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If the game is moddable than I'm sure new campaigns, races, sectors etc will come in due course. I for one have never played SS so I cannot comment on what's better or worse.  But I will buy it for sure because if I could compare for just one second to what's been done to X3 via the modding community, then there's huge potential for SS-TGS to expand well beyond it's horizon ( or galaxy boundaries) both through patches and mods. [8D]

I already own Starshatter 4.5 and had some concerns with some issues which I expressed in another topic. I was hoping that more information regarding any fixes that were made for the Gathering Storm would have been published unfortunately as of this date none of this information has been provided. Fortunately for me though one of my friends did buy the Gathering Storm and I was able to send him some scripts to see if any of the problems were fixed.

I had him run one of the missions I created to see if AAA's could still fire through mountains like they could in 4.5, the results were that they still could meaning this item was not fixed. I also had him run a simple script to determine if larger ships still had trouble navigating through farcasters and again the results showed that ships still had a tendency of crashing into the gate so again this was not fixed.

There were several other issues that took away from the enjoyment of the game which included AI ships colliding with other ships or the terrain and in MP it created a big problem since they were not being reported to all players involved as being destroyed and would still show up in the game. These ships became invincible and if they were involved in the triggering of other events it became impossible to complete the mission. Obviously these items and others would need to be retested in the new version which I plan to do when and if the demo is released.

Needless to say even with these issues the original Starshatter was a very enjoyable game (and still is) with it's ability to be modded in many different ways (new ships, missions and campaigns) and its built in campaign you will get more than your money's worth purchasing the Gathering Storm.

In conclusion, if you have not played Starshatter before then IMO it is worth the money since it will provide you with many hours of entertainment but on the other hand, if you already own the original then the graphics overhaul (which is the main difference between the Gathering Storm and 4.5) is just not worth the additional money. As of right now I do not plan on buying the new version unless I see that some of the bugs (listed above and by others) have been fixed, to me that alone would have been worth the money to pay for the new version but not just for a graphics overhaul, to me eye candy is just not as important as game fixes.

I'm the friend that Gordon spoke of above.  I have to agree with his statements since I tested these items for him.

It kind of takes away from the realism when you are flying nap of the earth to take out a target and you have AAA coming literally the mountains.

It's obvious a lot of time was spent on the graphics overhaul, etc., but little things like these could have been polished more.

I'm hoping that Milo will take the time to look into this.

-Sho

So far, Luvin the game, with no hickups whatsoever.[:)]  Went through the training without a hitch, no graphical or sound problems.  Now let's hope the modders will expand the Universe and the Devs provide an option for more hotkey assignments to joysticks.[8D]

ORIGINAL: captainfred

Now let's hope the modders will expand the Universe

There have been modders who have promised moon from sky. Things have been made years before first commercial release (Starshatter 4.0) but those were mostly single ships. Mods of greater scale were mostly talk and ones available now can be counted with fingers of one hand. I mean, what happened to Goddess Fleet, Project 7 and others?

Most notable mods available now are Hold the Line (Babylon 5 mod) and Cartel. They have some missions too. Someone else shall say where they can be get.

Yeah, well the only thing that is holding our SW mod back is the makers. I have asked for information on how to do various things but all requests have gone unanswered. What is worse is I get zero response at all. Damo did talk to me once that I can remeber now but he said he did not have the info I wanted.

We have completed more with less and will continue to do so.[:)]

Most notable mods available now are Hold the Line (Babylon 5 mod) and Cartel. They have some missions too. Someone else shall say where they can be get.

Grouper has these mods and pretty much all mods ever made for starshatter.

As owner of the previous version, I must say that I'm quite satisfied with the new Starshatter as a whole, even though I do agree that several aspects could've been improved a lot more for this amount of money.

The mediocre spots in the game can be summed up rather quickly:

x) Awful terrain and sparse overall graphics on planets
x) Planetfall still not really operating in a satisfying manner (I do want to "go down" to the planet, not have the game cut over - and please don't tell me that it's impossible)
x) Unrealistic ATMOS flight physics, unrealistic landings on planets and carriers alike.
x) The same old weak sound effects. (Afterburner, thrusters, gunshots...)
x) Usability still suboptimal
x) Simplicistic particle effects, especially on planets (planetary bases burn inbetween the two runways...)



That said, the game does a lot right. Much more than Universal Combat, for example. Still, I would love to see the whole experience on planets polished and beefed up. The combination of space and planetary battle adds a lot of fun to the game. The user interface should be improved a lot, especially the HUD for starships needs additional data and controls instead of relying exclusively on a handful of keyboard shortcuts.

Still, all things considered, I enjoy Starshatter. I can think of hundreds of little details that would further improve the game, and I hope that some of it will be in a future version.