Schmendrick

quote:Originally posted by $iLk: I'm saying that there ought to be requirements to vote, because it isn't taken seriously anymore. And yes all men ARE created equal, however some begin to move ahead of others in different areas of society. It's the way things have worked out. The point is that all people should be regarded equally by the government. Whenever this is not the case(as it already is in many aspects), serious problems arise. If you want to remove people's voting rights, start with the illegal aliens and the dead people in Chicago.

Geez. Reading this thread makes me weep for the state of education in this country. Did all of you just forget about the "all men are created equal" bit? What you're describing is a surefire plan to create a concrete caste system. On the surface, such ideas might seem appealing. But in practice it would simply cause resentment and class warfare. You also seem to be buying into the concept that the government grants rights to the people. This is not the case. Our rights are recognized by our constitution to be intrinsic human rights upon which the government is prohibited from infringing. The thought that the government should be granting special rights or privelages to certain people makes me ill. 100 years ago, people didn't even want the government to maintain a standing army. That the government would have the power to draft citizens in times other than war wasn't even considered. And now you think it should be mandatory before people are even allowed to vote?

I found a planet where I saw lots of naval vessels cruising around underneath the surface. No water anywhere near this place. It didn't look like one of the shallow water areas you described above. I have screenshots which show the planet/location which I can post when I get home. (oops. sneezed and hit the 'post' button) [ 12-06-2001: Message edited by: Schmendrick ]

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Thats nothing. There's more. Seek and ye shall find. Just wait until I put in the forests, vegetation and animals (land and see) in the XP1 add-on. Cool Any chance well be able to, um, process said animals into trade items (furs, meats, etc.) at some point? It'd be fun to organise a little safari with the bridge crew while waiting for your mining drones to fill up. And watching Resnig get eaten by various semi-sentient floura and fauna would open up a whole new dimension of entertainment.

quote:The Aestrom is horrible compared to the Firestorm. The Firestorm: 1. Looks better That's a matter of taste. The firestorm looks like an odd kind of tuning fork. quote:2. Has more turrets Have you ever driven one? It may just be a matter of my perception, but it seems like the turrets on the Aestrom have a better firing arc toward the front of the craft, and hence hit a lot more.

quote:Originally posted by SmileyMan: OK, please could someone clear up a few points for me: Mining drones: The Zoom To function will not list mining drones on uninhabited planets unless you have some other presence (shuttle/fighter/marine/OC) on the planet. The drones are there, and mining, but you cannot find them. Is this the correct behaviour? Also, when ordering a shuttle to recover the drone, if the Retrieve Drone X waypoint is the only waypoint set on the planet, will the shuttle make planetfall where the drone is, or where the waypoint is set (which may be miles from the drone as per the above paragraph)? Deploy your mining drones near a friendly mission area so you can just zoom back to that mission area when you want to recover them. If there are no friendly mission areas, just look for a feature on the face of the planet that you can remember and deploy them there. And if that doesn't work for you you can always just jot down the map coordinates of where you deployed them. quote: Perscan: On my Nightstar, the Intruders section of PerScan just lists the number of intruders and has a couple of up/down arrows (which apparently do nothing), with no details as to their locations etc, which makes sending marines to intercept a little bit harder. Is this the correct behaviour? Can't say for sure, but I don't think their location will be displayed unless someone in your crew has located them. Hence the need to search.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: It is rubbish. Just as I said. If you don't know that their use of weapons relies on their AI and skills, then you need to play the game some more before cluttering my board with USELESS posts. I'm aware that their use of weapons is dependant upon their AI. Are there some types of missile guidance systems which my pilots are just too dumb to use effectively yet?

I wish it were. I've watched 'em fight for 10 minutes or more without using any missiles when the system tells me they have 5 remaining for each fighter. [ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: Schmendrick ]

My fighters never seem to use more than 5 missiles. I can't recall ever seeing the number of remaining weapons on them below 5. Is this normal?

Am I the only person who who likes the Aestrom better than the Firestorm?

I don't know about that. But you really should read this: http://www.3000ad.com/cgibin/ultimatebb.cg...c&f=22&t=000005 [ 12-02-2001: Message edited by: Schmendrick ]

I don't know about that. But you really should read this: http://www.3000ad.com/cgibin/ultimatebb.cg...c&f=22&t=000005 [ 12-02-2001: Message edited by: Schmendrick ]

yeah, I just dropped all 36 of my marines to their deaths from 4 separate shuttles. And I did all that about 5 times in a row trying to get it to work. I made sure my smartest marines were the first aboard each of the shuttles (AI 19-23). And I couldn't a find flatter land to try it on even if I went to Kansas. Following the shuttles with the F10 view show me that they aren't even attempting to land, they're just kicking my marines out from about 15K meters. I'm at a loss.

