pre-Beta5 Combat

[Donald Hill Sr.]

Hi,
 
Still getting my butt kicked when in combat.
 
Tried several different races and have the latest weapons, shields, and armor. Haven't been able to take out 1 prirate, thrynn, or elowan. Very frustrating
 
Also, when completing the Quest to return the cube to the bar-zhon, they take the cube, we exit communications, i check the Quest log, and it says
 
that quest imcomplete. I dock at starport, enter research lab and the quest is gone, new quest to find 6 cu of Thorium. So nothing to show that the quest was completed,
 
Should there have at least been and engine upgrade available?
 
Going to find the Thrynn and finish this quest.
 
will let you know.
 
-Don

[Steven Wirsz]

> Still getting my butt kicked when in combat

How does combat in Beta 4 compare to combat in Prebeta 5 for you? The
range of weapons and many other aspects were changed in 5.

>
> Also, when completing the Quest to return the cube to the bar-zhon, they take the cube, we exit communications, i check the Quest log, and it says
>
> that quest imcomplete.

I opened an issue for the ships quest log.

> Should there have at least been and engine upgrade available?

Science mission 29? This one was hastily converted from a Tafel
mission. I'll check it over here to test the engine upgrade. It should
be provided if you are not already at the max for your class, and the
dialog should reflect this.

- sw

[Joseph F De Costa]

I ran into the same problem with the Pirates. I did manage to destroy one ship, but still get destroyed myself. They also fire faster than I can.

I even used the debug keys (CTRL and Numpad + key) and upgraded everything to the maximum (i.e., engines, shields, armor, lasers, missles). Still cannot win, and this was using the Military Ship. Just cannot get past Mission 28 (Pirate Cleanup).

In Beta 4, I had no problem destroying Pirate Ships. In Beta 5, I usually get destroyed. I was however able to destroy one ship this last time before getting my ship destroyed.

In my frustration, I just decided to go exploring the galaxy and looking at various planets, etc.

Joe D.

--- On Mon, 10/4/10, Steven Wirsz <ste...@wirsz.com> wrote:

> --
> [Starflight - The Lost Colony = http://groups.google.com/group/starflighttlc]
>

[Steven Wirsz]

> Should there have at least been and engine upgrade available?

Science mission 29?  This one was hastily converted from a Tafel
mission. I'll check it over here to test the engine upgrade. It should
be provided if you are not already at the max for your class, and the
dialog should reflect this.

I just tested this, and it the engine upgrade works if the class is not already at max for your class.

Here is the actual lua script - I explicitly deny the upgrade if you can't go any higher:

 

-- Scientific Mission # 29: First Contact, returning the Bar-zhon data cube

elseif (n == 83001) then

artifact15 = 0

active_quest = active_quest + 1

if (ship_engine_class < max_engine_class) then

ship_engine_class = ship_engine_class + 1

end

ATTITUDE = ATTITUDE + 20

[Jonathan Harbour]

Thanks for testing the game that far, Joe.  The damage values for the weapon systems are all found in globals.lua. I wouldn't normally recommend this but if you want to edit those settings and try out some different combinations, you're welcome to report your findings here. It's just a matter of tweaking the values up/down until a good balance is reached. I think a player with class 1 engine, laser, armor, and shield, should be able to destroy a single pirate ship while taking minimal damage, and should have a hard time with two pirates. Also, I don't know how you are playing, but I was in a battle with a single Elowan while testing the new combat values and it lasted over 3 minutes... with continuous circle strafing, and running off to gather resources from asteroids, then getting back into the fight again... we shouldn't expect a capital ship battle to be played like a dogfight with fighters... if you are heading right at the enemy ship you won't last long.

Regarding the ship A.I., it doesn't shoot right at the player with perfect accuracy... like some have speculated... If the player is in range, the alien ship will rotate toward you, and if you're in its line of fire, it will shoot as fast as it can. A tactic is to circle straf so the enemy ship has to rotate around to aim at you again. If you can keep from getting into their line of fire, you can take them out. I have fought in battles with 5-6 Elowan ships which are pretty tough and beat them with a class 6 military ship (and it's limitations... engine 3, etc). Perhaps some testers are expecting a quick end to battle? If you're using class 6 gear, no single alien ship of any type can compete, and it's really about bad tactics at that point. But we want to make the game FUN so the damage values definitely should be tweaked.

Jonathan

[Joseph F De Costa]

Thank you Jonathan, I will try your suggestions.   BTW, my battles usually last about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes... and you are right, I keep getting hit broadsided because of getting caught in their line of fire.  Part of my problem is I'm getting hit and cannot see the ships.. I have to rotate  or move around and straf quicker.  I dont this once and that is how I knocked out that one ship.   Of course getting hit by an asteroid didn't help me much either... LOL   I will try some tweaks to that globals.lua file and report the results back.  I will also let you know what I changed.   (I wish I knew more about C++ than I do... I'm actully learning some C, but I do not have enough knowledge to do much yet.  If I did, I would offer help with the code.)   I have downloaded starflighttlc sources, and have taken a look at some of this, but have not really changed anything because I fear messing my copy up..   I do understand alittle lua by looking at the files though, so I will attempt to try some tweaks.   Thanks to all who have comitted so much time and effort with this game.  I love it.   Joe D. --- On Wed, 10/6/10, Jonathan Harbour <jsha...@gmail.com> wrote: