About ready to toss this game. PLEASE help?

[PaulVette]

I have been following the manual and trying to find "The Wall" as I cannot find the South Gate in "The Hole." I have searched for hours in the "hint, it's in the SE sector." I cannot find it and I am losing my mind out of sheer frustration.

Also, why does my ship suddenly stop in space? It just comes to a complete stop?

Another question;

When in the Sector Map, and I highlight "Your Mercury" which is green, what do these numbers mean? In the upper right of the Sector Map screen - Class TS I know that is my ship class, OK, but what does H:20000 S:5000 L:0 mean?

This has to be the most difficult game I have ever played. Right now it is not even fun, it is just sheer frustration?

Also, I know I downloaded reams of stuff but how do I manually input coordinates?

Please answer them all? I BEG you to help me as I really want to play and understand this game. I am at my wit's end.

Paul

{Moved from TC tech support. - eladan}

[euclid]

I do understand your frustration. This game has a pretty steep learing curve but do stick to it

The numbers on any of your ships means S for shields, H for hull and L for laser.

I do not know why it stops. If you have ordered it to dock somewhere it sometimes happens because there is a docking queue (other ships also want to dock) or because there are no free docking slots at the station.

I'm not sure what you have downloaded but to fly to specific coordinates just use the navigation command of your ship "Fly to position..". Then use the numpad arrow keys to select the position.

More tips on all that and other useful thing you will find in the sticky thread in the main forum.

Hope that helps.


Cheers Euclid

[PaulVette]

Thanks for your reply but I need answers soon without wading through all the FAQ's. I WILL read them, I just want to at least follow what the manual says on page 32, the first paragraph. This is driving me bananas. I would not think I would need the stickies or the FAQ's for something so simple as this yet I cannot find the South Gate in the SE quadrant.

The ship is in the SE quadrant looking for that darned gate and it'll just stop dead in space and I do not know why. There's nothing but dead space and I have not told it to dock or anything nor did I touch the controls to disengage the autopilot.

I have not downloaded any mods yet.

Could you please clarify and be specific about the fly to position thing?

Really, I am THIS close to running this DVD and the manual through my shredder.

[BeagleRush]

Click on your ship's nameplate, go to Autopilot - Command Console - Navigation - Move to Position

Once you pick the sector you want to move to, use the numpad keys (The set of numbers on the right of the keyboard) to move the cursor around, and enter to confirm your position.

You can also click the 'cross' tab at the top of the sector map to change the plane you are viewing of the sector map, so you can move up and down as well.

If you are looking for a jumpgate in a sector, open up the Universe map, click the sector, and look at the information it gives you. There should be an entry regarding the distance of the sector, or some such. If its 100km, the sector is effectively 100km in diameter for the purpose of its stations and points of interest. When you find out how far out you should be looking, then its simply a case of doing a search of all space up to and including the edge of the sector. You might want to consider buying an Advanced Satellite and using it to help you find things to - you can pick it up again once you eject it, and it has a huge scan range.

EDIT: One last thing, if you go to your missions and select the mission you are doing and click 'activate guidance' if it isn't already on, you should get a waypoint to help you find where you're meant to be going.

[PaulVette]

Thanks. But I am so far away from even knowing HOW or WHERE to get a satellite it is ludicrous for me to even attempt it.

I am just an EXTREMELY new, frustrated beginner. All I know how to do is go from one station to another. I am trying to follow the manual.

Please have patience with me.

On page 32 in the top paragraph it tell me to fly through the East gate to the Hole. I did that.

Then it tells me to find the South gate but it says HINT it is in the SE quadrant. Well I have been all OVER that SE quadrant and even went 220 KN away from the East gate and have not found that South gate.

Does anyone have any idea how frustrating this is?

Is this game even playable or is all this just a big joke at my expense?

I really want to play this game and it looks too cool to stop. But if I don't get anything but frustration out if what good is it? Is it meant to be for extremely advanced users? Am I missing something?

I need some serious help here. I need someone to lead me by the hand to at least find this gate.



Sorry to rant but this is stressed me out to the point where I just want to shred it all.

[Lancefighter]

The way I find gates I cant find:

Find a trader ship of some sort. Follow it

if it looks like its going in the direction you want, then good.

Something that helps is that in that system, there are two groupings of gates - N / W, and E / S. So any ship travelling away from the N or W gate is going in the direction you want.

From there, try to find the next trading ship, one thats farther away. Travel in his direction.. Keep finding the next trader in the direction you are going.

I suppose this would be akin to stepping stones across a river..

If you can find one thats fast enough (or you are patient enough) you can set your ship to match speed (shift - f, doesnt seem to work properly with a throttle) and hit seta. Eventually he will get where he is going, and if your following him, you should be able to see the gate you are looking for on scanner.

