Randy Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 Indeed, this game has been driving me crazy with its issues. I do now have it saving properly on the UltraSatan doing it just like you would with a hard drive-installed version of the game, but one thing I have noticed is that it seems to randomly make these noises coming out of hyperspace and I end up losing my fuel tank. Also, the number of times the auto-docking computer has rammed me into the station is ridiculous, I would say once every three docking attempts I get destroyed. Is this normal for the game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 The docking computer issue is annoying and is present on the original floppy version, the work around is to stick the time control to maximum (ie time passes the fastest) as you dock, this seems to mostly cure the problem, occasionally you will get a bit of damage but no destruction unless you are really unlucky. The other problem with autopilot was in systems where the planets orbit at fast speeds and you can run out of fuel as the autopilot whizzes past the planet, corrects and then misses again. I found manual control then a mix of time speeds was the only way to get to these stations. I'm not sure about the random noises, that is not something I encountered using the floppy version. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 Nothing is changed in gameplay in hard disk version. And this was easy case - no some tricky protection. Proper usage of TOS functions ... If game becomes too hard at some places best it to save state right before and then try it until success. Then save again immediately, so no need to go over again there. Or play Warhead instead. Not joking - that's great space game, with bunch of relative short missions. Controls might be hard at begin, but they are actually realistic - inertia rulez down here and in space too ! ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 Thanks guys, I'll give that a try. Also, Peter, I'll look into Warhead, I have never played that game before! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oracle_jedi Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 On 10/2/2020 at 7:54 AM, Zogging Hell said: I'm not sure about the random noises, that is not something I encountered using the floppy version. Yeah likewise. I've played this game alot on ST, Amiga and PC, and I've not had the random noise/fuel tank issue. The docking computer issue yeah, and as @Zogging Hell says the fix is to use the accelerated time-lapse function. I noticed on a Vampire accelerated Amiga the auto-pilot frequently goes bezerk so there's more than a few timing critical things going on in the code, and more than a few bugs. Still, compared to First Encounters the game is rock solid! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 Thanks Dragon, I continue to play this but on occasion it just misses the entrance and I end up being destroyed, lately just lot the atmospheric shielding but I am making some money on the Sol-Barnard's Star run, only problem with that is that you start out with such limited cargo space you can't really make enough money very fast to upgrade to a ship with more cargo space, even with luxury goods and robots the income is small... Have you played Elite Dangerous? I am surprised how much of ED is taken from Frontier, which I am not a big fan of because of it being an online-only game. From what I am seeing, with all the missions offered, Frontier seems to be much more varied to play than the original Elite which suffers from boredom without any new things to do, especially if you take on the second mission, which is a big fuck you mission... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 43 minutes ago, Randy said: Thanks Dragon, I continue to play this but on occasion it just misses the entrance and I end up being destroyed, lately just lot the atmospheric shielding but I am making some money on the Sol-Barnard's Star run, only problem with that is that you start out with such limited cargo space you can't really make enough money very fast to upgrade to a ship with more cargo space, even with luxury goods and robots the income is small... The Sol to Banards run is safe, but slow. However, if you keep your eyes on the classifieds occasionally you will see someone trying to buy/ sell some of your favoured trades for a lot more money than normal (hint) and you can make larger amounts of cash that way. I used to break it up by making an occasional run to Ross 154. Occasional attacks make things more fun than trading slog. I did eventually get a Panther that way, used it for a bit before realising the range is limited and if you go anywhere vaguely dangerous you have to shoot down about 20 enemies per trip (not hard with 20 odd force fields and four military lasers, but somewhat tedious. Traded it in for the ship in the intro (imperial something or other iirc), which is a good all rounder. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oracle_jedi Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 I seem to recall a starting tactic was to strip your first ship down to the absolute basics - no atmospheric shielding, no weapons - to make extra cargo room for the Sol to Barnard's Star run you already know about. And yeah, check the classifieds to sell at a huge mark up. It was somewhat easy to build up enough cash to then buy something more interesting and add enough weapons/shields to go exploring. I usually end up with a Cobra Mk3 with the military drive. Yeah I'm dumping radioactive crap all over the galaxy. Don't tell Greta! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 Thanks guys, I'll give those a try. But, WTF, I would consider this to be the most buggy game I have ever played! Just got on after reading this and right off the bat, the autopilot runs me into the side of the station, after that I could jump into hyperspace, what a piece of crap game! I remember back in the day not playing this near as much as Elite (but then there was nothing even close to Elite-quality to play on the C64), not sure what drove me away, maybe it was this? I do remember NEVER having these kinds of issues with Elite once I got the docking computer, f'up game for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zogging Hell Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 It is a bit buggy, and you do have to save a lot (each hyperspace trip really), although Braben did say in ST Format the ST version was actually less buggy than the Amiga and PC versions as the conversion came later and they had the chance to fix some of the bugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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