[MOD iP] New Dimensions [Alpha 4.2] (Update 06/09/10)

milytar · Post by **milytar** » Fri, 29. Jan 10, 23:09

thank you

Post by **Ketraar** » Sat, 30. Jan 10, 00:02

Gavrushka wrote:I am seeing missions appearing that are offering far too much money

This will be "fixed" in A4. Rewards have been cut hard.

With each new Alpha will a restart be required?

Not sure about all but the next will, sorry. Some changes need a restart no way around it. You can port your assets though using TC-TC Converter from SymTec.

Thanks for the feedback once more.

MFG

Ketraar

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Sat, 30. Jan 10, 16:47

It's an Alpha, I did expect many restarts as the Mod evolves, so no biggy.

The increased speed of ships has thrown up an issue with collisions on following ships - the Manta, for instance, has a top speed of 275 and a turn rate of 5.7 - When I dock with it on follow collisions (always fatal at that speed!) and near misses are a little too frequent.

I've not checked it yet, but does the game auto adjust ship repair values with the additional hull points? Manually repairing even a TS hull is a very very long and arduous affair - And just as it should be.

I am pleased on the mission rewards adjustment. This game is now becoming a genuine challenge!

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Sat, 30. Jan 10, 23:38

Just had a 'crash' immediately after an autosave on dock. - Reloaded that save and it 'crashes' again.

Flying a Manta I manually docked in Seizewell at a factory and the game freezes with the repeated sound loop ' the company great profit to you' - It occurs around .5 to 1 second after docking - Previous save works fine but I did notice some major stutters and mini freezes in Seizewell prior to this happening.

If you need to look, I uploaded save to: http://www.4shared.com/file/211683478/22c132a7/X13.html

The two saves I have from seizewell are bigger than the rest for some reason if that means anything (just 200kb or so bigger) - I guess that's just seizewell is a 'busy' sector?

Oh times on passenger missions are a little generous - an Average mission can be concluded in around 1/3 the time allowed.

Post by **X2-Illuminatus** » Sun, 31. Jan 10, 02:52

Gavrushka wrote:Flying a Manta I manually docked in Seizewell at a factory and the game freezes with the repeated sound loop ' the company great profit to you' -

Yeah, get the same freeze, when I load your savegame. But when I dock in my game at the same factory in seizewell, doesn't matter if by autopilot, docking computer or manually, everything is fine. Do you maybe have a savegame before you docked at that station?

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Sun, 31. Jan 10, 11:21

Yes, sorry - I'd meant to do both.. This was a dock at the SPP a few minutes prior - After undocking, with Ecells I meandered about a bit trying to find a place to sell (factory was not visible on map at first)

http://www.4shared.com/file/212069472/f5287c3c/X12.html

I'll likewise load from this save later.

Edit...

I reloaded and repeated my actions (As I approached weapon component factory I realised I was in a race with a Boron Energy Tansporter and manually docked ) It has worked second time round - But as I exited SPP on previous save the same very pronounced stutters and mini freezes repeated (I'm on a lower end system so they were perhaps over-visible to me)

Post by **Ketraar** » Mon, 1. Feb 10, 12:19

Scoob wrote:Certain TOBs appear to 'launch' ships entering the sector futher...an example would be Elena's Fortune, West TOB.

This was addressed for Alpha 4, if you find more of those, please report.

Ok, a suggestion next...quite a large undertaking but worthwhile... Can sectors be spaced out more?

Done for Alpha 4, 50% increment for all sectors, some even more (mostly some really tiny sectors like Paranid Prime were increased arbitrary)

One feature you guys/girls might like, that hopefully makes it into alpha 4, is.. how should I put this... lets say, the universe will not be exactly the same in every game

MFG

Ketraar

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Mon, 1. Feb 10, 14:04

Ketraar wrote: One feature you guys/girls might like, that hopefully makes it into alpha 4, is.. how should I put this... lets say, the universe will not be exactly the same in every game

Now that's intriguing for sure!

