119 replies to this topic

[Darkvenom]

I really like the bonus scenario, I've managed to blow up the base pretty easily keeping a finger on the afterburner button. Those poor bastards on the ground were no match for my strafing attacks! You know what would be a cool addition to BCM? Chemical weapons Mwhaha, I'd love to see troops on the ground suffocating in a green cloud.

[Supreme Cmdr]

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You know what would be a cool addition to BCM? Chemical weapons Mwhaha, I'd love to see troops on the ground suffocating in a green cloud

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oh you evil b*astard!!

...ok, since I have volumetric fogging in the 3D engine, I will consider it for a patch once the game is released. Make a note to remind me again. I think its an excellent idea, especially since BCM has first person play mode. hehe

[Spuzzum]

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

oh you evil b*astard!!

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Latest surveys prove that Canadians are twice as likely to be sadistic than the average American gamer. Well, maybe not, but I'm sadistic too.

(Anyone play Soldier of Fortune? Does anyone else aim particularly favourably for the crotch? )

[Pioneer]

SC, thought you might appreciate these comments from GoneGold, which is the best game preview site out there:

Speaking of demos, I gave the latest Battlecruiser Millennium Edition demo a shot. I've mentioned Denny Atkin's excellent preview in the past and that I've really been looking forward to the game. Since the game is close to release, I was interested in seeing the features included in the latest demo. The very first thing that's very apparent about the game... it's not for the casual gamer.

To the producer's credit, they've mentioned that right up front. Their target audience is the hard core gamer and I think this game will fit the bill nicely. Unfortunately, you can't mention this game without mentioning the nonsense that has gone on between Derek Smart, the mastermind behind the game, and a handful of gamers that refuse to let arguments die. As a gamer, none of that effects nor interests me. I could care less who hates the man, who loves the man and vice versa. My main concern is what kind of ride am I getting the my dough.

Having said that, the first thing I did was click on the "Training" button on the main menu. To my dismay, it's not implemented as of yet, but thankfully, three tutorials are included. They walk you through the major functions of the game and it's here you begin to realize just how detailed and engrossing the game is. The shallow gamer in me was also pleased to see the graphics look good too.

This is going to be a game that has a large learning curve, but thankfully, it's set up so you can dig in quickly and feel as if you're making progress. There's nothing worse than going through tutorials and coming away as if you still don't know how to play the game. While the open ended-ness of the game may make it a bit difficult to teach how to play well, once you have the controls down you'll be flying around learning that on your own... adding to the enjoyment.

The enormity of the game should even quell the "nay sayers". From commanding a Battlecruiser, you can jump into a fighter, break into a planets atmosphere, land, exit and head into the water for a swim. Taking a refreshing swim on "Corion 12" and then fighting a huge galactic battle a few hours later is beyond what any game has ever brought us.

All the attention to detail is stunning and may be overwhelming. Booting up the new offering shows us that the team has learned "refinement" of controls as well. What once was a series of screens is now a simple matter of hovering over a button and selecting from a pop up menu. Very nicely done. If you passed on the demo due to a bad taste in your mouth from the original game released by Take 2, do yourself a favor and "forgive and forget". Haven't you ever needed forgiveness? Besides, you'd only be spiting yourself and missing out on one of the most intense and open ended games ever.

[Epsilon 5]

Haven't done everything I could, and did not read everything a thousand times (vcf and here), so I might repeat some stuff and whine about wip stuff...

I haven't said what i thought for ep1, so it will be included.

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First of all, I liked the demo(s) a lot, but it crashed too often. But the game reaches my expectations, and in some points it excedes it. However, Some things don't reach my expectations.

----------------THE SYSTEM I PLAYED ON:

My system can't play the game, but a friend of mine can play it, so that's where I "tested" the game.

