Some comments on the demo and StarFury

[TrYoseph]

I have never seen any game of this genre before that has ramming implimented like this. BTW, I'm using the keyboard to control my ship, and the mouse to click the fire button. The ships move completely erraticly; a cruiser will suddendly stop on a dime and ram into my side, and the fighters are even worse. They seem to want to hit you. What is this, WWII in space, with Kamakazi pilots?

I realize its a demo, but if the AI problems aren't found in the full game, could someone post to that effect? At this point I can't see it being worth my 40-45 (including the shipping) bucks untill the ramming and balance issues are fixed.

And while mods are nice, I buy games because they work and are good now - not because someone else in effect makes a NEW GAME off of the engine.

Colonel Yoseph

[Captain Kwok]

If you can be a bit more specific with some of the other balance issues you've encountered, then I might be able to provide some more insight.

Perhaps a ships could employ the over/under collision avoidance unless some sort of 'ram order' was issued. This may be the best solution in my opinion.

Edit:

I've posted a comment with my suggestion to improve the current system in the beta forum. I'll let you know what becomes of it.

[ September 24, 2003, 06:18: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[TrYoseph]

Well, the issue of the low level missions being to take your crappy, low level destoryer out, and go frag 3 pirates, 1 of which is a cruiser, 2 of which are destoryers, and they're outfitted with weapons that bLast your shield, armor, and the entire side they hit to dust.

Also, the issue of friendly ships turning on you for no apparently reasons. I jumped into a sector, into like 6 pirate ships; (Freeport), and lured them back to freeport station.

The station started shooting at them, as did I, then the station turned on me and fragged me.

I already figured ou the station frags you if you pick up cirtain items, but I hadn't picked up any when that happened.

Colonel Yoseph

[Phoenix-D]

I think the solution for that is don't take those missions yet. There -are- easier ones (like the solo hits, and planet scans)

As far as I can tell, you're offered the same selection if you're the newbie in a tin can, or death to whoever thinks about looking at you funny.

EDIT: The station issue is harder. Only thing I can think of is you hit it accidently, because I did the same thing and it didn't shoot me. Either that or a bug..

[ September 24, 2003, 06:30: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[TrYoseph]

Ok, but a solo hit nets you 8K or so, while a 3 hit against uberbadass ships nets you....12-14K?
Maybe its just this demo or something.

Anyone who has the real game care to enlighten me on that?

Colonel Yoseph

(BTW: I tested that station thing again with a saved game, had the exact same thing happen, but I think I did accidently hit the station with a torpedo. Here's the thing though - one hit and the station turns on you? That's kinda nasty.)

[Captain Kwok]

Like I mentioned earlier, before you set out it might be a good idea to earn some extra money doing other things to build up your ship a bit. The demo is limited in this regard, but the full game has a lot more planets and I think better balanced mission rewards. A good strategy is, if possible, get behind the larger ships and pound away and be sure to pick up their cargo once you destroy them. Remember to repair the damage cargo items before applying them to your ship or selling them.

Since you didn't pick up any illegal cargo that you know of (most common friendly-fire reason), it might be that you've accidently struck the starbase or one of the surrounding satellites with a weapon hit. If it's just once, I think you can just move outside of their weapons range and then back and it should be ok, or quickly dock at the station - I think that works too but I don't often hit friendlies by mistake.

[Captain Kwok]

Another quick note before I depart for bed:

You can use 1-4 to fire weapons from the keyboard too. I usually use the mouse for left-right turning only.