.....Is it ready yet?

I've got two related wishlist suggestions:

Transport Passenger missions are usually only ever in a few sectors radius and tightish deadlines - Is it possible to have long haul transport missions with very relaxed times - And one thing I would have liked on the new TS+ Superfreighters would have been a mission category for large scale passenger moves (50-500ish) both long and short haul - Factory shift changes, workforce relocation- Factory open days - Holiday connections to stations with planetary shuttle runs, that sort of thing.

Post by **Ketraar** » Thu, 4. Feb 10, 01:29

Gavrushka wrote:.....Is it ready yet?

Its not fully ready yet, but it works alright.

I think it will be nice to see (parts of) the universe expand over time and different every time.

EDIT:

Results from a first Random-Sector RC Test.

Sector 10:9
[ external image ]

Sector 12:14
[ external image ]

Sector 17:16
[ external image ]

Sector 19:15
[ external image ]

Sector 3:16
[ external image ]

Sector 10:9
[ external image ]

MFG

Ketraar

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Fri, 5. Feb 10, 11:37

These Sectors can spawn anywhere there is a free gate location? - That could be very interesting with Xenon migrations...

I'm many hours in now (too many hours!) and no more crashes - Must have been just some random occurence. The mission times offered for passnger transport are relatively easy - Even at V Hard level flying a Manta I've completed every single mission and never took more that 2/3s of the allowed time.

Shipping good missions (medical supplies, radiactives etc) seem very tight - I've not felt confident to take even an easy one on yet.

I am not fully up to speed with factory placements - You can only build Tech Factories in certain sectors? But there are no other restrictions yes?

This weekend I'll have finally got enough together to buy a new Superfreighter - And I am sure out of the purest malice you'll release Alpha 4 and I will be restarting just I polish the hull...

- The Superfreighter pics show a ship docked to each, or was that just to give a scale idea?

Post by **Ketraar** » Fri, 5. Feb 10, 13:05

Gavrushka wrote:These Sectors can spawn anywhere there is a free gate location? - That could be very interesting with Xenon migrations...

Yes, although the odds for a XS are 30% and there the odds for it to contain a Shipyard are 25%. (Some Xenon Jobs need a SY to spawn, but there might be some that don't in future

)

The mission times offered for passnger transport are relatively easy - Even at V Hard level flying a Manta I've completed every single mission and never took more that 2/3s of the allowed time.

Noted, we'll something about that.

I am not fully up to speed with factory placements - You can only build Tech Factories in certain sectors? But there are no other restrictions yes?

No the restrictions only apply to L1 fabs (those that only need E-Cells to work), but there is a bug in the restrictions script, will may realease a Alpha 3.1 which would not need a restart, although not containing most fixes and new features. Lets see.

And I am sure out of the purest malice you'll release Alpha 4

Alpha 4 will not be realesed for the next few weeks.

or was that just to give a scale idea?

Yes, just for the scale.

MFG

Ketraar

Iifrit Tambuur-san · Post by **Iifrit Tambuur-san** » Fri, 5. Feb 10, 19:41

ALPHA 3.5 OUT NOW

Yes its out, and it will make even the hardest veteran look like he/she never had played an X game before. All possible strategies you may have, scrap them, they won't fit in New Dimensions' Universe.
We made some hard changes, most not visible to the eye, some not even noticeable at first glance (or second), but they will make you rethink the way you play TC as you discover them, like:

No more Self-sustained Complexes! Mines and SPP are not connectible to complexes
Only few "jumpable" gates left
Jumpdrive only fits in Bigships
Sun strength differs from sector to sector
No real good asteroids in "sunny" sectors
L1 Fabs can only be build in "specific" sectors (they are now "planet dependent")
Ships are faster
Ships Hull/Shield ratio changed (battles actually are fun now)
Tweaked the relations between races (you wont be friends with everyone at the same time)
19 Bonus ships placed randomly throughout the universe in 19 different sectors
6 randomly generated and positioned sectors (more below)

This is all based on Vanilla TC where all plots should work (exception is the HUB Plot which was removed), note though that this is just an alpha, more features and content to come in future and some thing may not be perfect yet.
That's where you come in, we need you to report to us as much feedback as you can, constructive and as precise as possible. That feedback is imperative to our development.

