Readme version 2.5 Note: To get the latest patches,readme, and news visit this link at Egosoft http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39251 Also you can check out the newest project the "Real Pilots Project" at these links below: http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67109 or http://x2source.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1008 There is a FAQ started at the end of this readme. To Install 1. Copy all the files from the /scripts folder that came with the XaiCorp Advanced Combat Project zip to your X2/scripts folder 2.Put the file 440777.XML from the /t folder that came with the download into your \Enlight\X2 - The Threat/t folder. Extra Files folder: Just some extra scripts for testing, not needed for mod To Start a New normal Game...Install the scripts then start the New game, open the script editor (go into space and type "Thereshallbewings" with a capitol T) and choose Reinit Scripts. And you should be ready to go. To load a saved game that has the editor enabled just install the scripts then load your game and Reinit Scripts also. -User feed back is most welcome. Any thoughts on any part of this just send them my way. Really wanting to know how the xp and leveling goes. Is it too hard to level your ships or too easy? Thanks to these fine fellows for their help in finding bugs and playtesting: The Last Prince D_ Zorro matthewfarmery Kralion And thanks to Burianek for all his input and to Dr.Xavia for all the his help. New Commands: This section will hold any new commands that come with this Project that don't require the Advanced AI software to function. Attack same target as: Requires Fight Command software Mrk II. First choose a ship to issue the command to, go into its Fight command menu, choose the Attack same target as command and then choose a ship you want this ship to follow and attack what ever ship it is attacking. Advanced AI Project Beta: V1.56 I.Introduction: This is the new AI for the the Player Ships and New AI for Enemy ships as well. I would also recommend Combat / Economy Rebalance v 1.0 by Burianek ( When it is official released). These two together make for exciting combat unused to the X2 universe. I have also made this compatable with the Massive War Mod..to see how to get them both working see above. Where to Buy : To get the new AI it requires the Xai Corp. Advanced Combat AI Software that can be purchused at several locations: Argon, Boron Territorys and the Goner Temple. How to Install: The software requires Flight Commands MrkI or MrkII Once all software is installed when ever the Fighter class ships (M3,M4,M5) and cruiser class ships engages in combat it will begin to learn and gain skill in several areas. All others "little ships" will still benefit from better defence but will not gain skill, M6 class or bigger can not upgrade but can still use the commands below. With the new Xai Corp. Advanced Combat AI Software there are three new commands, these commands are use to recieve reports back from your ships, and also to advance its level if it has aquired enough XP. It will automaticly do this if enough xp is gained when ever it reenters (stops fighting, then starts again) combat also With the new Xai Corp. Advanced Combat AI Software there are three new commands, these commands are use to recieve reports back from your ships, and also to advance its level if it has aquired enough XP. It will automaticly do this if enough xp is gained when ever it reenters (stops fighting, then starts again) combat also. Note: as of now these commands are best used from the ship the player is in for they mat not work as intended otherwise, that is auto-flight controls in the playership will be interrupted, and autopilots canceled so becareful if autofollowing a ship. II.Xai Reports: Xai Report Select: This command will let you manually choose which ship to run the report on. Xai Report Target: This will cause a report to be sent back from the targeted ship..if its not one of your ships, or not a ship at all, it will send back a report from the ship you are in if the Xai Corp. Advanced Combat AI Software installed. And yes, you can freely move from ship to ship and the AI will still retain all the levels and skills it has aquired. Xai Report Sector: This will return a report from all ships in the chosen sector with the new Sofware installed. Excluding the ship you are in. Warning:auto-flight controls in the playership will be interrupted, and autopilots canceled so becareful if autofollowing a ship. All Xai reports function when used from the command menu of ships other than the ship the player is in. Warning: When used this way it will cancel the action of the commanded ship. When used from the command menu of another ship: Report Target: will return the report of this ship Return Report: will return report of the targeted ship, if target itself, will reprot itself Report Sector: will return report of all Xai ships in sector, including Xai AI Nav Sats, the playership, and itself III.Transfer AI command: Take note of its use: Now you must use the command from the ship you want to transfere the AI from. As before you had to select both ships. It will work as follows: 1.First both ships must have the Xai Advanced AI software installed and must have it activated. To activate an AI either send them into combat or run a report on them..any report will do. 2.Go to command menu of the ship you want to transfer the AI from...either the C key or shift-C if you plan to transfer from your ship and select the transfer AI command. 