Demo Feedback (v3.9)
Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2004 7:49 am
To the developer(s),
The last time I picked up and played StarShatter was over 8 months ago and after grabbing the latest demo I have to say that various parts of the game have made some great improvements during that time
What follows is a list of problems, bugs and misc bits and pieces that I've discovered after a couple of intenstive days of playing.
Campaign - Inconsistencies in results:
Sometimes when I'm out on a mission to engage such and such target and that target is destroyed (sometimes along with other targets) I get reports of other flight groups either engaging the targets I just trashed or being engaged by the enemy that is now dead.
The most common case of this is minefield clearing when in control of the Destroyer group. The group quite easily clears minefields A through D usually without damage or loss (though sometimes a frigate blows up). Upon return there's usually 1 or 2 reports that a fighter group who I never saw whilst destroying the minefields had gone out and eliminated one of them.
- The only fighters I saw roaming around were on patrol, sometimes near the mines and sometimes not, but they were not actually attacking.
In addition about 50% of the time the enemy destroyer group in Trellis comes out to play and usually ends up completely destroyed whilst inflicting some pretty heavy damage on my group.
However I've then had reports of the Archon battle group either engaging or being engaged by the destroyer group and losing a DD!
Mind you this is on *the* first mission scheduled and so logically it is impossible for the enemy destroyer group to be both attacking me and attacking the Archon (which never moves during actual combat).
Combat Losses - Foothill starbase - Scrambled fighters:
It seems like the fighter squadrons in the Foothill starbase have a large number of replacements available because any fighters I destroy that are scrambled from the base to defend it (such as when attacking the AAA and SAM batteries nearby) are not counted as lost.
For example I was attacking the base itself and took out some 6 cobra fighters only to eventually have one knock out my guns and remaining AGM's, forcing me to abort.
When I got back and took a look at the force screen the only losses were 2 destroyed in some mythical engagement by the escort group (who never joined the fight, they just flew around a bit and left).
Target Nearest Friend/Enemy keys not working:
Whenever I press the target nearest enemy key it appears to simply lock on to the next target, as if I'd pushed the next target key instead.
It certainly isn't targetting the nearest enemy mine or pesky fighter.
Similarly when just trying to select the nearest target (typically wingmen) it selects something far off in the distance (though not always the furthest unit), then me, then something random nearby, and eventually my wingmen.
Sound Crackle:
In general the sounds are perfect, though sometimes there's a quiet, brief, crackle.
It occurs both during combat and just flying along.
Sometimes EAX causes this, though I don't know if thats enabled or not within the game (it can't be set and I doubt it's active by default).
Video Flicker:
When using 3rd person view (at least in 800x600x32 and 1024x768x32) some or all of the text flickers continuously. It does not seem to affect the ship models or weapons fire, just text and, in capital ships, the heading and pitch indicators.
The effect is similar to drawing on a front buffer rather than a backbuffer, so the text vanishes when the backbuffer is flipped until the text is drawn again.
The effect does not occur in the cockpit/helm though, just in 3rd person view (and any 3rd person view).
Friendly Fighter Behaviour - Engaging ground targets:
Fighters flying strike missions refuse to use anything other then AGMs to engage ground targets.
They can be ordered to attack a target (like a starbase) however all they seem to do is buzz it instead of actually firing upon it.
I can understand the refusal to completely destroy it (since the starbase has a massive shockwave) however they won't even help damage it nor will they fire on less dangerous targets like factories.
Fighter Behaviour - Flight Paths in atmosphere:
The ability for fighters to go from A to B and engage in low level dogfights has improved quite a bit from the last time I played however they still tend to try and perform inverted loops too close to the ground and proceed to crash.
Sometimes the enemy does this when under fire (both when undamaged and when heavily damaged).
Similarly low level flight causes problems in other situations, such as I made one of the final passes over the starbase with the rest of my wing following along at about 200m above ground, ordered everyone to RTB (to not get blown up when the starbase blew) and all 3 wingmen proceeded to smash themselves into the ground.
They should have been facing upright, flying at an inclined angle and there were no hostiles around so why they decided to dive into the ground is a complete mystery.
I've also had all three crash when attacking SAM sites, one actually hit the SAM (and destroyed it!) and the other two just crashed for some reason.
Formation Flying:
When cruising along with a flight of wingmen they refuse to use their afterburners to keep up, however they can cruise (in arcade flight mode at least) at the navpoints requested speed of 750 whilst I get to pick something in the 500 range at 95% throttle or 1.1k at 100% throttle and when using 100% throttle I end up pulling away quite quickly from the rest of my group...
