[SCR/MOD] Complex Cleaner v3.20 / Modular Complexes

[Gazz]

Heh. Good to hear!
So far this is the most drastic change to the complex system - other than scripts like ARES that build factories while you attend to other matters.
I always found arranging and connecting 100 factories a nightmare. Some create complex art and I too marvel at those screenshots but I never had that pretence. =)

CC isn't quite finished the way I planned to because I got distracted by MARS. Shooting things is more fun. =P
There are a few rough edges that have to do with ships attacking factory modules when they aren't supposed to be able to.
That and I was thinking of some means of self defense for the MC. That's what the dummy wares in the MC are for.

It works for now but when I get bored enough I'll polish it a bit more.

[drakend]

Hello Gaz, thanks for your wonderful mod... it's a really huge help in mantaining the game playable. I think to have found a bug: I tried to add a Solar Power Plant M to a complex module but before I applied the Crystal Free SPP script to it. When I crunched it into the complex module the number of products per cycle time decreased from 512 to 4. I don't think this is normal...
If I add the factory without applying the script above mentioned there are no problems.

[Gazz]

Well, then you're posting this in the wrong thread.
If you use some other script and it creates bugs, how am I supposed to fix that?
Just use a cheat script that works. Script the finished products and credits! It's a lot less hassle than building a "complex" that builds everything for free.

That cycle times and production change with the products and resources is an X3 feature.

[drakend]

Well, then you're posting this in the wrong thread.
If you use some other script and it creates bugs, how am I supposed to fix that?
Just use a cheat script that works. Script the finished products and credits! It's a lot less hassle than building a "complex" that builds everything for free.

That cycle times and production change with the products and resources is an X3 feature.

Yeah I understand your argument but it's very "cheating"... I mean a SPP which doesn't need the crystals sounds less cheating, even because I have to pay 5 mln to have the "upgrade".
BTW I wrote in this thread because I thought it was a bug in your script: the other one only removes the crystal requirement, while the rest of the station is left as it is. So there shouldn't be any problem on the Complex Cleaner side: I mean it crunches a station "as is", am I wrong?

[Gazz]

If your special SPP is a real producing factory (production bar is moving) then it could in theory work.
For plain cheat scripts like Yogi's nuclear power plant or the likes, that simply script x EC at set intervals, anything could happen.

Of course, I never tested factories without resources because there aren't any that the player can build.
All CC needs is an active (!) factory that uses EC in some form. The EC capacity defines the factory size because they are the only ware that every factory uses.
Inactive or "virtual" factories that don't produce goods or factories that are missing some or all resources will report radically strange factory sizes so CC (or any other script for that matter) can not correctly find their production multiplier.

That's just the way factories work in X3.

If you really must have free EC, take a look at Yogi's script. Shouldn't be hard to run it on any factory or a complex hub so it produces like 1 million EC per second. Actually, with adding a simple loop you can alter it so it sets all wares of the complex to max every few seconds.
For the PHQ you'd have to query the max capacity variables from the dockware manager since the PHQ has no defined maximum storage of wares.

[drakend]

Gazz thanks for your answer and I'm sorry if I supposed the bug was on your script side: I supposed the modified SPP was just another normal factory, but it is not. Anyway I solved just adding the normal factories needed to make the complex up and running: I used that cheat because the mines were a pain in the ass to position. Now I just stuff anything in the modular complex!
Anyway another thing came to my mind: I noticed that when I try to sell the soya husk and I put the price just 1 credit under its average (363 instead of 364) the panel tells me "None", which is the word for when there is no station who wants to buy the goods. If I make the price higher then the number of jumps appear again. In both cases the vendor sells the goods luckly.

[Gazz]

Anyway I solved just adding the normal factories needed to make the complex up and running: I used that cheat because the mines were a pain in the ass to position. Now I just stuff anything in the modular complex! :)

Probably the easiest solution, too. Not knowing that resourcelessness script I'd have no idea what kind of script overhead (if any) that adds. It definitely has side effects, though.

The arrangement puzzle and the resulting spaghetti was the reason for CC v1. CC v2.0 is just far more extreme in that regard. One complex, one station. One size fits all.
So many of the old workarounds and positioning tricks are just... pointless.

I noticed that when I try to sell the soya husk and I put the price just 1 credit under its average (363 instead of 364) the panel tells me "None", which is the word for when there is no station who wants to buy the goods. If I make the price higher then the number of jumps appear again.

Weird. I've never seen that before but then again, I haven't built a complex for like 6 months.
For testing CC I always just scripted a loop to build bunch of factories and wired them. =)

[drakend]

Weird. I've never seen that before but then again, I haven't built a complex for like 6 months.
For testing CC I always just scripted a loop to build bunch of factories and wired them. =)

I'm going to use your mod heavily in the future so I'll notice weird things. If you like I can send you the savegame.

[angrysquirrel]

Hey Gazz! Still using the older script you have on this because it doesn't do the crunch, which would possibly lose the output of my stations. I was wondering if you, being the amazing scripting guru that you are, would be able to make a script which would allow me to move my complex from one sector to another. I searched online and couldn't find any. I have a weed farm in a split core sector and nobody wants to trade with me. I was going to move it south one to Thurok's beard, which is a boarder sector in Teladi/Split space. It's right next to Heretic's End, which is a pirate sector. I figure the drug dealers would come for a visit more often there.

By the way, does anyone know what factors attract people to the weed farm? Do I get better results putting them in border sectors as opposed to core sectors? Thanks!

[Gazz]

Hey Gazz! Still using the older script you have on this because it doesn't do the crunch, which would possibly lose the output of my stations.

