ACM Missions logic

[Guest Josh]

Hey folks... I'm pretty new at this, so I apologise for the dumb questions.

I'm having trouble understanding how the missions work. Both are early on in the game. One of the firt missions in the second tour of duty where you have to protect as ship in arima until it's escort arrive, I can't find the the ship. I fly to arima before the start counter gets to 0, and wait for the ship, the spaceball to arrive, and it never does... the timer runs out and tells me I've failed. The same thing happens with one of the next missions. I have to escot the vagabond as it picks up prisoners, and drops them off in, I think, Lennix. It goes to starpath, docks and says it will be five minutes to launch, and that is the last I see of it.

Could someone explain how the game logic works. I don't want to cheat or anything, I just want to understand what triggers events to occur, so that I can have a chance at actually playing the missions insead of just waiting around.

My other question is about getting artifact off ships... do you have to blow them up to collect them? I've read the threads about just sending shuttles to pick cargo off ships, but I can't do it. I order the shuttle to collect cargo from the target ship, and it doesn't do anything. I can't do it manually, because there is no cargo pod to select in the cargo menu of the shuttle. Could someone clarify the procedure.

Also, debris fields... I'm probably the only person that can't find cargo in them. I fly to them, launch shuttles, and I don't see a thing.

Cheers

J

[Rico Jansen]

Perhaps the ECV-Starball isn't in Arima (yet).

About the Lennen Rescue mission, something happens at the very beginning of the mission which you probably have missed. But perhaps it's in your commlink log. I think this shouldn't happen according to the mission briefing and the communication messages, so I suspect it has a script flaw. Or I'm missing some braincells the SC has more of. Unless you want this topic to become a spoiler I'll do other a favour and not explain why and how it appears to be flawed IMO.

Stealing cargo is simple: go into tacops and zoom up on your victim. Left click (or right, not sure) and a small menu should apear with a "collect" entry or something to that effect. Click on it and then you can select which one of your shuttles should 'mug' it. And of it goes.

There should be an extensive amount of topics about how to 'debris mine'. (and even 'mugging' in the same topic) Do a search.

Nose up and yaw to the right a bit.

[Guest Josh]

Thanks alot. for the help. The problem with the starball thing is that the ship never shows up. The timer runs down and tells me I've failed. The last thing I hear is that the vagabond is responding to the distress call... then I sit in arima and the ship never shows up. Would I be able to find it in a neighbouring system?

As far as the Lennin thing goes, I do remember my probe telling me that a hostile shuttle entered earth while and that galcom was launcing ship at, but I didn't respond because it wasn't in my mission profile and I didn't want the vagabong to get jumped while I was investigating... I'll check it out though.

I'm sure I didn't miss anything in the starball mission though. I just didn't show, ever.

Re the ship mugging, I read something in another thread about how you couldn't get it to work with fleet command working, and it always seems to be on in my game. Something to do with it being in debug mode I suspect. However, I've got the free version, and I can't turn off debug because then I can't get past the cd check. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I still can get cargo off ships.

Thanks though.

Cheers

J

[Rico Jansen]

quote:

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...then I sit in arima and the ship never shows up. Would I be able to find it in a neighbouring system?

---

For starters. Yes! The Vagabond has obviously found it, or else it wouldn't have communicated the message, so it must exist.

Something escapes the Lennen system at the start of the mission, unless you are there. Be there, or miss it. Nothing seriously happpens to the Vagabond at this time, I believe. As I said, I suspect something wrong with the script, but it's the only way I know how to solve it completely.

Yes, if you have the freeware verison you need to apply a small patch that fixes the size of the intro movie. (Also ends abruptly, is corrupt so fails filesize check) After that you can edit the bc3k.bat file to disable debugmode. You should be able to get the patch from the same download site you got the game from. I got it from underdogs.org, I think.

[ 09-27-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[Pugwash]

Starball wait in Arima at the Xylan jump point when the Starball arrives from Xylan a few minutes after the mission starts, you will hear the message "MayDay, MayDay" thats the cue for its arrival just search for the target.

When the Starball detects your BC you will hear "ECV-STARBALL is in distress!" followed by "Commander, keep these raiders off me until help arrives". If you hear that the ECV-STARBALL is in the same system as you.

Ignore the mission brief and tow it with your BC or a Shuttle back to Galcom HQ.

