Great game. Hope some minor upgrades can make.

[Raptorrdude]

So i have a video here that i hope Vice can see and make on.

https://youtu.be/nE6oBelpw7U

Few things i noted.

Multi-screen support: Feature to allow using the game on different display screens when using Multi-screens. (To select which screen the game plays on.)
Windows drag-Mode: Modern games now have features to put on Windows mode, Which enable it to be used on smaller scale or dragged across other screens with ease. For multi-play use.

Audio Switch system: A setting to have to switch between different default audio devices.

Togglable Miner Laser: ability to have the miner laser as a togglable option vs holding it down.

Station forced engine shutoff: Sometimes when docking. I noticed your ship still uses it's engine power, even though the station tractor beam keeps you in a specific spot. Needs to be where once docked it force shuts down your engine power to 0.

Planet self angle leveling disability: The ability to shut down planet auto leveling system to prevent from being dragged or smacked around while on planets and near surfaces.



Sorry if this post was supposed to be somewhere else. So hopefully i put this in the right area. Great game And hope it goes on farther!

[Vice]

Hello and welcome. Some of what you refer to involve limitations with the development platform, some are actually available in one form or another, and some are as intended. But I'll provide some specific details/info below:

Multi-screen support: Feature to allow using the game on different display screens when using Multi-screens. (To select which screen the game plays on.)

In-game selection of this is unfortunately not possible with the current development platform, as far as I know. It may be possible to switch it using external methods or with the window option described below. But there isn't a way to provide direct screen specific display selection internally within the game itself, afaik.

Windows drag-Mode: Modern games now have features to put on Windows mode, Which enable it to be used on smaller scale or dragged across other screens with ease. For multi-play use.

This is partly by design, but somewhat available. A bordered window (with frame and buttons) is intentionally left out due to a potential exploit reason that could not be solved during development of EM starting back in 2008. But a reduced window option was made available via external text file to the previous game in the series for those interested and is included in the current version of Legacy. A post on that: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=9509&p=145113

With the 'swscreen.txt' file in the install folder containing the lines:

0
0
50
50

This would enable the reduced window mode using the specified in-game resolution and place it at 50X, 50Y on the screen.

The ability to move the window while in this reduced window mode was added in the 1.788 Legacy update, details here: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=13114&p=192717 Here is an excerpt from the notes related to that update for details:

When the borderless reduced windowed mode is activated with the swscreen.txt option, an icon ('+' symbol) will appear in-game in the upper right corner of the screen when the Alt key is held down. Click and hold on the icon with the mouse pointer to move the game's window frame around on the screen. This option, much like the reduced window mode itself, is somewhat experimental, but should be able to provide a way to move the game's window around while it is running on most system configurations.

Audio Switch system: A setting to have to switch between different default audio devices.

I don't think that ability was ever added to the development language used. I'll double check though.

Togglable Miner Laser: ability to have the miner laser as a togglable option vs holding it down.

Press 'Alt-B' rather than just 'B' (enables the toggle option mentioned in the configuration menu). You can also optionally bind it to a single key or button control on page 3 of the key and button configuration menu if you want to avoid a two key combination for the option (just unbind 'B' from the primary control option and bind it to the secondary single key option if you want to use the same key).

Station forced engine shutoff: Sometimes when docking. I noticed your ship still uses it's engine power, even though the station tractor beam keeps you in a specific spot. Needs to be where once docked it force shuts down your engine power to 0.

This is part of the intended piloting element of the game where many things are left in the manual control of the player, rather than having more things automatically done for them. That is, having your ship submit to your control at almost all times. It's a good habit to get into to disengage your ship's IDS when you enter stations to avoid burning fuel unnecessarily. In fact, it's highly recommended to disable the IDS often whenever you don't need to make course changes or compensate for environmental conditions to reserve fuel even in open space.

Planet self angle leveling disability: The ability to shut down planet auto leveling system to prevent from being dragged or smacked around while on planets and near surfaces.

The auto-leveling is intended to help reduce the frequency of unwanted collision with planet terrain. What you describe in the video sounds more like stalling or weather effects rather than auto-leveling (see comment below). You do need to maintain a minimum level of forward flight to generate lift and counteract the effects of drag/friction from planet atmospheres. While ship thrusters are powerful, they can't maintain hovered flight until they are in/near the ground effect of the surface of a planet. You don't have to fly very fast, the thrusters can handle near VTOL, but a minimum velocity is needed to generate lift. Once you are on the surface of a planet, the auto-level will keep you stable while you are in the ground effect. You can still try to roll/pitch out of it, but the compensation is pretty strong and your ship is quite heavy, so you'll need to fly forward to generate lift to take off when you want to depart. Different ship types and configurations will behave differently under these situations, so that's something additionally to be aware of.

For the mouse pointer issue you show in your video, simply enable the 'Lock Mouse' option in the Options menu to lock the pointer to the game field.

For warping toward an asteroid field, that is part of intended navigation. If you direct the nav point to an asteroid cluster, the game will submit to your directive and also submit to the risk in the process. Your angle of approach can impact that as well. Options there are to move the arrival point slightly and/or reduce your arrival speed by setting it to a lower safe level so when the jump cycle finishes, you'll slow down safely away from the asteroids (or even if you bump one, it won't cause much/any damage).

The moving around at 9:30 in your video is the effect of wind on your ship in that planet atmosphere. Some planets have that, many don't, depending on their conditions. You can get weather profiles of the nearest planet in the information section of the inventory console. Your ship can also stall (~11:10-20 in your video) if you turn off thrusters/engines and lose enough forward speed outside of ground effect as described above.

Sorry if this post was supposed to be somewhere else. So hopefully i put this in the right area. Great game And hope it goes on farther!

I think it's a good fit in the Evochron forum. Glad you are otherwise enjoying the game and having fun.

[Raptorrdude]

Gotcha. Thanks for the response.

So i managed to find the problem with the audio. It does Default to any device the windows it set to, But somehow the specific game was muted on windows audio mixer. Weird. After that it makes sound. Lol.

Thanks for telling about the togglable Alt-B for mining laser, Whew makes life so much easier instead of holding. Then i just hit B and it turns it off woot.

As for the Screen, That sucks. but your right i did find a run around since the game Defaults to whatever screen display is set as 'Main display'. So i just switched my Main focus display to the laptop and it boots there now.

Asteroids navigation: So it's basically like Eveonline, Where it has it but is set at 20km away. So if you want a Safe and jumpable route you gotta make your own. No biggy. Makes sense.

Station trackerbeam engine shut off: Right. So keep tabs on not leaving your motors on heh. Oh and turning it off to float in a direction. Handy. I'll have to remember that. I tend to leave it on to force my ship to stop. But that is wise to reduce fuel demand.

Planetary flying: OH my gosh. So that was wind *smacks head* i should've known. Wow i feel stupid. And the auto leveling once engines are off. Makes sense now. I feel so dumb!


Thanks Vice! Keep up the amazing work bud.

[Vice]

Cool, glad you found work arounds for the audio and screen issues. The game does indeed render out to the Windows default for display, so glad to hear that worked out and the audio just needed to be unmuted.

Thanks for your support, good flying