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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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| Sweet mother of God! (Patch 1.4) |
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Holy CRAP!
I did my first 1.4 assassination mission.
No problem, says I, chortling at the thought of 2.5 million easy credits. Just jump to sector in my Titan, the Black December, and wait at the gate with cannons primed and ready to say "Welcome to the neighborhood"
Nothing really sporting about that... but money is money and I worked hard for that M2 so I'm going to get more use out of it than 'super sector defender'! (I could have bought enough Centaurs to protect nearly a dozen sectors for the same price tag, after all).
So I jump into the sector and bring up the map... the mark is Teladi which means the prey will be in a slow as sin Vulture protected by a few Buzzards or Falcons. Piece of cake...
Enemy located:
Teladi Osprey (M6)
Teladi Osprey
Teladi Osprey
Teladi Falcon (M3)
Teladi Falcon
THREE CAPITAL SHIPS?
For the uninitiated each Osprey was fully equipped... which meant it had no less than 4 gamma plasma cannons and two beta plasma cannons.
And 375,000 shields. Each.
My Titan has 625,000 itself... and they were critical within 10 seconds of the encounter as the Ospreys, remaining in a tight V-Formation, swept over the bow raking with the front cannons, then the back cannons, ignoring my Titan's firepower (as they have 375,000 shields this is their right).
And they did 150,000 damage to my shields by unleashing a barrage of Hornets at point blank range right into the bridge.
I beat them ... but it was close! Had my shields waivered just a little more or had I dodged a little less (after taking 400,000 damage in 5 seconds you're damned right I was startled into actually fighting) they would have destroyed my M2 in a heartbeat.
Normally I do those missions in a Dragon.... which would be hard pressed to beat ONE Osprey fully equipped... gleep. 
Dangerous world for the high ranking.... but at least I felt like I EARNED that 2.7 million this time.
As for the rest of the patch... ah... so very, very good!
Stations allow you to set a credit limit... when they make more than that much money the excess is transferred to your account. I can sit there and watch my money count up in real time (because something, somewhere in my modest little empire is always selling something).
Combat AI is... better. The ships aren't afraid of you anymore so they fire more than one shot at you before going evasive. They now have a "If I'm going down, YOU'RE going down" mentality... which works well enough in equal ship class battles... and absolutely would murder a M4 vs M3 in a higher-vs-lower dogfight. I can't say they're better at avoiding collisions because one of the Osprey collided with me... but to be fair they're not the most nimble of craft, we were both doing 100+, and my ship is something like 2 game kilometers long. We collided when my targetting info said "1.5 kilometers" seperated us.
Those are the two things I've noticed... I only played a few minutes but I'm eager to get back into it.
_________________
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!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
Fri Jul 16, 2004 11:20 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
Outstanding! 
Just in case people can't get it off the swamped Ego servers, here's some links to a mirror:
AUS: http://files.filefront.com/3414334
EUR: http://files.filefront.com/3414343
USA: http://files.filefront.com/3414342
Patch notes:
Update 1.4 Feature list:
IMPORTANT NOTES:
* There are several versions of this update for different language and country
versions. To make sure you always get the right version of the update, you
have to register on our website using the online registration key of your
product. Registration will also give you access to additional download
content.
* This update requires version 1.2 or 1.3 to be already installed. Only older
Australian and North American (US and Canada) versions can contain versions
below 1.2. All European versions are 1.2 or 1.3 from the start.
* Boron Manta and Teladi Toucan TP ships now have the transport class L and
thus cannot transport XL goods any more. As a compensation all TS ships have
been given more cargo space and maximum speed. If you still have TP ships in
your fleet which carry XL goods (e.g. Ore) you will still be able to sell, move
and eject them in v1.4.
* The first time you load an old 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 savegame, it will have to
be converted. This can take a much longer time than normal loading. This is
only a one time effect. Save again and the loading time will be normal again.
IMPROVEMENTS OVER 1.3:
* Artificial Life Engine: AL plugins add atmosphere and life to the X Universe.
AL settings can be changed in the Options menu. Existing plugins:
- President's End Task Force
- Race Patrol
- TP Liners
* Trading docks and Equipment docks can be bought at shipyards! You can run
them like a factory. Goods are added by moving them to the station. Note that
you can set only one price for each ware.
* The collision avoidance has been improved along with the AI in general.
* Advanced players will be able to capture and pilot Khaak ships.
* Escort ships now have smoother, more consistent speed
* Defend against massive Xenon invasions in a new BBS mission.
* Many new filters and additional information in the "Property Owned" menu, and
you can jump to the Adjust Station Parameters directly by pressing 'D'.
* Suggested minimum product selling price available in the "Adjust Station
Parameters" menu.
