Vega Strike Forums

Just my thoughts but the game takes way too long. I agree that physics are important, but keeping the players interest is by far more important. I loaded up my Llama with metals and stone from arid planet in Enyo and set out for Oceanic planet in Cephid_17. After launching I targeted the jumpgate and pressed "a" and waited and waited and waited. Then I looked at the clock. After going outside for a smoke came back and waited to jump. At this point I was hungry so I made the jump and targeted the Oceanic planet pressed "a" and went for a snack and a drink. I came back and waited repeatedly pressing the "d" key until I landed. Elapsed time from looking at the clock until I finally landed 18 minutes. This does not count the waiting before I looked at the clock. I was about to delete the game, but decided to edit the save game for enough cash to buy and deck out a medium fighter. I can now move, but hauling cargo now not worth the trouble. I have the choice to cheat or take months to be able to buy a new ship.

On another issue whats up with the factions. I had a pirate pounding me and couldn't outrun him so I killed him. Now the uln ships are shooting at me every where I go. I checked my kills 6 Luddites 1 Pirate 0 uln total kills 7. I'm sure I read that I can kill Luddites without making anyone mad at me. This means killing 1 pirate that is pounding me gets me put on a hit list. I'm not going in to how long it took me to get the uln to leave me alone, but my F1 key is worn out now.

ViporGG wrote:Just my thoughts but the game takes way too long.

Too long for what? When you make a game take less time, then people complain it's finished too soon. The problem it that flying is boring because there's nothing to do. And if we make flying faster, you'd spend a higher percentage of time at bases, where there's "something" to do, at least, but which becomes boring and repetitive after a while. So the general problem is that "there's nothing to do". This, I would agree, is a problem; because Vegastrike was originally inspired by WC's Privateer game; but it aimed to be "more"... but there's nothing much more to it, in terms of gameplay. This, I think, is the problem that needs to be addressed; NOT messing with flight times.

But if you will insist that flying should be faster, I'll suggest you play Privateer Remake or PU. That's more of a cartoonish universe, which Vegastrike doesn't aim to be.

I loaded up my Llama with metals and stone from arid planet in Enyo and set out for Oceanic planet in Cephid_17.

This is, actually, the big problem. Metals are heavy; stone is heavy. You made your llama super-heavy with cargo.

Perhaps giving the player a visual indicator as to how much weight they are hauling in the cargo-trading screen might be useful.

chuck_starchaser wrote:Too long for what? When you make a game take less time, then people complain it's finished too soon.

Too long to get anywhere. I'm not going to sit and look at the screen for 20-30 minutes to make a few hundred credits. This makes being a merchant not an option.

chuck_starchaser wrote:The problem it that flying is boring because there's nothing to do. And if we make flying faster, you'd spend a higher percentage of time at bases, where there's "something" to do, at least, but which becomes boring and repetitive after a while. So the general problem is that "there's nothing to do". This, I would agree, is a problem; because Vegastrike was originally inspired by WC's Privateer game; but it aimed to be "more"... but there's nothing much more to it, in terms of gameplay. This, I think, is the problem that needs to be addressed; NOT messing with flight times.

Something to do would help, but you still have the problem of earning credits. You can take cargo missions that don't weigh as much but not enough of them close. Most send you to a system where you die as soon as you arrive.

chuck_starchaser wrote:But if you will insist that flying should be faster, I'll suggest you play Privateer Remake or PU. That's more of a cartoonish universe, which Vegastrike doesn't aim to be.

I play Remake, but what is PU I haven't played it that I know of?

ViporGG wrote:

chuck_starchaser wrote:Too long for what? When you make a game take less time, then people complain it's finished too soon.

Too long to get anywhere. I'm not going to sit and look at the screen for 20-30 minutes to make a few hundred credits. This makes being a merchant not an option.

Then, just simply: don't play this game; or don't be a merchant. What I'm trying to say is there's been too much back and forth in the past about flight times versus realism and the current compromise is not going to be reopened to please you. Having said that, as I mentioned, the main problem is that you overloaded the llama with heavy cargo.

I play Remake, but what is PU I haven't played it that I know of?

It's based on the remake but with more side-plots and some nicer graphics; and it's currently under slow but steady development.
http://wcjunction.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=45

@chuck
what exactly is the current compromise...new to these boards...just trying to catch up on the discussion. I am hoping that the "compromise" doesn't involve making star systems unrealistically small...that would suck...all you need is a magic in system jump drive. I thought that was what SPEC was. I have only just started figuring out how to play the game though...so maybe I am missing something.

There's NO problem with the game in that regard; you select a destination, press A, and you get there in a minute or less.
It takes too short a time, if anything.
ViporGG's problem was he loaded his ship to the brim with heavy metals and ores, and then he expected the ship to fly fast.
But telling him so didn't achieve anything; no acknowledgement or feedback whatsoever. Like talking to a wall.

If you'd have got here 3 years ago, back then it was HARD to fly; trust me. AND it took a lot longer. You had to override
the governor by pressing Y, set your speed to 1000 to 2000, then press A, then use time compression with care; and if
there was a star or planet in your way, good luck. But nowadays it's so easy to fly around, and so fast, it's a joke.

chuck_starchaser wrote: If you'd have got here 3 years ago, back then it was HARD to fly; trust me. AND it took a lot longer. You had to override
the governor by pressing Y, set your speed to 1000 to 2000, then press A, then use time compression with care; and if
there was a star or planet in your way, good luck. But nowadays it's so easy to fly around, and so fast, it's a joke.

SPEC has been around for at least 5 years though, it is just that in 0.4.3 it didn't have an autopilot and it was slower. At least part of me misses those days- you actually felt like some kind of navigator or pilot.

I like safemode's plan though- make travel longer but more eventful. If you then greatly increased the pay for missions of all types, you'd have something much, much more authentic feeling. Big, long, dangerous quests with great rewards. That's what you'd expect from space, IMO.

EXACTLY!

If you fly through handcrafted systems, VS is really pretty.

I like safemode's plan for space flight just as well

But that doesn't happen with autogenerated systems. Anyone willing to peek into system generation and trying to tweak it into producing more safemodeish systems?

I am; I just don't know where it is; and I do know that when I look at the code I will faint.
But give me any info you have, and I'll try to tackle it.

I have NO info whatsoever.

But probably a search for <planet or some other system-specific xml markup would turn up some candidates, generator code in VS tends to be simple fprintf stuff.