Pioneer alpha3 :D

[tomm]

Alpha 3 is done (get it here: http://pioneerspacesim.net/download ). Here is what has changed:* ogg vorbis sound effects supported* A few improvements to missing scripting* Some lovely new space ship models curtesy of Gernot* Screen resolution, shaders, sound volume and keyboard bindings are configurable from the game* Better terrain colouring (colour function gets surface normal now)* More sound effects from Staniol* Saved game file format should be forward-compatible now (but pre-alpha3 savefiles will not load).* Lots of little things fixed and improved, probably a few new bugs too.What is to be done now? Have a look at the TODO file. The user interface looks bad and needs new icons and a new style, lots of missions need to be coded, but most of the hill has been climbed. When the missions are completed to the depth of Frontier's missions, I think we will be beta.

[RedRiver]

yay! love the new ships and found a few bugs I think.the Imperial Courier is free but I couldn't fit a fuel scooper on it. 30t of fuel reduced range from 23 to 18 ly?also upgrading the hyperdrive would decrease the range.that's with only 1 engine being equiped...love this little mod.keep up the good works.I will spread the word about the new alpha release!

[Potsmoke66]

most ships are specified like the originals,the courier and trader simply have no fuel scoop mount, that's all.hyperspace range depends on effective mass in pioneer, that's why you loose range with gain of weight.upgrading, shouldn't reduce range but of course a bigger drive has a bigger mass.for the final range of a ship (fully ladden) refer to the table on the shipyard when you purchase one.also acceleration ratio will vary with weight, but final accelaration is mostly FE2 compliant.

[RedRiver]

what's the point of buying a bigger hyperdrive if it will have less range because it's heavier?

[tomm]

RedRiver wrote:
what's the point of buying a bigger hyperdrive if it will have less range because it's heavier?
Unless the hull mass of the ship has been set too low, you should always get longer range with a bigger drive *providing you have enough fuel on board*.

[sscadmin]

Congrats on Alpha 3 Tomm. I loaded it up last night and played around for a few minutes and it played flawlessly. I wasn't to familiar with the interface so tooltips/mouse-over text that is more responsive would be great for the buttons. Because there was times I moused over a button and no tooltip appeared but in different tries I would eventually see it. For a alpha release the game is quite playable and more far along in some some aspects of other similar games.

[Potsmoke66]

redriver, show when that has happened it's "not possible" imho. might be a ship shows empty a wider range with a lower class, but that will change as soon as it is equipped with fuel and ladden, besides you won't fly around empty in pioneer, or did you, you won't make good profit then.except for the "E.Y.E", but i stated that it is a "fun" model, and it's drive is "cheated", you can buy a second one but it will not show up, neither does it have influence on the range (only countereffect).so if the E.Y.E acts weird to range, ok no real drive mounted on that ship, but you can replace the script with the one i posted here, to get a real drive, limited to only one drive to use.that was all just a experiment for a experimental ship only for fun or exploration use, mainly i came to that because i was looking how to get a 7200t ship working in pioneerstill i would like to have two or more drives to fit if it would have a effect, that would save the lynx.but on the other hand LRC and Lynx are far to big to dock or land anywhere in pioneer.in FE2 you may be able without crashing the ship but not so in pioneer, except i give them a much smaller collision mesh as the ship is sized. the lynx is over 200m long and thats far to long for any spacestation in pioneer. when purchased or docked 2/3 of the ship are outside the dock and only launching can give you big problems.fun fact to launch that heavy ship you need very strong thrusters, when i fixed them up and had first some unsuccsessful starts then i tuned them to the limit. i was "jettisoned" out of the station, accelerated to many 100000km/s in no time and found myself a few 100's of AU far from the central star.i tell you a had a big laugh i guess they was a bit to strong then....if it's possible allready to have different types of spacestation running in pioneer, maybe i make one out of the Lynx, why not?besides of that i guess 1000t are the max. size you can handle with pioneers hyperdrives, else you won't get far enough,that will be then a ship like the panther clipper or similar.and a Q from my side, will it be possible once to have a separation for buildings on oxygene worlds and other with a non breathable or no atmosphere? also different types of space ports without a "bunker" perhaps (like the one kenny showed in his buildings, still i'm waiting for them, i would "bind" them in for you kenny, no problem for me )?apart from that i've planned a archology for pioneer with landing pads outside the dome (exists only as a sketch by now).to give you a idea of it, it will look a bit like the well known "space needle".even some "classic perry rhodan" type spheres and discs are planned, mainly a cover of the "orion".but i would like to turn around the main direction of the ship, but i guess that would give some problems to the pilots, especially because view is bound to " z " (main will be " y " then, but lasers willl fire in " z ", steering will be turned over then and roll will be like pitch, only sidewards but thats how these spheres work).

[Geraldine]

Alpha 3! Well done to you and your team Tomm. People are now starting to notice Pioneer. And about time they did too!

