The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I've noticed that in many situtaions in game, some time limits are metioned. Like the one with the probes, or with talking to Pkunk where they say that they will be extinked in about a year. Also in same convesation I had an option to respond that I'm on a five yer mission. After that, I checked a couple of sites, and it turns out that some release of the game (not sure which one) had a limit to mid of year 2159.
Are those time limits in UQM too? :o

The "five year mission" part is probably a Star Trek reference, but there is some truth to it. You don't have unlimited time, and some things will happen at certain times. You can affect some of these things.

crap, i thought it was 3 year limit, looks like i need to slow doooooooooooooooowwwwnnnnn now.

I mean the first time i played i took my time, didn't even bother to find quasi portal. Then around when the kohr-ah were cleansing i nearly got to the sa-matra before the kohr-ah got earth but i just needed like a week in space travel longer. Part of this was due to my noobness because i really just mined anything on any planet, took to much time. Insted of just getting radioactives and nobles. So my advice, rush to get  quasi portal as fast as  possible, then you can go as sloooooowww as you hearts desire.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Time limit is the single thing that  I hate the most in any game. I hate when I have to race with the clock all the time >:( .
Please tell me, is there a  way to remove the global time limit?? If not, there's no point in me playing the game :'( ...

i could extend time a bit, or "slow" time down for ya to where it takes longer for days to pass, but i don't know how to stop the kohr-ah from cleansing, i have to find that out later.

just give me an e-mail and i'll send you a modified .exe
(which by the way has a modified chmmr avatar)


edit--- i've made the exe file to "slow" time down...
1 day for me would equal 6 days for someone without a modded exe.

I've sent you pm with on whic email to send it.
please tell me did you got it because i got some error when sending it

edit: if you havent, than you can send it on email from my forum profile

anyways, thanks ;D

well if anyone wants an extended time(and a modified chmmr ship with 5 zapsats and better speed and turning rate),
i'll put it up on yousendit.com later

Hey.. You know.. The time limits really aren't that cumbersome... You just need to play the game the right way, IE. instead of "mining only", do this: "Mine near where you need to go to get/do something" (like when you need to meet the Spathi: mine in Spathi space!)

It's just that the game doesn't really come with a manual.. :P I'm fairly certain that the ORIGINAL game came with a manual that said something the same as I just did... I should check up on that sooner or later.

Absolutely. You could easily play through the game not knowing there even is a time limit. Just don't mine every single system for all they're worth. Besides, the game itself gives you plenty of warning to speed things up a little bit; I think it goes without saying that a starship captain who is in a hurry to save the galaxy wouldn't necessary stop by every planet on the way to check if there are minerals there. When I play the game, I just pack the Vindy full of cargo bays as early as I can, then go on two or three mining trips, tops. After that, all I need is two or three cargo bays, and I check by promising planets in systems I'm headed anyway.

Yeah I know, but I like to play that kind of games relaxed (like X2)

i like mining and searching for lifeforms, i've been caught in the same situation they've been in.
except now that i've been plaing the game since the 3do version came out(1994 i think) i've gotten alot faster cause i know where some of the more richer systems are by heart.

funny enough i always have to guess where some of the homeplanets and specialty item are. :D

The first times I played the game I didn't know there was a time limit. Still, I felt a sense of urgency from the various inputs you get in the game ("sir, this is happening right now"), and I think it's this that helped me finish the game well within time.

oh and another reason to extend the time limit.

its easier to really beef up the vindicator(or whatever you called the ship)

and personally i like beatting the crap out of everyone with my souped up precursor tug, no matter who they are.

i have actually tried to NOT make any alliance so i could attack any ship as i so please, its so fun that way. ;D

Considering that the game can be completed in six months or so, five years is generous. Anyway, if you solicit the advice of the starbase commander, he tells you to stop mining after one year.

When I usally get everything done, I relax and attack the kohr-ah with the supox and utwig allies. Its very fun, i killed the lohr-ah from 6 systems in a couple game months. My god, I even broke the defencive ring around the Sa-Matras guards, When i approached it, there was a infinite amount of Kzer-Za around a PLANET not the actual SA-MATRA. That was one of the glitchs i found. Guess they never thought someone would do this.

6 months to finish??
I akready spent 3 years exploring and mining lol
Anyways, Kohr-Ar, could you send me that file/s which extend time, please?

i thought i did...
 
well i guess i'll just send it on down

Hmm, I haven't recieved anything...

sorry i kinda dozed off for a little bit while i was doing things, now i'll send it

The first time I played through the game, I played without hints or spoilers of any kind, and no knowledge of the time limit, yet I was nowhere near breaking it when I won. This isn't really a game where you're supposed to take your time exploring. There's a war! People (well, aliens mostly) are dying!

But if you really feel like using a crack to adjust the time limit, that's up to you.

Thanks for sending me the file.
BTW, what's 'chmmr avatar modification' ?

