angryred: Sometimes, when fighting in a star system, a large red beam will come from the star at the center of the system at the player ship. It does no damage; though I do see damage numbers pop up on the other end, by the star. The beam is wide at the star end, and narrows to a point where it touches the ship. I can't get a screenshot of it because it happens too fast, and I can't predict it. I'm playing the Android port now, but I remember this too from SR2/Reboot/War Apart.

What is this red beam!?! This has driven me crazy for years.

squid830: I've been playing SR2 for some time - before HD, before Reboot, back when it was simply "Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominitors" - and every version since then - and I have absolutely no idea what you're on about.

At least on PC, I have never witnessed what you're describing.

Unless you're talking about some of the background effects that happen sometimes? Although I don't think I've ever seen one like what you've described. Generally one can see comets and the like flying about in the background sometimes.

The only other thing I can think of is someone else having a battle outside of your field of view, and this causing the numbers to appear as if they cam from the star (I'd guess it's likely from a ship near the star maybe?).

If it's a combat-related thing, then it should come up when you do a replay - by default the game "saves" a certain amount (7 turns), but you can adjust this to go up to 100 turns. So if it happens again, and it's something relevant to gameplay, then you'll definitely be able to use the replay feature to replay it and hopefully find out what it is, or at least capture a screen/video shot of it happening and post it here.

Of course the above assumes the Android version also has the replay feature that the PC version has...

If it doesn't show up in the replay, then it's most likely one of the many random background effects.

angryred: Me too, brother! I first bought SR2 in its boxed version that came with the original Space Rangers. I have played the HELL out of this game.

The problem with screenshotting the effect is that it happens mid-turn; it's a quick flash (sometimes multiple) that is gone by the time the pause between turns comes. Videoing it (as I'm playing on my tablet ATM) leaves me scratching my head, and making it happen in the PC version is a bit of a rabbit hole because it doesn't *always* happen during rounds of combat-- which makes me think that it might be an effect related to having a certain weapon or artifact installed.

So here's a photoshop. Right side pics, I've added the red beam. Note that when fully zoomed out, damage(?) numbers appear by the star, not at the ship end of the beam. Also, it pops up so quickly that you can't tell which end is the SOURCE of the beam-- it could be the ship end, or the star.

I hope this looks familiar to someone, because this is something I see all the time, and have seen in both tablet and PC versions. If nobody knows what this is, then I have had an ongoing hallucination specific to this game going on for years.

angryred: Yeah, I definitely remember it from the PC version, scouring faqs trying to figure it out, and having trouble finding forums at the time (GOG came later). Eventually I moved on. Seeing it on the Android version prompted me to investigate again.

The top pics are zoomed out all the way for a full system view-- instead of a mini-map, you zoom the main map in and out. PC versions the orbit paths are in the mini-map. (Edit - the bottom pic more closely resembles how it would look in the PC version.)

Right now I just warped into a Dominator-controlled system. A fleet of 7 Doms is right by me. I threw out a gatrix program, targeted the biggest Dom, and hit play/pause real quick. 1 combat turn, it flashed twice.

Then I tried several times to take a screenshot at the same time I hit the turn button. Missed the red beam every time, and now I'm dead. LOL. In the course of that. it probably flashed about 15 times.

It does not always target the player. I have seen it zap out at other ships, like Pirates fighting Rangers.

Loadout: Flux Blaster, Atomic Vision, Disintegrator, 2 Multiresonators (newly added, so no effect fom these).

Artifacts: Junior Droid, Blast Wave Localizer, Polarizer.

But taking into account that I have seen it hit ships in combat that I am not involved in, I have to question if my equipment has anything to do with it.

Going into Reboot on PC, loading up a game and diving into a Dom system; can't make it happen. Loadout 5 MRs.

Also reminds me that in the PC version it didn't happen anywhere near as much as in the Android version. PC version made me scratch my head a bit; Android, it's constantly happening (atm, anyway) and driving me crazy not knowing what it is. Unfortunately I can't find a dedicated forum for the game (other than Google Play, ya rite), so since I've experienced it across platforms, thought I'd try here.

Gonna try some tablet screen record apps; if I can figure out what's causing it on the tablet, I'll see if I can't recreate it in the PC version.