Some questions

[ponssebas]

First of all, thank you for VegaStrike. It brings memories of old privateer battles.... and now for my problems in short;
1.- In my machine the graphics are way too dark (win XP). Is there a way to lighten them, maybe gamma settings somewhere?.

2.- when coming out of "warp", approaching a Jump point or a station, the object kind of drifts. I found out that is because of my speed, and it fixes itself after reaching zero.
Is there a way to quickly reduce the ship speed, like a reverse thrusters? Or maybe there is something wrong in my setup.

3.- When attacked by other ships I can't maneuver out of trouble, or towards the trouble because the above mentioned problem. I end up going in circles and being a sitting duck!

I'll be very grateful for any answer that helps me ....

sebaspons

[CLoneWolf]

I don't know how to solve your problem #1, so wait for simpler answers before fiddling with this, but in the vegastrike.config I've just found this section

<section name="absolute">
<!-- absolute colors -->

containing this bit that might be relevant:

<!-- set this to dark-blue to get the real spacey feeling -->
<color name="space_background" ref="black" section="absolute"/>

If this is the ambient light, giving it a non-black colour should brighten things a bit, but I haven't tried it myself so beware


As for point #2, you're right about drifting, but it's your ship, not your target
Coming out of spec, you retain the speed you had when you started it, included the direction; in fact, if you start spec when your ship has no speed, as soon as you get out of spec you won't see the drifting effect anymore.

But your question still stands, as sometimes you're under threat, so you can't stop first and then spec.
Reverse thrusters... Yes, existing and working, check your vegastrike.config file for the DecelKey command to see what key is bounded to it, probably "-"; IIRC if you use it while not moving, it will send you to a slight negative speed.
But, as you'd expect, it's far weaker than the main thruster; so, the quickest stop you can do is a 180 degree turn and then max thrust.

You'll find that having an Overdrive will greatly help; actually, with nimble and lightly/not loaded ships you might not even need to stop first, as you learn to nullify the drift during the approach with a 90 turn opposing the drift. Say you're drifting down, you point your nose up and go full speed (and afterburn if you got an Overdrive)

Don't worry if you can't afford the best Overdrive at first; even a level 1 will change your ship's agility a lot, especially when you're heavily loaded with cargo.

That also impacts on your problem #3; there will still be trouble out there, but a good Overdrive can help not only fleeing, but changing fighting style; if you can build distance, you can fight in chivalrous head-to-head passes, or keep the distance and exploit longer range weapons, hitting while you can't be hit, or anything else you can think of once you're not locked into circling.

Happy striking!

[ponssebas]

Thank you Clonewolf for your answer.
For your first suggestion, I'll wait for somebody, maybe a dev, who is sure about the darkness of the graphics. I'm sure there is a way to lighten the display so I can see my enemies in stead of the bolts coming my direction... I forgot to tell you the brand name of my Graphics card, It is a Nvidia GeForce4 TI 4200 with AGPx8 128MB.

As for drifting, now I understand what happens, but I'm afraid that your solution won't work. As I play I can see the computer controlled ships, including my enemies, having no problems maneuvering in any direction, often almost instantaneously, while it takes me a few seconds to regain command of my shpt, at which time I'm already space dust.

It could be my Joystick? I use a Saitek AV8R-03 .

Thank you again
sebaspons

[CLoneWolf]

You're welcome

Well, I have no experience about playing on Windows, but if your joystick has a calibration program I'd say it's worth a check, in case your current settings aren't giving you max turnspeed.

But given the wide range of ships available, let's make a few explicit names and numbers to help gauge the problem:

what ship are you currently flying? what's its current mass % without cargo, and how much do you load it when trading ?
what's the current engine (and overdrive, if you got one) level ?
what are your enemies' ships? I take it it's mostly Pirate Hyenas and Luddites' Redeemers, right? Hyenas are pure fighters, hence *very* nimble and can easily gain the upper hand in agility against a starting Llama without upgrades or other similar midrange ships. You can check the ships' features at any ship dealer, and compare them with your ship's info.

