To all SSC Station occupants
Thank you for the donations over the past year (2024), it is much appreciated. I am still trying to figure out how to migrate the forums to another community software (probably phpbb) but in the meantime I have updated the forum software to the latest version. SSC has been around a while so their is some very long time members here still using the site, thanks for making SSC home and sorry I haven't been as vocal as I should be in the forums I will try to improve my posting frequency.
Thank you again to all of the members that do take the time to donate a little, it helps keep this station functioning on the outer reaches of space.
-D1-
Update v0.6.4.4 has been released for our favorite ascii game Ascii Sector. Check out the fixes below:
- Fixed bug with the MoveTo quest script ship order.
- Fixed bug with NPCs spawning in locked hotel rooms.
- Fixed bug (maybe!) that sometimes caused the game not to ask if you wanted to dock with a disabled ship.
- Fixed bug with the locker on board the Demon.
- Decreased the distance from nav points required to engage autopilot.
- Overhaul of the maps in the nav computer and the Quine5000. You now click-and-drag the quadrant map and you can chart a course through multiple systems (clicking on a system will automatically chart a course to it, or you can chart a specific course by clicking on consecutive systems while holding down SHIFT).
Havn't played this one in a while. Lovin' it. Not a big fan of the Tarsus. (Pops like a balloon.)
Overall great game, and I'm glad CK is updating it regularly.
Here is the latest enhancements and fixed to Ascii Sector and if you have never given this game a try before you really should.
v0.6.6.1
- Fixed bug that could cause the game to freeze when using the inventory (the game would think there was a quest being played and check for unexisting trigger events when picking up or dropping items).
- Fixed issue with the old Quine4000+ not being upgraded to the 5000 model when loading an old game.
- Fixed bug with a kill from a hand grenade not being registered if nobody saw you throw the grenade.
- Fixed bug with the weight of a grenade not being subtracted from your total weight when throwing it.
- Fixed bug with not being able to walk onto a tile with a corpse that was sitting on a chair.
- Fixed bug with a quest item not being removed correctly after a quest is done if the item is in the player's backpack or locker.
- Fixed bug with cargo being spawned on a retro Talon.
- You can now sell stuff from your locker at the equipment shop.
v0.6.6.0
- Fixed bug with a transfer procedure still completing even though it's interrupted by hostiles.
- Fixed bug with stunned NPCs acting as witnesses and calling for help.
- Fixed bug with EMP Torpedoes not homing in when fired from a capital sized ship.
- Fixed bug with Kilrathi ejecting from a mission ship.
- Fixed bug with a scooped ejected pilot being placed on the same tile as another NPC.
- Fixed bug with the equipment locker on a boarded Demon: Only the player's ship has an equipment locker now.
- Fixed bug with commodity items reappearing in the exchange if you save the game while still using the exchange terminal.
- Balanced the commodity market prices to make trading more profitable: When a commodity is produced at a base, the price will never go above the index price, and if a commodity is consumed at a base, the price will never go below the index price. Also increased price variations between imports and exports. And when you buy/sell in bulk, each unit is now priced the same. Had to remove the "Sell all" button or this could be abused.
- Added top imports and exports information in the Quine5000 for each base you've visited (under Sector > Trade).
- The Quine5000 is now the default computer in the game -- the old Quine4000+ has been retired.
- You can no longer delete a mission where you still have to collect payment.
- Added ShowImage quest trigger result for showing cutscene images.
- Added ASCII drawing program for making quest cutscene images (you can find it by selecting Quest Maker from the main menu).
- Added five new systems.
- Added seven new bases.
So awesome how often this game gets updated. I just downloaded the latest version. What? You've never played Ascii sector? You might just be missing out on one of the better space sims out there. Embrace your inner green dot today!
V.06.6.3
- Fixed bug with tile visibility when launching in a capital sized ship.
- When firing an automatic weapon, you now only get to aim once before three shots are fired.
- Added DontMove quest ship order.
V. 0.6.6.2
- Fixed bug that would cause the casino ship to turn pirate if you came from Bellamy pirate base, boarded the casino ship and left again.
- Fixed invisible barriers on Tranton.
- Fixed bug with a scooped Kilrathi pilot from a "bounty hunting" mission not being removed from the passenger manifest when killed.
- Fixed bug that could cause Ship Dealers to leave the shipyard.
- Fixed bug when there is dialogue for more than one quest character in a scene.
- Fixed bug with spaces (' ') in quest images.
- Fixed various bugs with the initial placement of "transport" mission characters on the player's ship.
- Fixed bug with ElectroCuffs not being dropped on the ground when a captive dies.
- When you enslave or release a captive, the ElectroCuffs are now placed in your backpack.
