Guilds/Organizations

[AmadanLegre]

I've been thinking about guilds and/or organizations. In the vain of pilots and tradesmen, I'd like something more specific and invovled. For instance, I might go to a particular star station and meet up with a particular guild leader. He might review my history in different respects and based on this invite me to join. You might get periodic Incoming Messages relating to guild events. You might have a command module onboard your ship that allows you to see who is in the guild, their rank, and where they're. The guilds might offer benefits in exchange for missions or duties that you must complete. For example, the members might actively support you in a dog fight (based on certain conditions), but will only do so if your rank is high enough. I have been playing X2 a bit, but I'm eager for something that ties things together a bit better. It kind of feels disassocated right now in the x2 universe, kind of like what it would feel like without a sector/universe map. I think guilds/organizations could help me connect with other npcs in the x2-universe, and not feel so detached from them.

Basically, the scripting language would need to allow me to store who's in the guild/organization, their rank, their location, and various other records. It would need to allow me to access these records wherever I am from a command module. And it would all need to be accessible after saves/loads.

I'm not sure what the scripting limitations are, but if someone knows whether there's a real problem here, please let me know.

[Chris Gi]

Basically, this can be done. The main issue would be the interactive part. The meeting with the guild's representant for example can only be realized by message that are sent to you.
But this whole thing is no easy task....

Basically, the scripting language would need to allow me to store who's in the guild/organization, their rank, their location, and various other records. It would need to allow me to access these records wherever I am from a command module. And it would all need to be accessible after saves/loads.

Global variables and arrays are your friends here. Arrays are one-dimensional in X2 scripts. But they can hold any information you want, and you can use different types of data in the different fields, even other arrays.
You could for example define an array that holds all the information of all members of a particular guild. And you could define another array with three fields: name, rank. location. This array can be stort in the first array. Whenever the guild gets a new member, you add such an array to the first array.

[AmadanLegre]

Originally Posted by Chris Gi

Basically, this can be done. The main issue would be the interactive part. The meeting with the guild's representant for example can only be realized by message that are sent to you.
But this whole thing is no easy task....



Global variables and arrays are your friends here. Arrays are one-dimensional in X2 scripts. But they can hold any information you want, and you can use different types of data in the different fields, even other arrays.
You could for example define an array that holds all the information of all members of a particular guild. And you could define another array with three fields: name, rank. location. This array can be stort in the first array. Whenever the guild gets a new member, you add such an array to the first array.

I was hoping it would be somewhat like what I see in x2 right now. For example, I can dock at a station, go to the Dock tab, and use "Comm with person aboard". It shows a list of people, and I can select which one I want to communicate with.

Is it possible to replicate that behaviour with scripting? Another thing I can think of might be to have hte guild recruiter post in the bulletins. And what do you mean that interactivity can only be realized by messages sent to me? Is it possible to send a message to a scripted npc who can respond?

[Shadow dream]

uhm sending a message to a npc isn't really possible, but you can script to get an answer.
Meeting the people isn't possible (for us - ego could) but a way-arroud could be, that there are BBS asking for new recruts and you answer to them.

Shadow

[Chris Gi]

I was hoping it would be somewhat like what I see in x2 right now. For example, I can dock at a station, go to the Dock tab, and use "Comm with person aboard". It shows a list of people, and I can select which one I want to communicate with.

Noone ever figured out how this might work. This seems to be hardcoded.

And what do you mean that interactivity can only be realized by messages sent to me? Is it possible to send a message to a scripted npc who can respond?

Adding stuff to the BBS system can be done, but it's a tedious work. And noone figured out how to make a button - to accept a mission for example. BBS thus can essentially only be used to display information (you can however check if the player has viewed the message or control if a specific BBS article gets displayed or not).
The only way I can think of to send a message to a NPC is by command in the ships menue. There is actually no 'message' send. But you can start a script this way that can generate the 'answer'.

[AmadanLegre]

Is it possible for an "npc" to send a yes/no question to the player?

And about attaching 'ware' scripts to Commands. For example, say I bought a Radio at a station and installed it. I've already looked through the manual about this once, but once wasn't enough - it's confusing. I'm unsure where/how the command will go on the interface, and whether or not it can do what I'd like it to do.