Your Llama can grow to a quite decent beast, but it takes upgrades in different fields: Shields, implying Reactor and Capacitor, and the Overdrive (by the way, I forgot to mention that Overdrive also gives you higher top speed even without afterburning, IIRC, making it a real must).

Also for Shields, Reactor and Capacitor don't worry if the biggest ones your ship can carry are too expensive; an upgrade by 2-3 levels is already noticeable and can make the difference between going spec and going boom

Try to make the least enemies at the beginning of the game, and find relatively safer trade routes; when you're hassled by a single enemy, try to turn it to neutral by spamming it with friendly messages (press F1 countless times) until it stops attacking. Killing might be quicker, but the chain effect on negative relationships with that and allied factions will soon drag you into a Universe vs. Privateer war you surely don't want before you get ready for it

I know that pure trading might be boring after a while (you might add patrol missions in systems controlled by friendly factions), but it'll help raising the cash needed for the upgrades that will widen your playing chances a lot.

Happy spacefaring!

[ponssebas]

Thank you again!

Here is the info about my ship;

LLama default with this upgrades:

Isometal Armor
Standard Capacitors Capacitor II
Overdrive II
Reactor Standard Reactor II
FTL Energy Capacitor I (2)
Sensors Skyscope Alpha
Standard Quad Shields II
No Cargo upgrades and no Living quarters Up[grade. Standard Lasers.

---------------------------------

In the meanwhile I've deleted VS5 and reinstalled an old version (0.4.3.) and I found that the old game responds better to imput, specially the afterburner (tab key). The graphics are a little lighter than ver. 0.5....

I deleted it and reinstalled version 0.5 from a fresh download and the result is a better graphics, and a better if still not good enough afterburner.

My problem now is that as soon as I'm free of the docking clamps I get attacked by a ship, and promptly destroyed because I can't find out who is attacking me, and also because the F1 trick works (I assume) when directed to my attacker. Pressing F1 broadcasts to the station, or whoever is targeted.
Is there a way to find out and target the attacker? The "e" key only circles through ALL enemy craft.... and I can't SPEC out of there fast enough, or after burn out of trouble.

Any advice for a puzzled space-farer?
Thank you
sebaspons

[CLoneWolf]

You're absolutely right about F1 going to current target only, forgive me for forgetting to mention it

It makes it even more important to be able to target your attacker ASAP, and there are keys that will help you; check this post, as I was too lazy then to be more specific, and too lazy now not to recall that good post by parkel

Once you've spotted the threat and start fleeing, don't drink and fly but pretend you have keep changing your vector as unpredictably as you can, or fly a barrel roll (you need to use your side thrusters for that, I assigned them to the CH hat of my joystick; center the stick for a straight flight, but thrust downwards while spinning on your z axis)

Speaking of joystick axes... please keep an eye on your max constant speed without afterburning: some sticks have axis 2 and 3 exchanged, as it was in my case, so twisting the handle would control the throttle, and a centered handle would only give half speed, while the throttle wheel would spin my ship unless it was set right halfway. Probably not your case or you'd have noticed something weird already, but still worth mentioning IMHO

Better evasion should make the hits you take further from each other, allowing your shields more time to recharge, but if it still takes too few hits to kill you, then your shields definitely need further upgrade. Overdrive 2 might be enough for now (what's your max speed with it without afterburning?) but max it as soon as you can, and the best help for your low turning speed is a Shady Mechanic upgrade way too costly at start.

To each their fav ships, but once I was able to get and fully upgrade a Franklin I found myself able to make patrol and clean sweep missions in a flash (it's blazing fast!) and also still able to trade some (300 cargo units!) and give a lot of payback to pesky enemies, with good weapons and the added value of an AI turret able to scratch the bogeys at bigger distances. Just don't expect it will be enough to bring war to Aera though, they're tougher

Another useful upgrade you should consider is a radar able to show friends and hostiles in different colours, to help you assess the situation before getting in trouble.

