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Universal Combat - First Impressions


Supreme Cmdr
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Not sure what I'm going to do at this point and the lawsuit decision will definitely have an effect on the future of the UC brand.

For now, lets keep the thread on topic. I have created another thread for this sort of discussion, later today.

[ 02-09-2004, 11:41 AM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

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Another thing that I really like, that seems to be different from BCMG (unless it's my imagination) is that not only does the terrain have the nice fauna and wildlife, but it seems more varied and less generic in UC.

I was a passenger in a shuttle flight last night, across some 1000 miles of terrain and noticed there are some real high mountains ranges and interesting topology.

Certainly adds to feel of exploring. Something that would be neat for a saddo like me would be a feature to add notes to the planetary maps.. you could name features.. i.e Banquet's folly for the mountain peak I eventually crashed into cause I was too busy admiring the view and forgot I'd taken autopilot off for a quick jolly.

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quote:


Originally posted by Banquet:

Something that would be neat for a saddo like me would be a feature to add notes to the planetary maps.. you could name features.. i.e Banquet's folly for the mountain peak I eventually crashed into cause I was too busy admiring the view and forgot I'd taken autopilot off for a quick jolly.


Take a screen shot, annotate it and keep it.

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So I finally got some free time to play my copy of UC without interruption. Though I still haven't played enough, I can tell you these things:

- PTE-III is awsome! Cant wait until the patch so I can walk on it too.

- The new WASD controls for the ship were weird at first, but now I like them. The way VTOL works now is much easier to use and more useful now. Also, it makes it feel more realistic now that I cant just press 0 and come to a screaming halt.

- Space combat is much more fun! I never liked the space combat in BCMG very much, but now it's great. Seems like with the ships moving slower, I actually get to see 'em more. Dunno, it's just more fun.

Also, when my friend and I went to go pick up the game, I talked so much about how cool BCMG was that my friend got a copy of UC for himself too

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quote:

Originally posted by Chaoticmass:

Also, when my friend and I went to go pick up the game, I talked so much about how cool BCMG was that my friend got a copy of UC for himself too

There's something about this game that just does that, I think Ive converted about 5 people in the past couple of days hehe

It's just so HUGE!

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Hi everyone,

This is my first post but I'm not new to Battlecruiser played all the incarnations from the Gametek fiasco right up to the very impressive BCMG. Of all the previous incredible versions of the game Universal Combat has managed to stun me. I got the game by surprise after ordering it online last year. I didn't realise it had been released until it turned up on my doorstep. After reading about the Dreamcatcher nightmare I'm amazed that such a deep and absorbing quality software title can be released at a budget price and hope Derek and BC3000ad don't suffer too much.

Anyway after installing it all seemed very familiar apart from a few key changes here and there. Graphically I would say it's quite an improvement over BCMG and during the game the immersion is still as strong as ever. It's the only game where I actually start to care about my ship and crew which can only be a good thing. Wish I could rename the officers though.

The thing that really blew me away was when I landed on Earth in my CC I got out looked behind me and there she was, the scale took my breath away.

Well I don't want to go on too long but so far it's a vast improvement in my opinion. Although I have experienced a few CTD's but I have every faith that after a patch or two these will clear up and I will be taking the universe on.

Sorry about not adding system specs to my sig I'm at work at the moment and can't remember the URL. I have a copy at home though.

Bye for now.

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Wow!

I am impressed! Gotta love those sunsets and the stars through the clouds. I love being able to jump into and control pretty much everything I see! The trees and the autopilot and ground avoidance and...

I (as a ground soldier) never got "fixed up" from one of those supply depots on the ground in BCM

so I don't know if the same thing happens in that game but, well, God bless On-the-spot surgery! That's awesome.

I like the voices (and names) of my other ground troops. So damn cool!!!!

Everything looks outta site!! ...and I haven't even gone into space yet!

Good job!!

I also like how buildings fall into the ground when I blow them up! I really could just go on for hours...

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Damn good game.. I couldn't sleep well last night as I kept dreaming of hyperjumps and blasting incoming bogeys.

Pre-RC1 patch : painful.

Post-RC1 patch : wonderful.

Jumped out of my BCruiserMK3 in a MK1 Shuttle, headed to Wraith and found myself with 12million creds in goods to sell by the time I got there. Gotta love all them cargo pods! Great haul for a ship with no guns eh?

Graphics(General): Quite impressive. Plenty of eye candy to keep me happy.

Music: Improved, nice mix of Star Wars, 2001, and other scifi flavors. Less techno feel, which is good.

