I'm running the trial, "free to play" version. I understand that you can't play any of the online missions during your trial, but after an hour of trying, I still can't find any of the minigames mentioned in the Google Play description. I tried docking at a station in every available sector, but there's still no option to sign up for any missions there. Is this some kind of a bug, or am I missing something? I'm on a Galaxy S3, if that helps. Thanks.

There are no limitations to the game placed on trial accounts, besides what you can accomplish in the 8-hour timeframe imposed upon you once you leave the training sector. I believe the minigames you are referring to are a single-player experience that is accessed from the patcher.

I thought so at first, but the description on Google Play just says "After completing the tutorial, a free-play sandbox sector becomes available, letting you perfect your flying technique and enjoy minigames while offline." It never says you only get to play offline, but it also never says you can play the full game. Since I still can't figure out how to start a mission, I just assumed we could only play select offline minigames. Also, I don't know what the patcher is, and I couldn't find it, either.

I saw your previous post about having to be docked at a station to start a mission, but I still can't seem to find the proper command at any station. Would you please elaborate on exactly what I need to do?

The patcher is what runs each time you open VO, where it updates and verifies the game files before you get to the Guild Software - presents screen. You can see all available missions from space but you presently can only accept one while docked at a station. You need to get to "Your PDA" and go to the "Missions" tab to do this. I'm not sure about your device, but on the Xperia Play this is done by pressing a physical button to the side of the screen, just above the "Home" button. This cycles through several different tabs, one of which will let you see what missions are available to you or let you interact with the mission you are currently on. This took me several minutes to figure out and this was after playing on PC for years, so don't feel bad. I think this is also covered in one of the training missions, the first of which you should be directed to automatically after you create a new character and enter the universe.

They were probably talking about the training sector, trials are unlimited there. Though it's hellishly boring, unless you like killing bots that do 1 damage with basic equipment...

Aha! The menu button on my phone is actually a capacitive-touch button, but I still can't believe I didn't think to try it, or even accidentally touch it! Perhaps there should be a virtual button on the game screen for this action, but really I just didn't try all of my buttons. I actually gave up and uninstalled the game before reinstalling it and consulting the forum. Thank you so much for explaining this!

Wasn't there a free singleplayer "demo" mode where you play offline and fly thru some rings or something? I seem to remember that back when the Android release first happened.

I think that's what this was referring to.

There is a free tutorial mode on the Android build that includes a "race-track" mini game, so you can learn to fly and try and improve your times through the track rings. The "free-play" sector with the racetrack is unlocked by completing the client-side tutorials. It does not require you to be logged into the game or connected.

Right, but how do you get to it? Both the "Tutorial" and "Demo" buttons on the updater take you to the pre-recorded Raptor&Capship battle demo.

The only way I was able to pull up the actual "race-track" mini game was to use the debug launcher that Ray gave me to troubleshoot some joystick problems.

If you played the Tutorial through to the race track mini game at least once, then the next time you run the Tutorial, it will ask you if you want to jump straight to there.

So it does! I never bothered to wait through the whole thing again since I already watched it when i pressed the "Demo" button.
:)