[script] Improved Kha'ak 1.1: Updated June 10, 2008

[Deleted User]

So far so good. Playing Normal Difficulty and it's quite enjoyable. Especially with a new start. So far they have been hassling me, but it's not overkill now. Was fortunate to watch a 3 way fight happen in CBSW Between Argon/Paranid/Kha'ak. Was a brilliant light show. Finally have some Intelligent Kha'ak.

Again Great Work. This is a must have Script for me anyways.

::Back Off to protecting my one TS::

[daemonik]

Man, that's totaly entirely AWESOME! Single most important thing I've been missing since X²: The Threat!
Downloading it right now and soooo eager to see it in action! However, after browsing through the thread I thought I could drop you few my ideas since I was thinking about similar stuff for some time too. In case you're interested of course!

1. Kha'ak spread issue could be addressed with counter invasions from main races. This could work in few levels corresponding to how much of The Threat Kha'ak are perceived. After having their border sector taken over (like Elena's Fortune), races would be slightly annoyed and put BBS message that retaliation fleet is being assembled in sector such and such, and warming their jumpdrives waiting for player to join. After certain amount of time they would go in and die heroic death, since the force would be too small (unless you'd help). After loosing internal sector (Cloudbase XY?) a race would feel really threatened and field the best of their fleet (all that awesome XTM heavy metal) and could come out victorious alone with say... 33.33% chance
But if they loose any homeland/national sector (think Home of the Light, not to mention Argon Prime!) they would feel really really upset and would call their allies for help (Boron -- Argon, Split -- Paranid, Teladi -- ummmm.... Pirates? blue ones of course.... Xenon -- more Xenon?, Terrans... more Tyrs? lol)
After reaching something as close to dynamic balance as possible, you could make it so that the retaliation potential would depend on amount of sectors still possessed by that specific race

2. Another thing is, your script is great starting point for my dream coming true, namely PROPER Kha'ak Invasion. Of course as it stands now it doesn't help that much since it helps really too much, especially at the beginning of the game. XTM also helps in wrong way so anyone PLEASE! Make it Extreme again! As in "are you insane?".
With your excellent work it should be even not that hard (alright I confess I have no idea what I'm talking about)
Just make another difficulty setting "Kha'ak Invader start" (or perhaps easy setting could do), then add "We're attacking here and there" incoming message when cluster is sufficiently developed, and "We're defending, plz halp kthx" Fun begins when you wont respond to that call ("How dare you, little drone!") and boom! your Kha'ak rep goes down! By helping your fellows you could gain it back and at some point, who knows? You could be able to ask for assistance yourself? Requisition new shiny Kha'ak ships for your fleet? (XTM extended comms could go in handy here)

That's it, as I said just few ideas in case you'd be interested by NO MEANS a rant or even humble request
Again, great job, keep it comming!

[7ate9tin11s]

@daemonik

Nice ideas, I already have plans for some of them and I will talk about them below

Kha'ak spread issue could be addressed with counter invasions from main races. ...

While it is possible to do that in the KI script it would bring up a host of problems with other scripts like RRF that control race logic. However, I am thinking of making a general Improved Races script that would have all races skirmish and fortify along their borders. It would allow the Split to take a Boron sector then the Boron to take it back, etc. It would also make them assault any other sectors that have been taken over. The problem is that it would have to be an alternative to RRF so it could be properly balanced. That is at least several weeks out though so don't get too excited yet.

...PROPER Kha'ak Invasion...

Hmmm, that is quite possible. I could make it so a swarm response call that touches your sector will send you a call to arms if your a friend of the Kha'ak. Would not take more than a few minutes of scripting. I could also randomly give you one of the participating swarm ships when they Kha'ak are victorious in a sector and your their friend (again, only a few minutes of scripting). Making a swarm response due to your actions would be a little tougher though...hmmm. Don't get your hopes up, but I will look into it .oO( )

@Everyone
I tossed up a poll for fun, vote! or the Kha'ak will get you when you forgot to save!

(and yes I voted just to see the poll )

Rejected Idea Of The Day

Hrmmm...there is a 'time since last save' script command...should I make a swarm attack the player if it has been to long?

