[Supreme Cmdr]

We put a LOT of work into this game and I swear that at times I felt the niche enhanced (+999 hit points no less!) parts of my IQ seeping away.

So, since, this is different from our previous niche games, let us know what you think. And please, NO tech support posts in this thread or your post will be deleted. You know the drill. Talk about the game, the presentation, the campaign, the tutorial, audio, video, multiplayer whatever. Remember, there are three more episodes to go, so whatever tweaking and enhancements are worthy, will most definitely make their way into the builds of the next three episodes in this title.

[Andergum]

Well Zoe is finally off to sleep and I've been playing for about an hour now. I'm impressed with the overall graphics and sound and feel of the game. The music is really great and the new voices sound good too. I absolutely love the new cockpit!

The ships, stations, planets, skyboxes and effects all look great. The particles whizzing by, give a real sense of motion especially when looking out the side windows of the cockpit.

The stability is great. I'm running on Vista Ultimate and haven't had a single crash up to this point. The only glitch I've seen is when looking towards the rear view. My pilot seems to be missing a few triangles of textures in a few places. Its probably a video driver issue. (I'm running the Nvidia 169.09's as the last couple driver's control panel settings weren't working properly and I haven't had much time to mess with the newer ones.) I'll try turning off multisampling and a few other things to see if that clears it up.

It is also really, really nice that the entire manual and commands are available in game. I've been playing the BC series from the beginning and its nice to have access to the docs and commands at the press of a button as many things have changed over the years.

There are a few things that might need a bit of tweaking.

I failed the first mission the first time out because I was waiting for orders for Echo 00 (me). Echo 01 and 02 were ordered to check out the Mercury region and I didn't realize I was supposed to go too. By the time I started getting warnings about not following orders it was too late for me to make it to Mercury before being relieved of command.

I also started with the high level enemy combat tactics on, but had to turn them off because I was having a bit too much trouble hitting the enemy fighters with my laser shots. I'm using the joystick for controls and the dogfighting was a bit tough. I tried switching to mouse control thinking I might be a bit more precise with my shooting but the sensitivity was too low and I couldn't turn my ship fast enough. A mouse sensitivity adjustment might be needed. (Maybe I'll try the X-box controller instead. BTW nice that it is supported!)

After a while I got the hang of it and was able to clear out Mercury with little difficulty.

I think the ship speeds will need a bit of adjusting though. Upon returning to the Saturn region I was told by the GCV Excalibur that I was able to return to base to dock and re-arm. The only problem is that I can't fly fast enough to catch up to the Excalibur! I had sustained a little bit of damage at Mercury but had only lost a little off my top speed. Even so, there is no way I'll catch up with the Excalibur unless it stops or I get lucky and it flys straight at me. The cap ships might need to be a bit slower to allow the fighters to catch them.

Overall, I'm having a fantastic time playing and I'm off for another round.

Looks like a winner to me!

[coder_1024]

You've done a fine job with the new game! I just finished playing for several hours tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. The graphics/sounds/effects are really well done; quite impressive I'd say its well worth buying a copy if you enjoy space gaming.

Having the manual in-game is a really nice feature. It might be a help to have it return to the page you were viewing last time you were in it, but it worked well for quickly looking something up.

Its been a long time since I was flying UC, so I spent the evening working through the tutorial and getting up to speed on stuff again so I haven't flown any of the real missions yet. Definitely a winner! This game will be a lot of fun.

Anyway, time to get some sleep.

[Supreme Cmdr]

Andergum, on Mar 8 2008, 12:32 AM, said:

The stability is great. I'm running on Vista Ultimate and haven't had a single crash up to this point. The only glitch I've seen is when looking towards the rear view. My pilot seems to be missing a few triangles of textures in a few places. Its probably a video driver issue. (I'm running the Nvidia 169.09's as the last couple driver's control panel settings weren't working properly and I haven't had much time to mess with the newer ones.) I'll try turning off multisampling and a few other things to see if that clears it up.

Those drivers are really old. Try the 169.44 drivers.

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I failed the first mission the first time out because I was waiting for orders for Echo 00 (me). Echo 01 and 02 were ordered to check out the Mercury region and I didn't realize I was supposed to go too. By the time I started getting warnings about not following orders it was too late for me to make it to Mercury before being relieved of command.

hehe, I know that part is confusing and I need to probably revise the instructions. If you listen to the audio from the commander, he says "ECHO ZERO ZERO and ZERO ONE". You are ECHO00!!! Only the text message displayed is incorrect and displays 01 and 02.

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I also started with the high level enemy combat tactics on, but had to turn them off because I was having a bit too much trouble hitting the enemy fighters with my laser shots. I'm using the joystick for controls and the dogfighting was a bit tough. I tried switching to mouse control thinking I might be a bit more precise with my shooting but the sensitivity was too low and I couldn't turn my ship fast enough. A mouse sensitivity adjustment might be needed. (Maybe I'll try the X-box controller instead. BTW nice that it is supported!)

If you shoot at the location of the TLD (the broken box) when within gun range, you should see the rewarding flash of the target's shields with each hit.

I try not to mess with the mouse sensitivity due to conflicts with all sorts of mouse programs these days. So, you might want to use your mouse control panel to manipulate that and see how that goes.

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I think the ship speeds will need a bit of adjusting though. Upon returning to the Saturn region I was told by the GCV Excalibur that I was able to return to base to dock and re-arm. The only problem is that I can't fly fast enough to catch up to the Excalibur! I had sustained a little bit of damage at Mercury but had only lost a little off my top speed. Even so, there is no way I'll catch up with the Excalibur unless it stops or I get lucky and it flys straight at me. The cap ships might need to be a bit slower to allow the fighters to catch them.

heh, I can't adjust ship speeds because it would cause a whole heap of problems in other areas. The trick to docking is as stated in the tutorial. You're not going to catch Excalibur if it is too far away. With a cruise speed of 450 m/s and a high speed of 600 m/s; compared to your 255/575, you have to wait until it makes a pass at you. Then catch it on the return trip.

In some scenarios, I do have it halt during this period, but in other areas, it makes the ship a sitting duck for hostiles in the area. I really did think of making it halt each time, but IMO it should be a challenge for you to be able to trap dock. Especially in a hostile area. I can't make the game too easy now, can I? Whats the fun in that?

btw, did you try the narrative version of the tutorial? Isn't the new Mother sexy sounding? The actress hired to do that VO really nailed it. Which is why I decided to spend the extra money and have her do the tutorial VO as well.

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Having the manual in-game is a really nice feature. It might be a help to have it return to the page you were viewing last time you were in it, but it worked well for quickly looking something up.

uhm, sorry, having bookmarks is what you're suggesting. Too much trouble for too little gain. Which is why you have the ability to print the docs. At one point we used PDF files (you probably saw that in the dev VCF) but I had it scrapped because leaving the game to read the docs and returning broke the immersion. PDF files would have supported bookmarks.

[coder_1024]

Supreme Cmdr, on Mar 8 2008, 08:45 AM, said:

uhm, sorry, having bookmarks is what you're suggesting. Too much trouble for too little gain. Which is why you have the ability to print the docs. At one point we used PDF files (you probably saw that in the dev VCF) but I had it scrapped because leaving the game to read the docs and returning broke the immersion. PDF files would have supported bookmarks.

well, I was just thinking have it remember the last page it was on and when going into the help returning to that page. so I guess it would be like a single bookmark. The problem is now, when you're reading page 15 and you want to switch back to the game, when you return to the help you have to page down 14 times to get back. If it would just remember that the last viewed page was 15, then next time you hit Ctrl+H, for example, it would start at page 15 instead of 1. So maybe a single automatic bookmark for each document as opposed to something controllable by the user.

