Vega Strike Forums

Just downloaded the game, took a peek at the gameplay, barely started reading the Manual but have question:

Is it "fulfilling" being just a trader in VegaStrike--obviously, a trader with the ability to defend themselves--but just a trader...

The word "fulfilling" can be replaced with "fun" or "worthwhile" or "insane"

fun, worthwhile, and deffinately insane.

Vegastrike has its quirks, the main quirk being that some of those who designed the game were leaning toward space SIM in the realistic sense so traveling can become a chore sometimes. Its gotten better using SPEC though. In the next release or two I will be giving players the option between realism mand something more like what Privateer used. Hit auto and 3 seconds later you arrive at your destination.

If Vegastrike seems a little overwhelming you can always try out Privateer Gemini Gold, a puritan release that follows the original Privateer game as closely as possible or Privateer Parallel Universe which is based on the original Privateer but expands gameplay and the universe. Both are mods of vegastrike and use the vegastrike engine. So, if vegastrike becomes information overload try one of the Privateer mods until you get comfortable with the way the engine runs then graduate up to Vegastrike: Upon the Coldest Sea.

Either way you go if you run across a bug, post in the forum and on the bug tracker

pheonixstorm wrote:fun, worthwhile, and deffinately insane.

I think I like the version I'm using--don't need to dumb it down

I just tried launching and redocking -- Whoot !!

I finally got inside the "hanger" and slowly, grindingly came to a bumping stop and crawled back into the station--Whew

I personally quite like this part of the gameplay the most currently (trading that is). And where you now have to carefully pilot your ship into the docking bay of the barracks for instance, that to me is fun. Would be better with a joystick and working thruster sounds but for now I can use my imagination lol.
Pretty cool.
I can see it not being for everyone but for me I tend to load up some cargo, set off into space in SPEC and then turn my attention to something else outside of the game (usually coding or other nerdy passtimes while listening to jazz) until I see the ship approaching the destination. Then I'll jump back on the controls and land etc. The way I see it is it makes the game more realistic. if I was actually in space I'd totally be throwing on autopilot and relaxing in the back during the trip, sipping space wine and listening (rlaan?) jazz.

Although this brings a new feature request to mind: Maybe having some audible ping sound when the SPEC is about to disengage when approaching the locked destination. hmmmm.

Good times.

segfault wrote:I personally quite like this part of the gameplay the most currently (trading that is). And where you now have to carefully pilot your ship into the docking bay of the barracks for instance, that to me is fun.

Absolutely

segfault wrote:Would be better with a joystick and working thruster sounds but for now I can use my imagination lol.

Imagination is King

segfault wrote:I tend to load up some cargo, set off into space in SPEC and then turn my attention to something else outside of the game (usually coding or other nerdy passtimes while listening to jazz) until I see the ship approaching the destination.... if I was actually in space I'd totally be throwing on autopilot and relaxing in the back during the trip, sipping space wine and listening (rlaan?) jazz.

Yep, I used to do the same thing in my Airplane Flight Simulator

segfault wrote:Although this brings a new feature request to mind: Maybe having some audible ping sound when the SPEC is about to disengage when approaching the locked destination. hmmmm.

Great idea !!

Code is there for sounds for SPEC I have them turned on on mine! And I play just the standalone SVN not even the compile-it-yourself one. There is a catch though: it keys of of autopilot available. I can double check the specifics and post an error if there are the man-hours available to hunt this one down. As for fun as a trader, yep! That's how I play, three ships nearly half a mill at the moment (and building) with a zero kill score. (Well OK, I do run some patrols too usually in-system or on my way to the next place I want to do some runs.) Launch, find the destination, hit autopilot, fold laundry(fix a snack, clean, whatever) while waiting, do the next thing. Sometimes I'd like the ship to automatically jump too then pick the next destination (jump-pick until the mission destination or target system picked in the nav computer is reached) It gets really bad when you get a mule or ox. If all the "pilot" needs to do is be a monkey flipping a switch, give me one switch to flip.

--There is stuff in the works to give you more you can do while in space.--

travists wrote:As for fun as a trader, yep! That's how I play, three ships nearly half a mill at the moment (and building) with a zero kill score.

Alright!!

Is that "half a mill" what the ships cost or the profit you made?

travists wrote:--There is stuff in the works to give you more you can do while in space.--

Lookin' forward to that

half mill as in what's in the bank!! + similar amount invested in each ship, at least 250,000+ ship cost cr. For some reason oceanic planets like the stone, metals, and gold from mining bases. A lot! You can make a fortune and never leave cephead 17 or whatever it is you start in.

Yes what stuff is this you speak of? Is it trader specific?
Is it posted in the wiki?

You can also make a hug profit off of the various crystals as well. I think the buy price is around 1k and the sell price is close to 1.6k for one of em.

I'm not at my home computer right now, I can post a list of my favs later if you would like. They should all have wiki entries, but look through everything for sale in the trade room of the mining base (everywhere you go really) Cargo runs are nice, but you make more on your own than through missions.

travists wrote:For some reason oceanic planets like the stone, metals, and gold from mining bases. A lot! You can make a fortune and never leave cephead 17 or whatever it is you start in.