Intel pentium 3 533EB mhz
192mb sdram 133mhz
MB Asus p3c-something chipset intel 815
ATI rage fury MAXX 64mb (dual processor), latest drivers
500-600mb free space on drive C, a gig on the D (where the game is)

playing 1152x8??x32bit , same red/depth as desktop and all graphics options turned on.

----------------SPACE

One simple question: what units do you use for speed, altitudes and distances? Most people say feet, but US is about the last (known) country in the world using the Imperial system instead of the metric system.

I like the contrails A LOT! I prefer the bitmap ones, since the particle ones seem wierd. When I zoom in in F9, they loose the proportions, and it's ugly like that. But you said it's a problem with drivers. How can I solve that?

The bitmap contrail are very cool, but with the good angle I can see the "start point" of the contrails, because there is no "bright lights".
Also, I think you REALLY need to have variable lenght contrails. It looks kinda stupid to have fixed contrails for different impulse levels. I don't think it would be too hard... but anyway, it would be an extra that would improve the contrails a lot.

and I had the Alderon false collisions too. where I could put a part of the nightstar in the wall, i cannot even approach with a BCmk2.

Oh, about the BC, when I'm on exterior view and watching the front, I've noticed that the main guns/PAD beams are a little offset, that is to the left of the craft (and right from my view. Also, the PAD beams don't always show up, which I think they should.

I really like more the improved hyperspace effect. It looks much less like jelly beams. But, like someone else said before, I don't like the fact that it takes the same time for a specific ship to fly 900k units or 2M units. And it takes much too long to travel with large ships, I hate always having to get me towed by one of my shuttles if I don't want to get bored. I think 1 minute is already a lot... but 2... it deceivingly (word?) long.

I like the new manoeuvrability. You really feel that you are riding big ships. However, I think we are going a tad too slow. If the starstation missiles always get me, it's because I'm not fast enough to get out of their way.

Like i think already said, the shields/armor levels are much too low. I made one lousy pass around one gam station and lost all my shields and some armor. If I shoot the station, I can almost destroy it in a pass. Everything is too easy to destroy, you and the others. It's not about beefing the guns, it's about beefing the defense of everyone. I got destroyed even faster in ep2 than in ep1. It's frustrating.

And when are the ships in the first mission are supposed to come? I waited 15 minutes over alderon and nobody showed up. Maybe the insurgents got scared at knowing that an Orion commander was waiting for them?

----------------PLANETARY

The new terrain engine rocks! Damn it's cool. But I had a few problems. First, I think the clound are too low. at 10k of height... I can barely see the ground before I reach it. That's one thing that I didn't liked even in bc3k.

And why is the sky always clouded? I mean, today the sky where I live is clear, and yesterday there were clouds but they weren't covering the entire sky. In the demo, it seems everyday it a sad day.

I have some terrain problems. The terrain flcker between the terrain texture itself and the base textures. My friend told me that it could be a dual processor conflict, but maybe he's wrong. What can i do for that?

When I'm close to the ground, I can see a small white square under me that follows me eveywhere. It's very annoying, an I'd like to know what to do.

I also have problem with the terrain detail blending, or something like that. The far terrain is quite blurred, but the nearest is clear. The transition is too sharp. And /nd1 and /nd2 don't work. I know how to edit a shortcut, so it isn't that.

Sometimes, I can see clearly that I'm landing on the ground far from the beach, but instead, I flush my CC deep in the water, and swin with my AE. What is going on? Don't tell me you've included moving sands?!?

Also, i think it's weird that I can pitch at will when in VTOL. My gunship was standing there, on his back. Funny, but illogic.

How much I climb high with my gunship, it keeps going like there was air at will. I can't imagine still being in atmosphere at 2M units. And even with this height, the sky seems to be like it I was landed. In a small game demo of a game I played a long time ago, the sky would darken as I was climbing to space. If I remember well, i think it was StarShatter.

