N00b questions about missions

gorstram · Post by **gorstram** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:20 am

Hello everyone. I'm VERY new to the game and have been having problems with the mission where Sapphire has lost something, I'm supposed to fly out to the waypoint and go to the next step. Problem is, I get there and I don't see anything. Period. There's no clues or anything. THe only thing that happens is the auto targeting of ships.

Additionally on the drop cargo missions, I jumped into an area, and the ship I was flying towards the drop the cargo warped out of the system. Is that normal? Or was I flying towards the wrong ship.

Finally, is there a site or something that can tell me a little more about the missions? The tutorial is overly vague, and doesn't help much getting a pilot ready to do this stuff.

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 5:45 am

"Welcome Aboard gorstram".......Here is a picture that I posted a couple of days ago for someone who asked pretty much the same question....it is a picture of a lost container and if you look at the radar screen it shows you the purple blip for locating the lost container. Follow Eclipse's advice and follow the purple blip when it shows up on your radar screen as you approach the nav point.....the containers can be hard to spot , but you will get the hang of it soon enough

gorstram · Post by **gorstram** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:01 am

I just met you all, and I am ready to name my babies after you. You're all awesome. Thanks so much. Any colors I should be looking for on the cleaning missions, or on the asteroid missions?

Also, is there a manual for the game somewhere?

BraveHart · Post by **BraveHart** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:57 am

Follow this link for Legends Guide:

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegen ... lguide.htm

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:17 pm

Hello gorstram, Welcome to the forum and the Sim. See you out there sometime.

DocHogan · Post by **DocHogan** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:14 pm

Originally posted by gorstram
Any colors I should be looking for on the cleaning missions, or on the asteroid missions?

3d Radar:
Asteroids: do not show up on radar
Solar panels: purple blip

In both cases the objective nav waypoint is directly on/in the item, so radar blip isn't needed for these as is it for Lost Item Recovery missions.

Which brings me to one of the most frustrating things for me, as a beginner...At game start, either the Mining Laser/Tractor beam should already be included in inventory, or it should be an integral art of the ship. If you accept a cleaning or recovery mission, then realize you do not have the tractor, you fail the mission if you've either left the station/city and return to purchase one, or if one is not available at your current location. Tractor beam should either be default initial loadout, should be integrated into all frames, or should be available 100% of the time at 100% of friendly docking facilities; redocking prior to mission completetion should also not be an automatic fail.

YMMV. IMHO. HAND.

MMaggio · Post by **MMaggio** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:41 pm

Sorry, you have to find & buy your own tractor beam. We all managed to do it. Thousands of players from all around the world have managed to do it. It is not that difficult to find one.
It is not part of the load out because not all players end up being miners. You could become a trader, a mercenary, a fighter or an explorer, in which case you may not want a tractor/mining beam.
The fact that you have to find one in the beginning is part of the learning experience so that you will know how to buy & sell not only commodities, but weapons and other equipment as well.
Good luck & Good hunting...

DocHogan · Post by **DocHogan** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:00 pm

Originally posted by MMaggio
Sorry, you have to find & buy your own tractor beam. We all managed to do it. Thousands of players from all around the world have managed to do it. It is not that difficult to find one.
It is not part of the load out because not all players end up being miners. You could become a trader, a mercenary, a fighter or an explorer, in which case you may not want a tractor/mining beam.
The fact that you have to find one in the beginning is part of the learning experience so that you will know how to buy & sell not only commodities, but weapons and other equipment as well.
Good luck & Good hunting...

I don't disagree, for the most part. However, if it were integrated, it would/should not affect later gameplay styles, or could be demounted (if not integral) for other equipment. Perhaps as a better part of the learning experience, no recovery/cleaning missions should be offered until an "Acquire Tractor Beam from Planetside" (or similar) mission were accomplished, and there being a 100% chance of that item being available at the stated facility.

My gripe isn't really that you have to find or purchase one. My point is that, having to find one IN CONJUNCTION WITH automatic fail of mission if you have to redock/dock elsewhere to purchase. If either of these were not present, the issue would be gone. My preference would be to lose the autofail of missions on docking prior to completion. Realistically, and I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, the mission system needs to be slightly overhauled; losing autfail, and the ability to queue multiple missions would be, IMO, a major improvement in SP play.

I'm NOT saying "Oh, this game sucks because of minor little annoyance 'A', and I'm gonna bash it and I'm not playing until my own little personal desire is fulfilled the way I want it to be because my complete satisfaction is all that matters." I see that attitude too much, as I'm sure you do as well, and the proper response to that is, of course "Go write your own game, then. If you can't, then shut your face."

I'm only pointing out something that I think is an area that could use improvement, however minor it might be. I *like* this game. I'm looking forward to playing more of this game. I am also looking forward to the next generation of the SW line, and hope that my input can help influence it in areas that I see room for change or improvement... IN MY OPINION. That's all it is, an opinion, and I'm fully aware of exactly how much that's worth

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:21 pm

Originally posted by DocHogan

I see that attitude too much, as I'm sure you do as well, and the proper response to that is, of course "Go write your own game, then.

Actually, this is one of the few games I've ever encountered where you could solve the above complaint by "modding" this game ... which is almost like writing your own game ... only much, much easier (thanks to Vice). The wording for all those contracts is in the "text" data file. If you like, you can either delete the entire text for the contracts in question ... or modify it to add a warning ... something like: "Caution! Tractor beam required to complete this contract." *

Btw, wait until you switch to a military ship and then try to complete just about any of the contracts discussed in this thread. (Surprise!)