Armor is well worth upgrading too, but don't get heavier ones than isometal if agility is an issue; also beware, the costier the armor, the higher the repair cost as well. I usually go for the one that weighs as much as the isometal but protects a lot more.

I don't know how effective ECM systems are, but I often buy them just in case

[ponssebas]

Thanks again.
So far; I've bought a new sensor and it helps some. I've discovered that "r" targets closest enemy ship, but not necessarily the one attacking you. F1 really helps, but it is useless when you are attacked by 2 or more enemies in tandem.

I've found out that I probably have pissed off somebody because there is a ULM following me all over -probably not the same guy- . Looking at the info on the station shop? I find that I have 2 kills to my name when I've killed nobody, so that may explain it.
I'm thinking of starting a new game to see if it repeats itself, and this time I'll pay closer attention to the Info tab.

And this is it for now. Thank you again for your help, and please let me know if you have anymore thoughts on the subject.

sebaspons

[Dragonseraph Angel]

The problem with the Uln is that they like the pirates. So even though almost everyone hates pirates, by killing them, you make yourself a target to the Uln, and find yourself in a constant swarm of ships. Unfortunatly, almost everyone likes the Uln (I think it has something to do with their access to ancient technology) so whenever you try to defend yourself from them, you end up with everyone hating you.

Check who those kills were... Pirates? Uln?

Maybe you got rammed - they even count that against you if their ship explodes.

[ponssebas]

Thank you Dragonseraph Angel. Here is what I found:

Merchant_guild: -25, kills: 1
Uln_citizen: -25, kills: 1
Total kills: 2

So, there it is. It must be collisions because as I explained I can't find out -with enough time to react- who is attacking me. Defending myself at this stage is imposible, so I make cargo runs to make enough credits to seriously upgrade my ship.

Still my questions stand. 1.- How do I target the ship attacking me?

2.-How do I make the Merchants and Uln "like" me again?

Thank you again for your time
sebaspons

[CLoneWolf]

Well... making someone like you more is (almost always) easy if you kill their enemies, but beware of the chain reactions

Luckily for you, there's a faction (Luddites) disliked by all the others but one (Purist Citizen) whose love for them is very marginal; this means that a Luddite kill will lessen your reputation with P.C. but very slightly.

To compensate for that, a single Pirate kill will regain a lot of your lost P.C. love after a few Luddite kills; and the others who are sorry for the dead Pirate were already liking you more for your Luddite kills.

So... are we there yet? No. You're doomed. ULN!!!! The problem with them is manyfold:

1. Your initial reputation with them is *very* low, leaving you almost no room for mistakes/mishaps/legit defense before they turn hostile.

2. Your rep with them will also go down with practically any kill.

3. They have suicidal tendencies, leading to unwanted kills, as Dragonseraph Angel said.

Sure, you might complete missions for them in systems controlled by them, but you need them not to be already hostile to you; so the problem still hides in the beginning.

There might be better and less boring solutions, but my latest approaches were all like:

- Avoid ANY kill at all costs in the very beginning, raise cash by trading and patrol missions without encounters.
- Obsessively scan all the insystem ships in search of Uln and spam them with F1 (and by spam I mean pressing F1 as fast as you'd do in a shoot'em-up coin-op ) until my rep with them is at least in the 20's.
- Soup up for some killing, Luddites only at start, Pirates only in self defense and the least I can, keeping an eye on my rep with Forsaken and ISO mostly.
- Keep spamming the Uln to compensate for those kills, mostly during patrol/trading routes; once your ship is on autopilot towards a nav target, you're free to target ships without getting detoured to them.