When I go into a planet atmosphere, My ship ressemble a fireball, and the fireball doesn't even. Look yucky. Cover only the 2 thirs from the back. I've already seen shuttle and capsules re-entry photos and sheme. Far from what I see in the demo. And I want a first person view on the atmospheric re-entry. I thought you'd finally switch to that, a camera view looks stupid to me.

Gas planets are impressive! I have fun sitting there, but I think they damage you much too fast. I should be able to stay there more that 1 hour without being seriously damaged (I tested it) And why is it eating your plutonium?

Oh, and when i was nearly dead... how do emit my SOS signal? Will anyone rescue me on hellseye?

Some other things bothers me about gas planets. First, the gas effect (the "layers", which is very cool) works only at a maximum of 70k units. Also, why should there be an altitude if there is no core? I mean, I should be able to ride into the planet freely, not be crashing or even landing at 0 even if it looks that I'm very far from the ground. Unless there is a water or a solid core, i don't think i should ever crash on a jupiter-like planet. When there is thunder, I don't think I should hear rain. Yes, rain. Maybe the thunder sound have rain sound in it, an on Helleye, it sounds VERY stupid, compared to the spooky effect that the thunder sound itself give to the environnement.

About the ship control, why the joystick x-axis makes me yaw in space, and roll in atmosphere? should be yaw/yaw, not yaw/roll.

I don't like the F1 accel thing. Stopping and departing on a dime is far from real. Maybe on a fighter, but not in a carrier-cruiser.

About tacops... One thing I dislike, I used to click anywhere near what I want to see in bc3k not to zoom completely. now it seem anywhere I click i get a small square, then a close-up view. I like more to be able to zoom in like I do in space, a progressive zoom (I think)

And FP.. I know most of it is WIP, but is there supposed to be an animation of when you pick up a gun and when you put it back, and when you shoot? And the whistlaser is MUCH too big... covers half the screen. and the ZS10 definitely need more polys. Yuk.

----------------CONCLUSION

I had quite a lot of fun in the demo. It crashed often... dunno why, but one time it crashed when I pressed "y" to go on orbit while at 1.2M units. ep1 was crashing too, even with the /d1 parameter.

One thing: could we have the ep1 mission but rearranged for ep2 (with planets)?

Haven't tried the new mission.

Will surely have more to say, but later. I think I said a lot... for now.

[ 06-26-2001: Message edited by: Epsilon 5 ]

[Supreme Cmdr]

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ATI rage fury MAXX 64mb (dual processor), latest drivers

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I guess you missed the part in the FAQ where I talk about not supporting older cards? ESPECIALLY those pos ATI cards and their crappy drivers?

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One simple question: what units do you use for speed, altitudes and distances? Most people say feet, but US is about the last (known) country in the world using the Imperial system instead of the metric system.

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metric. And the problem is what, exactly?

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I like the contrails A LOT! I prefer the bitmap ones, since the particle ones seem wierd. When I zoom in in F9, they loose the proportions, and it's ugly like that. But you said it's a problem with drivers. How can I solve that?

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Nothing that can be done. Its nothing to do with drivers, its a DX limitation based on the size of the particles when up close.

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First, I think the clound are too low. at 10k of height... I can barely see the ground before I reach it. That's one thing that I didn't liked even in bc3k.
[/quote

Then don't fly down fast after planetfall. There is a reason the craft comes to a near halt after planetfall.

[quote]And why is the sky always clouded? I mean, today the sky where I live is clear, and yesterday there were clouds but they weren't covering the entire sky. In the demo, it seems everyday it a sad day.

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I'm developing a game, not a simulation of your neighborhood. Just because there are clouds, doesn't mean its a bad day.

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I have some terrain problems. The terrain flcker between the terrain texture itself and the base textures. My friend told me that it could be a dual processor conflict, but maybe he's wrong. What can i do for that?

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Throw that ATI card in the garbage bin. If thats not in the cards (get it?), ask ATI to develop better drivers.

