SE5 Demo Bug Reports & Annoyances/Requests
 

1. Feel free to post any bugs you encounter with the Space Empires V Demo, in this thread.

2. Also if you enounter a regular annoyance, please post here as well.

3. Please keep requests and other suggestions to obvious user-friendly changes (such as screen sizes, window management, information management, etc), and not actual game changes or expansions.

Let's help Aaron by keeping this thread focused on those things. Thanks!

Related Threads:

Demo Bug Reports thread at Strategy First:
http://www.strategyfirst.com/forum/c...;f=58;t=000052

SEV Demo is Out thread at Shrapnel Community:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...t=7#Post445988

And don't forget to help expand the Space Empires V section at the Space Empires Wiki: http://wiki.spaceempires.net

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I run WinXP SP2, DirectX v9.0 with ATI Radeon 9600

These are bugs I've found so far:

Bug: I get access violation errors occasionally when using the Design window. I have yet to nail down a reproducible cause yet. When I do get them, it halts the entire program and I have to force end it through Task Manager.

Bug: I also notice that when using the tutorial, when I alt+tab back to a WinXP program, and then alt+tab back into SEV Demo, the Tutorial screen doesn't render correctly, and instead is beset with a mess of distorted lines running across it. It goes away when I refresh.

Bug/Annoyance: When clicking on a name for an item in a selection box (like a filter or layout selection), the name highlights, but the blue ball doesn't fill in the item's empty ball slot and thus the item is not selected. Only when I click on the empty ball does it fill in. Even worse, when I double-click the name, the selection window closes without selecting the name I just double-clicked. It would be great if selecting items in lists was more intuative. Perhaps making the options in these screens respond to a single click selection instead of double, and respond when a name is clicked instead of just the icon of the ball, would make screen and options control better.

Typo: On page 20 of 51 of the Tutorial the phrase "Select the item titled 'Production' and the* press the OK button." *The word should be "then".

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Reposted from the other demo thread:

odd bug. very odd. start in a system with 2 warp points. warp thru the first, find system A. set the ship to "explore" and it goes back to the home system, and then transits the second warppoint into system B. now the quadrant display shows the systems linked in a line, Home -> A -> B, instead of how they actually should be V shaped like A <- Home -> B.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Beta tip:

If you do get a crash/lockup, try ALT-F4 for an easy-quick quit.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I'm not certain this is a bug but if it is it's a BIG one, during race creation I took the 'extra storage' trait, however, all my planets have the normal capacity (ie huge planets only house 8000m pop)!!

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

After installing, when I try to run the game, I get an error box that says "Range check error.". And switching to Mozilla to tell people about this generates another error saying "Access violation at address 0047F56B in module "se5.exe". Read of address 000000EC." EDIT: With a new box every time I switch off of it, and then I discovered that there were three copies of se5.exe running all of hwich were generating new error boxes when I missed with any of them and I had to kill them all from the task manager. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Note to anyone using a dual-core machine: if you force SE5 to use only a single core, it gets a LOT more stable.

To do this, run SE5, press CTRL-ALT-DELETE, click the process tab, right-click Se5.exe, click Set Affinity, and deselect one of the CPUs.

You'll have to do this every time you run the program, sadly; Windows XP doesn't keep track. I recommend installing Prio if you end up using this trick a lot- it forces XP to remember that setting.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

The trait was changed to only affect cargo, and it now affects both ship cargo and planet cargo.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Well that kind of sucks. But isn't it still supposed to apply to facility space?

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I've been trying to assault a planet. Through intel, I've managed to get both orbital defense bases and an enemy ship to mutiny to my side, so the AI has no space assets, only it's planet. I have about 20 ships, including 3 transports with troops. I give my transports orders to move toward the planet and drop troops. The rest of my fleet just mills about, or perhaps even tries to flee. What's annoying is that the combats keep ending after about 20 seconds, long before my transports reach the planet. I've burned up about 4 movement points trying to close the distance so far. Why does combat keep ending? I could understand if I was trying to withdraw, but I have (stolen) bases and ships sitting right next to the planet.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Is the population 0?

