First Impressions & Feedback Thread

[sliver_bullet]

Yes on no.6 ...happen to me as well ...thought of getting 2 ships instead receive a message that my crew are leaving ...due to lack of space ...and lost my newly upgraded cruiser

Also always make mistake on the option of taking the cargo or proceed to attack the bridge..should be a warning on this ..

[Czert]

Edited by moderator.

[JudgeDredd]

That's nice Czert - posting a link to a free game (of the same genre) in a game thread.[:-]

[Erik Rutins]

Czert,

That was indeed poor manners, if you want to discuss another game, post it in the General Discussion forum.

Regards,

- Erik

[Czert]

I posted it mainly for inspiration , how to improve smugglers. Game which combine best from booth games (doesnt matter if it will be comercial or not) will be execelent, and mayby, just mayby succesor to elite/frontier/firts encouter. I dind find good sucesor to these games. Privater 1/2 - freelances was good games for its genre, but very lacks in freedom of chosing paths (lacks of missions types, ship choices, sloras systems).

7. some special options for you, when you are on your own planet - like they generate some money for you, but you need to colect them, sometimes you need wipe out pirates for good comerce...etc.

8. more pictures - i noticed that if you play as confederation, that govenor of planet have symbol of federation on his collar.

9. when you have low shields, then enemy try to board your ship, and if they will be unsucefull, then you can try counterattack and try to board thiers ship. And vice versa - if you board enemy ship, and retreat, then enemy can try counterattack.

10. interactive picture of you - when you hoover with cursor over ribbon/medal is show name of it and date of aquring. Same for rank.

[killroyishere]

1. autocombat - this is most needed feature to prevent combat boring, even in battleship and admiral rank, space combat is same boring (read, same tactic) as it was in begining .with figter.

Thank you Czert for agreeing with me as this was the first and foremost thing I saw about the game when playing the demo. I wondered if the battles were the same at higher levels and you have just confirmed it for me and saved me $29.99 thanks as I was so close to buying it.

And you made highest rank in 4 measly hours? Where's the challenge? Where's the longevity? I'll save my money for BftB now.

[sabre1]

killroyishere,

It has taken me a lot longer than 4 hours just to make captain in a destroyer. Of course ability with games I assume is the deciding factor. Sometimes the game is repetitious, but I am still having a good time, and haven't explored all the nuances. Maybe there isn't any, I don't know, but it is still fun.

That being said, I too have passed up many games after reading the first impressions thread for a myriad of reasons. [8D]

[Czert]

11. special/unique buildings/planets - in these structures you can buy unique items/ships for you, like experimental ship, experimental strong shield/weapon...etc

[killroyishere]

ORIGINAL: sabre1

killroyishere,

It has taken me a lot longer than 4 hours just to make captain in a destroyer. Of course ability with games I assume is the deciding factor. Sometimes the game is repetitious, but I am still having a good time, and haven't explored all the nuances. Maybe there isn't any, I don't know, but it is still fun.

That being said, I too have passed up many games after reading the first impressions thread for a myriad of reasons. [8D]

I tend to figure out games pretty fast so it really takes a game with a lot of details and micromanagement to be fun for me. Just been playing too long I guess and it's getting to the point once you've seen on you've seen them all as far as gameplay goes. Glad you are enjoying it though hate to see someone waste their money even if I don't know them personally. [:)]

[sliver_bullet]

Is not a bad game , just that it is not your type of game ...but it is a god send game for me [;)][;)]

I know the feeling ....for example Gal Civ , it is worshiped by so many  gamers ...
but if I were to write the review ..I will say the game is unplayable , too tedious and with so many details/micromanagement that I don;t bother to play after a while

So I strongly disagree with your statement that people are wasting money on this game , just that it is a simple and addictive game that might not fit to everyone taste but nnot to the point of completely unplayable ...

The battle in higher level with additional skill do give some edgy time for me ...
The skill that give you additional 2 AP but in return you expose to more hit ..is a great for me ....not to mention that certain ship has the ability go to alternate dimension for one turn to avoid damages

The ability to board and ground assault battle do give real tense moment ..especially when trying to capture a Battleship ( a class that you can never buy)

There also a "raid " tactics to capture those droids unit which is essential in the future ground assault battle

There will be Tactical decision like , should I go for commando strike " - risking marines but safeguard the crewmen or EMP Strike - just to capture the droids unit ( which is the most powerful unit- which is also not for sale )and run ...or should I just happy with the looting cargo or go for the bridge and take over the ship but I don;t know the number of enemy waiitng for me at the final battle..I could lose everything including my ship !!

, .....and really I do not see how is all this boring [:)]

There also will be decision during bounty hunting , should I just blast the ship to pieces or should I board and capture him alive for more rewards and fame ...

It is only when you are fighting lower ship that might a bit routine but this could easily fix by auto resolve in next patch

Cheers




[:)]

[NielsB]

ORIGINAL: Czert
I plyed only as mercenary and arichev top rank fairly easy (after cca 4 hours of gameply and lots of battles) , have battleship and dont see reason to continue play.
My ideas for improvment/thougts on game.

ORIGINAL: killroyishere

1. autocombat - this is most needed feature to prevent combat boring, even in battleship and admiral rank, space combat is same boring (read, same tactic) as it was in begining .with figter.

Thank you Czert for agreeing with me as this was the first and foremost thing I saw about the game when playing the demo. I wondered if the battles were the same at higher levels and you have just confirmed it for me and saved me $29.99 thanks as I was so close to buying it.

And you made highest rank in 4 measly hours? Where's the challenge? Where's the longevity? I'll save my money for BftB now.

