Game speed/turn radius bug!

Yes, I know it's not the Nova Board.

I am in dire straits, friends of EV!

I'm a "purist" and, as awesome as Guy's TC port is, I really want to experience EV exactly the way it was in 1996. I have all but achieved this in Windows 7 with the great resources at emaculation.com.

Problem: THE GAME IS TOO FAST! Using the port as a reference, and my own memory, my little shuttle flies around like it's a Corvette. Lowering the Game Speed below 100% results in a bug I've seen previously documented on these forums. Ships with a turn radius of "1" do not turn, and therefore cannot land or skirmish. These include the Bulk Freighter and Confederate Cruiser.

To my knowledge this is an uncorrected bug, but how to get around it? Is there a plug-in that would correct this behavior?

Hope someone reads this.

Cheers!

This post has been edited by dferrara : 09 February 2012 - 11:11 AM

Welcome to the boards!

As you’ve discovered, the original engine didn’t automatically adjust its speed to match the host computer. Unfortunately, since nobody needed to reduce speed at the time, the Game Speed dial was never properly tested for that direction. And it’s part of the engine, so plug-ins can’t do anything about it.

So in this respect, the EV Nova port will represent the original intention much more closely than any other alternative. Some people, who experienced EV on later computers, even complain that it’s too slow!

@david-arthur, on 09 February 2012 - 11:29 AM, said in Game speed/turn radius bug!:

Welcome to the boards!

As you’ve discovered, the original engine didn’t automatically adjust its speed to match the host computer. Unfortunately, since nobody needed to reduce speed at the time, the Game Speed dial was never properly tested for that direction. And it’s part of the engine, so plug-ins can’t do anything about it.

So in this respect, the EV Nova port will represent the original intention much more closely than any other alternative. Some people, who experienced EV on later computers, even complain that it’s too slow!

Thank you David! This settles it for me, I didn't know the EV Nova engine was advanced enough to match the host. I was rather amazed at how accurate it was.

Perhaps in the future I'll make a plug-in that changes the turn radius of these ships to "2" and play around with the Game Speed again.

At any rate, glad to be here with my fellow EV junkies. :hector_bird:

Now if only a plug-in could replicate the way my Quadra slowed to a halt if there were more than ten or twelve ships in the system.

Is there a way for the emulator you're using to be slowed down, such as Ctrl+F11 being used to make emulated DOS games in DOSBox slower (by reducing the cycles) to make its speed correct even in modern computers?

@bfb611, on 09 February 2012 - 09:39 PM, said in Game speed/turn radius bug!:

Is there a way for the emulator you're using to be slowed down, such as Ctrl+F11 being used to make emulated DOS games in DOSBox slower (by reducing the cycles) to make its speed correct even in modern computers?

Hey BFB611

Like David is saying about the engine, the emulators from this era were similarly all designed "upward", i.e. for machines like Pentium IIs which needed all the speed they could get. It's actually really lucky that EV has the Game Speed feature (is that "EV Tuner"?). From what I can tell there is almost nothing that will slow the emulator down.

It would seem like changing the turn radius on these ships would be the easiest way to go. Then again the last time I made a plug-in was when I was 11 years old (I'm 26 now).

@dferrara, on 10 February 2012 - 04:53 PM, said in Game speed/turn radius bug!:

It's actually really lucky that EV has the Game Speed feature (is that "EV Tuner"?).

No, EV Tuner is just a plug-in containing a few updated resources to override the earlier versions in the main data files.

Back in the 1990s, modems were slow enough that for each new version, Ambrosia also distributed an updater package containing only the files that had changed. But that would have meant including the whole EV Graphics file in every update even if just one or two PICTs were different, so they adopted the EV Tuner approach instead.

I’m trying to remember when I last even thought about all of this…

@david-arthur, on 10 February 2012 - 05:12 PM, said in Game speed/turn radius bug!:

No, EV Tuner is just a plug-in containing a few updated resources to override the earlier versions in the main data files.

Back in the 1990s, modems were slow enough that for each new version, Ambrosia also distributed an updater package containing only the files that had changed. But that would have meant including the whole EV Graphics file in every update even if just one or two PICTs were different, so they adopted the EV Tuner approach instead.

I’m trying to remember when I last even thought about all of this…

Wow... great info on EV Tuner. Glad to jog your memory. 14.4k modems, then 28.8k modems... those were the DAYS!

I successfully patched the turn radius "1" ships to turn radius "2"... which is too bad, but freighters are still bulky, and cruisers are still slow. Tried adding "+1" to all ships but it didn't feel right. But I doubt the Rebel Cruiser and Confed Cruiser being on par will break the Rebellion's back.

I'll upload it to the add-ons page soon, for any other nostalgic/OCD souls.