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It's good to be back!
I was around probably 6-8 years ago back when there were only about 15 sectors and the game was free. Well, I decided to check back on it and it seems to have progressed pretty well so I decided to pony up for 3 months worth of play.
Anyway, it seems I'm a bit rusty after all these years and I'm totally unfamiliar with the new universe and some of the other newer aspects of the game. So if anyone has some general advice (especially in reference to playing on a laptop), good trade routes and perhaps a strategy guide, I would greatly appreciate it!
Anyway, it seems I'm a bit rusty after all these years and I'm totally unfamiliar with the new universe and some of the other newer aspects of the game. So if anyone has some general advice (especially in reference to playing on a laptop), good trade routes and perhaps a strategy guide, I would greatly appreciate it!
Hi!
A good general source of useless information is, of course, the vo wiki. Ships now come mated up with engines for ever, so there's a good deal of variants to stare at.
As far as trade routes go, I wouldn't worry about it too much, since they're all much better than they should be, and for the most part keep you completely safe from any bots or other players. Besides, there's an economy update brewing, which will probably (hopefully) make current routes old hat.
Now, playing on a laptop! It's something I do! Wee!
I've heard some people have a reasonable amount of success playing with the trackpad, but after trying it out for a few months way back when in the day, I've decided that it wasn't for me.
Instead, I now use the arrow keys for turning my ship, and a neat array of easily accessible binds to do everything else.
Basically, I've rebound wasd to move me around in the plane parallel to my screen, turned off mouselook and bound r and f to a fairly simple set of aliases[1] that step my thurst between full forwards and full backwards in 25% increments. This leaves my index finger a little more free to occasionally hit c, which I think is the default fire button, and v, which I've bound to an alias that essentially holds c down for me[2].
There are, of course, problems with this. In particular, using a weapon group where the secondary fire button is actually important becomes a bit of a mess. Also, strafing right and shooting at the same time is hard, to say the least, and there is almost always a delay between a nice maneuver and a shot, which sadly means my aim is crap.
On the plus side, I can play anywhere I can connect to the internet without worrying about plugging in a mouse or my fingers getting too sweaty for the trackpad to pick them up accurately.
[1]
alias thrustepper10 "echo 'Error -- Engines at full forward already'"
alias thrustepper9 "+accelerate 1000; alias thrustepperup thrustepper10; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper8; echo 'Engines full forward'"
alias thrustepper8 "+accelerate 750; alias thrustepperup thrustepper9; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper7; echo 'Engines 75% forward'"
alias thrustepper7 "+accelerate 500; alias thrustepperup thrustepper8; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper6; echo 'Engines 50% forward'"
alias thrustepper6 "+accelerate 250; alias thrustepperup thrustepper7; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper5; echo 'Engines 25% forward'"
alias thrustepper5 "+accelerate 0; alias thrustepperup thrustepper6; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper4; echo 'Engines idling'"
alias thrustepper4 "+accelerate -250; alias thrustepperup thrustepper5; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper3; echo 'Engines 25% reverse'"
alias thrustepper3 "+accelerate -500; alias thrustepperup thrustepper4; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper2; echo 'Engines 50% reverse'"
alias thrustepperup "thrustepper6"
alias thrustepper2 "+accelerate -750; alias thrustepperup thrustepper3; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper1; echo 'Engines 75% reverse'"
alias thrustepper0 "echo 'Error -- Engines at full reverse already'"
alias thrustepperdown "thrustepper4"
alias thruststepperdown "thruststepper0"
alias thurstepperup "thrustepper3"
alias thrustepper1 "+accelerate -1000; alias thrustepperup thrustepper2; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper0; echo 'Engines full reverse'"
[2]
alias shooter +shoot2
(tap c to stop shooting)
A good general source of useless information is, of course, the vo wiki. Ships now come mated up with engines for ever, so there's a good deal of variants to stare at.
As far as trade routes go, I wouldn't worry about it too much, since they're all much better than they should be, and for the most part keep you completely safe from any bots or other players. Besides, there's an economy update brewing, which will probably (hopefully) make current routes old hat.
Now, playing on a laptop! It's something I do! Wee!
I've heard some people have a reasonable amount of success playing with the trackpad, but after trying it out for a few months way back when in the day, I've decided that it wasn't for me.
Instead, I now use the arrow keys for turning my ship, and a neat array of easily accessible binds to do everything else.
Basically, I've rebound wasd to move me around in the plane parallel to my screen, turned off mouselook and bound r and f to a fairly simple set of aliases[1] that step my thurst between full forwards and full backwards in 25% increments. This leaves my index finger a little more free to occasionally hit c, which I think is the default fire button, and v, which I've bound to an alias that essentially holds c down for me[2].
There are, of course, problems with this. In particular, using a weapon group where the secondary fire button is actually important becomes a bit of a mess. Also, strafing right and shooting at the same time is hard, to say the least, and there is almost always a delay between a nice maneuver and a shot, which sadly means my aim is crap.
On the plus side, I can play anywhere I can connect to the internet without worrying about plugging in a mouse or my fingers getting too sweaty for the trackpad to pick them up accurately.
[1]
alias thrustepper10 "echo 'Error -- Engines at full forward already'"
alias thrustepper9 "+accelerate 1000; alias thrustepperup thrustepper10; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper8; echo 'Engines full forward'"
alias thrustepper8 "+accelerate 750; alias thrustepperup thrustepper9; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper7; echo 'Engines 75% forward'"
alias thrustepper7 "+accelerate 500; alias thrustepperup thrustepper8; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper6; echo 'Engines 50% forward'"
alias thrustepper6 "+accelerate 250; alias thrustepperup thrustepper7; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper5; echo 'Engines 25% forward'"
alias thrustepper5 "+accelerate 0; alias thrustepperup thrustepper6; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper4; echo 'Engines idling'"
alias thrustepper4 "+accelerate -250; alias thrustepperup thrustepper5; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper3; echo 'Engines 25% reverse'"
alias thrustepper3 "+accelerate -500; alias thrustepperup thrustepper4; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper2; echo 'Engines 50% reverse'"
alias thrustepperup "thrustepper6"
alias thrustepper2 "+accelerate -750; alias thrustepperup thrustepper3; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper1; echo 'Engines 75% reverse'"
alias thrustepper0 "echo 'Error -- Engines at full reverse already'"
alias thrustepperdown "thrustepper4"
alias thruststepperdown "thruststepper0"
alias thurstepperup "thrustepper3"
alias thrustepper1 "+accelerate -1000; alias thrustepperup thrustepper2; alias thrustepperdown thrustepper0; echo 'Engines full reverse'"
[2]
alias shooter +shoot2
(tap c to stop shooting)
Welcome back. I'm still here...
*wave*