Ship Factory (and ST Factory)
Posted: Sat, 23. May 09, 01:26
NB update 24 September 2009 - the website below is no longer available and I am trying to find a new home for storing. If anyone has already downloaded can you share it around, please.
Ship factory that produces ships.
St factory that produces station kits.
(files recompressed and uploaded again on 1 June 2009)
Shadowdancer v2 Zip file
Shadowdancer v2 RAR file
Shadowdancer v1 Zip file
Shadowdancer v1 RAR file
***WARNING***
As noted in the Readme, loading ships as a cargo item into the cargobay of one of your ships will crash the game, so please do NOT do it. (Particularly - don't complain to me after I have just warned you...) The ships are actually sitting in the docking bay of your factory, or floating near the station on the sector map.
1. Does the script package download properly?
2. Does it create conflicts?
3. Does it work at all?
4. Is the price of 188 million too high? Should I adjust so that has lower price, but requires the TL to carry spare parts (consumed) to build the assorted factories?
I was hoping to have slightly more completed. But have decided to present what I have, while I struggle to get the other bits working...
I have enclosed the AS-BuyRareGoods scripts - also available separately from the Xai Corporation site - but haven't had the chance to thoroughly test them out.
(Extract from the Readme)
Four new items are used for this package - "Construction Licence" & "Naval Engineers Licence" for the Playership, and, the "Whirlwind" assembly kit and the "Shadowdancer" assembly kit to be fitted to a TL sized ship - either a TL or a modded big ship that can carry ST-sized. A freighter can buy the assembly kits at selected Equipment Docks, then use Freight Transfer once docked within the TL. The Whirlwind allows building of ST Factories, while both are required to build Ship Factories. You can build as many as you want, but will need to provide res and a blueprint for each. The Shadowdancer will only be available if you have a Police Licence for the Race that owns the sector in which the Equipment Dock exists. The prices are currently 17 million for the whirlwind and 188 million for the Shadowdancer. (Prices are subject to review, but future adjustments will consider profit to repayment ratios.)
Your TL will have Custom menus in the Command Console for "Build Support Factories" - Engine Components, Tel Paneling, Construction Equipment, and Weapon Interface Chips - plus "Build ST Factory" and "Build Ship Factory". All of your Big Ships including this TL should have "Park near a factory". (As these ships can't normally Dock at a factory - it is too small.)
Once you have built an ST Factory, any TL that is carrying a Station kit as cargo and that is within 3999m of the ST Factory will have additional option of "Use the ST package in cargo as blueprint" in the Custom part of the ships's Command Console. The St package is consumed in the process, but that item will now be a Product at that station, instead.
Once you have built a Ship Factory, any docked ship at that factory and any Big Ship within range of that factory (2000 for M6 and 3999 for other Capitals) will have option of "Use this ship as blueprint" (Custom/Command Console). The ship will be removed, so strip it of any gear that you want to keep... Docked ships will also gain option of "assignment Warehouse". Any ship sent for Reverse Engineering will attempt to offload its cargo to any warehouseship at that station. Also, be careful, as your TL-sized ships, may have either of these 3 options (blueprint ship, blueprint cargo, or assign warehouse) depending on where they are parked.
Neither of the factories will produce anything until you provide a blueprint. This consumes the item. Your factory will then have the primary res requirements assigned to it, based on the item itself, and will check res available just like a normal factory. If sufficient res, it will then cycle to produce your first product stock item.
Set the Command Console option (in the factory) to "Ship Factory ON" or "ST Factory ON". You then have the option of choosing a Race Food type (eg Cahoonas, Nostrop, etc), by inputting 1,2,3, etc. Choosing "0" (zero) will leave the factory without this Race food type. The "Ship Factory ON" is required to ensure that virtual stock of Shiptype is converted into actual ships. These ships are docked in your docking bay (Landed/Owned), or floating in space near your factory. The "ST Factory ON" doesn't make much difference at this point, as it is primarily designed for completeness and to allow compatibility with the MultiProduct system still in development. (Your ST packages don't need the Virtual to Real conversion.)
