Subspace/Continuum Tips/Tricks & Tech Support FAQs

[»freakmonger]

If you have any little tips or tricks for subspace/continuum please share them. These can be staff tips, newbie tips or even zone specific tips.

 

I also need some Tech Support FAQs. Like "what the !@#$%^&*, why am I put into spectator mode because of "high packetloss"?"

 

With answers

 

 

Thanks

[Samapico]

Don't leave the game to make macros. Just type your macros and hit the macro button instead of pressing Enter to store the macro. ?savemacro [macroname] and ?loadmacro [macroname] also allows you to save/load complete macro sets.

[Yavaris]

If you alt-tab the game you can make macros as well with the 'macros -> edit...' option above that chatscreen you get then. Might be easier to make a lot quickly. Edited February 4, 2008 by Yavaris

[Incomplete]

And you can alt-tab to edit your chats.

[Resol]

Press F1 for help (multiple time)

Press F2 to see player stats (multiple times)

I am not joking, people that are new will be amazed.

Press F11 spec or return as your previous ship

[»Purge]

Esc+F will toggle the FPS display (not listed on the Esc menu).

[Incomplete]

From tip of the day...

 

To create a new Subspace iden!@#$%^&*y you need to create a new Profile. Click the Profile button on the main menu (or View -> Profile) and enter a Profile Name -this will only be used in the menu, a Player Name -this will be your name in-game, and a password for your Player Name. You might want to set some other options before you enter, most importantly your Resolution -the higher the better. Now choose a Zone to play in, and press Enter or click Play.

 

If you are trying to create a new Subspace Name to play, and the game says you are using an invalid password when you try to enter a Zone, then that Name is probably already being used by someone else. Try a different Name!

 

Subspace is made up of many Zones. The active Zones on your list are listed in green on the main menu. Each Zone usually has a theme related to the name of the Zone.You can specify whether you want your ship to start (spawn) with multi-fire on or off in View -> Options -> Misc. Every Zone has different settings, different weapons, different objectives and different styles of gameplay. Choose a Zone to play in by clicking on it and pressing Play or ENTER (or Game -> Play).

 

To add more Zones to your list, click on the Zones button on the main menu (or View -> Zones). This will open a new window that will contact the Directory Server and download a list of all Subspace Zones. Then you can add Zones from the master list to your own list. Don't forget that you can scroll the Zone list!

 

On the main menu, right-click on a Zone to see its description.

 

Each Zone can have multiple Arenas. Arenas can be the same as the main Public Arenas of the Zone, or they may be completely different, but generally still follow the Zone's theme. Arenas within a Zone can be as varied as the many Zones themselves. You can change or create arenas within a Zone by typing ?go arenaname and you can see what Arenas are already open by typing ?arena (or press ESC + A). In these Tips, Zones will only be discussed in reference to the settings in their main Public Arenas.

 

The Profile feature of Continuum allows you to customize your settings for each Zone and for each Name. For instance, you might want to start with a certain ship in one zone and another ship in another zone. Or you might want to use a different name and squad in another zone. Or more than one person might play on your computer. Profiles let you easily setup different control setups or resolutions or macros, etc. for different Zones and/or Player Names.

 

Continuum supports optional enhanced sounds and graphics that are downloaded on a per-zone basis when you enter that zone for the first time. You can disable downloading/displaying of these zone customizations, if available in that zone, in View -> Options -> Misc. Additional download size should in most cases be very small even for modem users; and the new features add much to the gaming experience and are well worth the few extra seconds required so we recommend you use them.

 

Since this is the latest version of Continuum, we encourage you to immediately report any bugs you encounter, whether they be new bugs or bugs that you reported in older versions that are still present in this version, to the Continuum Bug Reporting forum. A Link to that forum can be found on the main menu under Web Links.

 

If you are new to the game, pay attention to the chat area at the bottom of your screen when you enter a zone. The in-game tutorial will flash a green text message every 20 seconds that will introduce you to all the basics of Subspace. Press ESC + F6 while in game to turn off this help ticker.

