Privateer Logical Map

[Rylex]

I didn't think it made sense to add in that mystery Rikel->Perry jump, given that nobody even knows where it is.

I think I can find that out quite easily, if I reinstall the game again. It's more a "time" problem for me, because I'm busy with lots of other stuff at the moment.

I would argue 300 KPS is enough for anyone. Also, nice avatar.

😁 Thank you!
Concerning the 300 kps... I'm not sure... did the Tarsus computer have more than 640 KB memory? Did you perhaps somehow confuse the quote... (just kidding) 😁

 

[apocalyptech]

Hah, well, one more addition from me: I realized that the app I used supports SVG export, which makes more much-more-nicely-scalable versions, so I've exported them all as SVG as well. The PNG exports were kind of blocky-looking, so this is probably a bit nicer. Doesn't look like this board lets me attach SVGs directly, so here's the URLs to 'em!

v1: https://apocalyptech.com/games/privmap/privmap.svg
v2 (quadrants a bit closer to in-game): https://apocalyptech.com/games/privmap/privmap_v2.svg
v3 (with unlocked systems): https://apocalyptech.com/games/privmap/privmap_rf.svg

Edit: Aaaand one more edit; also discovered that that diagramming app of mine has two separate PNG outputs, one of which does antialiasing and one of which doesn't. The reason the PNGs were kind of janky was 'cause I'd been exporting with the non-antialiased one. So, here's fresh exports for all three of those versions, which should look quite a bit nicer as well.

 

[Rylex]

I didn't think it made sense to add in that mystery Rikel->Perry jump, given that nobody even knows where it is.

I've started a new Privateer game yesterday evening. And I will play through the game... it might take some time. I'll keep you updated once I've found the hidden jump points. I just don't want to only do a quick search for the jump points with a manipulated save game, because I'm addicted to play the game again after back in 2012/2013.
Rylex exploration service will soon keep you updated...

 

[indoor_potted_plant]

Earlier in this thread there was mention of (non-plot-related) hidden jump points. Was there ever anything interesting hidden in these? Also, on this note, has there ever been a public disassembly of the game's internal file formats? If so, potentially that could be a source for enumerating any hidden jump points. I could help on such a thing.

 

[Rylex]

Earlier in this thread there was mention of (non-plot-related) hidden jump points. Was there ever anything interesting hidden in these?

Not really, that is, not with the jump points that I have found so far or 10 years ago and will now find again with a replay. What a pity that I've not written down the positions last time. Well, I thought everybody knows the positions of these secret jump points (at least the CIC might know). They are simply shortcuts between different systems. But you never know...
I don't want to spoil myself just looking at the internal game data. I've found them before and I'll find them again 😁

 

[BonkusMaximus82]

I decided to check the game's files and you are 100% right: in both Privateer and Righteous Fire there's one more secret jump point which is RIKEL TO PERRY. It's present in both Privateer and Rigtheous FIre but I'm not 100% sure how to locate it in-system... better start exploring!

There's also one additional system in the game called Test Bed, obviously something left over from design/testing. It doesn't have any jump points, so it's impossible to access in the finished build.

I guess I'll have a special stream to check it out. I'll start by checking out Perry, and then look around Rikel. @Rylex , if you're able to join in on the stream, it'll be cool to try to find the hidden jump nodes.

 

[Rylex]

I guess I'll have a special stream to check it out. I'll start by checking out Perry, and then look around Rikel. @Rylex , if you're able to join in on the stream, it'll be cool to try to find the hidden jump nodes.

At the moment I'm at the first Blockade Mission in the Palan system. I've taken a look at the Perry system yesterday (normal Privateer NOT RF) and so far I've not found the jump point. I'm curious if it really only exists in Righteous Fire. I'll play through the game and keep you updated. At the moment I don't have very much spare time, because I'm working most of the time. So joining a stream might be difficult... not only because of the different time zones (I'm from Germany).