Ships will initially be "UnderConstruction" then "ForSale" (where they count as Stock). If the stock value has reached the Maximum storage, then the code will start transferring ships to "Guard", to make space for further production. (This will eventually be tied into an AutoFunctions command. I am still working on this system, and was hoping to have it completed, so that I could remove that section of code.) You can use the Guard ships. If you claim the ForSale ships then the stock value will be adjusted.
TL within range of your ST Factory will gain the "LoadST into cargo" (Custom/Command Console) once the factory has produced some stock...
Recommend that the ST Factory be used for stations that you will use a lot of, eg Solar Power Plants (circa 58mins). Ships can be produced in as little as 8mins for Discos, 12 mins for Harriers, M3s in roughly 3 hrs, upto capital ships which are in the range of days (Raptors at 16 days for example).
Edit 1/6/09
Have now completed a basic version of the autofunctions - allowing you to Move ships to a carrier or station, etc. Also your St are transferred to the warehouse assigned to that station. The other options will be available as soon as i am satisfied that they are working.
The restarts have now been installed with global variables, etc. (lol). So recommend that you empty your stock of ships to zero (rename them or move them completely out). The stock control is still having nervous twitches and sometimes refuses to keep the stock after creating it (after waiting for a couple of hours it tends to be a little annoying). Seems to work best if you start the command console, when the stock is actually zero, so that everything tallies. Save your position and then you can more cleanly overwrite the old version of the ship factory. (It should then be compatible with all future versions.)
I have combined the original setups into 1 file (the Shadowdancer setup) so the old ones can be deleted. You also need the Autofunc and the Sentinel setups, but these will eventually be combined into a single setup.
I am now going to check the comments at the end of this thread (made in my extended absence). Then I am going to consume some alcohol and get a break from the computer for a while. (Discos only take 6 mins but you get 50 of them - for a grand total of 5 1/2hrs. Testing is very long winded, and i am trying to multitask. lol) Seeya later.
Ship factory that produces ships.
St factory that produces station kits.
(files recompressed and uploaded again on 1 June 2009)
Shadowdancer v2 Zip file
Shadowdancer v2 RAR file
Shadowdancer v1 Zip file
Shadowdancer v1 RAR file
***WARNING***
As noted in the Readme, loading ships as a cargo item into the cargobay of one of your ships will crash the game, so please do NOT do it. (Particularly - don't complain to me after I have just warned you...) The ships are actually sitting in the docking bay of your factory, or floating near the station on the sector map.
1. Does the script package download properly?
2. Does it create conflicts?
3. Does it work at all?
4. Is the price of 188 million too high? Should I adjust so that has lower price, but requires the TL to carry spare parts (consumed) to build the assorted factories?
I was hoping to have slightly more completed. But have decided to present what I have, while I struggle to get the other bits working...
I have enclosed the AS-BuyRareGoods scripts - also available separately from the Xai Corporation site - but haven't had the chance to thoroughly test them out.
(Extract from the Readme)
Four new items are used for this package - "Construction Licence" & "Naval Engineers Licence" for the Playership, and, the "Whirlwind" assembly kit and the "Shadowdancer" assembly kit to be fitted to a TL sized ship - either a TL or a modded big ship that can carry ST-sized. A freighter can buy the assembly kits at selected Equipment Docks, then use Freight Transfer once docked within the TL. The Whirlwind allows building of ST Factories, while both are required to build Ship Factories. You can build as many as you want, but will need to provide res and a blueprint for each. The Shadowdancer will only be available if you have a Police Licence for the Race that owns the sector in which the Equipment Dock exists. The prices are currently 17 million for the whirlwind and 188 million for the Shadowdancer. (Prices are subject to review, but future adjustments will consider profit to repayment ratios.)