 

Ships with multi-fire ability can shoot a wider spread of bullets per shot when pressing CTRL. Ships that normally shoot one bullet (also called single-fire) will shoot three bullets at a time with multi-fire on, and double-barreled ships that normally shoot two bullets at a time, will be able to fire four bullets with multi-fire on. Toggle multi-fire on and off with Delete.

 

Hold down SHIFT + CTRL while in the main menu to see a total player count of all the Zones on your Zone List.

 

Zones beginning with the SSC (SSCentral) prefix, or ending in (SSC) are connected to the Central Subspace Player Database, the premier zone hub, which holds all usernames and scores. SSC zones must meet several requirements and therefore maintain the highest quality servers, connections, and staff. Examples of SSC designated zones include SSCX Alpha West SVS and T3 The Gauntlet! (SSC). Zones lacking this designation keep their own scores and names.

 

When trying to enter a non-SSC zone you will receive a warning recommending you to change your password. Although, this warning does not apply to the vast majority of zones, it is our responsibility to inform you of the remote possibility of a security threat. Subspace thrives on its diversity and player-run creativity: so we encourage you to try as many zones as possible both within and without the SSC (just make sure you use a different password outside the Central Database, just in case!)

 

Scores on the Central SSC Player Database are reset about every two weeks. The Winners of each reset (players with the most points) are usually announced in each zone around that time. You can check your current and past scores on any SSC zone at http://subspace.edome.net.

 

Continuum is fully customizable inside and out. The opening splash screen, the main menu, in-game sounds and graphics, and even the window !@#$%^&*le can all be changed to your preferences. Check any of the websites listed under Web Links for many more user-made menu skins, sounds, and graphics.

 

You can make your own splash screen by making a bitmap, naming it splash.bm2, and placing it in your game directory.

 

Use !@#$%^&*le.dat to change the console name of the Continuum window: just open it with notepad and type in the name you want.

 

The User-Interface is skinnable with tools available in your \skins subdirectory. Read skins.txt included in that directory for more info on making your own skins. If you download skins (*.skn files) and place them in your \skins directory, they will show up under the Skin menu. Continuum already comes with 3 skins in the Skin menu, try them out!

 

In-game sound and graphics can be changed by replacing the bitmaps (*.bm2) and wav (*.wa2) files in the \sound and \graphics subdirectories. Additionally you can have Continuum automatically use different sounds or graphics for only one specific zone or arena by placing the custom *.bm2 and *.wa2 files you want to use in the zone's directory in \zones or in the arena directories within each zone directory.

 

The four keys to survival: maneuvering your ship effectively, conserving and managing your energy, avoiding enemy weapons fire, aiming your own weapons fire for greatest effect.

 

Learn to fly and fight backwards as well as you can forwards. The ability to execute complicated maneuvers using your rear thrust, is often crucial to survival. You will be able to make tighter turns, change direction more quickly, and fire your weapons at more difficult angles.

 

Energy conservation and management is an important skill to learn in most zones. Firing too much is a mistake every newbie makes. Only fire bombs when there is a high probability of a hit. Use lower-energy-cost weapons like bullets for less certain shots, but still be careful not to over-do it. In the heat of chasing what may seem to be an almost dead opponent, it is easy to forget about your energy status and fire wildly - this leaves you open to a quick death.

 

Movement in Subspace is highly dependent on inertia, momentum and other basic laws of physics. Once you start moving, you will always keep moving in the same direction until you run into something, or apply thrust in another direction. Remeber this when first learning to turn.

 

Dont charge around at full speed firing weapons recklessly, approach enemies at a cautious pace, so you have time to place your shots well and to avoid their weapons fire. Always be prepared to stop: new players die often because they're path is too predictable and they don't know how to stop their ship from careening to its death.

 

Most zones have a bomb-firing recoil. When you fire a bomb, your ship is pushed in the opposite direction. Use this to your advantage for a quick boost of speed, and keep it always in mind so it doesnt become a disadvantage.

 

You don't always have to shoot "forward." Weapons also inherit your momentum, so experiment with firing in different directions from the direction you are moving.