3.Now select the Sector where the ship you want to transfer to is at, and then select the ship. 4.Now the ship will automaticly make its way to the target ship if not within transfer range (2000m), useing jumpdrive if able. You can assign escorts to the transfering ship. 5.Once ships are withing 1000m the transfer will take place...it is done! IV.Xai Missile Command: command allows the player to turn off the AI's ability to use its own judgement when fireing missiles. It is on by default. You must enter the command menu of the ship you wish to change, then choose this new command. Unlike the Ion command this is used on a per ship basis. To tell wiether your missile command is on or off run a Report on the ship and in the report it will say if missile command is manual or automatic. V. AI Recovery: These are the new Instructions per its use.. -First make sure to Initiate the AI by useing the Xai Report Status commands. Any one will do, just as long as the ship in question returns a report. This is done automaticly if the ship attacks. -The dieing ship will attempt to eject its Data core if successful you will recieve a report that the Pilot AI has ejected and also recieve its AI ACCESS CODE...you will need this code in order to retreave the AI. This is a percautionary factor in order to keep advanced AI Pilots from following into enemy hands. -the Data core will take the form of a nav sat. This AI nav sat holds all the data of the AI pilot, it also serves to mark the spot and warn of any nearby enemies, it can also be renamed. You can also use the report commands on the AI Nav Sat and it will return the Rank and Name of the pilot it carrys. -A new command will appear in your XaiCmd command menu, [Collect AI]. This command will remain in the command menu as long as there are AI NavSat deployed. -Enter the XaiCmd menu of the ship you want to recover the AI, it must have the Xai Advanced AI software installed. First select the sector where the AI is and then the Nav Sat that holds the AI. Your ship will begin to make its way there, useing jumpdrive if able. -Once the ship is within 2000m it will come to a hault and you will recieve an update message. A New command will now appear in your XaiCmd menu,[Enter Access Code]. Execute this command and enter the Access Code that was noted in your Log. You have 30 minutes to do this, or the AI Nav Sat will selfdistruct. -Once the AI access code matches, the Data will be uploaded and you will recieve a Detailed description of the AI once again on your new ship. The AI Nav Sat will be automaticly recovered for future use. You now have your Pilot AI back in Action. -ATTENTION: You may want to rename the Nat Sat with the name of the Access Code and Pilot if multiple fighters are destroyed. Also you must act quickly as enemy ships will be attempting to detroy the AI Nav Sats. If either the Nav Sat is detroyed. One last note the Nav Sat must not be collected, as it provides the uplink to load the AI Data. You can issue the Collect AI command once again on the Nav Sat and it will reset the timer. Or you can choose another ship to collect the AI. VI. Toggle Ions: This command Toggles the AI's ability to use Ion at level 8 or not. This is useful if fighting in large groups as not to have shields detroyed from FIF, Friendly Ion Fire. VII.Appendix: The Levels: There are 8 levels in all. The Reports will give you Exactly how much more XP is required to advance to next level. XP is gained by attacking and surviving battles and makeing kills. If the ship is destroyed so is the AI. Here is a run down of the ranks and skills. Ranks Title(color)-Skill:description ALL : Advanced Combat: Ships will fire longer, and more aggressively and gain skill as they gain levels. 1 Space Rookie(yellow)- Advanced Protect (this will be in a future version as its not in 1.0) 2.Space Ensign(green)- Advanced Missile skill: Ship AI will start to fire missiles with better judgement, i.e. when shields are low, and will get better as they increase in level. 3.Space Cadet 2nd Grade(green)- Missile Defence: AI will attempt to detect and target and destory any threating in coming missiles. Either with laser fire or moquitos. This will get better will higher levels. 4.Space Cadet 1st Grade (white) 5. Space Pilot 2nd Grade(white)- Hornet Blast: AI will attempt to launch a hornet missile at close range (this is a work in progress) 6. Space Pilot 1st Grade(blue)- Advanced Missile Defence Move: AI will perform Defence moves when threaten and fire missiles to get tailers off their backs 7. Ace(blue) 8. Elite Ace(red) Ion Laser SKill : AI will Use Ions until shields are low then will swap back to normal lasers..very deadly. VIII. Enemy AI: List of improvements: -AI is harder to kill, thanks to new defence manuvers -AI will try to survive better while in combat -engine tunnings have been increased and there is a greater chance that a ship will have Ions installed. -uses Ions effectively -will tail the victim fireing lasers all the while until to close the avoid collision -there is a chance it will shoot down inc missile according to the pilots skill level With the new Enemy AI there is also a new scanner available to be purchsed in Argon, Teladi, and Pirate territorys. There is a readme in the scanner folders That explains its function, its basicly a means to "size up" your opponents before you attack. It returns the skill level, and any "hidden" wares aboard. As of now the Khaak are not effected by this scan and no pilot records will be found. And I will explain its commands here: This Scanner has two commands as follows: Subspace Scan Range: This will scan up to five non player ships in a 3000m radius and return the results to log. Will not detect anything over 3000m. Subspace Scan Target: This will scan your current target only, up to 3000m. -Added four skill levels for enemy ships. The ratio is as follows... -Levels 1 to 4 (4 being highest) But even at the lowest level of 1 pilots are still better challenge than default scripts. 