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I'm also getting this error as well. Though I do not have three instances of se5.exe opening up, I still have to kill the process via task manager to stop the access violation popup window.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

No, it was there homeworld, pop ~ 3.5 billion. The good news was that after each attempted combat it remember my ships positions, allowing me to slowly inch my way to the planet. I assaulted another planet and used strategic combat, and there was no problem. However, that planet was slightly different as it had 1 or more weapons platforms for defense.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I'd actually tried running it three times before I noticed the access tuff behind other windows.

EDIT: Using a third-party program to make it start using ony one of my dual-core processor's cores, I still get the range check error, and the access violations when I move focus off, but clicking on the rnage check gets me a menu where I can acutally do stuff! more reports to follow.

EDIT EDIT: I wouldn't say it's "more stable". It's "less unstable". Attempting to change didsplay driver or video mode gets me an access violation and nothing else, and I can change graphics detail and whatever that other option was, but trying to play gets me another accesss violation and the program folds up and dies, although it does do so neatly without an nedless fountain of access violation popups.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Ok, I didnt know there was a bug forum, so some of these are cross-posts. My apologies for any duplicate boringness.

I have limited myself to only those things which are clearly bugs or SE4 functionality that has disappeared.

Its not clear to me how I rename planets.

Would be very nice to have an abbreviated facilities view - for those planets with more than ten or so facilities, its annoying to have to scroll paste a bunch of the same ones to see what is on the planet. Why not just title them -Research facility x 10- etc. Ditto for ship components

For the item list window (bottom middle) the back to list button lights up, even when there is only one item in the list. Seems wrong, (a bit misleading)

Big exploit/Bug: on the quadrant map, outgoing warp lines are indicated, even when you havent yet seen the sectors that contain them (in the systems). For example, if I go into a new system, and I havent explored any sectors there yet, I can still go to the quadrant map and see how many outgoing warp lines it has, and interpolate their general sector location as well.

In the 2D view, the empire flag graphics come in front of other graphics - this makes figuring out which planet is selected pretty tough sometimes. Can the highlighted hex borders be made to be in front of the flag graphics, to make it easier? Or at least make them a different color than white so theyre easier to see.

When designing fighters (and probably ships and units as well) when you have shift-clicked on a component, and you want to go to -next page- you can click the next page button. Thats good. But you cant click the ‘middle or other decks button to go there. SO, youre placing a lot of engines on a fighter, and you run out of spaces on the upper decks, so you want to go to the middle decks, but you cant without going back to the component section, and then going to select the deck, and then going back to once again pick up the engine component. Very awkward.

The RETURN key isnt enabled!??! ARGHHH! For ship design, and a lot of other things, return key should = OK. Unless Im the only keyboard jockey out there.

When constructing units, the option -one turns worth- was very useful (pretty much the only thing I ever used for constructing units). As far as I can tell, that is gone now. I think that it is automatic however (ie: if you set a planet to construct 50 fighters, it will construct one turns worth eac turn until it gets to fifty, rather than construct 50 at once on turn X). But still, the option to do -one turns worth- was very helpful.


In SE4, from the log window, you could go to the news item, and do relevant things, and when you were done, you would return to the log window (not all cases, but most). This is no longer the case. Given that there is a much longer log window than before, it means that I am starting up the log window many times each turn. Again, bodes ill for the late game. Or I am just not doing something right (highly possible)

Again, sorry for cross-posting annoyances.

Thanks,.