 

Even though individual settings can make zones/arenas of the same class vary greatly, it is useful to break Subspace down into a few basic game-types for the purpose of description. These game-types are Melee, Dueling, Capture-the-Flag, and PowerBall. Each type has different objectives and there are sub-categories within each type. Zones may consist of a combination of more than one of the above types, and of course sub-arenas may include stuff that the main arenas of the Zone do not.

 

Melee zones have only one objective: kill. Players are randomly placed on a team, and as many as 20 teams may be engaged in combat all over the map. Winners here are the great fighters who can survive amid chaos and get high points and high bounty by killing a lot and dying less. Examples include the spirited and demanding SSCE Chaos Zone SVS and Subspace's original beginner zone: SSCX Alpha West SVS. Melee zones are great for beginners because the only rule you need remember is "kill or be killed."

 

Dueling zones are all about determining who is the better fighter among only two opponents: two individuals or two teams. Often closely related to League play, these zones are for veteran pilots who prefer organzied tests of skill to the all-out, harried battle of Melee zones. Examples include the main Subspace dueling zone: SSCE Dueling Arizona SVS and the most prestigious Subspace League zone: SSCE Premier League SVS.

 

Almost every zone involves an element of Melee combat, dogfighting, and Dueling, afterall this is a game of Spaceships blowing each other up, but its not the focus of every zone. You may find yourself getting yelled at if you only focus on killing in a zone where killing is necessary, but not the main objective!

 

Capture-the-Flag (CTF) zones: get as many flags as you can. In some zones ships and teams can carry flags and move them to new locations, or play keep-away. In other zones the flag(s) are stationary and located in bases that teams attack and defend for posession. Other zones give you a better ship when you have a flag. Winning conditions also vary from capture all flags to win, to have the most flags when a timer runs out, or to hold flags the longest in a certain time period.

 

Since CTF zones require awareness of the flag game in addition to staying alive, they are only recommended for experienced players. Examples of zones with flags include the first CTF zone: SSCU Warzone CTF, as well as SSCE Running Zone, SSCX A Small Warzone, SSCU Trench Wars, SSCU DeathStarBattle, SSCX Extreme Games, SSCX Star Warzone, and SSCU Star Wars Realm.

 

Flags look like small glowing blue or yellow balls in the game. Yellow flags are owned by your team. Capture a blue flag by running over it. When you Capture a flag a timer will appear at the top right of your screen indicating how long you can hold on to the flag before it is dropped. Dropped flags show on radar as blinking yellow and red dots and stay in your teams posession until game is over or an enemy captures them. Enemy flag carriers have red names and show up on radar as red dots.

 

The standard PowerBall (PB) game is a sport. There are two teams, a goal for each team to defend, and a ball. Teams fight for posession of the ball and do their best to score with teamwork, passing, and killing. Since PowerBall requires awareness of the ball, and the ability to p!@#$%^&* effectively, in addition to staying alive, it is only recommended for experienced players. SSCX PowerBall and SSCE Hockey are the only zones that focus solely on the ball-game.

 

Some zones may have more than one ball, and/or may use the ball more like a flag - giving ship bonuses to the player that holds it. Examples of other zones that include a PowerBall but do not focus on the ball-game are SSCU 17th Parallel, SSCX Star Warzone, and SSCX Extreme Games

 

PowerBalls look like a spinning orange circle. Pick them up by running over them, and use insert to p!@#$%^&* the ball. When you pick up a ball a timer will appear next to your ship indicating how long you are allowed to hold onto the ball. Powerballs appear on radar and map as blinking red and white dots, friendly PowerBall carriers appear as big yellow dots, enemy PowerBall carriers appear as big red dots, fiendly goals look yellow, and enemy goals look red.

 

SVS stands for Standard VIE Ships. VIE was the company that created Subspace and all the VIE zones shared similar ship settings, allowing you to play well in many zones by learning just one SVS zone. SVS is the original Subspace and has the most balanced settings, but also the highest learning curve and may not suit every beginner. The SVS zones are SSCX Alpha West SVS, SSCE Chaos Zone SVS, SSCU Warzone CTF, SSCE Running Zone SVS, SSCE Dueling Arizona SVS, SSCE Premier League SVS, and SSCX PowerBall.