* Edit: Here are the lines you might want to edit:

1030= needs to have a mobile
1031=solar array cleaned before it can be relocated
1032=and activated. This contract will require
1033=removing dirt particles from the surface of
1034=each solar panel using a tractor beam.
1035= needs an item recovered and
1036=returned to the local station. The location
1037=of the item is unknown, but the waypoint marker
1038=will provide the general area it should be
1039=in. It should show up on standard sensors.

[Edited on 3-5-2010 by Marvin]

Post by **Vice** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:03 am

My point is that, having to find one IN CONJUNCTION WITH automatic fail of mission if you have to redock/dock elsewhere to purchase. If either of these were not present, the issue would be gone.

I agree this is a problem, there should be a more obvious notification/block of this situation. The contract system currently blocks the acceptance of contracts that you don't have enough cargo space for and it can also be updated to block the acceptance of contracts you don't have the required tractor beam for. I will include this for the next update.

**** Possible spoiler below.

Also, as a tip, here is this section from the strategy guide that offers a clue on acquiring the beam:

The first objective you may want to complete is finding a mining/tractor beam. This is one of the most important equipment items in the game as it lets you recover cargo and mine for valuable materials (found in asteroids and planets). One of the most profitable activities early in the game is mining asteroids and this device is needed to harvest the ore. Asteroids generally carry valuable material that is easy to get to since they are in open space, but to find the mining/tractor beam, you may want to land at a city on the surface of Sapphire where they are often available in the local inventories. Once you find one, click on it in the 'Items for Sale' list to install it on your ship. Once installed, travel back into space and head for the local asteroid field.

[Edited on 3-6-2010 by Vice]

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:23 am

I would say the blocking of missions that require a mining/tractor beam if you do not have them might be hasty. I carry a tractor beam in my cargo hold and load it as needed as I do not have space to mount all I have. We would have to swap out different items to see what missions we could get if contracts start being based on items loaded.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:00 am

Hi gorstram, Welcome to the game and forum. You gave some excelent input for discussion here....Hope to see you out there.....

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:40 am

Originally posted by thetiebers

We would have to swap out different items to see what missions we could get if contracts start being based on items loaded.

Actually, I think the missions would still show up ... they do when you're flying a military ship (or am I having a Yoda moment?). I suspect you'd see all the available missions ... but you'd get one of those "sorry" messages if you tried to accept something incompatible with your current configuration.

Post by **Vice** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:30 am

We would have to swap out different items to see what missions we could get if contracts start being based on items loaded.

As Marvin points out, it won't block the contract from being visible, only prompt you if you don't have the required item needed to complete it. You'll still be able to load the beam from your cargo bay onto your ship and then accept the contract.

DocHogan · Post by **DocHogan** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 8:04 am

That's good news Vice, and will IMO certainly smooth out a rookie's first little while in the game. I don't think it's an optimal final solution (I definitely think that the mission system could be rethunk a bit, maybe for the next game

), but it is a perfect comprimise between intuitive gameplay, feature bloat, and system overhauling.

I would very much like to apologize to the OP, though, for completely hijakking his topic, though; I guess I really should have posted that part of my reply in the Legends/wishlist thread. I'm so used to being in communities where such things get overlooked (because of sheer volume of posts) or other communities where people most members would rather post than be bothered to read

). I'm just not really used to a medium-small community where 1) the dev actually is active and visible, 2) the dev implements requested features and fixes on-the-fly, and 3) members for the most part actually respond to what was actually said :/ This might take some getting used to

Thanks again, Vice, for a great gaming experience over the past too many years, for a great game now, and the quick fix...gotta love good indie devs! Someday I'll figure out how to do more than a BASIC "10 Print -> 20 GOTO 10"...then I'll turn the indie world on its ear

(now if I could only get an IP licence for my favorite book series...)

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:43 pm

What's your favorite book series? And, btw, this is a great game for learning a few modding skills.

DocHogan · Post by **DocHogan** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 8:40 pm

Modding skills are not *really* the issue...talent is

I'm very familiar with the use of several high-end modelling and animation packages (Maya, XSI, FilmBox/MotionBuilder), a few AAA engines (Unreal, Source, Blade), game-appropriate programming and scripting languages (C++, C#, UScript), etc. Unfortunately my talents lie in more birds-eye and conceptual areas...implementation is something I've never been able to get very far in.

Fave book series bar none is Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time. Given the opportunity (IP licence, decent team for me to think-tank, direct, and project manage), there are several game genres that would lend themselves incredibly well to the storys world, for computer gaming, as well as tabletop (think Warhammer) gaming.

As far as single-book-for-space-game, it's Enders Game, naturally. I originally found Star Wraith 'way back in the day' when I was looking for an Enders Game space battle type game that a friend had shown me. It allowed for major fleet deployments, with Admiral level controls (a la Homeworld), as well as the ability to change management perspectives to any other level of granularity...Command the entire fleet via tactical display as the Admiral of the Fleet; command wings, flights, squadrons, etc as a squad based sim or RTS style (IIRC); and take command of single fighter/freighter/etc as a pilot (a la EL). Completely following the granularity of control displayed by Ender throughout all of his dealings with Mazer Rackham.

Pitching and directing/managing a project (game or video) based on Jordan's WoT, though...that's a fantasy I've had for almost 20 years now, and all of my 'dabbling' in game and animation technologies has always had that thought in the back of my mind at the least.