Great tip---Thanks !!

travists wrote:...look through everything for sale in the trade room of the mining base (everywhere you go really) Cargo runs are nice, but you make more on your own than through missions.

Another great tip

Hey, us free traders need to stick together.

hey,

I've started VS just a couple of days ago, and kinda upset atm.

I see a ton of goods at different stations, but all those now look quite pointless to trade b/c there are PI Wetware for instance - I have about 4k per traded unit in a system that is neighbor to the starting one... so what's the point in all those ores, home appliances, gases etc? And why do I want to fly "missions" when I can make a short in-system trip to score like 100k with PI Wetware?

Mostly because the game needs to be better balanced. Deeper into the game there are trade goods that will get you far more bang for your buck that those I do believe.

You may want to read this post, but in a nutshell at some point commodity needs and production are going to make sense, and in-system runs won't make as much as longer ones. Missions are great for a trader if you want to check out somewhere new, but it is rather pointless.

"Mostly because the game needs to be better balanced" Most definitely!!

While on the subject of irks and evidence of the unbalanced nature of the game, why do oceanic planets have such high prices for fresh water? Power is no issue so, uh, ever hear of distillation and/or desalinization?

@travists

desalinization can and normally is rather costly to do. Both in terms of equipment as well as energy cost. Heres something from wikipedia:

Large-scale desalination typically uses extremely large amounts of energy as well as specialized, expensive infrastructure, making it very costly compared to the use of fresh water from rivers or groundwater... Israel is now desalinating water at a cost of US$0.53 per cubic meter. Singapore is desalinating water for US$0.49 per cubic meter.

Thats about $2.75 per 1,000 gallons or close to it. But, most household use a fair bit of water per month. So you need far more than that to satisfy demand. The problem with the cost figures I quoted is it didn't say *WHAT* they included in the cost.. is that all on the hardware side, does that include other overhead and labor?? Does that include the cost of the electricity used??

I guess my main objection is that water costs more on an ocean world than a desert one! Whatever method of energy production is used, there is likely more than enough waste heat to boil large quantities of water for use. (Steam distillation) But then, I think at this point only a rather basic "what would this kind of planet/base produce and what do they consume and in what quantities" has been done IE no ships at a ship yard, fighter bases having nearly no military surplus, factories don't need many resources, etc.

yeah, theres a lot that needs fixin in the trade section... maybe it can get squeezed into the beta 2 release. Oh too much work for me... *cry*

Well, I've already got a weapons inconsistency list going (wiki mention w/ no game use, game use w/ no wiki, in Master Parts list but not units and vies versa, etc) Care for a potential production use list?

go for it

pheonixstorm wrote:yeah, theres a lot that needs fixin in the trade section... maybe it can get squeezed into the beta 2 release. Oh too much work for me... *cry*

Hello,
I play VS for about 6-10 years in different releases, now on opensuse
I think "trade" is absolute Underdevelloped. eg search in wiki for 'trade' to find there is no page about 'trade' itself, although its one of the primairy pilars of VS.
instead you are diverted to 'cargo' which technically is treated as a 'hardware-feature', the cargo it self.

Yet you NEED to trade before you can buy better weapons,ships etc.
SO, what I mis in 'trade' is actually the 'trade-index-computer'
+ its an implantable object, so buy it somewhere
+ its a type of scanner/communication, thats the section to look for it, i assume.
+ it has severall grades/luxeries, upgrades that is, eg 'interstellar-trade-indexing'
+ it works like a simple spreadsheet with a few default calculations and comparements
+ it remembers buying cost and recalculates from buying-cost perspective
- everything comes with a price ...

I think most variables info is available already, like the given pricelist are defaulted for types of planets and satelite-objects.
Its just tagged/flagged to "ON" when clicked while being in the trade-centre and then its shown.
The 'trade-index-file' wil just do that, set item tags to "show"

From the trade-price-list its easy to see the higest price, but
on which palce are you?
the major location only describes the place, but does NOT give a name,
"mine-astroide" but not " Serenity, mine-astroide"
If the location "here" in the LIST was coloured in GREEN and the highest price in BRIGHT
that would be a very nice help already
Then only the "bought for" variable has to be introduced and just remembered and printed aslong as the cargo-item is in cargo, which is a list for it self...
its where to keep the buying-price stored, i assume.

CrisiusXIII wrote: SO, what I mis in 'trade' is actually the 'trade-index-computer'
+ its an implantable object, so buy it somewhere

A page on your pad would do.

CrisiusXIII wrote: + its a type of scanner/communication, thats the section to look for it, i assume.
+ it has severall grades/luxeries, upgrades that is, eg 'interstellar-trade-indexing'
+ it works like a simple spreadsheet with a few default calculations and comparements
+ it remembers buying cost and recalculates from buying-cost perspective
- everything comes with a price ...

It could be tied with nav computer, with higher functions used in terms of trade routes.
Of course, VS doesn't have infinite shops, so...

CrisiusXIII wrote:From the trade-price-list its easy to see the higest price, but
on which palce are you?
the major location only describes the place, but does NOT give a name,
"mine-astroide" but not " Serenity, mine-astroide"

True, but that's also how the prices are generated.