When all else fails, use the commandline options mentioned in the FAQ, to disable the detail rendering.

Everything else you wrote, about the terrain, comes from that crappy card and its drivers.

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Sometimes, I can see clearly that I'm landing on the ground far from the beach, but instead, I flush my CC deep in the water, and swin with my AE. What is going on? Don't tell me you've included moving sands?!?

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Ever heard of shorelines? coral reef, maybe?
There yer go. Just because you can see sand, doesn't mean its not shallow. Thats why the water is transparent.

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Also, i think it's weird that I can pitch at will when in VTOL. My gunship was standing there, on his back. Funny, but illogic.

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Its a futuristic game, not the modeling of an Apache gunship or an F16 fighter.

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How much I climb high with my gunship, it keeps going like there was air at will. I can't imagine still being in atmosphere at 2M units. And even with this height, the sky seems to be like it I was landed. In a small game demo of a game I played a long time ago, the sky would darken as I was climbing to space. If I remember well, i think it was StarShatter.

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Go play it

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When I go into a planet atmosphere, My ship ressemble a fireball, and the fireball doesn't even. Look yucky. Cover only the 2 thirs from the back. I've already seen shuttle and capsules re-entry photos and sheme. Far from what I see in the demo. And I want a first person view on the atmospheric re-entry. I thought you'd finally switch to that,

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I take it you are having a difficult time understanding that this is a GAME?!?

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a camera view looks stupid to me.

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Which part of your *ss do you want handed to you? And do you want that on a platter or on a spoon?

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Gas planets are impressive! I have fun sitting there, but I think they damage you much too fast. I should be able to stay there more that 1 hour without being seriously damaged (I tested it) And why is it eating your plutonium?

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Just because its there, doesn't mean you should go hang around in it.

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About the ship control, why the joystick x-axis makes me yaw in space, and roll in atmosphere? should be yaw/yaw, not yaw/roll.

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No, it shouldn't be anything unless I say it is so. There is reason it acts differently in both environments, or I would not have implemented it as such.

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About tacops... One thing I dislike, I used to click anywhere near what I want to see in bc3k not to zoom completely. now it seem anywhere I click i get a small square, then a close-up view. I like more to be able to zoom in like I do in space, a progressive zoom (I think)

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The zooming controls in Tacops have not changed.

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but is there supposed to be an animation of when you pick up a gun and when you put it back, and when you shoot?

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No

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It crashed often... dunno why

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See above

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One thing: could we have the ep1 mission but rearranged for ep2 (with planets)?

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No

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Will surely have more to say, but later. I think I said a lot... for now.

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Just make sure you tone down the rhetoric. I'd hate to have to delete a post you spent two days writing.

[Falcon]

Snyone would think that SC was making a game for ONE particular person. I liked the Planetfall transition!!

[Joel Schultz]

First off, I liked the new 3000AD movie. Looking good. Second, from what little I did see on the planet, it looked pretty good. Tacops view of the Insurgent base had "clouds" drifting over the view, nice touch.

Unfortunately I only played the demo about 20 minutes last night (past midnight when I finally got everything together, and too tired to stay awake after long day at work). I won't be posting further impressions until I have something more than 20 minutes of half-asleep thoughts to work with...

But I already have one minor opinion, which I'd like to air right now, and some follow-up questions I have out of the VCF that have to do with your last response...

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(Epsilon 5)
About the ship control, why the joystick x-axis makes me yaw in space, and roll in atmosphere? should be yaw/yaw, not yaw/roll.

(SC)
No, it shouldn't be anything unless I say it is so. There is reason it acts differently in both environments, or I would not have implemented it as such.

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I happen to agree with E5 110% on this one. SC, we all understand you have your reasons; though I am curious as to what they are (you had to leave us hanging, didn't ya ). But I'm respectfully submitting that given how wonderfully nice and easier to use the new interface is, and how many options are available on the "Config" screen, that adding an option to use your "default" (X=roll twist=yaw) setting versus the opposite (X=yaw twist=roll) would be a very well-received addition to our ability to "customize" the interface. Given that you used two different control models as E5 brings out, perhaps having this setting for each (one for space, one for atmosphere)?

