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Fairspace Update 28 July


bobalot
(@bobalot)
Senior Chief Registered
Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 61
Topic starter  

Hi,

 

Fairspace has been updated, Key changes are:-

 

Clear waypoint key now clears all waypoints and targeted entities. This is configurable on the settings screen.

 

Sol command space stations now appear in nebula's and clouds throughout the game. ( little more tweaking to do on landing graphics ).

 

Bug that locks in a mission waypoint has been fixed.

 

Laser damage on buyable space stations has been reduced,  Damage is now distance based.

 

Laser range on dock able space stations has been increased.

 

Cargo but and sell bug on large cargo holds has been fixed.

 

Additional button for fill cargo hold has been introduced.

 

Instructions have been added to the interface, Question marks can be hovered over to reveal hints.

 

Space stations can now be purchased from level 25 upwards.

 

 

Regards

Bobalot

 


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Semtex4ya
(@semtex4ya)
Crewman Registered
Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 8
 

Clear way point


works

SOL stations


yet to find one

Bug that locks mission way point


hasn’t happened in a while, so good

Laser damage on buy able space stations has been reduced, Damage is now distance based.


okay

Laser range on dock able space stations has been increased.----okay

Cargo buy and sell bug on large cargo holds has been fixed.


partially

Additional button for fill cargo hold has been introduced.


has a few problems

Question marks hints.


those are cool, would be better if the popup menu wasn't transparent

Space stations can now be purchased from level 25 upwards. ----good

 

 

 

Cargo issues:

The message that appears that says your cargo bay is full and prevents buying cargo without getting any, is good. The problem comes with the max cargo limit (I'm assuming there is one). Now Space stations with cargo condensers can go over the max limit. The max limit being around 1,000,000. My space station with 6x 30% Cargo Condensers max capacity is 2,834,365. So I recommend to increase the Cargo hold limit to 4,000,000, being that the current max achievable is close to 3,000,000. This should fix the current problem of stations using cargo condensers not being able to fill up all the way, and should leave some wiggle room for anything added later.

 

The fill cargo button works but overfills your ship. With my Trade ship with all tech slots filled with 30% Cargo condensers (Total cargo space of 766,412) it overfills it by about 5 stacks (each stack being 50,000). This is all fine when on the planet, but once you leave the overfilled portion you bought is gone (along with the money and chance of profit spent on it). After doing some advanced (not really) math I realized it was filling the ship to the cargo max of 1,000,000 and not the current ship's cargo max. The button needs to check how much available cargo space your ship has before filling it to that exact number. Example, if I have 700,000 cargo space and only 500,000 of it is free than the fill all button should only fill it to 500,000.

 

 

Space Stations:

Do you plan on adding more weapons for them? Maybe weapons that have good damage long range and poor damage short range.

 

(!!!!Note: When it comes to balance I’m not the best person. My friends often tell me that some of my ideas {in other games} would be overpowered if done. So balancing is up to you. !!!!)

 

To me the space station damage range seems a little short. From what I have played a range of 15 is when the current lasers do good damage. I was thinking maybe a range of 20~25 would be better, because fighters can shoot torpedoes from a range of 20+ and stations can't move out the way fast enough or damage the fighters at that range. Now if you plan on adding different weapons later with different ranges then the current then the above can be completely ignored.


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bobalot
(@bobalot)
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Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 61
Topic starter  

Hi Semtex,

 

I will get the cargo issue resolved asap.

 

Space stations are being tweaked and configurations created for each one. At present they all have the same settings.  I will use the names you've previously provided, this is expected b4 the end of this week.

 

Weapon ranges are being tweaked again.

 

Any space stations in clouds should be sol command stations,  Just to the right of mesha sun there's a cloud with 3 jump holes, I know that one is a sol station.

 

I will change the transparency setting on the help buttons, and continue adding more.

 

What do you think of the warp restrictions in clouds and coronas ?

 

Have you tried any of the cloud derelict missions ?

 

Your right about torps, Space stations should only be able to be taken down by a squad of ships, some with torps, others as fighters.  I Intend to allow other players to dock with your station which you can then fly into battle, they can undock when the battle begins and respawn when they die at the same station. Once the station is dead they all reset to the last docket location of the space station and the battle is lost,  This is how I perceive large space battles to take place, Unfortunately there isn't enough players at present to push this forwards.

 

Regards

Bobalot


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Semtex4ya
(@semtex4ya)
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Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 8
 

Thanks for looking into all that.

 

Also i have finally seen one of the new stations, and they look pretty good.

 

The Warp Restrictions are perfect as they are now. You can warp in easily but warping out takes time.

