Quasar4x - An Aurora4x VB6 clone q4x

[Kyle (OP)]

Progress update 2021-10-27:

I think my work on Quasar can be best compared to seasons of a TV show.  I will spend many months, maybe over a year, actively and aggressively working on the project, then taking months of a break spending time on work/family and other hobbies.  Much like anyone else's hobby I'm sure!  I'm currently in between seasons for an unknowable amount of time, but fortunately the game is feature complete as far as my initial goals for the project (other than Invaders which I'm not too concerned about) AND is getting to be quite stable after many dozens of fixes, so I can more or less call it a finished project with an asterisk that there is always more that could be done some day in the future. 

I have no estimate on when the next "season" will begin, but I am continuing to fix any bugs that are reported.

Copied from a suggestion I made for C#:

When your empire grows a lot, setting up routes becomes a bit tedious. Especially when the galaxy becomes more like a cross-grid where you can go from one point to another by several routes, not remembering which one is the quickest. I thought to circumvent this by saving a route order template with just the jump points - but that of course doesn't help because you have to save it in the destination system - to which you have no access in the source system.

Is there a way to make this possible?

I have felt this pain myself, and will work on QoL for this in the next "season"

The "bug" that a fleet not at max speed is set to max speed after doing a system jump is quite annoying. I was wondering if this is a setting or hardcoded behaviour (i.e. a bug). Does someone know if I can set a fleet in a way that it does not go to max speed after a system jump?

Should be fixed now, please verify!   

[TMaekler]

Progress update 2021-10-27:

The "bug" that a fleet not at max speed is set to max speed after doing a system jump is quite annoying. I was wondering if this is a setting or hardcoded behaviour (i.e. a bug). Does someone know if I can set a fleet in a way that it does not go to max speed after a system jump?

Should be fixed now, please verify!

I am off to Hamburg for some days. Will check on the weekend :-) - And yes, this error occurred during jumps not when sending out messages.

[Overlordscom]

Hi.    I have a problem to run Quasar 4x.   
When I run game with command line I see this:

Last login: Fri Nov 12 22:49:15 on ttys000
/Applications/Quasar4x.   app/Contents/MacOS/Quasar4x ; exit;                     
mr.   m@MacBook-Pro-Misha ~ % /Applications/Quasar4x.   app/Contents/MacOS/Quasar4x ; exit;
arguments
0: /Applications/Quasar4x.   app/Contents/MacOS/Quasar4x
OpenGL ES 3.   0 Renderer: Intel(R) Iris(TM) Plus Graphics 640
ERROR: init_library: Condition ' lib_path.   length() == 0 ' is true.   
   At: modules/gdnative/nativescript/nativescript.   cpp:1031.   
Creating new DB
ERROR: copy: Failed to open res://quasar4x.   sqlite
   At: core/os/dir_access.   cpp:304.   
WARNING: Couldn't copy res://quasar4x.   sqlite to user://quasar4x.   sqlite
zsh: segmentation fault  /Applications/Quasar4x.   app/Contents/MacOS/Quasar4x

[Process completed]

Help me please.     :)

[Kyle (OP)]

Progress update 2022-01-13:

Version 182 is available (patch notes).  Here are some features:


More QoL for the F3 System Map UI

The Icon bar can now be popped out independently of the F3 window, and it will be always on top.  Its position and popout status can be saved in the Q4X Settings window.  This icon bar can be used in lieu of the oldschool windows taskbar in Aurora VB6. 




The time buttons can be popped out in the same way:





If you don't want to pop out the time buttons but you like the compact UI for the sub pulse buttons, there is an option to change the buttons to a dropdown menu in Q4X Settings:




Option to disable experience gains for diplo teams without a target

There is a new checkbox on the Game Details window.  Previously, diplomatic teams would periodically gain experience whether or not they were assigned to a specific alien race.  This meant the optimal strategy would be to create some diplo teams at the very start of the game before encountering any aliens, so their diplomatic score would be high by the time the first alien race was encountered.  This, in turn, led to a very high chance of befriending every other NPR, resulting in a passive game where free technology and survey data was abundant and conflict virutally non-existant.  (At least, this is what happened in my campaign.)

To mitigate this outcome, you can uncheck this box so that diplomatic teams will no longer gain experience unless they are assigned to a specific alien race.  This will make it more difficult to befriend the first NPR you encounter.

If you want the classic / original behavior, leave the box checked.



Other updates

Previously, on the Q4X Settings window there was an option to make a backup after each turn.  Now, there are more flexible options for this setting:




There were numerous bug fixes to NPRs not easily noticeable from the player's point of view.

There were numerous changes to reduce increment shortening, especially in systems with no player presence.