The reason for this is you will have 35-45 minutes to do what you want before you must be in Lennen for the start of the next mission.

You can repair / upgrade your BC, strip those debris fields of any goodies and collect all the cargo from the mining drones you deployed at the start of Tod 1 right!

Tod2 mission 3 (the one with the Vagabond)I have always found the script for this to be little strange.

The brief talks about rescuing Karl (SC) but you don't see him.

If, as said you are in Lennenz before the start of the mission then when decoy2,the stolen_shuttle does its run, when it reaches your BC you receive the message "Prime Force has the Supreme Commander!" so he was saved, you will also have saved Dr Myan Rolne and CMDR Randy Karynia.

(remember to turn the PTA off or they may destroy the shuttle before it reaches you)

All you have to do now is capture Pixan the weapons are off at this point so its a walk in the park.

IMO the shuttle does its run out of sequence and there is evidence in the script to support this,

in the .ghq section is an "activate decoy2" command which serves no purpose as decoy2 had be activated at the beginning of the mission.

This is the point you hear "Something has gone wrong!" and "We have orders to capture or destroy Pixan" which is when the shuttle should have launched.

I'm straying off topic into scripting and GBS so I'll stop.

[Guest Josh]

I just got the patch so that I could run it in non debug mode, and now I can get the cargo off ships. The funny thing about that is that the into movies never play in my game. It starts with the BC3000 logo page while the software loads, and then it is right at the main menu. I wonder if I have a serious problem.

I'm going to just start acm over again and play from the beginning and see if I can figure everything out. I had another problem with the mission where I'm supposed to capture Zerin. The mission bried says that after the shuttle disables it, the vagabond will capture it, but nothing happens after the message... I guess I'm supposed to capture it myself.

Without and time compression, It'll probably be a few days before I get back to this point. I'll let you know how its going then.

Have a good one folks.

Cheers

J

[Rico Jansen]

Pugwash is right. Please disregard my comments/hint on the Starball rescue. I don't know what I've been smoking when reading the script. But it must have been heavy. (but I promise I never inhaled)

You probably have playing the intro movie disabled somehow. There is a setting in the config page to change that if you will. Or perhaps it is not played due to a command line switch in bc3k.bat. (or bc3k3dfx.bat)

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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The brief talks about rescuing Karl (SC) but you don't see him.

---

No it doesn't. TOD2 3/5 has NOTHING to do with Karl Reines and doesn't even mention him. Go look at it again. I just did.

quote:

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IMO the shuttle does its run out of sequence and there is evidence in the script to support this,

in the .ghq section is an "activate decoy2" command which serves no purpose as decoy2 had be activated at the beginning of the mission.

This is the point you hear "Something has gone wrong!" and "We have orders to capture or destroy Pixan" which is when the shuttle should have launched.

---

Nope. You got that wrong. If you look in the script, you will see that decoy2 is signalled around #271. If you did a logic flowchart, you will see that once the hostage exchange is done (!doxchange), I am trigging decoy2 to simulate them being discovered.

[ 09-28-2001: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

[Guest Josh]

Ok. I disabled the debug mode,and now starball works properly.

I still can't figure out the rescue mission though.

I check out all the movie stuff. It isn't disabled in the batch file or in the config screen. It just doesn't play.

Weird eh?

Cheers

J

[Supreme Cmdr]

Did you try playing it directly, using the player.exe program? Did you download and properly apply the fix for it?

[Pugwash]

Ok I'm a little late but haven't had time to post what with starting a new job last Monday and two night at University and basically being totally shattered, but I have been following the threads when I can.

Oh and when you go into that local furniture chainstore in the UK and they can't tell you if they have stock or when it will arrive and mumble about computer and OPS at head office that's me I've crashed the mainframe or a database on one of the servers

quote:

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No it doesn't. TOD2 3/5 has NOTHING to do with Karl Reines and doesn't even mention him. Go look at it again. I just did.

---

SC I've gone back and looked at the script, played the missions again, downloaded a new copy of the source scripts and played the BCM version. All the scripts play in the same way.

So I have to ask are there more than one versions of the original BC3K script?

From the brief for TOD2 M3/5 Karl is mentioned but plays no part in the script.

quote:

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This information has been kept under wraps so as not to cause other GALCOM enemies to try escapades of their own.

your primary concern is to rescue Karl

. GALCOM does not negotiate with terrorists and

we have hatched a plan to rescue him at the same time, pretending to meet with the demands of the kidnappers.

---

and you also receive the broadcast

quote:

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broadcast "Prime Force has the Supreme Commander!"

---

which I interpret to mean the Supreme Commander Karl Reines has been saved from the terrorists /kidnappers and is now in the hands of prime force

quote:

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IMO the shuttle does its run out of sequence and there is evidence in the script to support this, in the .ghq section is an "activate decoy2" command which serves no purpose as decoy2 had be activated at the beginning of the mission.

This is the point you hear "Something has gone wrong!" and "We have orders to capture or destroy Pixan" which is when the shuttle should have launched.

---

Your reply

quote:

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Nope. You got that wrong. If you look in the script, you will see that decoy2 is signaled around #271. If you did a logic flowchart, you will see that once the hostage exchange is done (!doxchange), I am trigging decoy2 to simulate them being discovered.

---

That is what I expected you intended to happen but I can't see that from the script logic and what actually happens when you play is that shuttle decoy2 is activated at the start of the mission and does its run either to the BC or Galcom.

If you are in Lennen at the start of the mission then all the script for decoy2 will be played through long before the Vagabond has entered Lennen and the !doxchange has been signaled.

I seen nowhere in the decoy2 section of the script for it to be waiting or be effected by the activate decoy2 as this command is fired long after the start of the script.

The way to complete the mission is to be in Lennen at the start.

Then shuttle decoy2 will immediately Detect the Players BC and the broadcasts will be played

Then shuttle decoy2 will jump to the Players BC and if it reaches it the actors will be created on the BC and the two say statements will be broadcast all within 2minutes of the start of the mission. If you have the PTA on it will fire on the shuttle and may destroy it before it can reach the BC.

The only task to compleat the full mission is to then capture Pixan.

This happens in both the 3K and the modified version for BCM beta.

From the source script there is the standard activate this command to activate the shuttle.

code:

---

#

[dynamic]

mixed raider,,decoy2,shuttle1.3dc,stolen_shuttle

[ai]

.decoy2,100,100,100,100,100,100,0

start inactive near lennenz^jmp-28 100 pixan

stop

events 203

!begin_tod2m3

activate this

move_store pixan,decoy2,4,354

del_store pixan,5,354

IF HERE BC THEN

jump bc

broadcast "Prime Force launching with stolen shuttle"

broadcast "Prime Force disabled Pixan weapon systems"

broadcast "Prime Force has casualties"

broadcast "Prime Force has the Supreme Commander!"

ELSE

dock galcomhq

ENDIF

!reach bc

IF FLAG1 this RETURN

create_guest 101,"Dr Myan Rolne",11,TO,"Dr Myan Rolne is on board commander!"

create_guest 102,"CMDR Randy Karynia",11,TO,"CMDR Karynia on board"

create_guest 103,"Prime Force Marine2",11,TO,"Prime Force marine on board"

create_guest 104,"Prime Force Marine3",11,TO,"Prime Force marine on board"

create_guest 105,"Prime Force Marine8",11,TO,"Prime Force marine on board"

say TO,"shuttle self-Destruct sequence set to t-minus 5 minutes"

say TO,"Prime Force Marine5 stayed on Pixan to sabotage its systems"

destroy this,300,0

FLAG1 ON this

!destroyed this

say TO,"Shuttle has self-destructed"

endevents

#

---

and from the .ghq section the command that was intended to activate the shuttle which is signaled from the !doxchange section.

code:

---

#

.ghq

events 203

!ohoh

broadcast "The plan has been foiled and Prime Force has been discovered"

broadcast "You are authorized to capture or destroy the Pixan station"

activate decoy2

#

---

[Supreme Cmdr]

The script is fine. The briefing and that message should be addressing Dr Rolne, not the Supreme Cmdr. I changed that text awhile back, actually.

If you look at .decoy2 again, you will see the explicit IF HERE BC block. That means it won't do anything unless the player is there.

By the same token, missions are not supposed to be straightforward. This means that yes, you can proceed to Lennen (as instructed in the mission briefing) or escort Mark and miss a part of it. When I played it, I got to Lennen on time. Regardless of where the shuttle is in Lennen, that check for the BC will always return true. So, even if you did escort Mark to Starpath and then on to Pixan, there is still time to get to Lennen (unless you're goofing off) before the shuttle leaves for GHQ.

