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Darkstar One Discussion

This is a open discussion forum for Darkstar One. Development team members will try and answer all your questions.

Post Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:47 am

Beta Signup request will most likely happen next month. Once the official beta is started I will let you lot know here.

Ozu

Post Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:41 am

Finally a new space-sim. I was worried everyone had given up on the genre.

Used to be Rear...

Post Fri Feb 24, 2006 5:49 pm

I thought beta testing was restricted to European testers?

Post Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:43 pm

It is almost always Europe Konny, or possibly Yanksville. We poor Australians never get none o' dem beta-testy thangs. *Sniff*

Post Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:25 pm

Yeah.. I agree *sniff* ..

Us antipodean relics of convict stock.. are always the last considered.. is fine if ya live in "Europe".. *sigh* yet although we are always the last considered for beta testing (even tho Aussies are among the highest gamers in the world per head of population..) - and nowaday's with the net what's the diffo......

Please let us sign up.. we'll be good.. we promise..

Harrier

Post Sat Feb 25, 2006 12:39 am

Surely us Canadians ought to be allowed, too!

Post Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:40 am

the game looks awsome, just a few things though;
1 you havnt mentioned multiplayer, will there actually BE multiplayer?
2 will it take time to get the best items, upgrades, etc.? as on freelancer it doesnt take too long.
3 will there be a decent amount of secret items, wrecks and places to find/explore?
4 is there a fast way of getting round systems, for example, like the tradelanes on FL?

ok thats the questions i can think of right now but im sure il come up with more lol
thanks

Post Sat Feb 25, 2006 1:28 pm

Hello there Erazor, I realise that creating 300+ unique planet surfaces just to do the things you can do on space stations is too much at this point, but I feel that planets give kind of a breather to the "Wow I'm in space!!" thing.

Besides It's like graphics (say the nebulae argument)... stuff like that sell the game.

At any rate planetside missions cuts it for me.

btw I hope you guys'll make it moddable enough for modders to implement stuff like multiple ship owning, planet landings, destructible stations, nebulae (in case its not included) and lastly... um... I... forgot.

P.S. It looks cool! keep it up

Edited by - BmB23 on 2/25/2006 1:28:49 PM

Post Sun Feb 26, 2006 5:33 pm

Its been eons since I've been on, but I'm very happy to see another space sim. I will probably be first inline (here in Canada anyways) to grab this game when its available. From all the messages I've read, DSO will be light years ahead in game play vs. FreeLancer. What really floored me was the fact that my ATI X800 isn't high enough to play the game with full "eye candy" on! What I would love to see is the SM 3.0 thats encoded in the game. Hopefully some of the screen shots will show this.

Post Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:48 pm

Another question

How many guns/turrets can you put on DS1?

Will the amount of gun mounts increase as you expand your ship?

"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

Post Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:14 pm

Good question. I honestly have never counted them since I have been so busy working on one of the tunnel missions and i cheat my ship up to survive the hell pit....

I can say for sure that if your Wings increase, so do the number of turrets. Somewhere in the area of 3-5 turrets can be added. Will get back to you on the specific number

Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:03 pm

I know some of my questions have already been answered, but I wished to make some more precise questions on the same topics.

1) Will the NPCs AI be scripted differently than Freelancer's? Freelancer's AI is extremely predictable and works on Cause/Effect basis with very simple reactions and few causes. Will that be different?

2) I saw you'll stick with the same ship for the whole time, but will integrate upgrades instead... Will you be able to have paint jobs?

3) How massive will the stations be in comparison to the fighters?

4) Will the game respect a certain realistic scale (For ships, stations and planets)?

5) Freelancer's "deep space feeling" wasn't all that big, mainly because of the poor lighting effects (Available in that time), but also because it was overly easy to find your way around. Will the edge systems (Omicron Alpha-like systems) be actually tougher to move around? (As in, maybe radiation fields, sensor problems, etc)

6) Will there be a nav map similar to Freelancer's one? If so, will it be sometimes disabled, as if the system you are in is unmappable?

7) I saw questions about Multiplayer, but no answer. Will there be Multiplayer, and if so, what will it look like (Freelancer-like with servers or something different)?

8) Will there be "Cash sinks", as in, things you can do to spend your credits?

9) How realistically will the ships handle? Will it be like in FL, instant 180 turns and such, or will it be more like X3, with inertia and such, or maybe an in-between solution?

10) Will sounds be available in a full, 3D support for Dolby 5.1 support?