 

Haven't seen/done any cloud derelict missions yet.

 

Now going to the problem of not enough players. From what I have seen you get lots of people to try your game but the problem is there isn’t anything to keep them playing for all that long. I think some sort of in-game story about all the factions and why they are fighting could make it so people stay and play longer. Maybe you could fly alongside another ship (AI) and hail them to start the quest. And depending on which faction you are currently friends with determines which quests you can and cannot do. Also don't let lack of players stop you from making cool game play. Game play is just as if not more important as anything else. Meh, but what do I know? I’m not a developer, programer, or video game game maker so I don’t know how complicated it would be to make that, but even if there is no one else playing I would still like to see giant carrier ships flying around.

 

Just something to think about.

 

Signed,

The Richest guy in Fairspace.


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ka0s420
(@ka0s420)
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Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 3
 

Not sure that I like the warp restrictions persoanlly. I don't know if I'm being fairly retarded, but it add to the overall stacking of difficulty. Every time I got to do a mission I can warp there, but not back again which is leaving me with massive time sink of manually thrusting my way across vast amounts of space. I don't know how I am even supposed to do these missions either, at present I have been unable to do all but 1 out of the three or four I've tried. In most cases I got slaughtered by a capital ship, once by a space-station sized ship, and the rest of the time by most things regardless of their level or my ships equipment level, my shields just disintergrate really fast and they don't seem to recharge like the tooltip says they should - the same with my core. How am I supposed to warp around if my core doesn't recharge? I experienced a bug at one point too - instead of dying in the mission I was doing I decided - foolishly- to thrust back to base to get my shields and core back so i could jump back in again and try and finish it, in the end I was so bombarded with the repeated message of get back into battle that I had to quit just to get it to be quiet.

 

I don't mean to be really negative btw, I think you've done an amazing job, far better than some teams of developers manage to do - you've really achieved something here man, and I hope the player base picks up soon. I never played Freelancer, but this game really really reminds me of frontier elite 2 that I used to play on the amiga back in the day - massively nostalgic and also a surprisingly uncatered for market that this game should appeal to. The only other games like this are MOBA, not MMORPGs, I like them, but this has a lot of depth via it's sandboxiness and freedom of play style. I do agree that it could do with more story elements and what not, but so far that hasn't bothered me too much, it's mainly just how difficult I'm finding it.

 

Anyways, thanks for making a great game, and good luck with the coding etc. 


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bobalot
(@bobalot)
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Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 61
Topic starter  

Hi Ka0s420,

 

When in space you can use hyperspace to jump straight to a target ( or at least large lumps towards your target ) Alternatively you can go into warp and manually fly there, You could thrust there buy that would take a long time.  Both of the false methods require the ships core to be charged, This should happen automatically as long as your not being shot at.  The Power will recharge first, Then spare energy will be routes to replenish the shields and then finally the core,  The only way this wouldn't recharge is if your ship doesn't have enough spare energy to recharge anything ( check your power unit is up to the level of your ship ).  Its always best to try and user higher level tech units on your ship so long as your have the however to cover it,  Your equipment screen should give you a warning if your ship is underpowered.

 

The warp restrictions I was talking about above are when you enter a cloud, You can hyper jump in but you have to manually fly out at reduced warp, Avoiding the debris.

 

The mission issue is one that I will get corrected on the next release, any day now.

 

I will adjust the missions so that the real hard ones don't appear if less than level 10, Capital ships and space stations were really designed for party's of players but I removed the restriction when I didn't get the player volumes that I hoped for.

 

You should also try and stay within planets and system that are a similar level.

 

A great way to upgrade your ship is to take the cloud missions, These are searched for derelict ships and normally produce good tech units that can go on your ship at its max available ( 10 levels higher than you ).

 

I Will test a low level account in case I have knocked out a balance in the system. Its quite hard to get it right.

 

Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback.

 

Regards

Bobalot


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ka0s420
(@ka0s420)
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Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 3
 

^_^ thanks for your prompt reply! Yeah I figured some of that must be considered group missions, would just be too hardcore otherwise, I just found it odd that  there were enemy space stations in missions for level ones. Seems extreme, lol.

 

Yeah I have enough power, or at least my equipment at time of last play was green and the same level as me. I guess I must just be being shot at too much, or is it possible that not allowing my power to stay full will stop the other things from charging up? 


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auryx
(@auryx)
Warrant Officer Registered
Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 202
 

Hi Bobalot,

 

Thanks for the recent updates!

