2019-01-18 08:05:08

This is ironic, I got too taken up with playing the game to write more of the guide, and yet I'm seeing people are needing one.

I also did all the missions which meant playing with some different ships, though I'm back in my Gecko now and just getting enough cash for the ull regen system before I start slaughtering my way to elite rank and purchice of a moon big_smile.

to answer Ironcross comment about firing.
Basically, one thing to remember is all lasers in the game are continuous beams. when you hear a low thrumming pulse, it means the enemy is firing on you and doing damage, so if you hear that you need to do something pretty quick.

I admit the spawn rate takes a bit of getting used to but after playing for a good while now, including a while playing with the worm and some low end ships like the krite and the moray I actually don't think its too bad, particularly since you can always overdrive or jump out of trouble.

One slightly confusing thing spawn rate wise, is that ships will always come to get floating cargo canisters, in low danger systems this isn't an issue, but in high danger systems unless you've got a ship with a good turning speed and laser, you'll end up bighting off more than you can chew.

Also since your more likely to end up with unprovoked attacks in high danger systems, if your going to need to head to a star to refuel, choose somewhere safe to do it, same goes fore asteroid mining and so on.

Speaking of navigation, there is also a handy trick I use when I'm trying to find a particular thing on the other side of an object.
if I'm looking for a freeport on the far side of a terran planet, obviously going through the planet's atmosphere where anyone can target me is a bad idea.
I could fly around the planet using conventional engines, but that takes time. So while I do is first turn so it tells me the planet is on my right, then give a quick blast of overdrive, then turn to the freeport.

This also works if you have an auto pilot destination programmed and it wants to fly you  through a giant or something, just get the giant to your right, give a quick burst of overdrive, then hit f twice  reengage the auto pilot, if you have a straight line, then just use the overdrive to get there quickly.
Using this method I've got to a lot of points I need to go in dangerous sytems without running into too much trouble, though I still try to be careful when refuelling.


Armour and the hull regeneration upgrade are a must if you want to do serious combat, though obviously the faster ship you've got and the better your flying the less you get hit.

As to combat itself, the first thing to remember is that your laser isn't too precise. As soon as you hear your ship's scanner bean change from the usual sound to a higher pitched foe indicator, you can hit and hold the i key to do continuous damage. pay attention to distance, since the closer you get to your target the less likely they are to damage you. I believe lasers do more damage at close range too, but don't quote me on that.
pay attention though since you don't want to overshoot, though if you blast the ship before it gets away from you and your running along at full speed you can pick up any loot rather easily.

Also bare in mind, ships will sometimes eject cargo canisters, so the high pitched foe indicator will suddenly change to the normal scanner beam and you'll be told the distance and type of the cargo, If this happens, then target the enemy again, find the high pitched sound and keep firing since while some fugitives will try to drop cargo and run, others will come after you while you pick up the goods, so better safe than sorry.

The second thing to pay attention too is the enemy beacon which tells you if a ship is ahead or behind. If its ahead you can usually keep moving and target it with your laser, if its behind, you need to immediately stop and try a quick spin round to get it, then throttle up again.

The last thing to take note of is the status indicator which tells you a fugitive is entering the area. You can centre this sound directly and start blasting immediately they pop up if your quick, especially if your ship is travelling at a low speed.

indeed as a rule of thumb, unless a ship is immediately in front of you, your better off throttling down to target, and throttling up to chase, which will also make it harder for enemies to target you.

Hth.

I'll try and get the guide finished today.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-18 08:39:17

Dark, which ships I need in missions?
The one for the water environment is told in the mission description, but do I need some other ship?
The Police ship perhaps, since some if not all missions require acquiring illegal goods??
I want to do missions, but the thought of having to buy all equipment again is putting me off.
I did not even find the scientist when I started this mission, so I backed off.
Also do I need to do missions in the order they are presented?

2019-01-18 10:33:05

After I gave it a try I still could not find where to sell items that I bought from the place that I started from.
I start from the Liberty faction and I start from the beginning. What do I need to do?

2019-01-18 10:41:34

@Luel you can do the missions in any order. Most don't require ships, but some do require other things such as specific goods in your cargo hold, or on one  occasion criminal status.

I'd recommend  leaving the xeno archaeologist mission until later since it requires a lot of cash, but all the others are doable with fewer resources.

