What happened to the old neuro-net features?

Sun Feb 23, 2003 6:44 am by milod

I seem to remember reading about using the Neuro-Net (I know it's called a neural net now, I just like saying Neuro-Net

) to automatically pursue enemy contacts. However, I can't find any way to do that in the demo. The F4 formation key doesn't seem to work with hostile targets.

I'm pretty much helpless at steering my ship with the mouse flight interface. I've forced myself to play it for about three hours now, fighting motion sickness every time I go into combat, and I think I've managed five kills total. So if the auto-pursuit function isn't in the game anymore, I think this will be a non-starter for me.

I miss the good old fashioned Wing Commander radar display. Is there any secret way to use the Freelancer "big red arrows" to gauge how far you need to turn to bring the enemy into view? I noticed that they turn yellow when they point to a ship that is playing a voice sample, and there seems to be hull and or shield bars on the base of the arrow. But I couldn't find any way to determine when the target was about to swing back into view. I end up doing a lot of over-shooting and over-correcting.

I also couldn't figure out how to engage any kind of padlock feature to keep the enemy target in view at all times. Sorry if I'm being dense, but the demo manual is a little on the thin side.

I'm going to go lie down for a while and wait for the room to stop spinning...

--milo
www.starshatter.com

Sun Feb 23, 2003 6:52 am by ElectricBrain

milod, are u using Mouse Flight for combat? LOL! Press the space bar and the ship should follow the mouse cursor.

The older features were removed, ESPECIALLY the "follow" function. That alone really took the game away from the player because the steering and control of the ship was taken away. If DA had gone with that control setup, then FL would be too easy to play and there would be no skill involved. Now that they have given steering back to the player, FL is a much more engrossing game.

No, the arrows have no way of indicating the distance of the target. You must use the Target Status Menu HUD for that. It shows you the targets in the area and its distance.

- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:10 am by Bhurak Starkiller

Thanks for visiting my site, EB.

Actually, I think Milo's playing it correctly. And as far as distance is concerned, he means in degrees/radians, that sort of thing, which I'm pretty sure it doesn't indicate.

I have to admit, it was interesting to see how different neuro/al-net turned out. At first it was supposed to be the actual flight/combat system which you could upgrade, but now it's the info system. I used to wonder how they would implement better neuro-net systems, so you'd have some definite advantage in combat, without making the starter neuro-net incredibly dumb.

Anyway, currently I'm really enjoying the combat. It actually doesn't strike me as a terribly different experience from flying with a joystick.

Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:24 am by milod

"milod, are u using Mouse Flight for combat?"

Yes, I am.

Well, I started by assuming that Mouse Flight was the proper way to do combat. I found myself unable to actually hit any of the targets, except by random chance. The mouse control is incredibly jumpy (Edit: I didn't realize that Juliet Echo Romeo Kilo Yankee was such an offensive word on this board.) on my machine (Dell P4 2GHz, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 4MX). By the time I get the mouse cursor over to where the target is, the target isn't even on screen anymore. I've tried adjusting the mouse sensitivity and scaling back on the detail level, but it really didn't help much.

(Edit: FOUND THE PROBLEM. I forgot I had FSAA x 2 enabled. This works just fine in Starshatter but craters the framerate in Freelancer down to the mid teens. I also tried lowering the screen resolution to 800x600 and that helped, too. I can actually play it now.)

--milo
www.starshatter.com

Edited by - milod on 23-02-2003 08:12:54

Sun Feb 23, 2003 9:37 am by Bargib

Strange milod, I have that enabled on my P4 1.4, 256 RDRAM and GF3, and I run with FSAA 2X and Ansio 4x, and I am in the mid to upper 20's 99% of the time...

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

Sun Feb 23, 2003 10:03 am by Bhurak Starkiller

Juliet Echo Romeo Kilo Yankee

Pure genius!

Hmm, AA/ansio seems to slow down FL a lot on my system too: P4-M 1.8GHz, 512MB DDR, Mobility Radeon 7500 32MB.

Looks perfectly good to me without it at 1024x768, though. I'm surprised you have to run at 800x600, Milo.

Edited by - Bhurak Starkiller on 23-02-2003 10:12:00

Sun Feb 23, 2003 5:00 pm by milod

"I'm surprised you have to run at 800x600, Milo."

It is playable at 1024x768, but noticeably smoother at 800x600. I find that I'm having more success with the twitchy mouse aiming when the framerate is as high as possible. The graphics aren't quite as sharp, but after a couple of minutes my eyes adjust and I don't notice it.

Still miss that radar display though.

--milo
www.starshatter.com

Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:10 pm by Bhurak Starkiller

Ah, I switched it down to 800x600 and found the mouse control much smoother in combat. Dang, and I thought I was running it pretty well.

Sun Feb 23, 2003 7:58 pm by Bhurak Starkiller

Interesting...I just ran into a couple of neutral Rogues and joined formation with them. Apparently I hailed them too many times, because they then turned hostile on me, but I stayed in formation with one of them! I'm guessing this must've been similar to how Neuro-Net worked, although it seemed a little too ****y to make combat any easier.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 12:16 pm by tasiin

It's the GF4 MX that's killing his framerates, and that's why you can run FL with FSAA on a GF3.

Mon Feb 24, 2003 2:45 pm by DVX Being Funny

I also toned down the mouse sensitivity a bit (pulled the bar to the left), because I was over shooting every target. I have the bar at about 1/4 over from the left. (less touchy)

When it absolutely, positively needs to be ~~*BOOM*~~`(static)

Important Message

You are browsing the archived Lancers Reactor forums. You cannot register or login.
The content may be outdated and links may not be functional.

To get the latest in Freelancer news, mods, modding and downloads, go to
The-Starport