Galactic Artifact

[Lao Rebel]

i just discovered a game that i think is my type of game, Galactic Artifact. the problem is there is no documentation!! i can't figure out how to control the game. i can figure out how to play it but i need to understand the controls first. can someone help me out??

 

[mcobit]

http://games.randomlynx.net/GalacticArtifact/


First hit when you google "galactic artifact game". Has a very good manual.

 

[apersonthinks]

The thing is, I have no idea how to play Galactic Artifact either even though I compiled it. The manual is your best bet for help.

 

[PowerGod]

I didn't found difficult learn how to play, even without a manual, anyway the game is simple, you have to travel from planet to planet, if a planet has an artifact you collect it if you have room in the ship, in some planet there are civilization that can give you just money for the artifact, OR MORE IMPORTANT, if they are REALLY interested to the artifact in question, they can give you INFORMATION on how to find "THE ARTIFACT to finish the game"...


These info just make smaller the area in the galaxy where you have to search for it.


Anyway you need a lot of artifacts to make money to make upgrades to travel faster to buy fuel and to have a badass ship !!


The galaxy is divided in quares, you select a square to zoom it, and it's AGAIN divided in squares, you select a square to zoom it, and it's AGAIN divided in squares... until you can finally select a planet to travel to


hope the explanation helped


EDIT: ah, an important thing !! The radar upgrades are very useful, you can scan all the planets to know if there are artifact or cities without actually consume fuel to go directly on every one of them.

 

[fusion_power]

Direct Link to the Manual:


http://games.randoml...rtifact/manual/


I know the Game back then from 2009, played it on PC. I hope it will be continued one Day by the Dev.


For beginners, I recommend the easy mode, where you already have all Ship Upgrades and enough Cash to buy fuel for a long travel. So you just need to find valuable Artifacts and sell them to the right Civilisation, there are 3 that can give you different location Informations:


Ancients give circular information, about how far an artifact is from your present location.


Industrialists information gives a galactic compass direction to where the prize artifact can be found.


Futurists give sector information, including or excluding map sectors from your search.


If you don't need information, sell matching artifacts for Money to buy fuel. Only the desired Artifacts bring the most money but every Alien Race accepts every artifact, it just does not bring much money then.


Clever combinations of Information can speed up the searching. If you have managed the system, you can try the normal game mode where you have to trade first to get Money for Ship Updates.


I still try to reach my personal Record in finding the Artifact (normal game mode!) but the old Record of 16 Minutes that I made with the PC Version Years ago is far away, you need luck and a close Artifact to get this. On Pandora, I somehow needed over 50 Minutes to find it. Easy mode is faster of course.


And yes, the Super Radar that can also Scan over 9 sectors (zoom out!) is pretty useful. ^^


Oh, be careful what you sell to who, there are some missing graphics in this Beta, so the Ancients also have the Portrait of the Industrialists! But you can identify the right ones over the Music and the Prices of the Artifacts.

 

[Lao Rebel]

is this manual for the pandora? will they work on pandora? this looks like for PC

 

[apersonthinks]

is this manual for the pandora? will they work on pandora? this looks like for PC

The manual is the same. The game is exactly the same as the PC version, just compiled for the pandora with a full screen mode added (thanks eyecreate!)

 

[fusion_power]

Yupp, no difference. That's why I hope to get an Pandora Version with improved handling and ABXY controlls. The "A" button already works (home) to zoom directly to the Ship by the way. But I have to use return or mouse to fly the ship to the next location. Map Zoom on X/Y would be also a good idea.

 

[JePP]

Sorry to dig this up, but I'm quite the Galactic Artifact enthusiast and I just discovered that this gem had been ported to the Pandora! Wooh However, the network mode doesn't seem to work. Is the server down? It's really a pity, because the game becomes so much better even when you are playing with others....

Or is this limited to the Pandora version`? Anybody in the know?

Also, there doesn't happen to be a way to change the controls?

 

[fusion_power]

Game seems not to be continued in development, sadly. So I'm sure the servers are down since ages, it was just an alpha test. I would be already happy if the core game in Single Player is continued in development.