Realizing this is crunch time, of course, I wouldn't expect considerations like this to make it into the box, but submit it for consideration as part of the multiplayer patch. Just my $0.02 in contribution to the cause of making BCM rock...

Out of curiosity, what would've happened if my joystick didn't have a twist axis? Does that mean I wouldn't have been able to steer (yaw) at all?

Also, I notice this in the VCF (hey! I actually read it! pats self on back):

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v2.0C.00 11.07.00 FIRST EXTERNAL BETA RELEASE
Craft will now do a roll when on a planet/moon and a yaw in space when pushing stick left/right

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v2.3.00 - 05.14.01
In FTOL mode, while in space the joystick X axis controls YAW and on the planet it controls ROLL. Pressing joystick button 2 swaps this YAW/ROLL mapping.

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v2.3.03 - 06.08.01
The joystick twist axis is now implemented on supported joysticks and is used as Yaw control

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Now, what I get from this is that this "twist" axis deal was a latecomer. What I want to know is: will pressing button 2 swap the twist/x-axis in space? If not, what does button 2 do now?

(edit: duh, wait a minute, I can experiment on that later this evening! Oh well, I'd appreciate your comments on that anyway, SC, to give this evenings experimentation some perspective)

Thanks in advance for any answers, SC!

Hopefully this evening I'll get more playing time in and be able to post a better "what I think" tomorrow.

[ 06-27-2001: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

[Supreme Cmdr]

Responding to your post in detail, would be a sordid waste of time, especially since you ask questions which you can answer yourself if you just play the demo.

As for the joystick. The option to remap the yaw/roll command for the keyboard (in Config), was supposed to also do the same for the joystick axis. It doesn't, for some odd reason, though it works here. So, it could be something related to the twist axis mapping I recently did.

[Joel Schultz]

Well, gee, that was fast

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Responding to your post in detail, would be a sordid waste of time, especially since you ask questions which you can answer yourself if you just play the demo.

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Ya know what, that answer kinda just hit me a few minutes after I posted, and I went up and editted my post to that effect, plus added in a few other thoughts about a couple things I remember seeing that I liked. Sorry about that, I still must be a little zonked from yesterday...

Anyway, I'll be taking that suggestion as your orders, sir!

[Supreme Cmdr]

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Whenever I'm near a planetary base, the game reads from the hdd with an interval of around 2 seconds causing the game to halt for around 0.5 seconds or less, and then catch up the time it lost. This makes it nearly impossible to play. Is this a common problem, or am I the only one to experience this?

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Defrag your hard drive and don't have any programs running when playing.

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Attempting to change resolution during the game will make the game hang

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Don't do it. Pick your resolution before entering the game.

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When trying to access tacops in the madride region, the game crashes. I tried entering the region while in tacops, and got an error message: error opening madrideptype15
Probably a missing file or something.

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Assuming you are running the latest E2 bonus scenario build:

1. Open up PTE2PTEDEFS.INI in Notepad or similar editor and change line 169 from PTYPE11 to PTYPE15

2. Look in the PTE2STETEX folder and rename PTYPE11.TGA to PTYPE15.TGA
   

That should fix it. I thought I included both files in the distribution, but obviously not.

Later tonite I will repack the E2 demo bonus mission to contain a new PTE2DEFS.INI file, which will fix this problem, and upload it to the download mirrors. I'm quite surprised that nobody has reported this in the demo. I guess they must not have gone as far as Madride*. Wimps

*You'd have to jump from Farstar to Trion to Hellseye to Sorax and then to Madride.

[Spuzzum]

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:
I guess they must not have gone as far as Madride*. Wimps

*You'd have to jump from Farstar to Trion to Hellseye to Sorax and then to Madride.

