Jump Improvements?

It would be kewl if we could shoot at those light things, with like a rapid-fire PBC, and get fuel or something. Kinda like the Ring challenge in EoC, or a little mini-game thing. It's a pain refueling all the time.

Audio: I didn't realize how bad my motherboard audio was until now. It must have less ability to mix sounds, which is why I could hardly hear the music, or none of the "special" sounds placed into jump. They are far clearer and more interesting without the capsule jump sound. I vote we toss the EoC capsule jump sound in favor of keeping the music.

Fuel: We wondered if the fueling would be a pain. We had kicked around a few solutions. Elite FFE had fuel usage, but it was just like other cargo. And it was worked into the plot. And Pirates uses food the same way. There are two main goals of fuel usage: 1. the player upkeep payments are done mostly by fuel. 2. long range travel into uncharted or hostile territory requires some logistical planning or you will find yourself drifting. This is mainly in support of the mining part of the game.

One way we could meet those goals, is to allow cargo haulers to auto refuel when they dock to station to load/unload pods. And then we increase the number of jumps that escort craft can do without needing to refuel. From a trader player perspective, that should cut out a bunch of fuel handling. At the same time, mining operations are still going to be burning a fair amount of fuel, and will need tankers to keep them supplied. And combat assaults into hostile areas will need tankers, because there won't be any other way to fuel.

Having refueling definitely adds to the experience. The whole process and management of it is a challenge, and enjoyable. I agree that we just need to balance out how much/often the player is doing it. I already feel it is a 'tad' too much right now. Maybe boosting up the capacity of fuel tanks 50% and or adjusting down slightly the amount a ship uses per jump would be enough to make it workable. Unless others feel this current amount is just right I think we should make this change to the current build. I don't think we need to go as far as having tradeship refueling automatically while unloading/loading cargo.

Yep.. integrated AC97 audio has like the worst drivers out there. Strange, since they also seem to be the most prevelent.

Do you have to eventually refuel the refuel tanker, or is it unlim fuel once you hire it?

As far as refueling, just adding the overall amount should be enough. A trader should be able to do a 3-4 jump trade-loop before refueling.

You have to refuel it. It is more important when you need to keep a mining rig and cargo haulers fueled way out in deep space.

I retweaked the capsule jump..eliminated the capsule sound on the lights, and moved it to the capsule bubble itself, with reduced volume. So the capsule music can be heard better. I also removed all the moving lights and changed them to station lights. Right now I am playing with the nebula densities to see what effects can be achieved. Interestingly, passing through a nebula within another nebula acts like a switch for the overall nebula. So I can alter the density and color of the tunnel as the player moves through it. However, the transitions between colors/density is not perfect.

I just realised that something we coudl add to the tunnel would be 'bolts' or 'energy' beams, perhaps arcing across the tunnel from side to side or top to bottom, or coursing along the sides. Not sure exactly how to impliment this without some coding. I haven't been able to get effects like disrupters etc working through ini's only