I've been using Ad-Astra with Astra for around a day or two now; loving the experience and I think ultimately, it would be nice to see this functional enough to turn off all covas announcements. I've not run into too many problems but listed below is what I've noticed so far. In addition, there are some suggestions, API permitting of course ..
Issues (note I have integrated components selected etc and have 'checked the usual' before reporting these)
Suggestions / Idea's
I did run into quite an annoying issue when trying to deploy the SRV with Astra, she just couldn't navigate the menus with any grace. I googled, followed suggestions and tweaked timings etc but couldn't get anything to work (like most, I use hotas with the rocker for next page so the tracking profile is a but moot here). After some further messing around and just before I came to moan , I discovered ED doesn't like a Shift key modifier on menu navigation; I had next page set as a shift+E.. It seems that VA doesn't always handle these modifiers well and this was the cause of the menu closing halfway through the command and other quirks. Since using Ctrl instead, things works brilliantly - I don't recall seeing anything about this in the docs anywhere; if it's not, it might be worth adding a note that shift doesn't work as a modifier for menu navigation (I know in hind sight it should be obvious but I generally don't use a keyboard to interact with the game so overlooked this!).
I really do love what you have with the voice packs though and certainly think you're on the right path with Ad-Astra; it has and will continue to make the game so much more immersive. I'm happy to have paid the current price but I do think Ad-Astra needs to be able to out-do EDDI to be worth the full subscription amount. Keep up the hard work, and I know a lot goes into making these, I don't want to seem to underappreciate that
Fly Safe Commanders
Issues (note I have integrated components selected etc and have 'checked the usual' before reporting these)
- On occasion when jumping, the announcement will say 0 fuel or something to that effect and there is a message in VA of index out of bounds along with unable to convert to decimal. Since playing last though, it's been fine and not sure what effects it; I'll update if / when reproduced.
- When jumping, VA will sometimes show Error scanning, followed by an array index out of bounds error, when this happens I don't get system information. It's very intermittent and I've not yet found out how to reproduce it.
- Multiple announcements when FSS 'speed scanning'. I use a Hotas for the majority but do use my mouse with FSS; on systems where I'll speed scan everything, Ad-Astra will play announcements of the scan results over each other; this is sometimes worse when there are 30+ bodies and she'll give me a random fact about something (once all other planet announcements have been made during the fact, no more will happen until after so I think possibly some tweaking with timings or priorities?). This can be consistently reproduced by scanning a system quickly with both Astra and Ad-Astra active.
- Each time I start ED and VA, I need to open HCS settings, click Ad-Astra then save and close before planets will be announced during an FSS scan (don't need to make any changes, just save and close). This is consistent and reproduced each time a start ED and VA (Singularity is set as my default profile).
- When switching profile in VA and back again, Ad-Astra doesn't seem to auto-announce; she'll still respond when asking her how many jumps left to go for example though - not sure if this is a VA thing or a singularity thing. Can be consistently reproduced by switching profile and back again.
Suggestions / Idea's
- More announcements - I'll often be on discord while flying and will disable mic input; it would be nice to have Ad-Astra be a bit more vocal over in-game events. For example, I turn off the covas alert when entering hyperspace because the results otherwise ruin the emersion etc when asking Astra to do it as she responds to you. But if you do it 'manually' such as when the mic is muted, there is no announcement and things can feel somewhat empty. It would be awesome to see responses we could enable / disable for as many in-game events as the API lets you .
- More stats and possibly question based. For example, it would be cool to hear and ask for information such as my current distance from Sol and estimated scan value since last dock (these are available on EDSM so I assume available / calculable with the API too?)
- The biggest thing I miss from EDDI is how many times I've visited a system - I'm out near the core at the moment and when heading back, it would be nice to know if I've jumped to a system I've already been to and how many times.
- Set reminders and goals - I'm not sure if this is even possible but would be a really nice feature to be able to ask Astra to remind me of something at a later time or even date as well as set a specific goal like telling her "I need Material X in qty Y" and have her tell me when reached or even a specific announcement when scanning or landing on a system with the material available.
- More connected to the suggestion above, is it possible to pull in information from other online sources such EDDB, such as the nearest 3 bodies with the highest amounts of material?. I'm not really into mining atm, but I can imagine it would nice to have info if possible about the current sell price and the best systems to head to etc. I'm not sure what's really possible here but there we go .
I did run into quite an annoying issue when trying to deploy the SRV with Astra, she just couldn't navigate the menus with any grace. I googled, followed suggestions and tweaked timings etc but couldn't get anything to work (like most, I use hotas with the rocker for next page so the tracking profile is a but moot here). After some further messing around and just before I came to moan , I discovered ED doesn't like a Shift key modifier on menu navigation; I had next page set as a shift+E.. It seems that VA doesn't always handle these modifiers well and this was the cause of the menu closing halfway through the command and other quirks. Since using Ctrl instead, things works brilliantly - I don't recall seeing anything about this in the docs anywhere; if it's not, it might be worth adding a note that shift doesn't work as a modifier for menu navigation (I know in hind sight it should be obvious but I generally don't use a keyboard to interact with the game so overlooked this!).
I really do love what you have with the voice packs though and certainly think you're on the right path with Ad-Astra; it has and will continue to make the game so much more immersive. I'm happy to have paid the current price but I do think Ad-Astra needs to be able to out-do EDDI to be worth the full subscription amount. Keep up the hard work, and I know a lot goes into making these, I don't want to seem to underappreciate that
Fly Safe Commanders
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