========================================================================= (C) 1994 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== ************ Topic 19 Sat Dec 11, 1993 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 02:33 EST Sub: Frontier: ELITE II The wait is over! Take off and explore new worlds in the space combat and trading game that is guaranteed to keep you strapped into your computer chair for months to come. This game is awesome in its scope. 200 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 1 Tue Mar 01, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 00:44 EST Doing Hit Jobs or other jobs for both the Federation and the Empire will not work! It is hinted at in the manual. You need to pick just one side to advance in the ranks. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 2 Tue Mar 01, 1994 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 02:00 EST Koloth, Glad you are enjoying this VR experience. The learning curve on this game can be a little steep initially, but stick with it. Soon it seems secondhand. Regarding the autopilot: You read my previous post about using the RETURN key to increase thrust and closing distance on targets whose velocity is greater than yours? Most of the time the autopilot delivers you to your target.....but just wait. Space and time oddities crop up, then is the time to get creative!! :) Now for the "autopilot ramming you into the docking bay" delimma: I do not have an explanation for why it happens. Sometimes my landing pattern is picture-perfect, the next time I am coming in too high or too low. All I do is pause the game when I am about 2-3 km from the dock, press the right shift key to slow down a little more, switch to manual flight, and resume the game. Then, like the true space pilot I am, I fly my trusty Cobra Mk 3 into the docking bay. More observations: Have many of you noticed that when you are traveling to a tertiary star system where you have a star and its planets orbiting around the binary stars, that when you target that system for a hyperjump and arrive at that system, you may be 200+ AU from the tertiary system. Like this diagram: *-* binary stars * o. o.. tertiary star and planets that orbit around the binary stars. Watch out for this type of system. You may want to go to one of the planets, but on the galactic map you are only able to select the binary star system. When you arrive at the system and target a planet, you are "mondo AU's" away. The moral.....carry plenty of extra fuel, or (and I have not tried this yet) head toward your target, turn off the engines, and coast toward it with the stardreamer (to save fuel). To all, I d/l'd the messages from the Games RT on Elite II. My impression, and this is not meant to be critical or abusive, is that there are more guys who whine about the quality of the graphics and the combat portion than I have noticed in the Atari Elite II topic. Maybe they have higher graphics expectations than we Atari players. Since we don't have Wing Commander, X-Wing, or Privateer to boast about, we are more satisfied with a game like Elite II because of its huge scope and playability. There were a number of comments about the game being too open-ended. Sheesh....there is nothing I hate more in a game than being led by the nose down a path without many choices or directions to choose from. Some could not believe that this game operated from one 700K disc ! I guess they don't feel they got their money's worth unless their HD is filled up with 20megs worth of graphics and sounds. (g) They did talk about wormholes, but nobody has mentioned any coordinates yet. I get the impression that nobody has actively searched around for them. Lastly, a large percentage are frustrated with the combat sequences. Many have not picked up the nuances of the autopilot and how to engage it properly to destry ships. I guess there are a lot of novices out there, flying around with big egos and puny lasers ;) Well, I am having a blast with this game. My rating is now at ABOVE AVERAGE, I going after my 2nd hit job, and my cargo hold is full of robots. I'm in Sohoa (0, -4) in the Imperial Empire and fly to Achenar tomorrow. I'll pass along a good word to the Emperor for you when I see him. Space Dude D^) ~~~~~~~~~~end of transmission~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 3 Tue Mar 01, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:39 EST Charlie, Kracht, That's a great idea for targeting a planet around the distant part of a binary, or trinary in the case of Alpha Centauri. I'll have to try it sometime. Thanks! Space Dude, The only problem with Frontier is having time to play it! It's also nice if you can get time with no one else in the house so you can plan strategies and really figure out where and how you want to go and with what. I'll have to look back for your discourse on matching speeds with a target. On the docking bay, do you actually have to land or just get it into the docking bay and then it takes over ? Games RT - Yes the PCers are spoiled now by their super VGA and Stereo sound and don't know the value of playability or open endedness. Yes, games that take 20MB on disk are rediculous, no wonder so many PC games come on CD- ROM now. Oh well, the next time I've got $2K to throw away, maybe, just maybe. NOT! With the advent of ExtenDOS, a set of CD-ROM drivers for the full ST line, I hope to one day see ST games on CD-ROM too! The one thing that really mystifies me about what you've said about the PCers is that none seem to have gotten as far as we have, I guess they're not used to pulling together like we Atari types are. Sad for them. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 4 Tue Mar 01, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 20:21 EST Fellow Space Travellers: I just spent an entire evening learning how to engage & defeat an Imp Courier with 2 shields & a 20 MW beam laser (the white light generator!?), using a lowly Eagle Mk. 3, 2 Nav missiles, & a 1 MW pulse laser! But do I dare share my winning strategy??? Oh, alright! First of all, make sure you have an entire evening free, & save the game just prior to the conflict beginning. In my scenario, the Courier was coming out of warp & was my contract target. As soon as he left warp, I noticed that his shield strength was low, but steadily increasing. I launched both missiles immediately, went to auto-pilot, & began the chase. After the Nav. missiles impacted, the Courier turned on me, & for too many times to count, rammed my ship. This happened with a much greater frequency than my tiny Eagle being hit by laser fire... so a small ship does have an advantage. I finally clued in that if I turned off my auto-pilot just prior to impact, I'd miss the Courier & still get in some hits. So the joust continued, until finally the Courier was destroyed. The Eagle left the mission without a scratch (one hit from that 20MW laser destroys you!). STellar STallion ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 5 Tue Mar 01, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 22:04 EST Stellar Stallion: Awesome! I recall a time when I gave up a saved position that had an Imp Courier attacking me in my lowly Eagle... All: In those cases where the system is HUGE and your target is hundreds of AUs away... look for the destination CLOSEST to a star. This is usually the shortest distance to traverse (since the farther out a destination is from a star, the harder it is to get there due to its WIDE orbit). RE: IBMers Sadly, the plethora of games on the IBM platform and the vast number of game releases per month has ruined most gamers. They now equate the size of a game on disk with its playability. What is the worth of hundreds of megabytes of live actionf footage, when the game just stinks? And don't get me wrong... I don't generalize about a user-base unless it is the IBM user base. A group that large cannot help have a large portion of people who wouldn't appreciate the vasteness and uniqueness of ELite 2. Here, take my soap box. Use it well... I am through with it (for now). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 6 Wed Mar 02, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 18:29 EST Stellar Stallion, Great! We (or at least I) can use all the tactical help I can get. I just got a radar mapper so I finally know what I'm up against. I'm still pooting around with my Eagle, but I am learning as I'm up to "mostly harmless". Here begins a strange tale of the spaceways. We often take star hopping for granted and think nothing of making hyper jumps all over the place, but woe, there are untold dangers in the spaceways... Last night when trying to jump from Sol to Barnard's Star, the most peacable jump I've ever seen, disaster struck! I got a message on screen about a "MIS-JUMP" and I was _completely_ lost! My loction map (F2) came up in the barnard's star area, but when I hit (F2) again, the map area of the screen came up _completely_ blank! By using right shift and the arrow keys I scrolled around the location map until I found something _anything_ that wouldn't give me an out of range indication. I finally found Urandfa <-2,- 34>, and a few neighboring stars that gave me an Insufficient Fuel, 1 Ton Required message. What a time to not carry extra fuel! But then again, who needs extra fuel on the SOL to Barnard's Star run anyway! Talk about strange, the Range to Urandfa was listed as 662.79 Light Years, system unexplored, no registered settlements. All the systems in the area came up this way. Fortunately I do have an earlier save _and_ I saved the Mis-Jump situation as a saved game. If anyone is interested I could upload it. In a happier scenario, I also may have found a new wormhole (or an old one) from Sol to Lalande 21185 <0,0> system 3 at 5.61 light years. It's listed as Mining and Heavy Mfg, is a Corporate Independent state and exports computers. There was some problem with it though that I didn't write down. Probably either a permit violation or pirates, I don't remember which. Happy Spacefaring, all! Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 7 Thu Mar 03, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 21:44 EST Koloth: Unintentional Mis-jumps appear to be extremely rare. I've only had it happen once since entering the Elite 2 universe. And I usually don't carry extra fuel, either! Thank The Force for saved games!!! James: Thanks for the tip about the 'closest planet to the star'. I usually just do the 'coasting' maneuver to cross those great distances, but when time is a factor in a mission, your advice will be a big help. STellar STallion ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 8 Fri Mar 04, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:31 EST Stellar Stallion, I've put in a few hours learning what not to do. I'm also running a couple different characters who have different strategies. One is strictly a trader, one will be a hit man, etc. We'll see what happens. I'll try to keep track of any interesting developments. What this game really needs is some kind of automatic log of each jump with from/to information along with cargo, etc. Maybe if they sell enough copies they'll add it in future versions. Yeah, I know, games don't usually get upgraded, but in ST Format the developer implied that there were hooks in the game for future mission disks or something. We'll see, I guess... Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 9 Fri Mar 04, 1994 J.RENNER1 [Kheldar] at 22:27 EST Could someone go to Greliai N on the galactic map (4,1). Whenever i try to access this system the program crashes. Just try to get some ysstem info. I just hope it's not my copy. AutoPilot: I use the fastest time setting after i engage the autopilot. Even if the target is a short distance away (<1AU). I have had very few problems this way. Once you are granted clearance use the time setting one up from normal time. This has eliminated the crashing into the station problem. Jim. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 10 Fri Mar 04, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:55 EST Well, I must admit, I think I screwed myself. In my early days, I behaved in a, well, "blatant" manner. I think I am now paying for it. My Piracy and Murder charges (in all empires, Ind, Fed, and Imp) seem to be haunting me. No one wants to do business with me. I am shunned. And, I have counted no less then 147 ships killed, and still no advance from Competent to Dangerous. Those kills include about six succesful hits, including the President of the Sirius Corp. I'm getting frustrated. No military advancement either. I'm worried my criminal past might be hampering me. One tip, NEVER, and I repeat, _NEVER_ use an Energy Bomb when fighting in the vicinity of a space station, base, or city. When you're lurking outside a space station, and your hit target shows up, that little Energy Bomb will get you a 10000 credit fine, as well as a Piracy and Murder charge. I only really realized this after my record was tarnished. An Energy Bomb has a range of about 200km. Beware. I am currently "living" on the surface of Amyiay, a planet which the Frontier Gazetteer says "...resident on the planet for a period of more than thirty days is automatically decreed a free person and laws of the Empire are not binding." I'm hoping I can erase my Piracy and Murder felonies -- at least in the Empire. (Actually, the planet is called Aymiay). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 11 Sat Mar 05, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 08:13 EST Kheldar, It happened to me too. When I tried to look at the layout of Greliain three bombs appeared. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 12 Sat Mar 05, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 09:01 EST Kracht, I had kinda wondered if the object was to be as "evil" as possible, I'd have been disappointed if it had been. Well, at least you can start up another character and try to do better this time. It's not like you've destroyed your real life. Good luck on your amnisty. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 13 Sat Mar 05, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 11:53 EST Koloth: I'm really hoping that the author does expand on this game, or provide even minor upgrades. I'm definitely 'hooked'! How do you find time to play more than 1 character. I'm into this game constantly... I've even defaulted the game to autoload when my system boots to the color monitor! All: Is there a VERY noticeable difference playing this game at 8 vs. 16 mHz? This may provide the excuse for me to upgrade! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 14 Sat Mar 05, 1994 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 13:53 EST Well, it's noticeably smoother on the Falcon030... Actually had to make a whole trip on manual because some punk in an Imperial Courier took my autopilot and hyperdrive out before before I sliced him apart. This was in one of those triple-star systems, so it was a three month long drive to a service station. On the up side, that kill brought me up to Above Average, and a Kestrel that had been tagging along with the Courier suddenly took off for the deep at full thrust... It was kind of neat making the planetary approach with the stardreamer at 3 arrows and watching the station make its leisurely way through its orbit while this enormous pink gas giant drifted past in the background. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 15 Sat Mar 05, 1994 D.VICHA at 19:33 EST Yo, Space seekers! Koloth Not quite out of the action yet regarding the house! I'm double tracking my dual status character Sir corporal, keeping one running in Fed space and the other in the Empire. Both doing well, but halven't progressed past ranks or Above Ave. That auto pilot falling away is probably due to an AP that needs servicing. I hate the expense but it seems the more you use the AP in battle, the sooner it needs service. I have HOWEVER run into a Puma that seemed to push me away when I got into striking distance... I'd love to have that upgrade! All: (Halven't is not half of haven't...:-o) I've noticed that the mid-sized ships seem easier to defend against than the smaller ships with MDs (military drives) and better manueverability. So jousting takes a little longer and increases the chances of more GNATS ARRIVING. They definitely seem to be attracted by the AP. I often leave the AP off until I get close to my targeted system. I also think scanning the targeted area for ships is an excellent strategy. (A Tip of the Helmet to Mr Kracht!) I've run the Vega Gauntlet and am presenting cutting up the Ophiouchi Hotline. The Federation isn't as dull as I thought! Tah! Die/|\Hard ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 16 Sat Mar 05, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 19:39 EST James: Don't give up! You can make it to dangerous. It took me way more kills than 147 to make it. Try more like 500 or so. I didn't count sorry. Also, I got promoted to Lord in spite of my extensive and repeated criminal record. Although, the Federation probably wouldn't have much to do with me.... