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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
Okay, I tried the tutorials, lesson 1:
The steering tutorial does not work with version 1.3 when exiting the main menu I got dumped to the desk top *grrr*. Is the rest of the game going to be this buggy? What else doesn't work?
Okay after 5 attempts to get it to run I know what I have to do .... reinstall.
Basic steering tutorial almost complete, but i have to change ships. Where is the new ship? ♪Where oh where could it be?♪ Return to starting ship and hunt around. Oh. THERE it is. Was it there before? Dunno. Try again. Where did the bloody thing go THIS time??? Okay get back into ship, dirve over to within 100m of new ship. Now eject. A few seconds later I find myself safe at last in my new ship. But look at the time!! After a reinstall and some other messing around, my budgeted 1 hr of playing time is up. Drat.
Initial impressions - Wow! Big! Looks cool, but man o man there is a lot going on here. And the mouse/keys trying to behave like a joystick (move up to go down) is VERY upsetting after FL.
Questions for the experienced:
1. Should I use the mouse, keyboard or dust off my joystick, for steering?
2. How useful it that radar like thingy? Should I pay any attention at all to it?
3. Is there a comprehensive list of keyboard short cuts?
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 12:55 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
I've never done the tutorials but it is a complex game, so I hear you!  Personally, I've never had a crash or found any show-stopper bugs but I'm sure different players get different mileage.
1. I use a joystick now but I started with the keyboard, which was OK. The mouse sucks.
2. I find the radar useful but you can certainly get by without worrying about it most of the time.
3. My Australian manual did a fair job of keyboard shortcuts but a few key things are mssing. Press 'h' in-game for a list and ask here, otherwise.
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 1:05 pm |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
The first one or two tutorials have some value, but they are not well designed. After that, they are badly broken, so give them a miss. The learning curve is steep, but now I fly through a whole series of commands without much thought. One hour!! Ludicrous. This game is a complete time sink.
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 1:32 pm |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
quote:
Originally posted by corwin
The first one or two tutorials have some value, but they are not well designed. After that, they are badly broken, so give them a miss. The learning curve is steep, but now I fly through a whole series of commands without much thought. One hour!! Ludicrous. This game is a complete time sink.
Come on man, I've got house guests! I had enough trouble getting an hour in ... even then it cut into my sleep!!
But I started to get the impression that you guys are right, the key board short cuts are the way to go.
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 1:37 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Keyboard all the way for me. The mouse is pretty crappy ... some swear by it but I've tried it a few times and have never been pleased with the performance.
Shortcuts are the way to handle most of the game...
And as for the up is down and down is up thing... shame on you! Shame!  The first thing I did in Freelancer was make sure the steering was inverted (the second was to map the Cruise drive to 'W').
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"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 1:56 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
| Re: Cadet Lintra trys out X2 |
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quote:
Originally posted by Lintra
1. Should I use the mouse, keyboard or dust off my joystick, for steering?
2. How useful it that radar like thingy? Should I pay any attention at all to it?
3. Is there a comprehensive list of keyboard short cuts?
First off, I've had no problems with bugs of any type, although I've heard of several people that did have issues. Most of those "incompatibility-kinda-things" seemed to crop up with v1.3. They made some significant changes with v1.3, and perhaps a few of them aren't going well for certain gamers. Second, the tutorials don't have much to offer. I did complete the first one, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Open your manual to the page of keyboard shortcuts and jump right in. You might get the urge for a restart after a couple hours of learning, but that's not a huge crisis. Now for your questions
1) I don't have a joystick, so I can't speak to its usefulness. In the beginning, I used the mouse a lot. Gradually, I moved toward keyboard only. Most recently, I've started using the mouse a bit more- steering with the mouse is more precise. I'd recommend a keyboard-only mentality to begin the game and then incorporate the mouse as you see fit.
2) There are a few times when that radar is important, but most of the time the sector map is far more useful (and certainly easier to work with).
3) The only complete list would be going into your options panel where the keyboard can be remapped. Since I recommend on-the-job training, start with the shortcuts in the manual and go from there. Throwing a complete list at a rookie would be counterproductive, IMO. Get comfy with the basic commands and add to your repertoire as situations merit.
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 2:10 pm |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
Three weeks later Trader Lintra gets back to the game ...
Gave up on solving the squash mines for a while. It began to sound too much like work, and anyway I wanted to try my hand at running a factory. So I saved up around 420k, and bought one. I then quickly realized that I should've saved just a tad more, as I bought an expensive Boron solar plant. I thought about loading the save game, trucking over to Argon prime and getting a cheaper one, but figured, what the heck, if it cost more it has to be better, right?
My little empire now conisist of 2 Mercuries (don't ask why the second, mental hiccup), 1 Express, the Discoverer command ship (The Head Banger - from all the frustration I've experienced figuring out the game controls), a Solar PP and 6 nav satillites - dunno about these as they cost 6k apiece, but they allow me to issue remote purchase orders for ships and to check prices - so I guess they might pay off (as long as they stay around for a while).
It took about 4 hours last night, but I finally have things running somewhat smoothly. I am annoyed that the jump radius is the same for buying and selling, and my factory turns out energy cells slightly faster than my 2 transports can unload them when restricted to jump 0 ... which is okay, since the crystal supply is shakey at best ... but it means that I have to manually run the crystal purchasing - not too bad with only one plant, but this stuff should be automated!!
