Demo questions/problems
 

After some technical problems due to my older computers I finally installed the demo and started a game on "easy" level. I even realized after some crashes that there is no collision warning and that in order to shuttle you have to "target" your destination as for attack (which was not so obvious for me, some in game help would be have been really helpful). So I got my first job, which failed because the time limit was reached. Second mission the same thing. Even at full speed I don't see how I can manage to travel through two systems in about 80 days. What do I do wrong??
I wanted to see how combat works in starfury as this will apparently be similar in SE V but I am a little bit lost and frustrated with the starfury demo.
Any help is appreciated.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

First of all, your speed meter isn't red, is it? If it is, you aren't moving at full speed.

Second, the missions are randomly generated, and sometimes they will be impossible with the ship you have now- you'll need better engines.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Thank you for the quick reply Phoenix_D

1.) No, the speed meter is not red.
2.) It is difficult to buy new engines at the beginning without credits. And the failed missions costs you even fines.

Is is possible to change the values for the time limits in the demo?
Do the cheat codes work in the demo?? I tried it without success but on my european keyboard I have to use the "Alt Gr" key to produce the "~" and therefore I am not sure if this was the problem

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

The cheat codes should work in the demo.

Check the system maps before you accept a mission; ussually there are several to different systems, pick the ones going to the closer systems. Preferably one next door.

EDIT: make sure to use your system map, too. I just tested it, and with default engines I can go from Freeport->Genesis->Pakulon->Biktos->Lothon->Styz->freeport in just over 80 days..

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

In the begining you have credits...first thing to do is get as many "Good" engines as you can at that location...you may need to stop enroute to your tgt too....Start over and try again http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

This is weird.
So the trip you describe was done from 2400.00 to 2400.80 (0.01=1day)?? In that time I just get from one side of the freeport system to the opposite!
I checked the movement of other (AI) ships: they seem not to move faster than mine. The maximum speed of my ship is indicated as 500, as expected.
At standard time rate 0.01 stardate (=1day) takes about 10 seconds of real time on my computer (P3, 500Mhz, 256Mb RAM, Matrox Graphics MGA-G200AGP B8R2). So the trip described above takes about 800 seconds real time at standard time rate (1x) and on higher time rate (8x) about 100 seconds.

And I don't get the cheat codes to function, but as mentioned that could be a problem with the country selection of the key boards. The "~" is on my keyboard an "Alt Gr" character on the key "^`" just left of the "Backspace" key. Where is it on the US keyboard?

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Yes, the entire trip was from .00 to .80. I went from the starting point, then to each warp point in turn. No fighting, no delays, just a straight-line Point A to Point B.

The ` key on a US keyboard is just to the left of the 1. Note `, NOT ~. ~ is shift ` and won't work..

EDIT: I timed it and each game day is indeed about 10 seconds, and my ship speed 500.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Thank you for the replies.

So the cheat code would be e.g. `credits` ??
Tried that too, didn't work. I think I give it up. Really not a good idea to use characters that are different on different country keyboards.

Regarding my ship speed problem: could ist be that the ship speeds depends on the graphic card used while the game time/stardate is independent?? I changed the color resolution from high color to true color and the problem got even much worse, while the real time of a day was still 10 seconds.

Starfury is probably just not a game for my hardware.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

It shouldn't make a difference in speeds..though its easy enough to check.

EDIT: yep, that's a bug. I used Turbo to slow my machine down, and I replicated what's happening to you.

It looks like game days tick every 10 seconds, regardless of how slow the on-screen action is going. So if your hardware can't keep things running smoothly, you'll effectively have less time to complete missions..

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Is this in the full version with last patch too??

That would be pretty embarrassing for MM!

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

That's the fully verson I was testing with, yep. Its hard for bugs to get fixed if no one reports them..and no one did.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

yes `credits` do not hit "Enter" ahter the credits but ` again

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

I did that without success. I even added the US keyboard layout to my computer, but again without success.
But I found out that even in the demo you can mod the players ship list and the job list! That did the it for me.
Now I have a lot of time for my jobs and my ship is a "little" bit larger than it used to be and I have enough credits.
Even with theese modifications (cheats if you prefer) and in "easy level" I find it quite hard to survive. What does the difficulty level do actually??
I faced several times three enemy cruiser at once at the "easy level" setting, so in the expert level there will be a fleet of fifty enemy baseships??

Probably I will later buy the game in spite of all the imperfections just as support for MM and Shrapnel (and to be able to switch off the collisions http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif). I hope that the people who work on mods will continue as I do think that Starfury offers quite interesting possibilities. Too bad that the Star Trek mod died.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Starfury in a way gives a lot of possibilities to modders. Also it has some annoying limitations.

And I agree it's a pity that Star Trek mod died especially since I made two ships for it. Oh well, atleast The People's Mod is still going though right now I'm the only one working on it. Last week I re-wrote the entire Main_EnemyAppearances.txt and edited the Main_EnemyGroups.txt. Wasn't so quick and simple as I thought. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

And the cheat codes, most of them didn't work for me either. I mainly just used the jump to another system cheat code to get fast to the other side of the quadrant. Then it got boring and I just flied around New Texas shooting everything.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Its a good idea to avoid larger enemy forces early on. Unless you are very unlucky and they start right next to the warp point you entered, you can usually avoid them.

In my opinion, it would be really silly if there were only frigates flying around when you were lower level, then suddenly cruisers and dreadnoughts appeared just because you gained a few levels...

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

Did you post them somewhere?

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

" faced several times three enemy cruiser at once at the "easy level" setting, so in the expert level there will be a fleet of fifty enemy baseships??"

What the difficulty levels do is modable. In the stock game, as the difficulty goes up, the enemy gets -better- ships, not more of them. They get heavier (a destroyer will have 80% of its normal tonnage on Easy and 140% on Difficult), and they get better resistances.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

I had the two ships in a small campaign where you could fly around with them. I had the campaign zipped and in a webserver which is gone now. I still may have the campaign somewhere on my computer.

Re: Demo questions/problems
 

If you find them please post them. I would be delighted to use them as soon as I get the full game.