PQ:G released

Maybe it's identifying candidates that is your trouble. There are certain arrangements of gems that will make a line and some of them don't look much like a line. After a while, your eye will gravitate to those patterns quicker. The next step after that is identifying moves that will create those patterns you need. That's when you get to the zen level.

That countdown voice is annoying. I've had her say "30 seconds" 4 times in rapid succession due to clock matches.

I seem to remember mention of a user mod to remove that clock over at the I2 boards. If you get to the point of punting, you might want to take a peek.

One last thing--right now, the percentage of time spent in the leapgate minigame is very high. Once you get a little deeper into the game, the quests will have you covering ground you've already cleared, so you'll spent a much smaller percentage of your time hacking gates. You probably haven't even seen the Haggle minigame, which IMO is the best one, and the rumor minigame, which is the most counterintuitive. See if you can hack your way to Beta Centauri. The gate from Terra to BC is a real bastard, but if you can unlock that one, you've got mining heaven. Good money, good practice, good times.

Yeah, I hit the haggle game for the first time last night and liked it. I'm sure you're right about getting the eye of the tiger on the matching…it's the timer that's screwing with me. I like to stare at the board for awhile and let the patterns seep gradually into my logically-challenged mindset--being under the gun just makes my eyes dart around the board and miss the obvious.

I'll take your advice and hack my way to Beta Centauri--I've already got the quest for it. My problem with the mining right now is my ship only holds a teaspoon of stuff and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for. Time will cure that, I'm sure.

You're further along than I thought.

Did you do the "repair the derelict" quest early on? That 4 slot ship holds 600 units or so, IIRC. Not great, but enough to do a few asteroids and then go sell off. Aim for isotopes and crystals, and skip the asteroids with contraband. You'll end up with a ton of minerals that are a little harder to find a green buyer for (Elysia is the sector I used), but that's not insurmountable. If you've got the patience, you can do that for a day or two until you can afford a 7 slot Voortrag destroyer (haggle at the Scrapyards in the Ewok's home sector). Then, life is good. Remember to sell off in different places so you spread out the political benefits.

Yes, I now have the derelict repaired, but I had to start over to do it, because the first time I had a nearly full hold when I got sent to pick up the components and wasn't able to get all the tech points--therein lying much of the frustration, because I went searching all over the galaxy to find another asteroid with tech points to mine and there were none available before I hit the 'explosion from over -hacking' point. I have hopes this new start will be less frustrating.

And many thanks for the mini strategy guide, O Wise One. I will ponder your sage advice and try to be worthy.

Don't forget--there's a 3 mine recharge. If you don't get enough tech, go mine 3 other asteroids anywhere in the universe and the tech asteroid will then be ready to take another stab. Tech is very hard to find at the point in the game that the derelict shows up. There's 2 asteroids with tech in Beta Centauri.

Also, you can walk away from any quest for a while and come back later (although you'll hit the 4 quest limit if you walk away from too many). Just like PQ1, the quests will wait for you forever even when the cutscene text makes it sound like a limited time offer.

Good to know and I appreciate the heads up on the mining thing. Now that I've played in the hornets nests in the P & R forum, walked the dog and done my chores, I'm headed back to the game. I'll see if I can get over my hatred of the lady voice without having to download a mod.

Well, since I helped drum up the hype, I figure I ought to do what I can to help the game pay off.

I don't think I'll buy it. I played the demo and … Well, it was a little bit too complex for my personal taste.
Sounds weird, huh ?

Many games are love it or hate it … this is love it AND hate it …

I fully understand.

Agree on the Leapgate hacking hate. I can do it (at least so far, I'm doing Mediums with only a rare miss and Difficults after a few tries), but man, the reason I played every minigame in the first PQ except the pet training was that I like turn-based on the DS. If I'm playing on the DS, it's probably because I'm relaxing while my kids play, and I want to be able to put the game down without trouble if my kids ask for something. Even though failure has no huge penalty, it's still a timed section, and it still pissed me off.