 

Just to add my two pennyworth of comments and suggestions, based on my play so far - you know I am really impressed with the game overall, so these are just minor observations:

 

- I like the warp restrictions in nebulae and debris fields, it feels "real" somehow. Only Han Solo is stupid enough to fly at full speed through asteroid belts! 🙂

- The "feel" of exploration in this game is brilliant. You can just head off into the unknown and find isolated ships and star systems lost in the remoteness of space...it's very atmospheric

- Might be worth running the text in the game past a spellchecker or getting someone to proofread it - I think it could be polished up a bit. Not a biggie but people will notice. The ones that I spotted were "debret" where you mean debris and "docket" where you mean docked.

- I share ka0s420's observations about the shields. Compared to most space sims, they just seem to deplete awfully quickly. BUT - maybe this is a good thing. Encourages far more cautious dogfighting instead of head-on charges with guns blazing. So mixed feelings on this.

- I crave to know the backstory of some of those factions. Darkness, the Shade Collective, the Spartans....what are their backgrounds? Where do they come from? So yes, a bit of story behind the game would be great! Appreciate that this might be a bit time-consuming but, as others have said, I think it would help people get into the game

- I like the "quest" missions - was completely unexpected when one popped up, adds a nice bit of variety

- Maybe add some fluctuations to the trade market system, or change it to something a bit more dynamic, so that there is some "risk" involved in trade, even if it's only a small amount

 

That's all for now, hope you don't mind the feedback. Thanks again for a great game 🙂

 

auryx

You look good through a crosshair.


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bobalot
(@bobalot)
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Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 61
Topic starter  

Hi Auryx,

 

"

- Maybe add some fluctuations to the trade market system, or change it to something a bit more dynamic, so that there is some "risk" involved in trade, even if it's only a small amount

"

 

There are Ai who hunt down and pull trading vessels out of warp, But they are turned off at present.  I really want traders to be forced to request help from other players to trade and then share the profits, Again I turned this off as it was annoying with so few players as everyone was being hit and taken out of warp. ( Semtex calls them OPLOD's ).

 

"The ones that I spotted were "debret" where you mean debris and "docket" where you mean docked."

 

yes, I am notorious when it comes to spelling, Ill have a swing at it.  Back story, I have some from Semtex that I will build upon.

 

Thanks for the feedback,  The more the better.

Regards

Bobalot


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bobalot
(@bobalot)
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Joined: 12 years ago
Posts: 61
Topic starter  

Hi ka0s420

 

"Yeah I have enough power, or at least my equipment at time of last play was green and the same level as me. I guess I must just be being shot at too much, or is it possible that not allowing my power to stay full will stop the other things from charging up?"

 

Your shields wont charge until your power has charged up, Once your shields are up the core will charge.

 

You can improve this by Getting a Higher powered power unit, You can fit one up to 9 levels higher than you currently are, If you can find one. ( Cloud missions are good for this ) or looting around a higher levelled planet, there's always AI fighting going on that leaves loot drops.

You can also use your tech slots and fit a power enhancer, The more free power you have the quicker your power will regenerate.

 

You could setup a ship that can shoot without running out of power if you set it up correctly.

 

Regards

Bobalot

 


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ka0s420
(@ka0s420)
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Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 3
 

Hi I've gone a made a new account simply because of how messed up my initial ship was and my money was low - wanted a fresh start. I must say with the new knowledge that I have aquired on this thread the game is a lot more manageable. I still can't do any of the missions as they're too hard solo, but I have been 'ratting' and looting (which I didn't quite get before) and warping around looking for higher level places to spend my creds at for upgrades which is paying off nicely. Although the level progression is very fast at the beginning so I am constantly searching for upgrades. I'm curious though because you said that I could get a power unit up to 9 levels above me, but when i went to a level 8 planet (when I was level 4) it only gave me power units the same level as me.

 

Anyways, I just wanted to say thanks again, as you have cleared up a lot of my confusion. I must say that your website could do with more info or an in depth faq of some kind as there is a lot of info that isn't listed such as my earlier problems understanding the power>shields>core dynamic, and all that kind of jazz.


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Semtex4ya
(@semtex4ya)
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Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 8
 

Planets and such dockable places will only sell you items on your level, or to the max level of the planet. Example I'm level 76 docked on a level 54 planet so i can only get level 54 gear. If i was on a level 86 planet even though the planet's level is higher I won't be able to buy level 89 stuff from it.

 

By the way ka0s420 if your account is messed up due to lack of in game credits I wouldn't mind giving you some so you can fix it.

 

 

 

EDIT: Is there any chance of making missiles range longer? The missiles says the projectile range is 16 yet if i shoot at a target at a range of 15 it never gets close to there.

 

 

Signed,

The Richest guy in Fairspace.


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