See what I mean?

[Guest Josh]

When I played it, I escoret mark, and hs ship never launched after he picked up the prisoners, so I went to lennen, and on my way, encountered that shuttle as it was going in to dock at Galcom HQ... however, after it docked there was no way to win the mission. The something went wrong thing got triggered and I disabled the station in lennen, but I still lost the mission because they werent rescued.

Another problem is that the fleet C&C never works, even in missions where it tells you to probeec to gammulan and wipe out all their stations after raising a fleet.

Re you questions about my animation problems, I checked it out, and I tried putting the /n thing in the bat file and there is a difference. Before I did that, there would be a bunch of miniature ilegible text at the top of the screen... I guess that was the program trying to run the intro movie, but it doesn't run on my machine.

If you want to hear something really weird, my USB joystick works without haveing to mess with anything.

Is the mission where you are supposed to recover the random stuff the last mission? the next mission never starts after that in my game. If so, where are you supposed to get JAC and the other artifacts?

I also wanted to ask how one gets officers AI up? My research officers doesn't have enough AI to configure any of the devices, and nothing seems to raise his AI. I noticed my engineer's AI goes up with experience, but nothing ever happens with the research guy.

Cheers

J

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Josh:

Another problem is that the fleet C&C never works, even in missions where it tells you to probeec to gammulan and wipe out all their stations after raising a fleet.

J

---

Nonsense. Of course it works. If your ship/crew don't meet the Fleet C&C criteria, even if Karl is on board, you won't be able to use Fleet C&C.

[Rico Jansen]

That, but also that you need to be Supreme Commander yourself, or have "Karl Reines" on board. "SC Karl Reines" is just a dumb tour[WHACK!!] ..err intelligent respected guest. (ouch)

[ 10-10-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[Guest Josh]

All I know is that in the mission where I had to disable zerin I had a working fleet c&c because Karl Reins was on board. After I completed that tour, I lost fleet C&C. Several missions later, I had one that indicated that Reins would be on board to grant me fleet c&c access. Reins did come on board, but I did not get fleet C&C. The mission either shouldn't have bothered saying that you would have fleet C&C or the mission script itself is wrong.

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Josh:

All I know is that in the mission where I had to disable zerin I had a working fleet c&c because Karl Reins was on board. After I completed that tour, I lost fleet C&C. Several missions later, I had one that indicated that Reins would be on board to grant me fleet c&c access. Reins did come on board, but I did not get fleet C&C. The mission either shouldn't have bothered saying that you would have fleet C&C or the mission script itself is wrong.

---

The mission is FINE.

If my post and the one before mine aren't clear, try reading them again. There are a LOT more factors related to the USE of fleet C&C than just HAVING fleet C&C

[ausraider2]

This mission I am on now....

I've played it a couple of times following exact orders.

Followed the Vagabond to Starpath

Launched the probe to Lennen.(If I launch the probe even immediatly after I recieve Comms:'launch a probe to Lennen and have a look' there doesn't seem to be enough time for it to get there before the Vagabond group).

Followed the Vagabond to Lennen.

Waited for Instructions.

Monitored Prime 1 and Prime 2 on Tacops.

Coms report prisoners and escorts beemed over to Pixan.

Coms report Prime team discovered.

I order Prime 1+2 and the Vagabond away from Pixan just in case then I move in cloaked using the PAD until Pixan surrenders.

I dock-Capture - re-launch from the now Galcommed Pixan, and wait the next hr out.

Mission Fail.

Dr. etc not rescued.

I'll try it again and this time I'll be in Lennen for the Mission start.

I wonder how exactly its supposed to play out eventwise though.

Not that I wouldn't like an hr or so for those engine upgrades and a spot of mining.

Ausraider.

[Guest Josh]

Yeah, you have be in lennin at the start of the mission, otherwise some little shuttle launches and has nowhere to go, and heads toward galcom and nothing happens. If you are in lenning, turn you PTA system off, and the shuttle will fly near you and transfree the rescued hostages.

Ths shuttle is only supposed to launch when you are in the system, but it doesn't. It launches at the begginning, no matter who tells you otherwise.