2020-05-21 02:49:24

Darren,

I can talk in general terms about ship design, colonization, and the like, but this is an area where the resources we've already recommended have a lot of info.

To begin with, you need a survey ship of some kind. This is usually a fairly simple ship, just a few engines, a couple survey sensors, and some fuel. The most confusing part is probably the design of the engine, but you need to do that from the "Create project," screen before you can design any ship that you expect to move. I've already mentioned how you design engines, sensors, and weapon systems in earlier messages, but it's basically just picking elements from several lists, and then researching or instantly giving yourself the technology.

Another thought I had, would it be easier if you maybe started a new game and told the  machine to design your first ships for you? That might let you explore the rest of the UI with ships which will generally work, though you lose out on the mechanical experience of designing things from scratch.

The basic flow for the ship design window is this.

1. Hit the "New class," button.
2. Hit "rename class," if you don't like the default name the game gave for the class.
3. Move to the component tree view and look around, find engines, and expand the category to find the engine you've already designed.
4. Route your mouse to the engine you designed and double click. This is a bit tricky with your resolution, but should work if you use the mod.
5. Go to the ship design display, which will show you the ship is now able to move faster than 1 KM/S.
6. Repeat for survey sensors or other components you want to add.
7. Close the window.
8. Retool a shipyard (on the shipyard tab) for the design, which is again just a matter of selecting a yard with the proper tonnage and type, selecting "Retool," from the list, and pressing the "Set activity," button.

This same process, with variations, is followed for all ships you want to design, or for bases, fighter craft, etc.

2020-05-21 09:03:59

i was actually goinhg to suggest zac, if you've covered this in earlier messages, could you put them all in the first post like a bit of an FAQ?

2020-05-21 09:06:27

oh and whenever i load the game up with the mod or the normal game, i tend to get something like this at the start. 1.9.5 function number 1617 object object reference not set to an instants of an object. does anybody know what this means?

2020-05-21 13:13:35

another question i have, would the game be easier to play on a braille display would it get round the screen size issues?

2020-05-21 16:07:45

I have come to the conclusion that this game is not for you. You do not know enough of how screenreaders work to be able to troubleshoot without constantly asking questions.

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2020-05-26 01:25:56

Hey guys,

I loved this game when I had vision, and am estatic to find out it has ecome accessible.

I was wondering where on the class design screen is the ship's information, like speed and fuel rates?

Thanks for all the detailed help in this forum, it has made relearning this a lot easier.

2020-05-26 02:36:12

Hi,

The detailed ship info is just an edit box on the class design tab, or am I misunderstanding the question? smile

Glad we can bring the game back for you, it's wonderful.

2020-05-26 08:41:26

how do i make sure of the decimal point thing? i've tried looking in keyboard settings but can't seem to find it?

2020-05-26 13:16:50

Darren,You're in the UK. unless you have a very, very weird computer setup the decimal is already set properly. You don't need to mess with it.

2020-05-26 16:27:52

hi zac,

that's what i thought but i'm getting a function 1617 error the moment i run it. so i was thinking the decimal was the problem perhaps.

2020-05-26 17:17:52

Darren,

That error is largely harmless, from what I understand. I have sometimes seen it myself but it doesn't seem to matter much. You should still be able to play the game more or less fine.

2020-05-26 17:53:21

right ok. i just didn't know what it meant that's all.

2020-05-26 18:18:04

A good rule of thumb is that if you don't know what an error message is about, search the forum or ask on the Discord. Most of the errors you get will not mess up your game, though they may be a symptom of a bug somewhere. There is a forum dedicated to bug reports where people  can submit them. You will probably find not a lot of issues, the current version is quite stable.

2020-05-27 03:48:26

is that still 1.95? or has there been an update? i am on the discord but it's rather heavy so i don't always look at it. sometimes i get swamped with notifications lol.

2020-05-27 04:19:48

Latest version is still 1.95, yes. 1.10 will be out sometime soon, and will include some accessibility fixes for some areas which were a little confusing with NVDA.

2020-05-27 17:10:33

New version available!
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11538.0

2020-05-27 19:17:21

Yes, and it has a few accessibility fixes despite not mentioning that in the change log. There are now labels for the missile and turret design windows, and combat will be considerably easier since it now displays distance information in the tree view. In addition, there are hotkeys, though there is currently a bug which prevents you from closing windows with alt+F4, which hopefully can be fixed soon.

2020-05-28 01:51:51

Just updated the original post. For interested parties, you can find a list of screen reader suggestions, along with Steve's fixes, in this thread.

2020-05-28 01:53:52

Thank you so much.  really look forward to trying this.  Currently Stone soup is taking up much of my gaming time.  smile

2020-05-28 02:43:28

I hope you enjoy it whenever you get the chance to try. It's really hard to explain but a lot of fun for a certain kind of person.

Lordlundin and myself are thinking we need to try some sort of let's play now that version 1.10 is out. I might also try something just on my own, depending how I feel. iT's going to be a lot of fun.

2020-05-29 19:56:43

Of course, the moment i think that we're done with database patches for a while along comes another one smile

This is version 1.11.0, and has a couple small accessibility/usability fixes on top f major save game fixes. As with all database patches, it isn't compatible with older games. You can download it here. I will update the OP.

2020-05-29 19:57:15

Also of note, please feel free to see my post in general discussions, regarding what people might want to see in the way of Aurora 4X-related content.

2020-05-30 11:44:48

A little question of curiosity:
Are there translations for other languages?
The details in some cases can be a little tricky sometimes.

2020-05-30 12:00:38

seen it zac and responded.

2020-05-31 01:13:05

Firefly,

Unfortunately there aren't any translations I'm aware of. The best thing I can suggest is to ask if you're ever confused by something. A lot of the game uses abbreviations and sci-fi jargon which doesn't translate well in any case.

Also as a note, the game forums are currently down. You can grab my copy of version of 1.11 at this Dropbox link.