Darkken Nightshade

The keyboard sheet for UC says under Keyboard Controls section: (last line): Hyperjump to target - or - Egress Planet: Shift+9 I didn't bother to answer SC before because it was a rhetorical question, but Frescas post seems to beckon an offcial repsonse for the "ultimate" clarity.

That's a great idea. I wonder if I can even replace the entire file if I use the same bit depth, size/ratio and file name. I know you can with sound files, but can you also unzip all the gfx files and then remove the zip (i prefer moving it to another folder) ? I may go over to www.space.com and get some of the hubble screen shots, they may look fantastic as as well. Thanks.

"Unable to find CD" It's behind the couch.

Cool. I spent some quality time last night flying thru a star starstation while it was rotating. And then later dog fighing from inside an enemy on while their fighters pursued me.

I like you pics at your? site. You have one where you "dock" at the starbase. Anytime I try to VTOL and touch down on the starbase, I collide and bounce up vertically. Are you really touched down on it, or just really really close to it?

Fly as high as you can and SHIFT 9. Then good-bye planet and hello space.

Sounds like you also have MS Office installed with Microsift Photo Editor? If yes, then MS Photo editor is setup to be your associated TGA program, but it cannot handle these TGA files. Try this, goto the folder with the TGA files, right click to see the menu, and the use the OPEN WITH with or CHOOSE program to see what alternate programs you have installed. MS WIndows and Fax view has issues seeing these picture, and MS Photo Editor says that same File error, but you may have something else installed that you can choose. If you don't I suggest going to Alchemy's web page: http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/alchemy.html and downloading the best shareware (more like fully functional but it nags you a bit ...like winzip) program called GWS...graphic workshop...I have been using it for 10+ years and it will do many many useful graphic needs for you.

I don't mind. I understand the processing issue, which is why I said a "static" moon. Just add it as an esthetic point of reference out there among that nebula stuff. Make it look good, and it will help orient you in battle. Since the SUN also helps orient you but gives you glare at the sametime. Also, is it Jupiter where there are 3 moons around jupiter. I know it is a quiet region, but if planetside can handle about a billion trees, buildings and little men running around, why would the earth, moon and its star stations really tax my rig more then the planetside action....if all I gotta do is upgrade my measly 1 gig of ram to 2 to play a BC series game, them I am there !! Kidding aside, that would be the most awesome, but all I was thinking of is just a bitmap outthere to "pretend" for now. Put it so that when you face the jumpgate for the moon that it appears beyond it. It just makes sense for a space sim to "show" the moon when its so darn close to earth.

I just finished roaming in my ship planetside, so a few more impressions. Where are the headlights on my ship? I nice spotlight or the view mode equal to the cool green nightvision like I have in first person is really needed on the ships for flying on the darkside of the planet. (if i missed something I can do now please tell me!) Changing the HUD color helps but it doesn't light up the ground ahead of me. I like the auto leveling and flying low VTOL over the terrain, then as you approach your target rich environment...wow...it is a rush! Great animations of the buildings crashing, but I wish the smoke and flames lasted much longer. I like to use the F4 and see those insurgents rolling in smoke and flame as I prepare to turn around for another run...but its gone all too quickly. The lack of collision detect on trees does not bother me at all. The AI is very good at following waypoint orders, this really felt like my ship had an intelligent computer following my orders (turning/banking was smooth in AI mode). Automatic landing at my final waypoint on my orders was cool! Great scale of ships compared to FP when you get out. Sometimes I take my entire battlecruiser planetside, park it, and make everyone get out. Really funny to see this.

Here's my retake on your nit picking: (which i appreciate) I would not want to see the Orange Nebula eliminated, just cut back, toned down, so it does not dominate so much. Too much of anything gets plaid out after a while. I don't feel like I am in space, and I guess that was my point. The moon. I cannot think of traveling in space around this planet and not being aware of the moon. Yes, I appreciate that I can fly to it via a jump gate, but its absences feels strange to me. Naming your assest. Again, part of the "role playing". Maybe naming your tank seems silly, but what about an elite pilot...surely he would have a name for his ship. just like every captain on the sea names his boat...even a small sailboat. The guys driving around in the desert in tanks, often name their tanks. (I also don't think it would be hard to implement.) Your comment about "try flying somewhere without hyperdrive"...that is my point. I don't like needing the hyperdrive to get everywhere...I would like it if the ships had a greater sense of "natural" speed without using the hyperdrive. I never feel like I'm moving around in space. It'll take me forever to simply orbit the planet. I should be able to tear around local space and save hyperdirve for the big distances...currently I just don't get that...you seem to agree on that point. ex: I jumped to a supply station instead of the star station. So now I am at a range of 300 from where I want to dock. I'm too close to hyperdrive to the starstation, and 300 is not really that far away, but man it takes like forever to get to the minimum docking distance....I'm hoping the return of the afterburner would eliminate this. I also wish that cutting back on guns and shields would add power and speed (ala so many other games) but it doesn't. Jumpgates...I see your point, but does it really need to take nearly 3 minutes of realtime? If I'm so messed up that I need to escape like that, they could finish me off pretty quickly in the first 30 seconds. Physics: I truly understand that this would open a huge can of worms...but I don't see it explained why the "drag" is so dramitic. And not consistent in some axis rolls. I liked it better in this respect in BCM. Again, these were first impressions. On the speed aspect I'm think back to my LucasArts Tie Fighter Days, I felt like I was "cooking" as I moved from place to place.

