Matrix Games Forums

Hi guys!

New to the board, first time poster, and all that jazz.

Just finished about half a dozen missions of the demo campaign. This game is really shaping up for greatness. Here's what I've got in terms of suggestions so far:

1) The fighter interface *desperately* needs an imroved return to base mechanism. Either automation (or maybe optional automation?), or more information on the actual sequence. I.e. a meter informing the player how far his craft is off the landing pad. I've died three times now because I dipped a smidgeon too far and ended up blown to pieces after winning a mission... It's just too difficult to judge how far your craft is from making contact with the deck.

2) I get some strange 'clipping' effects during the missions. It doesn't detract from the game experience, but it is a bit disconcerting at times when the screen goes black for a microsecond or so. I've only had one CTD so far, though, and there were a few programs running in the background - the game's stability for a demo version is satisfactory.

3) Do I have to order my wingman to engage the enemy even when I'm in the midst of a firefight with 3 bogeys and he's only 2km away? When I won said fight, the reason why I was slightly upset was because my wingman had fired no missiles and hadn't fired a shot from his guns.

4) Somewhat connected to number 3: I often get in fights with bogeys that are well within the detection range of nearby help. Can I radio for said help? Or can I ever expect them to come to the rescue, so to speak? 'Cause right now they seem content to let me get ganged up on by 3-4 bogeys.

5) Whilst the dynamic campaign system looks really cool, I'd also like to see a more retroactive 'kill' count (totals/by ship/by squadron), as well as perhaps some kind reinforcement system. In Operation Highlander, by day 5, and despite losing 1 DD, 2 FF's and the second DD being at 85% damage, the 6th Fleet was not reinforced at all.

6) I very much like the flight model. Very believable.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Lokos

You can radio for help and generally the carrier will launch help but it will take some time to get to you. 30 seconds to launch, and then however long it takes. Nearby forces might or might not engage depending on their mission.

The small number of forces at your disposal is what makes Operation Highland difficult.
You do get a heavy destroyer squadron when it proceeds to the next part (which is not in the demo).

As for clipping, the Z-Buffer is far better for 32 bit than it is for 16 bit. If you are in 16 bit you will see a significant amount of clipping, unfortunately...

Hi,

Thanks for the response! I'll try out the 16bit-32bit thing tonight. Good to know that you can radio for help.

I've got some some more impressions to share:

7) The missions are a bit too *generic* (at least in the demo version). Patrol, Sweep, Strike etc., the numbers of enemy fighters are always the same (2-4). The only surprises stem from larger ships at times showing up. But I'm not getting the sense of a dynamic, campaign-oriented battle ground from the missions - rather an arena with set forces, where the only thing that affects the campaign is the outcome, not the parameters of the outcome.

Will there be larger battles in the release version? I mean, 4 bogeys vs 2 friendlies is a reasonable skirmish. But will there be Battle of Britain-styled dogfights en masse? Can we expect large-scale fleet actions? The demo features one mission in which 2 DD's and 2 FF's go up against an identical force (if memory serves correctly). This is labelled a fleet action. A more fitting label would be a task force action/squadron action. Will we be able to engage in multi-carrier/numerous capital ship slug fests?

8) I think it has been mentioned before that the lasers are a bit too loud. It's true, in my opinion. While the missile sound is fitting, as is the decoy sound, the lasers are, in comparison, far too loud. I usually turn down the speakers when playing the game as a result.

9) Damn it, I wanted to know how Highland ends. [:)]

That's it for now.

Regards,
Lokos

Most fights are task force on task force, or fighter flight on fighter flight, set against a larger backdrop of fleet on fleet. For instance, in the end(?) of operation Highland, you pit your surviving forces against the rebel carrier group, a Hegemony carrier group, and several (depending on your performance in the campaign) enemy destroyer squadrons, as well as their fighter complements and the fighter complement of Fort Talas.

In one case, all three of the friendly squadrons in Operation Highland. were engaged at once by enemy task forces when I was on a bomber intercept mission. I ran out of munitions pretty fast and then my reactor got mostly fried so I just kinda watched it play out.

StarShatter isn't as much based on the "WWII/Starwars" model that most space games are, so there's not so much in the way of humongous furballs, at least in SP. You can set one up in a custom mission if you want.

ORIGINAL: Lokos
9) Damn it, I wanted to know how Highland ends. [:)]

Haha! milo's marketing has worked! Now you will have to buy SS when it comes out.