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 17 Sat Mar 05, 1994 D.SCHRADER [Dave] at 21:11 EST D.Schrader [ReDarh] To All: If you would like to move ahead in this game quickly there is a way to get a larger ship and LOTS OF MONEY. Start by selling your missles, and laser at Ross 154, and buy Animal meat. Travel to Barnard's Star, sell the atmospheric shielding and scanner,buy robots and take them to Sol. Then your are ready for the Ayurso (4,0) trip. Ayurso system pays unbelievably high prices for luxury goods,($3200 or so ). This will give you over $2000 per ton when coming from Sol.The only problem is how to get there since it is well beyond the normal jump range. The answer lies in the WORMHOLES! These will let you jump 656 light years on 1 ton of fuel. It is possible to mathematically find a location that is 656 light years from both the starting and destination systems, allowing you to use a intermideate jump point to make the journey. In the case of Sol-Ayurso, the jump point is Dasoqu(-13,-81). You need 2 tons of fuel,one ton for each jump. You will be only able to buy 4 to 5 tons of fuel at Ayurso as that is all that they have.NOTE:( make sure that your internal tank is always filled first, then add your jump fuel). Remember to use the RIGHT-SHIFT key and the arrows key to fast scroll. So to summarize, start by selling your missles, and laser at Ross 154, buy meat. Jump to Barnard's Star, sell shielding and scanner,buy robots. Jump to Sol sell all and buy luxary goods, remember fuel. Fast scroll to Dasoqu (-13,- 81)and jump,now fast scroll to Ayurso(4,0) and jump again. Your first trip will be a one way trade, with a empty ship on the way back, since everything is so expensive. After your first trip, you will be able to fill up on luxary goods, and always trade up to a larger ship as soon as possible as soon as you have enough money. Good Luck 5:10:50 Feb 3212 Panther IL-116 ReDarh ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 18 Sun Mar 06, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 16:14 EST Rob, I'm playing more than one character, but I didn't say I was making a lot of progress with any of them! Die Hard, Isn't the save game feature wonderful once you get it working ? You can back out of all kinds of mistakes by maintaining a few files. ReDarh, Thanks for the specific information! I'll be trying your route. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 19 Sun Mar 06, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:55 EST Chuck: Don't worry. I'm not giving up. I've got over 8 million credits. I don't care how many people hate me... I have no desire that can't be satisfied. All: Weird thing... as I said before, I was trying to gain amnesty on Aymiay. I stayed put, on the lading pad, for 40 days (just to be sure). In the mean time, I had sold my tell-tale, trusty old Imp. Trader. Oh, what a mistake. I miss it so, and I'm WAY beyond the Imperial Systems. I bought this dinky Cobra Mk III (a good ship, but I quickly realized, when trying to equip it, that I was way beyond the scope of it... I'm really addicted to Auto Hull-Repair Systems, six missile pylons, and all those frilly extras). Anyway, after the 40 days, I fueld up, put a new military drive in the Cobra, decided to head back to van Maenen's, and when I requested launch clearance, and clicked on the launch icon, I exploded. I reloaded, checked everything, and it all looked fine. No matter what I do, I explode, however. I'm still investigating this. I think I was sold an extremely USED ship... more to follow... I hope that staying on Aymiay for 30 days or more DOESN'T mean I have to stay on Aymiay to be a "free citizen." (shudder) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 20 Mon Mar 07, 1994 AEO.8 at 02:43 EST About the numbers it takes to get to new ratings: They go up in powers of two... until the higher ratings. the # of kills goes something as follows: 2(4?) 16 32 64 128 256 512 1000 3000 6000(Elite) I haven't played the game, but this is just info I picked up. So dangerous is probably 512 kills. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 21 Mon Mar 07, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 03:48 EST Well, that Cobra I picked up was a piece of trash. Just plain garbage. I went on a trek... seeking "Dangerous"... I went down from Aymiay, down into the -7,5 areas. Then I turned left, visiting dozens of systems... check this place out if you get a chance: Arayess;(4,-7) - "System under Federal interdict. Illegal to visit." I visited. And now I'm dangerous. Joy. Pure joy. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 22 Mon Mar 07, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:24 EST Kracht, Well, good luck with this Aymiay (Amway ?) thing. I'm still in the class where thousands of credits is a good thing. In fact, just yesterday I sold the Eagle for an Eagle Mark II which was just a stepping stone to an Adder. I'm trading along the standard peaceful routes for now and I need more cargo space. My record is clean except for that cussed Federation job I took to the restricted system that netted me a fat fine and a permit violation. At least when civilians ask you to go to a restricted system you get the chance to ask about a permit! On a side trip I checked out the hyperspace/wormhole route detailed by ReDarh and it does work. Unfortunately I also had a lot of trouble with pirates and found it difficult to earn the $2000/ton. I looked into the system a little more and found out why: Ayurso (4,0) System 6 Government Type: No stable Government Economy: System in state of Civil War Aliegance: Independent This game is Fascinating! I'll have to check out this system again later and see if it's better or worse. BTW, I've also found that when searching for the ESC key to pause the game that I can press the TAB key and lock up the game. Has anyone else experienced this ? AEO.8, Thanks for the info. It has been appropriately filed away. Kracht, So now that you're Dangerous, what kind of ship did you trade up to from the Cobra III ? Take Care, Lee B. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 24 Mon Mar 07, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 22:04 EST Koloth: Imp. Trader at the first Imperial System I got into. It felt good to be back in one, too. No whining crew members, getting paid far too much to do nothing. No more cargo space woes. Instead, I've got 20 shield units, six Naval missiles, an Auto Hull-Repair system, a Naval ECM, an Energy Bomb, and a nice little 4MW beam laser. Even after all that, I still have 112 tons worth of cargo space. That gets cut down a bit, with all the extras (auto pilot, mapper, atmos. shielding, cargo bay life support, energy booster, laser cooler, etc). Just a great ship. Perfect for loners, too... since it requires only a pilot: you. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 25 Mon Mar 07, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 22:25 EST James: Congratulations, now head off to Imperial Space and check out your new missions. I finally got the game working off of the hard disk no problem as well. I am currently working on making Marquis and heading (Sorry, I'm working on Baron) off to the dangerous areas. I'll be in Arayess soon... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 26 Tue Mar 08, 1994 T.HOPPER at 02:09 EST Hi everyone! From everything I've read, Frontier is a great game; just my style. I have only one problem: I only have a monochrome monitor. Will Elite 2 run in mono, as Starglider 2 does, or is it color only? If it's color or nothing, does anyone know of a color emulator that runs on TOS 2.06? I've tried Bigcolor and Bigcolor2, and neither draws to the screen properly. -Tom ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 27 Tue Mar 08, 1994 C.GENTRY3 [Chris] at 03:28 EST I made a jump tonight from Sirius to Tigrebe at -23 -572. There is an inhabited planet there with a starbase and orbital station. It's corprate rule. Although there was nothing there that any of Fed or Imp planets had to offer, it was interesting to find an inhabited planet so far off. I didn't think they had starports that far out. I also found an inhabited system (Beioso, I think was the name of it) at 0 - 507 which has 1 starbase and 1 orb station, and also at 0 -1024 (Ethqueth) which has 2 st and 2 orb 1 on eacn planet, but I haven't found a hole for these yet..... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 28 Tue Mar 08, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:35 EST Kracht, Yes, the Imp. Trader sounds great! I've stuck pretty close to home and I don't think I've even seen an Imperial system yet! I did have some fun last night though, try landing an Adder on a rotating ring space station with no right thruster! Even the Autopilot couldn't do it. I landed with no damage, but it got pretty hairy for a while. Lest you think I've been avoiding combat, I have made it up to Below Average . The Adder I bought had a class 2 engine and it's neat being able to ignore the traderoutes somewhat. Tom, I'm not sure if Frontier will work in monochrome, but the sticker on the box doesn't mention a need for color, although the screen shots (PC & AMIGA!) are all in color. I'm running a MultiSync monitor so I'll give it a try. Okay - Just tried Frontier in Monochrome and it resets the system rather nicely. Sorry I'm not more familiar with color emulators... Chris, Thanks for the info. I save such things to separate files for future reference. I'll have to try some real exploring one of these days... Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 29 Tue Mar 08, 1994 D.SCHRADER [Dave] at 20:28 EST D.Schrader [ReDarh] Koloth, If you don't wish to engage any Pirates when you enter the Ayurso system, you should first scroll into the system and find the planet Andertonworld. Double click on the F-7 for a closeup of the planet and you will see Mackenzie Landing, click on the F-10 to set autopilot and then onto Mackenzie Landing. Now click on F-1 for your space view and engage the autopilot by hitting the F-7. Use the Time control and hit the 3 arrows and watch for your gun sight and velocity sights to both aligne. As soon as this happens hit the F-7 twice which will turn your engines off...but hold down on the return key and you will see that your speed will be increasing. While holding down on the return key move your mouse pointer over to the time control and hit the 5 arrows. Keep holding down on the return key until you are about 1.5 to 2 A.U. units from Mackenzie Landing,then quickly hit the F-7 again and the autopilot will be engaged again. This should get you there without having to engage any Pirates. Should any Pirates engage you remember to go to manual engine mode and hold down on the return key to give your ship max thrust. That Eagle will outrun just about anything flying out there. Hope this will help you and by the way don't hit the TAB key --locks the game up tight. Heads up and don't let the light go out in your tailpipe. ReDarh-65,000,000 strong ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 30 Tue Mar 08, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:07 EST Chuck: Elite rating isn't the factor in determining military missions. Its military rank that is. I'm still just a Squire. Nothing but assasinations. Very annoying. BTW, how long did it take to get to Lord? I still think my criminal record is making things twice as hard for me... I play this game A LOT. I do literally a 50-60 military a night, and I have not been promoted in two weeks. Very frustrating. This game is less a game, than a way of life... (grrrr) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 31 Tue Mar 08, 1994 D.VICHA at 22:35 EST Ben K: Hey, if Life had save functions we'd all be rich! ALL: I've backtracked to see if I can get my Corporal rank raised while an Outsider rather than a Sir. So far, it's slow going. The Federal missions aren't quite as frequent or in the direction I want to go. Upon backtracking, however, I've definitely learned that you can't put a military drive in a Viper. I like the thing, but that's where I've run into the infamous ghost thruster problems, so I've upgraded. I found a Moray Starboat--like those extra missile mounts (4 vs 2 on a cobra Mk I). Lord Chuck: Looks like Feb STI is finally coming out and I'm sure everyone wants to see your review to see whether they should buy this game :-> Die/|\Hard In Space no one can hear you giggle ... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 32 Wed Mar 09, 1994 C.GENTRY3 [Chris] at 00:48 EST Has anyone bought a Panther yet? I was wondering how in the world you can get 11 crew members. I think the most I've ever seen on one station was 5 or 6. I'm itching to try out one of those large plasma ecclerators. Also last night I visited the Arayess system, the one that's illegal to visit. Flew right in and right back out with no problems. What's so illegal about it? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 33 Wed Mar 09, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 01:14 EST James: Keep running those military missions, I didn't get the new missions till I had a Dangerous rating. Maybe it takes a combination of minimum missions. I will continue to run them to see if things change at Baron... Donovan: It's finally coming out? I've been waiting, February was a week or so ago. I guess those two fewer days at the end of the month throws Rods timetable off... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 34 Wed Mar 09, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:21 EST ReDarh, Thanks for the advice on the pirates. I'll give it a try some time. I may have to wait till I get another ship, right now I've got an Adder which isn't the fastest thing going, but it may be worth a try... One other factor here is that I'm almost two years into the game and I have no doubt that the civil war has progressed. Die Hard, What's this ghost thruster problem you're talking about ? I had a Moray Starboat, I used the included game where you started with a Cobra Mark III and I traded down to get some cash. (I think) I didn't like the fact I had both a federal and imperial crime record (I think it attracted pirates for the bounty) and I stopped playing that character. Speaking of the February STI, I should be in there with Steve Dietz and a CD-ROM article. Enjoy! Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 35 Wed Mar 09, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:04 EST Chuck: Not soon after I left that message, I was promoted to Lord. Now, how does on do that one thing that requires the 'D' key? (I'm being vague, since I can't seem to find the "secret" Elite 2 topic on here...) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 36 Wed Mar 09, 1994 J.ZENTZ1 [wintermane] at 22:31 EST Ive had a pather for a year now game time:) Easy just upgrade into bigger highr crew ships till ya reach panther size. Oh and I now carry 500 ton fuel for my class 8 drive bahemoth and 111 shields hull repair 20 mw laser 8 missiles ect ect and still have 500 holds free:) Oh for you who think an imp transport is good:) Ive rammed them when they had 16 shields and fired 2 missles and still came out with 46% shields:) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 37 Thu Mar 10, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 01:27 EST WIntermane: ...and I've rammed a Panther Clipper with 36 shield units in my Imp. Trader. Buttered him up with six missiles and an energy bomb first, but still came out with around 15% shield strength... :-) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 38 Thu Mar 10, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 02:37 EST James: Get into Category 21 topic 8, ask the librarian to let you in, If you have the new missions, use trial and error, look at your contract sheet and see if its done. Otherwise send me private e-mail. My hard drive files corrupted again, so I got knocked back a few days progress. Back to the original disks.. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 39 Thu Mar 10, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:09 EST Wintermane, Kracht, A W E S O M E ! Chuck, Are you using the hard disk directory structure we've discussed here ? D/L the archived messages, somewhere in there we discuss this bug: Frontier--- commande.rs directory structure fixes it. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 40 Thu Mar 10, 1994 BRIAN.H [ST~SysOp] at 12:31 EST CHUCK >James: Get into Category 21 topic 8, ask the librarian to let you in, No the quickest way is via "ADMIT$". This is our official EMail address for admission to private categories. ~~Brian..Written on Thursday 10 March 1994 at 01:03 p.m. ADT ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 41 Thu Mar 10, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 20:29 EST Just a story... On a recent assasination assignment for the Empire, I found myself returning to a place I hadn't been to for years: Ross 154. My old home, and the place I left as quickly as I could. Well, nothing had changed (much). But that's not my point. My point is, I had to get this traitorous merchant operating in the system. He was going to be in a Panther Clipper, docked at Sirocco Station. When I arrived (about a week early), I was refused docking clearance. There were two ships docked already... an Asp and a Cobra III. I radioed each one, and the Cobra told me he was waiting for for "goods at the right price." The Asp was waiting to take on crew and cargo. I waited and waited, and these bozos just would not leave. So I tried talking to the Cobra again. He was rude, so took up a very high orbit. I told him to surrender or die. He laughed, and I sent a NV500 down on his head. Well, traffic control must have been asleep. They failed to even notice. Meanwhile, the Cobra blasted out of there, his hull at 35%. I couldn't help laughing. He just fled. Didn't even try to attack me. I asked for clearance from Sirocco: no problem. I landed, and everything was cool. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 42 Thu Mar 10, 1994 J.ZENTZ1 [wintermane] at 21:39 EST CHUCKLE:) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 43 Thu Mar 10, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 22:23 EST James: I never tried talking to ships on the ground before! That could be the problem with hit jobs not showing up. Other ships or your own tying up the space. Wintermane: That is exactly the way I set it up. It worked fine for a while. Then when I went to optimize the drive, my FAT tables didn't match up, and the problem files were two of my Elite Save Game files. Did someone say something about leaving a disk in Drive A? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 44 Fri Mar 11, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 02:46 EST Chuck: My Falcon's boot-disk (basically a blank floppy to speed up the booting process) has a label of COMMANDE.RS. So does my save game disk (just in case I forget to switch before loading the game). I had a weird mishap the other day... it seems that after I wrote several files to my boot disk (the disk I originally used for my Frontier saves) several of the Frontier files already on there became corrupt. I now use a separate disk for saving, and I never write to it with anything but Frontier. Smooth sailing (knock on simulated wood-grain). My theory (after about 20 failed hit attempts because the guy didn't show) is that your targets are very aware of you if you hang around. The most succesful hits I've had are usually the ones where I warp in just a few days ahead, fully fueled and loaded with weapons. Then I just wait the the guy to show, and then follow him through hyperspace. No docking beforehand. No contact with traffic control. Nothing. Just sit still and wait for his call numbers to appear on the ground (or in space, whichever). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 45 Fri Mar 11, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:18 EST Kracht, Bizarre tale! I guess sometimes you just get lucky. Chuck, I have found the following "rules" for playing Frontier from hard disk with my MegaSTE: 1.) Never start Frontier without a disk in drive A. Any disk will do. 2.) Have the following disk structure: FRONTIER folder | | | \--COMMANDE.RS folder - saved games go here \-----Auto - Frontier.prg goes here 3.) Backup the commande.rs folder to diskette occasionally. 4.) Never press the TAB key while playing, it locks up the machine. By using these rules, I've never had a problem with saved games and I've been playing at least for a few minutes every day for two or three weeks. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 46 Sat Mar 12, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 13:59 EST James: Re: Your explosions. You did check for Atmospheric shielding on your ship, right? Rob ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 47 Sat Mar 12, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 22:06 EST Rob, Yes, of course. It was weird. Press the LAUNCH icon, and DETONATION! Very bizarre. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 48 Sun Mar 13, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 09:11 EST Greetings, Yesterday my son (age 9) decided that he wanted to play Frontier, but he didn't want to start with the standard ship and wanted _more_! Thus, I took my best ship and saved the game under a name of his chosing. We then proceeded to strip my beautiful Cobra Mark I and sell it off for a smaller, flashier ship, a Viper Defense Craft. The moral of the story is that he's happy, I'm happy and now we can fight over the machine for game time! Actually I can give him the original discs so that he can play while I'm doing other things on my machine like talking to GEnie! Love that saved game feature! BTW, this brought up another question. I looked to see if the license agreement allowed use on two machines so long as you didn't use it on both simultaneously (as many licenses do these days) and guess what ? I found the short copyright notice in the manual just before page 1 and they don't address this issue specifically at all. I guess since it does prohibit lending, I can't have it installed on two machines at once. Gee since it prohibits copying one could argue that I can't have it on the original diskettes and on my hard drive too! I guess I'll erase the original diskettes - NOT! I really wish the copyright agreement were more specific. It does say you can write to Konami UK Ltd and get more information, but I probably will not. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 49 Sun Mar 13, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 12:55 EST James: Exploding ships ARE weird. I'll have to watch for that! You didn't get the name of the guy who sold it to you, did you? Maybe we should put our own contract out on him! ;) Rob ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 50 Sun Mar 13, 1994 C.GENTRY3 [Chris] at 23:31 EST WARNING: Do not save your games on your HD. A couple of weeks ago, my saved game files went bad. I copied my last saved game onto floppy and played off it and it worked fine. Now two weeks later, I can't even access my HD. I'm assuming this is what caused it. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 51 Mon Mar 14, 1994 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 01:02 EST ~~~~~~deep space transmission~~~~~~~~~ I've been out of touch with all my Elite buddies for a while. Still alive and well. "No one can hear you cry when you are all alone in space." (g) You can find me in sector (0,-4). I'm doing the Vequess-Facece-Sohoa triangle route. Good money to be made here in luxury goods and slaves. Lots of work for the Imperial Navy. I'm still flying my trusty Cobra Mk 3 with Class 3 military drive (18 ly distance). The Imperial Empire has been good to me. I think I will throw my allegiance to them for as long as my luck holds. I've got a reputation for selling and smuggling illegal goods. Once I get enough cash, I will probably trade up to an Imperial Trader or Courier. Anything going on at the Elite Bar and Grill? Is the auto-dispenser still watering down the drinks? Eventually, I'll make it back to Federated space and see some of my old ports- of-call. Well, time for another hyperjump...... Space Dude D^/ ~~~~~~~~~end of transmission~~~~~~~~~~ ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 52 Mon Mar 14, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:35 EST Yep, Facece is the place for low-rankers to go to get Imperial Missions. I've taken as many as nine deliveries from Facere to Vequess on the the same trip. I hope this is working me up the grade scale... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 53 Mon Mar 14, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 22:35 EST RE: Military Advancement (theory) [rev. 2.1a] As soon as your rank in the military nets you a new type of mission (i.e., assasinations, etc) the only way to advance to the next higher rank is by doing that type of mission. For instance, I was not promoted to Lord until I just gave up on delivery missions. Once I completed 6 or 7 assasination missions (as a Squire) I was promoted to Lord. Previous to the assasinations, I complete nearly 100 deliveries. Got me nothing. Just a theory, though. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 54 Tue Mar 15, 1994 C.SAGGAU [CHUCK] at 00:09 EST Military Theory: James: Imade it to Lord on a 150 Credit messenger run. Go figure. You do get a medal after you finish a new grade of mission, though! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 55 Tue Mar 15, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 01:17 EST Chris: Did you have your save files in a folder labelled COMMANDE.RS? James & Chuck: Interesting stuff about the 'reason for Imperial promotion' theory. I'm still stuck at Sir, getting tired of courier missions & cash hungry for a quick assassination for profit. Maybe I let to much time go buy between Imperial duties? Rob (off to back-up my files) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 56 Tue Mar 15, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 05:39 EST Space Dude, I don't know if I'd recommend an Imperial Courier. I recently trashed one with a Cobra Mark I. I'm still wimping around in the Federation. I've moved up to a Moray Starboat since then and I'm doing a lot of trading and only as much fighting as I have to. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 57 Tue Mar 15, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:12 EST Kracht, Sounds like after a certain level you have to ask for the double-o missions. It's a shame, but it does sound like a good theory. BTW, I found an interesting client on one of the boards the other day. He was carrying Imperial secrets and thought he was being followed. I did get a couple of the "You'll regret doing business with " messages, but I'm "average" now and easily defeated them. (That was when I killed my first Imperial Courier!) I wondered if I could turn him into the Feds, but apparently I did good or didn't get caught or something as I'm still a Corporal. (I wish I had more time to devote to this!) Take Care, Lee B. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 58 Tue Mar 15, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:24 EST Something I didn't like about flying the larger ships is that the dogfights usually end with the opponent crashing into you. I assume this is another programming flaw - the flight pattern used against all player ships is the same, and it happens to intersect with the shield areas of Courier size and up. It's more entertaining flying in the Cobra - watching them buzz by instead of piling into me! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 59 Tue Mar 15, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 18:05 EST I have strange problem. Sometimes I can hyperspace but other times I cannot. I have tried it on a clean system. I have tried just about everything. I can jump once and it won't do it again after I dock. Even after dying it won't allow me the next time, unless I start from Lave. Anyone seen this or know how to get around it? I am running Tos 1.0 with 4 megs. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 60 Wed Mar 16, 1994 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 00:40 EST Helium, (said in a high voice, after inhaling some He) >I have a strange problem..... I don't entirely understand your message about being able to hyperjump some times and other times you can't. The two primary reasons that a ship will not hyperjump are: 1. You do not have enough fuel for the distance stated. Look at the galactic map in the lower left corner. It shows you the distance in tons of fuel that are required to go from your starting point to your new destination. 2. Make sure to move and center the galactic map over the new destination (green circle). I know this sounds elementary, but I've sat there staring at my screen for a minute or two, trying to figure out why the hyperjump icon doesn't pop up after leaving a docking bay. Duhhhhh, not enough fuel, wingnut!! BTW anybody out there remember in what Sierra game the term "wingnut" was used? I'll pay 10,000 credits to the guy who comes up with the answer....yeh, right!! I play Elite 2 on a 1040ST with TOS 1.0 and have not had any problems with hyperjumps. I did have a misjump one time....rather amusing, though. Does this answer your question? Or maybe you could explain it in more detail, please. Good luck, Space Dude D^) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 61 Wed Mar 16, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 03:42 EST Space Dude: Was it Space Quest? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 62 Wed Mar 16, 1994 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 07:10 EST Are you refueling? You need to get your mitts on some hydrogen to make the jump. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 63 Wed Mar 16, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 18:30 EST Helium, What Space Dude said! Good luck with your future jumps. Also you need to make sure your internal fuel tank is full too, use the refuel button in the cargo display. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 64 Wed Mar 16, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 20:53 EST Space Dude, I can start at Ross 148. I select the animal protein and pick up a package for Fomalhaut. I select the star system before I launch. I take off, put up the landing gear and speed up to 1400kps-1. I enter outer space. I have a ton of hydrogen onboard. I hit 'H' and nothing. I hit 'F8' and nothing. I go to 10,000x time and wait for a few days and try to jump again - nothing. I get attacked and blown up. (Not very good at fighting). I start over again and repeat the same thing. Now if I start at Lave then I can jump almost as soon as I leave the spacedock. Is there something I am missing here? Maybe it doesn't like the Xtra-ram upgrade I have. Hmmm... Maybe I will try it on the stock St I picked up a few weeks ago. Of course I will have to go from the floppy only since my desk .accs eat about 1.8 megs when I boot up. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 65 Thu Mar 17, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 19:01 EST Helium, When you set up the jump and have the destination selected, look at the lower left portion of the map display and it will say either "Out of Range" or "n Tons Required". You have to refuel _and_ have "n" tons of fuel in the cargo hold for the jump to work. The number of tons required can be obscured by other stuff in the map display. I'm pretty sure you need more than one ton of fuel to get from Ross 148 to Formalhaut. All, I had an interesting flight last night. I've done only a few military missions so far and I've managed to bounce back and forth between Private and Corporal rank due to sometimes being late for deliveries. Yesterday I picked up two tasks from the Fed military, a message delivery and a delivery of detonators. I knew the time for the message would be really tight or hopeless as I had to make two jumps to get to the destination (Formalhaut-Ross 154- Barnard's Star), but the time available for the detonators delivery was much better. So the Corporal went for it. I got there late for the message delivery and I was busted back to Private. Then they picked up the detonators, promoted me back to Corporal and then thanked me with a Medal of Valor (whatever that is). Quite a day! I'm flying an ASP Explorer now and I'm starting to amass more cash. I'm not sure I want a bigger ship, but it would be nice to be able to carry more missiles. I'm also "Above Average" on my Elite rating. I know nobody cares, but at least y'all know what I'm talking about! Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 66 Thu Mar 17, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 20:17 EST Koloth: Glad to see your doing well in the Frontier. Space Dude: I ditto the Space Quest guess. Rob (da STellar STallion) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 67 Fri Mar 18, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 18:01 EST Well I guess I better learn to look at the range meter now. After all these days of trying to get to Fomalhault I find that it is out of range. Oh well, at least I didn't jump up and down on the computer when I couldn't jump there. :') Now maybe I can actually get somewhere in this game. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 68 Sat Mar 19, 1994 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 00:53 EST Helium: Glad you found out the solution...duhhhhh. :) The details will kill you in this game. Just wait until you buy a military drive and have to deal with radioactive wastes. Some star systems outlaw radioactives (they are illegal) and if your ship lands on any planet or space station you will get slapped with a 2500c fine. There is a way to avoid this....but I'm not going to tell you right now! ;) Koloth: Congrats on your current status. Yes, we all care about you! This is a close brotherhood of Atari Elite 2 space junkies. Now you can all buy us a beer at the Elite Bar and Grill :) Kracht and Gregory: Correct! "Wingnut" was from the Space Quest series. I think SQ III. Sierra chose to dump the Atari afterwards (.) You guys both get 10,000c's....but first you have to track me down and find out what star system I am hiding in :) Good luck, Space Dude D^* ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 69 Sat Mar 19, 1994 VORTEXT at 02:12 EST Helium, Fomalhaut is to far at the start for a single jump. You need to split it into two jumps to get there. So remember to pick up that extra fuel. Daniel ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 70 Sat Mar 19, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 08:16 EST Helium, Congratulations on your new found enlightenment. I'm sure there is one or another portion of this game that we've all had trouble following at first. On some levels it's very complicated and on others it's simple and intuitive. All: Wish list: 1.) Automate the Radar Mapper. When you click on a target that happens to be a ship, bring up the Radar Mapper display automatically. 2.) Integrate the scanner and the autopilot and radar mapper so that you can click on items in the scanner and the radar mapper will identify them and the autopilot is set to them all in one operation. This would be something great to find later in the game! That's it for the wish list for now. Space Dude, Gee I've been hanging around at "The Dreamer Fithip Virtual Saloon" over in the Pournelle area. I didn't even know we had an "Elite Bar & Grill". Okay I'll order a drink that only a Klingon could love that I invented over there: A Russian Milkmaid. It's a combination of Vodka and ButterMilk! Take Care, Lee B. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 71 Mon Mar 21, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 18:51 EST Well I got it to run. I only had a few bomb outs. Now if only I could get it to run consistently on my 4 meg machine. I am getting more practice in saving though. I found a Cobra MK I and am working on making bucks to go for one of the big ships. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 72 Tue Mar 22, 1994 GREEN at 00:21 EST Well, I finally got to play Elite II and I must say, it has to be one of the worst games to start! I've read some of the comments here and I thought I was ready for a steep learning curve, but the learning curve made me increase my medication to a factor of ten! Really, I don't even think docking in Elite I was this bad! I am trying to get this game and I must thank yous guys for the help, particulary the run from Sol to Ayurso, this provided me with some cash fast so that I could get into the more interesting apsects of the game. Damn that automatic pilot, it was crashing me into the damn space stations almost every time! And misjumps, well I have had four already before I could afford to go to Ayurso for the first run. At any rate, my big problem/ headache is that I bought a ship at Ayruso and saved my game there with no autopilot, so that I have to manually land the ship. No problem, well everytime I start getting to a place, the gun sight and the velocity site slide apart and I cannot get them to line up. And I start moving away from the target. I have tried everything I could think of after reading the *&^$ manual, and I can't seem to solve this one. Obviously I can't fly the damn thing, can any there give me some ideas, I would sure appreciate it. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 73 Tue Mar 22, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:32 EST Green, I think you may have bought a lemon ship at Ayurso. I wouldn't buy a ship anywhere that wasn't on a major shipping line as just like the manual implies about repairs, you've got to go with systems that have a good reputation for repair. I like SOL and Barnard's Star and only a few others. The alignment problem that you mention is common to trying to rendezvous with a planet, etc. without an autopilot. In this sense the game may be too realistic. Remember you're dealing with moving objects here. This is another reason to only buy a ship at a major port as there they'll have a scanner and autopilot - two items I wouldn't fly without. Good luck and keep flying! Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 74 Tue Mar 22, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:13 EST Green, You set yourself up for a tough task. I guess my suggestion would be to start the game over, and get into the habit of renaming your saves so you don't get trapped again. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 75 Tue Mar 22, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:40 EST Green: If it were me... I'd start over. Don't fret, however. Every time you start over, getting back to where you "were" takes half the time it took you to get there. In fact, I think starting over is one of the best ways to learn what not to do quickly. You don't get to be a seasoned Frontiersman unless you screw yourself at least twice. :-) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 76 Tue Mar 22, 1994 GREEN at 23:42 EST Thanks, I guess cadets like me shouldn't be in the air quite yet! I hate to think about starting over, but your are right, I have been learning each time I have started from the beginning. I wasn't quite sure if there was a way to fly without an autopilot , I see that there really isn't, or at least not easily. Well, I'll see y'all a bit later at the Elite Bar and Grill! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 77 Wed Mar 23, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:30 EST Kracht, At least in Frontier when you've "screwed yourself", it's non-fatal - unlike in _real_ life. Green, Better luck next time! Take Care, Koloth - Now Competent! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 78 Wed Mar 23, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:09 EST Koloth: Too true! Too true! So you're competent now, eh? Well, get ready for one heck of a wait until Dangerous. I was literally babbling gibberish, drooling, tapping my mouse button vacantly, when all of a sudden, I was Dangerous (at last!). It took days to set in that I had actually made it through. Competent is like being 20 years old. Old enough to vote, fight and die for your country, yet unable to buy beer (at least in AZ). I hated it, I must say. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 79 Thu Mar 24, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:14 EST Kracht, Gee, AZ sounds like a pretty rough place to grow up in. I never cared much for drinking anyways. I recently moved up to a TRADER so that I could _do_ a class 4 drive and a bunch of tonage. Has anybody found a good reason to equip gun emplacements other than the forward one ? Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 80 Thu Mar 24, 1994 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 07:51 EST If you're _very_ good with the mouse, having turreted guns lets you toast the bad guys without turning off your autopilot. Turreted guns also let you shoot your own hull, too. I'm not that good with the mouse, so I aim the whole ship. Now that I'm good at combat and the like, I've started picking fights with the authorities. Fun Fact: If you fire on one of the big wheel starbases from behind, the police ships invariably blow up in the airlock as they try to maneuver to get to you! They also fire lasers and missiles into the airlock walls, and generally ruin the station far more than you can on your own... I wonder why stations grant you clearance when your ship is too big to enter the airlock? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 81 Thu Mar 24, 1994 D.VICHA at 21:49 EST Hey there, hi there, ho there! Been awhile since last I pulled up a stool at the Elite Bar & Grill! Been busy buying a house. Not an activity I'd recommend for regular practice. Something about that kind of transaction brings out the worst in people... Lee: Check the archived Elite topic, where I've described the ghost thruster. I've actually had the same thing happen with a Constrictor and quickly changed over to an Asp with a Class 3 drive. You install a military drive --and this was in a Sol system station, not some boonie system--and when you try to launch, nothing happens. When you check Repairs in the Shipyard, All thrusters are in need of repair, but clicking on repairs makes weird things happen, Left Thruster turns into Right Thruster, Front T turns into Back T etc. but the repair never takes (while you lose 10cs a repair). It's what careful game- saving is all about, folks. To ALL: I've had a launch detonate and it was while waiting to conduct a hit on Fort Reagan on Fomalhaut, which is very easy to reach once you have an Asp or similar Class 3-installed ship. I look behind me and there's my target, so I assume he's nailing me upon launch. Now I changed my timing to a few minutes before his or her launch, then I just hit launch icon, no turning up or hitting the Return key for acceleration. I just drifted up, then when I was about ready to drift down, I tapped the return, pulled in my wheels, and got away. This was after a multitude of attempts to launch. (I was prepared to backtrack to a previous save and give up a 16,000c hit.) I eventually nailed the Tiger Trader with an NV500 and didn't even get fined. Nonetheless, I have not gotten better than Corporal/Outsider. I've done a fair number of miliary deliveries although these Feds really expect tight deadlines, unlike the Empire missions I've experienced in a different track (I have three main tracks I've been following). I may go back to my Corporal/Sir in the Empire, but I kinda like my ASP X. Chuck: Great review. Notice that Seargent/Sir/Above Average rating, so obviously you overcame the Fed/Empire dichotomy. Well, back to the Frontier! Live long and Prosper y'all! Die/|\Hard ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 82 Thu Mar 24, 1994 R.GREGORY4 [Rob] at 23:12 EST Green: Flying without an Autopilot is to Elite 2 what being put out in the wilds is to some tribal cultures. Having been put to this test on one extremely long, tense marathon session, I have to say that it's something you only appreciate doing after it's over. I have multiple save game files now, & NEVER continue when my Auto-pilot is damaged in battle. And the twitch has never gone away... Squire Rob, STellar STallion ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 83 Fri Mar 25, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:36 EST Chazz, Thanks for the info on Turreted guns. I wasn't sure why they were useful. I always use both a Joystick and a mouse for battle. The joystick in my left hand (although I'm right handed) and the mouse in my right hand so I can set the autopilot (for targeting) and to turn the autopilot on and off during battle. If my opponent is slow enough I try to switch to manual, run away to about 10-12 Klicks and then turn on the autopilot. Lasers become effective at about 8 Klicks. I'll have to try playing with the turret sometime - but I probably won't save the game! That's great about attacking the "big wheel" stations from behind... BTW, Has anyone ever gotten any help by radioing that their ship is under attack or broken down ? Diehard, I've seen the thruster wierdness you describe. I forget how I got out of it. Probably restored a saved game or something. I don't like military drives so at least for now I shouldn't see that problem again. Have you heard of it happening with anything other than an ASP ? I've recently moved up to a trader and I'm curretnly Corporal/Outsider/Competent. Charles, I also liked your Frontier article in the February ST Informer, that I got earlier this week. How'd you get the screen shots ? Any idea when the March issue will be out ? Steve Deitz and I should have a CD-ROM article in it. Stellar Stallion, Congrats on having made "The Long Haul". That's probably worth a round of drinks here in the Elite Bar & Grill. I've tried, but I never caught a planet without an autopilot. I "aint" got time for it. If my Autopilot gets trashed - so does that session. That's why I save early and often! Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 84 Fri Mar 25, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 18:15 EST GREEN, Start over is your best bet. I have had the same type of problems with the Autopilot crashing me. I just select X10 time when I ask for clearance and go and select a star system while it is undocking. I also do not land on planets if I have a choice. Those kill me more often. I only had one misjump (and that was today) and had to kill it since I didn't have the fuel to go anywhere. Another thing... For easy money with no problems I just do milkruns between Sol and Barnard's Star. Never been attacked there yet. Can't say the same about van Maanen's star though. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 85 Fri Mar 25, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 19:16 EST Koloth, If I could figure out the turret then if you were trying to run, you could shoot behind you, off to the side, etc.. while still homing on the selected port. The other ones are just to see who is macho enough to try shooting from the hip without using the autopilot. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 86 Sat Mar 26, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 05:43 EST Helium, Maybe if you use your turret laser a lot, you'd have a need for a Laser Cooling Booster. I've never seen a laser shut down yet. Have you ? Macho ? I prefer to not play such games. If I want grief all I have to do is leave the Frontier universe... Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 87 Sat Mar 26, 1994 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 06:48 EST Heh... just came across a "System of special scientific interest." The system itself (I can't remember the name) was nothing special, but it was the first I'd seen with a Communist government. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 88 Sat Mar 26, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 11:56 EST I've only been playing sporadically lately, but I've been following up the tip from Dave about the Wormhole to -13,-81. Boy, oh boy. What a good tip! It seems, in fact, to be an entire region of wormholes, covering several sectors on each end. For example, from Sol I can jump to Hogarth(?) in sector -13,-81 on 15 tons of fuel. From there I can jump to Altair in sector -4,0 on 10 tons of fuel. In fact, from Hogarth (not sure if that's the correct name) I can jump to just about anything between sector -7,0 to 1,0. It seems to me to be a path through space on each end. I just finnished a jump from Sol to -4,-83 area and back to Beta Hydri area. If I can nail down the exact pattern for this wormhole series I think that picking up hit contracts is going to become a lot easier... :-) Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 89 Sat Mar 26, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 20:33 EST Imperial Hit tips: Here's a nice one... all this wormhole discussion made me think of it. In an Imp. Trader, I did all my military hits out of Cegreeth and Cemiess (-2,-2, therabouts). These systems are on the absolute fringe of the Fed sectors. Military hits don't usually give you many breaks as far as scheduling goes, so this close proximity to the "enemy space" of the Feds is great. If you operate out of these systems (Cegreeth is a great leap-frogging point, as far as getting back down to Facece or Vequess) you can usually make your hits on time. Cemiess is a great place; fuel up, take your mission and head out. A perfect place to jump into Fed space from. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 90 Sun Mar 27, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 08:12 EST Chazz, Great, feed us a line and keep us hanging... I haven't tried much exploring yet, but I hope to soon. I really wish there was a log game feature that would log every jump and docking or something. It's like in SUNDOG. You've got this whole computer here "just sitting", why not have it help you with the accounting and note taking. Wouldn't it be great to be able to pull up an editor window while playing! Charlie, I had noticed that there were several systems you could get to from the 4,0 end of the -13,-81 wormhole, but I hadn't tried searching for where else I could get to from -13,-81. Verrrry Innnnnteresting! Maybe this is a chance to finally see some of Imperial space. The tight times on Federal deliveries are starting to really bug me. Are you supposed to have a military drive when you do this stuff or what ? With the radioactives problem and the fact that with good tactics I've blown away lots of ships with military drives, I never saw the use of them. Kracht, Keep a light on for me, I may be over there in Imperial space before long. Maybe. I had an interesting session yesterday. I traded my Transporter for a Lion Transport (I think I was at Galileo in orbit around the moon) and I couldn't leave. I had enough crew and fuel, but I got stuck in the docking bay. From an exterior view I could see a narrow pyramid with a blinking light on it sticking out of the station above the bay. A shape that doesn't seem to match either what the station looks like or what the ship looks like. Wierd. I also had another strange occurance with this ship. For a while when I fired my forward lasers it made a red pattern on the screen like I'd used my ECM system, but it still hit the target. From an exterior view it showed a regular laser beam. I think that memory was trashed or something as at the same time I clicked on a "smart missile" and it said "Armed: hyp anal" and the other "smart missile" I was carrying would say "Armed: Mine" Wierd huh ? If this behaviour persists I'll let you know. I had another interesting thing happen with this ship. I was headed in to Formalhut and got jumpped by an Imperial Courier. He was enough faster than me that I couldn't catch him with the autopilot. Luckily I had a turret laser and I found I could hit him with that for a while. He got to about 48% hull and then he'd hang around just out of laser range (8Km). I was stuck. I couldn't hit him anymore and I couldn't finish my trip into the system. Repeated attempts showed that he now knew to keep his distance, but that he'd attack any time that I headed in-system. Maddening! Jeesh listen at me, like there's really somebody out there teasing me... I finally picked up an older saved game and took another path. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 91 Sun Mar 27, 1994 DOUGWILLIAMS [Doug] at 11:24 EST Koloth, Military drives have at least two maojor pluses, they take up less room & you go faster. The speed was noticeble in outrunning crafts with a lessor drives. The radioactive bit isn't that much a hassle, the are ways of getting around smuggling illegal goods. Though I got caught once before realising it, it's still on my record. I save gave alot more since then. Doug ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 92 Sun Mar 27, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 20:38 EST Koloth, Been staying away from the turret for now. I might go for it next time as I finally saw something useful on it. I made it go up and down, left and right. I wonder if it follows the target though. Energy bombs are neat too. I blew up about 7 ships that I didn't know existed when I couldn't lock on one. A few more hours and maybe I will improve from Poor. I almost shut down my 4 MW beam laser even with a laser colling booster. Koloth, If you get stuck coming out of the bay, all you need do is fuel your insystem drive. I had the same problem when I started changing hyperdrives. Now I know what causes it. Doug, All I ever tried was just jettisoning the radioactives at the edge of the system. What's another way? I would like to smuggle hand weapons, but can't afford 2500 credits every trip through a system. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 93 Mon Mar 28, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 15:09 EST I have managed to smuggle goods on occasion. I only did 1 ton or so at a time; maybe I just got lucky. Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 94 Mon Mar 28, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 17:57 EST Anyone know how to use the ramscoop to pick up cargo from blown up ships? I keep having it impact my hull. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 95 Mon Mar 28, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 18:51 EST Doug, I played at getting a military drive yesterday and it was a complete disaster. I was at Formalhut and after installing the largest military drive they had, I didn't have the range to go _anywhere_! TGFSG - Thank goodness for saved games! Ah, the secret to running illegal goods is to not get caught. Imagine that. Helium, Yes, energy bombs do sound interesting. Oh boy more toys to play with. I think the "stuck in the bay" problem I had was different, but since I didn't save that situation (like I know I should have), you may be right. > ...Jettisoning the radioactives... What a novel idea... Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 96 Mon Mar 28, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:22 EST Helium: To collect cargo, you need a fuel scoop, and a cargo scoop conversion. Select the debris you want (click on it) and engage the autopilot. I've never actually done this, but it sounds like it should work. If you are already doing this, forgive this message. All: Energy bombs are an absolute must. They can really save your hide, and pull you through some tough scrapes (experience points intact). Have one on board whenever possible, and keep your finger over the E key. But, NEVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES use one within 200km of a space station or base. That is, unless a 10000c fine, and the epiteth "Piracy and Murder" (on your record) are things you'd like to have. You decide. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 97 Tue Mar 29, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 05:33 EST Doug, I played at getting a military drive yesterday and it was a complete disaster. I was at Formalhut and after installing the largest military drive they had, I didn't have the range to go _anywhere_! TGFSG - Thank goodness for saved games! Ah, the secret to running illegal goods is to not get caught. Imagine that. Helium, Yes, energy bombs do sound interesting. Oh boy more toys to play with. I think the "stuck in the bay" problem I had was different, but since I didn't save that situation (like I know I should have), you may be right. > ...Jettisoning the radioactives... What a novel idea... Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 98 Tue Mar 29, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:23 EST Kracht, What's this about the "E" key ? Are there other active keys ? Is this in the manual somewhere ? Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 99 Tue Mar 29, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:46 EST Keys become active as you install equipment. A technique that I discovered to help with those tight delivery schedules is the "no decel" docking manuever. Set your Auto pilot on a space station, and leave it in control until both sets of cross-hairs align. Then switch to Manual, and floor the accelerator. If you're in a single-star system, this won't use too much fuel. Keep the ship on Manual until you're about 1.5 AUs or so from the station, then quickly switch to Autopilot. The timing is tricky, so save before you do this. But with a properly executed manuever the game will let you "stop" at the station from speeds in excess of 20,000 KPS relative to the space station. You can save two days of transit in single-star systems. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 100 Tue Mar 29, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 19:05 EST Koloth, the M, E and B key's become active on your keyboard if you have the devices fitted. In other words, instead of clicking on FIRE with the mouse you can tap the M key to fire a missle. The same for the E key for the ECM system or the B key for the Energy Bomb. Space fires your lazers, of course. I usually use these keys instead of the mouse (I don't use my joystick for this game) because I have the mouse centered over the Autopilot button, ready to turn it off. Fred, that's a good trick. What I do in very large systems is use the Autopilot just long enough to line up on the star/planet I'm shooting for. Then I switch to manual, set the speed to something unGodly like 25,000 KM/S and count how many AU's it takes to get up to that speed. Turn the engines off after reaching speed, and coast on Stardreamer the rest of the way. When I'm as far out from the planet as it took me to come up to speed I flip over and, using the reverse view to line up on the planet, decelerate to zero. As you've probably noticed, most ships have much faster main thrusters than they do retro thrusters. My Imp Trader, for example, can accelerate at 9 G's going forward but only 4 G's reverse, so it takes over twice as long to slow down as it does to come up to speed if I let the Autopilot have it's way. Besides which, I like to pretend I'm a better pilot than some dumb machine... (G) Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 101 Tue Mar 29, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 20:02 EST Charlie/sysop, I don't know I managed to smuggle a ton of nerve gas and 7 tons of battle weapons at one time. I wasn't in Sol at the time though. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 102 Tue Mar 29, 1994 DOUGWILLIAMS [Doug] at 21:10 EST Koloth, I'm flying a Cobra MK III with a class 3 (or 4?, I forget) Military drive, it takes up 24 tons & has a range of 18, which seems to suit me. Obviously , the first rule of smuggling anything is not get caught, but BRIBES work. Be careful though, they don't always work. Some ports in Sol are rougher than others & don't insult the officer with a 'cheap' bribe. Most important (boy, I've learned), is save, save, save! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 103 Wed Mar 30, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:36 EST Percival, (I always think of the astronomer Percival Lowell when I see your name!) I've started using your technique of the "no decel" docking manuever, but I thought it was a stealth tactic as I turn off my engines and hold down the return key for a while, which still accelerates you, and then just under 2.0 AU, I turn on the autopilot. Charlie, Thanks for the info on the keyboard keys. Is this documented anywhere ? Your comments on piloting are consistent with theory which is probably why they work so well. Make that Damn Good Pilot. Doug, I'll keep what you say in mind should I turn to a life of crime. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 104 Wed Mar 30, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 16:57 EST Helium, I don't smuggle often so I really can't say. When I do smuggle I only take a few tons of illegal goods at a time out of the 160-odd tons I have in my cargo hold. Could that be the key? Keep the percentage of illegal goods low and they get lost in the shuffle? Or, and I've wondered this, do you only get caught if the police check the registration of your ship (that software protection bit that pops up every 4th run or so). Koloth, yes it's in the manual in the combat section. As it describes each weapon it tells you that you can fire it by clicking the moust icon or pressing the key. Has anyone tried mining? With the untouched systems opened up by these wormhole jumps I'm kinda tempted. It would be great to land a load of Gems or Precious Metals from some unknown system 600 Light Years from Sol.... Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 105 Thu Mar 31, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:19 EST Charlie, Thanks. I forgot about the keys mentioned in the combat section. Here's hoping that the "load of Gems from an _unknown_ system" aren't a detriment instead of a novelty. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 106 Thu Mar 31, 1994 ARCHIVIST [Charlie] at 20:11 EST Hehe, Koloth. I should have said 'unexplored' system, not 'unknown'. Some- place no one else has been to before... virgin territory, ripe for plundering. Hmmm. I think I'll go play now. :-) Charlie/sysop ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 107 Thu Mar 31, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 22:34 EST What good is the Puma Shuttle or Python? I looked at them since I figured to move up and one of them with a class 7 hyperdrive only has a range of 5.2 lightyears. Nothing is near Sol to meet that requirement. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 108 Fri Apr 01, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:01 EST Charlie, That's right - rub it in. I've gotta finish my newsletter this weekend and get further along on my taxes. :( I'll probably get _some_ playing time in. We'll see. Helium (can I call you He ?), Maybe you need to find out about some of the experimental drives that the manual hints about for those ships to be useful. Perhaps the place mentioned in the gazeteer that's the "mother of all spaceports" ? Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 109 Fri Apr 01, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 06:24 EST Charlie/Sysop, I think you have to be on the fringes to not get caught. One star system just north of Barnard's Star told me smuggling was illegal and wouldn't let me sell my stuff. I bribed the cops, but it was annoying. In Sol, they tell me it's illegal but let me sell it anyway. Over at Wolf 359 (I think that's where) I smuggled in major amounts at once and had no problems with the cops. Go figure. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 110 Fri Apr 01, 1994 J.ZENTZ1 [wintermane] at 12:52 EST Actualy if ya look you can get around quite well with both since you only need about a 5.18ly range to get many places:) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 111 Sat Apr 02, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 05:58 EST Koloth, Well I will have to look for the spaceport again. I thought it would be in Facece, but there's only junk in that area. On a somewhat related note, how do you find the people to take out when you accept a termination contract? I get in position at the spacedock and run through the remaining days until it is time for them to leave. The first one never looked like he launched and I couldn't find the second since I launched 5 minutes after she did. I couldn't pick up anything on the scanner. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 112 Sat Apr 02, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 18:38 EST Helium, Part of the trick, I'm convinced, in doing a hit successfully, is not telegraphing your presence. You need to take the time to plan your route, make sure you have plenty of fuel, and NEVER EVER dock at the base your target will leave from. Once I figured this out, every hit went well. That was after five or six failed hits. What I would do is make sure no hit I took had a smaller tonnage on Let me start that again... make sure your target's ship always has a greater tonnage than yours. This is usually the case. Next, stock up on weapons, strip any unnecessary equipment and replace it with fuel. The trick is to get within range of the base your target will leave from. Then, sit there. In space. For days, if you need to. Wait for your target to appear (make sure you have the ID function going, and that you've memorized the call letters of your target). The best way to make the hit is to wait for him to jump into hyperspace. Either way, target him immedately, and wait. Use the hyperspace analyser if he jumps. If he doesn't jump, engage the autopilot and follow -- his destination might be in the system. The idea behind choosin your hit contracts is that the greater the tonnage of the target ship, the better you can chase him through hyperspace. WHen you enter the system he has jumped to, you'll see his arrival cloud. Target it, and use the analyser, and you're given the target's arrival time. All you have to do is wait, and launch six missiles at him when he arrives. Again, if you make a lot of contact in the system your target will be leaving from, your reputation will precede you. You cannot let your target know you are in the system. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 113 Sun Apr 03, 1994 E.MICHARD at 04:49 EDT Some *extremely* useful Wormholes (If you haven't already found them) When you need to get from the Imperial Are a (Facece, Vequess, Achenar) to the SOL federation area [0,0] Jump from Vequess to Anaze[81,-9], about 5 tons of fuel in a Imp trader. Then jump from Anaze to SOL [0,0], about 7 tons of fuel. I haven't timed it exactly, but I think you can make it in well under a week. You can also jump to most other systems in the Sol area from Anaze, at least if you're in an Imp Trader or another ship with greater range. Another one, not as efficient on fuel, is Facece to Howala[82,-11], 2t to Sol [0,0], 27t. With a little experimentation, you can find many other similar wormholes. I haven't had time to use it much, but I imagine this would be quite useful in carrying out Imperial contracts in the federation, and vice- versa ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 114 Sun Apr 03, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 10:46 EDT Looking for a few kills to up your record? Go to Enaness (-5,1). I had at least 15 attacks in the run to the planet the first time I was there. Edara also has a lot of bounties too. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 115 Sun Apr 03, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 18:03 EDT James, I got all of it except the ID function. What exactly is that? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 116 Sun Apr 03, 1994 C.BORGES at 20:36 EDT I would love to play this game, but I cannot get my computer to recognize the disks (acutually, almost any copy-protected disk will choke on my computer). If anyone has any suggestions, I would be happy to listen, as I've wasted a bunch of money if I can't get this thing to work. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 117 Sun Apr 03, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:03 EDT Helium: The info option I spoke of is that little icon (F10) from you default, forward view. Make sure there is little red X in it. All things, planets, ships, bit of ships, stars, etc., are identified on your heads up (forward) display. This makes finding your target quite east. This is also useful for deciding which piece of dropped cargo to go after. All dropped cargo is identified -- little words floating through space. Go after those narcotics, man! Free high! Woooo!!!! Borges: Sounds like you might need a new disk drive. Frontied is not disk-based copy protected, as far as I can tell (that should have read "Frontier.") Michard: Congrats on finding the first true, useful use for a wormhole! I'm sure these things are only there for convenience and military use! I wanted to be first to find a good one, but you were! Congrats, again! Shall we oficially dub this the Michard Hyperspace Bypass? Sounds good to me! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 118 Mon Apr 04, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 20:49 EDT C.Borges, Check the speed of your drive (some program in here will do it, I forgot what it is right now) and see if it is spinning as 300 RPM. If not, then it will have problems reading commercial disks. Have you tried booting off the floppies are making the backup? The backup may run better since it is created by your floppy. This game isn't copy protected as such. It has software protection where it asks you for a letter every so often. It sounds like a speed problem if just about every copy protected disk chokes. James, Oh... I left that off. No wonder I am having problems. I think I will try to pick up cargo again after I boot up. People won't leave me alone anymore. I hate being competent. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 119 Tue Apr 05, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:15 EDT Helium, C.Borges, It could also be drive alignment. Either way, a copy made on that machine should work better than the originals. Good luck. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 120 Tue Apr 05, 1994 DOUGWILLIAMS [Doug] at 21:19 EDT Can anyone offer advice on making "hits"? The first one, I ananlyzed the cloud, hyperspaced, latched on to, what I think, was the cloud I came through on, & waited. At the designated time my target came through & I nailed him. The second time I tried this, the cloud I was waiting on would fade away, & nothing ever came. Could this be the result of a mis-jump, (I tried it over & over), or have I mis-interpreted the procedure? Doug ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 121 Tue Apr 05, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:46 EDT Doug, if you're chasing someone through hyperspace, you should find when you rematerialize TWO distint arrival clouds. Yours, and your target's. I had no idea why a target would not appear, if its arrival cloud is there. It SHOULD appear, but then again, I have never lost a target due to an intentional misjump. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 122 Wed Apr 06, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 18:17 EDT I read E.Michard's message about the shortcut from Vaquess to Sol, and used that route profitably. Then, scanning around the area of Anaze [81,-9], I noticed that several stars were in range, not just the one. I did some exploring and some checking, and I found this: What the game has are not exactly wormholes; it has rings. I learned that you can jump to any star that is about 655.5 light years from your current system, using minimum jump fuel. In the case of my Cobra III, this is one ton. You can go a bit further than this, depending on the range of your spacecraft. If you can normally jump 18 ly, then you can jump in a band 18 ly wide, from about 655.5 to 673.5 ly. At the outer edge of the ring, you use your maximum fuel for a jump. It does not matter which direction you go; it is a ring...OK, it's really a sphere, but the map you use is essentially two-dimensional. The rings repeat, too! If you double 655.5, you get 1311. You can jump into another ring starting at 1311 ly from your current system. These rings continue with the same interval (1966.5 ly, etc.). What this means is that you can go between ANY two stars using minimum jumps, in almost no time. You jump to a point where the rings for the two stars intersect! For example, I went from Facece to Sol using 2 tons of fuel via Sophiol [82,3] in less than a day. I went from dock in Facece to dock in Vequess in 57 hours (using the no decel technique) via Ioexmi [0,-86]. By finding the intersection point(s) you can make the same speed between docks to any single star system. As you can see from the addresses that have been posted, 655 ly is about 82 blocks along the x or y axis. Thus Sol's inner ring passes through [82,0], [0,82],[-82,0] and [0,-82]. Each block is 8 ly square. Once you move off the axes, trigonometry comes into play. To jump from Sol toward the upper right corner of the screen at a 45 degree angle, you move to [58,58] (0.7x82). Once you find some key intersection points, almost no military mission has too tight a deadline. And by using the outer rings, you can visit any star in the galaxy. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 123 Wed Apr 06, 1994 GREEN at 21:04 EDT Hello again space jocks. My own experience in Elite II has been one of the most frustrating games experiences ever! (vent on!). I mean, as much as I Looked forward to this gme after plauing elite, I would give it up in a heartbeat if I could get mu hard earned money back!! I know I screwed up when I bought a ship and found I couldn't get an autopilot for it, so I started over gain. For the last 5 sessions, with playing times of about an hour each, my g12347*&^%@#$@@m ship keeps crashing into the Sol stations. I have only really begun, with a cash 10K on hand for trading. Iv'e suviced, serviced the equipment but still no help. I just now finished an hour and I anm still at the same point in which I began. & 7 play sessions have got me NOWHERE and to add insult to frustration, the d!@#m game looked, locked up in front of the same d!@#M station. I don't know if I will play anymore as my computer is in danger of frustration destruction! a very dangerous condition. Errrrrrrr11111!!!!! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 124 Wed Apr 06, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 21:18 EDT Green, no hard feelings, but, you know, some Frontiersmen have it, and some just don't. Sounds like you don't. I doubt even the Federation would have you. Still, you can always tell a good Frontiersman by the scars he/she obtained during that crucial learning phase that seems to be getting the better of you... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 125 Thu Apr 07, 1994 E.MICHARD at 00:11 EDT Fred-P: Thanks for the detailed info. I sort of figured it was a ring about 82 sectors or so away, but didn't have the time (or patience) to explore enuff to describe it so well. Now if we could just jump in closer to the starports..... Anyway, has anyone else out there had much trouble getting above Competent Lord? Man,. it seems like i've been here for years. Got here within 2 weeks of getting the game, and been stuck here for a month. Do I just have to slog my way through thousands of kills and missions, or what? Well, maybe with these new shortcuts I can at least get the missions done faster. These photo missions sure are a drag, though. Anyone know a way to maybe use the autopilot for them? Half the time I end up smashing into the planet as soon as I turn my back. Well, see ya on Facece... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 126 Thu Apr 07, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 00:26 EDT Michard, like I said earlier, Competent is the worst. However, I fear the route from Dangerous to Deadly will be TWICE as long, and the road to ELITE will be long and winding indeed! I haven't had much time to play, but I must admit, the photo-ops have me snookered. I simply don't have the patience anymore. I think in a way, this is a sort of shortcoming of the game, or just an unfortunate consequence of being programmed by years of linear gaming experiences and "quick progression"-type games. In any case, I simply haven't had the will to play in a while. Now will all these bright young punk pilots getting all the glory by discovering de facto wormhole routes and writing travel guides about them, I just might have to jump back into the fray here. Maybe. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 127 Thu Apr 07, 1994 E.MICHARD at 02:42 EDT That's what I was afraid of. Don't know if I have the patience to stick it out. With these new wormhole routes, it may be worth starting over. May go a little quicker this time. Heck, just with quick trading of contraband you can make a quick fortune between Imp & fed systems. But I don't look forward to all that fighting just to get to THIS point. Guess I'll probably try sticking it out for a while... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 128 Thu Apr 07, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:37 EDT Fred, That's phenomenal! The other day I did an interesting thing with the "worm rings", but I wanted to investigate it further and I haven't had time. Here it is anyway. I was flying a lion. Start at Barnard's star. Jump to Ioolze (53,-62, system 6) which is unexplored (6 tons) or Iogreex (53,-62, system 2) Jump to Cephilia (117,-113) which is unexplored Jump to Giclas 158-27 (0,1, system 3) Mining and ore refinement (3 tons) Jump to Sol (0,0) Sorry that this information isn't complete, I was basically exploring. I think I made it from Barnard's star to Giclas on 20 tons of fuel and then refueled for the jump to SOL. Not efficient, but certainly interesting! Green, Try downloading the archive of this topic and reading some of what was suggested in the last couple of months. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 129 Thu Apr 07, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:02 EDT Green, Try docking/landing at "Speed 4". This has been very reliable for me; docking at normal speed usually results in an autopilot flub. E.M., I'm in the exact same position you are. I've been Competent Lord for about 5 years of game time. I've completed 21 "Lord Level" Imp military missions in that time. I wonder if you have to make Dangerous Elite rank before you can get a Barony? Has anyone become a Baron while at Competent rank? I've been concentrating more on completing assignments than shooting up the cosmos. But maybe this has been the wrong approach. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 130 Thu Apr 07, 1994 DOUGWILLIAMS [Doug] at 20:54 EDT James, I didn't notice two clouds on the hit I suceeded on, hmmmm, I'm in the process of my third attempt , after aborting the second one & re-starting back before it. We'll see what happens. All, Is every here working for the Empire?!? Shoot, I'm surrounded by enemies!! Doug, (Compentent Sargeant-Major, Federation, thank-you) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 131 Fri Apr 08, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 02:40 EDT Doug, Long live the Empire! Horah! Horah! Horah! Death to Federation Pawns! And, yes, there should be two arrival clouds. Yours, and his. Look for it. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 132 Fri Apr 08, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 18:04 EDT Doug, I'm a competent Corporal in the Federation - Thank you. Glad to find an ally. I've been concentrating on trade and now have a Lion Transport. I have shied away from the military jobs due to the tight time schedules. Now that I'm learning more about worm holes and have a >16 light year range, that may change. Of course I need to finish my taxes before I can play much more - Darn! Kracht, That's Federation Clowns to you! Pawns indeed! Paugh! Take Care, Lee B. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 133 Fri Apr 08, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:15 EDT Koloth, er, I, uh, stand corrected... sorry for the mistake. We Imps can't be bothered with getting our insults out accurately... too much looting and smuggling and bribery and piracy and murder and illegally discharging our weapons to do... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 134 Fri Apr 08, 1994 GREEN at 23:45 EDT When you say dock at four, instead of normal speed, are you talking bout the Stardreamer setting? I haven't quite given up on this gane yet, after all it did cost me $50 and I havd/had been waiting for it for some time. But I must say that the autopilot flub is the most frustrating thing I have ecver experienced, even more so than the original space docking in Elite. I will just have to take some time and/or more tranquilizers, or maybe start on Ishar II, and await Ambermoon and Ishar III. Of course, there is always Breach II, one of my all time faves... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 135 Sat Apr 09, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 02:35 EDT Green: I'm not so sure the autopilot blowing you up is a "flub." It has only happened to me twice, and then only on the day I purchased Elite 2. Not using the autopilot correctly is a human error. This game has a very steep learning curve, but it is short. Keep trying. You will not be sorry. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 136 Sat Apr 09, 1994 E.MICHARD at 02:53 EDT Autopilot flub? Was there an Autopilot flub somewhere? News to me. Maybe you've got a bug. Did you try the short tutorial? Too anyone above Competent out there... How long, exactly(# kills, # years, etc.) did it take, and what are some good systems to get battle experience in? I've been trying the Diso-Lave-Riedquat-Zaonce circuit. Gets pretty tedious. And about wormholes:anybody know a good wormhole from Vequess/Facece or Sol to Diso/Lave/Riedquat/zaonce area? Haven't found a good one yet. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 137 Sat Apr 09, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 06:43 EDT Green, Yes! Dock at Dreamer 4 speed. I've NEVER missed in hundreds of dockings and landings at this speed. Using Autopilot in realtime is a very different story, though! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 138 Sat Apr 09, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 08:32 EDT Kracht, Gee, that makes you sound kinda like the VOGON Guard in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I guess you'll never know _why_ you do those things, or care why for that matter. Be careful, next thing you know you'll turn into a bureaucrat! I'll be sure to not hitch a lift with any Imperial ships I happen across. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 139 Sat Apr 09, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 10:46 EDT Well I took the plunge and went for a Puma. Can get to some places with a Class 7 hyperdrive. Now I need to find the "mother of all spacedocks" and get a better engine. Using the ID feature sure does make it easier to kill things too. Now I don't have to guess where the other ship is, the program tells me. Haven't found any big ships to take on yet. I bought one of those little 40 MW beam lasers to try out. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 140 Sat Apr 09, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 13:27 EDT Green, I have TOS 1.0 and have had some of the same problems you note. 1) Boot the game from A: drive without any externals turned on. 2) (Sol) At Sol, you need to buy animal meat. Select Barnard's Star as a destination. 3) Ask for launch request. a) If at a station, select 10X speed. b) If on a planet then when your ship starts to move, give it an up angle and set about 2 KPS for set speed. 4) When the blue light comes on in the F8 position, select it and move the mouse. 5) After the warp, select Boston Base and Autopilot to it. When you receive clearance then select 100X time. After this, you should be well on your way. Remember to fix your ship since sometimes it will be damaged when docking. As soon as possible you need to upgrade to a bigger ship and get shields and auto-hull repair. Doug, Naw. I work for myself. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 141 Sat Apr 09, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 17:17 EDT Koloth: I have some poetry, if you'd like to hear it... Captain Michard (grin): Competent sucks. It's like I said... (at least in Arizona): "It's like being 20 years old. You can vote and die for your country and yet can't buy beer." Competent was really bringing me down. I hated it. I was competent for over a month, with daily play sessions, and plenty of kills. In fact, I had given up. I was convinced the game had a bug when being played on a Falcon. Competent was the ceiling. Then, lo and behold, I was suddenly Dangerous, and I was simply NOT AWARE that it had happened. At the beginning of the play session, I was competent. At the end, on a lark, I checked my rating, and WHAMMO! There is was... go figure! Now, the trip from Dangerous to Deadly is going to be a real drag... I think this game is TOO big. Alas... (I simply haven't the patience... or time... or need? I hope I never lose THAT). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 142 Sat Apr 09, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 19:11 EDT Okay, I have another weird question. How do you scoop up stuff? I have a fuel scoop and a cargo conversion, but all I end up doing is blowing the loose stuff up with my shields. I select a target and click on autopilot. It chases it down and then... "Target Lost" appears and the cargo canister blows up like everything else that tries to ram my ship. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 143 Sun Apr 10, 1994 E.MICHARD at 01:37 EDT Don't know about cargo scooping....never saw the point. It's too easy to make a HUGE fortune just in careful trading. At this point, I've got so much money that trading is boring...what's the point when you have more than enough to buy 5 of any ship you see? That's one feature I'd like to see... the ability to buy more than one ship.. It would be nice to be able to put a small scout ship inside a large Panther trader. I've read on other system's Elite II topics that the newer versions of Elite II don't have wormholes. (They seem to think it's a bug. Pretty useful bug.) and Imp traders and Imp couriers need more crew. Supposedly a lot of things cost more and take more space (20 mw laser takes 25 more tons) Sounds a lot harder.. Think I'll stick with my old, buggy version. And I'll repeat my earlier question - anybody know of a good place to get a lot of battles, other than Diso/Lave area? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 144 Sun Apr 10, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 03:11 EDT Michard, I say just hang out in Reidquat. That, or head way "north" to Miphiay... some anarchies around there, and the scenery is a lot different. (- 1,4 or thereabouts). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 145 Sun Apr 10, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 09:49 EDT Helium, You're ahead of me , I just moved up to a Tiger Trader. I really love the automatic hull repair. Funny you should ask about cargo scooping. I'm still trying to figure out the technique for using the cargo scoop to catch the remains of ships. I lock on with the autopilot and the cargo keeps impacting on either my shields or hull and being destroyed. Kinda like a Krait fighter... I've tried turning off the autopilot just before impact and it either impacts anyway or passes by. Are you supposed to try to match velocities with it or what ? These big ships really change the character of the game! Krait, Of course! I _love_ Klingon Poetry, it's so much more expressive than Vogon poetry, and the listeners don't suicide. As often. Captain Michard, Sounds like the other versions might be a lot less fun! I've forgotten the details, but the place that was in civil war and paid 3x for luxury goods had some pretty good fighting. I think it gets worse with time too. have fun. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 146 Sun Apr 10, 1994 D.SCHRADER [Dave] at 15:38 EDT D.Schrader [ReDarh] Koloth, Good to hear that you made it to Dangerous! This game sure covers a lot of Space, I mean as in sectors. I went for a little look see to try and find out just how wide this space was. I found that it goes from -32,768x to a positive 32,768. The same goes for the y sections and don't ask how loooong it took to scroll out that far! I am known as Lord ReDarh [Dangerous] and yes you will be getting some new type of assingnments offered to you. If you want to see some real action, head for Enaness (-5,1). Last time I was there I was attacked by a total of 58 ships. With this amount of ships to keep track of the game went into a pause and run type of mode. The screen movements became quite jerky. I found the best way for fighting large amounts of ships (for me) is to set speed to about 500K and set the Stardreamer to max. When a ship starts attacking you will know about it. OH yes, another good place to find some ships is Exqugre (- 4,2), this place will test your fire power to the max. I met up with a Imp Trader which had 68 shields and did he give me a running battle. I use the old autopilot on-shoot, then just before a head on collision turn the autopilot off, veer off, then turn the autopilot back on again. Keep repeating this and wearing down the other ships shields until BOOM! Well its back to the old tube, I think this time I am going to head to the center section of this star cluster. I have already been out in the Arm Major. Lot of star systems-no green little slime guppies yet! See you all later. ReDarh ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 147 Sun Apr 10, 1994 GREEN at 19:47 EDT Thanks, Fred and all for your help on the autopilot "flub". By using speed 4 as soon as the game drops me out of the Stardreamer into real time when approaching the station, I have had 100% sucess rate at docking. Now I am having another problem. As I go back to Anderson Depot, sometimes the ship will "flog about" when getting close, about >1, .!, .19au from the planet. Then it will burn up the fuel in the internal tank and when I refill, will do the same, just spinning about the loaction wihtout getting there At other times, it (the ship) will approach the planet and then start moving w, away from the planet. Even resetting the autopilot will not stop me fo from doing this. Anyone else have these problems, they sure seem like bugs, and quite often, bugs to me. Thanks. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 148 Sun Apr 10, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 21:17 EDT E.Michard, I left a note about where I got into about 15 battles in a row on my way to the planet. I will see if I can remember where in a sec. Enaness and Andayeth (1, -5) were pretty interesting when I first showed up. Haven't been there in awhile though. Anpieth (2,-2) has a few good ships to beat up on. Only about 6 though. Koloth, When you remember the civil war area let me know. I need a few more ships to run into me. Stupid little buggers can't hide so they attack me with their ships. 