Exalted_Leader

After starting-up the game, given 30 seconds to a minute (1:30, at the very most), the game simply crashes to the desktop. No hanging, no error messages, no warning indicators (...in fact, the game is still present on the taskbar, and so long as I haven't tried to actually start a new career, I can just click the icon to restore it. Once it flips to the desktop after I'm off the ground, however, attempting to restore it via the taskbar will result in a black screen with a broken soundtrack in the background). My graphic card drivers are current, and I've got SP2 for my Windows XP. The crash occurs in every version of the game (I've tried with a fresh install, unpatched, a fresh install with the 2.00.00 patch and a fresh install with the 2.00.28 patch. No dice. Yes, the patches were installed from the game directory, as instructed). There weren't any graphical glitches that I saw, and the game ran very smoothly. Flipping through menu screens and view did not seem to have any part in the crashes, nor did the appearance of extra assets or exitting / re-entering assets. The only anomaly I noticed was that the Dreamcatcher logo screen would occassionally minimize and play in an 'Active Movie' window (wierd?). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I don't suppose anyone knows, by chance, what systems the Insurgents base themselves out of? The Ter/Mil Capt. Dark and her Starwarrior-Class cruiser, the Sabre, are racking-up quite a few frags patrolling around Earth and the nearby region... by I think it might be about time I took the fight to the enemy's front door. (I tried using the Appendix, but it doesn't appear that the Starstation / Starbase section works properly).

Well, bearing in mind that I haven't hardly had enough time to do much more than rub the surface of UC's CD, my initial impressions of UC are as follows: The game rocks. Hard. Thus far, there are a number of criticisms that were leveled at Universal Combat that I would very strongly disagree with (though there are also a few that I think are justified) - and quite a few bits of recognition that I think have been just plain skipped entirely. The games graphics are, IMHO, not 'dated'. Dated, by my standards, means that they're what gamers saw as average 1/2 a year (6 months, kids) to a year ago. Homeworld 2, released back in September of '03, had reviewers almost wetting their beds at night with it's visual appeal. It's graphics are strictly inferior to UCs (Don't think so? I've got some beautiful shots of a full sortie in HW2, and it won't take long for me to catch some in UC). There's a LOT to like about the varying ship designs, the variations between the shapes of different vessels, and of the different environments one can find oneself looking into. You want to see some really impressive environmental achievements? Just send an away team planetside and have them wander around for a while. Not only are the planetary environments huge beyond comprehension, they're DYNAMIC. Birds fly through the air, bugs buzz past the camera, fish swim the seas and all manner of animals santer through the brush (I've seen wolves, bears and horses thus far - and I'm sure there's plenty more). There's TONS of strictly beautifying, superficial suspension of disbelief going-on... there's dozens (hundreds?) of different tree and shrub models, all of which are situated in such a way that they convey a believable wilderness. Collision detection? WHO THE HELL WHINES ABOUT COLLISION DETECTION IN AN ENVIRONMENT WITH THIS MUCH SCOPE? You'd be spending your entire planetside voyage getting stuck on, over, under and/or between trees and animals. Woo. Fun. The control scheme is not difficult. For a sim. Honestly, I think the authors of most articles on this game were thinking 'arcade shooer' rather than 'simulation' when they picked it up. The manual that comes in the game box is roughly 6"x4" and has 96 double-sided pages, from cover to cover. It covers all of the basics and then some. There's also a fold-out keyboard command summary that's roughly the equivalent of 3 pages of the manual in length (Why didn't they just stick it in the back of the manual?). Ever played a Microsoft flight sim? The handbook you get is about as hefty as a quantum physics handbook, and about just as likely to give you headaches. The UC manual is clear, to the point and very readble. Any respectable armchair pilot should be able to pick-up the controls and interface of UC in a heartbeat. With the above token, however, it should be said that while the controls are a snap to hop into, the game is another story entirely. Let's face it: it's daunting. This doesn't have to be looked at in a negative way, of course - a lot of players (myself included) enjoy the sensation of being presented with something so monumentous. So intimidating. For those that just want to see what this whole 'Roam' deal is about, we pick our Captain and his ship, we think-up some creative names for them both... and then we're dumped out into the vastness of space. We're suddenly left on our own in a jungle of comets, pirates, insurgents, police, starfighters and battleships. It's like the time your friends suddenly left your introverted rump sitting in a chair all alone across the table from that really hot girl. WHAT THE HELL DO I DO NOW...!?!? You either let the uncomfortable silence drift-in and went looking for something a little more conventional to do, or you walked her home and got laid. Some players just aren't going to be able to cope with the raw scale and scope of this game. This is not a fault; it's simply a matter of design. Our average mainstreamer, who's used to the game telling him what to do next (rather than setting his own agendas within the game) is going to probably get hit with a sensation of being overloaded. It's not his kind of game. As for the rest of us? This is all we've ever hoped for (and then some). Does the game lack professionalism? Not a drop. Professionalism, IMHO, is delivered in the presentation. The music (which is great, by the way!), sounds, chatter, menus, art... UC certainly doesn't 'feel' any different than any other boxed gaming product I've recently purchased. Was Dreamcatcher justified in releasing UC as a 'bargain title'? Well, I've got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I'd have definately purchased the game at standard retail price and felt very satisfied that my dollar was well spent. It is also of my own opinion that Dreamcatcher made this gesture as a fairly blatant slap in Mr. Smart's face to demonstrate that developers had better be prepared to ask, "How high?" when they say, "Jump!". However, on the other hand, I don't see any reason to view 'bargain' status as a bad thing. Look at Serious Sam - it's a bargain game, and I'll be damned if it's not one of the most fun FPS games I've ever played. And, on the other end of the spectrum, a high price is not always a guarantee of gameplay value. Anyone else who purchased 'Steel Battalion' for the X-Box know what I'm talking about (Or, back in the day, the 'high-end' flight sims that ran for $120.00+, but just plain sucked). Of course, I sympathize with Mr. Smart and respect that he would be very frustrated at the situation (I don't think there's anyone in the world who'd be pleased to suddenly find out that their paycheck was unjustifiably being cut by more than 50%), but I laso think that his perspective is from a rather unique bias. As a gamer who's financially unaffected by Dreamcatcher's decision to make UC a bargain title, why should I care that I'm picking-up a game for $19.99 that has equal or better quality than the titles on the shelf that are in the 40-70 dollar range?

