New version of Ad Astra

[Nigel_Strange]

For all those pilots who also play Ad Astra, there is a new version of the game with several enhancements and improvements:

http://www.a-astra.com/

If you have not already tried this game, it's great and it's free. It's also a fairly small download. Don't worry: there is nothing wrong with loving more than one game. As for myself, when it comes to space combat games, I'm responsibly poly-amorous.

[Maarschalk]

Looks cool, Thanks Nigel for sharing...Downloaded and going to give it a run for its money.....Oh I forgot....it is free...LOL...:P:P:P:P:P......

[Edited on 3-6-2010 by Maarschalk]

[49rTbird]

Can't get it to work with Windows 7. Oh well.

[Maarschalk]

I find AdAstra, confusing and difficult to figure out, the menu's are all over the place like a windows interface, and not much dialog telling you what is happening. I tried it for 6 hours and all I managed to figure out is how to travel to other systems and dock and do one meager contract........Maybe I'm used to Evochron Legends to much and it makes other games seem more difficult.....LOL.....:P:P:P:P

[Marvin]

It looks like a modder's dream ... or nightmare, depending on your point of view. The default textures and ship designs are ... very, very strange. But the basic framework of the game seems to have a lot of potential.

[Nigel_Strange]

There is a manual for the game. I'm fairly familiar with it, so if you want to U2U me, I can answer questions about it.

For starters...

The main thing to know is that you can hit the H key to get a help guide. It's pretty well organized, so you should be able to find all the key commands from there.

When you're docked at a station (hit D to dock) you can access P (Police) and N (Navy) missions.

You can use L for long-range scanners to see what ships are in the area. If you don't have a long range scanner, this needs to be one of your first purchases.

You might want to avoid combat until you have some cash. The easiest way to make cash is probably doing a few missions, especially rescue missions. If you can do a rescue mission, you get paid for the mission, as well as the salvage of the ship.

Ship salvaging is the most lucrative thing you can do (except maybe mining precious metals), so the sooner you learn how to do that, the better.

Aside from that, the universe is pretty fun to fly around in. Try going planetside to a few places and landing at the city platforms.

Modding is pretty easy, as the mod tools are right there in the game with you. I've made a few custom ships and even a planet or two.

[Maarschalk]

One question how do you get to do salvage or rescue missions or any other mission not having the right rank. The only mission I was able to do when you first start is a document delivery mission all other missions seem to need a higher rank and you do not seem to have enough cash to start with to go far either....

[Nigel_Strange]

When you start out, you can do document delivery missions. They don't pay much, but they get you out of the system.

After you do a few of these, your rank will improve.

Also, if there is any police activity in the sector, follow along and wait for wreckages that result from combat.

You can also look in the long-range scanner to see if there are any ships that are wreckages (you can sort by activity and scroll down until you see the wreckages (if there are any)).

If you are in a small ship, you will need to search for small wrecks at first. However, you can "trim" the wings off of some wrecks to make them smaller if, at first, you can't pick it up. I would advise not doing this to crafts with a "clean" criminal record, as shooting off the wings of a clean craft counts as criminal damage, for which you can be fined. However, pirates are fair game, as are...aliens.

[Ravenfeeder]

Downloaded it, and gave it a go. It has potential, but, one helluva steep learning curve - I got a headache from reading the manual, and I never get headaches. It isn't a game that you can just jump into and suss out what to do.

I've printed out the main commands. I agree that there are too many menus, though hitting the space bar, and pausing the game, gives you time to navigate through them. And, I'd like to see the ability to map more of the controls to the joystick. Still haven't worked out how to see the cargo bay contents, still, I'll get there eventually. Not a patch on EL though.

[Maarschalk]

There does not seem to be a separate cargo bay or fuel tank. when you by deuterium for fuel it goes in your hold by the amount of tons your hold can carry. When you start out you have 9 tons max you can stock up on anything equipment, weapons, fuel, commodities and they all are immediatly availabe for use so you do not have to swap equipment from cargo to equipment slot as in EL...even thou they have all their own menu for equipment, ordinance, weapons etc.. each ton of weight counts against your 9 tons maximum...which makes it a little awkward in my opinion...

@Nigel, yes I figured that much out but document deliveries when you deliver the first one, you get to a system that does not have any document deleviries or they are to far to reach with only 9 tons of fuel. So you have to find a nother planet or station or city nearby that offer document deliveries within reach which is a pain in the behind...LOL...

