5punk

anyone played it - or attempted to?

I patched it to 1.2 before starting it up, but even the intro screens were as jerky as Shakin' Stevens with Parkinson's disease.

Then there were 25 instructions on what gates I was supposed to fly to, and what I was supposed to check out, but absolutely no indication of how to achieve this. I can't believe I actually have to read the manual, it's 2005 FFS!

Anyway, back to 1990 - the ship seems to be piloted by the mouse: Wing Commander was the last game I remember to have this stone-age control method. I wobble uncertainly through the glowy disc thing and...the game crashes. Fucking A.

I'm not even sure I *want* to get it working, though. From the 30-odd seconds of mouse-steered flight I did experience it became wholly apparent why games like X-wing have crumbled to dust in the face of click-to-go-there space games like Freelancer and Eve. I (incorrectly) thought that fly-by-rodent games were dead and buried, as people had realised that the AZ<> controls of Elite on BBC Micro was actually more user-friendly.

A shame. The box art promises many things which appeal to me (including the fact that my system far exceeds their recommended spec), but it seems unlikely I will ever experience any of them.

FatherJack wrote:Anyway, back to 1990 - the ship seems to be piloted by the mouse: Wing Commander was the last game I remember to have this stone-age control method.

Blimey, last time I played a 'space ship flying game thingy', using the mouse to control the ship was quite la-de-da*.

First Wing Commander was ace though, brings back fond memories of the Tiger's Claw.

That one with Mark Hamill in it was shite though

*edit: er, not counting Eve

shame, I was hoping for a decent offline Eve type game

it must be bad because I cant find any unofficial demo versions on the usual sites

spoodie wrote:shame, I was hoping for a decent offline Eve type game

it must be bad because I cant find any unofficial demo versions on the usual sites

if your looking for EVE:offline, have you had a look at vegastrike? open source simulator with trading, factions, combat and stuff. you can also get a total conversion that turns it into wing commander:privateer.

i've never played the standard vegastrike, but the privateer remake took over my live....until i got eve but thats another story.

oh, did i mention its free?

Anhamgrimmar wrote:

spoodie wrote:shame, I was hoping for a decent offline Eve type game

it must be bad because I cant find any unofficial demo versions on the usual sites

if your looking for EVE:offline, have you had a look at vegastrike? open source simulator with trading, factions, combat and stuff. you can also get a total conversion that turns it into wing commander:privateer.

i've never played the standard vegastrike, but the privateer remake took over my live....until i got eve but thats another story.

oh, did i mention its free?

Is that the one where you attack people who don't eat meat or any other animal related products? Oh no sorry, that's Veganstrike.

Anhamgrimmar wrote:

spoodie wrote:shame, I was hoping for a decent offline Eve type game

it must be bad because I cant find any unofficial demo versions on the usual sites

if your looking for EVE:offline, have you had a look at vegastrike? open source simulator with trading, factions, combat and stuff. you can also get a total conversion that turns it into wing commander:privateer.

i've never played the standard vegastrike, but the privateer remake took over my live....until i got eve but thats another story.

oh, did i mention its free?

free eh? to google to find out more

Roman_Totale wrote:

Anhamgrimmar wrote:

spoodie wrote:shame, I was hoping for a decent offline Eve type game

it must be bad because I cant find any unofficial demo versions on the usual sites

if your looking for EVE:offline, have you had a look at vegastrike? open source simulator with trading, factions, combat and stuff. you can also get a total conversion that turns it into wing commander:privateer.

i've never played the standard vegastrike, but the privateer remake took over my live....until i got eve but thats another story.

oh, did i mention its free?

Is that the one where you attack people who don't eat meat or any other animal related products? Oh no sorry, that's Veganstrike.

nope, this is the one with the man who wears a mask and claw, jumps of the chain link fencing and beats you up

k i just loaded this, and all i can say is, wtf am i supposed to do?!

shot2bits wrote:k i just loaded this, and all i can say is, wtf am i supposed to do?!

uninstall?
I tried flying into the nearby sun and nothing happened, I feel cheated!

yes, once i got the hang of it i was rather disapointed

So... X3. The tutorial (referenced in the manual) is non-existent. A helpful soul has posted this:
http://www2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=96108
ace guide for newbies, though - and I'll try it once I print it out, as ALT-TABbing is a guaranteed game-crasher with X3. Poster's name is "Chips" so I guess that answers the age-old question, as my Dad didn't have a clue.

TBF it does have an autopilot, and a "speed up time" option, so it's not quite as unplayable as I first thought, although fighting is most un-Eve-like in that manual flight control seems to be the method.

I wasn't looking for Eve-offline, as Eve Online is more than sufficient - wanting just a space-conquery game where I can go back to saves if I piss off the wrong people, chances to own stations and be President Of The Universe - so that time in the game doesn't feel like time wasted not playing Eve.

Most people seem to favour a "joy stick" as a control method, whatever one of those is

In other news, I have had an absolutely ace day today with the family, celebrating dual birthdays, getting my brother-in-law sorted with a website for his new business venture and teaching my 6-month-old nephew how to belm.

FatherJack wrote:and teaching my 6-month-old nephew how to belm.

Is he called Joey?

No, sister saw straight through my cunning subterfuge when I suggested Joseph as a name.
"You just want to call him Joey, you bastard!"
"Bah, rumbled"

I was an X2 fanatic until recently. In fact, until about 2 months back (looks at time played on Eve...hmm).

X3 was originally an addon and then moved to a full blown release all on its own. Yes, it has a steep learning curve, but so does Eve.

In many ways the premise behind both games is very similar. Explore, Build, Expand, Conquer etc. The main difference being (apart from the obvious MMO/SP aspect) that in X3 you can own whole fleets of ships, space stations and carriers all controlled by your little self. And then wage eternal war on the rest of the universe. Actually, the open ended-post-story-freegame bit is infintely better than any other I've played (including Freelancer, I-War 2, Privateer).

It makes a change to blat away with a stick of joy from time to time. But above all, this game, being SP, is very moddable. In X2, I finished off by owning a fleet of 10 Imperial Star Destroyers with a complete compliment of Tie Fighters and albeit rather odd, a back up fleet of Correllian Corvettes with X-Wings, B-Wings and my very own Millenium Falcon. All of which were flyable.

So, offline Eve? Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea really.