Crew, what\'s price/c ?

[Blacky]

When I try to hire a crew, there's a price (well, a pay) “/c�. What's c?

By the way, is there a full documentation somewhere? There's the little ReadMe, but it seems it barely scratch the surface.

[Vice]

c = credits. What kind of information do you think is missing from the instructions? It covers just about everything you need to know to get started short of giving away secrets.

[Blacky]

So it's a one time pay, it isn't recurrent?

As for documentation, as I explore the game, I have a zillions questions that I can't fin the answer to.

Why can't I collide to a planet city for example, but if I go inside an asteroid I can? Or where's the fuel level gauge on the cockpit (right in front of my eyes, but it took me an hour of play to find it ). Or, why is my speed limited (acceleration is limited by the engine of course, but I don't understand how/why the speed is limited...)? Or where's the altitude meter for atmospheric flight? Or how to recognize a telluric planet from a giant gaseous one (I don't want to be pulled in by the gravity well and crushed in just for looking around)?

And that's just gameplay, I played the game for two or three hours, I still don't know if it's safe to go to another political controlled territory or if I risk being shot at (well, I don't know how to go there yet too, but that's another story).

[Daedalao]

It is recurring

[Blacky]

Seems logical, even more when I just got more credits automatically sunk into my first crewmate.

So, what's a cycle? How much time is it?

[Vice]

As for documentation, as I explore the game, I have a zillions questions that I can't fin the answer to.

I/we can certainly try to help here

So, what's a cycle? How much time is it?

Roughly 30 minutes.

Why can't I collide to a planet city for example, but if I go inside an asteroid I can?

Cities and station have an automatic collision avoidance system built in. To prevent a ship from slamming into a building or station, they have gravity repelling systems to keep you from doing damage. Asteroid caves are made out of rock and don't have this.

Or where's the fuel level gauge on the cockpit (right in front of my eyes, but it took me an hour of play to find it ). Or where's the altitude meter for atmospheric flight?

For most flight information about your ship, look on the ship status display, the lower left cockpit display.

Or, why is my speed limited (acceleration is limited by the engine of course, but I don't understand how/why the speed is limited...)?

To avoid elimintating risk/challenge from the game, particularly in multiplayer.

Or how to recognize a telluric planet from a giant gaseous one (I don't want to be pulled in by the gravity well and crushed in just for looking around)?

This intentionally can take some exploration and testing. Boost your shields if you're not sure, then test during descent. If you start to take pressure damage, fly back into space.

[Edited on 2-10-2009 by Vice]

[BraveHart]

Hi Blacky...if you want to go online in MP I would be happy to fly escort with you to some of the other systems and provide you with protection as you get the hang of combat flying with the hostiles you will encounter...I bet I could find a few more willing pilots to help with the escorting too

[Blacky]

Thanks for the offer, but I will rather discover all of this by myself

One odd question thought: is it normal that Gates are scarce? I wanted to go explore a new territory, as per the quadrant map. But I couldn't get there myself using manual jumps (I gave up after 40 jumps or so... using the basic equipment), so I tried to find gates. But from the starting position in the game (Sapphire planet?) I had to manually jump toward the Thurban Gate, there's no “road� between systems. Seems strange to me (from a macro economic point of view), but maybe it's per design.

A second one: the ReadMe says white text is supposed to tell me where the Gate is going, I can't find this white text. I have a Destination in the nav map under gate coordinates, in purple, that's all I could find.

[Daedalao]

The further along you get, the better your jump drive will get, and the more common it will become for you to do more than 10 jumps in order to get somewhere

[Vice]

White text is for the message system, not gate icons. Icon text will match the color of their icons, purple in the case of gates. Gates are provided for charted systems, but you are free to venture out into deep space to explore on your own without them. There are plenty of uncharted systems out there as well, which do not have gates linking to them. 40 jumps covers about 400 sectors with a Mantis jump drive, a fairly small section of space.

[verbosity]

Or, why is my speed limited (acceleration is limited by the engine of course, but I don't understand how/why the speed is limited...)?

you can turn your ids system off and hit afterburner to reach much higher speeds, though even in space the higher the speed the more stress you place on your ship ( no inertial dampeners you see ). while in theory you could continue to accelerate even faster this is disabled by the ships computer depending on the frame/engine you have to avoid tearing the ship apart for the inertial forces when you try to turn/change direction.

You'll also notice the afterburner causes your ship to 'shudder' , beyond a ships 'top speed' this would also cause damage to your ship.

( oh yeah, also for the gameplay reasons Vice mentioned )

I had to manually jump toward the Thurban Gate, there's no “road� between systems. Seems strange to me (from a macro economic point of view), but maybe it's per design.

When you start off that quite a distance, but later on in the game you'll be able to make it in one jump. jumpgates are only really there for really long inter-system journeys , where is typically hunderds if not thousands of sectors......

[Edited on 2-10-2009 by verbosity]