As hopelessly endless as it might seem at start, such a course of actions would lead me to trade AI cores in a Franklin quite quickly, and this after having bought some other intermediate ships meanwhile for specific purposes.

All in all, I've learned how to survive the dire start without much hassle and actually enjoying the challenge, but judging from the forum posts along the last years, the start is very troublesome for many players. Maybe the Devs might consider increasing the initial rep with Uln, not dramatically, let's say by 10 points, just to cut the player some more slack; it's as easy as changing a single number in a file (and actually already discussed in the past, with even bigger proposed changes, like the like/dislike rates between factions)

Keeping suicides out of the kill count would also be very good but, if ever possible, it would surely require code changes whose impact is unknown to me; so the former option sounds much more feasible to a lazy person like me

[ponssebas]

Hello again and thanks for your advice.
Since I couldn't survive with so many ships ganging against me all the time, I've started a new game. Now I keep a weary eye for Kamikaze pilots, and I'm extra careful when approaching stations. So far so good.

I'm doing cargo runs both on my own and through the mission board. I've invested in better sensors, upgraded the generators and now my ship seams more responsive.
I also don't stray too far away yet from Cephid-17, visiting only closer systems ( one or two jumps). I've accumulated 300000 credits, and having lots of fun!

I'm already thinking of saving enough to buy a better ship. I'm interested on cargo and bounty hunting. Any advice?

Have a good weekend!

[Dragonseraph Angel]

One thing to keep in mind is that the amount of money you have increases exponentially - the more you have, the more you can spend per run, the more you can spend per run, the more you can make. So don't just use most of your money on a big shiny ship as soon as you have enough - your income will become a trickle. Wait until you have so many credits that you fill your cargo hold to bursting, but still have enough credits to buy the ship you want.

For instance, say you have 1,000,000 credits

and you can fill your cargo hold with 800,000 credits worth of goods

you get a 10% income for every run

that means you make 80,000 credits per run!

But then you spend 900,000 credits on a shiny ship

Then you only have 100,000 credits left over, and can only make 10,000 credits per run - it will take forever to get back up to full capacity per run

if you just wait until you have 1,700,000 credits, you can buy the ship you want, and still have a full 800,000 cargo hold.

I hope I am making sense.

It can be really tedious to make up for losing a lot of credits, but the method I just mentioned can take a lot of patience. Unfortunately, you shouldn't expect a big killer ship to pay for itself on bounties either - even capship bounties are rediculously cheap - you almost invariably make much more through cargo runs.

For cargo runs:

the plowshare is a good choice - it doesn't cost too much, and can carry a whole lot more than the llama. Unfortunatly, it handles like a flying brick.

Once you have enough money, you can buy a mule. It has more carrying capacity than you will EVER need but it's speed an maneoverability makes the plowshare look like a perigrine falcon its tough though, when properly outfitted - it can carry pretty decent armors and shields - but don't expect it to be able to bring in bounties - it's to slow - it can survive most assaults but is truly terrible at actually attacking

For bounties

Franklin - I don't know much about it, but I hear its tough and can carry turrets. I think it has great agility for its level of power - you probably want to upgrade it before any real use - I don't think it comes with much. I hear its also really expensive.

Goddard - the price is ridiculously steep, it takes forever to make enough money. But its worth it - it usually destroys everything in its path without getting a scratch on it. Only downside to performance is that it is a little slow, but it makes up for it with turrets. it can also carry more missiles than I knew what to do with.

Taizong - forward weapon mounts shred everything they touch - just be careful with the grav thumper - it recharges slowly and doesn't carry much ammo. I usually don't use it - the other guns are easily sufficient for most enemies. I would upgrade the reactor though, and the ship itself is somewhat hard to find and probably $$$.

One thing to remember is that although these ships are tough, almost any real capital vessels (not gleaners or thales - the BIG ones) will kill them within seconds. And you can't buy most capships.