I've been roaming for a few days so far: Some initial thoughts: Orange nebulae background is too much, I want to feel like I am flying over around earth in the far future, but I don't, it is too different. At least put a static earth moon in the background. Let us name any primary asset craft, not just when we are a commander. If I am going to be a rougue marine tooling around Mars, I want to have a bad@ss name for my tank. Scale feels off a bit, I think that everything (in ordbit) is too close to the planets. When you use the [Fly To] a planet or moon and do not wish to do a Planet Fall, your stopping distance should be greater then what it currently does. ie: it brings you too close to the planet. Flying without the hyperdrive is too slow. Am I reading the speed correctly? My superfighter is only going 719 Meters Per Hour?? That's pretty slow and makes it so you must hyperdrive everywhere. When using the [Fly To] to a jump-gate, please get me closer. I like flying manually thru them, but it takes too much time to get from the fly to point to the gate...and I do not like advancing time, feels like cheating. I don't understand why in frictionless space that my space craft slows down. And slows down dramaticly when I so much as turn a little. Maybe I could accept some decreases (simulating a retro rocket to execute a turn) but it's too extreme. Also it is not consistent, because if I spin on my center axis clockwise/counter-clockwise,,,I loose no speed, but all other axis movements take lots of speed away....I want to "fly" in space, I see mention of afterburners but cannot find the key for it, but I also see a thread from SC that he is going to add it back, so I'll look forward to that. I like the new ground elements of trees, life forms, but would like to be able to increase the visability to a farther range so it'll be more realistic...I have a great gaming rig and I want to put it too work! The cities still feel like college campuses and not cities. Doesn't really bother me, but they don't excite me either. Well, don't get me wrong, I have been with the BC ganes from the first one, and I am looking forward to all the improvements that come over time, it seems that our SC takes this seriously and that comes across in the product. I was very pleased with what the final BCM became over the years. UC has just been born! Oh yeah: I vote also to include the 1-9 format of thrust but hope it can stay alongside the new format as well. That's it for just the impressions, apologies for repeating any items mentioned already. [ 02-13-2004, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: Darkken Nightshade ]

Just my opinion but I think the orange nebula effect in the SOL system is tooo much. I would prefer it to be about 50% less then what it is. I would also love for the Moon to be in the same region as the Earth, and not being able to see it on the back drop when at earth makes it seem like that Space 1999 series I used to love watching with a young Barbara Bain...

Thanks...I'll look to see if that is something I am allowed to tweak in my NVIDIA settings, and will report the results as it may turn out to be helpful for others.

Okay, I verified in TacOPS that I am not inside the planet. But very close to the surface. The problem is then graphical in nature, as the planet is invisible. I picked a navigation mark on the far side and flew towards it manually, and as the SC indicated I was presented with a planetfall anim and then of course died because Juptier is not a nice place. I think the graphic issue needs refinement, as along with my other comment it doesn't feel right when Jupiter plays peekabo with you as you turn away from it.

Please don't delete me, profile now included.

My distance does not change. I am stopped. Looking right at Saturn. As I slowly pivot away, there is a pretty big percentage of the planet surface still showing, moving off the edge of the screen... and then it disappears. If I was only seeing maybe the outeredge of the furthest ring, I would say it's okay, but for it to so abruptly disappear just doesn't "feel" right graphicly, and I can't think of any other game where that happens. I have BCM and I have never had that happen in BCM. Anyway its a look and feel thing, so it's my opinion so far (but its certainly not stopping me from exploring more.) I'll lay off the replies, thanks for responding.

I don't know if this is related but I also noticed that as the planet saturn approached the edge of the view screen (viewing thru F1) it disappears prematurely. So it has about still 20% showing, planet surface, and rings, and if I tap just one more on the arrow keys....bam...it's all gone. Tap back one time on the keys and "poof" it re-apprears. I have the latest drivers and directx for my GEFORCE 4600, it has 512megs of ram, and my system has 1gig of ram. I will try experimenting by changing some of the graphic settings...I am running with all 32bit settings and all the "pretty" things turned on. I am not having any "slow" issues, but I will try chaning things a bit and report back in if this issue and the original one are different. (I'm thinking that perhaps I am not really IN the planet, but extremely close, and getting this disappearing surface issue) I think TACOPS may be the best way for me to verify where I am when this happens....more to follow.

I can upload a series of screen captures if that will help. But basically It's pretty straight forward: I jump to the Saturn Region. After I gome thru the jump gate, I use the Command Craft Oders Menu to select the following: FYY TO / PLANET / SATURN The ship turns on the AP and engages the hyperdrive. As I approach the planet, it appears that I continue thru the outer skin of the graphics and are taken literally inside it. The screen shots I have show the surface of the planet..."peel" back as I approach, and once I am "in" the planet, all of the outer surface is transparrent. I can see the rings in a complete 360 degrees arround me. I can break off the AP and then fly in any direction I wish. Same with Jupiter.

Ok, I guess I'll wait to see if this "anamolie" is corrected. Didn't mean to use the "B" word. Is my process wrong? Is there something that I am doing wrong in using this method to get close to a planet when I have jumped into the region?

I am not trying to fly THRU the planet to some other destination. The planet IS my destination, and I would expect to be brought to a short distance near it, not in it. As stated, when flying to other locations, this is what happens. I think it is a bug.

I was flying using the elite pilot career. I wanted to look at Saturn and Jupiter to see how the graphics in those regions looks. After entering the region, I selected from the command menu: fly to...planet...saturn. This hyper drove me into the center of the planet. The outside skin disapprear as I went thru the surface, and was of course transparent when I was inside. I was never asked to establish planetfall (nor did I expect to get asked.) Seems like a simple bug where the coordinates you are brought to are just mistakenly inside the planet. Does not do this on the moons arouns Saturn, I think I tried 2 of them. Does this on Jupiter as well. I have applied the latest patch btw. I'll do some more flying today and see if this is also anywhere else.