Docking with planets/Planets in general.

[loki1950]

That's there front page not the games page besides they might like some of the other offerings as well.As the site is a good Ubuntu resource for updated versions of lots of apps not just games so why not promote it

Enjoy the Choice

[MC707]

Yeah I guess that sounds fair I was checking GetDeb right now and they got some really nice apps. Might try a video screen capture program and post a VS experience on youtube! Incidentally, you know a good software that is similar to Windows Movie Maker for Linux that is free and (better yet) open source?

[Squalid Blaze]

Hello folks. I'm new to vega strike, and love the way it looks and the idea of it. I'd been working through the tutorial on the wiki and had got to the full of fuel and metals stage headed back to broadway. Where I got stuck. Having read about gravity wells I then tried it again, flying by the planet in order to turn and come in on the dark side ...same problem. In the time it has taken me to regester, search to see if my question was posted elsewhere and write this I've moved from 5000 from Broadway to 4903 and, I've just noticed on looking at the game window just now the four units of fuel I had on arriveing have all gone. From what I've read above the slowness in planetry docking seems to be a feature of the game but if one runs out of fuel in the process how can I dock at all? Sorry strike that, I seem to have opened another can of the stuff and used another 1.5 units of it getting to 4715, brought four .....yeah enough. Looks like this post is just saying hello but I do have a comment. As someone who got addicted to space games via elite I doubt I have the patience or time for any more planetry runs unless there is some faster way of doing it( if there is please tell me as the game looks fantastic and the ship, bar this bit, handles smoothly ), in something like Elite or Oolite I'd have made dozens of trips by now. Is there some sort of "stardreamer" type mod I could put in: accelerate game time untill something happens so it takes less real time to play? I'm now at 4407 and have just timed it 1 closer per 3 real seconds ....220 minets! Could it be a bug, I'm running the version from the repsitories for Ubuntu 9.04.

[loki1950]

Welcome aboard Squalid Blaze which version did you download if it's the 0.5 stable there is an auto-pilot that cuts out about 80 Km above any planet then it's an easy cruse to the docking points.But from your description i think you have the previous version 0.4.3 that is years old about the time i joined the forum actually

Enjoy the Choice

[Squalid Blaze]

Thanks for the very fast response. I've removed the old version and am downloading the new one now. This does look like a superb game, I suppose ever since elite I've wanted something like it but souped up in a populated noctis style universe. From what I've read all three games are procedurely generated so maybe this is it. Even if it isn't I like it so far, and expect to play it. Thanks to all you open source people for making it.

[Squalid Blaze]

Thanks for your help loki1950 I downloaded the intrepid version of the game and data and despite being on jaunty it seems to have worked a treat. I don't get docking squares on the planet as I did on the mining colony and thought I was stuck again but when I pressed d it worked, I don't know enough about this game to know if that is standard or not. I've read the comments about the hud above and like the idea. One could also borrow from architecture in which they use the stylised image of an arrow. A circle with a cross in the middle is used to sybolise down or away and a circle with a dot in the middle represents up or towards. If these were used to indicate ship orientation in one colour and heading in another ( on the radar spheres ) it should be clear, perhaps the marks could change colour when perfectly alligned. The dots and crosses would disapear to indicate stationary. One could also put some numeric output somewhere else on the screen in matching colours. Adding some of the shaft of the arrow between the two could be used as a rough visual guide, lenth of shaft being proportional to velocity, or perhaps only the half of the shaft from the ship which points in the direction of travel. If that worked one could loose half the dots as one can only move in one direction at a time anyway. Maybe too cluttered as a permainant feature but as a turn on and off again function of some scanner could be useful, if it was a switchable thing one could even get away with adding another arrow for target destination.

[loki1950]

, if it was a switchable thing one could even get away with adding another arrow for target destination.

There is a separate target arrow available it's turned off ATM like your idea for the HUD sprite ace123 has done something but it only works for those that use the mouse for control the shape of the cursor deforms being a circle only when all vectors align with your direction of travel it is not that noticeable and most players are not aware of it so there are some hooks in the code that are usable for providing info for the sprite you propose.Just a matter of designing the sprite and figuring out the ties to the code to animate it and where to place it.Put a quick drawing together and post it to the Artwork and Content Vetting forum lets get the art side done first as that is what will be seen.Glad the Intrepid version works on Jaunty i was worried that that it would not as IIRC it is using gcc 4.4 for building all it's packages there are some new wrinkles it brings so i will update my sticky for Ubuntu users

Enjoy the Choice

[Squalid Blaze]

I don't recomend putting a sticky in just on the basis of my imput, so far all I've done is go to the mineing colony and back to Broadway. Oh and tried a mission to deliver a couple of crates to the bernards star system but crashed, me not the game, when trying to dock too fast. So I haven't used anything but the basic equipment plus a jump drive. Haven't even been in combat or online yet On Jaunty ( amd 64 bit ) all that part seemed to work but I don't have a clue about the rest of it.

As to the sprite...wow...Talk about open to new ideas. Brilliant. I know nothing of code, the last time I did any programing it was spectrum basic, and later on had just enough knowlage of dos to survive, I'm still trying to come to terms with the console and after that may have a crack at python. I did see the elipse/circle shape change but didn't know what it meant so this could be redundent but I'd like to contribute something so will fiddle with gimp and try to produce some pics. Don't expect too much though, words are my thing really. It's Sunday evening here which means I won't be able to get on with it untill next weekend, if it turns out ok I'll post sometime after that.

[loki1950]

Inkscape may be useful as well it's vector not raster based.Spectrum Basic the 8-bit classics i go back further to Fortran,Cobol and various assembly languages on a couple different architectures but my last coding was in 8-bit so still wrapping my head around OOP also will be trying to pick up Python myself as it will be handy for campaign scripting.BTW there is a hidden forum for campaign development.

Enjoy the Choice

[Hern]

Another solution. I usually manually target my destination (if in the same system) and accelerate directly towards it with thrusters until I am clear of the base use the rear view to make sure and autopilot should not deviate from the course to your station( this keeps you from gaining inertia off-course when you arrive) and then spec directly towards my destination. 'ctrl 0' to show docking ports, and with a 4000% mass llama, i tap 'a' after i finish specing until I am 25 km from my destination then quickly full reverse thrusters and point the ship at the external docking ring on the nose of the station. Should allow you to slow to about 100kph which is ok when hitting an external dock on a many of the bases and hit 'd' to dock when you get to the ring.

[loki1950]

BTW all the numbers on screen are in MKS format so velocity is meters/sec not Km/hr m/sec is useful up close like oh no i got 10 seconds till i hit that base

Enjoy the Choice

[Squalid Blaze]

I had a crack at doing some images but they were not worth posting. I have posted the idea though, and a couple of others with what may be 9.04 bugs, in "Artwork & Content Vetting" which I hope is the right place.