Good luck

[CLoneWolf]

Dragonseraph Angel makes perfect sense, especially as many of the ships you buy will hint at upgrades too, so the total cost might go well beyond the ship's cost alone.
So if you resist the shopping spree until after you're left with enough money for a profitable cargo run, the extra wait will be caught up in a flash.

Let me add something on the bounty side: as I kinda said, a Franklin is very good against weak targets, but I consider it more an all-rounder ship, like the Llama and better in all fields but cargo space; so it's perfect for someone who does a bit of this and that without the need for changing ships at every dock. Also because calling in one of your ships that you had left in another system will cost you 50k.

At the same speed, but more firepower and much less cargo space (not an issue when focusing on bounty) you'll find a Lancelot a serious killer. But it's not cheap at all.

Cheaper baddies are Admonisher and Pacifier, even more firepower but slower, especially the Pacifier.

For what I recall reading other players' experiences (you might want to search this forum for such posts), a very good and soon affordable fighter is the Dostoevski; it is not a heavy fighter (so it's nimble enough to be very fun to fly) but it can carry a torpedo, letting you try bounty missions against the lesser capital ships (Yeoman, Thales, Gleaner), and these are usually *very* rewarding. The torpedo is not strictly necessary against them, but without it the kill will take a lot of time and patience

[Dragonseraph Angel]

letting you try bounty missions against the lesser capital ships (Yeoman, Thales, Gleaner), and these are usually *very* rewarding.

Strange...

I have never seen a bounty for these ships worth the time spent killing them.

Maybe I haven't tried enough bounty missions?

[CLoneWolf]

Oh wait, I forgot that I've been playing the svn version for long, which can give 6 digit rewards against light capships, but previous versions (probably not even the 0.5 used by ponssebas) weren't so generous (a.k.a. the repairing costs for the high damage sustained in the hunt would eat the bounty reward and maybe even more).

Another thing I don't know, is if such rewarding missions appear from the very start or only after the player has grown a bit.

Anyone else with more precise info?

[ponssebas]

Well, thank you again to all of you for your good help. I'm slowly growing and learning and having much fun.
As for a new ship, it will take a while, so I'm exploring and doing cargo runs.

Take care out there
sebaspons

[ponssebas]

Well, as things stand; I keep doing cargo routes, but reality interfering with gaming, I've played as often as I'd wanted to.
I still have the trusty LLama, but I haven't lost hope to one day get a better ship. I have no problem with factions yet because I've become a very careful flier

My jumps are so far to close by systems, because I want to understand what is around me, and because I got the impression that the Universe creates itself every time a Jump occurs. That being the case, after many new jumps there will be several fold systems created. I'm I wrong in assuming the it could be hundreds if not thousands of systems?

Now my question is, Is there a way to access the current Universe Map from within a space station? Or failing that, Is there a way to print a map of the Universe that has been created by playing? ...I hope I'm making sense.

Well, this is it for now. Many thanks again to those that have helped me .

ponssebas

[pheonixstorm]

only two i know of that are still downloadable http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=6774 and http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=4887

If you have any coding experince both are in dire need of an update.

[CLoneWolf]

Well, I don't know how good it is for you as:

1. it's viewable while flying, not while docked at stations
2. it's not printable AFAIK

but your ship's navigation computer can show you a map (2d or 3d, scrollable, can even be rotated if 3d) of your currently known part of universe.

Stop your ship somewhere safe, press shift-M (IIRC) to bring your navcomp up; one of the sections will show you the map; it's even color coded, each system is drawn in the color of the faction controlling it; and if you trace a path on the other section that lets you search for destinations, your path will be shown in bright red.