Is there a means to commit grand theft auto with assets that are not your own? For example, if I use a shuttle to tow a Maurader Gunship from Earth to my CC, can I haul it into my CC somehow? Why buy one if I can steal one, eh?

Oh. My. Bling. My brother's Zues accelerator, as it turns out, runs the game just fine. I love it! The visuals, IMHO, are absolutely terrfic. And then there's the SCOPE (...though I'm a tad used to it now, thanks to BC2K - though BC2K didn't have all of the planetary scope that UC most certainly does). With the launch and destruction of Commander Stephen Vandal in fairly short order, I can't help but feel a little sheepishly incompetent (largely due to the nature of the engagement my ship was destroyed in). Is it common for a Starcruiser heavy cruiser to get smoked by a Viper heavy fighter? It took my shields down in the first pass, my main guns couldn't hit it and my PTA turrets couldn't seem to keep enough sustained firepower on it to knock it out. Second pass, system damage all across the board --> hull breech --> decimated. Or is it likely that I'm just terrible at this?

Oh, terribly sorry! There we are. I registered before I posted - I'd just forgotten to add the link. Thank you very much.

Hello! Purchased UC yesternight, and am busy with the reading material right at the moment. I doubt I'll be able to fire 'er up for another week or so (I love my GeForce 2 - sadly, she doesn't appear to support Vertex Shader ot Pixel Shader) until my Radeon 9600 gets eBay'd to me. In the meanwhile, I just thought I'd say hi - and settle an awfully wierd curiousity of mine: With the addition of the new planetside features, were one to enter ROAM as a Commander, could you land your 'Cruiser near a friendly planetary base and start joyriding around in any vehicles / aircraft they have sitting there? Or, if they were enemy vehicles (assuming I somehow amanged to not get mowed down by gunfire), could I 'jack them? And, by chance, I don't suppose you can land or take-off fighters from naval aircraft vessels (or take control of naval vessels)? I'm not really concerned with how well modeled such activites might or might not be, or how practical; I'm just wondering if they could be done (I'd be guessing not, granted that the Commander's role is to Command his ship. Which is just splendid with me). If you can, though... man, I've got this wicked marathon-esque idea all mapped-out and a registered copy of SnagIt to capture all it's glory on .AVI with...