You mean if CC doesn't work at all? Then you have the option to reload. =P

make a script which would allow me to move my complex from one sector to another. I searched online and couldn't find any.

I searched the script list for station and found one within 15 sec.

[Kodiaz]

I loaded it into my vanilla game 2.5 with the 3.1 update

I can't find any send report butoon or hot key or command anywhere.


I can't find the crunch button anywhere on my tractor beam equipped m6


What am i doing wrong?

[SecondAcc]

I loaded it into my vanilla game 2.5 with the 3.1 update

I can't find any send report butoon or hot key or command anywhere.


I can't find the crunch button anywhere on my tractor beam equipped m6


What am i doing wrong?

There is no crunch-button. Select the Complex-Cleaner Command of your ship and type crunch

[Kodiaz]

complex cleaner is a ship command under what heading?


I can't find the complex cleaner command

[Kodiaz]

I can't find the control panel where I enter the commands to make it work.

This thing is driving me nuts.

[perkint]

Hi,

Not sure what you mean. Once you run it from a ship capable of running it (has a tractor beam fitted), the option appears in the command console for that ship (can't remember which one - general or special, I think). Then you just run it.

BTW - you should really have posted this in the S&M forum. It'll probably get moved there...

Tim

[Gazz]

I can't find the control panel where I enter the commands to make it work.

Any ship with a tractor beam will do.

If the command isn't there you did not install the script (you get a popup window from the installation) or you are using another script on the same command button.

[Whuppee]

I love you


Not really sure how else to sum up how much I appreciate this mod.

Incidentally, your align ecliptic and numeric rank scripts also made me quite happy.
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Edit, minor issue:

Homogenous plexes with just the right number of facts aggregate into one FACT. I can't make a plex out of one FACT, so it becomes undockable.

It would seem that I need to intentionally assemble some amount of facts such that can't be reduced to a single FACT, or I need to plex the MC with my lone FACT.

I understand that the latter has more downsides. I'm not wild about the former.

Just wanted to bring this to your attention. Here's hoping you might be able to come up with a better solution..

[Nadrek]

I've just started using this for the first time, and it seems wonderful - but let me test my understanding:

Note: I'm going with the one complex per sector technique (less volume to defend, and I can isolate NPC traffic)

A) drop factories/mines around the sector
B) crunch -- "magic number" lots are consolidated into FACTs and a Module Complex is created.
NOTE: money in the free-floating factories is lost?
C) Drop Complex Construction Kits, joining the Module Complex _to_ the first FACT, and the "Your Complex Hub" to the subsequent FACTs
D) Drop more factories/mines around the sector for expansion
E) crunch - "magic number" lots of free-floating factories only are consolidated into more unconnected FACTs that need complex kits
NOTE: Even if the free-floating factories make up "magic number" amounts when combined with FACTs in the complex, the free-floating factories still combine only with themselves into free-floating FACTs which needs complex connector kits and will have separate line-items inside the plex.

I was somehow hoping that I could drop the right amount of additional factories inside the sector, and have them crunched into the existing FACT in the complex, thus being able to expand the FACT and continue to have only one line item in the complex - i.e. build up to a 20 or a 50 using the profitsss from the early, small setup, instead of having to build a 20 or a 50 at the very start of that complex.

Regardless, thank you for creating this - it makes being a factory owner tremendously more pleasant.

[Gazz]

Homogenous plexes with just the right number of facts aggregate into one FACT. I can't make a plex out of one FACT, so it becomes undockable.

True. Building the "perfect single module" works but doesn't produce a desirable result. =)

I could add an ignore factory command to the CC script.
After crunching a factory into a module, you could target that module and flag it with "ignore".
Subsequent crunches would completely ignore that factory just like complexed factories are ignored. So it would add the newly crunched factories as a separate module.

That would be a relatively simple workaround.
Altering the math is far more work because having to create a minimum of 2 modules would make the calculations a lot trickier due to the multitude of possibilities.

NOTE: money in the free-floating factories is lost?

Yes. I didn't think of that.

NOTE: Even if the free-floating factories make up "magic number" amounts when combined with FACTs in the complex, the free-floating factories still combine only with themselves into free-floating FACTs which needs complex connector kits and will have separate line-items inside the plex.

Yes.
As long as the previous modules stay connected, they must be ignored.

If CC would alter complexed factories, this would destroy the complex.
If you want to build the perfect module, self destruct the complex and crunch everything at once.

[Whuppee]

I could add an ignore factory command to the CC script. (.. snip)

That sounds workable enough.

Possibly paired with a stop ignoring command, to allow for a decision to include it a crunch later on?

I'd particularly like to see a batch action one, so that I won't need to remember which FACT is being ignored.

If you want to build the perfect module, self destruct the complex and crunch everything at once.

Note that he really does mean the complex.. the hub.. read: not the MC.
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Also,

Until the MC does something, is there any way that it could be made a bit more transparent? Like, it still exists and is collidable.. but could it be made untargetable and removed from the sector map?

I can certainly live with it, but.. if possible.. I'd prefer to not have all of my plexes represented by 2 entities (particularly on the map). And, I don't recall, but if it is on the properties list, I'd prefer that it not be.

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On a somewhat related note, "solving" both my problem with the perfect single module and the representational issue, I could include the MC in my plex. I understand that this is a poor idea if I expect the MC to grow.

The problem being that this adds laser towers and squash mines to my product list. So, I'm wondering, would you predict any harm in my removing them? Specifically in regard to any updates to this mod, and how they'd be likely to view an MC not having its expected products.