New Frames & Inventory Console Features

[Maarschalk]

(basically rocket fuel if i'm right) with other unknown gasses and whatnot . it seems "plausible" there's just one detail we're probably missing about the weapons used on the giant space rocks

Rocket fuel is liquid hydrogen mixed with liquid oxygen. Same reaction.
Bear in mind: many gas giants, including Jupiter, are largely made out of hydrogen under high pressure (supercritical state).
Yet these gas giants do not combust into water because there is no oxygen available.
Unless there's a huge amount of oxygen present in those rocks, an explosion caused by hydrogen would be impossible.

The amount of energy needed for nuclear fusion would be similar to that of a nuke. I don't think our particle cannon has that much yield so I guess it would only be plausible if you fire an FT on it.

If the yield of a fulcrum torpedo=110,000 and if that is considered the equivelent of a nuke in the game, than Firing rate of a Flarebeam cannon at yield 2154.75(442/8x39) per millisecond=2,154,750 yield per second.

Sounds to me more than enough to blow up an astroid depending on its size!.......:P

[Marvin]

I thought the part about oxygen was a given. I mentioned the hydrogen because it also explained why asteroids can be found floating inside a planet's atmosphere.

[FuryMGS]

Hi everyone. ^^

I have Evochron Mercenary since a bit of time, now. It's a really good game, the ship customization especially is something I looked for for a very long time. I have some suggestions to make, however. I don't think they ALL have been made, as I did a quick search on the forum, but sorry if that's the case.

My first suggestion is about the shipyard. I personnaly think it's too bad that most of the pieces and parts you get are basically enhanced versions of the previous on the list. It could be a good idea to make the pieces a little more different, with stats as "Shield recharge" and "Shield strenght" for shield, or "Acceleration" and "Maximum velocity" for the engine, for example. Each "series" would then have it's own combination with enhanced versions as well. It could make a more interesting ship customization, right ?

Another suggestion about the planets. I think that's already been said, but there isn't that much reason to land on a planet, except maybe for the increased mining speed of the walker. It could also be interesting to give other reasons to do so.

My last suggestions is about cargo space. I think it would be a good idea to add some more cargo holds in the shipyard, for players who would want to play miners or merchant. The maximum cargo space we have now seems pretty small to me for a pure merchant.


That's it, I hope someone will see this ... Thanks for hearing me out, and good game. ^^

[Zaphod]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, as I haven't read the entire thread, but one thing that makes this game great is its community mods.

I think the best update Vice could make is a mission creator for multiplayer servers.

Quite simply, authorized players could access the mission creator, create their own mission text, and then place objects and enemies that would advance their plot around the universe.

Afterwards, players could access these missions from any space station, and accept them just like any other mission.

I can tell you right now that if this feature was implemented, I would be kicking out 2-3 missions a week just by myself, as writing is actually one of my favorite hobbies. If the entire community was working on such things, the Evo universe could get very complex, very quickly.

[Zaphod]

Also, one of things I had a love/hate relationship with in the original "Elite" was how fracking difficult it was to dock with a space station. That in itself was a feat that needed to be practiced, and it made the whole concept of being a "pilot" that much more real.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. A player is GRANTED permission to land. He can't just fly into the center of the station when and where he wants to. Of course the station already does this, but it has no meaning as there is no penalty for not following their instructions.

2. The player can only enter the station through the bay he was assigned. Hangar doors will remain closed until the authorized player is about to enter. Either that, or the player will be assessed a monetary fine if he goes in the wrong bay.

3. Yep, I'll say it.... spin the stations. Give them a steady rotation that the player will have to compensate for with strafing or rolling. This is the "art" that the pilot has to master.

4. Make stations collidable. If you bump your ship on the bay doors, it does damage and could possibly destroy your ship.

5. Exiting must also be done through authorized bays. Otherwise, the doors will not open for you.

As I mentioned, this was a love/hate thing for me in Elite. In all honesty, I hated it more than I loved it, because even as an experienced player, I still occasionally crashed my ship trying to dock. But even though it made me curse like a sailor when I died, it still made every single docking attempt a BIG deal, and a challenge that I had to take very seriously, as it would be in real life.

