Universal Forum Archive

I found TheUniversal a couple days ago, and was instantly hooked. After playing a couple of the worlds, it seemed as though the option to build a planet was no longer available.

After browsing the site a little more, i found the planet building file, downloaded and fired it up, and began "working." I've done the guide and worked with it a bit, and have a good plan as to what i want to do with it, but i have one big problem: I'm a total n00b at this and have no idea how to go beyond "yay i have a car and a plane and can make pretty explosions! \o/"

I've gotten the building file, have been making, downloading, or otherwise aquiring stats for them, have new models and skins (hooray tuwr.net!) And... I'm stuck..

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Questions:
How do i get the planet so someone more experienced can help me out? (I've found someone who doesnt mind dropping in every once in a while, i just dont know how to get them onto my planet..yet)

I'm semi-playtesting my current planet, and have found that no matter how long I wait nothing is being produced. It tells me it makes X of Y every Z minutes from A and B materials, but when "Z" comes around there is still no item.. What am I doing wrong?

My own custom made vehicles, even when they have the same stats as pre-made vehicles, don't want to move.. at all.. Yet again, is there anything i missed?

And finally, I got some .jpeg files off of tuwr.net for building and car skins, yet when i put them on they look... like a 4 year old found a bottle of paint and "had a little fun" with the model. I'm not sure whats wrong, if its just me, or if its even fixable.. Just wondering if anyone knows more about this than i do (most likely ) and can help me out.

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More to come if i forget or find anything.. Thanks in advance if you can help me out

If not.. Well, theres a whole galaxy to explore anyhow

hmm...thiers wide variety of answers to those questions

How do i get the planet so someone more experienced can help me out? (I've found someone who doesnt mind dropping in every once in a while, i just dont know how to get them onto my planet..yet)
to get people to connect to the planet, it needs to be in the galaxy. to put it in the galaxy, start up the world, then go into the galaxy with your client and crash into an 'unknown' planet. you'll probably need a stardrive to find one because i think all the close ones are already claimed.

I'm semi-playtesting my current planet, and have found that no matter how long I wait nothing is being produced. It tells me it makes X of Y every Z minutes from A and B materials, but when "Z" comes around there is still no item.. What am I doing wrong?
for this, since its saying it makes an amount of something out of something else every few mins. assuming it has A and B in stock then check the *settings -> Economy to see what the Storage Reduction Percentage is. if its set up too high, then the building might not be able to hold enough of A and B to make Y, or it can't hold any Y due to lack of Effeciency causeing lack of storage space.

My own custom made vehicles, even when they have the same stats as pre-made vehicles, don't want to move.. at all.. Yet again, is there anything i missed?
in *settings -> vehicle settings, check to make sure the vehicles have an Acceleration, Shift Acceleration, Top Speed, and Shift Top Speed set, if they are set then make sure thiers no skill required to drive the vehicle by setting Skill Required to 0 on each vehicle (otherwords its the skill level needed to drive it, Driver for ground vehicles, Sailor for boats, and Pilot for planes). if thats not it, then check the Control Flag setting at the top of each vehicle to make sure it allows the vehicle to travel on ground (boats, helis, and planes don't move on the ground). if all that fails, then i'm overlooking something . If Vehicle 1 can move, you can use the command *setallvehicas 1 to set all vehicles exactly the same as vehicle 1 which should make them work and you can experiment from thier.


And finally, I got some .jpeg files off of tuwr.net for building and car skins, yet when i put them on they look... like a 4 year old found a bottle of paint and "had a little fun" with the model. I'm not sure whats wrong, if its just me, or if its even fixable.. Just wondering if anyone knows more about this than i do (most likely ) and can help me out.
are you sure you have the textures on the right models? different models require different texture layouts. also, the models on tuwr.net aren't really named uniquely. each catagory starts with 001.atm (i should probably change that ) so make sure that when you download a model and texture, that you don't get em mixed up. its usually best to choose to save them as a different name when you download them to avoid getting the files mixed up (like accidently putting the 001.bmp from the trucks with the 001.atm from the car section).

Thanks again

As far as the .jpg's go, I downloaded them one at a time and renamed them as i got them. Once ive finished tearing my brains out after two days working on the skins and stuff i may try re-downloading them

Working to get the buildings working (changed the settings, just have to wait for time to pass now ), and I think i have the vehicles sorted out (except that no matter what i put as top speed, i dont seem to go any faster.. )

One last thing.. How do i get my buildings to take S&D to build? I tried "Building Process" set to 8 (so towns have a reason for existance ) but when i test out the models, it doesnt make me pay anything, even though on earlier settings i had to use resources... Is that just because im the Op] or did i do something wrong....again...

Oh! And what drive will i need to find an "unknown" planet?

Thanks again again!

~Nemo

under *settings -> Buildings change Building Process to 1 to make buildings only require money to build.

No drive in the game can find an "unknown" planet. Have to infimp to a close named planet or use your stardrive.

Oh, allow me to clarify

I mean what drive do i need to get out far enough to find a system that may or may not hold an empty planet

Easiest way: buy an infinite improbability drive, and infimp to Vector, Terra Ultimata, Reine Blanche, Atwa... the systems these worlds are in all have spare planets as of this morning.

As for models - have you see the model library?

f

nemonoid wrote:Thanks again

Working to get the buildings working (changed the settings, just have to wait for time to pass now ), and I think i have the vehicles sorted out (except that no matter what i put as top speed, i dont seem to go any faster.. )


~Nemo

always worth checking that time is actually running. i.e the game clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen is changing

nemonoid wrote:Working to get the buildings working (changed the settings, just have to wait for time to pass now :)), and I think i have the vehicles sorted out (except that no matter what i put as top speed, i dont seem to go any faster.. :?: )

Vehicle settings are a complicated thing :)

In general, you've got acceleration working against friction to create your top speed. So if you can't get your top speed to increase, it's either because your acceleration is too low, or because friction for that vehicle is too high.

I'm not sure if gravity also affects vehicle physics (one would imagine so) but it's prolly best not to fiddle with that, at least to start with.

It can also depend on which control mode the vehicle is using. The main difference is between 0 (arcadey, less realistic) and 1 (more accurate physics, but not quite finished yet so you'll occasionally get weird behaviours). I believe each mode affects some of the other settings. If you switch between 0 and 1 you can see the difference in the way a vehicle behaves, I just don't know how to explain that difference :)

Anyway... try dropping the friction for a vehicle down to something small and see if that helps... if so, you'll probably find it's become far too slidey. And then begins the game of tweaking the settings for about ten years to get what you want..

f

To make buildings cost cash, make sure the island construction tax (in *setting->Economy settings) is higher than 0.
Also, buildings might not produce because time is not advancing - if so, change Day Length (in *settings->World settings, I think) to a number (like 300).
A day length of 0 stops time.

time advancing shoulden't matter as he stated in the first post that the buildings produce in minutes not gamedays