 

[BonkusMaximus82]

At the moment I'm at the first Blockade Mission in the Palan system. I've taken a look at the Perry system yesterday (normal Privateer NOT RF) and so far I've not found the jump point. I'm curious if it really only exists in Righteous Fire. I'll play through the game and keep you updated. At the moment I don't have very much spare time, because I'm working most of the time. So joining a stream might be difficult... not only because of the different time zones (I'm from Germany).

In that case, I'll check out Rikel, starting in RF, and then trying the original Privateer. I'll tell the people that I will be Invincible and with Infinite Ammo for the session, as we're just exploring for hidden locations in the game.

 

[Rylex]

Status update: I've played through the original Privateer and will soon start with Righteous Fire. So far, I've not found any hidden jump points in the original version. I've now flown 200 missions and saved 1.5 million credits (not cheated) to equip my Righteous Fire Centurion right from the start.
...because they stole my gun, my beautiful Steltek gun!
I'll keep you updated. If I'll find the positions, I'll check the original version of the game again, so that we can compare that...

 

[Rylex]

Rylex Exploration Service reports the first pair of hidden jump points:

This is the jump point from Rikel to Eden:

And here the distance to Nav 1:

And here the distance to Nav 2:

And here the distance to Nav 3:

And here the distance to Nav 4:

And here the distance to Nav 5:

And here is the corresponding hidden jump point in Eden.

Hidden jump Point Eden to Rikel:

And here the distance to Nav 1:

And here the distance to Nav 2:

I'll keep you updated when I find more... like I said. I'm quite busy at the moment. But I love the game!

 

[Rylex]

For those of you, who haven't found these two jump points yet. Here's a short description.
Rikel to Eden jump point:
- Go to Rikel Nav 4 (Vishnu Mining Base)
- Open nav map and select Nav 5 (Jump to 44-P-IM)
- Use autopilot when ready
- Autopilot will then stop you at the edge of the asteroid field. The hidden jump point is right ahead:

Eden to Rikel jump point:
- Land on Gaea Retro base
- Launch from Gaea Retro base
- Head torwards the "beautiful grey moon"
- You will see the jump point on the radar first at a ditance of approx. 45240 m to Gaea
- It is the only jump point so far (that I know) you can see at more than 15000 m distance. All other jump points disappear from the radar if the distance is higher than 15000 m
- You can see the small blue sphere underneath left to the crosshair (I admit it's hard to see, but look at the radar and you'll easily find it)

I'll keep you updated. I've found at least one another hidden jump point but I'm quite sure it was not from Rikel to Perry.
If there really exists a hidden jump point from Rikel to Perry then there exists another one as well. I've found it 10 years ago but I can't remember how I found it. I have some ideas but so far ... bad luck. I keep you updated.

Edit: Changed "km" to "m" for the distance numbers

 

[Cybot078]

OK

 

[Rylex]

I wanted to give you a short update about my search.
So far I've had no luck with finding the other hidden jumppoints BUT I've learned something that I did not know up to now.
This news is about NAVIGATION in Privateer. So, you all know the Nav Screen that you get when pressing "n".
And perhaps you also know the space view that you get, when pressing "F9"? I've never thought about that... but today I found how it works. You can use this F9 view for navigation.

Here are some examples in Perry. Open the Nav screen, select a nav point and fly torwards it. Then press F9 and compare the view to the map. I was indeed impressed:

Here we go:

Number #1

The lasers show the way identical to the nav screen. You can even see the hight of nav point. In my case I'm flying down.
IMPORTANT: You need lasers for this as the laser shots are the only one visible in F9 view!


Number #2

Number #3

Number #4

Number #5

Perhaps I'm the only idiot who did not know that, but it makes navigation much more easier to find specific points on the map that are not listed!
I'll keep on searching and keep you updated.

Rylex

 

[tarsus]

I was going through your map, and a small nitpick. In wing commander it's Aldebran. I have no idea where you may have heard Alderbaran.
Also XXN-1927, not XXN-1957.

 

[tarsus]

I have taken the liberty of making a map of all the Nav points in the Gemini sector along with the random encounters on each one.

If anyone wants to use this as a base for making new maps, checking data or just random plotting, please feel free to do so!

If you find any errors, feel free to fix them. I used as a source the wcnews wiki, the maps here and the playtester's guide when there were differences.