As for finding the Zokalo,  this is a little harder since the zokalo beacons  switch doesn't seem to work, but there are fairly easy ways to find it, remember a zokalo is always located near a planet, so try getting close to the planet of the appropriate system and then looking around.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-18 11:51:00

Just happened to peek at the chatter today and just want to mention the following,
Be aware that the missions, while simple, have different endings depending on your actions.
The xeno-archaeologist mission isn't over until you defeat the bad guys - it's the main mission of the game.
I know that laser sounds have been a big issue. My small update will include 4 laser sounds for the player, as requested.
While I can increase the number of sound channels, my machine is memory limited and I seem to be hitting a limit.
Enemy ships can miss you, while still firing, potentially hitting other ships who then respond. Misses are not audible.
The emphasis of the game was to provide necessary information through sounds, and some ambient effects.
I'm making excuses now, but the development of this game was experimental and I was learning along the way. It could be more efficient.
Hopefully, it's a bit of fun that players will return to from time to time when they are in the mood.
I am adding a few things, and aim to have an updated version available over the weekend or just after.
But after that, I want to try out some simpler ideas along different lines, applying what I've learnt to other areas.
And I still have to make a truly faction oriented game at some point.

2019-01-18 12:36:04

hi freedom,

well this game can become more faction based. the ground work is definitely there i think. it's certainly a great start if you ask me.

2019-01-18 14:34:01

Hey all, is there still need for an audio tutorial? Once i'll get home today i could make one in stereo.

Hail, Daughter of Hatred. Creator of Sanctuary. Hail...Lilith.

2019-01-18 15:32:17

I am absolutely looking forward to Dark's guide, and @arnold18 an audio tutorial would be awesome.

2019-01-18 16:13:19

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the guide to.
I love guides, because even if you're a master of a game, they still have a thing or two to learn that you may not have discovered.

Though our eyes may fail, our ears prevail!
User Karma, every little helps

2019-01-18 16:28:26 (edited by Dark 2019-01-18 16:30:17)

Okay the guide is done and can be found here in the articles room

I must apologise for the lack of usable headings. I did put them in originally, over 50 of them in fact, then punBB constantly complained at me.
I've been trying to fix the headings for the last couple of hours! when I finally got them fixed, it was all wonky, so I had to take them out.

So, headings are evil!

Either way, hope people like the guide and that it answers many questions, I tried to be as thorough as possible whilst keeping spoilers to a minimum.

@Freedom, its awesome that your planning on updating the game with some extra sounds etc (for all I do regret having to then change the guide), and of course more games would be awesome.

While I appreciate that New horizons has been a really major project and your probably sick to death of the hole thing, at the sametime, this is a truly amazing audiogame, something myself and many others, (have wanted for a while one reason I've just written such a humungus guide to help people through the learning curve).

I'd say the game goes  bit further than "A bit of fun", especially given the amount of time I've spent playing and writing about it over the past few days big_smile.

I'd therefore personally be in favour of expanding the current content in the game, rather than looking for something new at this stage, though of course its your game and what you do with it is your decision.

My suggestions would be:

1: missions for specific systems to give reasons to explore the galaxy (I like the idea of courier missions).

2: Extra ship types, particularly in the 10 to 30 k range, since at the moment the pricing is a bit nuts since there's lots to buy at the start if you begin with a worm, but once you get the cobra things level out quite a lot.
i'd also like to see some big enemy ships who took a bit more destroying and maybe some more expensive hardware.

3: more advanced resource gathering alternatives for ships with bigger holds such as factories or robot dredgers for asteroid belts, since right now asteroid mining is pretty much the same all the way through.

4: Some achievements to work for and maybe stat tracking, I was a wee bit disappointed when  completed the xenobiologist mission and didn't get a reward, though the ending story was very cool.

Okay I'll stop rambling now.

Either way thanks again for a truly awesome game.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-18 18:06:54

Just about to check out the guide now, so thanks in advance Dark smile

Though our eyes may fail, our ears prevail!
User Karma, every little helps

2019-01-18 19:11:38

After I went an looked up Elite I began to remember that I have played it years ago.
It's nice seeing developers developing games for the blind that plays out the exact same way that the video game did.
Thanks for those who are working on the different guides.

2019-01-18 19:37:13

Ill check out the guide soon. An audio tutorial would still be very helpful though.

2019-01-19 00:19:16

OK, I retract my statement about buying armor. I still would only do it if combat is my goal though, with staying alive, as long as you have fuel, and know to use the skip drive, you're good. Staying out of bodies which can mass lock you is also very important. But yeah, you can sit there with a military laser and pick off a guy in a high danger sector, causing his cargo to go everywhere, then a bunch of scavengers come in, you pick them off, start collecting the cargo, and even more come in. Eventually, you'll have to beat it out of there, because your armor will fail and you'll get beat down, but while it lasts, its a sweet bit of fun. I also love the sound of the stuff flying past you when you blow a ship. Also, that loud thunk sound, I wonder what that is. I think its the item smashing into your hull, but I can't be sure.

