IMG Race - Save File Help PLEASE

[Ghaleon]

I have been playing a couple days. I mined Hydrogen for the C4 drives to make some money. I wanted to run the main storyline. And of course, like so many others, I get stuck on the dreaded RACE.

So far flying around has been fine. It's just this race (trying to be polite here and not hurl the profanities filling my mind), is very difficult for me.

The irritation comes in different parts. A portion of it is the opponent, who I have watched run the entire race at 1,300. This with my finding guides online of how I can run it at 1,100 or 900. Obviously that is not entirely accurate.

Then comes the frustration that if I drift even slightly off course, I am entirely screwed as I cannot recover to get back through the ring, and the entire race becomes pointless.

This in turn, leads to the frustration of having to Jump back to the station, fly inside, retake the contract, then fly back and out, jump somewhere in the sector and then maneuver to get into position to start the race.

I have repeatedly tried this, to the peril of breaking my keyboard in anger. It always ends in the same result.

I have tried shifting my throttle up and down to make turns better, but even going back and forth between 800-1100, I never fail to drift outside the ring. I even start to slow down and make the turn so that the ship is on the inner edge of the turn ring, but it still inevitably drifts out.

I have IDS x2 going, I was using that even before I read tips online to set it at that and not IDS x3, yet the drift still happens.

I even tried to improve my ship. I have the basic ship, with Wing Sys 9.

Maybe I just suck at flying, but I think the race is a bit more difficult than it needs to be. I can relate to the people who say, it is to help you improve your flying.

However, I respectfully disagree. A forced race (forced in the sense of storyline requirement, rather than forced or you can't play) against a difficult opponent, does not really help you improve.

The frustration I have read about in many people, from researching this problem, adds emphasis to this. A better way to get you to learn and improve your flight skills would be to spread it out and gradually increase the difficulty of your opponent.

This would at least lead to a sense of achievement as you beat each new racer.

Anyways, enough ranting. What I'm here to ask for, is someone willing to get a save file for me. I don't need any special items, money, or any of that. I can do that for myself.

All I really want is a save file with the first two IMG contracts completed, so I can then play the game as I want.

Maybe my flight skills will get me killed. But getting blasted into space dust a couple dozen times is infinitely less frustrating than that race.

[SeeJay]

Hi and welcome.

It's available on my evochron2.junholt.se site
in the Quest section/Over the Hill.

Sounds to me that you fly in Inertia mode tho.
It sure would explain the drift problem.

Another solution is to email me your profile
and I'll return it with the race completed.

[PaulB]

I have been playing a couple days. I mined Hydrogen for the C4 drives to make some money. I wanted to run the main storyline. And of course, like so many others, I get stuck on the dreaded RACE.

So far flying around has been fine. It's just this race (trying to be polite here and not hurl the profanities filling my mind), is very difficult for me.

<snip>

I sympathize with you on the Races. I don't even try them anymore.
But one thing I can help you with (if I remember correctly).
If you enter the station at the 180 entrance then when you are ready to leave on the contract and you turn so you are facing 0 degrees then you can set inertial and set your speed to 1100 (you won't leave yet because you are in Inertial mode) then press the Jump key you will just to the Race waypoint and be heading right to the entrance and you can increase your intertial speed (Inertial Forward) to say 1400 as you are approaching the entrance and get a good jump on the oppenent. But be ready to switch to IDS mode before you approah the Turn so yu can slow down and not run out of the tube. Aside from than all I can say is try to slow down too <1000 on turns and afterburn when you can being carefull not to overshoot the turns. The heaver the ship Frame you use the harder it is to maintain a decent speed in the Tube. I did it once in a Sentinel with Wings 13. I don't think I ever succeeded in my Mammoth even with Wngs 13.
I'm not a very good pilot with the joystick (actually a Gampad) and what I find is with a heavy frame it's hard because of the lack of agility and with a high agility frame like a Firestar or something they are (for me) so agaile that I find it TOO easy to over correct and still loose the race.
I really have a hard time trying to use Roll and Pitch and Turn so I mainly us Pitch and Turn and just tend to use Roll at leisure to get back on a specific course.
I guess I don't have a very dexterious brain - especially at my age in my 60's.
Good luck and practice the regular AI non-IMG contract races.
BTW - I've NEVER been able to complete one of the Timed (no opponet) races.

[Ghaleon]

No. Definitely not using Inertial. I mostly use IDS x2. Once I tried IDS x3, because I couldn't get 1,300 on IDS x2. And figured I was supposed to.

From all I have read, even Veterans are having trouble with this race, which rather clearly states that it is way too difficult.

I dunno if it is possible, but I like the idea of difficulties associated with the races. With a speed cap set on the enemy pilot you are racing.

For this one, it seems rather obvious that a setting of Easy, with a cap on his speed of say..600-700, would make things a lot better. That would allow you to run it at 800-900 or less.

In that way, you could practice the turns and handling, without the pressure of doing it at higher speeds. It's about like being dumped in a pod racer and told to race the track in Phantom Menace, the way it is now.