Interface:Changes are welcome, still complex, but its more intuitive now. HUD looks great.

Planets: I like, I like.

I'm eager to see what hidden tidbits are in the game.

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First Impression

Pre-Patch: 2/10

The gameplay is so terrible. I started out as a marine and i walked through the base that was next to me, literally through the wall. And it didn't end there, every time i went through things my char would go into crawl mode. Space mode is pretty solid, it takes some getting used to but its good.

Post-Patch: 8/10

Ground Gameplay: needs some work still. There are a couple of problems, like your NPC troops walking on AIR, and crawling up building faces. But its not too bad. I wish there was some sort of particle affect shown on the char when you shoot at them so you know that your shots hit.

Space Gameplay: This is the most solid aspect of the game. I don't see any flaws with this. I do wish there were some more shortcut tabs, since its a little hard to remember all of the commands in the heat of battle.

Graphics: yeah... they are a little dated. Its very noticable in space. After playing EVE, Freelancer, and X2, the graphics can't hold up. The ground combat graphics are about Quake 3 caliber graphcis, thats acceptable, but i could really go for some particle hit effects, so i know my shots are landing.

Sound: I love the sound. It fits the theme perfectly, it keeps the tempo up and the player aware.

AI: not stupid, i love that. In space they are actually a challenge and don't just roll over.

Overall its a pretty good game, its not quite what i hoped for, but it is definetly wetting my appetite.

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I have found UC to be alot more interesting than the previous version BCG. The graphics are alot better and the hud is alot better. Flight dynamics of the CC has changed as far as entering a planet. Every time my CC would crash into the planet. Figured out how not to do that pretty quick. I find it very realistic, which I like. There is one thing I miss from BCG is the cheat feature that was in the hud. Just for the simple fact I like to jump from the CC to the fighter to see the action first hand or tag along in a shuttle that I sent out to get a cargo pod. I am wondering if there will be a playmod made for UC or told how to activate the cheat options in the future?

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quote:


Originally posted by Spindoktor:

quote:

There are a couple of problems, like your NPC troops walking on AIR

Are you sure they aren't using their jetpacks?


No, he's right and I know why its happening. If they walk off a support structure (a building they can actually stand on), they will simply keep walking off until they reach the edge of the bounding box before dropping. Problem is that some of the buildings have bounding boxes which extend a ways beyond the actually visible physical attributes of the building. So it looks like they are walking on air.

The reason they can climb up buildings is because they can. Nothing is preventing them from doing it, the say way the player can do it. There's nothing that I can do about it because if I disabled it, then you won't be able to land on any building (e.g. using a jetpack to snipe from the top of a building, land a gunship on a roof etc).

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Ok, I decided to make my first post, oddly enough in this particular thread.

Now, it is important to note, that I'm a newbie to the Battlecruiser series. So UC is my first BC game. And I have to say, I absolutely love the game. I've been a fan of terminus since the day it came out, and I've been desperately searching for a game to replace it, well, UC is that game.

Now, people have compared UC to quite a few other space sims, most notably X2 and Eve. I've played both, and X2 was a great game, and Eve was atrocious (at least from my perspective). The big thing I look at, is perspective and immersion. For instance, when your playing Eve, your supposed to be the captain of a large star-ship, but you actually feel like the captain of a one man barge, lots of fun, and everyone else has large starships, so there is no feeling of having a big ship. In X2, there were big ships, and little ships, but when piloting a carrier, you felt very alone on that big empty bridge. However, in UC, I get a feeling of actually COMMANDING a large scale ship. I have crew, who do my bidding, and even the bridge chatter adds to the feeling of actually commanding something.

I keep hearing alot of people comparing the graphics of this game to others, saying they are poor. And initially, that was my thought, then I zoomed in on my ship. The ships are incredibly detailed, and if you fly at a low enough altitude, you can see the flora and fauna rushing past beneath you.

The game is incredibly complex, and sadly, thats why so many people dislike it. But, it's the reason I'm ejoying the game so. For me, there is little thrill in combat where its "boom boom" dead, "boom boom" oh, something hit me, "boom boom" oh, I've blown up. I much prefer the alerts flashing, needing to rush repair crews to vital systems, and the rush of ordering your crew to "abandon ship". It gives the game a cinematic feel.

Anyways, my two cents.

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I my honest opinion SC has created the most viable alternative universe (sim/action/rpg) the world has ever seen. The words are simple in sound but experience and I mean UC experience truly offers "Shock & Awe."

