Couple of Issues with Drayman

Lancalderon · Post by **Lancalderon** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:34 pm

Sorry to bother but I have a couple of issues I was hoping someone could help me with.

1) I bought the deprec... version of Drayman -- It was more expensive than the stock and had some weapons and shields and stuff is it really any different than the stock one I could of bought as well.

2) I was using to do cargo runs (nice runs +1 million) through the merchant guild. When I got to my destination My money dropped to like 32K. I did remember that there might be some but with regards to this. If so is this the case and if so are there limitations that don't trigger it for example stay less than 750k, do use merchant guild,etc ..

3) How/Where is the tractor beam and how do I get it to work. No turret so no tractor beam there, the Guns have the special ability which I believe is tractoring bonus but I can never select just tractor beam. So I did put a tractor beam in place of a weapon but I can't get it to tractor anything in. I can get as close to about 280 and then the item bouces away, I know that if I hold down the fire button the tractor beam activates and a long beam is created but I still can't get anything this way even though the tractor beam seems to hit the item (I was practicing on a pilot).

Sorry to be a burden but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Post by **MamiyaOtaru** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:33 am

Shouldn't have been possible to buy a deprecated drayman, that's what deprecated means, it's been left behind. It is always better to buy the empty ship and upgrade, the ships that come with stuff are hard to upgrade.

We haven't done as much testing with the Drayman, as it was an easter egg.

I think the tractor beam problem is that the item gets put in the hold once it gets closer than a certain distance, but before it gets there it bounces off your Drayman's nose. Try opening vegastrike config and playing with

Code: Select all

<var name="tractor.cargo.distance" value="30"/>
<var name="tractor.upgrade.distance" value="30"/>

Increase that distance value and see if it helps.

*edit* deprecated not depreciated lol. malaprop ahoy!

ijuin · Post by **ijuin** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:02 am

You have to mount a tractor beam to a gun slot if you are not carrying any turrets, otherwise you do not even HAVE a tractor beam to use.

The depreciated Drayman, I presume, is the one that you can get during the Oxford series. The only advantage to buying it here is that you can get it earlier than otherwise--normally you have to complete the Palan missions before the extra ships become available for open purchase.

Personally I think that the Drayman is a sitting duck on its own, so I modify it to have top and bottom turrets (same as the Galaxy). This seems to make it survivable without making it an invincible monstrosity--that way you have half the speed and agility of the Galaxy, nearly twice the shields and armor, and equal weapons.

Lancalderon · Post by **Lancalderon** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:00 pm

Ok I will try the thing about the config file. Does the 30 have a unit of measure? Does the 30 represent meters?

Anyone have any idea about the merchant bug? I went from over 1 mill + 2 mil in contracts to having only 33K in funds?

I have to restart if I am flying and someone shows up. With having only 1 gun and no afterburners I am pretty much a dead person.

Thanks for the help.

ijuin · Post by **ijuin** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:15 am

The being dead when you have only 1 gun and no afterburners is precisely why I think that giving it a top and bottom turret makes it reasonable to fly--since you turn so slowly, the turrets can defend you from all angles.

micheal_andreas_stahl · Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:55 am

Here here!!! i agree but i don't see why the computer can't have more Turrets. they need them. we don't. also add an extra gun placment. a Paradigm is not all that dangerous and how turrets does it having?

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:31 pm

@Mamiya: Nice to see that face again!

ijuin · Post by **ijuin** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:09 am

Quite. In my game I modified all the Draymans so that they all have Mass Driver turrets, one top and one bottom--they feel much more reasonable that way without becoming juggernauts.

Lancalderon · Post by **Lancalderon** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:41 pm

Can someone give me steps on how to modify the Drayman to add turrets?

Everytime I launch to try and test the vegastrike config changes a ship shows up to kill me. Although I should be able to buy cargo and then eject it to test tractor beam adjustments. Assuming that I don't get jumped right away.

Thanks

ijuin · Post by **ijuin** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:46 am

Ok, open up the units.xls file and scroll over to the subunits column. Copy and paste the turret descriptions from the Galaxy to the Drayman (to define top and bottom turrets). You will have to fiddle around with the x,y,z coordinates for the turret mounting to get them into aesthetically pleasing locations, but if the locations are wrong, the turrets can still shoot without danger of shooting your own hull.