Hi, I'm new here and I have some questions.

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

First, let me say that I realy enjoy EL!

Now, questions:
- Is there any official information on what are the measurement units in EL? Or are they just, you know, some abstract 'units'. I've read somewhere that distance is shown in dm (decameters) and speed in m/s (meters per second), bit it doesn't realy add up - eg. station entrance would have to be about 5 kilometers wide.
- After I enter a station/city I my shield indicator is always read (it has full lenght, but it doesn't change to green. If one of the shields takes some damage it gets back to normal, but others remain red. Is this som kind of bug, or can it be caused by my custom HUD?
- Is there some kind of global max weapon rage? I made a particle cannon, it was shown in Weapon Lab that it has 1540 range, but I can't damage anything that's further than 1420 (I fired at some asteroids). Also MDTS starts to work at roughly that range. Does it mean there's no point in creating guns with range over 1400?
- I attacked that big Vonari ship (one that engages escaping capital ship in escort mission) - I set my bearing to pass it by, turn off IDS and go for a 'strafing run' - so I'm flying sideways with nose pionting at my target. But when I'm close to that ship I suddenly find myself flying right towards it, like my IDS was on. Do they have some king of tractor beam or is this a bug? I'm sure I have IDS off.
- Is there a way to make those dots that show in navmap when you deploy a probe or sensor station (you know, those that indicate ships or cargo) bigger and/or change their colours? I've managed to make my version of hud, navmap icons ect, but can't find a way to change those little things.
- Is there a way to stop missile lock and missile hud icon from spinning?

[Vice]

Hello and welcome. Answers below.

- Is there any official information on what are the measurement units in EL? Or are they just, you know, some abstract 'units'. I've read somewhere that distance is shown in dm (decameters) and speed in m/s (meters per second), bit it doesn't realy add up - eg. station entrance would have to be about 5 kilometers wide.

It is intended to be a basic metric setup. Not sure where a 5 km station entrance estimate would come from, regardless of meters or decameters. But in general, this is the basic outline of intended/estimated distances and measurements in the game (may still be some tuning/tweaking involved, altitude was recently changed to align with nav distance for example):

Velocity = Decimeters (meters X 10) for higher precision, so 1000 indicated is 100 meters per second
In-Sector Coordinates = Decameters (meters / 10) so 100 coordinate units (CU) equals 1000 meters
Navigation Marker Range = Meters (so 1000 meters indicated range = 100 decameters coordinate distance)
Target MFD and Indicator Ranges = Meters
Radar/Sensor Ranges = Meters

The 1/10 values are used for in-sector coordinates (nav map) to help keep things a little more manageable for manual entry and visual reference, rather than have to sort through million level values. The greater 10X values are used for other ranges/velocities for higher precision up close.

If you would prefer to have the velocity indicators display M/S only, rather than the higher precision decimeter value, you can place the attached file in the custom \hud folder. Then displayed velocity values will be 1/10 their original value.

- After I enter a station/city I my shield indicator is always read (it has full lenght, but it doesn't change to green. If one of the shields takes some damage it gets back to normal, but others remain red. Is this som kind of bug, or can it be caused by my custom HUD?

Could be a custom HUD, but may also be an unwanted input signal from either your control device or keyboard. If you hear beeps at the same time energy transfers to a dropped array, that would indicate shield array energy transfer. It may also be possible that you are looking at an indicator that isn't a shield array status display and is instead, something else.

- Is there some kind of global max weapon rage? I made a particle cannon, it was shown in Weapon Lab that it has 1540 range, but I can't damage anything that's further than 1420 (I fired at some asteroids). Also MDTS starts to work at roughly that range. Does it mean there's no point in creating guns with range over 1400?

Could be you just tested on an asteroid that was about 120 in radius (targets are tracked to center, but some can have volume beyond their center). The distance readout you see on its target indicator will display the distance to the asteroid's surface, not its center. This means that could have actually been 1540 away from its center when the MDTS locked on, but only 1420 from its surface. See if the same 120 offset applies to a ship target.

If the issue isn't accounting for asteroid size, I'd be interested in seeing that save game. Please send it to me via e-mail (starwraith.com > contact) with the weapon in question mounted.

- I attacked that big Vonari ship (one that engages escaping capital ship in escort mission) - I set my bearing to pass it by, turn off IDS and go for a 'strafing run' - so I'm flying sideways with nose pionting at my target. But when I'm close to that ship I suddenly find myself flying right towards it, like my IDS was on. Do they have some king of tractor beam or is this a bug? I'm sure I have IDS off.

