1821

Hotfreak, you need to download / install separately (at least that’s how I had to do it).

So, I followed advice and started with the manual and the started the Beginning Tutorial. Bad move on my part, getting infodumps like that without any context just bounces right off me and leaves me bored. So, throwing all advice and in-game caution out the window, I started up a pre-hyperspace game as some octopus looking dudes. Much better.

Now, I have no idea what I’m doing or, more importantly, what I’m supposed to be doing, but that’s alright. Like a good puppet dictator, I just do whatever my learned advisors tell me to do and so far the planet hasn’t been irradiated or sucked into a black hole or anything. Right now I’m just having fun watching the early game unfold, although I realize at some point I’ll need to start taking the reins and actually do something other than be a bystander. All the little events and interactions have been pretty cool thus far.

One thing I will say is that the game is… really hard on the eyes. I’m not being a graphics snob or anything, it’s just a lot of the text is really tiny and I don’t find the font to be the easiest to read (it might just be my display). The animations and stuff are jittery as well and several of the dialogs/tooltips look like (or literally are, in some cases) they’re straight out of Windows, which is a bit jarring in terms of immersion and gives my eyes a bit of a strain. Like I said, I’m no graphics snob, so hopefully my eyes adapt to the presentation so I can get sucked into the game. It looks pretty neat and like it has a lot of depth to it, so I’m excited to just kind of dive and blindly and see where the game takes me.

1822

I wasn’t sure myself, but given the fact they’re separate downloads I went ahead and installed them in order just to be sure. I have no idea what I’m doing, but it works great!

1823

Thanks, guys. Downloading. We’ll see what all the fuss is about!

1824

Install:

  1. Base game
  2. Shakturi
  3. Legends
  4. Shadows

Then either download Shadows hoxfixes, or use the game menu to check for updates. 4 installs, but all are quick and easy.

1825

I have not gotten to play in a month or so, but as I recall when you rightclick and get the explore option, you are given several options. If the star is called Sol, one of those options could be “Sol”. Another one could be “Entire System”. “Sol” by itself indicates only the star…is it possible that is what you are doiing?

1826

Don’t hold your breath here, some of us have been waiting three years for something to be done about the font/interface scale for modern resolutions… ;)
The general advice on Matrix forums is to play at a lower resolution to make the text bigger, but of course the game doesn’t have a resolution dialog so you have to lower your desktop resolution to achieve that. I know I complain about this a lot, but I do love the game, honest!

Animations could use a few more frames, yeah, but not sure what you mean about ‘stuff’ being jittery - with the Shadows expansion the scrolling/panning at least is beautifully smooth compared to previous releases. I find the ‘nebula’ option really saps fps even on the lowest setting and prefer to sacrifice that for smoothness, so try turning that off if you find the screen update jittery.

1827

Not even an ini/settings file or some such you can change that in? My TFT does not like being set outside it’s native resolution (but is fine with games that set a lower one in-game), so it is something to keep in mind for when i eventually get around to getting the game.

1828

Does the design automation delete designs? I was able to build destroyers, and now it isn’t an option and there is no design for one when I go look in the design menu.

And **** the Sluken, you wannabe Klackon &**#&$*#!! What are the odds of us starting 2 systems apart in a game with 1400 systems?

E: okay, it looks like they came up with a new destroyer design. I think the problem was the Sluken had wiped out a bunch of mining stations so I didn’t have the resources to build the destroyer at one point. I got the Sluken to agree to end the war, only to have them start it up again less than a month later. Luckily they like to attack my research station at my homeworld, and get slaughtered when they show up.

1829

The games runs in a “fullscreen borderless window”, so there is no real exclusive “fullscreen” mode. Hence it only runs at the whatever the current desktop res is.

There is a startup.ini but that only lets you set the size of the window.

1830

Regarding setup - if you are going random on the AI player starting distance the odds are actually pretty good. It randomizes on something like 4 distance settings, from somehting like “close” to “far”.

Also, for the auto designer, I think it is an issue where it gets confused when you achieve a certain tech, and the “new design” exceeds your current space limit, so that ship is not ‘buildable’. If you research the next size up, for me this goes away. Designs are one of the only things I automate, as it is really a great equalizer against the AI. If you make your own designs, you can easily have a huge advantage over the AI as you make things like super endurance explorers and such.

1831

I will recommend to all newcomers these brand new videos done for the Shadows expansion. Unlike other vids, these are real tightly edited – maybe about 10 min. each, 40 min. total. A good primer on getting started as a pirate.

1832

Did you update to the latest patch and then load a saved game from the previous patch? Because the exact same issue happened to me with that scenario, and it wasn’t due to a resources issue.

Thanks!

1833

Keep in mind, he goes very fast, packs a lot of information into these vids. I was constantly pausing and rewinding, and even took notes for my own crib sheet. This is still preferable to hour long videos with a lot of stretches of nothing happening.

1834

I tried to get into this game several times, as it is just the kind of game I generally like, and was overwhelmed and gave up each time. I HIGHLY recommend what Brian suggests: Start by setting things up and letting the AI run everything and just take control of a single ship. You can let it ask you questions on certain events, but just control the one ship. You will then do your thing across the galaxy and have a good time while watching what your AI does, and get a good feel for what is going on. After a while, you’ll decide to take over some part, and you can easily do that. This way you just take charge of what you want, when you want, while getting a good feel for the game and watching the space opera unfold before your eyes.

1835

I found that starting a civ in the pre warp age as suggested by some has greatly enhanced both my enjoyment and understanding of the game.

1836

Text too small? Who reads text!?!!

Fight…! Win…! Prevail…!

1837

Ok so I’m enjoying the game so far but the size of the text @1920x1080 is a bit of a pain, especially on the ship design screen as some of the text even seems to overlap which makes is illegible.

So any suggestions on the optimal resolution (widescreen if poss) that this game should be run in? I’d prefer all the text to be readable with no overlaps if possible.

Oh and +1 for starting the game in pre-warp age to get a grounding in it… It made more sense to me playing that way than jumping in to the standard game as recommended in the manual. pre-warp gives you time to digest what is happening I found.

1838

1839

Yes, it was a 1.9.0.2 save loaded with the 1.9.0.3 patch.

1840

Best Pixar character ever.

I might be Amish, but I run the game in 1280x1024 and it runs great.