New Here. Couple of questions

ZeroTheHero · Post by **ZeroTheHero** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 4:39 pm

Hi. Loving the game. Only 4 hours flight time and already installed a couple of mods.

1) Can you target anything other than ships? When mining the screen is cluttered with asteroid ranges. I would like to target just one and see range? Same for other objects.

2) Is there a button to show FPS.

3) What is MOTS (Missile ? Tracking System??)

4) How to conserve fuel. I have mapped Inertial F/B is there an inertial left/right?

5) What are the icons in the nav map? Is therean icon Key somewhere?

thanks in advance..

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 5:11 pm

Hi Zero welcome to EM.

1) Ships are the only think the targeting system will focus on.

2) The ~ or Scroll lock keys will show your frame rate + a player board in Multiplayer.

3) The cannon/beams of your ship are on mechanical mounts that auto-adjust your fire to the target to compensate for deflection and trajectory. The MDTS is the system that the guns use. Keep your target inside the big circle on your hud and get within gun range and it will 'lock'. For best results try to keep the little circle that appears with the target box when the system locks as close to the center of your gunsight or even give it a slight amount of 'lead'. If you are drifting to high to the side, the system won't be able to calibrate and you particle cannons won't hit.

4) Yes, you can strafe left/right + up/down with your inertial manuevering thrusters. You should be able to find the keys in the menu. You can even set the inertial strafing to the hat switch on your joystick (if you have one), if you desire.

5) The online manual can be found in the ReadMe of your SW3DG>Evochron Mecenary folder. I believe there's a symbol key for the nav map there. Also on the map console itself, there is a button on the right you can use to identify the objects in the area. Just click 'TEXT' and cycle through the info types that you want to see.

Hope this helps

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 5:48 pm

Hi ZeroTheHero, welcome to the game and forum!.....Hope to see you out there some time!.....

Also on #3, MDTS stands for Multi Directional Targeting System!......

[Edited on 1-4-2013 by Maarschalk]

zex · Post by **zex** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 5:51 pm

hmm, I always thought it was "My, doze tings shoot!"

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 6:41 pm

Yo Zero! Welcome aboard! Cpy and sustain what the RC wrote above. Good Stuff!

MDTS - Multi-Directional Targeting System. With the MDTS engaged (toggle kybd "L" = on/off; or any other key/toggle you've got it slaved to), both the beam and particle cannons will "lock on" to the "nearest" target you've selected (kbyd "O"-nearest hostile; kybd "P"-next hostile) [Or alt-R/alt-T]. You can toggle the MDTS off, and use your particle beam independantly, but the beam cannon is default-locked on the nearest hi-lited target/bad guy. With MDTS on, both the particle and beam cannons are slaved together; the beam cannon adjusts focal intensity to match the effective range of the particular particle cannon installed. It's really your choice to use or not; depends on your fighting "style". Also with or without the MDTS engaged, you'll be getting missile/weapons target locks on ships you're not battleing. All part of your target acquisition hardware/software, radar, etc. Or, leave the MDTS toggled on, forget about kybd commands/toggles - touch nothing but your joystick, and the MDTS will still acquire and target the closest hostile to you.

About the only other targets you can fire on without much risk to the consequences, are asteroids. In fact, the asteroid clearance missions are really great for testing/adapting primary weapons ranges and "effects". Your MDTS isn't really required for these missions. As the ranging information is displayed for each asteroid in a patch, it helps to use the Mark 1, Mod 0 eyeball on these. Oh, and the "advertized" particle cannon "effective ranges" are just a bit inside of their limits with/in the anti-asteroid contracts. Maybe by as much as 50 mtrs., so you'll need to adjust positioning accordingly. For the individual asteroid/target ranges, each becomes more clear the closer you get. This function really helps out the Miner/Trader folk. Ya, the asteroid field ranging info can clutter one's HUD/screen to distraction. When in an asteroid field, just travel at slower intrinsic speeds, be mindful of your surroundings, and you should do well enough.

Yep, check/print the keyboard.jpg/.png file in the Mercs game folder, or schmooze the ReadMe file for keyboard/key taskings. Strafe keys (A,D,Z,X) can be scaled/reasssigned in the Config hardware screen, off the Options Menu.

See y'all out there some time !

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 6:46 pm

Yes, Busch is right MDTS is Multi Directional Targeting System!

Edited and corrected!

Schmidtrock · Post by **Schmidtrock** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 6:49 pm

Welcome!

ZeroTheHero · Post by **ZeroTheHero** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:42 pm

Thanks a lot Guys. I am using a laptop and the number keys 0-9 don't respond (no biggie) but I still can't get the fps shown. I think some mods may have slowed it a little and just wanted tinker a little before getting 'stuck in'.

Post by **Vice** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:13 pm

For keyboards that may lack a tilde key input, you can also use the scroll lock key.

ZeroTheHero · Post by **ZeroTheHero** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 11:38 pm

Tried that vice I have a num lk/ sr lk key but that doesn't work either. I have removed the mods and it's back to full control with AAx8. So will leave the mods for now and get back to this fantastic game.
Bit scared of leaving sapphire and losing races. I am still unsure about the inertial key maps. I have done f/b which doesn't use fuel but the strafe l/r does. I read a post where someone had 1 fuel left and managed to jump/dock.
I realise this is newtonion physics and also my piloting skills are poor but can't work out how to dock using no fuel?

zex · Post by **zex** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:04 am

All thrusters consume fuel.

ZeroTheHero · Post by **ZeroTheHero** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 1:27 am

From post: 154458, Topic: tid=10308, author=zex wrote:All thrusters consume fuel.

The inertial fwd/back doesn't seem to? I thought there might be similar re-assignments for a/d.

Cargo · Post by **Cargo** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:01 am

From post: 154463, Topic: tid=10308, author=ZeroTheHero wrote:
From post: 154458, Topic: tid=10308, author=zex wrote:All thrusters consume fuel.
The inertial fwd/back doesn't seem to? I thought there might be similar re-assignments for a/d.

Inertial forward and reverse, and the up, down, left, right thrusters all use fuel but at a lower rate than IDS or AB. Just coasting in inertial doesn't.

ZeroTheHero · Post by **ZeroTheHero** » Sat Jan 05, 2013 12:06 pm

Thanks for all the help. It feels like a great community after browsing some threads. No doubt will have more questions later but the game has been easy to pick up and play.
Just need to improve my piloting skills