[Sinbad]

I agree with you Zaphod and would love to see something like what you describe. It would add so much more to the feel of being a real space pilot.

Of course there are those who have a different approach to playing the game and might get bored of having to go through a demanding docking procedure each time they want to take a contract. To accommodate them there could be some kind of automated guiding system, perhaps with HUD markers. Or there could a setting in the game options to switch on or off the realistic docking procedure.

[Maarschalk]

I agree with you Zaphod and would love to see something like what you describe. It would add so much more to the feel of being a real space pilot.

Of course there are those who have a different approach to playing the game and might get bored of having to go through a demanding docking procedure each time they want to take a contract. To accommodate them there could be some kind of automated guiding system, perhaps with HUD markers. Or there could a setting in the game options to switch on or off the realistic docking procedure.

I can only imagine the coding nightmare for a one man devoloper to implement all Zaphod points. I agree that to make this game more actractive to a broad range of players there has to be some automated features. Docking procedures in the far future could be very well automated and not be nescesarely difficult and probably will have a manual overide in case of emergencies! So an option to switch to manual more difficult docking procedure would be great but would require more game coding than might be worth it for the developer Vice!....

[-splosives-]

(basically rocket fuel if i'm right) with other unknown gasses and whatnot . it seems "plausible" there's just one detail we're probably missing about the weapons used on the giant space rocks

Rocket fuel is liquid hydrogen mixed with liquid oxygen. Same reaction.
Bear in mind: many gas giants, including Jupiter, are largely made out of hydrogen under high pressure (supercritical state).
Yet these gas giants do not combust into water because there is no oxygen available.
Unless there's a huge amount of oxygen present in those rocks, an explosion caused by hydrogen would be impossible.

The amount of energy needed for nuclear fusion would be similar to that of a nuke. I don't think our particle cannon has that much yield so I guess it would only be plausible if you fire an FT on it.

If the yield of a fulcrum torpedo=110,000 and if that is considered the equivelent of a nuke in the game, than Firing rate of a Flarebeam cannon at yield 2154.75(442/8x39) per millisecond=2,154,750 yield per second.

Sounds to me more than enough to blow up an astroid depending on its size!.......:P

How did you calculate this?

Real calculation:

(10 yield * 442 rounds/minute)/60 seconds/minute = 73.7 yield per second.

How you got to such a high number remains a mistery to me.

[Maarschalk]

(basically rocket fuel if i'm right) with other unknown gasses and whatnot . it seems "plausible" there's just one detail we're probably missing about the weapons used on the giant space rocks

Rocket fuel is liquid hydrogen mixed with liquid oxygen. Same reaction.
Bear in mind: many gas giants, including Jupiter, are largely made out of hydrogen under high pressure (supercritical state).
Yet these gas giants do not combust into water because there is no oxygen available.
Unless there's a huge amount of oxygen present in those rocks, an explosion caused by hydrogen would be impossible.

The amount of energy needed for nuclear fusion would be similar to that of a nuke. I don't think our particle cannon has that much yield so I guess it would only be plausible if you fire an FT on it.

If the yield of a fulcrum torpedo=110,000 and if that is considered the equivelent of a nuke in the game, than Firing rate of a Flarebeam cannon at yield 2154.75(442/8x39) per millisecond=2,154,750 yield per second.

Sounds to me more than enough to blow up an astroid depending on its size!.......:P

How did you calculate this?

Real calculation:

(10 yield * 442 rounds/minute)/60 seconds/minute = 73.7 yield per second.

How you got to such a high number remains a mistery to me.

These are based on a custom setting for the Flare Beam Cannon
at yield 39, RPM 442/8 milliseconds, H/S 110, E/S 13, Range 750.

Rounds Per Minute = 442/8 milliseconds = 55.25/1 millisecond

39Y x 55.25/milliseconds=2154.75 x 1000 = 2,154,750/second

So the total yield for RPM=2,154,750/Minute. So you are right,
I meant per Minute not per Second.

