Darkken Nightshade

Yes, I was just explaining my own lame, madness!

To use the TOM you have to have the craft "targeted" and I was thinking that a quick way to target them was by using the SUL mode of the radar, but I'm sure there is a key command that will get me to them quickly. Anyway that was my train of thought. Thanks! Any yes BTW....these RC candiates are really shaping up the game nicely, so far anything that I personally observed is way way in the corrected past. ie that Z buffer thing and female sex change thing, although the terran female commander still doesn't look very terran to me, and that Blondie female file that I can see in the folder does not come up as pictured thru any of the female race choices...but i digress

Feel free to move this post somewhere else, but I thought I would ask (since the escorts in roam elite pilot are a recently new elementsince RC4)...so here it goes: Would it be possible to have your 4 escorts to be listed as a Support Craft, that way they would be easily filtered on the radar screen? Would help game play (mine at least anyway) and easier to select them for assigning orders. My RC6 comment is: Awesome Updates!

Just delete this thread, before anyone I know reads my mispreceptions. They are not moving faster, it is a visual miscue based on the depths of the various objects against themselves. Sorry. Tacops show me that I must have rotated the plane earlier and thought that they were at a different start point, changing the sensitity on my mouse and using keyboard to fine tune the zoom shows exactly the movements and they are all relative the way they should be.

I thougt about that. I was afraid that my "perception" is getting confused by something similar to a "parallax" view, effect. I will look at tacops much closer to try to determine exactly where they start/stop in one of these bursts, and see how long it takes me to cover the same distance. I do not doubt your statement that they cannot exceed their top limit. Thanks for the quick reply.

I am playing: roam/elite pilot/millitary/terran. I have rc5 updated, and have my 4 "team escorts". I have chosen to fly the RAVEN which at 750 is the highest speed I see of all small fighter crafts. My escorts are defenders (705), zenstars(720), etc... My observation /perception is that while I am cranked upto my highest speed, and feel like I am moving at a good pace relative to Galcom HQ, but my escorts are moving much faster then me. One moment they are on the otherside of HQ, and then they zoom by me on the opposite side. I have watched them in tacops as well. I know that their top speed is "close" but lower then mine. But regardless they cover allot more space then I can. My question is two fold. 1> Does anyone think that is true of the otherships they observe? 2> I'm I doing something incorrectly and so missing the greater potenial of my crafts top speed. Hyperdrive is not in question here. They are not hyperdriving. We are moving small relative distances and buzzing around HQ's., yet they seem to be at least triple my fastest speed. Help, comments, are appreciated.

JCMAN: "But now the odd thing is, Im having the same problem. Mine just randomly CTD all the time (RC-1 to RC-4)." I understand that you are having a CTD, but it's not the same as I was experiencing. I was rock steady in all prior releases, the CTD caught me by surprise. The troubleshotting guide describes some troubleshooting tips like taking back the graphics accelerator slider one tick. Does anyone know what "enable write combining" does? It is a single check box, mine is on, any recommendations on how this effects stability or performance? PS: have played a few more hours, no more CTD. It must have been the bad kharma from shooting my oewn guys! So far RC4 rules!! Adding armed escorts for the traders....now that's roleplaying.

I don't give up that easy. I like the improvements I am seeing in RC4, escorts are great, especially when I'm not using them for target practice. I'm inclined with it being a fluke so far. Perhaps we'll see that as more folks get the RC4 they too will have no issues. I'll save a bit more often, and run an extensive defrag, etc as suggested in troubleshooting for these things. One question: when I had RC3, I unzipped all the files and moved the original zip to a safe folder. If the RC4 updates the ZIP file, and now I have the ZIP and unzipped in the same folder, can this lead to a "mix" of versions issue? ie: that will contribute to a crash? Which does BC regard as the source suring the game? I think I'll completely uninstall, delete all folders, reinstall, and apply upto RC4. If this is the reason for the issue I experienced then maybe my error will serve as a heads up for anyone who unzipped all the gfx, sounds, etc... and what to do when updates come out. Thanks.

When I post to TS, if is often moved by the SC until it is verified, so I put it here first, and wait for SC to decide to move it. There is not much detail to give except that I had just started a game in Roam, in Earth, Race/Caste was Terran/Military. I was flying a raven. There were no error messages, just a total dump to the desktop. Like I said, I have never had any stability issues, I see others report from time to time, but I felt that all was rock steady with hours of play under RC3 especially. My system specs are out there in my profile. If no one else reports issues of this, I expect it to be an anomaly. I re-played last night for about 30mins with no issue, so I started this as a collection place of reports. If no one else reports in in a few days with a similar change I fully expect this thread to get the "dump" as well. [ 02-23-2004, 12:12 PM: Message edited by: Darkken Nightshade ]

New Game.

I have been playing roam modes in all previous RC versions 1 and 3. Since RC4 was posted today I just installed it. I have had NO crashes in prior RC1, 3. All seemed very very stable. I just got kicked out of UC to the desktop after playing roam mode for only a 5-10 minutes, so I figured i would just let you know in case you start see it reported more. I am going to reboot, make sure system is running clean. Normally I would not post this, but only because I have been running for Hours rock steady on previous versions. I was roaming as Elite Pilot, in Earth 1 region, and using my escort ships as target practice so i could experiment more with the keyboard controls and using a joystick. If no one else posts any issues post RC4 then just delete my thread. Maybe it is just a fluke. (or bad kharma for shooting my own guys) I will try again and let you know if the problem persists.

