An Overlong Introduction to Winning “A New Zero”
I made this some months back when A New Zero, the primitive flight sim with a heart of alpha gold, pushed out a new alpha version. The game itself is very playable, and I had some good fun with it with strangers online before the excitement died off and the servers went dormant once again.
A New Zero itself is an experiment in gaming, and is free for all comers. You’ve got nothing to lose by trying it, but be warned, you’ll have to play it at least an hour or so to get a good feel for it. Sorry if that’s “hard” or anything.
At any rate, here’s my video strategy guide to A New Zero, hopefully demystifying it a bit for those interested in some seat of the pants flying. (Warning, it’s long-winded, at about 30 minutes):
AI War: Pocket Reference
This handy little fella should save you a lot of ESCs and ALT-TABs.
So, AI War: Fleet Command is quite an intimidating game. You’re in control of a growing number of units (from a few hundred to many thousands), against a pair of unpredictable AI personalities with the power to overwhelm you at a misstep. All progressing in real time. Oh, dear.
The game mitigates this by giving you semi-autonomous units that don’t need babysitting, and an assortment of effective orders to give them. You mostly control the pace of the game through your offensive actions, so you also control how violent the AI becomes in response. It’s designed to get your mental gears moving, but luckily it doesn’t devolve into a click fest.
But it does kind of turn into a “what was that control again,” and “what the hell do I do now” fest. Instead of printing out the manual and hotkey guide (both of which are out of date), or playing the 4-hour tutorial again, or interrupting the game to check the controls, I made a short, economic reference for AI War. It’s 8 tiny pages and fits in a pocket. Read the rest of this entry
Raw Notes for Independence War 2 – Tweaks
The following is a raw dump of notes I made while trying to figure out the optimal settings for the fantastic classic space sim, Independence War 2. Again, this is quite raw and I may come back later to finalize it.
iw2 config hacks (if any) Joystick Deadzones - in flux.ini: - [fcInputDeviceDI] - dead_zone_x = 0.175 - dead_zone_y = 0.175 - dead_zone_z = 0.175 - dead_zone_rx = 0.175 - dead_zone_ry = 0.175 - dead_zone_rz = 0.175 - setting them to 0.1 works pretty well. Set password for multiplayer in flux.ini: - [FcServer] - password = "1234" - [FCClient] - password = "1234" - passwords must match, even for the host. Set resolution and set windowed in flux.ini: - [fcGraphicsDeviceD3D] - windowed mode can be dynamically resized to any resolution! from the elite mod, edit flux.ini for more difficulty: - [icPlayerPilot] - max_rem_range changed from 50000 -> 100000 - (increases the detection range for your ship? remote control range?) - [icShip] - critical_damage_scale changed from 0.2 -> 0.5 - criticals_per_impact changed from 0.2 -> 0.5 - (increases your ship damage... and the chances of ship damage? hard to say.) - [icTacticalCamera] - field_of_view changed from 1.2 -> 1.75 - (fov is increased in the tac cam) - [iiSim] - collision_damage_factor changed from 3.5 -> 4 - (damage from collisions increased)
Raw Notes for Independence War 2 – Mods
The following is a raw dump of notes I made while trying to figure out the value of the various mods available for the fantastic classic space sim, Independence War 2. Again, this is quite raw and I may come back later to finalize it. (For now if you want to read the unwrapped text, you’ll have to copy it and paste it into another doc.)
= IW 2 Mods = my reviews and impressions sources: - http://www.i-war2.com/downloads.htm - http://www.i-war2.com/assoc_mods.htm - http://www.i-war2.com/downloads_5.htm - http://www.i-war2.com/wetwired/ - http://www.torn-stars.com - http://mods.firstones.com/buda5/iwar2/index.html = Installing Mods = - Generally, simply place in the game root /mods folder. No need to unzip, much of the time. See the mods' readme files for specific requirements. - Backup flux.ini if manually editing or if a mod is going to edit it. - Mods may mess up savegames, but there's sometimes something in the readme if they do. = The Short List = * - tweaking required/optional The Essential Mods - worth installing even on a first play - Multimod - allows multiple mods to be used at once. - Free roaming - allows free roaming play after the game is over. - in the GOG version, this mod is preinstalled, but will not show on the mods menu. (Check /resource if you don't believe me.) - Custom Jafs - give Jafs a bigger cargo ship * these settings appear once the mod is selected: - [CustomJafs] - jafs_cargo_loading_delay = 0-15 (seconds, 0 default) - not sure what base game default is - jafs_comments = 0 (none), 1 (cargo comments off), 2 (all on) - game default is 2, mod default is 0 - jafs_ship = (ship location?) default is a 20 pod Venice freighter - base game has ~8 slots, often necessitating multiple trips
Conelrad releases Five Automatic Landings (Free ambient music)
One of my favorite artists, Conelrad, has released a new EP, the first in a couple years.
Five Automatic Landings cover art
Five Automatic Landings is five tracks and about an hour of ambient drone. If you’re at all familiar Conelrad, you’ll get the quality you usually expect, and may even notice some familiar signatures latent within the tracks. If you like ambient music, and you’re new to the artist, well, you’re definitely in for a treat.
And is it free? It’s free as hell and death, friends, and so is the entire discography. Go get some.
I reviewed one of Conelrad’s tracks early on in this blog. Lots of post-apocalyptic ash drifting silently from the skies, and an unlikely tie-in with Half Life 2. Read about that here.
Back cover with track listing.