[Legionnaire]

A necessary evil...the universe should be dangerous.

if space isn't violent and dangerous, why are we out there with guns?. Khaak in plotline are ok, nowhere near as nasty as they were in X2 , i miss worrying whether im going to survive every encounter with them, and having to come up with specific tactics just for them. in X3 they arent a challange and thats a shame..

looking forward to having getting a fleet built up so i can install this and have some fun.

Legionnaire

[Deathwalker1701]

wow i was just sitting in kao mistake in my titon all off a sudden i was surrounded by Kha'ak and was dead in about 10 seconds on easy .
Great cript

[7ate9tin11s]

Minor bugfix update posted. It also removes a problem where uninstalling IK would reset all invasions in IX.

[narn]

This is a great script with one small problem. I think that the ability they have to jump in system is a little over the top. I'm all for making the universe harder but I think that you should at least be able to get away from them instead of them being able to butt scoot up to you and blow you up in seconds. It goes way to far with the larger ships.

I was wondering if you could either tell me how to disable the khaak's ability to jump around in system or make it another optional feature that the player can choose. If I cant turn off this annoying feature I'm probably just going to shut it off and remove the script from my game. And I don't want to do that because I like everything else the script has to offer.

[7ate9tin11s]

Hmmm...actually I cannot completely turn it off without a major rewrite since it is used for reinforcements entering the sector and as a core component to the AI. However, I could put in a toggle to allow you to choose the minimum jump range that they will use the in-sector jump (Right now the range is 10k). If I allow you to push it to 50k then it will not be used in most sectors and situations besides entry into the sector. Anything greater than 50k could prevent the swarm from arriving in a timely manner. As a word of warning though, messing with the jump range will make them alot easier again. Especially since they do not use formation movement in any way.

I'll see about adding it in and tossing a patch up before I head out of the country tomorrow. Stay tuned

[7ate9tin11s]

Looked into the possibility of changing the p2p behavior, but it is integrated too tightly into the fight AI, targetting, overmind, and swarming systems for an easy fix before tomorrow. While it would be very easy to change it so there is no jumping at all it would prevent outside reinforcements and swarming completely. Basically leaving you with Kha'ak which just target one enemy at a time. I'd prefer to do it right so this will have to wait a bit . I will try and decouple the oos and is p2p actions so that a simple toggle will work, but it will prolly take until after my trip is finished so I have the time.

[shilhi]

ROFL! I just tried it. I jumped into a sector that was taken over, and right when I did that there was a scout at the gate I jumped through.

Both my titans opened up on it and destroyed it, and before I knew it I had over 20 fighters and 2 destroyers shootin me up.

[Algoran]

Hello! First off, great script. Ive been winging about the poor unthreatening khaak for ages

I agree with the guy talking about insector jumping however, it is kinda too much and a little frustrating They bounce around like bloody ping pong balls sometimes! Changing of the minimum jump range would be good.. and/or the jumpdrive charge time, which i swear is much less than mine How is progress with that?

Also, a small question - with the swarm calling in khaak from nearby sectors, does that include clusters? Or do they have to be broken before they will respond, because i notice clusters do not use the insector jump thing at all.

I havnt yet seen the khaak advancing across the universe while creating trails of stations... perhaps they take quite a long time to build? They do have firm grasp of the split sector down bottom right next to the khaak sector (XTM), I get instatly vaporized every time i go in there haha. But i havnt seen them advancing, sadly! I want WAR! ehehehe...

[X2-Eliah]

About the station building, I must add that something feels way off - for instance, I have many sectors with just 2-4 boxes of Nividium (and same amount of other two wares) floating near the centre of sector, with no Kha'ak whatsoever.

Also, in one sector there is a whole lot of it (about 20-25 boxes of Nividium (same for other 2), and finally just 3 destroyers remained there, and after a while they were gone, probably jumped out, no station, no nothing.

So, something is wrong with the station making script, it looks like it might be interrupted or irregarded at all.. weird stuff.

(On normal mode, XTM)

[7ate9tin11s]

Alright I am back from my trip to Korea (I got to see the Olympic torch ). I will start working on IK to get it balanced properly with IX and tune the station building routines a bit more. I will also rework the p2p jumping system and make it an option since it is a bit nasty (It merely takes a tiny bit of hull damage to prevent any jumping though, use a mass driver and they can no longer catch up to you ).

