The FFED3D Thread

[Adrena1in]

I could do it in FE2 - avoid being hit mostly, but I can't do it in FFE, even when I did have a fairly nippy ship like a Constrictor or an Asp. I tried the numpad thrusters, the default Enter/Shift thrusters. Even turning myself 90-degrees from my assailant and hitting ull thrust they'd still hit me 9 times out of 10.

Oh well, just have to settle for sticking with a big ship and soaking up the attacks, and accept that when an IE with a PA gets near me, chances are I'll die a few times. (Like last night, when I was heading for Mairgre to pick someone up, and I repeatedly got killed by an IE, sometimes two of them. I used the "Third-Time-Shift-Click" trick to confuse them for long enough to get a lock and send them to their maker, but it was still luck if I got them before me.

And when I got to the planet and the date arrived when I was meant to pick up this person, did she show up? Did she b*******!! Three game-months wasted. Still, "Competent" rating now, which is nice.

 

[DraQ]

I could do it in FE2 - avoid being hit mostly, but I can't do it in FFE, even when I did have a fairly nippy ship like a Constrictor or an Asp. I tried the numpad thrusters, the default Enter/Shift thrusters. Even turning myself 90-degrees from my assailant and hitting ull thrust they'd still hit me 9 times out of 10.

That's because 90 degrees is not the optimal evasion angle. Try accelerating towards enemy and slightly to the side - as you close the distance to the enemy, you'll notice, that they will become less and less able to keep up with your movement and will be forced to break off the attack. You, on the other hand, will be able to stick to their tail and fire at their vulnerable hindquarters with relative impunity, provided you use your retros rather than allow your momentum to carry you way past the enemy.

And when I got to the planet and the date arrived when I was meant to pick up this person, did she show up? Did she b*******!! Three game-months wasted. Still, "Competent" rating now, which is nice.

That's what you get for using a huge flying brick.
If you have to use a heavy freighter, let it, at least, be a Boa or IE.

IE sucks against small ships due to it's lack of turrets, but it's the closest thing to a fighter you'll find in super-heavy class.

Boa is smaller than Panther and mounting LPA on it is a bad idea, but it's surprisingly agile for a ship it's size.

 

[turwhitt]

The boa is excellent. Nice hyperspace range, fast for its size, and plenty of room for anything other than ultra high quantity trading.

 

[Steve]

However, using such a feature to overcome what's really a flaw in the game is acceptable in my book. I mean, even with maximum stardreamer, it should still bring you back to normal time-speed when your enemies are a good 10 or 20 km away, not half a km and already firing on you and launching missles at you.

Which is precisely what happens to me when I play FFE, whether it's JJFFE, GLFFE or FFE D3D. The enemy ships are always at least 10km away, sometimes 20-30km. Stardreamer x 3 brings them into range that much quicker, as well as splitting them up.

I'm having trouble understanding why people, playing the same game I am, experience such different combat situations. If there are several blue or green markers on the radar, indicating small ships, I sometimes let them all attack me simultaneously. My Imperial Courier takes them out one by one

 

[Adrena1in]

Occasionally I come out of Max StarDreamer with a ship some 60km away, but usually they're 2 or 3km, sometimes as close as 0.5km from me. And yes, anything blue or green I don't worry about...they never get through more than 1% of my shields, but the orange or white blobs on the radar always fill me with a sense of trepidation.

 

[Adrena1in]

That's what you get for using a huge flying brick.

I was at the destination in plenty of time...must've got to Camp Cambell a week before I was due to, (the mission says 31-Jul-3252, but I read on a website it's actually something like Aug-2-3252 I'm meant to pick her up.) Anyway, sat in dock for a month and a half waiting for the person to appear on the bulletin board so I could ferry her home. Perhaps I was meant to arrive on the exact day she needed collecting.

Hmmm, first mission attempted...what a waste of time and effort!

 

[Ryker]

Been playing D3d-FFE for a few days now, got as far as Competent and up to the Mycoid (Thargoid) mission.

All went fine, got to Hotice 1 and there's no research base to level for the mycoid. 5 re-attempts (2 from scratch) and no joy.

I want that Thargoid Warship, dammit

 

[Ryker]

Same issue, shift doesnt work for reverse thrust. Ever forward, I guess

 

[Steve]

I was at the destination in plenty of time...must've got to Camp Cambell a week before I was due to, (the mission says 31-Jul-3252, but I read on a website it's actually something like Aug-2-3252 I'm meant to pick her up.) Anyway, sat in dock for a month and a half waiting for the person to appear on the bulletin board so I could ferry her home. Perhaps I was meant to arrive on the exact day she needed collecting.