I think he's referring to this modification.

exactly...  go try it out its fun, actually thats the beginning of a modification thats not finished yet, i am actually changing the ship graphics just a little bit for the chmmr, next will be the syreen though, i'm gonna try to make syreen male captains they're own ship...  its gonna be a fun year for me ;D
especially since im doing all the modifications by myself

i'm gonna put a link to the exe on yousendit.com onto my website if anyone else is interested in the time mod

i'll get it done in a couple of hours since i have things to do

ive uploaded the link to my website

HERE (http://www.dickweed.0nyx.com/downloads.htm)

the link is on the right.

also if ya want a direct link

HERE (http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0VBE4ZFGS97E818R2RRAAIGUPN)

yeah really if you really know your mining or resource collection, the time limit isn't an issue and it gets rather boring if you do try to wait for the time limit to come.  There's a whole universe of planets full of exotics and radioactives out there!  Then there's the Druuge fuel trick.

But yeah the "about six months" refers to the minimum proved (in-game) time the game has been beaten.

But ok, if I already spent about 3,5 years on mining and exploring, without doing much of plot stuff, how much do I have to complete the game?

You have about the minimum amount of time I could reasonably expect a first-time captain to finish it in if he had essentially unlimited resources. Exhaust Hayes' advice tree and look into every race you haven't contacted yet.

When you distribute something you need to realize that you need to be sure to offer any and all supporting DLLs if you don't insist upon using the same kind of compiler & options that were orginally used on UQM in the first place.

I suggest if you don't know what these files are, you uninstall Visual C++ or whatever you used to recompile the code and then attempt to figure out what those are (I'll give you the first shot if my memory is good: MSVCR71.DLL)

i am not making a completely version of the game, the exe file im dudtributing uses the exact same setup as the current, its just a mof\dified version. Which means you can BACKUP your original and put this one where that used to be.  Get It?

Not when you use a compiler different than the original UQM that requires some kind of run-time DLL setup.  When you have a compiler that requires a run-time DLL setup, and you're going to distribute the results, you need to cough up the run-time DLLs.  Get it?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326922  I'll even help you by letting Microsoft tell you the same thing.

5 years is lot of  time to play.

but There is lot of extra "spices" in game. some aliens you DON'T HAVE to meet etc.

it depends how do you play. im playing very "fuel-friendly" style so i dont have to search minerals often.

I'm curious; how do you play fuel-friendly? I guess getting the quasispace portal spawner from the Arilou as early as possible is a good idea, as it will save a lot of long trips later.

Of course, the #1 fuel-conserving tip is "stay at home". But that would be, you know, boring. ;)

yes. i'll get that spawner but to get that i  lose lot of fuel so i meet the slylandro at same time.

and if possible, meet some other species.

So what do you do to avoid mining? Leave as little as possible? Use the druuge fuel trick?

druuge fuel trick?

anyway... i collect much credits and buy fuel from melnorme if  it runs out....

i cant explain it. i somehow just play it like i told.

Hmm, of course, one strategy to save a lot of mining trips is to not do anything about the Slylandro probes problem. They'll multiply, and you'll get a lot of RU's for free each trip.

thats true...

but i never tried that.

im now downloadin star control2 to my friends computer o i can test it :P

FYI: The "Time Limit" mod has changes other than the time limit slow-down and Avatar alteration.

 :-\

In particular, he made the Earth cruiser have full crew and 1-energy nuclear missiles. Basically, the cruiser can spam missiles all the time and is undefeatable in Super Melee.

So... Can we please get a time mod with JUST the time mod?

- Nobody

im sorry about that, its gonna be awhile before i can change it, i have mentioned before i had to do a full format on my computer, so i will have to reinstall everything including visual studio, and modify the source code for your needs, hold on and lemme drop everything and do that...

You think the crusier spams missiles!?!?!?!?!??!

I should record my fight with a kohr-ah that lasted 2 seconds, with the source code for energy batteries for your ship, i could rapid fire 3 hellborne cannons and my 3 tracking modules, all with rapid fire. You don't know the meaning of cheap. I found out cyborg could fight this for me without even losing crew. THAT is cheap, cruiser would be a minor menace to this behemoth, i mean this thing could beat the sa-matra. Precursor bomb or not.

Well, the original game came with a mention of the Metacron, which fairly clearly explained that there is a time limit in the game.

There is enough time to finish the game as-is.  However, most gamers aren't used to having an "unknown" time limit, and will happily spend time just having fun in the game (and there is a lot to be had in sc2).  Saying "the game tells you to hurry" is not even close to enough to a reason.  EVERY RPG tells you to hurry to do things, and unless there is a countdown running on the screen, you can take your sweet time with it.

I don't think any of us are really qualified to say if the average new player would finish this game in time the first time.  We might have done it (I know I did), but then again, we had the Metacron reference.

Just knowing that you can't doddle would be good.  It's too bad this important piece of information was left out in the 3DO version.

There is a calendar running on the screen almost all the time... but yes, we need the MetaChron!