Edit to add: I've included some of the tips from the Quarter to Three thread. Again, hope no one minds.
Edit to add again: More stuff added and clarified. You guys rock!
PART 1 – THE FAQ
Where can I buy this game?
GoGamer (it says Space Rangers, but it’s really Space Rangers 2):
http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer. ... ew/001SPAR
Play.com:
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=rcs& ... tle=587129
Interact:
http://www.interactcd.com/cgi/PrintDeta ... 0020471797
Fry’s Electronics (but not all of them – call the one in your area)
Does the game use Starforce?
Yes, Starforce is the copy protection used by Space Rangers 2. Consider yourself warned. Note that there have been no reported problems on this board with the version of starforce on SR2. Please save the discussions of whether Starforce is good or evil for another thread.
Do I need a DVD drive to play the game?
Yes, as far as I can tell, the game only ships on DVD.
Is there a demo?
No
Update 5/8/06: A demo has been released.
http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096484678/
Is there anything that would allow me to understand the game a bit better?
There is a narrated game play movie that goes through the basics of the game. It’s available for download here:
http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/spa ... uction.wmv
Is there a mission editor?
There is an RTS map editor, but right now it’s only in Russian. Download it here:
http://www.elementalgames.com/download/rangers2/map.rar
Other useful links?
Publisher – Excalibur
http://www.excalibur-publishing.com/
Developer – Elemental Games
http://www.elementalgames.com
Original OO thread
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/phpBB2/ ... hp?t=14837
Quarter to Three thread
http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/vi ... hp?t=20267
Developer forum
http://www.elementalgames.com/forum/index.php?lang=eng
What resolutions are supported?
800x600 and 1024x768
Any known bugs?
There does seem to be one bug. I've had it crash several times if I am killed while jumping out of system (i.e. while going through the white rings). Anyone else encountered this?
What are the major differences between Space Rangers and Space Rangers 2?
-RTS planetary battles
-Probes for uninhabited planets
-Medical bases (stimulants, cure disease)
-Business Centers (for market analysis, loans, life insurance)
-All types of ships are available for purchase
-More hull variations
-Illnesses and stimulators
-you can finance the building of a space station
-character avatars (rather than just the default picture based on race)
-Three new sectors
Is the combat "first person" i.e. freespace or wing commander style from the cockpit of your ship flying with the joystick, etc? I am so confused
Nope, it's 2d, top-down
Is there a storyline?
The overall plot point is that there is an alien race (three, actually... three different types of dominators all working together) trying to take over the galaxy. There are frontline areas where these aliens are expanding, and large battles that take place between the occupying sentient races and the invaders. There are also all sorts of military, trade and pirate ships duking it out all over the place as well.
What size is the game’s universe and is it always the same?
According to the manual, there are 60 systems and 250 planets in total. The universe is randomly generated each time you start a new game, with planets being randomly placed as well, the lone exception being the Sol system.
Can you name your ship or just your pilot?
You can’t name your ship in the game.
How does the whole turn-based flight thing work?
{from Qt3} The game's turn-based movement is really pretty neat--it's a bit like Laser Squad Nemesis. You plot your actions and hit the end turn button, and then everyone in the whole galaxy moves simultaneously. In combat, you might want to advance one turn at a time, but outside of combat you can just double-click on a destination and the game will just run until you get there (at which point it pauses again), so you get the benefits of real-time movement when you need them. You can also hit the end turn button again during this auto-movement to stop and change your orders.
What’s this about a flexible quest system?
{from Qt3} If you go to a government and request a mission (say, deliver this package to X system), you can say "have anything easier?".
What this does is give you more time for the mission, but for less pay. So, for instance, it may give you an extra month to deliver the package, or take over a planet, etc., but for 300 less.
Inverarity’s note: the same works in reverse. Asking for a harder mission means more credits, but less time.
Can you describe the text adventures?
{from Qt3} It's a text adventure, like the old Infocom games, but with a list of clickable options rather than a parser, and a little info box listing your current status that (I assume) is different for each game (mine, for instance, listed the number of days since I started the quest (important, since the main event was on a timer), my funds, damage and fuel levels for the truck, my current cargo, and my health, weariness, and hunger levels). They are also illustrated, with still artwork for each location that you go to, and for events and characters that you meet. They can be pretty complex and lengthy... mine was, at least. It took me about forty minutes to solve, the second time through (I died the first time through, when I miscalculated my fuel, ran out in the middle of nowhere, and then got bitten by a poisonous indigenous animal trying to walk back to town).
The paper manual that comes with the game sucks!