[ponssebas]

Thank you for your prompt response, but I think I didn't make myself clear. So here goes again.
I'm not looking for a cheat. I'm not looking for an existing map that obviously has been generated (if I'm right on how the map is drown by the game) by somebody's travels. What I'm asking for is if there is within the game itself a record of the places I've been, and Jump points generated by those jumps. And that being the case, and assuming the info is stored somewhere (config, inf, text file), if it is possible to retrieve and convert into a map that can then be printed. I understand that it will be changing all the time, and therefore it will to be printed on a regular basis to have it current.
Or, the plan of the Developers is for everybody to get lost and keep on exploring... Not a bad thing on itself, but I'd like the other way

Well, finished ranting. Have a wonderful week-end out there
sebaspons

[pheonixstorm]

The software I linked too does some of what you want. For information on other tools check the tools and utilities forum or the wiki link on the main page.

The options are limited. Use the in-game nav map or one of the map utilities. Note though that those utilities are no longer maintained and may or may not work, if the links to download them still work. None of the tools listed are cheats and as far as I know there are no cheat code or cheat programs for vegastrike.

[Dragonseraph Angel]

as far as I know there are no cheat code or cheat programs for vegastrike.

No cheat codes ponssebas, but you can hack yourself any ship, upgrade, or amount of money you want!

[ponssebas]

Hi, I'm aware of the possibility of hacking the config file, but I like my earnings to be my own, if you know what I mean.
So far: I've bought a Plowshare and, yes, it handles like a brick. What brings me to ask, Is there a way to stop the vessel quickly?
I found out that coming back from SPEC, the ship continues at the direction it heads, and keeps on "falling" without obeying to joystick input. The solution I've found is to stop the ship and only then approach the dock. Problem is that sometimes I must correct, but it just keeps on going crashing against the station.
Do you have a solution for this one? Thank you
sebaspons

[pheonixstorm]

flip over and apply full thrust or overthrust. Don't know what to tell you. You just need to find a way to apply thrust in the opposite direction you are traveling

[Dragonseraph Angel]

Hitting a station at any significant speed is ussually bad news, so when I don't think I can slow down in time, I ussually rotate perpendicular and fire afterburners so I overshoot and miss. Yes, its anoying to have to turn around to get back to the dock but its better than exploding against it making whoever it belongs to mad as well.

Another thing to remember is that SPEC just multiplies your 'base' speed. So if your speed would normally be 100 m/s (from rockets alone) and SPEC is at 1000, you will be going 100,000 m/s. As you know, the farther away you are from gravity, the more the SPEC multiplies your speed. But it can only get you going so fast, even if your 'base' speed is really high and there is no gravity in sight. I think the limit is almost 100C. So if your SPEC already has you maxed out on at ~100C, you know your base speed is either at or above what it needs to be to take full advantage of SPEC - it doesn't matter how much you push your base speed, you won't get that ship going any faster. So how does this help? After you drop out of SPEC, you are going at your base speed. If your base speed was really high, while in SPEC, it will be really high when you come out. But since a really high base speed won't get you going any faster than 100C anyway,
(assuming "really high" means more than [Base Speed*SPEC = 100C]) just try find the lowest value of speed you need to max your SPEC, and try to reach it.

Unfortunatly, this approach has some big problems:

When you are near a gravity well, such as that station, your multiplier starts dropping, and you probably want to increase your base speed to make up for it, so you will end up coming out really fast anyway.

To control your speed you have to SPEC without autopilot. This can be annoying.

In a really slow, massive ship even a relatively low speed takes forever to negate, so you might still crash/overshoot.

Hope that wasn't too confusing, I can really rant sometimes.

Hi, I'm aware of the possibility of hacking the config file, but I like my earnings to be my own, if you know what I mean

Yes, I know exactly what you mean but you can't even buy most of the capships and I wanted to try them out. And then I realized that most of them took about an hour just to turn around, so I did some more hacking... and after that, I decided to try designing some new weapons...

The result? A leonidas that handled like a fighter, a Shundi that fired Capship sized Kteks in a perfect ring, and a Tesla that could Ram through stations.. and some other very strange and fun things.

Anyway, playing by the rules is fun, but so is messing around!