Missions...

Discussion of the new series of beta test releases of this game.
Apocolypse
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Missions...

Post by Apocolypse »

I was wondering if I am doing something incorrectly in the game (Beta 2)... I have decided to go ahead and kill Elowan, and after destroying HUNDREDS of their ships, I still don't have the Shield Thingy that the Thrynn want. Is this a bug? Also, the aliens that I meet never tell me anything new, so I'm just wandering around Elowan space, blasting them to kingdom come.

-Thanks !
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Steve
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Re: Missions...

Post by Steve »

The Elowan Shield Capacitor has an extremely low chance of dropping, only 4% of the time when a ship is destroyed. After running tests last month on the combat system I agree that this is far too low. The drop rate for pirates and most of the other races were increased but the Elowan were not. For the next beta or for the next patch this will be doubled to 8% per ship.

Has anyone else using the military profession been able to pass this mission? Has anyone else failed to pass this mission?
Apocolypse
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Re: Missions...

Post by Apocolypse »

Was this increased in the Beta 3? Haven't had too much time yet to kill Elowan in this release.
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Steve
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Re: Missions...

Post by Steve »

Unfortunately not in Beta 3. Again I will look into creating a patch for all of the latest fixes past beta three in the near future.
Apocolypse
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Re: Missions...

Post by Apocolypse »

Thanks Steve.
I finally did get the shield capacitor and sold it to the Thrynn. I am now on mission 36 (The Plague Mission). I am a freelancer, BTW. The aliens aren't saying anything about the plague tho. Where am I supposed to be looking. On another topic,
When one of the aliens tells you about their homeworld, I get the message upon attemting to land on it, Sir, we cannot land on (Planet Name Here) because it's a protected world. Is this intentional?

-Thanks !
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Steve
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Re: Missions...

Post by Steve »

Unfortunately Beta #3 only handles all the missions up to number 35 in the initial communication stage. The next beta will handle missions 36-40, all of the new communication dialogue, and as many of the unstructured quests I can put together. Transitions to the other three stages was only fixed a few days ago and there is a number of script cleanup work that needs to be done before Beta #4.

Marking alien worlds as protected is intentional. The ability to set a fleet to guard a world, all new alien dialogue for all of the alien worlds, and the code to selectively let players past is not something currently will spaceimplemented. The choice was to either protect those alien worlds and prevent the player from landing or to let them land and see an empty world just like every other world.

Again this game is open-source, maybe after all the bugs are worked out and the game is complete all of the great extra features and ideas such as alien cities, trade depots, protective fleets, etc. can be added.
Apocolypse
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Re: Missions...

Post by Apocolypse »

So there will be no Trade Depots or any trading in thr final release?
Will there be more than 40 missions?
Will the script for Aliens to tell you to visit their homeworlds be removed?
Seems pointless for them to invite you when you can't do anything there.
Will the Thrynn and Elowan situation be resolveable?
Is it legal for you guys to lift the trading code from SFII:Mysteries of the Universe?
Will there be special devices for one's ship to locate ruins on a planet like SF2?
There were additional special devices that allowed the Terrain Vehicle to teleport back to the ship, blow up entire planets (COOL),
I'm kinda glad the nebulas are gone as they were rather annoying.
Can you guys take over the code for the OTHER Starflight 3 that has been in production (or lack thereof) for the last 8 years?
THAT would be cool. You could call it Starflight 4, LOL

Anyway, thanks ! At least someone made a Starflight 3. We really appreciate all of your work on this game. I know I will personally enjoy playing the final release. Keep up the great work guys !
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Steve
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Re: Missions...

Post by Steve »

1. Trade depots and functional artifacts are substantial new features and in the interests of finishing this game as quickly as possible, will not be addressed until after everything else is cleaned up.

Design ideas are out there for a working trade depot: http://www.starflt.com/starflt.php?ID=d ... e%20Center

... As well as plenty of trade messages:
http://www.starflt.com/starflt.php?ID=SF2Table#MESSAGES

Using someone else's source code, especially when this project is GPLv3, 2D, C++/Allegro and their code is closed, 3D, and C#/Python? based would probably not be a good idea. This is a retro-themed game and even with retro simplicity as a central concept, it has still taken years to develop. Creating a modern game engine from scratch with the incredible complexity of a Starflight style universe is much more difficult than it seems and requires an enormous dedication of time often on very monotonous tasks.

Of course this product is GPLv3 and the code is as data-driven as it could possibly be as far as I know. It would not take too much effort for a few graphics artists and creative writers to drop in new graphics, a new galaxy, new alien races, and a new plot and create a whole new game.

2. There will not be more than 40 forced, sequential missions. All of the missions in the last three stages will be broken up and scattered, requiring notetaking and returning to clues left in earlier periods. They will generally start and finish within comm text and ruins.

3. Messages to visit alien home worlds will be disabled in the next beta and will be left that way unless trade depots are created. Thanks for calling this to my attention.

4. The Thrynn and Elowan situation does develop in the later plot stages. I can do some interesting things depending on what progress is made in the LUA encounter code. See http://code.google.com/p/starflighttlc/ ... ail?id=142
maxwell79
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Re: Military Mission Can't Solve

Post by maxwell79 »

Hi,

I can't seem to solve a military quest. The riddle given is: "Twins of acids provides two spheres, the warmer one we wish to see. Coldest extremes have two lines that intersect at 60 only one".

Can anyone tell me how where to go?

Thanks
Traveller

Re: Missions...

Post by Traveller »

Off hand, there are two acid planets in one system. It may even be the home system. Check one of them out in the higher latitudes-- north or south.
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