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Personally, I think my actions of remaining in Farstar to besiege the Insurgents is rather brave, especially taking into consideration how badly they kicked my arse when I was strafing their naval fleet.

[Joel Schultz]

Ok, here's more random spewage of thoughts from me on the demo

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ASUS KT133A mobo
AMD Athlon 850
256 MB RAM
ATI Radeon 32MB DDR
(other stuff omitted)

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OK, first up: I had an icky tearing problem on planet. BUT...SC's aware of this and its a driver problem as noted in the VCF. Although I must admit I'm curious as to why BCM isn't listed on ATI's page here yet. They do have demos listed on that site (e.g. "Oni") so I'm just wondering why BCM isn't up there too yet. I'll have to get on their case about this But I followed the VCF's instructions and started E2 with the /nd1 switch, which seemed to fix things for me.

Wow. Things look a lot more interesting "downstairs" now. Stupid Insurgents from IA-02 kept blowing me up pretty quick, but I got to have some fun on the ground. Though it took me a while to figure out how to get my engine in gear - I forgot I had my throttle enabled in joystick mode and it was zeroed out for the first five minutes. Left me a sitting duck. Rather than get blown up, I hopped outside my vehicle, and promptly got lost. Couldn't remember where I parked it, though it may have been blown up. Had fun wandering around and looking at the base.

I tried to get my character to do a "salute" too, since I noticed that in the FP keyboard command chart, but maybe this isn't implemented yet because he didn't. Or maybe I should have checked the keystroke list in Config to be sure it was even in there. Oh well. But I ended up putting my marine through his paces, with weapons, positions (crouch vs. prone vs. walk vs. run). Might try more sometime later. Nice model, BTW.

I was blown up several more times, but it was worth it because in between blowing up I got to see the explosion effects on the ground from the stuff I blew up. Somebody else seemed to be pounding the base too, though maybe it was just my missiles finally reaching their target in the distance and blasting it, or else the enemy could have been lousy shots (low AI?) and was causing collateral damage against their own structures. But I enjoyed watching the little "sparks" of destruction that rained back to the ground from an exploded building. Also, during a (very brief) lull, I was watching one of the ground structures get rebuilt. Very weird looking, seeing things all "skeletal" and all, but nice to see how dynamic the world and everything really is.

Speaking of rain...cool! Very nice effect. Having weather enabled seemed to cause framerate to drop due to HDD "stuttering", but SC seems to think this is fragmentation related. Rest assured, I will be doing that, but only after I uninstall E2 and install BCM I notices snow effects too when I managed to beach my cruiser in the arctic. Very nice effects, SC, adds to the game quite nicely. Especially the rolling thunder in the distance...

Anyway, I got tired of getting blown up a lot in IA-02 so I went back to IA-01. I tried to watch the incoming insurgent carrier emerge from hyperspace as mentioned in the Readme. Odd, but the effect isn't as good as I last saw it and remember seeing it in BCStudio, not as many colored lights and that; perhaps this was a side effect of /nd1? Ditto on watching my cruiser doing planetfall. I switched to an external camera view (F9 or F10), I think, as I plummetted towards the planet. No firy reentry. /nd1 culprit? Wrong camera angle? Dunno. But hey, don't think that doesn't mean the sequences weren't good or anything. Especially leaving the planet: watching your cruiser, nose to the heavens, climb out of the atmosphere, a final flaring its drive contrails - I can just imagine that maybe that's what it really would look like in RL, if it existed. And planet infall? Same thing, just watching it plummet into the atmosphere, then seeing it slide by in level flight, that same engine flare as the drives settle down the ship into flight... Amazing.