As for the bouncing around like pingpong balls and not needing 10 seconds to jump:
1. Once every 10 seconds to a minute (Depending on swarm size and difficulty) the overmind will calculate the best courses of action in the sector. If a ship is suffering from low shields but can still jump it will make a defensive jump to help the shields recharge. There is part of your ping-ponging. The other half of the ping-ponging is that the overmind will decide upon a swarm target and members of the swarm will jump to it if it is too far away.
2. The jump time depends on the difficulty level you choose

My main concern with the removal of the p2p jumping is that the Kha'ak will no longer be as improved. I have an evil idea to add that will have them be still unique though...but that you will find out in due time.

Anyone have other nasty behaviors that should be added? Toss them into the thread or PM them to me if you fear being hunted down and killed by those that have to deal with your idea

[Algoran]

Alright I am back from my trip to Korea (I got to see the Olympic torch).

Ooh, cool

As for the bouncing around like pingpong balls and not needing 10 seconds to jump:
1. Once every 10 seconds to a minute (Depending on swarm size and difficulty) the overmind will calculate the best courses of action in the sector. If a ship is suffering from low shields but can still jump it will make a defensive jump to help the shields recharge. There is part of your ping-ponging. The other half of the ping-ponging is that the overmind will decide upon a swarm target and members of the swarm will jump to it if it is too far away.
2. The jump time depends on the difficulty level you choose

Ahuh, cool makes sense! This was with the older version i realize now, no jump charge time I did have a rather amusing/frustrating situation at one point though with a khaak carrier, it was jumping to various positions around me very quickly, so it was getting shots off then jumping again before my lasers could reach it Clever i guess, but i wonder what he was thinking while he was doing that

My main concern with the removal of the p2p jumping is that the Kha'ak will no longer be as improved. I have an evil idea to add that will have them be still unique though...but that you will find out in due time.

Indeed well i wouldnt want it removed completely, just toned down

Anyone have other nasty behaviors that should be added? Toss them into the thread or PM them to me if you fear being hunted down and killed by those that have to deal with your idea

Ooh, I get to suggest how to improve the khaak? What fun! They really were such a cool, scary alien race in X2. Made me sad to see how much they suck now, so Ive increased the kyon damage and sheild capacity of all my khaak

But, scriptwise... something that springs to mind: Cluster spawn positions, would it be possible to change them? They are very often miles outside of the normal shipping lanes, and they appear to be blind and stuipid, so they just wander around in circles, never meeting anyone, never being split up and never contributing to the SWARM! That might be a mod rather than script... I dunno lol

Actually this script is so great i cant think of anything else right now! Probably will later.. Im gonna take a keen interest in it regardless

[7ate9tin11s]

But, scriptwise... something that springs to mind: Cluster spawn positions, would it be possible to change them? They are very often miles outside of the normal shipping lanes, and they appear to be blind and stuipid, so they just wander around in circles, never meeting anyone, never being split up and never contributing to the SWARM! That might be a mod rather than script... I dunno lol

...strangely, I just finished making extra clusters spawn randomly around the universe last night...in range of doing damage...and they start swarming immediately...

I also fixed the station creation problem by putting a soft-cap on swarm calls when a sector contains station building materials, bumped up the revenge rates significantly, and put in basic limits on p2p jumps. Not yet fully tested though so you will have to wait till early next week for testing and balancing against IX. I also figured out the problem with IX overwhelming the universe faster than IK, They have more sectors and no delay timer for capturing sectors so they will get more sectors, of course .

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Well, it happened. Brennan's Triumph has fallen to the bug-eyed bastards. one destroyer, one carrier, two clusters on a rampage.

I tried my best to beat them back, but my current arsenal only stands at a total of 13 fighters, not counting CAG escorts. Good enough to smoke the carrier, not quite enough to drag down the destroyer. And the little green blips go black pretty much immediately when the cluster swarms show up. I most assuredly will be reloading from last save.

Sucks for me, because my Fuel production base is in Olmancketslat's Treaty, just north. Business will be bad for a while. And the RRF authorities won't be intervening. Not likely that the pirates will be able to put a stop to the madness either.

I'm liking this.

