UC freeware first impressions

[GrandLordZeolot]

i hope im posting this in the correct section, even tho it seems to be inactive i figured the would be a surge of new users since UC became free ware. i decided to write this in hopes that people who are playing the current or latest version can come and tell the noobs the improvements to the series. now im going to mix up the pros and cons.

1. UC is not as hard as people and reviews make it to seem. even tho you simply cant just pop it in and go joy riding the controls are quite eazy to learn....you just have to FIND!!! them in the docs file. and you provided with a 80+ page manual 69 page tutorial a faq and a much smaller and sumed up tips file. now me i was detrimined to like this game so i read it and am impressed by the scope of conrtol you have of you asset. but a in game help would appeal to much more new players example when you press pause there should be a help button which leads you to the manual tutorial ect.. same thing but it would fool people who want to play to read as they play.

2. Not to many people get over the first hurdle sadly i personaly had to convince every one i know to reinstall it after what, a total of 8 min frustration... but that leaves the question is any one playing the muliplayer? as with my WOW char after hours and hours of trading and cloaking on unsuspecting ins/ i want to show some emy player gam/ what i can do. but unfortnately i only see forums posted of people looking for "someone anyone" who wants to go online.... and they where posted in 2005.

3. Ok ive basicly got a grasp on the concept of the game. i send my drones out to mine have probes out in all surounding secters(i love to ambush) and then i realize just how expensive fuel cloak and shield jucie is. and you get what 75000 evey 12 ingame hours. which are relitively close to real life hours i might add. so i hatch a brillant plan to trade then ill have the funds to kick butt in far away galaxies. so i hope in my speedy shuttle ado a few trades. then like shuttles with very weak shields tend to do i get shot down. and lose every thing the hours i played worthless down the drain because if you die once you cant just reload the save.....EVER. now am i the only one who thinks that this is total bull? now ive played many games and not once never have i encountered something as drastict as this. i mean you can often command option just before you die and quit the game or better yet whenever you get into danger but common.

4.Ok on the subject of saved games. UC orginally made in what 2001 is very very prone to crashing. not only that but in order to save your game you have to quit the game and THEN to restart the game load it all over again.

very bad combo. well not really bad but very annoying. im pretty sure that the crashing issue has been"looked into" since 2001 but still feel free to coment

5. Huge ships. who hasnt seen stertrek starwars babylon5 battlestar gallactica .....(do i need to continue?) and not wanted one. i must give due where due has been earned and derek smart has earned his every thing to the minut detail while still being original with the ship design. its truly a beauty to behold and i still havent even got to the OTS's. One thing is missing. if im to be boarded i would like to got down there in FPS mode and defend my ship. mind you at the expect of leaving it on auto. and i would also like the ability to cloak sneak up on an ins/ ship and board them fairs only fair. maybe that has been done in the newer versions but still comment on it.

ending note lets keep this topic only about likes and dislikes of the freeware and then compare it to the newer titles i want to get the collecters edition. the Galcom Echo Squad seems to be geared tward the fighters and id rather stick to the big ships onless you can...comment anyone?

[Supreme Cmdr]

Multiplayer never did take off due to the immense scope and commitment required. Its not the kind of game that you're going to power up and start shooting.

The saved game was designed that way for a reason. If its annoying, well, don't use it. Then you'd be left with no method of accuratelys saving the game state. Doing saved games is very complex which is why most games don't even support a save-anywhere type model which is what I do.

And you are wrong about the saved game. You can save/restore the game at anytime and anywhere. You cannot restore a game if you are KIA, MIA or CMA. So, if you saved a game before you are KIA, and then you get killed, you can go back and restore the game to the point before you died. Your saved game is tied to your profile which is tied to your career. So, there is no going back to play a game from which you are already dead or court-martialed. All of this is clearly documented in the manual.

You can't please everyone and my games aren't designed or developed to do that.

If you like cap ships, then yes, UCCE is the one to get because Echo Squad is nothing like the BC/UC games. It is a pure shooter with control of fighters only. This will never change because it is a different series entirely.

[RT]

If you get yourself killed, use the 'saved' option ('restore' in the case of UC:AWA and SE) instead of the 'Resume last' option.

It will get you to a list of your characters and allow you to load any savegame.

The 'Resume last' option actually takes you back to point where you just left the game...which means, if you got killed, you're back at the KIA screen.

Concerning an Ingame help, I would sure enjoy a 'Help' button leading you to a 'RTFM' screen

Nah, really, interactive tutorials are meant for stupid people who can't bother reading a 80 pages manual. The game is meant for brained people who don't need the game to tell them what to do (ever tried the ROAM mode? 'There are no hints. No tips. And certainly no direction as to what you can do and cannot do').

[GrandLordZeolot]

ok after a few more hours of gameplay and some research im back to comment on my own statements. apparently there is some form of cloning i guess similar to the "crackdown" system where you would buy a cloneand risk losing all ep from the time said clone was created. not really sure if it was in use for UCCE or still in the works.

in case my statement was misunderstood, it is to my understanding and my experience that if you start a game, and then save said game, only to die in any way you are dead. meaning make a new game because it will not let you reload that save. kia or mia. But youd either have to be in a shuttle or in fps to die because only someone of high incompetence can die in thier own ship. ive taken out space stations 10 min into a new game with no missles or fighters in a megaron.

that being said my next comment is on the difficulty it seems to be a very easy game noting that my only AE death was in a shuttle because i was trying to save the radine(ok ok maybe i deserved it) but has the difficulty been raised in UCCE. ie does the enemy at least try to use their main guns.

i wont start the next subject but strickly from a first timers standpoint (freeware version) comments on the Fp mode?

[RT]

Okay, I've just spend some time into your issue, and found out that there may actually be *something*.