[Supreme Cmdr]

coder_1024, on Mar 8 2008, 09:14 AM, said:

well, I was just thinking have it remember the last page it was on and when going into the help returning to that page. so I guess it would be like a single bookmark. The problem is now, when you're reading page 15 and you want to switch back to the game, when you return to the help you have to page down 14 times to get back. If it would just remember that the last viewed page was 15, then next time you hit Ctrl+H, for example, it would start at page 15 instead of 1. So maybe a single automatic bookmark for each document as opposed to something controllable by the user.

Thats a bookmark. No plans to do that. Plus, whats the point? If it bookmarks p15 and you go to back in to p15, you still have to scroll to p30 if the reason you are viewing the docs is because something on p30 is what you're looking for.

Print the PDF files. Thats why they were provided.

[coder_1024]

Supreme Cmdr, on Mar 8 2008, 09:50 AM, said:

Thats a bookmark. No plans to do that. Plus, whats the point? If it bookmarks p15 and you go to back in to p15, you still have to scroll to p30 if the reason you are viewing the docs is because something on p30 is what you're looking for.

Print the PDF files. Thats why they were provided.

yea, good point. understood. it was primarily for if you're working through the tutorial using the in-game docs, so you want to repeatedly switch between the in-game tutorial doc and the game to try stuff. but you're right, the printed version works for that as well which is what I ended up doing

[ShoHashi]

Hi all!

Firstly, I'm not really good at writing reviews....only at reading them! So don't expect a Pulitzer here.

Over the past several evenings, I've been playing MP on 3000AD's AG server and having a blast! I was hopeful that some other players would join in (hence my post in another thread about the times I'd be on), but I didn't see anyone. Anyways, I haven't experienced any noticeable lag, even with several ships around.

As usual, I've been playing as an Insurgent, attempting to take out any pesky GalCom ships that would be stupid enough to venture into my little part of the galaxy (Venus). There's nothing like trying to take on a capital ship whilst monitoring your shields and armor and the excitement that at any time (if you deem your damage severe enough) you might have to break off your assault and jump back to Genesis for repairs and rearming!

On one occasion I was trying like heck to take out a GalCom Warmonger that was attempting to "flee" from me through a jump gate. I kept on him, lost my shields and my armor was down to 45 when he finally exploded! Talk about sweating a bit! I received some nice XP for that kill. I also managed to take on some easy targets, GalCom transports, for some easy but not as good XP. Of course, I also got some really easy kills by finishing off GalCom fighters that were damaged and drifting by other Insurgents. Hey, a kill is a kill!

Is there a way that the background sound can be lowered or turned off so that I can only hear Mother? She's sort of hard to hear while in the cockpit with the background noise of the ship.

All in all, MP is a good experience. If you have the game and haven't tried MP yet, I recommend you do so.

-Sho

[Supreme Cmdr]

ShoHashi, on Mar 14 2008, 02:46 PM, said:

Is there a way that the background sound can be lowered or turned off so that I can only hear Mother? She's sort of hard to hear while in the cockpit with the background noise of the ship.

Which sounds are you talking about? The game has several channels and the 'mother' channel is the loudest for exactly the reason you mention.

The only background sounds being played all the time are: music, comms channel, fighter engine

You can only turn off music and the comms channel.

Not sure why you'd want to turn off the fighter engine but mother's sound channel is louder than those engines.

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All in all, MP is a good experience. If you have the game and haven't tried MP yet, I recommend you do so.

Maybe we can setup a match this weekend.

btw, you are aware that if you just want to play against NPC opponents, you don't need to log on to the remote server. You can start a console server on your machine, minimize it, then connect
to it. The instructions are in the docs.

[ShoHashi]

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The only background sounds being played all the time are: music, comms channel, fighter engine

The fighter engine. I leave the comms on and have the music off.

I'll take a look in my soundcard settings, it might possibly be something in there.

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btw, you are aware that if you just want to play against NPC opponents, you don't need to log on to the remote server. You can start a console server on your machine, minimize it, then connect
to it. The instructions are in the docs.

