I took time to learn how to get the most out of Frontier: First Encounters and i still find it the best space simulation game ever. I now use jjffe http://www.jaj22.demon.co.uk/ when i want to play this game, as it gives you direct control over your individual thrusters, should you want it.
PROBLEM: Any ship with more acceleration then the other ship can always escape. So to deal with this gameplay "problem", they made the enemy ship magically re-appear with magical acceleration so it can take another shot at you.
This is true, that is why the best ships, IMHO were the ones that offered the best compromise of accelleration to capacity. Which is why, the large Imperial warships were the best, as you had masses of room for weaponary and fast enough accelleration to be able to escape/hunt.
Also, there's the issue that your target craft has to start slowing down at some point or they will end up in deep space with no fuel. So, also you cannot run forever from pirates, or whatever. I do agree that the magical time accelleration is poorly designed, but the frontier engine was originally written (in assembler) for a Motorola 68000 processor, and realistically speeding up the proper simulation with this processor (nominally 7MHz on an Amiga) is damn near impossible. but if you have the patience, and keep the time accelleration low, then you will find the laws of physics more closely adhered to. the jjffe version has been trying to improve on this slightly, but it's still far from perfect.
The quick fix is, once you start getting away from the craft(s), keep it (one) as your combat target, and only increase the time compression slowly monitoring the distance. Note the direction that you lose it and try to accellerate the other way, maybe. Also, remember that if you're using the autopilot, it will start slowing you down at some point and give those you've escaped a chance to catch up.
PROBLEM: Unless you use an unrealistically slow amount of thrust, you tend to have these ships zipping by each other at the very least hundreds of miles per hour, leaving you with a fraction of a second to meaningfully fire on the other ship, then it's turn back around and do it again. Since you're a human you can't whip around instantly, it take time to move the ship, so every time you miss and come around for another pass, you're going a little faster since you had more time to accelerate.
The idea with hunting down crafts is to match your velocity vector AND your position vector. Now, this does take some time to get right and it requires either some effort on your (or your autopilot's) part on the approach to get these matched closely enough that you can engage in some meaningful combat. You have to be aware, also, that your target might be trying to escape you and just purely accellerating away, and then decellerating hard if you start catching up... it's a tricky procedure sometimes.
PROBLEM: It takes time to learn how to land on things!.....
It's a realistic(ish) simulator, not Rogue Squadron. I don't think that's a design flaw... as you say, there is the autopilot, but it does make the effort/rewards ratio of surface mining fairly high (until you hit that precious metals seam).
Turn around a little too late and by the time you realize it you're on an unstoppable collision course.
With regards to that, if you're not too close, then you can thrust perpendicular to the planet and try and slingshot it instead (if you're that keen on saving your life, and being pure not using your many save files).
PROBLEM: "Random" encounters are impossible without cheating.
In First Encounters, the theory was that pirates followed you through your hyperspace clouds (though there wer
A large proportion could (and quite possibly will) go unclaimed because of people being unaware, clever wording on the vouchers leading people into thinking that the vouchers are useless, or clever wording leading people into thinking that they are only redeemable for Microsoft products.
Also, the possibility for Microsoft to adjust the numbers of vouchers actually 'used', according to their definition of 'used' (sitting in someone's bottom drawer?).
maybe.
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I took time to learn how to get the most out of Frontier: First Encounters and i still find it the best space simulation game ever. I now use jjffe http://www.jaj22.demon.co.uk/ when i want to play this game, as it gives you direct control over your individual thrusters, should you want it.
This is true, that is why the best ships, IMHO were the ones that offered the best compromise of accelleration to capacity. Which is why, the large Imperial warships were the best, as you had masses of room for weaponary and fast enough accelleration to be able to escape/hunt.
Also, there's the issue that your target craft has to start slowing down at some point or they will end up in deep space with no fuel. So, also you cannot run forever from pirates, or whatever. I do agree that the magical time accelleration is poorly designed, but the frontier engine was originally written (in assembler) for a Motorola 68000 processor, and realistically speeding up the proper simulation with this processor (nominally 7MHz on an Amiga) is damn near impossible. but if you have the patience, and keep the time accelleration low, then you will find the laws of physics more closely adhered to. the jjffe version has been trying to improve on this slightly, but it's still far from perfect.
The quick fix is, once you start getting away from the craft(s), keep it (one) as your combat target, and only increase the time compression slowly monitoring the distance. Note the direction that you lose it and try to accellerate the other way, maybe. Also, remember that if you're using the autopilot, it will start slowing you down at some point and give those you've escaped a chance to catch up.
The idea with hunting down crafts is to match your velocity vector AND your position vector. Now, this does take some time to get right and it requires either some effort on your (or your autopilot's) part on the approach to get these matched closely enough that you can engage in some meaningful combat. You have to be aware, also, that your target might be trying to escape you and just purely accellerating away, and then decellerating hard if you start catching up... it's a tricky procedure sometimes.
It's a realistic(ish) simulator, not Rogue Squadron. I don't think that's a design flaw... as you say, there is the autopilot, but it does make the effort/rewards ratio of surface mining fairly high (until you hit that precious metals seam).
With regards to that, if you're not too close, then you can thrust perpendicular to the planet and try and slingshot it instead (if you're that keen on saving your life, and being pure not using your many save files).
In First Encounters, the theory was that pirates followed you through your hyperspace clouds (though there wer
A large proportion could (and quite possibly will) go unclaimed because of people being unaware, clever wording on the vouchers leading people into thinking that the vouchers are useless, or clever wording leading people into thinking that they are only redeemable for Microsoft products. Also, the possibility for Microsoft to adjust the numbers of vouchers actually 'used', according to their definition of 'used' (sitting in someone's bottom drawer?). maybe.
are you american? and you have a problem with the government spying on civilians. do you know the extent to which you're being spyed upon?
it's easy to believe propoganda, and be scathing about different cultures and methods of government.