New 1.0.5.6 Public Beta Now Available!

[WoodMan]

Playing my first game with the Beta at the moment.  Like the new starting planets, my Humans started on Continental when before it was always Marshy Swamp.

The new diplomacy/pirate alert in the top left is a neat addition.

Also, I *think* I found a bug.  Sorry if it's not a bug and just my lack of knowledge about how the game works, or if it is a bug and has already been brought up previously. [:D] When I send a Construction Ship to build a mining station at an Ice planet using the expansion planner it always builds a Gas Mining Station, even if there is no Gas resource on the planet.  Only way to get around is to select Construction Ship and right click on the planet instead.

[Igard]

Thanks Codeforce and Matrix. I'm off to try this out!

[martok]

Outstanding news! Will download this pronto. [8D]

[RViener]

The improvement in loading and unloading times is terrific.

[Shark7]

I haven't been able to narrow it down for sure, but it appears that arming exploration ships in this version will cause a CTD. I'm working on getting it narrowed down and a save game for it.

And when you do get ready and save games, you can't reproduce it.

One thought that comes to mind is that the settings from my game under the previous version were still up and I did not clear them out. All games I started prior to clearing this and starting a new game completely cleared out and reset settings crashed within 5 minutes...after that, I haven't had one crash. If I ever catch what is happening, I'll post a bug report and save game.

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: taltamir
Question: what does this mean?

5. Changed threshold for full empire-wide racial bonuses to 20% (from 10%)

20% of what to give what?

This means that you can now get the full racial bonuses if an alien race is 20% of your population (instead of 50%). But note that some bonuses are no longer empire-wide but instead just affect the planet each race is on.

Oh, well then the description should say changed to 20% from 50% (it currently says changed to 20% from 10%).
Are the planet specific bonuses always at 100% (or rather, the same percent as their ratio of the population in that planet... aka, if race A is 40% of a planet, then they give 40% of that bonus to that planet only). Because I think they should. I really like this change, 20% makes them useful, but it isn't too much...

Also, the saved games folder should really be in the "Saved Games" folder that windows vista and windows 7 have. it is typically under C:\Users\Your Username\Saved Games\Game Name\
All microsoft studio games and several other games save their configuration settings and game data there, and it is integrated with various backup methods (it even has a pretty icon )...
it is the absolute most sensible place to store it. MS has been really bad for years in this regards and then finally they come up with this, the perfect solution for game saves, and nobody seems to use it except MS itself...

So far it is very impressive... had one crash (non reproduceable)... very happy with the game. Did the megatron Z4 shield change? their description still says 160 and 1.5 recharge which sucks... but I think they are a lot better now.

There is still two big problems:
1. Need a "load troops until full" command. where it goes from planet to planet and loads troops.
2. If you acquire a design via conquest (aka, conquer a planet with ships under construction, or conquer the last colony of a race), then they should all start obsoleted. They will be a mix of tech identical to yours, tech that is too advanced for you to build, and tech that is obsolete to you...
If obsolete, well it should be obsolete.
If too advanced, well you can't build it, might as well have it obsolete and have you upgrade your own design.
if the same, well, you are already using it in your own design.

So there is absolutely no reason why every time you conquer a race you should open the design menu and manually obsolete a dozen designs.
Also, the AI goes ahead and builds their obsolete (to you) designs, when it really shouldn't.

[ceyan]

Need a "load troops until full" command. where it goes from planet to planet and loads troops.

I haven't used it extensively yet (or really at all), but the new Load Troops button doesn't do that?

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: ceyan

Need a "load troops until full" command. where it goes from planet to planet and loads troops.

I haven't used it extensively yet (or really at all), but the new Load Troops button doesn't do that?

No it doesn't, but at least it is a big improvement over the previous version where you had to tell each individual ship to go load 2-3 times to fill it. I can hit 1 button multiple times easier than clicking 2-3 times per ship.

[Haree78]

This is outstanding. I've found a new favourite developer.

[Mysterius]

Hello Erik, could you please take a look at the conclusions of this topic : tm.asp?m=2486101&mpage=2&key=
I think there's something to fix here, or change, i don't know.

[Bartje]

ORIGINAL: Haree78

This is outstanding. I've found a new favourite developer.

Codeforce Imperia Omnia [:'(]


Aren't there supposed to be some new sliders in this patch or did I misread? I can't seem to find them when starting a new game. (Yes, made sure it says it 1.05.6 is my version.)

Where can I find these sliders? Did I misread?

Great job Elliot & Erik! (E&E lol - The E-Team [:D] )

[RViener]

On the 2nd or 3rd set up screen there's a slider at the bottom. It looks like the other sliders in that there are limited settings.
BobViener

[hidden_asbestos]

What are the chance of this game ever running in a window? For such a passive game it'd be nice to have it running at the side of my monitor while I can be working on something else!  But I realise this represents a potentially large change to the graphics engine so I'm just wondering shall I give up hope or keep holding on for this to appear one day?

