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Yes, FFE must be in the C:\firstenc\ folder. not D:\firstenc or anything else. so when running it in dosbox, you must run the the folder that contains the firstenc folder in dosbox so that it will be set as c:\ and the firstenc folder will then be one step down, where it is hardcoded to have to be for firstenc to run. see the P.S. for the reason.

This one strives for realism. Therefore you will find it very hard to win by just killing all opponents, even if you are very good, since skill only gives you so much of an edge against equally matched ships. This is NOT a generic shoot-em-up space arcade game. This is a full fledged space flight simulation, (gravity sling manuevers to and hohman transfer orbits to increase velocity or conserve fuel DO work) and if you don't want to learn some of the math of orbital mechanics, and think, and work, then you aren't going to find this game fun. If you do enjoy seeing if you can fly by the seat of your pants, then go come join the fun. Try an unpowered flight through a trinary system, or skim the surface of the earth in without any correction burns. If you think you are up to the challenge that requires. :evil:
If you just want to fly around blowing stuff up... get Descent. :bleh:
Not that it isn't fun once in a while... but where is the challenge in such a simple game. LOL I just use it while waiting for my ship to complete a manuever.

PS. While I have seen more realistic space flight programs out there, (ex: Orbiter) none of them is anywhere near as fun. Or takes up as little space on the computer. And remember as you play it... FFE was programmed entirely in assembler, including the graphics. (tho the sound was recorded as were a few videos if you have the rare british cd version that actually had videos)

[Coplann]

sun-diving for the win!

[lgonggr]

I remember a vicous dogfight and I realized I was not going to survive. But then I realised I was close to a gass giant and on manual control made a slingshot increasing my velocity with a factor of ten and leaving my antagonists eating my ion trail. Thsi game is absolutely brilliant.
And of course there are the 'bugged' planets where the autopilot doesn't work and you have to fly on manual. this usually results in your ship drifting off into interstellar space :tai: or splattering your ship all over the surface (the planet keeps getting bigger and my engine is braking on full power, but I'm not going to brake in time :tai: ). When you finally make a manual flight and perfect approach in a record time you feel brilliant. Interplanetary navigation is not easy !

A hint for the beginners who want to win the race :
Fly on manual and thrust for the center system on max power. Keep accelerating. The timing is crucial. When you brake on autopilot you only use the forward thrusters which are low power. Instead fly half the distance to your destination accelerating all the way. Then turn the ship 180* so that your main exhaust is pointing at your target and go to full pwoer again. When you are within 1 AU of the destination use the auopilot again. You will have arrived in ca. 2/3 of the time of an autopilot approach. Waiting an hour or a day before hyperspacing can make you appear radically closer or farther of your destination. So save and experiment.
And there are a billion other trics and tips I won't get into here :bleh:

[gregor]

i know there is a story but it's mostly in journals i never read. main goal is to become Elite. i am still not there yet. one thing i find too hard ar emilitary missions that require military drive. often those ships can't have any shields.

ah yes i still haven't gone for the alien ship. must try once. the main problme with exploring universe is that you need to repair your hsip and at one point oyu come to broder where supply posts end. i once played ELITE 2 with a modified ship. it had practically unlimited space for cargo, shields etc... i loaded it with fuel and traveleen into one direction fo ra year, but then various faliuer to the systems occured. too bad... i just wanted to see how big the galaxy is


too bad model is a bit too realistic and it can confuse you with speed measures. yet it is a lot of fun to land with it. and yes some planets (or rather bases) are in fact impossible to land on (giant and large cargo ships don't mix). there are bugs and you might find a base that should be on surface, but is in fact positioned below surface, so everytime you try to land (manually or auto) you crash. i used to avoid these bases.

To me cargo ships are cool. ok you can't (or at least it is extremely hard to) land on large planets and you are thrown far outside planetary system... but they have best defece and when pirates attack they usually slam into you (like flies on the windshield) leaving your ship more or less intact.
still fitting a military drive on it limits it's range. too bad....

since i am currently very rich in Elite maybe i will try with another ship and another adventure. can't wait to see 4th part of the game. if it will ever come out.

and remember: Save often! You never know what is waiting behind the next planet.

[punch999]

Can you edit hex values with hex editors in this game or is it impossible. Anyone know if I get get infinate money with a hex editor

[gregor]

Originally posted by punch999@Nov 23 2005, 01:31 PM
Can you edit hex values with hex editors in this game or is it impossible. Anyone know if I get get infinate money with a hex editor

there probably is a way....

but to get moeny fast you need to find some good (safe) trade routes and then do business with illegal goods.

This is actually another thing with this game. if they catch you transporting illegal goods you can load the game and land on another planet (they might now catch you there).

even if they do catch you you get a fine, which later you can easilly afford. so i right now i just transport illegal stuff and high profile people with a cargo ship. if they catch me i pay the fine move too another location and sell the goods there. no more loading.

Originally posted by whatshisface@Nov 23 2005, 02:06 AM
Hi.
I tried elite plus and absolutley HATED it! boxes, boxes, and more boxes! Is this game different or better than elite plus? Does it have less boxes? Should i get it?

Beter get used with boxes if youre looking a good abandonware games. And yes you should.

[Abi79]

Originally posted by gregor@Nov 23 2005, 11:28 AM
and remember: Save often! You never know what is waiting behind the next planet.

Uh, how can I save or load ?

EDIT; Nevermind. I found out how to do it. Now it's time for me to learn hot to not get killed by those pirates. Argh

[Bear]

FAN-TAS-TIC game in a GREAT series
elite plus was one of my very first pc games, excellent game
and then frontier came ou (elite 2)
could it get any better?
yeah, when gametek published elite 3, man i was VERY happy
it made gampelay a lot smoother, but didnt do much to in game graphics (except for the hyperspace jumps, which look way cooler then in elite 2)

i too play this gem on my full dos-pc, too bad my copy has a bug
i hope this version gets me all the way
looking forward to playing it!

Yes it can be hex edited, as its creators admit. But why would you want to unless you want more of a challenge? Getting nearly infinite money doesn't help much in this game. And if you try to modify one of the ships... well the same stats are used for the ai ships as well as for your ship... :help: congratulations... you just helped your enemies... and since the ai can normally make better use of their ships than you can at higher relative velocities, you actually just handicapped yourself. This can actually be used as a way to make the game harder, just improve every ship type except what you will be using. (about the only useful thing you can do is to make a super long range explorer and go check out the galaxy, or try coming up with new weapons, but remember that every change you make affects the entire game universe and makes it that much harder)

Actually, in FFE, the main point is supposed to be the story. Which is why they made it nearly impossible to become elite. I considering what some of the hardcoded missions say... I'm not sure you can reach elite rank in FFE without doing at least the Alliance vs Federation & Empire part of the story... possibly not without also doing the INRA vs Thargoid sequence as well. (which is a minimum of ~3 years since some of the hardcoded missions are on time release as well as requiring other missions to have already been completed, to bad the harcoded missions weren't finished before FFE shipped) And that is above and beyond the ~18,000 kills required. (the number was increased between FE2 and FFE)

good advice on flying and missions lgongr and gregor, I wasn't sure how or what to explain about them. (you can sometimes land at buggy bases. try time compression 3, sometimes it can get me in when a higher or lower one crashes. tho you might need tc2 or tc4 with other size ships. since I think that the way time compression is handled is by taking longer straight segments of flight, instead of several shorter calculations)