 

[BonkusMaximus82]

I was going through your map, and a small nitpick. In wing commander it's Aldebran. I have no idea where you may have heard Alderbaran.
Also XXN-1927, not XXN-1957.

I find the references made by the bases to be fascinating:

Jolson (the Pleasure Planet) likely refers to Al Jolson, as his performance in The Jazz Singer was in 1927.
During my Twitch playthroughs, I always thought that Joplin (the Refinery) was a reference to Janis Joplin, but I eventually found a more likely reference, Scott Joplin, "King of Ragtime". Although he died in 1917, his music would be influential in the 1920s, leading some logic to the system being named XXN-1927.

 

[Rylex]

So far, I have bad news as I've not yet found the old jump point that I found 10 years ago. But I've taken a look at the game data itsself and modified the RF.TRE files. Yeah, sure it's no problem to get a Centurion flying 14.000 kps or faster 😁 ... but that's not the point.

So as you might know, it's possible in Righteous Fire to fly directly to Eden from the beginning of the game. Just go to Rikel and use the hidden jump point that I mentioned before. You can land on Gaea Retro base, but you can't visit the temple.

But now the interesting thing: You can use the jump point back to Valhalla. But as the jump nav point 4 is not yet visible, you don't get to the position of the jump point but to the coordinates 0,0,0 right to the center of the map. And there is no jump point, so you can't get back.
Now I've played with the sector data. Even though there are casts and sphere IDs, you can easily change a nav point target. Just use the sector number in the JUMPTYPEJUMP block and change it. The game seems to look in the target sector, if there is a jump point that leads to the sector you are coming from and puts you there. If the target sector has no connection to the sector you are coming from, then you get to coordinated 0,0,0 and no jump point is there.

That being said, I've tried out Perry Nav 1 and changed it to all 68 err.... 69 .... yes, 69 ... sectors as target. In the systems, that are connected to Perry, you get to the specified jump point. In the sectors, that are not connected you get to 0,0,0. So that means, there is no jump connection from Perry to another system. Even not to Rikel... there's just the text "JMPRIKE" ... even if you use the reserved Cast ID 4 for Rikel ... it does not work.
So for me... there is definitely no connection between Perry and Rikel. And I was quite sure that the secret jump point I've found ten years ago was not in Rikel.
However... the secret jump point could still exist and point to Perry. But in Perry, there is no jump point back. That could indeed be the case that I've experienced ten years ago. That would also explain, why I didn't wrote up the jump point position in Perry, because there was no jump point.

Anyway, I've changed Nav point 1 in perry to target system ID hex 45 (=69) ... and oops... I've reached the TestBed.
The image shows the modified GAME.GOG file opened with an hex editor. I changed "2f" to "45". The positions 24 and 1d underneath show other system target IDs. 45 = TestBed.
Please notice that the sector data exists twice in GAME.GOG file. The first occurance is from PRIV.TRE and the second from RF.TRE.

And here's how the TestBed looks like:

There're ships at every nav point of every fraction type.
Nav 1 = Merchant, Nav 2 = Confed, Nav 3 = Mercenary, ... and so on...

Here are some more screenshots:

So if you want to try it out... just use an editor and give it a go...

Anyway, if I still find the hidden jump point, I'll let you know.

Rylex

 

[Rylex]

Hey everybody,

it's a pity... or to say it with Catscratch's words: "I am very sorry, Sir!". So far, I've not found any other hidden jump points in Privateer. I've tweaked the game files and even flew with a much faster Centurion (over 4.000 kps max speed) through the sectors. Alas, I have not found any new hidden jump points.
That indeed depresses me, because I know it was not a dream and at least one more hidden jump points exists. My brain just can't remember the lost memories. It was now more than 10 years ago... perhaps I'll be able to find it one more time in the future... but so far: I've given up...

...(for now)...

If you have any news concerning Privateer... just contact me.
It would be very interesting if anyone of the CIC could contact the people of the original Privateer development team just to ask for hidden jump point. Perhaps they still remember some easter eggs.

Rylex