Anyway I am now at the point where I can start thinking of saving money instead just spend, spend, spend and hope the bill collectors don't come knocking when my ships are sitting idle waiting for the next load of crystals to come in.
Questions:
1. Is there anyway to tell a transport not to take off until fully loaded?
2. I asked elsewhere, but no harm in repeating questions *grin*: Is there any way to check out a ships specs BEFORE purchasing it?
3. Where do I find 5MW or 25MW shields? All my little TPs are running around with 1 MW shields and feel rather naked.
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Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:05 pm |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
Q1 No idea
Q2 I've answered elsewhere 
Q3 Try the Teladi and the Paranid
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Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:15 pm |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
Thanks corwin. Now I figure this is possible, but given the games track record so far ...
Can I buy say 20 shields, load them on a TP, send the TP back to my home base and then transfer the shields, or am I stuck only being able to schlep around the number that can be installed on one ship?
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Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:19 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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You can put as many weapons and shields on a ship as you can fit. I have a maximum hold Dolphin in Depths of Silence which stockpiles Beta and Gamma PPC and 125 MW shields as fast as they come in. It has a jump drive so provided it dosn't destroy itself undocking (reload) it can jump to any place I make a capital ship purchase and transfer the equipment.
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"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
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Thu Apr 29, 2004 1:38 pm |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
Ah ... my fist Nova the Vengence has been commisioned! Oh what a great feeling of security to go mining with THAT powerhouse running escort.
So far, I've only got 30MW of shielding up ... but soon I'll find a reliable source of 25 MW shields (I got two when I bought my Teladi Vulture L for mining).
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Mon May 03, 2004 1:24 pm |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
I love the Nova!! With fully loaded shields, you feel you can tackle anything. Well, to a point you can, certainly no ordinary Pirate stands a chance. Actually, I've taken out several all at once and I'm a hopeless fighter pilot. Load up on decent weapons and go harvesting for fun and profit. You won't regret it.
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If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
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Mon May 03, 2004 1:50 pm |
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Lintra
Elf Friend
Joined: 23 Apr 2002
Posts: 9448
Location: Bermuda, the triangle place with SANDY BEACHES |
So far, I've left the pirates alone. The next step in the story line is to kill pirates to make the Paranid more friendly .. but I figure that doing that will put the pirates on attack mode everywhere, and right now most of my Mantas only have 1 or 2 1MW shields (I think 4 of them have 6).
So until I make the capital expenditure of roughly 8x40k = 320k and spend the time retro fitting the new shields to all the old ships (not all that fun and definately time consuming ... BTW, can you do a remote cargo exchange? or do you have to be physically present to pull one off?) and will only result in having 6MW of shielding on each TP.
It seems like a pretty stiff investment at this point for a small amount of protection. But then the 25MW shields cost 183k each. Dunno how much protection these Mantas need. Each costs roughly 200k after upgrades, with minimal shields, so if I stick a 25MW shield on them, their sticker price jumps to amost 400k, and the cost of conveting the fleet is then pretty high @ 12x185 = 2,200k.
Of course, each NEW Manta comes with 2x5MW which quickly gets converted to 1x5MW as I share the wealth ... but I haven't bought a Manta recently (though I intend to order two shortly to support my mining expidition ... but first I have to stockpile the 500k or so that it will cost for those two ships ... but I figure they'll pay for themselves in short order, and when I get tired of mining I can buy another SPP and put them to work selling the energy).
Okay, I guess this generates a question for you more experienced players out there ... how much shielding should I put on my TPs? Is the 25 overkill (assuming, of course, that I can find them for sale), or is 6 or so just fine?
AG! I got sidetracked with my sheilding speculation!!! I wanted to write up that my first dog fight with a "Unidentified Ship" (read as Khaak?) went as follows:
I decide I have no idea what to do and so I turn the fight over to the computer. After about five minutes of asking myself "Why isn't my ship shooting???" I mashed the u button and took over. Needless to say my poor Vengence was twirling madly about as I learned how she responded, but the Khaak was very accomodating and kept making these suicide runs at me. Very quickly, the inevetible occured and I scored a ton of hits, and *poof* no more Khaak. "You have been promoted" I was informed. Cool!
Second fight was a little bit cleaner, and I am actually looking forward to a rematch. The only thing that leave me somewhat disappointed in my Nova (the Vengence) is the poor speed. Anyway, the next time I get to play after dark (too much light in the PCs room to dog fight effectively after about 1:00PM), I am gonna go Khaak hunting ... unless I get sidetracked mining.
So much to do!!!
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Mon May 03, 2004 2:28 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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25k shields makes the transports Khaak M5 proof... as long as there's not too many.
50k can handle half dozen long enough to run.
75k will let them survive being attacked by a khaak M3... most of the time.
less than 25k = you'll end up replacing that ship.
HOWEVER.
It is almost as cheap to buy a new Manta as it is to buy a single hard to find 25k shield. To me it was a question of "Pay for questionable protection or get a new ship." and the answer was typically New Ship.
Now it's different, of course. Being filthy rich I replace all destroyed ships with class L.
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Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
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=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Tue May 04, 2004 3:02 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
Regular Mantas (factory tenders and such) get 5MWs while MkIII Mantas (autotraders) get 25MWs. IMO, of course, and assuming you've got the money laying around.
1- you CAN do a remote cargo exchange
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Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Tue May 18, 2004 5:00 am |
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