 

After VIE, Subspace became player-run. VIE zones continued as player-run SVS zones, but different player-run zones also appeared. Most of these follow a theme. SSCE DeathStarBattle, SSCX Star Warzone, and SSCE Star Wars Realm are all obviously based on the classic movie trilogy: Star Wars. SSCU Trench Wars and SSCU 17th Parallel both try to emulate 20th-century warfare. Also called "super zones" and including SSCX Extreme Games, these themed zones are generally easier for new players to learn.

 

Chat logs that you create in-game using ?log or ?logbuffer are stored to the subdirectory \logs.

 

Banners can be set per name in-game by pressing ESC + B. Banners are stored in the \banners subdirectory, so copy them there if you ever download or make more. Continuum comes with a built-in banner editor/creator, just go to View -> Create/Edit Banners.

 

In the Continuum Chat Window (accessed by pressing ALT-TAB in-game), you can copy chat out of the window, copy chat in, click on html links or emails, change your font size and style, or change your macros. You can even customize the color of your highlighter in Edit -> Selection Color.

 

You can take screenshots in-game with PrintScreen. Screenshots are stored as 24-bit *.bmp's to subdirectory \screenshots.

 

Macros let you quickly send preset messages or sounds. Access the macro setup window from the main menu by going to View -> Macros. You may want to use different sets of macros in different zones and Continuum lets you easily do this by naming different macro sets. Then you can assign different Macros in different Profiles. Macro keys can be changed in View -> Key/Controller Definitions.

 

You can make several parts of the in-game Display transparent (meaning you can see whats going on in the game behind it), including radar, map (both in View -> Options -> Radar) or the F2 player stat box (in View -> Options -> Display), or chat (in View -> Options -> Chat). This is useful because it allows you to see more of the screen, and enemies and weapons cant hide behind your radar.

 

The opening Continuum Splash screen can be disabled in View -> Options -> Menu.

 

You can turn off in-game sound or set sound quality in View -> Options -> Sound. You can sometimes fix in-game problems by lowering sound quality or turning off sound. Alternatively, you can also change in-game sound volume by using ?sound= with a value of 0 - 10, 0 being off and 10 being max.

 

Menu sounds and beeps can be disabled in View -> Options -> Menu

 

Experiment with different resolutions under the Resolution menu. Generally, the highest resolution your computer can reach, the better. Higher resolutions allow you to see more of the map at once, and give you an advantage over other players that can't see as far.

 

Chat channels are a useful Subspace feature that let you chat with other people you know all at once from any zone. Join a chat channel with ?chat=chatname. Once you've joined that channel, everyone on that channel can talk to each other by typing ;message. You can actually join up to ten channels at once by typing ?chat=chatname1,chatname2,chatname3 and so on. You can talk on your 3rd chat channel by typing ;3;message.

 

Reply to the last person who sent you a private message by pressing ::. If you're privately talking to more than one person at once, you can keep pressing : to cycle through the last five people that sent you a private message.

 

Hold down CTRL while in the Continuum Banner Editor to use the eyedropper tool.

 

Use Home and End to quickly cycle through your available profiles from the main menu.

 

Type %% to display a % in Continuum. Subspace uses % for text and sound macros, like %tickname and %2. So if you try to send a message with %2 in it, the %2 sound macro will play, and the %2 itself won't show up. Instead, type %%2 and a message with the actual text %2 will be displayed.

 

Continuum has a handy auto-chat feature. Under each of your profiles, at the bottom, is a textbox labeled Auto. Whatever you put in this box will be automatically printed and sent every time you enter the game. Use \ to signify a new line of chat.

 

Most zones run Leagues based on the zone's settings and themes. Players get together to form teams that compete in various tournaments to determine an overall winner for the season. The Sysops in charge of a zone will appoint certain players as referees that officiate the League games. More info on each zone's Leagues, including team rosters and standings, rules, and how to join, can usually be found at each zone's webpage, which you can access from the Weblinks & News menu.

 

You can turn on the green radar grid in View -> Options -> Radar -> Show Radar Grid.

