scoob
Junior Member
Posts: 57
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Post by scoob on Oct 21, 2013 4:55:43 GMT -5
Morning all, triple post...is that bad? Ok, so last night I *finally* got my "perfect" build up and running! It consists of: 1) Standard Uk Game 2) UIM.06 3) Updated HardwarW.exe made for Enhanced (hwe_uim06_2L) 4) Enhanced - gmcJimmy's version (thanks Ouch!) of Max's Enhanced 11 Dec 05 release) - Economy Mod disabled. 5) Enhanced2 - Smurphs 27th July 05 (latest) version 6) WorldPack Combo from July 05 Had a loooong session yesterday evening and the game played great! Some observations vs. my prior game based on the earlier 10th April 05 Enhanced version with Economy mod. 1) Wow, prices are MUCH better! I can actually make profitable trade runs more readily now, plus manufacturing is more lucrative even when I have to pay a little over average for raw resources. Nice. 2) Linked to the above, AI traders are now far busier than they were & they seem to effectively (though slowly) feed the needs of the various businesses. They seemed to stall quite badly previously. 3) Combat AI seems a little more brutal. Never noticed it before, but I've seen moths open up with TWO weapons at once quite frequently. For example, a Deaths head pounding a Police moth firing both white laser shots and the amber Laser Turret shots at once. I could see the distict trails - the laser shots comming from one of the wing hardpoints, the turret shots from the turret. How can I do this?? Possibly the AI now is able to switch weapons really quickly? 4) Evasive maneuvers seem more effective - particularly the "hit the deck" (not literally!) one, where you fly under 100ft. Combining this with breaking LOS with an attacker often sees them lose you. Didn't seem so effective before. 5) Linked to the above. I've gotten into the habit of flying low when carrying expensive cargos, and I get far less hassle than I did in the prior game. Getting too close to a pirate so they can see me though usually makes them enage still. However, flying straight and fast they often loose me again if they need to turn. Satisfying. So, I had a blast last night on this game from 1998! My only slight niggle now is I *wish* I could get the FPS back up! As other have commented on the FPS thread here, the FPS seems to be limited in both single and multi-player games in the newer patches. I've tried the hex hack suggested but it doesn't work for me, despite finding an exact hex match. I will try Ouch's patcher .db he posted, but does this not change the exact same location? If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them. I seem to recall years ago there was a fix for this, but that may have been a different UIM version. Possibly me running Enhanced + Enhanced2 is what stops the hex hack working? Oh, I do find the game surprisingly playable, despite the low-fps, but would love to get the FPS my hardware is capable of - a good, steady 60 would be lovely! This would aid in combat no end I think and make my eyes happier! Cheers, Scoob. |
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Post by Captain Zedo on Oct 21, 2013 7:30:55 GMT -5
@ Scoob:
Thanks for the report. I'm going to have to try Enhanced. I am also going to have to make a better patch page with more detailed descriptions.
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scoob
Junior Member
Posts: 57
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Post by scoob on Oct 21, 2013 14:11:02 GMT -5
Hey again, A quick update... After backing up my current game install & saves - just in case - I had a play with Jimmy's modified Economy mod. I see what Max was originally trying to do, but the margins and profit on items was reduced too much in my view, plus there were other issues. The main reason I wanted to try the Economy mod was so I could have AI's supplying my Hangars. Not an AI Thug of my own in one of my Moths, but general NPC traders. So, I reverted back to my non-Eco mod game and guess what? THE AI ARE SELLING TO MY HANGAR! I'd been doing an Ore and Gems run from the Prison Mine, I'd launched & targeted "home" and saw my Hangar was showing its Sale items as usual, but it was also showing Ore, Gems and Scrap listed under "Buys"! As I watched I saw my Ore level go from 21 to 23, so someone must have just dropped some wares off. Going by the rules I thought only applied to the Eco mod, I need to wait until ware levels are at 50% or below my max store level. I thought I'd hit those criteria previously, but I guess not. Now, I had set the Buy levels of all raw materials at my Hangar to base + 15% or so. Add to that I had run low on resources too, hence my Ore & Gems run, but I'd not seen "Buys" come up before - except when I tried the Eco mod briefly. Maybe I've just discovered something that's obvious to many, but I'm feeling quite chuffed about it  Regardless I'm going to keep an eye on this to ensure I'm not going totally mad. Edit: Ok, I'm a numpty. "Buys" shows up on my own hangars if I happen to have on board something I've set that hangar to buy. That explains that. However, I've still had NPC traders selling to my Hangar on several occasions now. Though it does seem very hit and miss - I've totally run out of stock and had no re-supply at times.
Additionally, I've been using setting an items value to "0" to stop things being sold. This has working in all of my recent playing. Indeed, if I set somethings price to zero, it no longer shows up on the factories "Sells" list. However, I had a load of high-end hardware in stock recently (Plasma Kannons, Turrets) and they all suddenly disappeared! Most odd, going to keep an eye on that!
