Questions - been a long time in Hyperspace in Deepsleep.

[Bonefish]

Hi guys

Ive just come out of Hyperspace, after many many years in deep sleep. I was flying an Asp, and trading near Sol, in the Frontier Universe, when I suddenly found myself with a job, family and house.
Now, I seem to have arrived in a very colorful, complex universe, where I can fly free, trade, and mine again!
But I have some questions. They may appear silly to some of you, but please be paitent - Ive been in Hyperspace for 20 years....

1 - I Cant seem to target stations, which is a pain when I want to autopilot up to one and dock, while I go make a cup of tea or a sandwhich. I tried on manual, but its tedious, and seemed to burn fuel too fast. Can I not target them like other ships?

2 - Is fuel capacity a pain in the start simply due to ship size? otherwise, if fuel is going to keep running low that fast, Im going back into hypersleep or looking for another universe.

3 - Is there a time compression option like in Frontier Elite 2? Forgive the comparison, but it WAS the way of things for many of us for many, many years. Some of you youngsters have NO idea the time some of us have spent in deep space (i mean real deep space) trading narcostics, slaves or guns).

4 - If you accidently discharge your weapon in a space station, is there a way to pay a fine and have done with it, instead of having to reload because all the navy ships outside suddenly want to kill you?

5 - Is there a key to TOGGLE the mouse, rather than just having to hold down ALT, becasue sometimes I find I want to point in a direction and travel using my inertia, but if my mouse gets knocked, my ship goes all over the place.


Hope you can help.
Im sure Ill have more questions, but from what I can see in this forum, even basic questions are given due time.

Thanks
Bones.

Lost in space - 20 years
Ranking - Dangerous
Imperial title - Lord

[MMaggio]

Welcome back Bonefish. You didn't mention which game you are playing. That would help considering there are minor diffs between them.
I'm sure we can answer all your questions then.

[Vice]

If you're playing Evochron Mercenary:

1 - I Cant seem to target stations, which is a pain when I want to autopilot up to one and dock, while I go make a cup of tea or a sandwhich. I tried on manual, but its tedious, and seemed to burn fuel too fast. Can I not target them like other ships?

There are two targeting systems you manage simultaneously, ship targeting and object/navigation targeting. You don't have to give up tracking one for the other and each system provides you with the information needed for each type of object (including range and bearing for objects like stations and planets).

Here are some points discussed in the past on the forum to consider regarding using a ship targeting system for generic 'objects':

- Targeting objects with the ship system forces you to give up tracking the ship for a stationary object. You can't trade with such objects using the trade console, they don't move, they don't change their orientation, you can't harm them, and they don't shoot you. The only real information you need for them is their location and distance, which is already provided for you by the navigation tracking system. And if you want more specific location information you can right click on their icon to lock on to them with a navigation waypoint.

- None of the added information provided by ship tracking would be of much use. If you can track both simultaneously, you can keep track of a ship that may be a threat or cause interference while also tracking an object you want to dock with, such as a station or carrier.

It is pretty common in other games where you must sacrifice ship tracking in order to track such a non-ship object. This game simply lets you keep track of both kinds of objects simultaneously with two separate targeting systems.

2 - Is fuel capacity a pain in the start simply due to ship size? otherwise, if fuel is going to keep running low that fast, Im going back into hypersleep or looking for another universe.

Mostly just due to the size of the tank. You can upgrade that later on. There are also ways to generate/recover your own fuel.

3 - Is there a time compression option like in Frontier Elite 2? Forgive the comparison, but it WAS the way of things for many of us for many, many years. Some of you youngsters have NO idea the time some of us have spent in deep space (i mean real deep space) trading narcostics, slaves or guns).

No, since this is a multiplayer capable game, time short-cutting isn't available and gameplay pace is consistent. Space folding jump drives and jump gates help make up for long distance travel times.

4 - If you accidently discharge your weapon in a space station, is there a way to pay a fine and have done with it, instead of having to reload because all the navy ships outside suddenly want to kill you?

Other civilian ships in the area won't really care if you accidently fire a weapon. If they're hostile, it's because they're already hostile toward you and want to attack. They'll likely call in reinforcements also. Just don't accidently fire weapons near a Navy carrier though. :-)

5 - Is there a key to TOGGLE the mouse, rather than just having to hold down ALT, becasue sometimes I find I want to point in a direction and travel using my inertia, but if my mouse gets knocked, my ship goes all over the place.

Not currently. You can open a console or if you're travelling for a while, disable the mouse flight control mode by switching to the keyboard mode, then switch back when you're ready to fly with the mouse again.

[Bonefish]

Ah, swift replies. Thankyou Gentlemen.
My apologoes, Im playing Evo Mercs. Will be purchasing full game very shortly if it proves to be a worthy successor to Frontier.

1 - excellent. I like that dual system. How though, DO I target a station / object? RMB doesnt seem to work, and I cant seem to force a ship lock on it even if I wanted to.