[Munvyrm]

I do not know the coordinates of that gate (or any gate, for that matter) off hand, but if you head back towards the gate you came from and follow a ship (preferrably a fighter or fast transport) that looks like it is heading towards the SE, then it may lead you to the gate. In general, when looking for things like that, the best strategy is usually to follow the traffic.

[Serial Kicked]

The Hole sector map

[ external image ]
South and East gate are very near one from another :

[PaulVette]

Ah! Now there's some GOOD advice I can use. Thank you, my stress level just went down, a little.

[eladan]

As has already been mentioned, the game has a very steep learning curve. Some patience definitely helps, particularly when you first start out.

While the game's 3D, the gates are generally on a plane or reasonably close to it. It can be very easy though for a new player to miss that, and find that they are so far too high or low that their ship scanners can't pick up the object which should be there (the gate, in this case) - i.e. if you flew to the SE corner of the sector and couldn't see the gate, it was probably above or below you. It's particularly easy to do in The Hole, as the gates there are a bit out of the plane, plus the fog doesn't help.

If you look on the sector map, there are three km ranges on the bottom right. If your ship is highlighted, that is the 3D location of your ship

x
y
z

where it shows the x-z plane by default. You can press 'insert' to show the x-y plane.

The location of the south gate is

Spoiler

Show

13.5km
24.7km
-51.2km

(Drag your mouse over the spoiler to select the text, to view the spoiler)

[PaulVette]

My map does not look at all like that. I have stumbled upon the cattle ranches. Since there is such a lot of green clouds does that mean the gates are hidden as well as other stations? You just have to stumble upon them?

This could be a LOT more time consuming than I thought. I'm just trying to:

1) Learn it
2) Get credits to buy extensions
3) FIND a place that sells extensions
4) Not lose my mind in the process.

[eladan]

My map does not look at all like that. I have stumbled upon the cattle ranches. Since there is such a lot of green clouds does that mean the gates are hidden as well as other stations? You just have to stumble upon them?

All objects are hidden until the first time you scan them.

Bear in mind that the universe is dynamic, so new stations can appear over time, and old ones disappear. (New stations would not appear on your map unless you scan that section of space again, or you have a satellite or some other object which offers scan coverage for the sector.)

[PaulVette]

Thank you, than you, thank you.

I have to get a handle on how this radar works in 3D. The one in the lower right and ESPECIALLY the way it works in the sector map. It is difficult to grasp. How in the WORLD did you guys learn all this?

[eladan]

How in the WORLD did you guys learn all this?

Time, patience, and the people on this forum.

[PaulVette]

Thanks.

Now, back to the game then bed.

I am sure I will be asking a bunch more questions.

I have printed out all the FAQ's and stickies and will read them tomorrow. I have read the entire manual a couple of time and have taken copious notes from it. It is like being in college all over again!

[PaulVette]

Well, there is one new piece of advice, use the space bar to adjust the radar.

Thanks.

Now, can you tell me the exact steps to enter coordinates? I have seen many places in the forum where there are exact coordinates for things listed. So there must be a way to enter in the numbers right?

Well, someone told me this:

Go to autopilot
Command Console
Navigation
Move To Position

Well, when I do that I get the galaxy map and no way to enter in the numerical coordinates or is this not possible?

[Gswine]

You should probably just explore from easier to find gates.

Spoiler

Show

Heading west from the hole, south from herrons nebula then east from argon prime would have got you to the hole then traveling north would reveal the harder to find south gate.

It might seem like a long way to do it but a lot less than flying lost in a pea souper system and you get to observe more shipping patterns, station type and location ect

If you want to get into this game some lateral thinking is going to be required and refer to the manual sparingly. It sets the scene more than being a complete step by step guide. As will become obvious after you checkout the player guides. It's full of detail but can swamp you when taken at face value.

Also make sure your ship is equipped with duplex or triplex scanners and I would check the key map for the gravidar range (I use space) this will alter the range of the scanner in the bottom right of the cockpit HUD (familiar to elite fans). This is useful for tracking objects such as cargo pods and fighter position in dog fights.

edited for accuracy and added spoilers.

[kurush]

Well, when I do that I get the galaxy map and no way to enter in the numerical coordinates or is this not possible?

You can't enter numbers here. You need to navigate the map using num-pad keys + ins key to flip the axis.

[Lancefighter]

from there you select a sector, and then use your num pad to move around the cursor until it is where you want. Close is good enuogh, once you get there you will see it on scanners anyway.


Possibly an easier way is to remember that the map is a grid (hit comma, ',' to see the galaxy map), so there is usually a way around. In your instance, you could have went south from herron's nebula to argon prime, and then east to The Wall. Both of these gates are fairly easy to find and in high-traffic areas..

[Carlo the Curious]

http://www.egosoft.com/support/faq/faq_ ... &version=9