To be fair, the paper manual that comes with the game is really just the quick-start guide The full manual is installed when you install the game and is much more comprehensive, though still missing some stuff, and obviously, only electronic. There isn't a built-in option to print, but all the pages are htm files so you can print them yourself if you'd like - there are 58 pages total and they are located in your Space Rangers 2 install directory, under \help\content
I’m sick of watching that silly intro video. Can I automatically skip it?
The easy way to skip the videos is to go into Options-Space-Graphics and change "Play Trailers" to "no" (thank you Qt3).
How do you destroy the drone-controlled spacecraft in the tutorial? He keeps blowing me up!
Buy and mount a second weapon before leaving the planet to fight him.
Can you explain the starting conditions? I’m not sure what race/class to choose.
There are 25 starting setups (5 races * 5 classes) and all have different starting equipment, money, and relations with different races (you probably know that however).
Starting Maloqi hulls have 4 weapon mounts (all other hulls have 3).
Maloqi and Pelengi hulls have 2 "special equipment" slots, Human and Gaalian have 3, and the Faeyan one has 4 (actually not that important, since you are likely to get a new hull before you finally get that many artifacts). Only Human and Faeyan starting hulls have afterburners.
Also you get to choose 2 starting skills (more on that later) and 2 extra pieces of equipment. The rocket launcher is a very good choice here because it's an excellent weapon, it's small, and you get it way before it's available for sale.
How does manufacturer race affect equipment durability and price?
Maloqs < Pelengs < Humans < Faeyans < Gaalians
Maloqi equipment is the worst, Gaalian is the best (Gaalian stuff is almost twice as expensive as similar Maloqi stuff, and doesn't have to be repaired so often).
All you starting equipment is made by your starting race, so choose wisely.
Do I have to play the RTS missions?
The RTS missions are completely optional. You’ll have an option to turn down all future RTS missions when you’re given one.
How do I know if a system is dominator-controlled before I fly into it?
Just hit M to check the map key and see what color the system is. You can see which planets are controlled by which races by doing that. Dominator controlled systems appear blue-ish gray. If the dominators are attacking, there is a spinning shield icon next to the system. If a race is attacking a dominator-held system, there is a crossed swords symbol rotating next to the system.
Is there an Afterburner or some such feature that allows me to fly faster?
hit F to use your boost, or it's the button to the left of the engine; this doubles your speed. Your engine will take damage when boost is turned on.
Important note: Your hull must have boost in order to use boost. Some hulls don't. You can tell if yours does by looking at it on the ship screen. If there's a little box on the left-hand side (attached to the engine slot), you've got it). Obviously, you can also tell if you've got one by hitting the boost button (F). If it works, well....
I don’t understand how damage works. Can you explain?
Here’s the formula:
dmg = initial dmg * (100% - generator strength) - hull strength.
So if your ship has 15% generator and 5 hull strength and takes a 40 dmg torpedo it will take 40 * 85% - 5 = 29 damage.
The above formula is true if your accuracy = target's maneuverability. The more your accuracy # exceeds their maneuv #, the higher your weapons' minimum damage raises. Likewise, if their maneuv is higher than your accuracy, your weapons will have a lower max damage range.
What about Droids?
Droids are pretty straightforward, they just repair a fixed amount of damage each turn (hull damage, if you want to repair equipment damage you need an artifact called Nanitoids).
Where and/or how do you buy better equipment? Does better stuff appear as you get cash, get military promotions and/or ranger points?
The technological level of the universe develops over time, so sayeth the manual.
What do the thumbs up on the trade screen mean? I don't know if they explained it or not, I kind of skimmed the tutorial.
The thumbs generally mean that you are getting a good deal. the more thumbs the better.
How and why do stations appear and disappear?
The Dominators will destroy stations when they attack systems. I don't know that any station will shut down though. Also the military bases like to go on missions where they jump into a dominator held system with some fighters for protection.
Also, if you dock at the commerce stations you can pay to have a station built. You don't get to choose where, but you do get to pick what type of station is built.
Does anyone know of any other way to get a planet that hostile (if you land there, you go to jail) feel better about you?
Fighting the dominators is a good way to get everyone to like you, not sure exactly how it works however. Something like if you liberate a Faeyan system from dominators all Faeyan planets like you better
To tell you the truth, I don't even know why some of these planets are so mad at me. For instance, Venus, which used to be extremely friendly towards me, hates my guts. No other human planet does. I never shot any of their ships... the only thing I can think of is that I failed a mission they gave me.
Exactly. Failing a mission is very bad for relations.
What do I do with excess stuff that I don’t want to sell?
You probably already know that, but you can store stuff on planets and space stations (a little box in to the left side of the screen in the ship menu), so if you have a small ship and can't load enough goods for trading you can leave all unnecessary equipment behind (guns, droid etc) and come back for it later.