 

Everything in the main menu system or Chat Window has shortcut keys. For example, you can quickly get to the Zones dialog by hitting CTRL + Z, or Profiles with CTRL + P, Macros with CTRL + M, the Banner Editor can be opened with CTRL + B, Key Definitions with CTRL + K, Trace with CTRL + T, etc. Just check the pull-down menus for any other shortcuts.

 

Take screenshots of in-game action by pressing printscreen! Note that you can only use printscreen every so many seconds when you are not in spectator mode, and some zones may disable printscreen entirely when you are not in spectator mode. Screenshots are stored as screenshot#.bmp in the /screenshots directory.

 

Is your font too small for you to read? You can change your font size in View -> Options -> Chat -> Font Style. There are four sizes to choose from.

[Hakaku]

Tip of the day isn't exactly very useful:

Scores on the Central SSC Player Database are reset about every two weeks. The Winners of each reset (players with the most points) are usually announced in each zone around that time. You can check your current and past scores on any SSC zone at http://subspace.edome.net.

[Incomplete]

You're right, I never read them anyway

[rootbear75]

Here's one:

 

You can chat on up to nine different chat channels by typing ?chat=chat1,chat2,chat3,chat4,chat5,chat6,chat7,chat8,chat9.

If you would like, you can have a tenth chat channel, but you can only see the channel, you cant chat on it.

[Incomplete]

One of the chats don't work when you're staff too. Can't remember what one it was, I think it's 7 or 8.

 

Those tips need updating really.

[Samapico]

Chat 8 is read-only when you have staff powers... don't ask me why :S

[rootbear75]

Chat 8 is read-only when you have staff powers... don't ask me why :S

i have my chat 8 set as the techhelp chat and ive been able to talk in it...

[»doc flabby]

chat 8 is only readonly for staff on subgame servers. ASSS servers don't have this problem. Edited February 6, 2008 by doc flabby

[»Purge]

also in ASSS you may talk on chat 10, unlike subgame.

[Dav]

tip of the day is usefull for absolute newbies to the game, soon loses its worth though but isnt that exactly what it is for?

[Incomplete]

Good point Dav, although it would feel nice if it was up-to-date

[Hakaku]

Although I never finished this (hasn't been updated since 0.39pr1, some of the info could be expanded on), and used it mostly as a self reference for problems in the Tech Support, it could be useful for your FAQ questions.

Continuum_Errors__updated_.pdf

Edited June 14, 2008 by Hakaku
Updated Attachment (48 downloads)

[Incomplete]

That's quite impressive

[Shock]

Although I never finished this (hasn't been updated since 0.39pr1, some of the info could be expanded on), and used it mostly as a self reference for problems in the Tech Support, it could be useful for your FAQ questions.

I was wondering how you always memorized the fatal error codes.

[»freakmonger]

subgame chat 8 is read only for staff because JeffP (or Priitk) didn't want to make the mistake of trying to do a staff command and send something to that chat or vice versa (8 is also * )

 

SubChat you can talk on chat 8 & 10 regardless

[rootbear75]

That's quite impressive

[PoLiX]

subgame chat 8 is read only for staff because JeffP (or Priitk) didn't want to make the mistake of trying to do a staff command and send something to that chat or vice versa (8 is also * )

 

SubChat you can talk on chat 8 & 10 regardless

 

That'd be a Priit thing, cause I remember chat 8 working with staff in Subspace. It's rather hard and stupid to do ;8;kill instead of *kill...

 

I'm also curious if they ever removed the ability to do *prize on a chat, and anyone on chat in the zone and same arena as you would get a prize, but didn't show up in log... ah, the old abusing cheats from back in the days... I STILL MISS SHOOTING WALLS TO BLOW UP MINES TOO

[Samapico]

I STILL MISS SHOOTING WALLS TO BLOW UP MINES TOO

orly?? I only played the cracked Subspace 1.34 or something for a short while...

 

I'm also curious if they ever removed the ability to do *prize on a chat, and anyone on chat in the zone and same arena as you would get a prize, but didn't show up in log...

That's awesome lol... gotta try that

[Hakaku]

I was wondering how you always memorized the fatal error codes.

Yeah, I cheated. But it beats using the forum search function every time