Public Beta of 4.00

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

It may be plot-related, or it's just some kind of a civilian vessel that flies around those Home of Light systems.

Is there a landing pad on it? The perspective may be interesting. May be a good yacht for player - how much does it cost? What are its stats?

[Tamina]

This ad-ship is in the game at least since v2.0
If you don't have The Teladi Outpost DLC you can still see it in the background of the main menu we got with v2.0, it slowly flies around the station.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

This ad-ship is in the game at least since v2.0
If you don't have The Teladi Outpost DLC you can still see it in the background of the main menu we got with v2.0, it slowly flies around the station.

Haha, makes sense. So the myth is busted.

[Mackan]

This ad-ship is in the game at least since v2.0
If you don't have The Teladi Outpost DLC you can still see it in the background of the main menu we got with v2.0, it slowly flies around the station.

Haha doh, saw it listed as changed/added to 4.0 in the modified files thread and figured it was new since I haven't seen it before. I've only played 1.0 and >3.0.

Regarding the economy analytics UI, I REALLY hope we'll be able to filter for owned stations only with total supply and demand, would make it a hundred times easier to set up self-sufficient chains.

[Tamina]

I don't know if it is new in v4.0 or never catched it before but Pirates are... pirating?
They shoot their victims into tiny bits and then send out carrier drones to actually steal their cargo?

I have never seen this before but especially in TO Marauders and The Cartel are doing this all the time.
That's why I am asking if this is new. Maybe worth an entry into the Wikipage.

@Earth Ultimatum IV.
You said you have found the description to Home of Light in the game but in your post was a second system called "Vergend Explorer" (or something like that) does that mean we get a second system?

[Varek Raith]

Lots of needed UI fixes. Me likey.
Though, we really need to stop being locked out of controls during some convos. This gets me killed at times.

[Mackan]

Here's some info on the jumpdrive, taken from the equivalent thread on the Steam forums. Didn't see details about this posted here or on the wiki.

Managed to get the jumpdrive up and running by adding the upgrade to the Argon Mercenary game start, call me impatient. Tried it out briefly (will spoiler mark just in case):

Spoiler

Show

In order to use the jumpdrive, you highlight either a jump beacon or a gate on the map and click the "Jump" button. You'll be given a confirmation prompt and a countdown of ten seconds before your ship jumps.

You can jump from ANYWHERE to EVERYWHERE (if beacon or gate present, ofc). There seems to be NO restriction in place on distance. Want to jump from Maelstrom to Albion? Go for it!

After jumping there's a 10 minute cooldown before you can jump again. You seem to be able to circumvent this by using a "jump drive coolant", one of the new items mentioned in the community patchnotes. No idea how easy it will be to obtain these, or how you obtain them at all. They are probably consumables, to limit jumping willy nilly? But regardless of how you get them, there will always be SETA...

[spankahontis]

@spankahontis: Same here, but read a few post above - weapon modification and new ship sales missions was not listed - this means there might be some more interesting stuff added as Beta will progress.

I checked and found that you construct them in your inventory like the Rare Engine, Metal Alloys, Haze etc.
There are 3 of them to choose from, but I have not come across the modules from anywhere, nobody sells them and no crates in space have them AFAIK.

So yeah, this Weapons modification looks to be a work-in-progress.


Although not to seem a total grouch, I've noticed the Frame Rates have taken a real boost in performance.. Allot smoother than previous versions.
And the available missions list really makes my life easier so these are thumbs up from me to Egosoft.
And the aesthetics of entering a highway have much improved.


UPDATE: I managed to upgrade my Plasma Cannon, it fires 44% faster.

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

Had a look at the gamefiles myself, focusing on the expansion, and holy crap. Tons of totally unexpected stuff.
Shouldn't even post it on the forum. TOO many spoilers to handle.

But I'm hyped as hell now. Hope they add the DLC to the store as soon as possible. Very exciting.

[w.evans]

There are 3 of them to choose from, but I have not come across the modules from anywhere, nobody sells them and no crates in space have them AFAIK.

It's odd. I picked up a couple of weapon mods from loot drops, and could have mechanics install them.

But you could also dismantle these weapon mods to get weapon modification parts. (New "Weapon Mods" button in the inventory.) These can then be used to craft three different grades of weapon mods, but don't know what those craftable weapon mods do.

[Jaxartes]

Had a look at the gamefiles myself, focusing on the expansion, and holy crap. Tons of totally unexpected stuff.
Shouldn't even post it on the forum. TOO many spoilers to handle.

But I'm hyped as hell now. Hope they add the DLC to the store as soon as possible. Very exciting.

Please tell us.

[ezra-r]

Hi there,

I've started a little summary of new things in the 4.00 beta that we can update as we discover more. The idea being somewhere we can collate info and tips that could help us understand the changes and what they offer.

http://www.egosoft.com:8292/confluence/ ... d=36602120

In the past, there have been text and/or video guides to major updates so the page may not be needed in the long term but in the meantime, it might be useful. The evolving list of undocumented changes can still be found here.

Egosoft's wiki lets anyone reply to, or update, posts without registration so feel free to. If new to the wiki, stefanEgo's welcome page is here.

Regards,
Sparks

I took the liberty of adding some info about bulleting board and SETA.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

I took the liberty of adding some info about bulleting board and SETA.

Thanks very much! Adding the caveat about the Bulletin Board and the Legacy Menu in particular is really handy.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

I don't know if it is new in v4.0 or never catched it before but Pirates are... pirating?
They shoot their victims into tiny bits and then send out carrier drones to actually steal their cargo?