As for the one save...I found a copy of it. However, it has so much completed already, that I'd rather use it as a last resort. No offense, but the military rank was already about halfway up the list, it had over 500 million, and a bunch of completed contracts.

For my part, I would rather do those things myself. If that makes any sense.

So, I'm going to start a new pilot profile and I will upload it here. If possible I'd like to get it back with just the race contract completed, no others, other than the first transport one for IMG.

As far as money and stuff, ideally it would be possible to dump it until it's back down to a lower amount. That way the save would be relatively "clean", and I could have a backup saved. So all my profiles could start with the race finished, using that as a base, of sorts.


Edit: I started a Racer profile "Wraith", I'm uploading it here, and it is pretty much the default Racer. I have saved it sitting right in front of the dock to the Race contract station. I hope that's alright.

[Edited on 12-18-2014 by Ghaleon]

[DaveK]

Races are one of those things that people love or hate. Well probably don't mind too much or hate is more accurate for most pilots! Once you get the knack they are easy enough. Until you do they are impossible. However if you crack it your ship handing skills are much better.

There is a section in the Hints&Tips Guide about racing. It's available from SeeJay's site. It has all the info you need to crack the problem.

When I first started I kept coming back to the IMG race contract over and over for a couple of months. Then I had a (short) tutorial from more experienced players and I couldn't believe how much easier it was with just a couple of changes to how I was tackling a race.

The race is a little easier now because the tube is wider. Like riding a bike . . . you keep falling off until (with advice) you suddenly don't any more

[Ghaleon]

Well, to be honest, I just think it's too difficult, to be such an early thing. I could understand wanting to help one improve their piloting skills. It just seems a little harsh for such an early test.

As some have said in other posts I've read across the Net, this is one of the first things you encounter, if you are like most and go in to do the storyline. And it can be very off-putting to have such a difficult thing. And turn people away from the game.

I firmly believe the racer in this quest should have the speed cap I mentioned before. Slow enough that you don't have to blast down the tube so fast, so it can sort of introduce you to things.

Another inclusion that would probably be a HUGE benefit, would be a few fixed tubes, that don't require a contract to appear. Where you can fly through at your own speed and practice them. Just fly through the ring and down the tube, which ultimately drops you back near the starting point. No contract, no cost to use, purely for practice.

Arguably you could use contract races to do this, but it's really a pain to have to go dock to get the contract, every single time you wanted to run the course.

Maybe in an update, there could be a sector somewhere near Sapphire, or a gate to it, where you go to an area that had nothing but a station and a few flying courses like this.

Sort of like a professional racing circuit, since racer is one of the starting roles, why not expand on it? You already have contracts for the private races, which could be seen as the stuff that goes on in the real world with street racing. So why not build a professional setup?

A few sectors, one or two with nothing but flying courses, but also a station that offers contracts for professional flying. Sort of like the Nascar of the galaxy.

Give some incentive to racing, maybe some special rewards for winning against other pro racers, such as ship parts that you can't buy elsewhere.

That way you could really expand the game to make the starting roles something more than what they are now.

Combat Pilots already have the military stuff they can go through.
I'm not sure where the IMG quest comes in, but the Mercenary role?

So, you make a professional racing thing for the Racers, and maybe something to expand for the Miners or Traders, such as a way to build a Mercantile empire.

Not to get too off course with my wild ideas, but maybe the Miner or Trader path could enable you to purchase mining rights for Asteroids or Nebulae. Since the Military gives you extra ships to command, perhaps you could get some miners to help you with sending them out to mine, and they can then be set to either deliver the goods to your storage, or to sell them and deliver the money to your bank account.

Later you could have rival merchant guilds or groups, that compete with you.

Or maybe that would be getting a bit too in-depth for the game. It was just a few ideas that popped up as I was writing this.

[SeeJay]

I'll have a go with your profile in a while.
Just got to put my wife and kids to bed first. ;-)

[Ghaleon]

Okay, great.

You might think about putting a copy up on your site, for others that are like me.
That way, with the existing one there, you can sort of start "mid-game", with the Commander rank, a half billion in cash, etc.

Whereas with mine, it's more of an early game, with very little accomplished.

And I think my inner RPG'er was showing on that last post.

[Marvin]

I solved the problem two ways:

(1) I wrote two quests, neither of which requires you to race.

(2) I used SeeJay's profile to get past the first race ... and then wrote a simple quest one-step to bypass the second race.

[Vice]

Well, to be honest, I just think it's too difficult, to be such an early thing. I could understand wanting to help one improve their piloting skills. It just seems a little harsh for such an early test.

Overall, this game's flight system is quite a bit more complicated and advanced than what it sounds like you may be used to and/or are expecting. The race is designed to force you to contend with the additional factors inherent in ship flight control. And I'll go over that more below and provide some tips on completing it as it sounds like you may just not be applying some of the control principles needed to manage the ship during the race. Once those are applied, you'll likely find it's a pretty easy thing to do.

