Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Q,

I get your point. Even though, how can you assume mailing Aaron will help, if a beta-test "failed" and did not lead to major reworkings, which are most necesarry ?
Additionally, the points you mention are gameplay bugs. Nothing as major as what SEV is facing atm. A user interface usually wont be reworked using patches. Its all or nothing.


SJ,
as mentioned, i have no doubt it was even worse at some point. However, it should not be released at this point.
This will become a second MoO3. Lots of potential, wasted.



What harsh words. I so love space empires ;(
Im really wondering if Aaron or the testers did expect exactly this to happen after the demo release. Must have been obvious most people wouldnt like it that much.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Except, this isn't real life, it's a game. I can't speak for anyone else, but if I wanted realism I'd play a flight sim, or for even more realism, I'd shut the computer off and go do something else..

There is a definite structural limit to how many big guns you can put into a warship; there are issues like recoil that have to be taken into account. If realism wasn't an issue, why did Aaron introduce armor only slots then?

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Not being able to page through all my construction screens is killing me... especially with the production carry over making it so entirely unclear whether that 1 turn build is really << 1 turn build and the queue will end up empty for much of the turn.

[I personally really need to be able to see (on one page): a list of what I have already built (including system wide effect buildings affecting the planet), the entire current queue, and the projected build time for the entire queue... and maybe even a current planet summary listing its value, etc.]

I never found the 'restricted systems' page... not sure what else I couldn't find, since the UI seems like an endless series of sub-pages that each have to be closed and can't be paged through.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

OK since i did that and it dopesn't worked out i will post the error message here

And since the number varies i will use X, Y and Z to represent the numbers involved

Help Text Data File
Filename: D:\Space Empires V Demo\data\HelpText.txt
-----------------------------
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?MultiplayerX]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?MultiplayerX]Descr" in record

(where X ranges from 1-20)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?Empire DetailsY]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?Empire DetailsY]Descr" in record

(where Y ranges from 1-35)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?Race DetailsZ]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?Race DetailsZ]Descr" in record

(where Z ranges from 1-14)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?GovernmentA]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?GovernmentA]Descr" in record

(where A ranges from 1-2)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?SocietyB]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?SocietyB]Descr" in record

(where B ranges from 1-2)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?Racial TraitsC]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?Racial TraitsC]Descr" in record

(where C ranges from 1-3)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?TechnologyD]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?TechnologyD]Descr" in record

(where D ranges from 1-4)

Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?HistoryE]Name" in record
Could not find field "Dlg Game Setup ?HistoryE]Descr" in record

(where E ranges from 1-4)

That's all please help me

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Overall I prefer SE5. The UI is a bit weird, but part of it comes from using SE4 for 6 YEARS, and being used to that (not all of it, but part of it). The return of the right-click menu alone is a very good thing.

Features that aren't just "oh, shiny!":
-Limited LOS and having to survey new systems (leads to a problem with the game not remembering enemy units, like in SE4, but there's a settings.txt line that mostly fixes that).
-Greatly expanded modding possibilites- take a look at the date files.
-Combat. Warp-assults especially will be much more interesting: ships don't appear all at once any more! they come through the WP in a steady stream. You can tell them to go through all at once, but that risks losing some to interpentration.
-research is better, and points carry over
-contruction carries over; you can build multiple ships per turn, and multiple TYPES of items per turn.
-many of the menus are very customizable and sortable
-Alliances
-The treaty system is no longer fixed to a few treaties- you can include whatever you like in any treaty. Don't want to let your treaty partner colonize in your system? You can forbid that. Want to share intelligence, but not research? you can do that.
-the log has been improved. You can see diplomatic messages you sent, and those the enemy sent from previous turns, for example.
-Strategic combat has been improved- you can pause it, run through at different speeds, reply, etc.
-path.txt is no more. Looks like you can select mods in-game.

There's more, but I think you get the idea. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Obviously not everyone will like every feature..

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Bugs
1. In the initial research screen, you can deselect all of the initial technologies for a massive headstart, and then still have the technologies you deselected when the game starts. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!