IE: I was just putting around and decided to take a shuttle to the surface (no particular waypoint just the surface) when coming through re-entry I realized my speed was to high...my shuttle crashed. (At this point you are suppose to say "who cares" but the BRILLIANT thing about UC is you can care. I Immediately launched my second shuttle to the surface with AE(myself) found the landing tricky as well but was successful. I landed and got out...inspected the craft and decided to take it back to CC. Turns out there was damaged and I couldn't break orbit. I then switched to shuttle 2 and tractored shuttle 1 back to CC. The who experience was aided with TacOps...miles above and games controlling interface...

That experience was just 15 mins of fun and I have seen all sorts of variety in this title thatI have never witnessed before. The funny this is I remember buying the first BC300AD and WANTING this game to exist. Now it does!!!

DS here's to having a great imagination and thank you to you and your crew/crews working on this, it is wonderful. (PS - I'm running a PIII700mhz w/FX5200/win98se-perfectly...though I did have that sound skip problem but solved it by increasing my sound/hardware which was reduced for another game.)

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I've been roaming for a few days so far:

Some initial thoughts:

Orange nebulae background is too much, I want to feel like I am flying over around earth in the far future, but I don't, it is too different.

At least put a static earth moon in the background.

Let us name any primary asset craft, not just when we are a commander. If I am going to be a rougue marine tooling around Mars, I want to have a bad@ss name for my tank.

Scale feels off a bit, I think that everything (in ordbit) is too close to the planets. When you use the [Fly To] a planet or moon and do not wish to do a Planet Fall, your stopping distance should be greater then what it currently does.

ie: it brings you too close to the planet.

Flying without the hyperdrive is too slow. Am I reading the speed correctly? My superfighter is only going 719 Meters Per Hour?? That's pretty slow and makes it so you must hyperdrive everywhere.

When using the [Fly To] to a jump-gate, please get me closer. I like flying manually thru them, but it takes too much time to get from the fly to point to the gate...and I do not like advancing time, feels like cheating.

I don't understand why in frictionless space that my space craft slows down. And slows down dramaticly when I so much as turn a little. Maybe I could accept some decreases (simulating a retro rocket to execute a turn) but it's too extreme. Also it is not consistent, because if I spin on my center axis clockwise/counter-clockwise,,,I loose no speed, but all other axis movements take lots of speed away....I want to "fly" in space, I see mention of afterburners but cannot find the key for it, but I also see a thread from SC that he is going to add it back, so I'll look forward to that.

I like the new ground elements of trees, life forms, but would like to be able to increase the visability to a farther range so it'll be more realistic...I have a great gaming rig and I want to put it too work!

The cities still feel like college campuses and not cities. Doesn't really bother me, but they don't excite me either.

Well, don't get me wrong, I have been with the BC ganes from the first one, and I am looking forward to all the improvements that come over time, it seems that our SC takes this seriously and that comes across in the product. I was very pleased with what the final BCM became over the years. UC has just been born!

Oh yeah: I vote also to include the 1-9 format of thrust but hope it can stay alongside the new format as well.

That's it for just the impressions, apologies for repeating any items mentioned already.

[ 02-13-2004, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: Darkken Nightshade ]

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Allow me to be the first to nitpick your post. :-)

quote:

Orange nebulae background is too much, I want to feel like I am flying over around earth in the far future, but I don't, it is too different. At least put a static earth moon in the background.

The orange nebula sure as hell beats empty black space IMHO and in the opinion of most others I imagine. It wouldn't make much sense to insert a static earth moon either considering that you can already go to the moon via a jumpgate in the system and jumpgates take you far away, exc, exc.

quote:

Let us name any primary asset craft, not just when we are a commander. If I am going to be a rougue marine tooling around Mars, I want to have a bad@ss name for my tank.

There would really be no point to this. It would be waste of time to implement as it would really add nothing at all to the game.

quote:

Flying without the hyperdrive is too slow. Am I reading the speed correctly? My superfighter is only going 719 Meters Per Hour?? That's pretty slow and makes it so you must hyperdrive everywhere.

719 meters per second in the figter, not per hour. Furthermore, try flying somewhere without the hyperdrive and see which you would prefer. The hyperdrive works as designed because it takes away from the game to be able to activate the hyperdrive and instantly arrive at your destination.

quote:

When using the [Fly To] to a jump-gate, please get me closer. I like flying manually thru them, but it takes too much time to get from the fly to point to the gate...and I do not like advancing time, feels like cheating.


