tdk1nc

Right -- so I'm still getting my feet wet. I bought the game last week and have been picking through it....upon some occassions swearing profusely. This is a very challenging game, and the only reason I stuck with it is because I suspected that it would be worth...and I think it is. The jury is still out, but I think that in the end this game will only serve to increase the crushing sense of social isolation that I feel. Good things: 1) The scope is freaking amazing. I spent many a prepubescent night dreaming of a game like this... I can honestly say that the only other game that so caught my imagination is Carrier Command. 2) see #1 3) see #1 4) I like the fact that the lead developer is accessible and closely connected with this product -- which certainly must feel like another child by now. It says a lot about his committment to us and to his product. 5) The tutorial was absolutely fantastic. Gold star for you! Frustrations/Suggestions Of course, some of these may simply be a product of my noobishness, but here goes 1) My pilots'/captains' AI is just wonky sometimes. If I tell a wing of fighters to watch over a transport, I want to be certain that the fighters are going to watch over the transport and not start attacking every red vessel that happens to show an interest in them (ie. hostile stations) -- especially if I plan on tending to other things that require my full attention. What usually happens is I'll give two fighters an escort order, and they will happily follow until something attacks. Then they'll go into this bloodthirsty rage (good), shoot the attacking vessel to pieces (good) and then go after every other red unit in the region (not good). It is like as soon as they are attacked they forget their initial order and proceed to kill everything in sight. To me, the prefered behavior is kill everything in sight, but also stay close to the ship you should be protecting (ie. don't jump after distant, fleeing or otherwise harmless red-ships/stations). My current solution of nervously checking my priority targets list is quite draining, and while I realize that no AI is perfect, I wish there was some tweaking that can be done here. 2) A PDF version of the manual that would allow me to do finds on topics would be awesome. Too often I've had to pause the game for 10 minutes while trying to find something in the manual. 3) (Has already been mentioned) When I jump to wormholes, I'm usually 10 klicks out. However, I'm usually 40 klicks out when jumping to hyperspace gates. This extra distance makes it really hard to get anywhere in a hurry. 4) I just may have missed this feature's presence, but having a dynamic grouping/hotkey feature for multiple units would also be very very nice. If I have a team of 7 marines on the ground, I want to be able to rapidly order them around instead of having to make the same order 7 times and have 7 chances to screw things up. If my AE is taking fire, I would rather that 1 command brings several reinforcements to my aid than 7 commands. Yeah I can coax the AI to do this for me (tell everyone to escort 1 unit leader), but it seems not work as well as being able to issue a group order. I realize that the amount of coding to implement this may ellicit an "Oh God, NO!" response to the developer, so I have a compromise -- have the TOM remain onscreen until intentionally dismissed (with another escape key). At least this way it will allow the player to issue a large number of orders without having to hit escape each time. 5) Never underestimate the value of being able to name things. While letting a player name vehicles, fighters, teams, etc may seem silly, it actually creates a sense of connectedness and ownership with those assets. It also allows the player to reason through complex situations in a way that is more natural to him/her. If you're landing a tank to the north and a tank to the east of a city, it is easier to quickly process/respond to a message that reads "North Tank has been destroyed" rather than an "OC-8 has been destroyed" message, especially if you have other irons in the fire. 6) I'm having hard game locks whenever the game is shuffled to the background and Windows comes to the foreground. This normally wouldn't be a problem, except that the Windows key is right next to the Alt key on my keyboard. Oh the games I have lost due to hitting the wrong key in the hurry! Of course, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the game. But I've experienced several behaviors in gameplay that I wish were different and/or limit the scope of what I'm able to get the characters to do. -Troy