For example, there might be a general command ">>Radio" (selected). After you hit enter or a hotkey for it, it'd bring up a series of options:
1. List Stations
2. Add Station
3. Remove All

After you select "List Stations", it might list the following:
1. 91.4
2. 88.2
3. 95.1
4. 100.3
5. 93.5
6. 48.9
7. 54.1
8. 32.6

How many "stations" could the window list? Is there a limit? Is there a way to code the script or command so that the list can go on indeffinately? (infinite stations).

Is there a limit to how deep a command can go? Such as: Radio->List->Next->Next->Next->Next->Etc.

After you press enter on a particular station, a new list might appear:
1. On
2. Off
3. Remove

This woudl allow you to turn off/on a station or to remove it.

Does this post make any sense? I'm just trying to figure out the capabilities of commands that have scripts attached to them. How far can I go with the interface and the scripts that are attached to it. I appreciate any replies, and I'll figure this out eventually. I can't learn it all at once though.

[Chris Gi]

Is it possible for an "npc" to send a yes/no question to the player?

No. You have to think of other possibilities to 'answer'. You could for example send a message 'If you accept this mission, come to TerraCorp HQ within 6 mizuras' or something like that.

I'm unsure where/how the command will go on the interface

This is done by assigning a 'name' to a command. You have to create a language t-file. A good tutorial on this is in the ES-Forums: Reven's Scripting Tutorial.

Basically you assign a id to a command. Each id is connected to a specific entry in the menus.

How many "stations" could the window list? Is there a limit? Is there a way to code the script or command so that the list can go on indeffinately? (infinite stations).

Scripts can't open a display. The only way output from scripts can be displayed is by messages.
Look at how other scripts work.
One way to realize this can be:
You script can have several arguments:
Option, station, frequency.
Whenever you select the command, you need to pass values to all three arguments.
Option can have several values:
1: List Stations
2: Add Station
3: Turn Station on
4: Turn Station off
5: Remove station
6: Remove all
The Station argument is used on all options that work on a station. Frequency is needed with the 'Add Station' option.

This presents a very simple interface to the user, but it's all that can be done.
What the player can do is the following:
Select the command, enter values 1, null, null. He then gets a list with all stations.
To turn a station on, he selects the command, and enters the values 3, 1 (the number of the station he wants to listen to), null.

It's not much, but that's the way it works. (I hate this stuff - why is there no fancy interface? ES should have put a little more work in the modding stuff...)

[Shadow dream]

o.O Chris! In EGO you would have been banned for that :lol: tripplepost saying the same :lol:

Shadow

[Chris Gi]

Oh! Didn't realize this. How come? Seems I need to ban me by myself

EDIT:
Now it looks better. No need to ban me.

[AmadanLegre]

Originally Posted by Chris Gi

No. You have to think of other possibilities to 'answer'. You could for example send a message 'If you accept this mission, come to TerraCorp HQ within 6 mizuras' or something like that.



This is done by assigning a 'name' to a command. You have to create a language t-file. A good tutorial on this is in the ES-Forums: Reven's Scripting Tutorial.

Basically you assign a id to a command. Each id is connected to a specific entry in the menus.



Scripts can't open a display. The only way output from scripts can be displayed is by messages.
Look at how other scripts work.
One way to realize this can be:
You script can have several arguments:
Option, station, frequency.
Whenever you select the command, you need to pass values to all three arguments.
Option can have several values:
1: List Stations
2: Add Station
3: Turn Station on
4: Turn Station off
5: Remove station
6: Remove all
The Station argument is used on all options that work on a station. Frequency is needed with the 'Add Station' option.

This presents a very simple interface to the user, but it's all that can be done.
What the player can do is the following:
Select the command, enter values 1, null, null. He then gets a list with all stations.
To turn a station on, he selects the command, and enters the values 3, 1 (the number of the station he wants to listen to), null.

It's not much, but that's the way it works. (I hate this stuff - why is there no fancy interface? ES should have put a little more work in the modding stuff...)

Thanks for the response!!!

Ooooh, even though I'm not happy with the interface possibilities, it did not as yet know that you could input information like you're bringing up. I knew that scripts had arguments, but I didn't know that players could fill in the arguments.

Say, for example, I had the following command:
"Dismiss Crew Member..."

You would select the command and an input string would come up. This would be the ID of the crew member. You'd get the ID by browsing the crew manifest via a different command. You'd enter a number and hit enter to execute the script. Is this correct?

If that's true, I see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel