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Getting attached and the reason most people don't


Wyrdsmith
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Note, I didn't really expect my post to get any major responses like this. I guess this answer is a bit OT, though since it details why I'm currently "un-attached" from UC it's not way OT at least.

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And unless and until you have actually played a single Commander career up to his retirement

I'd love to. When does the AE retire? Or, more to the point, what would I do until that point? I'm the commander of a huge military starship. My mission (as I'm roleplaying it) is to combat major threats. I can't find any. My carrier is like an indestructible wave of death against anything the enemy has thrown at me so far.

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and you have amassed a fleet

What would I use it for (I do have fleet command)? I never even launch my fighters anymore. Originally I launched them to take care of enemy fighters, but probably due to the ineptitude of the pilots on both sides they just took ages without killing eachother (I once *ate dinner* and came back to find them still running circles around eachother). Once I discovered my PTAs took out any number of fighters in a matter of seconds my own fighers no longer served a purpose apart from giving the pilots a way to earn their pay. I kept launching them for a while longer to roleplay realistm, but I couldn't keep that up for very long. What kind of commander would I be to waste time and resources on sending out fighters when the enemy happily flies into my PTA solution regardless of their craft's status.

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Capturing stations and making money is *not* what the game is about

In roam mode, isn't the game about what the player makes of it? Apart from a brief test of the BCM beta ages ago, I had few preconceptions about the game. I bought it to be the commander of a starship. To explore and battle. I do know that ignores some of the options the game has (notably, surface FPS and tactical combat), I just didn't expect the battles to be impossible to lose nor the exploring being limited to clicking on zones on planets hoping to see something worth investigating.

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that why the IA and ACM scenarios have clear goals in that they have a begin and end phase

You got me there (and I see a yell coming ). I never played the scenarios (apart from the tutorial). It was a conscious decision. I wanted freeform exploring, not scripted situations. To be honest, I even forgot there were scenarios until you mentioned it just now. Feel free to slap me. I'll have a look at them. I must admit though, I don't have high hopes they'll give me a renewed interest in the roam mode once done (I'd be quite happy to be proven wrong on that count).

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If the goal was about making money, capturing stations and being done with it, then you've probably already got back your $19.99 I think.

I didn't say it wasn't worth the 20 bucks based on what fun I got out of it already. I had fun for a few evenings (and the scenarios I forgot about should give a few more I expect). What I miss is unlocking the months of enjoyment "everybody else" around here are getting out of it. From my current point of view, the only way to do that is to use my imagination to create the game, as opposed to the game and my imagination combined creating the experience.

For example, I tried to be a "protector". Idea being to patrol an area and protect friendly ships. After a good number of tiny friendlies a slap away from a hullbreach decided to fly across the sector to attack a fully shielded enemy cruiser, I gave up. There may be a good reason why the AI feels suicide is something to be sought, but I just can't find a way to RPG myself into making up a sane reason.

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As I write this, I can bet anything that you haven't even made enough EPs, medals, achieved sufficient goals etc, to call deem yourself worthy of command.

I can't really say much about that without knowing what you feel makes one worthy of command. Since you made the game though, and the game feels I'm worthy of the title supreme commander based on the medals I've earned, I guess you must at least partially feel I'm worthy

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Just because when the klaxxon goes off, you merrily continue reading your book, doesn't mean anything other than the NPCs that happened to show up at the time, are incompetent.

Agreed wholeheartedly. Which brings me back to my original question (don't think I spelled it out though). Where do I find competent ones? Or when?

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you're going to be playing for the better part of 3-4 months to even get ANYWHERE near command of a cap ship.

Sounds most excellent. Assuming those months are fun, of course

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Doing that in a single player game is just a waste of time (for a game like this) because of the use of save/reload which is usually abused to no end.

I abuse the save feature a lot. Though the reason being a slight CTD problem I'm having with the game so it's for a good reason. I've never had any other reasons to reload.

I'll say this though. For whatever reason (I can't point my finger at anything in particular), this game breeds an almost instant refusal to reload instead of reparing. One of the more enjoyable moments I had was having a ship full of intruders, happily blasting away at my life support. I didn't think it would last much longer so to save time I captured the nearest enemy station (think the nearest friendly station was a few jumps away). Just as I was about to dock though, CTD. Point being, even with an always recent savegame available due to the CTD problem, just reloading didn't even enter my mind. You worked some real magic in that aspect of the game.

Finally, I'd like to make it clear I'm voicing my opinion about the game based on my experience with it and that again being a result of what *I* tried to play the game as. I'm not asking for any changes to be made, I'm not saying it's a pile of crud. I'm saying I can't quite find anything more interesting to do in it, and I'm open to suggestions. In fact, I'd say it's almost worth the $20 even for no other reason than to show support for a developer that has an unfaltering dedication to his work. Then again, I actually donate to freeware projects so I'm probably not to be trusted

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I'm a few months away from my 40th birthday and I've been playing computer games since I was 14. The most memorable (and usually my favourites) on any given platform were the ones that captured my imagination and drew me in to their world.

3D Startrek on the Commodore PET

Elite and Frontier on the BBC

Damocles on the Amiga

BCMG & UC are the first games I've played in 15 years of owning PCs that have recaptured the feeling of those earlier games.

At first I subscribed to the "kids today don't have any imagination" theory. Then I thought about my 4 year old daughter playing by herself. She role-plays with chess pieces, for example. All the little pawns are the children and they line up to listen to what mummy (the queen) has to say, etc. She's always making her own worlds out of Lego pieces, etc. So, I think, somewhere along the way, people are losing this ability rather than not acquiring it in the first place.

Even though I know I'm amongst like-minded enthusiasts - fetishists, even ;-) - I'm still slightly uncomfortable telling you about the time I decided I needed a holiday, jumped into a shuttle and flew down to a pretty-looking beach, just to stand by the water and look back at my cool ship parked up by the trees. It was a combination of truly immersive role-play and the fact that I'd had to aquire some technical savvy to get from the bridge to the beach that was so satisfying. If I find that hard to admit here, how can a reviewer in a magazine ever hope to explain this feeling to his readers, presuming he's rediscovered the lost art of imagination in the first place?

SC has created something quite special and hard to quantify here. I know this because when I've finished playing, I put the CD back in its case and carry it with reverence back to the shelf and not chuck the disk onto the mess on my desk which is usually the fate of any other game I happen to be playing.

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Great point Narny! I should have specified that I meant more of the 'early teen' demographic when I said kids, because yes, you're right, we do all start with imagination, and (some of us) lose it along the way. Too much in games, tv, etc TELLS you what to do/believe etc, rather than stimulate or inspire. They call it the idiot box for a reason

As to your experience, don't be embarassed. I'm fairly new at the game, but I posted something on another thread about the first time I landed a shuttle and just watched the sunrise, so I know what you mean. THAT has never happened before. As to the reviewers, we could really use some people who actually think for themselves, and don't just rehash what all the other websites and mags are doing. Video games, unlike a decade ago, are major entertainment, rivaling movies and the like. It's too bad they are not given the breadth of scope and creativity the way film is. UC, in that context, would be more of an art film. I understand why it's not for everyone. I just wish it, and other good cutting edge or experimental games would get the credit they deserve. A LOT of people won't even BUY a game without letting a reviewer tell them it's ok, so bad press really hurts the small developer in the end.

It's strange how imagination really makes a game memorable. I STILL remember Wizardry, Ultima, Elite, etc like I played them the other day. I do this because a part of myself went into playing them, and like a book, the memories are part of my own interpretation, and part of the games own style. I can't remember much of anything about most of the new stuff, because most of it didn't really involve me creatively.

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quote:

I'm still slightly uncomfortable telling you about the time I decided I needed a holiday, jumped into a shuttle and flew down to a pretty-looking beach, just to stand by the water and look back at my cool ship parked up by the trees.

Did the same here, Except I took the CC down to the beach. Still remeber walking around it and being amazed at the sheer SIZE of the ship! I have a pic somewhere that I'll have to put up on the net

I recall Elite, Frontier and Frontier First Encounters. With those games I always really wanted to get out of the ship and stretch my legs and now that I can I'm making the most of it!

Last night I played UC and had an amazing experiece of fighting both a ground war and a space battle at the same time, was a very immersing experience!

UC is a game that takes a LONG time to get into and just when you think you know it all something else will pop up and tap you on the shoulder! It's a game I will be playing for sometime yet!!

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