So per second the yield would be 2,154,750/60=35,912.5 assuming the 39 yield is per shot fired......:P

[Marvin]

3. Yep, I'll say it.... spin the stations. Give them a steady rotation that the player will have to compensate for with strafing or rolling. This is the "art" that the pilot has to master.

The stations in Elite rotated to create artificail gravity within the living areas. Mercenary uses the Star Trek method. No need to rotate anything.

[Dragon]

Two things I would like to see in EM:

First, it would be nice to have a graphics option to adjust celestial object rendering distance (planets, nebulae etc.) So that you can set the option to see objects from longer distances if your hardware allows. If there's a manual tweak that can adjust this, please let me know.

Secondly, a possible solution to a previous question, restrict the jump drive inside a radius around planets and stations so that you have to travel a certain distnce away from a station/planet before you can engage the jump drive, and the same for jumping to a station or planet, much like the "gravity wells" of Sins of a Solar Empire, for those who played that game. Yes, travel can be fast in EM and, that is a good thing but, one thing that sets space sims apart is the atmosphere, the sights and sounds that makes you feel like travelling through distant space, EM hits this spot on (just like Freelancer in 2003), the problem is that you miss most of this sights and sounds by jumping around like a raver on too much Red Bull and vodka. It would be nice to have a bit of travel between destinations and jumps, yes, you can still travel this way but, its just too difficult to resist the temptation of just hitting F2 and getting on with it. What do you guys think?

[Marvin]

It would be nice to have a bit of travel between destinations and jumps, yes, you can still travel this way but, its just too difficult to resist the temptation of just hitting F2 and getting on with it. What do you guys think?

I think you should try paying an AI for information, getting coordinates to some "point of interest" and then engaging autopilot.

[Frost N7]

My AI never gave me POI , navigator did but i fly mili

[Marvin]

Try it. You don't need that navigator any more.

[Munshine]

More incentive to land on planets. I think that usually this game's part is completely ignored by most of the players. Which is sad.

And this isn't because there is nothing to do on a planet. But this is because you can already do everything on a station more faster and more easily.
An average player can build or trade everything valuable (frames,frames parts, raw materials, goods, equipments, weapons) on any station. As landing on a planet is risky or will take time, he wont think twice before taking the easy way which is docking to the nearest station.

It's why the most valuable items(raw materials, goods, equipments, weapons) or frames should be available only on a planet city.

I've noticed that most members in my Clan usually never land on planets. I think that you should control a system at 50% by owning stations and at 50 % by settling your clan on the system's planets.

[Edited on 1-21-2013 by Munshine]

[DaveK]

Also, one of things I had a love/hate relationship with in the original "Elite" was how fracking difficult it was to dock with a space station. That in itself was a feat that needed to be practiced, and it made the whole concept of being a "pilot" that much more real.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. A player is GRANTED permission to land. He can't just fly into the center of the station when and where he wants to. Of course the station already does this, but it has no meaning as there is no penalty for not following their instructions.

2. The player can only enter the station through the bay he was assigned. Hangar doors will remain closed until the authorized player is about to enter. Either that, or the player will be assessed a monetary fine if he goes in the wrong bay.

I'd go with the fine, but I'm one of those players who thinks that you can increase "realism" for yourself already without inflicting it on everyone else. I do enter at the gate I'm told, though it's not too hard, because they are organised enough to send you to the nearest entrance! So listen out and do what they say

One other thing - you can jump straight into a station, through any gate you set up in the nav screen from up to 10 sectors away (if you have a Mantis Drive) - you appear just outside the entrance going like the clappers straight at it - doesn't give traffic control much time to talk to you though - but it is useful if your loo has got damaged in combat or you've run out of coffee and the store is just about to close for the night!

3. Yep, I'll say it.... spin the stations. Give them a steady rotation that the player will have to compensate for with strafing or rolling. This is the "art" that the pilot has to master.

It would be an art - but stations span in Elite to create artificial gravity - in the decades since Elite, the technicians and researchers in Evochron have developed gravity generators - that's how you avoid being smeared by the 15 - 30g accelerations and turns you can pull in combat or when you're in a hurry! Download The Mercenaries Technical Guide from SeeJay's website if you want to know how it works

4. Make stations collidable. If you bump your ship on the bay doors, it does damage and could possibly destroy your ship.

