Elite / Frontier Has anyone here ever let the game run for days/weeks?

[boringnick]

Is here someone who was bored or crazy enough to run Frontier/FFE at least once without time accleration? Not the whole session of course, but at least one trip.

I always wondered whether it's even possible at all (without crashing the ship or the game!), since the autopilot works a lot more reliable with time accleration.

 

[Geraldine]

Slow down and see a different game.

I have on numerous occasions. Back in the 1990s when all I did was play Frontier on my Miggy, it would be an all day thing. Running the game in real time or even just slightly speeded up time would have effects on the game. Two examples I can think of are that ships would attack in threes or more if in an anarchy system, one time I was attacked by multiple ICs! .

Also, I did an experiment with the AI in the game by shadowing a trader in their journey to see what would happen when the pirates attacked me. Once the trader had been hit by fire from the pirates, they would open up on them. You see, you miss all this detail if you just max the time acceleration all the time. Things like that make Frontier what it is, one of the best computer games ever made

 

[Riedquat For A Dream]

Yes Geraldine you're right, the game changes dramatically even if you play the game with the stardreamer set to one below maximum. Far more chance of being attacked by multiple ships at the same time.

I also kind of like the journeys taking a bit longer too, as it gives you more of a sense of the distances involved. I highly recommend giving it a go if anyone hasn't before.

 

[Geraldine]

And to think too, that some people see the stardreamer as a problem with Frontier. Not only is it handy for charging across vast distances, but it can also be used to set the pace of the game to your own requirements. After a particularly hard fight, I would leave it in real time to relax and continue my Frontier adventure in peace.

 

[Styggron]

<holds head down>

Yes I sure have. I've run it in realtime on manny occasions and Geraldine is spot on there are all kinds of different things you can see without the time acceleration.

It truly is an AMAZING game.

 

[Bikky]

But you'd have to use star dreamer in some systems, like... um.... alpha centauri? where you jump into the system about 900AU out from the planet, and it takes at least 5days game time to get there.

 

[DraQ]

Only made an autopilot surface to orbital station flight without compression. P. Cool.

I intercepted and tailed a merchant in Puma once manually, but they weren't attacked and I did use limited time compression to speed up the trip.

I routinely use below maximum time compression in FE2, to avoid attackers split bug.