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Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:31 pm
by arquebus
So when I got the Telescope, it started putting the mass lock circles around everything, but only when I was able to go into the torus mode. If I couldn't (i.e., because I was mass locked), the circles wouldn't show. They would show up if and only if my radar dish went "green" (signaling torus mode was possible).

Then I cycled through some settings and now I can't get back to that particular setup. Either the circles show all the time, or they don't show at all - I can't seem to set them to be context sensitive the way they were before. What am I missing here?

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:39 pm
by arquebus
Oh and while I'm at it.... maybe a question about how the target selector works..?

I have a hodgepodge of target selection equipments, probably interfering with one another quite a bit. (Range Finder, Telescope, ASC, Fast Target Selector...maybe one or two others? I definitely have the device that shows my target in the HUD I'm using, and the one that shows green markers around the selected target.)

I'm noticing inconsistent behavior in how target selection works and I'm wondering if there's either a conflict here or if I'm just not getting how it's set up (and what I'm doing to make this happen).

Sometimes, when I hit my target ident button, it'll select the object in front of me. Sometimes, it won't do anything. But most strangely, sometimes I'll get automatic target selection when I sweep over an object (ship, station, etc.), and I won't have to do anything to actively select that target. It just... happens. And actually that's the behavior I want, but I just don't know how to reliably reproduce it. There doesn't seem to be a setting in any of the various targeting systems I'm using that explicitly toggles this behavior.

(My OXP list is absolute insanity, I'm well aware.)

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:42 pm
by Cholmondely
Telescope acts differently if your weapons are toggled off - you see more.

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:51 pm
by Cholmondely
arquebus wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:39 pm
Oh and while I'm at it.... maybe a question about how the target selector works..?

I have a hodgepodge of target selection equipments, probably interfering with one another quite a bit. (Range Finder, Telescope, ASC, Fast Target Selector...maybe one or two others? I definitely have the device that shows my target in the HUD I'm using, and the one that shows green markers around the selected target.)

I'm noticing inconsistent behavior in how target selection works and I'm wondering if there's either a conflict here or if I'm just not getting how it's set up (and what I'm doing to make this happen).

Sometimes, when I hit my target ident button, it'll select the object in front of me. Sometimes, it won't do anything. But most strangely, sometimes I'll get automatic target selection when I sweep over an object (ship, station, etc.), and I won't have to do anything to actively select that target. It just... happens. And actually that's the behavior I want, but I just don't know how to reliably reproduce it. There doesn't seem to be a setting in any of the various targeting systems I'm using that explicitly toggles this behavior.

(My OXP list is absolute insanity, I'm well aware.)
So, this question!

I have similar issues with the Vimana HUD and it's jolly useful Target and Travel modules which eventually give up the ghost when I have enough primable equipments mounted on my ship. I suspect the target selection equipments, but don't really know.

Your Target Ident: Not utterly sure, but, Telescope again tends to interfere (and makes docking using ILS a nightmare, to boot). I usually toggle most of the Telescope options off, but even then....

See Auto-steering, Far Target locking and Keypress functions on the Telescope page.

I did tweak it to narrow the auto-locking focus (see the Tweaking section on the wiki page). And do try Station Options (but beware of AppleMac-loving Thargoids!).

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:54 pm
by arquebus
I think I sorta kinda figured this out..? Turns out the "target ident toggle" may actually mean toggling between a hard lock (locks on the thing you're locked onto and doesn't let go of the lock until you toggle again) and a soft lock (where it just locks onto whatever you're "looking" at, switching targets every time you look at something else). I did not realize this.

Edit: it's because my weapons were offline. I'd never tried that before, and everything target-related changed.

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:54 pm
by arquebus
Cholmondely wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:42 pm
Telescope acts differently if your weapons are toggled off - you see more.
Ohhhhhhhhh

That's exactly what I did. I turned off my weapons so my Torus to Sun thingy would work.

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:56 pm
by arquebus
I don't like how complex and deep this game is! It makes me angry at, like, every other game. ;)

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2021 11:40 pm
by arquebus
Cholmondely wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:51 pm
And do try Station Options (but beware of AppleMac-loving Thargoids!).

I've just added Station Options and I can confirm it's loading, but I'm not seeing it in the F4 screen.

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:27 am
by Cholmondely
arquebus wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 11:40 pm
Cholmondely wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:51 pm
And do try Station Options (but beware of AppleMac-loving Thargoids!).

I've just added Station Options and I can confirm it's loading, but I'm not seeing it in the F4 screen.
Apologies. I'm a moron. I forgot to update the links to the newer versions (which are also now Mac-friendly - thanks again, cag!).

Try:


*[https://www.dropbox.com/s/zpjhpz38dxpbz ... s.oxz?dl=0 Station Options] Version 1.01 (Sep 2nd 2001)

together with

*[https://www.dropbox.com/s/vusqo0pwx3ckj ... s.oxz?dl=0 Telescope Station Options] Version 1.0 (Sep 16th 2001)

But be warned!

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:37 am
by Cholmondely
arquebus wrote: Sat Nov 13, 2021 10:56 pm
I don't like how complex and deep this game is! It makes me angry at, like, every other game. ;)
Telescope. Just Telescope. Norby really surpassed himself with this one, bunging in every single feasible possibilty - and then making them tweakable to boot. It has to be the most complex piece of equipment in the entire game.

Personally, I love it. It clashes with stuff, it often doesn't work properly, it is deadly when combined with ILS, ... but I really enjoy the way it makes the screen more interesting, gives me information about stuff far away which the computers a thousand years from now would know about, etc. etc.

Another useful MFD is this one: Short Range Snapshot (SRS)

Re: Telescope settings question

Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 4:45 am
by arquebus
Got it, thanks! I successfully evaded the bugs as well.