Post by Justin on Mar 17, 2013 21:47:17 GMT -5
Instructions (might be long post)
It runs at 1680 * 1050 resolution, check if your monitor supports it, if you get a black screen it does not, press escape to get out, I'll have to add in a config file since there's no need for a menu right now
Controls
ESCAPE- QUIT
WASD - Movement
Holding down W or 'S' sets your speed, your ship then slowly builds to that speed and will continue at that speed until you adjust it.
P = CREATE test enemy Corvette class
Right Mouse - Fire All Weapons ( will be able to disable/enable active weapons in the future)
Tab = Engage Warp
Shift Tab = Disengage Warp
C = Cloak (will be a rare item in the game but in for enjoyment)
Shift-C - Decloak
Buttons on the left Screen:
DOCK - if in range of the station you will dock. Click again to undock.
When you dock a button comes up on the left marked 'station', click it to bring up the station interaction menu, shipyard/trade/crew recruitment. These are not fully functional yet.
However you can buy different ships. Click next ship to cycle through the available ships, and purchase to automatically switch to that ship to test it out. Not sure if I labelled which is which, but the first = corvette, second = destroyer, third = frigate, 4th = cruiser, 5th = dreadnought...
You have to undock again to be able to move. Don't try anything with the buying/selling or crew interface it's not fully functional.
Now if you look to your lower left you will see a kind of ship status thing, click your ships image in that box and a system interface type window will pop up, this had two system interfaces, crew management and engineering. Click engineering button to bring it up, now here you can see lots of stuff...
Forget the AUX PANEL this is going to be related to deploying aux crafts on planets. The Attributes panel shows the rating of current equipped components, you don't have anything equipped on starting, I've put almost every system or weapon in your cargo already, if you look to the bottom you will see listbox with lots of items. Click on one and click equip to equip it.
You will notice the attributes ratings change. I will write more on them later, but suffice the say the ones with 'nova' in them are the best for now and are special items to be found through exploration in the full game. However each item is going to be designed to have a strength/weakness so as not to obsolete one over the other.
Good idea to read the blogs, since all I spoke of is in this alpha. The ships will not become obsolete, you merely in the full game once all is said and done will have to find the best way to fly each of them. Each ship has a bonus/penalty to different things e.g. corvettes have bonus to all maneuvering attributes but penalties to armor. Dreadnoughts have penalties to maneuvering and bonuses to armor/weapons that kind of thing. So whatever engine you equip on a corvette you automatically receive a percentage boost to its max speed/rotation etc because you are in a corvette.
On another panel in the upper right shows your current system damage, w = weapons, s= shield system(the system not the shield strength itself), E = engines, A = Armor, you don't have armor equipped by default so it will be empty until you equip some.
On the left these labels will change based on what you equip. I have done a lot of cleaning up but I know some things are not set straight right now in the various labels etc...
SHIELDS - RAISES/LOWERS THEM
ARM: ARMS/DISARMS weapons
Mouse Wheel Scales
TACTICAL= Enable tactical view(not much to see now but this view can see very far) Use mouse wheel to scroll how far it sees
Once you have an enemy targeted, know that the corvette only has front arc weapons, the frigate and destroyer have front arcs and one rear projectile hardpoint arc. The cruiser has 4 to the front, 2 to the right, 2 to the left and 2 to the ear. The dreadnought has 8 to the front, 3 to the left, 3 to the right and 2 to the rear.
Again remember if you 'buy' switch ships they will change in attributes like rotation/speed etc but they'll have the components you fit onto any previous ship. So if you bought nova engines and then buy a new ship they'll still be there, there's no code in to reset that yet, since theres no money and no point to such yet.
I will make a in game based help thing and tool tip the interface and label it better.
The enemy AI will deaggress beyond 3000 range, theres nothing to show there distance from you yet tho, mainly because I am wondering where to put a lot of this information in the enemy target window and how to do the layout. They will also deaggress if you do not shoot a torpedo at them for over 10 seconds. This is related to the encounter system which is mostly disabled now but the enemy AI is not disabled so hence that effect.
If you lose your way from the middle you can open tactical scroll away with your mouse scroll button until you see the planets come up in the tactical screen if you haven't flown tooo far away from them that is.