I used to play Starfleet Command III when my vision was a bit better. One thing that game had was the HET (high energy turn). It was basically a way to bring your ship about, or anywhere within that arc from relative 0 to relative 180 degrees. It had a long cooldown, but it was strategically important sometimes when your weapons were exhausted. In that game, your weapons each had firing arcs, and you had different hardpoints on your ship. You could retrofit it however you liked, given the credits, as long as what you were doing was within the spec of the kind of thing the hardpoint could accept. So normally, you'd try to be frugal about your use of the phasers and so on. You'd face theh enemy, fire, turn, fire, etc. You also had torpedos on fore an daft. The idea is to keep turning, so that you don't exhaust that weapon or weapons on that end of the ship, and also to keep your shield impact to a minimum, spreading out the fire you've taken to all the shields, rather than sustained damage to your one shield. Much better to have something like 82% or thereabouts all the way around your ship than like 53% somewhere, then like 92% here, 78% here, 86% here, etc. The high energy turn would let you come about on an enemy, exposing your torpedo banks to him and letting you fire. I feel that's what this game needs, a way to quickly come about, but at a cost. a cooldown for sure, but also a bit of hull strain. Technically, since is no atmosphere in space, that would be a bit unrealistic, but it needs some way to be used, but not abused.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
End racism
End division
Become united

2019-01-19 00:28:30

in the original elite you had lasers front rear port and starboard. maybe if we could have different views on nh that would add something else to the game. it probably wouldn't even be that difficult to play either because with rear lasers you just reverse the direction for example.

2019-01-19 06:17:45 (edited by Dark 2019-01-19 07:24:37)

@Ironcross, snap turns would imho make the game a bit too easy, one thing I rather like is having to always maneuver to keep the enemy in view, changing my speed as I go on, actually that's one thing I really like in the game, how it makes you feel like your actually piloting a ship,and manoeuvrability counts, I like the idea of shields though, indeed some more defensive upgrades would be nice.

I'd be interested myself to see some different weapons to make combat choices change, for example say there was a high damage beam which had a really narrow focus, or missiles that went on straight lines from relative positions to your ship, or how about some close vs long range weapons.

Combat still remains really fun, but with my gecko with a military laser and hull regeneration I'm at a point now where basically I  park in as high a danger rating system as I like, (preferably nine or ten), pick off anyone who comes for me and continue grabbing loot until my hold is full, then have to run off and sell it.

Oh, and btw, grabbing/distroying cargo is also a good way to keep the sky a bit clearer and keep the appearence of enemies to something manageable.

I am currently on 800 kills and expect to hit elite rank soon, though its going to take a while before I have enough cash to afford to buy a moon of my own big_smile.

Btw, have jut slightly updated the guide again.
The forum wouldn't let me add subheadings at different levels for the different parts so I just added bog standard headings, still that should hopefully make the guide easier to navigate.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-19 07:41:21

I'll be doing a New Horizons live stream today, saturday the 19th at 3:30 pm eastern time. Plan is to start fresh and go over getting started with mining,  combat, and trading. There's a chat on the BSG live page and I'll be trying to answer as many questions as possible.

You can tune in and check the current eastern time at www.blackscreengaming.com/live

2019-01-19 08:20:22

Nice, that should hopefully help people to get started.

2019-01-19 10:50:05

Hmmm, I have 1014 kills now, but no elite rank. For some reason I'm still listed as deadlly. Maybe I need to buy a moon?

I currently have 44 k or so, and while I have seen a moon on sale for 50 k most seem to be 75, so a bit more slayage is required.

Btw, was also thinking it'd be great if there was an indicator for when your cargo hold was full, since the first time I find out my hull is full is when I can't pick something up, and if I'm carrying illegal cargo that sometimes gives chance for those blasted vipers to turn up and knick things big_smile.

I'd also appreciate a note on the pause menu as to what your current auto pilot destination was and how far away, especially when having to calculate when to go and refuel.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-19 11:23:19

@Dark: I think someone said something about 1028 kills. So make one last massacre! HAHA!

2019-01-19 11:34:23

Yep, its 1025 kills Lol.

Wow, the special reward you get is pretty awesome and should make earning enough moola to buy that moon interesting.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-19 12:02:16

Hello, I have a quick question regarding the number of celestial bodies in one system. When looking at the status display for the system description, what exactly is factored in when it tells you the number of bodies in it? Does this number include absolutely everything (planets, stars, nebuli, asteroid fields and stations), or is anything left out?

I used to be a knee like you, then I took an adventurer in the arrow.

2019-01-19 14:29:17

also what's the border number mean? i never did get an answer to that?

2019-01-19 14:35:01

@connor I believe that just refers to actual celestial bodies, IE.  planets and stars, not asteroid fields, nebulae or stations, but I could be wrong, to be honest I haven't really taken note of much in system statistics other than danger rating and mineral type.

@Darren, I think the boarder has something to do with how far to the boarder of a given faction's teretory the system is, but since factions don't really play a part in the game at this stage that doesnt' matter as much.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2019-01-19 16:39:35

Please, could You record, or explain this game?
I don't know, how to jump. I press and hold o, but nothing happened.

Ja volim samo kafu sa Rakijom.