That said they do a pretty good job of staying in formation when I'm performing space acrobatics and quite cleverly run away after firing anti-ship missles at a frigate instead of staying with me to finish the job with cannons...
Breaking orbit, into the rear of escort:
This only happened once, the first time I attacked the Foothill starbase and just fired missiles at it and left.
Basically my element attainted orbit ahead of our escort but somehow the escort wound up about 10m in front of me and despite them turning slightly up (I think) and my turning down 10m and full afterburners does not give a large enough window to avoid a collision...
It should be pretty easy to avoid this, just make sure no fighter is placed right behind another (translate them up/down/sideways).
Suggestion - Tech Database:
Is it possible to create an in-game tech database that shows the stats of all ships, weapons, buildings and background info for the game?
It'd make checking up on something specific (like what torpedo's are and why you should shoot them at capital ships...) much easier esp. for those who do not want to keep referring back to the manual.
Carrier Landings - Not always working:
I've found sometimes my carrier landings do not always register as complete, this happens particularly if I accelerate a little or use manual reverse just as the docking view comes up.
I have to turn around and start the process again, which includes hitting F1 to get my cockpit view back.
Somthing similar affects AI fighters as well, as I had a fighter in carrier training collide with the back of the docking bay and the carrier was not moving at all.
Improving First Impressions - Menu Fade-in:
The current main menu fade-in is far from smooth and to me it looks pretty poor. In the interest of making a good first impression it would be better if the fade-in was much smoother.
The good stuff:
I've had absolutely no problems running the game in a dual monitor setup, no slowdown (even with the graphics options way up), no intermittant problems (the text flicker above always happens) and no problems with task switching except for a delay whilst everything redraws.
The dynamic campaign still looks like an excellent idea, though there still needs to be some work on upping the action factor and fiddling with the outcome of engagements - particularly between destroyer groups, which always have little effect when the AI carries them out but usually end up with one side dead, or me dead, when I'm carrying them out.
And that's everything for now, can't wait till release
- Deathifier
System Specs:
P3-866MHz
512MB SDRAM
GeForce FX 5900 (ForceWare vesion 53.03, latest offered by my card manufacturer)
- Running Dual 15" Monitors, 800x600x32 Desktop + Game resolution
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Windows 2000 Pro with latest updates
The last time I picked up and played StarShatter was over 8 months ago and after grabbing the latest demo I have to say that various parts of the game have made some great improvements during that time
What follows is a list of problems, bugs and misc bits and pieces that I've discovered after a couple of intenstive days of playing.
Campaign - Inconsistencies in results:
Sometimes when I'm out on a mission to engage such and such target and that target is destroyed (sometimes along with other targets) I get reports of other flight groups either engaging the targets I just trashed or being engaged by the enemy that is now dead.
The most common case of this is minefield clearing when in control of the Destroyer group. The group quite easily clears minefields A through D usually without damage or loss (though sometimes a frigate blows up). Upon return there's usually 1 or 2 reports that a fighter group who I never saw whilst destroying the minefields had gone out and eliminated one of them.
- The only fighters I saw roaming around were on patrol, sometimes near the mines and sometimes not, but they were not actually attacking.
In addition about 50% of the time the enemy destroyer group in Trellis comes out to play and usually ends up completely destroyed whilst inflicting some pretty heavy damage on my group.
However I've then had reports of the Archon battle group either engaging or being engaged by the destroyer group and losing a DD!
Mind you this is on *the* first mission scheduled and so logically it is impossible for the enemy destroyer group to be both attacking me and attacking the Archon (which never moves during actual combat).
Combat Losses - Foothill starbase - Scrambled fighters:
It seems like the fighter squadrons in the Foothill starbase have a large number of replacements available because any fighters I destroy that are scrambled from the base to defend it (such as when attacking the AAA and SAM batteries nearby) are not counted as lost.
For example I was attacking the base itself and took out some 6 cobra fighters only to eventually have one knock out my guns and remaining AGM's, forcing me to abort.
When I got back and took a look at the force screen the only losses were 2 destroyed in some mythical engagement by the escort group (who never joined the fight, they just flew around a bit and left).
Target Nearest Friend/Enemy keys not working:
Whenever I press the target nearest enemy key it appears to simply lock on to the next target, as if I'd pushed the next target key instead.
It certainly isn't targetting the nearest enemy mine or pesky fighter.
Similarly when just trying to select the nearest target (typically wingmen) it selects something far off in the distance (though not always the furthest unit), then me, then something random nearby, and eventually my wingmen.