11) How come, on the Specs page, the HDD space required differs between the Minimum and the Required Specs?

12) Will you be able to crash on planets, or will they all be integrated to the background?

13) I saw jumpgates in the trailer. If you are ennemy with the faction holding it, will it be impossible for you to dock with it? And will there be other ways to move between systems (Jump drive, jumpholes)?

14) Will you be able to join a faction, say the Navy, and work for them?

15) Will there be a way to play the game without playing through the story, or will you need to do a few missions before being able to play freely?

16) How many missions do you plan on including?

17) Can you tell us a few possible uses of this "Spell Weapon"?

18) Will there be a radar jammer, a cloaking system, and such?

19) If there was one thing you could change to your game, what would it be?

I think that's all I have right now. I didn't notice this topic before, but here I am now

Edited by - FriendlyFire on 3/3/2006 2:05:01 PM

Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:43 pm

When is this mod going to be released?
And where do you download it when it IS realeases?

Post Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:48 pm

This is not a mod, it is a new game all together.

Post Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:47 am

WOW, now that is a lot to ask of little ole me. I suppose I could split the answers into a number of parts, rather than spending the next hour thinking up answers when I should actually be continuing my work ^^


Anyway, here it goes:

1. Is that in battle? Ok, I am just going to assume it is. We have a number of races. Each race has its own specific ship design and its own specific tactical array of abilities. Some ships will concentrate on using turrets, others on missiles. Their flight patterns depend on what general psychology is behind a race. Races also have ACES or BOSSES as we call them. They also include a series of special abilities that they can throw at the player. Suffice to say, when fighting in Darkstar One you will be spoilt for choice in the number of ways you can die ^^

2. Paint jobs? What is wrong with the colour it has now? ^^

3. Well stations are large enough to have fighters dock with them. We are not going for the type of scale as in X-3. More in the direction of Freelancer. So big but not gigantic.

4. We try to watch out for scale were we can. For gameplay purposes that is not always a good idea. If we were to do a simulation, then scale would play a large role. In DSO, an action orientated game scale is not always an advantageous thing. Long story short, there is attention to it, but it is not always realistic.

5. No. We try to keep things as easy as possible when it comes to player orientation inside the systems. That means you will always appear from a Jumpgate and you can always jump out of a system at any time. The galactic map on the other hand is a little harder to orientate yourself around and that is intentional. There are plenty of systems to visit depending on the range of your hyperdrive and the further along the road you get, the more planets will be available to you on the map.

6. That depends on the outline of the missions we provide. Some missions play better without the use of a map so therefore we can disable it (which we have done). Systems in DSO are mainly discovered by either the Terran or alien races so, unlike the X-Series, you dont need to map out every system. Targets, stations etc are displayed on your Target list, dependant on the range of your radar system. The further the range, the more you can see.

7. Asked many times and answered many times. We are aiming for an exceptional single player experience. We currently have no plans for Multiplayer before the official release of the game. Please note, the decision concerning MP is final for the release version, it is not final for future decisions.

8. Yes. There will be plenty of horrifically expensive stuff you can buy ^^

9. Something inbetween. Again we want action and not simulation ^^

10. 5.1 support

11. That would be the swap file. Depending on RAM etc. The more the better. Not to mention savegames (ok granted they are 1Mb a piece but we have known some players to be savegame fanatics ^^)

12. Playership + Planet = pain

13. Jumpgates act as a point of origin into a system. The hyperdrive targets a destination system through it's gate. Escaping a system does not require a jumpgate, just a lot of afterburners and a certain distance from those evil cops that thought I was being bad when I tested my nuke on a civilian transport.... i was testing a nuke... i am allowed to test my nuke... ok, ranting...

14. Uhm no. As pilot of the DSO you make you own way in the galaxy outside of the plot line

15. You can play freely from minute 1 without doing the story (although it will still be activated).

16. More than a few and less than too many

17. Plasma Weapon (Spell Weapon) has a number of really really cool uses. EMP for instance. First a sweet effect (i like nice effects) and the ship is dead in the water. You can pick it off or you can concentrate on a more imminent threat. The Plasma Weapon can also be used to boost your own shields or weapons for a limited amount of time (based on the level of that technology). You can also do a number of extremly powerful offensive moves (that can litterally disable half a star-system for a limited amount of time) as well as some other nice and nasty things...

18. Might be.... ^^

19. The game has not come out and you ask me something like that? ^^ If there was one thing I could change in the game then it would be to have it finished yesterday so I can play already ^^

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