I have on of these: http://www.saitekusa.com/product/x36.htm Works quite well. It's all digital so you don't have to worry about centering the damn thing all the time. Having the rudder build into the trottle helps too. I never did like the ones where twisting the main stick was the rudder.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Works fine here. And if you have a probe in the region..... Nope, no probes. I'm still trying to figure out a way to recreate it more reliably. Next time I'll wait 'til I have a way to reliably recreate a problem before posting about it. But it was 2:00 AM and I wasn't thinkin' straight. Sorry to waste your time.

Also another problem. steps to (sometimes) recreate - order fighters to escort your CC - Jump to another system - wait for all fighters to enter the new system - If I try to give orders to the fighters, sometimes the targets listed will only show targets from the system we just left.

quote:Originally posted by Urza: I just captured a hostile station, launced then saved. Thereafter, the game CTD within a minute. This is the first time I've experienced a CTD with any regularity. No matter what I do during the minute, the game always crashes. I can send you the save in question if you wish. I'm having a similar problem. I haven't captured a station, but in the save game I have Galcom HQ is under attack by a few fighters. about a minute into the game it'll CTD. Docking at GHQ only delays the crash until about a minute or so after I leave.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: OK, I'll add it to the very bottom of the pile - right down there with Tac's request for 3D dice for his BridgeViewer. That was back in '97. Since you'll be edditing Vol XXIV section 34 of the wishlist anyway, could you throw in a toggle key that'll let you purchase or sell items in groups of 100?

Yeah, they trash my ship all the time. I think they even damaged some of my unlaunched shuttles. Just 3 hours or so ago I jumped into Midae in a Mk 3 battlecruiser. In tacops I see 2 Stormcarriers and 2 Warmongers scattered around the system. None of them were headed my way at the moment so I just sat around waiting for my hyperdrive to recharge so I can chase one down. While waiting, a third Stormcarrier comes through the gate right behind me. I'm a relative newbie to the game and I wan't paying attention to their race/castes very much. They were red on my scope and that's good enough for me. I immediately match speed and open fire on the new Stormcarrier. To my surprise, he engages his hyperdrive and runs. It was about this time that the first 5 marines boarded my ship. No big deal, I hyperdrive after the stormcarrier, shut down launch control, and assign some more marines to search. All my fighters were currently getting charged up, so I was on my own at the moment. This is when I checked tacops again and saw how bad the situation was about to get. All 3 stormcarriers and both warmongers all seemed to be heading to the same spot. And I'm stuck chasing one of them. Just before dropping out of hyperdrive I check perscan. 1 prisoner, 4 intruders, left. But the bastards killed one of my marines and one of my pilots! and another pilot was down to 17 LF. I quickly take the rest of the pilots off duty to get them away from the fighter bay area. As I come out of hyperdrive way ahead of the Stormcarrier I was chasing. Unfortunately, the 2 Warmongers were waiting for me. I get into a twisting dogfight with them for a while and manage to avoid having my shields breached. Then the storm carriers started to arive. Shortly after I noticed that they were shooting at each other! Great there's 2 castes here fighting it out and I'm just a spectator who stuck my nose where it shoudn't be. I suppose any commander worth his salt would have ducked out at the earliest opportunity. I, however, am not worth my salt. Within moments my radar exploded in red as the Stormcarriers launched all their fighters. I'm still gunning for one of the Warmongers which I've managed to nearly kill at this point. This is when the second batch of marines beamed aboard. A quick look at perscan shows I have 2 prisoners and 7 intruders, 2 dead pilots, 3 dead marines, and 1 dead medic. Just as I finish off the Warmonger, some of the intruders blow up one of my weapons pods. I target one of the Stormcarriers and launch a volley of 4 or 5 Vagrants at it. It explodes before my missles ever arive. Apparently it took the brunt of the initial wave of fighters. Hoping that the remaining Stormcarriers will kill each other off, I target the other Warmonger. It's been gunning for me the whole fight and it's bound to get lucky sooner or later. I didn't bother to check if they were the same caste or not. oops. The fight continues to worsen for me. The beep of multiple missle lock-on warnings sound like car alarms in a mall parking lot during an earthquake. Amazingly my shields haven't been breached yet. As I finishing off the 2nd Warmonger, I notice that my 2 Sentinels are ready. I assign a pilot and copilot to each and set my sights on one of the Stormcarriers. Somewhere in between missile warnings, I hear "A prisoner has escaped". Oh great. I check perscan again. 9 intruders, 1 escaped prisoner, 6 dead marines, 2 dead medics, 5 dead flight engineers, 2 dead pilots, and one severely injured pilot, and a bunch of wounded people all over the ship. And my remaining marines didn't look like they were in very good shape. I assign every remaining marine to search, and then go back to beating up on the Stormcarriers and dodging missiles. After nearly getting killed by fighters every time I take a pass at one of the Stormcarriers, I decide to switch to killing fighters. I notice that one of my pilots seems to have made it to his Sentinel. I check up on em. Apparently the second pilot was killed on the way, but his copilot made it and only suffered superficial wounds on the way. I switch the copilot to the pilot position. When both fighters are ready I quickly turn on launch control, launch both fighters, and switch it back off. Someone managed to make off with one of my shuttles though. Oh well. At this point I look at it as just one less person to kill off my crew. After what seemed like an hour of blowing up fighters, The situation appeared to be clearing up. My marines had beaten down most of the intruders, only 3 left. Unfortunately I'm down to 9 marines in various states of trauma, and the rest of the staff isn't doing much better. There is a group of 4 medics down in the detention hold though. Apparently they're fascinated by the prospect of disecting the two remaining (dead) prisoners, because they've been there for quite a while. Additionally the intruders have sabotages about 8 different systems. Both of my Vandal fighters decided to come online at one point and I even managed to get my last pilot to one of them. He seems to have had a run in with an intruder on the way, but a broken femur or two shouldn't keep him from flying right? I turn on launch control again and manage to launch him without losing any more craft. I turn on the Stormcarriers again and blow one of them away. There's only 4 or 5 fighters left and I'm ordering my own fighters to gang up on them one at a time. Sometime before blowing up the last Stormcarrier I recieve yet more unwanted guests. 8 intruders, 14 dead marines, 8 dead flight engineers, 3 dead systems engineers 3 dead medics, and 6 dead pilots!. I check the fighter icons on the bridgeviewer and see that nobody is home on two of them. only the Sentinel with both a pilot and copilot is still kicking. After cleaning up the remaining fighters, a few of wich ran away, I starget picking up my disabled fighters and headiing for the nearest friendly base. And still the intruders were raising hell within my ship. 3 or 4 jumps away I finally dock at a space station. The final toll. 17 dead marines, 9 dead flight engineers, 3 dead systems engineers 3 dead medics, and 6 dead pilots. In addition, almost every system on deck 3 was damaged by the abatours, with some additional damage done on decks 2 and 4. Not once during the entire fight were my shields ever breached. All the damage was done by the intruders. I now understand why Resnig is so despised by the people of this forum. It's as though my marines were trying to fight off the intruders with pocket knives. I'm turning in the POS Mk 3 and getting myself one of them super carriers with 40 marines. That said, it's probably the most fun I've had on a computer in the last 10 years. But I guess if you're looking for advice on dealing with intruders, I'm not the man to talk to.