Anyway, I flew around in forward-flight and VTOL modes, but what I really wanted to do was land the cruiser so I could get a look at the female commander model. So I put the cruiser down...on the third try...and got out. Nice looking, holy big momma of a gun strapped on her back, surprised she doesn't fall over backwards under its weight . Anyway I put her through some paces like I did for the marine, crouching, prone, running, walking, holstering/unholstering weapons while in an external camera view. Very nice looking. While walking, I didn't notice any movement of ground textures, but I'm chalking this up to /nd1 since during the brief time I played groundside without /nd1, the flickering textures did seem to move appropriately for the ground. Note to self: dock at station and look for cargo including a fuzzy ol' winter coat next time I go outside in the arctic, that uniform of hers didn't look too warm. Heh.

As for why I landed the BC on my third try? Well, I noticed in the keyboard bindings document that SHIFT-E activated the Computer-Assisted Landing System. So, curious, I pressed SHIFT-E. A odd sound played, and my ship dropped like a rock from 35000 feet and pancaked itself and its poor crew on impact with the ground. Oops. Wondering what happened, I tried again. Same result. Suddenly, I seemed to recall that odd sound reminding me of the engine startup sound. Looked in the keybindings, and sure enough SHIFT-E also toggles the engines - a fact I now belatedly remembered from BC3K. So that's why I dropped like a rock. For all I know, the computer-assisted landing was turned on, but fat good it does with no engines! LOL, SC you might want to look at that keyboard command doc and fix that (Lord, won't it be embarassing if I misread the doc and was pressing the wrong keystrokes, I hope I didn't do that...) Anyway, I'm an old hand at landing planes in flight sims, and VTOL makes it so easy, so I just put her down myself the third time.

Out of curiosity, what would cause a launched figher, set with a waypoint in tacops on Farstar to attack an Insurgent base in "CAP" or "SEAD" mode, execute an RTB immediately after entering the atmosphere? Maybe I should have set a normal "proceed to next" waypoint outside the base, and then set a CAP/SEAD waypoint inside the base? I'm pretty sure I launched my fighters with the right armament, I had auto-arm on and launched them on CAP and SEAD profiles. I wasn't following any particular instructions, just doing my own thing, really, which was probably a bad idea since I have very little groundside experience. Groundside ops never interested me too much in BC3K; I'm a starship commander, not a ground-pounder. Anyway my groundside generaling skills...what skills?...are horrendous, I'm definitely at "newbie" level on the ground, except for deploying mining drones, ha! Maybe I ought to stick with what I know, at least until BCM comes out and I can spend some serious time trying to learn the ropes groundside. Or spend some time downstairs in BC3K. And from everything I've seen groundside -- I think it will be worth learning, downstairs seems a lot more interesting than it used to be. Zooming around in that ATV was some of the most fun I've had so far in the demos, even though they kept blowing me up I probably ought to go back into BC3K and take my ATV for a spin there. Might learn some useful things. This is what I like about the BC series, if there's a part of the game you don't care about or like, you don't have to do it. I don't have to be a general if I don't want to. But if I do...I can. BTW, I hope your "training academy" includes some groundside stuff.

Then, I decided to find out how easy it would be to take out Alderon instead of defending it. Went through another beautiful planet-transition sequence. Anyway the station explosion was quite powerful, and I was a tad too close and got caught in the blast radius but survived. Alderon went down fairly quick because they didn't expect "their" ship to turn coat like that. I managed to get in a few minutes of watching it be rebuilt before some Ter/Mil ships took me out in my weakened state.

Overall, I'm very impressed. The graphical effects, at least those I was capable of seeing on my system given my /nd1 restriction, looked very good. You may have convinced this commander that dirt and water are actually interesting places to go and to learn more about, but I will and always shall be a starship commander first and foremost.

Tonight's misadventures will include me crashing my crusier into the ocean, and going for a swim. Hey, maybe I'll even take my favorite ATV for a spin on the beach. Dune buggy racing! Yeah! And $ilk's being a bad influence on me, I'm gonna try to land my cruiser on a carrier too!