Yeah, killroyishere, it really helps if someone knows what he´s talking about, right? The highest rank in Smugglers 4 does not mean the game is solved. The game doesn´t have a fixed objective. That's the idea of an open-ended game. Has czert won the war? No. Has the received all medals? No. Has he played as a trader, mercenary and pirate? No. Has he tried out different skill combinations? No. Even afterwards you could try to achieve higher scores than other players. And, yes, there are people still playing Smugglers 4 for almost 1 1/2 years now. That´s no guarantee though that everyone will like the game or everyone will play the game forever. And with different skills everyone will need a different time to solve a challenge in a game. But claiming 4 hours is an average play time for everyone is just ridiculous.

[Erik Rutins]

Niels is spot on there. I suppose you can "beeline" for any single goal, but that's far from exploring the whole game.

[jdew]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Niels is spot on there. I suppose you can "beeline" for any single goal, but that's far from exploring the whole game.

Yeah I agree with this. My first game is still going... as a mercenary.. and I've got about 10 to 12 hours in it. I "beelined" to a cruiser, but I think I probably should have taken a bit more time with each vessel type. The second I've just started is as a trader. I suspect both will go on many more hours with many other following "lives" to do.

Though some of the actions within the game remind me of the old game Pirates, what reminds me most of the old game is the open-ended nature... you can cruise around and do things for a long long time with no pre-set bunch of "goals". There are lots of ways to play the game and enough things to do and enough variations to keep it interesting. The real "goals" are the ones I set, which I like, not a bunch of things set by the developer... do A, do B, do C, do D... you "win", which I quickly get bored with.

From what I see, this is a game where I get a framework to do what I want... much like the old Pirates. And the framework isn't overly complex, so I can get into doing things quickly... like Pirates. From there I can play a number of ways.

And, yeah the mechanics of the old Pirates Gold was pretty simple... and the battles were rather simplistic and the sword duels were a rather pointless exercise in key smashing... but that game stayed on my PC for years and I played it a lot. And too, the mechanics of chess are really really simple but I hear people play that game a lot. So to me complex mechanics, micromanagement and the like don't necessarily make a "good" game.

I like this game quite a bit and suspect it will be on my hard drive for a long long time.

[timmoody]

I enjoyed the game. Well spent money, but there are certain things I think would enhance the game:

1. Include more equipment & ships. Very few types of equipment. If you include more the player should be able to mod the ship to ones needs to a greater extend. What if each type of equipment gave you a special ability to use during combat. If you played a defensive minded character you could by anti-missile rockets instead of the more offensive one. Engine power could be used (via an option during combat) to enhance shield but making hitting the opponent harder. (these are just the first things that came to my mind, they probably do not make a lot of sense).

2. A more campaign based story with the pc in the middle. There where to many short missions imho.

3. The boarding of ships should be tweeked and made more complex. I loved the ships vs. ship fighting but the combat onboard was really dull. I know it is not really the main part of the game but you could make it more similar to the ship vs. ship combat with different abilities and stuff.

4. Maybe this was just me but I was disappointed when I got my hands on the bigger ships. I expected them to be really powerful but even the fighters managed to put me in a tought spot at certain times. (and vice versa when I had a fighter I actually managed to take down a couple of the bigger ships). the bigger ships should be able to take the smaller ones out easily unless the fighter pilot gets really lucky.


I hope the developers see this as constructive criticism and not just whining. The game was good and I will probably continue playing it.

Btw, I found a patch on nielsbauergames.com, but after installing it I could no play the game. Is there a patch on the way?

[JWW]

I'm enjoying the game a lot. Just tooling around in my fighter in the solar system, upgrading my fighter and fighting pirates and doing missions to make more money. I play about 30 minutes a night most nights as a way to wind down after everything else, and I keep wanting to go one more turn. Great game.

If I could have one thing, it would be just more options, more variety.  The more variety the better.  Like in the spaceport bar, there appear to be two things that happen, you get some information or you drink.  Maybe I just haven't hit other options yet.  I could see several things added there, for example.  Option to have a partner of the opposite sex, or same sex if that's your thing.  Bar fights.  Random events happening.  On and on. 

The more variety the more fun.

And now I have to figure out how to deal with those nasty EMP pulses.  Gotta read up on that.  It seems I have no way of countering them at present.  And that is not a complaint.  I've just reached one of those points where I have to figure out how to deal with something new.  That makes the game a lot of fun.

[Slocket]

how to deal with those nasty EMP pulses.

 
It is not very clear what to do, but the message says get "EMP Resistance" SKILL after you first get hit by one in the tactical battle.
 
Oddly, the description for that message SKILL is to remove the nasty MARK effect as one would if using a CLOAK device to escape. ??  Dual use I guess....
 
I guess it also gives you EMP Resistance too. Even though that is not what it says. Confusing.

[Hanal]

By the way, does the AI ever attempt to board your ship? Have not seen it done in my game thus far....

[sabre1]

My ship has never been boarded nor attempted by the AI.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: sabre1

My ship has never been boarded nor attempted by the AI.

Same here.

[JWW]

Meanwhile I finally made enough money to upgrade to a stripped down corvette.  Now I just have to make some money to upgrade it and then go marauding throughout the galaxy.  I don't feel my stripped down corvette is very formidable right now, though I find I can easily take out pirate fighters (even if they do hit me with EMP pulses) and continue making money.

But I have a nagging question about EMP pulses.  Rulebook says only destroyer and above have weapons that can create EMP pulses, but I'm getting hit by EMP pulses from fighters.  Undocumented rules change or am I misreading something?  Again this doesn't bother me because the unexpected is very interesting and I'm playing the game in a very light manner.  In fact I really had not cracked the rules book until this morning to read about EMP pulses.

And apparently I need a certain combat trait to be able to get equipment to counter EMP pulses.  Is that right?