It runs at 1680 * 1050 resolution, check if your monitor supports it, if you get a black screen it does not, press escape to get out, I'll have to add in a config file since there's no need for a menu right now
Controls
ESCAPE- QUIT
WASD - Movement
Holding down W or 'S' sets your speed, your ship then slowly builds to that speed and will continue at that speed until you adjust it.
P = CREATE test enemy Corvette class
Right Mouse - Fire All Weapons ( will be able to disable/enable active weapons in the future)
Tab = Engage Warp
Shift Tab = Disengage Warp
C = Cloak (will be a rare item in the game but in for enjoyment)
Shift-C - Decloak
Buttons on the left Screen:
DOCK - if in range of the station you will dock. Click again to undock.
When you dock a button comes up on the left marked 'station', click it to bring up the station interaction menu, shipyard/trade/crew recruitment. These are not fully functional yet.
However you can buy different ships. Click next ship to cycle through the available ships, and purchase to automatically switch to that ship to test it out. Not sure if I labelled which is which, but the first = corvette, second = destroyer, third = frigate, 4th = cruiser, 5th = dreadnought...
You have to undock again to be able to move. Don't try anything with the buying/selling or crew interface it's not fully functional.
Now if you look to your lower left you will see a kind of ship status thing, click your ships image in that box and a system interface type window will pop up, this had two system interfaces, crew management and engineering. Click engineering button to bring it up, now here you can see lots of stuff...
Forget the AUX PANEL this is going to be related to deploying aux crafts on planets. The Attributes panel shows the rating of current equipped components, you don't have anything equipped on starting, I've put almost every system or weapon in your cargo already, if you look to the bottom you will see listbox with lots of items. Click on one and click equip to equip it.
You will notice the attributes ratings change. I will write more on them later, but suffice the say the ones with 'nova' in them are the best for now and are special items to be found through exploration in the full game. However each item is going to be designed to have a strength/weakness so as not to obsolete one over the other.
Good idea to read the blogs, since all I spoke of is in this alpha. The ships will not become obsolete, you merely in the full game once all is said and done will have to find the best way to fly each of them. Each ship has a bonus/penalty to different things e.g. corvettes have bonus to all maneuvering attributes but penalties to armor. Dreadnoughts have penalties to maneuvering and bonuses to armor/weapons that kind of thing. So whatever engine you equip on a corvette you automatically receive a percentage boost to its max speed/rotation etc because you are in a corvette.
On another panel in the upper right shows your current system damage, w = weapons, s= shield system(the system not the shield strength itself), E = engines, A = Armor, you don't have armor equipped by default so it will be empty until you equip some.
On the left these labels will change based on what you equip. I have done a lot of cleaning up but I know some things are not set straight right now in the various labels etc...
SHIELDS - RAISES/LOWERS THEM
ARM: ARMS/DISARMS weapons
Mouse Wheel Scales
TACTICAL= Enable tactical view(not much to see now but this view can see very far) Use mouse wheel to scroll how far it sees
Once you have an enemy targeted, know that the corvette only has front arc weapons, the frigate and destroyer have front arcs and one rear projectile hardpoint arc. The cruiser has 4 to the front, 2 to the right, 2 to the left and 2 to the ear. The dreadnought has 8 to the front, 3 to the left, 3 to the right and 2 to the rear.
Again remember if you 'buy' switch ships they will change in attributes like rotation/speed etc but they'll have the components you fit onto any previous ship. So if you bought nova engines and then buy a new ship they'll still be there, there's no code in to reset that yet, since theres no money and no point to such yet.
I will make a in game based help thing and tool tip the interface and label it better.
The enemy AI will deaggress beyond 3000 range, theres nothing to show there distance from you yet tho, mainly because I am wondering where to put a lot of this information in the enemy target window and how to do the layout. They will also deaggress if you do not shoot a torpedo at them for over 10 seconds. This is related to the encounter system which is mostly disabled now but the enemy AI is not disabled so hence that effect.
If you lose your way from the middle you can open tactical scroll away with your mouse scroll button until you see the planets come up in the tactical screen if you haven't flown tooo far away from them that is.