New release and Config help!

[Dragonseraph Angel]

Yes, it is me, returned from years of battling dumptrucks of homework, 3D modelling glitches, and bad textures.

But I never forgot Vegastrike! in fact, I have been whatching and checking the forums on a regular basis.

Sorry. No desert intended.

I have been messing around with Vegastrike again, and I have some questions (the first being very general)

When are we expecting the next release, and what kind of new features will it have? I mean general features, like number of new ships, new weapons/damage types, or better AI. I don't mean to be picky, but I don't really know what an inversified logarithmic procedurized tri-vector refractive photon cubemap rendering system is, so I guess I don't really need to know the details about such things.

And my more technical questions (most have to do with config)...

Is there a way for a NOOB like me to make it so Warp/SPEC does NOT deplete shields?

Why doesn't the keybinding for "SwitchControl" work anymore? I liked being able to fly missiles!

How can one control how gravity affects SPEC? - what I am trying to do is let SPEC get me closer to gravity-wells before shutting off, and make it turn on sooner upon departure.

How does outsystem SPEC work? Can one really travel from system to system using only SPEC?

Is there a way to control the size of the increments for "AccelKey" and "DecelKey"? is it possible to add more accelkeys and decelkeys so that one could change their speed a little bit or a lot? (this may seem like an odd question, but I have been messing with ridiculously fast ships - and one of the problems is that the increments in change of speed, when dealing with such large values, is actually too much for affective combat and docking - of course, if the percentage of maximum was lowered too far, then it would be impossible to get the ship really moving without using "\")

Why don't torpedoes seem to do any damage? (same with a lot of other missiles) I can hit a mule with three, and they hardly notice...

Sorry for not being around (tries to avoid traitorous glares)

[-REBEL3-]

Why don't torpedoes seem to do any damage? (same with a lot of other missiles) I can hit a mule with three, and they hardly notice...

Sorry for not being around (tries to avoid traitorous glares)

Did you kill the PD turrets? Most large craft have them now; they kill incoming missiles. You have to destroy the PD turrets before you torpedo a ship, otherwise, nothing happens.

Sorry for not being around (tries to avoid traitorous glares)

We forgive you (mostly).

[Dragonseraph Angel]

Did you kill the PD turrets? Most large craft have them now; they kill incoming missiles. You have to destroy the PD turrets before you torpedo a ship, otherwise, nothing happens.

Tried again - I took my Goddard and fried both turrets on another mule (mules can only mount 2 right?) then I fired 8 torpedoes at more or less point blank (don't know the exact distance, but I could see the turrets before they exploded) - I saw the blast, so I know they hit, but nothing happened - no damage, no shield loss, just a really mad mule...

We forgive you (mostly).

Maybe if I fry some Luddites everyone will like me again?

After all, I don't have anything to contribute so far, and until now I haven't had any real problems when I tried to hack/mod...

[klauss]

I recall a bug with missiles that makes it very difficult to hit ships (big and small) with them.

In essence, the area of influence of the explosion is too small.

It started happening ever since 0.5, IIRC. I'll add a ticket.

[Dragonseraph Angel]

Well, then, that explains that

But does anyone know about the next release or the config hacks?

[Dragonseraph Angel]

Sorry, I'm not trying to be pushy, but maybe I did not make some of my questions clear.

So I'll start out with the most pressing.

Is there a way to (more or less) easily (I'm not a computer wizz... yet) allow shields to stay up during Spec? On small ships, and Rlaan ships too, it isn't really a problem, they regenerate so fast that after a minute they are back to full, but on big capships, it can take hours, literally, to regenerate the shields to full, so even just a short jump leaves a Capship useless in most combat situations for a really, really long time.

[athomic1]

I doubt you're going to find an easy way to keep shields up during spec. I don't remember what the hand-wavey technobabble says about it, but I think the game physics is pretty firm on this point: enter SPEC, lose shields. They're probably not stable in the SPEC field, or something. I'm sure it's mainly a game balance issue. Makes the player think more strategically if he can't just pop out of SPEC on top of the enemy with full shields ready to go.

Actually, it sounds like you may just have an overloaded reactor. If it's not powerful enough to support your shields, your recharge rate is going to suffer. You want to make sure you match the reactor to the shields, or overmatch them to get the best rate. Keep in mind that weapons also draw reactor power, and plan accordingly. Equivalent capacitors should help you there.

Can you tell us what level equipment you're carrying? What kind of ship, too?

[klauss]

The game purposefully drops shields during SPEC, as a game balancing feature. Otherwise you could easily escape any foe.

But, if you're intent on cheating, we won't stop you :p

Check the config files, you'll find a parameter there that controls the feature.

[Dragonseraph Angel]

It's not just fighters - it's capships that have the problem. They have, comparitively, TINY shield recharge rates, and the amount of time it takes for some to regenerate from zero to to maximum capacity can be measured in hours.

So any SPEC jump of any amount of time leaves a cap out of comission for a really long time.

For instance, the code value (not the in game value, which I would think, is simply a multiplication of the code value) for a Goddard is 200 and the max shield is 1400. On the other hand, the Agisicles, has a recharge of only 40, but a maximum shield capacity is 42000.

Unless there is something I am missing, it is going to take ages longer to regenerate Agisciles shields than a Goddard, but the wierdest thing is how much more Recharge the subcapital Goddard has compared to the capital Agisicles.

Some other recharge speeds

Archimedes: 120

Kahan: 115

Clydesdale: 80

Hawking: 135

Tesla: 150

Watson: 70

Anaxidamus: 100

Yes, the Shundi and the Ruizong both have much higher recharges, but the Rlaan are known for having "flash shields."

The Agesipolis and the Leonidas both have higher recharges as well, but these are both MONSTERS.

Is low capital shield recharge a balancing problem, or is it intentional to AID balancing?

And I cant find the file, klauss

[klauss]

And I cant find the file, klauss

The files? vegastrike.config
The config file.

[Dragonseraph Angel]

I have used that file before, a lot in fact - but It doesn't look anything like the link you showed me - in fact - when opened in Notepad++ the one I have has only 1299 lines - the one in the link has 9251 lines - and my file does not have the "RegenShields" parameter that the linked files shows. The file that I have is definitly different from the one in the link...

[klauss]

No, the link is the code that reads the options. I think the options themselves aren't present in the .config file, and are taking the default values. So you'd have to add them.

[Dragonseraph Angel]

So do I have to copy the whole section (everything under the RegenShield heading) or just the line? Is there a certian place its supposed to go?