If you are looking for long-time storage then don't use space stations since the dominators have a nasty habit of blowing them up. Also military bases may decide to hyper jump to a dominator system (with all your stuff in them) only to die in a futile attempt to liberate it.
Can I only refuel by landing on a planet?
There is a secret way to refuel by flying into a star, but you take a lot of damage, so you better have a strong hull.
To clarify (from Qt3): You don't have to fly into (over) a system's star, just get very close. You'll get almost as much fuel and take a lot less damage.
Can you explain micromodules and artifacts to me?
There's two types of modules - some you drop on the relevant piece of equipment (you'll get an icon on the equipment) and others need to be placed in the little unmarked slots/boxes that some hulls have (some hulls have up to four, one at each corner)
First of all, the stuff you put in the corner slots aren't modules - they are artifacts ("special equipment")
So how do I know which equipment it is compatible with and if its compatible presumably it fits in the appropriate slot?
Click on the micromodule and the compatible equipment is highlighted.
Only 1 module can be installed in each piece of equipment. Modules cannot be removed later, so choose wisely where you put them.
I started fighting dominators last night and got a few cargo holds full of nodes at a science base. There is an option to give them nodes or items for research for 3 types of dominators...what are these?
Yes, there are 3 types of dominators, and each type has a control center you must destroy to win the game.
I put everything I had into the first option (Blazeroids I think) and I got the research time down to 5000 days (~42%). I also noticed that this isn't a global setting, I went to another science station nearby and they were all still at 0% research. So can anyone tell me what these do and why I should be helping to research dominators (besides the obvious)?
Ok, I really don't know if research is done locally or globally (I always assumed it was global for some reason). The stuff you give them is depleted during research, so it might be just that they used up everything they got from you before you arrived on the second science base.
Who gets the kill - the last hit?
Read in the manual that last shot gets the kill and full xp, everyone else who damaged gets half xp.
Is there a way to get a history of messages? I had some messages ("I") that popped on my taskbar thingy, but then just kind of went away on their own before I could read them. One was something about my partner being killed, and another about some authorities caught a pirate guy who was hounding me.
As far as I can tell there are two types of message that appear while you're in free flight, independently of your actions:
1. Chit-chat intercepted between other ships - this disappears when you leave the system; and
2. News headlines. These also disappear when you jump, but they're also listed on the news reports at bases/planets.
If you have a quest to kill a pirate, and he gets arrested (damned drug runner), are you pretty much out of luck?
I camped one for 2 months until the quest expired... You might be luckier.
If you check your news you may see how long he is arrested for and then know if its a doomed quest.
If you search for say, "Singular Engine", the game returns a list of said items. Each heading for the item has a yellow number to the right of it. Any idea what that number represents? Also, any idea if there's a way to see the size of the respective item? I don't care about the expense of an item; I just want the smallest one I can find.
The number is the size of the item, unless we're looking at completely different things. The store selection probably did change by the time you got there.
Can someone explain to me why the price for certain ships parts are in red?
When the price is in red it means the item is damaged, I believe. The game is just letting you know you'll have to repair it.
Can anyone tell me if ranger stations are the only place to get micromodules?
No, in fact it's the very worst place to get them. You may get a micromodule after completing a mission, or sometimes killed dominators drop them. I have 14 spare modules in my cargo hold and I only bought one at the rangers' station during the whole game.
I'm sure that loan is going to come and haunt me - anyone know what happens if I don't pay up - do they start taking contracts out on me?
I don't know if this was the cause, but when I was unable to pay off a loan and received many, many fines added to my loan amount. The big issue was that my popularity dropped like a rock throughout the galaxy. I finally restarted a new character because even after paying off the loan, every planet of every race hated me and refused to do business with me. I can only assume that this was because of the loan business.
On another note, is there any way to keep an income going solely through combat? (without kill missions) Seems like the repair bill is always higher than the worth of the goods I scoop up from the kill, I even have a decent shield and armor to keep the damage down!
Yeah, in my current game (100%, year 7) I get a lot of money from combat. After liberating a system my repair costs about 20k but loot is usually like 50k. (For extra profit I use a combat program to make dominators drop equipment, twice they dropped their main weapon that costs around 40k
In planetary battles, how do you capture the actual enemy factory? I captured all his resource buildings, but there was no circle to stand on at the main factory itself.
{from Qt3} You click on the "capture" command button, then click on the building itself that has the little trapdoor thingy on it. It's confusing, as you always click on the circle pad on normal bases.
What’s the flight path log?
{from Qt3} There is a "flight path log" feature where you can rewind the game and check out what everyone was doing (if you could see them via scanners/sensors I assume) during the last 30 or so turns (you can increase/decrease this in options). So, for instance, I rewinded to the very first turn and just watched where I went, from planet to planet, looked at fights and analyzed them, watched other ships get into fights in the sector, watch asteroids smash into the atmosphere of planets, etc. Relly neat little feature.
