.

Here are the changelogs.


Update 5/6/16:

• [New Feature] "Repair Station Wreck": Codes are now functional after a change to the "Self-Destruct" routine for NPC stations! Fully restores hull, surface elements, and station crew. Also sets station owner back to its original faction (from "ownerless").
• [Improvement] "Self-Destruct": Major update to how NPC stations are handled. Instead of fully destroying all station modules, this feature now pseudo-wrecks the station, setting all modules to 1% hull, destroys all surface elements, and removes the station crew. It then sets the station to coverowner "Ownerless", which will make it appear ownerless and prevent any hostile action from being directed at it (useful for if you want to secure a hostile sector, and don't want your patrol ships to keep going after those invulnerable station hulls).
• [Improvement] "Summon Stations": Switched the spawning routine for Station Manager, Station DO, and Station Engineer to use <create_cue_actor> instead of <create_platform_actor>. This is to account for the fact that some larger landmark stations (which I have set to use a build location) do not have a dock location, only a control room. Without this change, such stations would spawn without a crew.
• [Improvement] "Summon Stations": Added two missing "Xenon Matrix" stations from the Home of Light DLC, and removed "The Maze", since it appears to be causing crashes.
• [Improvement] "X-Perimental Jump": Further improved safety check to disable ability to jump when docked at a deployed Construction Vessel.

Hotfix 5/5/16:

• [New Feature] Shipyard Cooldown has been changed. Albion and DeVries no longer have location-dependent delay between capship builds at NPC shipyards. Entire galaxy now have a standard cooldown for capship builds: 10-20 minutes. If you do not like this change, simply remove aiscripts/trade.shipyard.xml from the mod folder. I will make this an optional supplement when mod is released on Nexus.
• [Bugfix] Fixed pathing of some XML patches that was being returned as invalid for some reason (pathing was fine, but it wouldn't accept "mdscript/" as a valid root entry... but somehow "//" works. Upkeep mission changes should work properly.

[Nikola515]

Thanks for DV shipyard changes

[wazlord]

=======================================================================
[*]Claim Target [Working] - Simoom sends out a powerful telepathic wave and influences the minds of your target's crew. Suddenly, working for you seem like a mighty good idea!

• If target is a ship and has a pilot, it will abort its previous task and wait for your command (run script 'player.default'). This saves you the trouble of having to add the ship to squad before it will take new orders.
• If target is a ship with no crew, then the claiming action will contextually generate new crew (small ship gets a pilot, large ship gets a full set of crew).
• If target is an NPC station, automatically switches station manager to run correct player station-management scripts.
• If target is an NPC station, automatically switches station defense officer to run correct player station-defense scripts.
• Targeting applies to both the selected target and the "parent" of the target - this means you can target any module or surface element on a station or ship, and the action will apply to the station or ship itself.
• Includes safety check to apply action only to ships or stations. Event Monitor error message if target is invalid.

[*]Immortality [Working] - Simoom blesses your ship with Her divine protection, rendering you immune to harm.

• Discreet On/Off switches so you can be certain of the Skunk's invulnerability setting.

Some comments on the above options.
1) Claim Target
- The escort ships doesn't seems to be claimed as well.
- Also if the ship is a xenon (the one i noticed) when claimed, no pilot is available so the ship wont follow any orders until pilot is manually assigned to the ship and new orders are given.

2) Immortality - Skunk still blew up, - happened when Nova Missile blew up quite near to the skunk, guess the script doesn't cover all scenarios that could cause damage to skunk, normal missile and weapon damage from enemy seems nor harming skunk though, so that part seems works fine

[Simoom]

Some comments on the above options.
1) Claim Target
- The escort ships doesn't seems to be claimed as well.
- Also if the ship is a xenon (the one i noticed) when claimed, no pilot is available so the ship wont follow any orders until pilot is manually assigned to the ship and new orders are given.

2) Immortality - Skunk still blew up, - happened when Nova Missile blew up quite near to the skunk, guess the script doesn't cover all scenarios that could cause damage to skunk, normal missile and weapon damage from enemy seems nor harming skunk though, so that part seems works fine

Thanks for the report.

The ability to claim all subordinates when claiming the squad leader is being implemented in the next release. I'll look into the Xenon issue (Xenon ships do have crew, but they are of class "computer" instead of "npc", and as such they do not have dialogue trees so you won't be able to issue orders to them). In order to properly handle Xenon ships I will have to write a special script to destroy the original crew and spawn new (human) ones in its place.