Making it so you could jump quicker would enable it to be easier for you to make a quick getaway when you start to lose a fight. I like the distance because if you are performing a "tactical withdraw" it makes things a lot more tense considering the distance you have to fly.

quote:

I don't understand why in frictionless space that my space craft slows down. And slows down dramaticly when I so much as turn a little.

You don't even want to get into that debate, I promise.

Other than that, I liked your post. :grins:

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Here's my retake on your nit picking:

(which i appreciate)

I would not want to see the Orange Nebula eliminated, just cut back, toned down, so it does not dominate so much. Too much of anything gets plaid out after a while. I don't feel like I am in space, and I guess that was my point.

The moon. I cannot think of traveling in space around this planet and not being aware of the moon. Yes, I appreciate that I can fly to it via a jump gate, but its absences feels strange to me.

Naming your assest. Again, part of the "role playing". Maybe naming your tank seems silly, but what about an elite pilot...surely he would have a name for his ship. just like every captain on the sea names his boat...even a small sailboat.

The guys driving around in the desert in tanks, often name their tanks. (I also don't think it would be hard to implement.)

Your comment about "try flying somewhere without hyperdrive"...that is my point. I don't like needing the hyperdrive to get everywhere...I would like it if the ships had a greater sense of "natural" speed without using the hyperdrive. I never feel like I'm moving around in space. It'll take me forever to simply orbit the planet. I should be able to tear around local space and save hyperdirve for the big distances...currently I just don't get that...you seem to agree on that point.

ex: I jumped to a supply station instead of the star station. So now I am at a range of 300 from where I want to dock. I'm too close to hyperdrive to the starstation, and 300 is not really that far away, but man it takes like forever to get to the minimum docking distance....I'm hoping the return of the afterburner would eliminate this.

I also wish that cutting back on guns and shields would add power and speed (ala so many other games) but it doesn't.

Jumpgates...I see your point, but does it really need to take nearly 3 minutes of realtime? If I'm so messed up that I need to escape like that, they could finish me off pretty quickly in the first 30 seconds.

Physics: I truly understand that this would open a huge can of worms...but I don't see it explained why the "drag" is so dramitic. And not consistent in some axis rolls. I liked it better in this respect in BCM.

Again, these were first impressions. On the speed aspect I'm think back to my LucasArts Tie Fighter Days, I felt like I was "cooking" as I moved from place to place.

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On the subject of the nebulae. I like them but they are a bit much. I'd rather see them in fewer systems and see more diverse backgrounds or just more mostly empty boring ones. I have to agree that the nebulae should be the exception not the rule.

Also, I'd like to name my tank.

Oh, so I'm not derailing... fourth impressions:

Aside from a few issues which i've been told are to be fixed.. it's all good.

I really like the ground combat. I really like it alot. Maybe I like it too much.

That is all.

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I just finished roaming in my ship planetside, so a few more impressions.

Where are the headlights on my ship? I nice spotlight or the view mode equal to the cool green nightvision like I have in first person is really needed on the ships for flying on the darkside of the planet. (if i missed something I can do now please tell me!) Changing the HUD color helps but it doesn't light up the ground ahead of me.

I like the auto leveling and flying low VTOL over the terrain, then as you approach your target rich environment...wow...it is a rush! Great animations of the buildings crashing, but I wish the smoke and flames lasted much longer. I like to use the F4 and see those insurgents rolling in smoke and flame as I prepare to turn around for another run...but its gone all too quickly.

The lack of collision detect on trees does not bother me at all. The AI is very good at following waypoint orders, this really felt like my ship had an intelligent computer following my orders (turning/banking was smooth in AI mode). Automatic landing at my final waypoint on my orders was cool! Great scale of ships compared to FP when you get out. Sometimes I take my entire battlecruiser planetside, park it, and make everyone get out. Really funny to see this.

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quote:

Darkken Nightshade

Physics: I truly understand that this would open a huge can of worms...but I don't see it explained why the "drag" is so dramitic. And not consistent in some axis rolls. I liked it better in this respect in BCM.


Newtonian Physics vs. the SC's Physics

You might like that thread Darkken. You don't mind if I call you Darkken do you?

quote:

The moon. I cannot think of traveling in space around this planet and not being aware of the moon. Yes, I appreciate that I can fly to it via a jump gate, but its absences feels strange to me

Already explained. Too much processing power consumed by having both celestial bodies, both starstations, plus all attendant ships active in the same region.

You may want to put some of this in the "BattleCruiser - What could have been" thread.

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