Request: an easier way to implement paths (no idea whether this is even possible)

Lady}{Diamond wrote:
Not a fan of FL Explorer but this one do the job with the paths. If I remember well, take care if you use it, it can screw up the solar system ini file, so, just copy/paste the slice of text you need.

Or do it manually, so good luck, you’re a courageous one

That isn’t so much courageous , but a huge pile of work for little result. I occasionally made some manually. My grasp of math is fairly basic, so I have to keep notes of the begin and end locations in some file, use Pythagoras’ Theorem to calculate the length, similar to how I do Trade Lane traffic zones. And I even use the Trade Lane Calculator to render the angle. But it is much boring work for little gain.

In general it makes more sense to just use Adoxa’s tlfail plugin and make sure that there are likely to be some pirates roaming the area when a trade lane is interrupted. But at the moment I am working with building new systems from existing systems (e.g. mirroring them, enlarging them and replace the entire factions’ context with another one, e.g. Liberty with Rheinland). Occasionally a path will have to go (especially when you enlarge a system, so for the sake of continuity it’d be nice to get some other patrol path instead.

Thanks. I actually do think that I know how they work though and why they can cause crashes etc. (and I do think that this tutorial, and other posts at the older Lancers Reactor and here helped a lot with that, so kudos to all those folks who figured it out!).

That isn’t the issue; I’ve just grown used to working with xml files. I suppose I could make paths with such an editor and copy to code over to my work file, but iirc there were issues with each and every graphical System designers that were published.

adoxa wrote:
Where would I find the Trade Lane Calculator?

In your inbox (provided you still use the same email address).

adoxa wrote:
Got it, thanks. I’m still not sure if I should do this, though. If I did I’m thinking given [c]pos_begin[/c] and [c]pos_end[/c] a plugin could generate [c]pos[/c] and [c]rotate[/c]; I think with [c]CYLINDER[/c] it could generate the second [c]size[/c], too (i.e. the distance between the points). I might whip something up, if you’re willing to do all the testing…

Are you’re thinking about a standalone tool like the Trade Lane Calculator, that generates the position, rotation and length values for (one leg of) a path? That might be even better probably because the star system .ini files would remain ‘orthodox’?

Of course, I’d be willing to do the testing (provided I can fit it into my working method, because after all those years, it’d be counterintuitive to do it otherwise).

FriendlyFire wrote:
Pretty sure adoxa means a plugin that just does a preprocessing pass to the INIs as they’re read by Freelancer. You’d just be able to use pos_begin and pos_end directly in the INIs.

Thanks. That was the original proposal, but a fairly uneducated one I must admit; I actually doubted whether it’d be possible at all!

adoxa wrote:

Have fun…

Hey thanks a million!! As always I’m baffled to see how you are able to change seemingly every aspect of the game with a plugin!

It’ll have to wait to (hopefully) this evening (on my part of the globe); got a family event today.

Btw I couldn’t submit my previous message (wrote that before I went to sleep).

adoxa wrote:

converting

It’s not necessary to convert all the vanilla paths into the new format, I hope? :lol: Oh well, I’ll see that (hopefully) tonight.

First test.

I’m getting an almost, but not quite, perfect result, and the oddness of where it is not perfect, baffles me:

It would have made more sense to me if all the paths would have their angle mirrored (because that is what seems to be wrong with the 2nd leg), not just one of them.

This is the code (and I also tried with adding a [c]pos_begin[/c] to every leg, which rendered the same result, and with and without CYLINDER in leg 2, 3 an 4) :

[zone]
nickname = Zone_Br07_xpath_mollys9_1
shape = CYLINDER
size = 750
;--------------------------------LD-4
pos_begin = 29834, 0, -47360
pos_end = 71125, 0, 3996
;--------------------------------TLR_47
attack_ids = br07_4
tradelane_attack = 15
sort = 99
toughness = 13
density = 3
repop_time = 90
max_battle_size = 4
pop_type = attack_patrol
relief_time = 30
path_label = mollys9, 1
usage = patrol
mission_eligible = True
faction_weight = fc_m_grp, 10
density_restriction = 1, patroller
density_restriction = 1, police_patroller
density_restriction = 1, pirate_patroller
density_restriction = 4, lawfuls
density_restriction = 4, unlawfuls
encounter = patrolp_assault, 13, 0.290000
faction = fc_m_grp, 1.000000
visit = 1

[zone]
nickname = Zone_Br07_xpath_mollys9_2
shape = CYLINDER
size = 750
pos_end = 60000, 0, 9800
attack_ids = br07_4
tradelane_attack = 15
sort = 99
toughness = 13
density = 3
repop_time = 90
max_battle_size = 4
pop_type = attack_patrol
relief_time = 30
path_label = mollys9, 2
usage = patrol
mission_eligible = True
faction_weight = fc_m_grp, 10
density_restriction = 1, patroller
density_restriction = 1, police_patroller
density_restriction = 1, pirate_patroller
density_restriction = 4, lawfuls
density_restriction = 4, unlawfuls
encounter = patrolp_assault, 13, 0.290000
faction = fc_m_grp, 1.000000
visit = 1

[zone]
nickname = Zone_Br07_xpath_mollys9_3
shape = CYLINDER
size = 750
pos_end = 61500, 0, 15500
;--------------------------------TLR_45
attack_ids = br07_4
tradelane_attack = 15
sort = 99
toughness = 13
density = 3
repop_time = 90
max_battle_size = 4
pop_type = attack_patrol
relief_time = 30
path_label = mollys9, 3
usage = patrol
mission_eligible = True
faction_weight = fc_m_grp, 10
density_restriction = 1, patroller
density_restriction = 1, police_patroller
density_restriction = 1, pirate_patroller
density_restriction = 4, lawfuls
density_restriction = 4, unlawfuls
encounter = patrolp_assault, 13, 0.290000
faction = fc_m_grp, 1.000000
visit = 1

[zone]
nickname = Zone_Br07_xpath_mollys9_4
shape = CYLINDER
size = 750
pos_end = 79038, 0, 41800
;--------------------------------Omega=3 Hole
attack_ids = br07_4
tradelane_attack = 15
sort = 99
toughness = 13
density = 3
repop_time = 90
max_battle_size = 4
pop_type = attack_patrol
relief_time = 30
path_label = mollys9, 4
usage = patrol
mission_eligible = True
faction_weight = fc_m_grp, 10
density_restriction = 1, patroller
density_restriction = 1, police_patroller
density_restriction = 1, pirate_patroller
density_restriction = 4, lawfuls
density_restriction = 4, unlawfuls
encounter = patrolp_assault, 13, 0.290000
faction = fc_m_grp, 1.000000
visit = 1

(Btw the disconnected path does not cause a crash. That sounds good but it might actually mean there are now encounters at all. The whole thing is in a huge pop zone; I’ll turn that off in the next test so that I can be sure that any molly that I encounter, is generated by the path. But, that has less priority than reporting this.)

adoxa wrote:
Try swapping begin & end (sorry, I meant to mention that).

I presume that you mean for the entire path?

On it… (and after that I gotta do some offline things as well (sucks)

That renders the first and last leg reversed, but leg 2 and 3 seem to be okay now…

EDIT: No, only leg 2 is okay now (leg 2 and 3 are small so it’s not apparent at first sight) so the results are exacyly opposed to the first test.

The paths seem to be in the proper position. So my layman’s assumption is that the issue is with how the angles are calculated. I find it odd that not all the angles are mirrored though…

Btw apparently tests 1 and 2 rendered the exact opposed angles in the paths.