1: population 30% 2: population 30% 3: population 20% 4: population 20% -speeds will now vary from ship to ship, with level 4 haveing the fastest -added the script: fight.attack.skill This script can be tweaked to change skill levels and population..should be self explanitory when veiwed. -Tweaked AI more..should be a bit smarter. -Edited the ship.signal.attacked script for better performance IX. Custom.kailric folder In this folder you will find a t file named 440771.xml and a script named init.Xai.ACP.kailric.custom. In these two files I will house all the customizatoin I do to the game. So far all that is changed is the Custom menu is now titled XaiCmd, and the Pirate Ship has been renamed the Pirate Danube. You can choose to install this folder or not. X. Contact Info: Contact me Kailric at Xai Corp Forums or at Egosoft forums Email:teddyblueyes@charter.net XI. FAQ V.01 for Xai Corp Advanced Combat Project Q:Help my ships still keep getting killed? Or better know as.. Help my ships don't fight worth a darn. A:First off this is a learning software that gains Xp as it survives battles. Experiments have been tried to make the AI as smart as the best human fighters all in one quick upgrade..but the amount of data that must be obsorbed all in a few ms turned out to be in excess of the AI's intelletual Artificially Simulated Cerebrum Acute Functions software or ASCAF. The AI would experience overloads on a grand scale, thus the project would have to be rebuilt from scratch, costing trillions, or a Dynamic Learning system had to be introduced, much like the Human or Alien functions of learning new things as they have day to day experiences. So in short, you must "baby" your ships to insure their survival until they begin to reach levels 4 or 5, then they will be more capable of flying completely solo. Q: Help ships keep rammimg me and I die. A:Ships will always ram from time to time....but not on purpose. It should not be called a "ram" but a collision. The AI will always try to avoid you if given enough time to react...at high speeds this can be a difficult thing to do. If AI pilots are controlling Both ships, they will try to avoid but depending on speed, rudder optimization, and other random factors it will determine if they avoid collision or not. Hopefully X2 V1.4 will better this. Note: There are lots of post at Egosoft Forums that give tips on X2 space combat. Q: Where can I find the most info on the Xai Advanced Combat AI A: There is a running thread over at Egosoft forums (search for Xai Advanced Combat Project) where most questions are asked and answered. Also that is where to go to get the most recent upgrades and patches. As they are posted imediatly apon upload to the net. Or visit us at Xai Corporation. Note: the link to Xai Corporation changes from time to time so I want add a web address, but you can find an undated link at Egosoft. Q:Help I keep adjusting the missile fire probability but it keeps changeing. A: The Xai Combat AI now controls its own missle fire probability. It will adjust it on the fly. So if you set it to a level, the AI will adjust it according to its needs. This will be changed in future updates to allow the Player to turn this feature on or off. Q:My ships want attack bases or stations worth a flip. A:The problem with base attacks as I have mentioned before is the hardcoded "avoid object" code. That I can't get too to change or don't know how. A ship will start to avoid a station before it gets to 2000m. That is why it seems they are just flying around the station most of the time because they are, and they are trying to avoid it and don't fire nearly as much as they should. Everyonce in a while you will see a ship do a slow approach and fire repetedly, maybe I can discover what triggers this and get them to do it more often. Q:I ejected my AI and loaded it back and it still has the same level, name, ect. what gives? A:Once the software is installed and initiated it will intergrate itself into all other software, circuits, and terminals thus becomeing one AI matrix. This must be in order for the AI's intelletual Artificially Simulated Cerebrum Acute Functions (ASCAF) to function as intended. This has one side effect...if you eject the AI core your ship will still retain all its attributes. Although without the AI core you will not recieve an AI report back from the ship and also with out the main core to guide its actions the ship will use its default combat AI while in battle. Once the AI core is retrieved or new software is installed all functions will return as normal and your ship will have all its abilitys, rank, and name once again. Q:My ships want fire missiles at capitol ships, or any ship with turrents for that matter. A:Righly so, as fireing missiles on turrented ships is a huge waiste. You can change this though by turning off the AI missile command with the Missile Command command.