I don’t like the starting race I chose. Do I need to reroll?
{from Qt3} Did you know you can get your race changed at the Pirate Stations, through extensive plastic surgery? Pretty neat.
Inverarity’s note: this also helps if you’ve become a wanted man.
What’s the deal with black holes?
I think they were mis-translated and should be called “wormholes”. Regardless, flying into one causes a mini game to launch. If you win the mini game (which is real-time combat not entirely unlike Escape Velocity Nova combined with a pinball machine), you get a non-standard tech item…and you get sent to another part of the galaxy.
How does hiring wingmen work?
Your leadership skill determines how many wingmen you can have. If you don’t have any points towards leadership you can only hire the dude from the tutorial. Also, you can only hire rangers that rank lower than you on the ranger-ranking board.
Pirates keep threatening me. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?
{from Qt3} Pirates make big use of the scanner devices to see if 1- you're weak and 2- you have a lot of cargo. To beat scanners, you need really good shielding (notice those scanner things that say "get information about target who has shielding less then X%") If you buy and install a really good shielding system, 95% of the pirates will be unable to scan you and will leave you alone. For the other 5%, just use engine boost and run from them.
You can manually control your ship ala Star Control 2 in combat, right? My ship keeps fighting automatically.
When you click on an enemy ship, you're getting an icon on top of that ship with two little ships fighting each other. That means autocombat. Click again (or scroll the mousewheel) for two little ships with a crosshair (move to weapon range) or two little ships with nothing between them (move to minimum range). You should be able to change the default action in options.
You don't even have to use those automove commands. Just click where you want to go, then target your weapons as I'm about to describe below.
If you can control you ship during combat like that, how do you make sure only a laser weapon fires instead of, say, the laser AND missle launcher? Can you fire one, then the other on the fly?
Hit 'W' to bring up your weapons panel (there is also a button on the bottom right of your screen you can click on.) This brings up your weapons panel. Either click each weapon you want to fire, then click a target, or you can just hit 1-5 (with or without the weapons panel up) to choose which weapons to aim. Hit ~ to select all weapons.
You can have your weapons shooting at different targets. For instance, you could have one gun finish off an enemy, two shoot at another enemy, and have two more shoot down some missiles headed your way.
Is it possible to have a research station upgrade an item multiple times, do you know?
A piece of equipment can only be upgraded once. So if you are looking at something and it has a green stat, then it has already been upgraded.
If you buy a new hull, do all of your components transfer over automatically? What happens to any "overrun"? Do items just get dropped into the ship's inventory?
If you buy a new hull you could only afford by selling your existing one, it'll automatically swap them upon purchase. If you've got enough cash for the new hull without trade-in, the new one is placed in storage on that planet, and you drag and drop to replace it yourself.
It seems to be all most impossible to kill a pirate.About the time you start doing some real damage to him he lands and repairs.Ad naseum.
The pirates, along with everyone else, have money and have to pay for repairs just like you. Eventually, they will land but not be able to afford repairs, and take off still damaged. You can speed this up by extorting money from them.
Can anyone tell me if there is a benefit to certain weapon types, or am I just better off going for highest damage? For example, does a fragment weapon have an advantage over an energy weapon?
There are no major differences between frag and energy weapons (energy have a bit further range usually). Rocket weapons are a bit different however (rockets usually take a few turns to reach their target and can be shot down).
Some artifacts only affect weapons of a specific type (like there's one that gives all frag weapon a slow-down effect on enemy ships). Also some micromodules give different bonuses to different weapon types (like the Rocketon module give +10 dmg to missle weapon but only
+4 to energy.
Apart from this, the weapon type isn't important.
Can you explain Fuel Capacity?
It appears that fuel tank capacity is
Capacity = (Size / 2 + Tech Level * 5 + 5)
There are slight differences in rounding, with higher-tech races (i.e. Gaal) rounding up rather than down, but otherwise that's it.
Thus, a size 20, tech level 1 tank holds 20 / 2 + 1 * 5 + 5 = 20 fuel.
A tech size 20, tech 8 tank holds 20 / 2 + 8 * 5 + 5 = 55 fuel.
Thus, for any given tech level tank, each additional unit of capacity requires 2 spaces. Cisterns, which you generally find on planets in wreckage, are 1 space per unit of fuel. However, your jump is limited to the smaller of your fuel tank size or your drive limit, and cisterns don't help for that.
It has medals? Cool. Man I dream about this game every day. I read this thread every hour or so hoping for new reports. I check reviews out on web sites. I go to GoGamer and check the price and view the box art
Okay, that’s still a bit excessive, even if you bought the game
August is not a month to live in NYC.
