coder_1024

quote:Try using VTOL if you wish the ship to hover. Yes, but isn't there the danger of the ship taking off on you if you just leave it in VTOL mode? quote:BCM has added the effects of gravity when in a planet's atmosphere, so even though you are halted, you are being pulled down to the surface. HALT is not keeping you stationary when there is an opposing force pulling you down. I should have been clearer in my initial message. I was using VTOL, and was hovering nicely. When I issued the HALT command and enabled A/P, it switched out of VTOL and began dropping. I understand that HALT itself wouldn't keep me stationary in the gravitational field, however, I was questioning my experience that the HALT commancd caused the ship to switch *out of* VTOL mode. My suggestion was to have a ship in VTOL mode that receives a HALT command just stay in VTOL mode and not do anything. Does it really need to switch out of VTOL mode?

The demo readme recommends that you issue the HALT command and enable A/P before leaving the ship. This makes sense, because you probably don't want the ship taking off and leaving you stuck on the planet. This instruction was provided in the context of landing the ship, and then leaving it. I thought it would be neat to leave my ship at an alt of about 20,000 or so, and then launch out in a shuttle to check things out on the surface. That way my ship would be away from the "action". The ship was hovering at around 20,000. I issued the HALT command, and enabled A/P. It then began dropping. I moved my AE out to the shuttle anyway, and launched. I watched as the ship eventually "crashed" into the water. The readme only address the HALT/AP/exit situation in a context where you've landed the ship. The BC3k manual simply indicates that the HALT command is used to hold at a location (or waypoint) and maintain radio silence. Is the current behavior by design? If not, would it be possible to change this, so that you could issue a HALT command while the ship is hovering and have it remain in hover?

First of all, I want to say that the demo is incredible! I'm playing the second demo, and can't get enough of it :-) While playing I noticed a few things, and wanted to report them here. I checked the version control file first, and didn't see these there. I also searched the boards. I apologize in advance if I missed them, and they have already been reported. 1. When on the bridge, there is a row of icons in the center below the "hud". The ones on the right have tooltips, but as you move left the others do not have tooltips. This is very minor, but I wanted to point it out. 2. One of the scenarios (I think the third) starts you on the planet in a small craft. I've noticed that at times the craft is not completely rendered. I'm running Win2k SP2, nVidia GeForce 2 DDR, 32MB with the latest drivers. 3. Has anyone seen a difference between the altitude reported inside the bridge, and the one reported when you're in an external view of your ship? I think I saw this when my ship was hovering at a very low alt (< 100) 4. I was flying toward the starbase in the first scenario. I was fairly close to it. I targeted the base, and switched to an external view of the base. Oddly, I didn't see my ship approaching. When you switch to an external view of a target, is it just rendering the target? Or should I expect to see other craft, etc. in the area? This also seemed to happen with the planet. Again, sorry if I've missed these topics elsewhere. Looks like an awesome product, and I can't wait untill it goes GOLD :-)