If you bang into them hard enough, your shields can't cope and you do blow up (he says from experience - same with asteroids) - never looked at whether less than "blow up collisions" do damage though - I'll try it. It would make you a bit more careful

5. Exiting must also be done through authorized bays. Otherwise, the doors will not open for you.

I'd want to be able to request a bay though. When I'm doing contracts I line up my ship with the WP (so that I'll exit the jump moving in the right direction) then use strafe and inertial to point the ship out through the nearest useable entrance. To be forced to fly out and then get to the right side of the station and then line up and then jump would make clan contracts laborious (having to do handfuls a day if your clan has lots of systems) and hairy in hostile systems

As I mentioned, this was a love/hate thing for me in Elite. In all honesty, I hated it more than I loved it, because even as an experienced player, I still occasionally crashed my ship trying to dock. But even though it made me curse like a sailor when I died, it still made every single docking attempt a BIG deal, and a challenge that I had to take very seriously, as it would be in real life.

I remember buying the "Docking Computer"as my first major upgrade

[DaveK]

(basically rocket fuel if i'm right) with other unknown gasses and whatnot . it seems "plausible" there's just one detail we're probably missing about the weapons used on the giant space rocks

Rocket fuel is liquid hydrogen mixed with liquid oxygen. Same reaction.
Bear in mind: many gas giants, including Jupiter, are largely made out of hydrogen under high pressure (supercritical state).
Yet these gas giants do not combust into water because there is no oxygen available.
Unless there's a huge amount of oxygen present in those rocks, an explosion caused by hydrogen would be impossible.

The amount of energy needed for nuclear fusion would be similar to that of a nuke. I don't think our particle cannon has that much yield so I guess it would only be plausible if you fire an FT on it.

If the yield of a fulcrum torpedo=110,000 and if that is considered the equivelent of a nuke in the game, than Firing rate of a Flarebeam cannon at yield 2154.75(442/8x39) per millisecond=2,154,750 yield per second.

Sounds to me more than enough to blow up an astroid depending on its size!.......:P

How did you calculate this?

Real calculation:

(10 yield * 442 rounds/minute)/60 seconds/minute = 73.7 yield per second.

How you got to such a high number remains a mistery to me.

These are based on a custom setting for the Flare Beam Cannon
at yield 39, RPM 442/8 milliseconds, H/S 110, E/S 13, Range 750.

Rounds Per Minute = 442/8 milliseconds = 55.25/1 millisecond

39Y x 55.25/milliseconds=2154.75 x 1000 = 2,154,750/second

So the total yield for RPM=2,154,750/Minute. So you are right,
I meant per Minute not per Second.

So per second the yield would be 2,154,750/60=35,912.5 assuming the 39 yield is per shot fired......:P

. . . and that every shot hit!

Pre-Expansion I think that the high miss rate in combat lead to the popularity of the less energetic cannon (over the big beasts) - their longer range, increased rate of fire coupled with lower energy use (so they never ran short of energy), made the Flarebeam cannon of choice for many of the experienced pilots . . . and me!

[DaveK]

More incentive to land on planets. I think that usually this game's part is completely ignored by most of the players. Which is sad.

And this isn't because there is nothing to do on a planet. But this is because you can already do everything on a station more faster and more easily. Choose not to take the soft option!

[Edited on 1-21-2013 by Munshine]

You can:

• walk underwater
• walk right round the planet and try to get back with minimum steering
• sit and watch a sunrise or a sunset
• take really cool photo's for your album
• pvp against other walkers (great fun in a city)
• pvp against a ship - the ships lowered manouevreability and the walkers beefed up cannon make it less than the one sided fight you might expect. You can actually see the missiles - not just their exhaust flare - as they streak towards you

• do some contracts that are planet-only
• land on Earth . . . in one piece . . . without cheating (I know a bit of a red herring!)
• develop techniques to land as quickly as possible (energy balance / belly first like a shuttle / hovering on the edge of burning up - flyby view looks cool when you do this!
• land tail first at the city station (bragging rights in the bar)
• learn to fly backwards and/or sideways for atmo combat
• do pvp atmo combat
• race another player between cities staying in the atmosphere (station to station so there's a definite start and finish line)

I know some of them are one-off things to try, but there are bound to be others I haven't thought of!

