Matrix Games Forums

Hey... great game, Glad to see it being published my Matrix Games.

Im just wondering about the manual. Is it going to have ALL information in it?
What I mean is, after playing the recent version of the demo, I didnt really find the manual very imformative. What I mean is, it left alot of questions unanswered... what those questions were, i cant remember at the moment[:)] I wanted to know things like the statistics of weapons and ships.... how to target ship systems (Not sure if you can, just I thought I heard someone mention it in old forum).... and other various things.

you can cycle ship systems yes. I forget which key it is, check your key mappings.

The default key is semicolon. As a starship commander, you can also target subsystems using the weapons console (press W to display).

The final manual is currently in work. It is already twice the length of the demo manual. Most of the new material is a thirty page chapter on flight systems that describes:

06|Flight Systems
Camera Views
Head-Up Display (HUD)
Gunsights, Targeting, and Shoot Cues
Multifunction Displays (MFDs)
Sensors and Probes
Stealth and EMCON
Caution and Warning Panel
Fire Control
Shields
Countermeasures
Navigation
Flight Planning and Navpoints
Engineering
Flight Operations

There is also a new fifteen page chapter on using the built-in mission editor. Plus other chapters on tactical communications and the player logbook.

I'm not sure how we're going to deal with ship and weapon stats and other background data just yet. I will try to keep you posted.

ORIGINAL: John DiCamillo
I'm not sure how we're going to deal with ship and weapon stats and other background data just yet. I will try to keep you posted.

Did you ever get the original WC? (I'm guessings thats a 'yes') They had the schematics/stats for all the fighters on seperate sheets. You could show firing arcs and locations of systems and how vulnerable they are! But thats probably wayy too much work. It'd be cool though...

It's not only a lot of work, but might needlessly jack up the cost as well. I can live without ship stats and what not as long as the manual is better than a pamphlet, and yes, Lock-On, I'm looking at you...

[:D] That sounds great.
That flight systems chapter pretty much covers everythin i was goin to question.

I dont know about everyone else... But I enjoy reading a nice beefy manual. Sometimes more than playin the game itself[X(]

ORIGINAL: THC

I dont know about everyone else... But I enjoy reading a nice beefy manual. Sometimes more than playin the game itself[X(]

Are you kidding? I worship at the tome of the Falcon 4.0 manual. I miss good manuals. Microprose and Janes had the BEST...

Hey, I would have paid full price for the Falcon 4.0 binder even if it didn't have a game CD in it!

Now, there's no way Starshatter's manual will ever be that comprehensive. But I did make sure to keep the Falcon 4.0 binder near my desk while I was writing, just to keep myself honest. [:)]

Amen to that!

What about just dumping the stats to an Excel file, and including that on the CD/download?

milo, if you could give ship and weapon definition files to someone who you trust and he/she could make sheets about ships and their stats?

ORIGINAL: benneyb

Amen to that!

What about just dumping the stats to an Excel file, and including that on the CD/download?

That sounds good enough.

Mattis sounds better though[:D]