Item explanations

[widden]

Gents, have I missed something, or the description for items in this game is really only that tiny box up there with next to nothing written?

The game tells me early on to read the description of cannons, so I can make an informed selection, yet the description of cannons contains virtually nothing - only 3 coded numbers. C'mon, how am I supposed to know what three letters each represent? (or two for the beam weapons)

Since then I think I've figured out what they mean, but there's another example: I see a long range probe. What is it good for and how it's used is a mistery, I can see no description for it.

I feel that usability is lacking occasionally.
eg I can't scroll back to see messages which auto-scroll out. sometimes my crew tells me something about the environment, sometimes multiple things, and if I don't have time to read and digest it on the spot, I just lose it. Meh.

[Vice]

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmerce ... iverse.htm

Also, have you read the instructions that come with the game?

Why can't you scroll back to see old messages? You either hold the Alt key and click on the buttons, or move the mouse wheel (in a mouse flight control mode), or press the desired scroll keys on the numpad, or just click a desired scrolling option if using some other flight control mode.

[Pyroka]

you can scroll up using alt+/ on the numpad, or by clicking the arrows on the side of the chatbox

as for the numbers above weapons, they stand for yield, cycle, and range. beams don't have a range value because they are tied into your cannons. yield is how much damage they do, and cycle is how fast they fire.

hope this helps

[49rTbird]

Hello widden, Welcome to the forum and the Sim. Have fun and hope to see you out there sometime.

[widden]

Thanks guys for all the responses; I've tried to click on the scrollbar but it did not work for some reason. I'll try the button method.
Edit2: oh and the mouse wheel changes the ship's speed, not scrolling messages.

Vice: no I have not read any instructions outside the game - I did not know of them. I've just d/l-ed the demo, started playing, then bought it, and continued playing.


Edit: oh, while we're here, is there a way to know the "speed" of a frame? There are references to it, and I can see different frames yield different speeds if I replace them in the current construction, but there's no measurement associated with it...is there?

[Edited on 11-4-2010 by widden]

[Edited on 11-4-2010 by widden]

[Vice]

Ah ok, to access the instructions, open the 'ReadMe' file in the game's install folder or from the main menu in the game, click on Training > Close game and view instructions. The 'Menu and Message Controls' section provides information on managing the messages. From that section:

Your ship will display warnings, activity prompts, and other information in white text on the left side of your HUD. This information can help guide you with important information, alert you to a problem, or prompt you when a system activity occurs. Multiplayer text chat messages will also be displayed using the same system. If a series of messages appears, it may obscure your forward view slightly. If this happens and you want to remove messages, simply press the numpad / key to remove one message at a time. If you miss a message, you can retrieve old messages by holding down the ALT key and then pressing the numpad / key. You can clear the screen of all messages by pressing the default numpad * key.

You can also use the controls to the left of the messages. The message controls will appear any time a message appears. If no messages are visible, you can bring up the message controls by moving the mouse to the upper left corner of the screen. If you are using a mouse flight control mode, you'll need to hold the ALT key to bypass flight control. Once the pointer is near the top left of the screen, the controls will appear along with the last logged message and the mouse pointer will change from the flight control mode to the selection mode.

oh, while we're here, is there a way to know the "speed" of a frame? There are references to it, and I can see different frames yield different speeds if I replace them in the current construction, but there's no measurement associated with it...is there?

In parenthesis after the 'S:' next to the engine line.

[Edited on 11-4-2010 by Vice]

[widden]

thanks again!
I'll get into reading the material.