Vice - can you bury an asteroid cave on a planet so that it's entrance shows? A couple of hidden treasure in it would make it worth searching for - or is the rumour that you've already done that true?

[Munshine]

Davek, the issue isn't that there isn't no great gameplay on the planets, there is. To be honest, I've done what you describe myself a plenty of times but not much.
This great gameplay on planets serves no purpose if most people in multiplayer are doing contracts, trading or mining asteroids near a station because everything is at your reach on one click.

I think the OP has a good point about the too easy docking. At the moment, docking is easy comparing to landing on a planet. You just need to turn on your ship at 180 degrees and jump for docking, picking up a contract or trading, repeat again.

I've even noticed that when I'm alone doing maintenance with my clan tag, I'm doing the dullest tasks (delivering merchandise to a transport, searching for a lost item) instead of doing a more interesting task because it's easier in no time at all keeping up the clan stats.

[Marvin]

I find planetside combat easier ... especially against more than four enemy ships. You can fire missiles and cannons, blow past, and if you keep your ship on the edge of the envelope, they can't glom on your six without burning up ... allowing you to extend out of the fight. Something you can no longer do in space.

[Privateer]

i would love to see a tool for server admin to create event, like spawn enemy ship or station blackhole, singularity, this kind of stuff or even planet or jumpgate. it could be nice to customize the server

[Munshine]

And doing planetside combat before the expansion with you, Marvin, was a very fun experience.

I don't think it's about the planetside combat being easier or harder.
I can convince other Clan's members or newbies with a Talon doing combat against Vonari, who are tough guys, if I tell them they can increase their military rank and unlock military frames doing so. They even will do missions by themselves.

But when I ask newbies if they try landing by themselves, they didn't. Or when they got Starmasters with a sufficient amount of credits, they trade Walkers but aren't actually using them so often.

The thing is I can ask one or two buddys doing planetside combat or ground pvp with walkers only for fun. But it won't last very long before the Clan members decide doing more Vonari combat, doing contracts at our Clan stations keeping up the stats or building new stations.

Too bad there aren't more rewards for doing atmospheric combat or other planet's tasks.

[Edited on 1-21-2013 by Munshine]

[-splosives-]

These are based on a custom setting for the Flare Beam Cannon
at yield 39, RPM 442/8 milliseconds, H/S 110, E/S 13, Range 750.

Rounds Per Minute = 442/8 milliseconds = 55.25/1 millisecond

39Y x 55.25/milliseconds=2154.75 x 1000 = 2,154,750/second

So the total yield for RPM=2,154,750/Minute. So you are right,
I meant per Minute not per Second.

So per second the yield would be 2,154,750/60=35,912.5 assuming the 39 yield is per shot fired......:P

I'm sorry, but your calculations are entirely wrong.
If you want to calculate yield per minute, just multiply rounds per minute with yield.
10 yield
442 rpm
4420 yield/minute

with 39 yield this makes 17238 ypm

think of it this way: how can 1 second of flarebeam have more yield than a nuke?
Every ship would die in less than a second of gunfire.
But that doesn't happen.




[Edited on 1-21-2013 by -splosives-]

[Maarschalk]

These are based on a custom setting for the Flare Beam Cannon
at yield 39, RPM 442/8 milliseconds, H/S 110, E/S 13, Range 750.

Rounds Per Minute = 442/8 milliseconds = 55.25/1 millisecond

39Y x 55.25/milliseconds=2154.75 x 1000 = 2,154,750/second

So the total yield for RPM=2,154,750/Minute. So you are right,
I meant per Minute not per Second.