Hmmm, first mission attempted...what a waste of time and effort!

Heh, those pesky hand-coded missions

I've always been able to complete this mission, so I loaded a savegame into FFE D3D to see if it's still working ok...

The mission date should be 21st August 3252 but somehow this date can be changed. Anyway, as long as you're at Camp Campbell by the date specified, you should be ok.

The odd thing about this mission is that you don't get any message when Jan Thikka boards your ship; you will just notice that an extra passenger cabin is occupied. So by midnight on the day in question Jan should be aboard.

Take off and hyperspace to the nearest Federal system - Wafaphi (-6,-3). When you land there (and there will be a few skirmishes along the way!) you should get the following message...

"Well done, Commander. You have rendered a valuable service. You will not go unrewarded".

As far as I can tell, the only reward is Cr2000, but the following month's newspapers will make interesting reading

EDIT: Upon closer inspection, it seems there is no "correct" date for this mission. In other words, just make sure you're at Camp Campbell by the date mentioned in the mission text. Also, you get a promotion of one rank by the Feds for successfully completing this mission.

 

[Jerry Rezet]

"Just colorise Lifter. Hm.. I did not knew, that Lifter - "She" (link)

Damn! Picture was changed! Boo..

 

[Adrena1in]

The odd thing about this mission is that you don't get any message when Jan Thikka boards your ship; you will just notice that an extra passenger cabin is occupied. So by midnight on the day in question Jan should be aboard.

Oh, it seemed to work this time. That's odd. I know the first time I tried it I was expecting a message, and didn't actually have a Passenger Cabin, but the three or four times afterwards I did, (but then I probably didn't notice the cabin becoming occupied.) Oh well, done now, and they promoted me to Sergeant.

 

[turwhitt]

The game will be impossible to play to a proper degree without the use of reverse thrust.

 

[Adrena1in]

Does anyone else notice that the scanner is sometimes "upside down"!? Only seems to happen when I use my turrets, but sometimes an enemy vessel is clearly indicated as being above me, but when I search with my turret I can't find it...until look underneath me and see it there.

And that reminds me...another glitch I've noticed is that if I'm at rest, in outer space, everything appears to be still, which I would expect. Until I switch to the 3rd-person external view, and then everything appears to be slowly revolving, as though my ship is spinning!

As you said though Steve, it's a Beta release...just curious as to whether these anomalise happen to anyone else, that's all.

 

[DraQ]

The game will be impossible to play to a proper degree without the use of reverse thrust.

Which is still possible via [NumPad5].

The only thing that is crippled is lowering the set speed, but there is nothing you can do in set speed mode, but not in full manual.

 

[Steve]

I think some glitches are common to all FFE D3D users, while some only affect a few folks.

For example, point 4 in your original post. The asteroids render perfectly for me, from all angles

 

[Adrena1in]

Got the Argent's Quest now, and either my fighting skills have improved, or the 20 shields on this thing are awesome. On my journey to Pleione 4b I got into many skirmishes with pesky little enemies, some with 4MW Beams, but none of them actually got through the shields, even with very accurate shots at me. Not sure I like the look of the LPA beam...it seems to stop just infront of me, rather than reaching into the distance, but hey, it's effective.

Bloomin' annoying that after about an hour of play, and perhaps 15 to 20 kills, my PC then crashed!! GGRRRRRR!!!!

I don't think the mission gave me a Nuke, which apparently I need. Is there an easy way to get one of these prior to setting off for the Pleione system? Or don't I actually need one?

 

[turwhitt]

You need to get a base buster mission from either military. The missile you get from that is what you want. Now's when you hope that your rank's high enough!

 

[Adrena1in]

I don't have an Imperial rank, but I'm Federal Sergeant. If it's not enough I'll just prance around in the Argent's Quest for a while.

 

[turwhitt]

Hmm, you certainly won't be able to finish the main storyline if you prance around for too long. There is a time limit.

If your rank isn't high enough, you could always use Buffet to increase your rank long enough to get a base busting mission. You can always change it back afterwards. After all, it's a bit silly that they don't give you a missile in the first place.

 

[Adrena1in]

After all, it's a bit silly that they don't give you a missile in the first place.

That's what I was thinking...and I had to look up on the Net what it was I needed to do, because the mission description wasn't exactly useful, with no information in my Roster either.