- A bit more tweaking of the commodity market.
- NPCs should stay out of your cockpit now.
- Dogfight Kills and Combat Kills statistics renamed to Destroyed Ships and Characters Killed.
- Killing an ejected pilot floating in space is now counted as a character kill and will decrease your standing with the relevant faction.
- Added an intro, an epilogue and a single cutscene image to the Kilrathi Hunt example quest.
- Quests can now have different Achievements to achieve. Details in the updated Quest Maker's Manual.
- Reworked how tile visibility is determined.
Hey Ironhound you take a look of what Christian is working on for the 0.7.x versions of Ascii Sector? Checkout below... I highlighted a few I like.
Fleets:
- Each faction has persistent fleets (a group of ships), except merchants and bounty hunters.
- Factions can take control of systems by having a fleet in that system (and no other faction has a fleet there).
- Randomly generated ships in a system is partly based on the faction controlling it.
- Abstraction algorithms to determine outcomes of fleet battles (when the player isn't present at the battle).
- Information about faction control of systems in the player's Quine, as well as news updates when fleets clash and systems change hands.
- If pirates, retros or Kilrathi control a system, production on all planets and bases in that system will drop considerably.
Persistent ships:
- Storing information about persistent ships across systems and scenes (quest ships, wingman, bounty hunter nemesis).
- Controlling persistent ships in other systems and moving them throughout systems.
- Bounty hunter nemesis sent to kill the player if fines are high and haven't been paid in time.
Other stuff:
- Five new systems.
- One of the new systems will be the sector's capital planet, where the player will be able to pay off fines.
- Be able to purchase a temporary ID hack that will change your ship's faction (if you for example need to move through a pirate controlled system).
- NPCs should be able to throw grenades.
- NPCs should move away from grenades thrown at them.
- Be able to ask friendly ships to not attack your target (if you for example need it alive for a bounty mission).
- If you're being scanned and attempt to land or jump, a message box will tell you that you'll be fined and ask for confirmation.
- 'L'ook should list things on the ground as well as names (ship types) of landed ships.
- Improved ship dogfighting AI.
I have not! I really should. I did notice they put up a wiki! Extremely useful for newbies like myself.
I have been a bit guilty for being a 'one-game' kinda guy. Been stalking the Evochron forums for a while before I got SC2. That feature list has me salivating! I was beyond happy when Christian added the new Quine 5000 (PDA) all the new navigation features and such where just top notch. Much improved over the old Quine 4000.
I'm not sure I understand what he means by 'persistant' ships. In other sims, I would assume that over time you would develop a relationship with the ships you save, and destroy/damage. Is that what applies here? making a nemesis and friends among the stars? How will this effect the current faction standings? I.e. could I befriend a kilrathi if I back him up against the Militia? Very interesting. You did highlight the features that have me excited the most! Temporary ID could be VERY useful. I'm a freelancer, and mainly get by doing jobs for the bar patrons. I hate avoiding pirate systems because I'm not strong enough. The new faction/fleet warfare is beyond awesome as well. I can't wait to see how the fleet battles play out, and if system ownership will make being a single trader, that much harder.
Alot of interesting devlopments coming my way! Very excited, thanks for the heads up DarkOne!
Big news on the Ascii Sector front.
http://asciisector.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1468
Bascially Christian is expanding his horizons and looking at creating a tactical third person shooter on the commerical market. He also strongly feels the need to expand ascii sector away from the privateer setting, and will start to phase out certain elements after .7x with retros, kilrathi, ship names and more all on the chopping block. Hopefully this is a good thing, I'll reserve opinions for when I see the new direction.
Good for Christian. He has put in a huge amount of time into Ascii Sector and in some ways the Wing Commander IP is probably holding him back just in the content arena. Reason I say this is because the WC die-hards may get touchy if you deviate from the original Privateer story and feature set.
And I totally understand the reasoning on why Christian is doing it because of EA/Origin, spent too much time on the game/engine to not eventually make a few bucks off of it because of rights. I will be very interested in the direction Ascii Sector takes.
But if anything 0.7.0 and 0.7.1 will be some nice content releases for Ascii Sector.
So now its official Privateer: Ascii Sector is now has been renamed to Ascii Sector in the latest update (v0.70). Here is a rundown of the changes/additions:
- Wingmen shouldn't get involved in dogfights with friendly ships because of accidental fire as often anymore.
- Improved friendly fire checks so that only weapons fire from a hostile ship will impact a target. This applies to the player's AI controlled turrets as well.
- Added persistent fleets that can move around, change control of systems, engage enemy fleets, head back for repairs and rebuilds, and so on (currently only the Confeds and Pirates have fleets, but the Retros and Kilrathi will also get fleets in future versions).
