Freight Drone Transfer
(capital ships can buy/sell with drones)
Allows capital ships to buy and sell wares at stations that do not allow capital ship docking. The drones are turbo-charged and work much better than vanilla freight drones. Makes TL's useful for TRADE missions, and allows M1/M2/M7 to purchase energy directly from Solar Power Plants.

This update improves reliability and speed of freight drones substantially.

The command is located in the trade commands and differs from the Egosoft script by its yellow color.

Usage is same as the EGOSOFT script. However, the behaviour is a little different.

Description
This command allows you to transfer freight to and from a station or ship over large distances. Intergalactic Trade Software Standards now make it possible for the drones to trade with foreign stations. Due to their size freight drones can only be used by big ships.

Remake by Tim-O (with update by DrBullwinkle)

Requirements
Ship of class big ship (except M8) - Using drones on a ship that is smaller than the drone makes no sense...
Trade Command Software Mk2
Freight Drone

Installation/Update
Copy the contents of the "t" folder into the X3 TCt folder
Copy the contents of the "scripts" folder into the X3 TCscripts folder
If ChemODur's string library is already installed, the t files of it can be overwritten with the ones contained in this package. They contain minor fixes for german letters.

Uninstallation
Cancel all running transfers (collect the drones or give them another command)
Save
Quit X3 and remove the scripts' files from the "scripts" folder (see "Used Files")
Remove the language file from the "t" folder (see "Used Files")

Behavior
If more wares than a single drone can carry are selected more drones are used and the selected wares are distributed between them.
A drone loads as much selected ware as possible from the starting ship and moves to its destination. Then it unloads the wares. If the target doesn't have enough free cargo space the drone waits until more space is available. When it's empty it starts loading the wares to transport back from the destination. If the target doesn't have enough of them the drone waits until the stock is refilled! That's why the target's stock is not regarded when selecting the wares to transport back from the destination.
When the selected amount of wares has been loaded the drone starts back to it's starting ship. Then it starts unloading the wares and follows the starting ship within transporter range until everything has been unloaded. If there is not enough space in the starting ship's cargo bay the drone waits until more space is cleared. Then it flies to the ship to be collected. This now happens automatically. M2 owners now no longer have to collect the drones manually.


Known Problems
It's possible that the drones don't transport all wares that have been selected. This is due to the fact that while selecting the wares it is ignored that they have to be distibuted between multiple drones.
E.g. if you have three drones, they have a total cargo bay of 2400 units. If you want to transport 4 units of a ware with a volume of 600, selecting these is no problem in the UI, because 4*600 fits exactly into the 2400 cargo bay of the drones. However, only 3 of them can be transported, because a drone can hold only one of them at a time and the remaining one can not be split to be transported partly in different drones. If something like this happens, the script will not alert you that some of the selected wares could not be transported. A little thinking is needed here ;)
#This case has not yet been tested properly

Used Files

t8222-L044.xml
t8222-L049.xml
t8910-L007.xml -------String Libary by ChemODur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377
t8910-L044.xml -------String Libary by ChemODur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377
t8910-L049.xml -------String Libary by ChemODur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377

scriptslib.chem.strings.xml -------String Library by ChemOur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377
scriptsplugin.freight.drone.delivery.xml
scriptsplugin.freight.drone.gui.xml
scriptssetup.freight.drone.move.xml
scriptsplugin.freight.drone.target.xml
scriptsplugin.freight.drone.transfer.xml
scriptsplugin.freight.drone.wares.xml
scriptssetup.freight.drone.transfer.xml

Used Resources

Command Slot
COMMAND_TYPE_TRADE_22 (422) ->"COMMAND_DRONE_WARE_EXCHANGE"

Language Files
8222-L044.xml (page id=8222)
8222-L049.xml (page id=8222)
8910-L007.xml (page id=8910) -------String Library by ChemOur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377
8910-L044.xml (page id=8910) -------String Library by ChemOur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377
8910-L049.xml (page id=8910) -------String Library by ChemOur!! http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=233377


History
v.08 (WIP) (Bullwinkle)
- Increase speed of drones to catch moving ships; even over multiple sectors.
- Increase docking computer range.

2009-03-17: v beta 07

- Executing the command no longer terminates any other commands on the ship.
- In the ware selection menu the current stock, transport class and volume of each ware is now displayed
- Used ChemODurs String Library for formatting.

2009-03-13: v beta 06

- Freight drones no longer load installed wares.

2009-03-13: v beta 05

- The script version is now displayed in the upper right corner of the main transfer window. (Yes, I'm bored...)


2009-03-11: v beta 04

- When the drone is sent to buy wares at a foreign station it now waits until the player has enough money instead of loading all the wares and only paying as much as the player can afford.


2009-03-09: v beta 03

Initial English Release