Sound Crackle:
In general the sounds are perfect, though sometimes there's a quiet, brief, crackle.
It occurs both during combat and just flying along.
Sometimes EAX causes this, though I don't know if thats enabled or not within the game (it can't be set and I doubt it's active by default).
Video Flicker:
When using 3rd person view (at least in 800x600x32 and 1024x768x32) some or all of the text flickers continuously. It does not seem to affect the ship models or weapons fire, just text and, in capital ships, the heading and pitch indicators.
The effect is similar to drawing on a front buffer rather than a backbuffer, so the text vanishes when the backbuffer is flipped until the text is drawn again.
The effect does not occur in the cockpit/helm though, just in 3rd person view (and any 3rd person view).
Friendly Fighter Behaviour - Engaging ground targets:
Fighters flying strike missions refuse to use anything other then AGMs to engage ground targets.
They can be ordered to attack a target (like a starbase) however all they seem to do is buzz it instead of actually firing upon it.
I can understand the refusal to completely destroy it (since the starbase has a massive shockwave) however they won't even help damage it nor will they fire on less dangerous targets like factories.
Fighter Behaviour - Flight Paths in atmosphere:
The ability for fighters to go from A to B and engage in low level dogfights has improved quite a bit from the last time I played however they still tend to try and perform inverted loops too close to the ground and proceed to crash.
Sometimes the enemy does this when under fire (both when undamaged and when heavily damaged).
Similarly low level flight causes problems in other situations, such as I made one of the final passes over the starbase with the rest of my wing following along at about 200m above ground, ordered everyone to RTB (to not get blown up when the starbase blew) and all 3 wingmen proceeded to smash themselves into the ground.
They should have been facing upright, flying at an inclined angle and there were no hostiles around so why they decided to dive into the ground is a complete mystery.
I've also had all three crash when attacking SAM sites, one actually hit the SAM (and destroyed it!) and the other two just crashed for some reason.
Formation Flying:
When cruising along with a flight of wingmen they refuse to use their afterburners to keep up, however they can cruise (in arcade flight mode at least) at the navpoints requested speed of 750 whilst I get to pick something in the 500 range at 95% throttle or 1.1k at 100% throttle and when using 100% throttle I end up pulling away quite quickly from the rest of my group...
That said they do a pretty good job of staying in formation when I'm performing space acrobatics and quite cleverly run away after firing anti-ship missles at a frigate instead of staying with me to finish the job with cannons...
Breaking orbit, into the rear of escort:
This only happened once, the first time I attacked the Foothill starbase and just fired missiles at it and left.
Basically my element attainted orbit ahead of our escort but somehow the escort wound up about 10m in front of me and despite them turning slightly up (I think) and my turning down 10m and full afterburners does not give a large enough window to avoid a collision...
It should be pretty easy to avoid this, just make sure no fighter is placed right behind another (translate them up/down/sideways).
Suggestion - Tech Database:
Is it possible to create an in-game tech database that shows the stats of all ships, weapons, buildings and background info for the game?
It'd make checking up on something specific (like what torpedo's are and why you should shoot them at capital ships...) much easier esp. for those who do not want to keep referring back to the manual.
Carrier Landings - Not always working:
I've found sometimes my carrier landings do not always register as complete, this happens particularly if I accelerate a little or use manual reverse just as the docking view comes up.
I have to turn around and start the process again, which includes hitting F1 to get my cockpit view back.
Somthing similar affects AI fighters as well, as I had a fighter in carrier training collide with the back of the docking bay and the carrier was not moving at all.
Improving First Impressions - Menu Fade-in:
The current main menu fade-in is far from smooth and to me it looks pretty poor. In the interest of making a good first impression it would be better if the fade-in was much smoother.
The good stuff:
I've had absolutely no problems running the game in a dual monitor setup, no slowdown (even with the graphics options way up), no intermittant problems (the text flicker above always happens) and no problems with task switching except for a delay whilst everything redraws.
The dynamic campaign still looks like an excellent idea, though there still needs to be some work on upping the action factor and fiddling with the outcome of engagements - particularly between destroyer groups, which always have little effect when the AI carries them out but usually end up with one side dead, or me dead, when I'm carrying them out.
And that's everything for now, can't wait till release
- Deathifier
System Specs:
P3-866MHz
512MB SDRAM
GeForce FX 5900 (ForceWare vesion 53.03, latest offered by my card manufacturer)
- Running Dual 15" Monitors, 800x600x32 Desktop + Game resolution
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Windows 2000 Pro with latest updates