I upgraded my system over the weekend, so the specs in my registration are no longer correct. I got a shiny new GeForce 3 Ti 500 and while using both the 2183 and the beta 2280 drivers I occasionally get a problem where I'll exit from the tactical or logistics menu and the screen doesn't change. The game does continue to run. It just doesn't update the display and I'm stuck staring at the logistics screen. I hear the normal bridgeview background chatter, and I can hear the responses to normal actions (firing lasers, key commands, etc.. ) It's not too much of a problem as I can just hit "alt+q" and "y" and then resume the game. Just wondering if anybody else has had this happen and if they found a solution. Specs: P4 1.4 Ghz 128 MB RDRAM GeForce 3 Ti 500 - 1152x864 32 bit (and getting 60+ fps with 4x FSAA - I'm actually sexually aroused by that ) Advance AC'97 Audio (gotta use the POS onboard sound until next paycheck) Win98 SE ------ Switching to 2x antialiasing seems to have fixed it. Don't waste any time on this [ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: Schmendrick ]

Because I think it might be a bug.

I can't say for sure, but it seems to have started when I lost a couple fighters and pilots. I'm guessing that the cloning process wasn't quite successfull, and the new clones don't have the same sense of duty and responsibiliy of the original pilots. I assign the pilots to their respective fighters, yet there always appears to be one or two slackers who would rather hang out with the flight crew. Last time I tried to reassign pilots, everyone went where they were supposed to, except Roamer who was supposed to be co-pilot of fighter 2, but instead wanered off to FC Bay 4 and stayed there for over 15 minutes at which time I took him off duty. At this point he started heading toward his quarters and I reassigned him to fighter 2 co-pilot, so he spitfully heads back to FC bay 4 to resume his craps game with the crew. Simmilar thing seem to happen whenever I reassign pilots. I don't recognize any particular patterns as of yet, other than the slackers always seem to hang around one of the FC bays. Is this a bug, or are the FC bays just the place where the crew sets up their hidden liquor stills? It's not a major problem, as I can usually juggle 'em around until everyone seems happy with their assignment. Just letting you know that there may be a problem with clones and/or crew replacements getting lost. I'll try to see if I can reliably recreate this in another game. The game I was playing when this happened I was a Terran Commander in a Firestorm. I have a save game in which this is a recurring problem. PIII 667 Voodoo 5 SB Awe64 Gold (don't laugh, I'll be upgrading shortly) 256 MB SDRAM Win98 SE [ 11-24-2001: Message edited by: Schmendrick ]

Which reactor upgrade is better, the Eyestar or Trellis? Both have the same price of $2,500,000. Trellis TTFN [ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Gallion ]