3.2 Play experience

So I finally got my client updated and working with 3.2 alpha. It had been a while so got it all up to date. First thing I noticed after getting logged in was that we finally got a 3rd button and have a PU now (well alpha of one). Yay! Progress!

I also noticed that I have a blank contact list, is there some way in game to autoadd the guild? I did see a post about both parties needing to consent.

So I went to try to arena commander out, I still suck at flying a spaceship, and I could not find the tutorial that once existed I think. Did I miss something?

I did login to space marine and was able to play a couple games of random pickup pvp, seemed like the FPS part of the game is working well.

So I went ahead and logged into the PU part, found a few improvements and a few puzzlers. Everything in the space station seemed to be working smoothly now, much improved over last time. I found my way around easy enough, was able to find the shops and the information booth, and was able to call up my cutlass black from storage. First puzzle was that it supposedly was changed into a different ship in the past. I was surprised to see a cutlass black there. Second puzzle seems to be with mining in general, why can’t I fit a mining laser on my ship? At any rate, I finally remembered how to fly at least enough to take off, and had found the contracts page, so I was planning to pickup some garbage. Not quite a thrilling prospect, but OK, lets test this out… ok, flying towards trash… OK, hmm, weapons lock lifted? should I be worried?.. Whats that wifi looking symbol?.. loading…

So I get to spend 5k (in game) on insurance to get my ship back, its alpha, not all that surprising that the whole quest area is full of ambushers. None of the money or anything should be lost, its alpha. I clearly need more flight training…

Yeah, they removed the tutorial because it was buggy as all hell. I mean like buggy even for an alpha.

No quick way to add everyone yet. Hopefully they get that going soon™.

Right now mining is ship specific. There is only one miner at the moment and that is the prospector.

As far as the rest, YMMV. I have flown around for hours (sometimes a couple hours at a time with this build) just exploring . Other times I have loaded up only to be kamikazeed on a pad. I don’t expedite my insurance claim, no need to. I Ask if anyone needs crew, hop a lift to another rock, or just find another way to pass the time till the ship is there.

Are friends in spectrum friends in the game? I’ve gotten quite a few requests in spectrum and accepted them there. Can we do that and have it carry over?

Mining is always going to be ship specific.
This decision was made about a year ago (ish) and CIG is adamant about keeping it that way.
They have a sound reason for it from a game lore perspective. A mining laser is not just a different kind of beam that blasts rocks. It is a combination beam laser, extractor laser and tractor beam that requires certain hardpoint hook ups to work properly AND it requires a receptacle to store the mining materials.
The way mining works now is this:

  • the mining laser beam builds up a level of energy in the rock until it eventually breaks apart, releasing the chunks that contain ore as well as more bits of rock.
  • the chunks that contain ore can then be collected with the extraction laser which pulls apart those chunks into raw material that contains both the listed percentage of ore and a matching percentage of junk rock.
  • for the other chunks that get blown apart that are not able to be extracted, you can try to blow them apart a second time to get to the ore.

This means you need a hard point that can provide a large amount of power, 2 types of laser power, and house a tractor beam. Most fighters will never have this type of hardpoint available. And larger ships will be custom built around these hard points in order to make them effective mining ships.

So you will never just toss a mining laser on any ship other than a mining ship.

At first I was a bit miffed by this decision, but now I see why and the idea of mining specific ships is really growing on me.

Similarly, there will be ships that can and cannot house drones for maintenance and refueling, ships that can and cannot handle cargo, can and cannot refuel, etc, etc

Owning a ship for a specific role means you have invested in that profession, which is a good thing.
I would not want a ship that can swap between refueling and mining and combat.

And…

Yes, at least it did before the recent update to friends in game. I think it still does but you will have to verify that.

I love the decision as well. I’m positive that there will be hand-held mining and salvaging lasers, far lower power, but for ships I love the role-specific dedication.

Every time a new batch of ships gets hangar ready is when I log in to kick the tires.

I was a wee bit disappointed this time with how buggy it seems. And trust me I have no illusions about it being alpha blah blah blah.

I can’t get into the Hurricane at all. Walked around the ship for ten minutes with the F key held down. I cannot see where or how to actually sit in it.

I can’t get into the Cutlass Blue at all. Back door never goes “orange” to open. Cutlass Black is fine… Blue is a no go.

The Terrapin continually spawns 10 feet off the ground. So while I can open the door, no way to actually enter the ship. The 600i Explorer did this initially as well. Fourth time I spawned it in it was actually on the ground. It just took me FOREVER to find where the elevator was to hit the F key and call it down.

I can pull down the ladder on the Prospector, but no indication I can actually climb it. Nothing comes up on the F key and I can’t auto climb the ladder when I’m close. I get the same on the Herald. The ladder comes down but I can’t for the life of me climb it.

My Vanguard Warden is on fire inside. Every part of the ship is on fire here and there. Odd… and annoying.

They REALLY need to make the spawn points on the floor MUCH more obvious. I feel stupid running around the hangar starting at the floor looking for the tiny little blue spot to spawn a ship in. They need to be visible from further away and be a bit more obvious. At least in my humble opinion.

On a positive note… I love the rework of the Cutlass Black (and assuming the Blue too). I also love the rework of the UI. Holding down the F key allows you to look around your console and set your displays up the way you want. I can set one to shields, weapons, power… etc. Nicely done. This makes MUCH more sense to me now. And damn if that 600i isn’t a gorgeous ship. Kudos to the artists and designers. My one and only compromise for a luxury ship… but it had to have functionality. Sexy ship to say the least…

So reading through your post it seems that what you did was log in to the Hangar and try all of these ships out.

Yeah that is even MORE buggy than the rest. They kind of gave up on any types of maintenance of the existing hangars since they are redoing the hangars again. This time into 2 categories I think - I would have to revisit the post about it to be sure.

I would suggest skipping the hangar and going to Arena Commander Free Flight to check out your ships. If you do it in a single player instance it has much better frame rates than anything multiplayer and you wont get all of the weird hangar bugs.

Now to be clear, you wont get the hangar bugs but all of the other bugs are fair game :wink:

Another option is to go to the PU, where your experience can vary from slideshow bugfest to almost playable demo.

But for a good gut check of the status of the ships, stay away from the hangar for now.