[taltamir]

ORIGINAL: hidden_asbestos

What are the chance of this game ever running in a window? For such a passive game it'd be nice to have it running at the side of my monitor while I can be working on something else!  But I realise this represents a potentially large change to the graphics engine so I'm just wondering shall I give up hope or keep holding on for this to appear one day?

1. The game ALWAYS runs in a borderless window sized to your desktop, it does not have a full screen mode (which is a good thing, full screen is a stupid obsolete relic from the 1980s, meant to save a few MB of ram, but the result is a plethora of problems, crashes, and slowdowns when hitting the windows button, or alt tab, etc). A borderless window sized to your desktop LOOKS like full screen, but isn't.
2. The game is GPU light, and as such would not see a framerate increase from going to a lower resolution, it is mainly CPU limited, which is mainly due to managing tens of thousands of ships and planets. So there is no benefit to making it run it in a smaller window.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Bartje

ORIGINAL: Haree78

This is outstanding. I've found a new favourite developer.

Codeforce Imperia Omnia [:'(]


Aren't there supposed to be some new sliders in this patch or did I misread? I can't seem to find them when starting a new game. (Yes, made sure it says it 1.05.6 is my version.)

Where can I find these sliders? Did I misread?

Great job Elliot & Erik! (E&E lol - The E-Team [:D] )

The quality slider is found on the 2nd page of the 'Start New Game' set-up screens, I believe it is right above or right above the independant alien life slider. The corruption slider is on the next screen (the empire details screen), you'll not its a new slider at the bottom of the group.

[taltamir]

The corruption slider really needs a None option, also a very low option where it is half what it is in the current "low" option.
Also, space monsters and independent colonies each need to be able to go down to none as well.

Would be nice if there was a way to improve quality of a planet (requiring tech, and taking both time and money... but happening automatically) once it is colonized, so that a low quality planet is an investment that takes a lot of initial money to set up before it is useful rather then a permanent drain on resources.

[hidden_asbestos]

ORIGINAL: taltamir

1. The game ALWAYS runs in a borderless window sized to your desktop, it does not have a full screen mode (which is a good thing, full screen is a stupid obsolete relic from the 1980s, meant to save a few MB of ram, but the result is a plethora of problems, crashes, and slowdowns when hitting the windows button, or alt tab, etc). A borderless window sized to your desktop LOOKS like full screen, but isn't.
2. The game is GPU light, and as such would not see a framerate increase from going to a lower resolution, it is mainly CPU limited, which is mainly due to managing tens of thousands of ships and planets. So there is no benefit to making it run it in a smaller window.

Okay, yeah, but surely you know what I really mean - a "WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW" window with a caption, minimise button and a border. One that doesn't fill the whole display, by whatever means. The ability to resize it would be lovely too!

My question comes less from performance benefits, but from the convenience of being able to interact with the game window in a manner similar to all the other desktop applications on my computer. To be able to move it to one side of the screen and see the whole display without covering anything up, or even to drag it to a second monitor and have a DW game going while you're working on something else.

I wouldn't be suggesting this if it were an FPS, but it's a passive game (or at least can be played as such) and for that I think a more convenient way of putting it to one side and not taking over the whole screen would be very much appreciated as an option.

edit: and just to reiterate, I was only wondering if this was on the table or if the developer has ruled it out entirely.

[taltamir]

Okay, yeah, but surely you know what I really mean - a "WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW" window with a caption, minimise button and a border. One that doesn't fill the whole display, by whatever means. The ability to resize it would be lovely too!

Why? why would you ever want to do that?
simply hit "show desktop" or hit the windows key and then click on whatever other window you want to interact with.

[taltamir]

The Megatron Z4 shields, the Novacore NX-700 reactors, and the shaktur firestorm missile are still the same as before, and a huge downgrade to whatever tech precedes them on the tech tree.
Shaktur firestorm is not upgraded to, but the novacore and the megatron are auto upgraded to, resulting in a downgrade of all ships and bases when you discover that tech...

they need to be altered to not suck, or appear much lower on the tech tree. (I suggest altered)

the AI still absolutely refuses to trade these for ANY price, even though you can research them yourself. (and they suck).

The various species who have a racial affinity a certain tech should simply start out with a large bonus to that tech type... that is, the zenox should start out with shields 1, 2, 3 and 4... while others start with shields 1. (this also means that the zenox don't have to reserach every tech up to the tech they start out with).

[MuthaF]

As i already seen requested, but not responded to:
Posibility to use mouse to screen-border scroll even on MULTIPLE MONITORS !!!!
IT drives me nuts not to have usable 1/4 of mouse scroll, i mean c'mon, to lock mouse on-app-focus can't be THAT hard to implement.
This would be great UI upgrade.