No, I wasn't aware of that. I am now, thanks! The main reason I was playing on the AG server was just in case someone else joined.

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Maybe we can setup a match this weekend.

That'd be ok. I'll be on and off Sunday afternoon.

-Sho

[Badman]

OK, First let me qualify by saying that I'm an old school gamer (back to Atari 2600 / Vic20 days) and Developer: I am Hard-core; gues that's why I'm here playing a BC++++ game.

I own: -
* 1996 Silver box for BC3000AD (yes the infamous Take-Two / Gametek); Worth it's weight in gold (well, silver)
* BC3000AD v2
* Battlecruiser Millenium
* Universal Combat AWA
* GALCOM ES SE 2.11.07

I have ALL the space sims that you can imagine. I actually have things on my system like: -
Microsoft Space Sim
Allegiance FREE
Oolite
Xwing Alliance
I-War running in a glide wrapper
I-War II
Frontier First Encounters
Orbiter with Terraforming mod etc etc etc
Eagle Lander
Space Shuttle 2007
Tachyon
Tarr
The Tomorrrow War
Starshatter TGS
Freespace OPEN with heaps of fan missions
X,X2,X3,X3TC
Evochron Legends
etc etc etc ... all hacked & patched for modern graphics / stability / mods

AND, YOU'VE DONE IT. I have been waiting forever to get that "excited" feeling when firing up a Space sim; haven't really had that feeling since I first got the orig BC3000AD when I was 28 years old, and I'm getting it now.

Have put in about 20 hours, just scratching the surface.

Put it this way, my son (11yo) has finished COD 5 twice since I started playing with this beast.

Your lighting engine is wonderful. The cockpits are "solid", and by that I mean you feel like you can touch them. Transparent and reflective cannopies when viewed from outside the ship would be nice though.

I would have to say that Evochron Legends and GALCOM ES SE2 do go toe to toe in some ways, but your game feels more "Microprose" and is far "heavier", if you know what I'm saying.

Thanks Derek and co. for this wonderfully mature and cerebral virtual quantum machine.


P.S. I do have a couple of Tech questions but I'll do that in the appropriate place.

[Supreme Cmdr]

Yah, quite a bit of work went into GCES-SE. It didn't sell as expected, which is why we just moved on to something else. One day I may get around to adding the other fighters which have their own 3D cockpits. Those were planned for a DLC release but the sales just didn't justify the extra work involved with implementing and testing them.

[Badman]

Well, from my point I view this is a gem. I know it is the culmination of your dream, so glad you got it done and polished. Those of us that REALLY love hardcore and deep simulators have always watched your stuff with such interest. I am so familiar with the BC method of control / execution now that I jumped right in and have not looked back. Have stopped playing everything else.

I have a few friends that also love deep simulators, and they will be buying copies over the next few weeks .... I will make them.

Again, Thanks.

P.S. the engine development that you are evolving now (closer to the ground stuff) will one day hopefully find its way into Battlecruiser XXX, I for one would buy it.

[starlord]

Personnally, you know me: As long as there's a compelling story, I want in...

Which is why I was one of the first persons who cried out of delight when V2 of echo was released in order to be able to play it without that gametap required subscription...

I would also say that the games follow a trend which I will find interesting, especially with angle of attack and knightblade...

All this to say that, yes, certainly, this game IMO deserves recognition in the space sim genre. Accessorily, it also deserves to be continued and to see more released episodes... LOL

Hey badman, your posts are interesting. If you are interested, we could perhaps compare our sims, this way, one of us might find titles previously unknown to him. I do have quite a few myself, without bragging...

[Badman]

Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for the DLC2 Derek.

You have blown my mind.

[Badman]

Starlord .... for sure, lets do it.

I've just got Wing Commander Prophecy running in OpenGL 1600 1200 with the Hi-res movie pack, also the Wing Commander Standoff expansion stuff for Secret Ops.

Came back here after a bit of a break from Echo to find the DLC2 with the new cockpits and sandbox ......... I love Derek, I love Derek (metaphorically of course)