Space Game General All-Platform Thready Discussy Thing :)

Games
8134

Is it possible to grab more than one mission at a time? It doesn’t seem like that is a thing (or as an alternative radio/job board while still in ship for another etc).

One other question - seems lile we do not need to gain missile lock. So what is the red circle that appears when in combat? At first I thought it was when I had missile lock but now I am thinking that it indicates when I have a missile on me and to fire Counter Measure? I tried googling this but can not find a mention of it anywhere.

8135

No sadly you can only do one mission at time but they never last too long.

8136

When buying a new ship in Freelancer do you keep the old one in storage? So if I wanted to buy a freighter to run some trade/mining operations, and later switch to a fighter I can do so?

I just bought my first ship and the starter disappeared. No ability to sell it etc.

I am hoping I don’t have to keep buying a ship each time I want to do something different and then buy the same ship again to switch back to combat missions etc.

8137

Nope, it’s one ship at a time, no garage or anything. Your ship is really your character in this ARPG.

8138

Thx, @BrianRubin!

That is a good way to look at it as the ship is your character.

8139

Yeah once you see the ship as basically your avatar in the game, it flows a lot better. Just get the best ship you can at the time and you’ll be dandy.

8140

What is that wooden hotas stand? Is that a commercial product or something you built or had built for you? I see a label on it but can’t quite make it out.

8141

It was a thing sold in the late 90s called a Hands on Throttle and Stick Support, or HOTASS.

8142

I’ve played through the tutorial and the first handful of missions of the campaign of Battle Group VR and so far I really like it. The controls took a bit to get used to. I must have missed the part in the tutorial where the orientation of your hand matters. Some tips if anyone else has some struggles.

For movement orders, if you have your fingers pointed upward you are placing an exact point in the space before you. If your fingers are pointing more level or downward then you get the pointer thing that is locked to your current plane. You can move the thumbstick to adjust the plane when you point.

To select something to attack have your fingers pointed more upward. Like your are directing traffic and telling it to stop.

Once I got the hang of controlling things, and quickly hitting the pause mode to adjust orders, it became a really fun game. So far in the campaign the engagements have been small and I haven’t gone back to home back to buy a second ship yet. I’m sure things will get hectic once my fleet gets bigger.

It’s basic space fleet game combat. Maneuvering to try to focus on an enemy’s shield arc while spreading out hits on your own while switching power between engine, shields, and weapons as necessary. In addition to that for each ship there are behaviors you can give your captains to stay at given ranges, and whether to try to keep centered, flak to either side, or try to get behind. Since I’ve just the one ship I’ve been just pathing it around with waypoints or flying manually in the early missions I don’t yet have a sense of how the range and flanking behaviors work.

Each ship also has special abilities you can use, but they cost supply. Supply is a running resource through the campaign that you need to restock at your home base or bases you find along the way. If you don’t go back to base between missions you get a bonus for the next mission.

So far a really fun game. It is in early access but their info indicates it’s very close to final form. To quote.

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“Looking to have version 1.0 completed in late 2022 or early 2023.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“The current EA version as of July 2022 is near feature complete. The final version will have more mod support, custom map publishing, and more stable voice command.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“BattleGroupVR contains all the base features of the core game and is entirely playable in it’s current form.

  • Full story campaign of 12 missions with voice acting
  • 12 unlock-able ships
  • 30+ abilities
  • Multiplayer and coop mode
  • Asymmetric conquest mode
  • Endless wave mode”

Twelve campaign missions does sound short given what I’ve played so far. Though can’t complain much given the price.

8143

There’s also some asymmetric conquest mode that looks pretty cool.

8144

Interesting. The googles tell me nothing, especially given its not very unique name. I’m curious as to its construction. Recently I had been toying with the idea of building something out of wood to roll my desk chair up to for flight simming. Though in the end I bought an openwheeler chair and yoke/throttle set up.

The risers for the stick and throttle, are they straight up and down or are they raked back toward you? It’s hard to tell from the picture. Are there some screws from the bottom up into the posts? Are they pretty damn sturdy after all these years? For the top of the posts where the platforms at attached, is the something similar to the bottoms where there’s a reinforcement screwed into the platform that the post slots into? The three sections of the base, is there some screw plate under then that joins them together or does it come as one solid piece that’s already joined?

Forgive my curiosity. This potential intersection of my flight sim and woodworking hobbies captured my attention.

8145

The posts are swept back towards me, and the screws go into the wood. You can read an old review here.

FighterSystems H.O.T.A.S.S. Review (www.combatsim.com).

Nowadays you can get something like this:

J-PEIN (Upgraded): the desk mount for the flight sim game joystick, throttle and hotas systems. Fully support almost all of flight sim game hand-control devices. (not include game-device) https://a.co/4ciz8vu

Which I plan on doing if anything happens to my HOTASS.

8146

When I was getting ready to play Star Citizen oh about 9 - 10 years ago – I found these on Ikea and they worked pretty well for placing HOTAS on either side of my desk chair.

Of course Star Citizen being what it is we used them as End & TV Tables instead

image

8147

Picked up Starcom: Nexus on sale from Steam. Really liking it so far. It has what feels like a smooth and almost effortless progression. Of course @BrianRubin helped the choice with his review and video.

8148

Yay! Glad you’re enjoying it. That game is one of the few that really gets exploration right, I feel.

8149

Friends, my most anticipated game, Taxinaut – in which you’re a space taxi driver in a massive, MASSIVE open world – has just dropped on Steam early access. Please do pick it up, it is ASTOUNDING.

Thank you.

8150

Are you putting us on?

8151

What?

8152

I was wondering if you were kidding

8153

…why?