Testing Random Sectors:

After a minute or two you will get a message with all the coordinates for the sectors so you can have a look at those.
Note that in next release the sectors will spawn over time instead of all being there at the same time, and there will not be any info to where they did spawn.
Please have a look at them a report your findings.

Note: You can play ND Alpha 3.5 on top of your Alpha 3 save. There is no restart necessary.

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 01:21

That's great news on save game compatablity - Will give it a serious work-out this weekend.

Thank you!

*Edit*

I installed 3.5 (as 11 cat/dat with 10 cat/dat V3) and after an hour of play no messages logged or otherwise have come for additional sectors.

Astral Projestion · Post by **Astral Projestion** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 09:11

cool stuff i like what i see just got back to play game after long pause things that i would like to see:

huge sectors ie when u jump in u cant see more then 20% of things in that sector w triplex (exploring welcome back)
pirate ships should newer wear there own colors if they are not in pirate sectors
wing are smarter and cool to use w audio com saying stuff
no idle ships when something jump/spawn in and start to kill everything
etc
anyway thumbs up just tweak in jump drive is awesome enough for me hope to play it very soon

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 12:03

Three new Sectors have appeared on my map (after a cursory glance, I am sure there will be more) - I did not receive a message on these (but as that's just for testing purposes no biggy yes?) - Ill check earlier saves but I think these appeared after a couple of hours running 3.5 . - They have no visible gates to them so later I will try a fly to sector and see how it works out.

*EDIT*

You can't 'Fly to Sector' - You have to discover the route. There is no visible gates to any of the sectors that spawned, and no visible gates from 'the outside' linking to them - I'm trying surrounding sectors to see if there is a route.

lamoyja · Post by **lamoyja** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 13:36

If you see it from a cheat, they probably haven't been 'added' yet. I'd assume the game messages you when they add the actual gate?

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 13:48

I wanted to avoid reveal all sectors as it would affect my getting a flavour of how this Mod both works and feels - These generated sectors are devoid of gates. I am right in thinking that fly to sector, or move to position in that sector will find a path even through undiscovered gates if there is one - As the point of 3.5 was to get our feedback on these sectors I guess it means something went wrong - I'll upload a save in due course.

http://www.4shared.com/file/216197678/4be55618/X10.html

*Edit*

Had explorer command software been altered? - The save above has a ship exploring Rolk's Legacy - About 30 minutes of exploring has not uncovered the gates apart from the one it flew through even though it has explored the full map - Plus it has only found the two stations it moved to to start off with.

Better save illustrating Map Sector issue:

http://www.4shared.com/file/216259513/2 ... __X01.html

I instructed ship after failed explore to dock at station in sector to east -This worked and it uncovered stations and gate.

the old one · Post by **the old one** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 19:04

i want to try this mod but i am having problems as i can not extract useing the prefered winzip program,as you will no by now i am not very good with things like this so would it be possible to another format to make it easier to install,thanks the old one

Yaotzin · Post by **Yaotzin** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 19:08

You need 7zip (just google it). It's..better.

Post by **Ketraar** » Sat, 6. Feb 10, 20:02

lamoyja wrote:If you see it from a cheat, they probably haven't been 'added' yet.

Yes if you use a cheat, it may not reveal the location of the gates, nor the content of the sector, so you need to explore it.

@Gavrushka
There was one Sector which was created in the wrong spot, fixed that.
As for the message, I got one with the coordinates, sure you dont missed it?

MFG

Ketraar

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[MOD iP] New Dimensions [Alpha 4.2] (Update 06/09/10)

ND problems