* Fewer notifications about enemy attacks on player property.
* Be aware of laser towers! They are much stronger and smarter now.
* Player-owned ships will not leave their homebase jump radius any longer.
* The station information menu now shows you the required resources per
production cycle of your factories.
* The Command Console is available in stations, too. Scripters can create new
station and ship commands, similar to the ship turret commands (no flight
commands).
* Announcements in stations and the eject (Shift+E) confirmation can be
disabled in the Options menu.
* Software (including Best Buys and Best Selling Price Locators), Engine
Tunings, Rudder Optimizations and Cargo Bay Extensions will not be destroyed
any more during fights.
* Police licences will no longer be lost when a 'stray shot' hits a friendly
ship.
BUGFIX:
* FIXED: Several rare crashes
* FIXED: Game could freeze when player died
* FIXED: Using a joystick with a throttle could make the cockpit judder a lot
* FIXED: Memory leak which caused big savegames
* FIXED: Sectors in the galaxy map could have green borders although the player
has no property there.
* FIXED: Various BBS missions updated, specifically no more negative rewards
* FIXED: Some missing goods have been added to several Equipment Docks
* FIXED: Ships could not dock at the Xenon K
* FIXED: H did not open the help menu
* FIXED: Shift-J skipped the jump countdown instead of aborting it
* FIXED: Releasing the Shift key when typing in input menus could cause double
characters
* FIXED: Large ships were not shown correctly in warp tunnels
* FIXED: Using the parameter -noabout messed up copy protection (nevertheless
using -noabout is still not recommended).
* FIXED: The main story could get stuck before the mission in Omicron Lyrae.
* FIXED: Sometimes the gravidar was not shown correctly when starting a new
game or tutorial.
_________________
Editor @ RPGDot |
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Fri Jul 16, 2004 11:40 pm |
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Cm
Sentinel of Light
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 5209
Location: Missouri USA |
Thanks Dhruin, hadn't been able to get to that one all day. And my problem is in there to get fixed. Great. 
_________________
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Member of Worshippers of the Written Word=
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Mark Twain
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Sat Jul 17, 2004 1:38 am |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
It's an excellent patch. Game difficulty and dynamics just went up a few notches. I think most ppl who burnt out on the game will find this latest patch the shot in the arm they need to rekindle lost interest. |
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Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:36 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Definitely.... I was holding off on building a bigger empire because I kept losing track of my ships... now all I have to do is filter out the TS/TP when I want to see what my fighters and capital ships are up to... and all I have to do to display ships I normally use is filter out ships with a homebase.
And to see if any of my transports are taking a coffee break for whatever reason I just filter out ships that have active commands.
Oh, how sweet the filters are. Not as good as some people hoped (as always) but more than fine for my purposes.
Taking out a pirate base is now really brutal to behold. Ships launch faster (within 30 seconds the base had emptied against me...), and the pilots are all super trigger happy. I was using a dragon and every time I slowed down below 200 my shields plunged...
To say nothing of Mr Lasertower, which tracked and fired three times a second at a range of 4 kilometers for the same damage as a GHEPT does. My shields looked like someone was using an Ion Disrupter on them...
_________________
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!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Sat Jul 17, 2004 1:03 pm |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
I did my restart as planned. I'm about half way to picking up Professor Gripe. I expect it's just me, but do the graphics look a little more crisp? I'm running the same settings as before, but things (jumpgates in particular) just look a little sharper and a little more colorful.
My brain knows that they wouldn't have recoded/refined the engine for a patch, but my eyes just aren't convinced. 
_________________
=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sat Jul 17, 2004 7:52 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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They look crisper to me, too.... and it's not just the 'oooh... I had forgotten how pretty the graphics were' effect of not playing X2 for a bit (because I was playing yesterday while waiting for the patch). Even with bumpmaps off (which I use to increase framerate... actually, I prefer the look with bumpmaps off) things look nicer for some reason...
_________________
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!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Sun Jul 18, 2004 12:44 pm |
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Cm
Sentinel of Light
Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 5209
Location: Missouri USA |
I don't know if it is imagination or not, but seems better to me, at least the cut scenes for conversating with people. It fixed my no docking allowed problem so I can finally move on. That is the best part of it for me. Forgot how cool flying around was.
_________________
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Member of Worshippers of the Written Word=
A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
Mark Twain
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Sun Jul 18, 2004 5:25 pm |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
As soon as I have some spare game free time, I'll get back to it, but right now there's no way I can find the time. I'll grab the patch though.
_________________
If God said it, then that settles it!
I don't use Smileys, I use Emoticons!!
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Mon Jul 19, 2004 8:52 am |
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