There were a few optimizations done that significantly improved turn times in the later game.

A few bugs with parasites were fixed, particularly: fixed: parasite magazines weren't auto-reloaded when landing on a mothership



Q4X is pretty much at its final state now, barring any other fixes.   From here, I'm most likely going to split the project into two: its current form, which will continue to get more fixes if any are reported, and a long term experimental branch just for me where I finally allow myself to significantly deviate from Aurora VB6's UI layout in order to add more ways to automate things and whatever else comes to mind.  If I come up with anything good I will post it.

[drakonbane]

Youve done an amazing job Kyle.  thanks for all the hard work youve put in! As a game designer myself, its been pretty awesome to see your progress month after month.  Excited to see what you come up with next.

[Stormtrooper]

How can I add installations to the planet via SM? Turned SM on (I'm sure since atmosphere editing worked just fine), went to the industry tab but can't do anything, there's "SM add" button, but it remains inactive and nothing happens (obviously) if I click on it, regardless whether I have project created or not.

[Kyle (OP)]

How can I add installations to the planet via SM? Turned SM on (I'm sure since atmosphere editing worked just fine), went to the industry tab but can't do anything, there's "SM add" button, but it remains inactive and nothing happens (obviously) if I click on it, regardless whether I have project created or not.

It's SM Mods button at the bottom of the F2 window:

[Stormtrooper]

Thanks, will check it out next time I have to edit buildings as I already ended up doing it via db editing.

[Stormtrooper]

How am I supposed to load ground units? I have 3 ships with 6 troop transport bays each, fleet screen says I can load 18 batallions (whatever that means), tried to load some units, turns out I can't load even a single low tech infantry because of "insufficient capacity". There is no research for bigger transport bays or increased capacity whatsoever.

[nuclearslurpee]

For Quasar you'll need to refer to the old VB6 pages on the wiki, etc. such as the Ground Forces page here. Ground forces in particular are one of the biggest changes from VB6 --> C# so you will basically need to forget everything you know from C# in this area.

The low-tech divisions you start with in a conventional start are size 50, while a TN battalion is size 5 (the sizes are abstract and don't correspond exactly to a tonnage as in C#), so you would need a transport with 10+ battalion capacity to move a single low-tech division - you can't split it between multiple transports.

Usually it is a better decision in terms of game mechanics to convert the low-tech divisions into cadres and use those to train your first TN-tech battalions at a reduced cost, but if you want to keep the flavor of low-tech units for roleplay reasons you'll need bigger transports.

[Stormtrooper]

Ooops... Well... Technically in C# you also can't split units... Didn't really expected a small infantry unit to be something more than battalion though. Maybe because one troop transport - one battalion and it doesn't list tonnage capacity so I just assumed it simply equals to one unit and that's it.

[The_Seeker]

a long term experimental branch just for me where I finally allow myself to significantly deviate from Aurora VB6's UI layout in order to add more ways to automate things and whatever else comes to mind.  If I come up with anything good I will post it.

If you are open to taking suggestions, one of the things I've always wanted to see in Aurora is a fully scriptable order system (similar to the game Screeps).  As it currently stands, you can view task force orders as sort of very basic, handicapped visual scripting system, whereby you can queue orders, loop them once, and have additional loops for preset conditional and standing orders.  It would be really neat to have a fully-scriptable system where you could write orders of arbitrary complexity, with as many conditions, loops, checks as the player wishes.  In this way, you could write not just orders or repeatable orders, but full-fledged autopilots that can access any variable in the database that the player has access to.  It'd allow you to remove a lot of the tedious tasks from the game, you could - for example - script scouting ships to fly search patterns and automatically shadow neutral/hostile ships, or script freighters to automatically move resources from systems with resources to systems who have resources below the reserve limit.  Or, you could script AI for your combat battlegroups so that they can sortie and fight without player intervention.

[Stormtrooper]

Another thing is that the conditional orders seem to lack "deployment time exceeded" condition. Best I can do is 20% MSP left. I already lost a ship, because by the time MSP gets to 20% the ship is in so bad condition it has a realistic chance of exploding along the way home. I don't feel like babysitting all my ships constantly.

[Froggiest1982]

Allow overhaul to be in the loop orders as now done to C# 2.0 will be really a welcoming addition.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12523.msg151756#msg151756

[Stormtrooper]

So I built a fuel harvester, parked it to harvest stuff at a gas giant and it does harvest stuff. But then I made a fleet of tankers and gave them a conditional orders to refuel from harvesters and then come back to unload the fuel. They travelled towards the harvester fleet, but ever since reaching the destination they just sit there, not refuelling, not comnig back. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?