mentis938

Sounds like we've got ourselves a real professional here folks, ha ha . Well, I wouldn't expect anything less from SC than getting someone who knows what they're doing!

quote:Originally posted by Robstein: quote:Originally posted by mentis: But since I'm not a graphics gamer I do not require such aesthetics in order to enjoy a game. He he. Indeed. Hell, I even dig out X-Com every once in a while. In fact, some of my favorite games have had terrible graphics even for their time (Vandal Hearts for PSX comes to mind). But I digress.

Cool man, thanks!

Well, it's been a while and I think I am now ready to give my first impression. I've been playing the game for about a month now, and I didn't think I was qualified to speak about it with such limited knowledge of the game after just a few hours of playing. I got the game because of its imensity and endless possibilities. That's what I love most about it, and those are my favorite types of games (i.e. Omikron, Morrowind). The interface and options are daunting at first, no doubt. I needed to wait until I could get past that to comment intelligently. And the game has become much more enjoyable after all the patches (currently on RC7). After a few things have been ironed out (i.e. FP bugs), and other things gotten used to, I can enjoy myself in the various modes. I love the open-endedness and the ability to choose my role. That's what it's all about for me. I do not mind that the game requires a degree of patience, i.e. while traveling through space (or learning the game!). The sense of scale is certainly enhanced by this for me. Thus far, my favorite moments have been in exploring and trading, mining, etc. I'll always remember the first time I took my ship to land on earth, getting out on a palm tree covered island, and turning around to see the Aestorm (that things huge!). I also understand why we cannot expect UC to look/feel/play like UT2k3/4, a game that, though good, has spoiled many with it's graphics. But since I'm not a graphics gamer I do not require such aesthetics in order to enjoy a game. I don't mean to say that UC graphics are not good. I certainly don't agree with the bashing that the gfx of the game have received and I think they are solid and nicely atmospheric. Though I would not mind some higher res textures for things like wormholes, the skybox, and maybe planets (but that's just a minor personal preference). In addition, I think the music is very suitable for what I have been doing so far. I agree with the praise given to the soundtrack in the quoted post above. Well done! And one more thing (before this turns into a book). I love the things you don't see, and only notice the effects of, the most about this game: the AI system (which I'm only beginning to realize the greatness of), and the fact that all goes on in realtime. Thanks to Derek for making what I consider to be a milestone in the gaming industry (though the industry may not realize this!).

Hey, it's nice to meet you. I wasn't suggesting to replace your sountrack with his. I just thought it would be cool in addition you yours! Great job on that soundtrack by the way. It's great! ...and if you have time/care to check out CoLD SToRAGE, I'd be interested to see what you think.

Ha ha ha!

I also found that going through the tutorial posted on this forum is helpful. I'm still learning though .

Certainly you are correct in that the games are quite different in many respects. It was just something that came into my mind when I first read the PR. But it's not really an issue. At any rate, I'm sure KB will be much better than SS2 anyway, what with the multitude of possibilites which are still uniquely from the BC universe. I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks Fly. That's a good thread, and though I haven't had time to try it yet, I'm sure it will work. Much appreciated! By the way, there's one song in the UC soundtrack that's a nice old school scifi synth piece reminiscent of Bladerunner. I thought that it'd be great to get the Bladerunner sountrack for UC as well. [ 03-12-2004, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: mentis ]

One of the better groups for UC, that I found, is a techno artist called CoLD SToRAGE based in the UK. Unfortunately, whenever I put songs in the mp3 folder most of them don't play. I just get silence when it gets to that track. Only a couple mp3's of mine have worked so far. What kind of mp3 format does UC use?

I have found that the Warmonger is quite handy if your playing the Roam Training mode added in RC7. I like it's mobility and speed, which as far as trading and training goes, is a must if you ask me. It takes almost twice as long on trade routes with the heavier CC's. But then again, I'm still a n00b, so this may not really mean anything, .

