1.3 RC 2

New releases and announcements from George and the staff.
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Thanks to all who gave feedback. I've concentrated on fixing most of the Benedict issues. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

I plan on a final release by this Saturday, so please report any showstoppers. Thank you!
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Song
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Testing it now.

One thing I noticed in RC1: some NPCs seem to be perhaps a bit less accurate with omni weapons than they used to be. I don't think this is a problem though, since they always used to be ludicrously precise. It also may be subjective on my part, since I hadn't played the game for a while before that testing run.



Edit: Either a bug, or pure genius: Container habitats will reward you with advice if you give them a black market ID.
Edit2: I'd suggest that if that's supposed to happen, or if it's not intended but is awesome enough to keep, that some flavor text be added to the stationmaster's reply. And possibly better info. I accidentally gave them my ID and only got some background on the Urak in return. :P
Edit3: Were it not for the fact that I've just shut off my only other source of military weapons, I would totally see if they'll take a military ID as well.
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Amilir
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So I'm catching up on new releases. First thing that stuck out:

On ship maneuverability: Ships will stop rotating quickly if you let go of the key. However, if you hold the opposite turn key instead, ships will stop rotating at the normal rotation accel speed. This is completely counter intuitive, and a pain to remember if you overturn slightly, because pressing the opposite key makes you overturn MORE, as a result of slower deceleration. Ships should at least use the higher acceleration until they come to a stop, regardless of whether or not you're holding the opposite key. For that matter, I probably wouldn't mind keeping the full acceleration until you release both keys. If I'm switching turn direction in mid move, I'm generally trying to dodge, not aim. That bit's arguable though.
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Shrike wrote:Edit: Either a bug, or pure genius: Container habitats will reward you with advice if you give them a black market ID.
Edit2: I'd suggest that if that's supposed to happen, or if it's not intended but is awesome enough to keep, that some flavor text be added to the stationmaster's reply. And possibly better info. I accidentally gave them my ID and only got some background on the Urak in return. :P
Edit3: Were it not for the fact that I've just shut off my only other source of military weapons, I would totally see if they'll take a military ID as well.
Definitely not intentional, but I agree that we should keep it and augment it.
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Amilir wrote:So I'm catching up on new releases. First thing that stuck out:

On ship maneuverability: Ships will stop rotating quickly if you let go of the key. However, if you hold the opposite turn key instead, ships will stop rotating at the normal rotation accel speed. This is completely counter intuitive, and a pain to remember if you overturn slightly, because pressing the opposite key makes you overturn MORE, as a result of slower deceleration. Ships should at least use the higher acceleration until they come to a stop, regardless of whether or not you're holding the opposite key. For that matter, I probably wouldn't mind keeping the full acceleration until you release both keys. If I'm switching turn direction in mid move, I'm generally trying to dodge, not aim. That bit's arguable though.
Good catch.
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george moromisato wrote:
Shrike wrote:Edit: Either a bug, or pure genius: Container habitats will reward you with advice if you give them a black market ID.
Edit2: I'd suggest that if that's supposed to happen, or if it's not intended but is awesome enough to keep, that some flavor text be added to the stationmaster's reply. And possibly better info. I accidentally gave them my ID and only got some background on the Urak in return. :P
Edit3: Were it not for the fact that I've just shut off my only other source of military weapons, I would totally see if they'll take a military ID as well.
Definitely not intentional, but I agree that we should keep it and augment it.
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Edit: Autons will sometimes not move into formation correctly when deployed. Exact circumstances triggering it are unclear, but when it does happen, the auton will orbit around the player.

Edit2: New TX3 auton is a very smart concept, but is hampered due to being suicidal. I looked at the setup, then upgraded it with the auton bay because I knew it wouldn't last very long. Despite this, using it the system immediately after St. K's resulted in the immediate loss of the auton. From what I can tell, it went right through the middle of two slave camps, then took a hard left into a swarm of curators. I assume it is even now being broken down into fake antique clocks.

Also this may just be RNG throwing me an early encounter, but getting jumped by a Lumiere battle auton and a bunch of sentinels immediately after St. K's felt likt slight overkill, and not in my favour...I was reasonably equipped, and still had to run like hell. The battle auton can one-shot an EI200 or Ronin B's armor, and it's a tough little thing for station defense to crack.

Edit3: It is also possible to equip a weapon on the TX3 with the auton bay. I suspect this is not intended, as it doesn't seem to actually fire it

Edit4: possible bug - Station defenders on Bushido station will sit blithely docked to station as it is bombarded by lumiere battle auton. This creates issues due to aforementioned one-shot-kills on freighter armor, as the station develops a set of wrecks shielding docked ships while the station continues to take damage. It's not fatal to the station, usually, but it means that station defense isn't always very good.


Edit5: Possible solution for the TX3 issue:

1. Make the quest give multiple TX3's...maybe 3-5 of them.
2. Change the exploring code so that the auton only has to get within 75-100ls of something to scan it, and thus "explore" it.
3. Maybe chuck some code in so the TX3 avoids any hostile stations it has previously scanned, or that are presently within scanner range? This would mean that it couldn't scan *every* station in some circumstances, and would return to the player (perhaps with an error message for them?) with a few things left for them to explore.
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Shrike wrote:Edit2: New TX3 auton is a very smart concept, but is hampered due to being suicidal.
Had the pleasure of trying it out in an ordinary playthrough, vanilla with CC, flying the Sapphire.