Regarding the issue with god mode - the script simply makes both shield and hull immune to attack damage. To my understanding missiles should do damage the same way other weapons do, so I am not sure what the problem may be. Worst case scenario I may have to set a flag to make the Skunk's hull "indestructable" (which is a separate attribute from "invulnerable" - an object can be vulnerable and still indestructable, such as stations)

[hisazul]

Is the change to player ship cargo necessary(additional assets to be exact)? Doesn't really matter to me but I imagine player ship is commonly modified script, if possible avoiding rewrites on it may be beneficial, tho I'm not sure how game handles conflicting changes so may be completely harmless. I mean for all other ships you can dump as much stuff as you want and disregard limits. I eventually loaded tituel with... 90k? of all building resources and a few thousand of each drone just to avoid having to deal with multiple ships dragging things about. Unless player ship portion gets reset on reload, I know some arguments will not survive saving and re-loading.

On side note, can xml code or ingame loaded scripts handle asm? It may make modifying existing weapon mods much easier since you can just look it up as array and modify to your hearts content. Tho, to fit in existing ui, youd have to resort to some pretty shoddy string searches on mouseovers which are... not a really good way of looking for things in memory.

[Simoom]

Is the change to player ship cargo necessary(additional assets to be exact)? Doesn't really matter to me but I imagine player ship is commonly modified script, if possible avoiding rewrites on it may be beneficial, tho I'm not sure how game handles conflicting changes so may be completely harmless.

Do you mean the ammo storage? It's not necessary, and the mod functions fine without it. The first post has a list of what game scripts were changed - they are all safe for removal (if you don't like the changes they implement).

It's not technically additional asset, since that would imply creating something new (and the game will throw errors if such assets were introduced, then the mod is removed - for example mods introducing new ships and station types). Modified assets can be save game safe, depending on how they are implemented (I am not re-writing the game's existing scripts in any way that's creating new variables and referring to them - if I did that, it would cause problems if the mod were removed).

I think (don't quote me though) if multiple mods are trying to change the same game script, as long as they aren't changing the same sections, they are probably okay. But if they change sections that affect each other, that's when the authors have to write compatibility patches (make one mod have another mod as dependency, that way they load one after another to preserve proper script structure).

On side note, can xml code or ingame loaded scripts handle asm? It may make modifying existing weapon mods much easier since you can just look it up as array and modify to your hearts content. Tho, to fit in existing ui, youd have to resort to some pretty shoddy string searches on mouseovers which are... not a really good way of looking for things in memory.

Don't know, but I am not sure I am ready to mess with that. I just (sorta) learned MD; haven't even delved into any LUA-related stuffs yet (I am not a coder).

[Simoom]

Hotfix 5/8/16:

• [Improvement] "Claim Target": Claiming a Xenon commander unit now spawns proper NPC crew for all subordinates! The subordinates will escort the commander unit by default - which is fine at the moment, since this seems to be the job of all Xenon subordinates at this time. If the game evolves in the future with Xenon subordinates actually handling other types of jobs (such as mining or trading), then this may create a problem... but we'll deal with it when we get there.
• [Bug fix] "Change Faction": If a player-owned commander unit is transferred to a NPC faction, all crew of subordinate units will also have their credit accounts properly removed.

Update 5/7/16:

• [Improvement] "Self-Destruct": If the target has subordinates, they are destroyed along with the commanding unit.
• [Improvement] "Claim Target":
  • If the target has subordinates, they are claimed alongside the commanding unit. Also added a "ceasefire" command to stop any subordinates from firing on you after ownership change (since they get their attack command from the commanding unit).
  • If target and its subordinates (excluding drones) have pre-existing crew, they receive an automatic skill upgrade (all 5-stars).
  • If the target is a Xenon asset, the AI crew is removed and an NPC crew will be created in their place (works for both ships and stations).
  • [Note] If you claim the lead unit in a Xenon fleet, only the lead unit will receive NPC crew (the subordinates will retain their AI crew). This is unfortunately necessary to preserve the subordinates' job scripts (so whatever order they were executing - escort, mining, etc. - they will continue to do so). I have experimented with destroying the AI crew of Xenon subordinate units and replacing them with NPC crew already, and the spawning routine seems to function somewhat unreliably (some subordinates get a replacement crew, some don't - not sure why). For now, if you really must have actual NPC crew in Xenon subordinates, you will have to assign them manually.
• [Improvement] "Change Faction": If the target has subordinates, their faction is changed along with the commanding unit. Also added a "ceasefire" command to stop any subordinates from firing on their current target after ownership change.