So per second the yield would be 2,154,750/60=35,912.5 assuming the 39 yield is per shot fired......:P

I'm sorry, but your calculations are entirely wrong.
If you want to calculate yield per minute, just multiply rounds per minute with yield.
10 yield
442 rpm
4420 yield/minute

with 39 yield this makes 17238 ypm

think of it this way: how can 1 second of flarebeam have more yield than a nuke?
Every ship would die in less than a second of gunfire.
But that doesn't happen.

[Edited on 1-21-2013 by -splosives-]

Check the tables on SeeJay's Website that I posted.
Also your calculation for 4420 yield Per minute x 39yield is wrong in 2 ways.

1. 4420 x 39 = 172,380 and not 17,238. Your missing a 0!

2. Rounds Per Minute fired are 442 per a cycly of 8 milliseconds. 1 milisecond is 1/1000 of a second. So in a cycle rate at 8/1000 of a second the Rounds Fired are 442 Per Minute. And in 1 millisecond of the cycle rate the Rounds Per Minute Fired would be 442 divided by 8 milliseconds= 55.25/1 Rounds Per Minute Fired in 1/1000 of a second of the cycle rate.

So the Yield Per Minute of Continues Fire =((55.25 x 1000ms) x 39) = 2,154,750 (Two million one hundred fifty four thousand seven hundred and fifty!)

Other methods of Calculation would be Yield Per Second of Fire(((442/0.008s)/60) x 39) = 35,912.5

or 2,154,750/60 = 35,912.5 (Thirty five thousand nine hundred and twelve and a half!)

I believe that Rounds Per minute are Shots fired per Minute
So 442 divided by 60 seconds = 7.367 Shots per second per 8 milliseconds cycle rate. = 7.367 divided by 8 milliseconds(0.008)
times 39 yield = 35,912.5!......




[Edited on 1-22-2013 by Maarschalk]

[-splosives-]

These are based on a custom setting for the Flare Beam Cannon
at yield 39, RPM 442/8 milliseconds, H/S 110, E/S 13, Range 750.

Rounds Per Minute = 442/8 milliseconds = 55.25/1 millisecond

39Y x 55.25/milliseconds=2154.75 x 1000 = 2,154,750/second

So the total yield for RPM=2,154,750/Minute. So you are right,
I meant per Minute not per Second.

So per second the yield would be 2,154,750/60=35,912.5 assuming the 39 yield is per shot fired......:P

I'm sorry, but your calculations are entirely wrong.
If you want to calculate yield per minute, just multiply rounds per minute with yield.
10 yield
442 rpm
4420 yield/minute

with 39 yield this makes 17238 ypm

think of it this way: how can 1 second of flarebeam have more yield than a nuke?
Every ship would die in less than a second of gunfire.
But that doesn't happen.

[Edited on 1-21-2013 by -splosives-]

Check the tables on SeeJay's Website that I posted.
Also your calculation for 4420 yield Per minute x 39yield is wrong in 2 ways.

1. 4420 x 39 = 172,380 and not 17,238. Your missing a 0!

2. Rounds Per Minute fired are 442 per a cycly of 8 milliseconds. 1 milisecond is 1/1000 of a second. So in a cycle rate at 8/1000 of a second the Rounds Fired are 442 Per Minute. And in 1 millisecond of the cycle rate the Rounds Per Minute Fired would be 442 divided by 8 milliseconds= 55.25/1 Rounds Per Minute Fired in 1/1000 of a second of the cycle rate.

So the Yield Per Minute of Continues Fire =((55.25 x 1000ms) x 39) = 2,154,750 (Two million one hundred fifty four thousand seven hundred and fifty!)

Other methods of Calculation would be Yield Per Second of Fire(((442/0.008s)/60) x 39) = 35,912.5

or 2,154,750/60 = 35,912.5 (Thirty five thousand nine hundred and twelve and a half!)

I believe that Rounds Per minute are Shots fired per Minute
So 442 divided by 60 seconds = 7.367 Shots per second per 8 milliseconds cycle rate. = 7.367 divided by 8 milliseconds(0.008)
times 39 yield = 35,912.5!......




[Edited on 1-22-2013 by Maarschalk]

You're entirely wrong, but whatever. I can't seem to make you understand it.