Space combat / Scanning / Problem with a quest

[Flagg]

Greetings to all of you,

I am another former Starflight player who found his way to this game and I am also glad to have the opportunity to play this fantastic game.

Now I am playing for some hours with my military vessel and have some problems:

First of all: space combat

Now to my problems with combat: When fighting another spaceship, it is always out of sight, making endless rocket fire. On the design page I´ve found
"Tactical combat takes place in the main view screen when an alien vessel or fleet is encountered. The view in this window is scaled so that the entire battle and all ships are always in view."
But this doesn´t work

Can I only fire forward into the direction my ship is flying to? This brings me in trouble as I have to move directly into enemy fire or I have to fly from left to right without a chance of making a hit

Not a problem but a question: scanners in interspace
I remember the old starflight days: "motion detected at x-2, y+1" which gave me the chance to avoid or to intercept alien ships. Just by now, I get just a warning from my science officer that a alien ship is detected. But not where. Will my science officer become better later in game to give me such coordinates?

Another problem: Stuck in Mission on Lough Lane:
Obviously I am not capable to solve the riddle and find the Pirates locations on the planet of fire or behing the gas giants .... I would be thankful for a hint.

[DBG719]

Quest help....scan the planets.....two in the system are gas giants....there are two planets in orbits farther out from them.....explore those. There is only one molten planet in the system. Send me private note if you need more detailed help. Good Luck and Good Hunting.

[Flagg]

Thanks

[KanTen]

I have the same trouble. I can only see the immediate area around my ship. Enemy ships stay off of the screen for the most part, which makes combat nearly impossible.

[normgtg]

First time here! I have a combat problem - can't fire lasers.
I believe that for the previous posts - you need to move in on the enemy. The ship manuevers like a boat(ok) the enemy ship overshot an wound up stuck in the border of the screen and does not close the distance to our ship so you need to close on the enemy. My problem - I can't fire my Class2 laser but I can scan when close in. I'm still trying to find a key or combo to fire my lasers. I was shotup pretty good before I moved away, dropped my shields and warped out. Anyone, any suggestions?

[DBG719]

At the Start Up screen, click on SETTINGS. It should tell you what keys to use to fire your Lazers. Good Luck!

[danekjovax]

First post in here...

I have to say the combat is clunky at best, and a real annoyance, given the graphics and the abilities of the UI aren't being used at their full potential.

There needs to be more visibility of your immediate area around your ship. The "surround border" graphics is nice, but restrictive. I think you could add another 40% visibility just by toggling it on/off. In the "off" state, you can still have the long range tactical map (lower left), and adding hotkey maps to the button menu (captain/engineering/etc) or making a smaller menu that takes less space would help a lot, IMHO.

There should be a wrap-around for the ship, as there already are for asteroids. Trying to "mine" an asteroid near the edge of the map only finds you "stuck" where the asteroid freely "flips" to the other end of the map.

Also, lasers are largely useless, as by the time you're in laser range, you're usually pummeled by the AI ships pretty badly, and the keyboard movement controls aren't that good to let you aim and fire that accurately (at least for me) at close range. Even the original SF game had auto targeting; you only needed to be in range. I don't bother wasting MUs buying lasers because of this.

Lastly, lasers and missiles should have more graphical and audible variance between the different classes. It'd be more satisfying to see my hard-earned class 5 missiles at least look and "feel' different for all the hard-earned MUs I've had to plunk into it. ;2)

[Steve]

I personally had no involvement in the initial combat engine, but spent quite a few hours tweaking weapon ranges and damages. The combat system is not ideal, but there are far more ways it could be worse then it is right now. The best technique seems to be strafing runs. Fly at an angle, coast, and as your momentum swings you in front of the enemy, turn the front of your ship to aim and fire while you swing by until you are out of range.

Lasers and missiles can be fired simultaneously, and there is no reason why you cannot simply hold down both fire buttons. Some alien ships are far more vulnerable to laser fire, and a certain alien race can tell you which ones.

Agreed on the border graphics. There was a full screen feature for the combat engine at one time, and if it does not cause too much trouble I'll see if I can reimplement it.

For a while I tested really short range missiles and lasers. If the player has longer range weapons than alien ships, it made combat far too easy. If both player and alien had only very short range weapons than either combat was extremely safe while you were out of range, or extraordinarily dangerous as you really had to get in close before any of your shots hit.

The Thrynn have a special high-speed laser and missile weapon modifications for your ship, but only one of them is worth keeping... All lasers and all missiles have the exact same fixed range.

If you could modify the speed, range, and damage of missiles and lasers, what would you suggest and why?

[normgtg]

Thanks - DBG719
Duh! guess I'm one of thoses quick start player who does not check the Settings before he dives in.
It would really be a great upgrade if a higher level missile could be fired to explore like the terrain vehicle with a nose camera, otherwise upgrades could be more eye candy.