That's what I did:

1st step:

-Started a new ROAM carrer: Earthcom commander in Jupiterz, Starcarrier heavy cruiser, default gear.

-Ordered the CC to HALT

-Sent the AE to the transporter

-Meanwhile, checked the energy allocation for the transporter

-Saved game (Quit&Save)

-Back at the menu, clicked 'Resume last'

-Back in the game, waited for the AE to get to the transporter room, then opened tacops, observed Ganymede, choose any random location

-'Set pos' on the transporter menu, clicked on a random place

-'Deploy'

-Died (Ganymede isn't exactly a place you would spend your hollydays on)

2nd step:

-Back at the menu, clicked 'Saved' (NOT 'Resume last'), choose my (only) character, restored the (only) savegame.

-When the game is done loading, I'm back at the 'KIA' screen (though I saved BEFORE I transported my AE to Ganymede).

There may really be some issue with the game keeping the 'KIA' status even after you restored the game. I've already seen this issue somewhere on this board if I remember correctly.

I suggest opening the Config pannel, clicking the 'Reset' button. It should fix the issue, since the KIA status tied to the last game session is stored in you ucconfig.ini file which will then be reset. You can also restart the game, since it checks this .ini file at startup and should update your status accordingly.

Btw, if you find the game is a bit too easy, try the campaigns. Also, don't use your carrier like it was a fighter. Launch your interceptors, stay behind, enjoy the fireworks. Like any carrier commander *should* do. Oh, and if you think other ships don't use their main guns, then you sure haven't played the game long enough

I highly recommend buying one of the later games. They are really worth it, IMO.

Hope it fixes your issue.

[Supreme Cmdr]

It should fix the issue, since the KIA status tied to the last game session is stored in you ucconfig.ini file which will then be reset.

Wrong. Its stored in the saved game file. The value in the ini file is never used.

Also, "-Saved game (Quit&Save)" it not a full game save. It never was. RTFM. The only way the game gets saved FULLY is if you go to the Saved Game screen, enter a description, save the game and quit.

What "Quit&Save" does is a Quick Save. When you go to saved/restore and don't have a full save, thats the one that will be restored.

If you had done a FULL save before you died on Ganymede, when you die, you would have been able to restore the game EXACTLY to that state before you died.

Listen closely because I won't post this again....

The behavior of the gamer's status (MIA, KIA, CMA, ACT) has not changed since the first BC3K game. That was back in 1999. It works as designed because that was exactly how I designed it to work.

[RT]

Hmm, I guess I'm a bit confused there, SC.

I thought the 'Quit&Save' button worked the same as the Exit and Save (Alt + G) command (Quit&Save gets me to the same screen as the ALT + G command).

Anyway, I just tried the above steps using ALT+G instead of Quit&Save. The same happened. The only way to get back to the saved game, was actually to load the game a second time (the first time, it still got me to the KIA screen). I stand corrected, the config file has nothing to do with it.

[GrandLordZeolot]

i figured beforehand that since RT has an advanced version of the game and the kia/save thing is news to him then it must not be a problem which also brings me to my next subject of first impressions.

7. forums. with a game as complex as this it seems to have a well monitored and modorated forum.

there seems to be hundreds of commands and variations of those comands, and being able to search and post for help is a great complement to the game. be sure to check for my exploites after i track down universal combat CE. after that arrives ill comment on the differences between the versions

[Shingen]

I gotta say Derek, I really like this build. I don't know what you did between 2.30 and 2.31, but I like it.

Admittedly, it's been awhile since I've played this game. My UC CD went bad awhile ago, but the last build I had installed was 2.30. That version was pretty stable, but it did still CTD on occasion.

I gotta tell ya, this 2.31 build is rock-solid. I also got a pretty significant FPS increase. That might be cause I add some memory sticks tho.

I've been playing this save for about a week 24/7 (dedicated machine), and the sucker is still purring along.

I got a few questions though.. if u don't mind.

I remember in 2.30, occationally the game would have an "information overload" for a few seconds where that game would go from 70-80 fps to .01-.05 fps, and kinda stutter. It didn't happen very often, but I do remember seeing it. I haven't seen it happen in this build yet. Was that just my kit, or was that something you finally resolved?

Nullspace. Did you take nullspace out of this build? I've been flying around outside the "grid", looking for a nullspace sector to train in, but I haven't hit one yet. Is nullspace still there?

Did you tweak the AI any? Seems marines/pilots are learning alot faster then I remember. Also BA/DF stats are actually rising! Yeah I know they would improve in 2.30, but damn, it would take forever! Now, I actually have pilots with 40-50 BA/DF stats. Granted, that equates to hell of alot of sorties, both space and land, switching pilots around from pilot to co-pilot, but still a marked improvment from what I recall.

Anyway, this damn game has taken over my free-time again.

Thanks for releasing it as Freeware.

Peace.

[richterm]

I've played it enough now to give it a solid two thumbs up for performance and stability on a Lenova T60 laptop. (running XP, 1 GB RAM)

I'm using the latest Omega drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon X1300.

I did buy the game at some point, but managed to lose the CD in my last move. So having it released like this is excellent.

I've also bought UCCE to run on my main Windows rig...it should be interesting to play them side by side and see what's new and different.

Thanks Derek.

[ShoHashi]

Hello richterm!

I've also bought UCCE to run on my main Windows rig...it should be interesting to play them side by side and see what's new and different.

You won't be disappointed!

BTW, hello neighbor! Just noticed your location!

-Sho

[nicknick]

Whats the difference between different saves, and how do i save the game FULLY. I have BCM but its seems the same saving method is used. So save&exit isnt that reliable? Why does it have an additional penalty of closing the game session.

[Supreme Cmdr]

Because quitting the game is the only way to do a full game state save.