[A.Persyn]

Great work on the mod!

I'm using your mod in a post plot game. All the Canteran stations exist but are only half built.

Can the "Canteran Plot Stations" feature be modified to also complete unfinished stations as well as replace missing ones?

[Simoom]

Glad you are enjoying the mod, A.Persyn! If you notice any issues or have any suggestions, please feel free to post them here. ^_^

Great work on the mod!

I'm using your mod in a post plot game. All the Canteran stations exist but are only half built.

Can the "Canteran Plot Stations" feature be modified to also complete unfinished stations as well as replace missing ones?

This was one of the original things I was hoping to do, but under current MD implementation it would appear to be impossible.

What you can do, though, is turn the NPC construction vessels over to you using the "Claim Target" function. Once they are under your control, you will be able to fully-extend those Canteran stations through the CV's Architect (you may have to spawn a new Architect and assign her to the CV's, if the dialogue tree doesn't function properly. Use "Summon Personnel" for this).

If you want those stations built in a hurry, you can use the "Restock Construction Vessel" function in my mod to fully stock the NPC CV's with construction wares (it's a bit tucked away... sorry only 6 dialogue choices to work with...). You can find this under "Summon Fleet / Stations" -> "Construction Vessel" -> "Restock"

Once all the stations are fully-extended, you can even turn the CV's back to their original owners with "Change Faction", if you wish.

P.S. - Make sure you activate the "Canteran Plot Stations" feature at least once, after the shipyard is fully-extended. It contains an integrated fix for the station manager to run the correct shipyard script (even if your plot shipyard is pre-existing). This will allow the shipyard to build capital ships periodically, like a normal NPC shipyard would. Just make sure the shipyard is fully-extended before you issue that order, otherwise it won't work (if the shipyard has no L/XL cradles, the aiscript will report to the game engine that it's a "small shipyard", and default the manager back to the wrong script again).

[Nikola515]

I have question about CV that are summoned with station ? I used undock or unbound comand. When i told it to build in other station it was still showing me list of modules already built from previous station. Is this as intended or there is bug with architect ?
To reproduce tis:

1) Summon any station.

2) Separate CV from that station with undock command.

3) Tell CV to follow you.

4) When you see building station icon tell architect to build.

Edit:
I have another request for this mod:

1) Add wares to station (fill station with everything you need).

2) Delite all wares in station.

3) Summon Enemy/Friendly armada. This would be useful if you want to test your defenses or if you like to watch mass scale battles

[Simoom]

I have question about CV that are summoned with station ? I used undock or unbound comand. When i told it to build in other station it was still showing me list of modules already built from previous station. Is this as intended or there is bug with architect ?
To reproduce tis:

1) Summon any station.

2) Separate CV from that station with undock command.

3) Tell CV to follow you.

4) When you see building station icon tell architect to build.

The answer to your question is actually listed in the opening post... But I'll reiterate it here.

The Architect's dialogue tree is very problematic to reset properly. If you look at some of my other posts around this forums, you will see that I discussed this issue with other modders before. Other mods that offer CV undocking do so by either hacking into the dialogue tree ("Repack Construction Vessel"), or destroying the original Architect entirely and creating a new one ("Station Recycle and Destroy").

I had discovered a third method, which was unassigning the Architect then signaling it with 'remote_passenger_arrived' (basically tricks the game into thinking the Architect has just arrived on the CV via drone). It works in resetting the dialogue tree, but creates a weird glitch where the game thinks the Architect is located on the Skunk, while working on the CV (some sort of weird location confusion). I am still investigating the cause of this, but until I figure it out, I have disabled any workaround for the time being.

For now, to reset the Architect's dialogue menu, simply spawn a new Architect on the Skunk, and tell the new one to work on the CV (the old Architect will come back on the Skunk, and her dialogue will be properly reset when she does).

Edit:
I have another request for this mod:

1) Add wares to station (fill station with everything you need).

2) Delite all wares in station.

Both of these should be easy to do... I'll look into it. Should have it ready in the next update.

3) Summon Enemy/Friendly armada. This would be useful if you want to test your defenses or if you like to watch mass scale battles

This one I am gonna skip, because it's somewhat of a niche application and not really a "cheat". Besides, you can already do this technically (you could summon two "Law Enforcement" fleets, and change the owner of the commander units to opposing factions. This will also change the faction of all its escort fighters.... and you will get a nice fleet battle).

The new changes made to "Claim Target" and "Change Faction" are in part meant to easily set up large combat fleets, since all you have to do is change the faction of the fleet commander.