$ilk said it, I love this game, and I know I'm going to enjoy myself getting killed on the ground more times than I'll be able to count learning how to be a general (or maybe marine).

[KreKol]

Everytime I try to use Shift-E (Computer-Assisted Landing System) with a smaller craft, it takes off and tries to find the nearest mountain and ram it. I personaly think it should be renamed to Computer Assisted Ramming System. Comes in real handy when in a fire fight. Catch me if you can. There is one thing I really like. Attacking a base with the CC and get hit in the engines. Instead of just blowing up the ship, it will fall and crash land. That allows you to get out of the ship and run to the base that you were attacking. If you are lucky you might have power to get the ATV out to play.

[ 06-28-2001: Message edited by: KreKol ]

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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. Anyway I put her through some paces like I did for the marine, crouching, prone, running, walking, holstering/unholstering weapons while in an external camera view

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....heh, wait'll you see her swimming. Just don't do it when your girlfriend or wife is watching...or you'd get smacked...like me.

quote:

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So, curious, I pressed SHIFT-E. A odd sound played, and my ship dropped like a rock from 35000 feet and pancaked itself and its poor crew on impact with the ground.

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LOL!!! oops. That only worked in BC3K for the FC or SH craft. When I allowed the CC to enter planets, I flat out forgot to include it too. Will do so now.

SHIFT+E will turn on the A/P and land the craft, if its an FC or SH and you are airborne. It doesn't work in space of course. Otherwise, it just turns the engine off.

quote:

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Out of curiosity, what would cause a launched figher, set with a waypoint in tacops on Farstar to attack an Insurgent base in "CAP" or "SEAD" mode, execute an RTB immediately after entering the atmosphere?

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1. It doesn't find them

2. The pilot has low AI and is chicken

3. He doesn't have the proper weapons

4. You only gave it one waypoint. As I said in the tutorial, You MUST have at least a second waypoint with Repeat Actions or they'll bugger off
   

quote:

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Maybe I should have set a normal "proceed to next" waypoint outside the base, and then set a CAP/SEAD waypoint inside the base?

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Set about 3-4 waypoints with varying orders inside the base, then make the 5th waypoint, Repeat Actions. And they will continue to fly that pattern until exhausted. For base incursions, you want SAD and SEAD profiles. Both have ATA and ATS missiles.

[Baloogan]

quote:

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

The pilot has low AI and is chicken

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Does this really happen?? Low AI and they will run away??

I thought that low AI will make the pilots not very good at flying.

[Commander ZIX]

1. THIS IS THE BEST DEMO I HAVE EVER PLAYED OF ANY GAME!
(I've played alot of demos.)

2. I did have some trouble with the atv thing.(I cant figure out the controls)

3. I found quite a few different ways of taking off in the fighter

4.

quote:

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Latest surveys prove that Canadians are twice as likely to be sadistic than the average American gamer.

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Oh yeah? Wanna bet?

[ 06-30-2001: Message edited by: Commander ZIX ]

[Spuzzum]

quote:

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Originally posted by Commander ZIX:
1. THIS IS THE BEST DEMO I HAVE EVER PLAYED OF ANY GAME!
(I've played alot of demos.)

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Hence the picture in my Active Worlds office. "The Meaning of Life". Three guesses as to what the picture shows.

quote:

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2. I did have some trouble with the atv thing.(I cant figure out the controls)

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I didn't have any problems with the driving, per se. The only real problem I had was getting it to board the shuttle. I wound up exiting the ATV, walking into the shuttle, and telling it to drive in on auto-pilot.

quote:

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3. I found quite a few different ways of taking off in the fighter

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My favourite is flinging it off a cliff.

quote:

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Oh yeah? Wanna bet?

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Sure. I bet two Skittles, priority mail.

[edit] Oh, that in addition to the hind legs of 9 virgin field mice. Sadistic enough?

[ 07-01-2001: Message edited by: Spuzzum ]