 

[JePP]

So I wrote the creator, Trevor, an e-mail and got a reply:

"

Glad you liked!  Yes the server has been down for some time.  The good news is the server is included in the source code and can be compiled independantly!  The server address might need to be recompiled into the client though.

Trevor Bradley

"

Now here's hoping someone - eventually - might be interested in doing this....

 

[EvilDragon]

I'd offer to run the server if someone helps compiling it

 

[apersonthinks]

I'd offer to run the server if someone helps compiling it

The server is built into the galactic artifact binary and is started with --server. Pretty much you just need to edit src/Definitions.h and change SERVER_NAME to something.openpandora.org and SERVER_PORT to whatever port you want. I also need the name and the port to recompile for the pandora version. If you want to encrypt stuff and prevent cheating, edit Crypto.cc and add something that encrypts/decrypts string message. Make sure you have the SDL and sprig libraries installed and then just `cd src; make`

 

[TrevorBradley]

OK you crazy kids, Neelix convinced me to come back out and have a look at this.  I recompiled my code on my own machine to make sure it worked - Even got the server started.  Sadly, your new Pandora clients won't connect to it because they're missing the correct Crypto.cc

1) Look in Definitions.h to change the location of the server.  It's presently hardcoded to games.randomlynx.net

2) Compiling is a pain because of all the libraries.  Sprig I think needs to be installed by hand, for instance.

3) Missing Crypto files.  I've got no secrets now.  http://www.randomlynx.net/temp/GACrypto.zip Go nuts.

4) All your keyboard mappings are in KeyPressed.cc, that big switch statement at line 51.  If you can find the appropriate SDL Key mapping, you can change them to whatever you want in the client.

As for finishing this game, sadly it's long in my rear view mirror.  After waiting 4 years I just got fed up with the Pandora and decided to move on.  I'm healthy again and am working and just don't have time for it.  The idea behind Galactic Artifact was interesting and exciting but not fully developed. 

I've got another exciting idea on the radar that's just as grand in scale but is going to take a lottery win to give me the time I need to work on it.  Still, I'm a chronic problem solver and it won't go out of my head; I've got a third of a book of notes on the idea and just wrote about 300 lines of source code yesterday just to explore ideas.  My dream of making a game might not be over yet.

Have fun playing!  Dream big and try to make your own games.

 

[fusion_power]

I'm glad you're alive and kicking. ^^

I started again with the game on the Pandora, after I've played the PC version years ago, still an interesting little concept, pretty much alpha but somehow relaxing and I love relaxing games, must be the spacey music or something like this. 

Maybe, someone can grab the game concept and do some improvements here and there, the point with the Pandora controlls would be a nice start, at the moment it's playable but not pretty comfortable, good thing is, the game doesn't need alot of buttons, just using the ABXY keys in a propper way should do the job. 

I personaly still miss the last graphics because at the beginning it was confusing, since ancients and industrialists share the same portraits. I hope the Artist is still on this planet to fill that little gap. There were also alot of artifact random names missing but I'm sure the community could help there too.

Besides that, not much to complain. I can imagine to integrate this little treasure hunt for artifacts in other (bigger) projects, we expect some pretty promising space games in the future (at least for PC), Kickstarter is a great source of joy these days. 

 

[JePP]

Thanks Trevor! It's too bad your Pandora never arrived

Still, your game is definitely one of my favourite Pandora games now, even though the controls are a little bit of a pain. But maybe that changes if someone decides to give it a go (and now that the crypto file is available)

 

[Neelix]

@EvilDragon:  Do you need anything else in order to get the server set up?

- Neelix

 

[apersonthinks]

@EvilDragon:  Do you need anything else in order to get the server set up?

- Neelix

I've PM'ed him to try and help getting it set up so I can update the pandora port but he hasn't replied yet

 

[EvilDragon]

Yes, had to do too much work... end of the year is always the time to finalize the accountings, which is horrible work for me.


Almost finished with that, which means back to mails and PMs after that.

 

[apersonthinks]

Update coming soon with network support hosted by openpandora.org as soon as ED builds it and I can test it.