Comments

• Regor

  February 24

  Hello Ed, any thoughts on this one?
• Ed_NBOS

  February 29

  Maybe put them in the same orbit at 3 different points along the orbit (use time past periapsis for positioning along orbit)

  

  image.png 18.9K
• Regor

  September 26

  That is what I have been doing. Problem is that it is very time-consuming to add each of these manually. That is adding three megastructures per star system with 2756 Stars currently on the map. Each addition also means calculating the past periapsis so that they are equidistant from each other. Yes, this works, but I was hoping to get this project done before I die of old age, and I am already in my 60's. :-p
• Regor

  September 26

  Was just looking for a way to automate this process. I like automation. I'm lazy. :-)
• Ed_NBOS

  September 28

  You could certainly write a script for it to add them in bulk. To get them relatively equadistant take the orbital time and divide it by 3. ie, if its a 300 day orbital period, make one at 0, one at 100, and one at 200. But they are elliptical orbits so the exact distance would vary over time.
• Regor

  October 3

  I'm working on a script for that now. I was planning on putting them in a perfectly circular orbit. They are artificial in nature, so why have an eliptical orbit? I am going to try and avoid thinking about gravitational perturbations, whether than are mutual or n-body types. Although that would be a fun mental exercise, it really would not add to the storyline I am trying to build. ;-)
• Ed_NBOS

  October 4

  Yep, just set the eccentricity to 0 and it will be circular. Let me know if you have any q's.
• Regor

  October 5

  I wanted to keep it simple, so I tried to script this to just add one megastructure around each star, but I keep getting VBScript errors. Something is wrong with the way I am trying to add the child to the star. I'm not a big VBScript guy, so maybe someone out there can help me out. I will try to add my script here:

  plugin Starlock Placement

  author Steven R. Hoag

  desc Puts a Starlock around every star in the sector.

  ' Set constants
  Const BODY_TYPE_MEGASTRUCTURE = 28 ' Corresponds to the AlienAPI body type for megastructures

  ' Function to add a "Starlock Facility" around a star
  Sub AddStarlockFacility(star)
  ' Create a new body (megastructure) as a child of the star
  Dim megastructure
  Set megastructure = star.AddChild(BODY_TYPE_MEGASTRUCTURE)

  ' Set properties of the megastructure
  megastructure.Name = "Starlock Facility"
  megastructure.PoliticalAffiliation = "Starlock Network"
  megastructure.Population = 1
  megastructure.Distance = 300000000 ' Distance in kilometers
  

  End Sub

  ' Main function to iterate over all stars in the sector and add a "Starlock Facility" to each
  Sub Main
  ' Retrieve the current sector
  Dim sector
  Set sector = GetCurrentSector()

  ' Get the total number of root bodies (star systems) in the sector
  Dim count, i
  count = sector.GetSectorBodyCount()
  
  ' Loop through each star in the sector
  For i = 0 To count - 1
      ' Retrieve the star system
      Dim star
      Set star = sector.GetRootBody(i)
  
      ' Add the "Starlock Facility" around the star
      AddStarlockFacility(star)
  Next
  

  End Sub

  ' Execute the main function
  Main
• Regor

  October 5

  Sorry about the strange formatting. Should have pasted as plain text. Oops.
• Ed_NBOS

  October 5

  Try iterating systems like this

  #plugin  Squashdown!
  #author NBOS
  #desc       Compresses system positions along the Y axis
  
  sector = GetCurrentSector()
  j = sector.SystemCount
  For i = 1 to j 
      o = sector.GetSystem( i-1)
  
      o.y = o.y / 2
      o.Modified = true   
  
      If i mod 100 = 0 Then
          sector.RenderMessageBig = "Updating " & i & " of " & j
          RefreshScene
      End If
  
  Next
  sector.RenderMessageBig = ""
  RefreshScene
  

  Use SystemCount() and GetSystem() to retrieve the systems. Then add your megastructure to each. Keep in mind if you have binaries, you'll have to decide what you want to do for those.
• Regor

  October 5

  Okay, I've re-written and simplified the script, but I am still getting the dreaded Microsoft VBScript runtime error. I believe the issue is with creating the child body, but maybe I am wrong.

  plugin Add Starlock to Non-Binary Systems

  author Steven R. Hoag

  desc Adds a Starlock Facility around each non-binary star system

  Set sector = GetCurrentSector()
  Dim sysCount
  sysCount = sector.SystemCount

  'Iterate through each system in the sector
  For i = 1 To sysCount
  Set starSystem = sector.GetSystem(i - 1)

  'Check if the system is non-binary (single star)
  If starSystem.BodyCount = 1 Then
      'Create a new megastructure (Starlock Facility) as a child body
      Set starlock = starSystem.CreateBody
      starlock.Name = "Starlock Facility"
      starlock.BodyType = BODY_TYPE_MEGASTRUCTURE
      starlock.PoliticalAffiliation = "Starlock Network"
      starlock.Population = 1
      starlock.Distance = 300000000
      starlock.Modified = True
  
      'Refresh the scene every 100 systems
      If i Mod 100 = 0 Then
          sector.RenderMessageBig = "Adding Starlock Facility: " & i & " of " & sysCount
          RefreshScene
      End If
  End If
  

  Next

  'Clear the update message
  sector.RenderMessageBig = ""
  RefreshScene
• Ed_NBOS

  October 6

  What's the error you're getting? Usually commenting out lines until the error goes away gets you the cause.

  You can check if the BodyType is BODY_TYPE_MULT or BODY_TYPE_CLOSEMULT to detect if its a multiple. Actually what you might want to do is the other way around - only add the object if its BODY_TYPE_STAR.

  After you create the body, you have to add it to the star using starsystem.AddChild( starlock)
• Regor

  October 7

  "Microsoft VBScript runtime error"

  Not particularly helpful or informative.
• Regor

  October 7

  I will try your latest suggestions and let you know if I get any further along. It may be a day or two as things at work are really busy.