- Randomly generated ships are now based on the factions controlling the various systems as well as some other factors. The control of systems is displayed on the system maps in the Quine and nav computer.
- Swapped the faction colors of Militia and Retros: Retros are now purple and Militia are white. This is in preparation for Retros having fleets and taking control of systems and white not being a good color for showing system control on the maps.
- Changed game name from "Privateer: Ascii Sector" to just "Ascii Sector".
- New icons and logo.
- Updated the manual with the new name and logo.
Been slacking on the Ascii Sector updates, so here are the updates from 0.7.0+:
v0.7.1.2
- Fixed bug with character pathfinding that could crash the game after many launches and landings in one gaming session.
- Fixed bug that made it impossible to dock with a quest ship with the DontMove order.
- Fixed some instances of weight of grenades not being subtracted from your inventory weight when thrown into water or exploding in your hand/backpack. Also fixed weight issue when combining ammunition, ultimate or brilliance clips/containers.
- Fixed instances of the player recovering more than max health.
- Live grenades in your backpack and locker now explode and emit smoke.
- Moving a target character to a ship and then destroying the ship should now result in the mission being completed.
v0.7.1.1
- Fixed bug with newly built ships not getting the attitude of their lead ship.
- Fixed bug that would crash the game when a fleet was trying to attack a fleet under construction but with no active ships yet.
- Made sure fleets will only be built in a system that's under the faction's control -- not just occupied.
v0.7.1
- Fixed infinite loop bug when jumping.
- Fixed disappearing wingman bug.
- Fixed bug that caused messed up ship names on the target display.
- Fixed bug that caused non-locked missiles fired by the player to not impact neutral or friendly ships.
- Fixed minor bug with the Join Raid mission (sometimes the mission details in the Quine or nav computer would state the wrong number of Hunters).
- Fixed bug that allowed you to move stuff from your backpack to the locker wherever you are.
- Fixed various bugs with fleet event news entries.
- If a Militia or Confed ship gets attacked while scanning for contraband, it will now stop scanning and engage the attacker instead of continuing the scan.
- Ejected Retros are now also purple when scooped.
- If a fixer's mission has expired, he will now tell you so instead of allowing you to still accept the mission.
- Redid the redout effect when your ship's armor is hit.
- Captives can no longer be transfered to the Lucky Lady.
- The Lucky Lady casino ship is now mentioned on the system and sector maps.
- You can now quit the game by closing the window.
- Comm messages won't affect a fleet ship's attitude anymore.
- Ejected pilots from a fleet ship now have the attitude of the fleet's faction, not the ship they ejected from.
- Used Brilliance Ampules and Refined Ultimate can now be combined to take up less space (like ammo clips).
- If an enemy ship has retreated once, it won't do it again.
- For missions that require you to deliver cargo to a ship, the amount of cargo will now always be in accordance with the target ship's type.
v0.7.0.2
- Fixed bug that caused the "division by zero" crash that was fixed in the last version (this fixes the cause of the crash, the previous fix just avoided the actual crash).
- Fixed bug with characters on a base also appearing on board your ship when you landed after having boarded a ship.
- Fixed bug with automatic destination nav point change if a fleet that you had previously selected as your destination leaves the system.
- Fixed pirate Talons that had cargo but no cargo hold.
- Retros spawned on board ships are now also purple instead of white.
- Added mouse scroll wheel support for selling stuff at the equipment shop.
- Added news filters to the Quine.
v0.7.0.1
- Fixed bug with "invisible" ships (ships that were no longer active but would still block weapons fire and other ships).
- Fixed "division by zero" crash when trying to determine whether or not a fleet should attack a new fleet that has just started construction (and therefor has an offensive strength of zero).
- Updated the manual with the new name and logo.
Not playing anymore, but I was going over the 'ole space sims and came across an update.
v0.7.1.3 released.
- Fixed issue with an attacking ship with damaged maneuvering jets circling around its target at high speed, unable to aim at it.
- Fixed various quest scripting bugs and quest item weight bugs.
- Fixed crashing bug with repair of fleet ships.
I just downloaded the latest version. What? You've never played ASCII department? You might just miss the space simulation game where the better one. Embrace your inner green dot it!
This site still around? It looks fairly dead to me. The Ascii sector site won't work for me, but the wiki will.
Can anyone confirm?
Confirmed Ironhound, although the facebook page is still active. Perhaps the site is undergoing an update?
Possibly.
I seem to remember he had another website as well, one for the commercial game he was working on (A fighting game perhaps?) but I can't remember what it was called.
The website site is back up now:
Read about the issue here: http://www.asciisector.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1754
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