AMF

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Ok, I haven't really done enough to get any bugs/errors yet, but I do have a requests/annoyances list:

• Tooltips need to have a delay time set. As it is now, if you have them turned on, if you so much as move your cursor near something, a tooltip pops up, usually blocking something you want to see.
• Ship design window needs some work. The dialogs for filtering, setting name, type, strategy, etc. look pretty, they are cumbersome as dialogs for everything. Filtering, since it would likely be used more often, needs to have a faster interface... I would suggest a drop-down selection. The others, since they will likely be used only once, could remain dialogs, but could still be improved (a way to type in a design name without the dialog?).
• Click-and-drop for designing is slow. Allow double clicking a component to auto-add or auto-remove from the design.
• Frames/second display needs to be for only the system and combat displays. For other windows, it blocks some information.
• On satellites, both Ordnance Storage and Small Ordnance Storage can be used, but both are the same size; and the small only provides only a fifth the storage.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

In 3D mode I used mouse wheel to scroll/zoom all the way out. Now the top portion of the system grid is cut off and vanished untill I zoom in a little. The vanished portion goes down to where system modifiers text ends.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

In Research: Some "Current Level:1" Technologies show "expected results" of what will be next while others show what I already have.

Examples: Light Hull Construction shows "expected results" shows what I have. Construction shows what is expected (fighters and mines). Perhaps this should show level 0?I have Rock Colonization 1(it shows "expected results"? why?) but I can still spend on this. Why?

Research sreen needs a complete overhaul.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

It's not a bug. Ships and colonization have tech levels in SE:V. Although the little pics should show what level the expectant result is to avoid confusion.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Yeah, I wasn't thinking very clearly. Now I use the mosewheel to get a good angle, and then move the mouse "down" to back out the view until you see the whole system.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

OK. That explains the colonization techs but the other examples still need to be adressed. Many to list. Just look through the research screen using the search criteria I have mentioned.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I'm not sure what other areas are showing problems? Aside from the pic not showing the level number (although a right click on the research area will show you) what is the problem?

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Ok. Thanks Kwok. My bad. I'm not even that much of a newbie and this confused me a little.

I'm curious how many levels to the same hull and units works; such as Frigate,Colony Sip, and Small Freighter.It sounds neat. Must be like size and weight and cost and the such.

Any way, yes, like you say Kwok, it REALLY needs to show the level in "Expected Results". Especially for new players/customers.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

The ship hulls increase in size with higher tech levels. Stock does it haphazardly but oh well. It's a nice feature though. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Besides a violation lock up from repeated IM popups (the crashing one being during the launch satellite screen i believe), the bugs I have encountered so far are:

In Empire creation, you can sell off all the default technologies... giving tons of tech credits and you still get all the default tech.

There is also something funky in the empire management reporting... I was getting out of resources stops, when the reported expenses were less than my resource income... then with a net income of about 8k each of organics and radioactives, I went from 0 in storage to 50k in storage in two turns.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

If you open up the fleet report, right-click on a ship to open the ship report, and then again right-click on anything in the ship (cargo, component), it will open up the appropriate report, but will also open an entirely new (and different) ship report on top that you have to close before you can view the other stuff.

EDIT:
I've built 3 light carriers, which carry up to 22 small fighters each. I noticed that after each (strategic) battle my carriers were always totally drained of supplies. I watched the replay, and also noticed that nearly half of my fighters would begin to flee immediately after launching.

Apparently, your fighters "leech" supplies and ordnance from their mothership. My carriers only had enough total supplies for half of the fighters. The little buggers hold nearly 1000 supplies and 80 ordnance each, and my carrier only has 10,000 supplies and 600 ordnance. The supplied fighters didn't even show signs of supply/ordnance consumption, despite being armed with DUCs. The rest would launch, find themselves with 0 supplies and ordnance, and flee. I wouldn't have a problem with this conceptually if the surviving fighters would return to their carriers with the supplies/ordnance, but the stuff seems to just vanish. My carriers would then be sitting ducks when the next strategic turn came around, unable to move and effectively anchoring my entire fleet until they could be resupplied.

They are NASTY in combat though.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Hold shift and click on a comp in the design to remove it. Hold shift and left click to add a comp, and keep the current selection. Handy for adding engines and such.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Shift clicking, such as used in ship design, should be noted on the appropriate screen. Perhaps with a scroll over.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Tried it again in another game... It seems any resource that zeroes out gets stuck at 0... I was producing 8k and spending maybe 500 and the depleted resources never recovered... however, saving and reloading seemed to cause the resources to jump from 0 to 20k in one turn (rather greater than the production per turn).

