Dialog Minimap
(https://i.imgur.com/0KAeEwN.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/C5K2L3S.png)
This mod shows a minimap besides the dialog when it asks you to accept a mission. It's the same map as the one on Intel screen, with fuel range, accepted mission icons, etc.
That's all it does. It's a utility mod and can be added or removed at any time.
NOTE: This mod is unnecessary in 0.95.1a and above. See below.
Download: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eV-lnIwCSDIWPLJ0-2dGed6yoLugwfmF?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eV-lnIwCSDIWPLJ0-2dGed6yoLugwfmF?usp=sharing)
Source code: https://github.com/andylizi/starsector-dialog-minimap
FAQ
Why?
Because I'm tired of going through series of "See mission -> Note down the star name -> Decline -> ESC, ESC -> Open Intel -> Find the star with that name -> Show on map -> Decide whether to accept -> Go to the bar -> Click on the mission -> Continue, continue -> Finally accept" every damn time.
Wait, doesn't vanilla already have this feature in 0.95.1a?
Ah, yes. Yes it does.
So for those who are interested, here's the timeline:
- Dec 6: I started making this mod.
- Dec 9: I had a working prototype.
- Dec 10: 0.95.1a released. I looked at the patch notes and thought, "Hmm, no big deal, it's shouldn't be too hard to make my mod compatible with the new version, too". Famous last words.
- Dec 13: Finally done, almost! I added all the details I want, fixed some bugs, tested it on 0.9.1 and fixed some more bugs, tested it some more. Now, the only thing left to do is to test it on the new 0.95.1a release!
…Wait a second, why are there two maps?! Don't tell me...
Missions will present the player with a map showing the initial destination/mission target's location.
— From the patch notes that I haven't looked at too closely the first time
this is how the game looked, with 0.95.1a + my mod
(https://i.imgur.com/YJCHg9m.png)
Needless to say, you don't need this mod if you're playing 0.95.1a or above.
How does it work? / Why doesn't it work for [...] mission?
Originally I'm going to go into a lot more details on this, but now I'm tired and just want to get this over with. I'll be brief.
- Every time a player clicks an option, the program checks if there're new options starting with "Accept". If it does, it's probably a mission. This means if a modded mission doesn't use "Accept ..." for confirmation, the map's not going to show.
- Then, it scans the "memory" for items that look like "$xx_systemName", which is a convention almost all vanilla missions follow to store names of the destination system. If a modded mission doesn't use these, the map's not going to show. It's possible to avoid this limitation by scanning the text for every star systems, but that can get expensive computationally.
- Then, it looks at the last paragraph for appearances of these system names, and only continue if one of them actually appears in the text. This is to avoid situations like a) "buy this blueprint location for X credits" and the mod just shows you the location without paying XD and b) there're multiple mission choices and the program doesn't choose the correct one.