2 - fuel not such a problem as I thought then. Good. That was so annoying today it was almost a deal breaker.

3 - Time and compression. Yes of course, MP wouldnt allow that. Sahme its not in SP though, and just disabled for MP. But no problem. I can live without that.

4 - Hmmm. I fired my guns whlst in tractor beam dock. Maybe there was a carrier outside.

5 - "disable the mouse flight control mode by switching to the keyboard mode" ah ! that sounds like it would do the trick, but whats the control for this ? key?


A new question.
The demo is timed, but after playing around today, theres no way Ive seen all I need to before I part with hard earned cash. Is there a way to replay the demo?

Thankyou.
Bones.

[49rTbird]

Hello Bonefish, to lock on a station open the nav map, left click then right click near the station you want then zoom in so just that sector is showing then right click with your cursor over the station. That should lock your ship onto that station. It will help if you level your ship before you jump so do that then hit F2 (if you have a jump drive) and your ship should jump to the station and be level with the docking ring. Welcome to the forum and the Sim. See you out there sometime.

[Edited on 12-22-2010 by thetiebers]

[Vice]

1 - excellent. I like that dual system. How though, DO I target a station / object? RMB doesnt seem to work, and I cant seem to force a ship lock on it even if I wanted to.

Open the nav console (F1), then right click on the station's icon. Objects that can be tracked with the navigation system will generally have an icon on the map unless they are cloaked from navigation sensors.

5 - "disable the mouse flight control mode by switching to the keyboard mode" ah ! that sounds like it would do the trick, but whats the control for this ? key?

If I'm understanding your question the default control for the '?' key is reverse engine thrust.

A new question.
The demo is timed, but after playing around today, theres no way Ive seen all I need to before I part with hard earned cash. Is there a way to replay the demo?

Yup, save/backup your pilotX.sw (and sw.cfg for settings) files somewhere to keep your progress, then uninstall the game, delete the \\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary folder, reinstall, restore the files, and launch.

[Bonefish]

thankyou chaps.

Vice - what I meant was, how do I do what you suggested?
"disable the mouse flight control mode by switching to the keyboard mode"

[Vice]

Pause the game (default escape or F9), click on 'Control Mode' until it reads 'Keyboard', then resume.

[Bonefish]

ah I see. thanks. shame theres not a fast shortcut, but thats as good a way for now.

...er.... I cant seem to find those 2 files you mentioned for backing up.
pilotX.sw (and sw.cfg for settings)

Are they in the root of where I installed the game ?

[SeeJay]

Hello and welcome.

The files are in c\\sw3dg\\EvochronMercenary as a default.
The pilot file is pilot0.sw to pilot1.sw ...

Good luck and hope this helps.

[Bonefish]

yes thankyou. found that now.
also found the config file.
Will try this reinstall, and have another go with my new knowledge.

I get the impression the space to play in isnt anything like the size of Frontiers space.
Have I underestimated this ?

[Vice]

I get the impression the space to play in isnt anything like the size of Frontiers space.
Have I underestimated this ?

Not sure of the size of Frontier's universe, but for this game, using some rough math, if you cruised at 1000, it would take you roughly 220-230 days to traverse just one direction across just the -charted- systems of Evochron from one sector range of -5000 to +5000. And you can travel any direction you want, so to explore in a circular pattern across just some of the game's universe could potentially take several years at cruise speed. The actual 'size' of the space you play in is pretty big, even though it is scaled down to accommodate faster paced gameplay and accessibility among players (ie manageable so players can find each other in multiplayer).

[Bonefish]

Yes, I got that mpression. Frontier was the same space as Elite. It was the known Galaxy mapped basically.
And all on an old 1.4 megabyte floppy disc. <sigh> nostalgia eh?....

Just Testing the 'relaunch' of the demo.....

On another note, Im still not able to target any objects or stations. Right clicking on the object - nil. R clicking on the object in nav map - nil, just puts a nav point near the object.

Where am I going wrong?
Should I have patched the demo? Is there one?

[Vice]

Nope, if you're using build 1.198 available from this site, then you're running the latest (1.202 is a test build). When you right click on the nav map, you should see a info box pop up when you hold the mouse pointer over the object. If that isn't appearing, then the pointer may not be directly over the icon. Right clicking should generally only work if you've got an object icon highlighted.

[Marvin]

Also worth noting that the map has both a top-down view (default) and a rear (side) view. If the station you're trying to target is above or below you, you'll need to switch over to the rear view to set the Y axis.

It's also worth noting that hyperspace gates aren't in the game as the one and only means of loading a new map ... of moving from one star system to another. The star systems are, in fact, all connected ... by one, gigantic map. But don't be fooled ... EM space isn't empty. Not by a long shot. It's very, very big ... and a lot of it is unexplored.

[Edited on 12-23-2010 by Marvin]