Oh yeah, outside my hangar (Downtown 05) is a total warzone lol.Scoob. |
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scoob
Junior Member
Posts: 57
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Post by scoob on Oct 21, 2013 16:33:22 GMT -5
Hmm, seem to have run into a little snag... I built my first Moth, a Neo Tiger, in my fully-loaded hangar. It popped into existance and...I can't board it. I tried boarding using the TI but am told I'm "not authorised to board that moth.". My Thugs can board it fine, but I wanted to take it for a spin and get it loaded out. Is there a trick to make the game know the moth is mine? *** Further update: *** Well I never found a solution for the unboardable newly created moths issue...hopefully someone can advise. Regarding the supply issue though. Despite me seeing that wares went UP before I arrived with the goods myself, I've never had an NPC trader sell to me since. Basically, here's the scenario: - I've set my Hangar to buy stuff for a good 20%+ over the cheapest price I've seen available. - Nothing was happening, so I went off to get some Ore and Gems myself. - Targetting my Hangar, with the newly purchased Ore and Gems on board, showed my hangars demand for Ore and Gems. So, 20 was shown for Ore, meaning my hangar wanted 20 Ore to take it up to its max - the max I set of course. - As I was flying towards my hangar, I saw the Ore number go DOWN. I.e. the demand for Ore had dropped, i.e. it'd just gotten a delivery. - As I continued towards my hangar, the Ore number went UP again, as my manufacturing process used it. It was these events that suggested to me that, somehow, my hangar had been supplied by an AI. Sadly this never happened again, despite me running out entirely of various wares (and them being available at rock-bottom prices) and my hangar having 100k+ to purchase. I now have one of my Thugs trading for me in a Hawk, protect by a Neo Tiger. He did have TWO protecting him originally, but they had...a disagreement it seems...one $6,000 police fine later...*sigh* Tell you what, it's a butt-clenching moment seeing your Thug responsible for transporting thousands of $ in raw materials...only protect by his AI. Ok, so it's his Money, but that's MY moth! I did follow him on his first trade run...well, more precisely caught him up when I saw (F5 view) he'd taken some damage. He did well in fact - he IS fully loaded, so he should - plus the Neo Tiger wingman swooped in at one point and took out an attacker. I WISH we saw traders / scavengers employing wingmen - it'd make things interesting for sure. Just working on setting up a second hangar now, manufacturing the basic items such as Sheet Metal and the like I use in my first hangar, but this time for sale. Just having one of my Thugs fly me in my Moon Moth Taxi down to Riverview moths as I type, going to pick up another Hawk to supply my 2nd hangar...my 2nd Neo Tiger can protect him This is actually quite fun Cheers, Scoob. |
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scoob
Junior Member
Posts: 57
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Post by scoob on Oct 23, 2013 13:39:24 GMT -5
Hey all,
Tell you what, I can see why the Enhanced Economy mod from Max, along with Jimmy's verion are oddly balanced...there's something not quite right.
I've started coding my own version of the mod. As a test, to ensure any changes get picked up, I coded a flat "everything 10x the price" hack - literally base price x 10 is returned.
My initial tests saw prices updated as expected in the handful of Hangars I checked in my in-progress game.
I next proceed to code my rebalance...I've just been testing the first Alpha and it all looked good. I saw my rebalanced base pricing applied, along with my stock level and Hangar type adjustments. I was literally sat with a calculator checking the math. All looked good.
Basically, I was in Reservoir when I did my initial checking. I use Reservoir Trading as my control, all prices update fine. I next checked a couple of other places I could remember like Psycho Bobs and the like, and all prices were looking good.
I next decided to fly around, checking a few places at random, it was then I noticed some discrepancies - so, to sanity check I re-enabled the "10x everything" price hack so they would be obvious.
Simply put, some Hangars show the updated pricing, others do not. Trade Central does not, Reservoir Trade does. Psycho Bob's does, Sewage control does not. Very very odd.
What makes it weird is that Trade Central and Reservoir Trade are both the same type of Hangar - a warehouse if you will that buys and sell everything pretty much. Bob's is sort of the same, but for weapons (I assumed they were a producer, but game says no) - ah well, this'll keep me busy this evening.
So, I thought I was almost ready for Beta after my intial tests, now I need to think again! Argh!
Scoob.
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scoob
Junior Member
Posts: 57
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Post by scoob on Oct 23, 2013 16:47:28 GMT -5
Ok, another update for anyone still reading... I found a couple of coding errors that I've resolved, my fault - a copy paste problem lol. Also, I'd accidentally assigned a float to a DWORD and lost precision oops. Moving forward, I thought I'd nailed it. I did an override so only my initial price multi was applied - rather than all the other adjusters. I started seeing things reporting the correct prices. Nice. I then started checking other places again, and some still show the old values! Argh. I thought at first the adjuster on some items just wasn't working but that's not it. In some Hangars an item will be my new price, in another it's the original price. Whut? So, once again Reservoir Trading is 100% correct, Trade Central is 100% wrong. Even more odd, Psycho Bobs 1 is wrong, Psycho Bobs 2 is fine - several other places are like it too. Of the 5 Breaker Makers, some have the right price, some have the old price. So, it seems that somewhere in the main game code, something is getting its pricing information and NOT using the Econmod.dll. Sadly, this means there's likely nothing I can do. I was so excited about the progress I'd made too. I really wanted an Econmod game (with AI supplying the players hangars and all those goodies) along with better and smarter pricing to enable the player and AI alike to make profits. Heh, to add insult to injury, even the AI thinks these prices are super cheap - said cheap Hangars are grid-locked lol.Ah well...I'll keep at it for a bit, HOPEFULLY it's a silly mistake on my part...not convinced though  Cheers, Scoob. |
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Post by Pilot on Oct 24, 2013 14:00:38 GMT -5
I believe the reason for that would be that the Enhanced/2 code has the prices preset 「assuming that the code only, if at all, checks for the percentage of inflation/deflation of the hangar's prices.」but it is likely that the code was programmed to check player hangars, since players are to large of a variable to predict.
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Regardless I'm going to keep an eye on this to ensure I'm not going totally mad.
