@Viktor good to know there is something to do for the mission, what you've said gives me an idea so I'll try something out.

As regards combat, there are a few little things i've discovered, especially after buying my gekko.

Firstly, the laser fires continuously, this indeed was one mistake I made before, holding the button down. While asteroids and cargo crates and other stuff can be destroyed in one shot, other ships need a concentrated blast to take their armour, so destroying ships is generally a matter of centering them, listening for the foe indicator then blasting away, actually its a rather similar process to centering the ore from an asteroid and chasing it down. I'd also highly recommend as good a laser as possible, preferably the military laser.

Second, turning speed is key, since combat is all about centering the enemy. If you hear the sound of a foe behind yo, the best thing you can do is slow down or even stop, then turn to face the enemy before speeding up and blast away, indeed getting how to change your speed and angle fluidly is the answer to winning lots of fights, though also bare in mind many ships will eject cargo to try and put you off when you shoot them, which is another good reason to fly fast when you have a ship in your sights so you can snag the stuff they drop, as well as practice your fast tracking skills.

Third, as regards enemy aggression. The thing that causes bounty hunters to show up is floating cargo, this is why I was having the issue previously where I would shoot one ship and get swamped. The higher the danger rating of the system, the more likely bad guys are to turn up after either you or the cargo.

This is why with my Gecko I'm currently camped out in a danger 8 system basically blasting away for cargo and bounties .

As to armour, its essentially an extra 100 hp right there which can come in handy sometimes, especially when your hull is already damaged and you have made it to a  or zokalo but not to a freeport.
the hull regeneration system is of course preferable, but that costs literally as much as your ship so you won't have it for a while.

Actually, one basic upgrade which would be nice is the way to buy permenant armour, the way you can currently buy permanent fuel expantions.

hth.

Can someone please give me some help so that I can get going in this game? What do the different factions do?
After you launch for the first time where do you go? It seems that all I do is fly around and land on planets that I can't do anything on.
I would love to play this game but I need some help getting started.

Yes that would be fine with me.

Or he stepped back. Please please please don't do that!
Darren is absolutely wright! You set the yardstick for the next audiogame extremely high!

I will try to create a little audiotutorial tomorrow.

I just achieved an Elite rank in combat after 1024 kills.

I would like to do some missions, but I am not really eager to buy another ship and have to replace the equipment again.
I like the ship I have, thank you very much.
Maybe if I earn million credits...

I believe you get dangerous rank at 250 kills, and presumably you get to elite at 1000, it will be interesting to see what happens first, elite rank or enough cash to buy a moon.

@darren, there is already a sound for centred ships, the high pitched beep if it is a foe, the normal scanner beep  not. If you hear beeping and hold down the laser button your damaging the enemy, you can also tell by the increasing laser tone.

I'm putting together a fairly detailed starter guide for the game which I hope to have finished either today or tomorrow. It should cover most things you need to know to get started, as well as have useful information like ship stats.

HI.
Like a number of people it seems, I'm also having trouble getting started in the game.
Like literally, I choose my faction, start at the beginning because why not, and then i'm virtually plunged into this haze of sounds which gives me the impression of a bunch of drones scaring some birds. :d
But seriously, I can't go to any planet or anything.
The auto pilot says jump now, so I press o, i hold O, nothing happens apart from hearing a kinda weird sound.
When I press P, it says something like Vortex 30 and then says jump now again, and on pressing P a second time, drains my 1 remaining fuel unit, only to be asked to jump again? *looks confused*
Any help would be appreciated, as I really would like to say something good about this game
Thanks in advance.

Hello!

I would also like to say thanks to the developer of this game. Free audio games of that quality are quite rare.
Since I am a big fan of any kind of Scifi, this game is just what I was waiting for. :-)

I have played it quite a lot in the last days and have reached the dangerous rank today, and was also able to buy a nicely equipped Annaconda.

However, there are still a few things which I don't really understand.
Is there a easy way to find out which objects are located in the current system? The only method which I have found so far is to constantly turn around my ship until I have found what I am looking for. It would be quite helpful to see in an instant wheter e.g. an astroid field or a planetoid is present in the system or not. Is there a way to do this appart from circling around like an asteroid myself?

Another thing that I have not found out yet is if its possible to determine how far the border - let's say of an asteroid field, is away from me, when I am inside of it. If I am attacked and want to reach a position from where I can jump than it would be extremely helpful to know how far away from the jumping border I currently am or which way I should turn to leave the asteroid field quickest.

What's more, I would like to know wheter there are any rules which define how much credits you pay or receive for a specific good at a specific location. For example: If a systems mineral type is gold, will this make gold cheaper or more expensive on a free port in that system? Are there any relations between a systems mineral type and the prices which you pay or get for it at the local markets?
Sometimes it can be quite frustrating to have a full hold of a specific ware when you have to fly from system to system to find a buyer who is willing to pay a lucrative price for it.

I would be grateful for some information.

Last but not least I would like to give a few suggestions about the user interface, which I consider to be quite strange and unnecessarely complicated to operate. The menu structure, especially the way of going back, takes longer than it would have to. A key to launch the ship would also be very helpful, because its needed so often, and a way of going to the top or bottom of a menu would also make the gameplay more efficient.
Additionally, the "ask for directions"-command should better be placed within the auto pilot menu on my opinion.

Appart from that, the game is quite funny and contains lots of possibilities for future enhancements.

Great job, Freeman69,

Kind regards from Daniel.

@ironcross32... yeah I get that, but 1, what am I actually supposed to do at first when I want to go to a destination, because every time I ask for directions to an alien system it just says a bunch of numbers and something like distance 11 or something similar... and 2, as I say, the auto pilot just keeps asking me to jump, even if I wasted my 2 units of fuel pressing P. :d

Now that, would make a lot of sense. :d

Thanks for the info. I will be trying this out in a little bit.

I've not used the worm, good lord, if it only has 2 fuel, that means that you will pretty much have to refuel at every system. Remember, there are two ways to refuel. Buy it at planets and stations, or harvest it from stars, minus the neutron, which contains no fuel material.

The combat area of the game is where I have my most gripes, and its not just the high spawn rate, but yes that needs balanced out. It's also how ships can just hit you whenever they please, its like the AI has no fudge factor. They could be missing and there is just no sound for a miss, but if so, that's a grave oversight on the developer's end. No offense meant, but you really should hear when people are firing at you, even if that is not a hit, that way you know you're in serious trouble. When you hear what a few in the community have dubbed the, "parrot sound", which is the incoming fugitive, you have no way of really knowing how far he is. You can get that information by targeting him, which means center the ship in your stereo field, and you could also hear the engines, and where they correspond to the radar and so forth, but if they're firing their weapon, it needs to make sound regardless of whether it his or not. I don't know if that is the case, though I've wondered for a few days now.