I have never seen this before but especially in TO Marauders and The Cartel are doing this all the time.
That's why I am asking if this is new. Maybe worth an entry into the Wikipage.

New in 4.00. When I read that in the notes I thought of you recent wish list as I think it was on it

• Fixed several bugs with Marauder Pirates not being able to steal dropped containers from their targets.
• Fixed missing command info for mining drones and for transport drones picking up ware containers.

[TheDeliveryMan]

@Earth Ultimatum IV.
You said you have found the description to Home of Light in the game but in your post was a second system called "Vergend Explorer" (or something like that) does that mean we get a second system?

These were game start descriptions.

Spoiler

Show

The language file mentions more than one new system...

[spankahontis]

There are 3 of them to choose from, but I have not come across the modules from anywhere, nobody sells them and no crates in space have them AFAIK.

It's odd. I picked up a couple of weapon mods from loot drops, and could have mechanics install them.

But you could also dismantle these weapon mods to get weapon modification parts. (New "Weapon Mods" button in the inventory.) These can then be used to craft three different grades of weapon mods, but don't know what those craftable weapon mods do.

As i've found so far, I've managed to get a Mechanic to buff my Plasma Cannon Mk2 to fire about 45% faster with an increased cooler rate.

[ezra-r]

I don't know if it is new in v4.0 or never catched it before but Pirates are... pirating?
They shoot their victims into tiny bits and then send out carrier drones to actually steal their cargo?

I have never seen this before but especially in TO Marauders and The Cartel are doing this all the time.
That's why I am asking if this is new. Maybe worth an entry into the Wikipage.

New in 4.00. When I read that in the notes I thought of you recent wish list as I think it was on it

• Fixed several bugs with Marauder Pirates not being able to steal dropped containers from their targets.
• Fixed missing command info for mining drones and for transport drones picking up ware containers.

It's a very welcome addition, and now it makes sense titurels can carry all sorts of cargo.

Saw a titurel roaming in OL which had killed an ion hasvester and looted all the ions afterwards, refreshing!!

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

The new 'Ship for Sale' mission looks interesting; I wonder if it applies to capships as well?..

All I've found so far are fighters. Artios and Vasios.

I just accepted one for a Foltor Raider but I am not very experienced with exploration and scanning...

When i reached the spot*, the zone map was empty and all I could find with Long Range Scan Mode were a bazillian hits for asteroids and a lock box. Any hints for finding a fighter would be welcome

Edit: I tried a couple of times, initially panning around and scanning, later the same but also scanning on the way to the spot in case the wider field of view helped.


* Guidance deactivates when 50 km away (...) so I went back to an i-point on a station, clicked on it, and flew back in the direction of the marker until I was the designated distance from the i-point.

[w.evans]

There are 3 of them to choose from, but I have not come across the modules from anywhere, nobody sells them and no crates in space have them AFAIK.

It's odd. I picked up a couple of weapon mods from loot drops, and could have mechanics install them.

But you could also dismantle these weapon mods to get weapon modification parts. (New "Weapon Mods" button in the inventory.) These can then be used to craft three different grades of weapon mods, but don't know what those craftable weapon mods do.

As i've found so far, I've managed to get a Mechanic to buff my Plasma Cannon Mk2 to fire about 45% faster with an increased cooler rate.

THAT'S how it works!

Ok, we get weapon mods from loot drops. (They're dropped from destroyed fighters. Possibly from capital ships too.)

These weapon mods are randomly generated with specific parameters specified in \libraries\weaponmods.xml and are each specific to a weapon type.

We can dismantle individual weapon mods to get weapon mod parts. This is useful if, for example, we get a weapon mod for the particle repeater mk1, and we're using the mk3.

Weapon mods and weapon mod parts come in 3 grades: low, medium, and high.

Weapon mod parts can be used, in combination with xenon components, to craft weapon mods of the same grade. HOWEVER, for which weapon type is random. So if, say, you were to get 10 low-grade weapon mods for the particle repeater mk1 which you don't use, and you dismantle all of them, you could use the resulting parts to craft another low-grade weapon mod, but what weapon mod will result is random. It could very well be another weapon mod for the repeater mk1.

Suggestions:

Would be great if lower-grade parts could be combined to craft a higher-grade weapon mod. (for example: 10 low-grade -> 1 medium grade, 10 medium-grade -> 1 high-grade) - Problem: what do we do with high-grade parts?

Looks like the max values are still going to be balanced. Please don't forget to! - or maybe not since they're in percentages?

Would it be possible to add min values depending on grade? Or is this already implemented in the ware attributes? - yup

Would be awesome if we could choose at least what weapon we want to craft for. Will need a bit more work, though. However, I think in this case it could be worth quite a lot. - Even better, a more involved process where we assign points per category depending on part availability and/or part grade?

A bit of a reach, but would be great if weapon mods could be used to mod other ships' weapons. Might not be very lore-friendly since a big part of the Skunk's mystique is its modularity and customizability, but would go a long way towards personalizing ships in the player's fleet.

And if that last is implemented, have NPC ships have mods of various types installed and drop those particular types.

Ah, also, would be great if there could be a mark of some sort on modded weapons when viewed from ship details. Even just an asterisk after the name would be good. Tooltip with weapon mod details if moused over would be awesome.

ps. err, mods, is this the right place for this?

pps. added comments to above. bug with weapon mod crafting after game reload. reported in patch public beta forum.

[spankahontis]

Stuff..

I managed to find a low-grade part from a Xenon-M in Maelstrom.