I hope that some of my other posts so far show that I am certainly not interested in "abusing" this or any other forum. It's your show here, so your reply is understood. Playing with a gamepad was flawless and exciting. A thank you to Floyd Walker for that keyboard explanation.

I thought you established "First Impressions" thread for comments and thoughts which were just that: not related to issues or problems. ie: subjective. I've posted other comments there on first impression, so I won't bother adding this to it, its too small to comment on at this point. I'll stick to the sidelines unless I have a verified issue to report.

The "jumpy particles" is in all versions. Unpatched, RC1 and RC3. I only noticed in RC3 and was asking if anyone knew if it was like that before. Since Anteras was commited to staying on RC1 for a while, it seemed like a good idea to leverage this commmunity and see if he could tell me if that was like it there as well. I'm not sure that it makes anyone a guinea pig. Anyway, disregard it as an RC3 specific observation. And whether it gets changed down the line in last RC"s is of little concern. It just looks "strange" to me. I'll add it to the First Impressions Thread, as a suggested change in later versions to make the game feel more polished. [ 02-20-2004, 08:06 PM: Message edited by: Darkken Nightshade ]

Grins Baby! Its all gooood!!!

" Sounds like... Press and hold Enter-- lasers keep firing away. While still holding Enter, press another key-- lasers stop firing. " Yes this is what I am describing as it relates to flying and firing. I have a wireless keyboard setup, i will use a joystick and see if this goes away (this is prefered anyway). My first observation was informational only: I just didn't think it is expected when something was one way before a patch and another way after as it relates to the stars jumping as you cycle thru targets. Looks odd. That's all I was pointing out. Again, I did not notice this in RC1, maybe someone can confirm that. Antares, since you reverted to RC1 can you tell if this star particle change erratically as you cycle thru targets? Just curious.

Jaguar / Bandus: Glad you found my post funny. I'm not so sure that my statement that I just now feel like I have a product that reflects my expectations and purchase when i bought 2.0 (how many years later?), is kissing up

I may be new to the this forum, but I have been around since the first BC hit retail stores. I remember the 2 page ad in PC gamer with the pretty babe waiting for her boy toy to stop playing and come to bed. The promise of the features, expansiveness, pervassive/persistent univerise and the AI brought me to follow this series. But don't you dare call me a newbie: I am one thing and one thing only: The Customer. Keep focus that it's the faithful returning customer, whose dollars "help" keep this going. It doesn't hurt to have a dedicated SC whose VISION is what started this process. But each of those newbies out there took money from their pockets and bought something that promises entertainment, challenge, and fun. I know from experience that thru the dedication of the SC, the extended team around this world that assists in developmemt and testing, that soon my dollars invested will finally deliver a solid reflection of the SC's vision. So beware hanging any title over anyones' experience. We can all contribute in great ways by reporting what is good and what is bad in this series, and view this epic as an investment. The product right now, delivers fun and excitement that I was looking for when I bought 2.0. I am very happy to have made this investment, and I plan on sticking around for the long haul. Hope to see you ALL there !

Minor Observations: Since the RC3 patch, whenever I use the "next target" (the < or >) keys to rotate thru possible enemies: The dynamic star debris that pass around me, "jump" erradicatly. It's like it resets the particles. Also not sure if this is new since RC3 but the laser firing (forward guns on non command ships) in space stops when I turn. I am using keyboard controls, not mouse or joystick, so I cannot verify this in other controller combos. But it hampers dogfighting tremendously. (not using a joystick hampers combat...yes I know) I spent most of my RC1 time exploring and not in combat which is why I have not seen this before. Let me clarify "stops" I am holding down the enter key as I want the ship to re-up the lasers and fire, repeat, etc.... The joystick equivilent of just holding down the primary fire as you manuver. Feel free to break this into new topics if needed. Thanks.

Way Cool!

But is it "blondie" or that freaky bald one with the double eye brows?

For kicks I was looking at what the Females look like when you select them in the new Roam game start. Observation: Screen starts as Male, Terran, Changing sex to Female does not update the shown picture unless you also change the Caste to something else and then back to Terran. Then what I see, I am not sure that it is the terran female. If you browse the GFX directory there is a file there called: carreer_fcmdr.bmp which looks like a blond earth girl. You cannot get her picture to show thru the interface menu. The one you see is from the file carreer_fcmdr_terran.bmp, but she sure doesn't look terran to me. Obviously this is a minor observation, but I thought I would mention it for the perfectionists out there.

Spotlight: Too bad, thank goodness for the awsome terrain avoidance, and tacops. Moon Subject: I understand about the tree/life forms adding little overhead, but some of the planetside battles to get intense, was hoping that it compared (guess not) but I'll still pony up another gig of ram if that's what it takes Also, I've been playing with the png skybox files to add a static moon for myself in earth region 1. RC3, where please? I don't see it on either website's support/downloads yet...I'll be playing with renewed enthusiasm with the 1-9, kudos on your description of the design and intergration of both methods. Awesome!

RC3? How did you get that? I don't see it available yet.

My pleasure, I was making an honest effort to sound helpful and not sarcastic I also thought I had missed something myself and scambled to find my trusty keyboard (cheat sheet). If you are missing you UC keys sheet, send me a private message with your email and I will gladly scan it for you as a jpg and send it your way. Maybe it'll be added as a PDF file to the downloads section. I may be part of a larger doc but I'm not sure on that one. PS: Your English online is pretty good!