| Explanation of each input |
Start/Finish
Sectors |
Specify which sector to start at. Yes, they're all stations, so choose the system and approximate. Or just
leave them on any and the script won't spend extra turns moving to and from those sectors. |
| Ship Station |
Choose which station you want the ship hull to be bought or allow the script to go to any station.
This is here to help the script make a decision if it times out trying to evaluate other paths. |
| Ship String |
Should be straightforward. Paste the shipstring of the ship you want built. |
Start Align/
Speed/SSJD |
These are starting values for before the ship is bought. I would recommend that you input
a starting alignment that reduces realigning, so the script doesn't break on trying to evaluate a really long
realignment path. Also if you choose a really high starting speed such as 100, the script will realign the ship
automatically to the optimal alignment for a shortest path. The SSJD checkbox is to specify if you have
a jump drive on the current ship (meaning the one before you buy the ship). |
| GTE |
For those using Firefox, you should be able to figure out what this means by moving your mouse over it. Those
who don't.. It means "Get Tcomps Early?" If this is selected, the script will buy tcomps and damps before all
other upgrades, otherwise it will buy them at the same time as hardpoints, engines, cargo holds. |
| Explanation of each output |
| General info |
The script will continuously print out the current best path until it finds the best path and clear the screen of
the "current best" paths. This is to make sure the user sees some output incase the script times out and fails to
find the optimal path. For those using Firefox, you'll be able to mouse over the shortened items to see the full
name (in the Looking for... part). |
| Totals/Path |
Each of these is broken down to hours used on the left and total turns used on the right. |
| Align |
This is the alignment you should be at when trying to dock at the current station. For those on the edge or
feeling lucky, you don't have to realign all the way to this value as this is the 50% dock rate value. Anything
further from the station's alignment makes it harder to dock, but could possibly take fewer turns. Watch out for
campers. |
| Station |
Straightforward. This is the station to go to. |
| Things to buy |
Pretty straightforward too. These are the items to buy at the station. They are also listed in the order to be
bought.. namely upgrades. Don't go buying shields before engines. :) |
| Examples of the script in action! |
| Realign before buying |
Notice that the ship with 100 starting speed goes to 250 align before buying while the slow ship just buys the
ship right away because it doesn't have the speed to realign before or after getting the ship. |
| Set the right alignment |
Check the amount of time spent on the first path and compare it to the second. The second takes much longer
because it has to follow a long realignment which makes its turn-hour usage really high. However the third one
has a really high speed which allows it to realign and keep a low number of hours used. |
| Items require different alignment |
Well, here is a case where the ship requires both positive and negative alignments. Even though it fails to find
an optimal path, it does print out whatever it is currently thinking is the best. One thing you can do to help is
to remove the other side of things such as no more cloak/PGG. |
| Making use of 5 inputs |
Curious what's the different build paths for a given design for aligns of -400, -200, 0, 200, 400?! Well here is
chance to find out! Note that some designs will take a long long time to evaluate. |