[Edited on 3-7-2010 by Maarschalk]

[Nigel_Strange]

The missions are kind of random, so if you found a place with no good missions, you might just need to go somewhere else. Luck of the draw.

The ship you start with has 9 tons of cargo space, but the bigger ships have thousands of tons.

The only fuel in the game is deuterium, and you only need it for between system jumps. Within a system, your ship doesn't use fuel.

I don't think the learning curve is that steep, but part of it might be that you are expecting conventions that aren't there (like cargo bays).

You can see your cargo manifest with the f3 key. It shows your ship and gives you menu options to display different ship characteristics.

I forgot how hard it is when just starting out. I remember, though, my first big break was picking up a wreck and turning it in for salvage. After that, nothing I had done until that point seemed to make enough money.

Once you get a good sized ship with a good cargo capacity and weapons, you can make money hand-over-fist.

[Ravenfeeder]

Tks Marvin, Maars, I'm not giving up on it, just not a lot of spare time around at the mo.

[Maarschalk]

Yes, Your right Nigel it is the conventions I'm expecting are not there. Also what is akward is that the same command buttons are used in different windows menu to do different things....So to figure out how to configure my Saitek X52 for the different Menu options using the same keys for programming to do the different functions in the different menu options is going to be a chalenge...talk about confusion....LOL....

[MMaggio]

Just use the "mode switch", Maarschalk.

[Marvin]

Okay, I gave it a shot ... just to be fair. Problem is, there is no option to invert (swap) roll and yaw on the joystick. Evidently, the guy who wrote the program doesn't fly aircraft. In any case, my positronic brain just doen't function that way ... it's either twist-to-yaw or nothing. I'm just not coordinated enough to do it any other way.

[DocHogan]

Originally posted by Marvin
Okay, I gave it a shot ... just to be fair. Problem is, there is no option to invert (swap) roll and yaw on the joystick. Evidently, the guy who wrote the program doesn't fly aircraft. In any case, my positronic brain just doen't function that way ... it's either twist-to-yaw or nothing. I'm just not coordinated enough to do it any other way.

Ewww, that's bad. I've downloaded it, but haven't tried it yet...now I probably won't. Wing Commander Prophecy is the same (yaw and roll are backwards using X52) and that makes it almost unplayable.

[Knight Rider]

Yea...I gave it a try too. I salute the creativity behind the game, but there are just to many screens and controls to keep track of . It feels more like a chore instead of flying. I miss flying and the comraderie, and look forward to getting back in MP.

[Marvin]

Oooops ... guess I was wrong. It seems counter-intuitive but you can set a joystick to work with twist-to-yaw. Instead of selecting "Pitch+Roll+Yaw" you select only "Pitch+Roll" ... then yaw will be assigned to the Z-axis automatically.

[Knight Rider]

Mmmm. I'll give that a try.

[MMaggio]

Originally posted by Marvin
Oooops ... guess I was wrong. It seems counter-intuitive but you can set a joystick to work with twist-to-yaw. Instead of selecting "Pitch+Roll+Yaw" you select only "Pitch+Roll" ... then yaw will be assigned to the Z-axis automatically.

Beat me to it Marvin.

[Maarschalk]

Aha, Marvin thanks for the Pitch+Roll tip, I was wondering about that, why Pitch+Roll+Yaw did not work as expected....talk about weird conventions...LOL...

[Knight Rider]

Selecting pitch and roll has made it a lot easier. I can now focus on flying instead of spinning all over the place. The scenery on the planets are amazing, especially the Jurassic Park Scenery I saw on one of the planets. The large prehistoric looking birds flying around the Volcanos was a nice touch. I was target practicing with a few of them and feathers were flying everywhere. Amazing back ground on the planet Also. I can't wait to see what is on the other planets.

[Marvin]

Nigel, as a quick suggestion (a question, actually) you might want to pass on ... why load all the files into the game before offering the main menu? It looks like, if you then decide to play a saved game, all the files are re-loaded. If so, I think it would save time (when launching the game) to load only what's necessary to display the main menu options.

[Nigel_Strange]

Marvin,

Seems like a good suggestion. You could write him directly. I think his email address is on the website somewhere.

[Marvin]

Welllllll ... I suppose. But it would probably sound better coming from one of the game's Beta testers.