Your TL will have Custom menus in the Command Console for "Build Support Factories" - Engine Components, Tel Paneling, Construction Equipment, and Weapon Interface Chips - plus "Build ST Factory" and "Build Ship Factory". All of your Big Ships including this TL should have "Park near a factory". (As these ships can't normally Dock at a factory - it is too small.)
Once you have built an ST Factory, any TL that is carrying a Station kit as cargo and that is within 3999m of the ST Factory will have additional option of "Use the ST package in cargo as blueprint" in the Custom part of the ships's Command Console. The St package is consumed in the process, but that item will now be a Product at that station, instead.
Once you have built a Ship Factory, any docked ship at that factory and any Big Ship within range of that factory (2000 for M6 and 3999 for other Capitals) will have option of "Use this ship as blueprint" (Custom/Command Console). The ship will be removed, so strip it of any gear that you want to keep... Docked ships will also gain option of "assignment Warehouse". Any ship sent for Reverse Engineering will attempt to offload its cargo to any warehouseship at that station. Also, be careful, as your TL-sized ships, may have either of these 3 options (blueprint ship, blueprint cargo, or assign warehouse) depending on where they are parked.
Neither of the factories will produce anything until you provide a blueprint. This consumes the item. Your factory will then have the primary res requirements assigned to it, based on the item itself, and will check res available just like a normal factory. If sufficient res, it will then cycle to produce your first product stock item.
Set the Command Console option (in the factory) to "Ship Factory ON" or "ST Factory ON". You then have the option of choosing a Race Food type (eg Cahoonas, Nostrop, etc), by inputting 1,2,3, etc. Choosing "0" (zero) will leave the factory without this Race food type. The "Ship Factory ON" is required to ensure that virtual stock of Shiptype is converted into actual ships. These ships are docked in your docking bay (Landed/Owned), or floating in space near your factory. The "ST Factory ON" doesn't make much difference at this point, as it is primarily designed for completeness and to allow compatibility with the MultiProduct system still in development. (Your ST packages don't need the Virtual to Real conversion.)
Ships will initially be "UnderConstruction" then "ForSale" (where they count as Stock). If the stock value has reached the Maximum storage, then the code will start transferring ships to "Guard", to make space for further production. (This will eventually be tied into an AutoFunctions command. I am still working on this system, and was hoping to have it completed, so that I could remove that section of code.) You can use the Guard ships. If you claim the ForSale ships then the stock value will be adjusted.
TL within range of your ST Factory will gain the "LoadST into cargo" (Custom/Command Console) once the factory has produced some stock...
Recommend that the ST Factory be used for stations that you will use a lot of, eg Solar Power Plants (circa 58mins). Ships can be produced in as little as 8mins for Discos, 12 mins for Harriers, M3s in roughly 3 hrs, upto capital ships which are in the range of days (Raptors at 16 days for example).
Edit 1/6/09
Have now completed a basic version of the autofunctions - allowing you to Move ships to a carrier or station, etc. Also your St are transferred to the warehouse assigned to that station. The other options will be available as soon as i am satisfied that they are working.
The restarts have now been installed with global variables, etc. (lol). So recommend that you empty your stock of ships to zero (rename them or move them completely out). The stock control is still having nervous twitches and sometimes refuses to keep the stock after creating it (after waiting for a couple of hours it tends to be a little annoying). Seems to work best if you start the command console, when the stock is actually zero, so that everything tallies. Save your position and then you can more cleanly overwrite the old version of the ship factory. (It should then be compatible with all future versions.)
I have combined the original setups into 1 file (the Shadowdancer setup) so the old ones can be deleted. You also need the Autofunc and the Sentinel setups, but these will eventually be combined into a single setup.
I am now going to check the comments at the end of this thread (made in my extended absence). Then I am going to consume some alcohol and get a break from the computer for a while. (Discos only take 6 mins but you get 50 of them - for a grand total of 5 1/2hrs. Testing is very long winded, and i am trying to multitask. lol) Seeya later.