Avatars as Dreadnought killers (as opposed to Sa-Matra killers) makes sense if you remember that they planned the merging process to take thousands of years. Um, it took thousands of years for Round One of the Doctrinal War to play out, maybe they were banking on the KZ's winning and there being a Round Two.

Otherwise, it makes no sense for you to start a pan-millenial project when you've got just a few decades till anihilation.

I mean, it's not much of a Now and Forever, Eternal thing if you're only going to do it once-and-out, now is it?

This has never made sense. If you and I agree to walk around the galaxy (or planet or merrygoround or imaginary circle) and kill each other next time we meet, we're NOT going to meet where we started, we're going to meet halfway around, on the far side. But KZs and KAs started AND ended at the Sa-Matra. Huh? Did they pass each other peacefully 10,000 years ago on the other side of the galaxy? And if so, who did the KZ's slave-shield on the home stretch? All the races would be wiped out by the KAs on their initial pass. Unless you think a species can evolve from nonsentient critters into a starfaring military power in less than 10,000 years. ( I allow for critters because the KAs must eat something, I don't imagine them being photosynthetic like the Chenjesu. Yep, vicious, sadistic, insane vegan killing machines.)

And if the KAs are wandering around a quadrant that has nothing but impeneterable slave shielded races, I'd think they'd go batshit because they wouldn't be the only living thing left. THEY AUTOMATICALLY LOSE THE WAR. And if they CAN penetrate the slave shield, why aren't you trying to rip off the technology so you can rebuild the Alliance? Isn't that your goal for the first 3/4 of the game?

Oh yeah, the last patch gave me a "cannot write to uqm.exe abort rerty fail" error. I skipped it (abort) and d/led the rest. It runs, but I don't know if I missed out on new code or not.

Do I have to change the archive bit on uqm.exe or something?

Thanks.

Yeah, they just up and split, and it was about 90 days. I wasn't counting, though. It does look like it's timed, and not a date-specific event.

So the moral of the story is: Buy Eluders! Buy buy buy!

Of course, they aren't worth more after they become scarce, so much for supply and demand.

Of course, leave youself room for the 4 Arilou and 4 Pkunk freebies you get.

Yay! The latest build Striker put up fixes my problem! Nevermind!

Now I can actually enter into combat.

Thanks to all who helped (PB particularly).

1.) They're working on dialog synch. It gets better, then worse, then better, then is synched but "skippy", then smooth but unsynched. Just keep on top of the latest builds and it'll get better (then worse, then better again).

2.) Skip dialog with the -> key, <- scrolls back.

3.) Can't help you there. I get a black or scrambled (depending on the version, although v0.1 windows installer version worked perfectly) screen myself.

4.)F12 forcekills the program. This is a 3DO port, remember, and you usually just hit "reset" or "power" on a console.

Good luck, and enjoy reliving the *spicy game*!

You can use the <- key to review the last bit of conversation, same as you can skip forward using ->.

Don't know if that's what you meant, though.

Anyway, using the last build (thx again, Striker!), I have a few problems.

1.) -f for fullscreen gives me a black screen

2.) -o for OpenGL gives me totally scrambled graphics

3.) I have lander dialog freezes. Like when you run into an object/energy source, I can't advance the text. I wind up stuck at the (more) prompt, with no way to advance it. It happens only about 80% of the time, though, so I can save 'n load around it. I notice that when this happens, I also can't skip ahead while the dialog is being slowly "typed out".

Now for the good news: I'm finally clocking correctly! Yay! Now my mothership won't get killed by Captain Tanaka anymore! My lander screen is also slowed down to normal speed, making my life generally easier.

So do I report ongoing bugs with Striker's builds here, or in the "official" place?

` = F12
Esc (Lander) = L-shift

So what's starmap zoom? Which file do I crack open and look at (assuming it would make any sense to a non-1337 guy like me)? And is emergency warp still space+, or is it Esc now?

I'll grab the new comp when I get home, thanks Striker!

I want to stock up on Eluders before that happens.

 

It works. Thanks Censored and Erek.

One question: What's the complete list of keybinding changes? "Esc" no longer retrieves the lander, and "numpad +" no longer zooms the starmap. I know ` has been changed to F12, what else is new? I read the changelog and didn't see specific mentions.

YES!!!!!!!

Hey, I made my first classic programming error (and I'm not even a programmer): I forgot to count zero as an increment.

Of course if I save in slot 4 it'll be named starcon.03, because slot one is starcon.00.

Hah!

Now let's fire the puppy up and see if she works!

Brb (unless I get sucked in for a few dozen hours).

Oh yes, almost forgot: I'm running XP Home.

AMD Athalon 1.4 Ghz
480 megs RAM
ProSavage S3
VIA AC'97 Audio Controller (I think, HP has really wacky sound and 3D cards [that are usually soldered onto the motherboard]).

So that's me. I've experimented with all of the switches, no clocking changes.

I've also been playing around with Stryke's latest, but there are issues to be resolved before I can get into the game.

I guess I'll have to let you know later. Thanks for taking an interest, PB.

edit: So I tried sniffing out where the savegames are, by creating a new savegame in slot 4 (which would be called starcon.04, right?), then running a search for it. Nada. I come up with starcon.01, .02, and .03 fine. They're my old savegames, btw. I also tried varients, like *.04, etc.

It's bizzare; the game recalls my .04 savegame, but there's no file for it?

Do I make the "userdata" path from "The Ur-Quan Masters", or from inside "content" or somewhere else? I tried from progra~1\The Ur-Quan Masters, no go.

Oh boy.

With the new version, running -f for fullscreen yields a black screen. I can tell the game is there, because it makes the appropriate menu sounds at the appropriate times, but there's no visual display. Oh well, windowed it is.

Also, with the last 2 updates, my ` key no longer works. That's fine, I hated it's placement anyway, but where's the new CTD key?

And finally, the biggie. I couldn't find a "userdata\uqm\save" path, so I went and manually created the folders. No go. Exactly where do the savegames live? I don't exactly cherish the notion of starting over. The agonizingly slow mothership thrust and turn rates when you're cruising up to earth for the first time just kill me. I had 5 years to forget the first time, now I've had 5 days.

Also, since I started playing with OpenGL and some of the other switches (still on v0.1) my debug log window thing doesn't close. I have to ctrl-alt-del it every time. But this isn't really an issue with the new CVS compiles, so nevermind.

In summation:
1.) -f yields blank screen
2.) ` no longer CTDs (you bastards!)
3.) savegames don't register if you manually place them in userdata\uqm\save

Thanks Stryke, all I really care about is the savegame thing. Help meeeeeeeeee!

Uh........the new version isn't accepting any keyboard input. None. Not even `.

Also, no folder "userdata" was created. Is it done automatically the first time there's a savegame?

So in order to continue to play the game, I'm going back to v.01. I'd love to help test, but I'm stuck at square one.

Sorry.

Any ideas?