Set patrols.

Leader of the Republic Mod Team. http://republicmod.proboards32.com
"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

Patrols are only needed when you want factions like the Bounty Hunters or the Police and Military factions to use your docking ring.

If you create an encounter zone with area_trade_freighter and area_trade_transport in it, you should be able to get them to land on your new planet. Even the police will land on your planet with this encounter: area_armored_prisoner

Edited by - Mystical GrAm on 7/13/2004 5:45:20 AM

Zach and Mystical are both correct. It all depends on your encounters, or more specifically, a certain setting within the encounter ini file. The basic "area_defend" and "area_assault" encounters won't have your ships land anywhere. If you create patrols (hard to do unless you are experienced) or else use the "area_trade" encounters, those will work. If you want to see exactly what encounters will have the ships land or depart from bases, open up the encounter ini file (like "area_defend.ini" in the data\missions\encounters folder), and look for the behavior line. Look for ones that say either:

behavior = trade
behavior = patrol_path

Those two will have the ships land/depart from bases. Just be careful with the partol path ones, those are really only for experienced modders.

Ok... I think I understand about the difference between the trade and patrol encounters, but I still have a basic question. I stole an encounter code section from the Manhattan Li01 code and that has a bunch of traders and heavy lifters as well as some other ships flying around one side of my planet, as before. My question relates to where to center the zone. The one from Manhattan seems to be near, but not on, the docking ring of Manhattan. I used a similar scheme for mine, but they just mosey into the atmosphere and start to burn a little before leaving... they don't land or take off. Should I be centering the zone on the planet itself or the docking ring? Should there be any offset to the zone for either of those options? Also, I don't seem to be any good at setting zones that are not a sphere. I tried several times to use the "cylinder" type, but I always get a crash when someone enters the zone, either myself or an NPC somewhere. Does anyone have a guide to setting cylindrical zones? Can encounter zones overlap? I looked in all the tuts, but could not really find anything there. I did see something by Giskard about the positioning of planets etc., which I have been using to put stuff in systems with good effect, (even making up little crude maps using notepad with x's and 0's to represent holes and objects relative to the x,y,z, co-ordinates of the system) but nothing specific on cylindrical zones. I would love to have some kind of graphical representation of that kind of zone placement if any of you have a talent for that sort of thing. I tried to use the "3d" system creator from the editors section, but cannot figure out how to load my systems into it. Either I am very stupid, or the interface needs work. Meanwhile, I will examine some more code and see if I can figure out the exact placement of the encounter zone to make the docking rings work unless you more experienced modders have a specific placement idea for me.

One more comment... Do any other of you think that although Fled_ids is a fine program with many benefits, it would have taken what... another three minutes to put a controll box on it so it could be minimized when using it. I find that frustrating! I have about 5 or 6 things open at a time when working on a system, and it would be a big help to be able to minimize this important and helpful program. Did no one ever suggest that to him when doing beta testing?

There are several other very good editor programs that share that same fault. I used to program some in VB and it is a trivial matter to put the minimize box on these programs... What were they thinking?

Here, by the way, is the code I am using to try to make NPC's land and take off from my planet, Hesperion...

