The Glade 4.0

Crashed a few more times. I'm giving up for tonight. Hopefully you guys can have fun and I'll join later if I can.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Gonna make a few more attempts tonight after I get tired of switching the house to Christmas mode.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Swarms of out of memory errors (memory not reporting more than 60% use so I'm loathe to bump it to 32 gigs atm) and a few 30007 internal network errors from ingame.

Still haven't even loaded into the game except that one time where it crashed in 10 seconds.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Oof. Yeah, if it's not reporting more than 60%, that doesn't sound like it's an actual problem outside the software.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

How do you check the memory usage?

In Windows' Task Manager. Ctrl-Alt-Del then choose Task Manager. You can see the memory usage of individual programs/processes (depending on Windows version), and you can access Performance Monitor from there, too, which will show you total resource usage for everything running.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I tweaked some swap file settings and I'll see what happens. Likely not tonight as I just got hit with a project with a 10:30 am due date tomorrow because one team didn't listen to mine about how much workload they can expect to get done so someone else's thing got pushed to me and they do things in a completely different manner as to how I would handle it. Also have to get ingredients for work's potlock dish.

Yay. I'm home now gonna play a few quick matches of OW until traffic dies down then im gonna go get the ingredients, string up christmas lights and settle in to this crap glop of customer data.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Another ~18 month check in on this (seems like this game should be more of a thing by now).

Anyway, is this worth 'playing' w/o a joystick? Can't really invest in one atm. May download anyway to check things out.

Lots of people do, and it's rather easier to hit targets with a mouse/keyboard. Gamepads are also commonly used by many and work fine.

There's much more game to it with the patch on the test servers now -- a handful of broad mission types (delivery, recovery, escort, etc.) that are dynamically generated and so on. It's also a lot bigger than it has been in terms of physical space, especially if it's been 18 months since you checked in.

If eventually flying with a joystick interests you, I can strongly recommend the T.16000m from Thrustmaster as the best joystick value you'll find -- its sensors outperform many sticks in the $150-200 range and it comes with moldings that can be swapped out to make it a left-handed stick if you want. Amazon's listing it for $60 right now, though I've seen them on sale once or twice in the last two years for around $40. It's a three-axis stick with a thumb slider on the base that can be used as a basic ship throttle.

If you're saving up rather than just squeezing a purchase in NOW, I would also recommend considering the two bundles that joystick can come in, as well. The T.16000m HOTAS bundle comes with the same joystick and a very nice left-handed throttle, and the T.16000m FCS Flight Pack bundle comes with the joystick, the throttle, and pedals.

I got the Flight Pack (because I didn't have a throttle or pedals) around a year ago, and have really enjoyed it. Upgrading to the full left-hand throttle from the thumb slider on my previous T.16000m (which I switched over to a left-handed stick and briefly toyed with using as a dual-stick config) was quite revelatory. Being able to use the more gross motor motion of moving the actual throttle back and forth (on a fairly unique and delightful rail-mounted motion rather than a pivot-mounted throw) really gave me a lot more control over my ship's throttle than the thumb slider did, and made an enormous difference in my ability to easily maintain a stable distance to a maneuvering target. The build quality on the throttle is good, and it's got enough buttons that, with a little custom mapping (all within the Star Citizen advanced controls config menu), I have almost everything I would want at my fingertips right there at my fingertips. (I wouldn't mind, like, 2 or 3 more buttons so I could fit on a spotlight on/off toggle and cycle friendlies targeting options) It even features additional analog axes beyond the main throttle (there's a self-centering lever that I can operate with my fingers behind the body of the throttle that I use for strafe up/down for take-offs and landings, and a dial that I think I'll try to map to one of the power settings once the power interface matures) that I find incredibly handy.

The pedals are nice, but far from necessary. They feel like the flimsiest bit, but that's just because they're a bit lightweight and sometimes move around on me if I leave my shoes on. With them, I can get the remaining 2 strafe axes on my control config.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Whoa, that HOTAS bundle looks nice! I'll have to remember that one. Most of my extra $ has been going to guitar stuff lately and I gotta cool it with spending in general for a while, but I would certainly like a controller along those lines for playing something like SC.

Was able to load in finally.

Issues:
Could get into gladius and highlight pilot seat
could not: Close the ramp into it, actually sit in seat, no option came up
While in Port Ossilar and without my helmet or suit on, O2 level being reported in suit randomly fluctuated from 0 to 100%. I kept gasping while in the port in many locations, without running anywhere.
FPS was 10-15 fps in that build, everyone on the server I was on reported it as well, ships unflyable as a result (though from explosion sounds plenty of people were trying)


Bought a smg and some magazines, extra heal and O2 pens. new sweater and slacks and shoes, and heavy armor.

Buying things in the lag was very hit or miss, took about 5 attempts per purchase because it would just bring up the default mobi glass not the purchase.

Hopefully it gets less laggy as optimization continues.

Just glad to get in game.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Ah, good to hear.

I haven't been on in the most recent patch, but in previous versions, the lag tended to build over time, and was reportedly (word of mouth among users) related to server uptime rather than necessarily any individual player's time online.

And yeah, lifting off, especially, is tough when suffering lag that bad. If you're away from port and just flying, it's a major inconvenience, but it's not like it instantly crashes you.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Now that 3.0 is live, I got re-patched (and re-mapped my movement since the switch to the new patcher wiped my old mappings on live and I forgot to go save them from PTU while it was accessible), and was able to get on, pull my Gladius (after two logouts to fix glitches I'd not seen before -- once where I couldn't power on the Gladius, and once where I got stuck on the cockpit entrance process where it opened the cockpit and ladder, but didn't climb in and then stopped responding to inner thought commands regarding the cockpit/ladder entirely), quantum drive to Daymar, land there, and go check out a deserted and pretty pointless remote outpost (I didn't happen to find pick one with a vehicle pad to take another shot at my hoverbike, which was my intent for the evening). Since it was getting late, I decided to go to CryAstro to refuel (2 aUEC worth of quantum fuel), zipped back to Port Olisar where I requested and received clearance to land, landed, ran inside to pull my 315p, then launched the 315p so I could try logging out in a ship's bunk.

