Space physics and the SPEC drive

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Spaceman
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Space physics and the SPEC drive

Post by Spaceman »

So, I downloaded Vega Strike, and I must say it is quite a fun game! There are a few technical issues (can only run properly in 4:3, on Windows you need to run as administrator, shader settings are kind of patchy, controls are inconsistent, asteroid fields are way higher-poly than anything else, last update was a long time ago) but overall I like the space trading/space combat atmosphere.

One thing I find interesting is the physics configuration. Things seem to slow down as if by friction, you can't really get close enough to a planet to physically land (although I'm sure that feature is on the way), and overall it seems to be set up for combat rather than simple space flight simulation. That is a gameplay choice, and I can accept it for what it is, especially since so many other laws of physics can be violated to improve gameplay. It's better than not being able to break free of a planet's gravitational pull (Orbiter). My favorite feature in terms of space flight in Vega Strike would probably be the SPEC drive. It's nice to be able to fly around and get a good look at things.

However, one thing that bothers me with the SPEC drive is how you can only "lock on" to a destination to be able to go anywhere. Sometimes, I get too close to a star or somebody is chasing me or I want to get a look at something from another angle, and my only propulsion comes from my puny little RCS thrusters and "overdrive". I wish I knew how to make the SPEC drive make me fly in the direction I'm facing rather than off to some arbitrary lock-on point. Does anybody know how I can do that?
loki1950
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Re: Space physics and the SPEC drive

Post by loki1950 »

Welcome aboard Spaceman,the game it's self should not need amdmin right just the setup app as for the resolution issue I have been running at 1920x1080 and have been for several years now with no problems.yeah our updates have been sparse we are down to just a few devs theses days.What controls are missing what do you want to do? The asteroids are high-poly really they have less than 2000 triangles and considering how close you can get to them better that way.

landing on planets is simple as soon as you are in range request landing a big red square appears(same as bases) fly into it and hit D you have landed flying down to the ground is not supported as the required procedural terrain generation is ATM to slow.Have a look how SPEC works it is useless in gravity wells which is why we have that auto SPEC manual Spec is not fun as any gravity well will deform your path and you sometimes end up crashing at several multiples of c.
Have fun if you have any other questions just post.

Enjoy the Choice :)
my box::HP Envy i5-6400 @2Q70GHzx4 8 Gb ram/1 Tb(Win10 64)/3 Tb Mint 19.2/GTX745 4Gb acer S243HL K222HQL
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Spaceman
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Re: Space physics and the SPEC drive

Post by Spaceman »

I spent about an hour and a half composing a response, but I got auto-logged out so it is gone.

So, I will make this reply more brief. In a nutshell, everything I said in my OP still stands as true. Admin rights are needed to run the program (Windows 7 home premium 64-bit), the resolution (1366x768) causes the HUD to be stretched, makes the mouse stick to the left and right edges of the screen, and makes some of the dialogue text mis-aligned, I would be happy to join the dev team if my skills in Blender, JavaScript and BASIC are of any use despite my memory problems, controls are over-abundant and crowd the keyboard (especially a laptop keyboard without a number pad) and the tutorial gives some incorrect key controls, when I get 500 asteroids on screen I'm in lag city, I saw a really awesome planetary landscape video, and I'd rather crash my ship than have to use the SPEC drive in auto-mode. Information on how to turn my SPEC thrusters on or off would be helpful as I cannot find that information in the manual or the users' guide (aside from pressing A or shift-A, because simply turning on my SPEC drive with shift-A doesn't seem to do anything other than make my S icon glow, but I don't move, and I can lock-on and SPEC travel just fine, but I'd like to be able to thrust forward with SPEC).

It's great how people can talk about the game here without any confusion. A lot of closed-source programs aren't like this.

EDIT: OK, so it turns out manual SPEC travel does work, but only when facing in certain directions. For instance, when I aim towards what appears to be a nebula, I no longer get SPEC speed, but when I turn in the opposite direction I'm travelling at light speed. I get the whole gravity wells thing, but the direction you're facing shouldn't matter. Am I missing something here? Bear in mind, I am far away from any planets.
Last edited by Spaceman on Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
loki1950
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Re: Space physics and the SPEC drive

Post by loki1950 »

Your thrusters actually have no effect while in SPEC you are in a field we have been discussing how we might change it just do a search on the forums and join in 8) BTW planets aren't the only unit with gravity wells the bases have SPEC inhibitors that act like wells.We use Python as a scripting language and Blender is my modelling tool preference.You can change the key assignments just open the vegastrike.config file with Notepad++ set the language to XML so that you save a valid XML file on exit the key assignments are at the beginning of the file.If you are getting stretching of the HUD that may mean that it is not setting the proper aspect ratio for your laptop's screen is not one of the pre-sets you might try windowed mode or an other edit of the config file be happy to help you get it right :wink: Yeah lots of stuff on the screen does get laggy :| especially on laptop with limited memory for graphics as usually they use a portion of your normal RAM.Have a look at our wiki lots of how to's and background info there BTW there are two versions of it our old one on the sourceforge severs that is out of date and the on here at vega-strike.org. Catch you latter :mrgreen:

Enjoy the Choice :)
my box::HP Envy i5-6400 @2Q70GHzx4 8 Gb ram/1 Tb(Win10 64)/3 Tb Mint 19.2/GTX745 4Gb acer S243HL K222HQL
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Spaceman
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Re: Space physics and the SPEC drive

Post by Spaceman »

Thanks, loki1950. I will be sure to join in the discussion of spacecraft propulsion. That is an area which can always be improved. As for setting keybindings, I find the current bindings too overwhelming. I can't imagine using all of the functionality so often that a whole keyboard would be necessary. I mean, just roll, pitch, yaw, fire primary, fire secondary, thrust forward, thrust back, warp, pause, select front target, select last target, and interact would be the only commands I could imagine using. Most of it could be consolidated to some menu. I like how in Orbiter I get a nice on-screen dashboard (at least when flying the Delta Glider). There's just so much stuff to do in this game that it is very difficult to learn it all at once, despite efforts to make a "learning curve".
loki1950
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Re: Space physics and the SPEC drive

Post by loki1950 »

BTW there is a keymap in-game just hit the"Esc" key it's semi-transparent so you won't crash while looking for a particular function :shock: You can also edit the saved games with either Notepad++ or Wordpad they are just formatted text files the easiest and most common is giving yourself more cash or a ship not on the player buyable list :wink:

Enjoy the Choice :)
my box::HP Envy i5-6400 @2Q70GHzx4 8 Gb ram/1 Tb(Win10 64)/3 Tb Mint 19.2/GTX745 4Gb acer S243HL K222HQL
Q8200/Asus P5QDLX/8 Gb ram/WD 2Tb 2-500 G HD/GF GT640 2Gb Mint 17.3 64 bit Win 10 32 bit acer and Lenovo ideapad 320-15ARB Win 10/Mint 19.2
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