[zone
nickname = Zone_JSG03_001_Planet_JSG03_01
pos = -33854, 0, 29973 ;-33020, 0, -27925 ;Planet Manhattan is pos = -33270, 0, -33039, 4000 diameter
rotate = 0, 104, 0 ;pos = -33267, 0, -28810 is the dock ring... seems to be centered on that
shape = SPHERE ;-33794, 0, 30658 is Hesperion dock ring... zone was pos = -33094, 0, 30958
size = 7000 ;-32261, 0, 32181 is the planet itself
comment = Hesperion ;was Manhattan
sort = 1
toughness = 1
density = 12
repop_time = 10
max_battle_size = 8
pop_type = gd_z_grp, base_cluster_law ;pop_type = li_p_grp, base_cluster_law
relief_time = 10
;faction_weight = li_p_grp, 12
;faction_weight = li_p_grp_prisoners, 4
faction_weight = gd_z_grp, 12
faction_weight = co_be_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_hsp_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_kt_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_me_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_nws_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_ni_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_os_grp, 4
faction_weight = co_rs_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_shi_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_ss_grp, 10
faction_weight = co_vr_grp, 8
faction_weight = gd_bh_grp, 3
density_restriction = 4, unlawfuls
;encounter = area_defend, 1, 0.070000
;faction = li_p_grp, 1.000000
encounter = area_bh_defend, 1, 0.030000
faction = gd_bh_grp, 1.000000
;encounter = area_armored_prisoner, 1, 0.020000
;faction = li_p_grp, 1.000000
encounter = area_trade_freighter, 1, 0.090000
faction = co_hsp_grp, 0.260000
faction = co_me_grp, 0.260000
faction = co_ss_grp, 0.260000
faction = co_vr_grp, 0.210000
encounter = area_trade_transport, 1, 0.120000
faction = co_be_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_hsp_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_kt_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_me_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_nws_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_ni_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_rs_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_shi_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_ss_grp, 0.100000
faction = co_vr_grp, 0.080000
encounter = area_trade_armored, 1, 0.020000
faction = co_os_grp, 1.000000
encounter = area_lifter, 1, 0.030000
faction = co_me_grp, 0.500000
faction = co_ss_grp, 0.500000
encounter = area_repair, 1, 0.030000
faction = co_me_grp, 0.500000
faction = co_ss_grp, 0.500000

This was in fact "borrowed" from the Manhattan code. Where have I gone wrong? I changed the base faction to Zoners instead of Liberty Police, but the rest is pretty stock except for the stuff I commented out.

By the way, just out of curiosity... does anyone know how, when creating a new faction, to give them a new coded reference like those that appear in the bases section of the universe.ini file? For instance, the reference for gd_z_grp or Zoners is W02bF52. If one were to create a faction, what would one put for the new faction reference?

Did you mean they burn in the atmosphere while they're just flying around? Or do they just stop there for a few seconds, burn, then carry on flying?

Leader of the Republic Mod Team. http://republicmod.proboards32.com
"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

Hi Zack... I mean they act like they want a docking ring to open. They park themselves for a few seconds with their noses in the atmosphere, creating a burn effect, then they pull out and leave. They are some distance away from the actual docking ring... say 800 or 900 (if you fly to where they were and look back at the ring and take a reading that's what I get), though they seem to be on the same "y" co-ordinate. Is that what you wanted to know? There are other large train freighters and heavy lifters about, flying back and forth, but only a few ships actually approach the planet and offer to dock. Do you think they could be looking for the docking thingy that Manhattan has... you know, that girder like docking platform thing that does not require a ring that allows docking in space? What do you call that thing anyway?

its called a mooring fixture [

Right... mooring fixture. I'll put one in and see if they go for it, though I would really like to see them comming and going from the docking ring as well.

Only large transports use mooring fixtures.
I'm fascinated by this ship behaviour though...

Leader of the Republic Mod Team. http://republicmod.proboards32.com
"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

Well, I put in a mooring fixture and yes, some of the large train transports actually dock on the thing for a short period of time. I moved the "encounter zone" for the ships to a more precise co-ordinate of the docking ring but still no ships will enter or leave via the docking ring to my planet.

Anyone see what I could be doing wrong?

I still beleive you need to put in a patrol into or out of the planet.
Could you compress the mod folder and send it to me? I'd love to see what exactly is happening.

Leader of the Republic Mod Team. http://republicmod.proboards32.com
"Criminal Organisations don't just spring up overnight. It's a conspiracy" - overheard on a a Liberty comm frequency

If by "mod folder" you mean the ini file (JSG03.ini and all the base and room folders) for that system, sure. Exactly where do you want me to send it?

Oooppss! I see the link now that I am not in the "reply to" section. I will send it to you within a few minutes... I hope a Zip file is ok!