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: quote:Originally posted by mentis: From reading the KB description it sounds a hell of a lot like System Shock 2, which was a great and freaky game. You must be kidding me I am assuming that you don't think KB sounds similar in concept to SS2. (Unless you don't think SS2 was a good game, in which case "to each his own.") [*]"...KnightBlade is sent to a remote region of space...," whereas your "CC" (the Von Braun) in SS2 was as well (Tau Ceti was it?). [*]"Ambushed en-route, betrayed, boarded by hostiles," just as the Von Braun in SS2. [*]"...faced with on board sabotage, incredible odds and eventually lost in space...," just as in SS2, since you are a one man effort to take back the Von Braun. [*]"April Gage finds herself fighting for the very survival of her ship and crew...," just as you do in SS2 (though you find out that your crew is pretty much dead) In any case, this was intended as a compliment, since I believed SS2 to be a cult classic. I meant no disrespect.

Very cool indeed! I do have an XBOX but I would probably rather play these on PC. From reading the KB description it sounds a hell of a lot like System Shock 2, which was a great and freaky game. From looking at the screenies it looks a hell of a lot like Star Trek, which is also great. I'm curious to know if SC was inspired at all by Star Trek in the making of any of his titles... In any case, both of these should be great fun!

Well, you know I finally overclocked and got things to run stable. I don't think it was particularly UC, just a general mobo/overclocking issue. So yeah. And hey, I gained about 5-20 fps on average. So that's nice!

Well, since I'm an artist, I did this painting a while back (The Boy) and then did a digital piece to it later (The Boy Wall) and it's been my avatar here and there every since. It's a bit of a self portrait. Conceptually anyway .

You know it's a funny thing. I'm from Poland and lived for nine years in Germany, and rather liked beer, though I cannot recall any specific ones. After moving to the US in '95, everything I tried just made me gag. I tried some mass market stuff in highschool and it was all crap. Later in college I tried some microbrews as well at the local brewery, but still didn't care for any of it. It wasn't until last year that I had some Japanese Sapporo that I realized what the good stuff in Germany used to taste like. So it took me about another nine years to find one I liked here, he he. The worst one was Red Dog. Might as well been Dog Pee.

That's cool man. But then again, you got a P4 machine, whereas mine's an AMD. Not really sure if that makes a difference for UC, but so far I've tried running UC overclocked and it would lockup on loading your save. That and I've read on the forum elsewhere that the game doesn't like overclocking. Any thoughts on that?

I may be asking for the wrath of everyone here... ...but, is anyone out there running UC on an overclocked machine without instability? Seems to me that UC doesn't like overclocking, so that's why I'm asking. Anyone know why that is? ...just curious .

He he, I guess this one was buried in the recesses of the forums. Fun stuff here you guys. My celebrity would be (hmmm...), probably Alyson Hanigan (sp?). Yeah. Cause she looks like my fiance, he he! And as far as the army of goldfish, I got the perfect solution: My army of cats is ready and waiting, he he.

Just wanted to say thank you for the new updates. The Quicksave is a welcome feature, and I am grateful that you listen to such requests (I was one of those who asked for it). And thanks for the Roam Training mode . I have not encountered any new problems thus far.

You've got a point, he he.

Sorry Fox.

Wow, I totally missed that. Didn't even know such a thing happened last night. I usually just visit the thread I get emails for .

For me it's been pretty much all of the above, since retail and up to current patch (RC7). The objects affected now include jumpgates (at a distance of less than 10.0), as well as starbases/space stations, and both cloud/ground/sea plane while flying on planet as well as walkin in FP mode. So far I cannot really tell you what the common denominator is here. And I'm not exactly sure whether this is a texture issue or something else (i.e. lighting). ------------------- quote:The 32Bit Z buffer on some of these cards is not enough precision (which is why the game will use a W buffer if the card has one) and thats what causes these artifacts....oh...well that's what it is. Nevermind .

One thing I noticed just yesterday, which may or may not be related to the RC7 patch (and probably isn't due to the lack of modifications to the graphics kernel), is that the flickering got worse for a second when landing on Earth. After initiating planetfall, and still high in the atmosphere, the cloudplane and ground texture started flickering and dissappeared completely for several seconds. I have now reverted back to the Detonator 45.23 driver and the flickering has been minimized to a large degree, though still persists every once in a while. Not sure if there is another driver version that works better or not.