10 (did have 20) shield generators do wonders at protecting me though (g). Has anyone found a bounty greater than 500? I have seen three this high so far, but nothing higher. Maybe in that sector someone was talking about (- 4,2). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 149 Sun Apr 10, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 22:15 EDT GREEN, When you just sit there flopping about reset your autopilot. If you still have problems then go to manual and fly in a little and go back to auto. You need to get an autorefueler too. Nothing like it to keep your mind off having to watch the fuel gauge. When the ship moves away from the planet, all it is really doing is shedding its velocity before moving in to dock. Watch the speed when it gets close and you will see it is up in the KPS zone. The dock won't handle it. It has to be down in the KPH zone before it will dock. Also it sometimes has to flyby to get to the dock side of the station. Dock is open on one side only. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 150 Sun Apr 10, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:29 EDT Helium, I got a 750c bounty in Reidqaut, as well as a 950c one too. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 151 Mon Apr 11, 1994 E.MICHARD at 00:24 EDT I tried plotting the wormhole intersections on paper, but the grid is way too big. SO I figurd that the best way would be to use trig to solve it. If anyone has figured the formula (if I recall my 1 trig class long ago, it shouldn't be too tricky) please let me know. I can't remember enough trig tto do it. (mind too cluttered with more recent integrals and differential equations) I would look it up but can't find a trig book. Guess I'll have to go check it out in the library. But it shouldn't be too hard... 2 intersection pts of 2 circles of equal radius. (82). we know the center pt coordinates of the 2 circles ([x1,y1] Start system &[x2,y2] End system). This forms an isosceles? triangle , with the 2 equal sides being 82, and 2 base pts being [x1,y1] & [x2,y2] Thus the third side is the square root of ([x1-x2]^2 +[y1-y2]^2) So, with the 3 side lengths and 2 base pts of an isosceles triangle known, it shouldn't be hard to figure out all 3 angles and then the coordinates of the 3rd pt. But that's as far as I can get. Can't remember the trig formulas. . So if someone can help finish it, we should get thwe formula to plug in the 2 system coordinates and get the coords of the most efficient wormhole jump point between them. Should be able to find the quickest Jump between ANY 2 systems. Fred P- You mentioned this earlier, do you have the formula? (Maybe this is simple..like i said, its been a long time since i had trig.) Thanks ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 152 Mon Apr 11, 1994 E.MICHARD at 00:26 EDT Please excuse the formatting of the last post. Aladdin got screwed up and I had to post online. Formatting got messed up. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 153 Mon Apr 11, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:43 EDT ReDarh, Uh, I'm not Dangerous yet, just Competent. You must mean Kracht. I know, I know, we Klingons all look alike to you! Sounds like you're having too much fun. What kind of ship are you running and how's it equipped ? Green, When I have the "Flog About" problem, I usually choose another destination. I know this is not always an option and isn't a _real_ solution. I guess I've been avoiding the issue. Helium, I'll have to go back into my message archives... Drat! I just tried this and still couldn't find it. I had it printed out somewhere and can't locate it. Michard, The trick to formatting text for GEnie is to start any line you don't want formatted with a space. Hope this helps. Ugh. I don't want to remember trig for a _game_, but then again... Frontier is a way of life! (and if I believed that I'd _be_ dangerous!) Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 154 Mon Apr 11, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 18:41 EDT James Kracht, Well I am on my way to check out -4,2. Where is Reidquat? I can get that one next. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 155 Mon Apr 11, 1994 E.MICHARD at 22:54 EDT I think I've gotten the Jump math worked out, although I'm still having problems with the negative values, at times. So here are a few useful jumps I've discovered: . Sol [0,0] to Ethdafa [- 80,18] 6t to Tionisla [-2,-6] 5t (near Zaonce/diso/lave area) . Zaonce [-2,-6] to Ethiolia [-80,18] 10t to Sol [0,0] 21t Zaonce to Ethiolia to Barnard's Star [0,0] 2t Zaonce to Ethiolia to Cegreeth [-1,-3] 16t (near Cemiess) .. Vaquess [0,-4] to Waethar [-32,71] 5t to Riedquat [-3,-6] . That's it for now... If anyone has any requests, let me know. . Eric Michard ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 156 Mon Apr 11, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:08 EDT Helium: Reidquat is out past Lave. Dangerous area. Not a lot of support planets (no good upgrade/repair facilities or good shops). Michard: Remember, SPACE IS CURVED. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 157 Mon Apr 11, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:08 EDT Oh, and Helium, Lave is out at -6,-2, or therabouts. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 158 Mon Apr 11, 1994 J.KRACHT [James Kracht] at 23:10 EDT Helium, scratch that. I must have been sitting upsidedown. Lave is out at -2,- 5 (or thereabouts). Sorry for the inconvenience. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 159 Mon Apr 11, 1994 E.MICHARD at 23:16 EDT what exactly do you mean by that? Space is curved.?? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 160 Tue Apr 12, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:19 EDT Well, I tried out the Jump from Sol to Anaze (81,-9; system 6) and then I couldn't remember where the Empire is! The message only said you could get to Facece & Vaquess, but not where they are. Anyway I wound up in the 0,3 area where there are several interesting systems including: Anlave (0,3; System 5) Federation, High Population Zeessze (0,3;System 1) Outdoor Jungle World Right next to Anlave there's another system where you can do trading similar to SOL-Barnard's star except with some combat. Sorry I forgot to write it down, but when you get to Anlave it's pretty obvious. I also found several very interesting systems including: Miolin (1,4; System 3) - A binary star system with _no planets_ BUT it has imports & exports! Strange, eh ? Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 161 Tue Apr 12, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 06:38 EDT E.M., How about sharing your formula? I've been discovering jump points by the "Kentucky Windage" method. Actually, this isn't too bad for stars that are on the printed map, since they are so close together, on a cosmic scale. Here is a summary of jumps I've been using. They are all minimum jumps, meaning your ship will use 1 ly worth of jump fuel on each leg: Vequess [0,-4] to Sol : Anaze [81,-9] Facece [0,-4] to Sol : Sophiol [82,3] Facece to Vequess : Ioexmi [0,-86] Facece to Diso [-3,-6]: Ceaed [32,-79] Facece to Lave [-3,-6]: Veedphi [37,-77] Sol to Lave : Daioar [73,-36] Remember, these work in both directions! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 162 Tue Apr 12, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 19:29 EDT Looking for a little combat? Try out Aayay (4,3) and Faenio (4,2). The one with the quintuplet has an Imperial Courier waiting for you to drive by. (I was bored and tried selecting things besides planets and Whoomp, there it is!) I found out you can select ships from the system blowup after you get there. Look for colored dots (not pink or purple on my system they are you) and select them. Check them out with the radar mapper and then chase them down. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 164 Wed Apr 13, 1994 AEO.MAG [?] Travis [?] at 00:36 EDT Still haven't played this game yet. Part of me fears buying; I may not get much work done if it is as good as y'all make it out to be. Question: Are enemies (or other objects) reset if destroyed? In Helium's last post, he spoke of a Imperial Courier waiting somewhere. If this ship is in every game, and if one was to destroy it, would it still be there waiting if one was to fly by at some future time? --Travis "Chust Vondering" Guy ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 165 Wed Apr 13, 1994 E.MICHARD at 03:57 EDT Yes, the enemies are always reset The game is so huge that there is no way, really, to keep track of individual ships, unless you're doing a 'hit'. Whenever you attempt to fly to a particular starbase in certain systems, a large group of enemies will throw themselves at you. Most of the time they are small scout ships, but occasionally you will be put up against a ship bigger & more powerful than you own.. ZBut this is not very often, in relation to the thousands of small Geckos and Eagle Mk IIIs, etc. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 166 Fri Apr 15, 1994 D.BARTHOLOME [Dave] at 03:44 EDT I'm not sure about these "preset" ships. I believe that ship placement is randomized in some respects. Epsilon Indi (which, BTW, I've determined to be another dog of a system for trade - just not worth the trouble) had an Imperial Courier who always came over to blow me away shortly after arrival. I had to keep going back to a previous save, and some gameweeks later I'd try again and keep meeting him (or another Courier, anyway). However, I finally fought my way in, meeting Cobras and Kraits. An Asp came up then and got me. I reloaded. Now the Asp didn't show, but another Krait did. No sign of the Courier I'd run into on past attempts. I took a Boa way on out to a distant multistar system, and saved before the final jump into the place. My first try, I was all alone out there, over 200 LY from Sol. It had been over 70 lightyears since I'd met up with any other ships. But on another loadup, I met 3 Eagles once I went in. My arrival point was different too. On a 3rd loadup, once again nobody around, BUT I was in still another point in the system. This is why I think some of the parameters are random. Same savegame, just reloaded a few hours or days apart. I'm playing on the IBM version, which of course doesn't have wormholes. -Dave ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 167 Fri Apr 15, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 19:25 EDT Dave, I agree that some parameters are random and some aren't. Have you noticed any other differences (that you can discern) between the Atari and 'BM versions ? Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 168 Sat Apr 16, 1994 D.BARTHOLOME [Dave] at 07:18 EDT Well, on the IBM version I've never gotten stuck trying to launch from a space station, and I've never had a problem docking either. However, I once tried to watch my ship entering a station from an external view: bad idea. The ship just bounced around in the door frame, the shields went to 0, and the hull damage went up and up, then I quickly switched to the inside forward view and it continued on in like nothing happened. Expensive hull repair job convinced me not to try that again. I've found that you can't land big ships on some high gravity planets. New Africa at Epsilon Indi is bad news, and so is Cooperworld at Aymiay. You just drop like a brick from orbit and the autopilot can't slow you down. Getting out of some deep holes like New America at Facece is also tough. I had to empty my freighter almost completely to get into space without the traffic controllers getting mad at me. (I mean REAL mad. They sent a bunch of cops after me each time.) I assume most of this is the same for the other versions. -Dave ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 169 Sat Apr 16, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 09:40 EDT Dave, It sounds like the 'BM version is more of a simulation and less of a game... Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 170 Sun Apr 17, 1994 M.TROUPE [Helium] at 16:05 EDT Travis, After restarting that section again (had to reload due to something stupid happening) if I went around somewhere else first then the courier wasn't there. Ships are supplied randomly. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 171 Mon Apr 18, 1994 B.WORTH [BADGER] at 02:16 EDT WOW !!! I've just recently gotten back from "Innerspace" matters and I'm about to get back to jumping around the galaxy. All of you have advanced so well that I feel left in comet dust. A couple of observations from the point which I left off. The farthest point I've explored to is (-3070,-2302). There are two stars with heavy mining- Sonrand and Lahoand. Good starports when you are that far out and need fuel and only have a couple of worm jumps left in your tanks. For those of you have trouble with "flogging around" a station: Try decelerating down to normal speed just as you get "even" with the planet whose station you are trying to aproach. Then hit maximum. Works everytime for me. If you have a crew, keep only those who have flight experience, and who don't lie. If they are advertising on the bulletin board that their family is starving, etc., get rid of them ASAP. Also, never keep the high priced jockeys. if they want 20 credits a week, they'll cause problems with the rest of the crew. Same with those recruits that accept less than 15 credits, they are usually desperate, or lairs. Either way they don't have the experience you'll need. I've been going back and forth between a Courier and a Panther and other than sometimes waiting for enough crew, I've had excellant luck. The gilch that happens sometimes to the bulletin board, where it reads stocks, or is blank- (that's glitch) Fast forward to the next day and it will correct itself. Fast forward also helps if the starport or starbase you're at is out offuel or other commodity you're looking for. Stocks replenish daily. Nice if you're trying to get a full load a robots and computers on a Panther. E. Michard, Have you came up with an "easy" equation for jumps? I have it worked out on paper. I just found out my LDW program doesn't properly compute trig functions. Makes it hard coming up with an exact vector for worming. I've been able to aproximate jumps, and use my save function a ton. I'm up to SQUIRE but still Competent. Never missed a hit from the target not showing. Probably because I change ships so often. Continue the trek fellow Elitests. May the Frontier be with you!! ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 172 Mon Apr 18, 1994 D.BARTHOLOME [Dave] at 04:02 EDT To: B.WORTH [BADGER] I've been wondering about that bit with the crew. Does the pay grade really make any difference? The "starving family" bit on the BB doesn't mean much when they say they're sick of the place, and the "anything considered" people who are just career seekers annoy me too. Has this been proven to be a factor in your successes? Is it noticable, or even verifiable? If it makes any difference, in what way? Your promotion in elite standing, or anything like that? I've been sticking just to the ones who've made enemies or who are dying to leave a system. Nobody's jumped ship on me yet. -Dave ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 173 Mon Apr 18, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:14 EDT Badger, Glad to have you back. Not everyone has advanced mightily. I'm still a coropral and competent, but I now have a PUMA. I'm gonna have to start star- hopping, I end up in the SOL area too often. I recently mucked around near the Vequess-Facace area, but I found it to be pretty dead. I guess most of the galaxy is like that. (sigh) I've never taken a hit job with my main character, but I finally investigated one and the timing was abysmal. From the time I took the contract until I had to make the hit, there wasn't time to get to where I needed to be. It was fun hanging around the exit station to find out what the destination was, but like I said, even going back to an earlier saved game, I couldn't make the hit. Oh, well. An interesting note about the crew. I forget where I bought the PUMA, but I had to sit around for over a month before I got enough crew for her. Thank goodness for saved games as the first time I took a couple of passenger contracts and after they sat around for a month they got mad and left. Ruined my reputation too. I learned that lesson well! Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 174 Wed Apr 20, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 06:31 EDT I've been flying a lot of Imp Military missions from Facece to Federation systems. I've been compiling a list of jump points on Facece's ring to these systems, plus a few other useful ones. If anyone wants my current info, send me a mail request and I'll pass it along to you. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 175 Fri Apr 22, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:32 EDT Anybody not given up on this game? After playing up to a middle rank, it's obvious that David Braben has confused "long" with "entertaining". Who really wants to do the same mission 100 times? Has anyone actually had the endurance to make it to Viscount in the Imperium? Does anyone still care? It's one thing to have an "endless" game that's always fresh, like some strategy games, but when all there is to do is perform the same missions over and over or visit one of a billion essentially identical stars, what's the attraction? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 176 Fri Apr 22, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 19:35 EDT Fred P, I haven't reached mind numbed yet. I've got a PUMA, a good reputation, over 100,000 credits and I've never done a hit job. I still have a lot of playtime left in this one. I never did figure out what combination of ship and drives is useful for meeting deadlines on military missions. Maybe there are some other challenges out there as are hinted at in the manual. It might be a good idea to re-read the gazetteer to see if it might offer some further hints. Your competent Corporal, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 177 Sat Apr 23, 1994 G.GEORGE3 [Fruitman] at 00:15 EDT I've had the game for over a week now and I think it's pretty cool... But, does anyone know if it has an ending? 50 years from now, you have to give up YOUR ship to your grandkids... Fruitman....... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 178 Sat Apr 23, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 00:20 EDT Well, I have esentially stopped playing... I have run out of time and patience. I am a Dangerous Lord in the Imperium, and I'm happy with that. I've got over 10 million credits, so maybe retirement on New America in Achenar is in the cards. I have grown old, and tired of all this killing... :-) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 179 Sat Apr 23, 1994 E.MICHARD at 02:13 EDT Fred P - I agree about the ceaseless repetition, but I am sticking it out in the hopes that it will get better...such as better types of missions, etc. I am currently at Dangerous Lord level, just recently made Dangerous, but been Lord for a LONG time... A tip to speed up combat level promotion (at least, it seemed to work for me) is to go on a Photo mission with an energy bomb. I wait until I'm really close in and see a lot of small(usually green) ships on the radar, and hit the energy bomb. It's great to see all those hundreds of Federation ships exploding simultaneously. I'm not sure if all these types of kills register, but after fighting at competent level for a long time, I hit 1 of these and was made Dangerous right away. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 180 Sat Apr 23, 1994 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 03:17 EDT I've saved hundreds of games to my HD Frontier folder E partition with no folders, not even COMMANDE.RS. I've not had any problem with corrupted or lost save games. I give each of my saves an incremented number. I always boot with a blank disk, but have not given it a name or put any folders on it. There are three ways to recall a game, two at starup. Recall game on disk, and recall last saved game. I've switched between these two, but wonder if there is a subtle difference that should be tested? -Pv- ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 181 Sat Apr 23, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 07:06 EDT Kracht, What's the date in your game? I think I've only made it to 3207, but I'll have to double check. Capt. Michard, That's the great thing about Frontier - there are a lot of different ways to get results. Paul V., I too save to partition E, but I do use a COMMANDE.RS folder and I make sure I have a floppy in the A: drive when I start up the game. I agree that it doesn't seem to matter which "recall" you use to fetch your game. Apparently the ST version is a little quirky, but for the advantage of having wormholes it may be worth the occasional wierdness. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 182 Sat Apr 23, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 08:32 EDT Koloth, If you commute using the rings, any ship can meet military deadlines with ease. I'm flying a real tub, an Imp Trader, and never have a worry about what the calendar will read when I'm done. I just got my promotion to Viscount in the Imp military (13 years of game time), but haven't been shown a new mission type yet. If the game doesn't show me something fresh after all the similar Lord and Baron jobs, it's history. E.M., Good tip on the Energy Bomb. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 183 Sat Apr 23, 1994 C.OINES1 [Chazz] at 14:01 EDT Well, after getting pretty good at combat, I decided to start over at Lave, and see what life as a fugitive would be like. It's a lot more fun. Those first few runs are the most dangerous, since (unless you kept the cobra) you don't have a scanner, it's harder to find the Bad Guy, and you won't know what he is until you get close enough to do visual ID on him. Taking on a shielded Imp Courier w/his 4MW beam laser was an absolute bitch, but I kacked him eventually... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 184 Sat Apr 23, 1994 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 18:33 EDT Has anyone noticed the strange behavior of the color palette? I usually have a dark blue backround on the view screen. If I select any of the screens that represent the F3 button, then return to the view screen, the backround is set to a darker blue, almost black. If I enter any other screen, the view of space is set back to a lighter blue until I cycle back through F3 to F1 again. I've often wondered about the seemingly random sounds I get while traveling through a solar system. The two I get are Explosion and Landing Gear. I've speculated to myself that certain events that occur to other ships are heard by me, like when someone else gets blown away, or crashes on a planet, and when they change landing gear in prep for landing/taking off. I don't have proof for these speculations, nor do I understand why the programmer thought this activity would be important. All I know is that when I hear them, I have looked all around the current space, and my ship to see the effect/cause and have only found one meaningful event. If I'm hauling something perishable and it PERISHES, I get the landing gear sound to indicate that item has now turned to rubbish or garbage. I have found some planet starports difficult to land at due to low cloud cover obscuring the entrance at close range. When this happens, I turn off clouds, and then can see the port fine. The Auto Pilot does a good job most of the time to get me within docking range of orbitors, but does very poorly from distant space to get me to planet starports. I prefer ports because of the extensive missions in the bulletin board. Most orbitors have little or no activity there. No setting of the Dreamer seems to eliminate crashing. My usual technique is auto in with the planet selected until the drive shuts off near the planet. If my speed isn't too high (not over 160 KM/s) I reset the AP for the port and let it take me in until I'm near where the atmosphere takes over and I get the altitude reading. I take it in manual from there until very near the port where I can let the AP do the landing (I can usually do it faster and better though manually.) The tricky thing about space manual control in space is not the let your sideways speed exceed your forward speed to the point where the momentum directional indicator leaves the screen for long periods. If this happens near the edge of atmosphere, you'll get pulled into the planet faster than the ship can maneuver. To solve these problems, I watch my forward speed, compared to my set speed closely, and try not to let them get too far apart. Of course, beyond 28K/sec. speed, the ship cannot change direction fast enough to get out of any tight situation. Near atmosphere, I keep the speed under 90,000K/hr. Even under these circumstances, you cannot reverse direction without falling into the planet unless you turn very slowly, or reverse direction exactly 180 while still high up so the powerful reverse thrust brings the ship to a stop then accelerates again before it falls too low. I never point at the planet or directly away from it during these maneuvers, because orbital velocity needs to be maintained to keep control. Aiming always at the horizon is important until ready for final decent to the planet. Fortunately, the Eagle is well suited to this task because of its good rear thruster-to-weight ratio. With the nuance of momentum in mind, I find I can get around quite well without an AP, but I much prefer to save time by using it. I sometimes get frustrated with the overshoots when on a tight delivery schedule. I've confirmed that AP seems to be the most critical ingredient to getting intercepted by bogies. Once I get my flight path t a planet well established, I turn AP and my engines off. Watching threats on the solar map, I speed the time arrows ahead and see the bogies intersect the last point I had AP on. If they are too close to me when I turn it off, it doesn't matter. They find me anyway. If all I do is use the AP to interrogate each of the ships for their status, it's enough for them to correct their course and find me. I'm still amazed at a program that loads in three seconds and keeps such a huge data base in RAM that can supply a vast range of experiences. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 185 Sat Apr 23, 1994 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 18:39 EDT What does "commute using the rings" mean? -Pv- ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 186 Sun Apr 24, 1994 E.MICHARD at 01:09 EDT Paul Varn- I've had no problems with docking in a planet's starport with autopilot. Just zoom in and select the base with the Current System Map, then put on Autopilot & max Stardreamer. It doesn't matter if there's cloud cover because you don't have to see the base (kind of hard when you're 10 AU away). Unless, of course, you actually like flying manually. It seems like it would take a lot of extra time to fly in manually, using the Autopilot only to get to the planet and not directly to the port. By 'Commute using the rings' he meant using the 'wormholes' to jump between 2 distant systems. There is a ring 82 map sectors (655.5 or so LY) surrounding any system. This allows you to jump to a pt 656 LY away with minimal fuel in 1 jump. By figuring (or guessing) the intersection of the 2 circles of starting and ending systems, you can jump between any 2 systems using minimal fuel and minimal time, in 2 jumps (sometimes as little as 1 day). The IBM and some newer Amiga versions do not have this ability, so it is apparently a bug. Nice bug though. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 187 Sun Apr 24, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 07:15 EDT One speculation is that the shortcut rings were a playtesting tool. Too bad the testers didn't bore at a normal human rate! I've been unable to find any new mission types at Viscount rank, which means the game is over for me unless somebody turns up something interesting. ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 188 Sun Apr 24, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 08:34 EDT Fred P. I guess I'll try commuting via the rings and take more military missions. Thanks. I wonder if there's any way for you to find out if you really have "reached the peak" ? I wonder how one would contact David Braben ? You could always start over and try to use less ship to do more mission or something to make it more challenging. Just a thought. Paul Varn, The only problem with flying without the AP is that I already have a career. Really, your dissertation is correct. This is an amazing simulation with lots of experiences to be had. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 189 Sun Apr 24, 1994 P.VARN [Paul Varn] at 18:02 EDT I undertand now about the "ringworms". -Pv- ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 190 Sun Apr 24, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 21:35 EDT Just so some of you don't despair, I'll drop a few hints about future missions. If you don't want to know, press now... After surveilance missions, you can expect some new weapons, most notably, a nuclear missile. You use these on planet-based targets, as well as enemy space stations. Later on, you can expect to take on convoy contracts. Your status as Elite gets you "convoy escort" jobs, that pay by the day. You must protect the ships in the convoy from pirates. As for what comes later, that is anyone's guess. I've been told (by not very reliable sources) that some sort of "mystery ship" is available, given to you by the "head" of the Elite Federation, and take your seat by his side, and rule the galaxy as father and son! (Actually, I don't know about the ruling the galaxy bit, but the rest is apparently true; out of boredom one night, I searched through the program with a sector editor -- very enlightening! :-) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 191 Sun Apr 24, 1994 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 23:01 EDT ~~~~~~~Start of deep space transmission~~~~~~ To all within range: Did anyone miss me? Probably not ! I took some R&R on "old Earth" in the Sol system with my family (remember them, they are the ones you leave behind each time you plug into Elite 2). We took a vacation in Mexico during Spring Break and I haven't been back to my old Cobra since. From the line of conversation I have been following over the past 2 weeks, it looks like a few of you have reached Elite burn-out. Fair enough. I'm still not far enough along to reach that phase, but I can see it coming. Most of us agree, this is a great game. But how far are we willing to go to see the highest levels of missions or special weapons? I, for one, enjoy other games and may never see the higher levels of Elite 2 unless I borrow a save game from someone else. So...don't throw those save game positions away, someone like me may want to borrow one. Thanks BTW If you are looking for a very enjoyable strategy/action/mildly arcade type game, look into CANNON FODDER. It is a squad leveltactical game with little soldiers you get to command. There are 24 missions of increasing complexity. You get to drive vehicles, tanks, and choppers. I know this is off topic but I know some of you guys enjoy military/strategy games and I thought I'd pass along the latest info on a game's release. You can find me at the Elite Bar and Grill anytime. Bye, Space Dude D^) ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 193 Mon Apr 25, 1994 F-D-PERCIVAL [Fred P.] at 06:23 EDT Pixel, Unfortunately, it appears that to reach Elite rank, one would have to play Frontier as a full time job for about a year. Frankly, the game is not that involving. For detailed info on what is required to get as far as I have (Dangerous Viscount), see CAT 21. Unless I'm missing a lot of the play, it would take a person of unusual fixation to stay with the repetition of the game long enough to reach higher ranks. One other thing - I've noticed a message three times over all my sessions with the game. It appears after a space victory and looks like a bounty notice, but reads "From Elite Pilots: Right on, Commander!" I don't know the significance of this. It does not correspond with any promotions or medals. I wonder if it denotes reaching a round number in your victory total (maybe hundreds?). ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 194 Mon Apr 25, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:49 EDT Ringworms - that's rich! (ROFL) Kracht, Ah a sector editor - what a very Klingon thing to do! I'm proud of you. Space Dude, I've been saving a game named for my ship type when I save my regular games, thus I've got saved games for most ship types in the Federation. I just got a Panther last night. If you'd like I could archive some saved games and put them up on GEnie. Since you have to have Frontier to use them, there's probably no problem with putting them on GEnie. (if anyone else knows different, please say so.) Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 195 Mon Apr 25, 1994 R.COLEMAN24 [BOB C.] at 22:22 EDT Koloth, Regarding your save games of different ships: Do it ! I enjoy this game, but probably don't have the time to ever reach the upper levels of Elite stardom. Playing someone's highest level would afford me a quick ticket to experience the better missions of this game. Thanks. Space Dude D^/ BTW I would appreciate any others of you more experienced pilots doing the same. Whadda ya say? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 196 Tue Apr 26, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 05:28 EDT Space Dude: Does Cannon Fodder work on a Falcon? I really want that game but... if I need to use Backwards, I'd just as soon pass... Fred: I caught that message early on. I think it _does_ denote progress. I used to think it was reserved for thos super-quick, super-skillful kills. The ones where the enemy doesn't get a chance to fire even once. I saw it once when I blew away a mosquito before he even got in range. I think it is an indicator of some sort. Now, of what? All: I would be _very_ willing to upload my current game position. Someone should try it first via e-mail to see if it works... ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 197 Tue Apr 26, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:24 EDT Bob C., I'll put up the saved games with a variety of different ships. This however probably won't make much difference in the missions you see as I'm still only a competent corporal in the Federation. Kracht, The Commanders files are binary and I wouldn't recommend trying to put one in E-mail. I was going to zip a bunch of them into one file and upload it to the file areas. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 198 Tue Apr 26, 1994 J.KRACHT [Pixel Engine] at 22:50 EDT Koloth, I meant e-mail w/file attached. Has anyone tried this? ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 199 Wed Apr 27, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:42 EDT Kracht, I'm uploading a 239K file to the libarary today which contains a bunch of saved games with different ships in it. I've used Aladdin to send all kinds of files attached to Email messages. I see no reason why it shouldn't work with a saved game as well. Anyway, the file is called FRONTSAV.ZIP and it should show up in the Atari libraries in a couple of days. Take Care, Koloth ------------ Category 9, Topic 19 Message 200 Thu Apr 28, 1994 L.W.BENJAMIN [Koloth] at 06:03 EDT All, Well, I've been trying to upload for two or three days now and I continue to have line noise problems. I'll let y'all know if I have any luck sending a zip file of games containing other ships. Take Care, Koloth ------------