2. Strategic combat seems wonky in general, and produced a lot of crashes that tactical did not.

Design Issues
1. The new ground combat system is very good, but it necessitates a rethinking of troop size and costs. Troops on the ground combat map are like ships, not fighters, and if there are too many of them, things will slow to a crawl. And yet a single medium transport can carry enough troops to literally cover half the map. If they function like ships and not fighters, then they should be treated that way. I suggest inflating the size of troops by a factor of 10, and inflating the cost by a factor of about 3. The way it stands, the best troop transport is an attack ship that's missing one gun and one shield generator to get 2 or 3 cargo bays. Ridiculous.

2. The following defaults need to be changed:

Flag size should default to Small.

Alphasort should default to Off.

Most people will not realize that they can change these settings, at least not right away, so the defaults should be set to the value that will annoy the fewest people.

3. The prices for starting attributes are off. For instance, instead of paying 500 points for +5% construction, a person could pay the same amount for +20% construction by taking the -5% one and the +25% one. I was able to take Ancient Race, Advanced Propulsion, +20% construction, -33% Supply, and Natural Merchants without any significant drawbacks. -5% to something is not significant compared to these advantages. Aaron rightly ditched the min-max paradise known as the sliders, but he's still locked in the slider mentality of small, 5% changes. If an option does not have a large effect on the empire, why even include it?

Comments on the Community
I'm starting to notice some mass hysteria among community members. Yes, the game has bugs. Yes, it has lots of rough edges. Yes, the balance in the stock game is completely terrible. But let's put this in perspective. SE4 was just as bad when it first came out, and it's still very rough and unbalanced after 5 years. I can think of at least one good game that was killed by its own fan community because they got carried away with whining and complaining. The fact is that SE5 does a lot of exciting new things, and compared Stock to Stock against SE4, SE5 is much better.

EDIT:
Diplomacy
I really like the new treaty system, and I'm very much in favor of the idea of non-aggression in neutral systems only, but I feel that the implementation needs to be tweaked some. I had such a treaty with the Terrans in my last game, and they started attacking my planets and colonizers in my own systems even though we were friends and trading partners. This is not right.

If you have such a treaty and you're in someone's system, that should give them the right to attack you but not vice versa! If they decide to let it slide, fine, nothing happens, but the AI should not be instructed to treat your assets in your own system as enemies and seek them out. Also, if combat starts, the invader should only fire if fired on. So if their fleet crosses paths with your colonizer, they don't run it down and blow it to hell. Same for colony worlds.

What would be really nice is to give fleets or ships individual orders as to who and what they will and won't fire on, able to be broken down both by Empire and also by whether a ship has weapons, troops, colony modules, etc. I'm not holding my breath on that one, but most of the stuff above should be doable with some AI tweaks.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

One thing is bugs and unbalanced stuff: that can be fixed by mods and patches. Things like UI and the general gameplay, which can't, is what will make or break the game. As it stands, I don't really think the issues are big enough to break the game. They will, however, diminish it a great deal, so I'm really hoping significant changes will be done between now and the release; even if it means a delayed release.

If something *is* done, and we get an overhauled UI/design screen/system view window, then I see a ton of potential for the game, possibly even exceeding SEIV after some patches and some good mod releases.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Balance is no issue at all, since it can be altered/modded. The problem is, certain things will not change, such as a User Interface. I cant remember a single game where a patch introduced an entirely new interface, basicly because of the work involved.
Since the UI is the most important part of a strategygame, this is where the problem comes from. I for one am pretty sure SEIV was better than SEV without patches and all.

What is weird is the fact that this demo is so flawed. If the game goes retail in october, there is no more time to change stuff, maybe a few days, a week at the most. WTF should i buy a game that is not enjoyable (for me) at the moment, in order to wait and HOPE for bugfixes and patches, which are not certain at all ?
What exactly is the point in releasing a game which is not ready, just to add patches afterwards ? It makes absolutly no SENSE at all, apart from one point: There is no money left and you are forced to release it.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Ragnarok: you two are aruging over opinion now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif He thinks the UI is work-aroundable, I agree, you don't, you're not likely to convince anyone either way.

SE4's patches did add quite a bit, so there's the possibility of patches or pre-release changes improving the UI. If you don't like it, wait until that happens. There will be plenty of posts here saying if it happened or not. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Oh well, this board was so friendly over the last months. I wont start a war. Gotta go and see what happens the next days.