!! Pioneer Question Time !! - Ask them here

[Brianetta]

Indeed, thanks. (-:

[s2odan]

FYI I've not been able to get any of the new .png stuff to work on windows.

[robn]

Windows screenshot bug found and fixed. It will be in tonight's build. It ended up being pretty simple - Windows requires you to be explicit if you're writing a binary file instead of a text file. We weren't being explicit, so Windows was doing some text conversions on the binary data and screwing it up.

[s2odan]

Cool, I just got to get this stuff compiling on my end now

[Retsof]

Hey all. Been lurking for a while but I have a problem. No other ships appear. No trade ships at stations, no pirates in uninhabited systems, nothing. Any suggestions? Forgive me if this has been brought up already and I missed the fix.

[robn]

Retsof wrote:
Hey all. Been lurking for a while but I have a problem. No other ships appear. No trade ships at stations, no pirates in uninhabited systems, nothing. Any suggestions? Forgive me if this has been brought up already and I missed the fix.
First, what version are you running?There are no pirates in uninhabited systems. There are often (but not always) pirates in inhabited systems, but the AI currently isn't able to catch you so you'll probably never see them. That's something we're hoping to sort out in the next month or two.There are "trade" ships (that is, ships spawned out in space and flying to port). You might see them docked with a station, but they are random. You might also find bulk freighters in orbit over ground station or parked outside orbital stations, but these too are random. You have more chance of finding these in more populous systems.This all needs lots of work. By the time we're done you should see ships all over the place performing various tasks.

[Retsof]

I am using Alpha 10. Question: will friendly's show up on radar or only hostiles. Also, will there eventually be an autopilot command to land on a planet with no spaceport? Getting from orbit to ground is hard for the impatient (I cant stop icantstopICANTSTOP*splat*)

[robn]

Retsof wrote:
I am using Alpha 10. Question: will friendly's show up on radar or only hostiles. Also, will there eventually be an autopilot command to land on a planet with no spaceport? Getting from orbit to ground is hard for the impatient (I cant stop icantstopICANTSTOP*splat*)
Cool, my answers hold for alpha 10.Everything shows up on the scanner - there's no way for your ship to know if something is hostile until it starts shooting.No plans for a rough-landing autopilot, mostly because of the difficulty in specifying a target. Besides, you need to learn to fly sometime

[Retsof]

Look like I was just unlucky. Just found another ship.

[Guest]

Retsof wrote:
Getting from orbit to ground is hard for the impatient (I cant stop icantstopICANTSTOP*splat*)
Haha.. that's exactly how I 'land' on planets

[Brianetta]

I bet you never use your mirrors, either.

[s2odan]

Brianetta wrote:
I bet you never use your mirrors, either.
Mine melted

[Guest]

This would be awesome if something like this was used in the game.http://www.existor.com/just an idea and it should be an optional thing because it would get annoying after awhile

[fluffyfreak]

Nice idea but she refuses to engage in a serious discussion about warp nacelles... I got bored before she did though

[Geraldine]

0hyeah132 wrote:
This would be awesome if something like this was used in the game.http://www.existor.com/just an idea and it should be an optional thing because it would get annoying after awhile
I just typed in "deus ex machina" and it said "I am the machine"! Shodan anyone?

[Guest]

fluffyfreak wrote:
Nice idea but she refuses to engage in a serious discussion about warp nacelles... I got bored before she did though
Yeah well the way she works is that she learns from how people have responded to things she has said. So in theory, If she was in the game then people would only talk about ingame stuff with her and that would be all she talked about. The only problem is if you ask if she is human. In that case if you asked her if she was real she would start going on about you being the machine and how she is real and if anyone ever told her their name then she would think that is her name and she can't carry out long conversations because she can't remember anything she has said previously.An example is this conversation with cleverbot (an AI that works in the exact same way just without the face).Cleverbot: Do you have a brain, Cleverbot?User: You are cleverbot, not me.Cleverbot: I beg to Differ. You are the Cleverbot and I am the User.User: That is an interesting point of view.Cleverbot: Why do you think you are human?User: I think, therefore I am.Cleverbot: But thought can be wrong.User: If thought is wrong, I still have thought.Cleverbot: Very funny, but I know some cheerleaders that went on to be doctors. I don't really care George, if you don't think having to feel accounts for much, then fine.User: I am not george.Cleverbot: I know. You asked if I love george though.User: Do you love george?Cleverbot: I do not love george.User: Who is george?Cleverbot: You.User: I am not george, I am John.Cleverbot: So your name is ben?

[Retsof]

Got another one for you. Because no space sim is complete without epic space battles, will this eventually support capital ships and turrets?

[robn]

Retsof wrote:
Got another one for you. Because no space sim is complete without epic space battles, will this eventually support capital ships and turrets?
Probably both but no concrete plans at this stage. Also wrt capital ships, as Brianetta is fond of pointing out, we need to make a concious decision about how much realism we're willing to trade for gameplay.

[Luomu]

I don't think there will ever be Star Wars style battles (with slow kilometer-long capital ships and zippy fighters), the high velocities don't lend itself to that. But realistic approaches can be 'epic' as well and not done to death

[Marcel]

I think that the ability to be hired as a mercenary to take part in such an epic space battle could be awesome to add eventually. Or how about transporting goods and people through war zones. Just imagine the possibilities, the danger, the intrigue!