[7ate9tin11s]

Better hurry before they get a station and start summoning in more, especially before the upcoming upgrade to version 0.9 early next week: + = +



In other news...

I've began putting together a general improved races script to counter the increased dangers of the universe. I will be making it completely compatible with RRF, but it will be able to protect and assault the universe on its own. Some current and future items include:
1. Job-based ships (Anti-fighter, anti-cap, long-range support, etc)
2. Racial cargo drops like in IX, including seeker mines and maybe even Fallen's toybox (if I can get it working right you will know what it is )
3. Racial behaviors in combat, weapons, tactics, etc.
4. NPC Ring of Fire usage (may be offense or defense depending on racial tactics!)
5. Optional mode to keep ships out of the universe until they are needed. Increasing framerates .
6. Optional open warfare mode where the races will act upon their alliances and take neighboring sectors from their enemies .
7. Optional Sector Recovery: If a sector was taken by someone they will try to take it back using a token system like the Xenon do in IX.
8. A base of operations: The local shipyard (Pirate base for pirates) is the command center for that area of space and will manage all connected core and border sectors. Take out the shipyard and that sector of space is disrupted until a new one is built. Trying to keep a shipyard sector can be difficult as well since other shipyards of that race will react in quite seriously to the loss .

I'm also thinking of making a quick set of commands so you can apply any of the jobs to your player ships to help you in combat (Perhaps with a non-p2p jumping swarm combat routine too!). For example, you could set a ship to use anti-fighter ai and it will ignore big ships unless there were no little ships left. An anti-fighter ship would also use more missiles and any available cargo-drops like the npc's.

[Deathwalker1701]

It all sounds very good looking forward to it all

[7ate9tin11s]

Version 0.9 Released

New Stuff
Point to Point Jump Options - The point to point(p2p) jumping of the Kha'ak while in-sector can be adjusted. While the minimum jump range defaults to 10k you can also choose 40k, 80k, or entirely disabled. While it may seem to be a good idea to use a higher jump range, the Kha'ak like to jump and it just means they will find a target further away and jump to it instead of something close. Note: I recommend bumping up the difficulty a level if you disable p2p jumping.

BBS Notifications - By popular demand GalNet has began providing public notices of Kha'ak swarm activity around the universe. These notices can be found on the BBS of any station and will strive to give you the most important details about the engagement happening in the sector. Please be aware that the notices from pirate sectors are provided by rumor and may be inaccurate.

Extra Kha'ak - Depending on difficulty level the script will now generate and activate extra clusters around the universe randomly. Only normal vanilla clusters are used and no capital ships will be spawned by this script. Any capital ships were spawned by the game.

BBS Message Examples

Galaxy Network - Kha'ak Watch
Level 7 Kha'ak Swarm Advisory for Argon Prime
This is an emergency warning bulletin from Argon Prime. A level 7 Kha'ak swarm is currently active in this sector and overmind activity has been confirmed. The largest ship presently known to be a part of this swarm is a Kha'ak Carrier, smaller vessels and trade ships should bypass this sector where possible. Assistance with these invaders will be noted on your personal record and those with a police license will receive standard compensation.

Galaxy Network - Kha'ak Watch
The Fall of Kao's Mistake
It is our regretful duty to report the loss of Kao's Mistake. The sector was swiftly overwhelmed by the Kha'ak and it has been confirmed that all defenders and stations have been destroyed. Recent unmanned probes have confirmed that a level 5 swarm still patrols the sector and actively engages any vessel that enters the sector. The probes have also located what appears to be construction materials in the sector and, upon examination, experts have concluded that the Kha'ak have about 35 percent of the materials needed to construct an assault station. The assistance of all races and ships is requested to disrupt the station building activities and retake the sector. The raw Nvidium and other materials used in Kha'ak station building will left for the victor to sell.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

Looks good. So setting the maximum jump distance means that in smaller sectors the simply won't jump? Unless they're way out of the way of course.

In other news, I was actually able to sink a Carrier's shields down to about 1/8 using Concussion cannons on my PNR- apparently they have quite a low energy drain and do enough damage to keep that bar going steadily downward.
Then, of course, the Destroyer jumped in and smoked me in a few seconds, but I thought that would be a useful tidbit