Impractial to say for sure without seeing it in action. I strafe capital ships a lot, as do others, it's a pretty common maneuver. So odds are, it's likely something else.

- Is there a way to make those dots that show in navmap when you deploy a probe or sensor station (you know, those that indicate ships or cargo) bigger and/or change their colours? I've managed to make my version of hud, navmap icons ect, but can't find a way to change those little things.

Yes. Use a file named dotsize.txt inside the \hud folder and include the size you want for the blips in the first line. The default size is 4. It is generally not recommended to increase the size too much as the dots will eventually overlap each other if they are close together and are too big.

- Is there a way to stop missile lock and missile hud icon from spinning?

No, they animate/rotate as a standard part of the operation. You can make them circles though to remove the appearance of rotation.

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

Thanks for your reply!

OK, first - I got it confused, I used "da" symbol and described it as "decameter", when in fact it is a symbol of "DECImeter" (0.1m), symbol for DECAmeter (10m) is "dam".
1dm = 0.1m; 1dam = 10m.
Speed is in dm, meaning "1 speed" = 0.1m/s. So OK, now it all makes more sense - I said that station entrance would have to be about 5km wide, because I've read somewhere that speed is in meters per second, and moving from one side of said entrance to the other with the speed of 50 takes about 100 seconds (I checked that); 50m/s x 100s = 5000m = 5km.
I guess it would be easier if everything was in meters and kilometers - I know your reasons, but I'm just saying.

Shield indicators - well, it doesn't actually happen ALWAYS, but almost. And I haven't noticed any beeps, but I wasn't paying attention to that; I'll check how it works with default indicators (and I'm looking at right stuff, it's not something else).

Gun range - I think you're right. I fired at a ship and it looks like I can hit them at proper range. MDTS still kicks in at about 1440m from target and beam weapons doesn't seem to do anything beyond that range, even if guns can hit. Didn't check stations and capital ships, but asteroid definitely start to take damage about 120m closer than max weapon range.
Still - it's a little counterintuitive - even if MDTS locks on centre of the object, shouldn't it start to take damage when its surface is in weapon's range? Especially since you can switch MDTS off ant just fire straight ahead. Or maybe HUD should just show distance to object's centre, not its edge?

Strafing - OK, maybe I'll try to capture a video. I don't know, maybe my joystick is doing something funny, but it seems to happen only when strafing big ships. Can I collide with their shields?

[Vice]

even if MDTS locks on centre of the object, shouldn't it start to take damage when its surface is in weapon's range? Especially since you can switch MDTS off ant just fire straight ahead. Or maybe HUD should just show distance to object's centre, not its edge?

I'd be interested in evaluating the weapon you built, either with a weapon lab template or the save game itself (the latter would be more helpful for me). The HUD does generally show distance to center, primarily for spacecraft. Asteroids are an object exception though due to their potential size.

Strafing - OK, maybe I'll try to capture a video. I don't know, maybe my joystick is doing something funny, but it seems to happen only when strafing big ships. Can I collide with their shields?

Yes, you can collide with their shields. It may either be unwanted residual input from the control device you are using, or perhaps the IDS toggled back on rapidly or something. A video may help me determine what is happening.

[Marvin]

In Legacy, I find that, if I set a drift point very close to the cap ship, it will look like the cap ship is pulling me in. But I think it's more likely that the cap ship is adjusting its course so that we end up colliding.

[Krzysztof z Bagien]

I've emailed you a save file with custom weapon installed on a ship.
I've also checked how other weapons behave and I can confirm that every particle canon I try starts damaging asteroids at range closer than it should (eg. Trebuchet with range 1180 does nothing over 1130).

[Vice]

As I replied with in my e-mail, the save game you sent me was a backup profile ('.bak'), not a current save game ('.sw'), so it's likely much older than the configuration you are now using and does not have a custom weapon installed.

There can be a damage tapering effect for any particle weapon, custom or pre-built, where the damage level falls off below what can cause damage to an asteroid (or other object for that matter), near the end of its travel distance. So the MDTS might lock on a little farther than the range you can inflict damage on the asteroid with. I'll be able to determine more once I have the save game and will analyze both pre-built and custom weapons through a series of tests. If some tweaking needs to be done to one or both range templates, I can apply the needed changes to align things.