FAQ:Playing

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FAQ

FAQ:Installing

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HELP! I can't turn off my nav console!

Follow the instructions in orange at the top of the nav console text and press shift-m (as in capital 'm', AKA 'M') to turn the nav console on and off.

I just started the game and want to jump to another system, how does this work?

Buy a jump drive (approx. 10000 creds), target a jump point with , fly to jump point, which are marked by your ship's computer as green wireframes, and press when you are near enough (distance 0 meter)

Okay wiseguy, so HOW do I make MONEY?

• You should read the Manual and
• Follow the Tutorials; but you could try
• Starting at the Oceanic Planet, where they sell stuff like Natural Products at a low price. So go to the cargo computer and buy stuff listed under Natural Products (like foodstuffs, water, etc); then
  • Launch your ship; and
  • Press (All targets) or (All large targets) until a Mining Base is targeted; and
  • Point your ship that way, and fly there (press for full velocity then to use the SPEC drive); then
  • When near the Mining Base, press again to deactivate the drive; and
  • Aim for the docking clamps and dock by pressing ; so you can
  • Sell your cargo for a profit (hint: right click on the Buy/Sell button to sell all of each cargo type); then
  • Buy lots of Raw Materials (gems, metals etc); and
  • Repeat the Launch to Sale steps back at the Oceanic Planet.
  • Repeat until you can afford a jump drive.

How do I dock?

Another step by step (you really should read the Manual):

• See Docking in the manual; or
• Read the Tutorials; or
• Target a base/planet/etc; and
  • Optional (but polite): press (zero), or press in ver. 0.50 to request docking permission and to get the docking clamps displayed earlier; then
  • Docking clamps display as red or green squares - red means there's something between you and the clamp; so
  • Pilot your craft into the docking clamps area. For planet: just fly some time into the direction of the planet; and
  • When you're close enough that the green square is nearly filling your HUD, press to dock.

Red square on a planet usually just means that portion of the square is behind part of the planet/base... It probably means the docking square is being drawn just under the planet surface. You'll still be able to land. You do need to get very close to some planets (<45Km was the smallest I've seen).

How do I get the multiplayer part to work?

We're working on multiplayer the basic framework is almost done, but it needs to be debugged, made to work, then made to work fast :-)

It's about 45-55% complete, but it's not complete... so no multiplayer.

There is, on the other hand, a split screen multiplayer, that allows multiple amounts of people to play on one computer. In the multiplayer mission directory are some simple 2-player missions to try out with a friend. To modify 2-player configuration options, edit vegastrike.config.2player inside the base level of Vegastrike.

The key bindings are not perfect and are somewhat old.

So if you're really keen to have real multiplayer, learn to code well and help out :-)

Some items in the weapon shop don't have a description and some of the communication messages are odd. The same for some ships/etc... Shouldn't there be some descriptions/improvements?

In general Vegastrike is (and will ever be) a 'Work in Progress'. Descriptions for ships/cargo/etc is one thing that isn't completely done yet.

Feel free to add new content to the game. For more info go to the VS forum or read the HowTos section.

How do I buy fuel?

Go to [Upgrade Ship] -> [Miscellaneous] -> [Fuel].

Hint: Fuel is often more expensive than Basic Repair... If you have lost fuel (if your fuel-bar is not at its maximum), then go to [Upgrade Ship] -> [Basic Repair]. That will usually save you money... But if you are at full fuel and you want more, then the only way to get more is to go to [Upgrade Ship] -> [Miscellaneous] -> [Fuel].

How do I make screenshots in Vegastrike?

Vegastrike 0.4.3 and up (all operating systems)

• There's now a built-in screenshot key to take a screenshot of only VegaStrike.
  Just press .
• After pressing this key you will find the screenshots under different location depending on the operation system you use:
  • Windows users will find a link to the screenshots in the start menu.
  • Linux users will find it in the home directory ~/.vegastrike043/textures/
  • Mac users do this:
    • open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
    • type open .vegastrike043/textures
    • Voila there are your screenshots.
    • If that for some odd reason doesn't work try open .vegastrike/textures
• See also Keyboard layout: Camera control and HowTo:Take Screenshots
• This works only 'Inflight', not while docked to a base/ship.

Screenshots of bases & Vegastrike older than 0.4.3

• Mac
  • There's a great hotkey: .
    To take a screenshot of a user-selected region of the screen, use the hotkey .
• Windows
  • Press the button on your keyboard and select paste in your favourite image manipulation program (i.e in GIMP select [File]->[Acquire]->[From clipboard] For other programs see Links:Graphic Programs)
  • There's also a nice program called Hypersnap DX for taking photos in windows
• Linux
  • Open up the GIMP, and go to [File]->[Acquire]->[Screen Shot/Window], then select Vega Strike.
  • This method does not work in fullscreen, but with the 0.4.3 screenshot key this shouldn't be a problem.

What to do with the screenshots

Please post your screenshots in the gallery.

When I am dogfighting the enemy ships nearly always try to ram me. How do I avoid that?

An answer from hellcatv

A good tactic I use that almost never gets me rammed is to afterburn to the right of them for a bit...then PRESS TILDE to slide to the right. (and PRESS TILDE again to stop)

Then I glide right past them and can fire at them at the same time they do things like that too..but if you plow right into them there's not much that can be done.

It seems the relevant keys are in 0.5.0: "," "." "<" and ">" .

When I kill pirates which are not part of my mission objective, do I get rewarded for this or not?

Killing pirates makes confeds more friendly to you, which is a bonus. Of course it makes pirates more hostile to you as well ;-)

How do I scan stuff for a mission?

just fly near (~250km for planets, ~2500m for space stations and other ships, depending on the size of the object itself) to the object, and look if the name on the right (in the mission-todo list) turns from red to green.

What's the tractor-weapon for?

• http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=871
• See Tractor Beam in the Wiki manual
• See Tractor Beam in the database
• Important: in VS v0.4.3 the tractor beam doesn't work until you install the Generic Cargo Patch

What's the number in the top-right of my screen?

The frame rate, the measure of how many times the display refreshes in a second. The higher the better. If you are using time compression, however, this won't give you an accurate reading.

I can only hear sound but not music or music but not sound in Linux?

This is commonly caused by lack of a sound daemon or a good sound card.

• Make sure that you have a sound daemon such as esd or arts running.
• Make a file called .openalrc in your home directory and put in it the line:
  (define devices '(arts esd native))

More Information

Please head over to Manual:Gameplay Tactics for more info on playing strategies.

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FAQ

FAQ:Installing