It is absolutely a nice little addition.

Unfortunately, I lost mine right away to a Sapiens shot, wich irradiated it.
(I was able to buy a few more, luckily.)
They also die rather quick, so the only way I could use them was to explore the systems myself first, then ask the TX3 if there were any unexplored objects left in the system. If there was, it would fly towards it, and I'd order it to hold to stop it from killing itself, and fly there myself instead. It was the only way I could keep it alive.

Suggestion: give TX3 Explorer Auton one of the armors that are immune to radiation.

(Btw I have not tried the Constellation so I dont know if this can be done by yourself with an auton bay. What can you do in an auton bay, btw?)
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Player with targeting program can identify and know all stations within range 100. Assume the TX3 has targeting program and let it do the same. That is, once the target is within range 100, the station becomes known.
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Benedict feedback:

He can still send player on multiple kill Centauri missions, robbing the player of money by removing paying missions habitats can offer.

Fiona mission is easy enough, never in danger of dying, but it took a long time for the SmartCannon to kill all three ships. Even with near constant firing, all three ships were destroyed only after the freighter traveled two-thirds to three-fourths of the distance to the Sisters.
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PM wrote:[Benedict] can still send player on multiple kill Centauri missions, robbing the player of money by removing paying missions habitats can offer.
 Not entirely true. If you visit a Commonwealth habitat after getting a Centauri mission from Benedict, it’s possible for them to you after the same station. …Not that new players are going to know this, though, and this is who the tutorial is intended for.
 This may not be behavior as intended, but I’m all for keeping it. Besides the perk of actually getting the Commonwealth reward for it, it just makes sense to me: There’s no reason that both Benedict and the Commonwealth wouldn’t have an issue with the same station, after all. If anything, they’re more likely to want the same batch of raiders wiped out. This way, you make everyone happy (except the Centauri, but they don’t count).
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Shrike wrote: One thing I noticed in RC1: some NPCs seem to be perhaps a bit less accurate with omni weapons than they used to be. I don't think this is a problem though, since they always used to be ludicrously precise.
I've noted a significant upswing in complaints about Anton Nasser's gunners so I don't think you're imagining things. I also don't think it's a good thing.
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george moromisato
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Atarlost wrote:
Shrike wrote: One thing I noticed in RC1: some NPCs seem to be perhaps a bit less accurate with omni weapons than they used to be. I don't think this is a problem though, since they always used to be ludicrously precise.
I've noted a significant upswing in complaints about Anton Nasser's gunners so I don't think you're imagining things. I also don't think it's a good thing.
I don't believe I've changed anything (which doesn't mean that I didn't change anything). Do you have any more details? Is it all NPCs?
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Bruno wrote:
Shrike wrote:Edit2: New TX3 auton is a very smart concept, but is hampered due to being suicidal.
Had the pleasure of trying it out in an ordinary playthrough, vanilla with CC, flying the Sapphire.

It is absolutely a nice little addition.

Unfortunately, I lost mine right away to a Sapiens shot, wich irradiated it.
(I was able to buy a few more, luckily.)
They also die rather quick, so the only way I could use them was to explore the systems myself first, then ask the TX3 if there were any unexplored objects left in the system. If there was, it would fly towards it, and I'd order it to hold to stop it from killing itself, and fly there myself instead. It was the only way I could keep it alive.

Suggestion: give TX3 Explorer Auton one of the armors that are immune to radiation.

(Btw I have not tried the Constellation so I dont know if this can be done by yourself with an auton bay. What can you do in an auton bay, btw?)
The auton bay can replace armor and shields, and can install weapons (although they don't work on the TX3). But yeah. I was running a normal game as well, so it looks like it needs some changes.



@George: Maybe the changes to how maneuvering is handled have messed with the aiming code? it always used to be that shots fired by ICX devices and the like at the exact moment that the firer turned caused some accuracy issues.

I have noticed it on the Slicer (his RK15 was aiming at a point next to me, but not at my ship as I chased him through the Arena), and autons seem to be a little less accurate at times as well. I never fly near Anton if I can avoid it, and I always bug out afterwards to avoid being near his howitzer death spam....so I avoid seeing any problems there.
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This is hardly a major issue, but the unarmed TX3 explorer can show up on the attract screen. Does this mean that you could end up with a situation where you have unarmed ships circling one another endlessly (TX3 vs. TX3 or TX3 vs. Mule), which would be silly.

Could the omni issues have something to do with the new nonlinear turn acceleration?
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Aiming bug also affects stations. I've attached an image. This was taken while staying dead still: neither my autons nor my ship are moving. You can see that the Lumiere base is trying to hit my auton, but is consistently aiming just to the right of it. This was not a one off: it happened continuously until I killed the station.
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Aimingbug.png (108 KiB) Viewed 11098 times
This bug seems to be widespread throughout both stations and ships. Not sure if it's constant (I'm getting hit by enemies a lot, certainly), but something is definitely making the AI aim at the wrong place.
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