Matrix Games Forums

I actually started reading the manual.

I was not wrong in thinking that the beginning game was less difficult. The manual states that the first 200 turns you have an advantage.

There is also a strategy/cheat guide, that you must pay for in order to get this information.

The manual also states that capitals cannot be taken out in order to maintain play balance?

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Since this thread is a hodge-podge, I'll ask here, has anyone had a Ghost Ship actually blow up and cause damage? I have seen the threat message all the time but never seen one go kaboom!

It's always just a threat. I've never had anything happen yet and I've explored a lot of ghost ships.

I started reading the manual too. The general idea of the game is becoming more clear now. I think the idea behind making the faction capitals being secure is to prevent the "quick win" strategy of defeating a faction and grabbing their galaxies simply by hitting the capital... the idea is to fight over the galaxies one by one, playing out a longer game.

I'm seeing that while the mechanics are simple... getting you into the game quickly and then getting that "I gotta play one more turn" impulse... its the overall design and how things mesh together, including the limitations on things, that keep me interested. This is a very well designed game... something you actually have to think about what you are doing as you go along and not just concentrating on key smashing, essentially pointless micromanagement, blindly blasting everything you see or rushing for some "quick win" strategy. I don't have to concentrate on the mechanics, I get to concentrate on the actual game and can take countless paths through it. Sure, there's some repetition, but the tasks, goals and actions do have an effect. Seems like the developer put some real thought into this thing to make you fully play the entire game and its open ended enough to play through it many ways. I have to say I'm impressed.


And yes there are "cheats"... I found them. I can't see where I would ever use any. I think none of them look all too interesting and I think they pretty much just mess up the flow of the game.

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Since this thread is a hodge-podge, I'll ask here, has anyone had a Ghost Ship actually blow up and cause damage? I have seen the threat message all the time but never seen one go kaboom!

It's always just a threat. I've never had anything happen yet and I've explored a lot of ghost ships.

I've never seen a ghost ship explode either. The threat of it blowing up quickly is probably just an explanation for why the thing disappears right after you loot it.

What kind of shortcuts - except a quick save key - would you like to have?

NielsB,

Can we have a quicksave key, or is that not possible?

Being able have the map visible like the market screen while we are plotting destinations would be nice.

Thanks for your support.

ORIGINAL: NielsB

What kind of shortcuts - except a quick save key - would you like to have?

F5 for quick save which would be nice.
F6 for quick load.

Also, when I save a game, I have to back out of three menus to go back to the game. If after the one confirmation menu, the next two under it closes automatically, that would really help.

I think I can do that. It would quick save / load always the first savegame slot though.

ORIGINAL: NielsB

I think I can do that. It would quick save / load always the first savegame slot though.

Perfect! Thank you. [&o]

Works for me, thank you.