[Potsmoke66]

if you feel like me 1 cent is far to cheap for a courier, so here's the fixed scriptcourier_fixplace the file to "pioneer-alpha3/data/models/ships/courier/"alternatively you can take the downloaded one which you have used for alpha2.btw. the files must be updated for alpha3, or brandet for alpha2 only(i will have to remove some fixes i did for alpha2 in them), you can dowload them still, but makes no sense since most are included, except the experimental E.Y.E and my Cobra MK I which is on my webspace (and for the sidie of course).instead of downloading or copy over you can open the file in note or wordpad and remove the 1, in front of the as comment marked (remove "--" to) real price of the ship.

[Potsmoke66]

does your pioneer have the same scrambled planetary info screens?hard to find a cetrtain base, when you had to deliver something to.

[tomm]

potsmoke66 wrote:
does your pioneer have the same scrambled planetary info screens?hard to find a cetrtain base, when you had to deliver something to.

2010-08-19_231758.jpg

Hm yes. I get that too. I have a fix, exe only, use data folder from alpha3:http://pioneerspacesim.net/sites/default/files/pioneer-wip-exe.rarMaybe tomorrow I will examine this LOD problem you were having with the model viewer

[Potsmoke66]

hi tom, i've encountered a new problem, but i'm not shure where it comes fromi took my sidie loaded some goods and a parcel to ross 154h2 fuentes starport, each time i get there, the game terminates right after(at) docking, when the station screen should appear i guess. i did exactly the same tour on alpha2 also with a parcel to funtes and it workrd out nearly i was late, but the correct response and the station screen appeared (but after i pressed esc to save the game it terminates to, but that happens often i know). i'm not shure by now is it the station or maybe the contract i've took or that i'm maybe even to late in the alpha3 test tour.(btw. i have to fix a little cosmetical fault at the sidie to, the LOD level 2 is to high and so things like the cabin/pilot, text and greebles vanish a bit to early for my opinion. thats something i should know allready in modelviewer the LOD acts a bit different, maybe because of the lower resolution i use?)i will test the same tour again, to see if the same shit happens without a parcel, or when i arrive in time.it is not that i'm late i'm in time in the first try of alpha3next i do the same run without a contract, because docking on earth is no problem. shouldn't be on ross154h2, but maybe it's that extreme slope the hangar is build on, no matter how leveled i land, the ship will allways get in a sloped position (landing, docking into rocks never gave me trouble before, that has happened sometimes on such rocky places).

[RedRiver]

it's time to upgrade spacestations and spaceports to accomodate the larger ships!also I noticed some new terrain graphix artifacts.on Earth islands had rugged edges when fly by very close and look like palisade.I haven't had time for more testing but I think the terrain could use some more attention to make it look more realistic and less fluid...now if only I could find that elusive E.y.E ship somewhere so I could really get out there

[Potsmoke66]

it's in the eagles download on SSC's download section for community projects.[url]http://www.spacesimcentral.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=293[/url] remind you, the eagles and buildings are now includet in the new build, so doesnt have to be installed.the E.Y.E is in a separate (.exe)zip file, but i guess i link that up here to separate.P66 E.Y.Eand a script to make the fun ship more compliant to pioneers rest of ships (no cheated drive, a bit enhanced capacity)P66 E.Y.E alternative setup

[Potsmoke66]

there is something fishy about ross154h2, in the new build it's impossible to dock without a game crash,in alpha2, i can dock but pressing pause or do some movements in the starmap and the game terminates also.i guess best i never take no run there no more.could that be because you land completely tilted there? there is no way to get around that on fuentes starport.i will test now the starport on alpha centauri, from which pagroove stated that he couldnt dock on, maybe it's a similar thing to see at them.

[RedRiver]

is it possible to make cities reside on a flat terrain or at least flatten a certain area of the landscape around them to look more realistic and less like wierd trees?also some buildings need to be reworked to look more futuristic and practical on any planet. something like domes and more robust design.

[Potsmoke66]

that was a sidekick, hm?yes i know they look a bit ancient age, but at least better then a grey cube (you can revert to the cubes still if you remove building 1, 2 and the chappel, in buildings.lua are still the originals preserved, just remove the comment sign "--" and "--" at the end). or better do some yourself, it's not to hard to make a simple building and a good start in scripting models or modelling at all i will add some "extraterrestrial" buildongs once, i stated that somewhere here allready, i'm still hoping for a possibility to separate them once for various types of planets (i'm shure that this is planned by tomm).this goes to allsomething else, how far are your experiences with build3, do you have ever been attacked by a armed enemy, i was flying around the whole day to discover some systems for some new "jameson" savegames. i was attacked many times, but allways they carried no weapons.something else, i guess i make the E.Y.E "official" after removing the cheated drive and with acceptable "realistic" specs, because i think it's a good enemy ship, it moves very fast and is hard to catch.

[RedRiver]

no don't remove the cheat drive. remove gun points instead.we need something with range just for exploring.who cares 'bout the guns....

[Potsmoke66]

i do!

[RedRiver]

found another bug related to terrain.asteroids look super spikey.some work need to be done to reduce the uniformity of the terrain on most planets and asteroids.realistically plains will prevail over mountains and ridges on most planet types even Earth like ones...