As some have said in other posts I've read across the Net, this is one of the first things you encounter, if you are like most and go in to do the storyline. And it can be very off-putting to have such a difficult thing. And turn people away from the game.

Believe it or not, the racing system was recently made a lot easier in an update. Effectively doubling the size of the race rings offering plenty of additional room to maneuver and make mistakes. A lot of what you may be reading across the net comes from the older builds where the race was much more difficult to complete than it is now. So are you using an old build of the game? That could explain the difficulty you've been describing as the new racing system is much easier to get through.

If the race course is made easier than it is now, it won't be doing its job of letting you gauge how well you are (or are not) managing your ship under required pathway conditions. Dropping speeds down to 900 means you won't be contending with drift management much at all, defeating the purpose of the 1000+ speed average. The goal of the course is to force you to contend with drift management, not avoid it.

Practice in timed courses and forget the timer, just practice at your own pace until you build your ship control skills enough to take on the competitive race. Hop onto multiplayer and find someone to practice with. Put the race course where and when you want it and practice at your own pace. That way, no waiting for contracts.

Practice slides around asteroids in a nearby field. Many of the gaps are similar in size to the race rings and you'll want to build skills in navigating asteroids in the same ways you navigate the race course. They are fixed points in space that are great practice for this sort of thing.

Here are some tips (and I've bolded two I think you need to focus on most):

- Avoid pointing the nose of your ship where you want to go through the race course. That's employing an old style arcade flight mechanism that doesn't work very well in this game. You must lead the nose of your ship ahead of the turn to where you want to go once your speed starts to get above around 900 and depending on the weight/thruster power of the ship you are flying. The turns in the racecourse are designed to be just sharp enough to require some lead-nose course correction at the required speeds. Not a lot is required, but similar in form and approach to how you would flare an airplane on landing. Once you get the basic angle and speed range learned, you'll find it's pretty easy to duplicate on successive turns.

- Keep the control management simpler by focusing on only one primary axis of adjustment. Do this by rolling your ship so that every turn can be navigated with pitch only. Avoid trying to mix and match yaw and pitch until you build your skill level further. Just roll left/right as a turn is approaching so that your course correction involves only having to pitch up or down. Once you get that down, you can work on applying the same concept to yawing left/right. Then later combining them so you can do either or both when needed.

- Use IDS X2. Activate it (numpad 9), then just manage your throttle with the wider range of control and don't use the afterburner for a while. Learn the right speed range at around 1200 to achieve the sliding turns needed for the ship you are flying.

- Use manual thruster control when needed. Be sure to practice using that for times when your drift may be too much and you need to counteract the momentum to stay within the course.

- Until you get better at drift, slow down for turns. Keep your speed at or above 1200 for the straights, then bring it down well in advance of a turn to around 800 so you don't have to do much drift management. Then quickly speed up again as you come out of the turn. Gradually work your way into learning drift control.


That said, it is helpful to figure out the race system. Not only will it help you learn ship control in a relatively safe environment, it also helps fine tune flight skills for better methods of combat. Otherwise, players who depend on raw speed alone will generally just wind up flying by their enemies in jousts, which typically results in doing too little damage, taking too long allowing reinforcements to arrive, and wasting too much fuel. Jousting will work in some easy combat scenarios, but you'll likely soon find that in more challenging systems, rookie jousting is just a collection of wasteful flybys and less effective than other tactics.

The key principles to practice are similar to racing a car. In the same way you don't just blast into a corner faster than your car can take it, you also don't take your spacecraft into a corner at speeds it can't handle. Go fast in the straights, but hit the brakes -before- you reach the corner to bring the speed down to a level your ship can handle. It's fine to run down the opening straight at 1400+, but hit your brakes (reverse afterburner) before you begin the turn. Drop to about 800-900 at first to keep things safer. Then take the turns in a similar way you would in a car, save for one aspect. If you start to drift, turn -more- and use your afterburner to bleed off the excess horizontal velocity until you regain control. Then balance the drifting with the throttle to properly hold the turn. it will require oversteer, so don't rely on trying to point the nose of your ship in the direction you want to go. This is fairly realistic physics after all, not just a point-n-shoot arcade flight model. Instead, oversteer. Turn more than the turn requires and vary the level of oversteer by how fast you are travelling relative to the degree of the turn. Learn the limits of your ship the same way you would learn the limits of a car on the track. Know where and how you can take a particular turn with your specific ship.

It will take time to learn to do this smoothly. So don't worry if you have a few instances of snap oversteer with afterburner to correct an excess speed turn or if you have to add throttle in the middle of a turn because you entered too slowly. You'll get better with practice and as a result, you'll learn how to direct your ship down a desired line most effectively and at top speed, which can help immensely in more advanced combat beyond jousting.

Lastly, I've prepared a video as a tutorial to show how to complete the race. I've selected the biggest, heaviest, and slowest military ship to illustrate, the Chimera. Lighter ships can be much easier to manage in a race, but this way, you can see how it can be done even with a lumbering space yacht:

http://youtu.be/LHdeZZQqE-A