Several annoyances

Hi, I'm new to the forums.


I remember playing the EoC demo, back on my old Athlon 550, and then, a year ago, I tried the full game, but stopped at the point where you need to impress the Stepsons. The Epic mods development made me reinstall the game, and now I'm determined to finish the single-player game before they release their scenario. I have just started Chapter 2.

Although this is, by far, my favourite spacesim since Tie Fighter CD (FS2 a close second, perfect mission editor, and VegaStrike looks promising), I would like to comment a few small things that I don't like about the game. Mind this, I do this because it would be faster than naming all the things I love about it, and because it could give some ideas to mod developers or source-code devs (if PS decides to release the source like Volition did).


First: spinning cargoes.

If you (or other ship) collides with a small ship or container, it starts to spin out of control, and in that state you can't dock with it. Very annoying with mission-critical cargoes. Colliding with it AGAIN sometimes makes it stop, but that's not too intuitive anyway.

Second: stars dissapear.

I read on the encyclopedia that LDS drives went at 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 C speed. I wanted to test that (I had seen my wingmen move at 2E7 KILOMETERS/s, and that's beyond my class 1 LDS 0.3). So, with the basic spider-class tug placed on Touchdown L-Point, I pointed to the Delaware Casino (at Coyote? no Cap drive, mind this), redirected all energy to engines, and engaged LDS at max speed. Then, I turned off my CRT monitor, and went to the beach with my real-life g/f.
Came back 8:32 hours later. Starmap showed the small player ship red arrow on the opposite direction of Coyote, but I guess that's a weird effect of the 3D-2D projection on the starmap. BUT, there were no signs of HW Alpha or Beta Stars, neither the Coyote star. It looks odd that huge planets are supposedly orbiting a star you cannot see (and you SHOULD, you can't see HW Alpha or Beta if you go as near as 1 AU away). The good thing is, I was still very far away from Coyote, as it should be.
Minor annoyance, but I was liking the small "astronomy" part till I found that stars stop to be drawn at the same small distances as big planets, and they souldn't, as they emit light. Can this me modded? (no idea on the POG capabilities or if the LOD's are hard-coded, but maybe there is a table somewhere telling the game to draw spaceships at distances below 200 clicks and planets below 10.000 clicks).

Third: subsystems can't be disabled.

Maybe it's a n00b mistake, but I though that you could go to the ENG screen, select a particular subsystem, press ENTER and disable it (for example, to reduce signature). The only way I found to do that is to reduce power output down to 77 MegaWatt, so as to cut the "heavy" subsys from its energy source. That way I get just 2 "ticks" of signature, enough that I can't target myself from a rem-linked ship, but as it seems not enough to avoid detection by Govnt ships when I try to graffiti them, accelerating by thruster in small increments. Maybe they target me by "speed" (detection at 125+ m/s) and not by "thruster acceleration" as Clay says?
BTW: does the stealth CPU module need activation? I did install it on the loadout screen, but it doesn't seem to reduce my tug's signature.

Fourth: random attacks spoil the mission structure.

In one mission (the LOR recovery) I came back to the Stepsons' AgriOrbital, and found them being slaughtered by 7 govnt corvettes. Had to go back to base, then come back to find their ships there again to greet me.

Shortly after, I was coming back to the same meeting place, and when I was auto-piloting back to base at 250 m/s (and drinking ice tea and looking out of the window), several Marauders jumped in and killed Azraelle's turret fighter in one shot. I was too lazy to repeat the mission all over, as soon as I saw that Az was not really dead, and that I could rebuild her turret fighter if was willing to scrap 90% of my loot to get that damn 1500 points. Do I really need that t-fighter? In fact, I was just using them for effect, to "feel" myself that I had some company besides Clay out in the cold space.



I had some comments more, but I don't want to bother you anymore with such a long post. I am very interested on this community, specially on the POG modding (myself being a newbie amateur C coder and all) and the Epic mods: IMO, this awesome engine cries for a true free-form mode. And please, a little mode black, less colourful space out there on the new cluster




Now that I have a Capsule Drive installed...where will the newborn go? The Cluster is vast and infinite...

This game is superb, however it does have some serious issues.

The bugs are INFURIATING. At one point during a heated battle< everybody else--wingmen, turret fighters, marauders, everyone--just disappeared.

I pointed my ship at Dante, set LDS to full, and went to bed. When I got up in the morning, the game had crashed. I thought it's impossible to travel between systems that way.

Only certain system can be disabled. However, if you want to leave your computer while Jafs is collecting cargo, shut down your reactor completley and nobody will come and kill you.


Did you play I-War and Defiance?

[Note to self: Insert signature here]

Heh, heh. The "bugs" help to make this game interesting. Re the mission where everyone disappears (I believe it's after attacking a space station), I thought it was pretty strange myself but just went with it. As for the stealth missions (paint spray, etc.), you shouldn't be using your thrusters at all. Throttle only, go slowly (45-65 m/s), and the ships should never notice you. I've always had good luck when waiting for Jafs to pick up cargo, or sitting at space stations under Marauder attack if I release my T-Fighters and ask them to "defend me." Although EOC, after some initial joystick problems, generally ran perfectly for me, it did have a few surprises. If I attempted (read reloaded) a mission too many times without a reboot, the game would crash so hard it would actually restart my system (that is, crash completely through my OS). No other program has ever done that.

Is there something wrong with your sensors? It looks dangerous!

Originally posted by blackbeard

As for the stealth missions (paint spray, etc.), you shouldn't be using your thrusters at all. Throttle only, go slowly (45-65 m/s), and the ships should never notice you.

I know that. My point is that what should trigger the detection is the acceleration, not the relative speed. Probably just a lazy mission script.

Offtopic: just got the Advanced Patcom (had to reload 10 times to do the "blockade run" with the tug, always killed by missiles at the toadskin L-point...when do I get proper decoys?)...then applied a Pursuit Drive and a Cryo PBC yo it. WHOA! At last...a REAL ship!

Really? On the painting mission, I usually come in real real fast, just have to remember to turn off flight assist, or the computer using the thrusters lets them see you.

I'm with you on the rest. EoC has an unusual place in my heart. I like it a great deal, especially the economy (it's not MW2:Mercs in space, but it's suprisingly close), and I think it's a great game. But I look at the little tiny problems, and I just can't stop thinking that despite being an great game, it was so painfully close to being one of the greatest games ever made, that it bugs me. If Epic does everything it looks like it's going to do, Iwar2 w/ epic will probably be the most fun I'll ever have in space.

Andur -- I think better countermeasures (at least ECM) are available on your trade screen by the time you get the Patcom. The secret at Toadskin is to ignore the mines at first and kill at least two Marauders ASAP. Then, along with your T-Fighters, you should just have enough time to destroy enough mines so the freighters can come through (this mission took me about three tries). Forget the advice you hear from the others about concentrating on the mines and they'll keep the ships off your back. The game seems to try to throw you off at various places with incorrect, unnecessary suggestions from NPC's. As for the painting mission, I seem to recall sitting in a junk pile and remote piloting a paint droid to the target ship. The droid wasn't able to go very fast under the best of circumstances. And there's also the necessity of having to pilot it back to your ship. Without a doubt, I think the Patcom is the best ship you'll get during this game - especially after installation of selected upgrades.

Is there something wrong with your sensors? It looks dangerous!