We'll see next time I log in whether I log back into the 315p drifting in space outside Port Olisar, as I should. In any event, the glitches with the Gladius entry/launch aside, the servers seemed to be running smoothly and I was maintaining around 25-35 fps on my medium quality/1600p graphics settings, which is a bit of an improvement (or, at the worst, consistently on the high end of my PTU performance) over the PTU, so that was nice.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Good to hear live is running better FPS than PTU was. When I get home in a few days I’ll patch up.

I'm looking at trying to spend some time on tonight, especially if my step-brother's rec league hockey night schedule accommodates him giving his newly upgraded rig a spin in SC.

I'll be on TeamSpeak with him. If you're thinking of being on, message me for login info if you need it.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

What time are you looking at?

I'm altering my proposal: apparently his video card's arrival got pushed back to tomorrow.

I'll aim for around 9:30pm Eastern on Wednesday, then.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Hopping on, now. If you're in the org, our org forum on Spectrum (the RSI community forums) has a post with login info for TeamSpeak.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

We had three on last night! Woo!

We spent a little time getting Talan up to speed on the current stuff; I think last time he put any time in was when we only had Arena Commander.

After that, we took a Constellation out for a spin. It was fun, with mixed results, though -- for some reason, only I (as the owner) could get in and operate a turret. But we figured out that any of us could pilot it, and the copilot chairs can do some things like manage shields, while some other options are visible but not yet fully implemented, like managing signature and weapons. Also, the snubfighter doesn't seem to be able to launch from the internal dock.

We didn't track down any combat; right as we were getting ready to, Talan and Rane had some connectivity issues that necessitated heading back to Port Olisar to meet back up.

We took the opportunity to switch gears and try out a Retaliator; we got thrown for a loop discovering that trying to enter from EVA through the round hatches doesn't seem to execute the physics grid handoff properly yet, so if you need to do so, use the lifts even though you're floating in space. The turrets worked and then glitched for me.

Still a ways to go, but it was fun experimenting and laughing together at the predicaments and bugs we found ourselves ensnared in.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Just as an update, I've been doing some cargo runs to make money before bed here and there. You can plan on roughly a 75-100% profit margin for pretty basic goods. Which, I should note, is a much better way to make money (from a time invested to cash gained), even with a fairly small cargo-capable ship, than running missions for cash under the current patch's economy.

The simple way to get started is to summon a ship with cargo capacity (Gladii, Gladiators, and so on need not apply), fly to one of Crusader's moons, find a farming or mining outpost (they show up labelled on your HUD while you're in orbit), land nearby, go inside and find the trading terminal, buy a bunch of stuff and have it delivered to your ship, then launch, fly back to Port Olisar, request landing, and go sell your cargo at the terminal there for a tidy profit.

A few finer points to be aware of and observe:

• You can start small -- Your starting credits won't even come close to filling a starter cargo ship like a reliant, and even after compounding several runs, you'll only start to approach the cargo capacity of a Freelancer. Four or five runs in, I think I might be able to fill my Constellation with something bulky and cheap (like water?) and have credits left over.
• Port Olisar is a net consumer of pretty much everything, I think, so the prices there should always be high. Don't buy stuff on PO without having a good idea what you're doing and fresh information on prices elsewhere. Selling at PO, on the other hand, is almost always a pretty good option.
• I've heard that the trading kiosks on Port Olisar can get bugged. Since you're going to spawn in there anyways, check your instance before you leave. If you can use them and see data, you're good to go.
• Speaking of the kiosks -- if you haven't used one, each strut has a set. If you walk out of the ship retrieval terminal room, towards the stores (Dumper's Depot, Whosit's Defense, etc.) on one side, between two of the stores, there's a desk with an NPC behind it, like an information desk or something. On either end of the desk, there's a terminal built into the desk. These are the trading terminals.
• When you use a terminal, you'll be presented with a buy tab. You can switch to the sell tab at the top. Then, on the left, there's a drop-down that will let you select a destination to store what you're about to purchase, or a source to sell from -- it'll be a list of your ships, with all but the nearby one greyed out. Select your ship. Then, in the middle, there will be a list of products available to buy at this location, or cargo you can sell from your ship. Choose one, then in the lower right corner there's a slider that will let you choose how much to buy or sell. Your current credit inventory is in the upper right corner.
• I'd recommend not investing more than 75% or so of your credits in any given cargo run. This will leave you with a reserve in case of a server crash or in case you run into a random interdiction or PvP trouble, or anything else that could mean loss of your cargo.

I'm mostly just doing it to get used to making cargo runs, and get a little spare change in my pocket to buy some armor and an upgraded sidearm, and probably a less bland-looking vacuum suit.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

If I get some free time I might try this. Havent patched since I last posted.

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Now that there's some worthwhile things to buy with credits (personal arms and armor, cosmetic flightsuit swaps, etc) it's probably good to run through so you know how, and potentially worth making a few runs after they do a patch so you can replace some of that stuff. We're probably going to be seeing 3.1 in March sometime, so I wouldn't dump a BUNCH of time into it before then, since AFAIK they're still resetting inventory and bank accounts on the new quarterly releases.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

My laptop has started to not boot up recently so I'll need to get that fixed.