And I've seen leapgates shut down behind me moments after using them for the first time, and WOW did that piss me off. Maybe I've just seen some unlucky shutdowns, but it's my least favorite part of the game, and I want it DONE so that I can get back to all the parts I LIKE.

Ack. The longer I play, the more I hate them. They're worse than the zillions of satyrs in Titan Quest. Also, would it have hurt to put in a quest or two that didn't involve traveling somewhere that requires you to hack five more leapgates and then get your butt handed to you by some hugeass alien ship?

Other than that, it's a decent little game. Most of the other components work and the other mini-games I've run across so far are well done. I'm just getting into the factions and saving up for a better ship, so perhaps I'll turn a corner where they stop bugging me so bad. I'm definitely getting my twenty bucks worth, but whoever thought these things were a good idea needs to be locked in a room with a timer and an angry chimp.

And dte and lucky--you are awesome if you are kicking butt in this game. My hat's off to you both.

So Patrick - you're playing on the DS? Have you tried the PC? I'm generally more likely to play this sort of thing on a portab;e, but with this game the PC version really gets the nod.

Originally Posted by magerette
Ack. The longer I play, the more I hate them. They're worse than the zillions of satyrs in Titan Quest. Also, would it have hurt to put in a quest or two that didn't involve traveling somewhere that requires you to hack five more leapgates and then get your butt handed to you by some hugeass alien ship?

That was a quest I had to put on hold for quite a while. That's actually what put me into my "mine asteroids until I'm a millionaire" strategy. It was obvious that my 4-slotter wasn't going to scratch that 8-slotter, so I set my sights on a bigger ride.

Originally Posted by magerette
And dte and lucky--you are awesome if you are kicking butt in this game. My hat's off to you both.

The game lends itself to an engineering/geometric eye.

Originally Posted by txa1265
So Patrick - you're playing on the DS? Have you tried the PC? I'm generally more likely to play this sort of thing on a portab;e, but with this game the PC version really gets the nod.

Haven't tried the PC. It's really an ideal "while the kids watch TV" game, but that requires being able to move around.

Also, the last few days have been better -- fewer leapgates closing behind me. I'm trying to pay more attention on quests now. I HATE the idea of passing up quests for fear of dicking over my faction with someone else, but I really like some groups (you know, because of the two word description for them), and I don't want to go in and kick over their lamps just because somebody wants me to get them some grapes.

I play it on laptops, not very demanding, enough that my Steam version works on the netbook.

Originally Posted by dteowner
The game lends itself to an engineering/geometric eye.

Ah, so that's my problem. My eye is more asymetric than geometric.

I was just a tetch frustrated when last I posted; things have improved remarkably now that I've got more of a feel for how to work the board rather than just moving a tile and seeing what happens… And it doesn't hurt to have a better ship. And bigger guns and stuff.

Still hate the leapgates but I've turned off all the sound effects, including the lady voice, and it's much less frazzling.

Things are getting pretty enjoyable.

Originally Posted by dteowner
The game lends itself to an engineering/geometric eye.

The fact that I can very quickly tell if it is even worth pursuing hacking for a given leapgate is of little solace … it is still by far my least favorite part of the game.

It's only on the hardest gates (which I roughly class as one that gives you less than 4 seconds per required match--20 in 75sec, 24 in 90sec) that the "doomed board" comes into play, IMO. With "easy" and "medium" gates, you have enough time to change a crappy startup. This entails making lines to cause maximum board change, even if those lines aren't the right color. Investing 10 seconds at the beginning to completely (even blindly) overhaul the board is a viable strategy. You've got to be quick after you get your "new board", but it's definitely do-able.

Talking about this elsewhere it seems like all enjoyment hinges on whether you see the leapgates as exciting, tolerable, or insufferable. I guess I fall in the middle.