AL-Plugin: Civilian Ships

[Chris Gi]

There's not much travel between stations in vanilla X2, just the freighters that fly to a station buying stuff and fly back to it's home base. But there're are no cilivian ships! Because these are missing, we're working on an AL-Plugin to incorporate cilivian ships. We're planning on using M5-M3 ships as well as some TS and TP's.
This ships should get some names, similar to the civilian ships in X3. Names can be dependend on ship classes and/or race or can be used for any ships.
If anyone of you has some good idea how to name these ships, please feel free to post your proposals. These names can be realistic (like BoFu Delivery Service) or funny, whatever comes to your mind !

[Graceburn]

I really like this idea, not so much space in space!
I have no idea how to name them though

[AmadanLegre]

Have you ever played Terminus? There's lots of civilion activity in it. Terminus doesn't have many of the features you find in X2, like station building and the fancy menues + music, but I think its modelling of entities is a bit more detailed, in addition to the ship systems which can affect stealth and do break down for multiple reasons (but can be repaired by onboard systems). The Terminus universe is also quite a bit smaller than X2's (it encompasses our solar system). An example of the better entity modelling are the AI's that pilot the ships. Not only are there tradeships, but there're patrol craft, mining ships, bounty hunters, and so on - whatever the player does they'll do as well. They can get emotional and they remember you somewhat too - you actually see how they respond to you when you're doing well - as in they keep their distance and correctly respond to you when you're a known hostile (send you a message to not attack them). And when you go out of line, bounty hunters will chase after you - you really do feel like you're a space farer. They also all have their own unique names and after a while you know who's who. In the end, though, Terminus gets boring fast because, while the entity system is great, there's not a whole lot else. It would have been a lot better if you had the ability to own larger ships, amass fleets, build stations, work on a larger scale, etc (like you can in x2).

While I like this idea, the cpu has to also be accounted for (as I hinted at already). The more entities there're roaming in the universe, the harder the cpu will have to work. Maybe a smaller universe will be the compromise, in exchange for a more robust entity population - ok by me!

[Chris Gi]

You have touched some important things! Indeed, imho X2 misses some things. The Civilian Ships plugin aims at this.

Originally Posted by AmadanLegre

Not only are there tradeships, but there're patrol craft, mining ships, bounty hunters, and so on - whatever the player does they'll do as well.

Some of these topics we already discussed in the development section. And this is one of the important thoughts of Pandora: the AI should basically have the same possibilities as the player whereever possible: the player can be a headhunter - the AI should be able to do this aswell. In Pandora, the AI will be a competitor to the player.

Originally Posted by AmadanLegre

They can get emotional and they remember you somewhat too - you actually see how they respond to you when you're doing well - as in they keep their distance and correctly respond to you when you're a known hostile (send you a message to not attack them). And when you go out of line, bounty hunters will chase after you - you really do feel like you're a space farer.

This is a great idea. People remembering you - that nicely fits with another idea we're working on...

[SWAHILI!!!]

I too believe that it is unsatisfactory that there is so little life in the universe. That is one of the things that I really liked in X3. I had implied that with the new ships that I had proposed that there would be new names for civilian ships, both traders and fighters, as well as capital ships. I can come up with some ideas for names, I'm kinda really creative when it comes to that, but I can't come up with all of them.

I think that for some fighters and capital ships, they should have names like 'Firestorm', or 'Blackfury', names that someone would name their personal fighter ship or their massive capital ship. Others, they could be like 'Argon Civilian Minotaur' or 'Split Civilian Rhino Hauler', and stuff like that.

Here are some names that I have come up with now off the top of my head:

ARGON

Argon CarboNutrient Mercury Hauler
Argon Free Energy Mercury Freighter
Argon Black Crystal Cruise Express Liner
Argon Civilian Gemini Hauler
Argon Secret Service Vulcan Transporter

That's kinda it for now, I'll update you guys later.

Cheers,
S

[Lord Dakier]

A script will be required as the civilians can hog CPU in X3... should be easily dealt with a no civilian script though.

[Chris Gi]

It's an AL-Plugin - thus it can simply be switched on or off. And the amount of ships is configurable, too.

I have it running with around 5-20 ships per sector - and I didn't notice any effect with regards to perfermance. I just have a lot of ships buzzing around doing their business....

[Lord Dakier]

my computer lags due to lack of Ram or Gfx power. So it would most likely be more effective on mine. I was fighting on Top Gun and had 20 odd orinocos jump in and suddenly I had a lag spree. I was doing quite well considering I was in a Bayamon.

[Witchy]

Love this idea. There could be companies Argon Trans-Sector Space Liners or the Teladi Galactic Company.

or...cough

The Spaceweed Tour Company - "We get you Higher, Faster and Further"