getting more indepth in this wonderful game, I found that these are my 3 common errors made at the start:
- Miss-jumping
- Using the jettison command
- failing delivery missions
Here are some thoughts about all this:
1)
NEVER use the "Jump" icon in the upper menu if you are using a mouse !!
Because if you do, you will have to press ALT so you can temporaly disable the ship thruster commands. Unfortunately, ALT together with the Jump command also means you are going to jump to maximum range, unaware of where your current waypoint is located. A bad glitch. And what's more: this will MAKE YOUR CURRENT MISSION FAIL (no payment).
There are 2 alternatives for jumping which make the Jump icon useless: To jump to a waypoint always use F2 or the "Launch" command in the Navigation console; use ALT-F2 to jump at maximum range in your facing direction.
2)
About Jettison (J) and the way to avoid accidental jettison
Jettison with the J command always means you are going to emtpy *ALL* your cargo bays! However, your cargo is not immediately lost: your cargo containers are floating around your ship at some distance. Look for a white dot on your radar to locate them. In most cases you should be able to re-collect the containers in the case of an accidental jettison (see exception below).
It's NOT possible to jettison the content of single bays, however you can discard single items if you need the space urgently, for example to collect objects that are more valuable during mining etc. To discard the bay content simply left-click on it with the mouse in the Inventory screen (F3) when you are undocked. When you are docked this will instead sell the item.
See the hint "Delivery missions..." and remember to NOT use the jettison command when doing a delivery mission!
Accidental jettison in the Inventory screen...
In the Inventory screen it's very easy to accidentally jettison all your cargo because the "Jettinson cargo" command is located just below the "News console" which you use very often. When docked on a planet city and you misshappily press the jettison command then all cargo containers are ejected from your ship and will float to the planet's ground between buildings. Most often you will be unable to recover them because you must keep a minimum altitude and flying angle. If this happens in a space station, you should be more fortunate by being able to re-collect the containers but do it pretty fast because other ships fly around and may take them!
Jettison prevention...
All you can do against an accidental jettison is to get the habit to quick-save your progress before landing at any station or city. Another radical method is disabling the J key in the keyboard setup, but this will not prevent you to jettison within the Inventory console by mistake.
If you had the good and logical idea to hide parts of your cargo in space, far away from flying routes, for the purpose to free your cargo room for whatever reason, then I have to deceive you:
your cargo containers will dissapear as soon as you leave the sector. This is a memory constraint of the program which cannot keep "alive" all sorts of objects undefinitly.
In short: I find the Jettison command J completly USELESS and it's usage should be changed, for example to bribe pirates for not getting attacked etc. In this case, it should be changed to allow for single bay jettisonning.
3)
If you get stranded without fuel in some location (or else for whatever reason), then it's the end... Unless...
In the Single Player mode, your only chance is a ship flying near enough so you are able to trade for fuel, or better wait for Obama comming on a skateboard
The other possibility is: you switch to Multiplayer mode and you guide a fellow mercenary to your location to give you some fuel.
While there are a lot of distress calls you can deal with, it's very strange that YOU cannot yourself send any distress call! Maybe the game authors will be so kind in future releases.
4)
Delivery missions: Do NOT jettison anything!
When doing delivery missions you are told in the mission description to jettison the delivery item at arrival.
THIS IS NOT NECESSARY AND YOU SHOULDN'T DO IT!
Because, again, this will cause ALL your cargo to be jettisoned and the mission's waiting ship will be happy to take the delivery...and your additional cargo as a donation
To avoid this, place your ship within the delivery area located below the ship, it's a green square where you must fly inside. Then, go in the Inventory screen (F3) and left-click on the item to be delivered. This will accomplish the mission and will left your other cargo untouched.
Happy fight!
XenonS
:P:P:P:P:P