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Is there any way to increase the size of the ship icons relative to the planet icons? Without scrolling. I want to see the entire system and also see my individual ships.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

In the "Empires" tab of "Game setup" screen I'm unable to select, edit or remove any empire I've made. I have to click Cancel and then start it all over again.

General annoyances: bulky dialog's interface and too many mouseclicks for essential tasks.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

In ship design if I go over the maximum tonnage while using shift click I get the warning. Then if I use shift click to remove items the warning stays because the numbers for current tonnage stays the same. I have to click on somethig else to fix this.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

I can't seem to be able to start a game. When I set up a certain resolution, the game starts and fine, and I get to the main menu. When I press New Game however, nothing happens when I click on the first option.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Are you stuck on the screen that says "A standard game of SE5" or did you get past that?

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Yeah, I'm stuck at that screen.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

1) I'm trying to test minister effectiveness. I made a minelayer, turned on the minelayer minister both under the empire options and on the individual ship. However at the end of the turn, I get a warning that these ships don't have any orders and they don't seem to do anything on minister control. What's the trick?

2) Seems like the (E)xplore command performs the same as in SEIV in that the ship will warp thru the nearest unexplored warp point. The (/) Survey System command will explore the current system to eliminate any "red" sectors. Is that correct?

3) Is there any difference bewteen adding, say, 10 mines to a build queue in 1 shot or individually?

4) Is there a convenient way to build "1 turn's worth" of something without tweaking the number until it changes from 0.1 to 0.2 then back to 0.1 turns to complete?

5) How do you see planet orders, or can you even give planets orders to launch units and such?

6) Are the tricks to keep populations happy any different from SEIV?

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

1. Not sure about that you.
2. That is correct.
3. Construction points spill over, so it will build as many as it can
4. See 3.
5. There's a launch units order, I think it has two red arrows on it, or L for short
6. I think they're more or less the same. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Bug: Access violation error in Tutorial game using Strategic combat attacking with Explorer 0001 against an enemy planet (in the second system you explore, just after step 51 of the Tutorial). The enemy ship around the planet ran far away and I gave order to chase it during Tactical. Combat ended. I attacked again using the Attack command, and instead chose Strategic combat 8x. It seemed to konk out when the fleeing ship got too far away.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Some "settings.txt" surprises:

"Illusions", "derelicts", "comets" what the hell are those?

"monsters" really? I can't wait!

"rare hit types", "Near Miss", "Critical Hit" Is this D&D? I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

"migration" how does that work?

"sight level", "sight range", "sight obscuration" What's the difference?

unit maintenance? ok. facility maintenance? you've got to be kidding.

"Population Required to Operate One Facility := 50" hmmm...

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Some of those are not operational in-game like illusion and derelicts. There's also no monsters at this time either.

Migration is actually quite useful particularly with breathable planets as their populations grow very fast!

Sight level - As in how sensitive (ie can we detect cloaked ships etc)
Sight range - How far you can see

The maintenance is fine. You don't even notice it really.

The last line is not used.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

"sight level", "sight range", "sight obscuration" What's the difference?

Sight Obscuration...: Does this mean that we will be able to hide ships behind stars, planets, asteroids, storms, etc.? That would add more strategy to the manuevering process. Cool.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

--In the ship design, ship type list there does not appear to be a way to add/remove them like the name ship list. Will this stay like this? Is this for AI issues?

--Also, I see Mine, Mine layer, and Satelite but not Satelite Layer!

--Also, this bothered me in SEIV also. Why not label "Base Space Yard" to read as "Space Yard Base" to be in conjunction with the other similiar types and proper adjective-noun usage. Is this for organization issues regarding Attack Base and Defense Base?

--This may be a stretch but I'd like to be able to see the game date in the vehicle designs screen as in SEIV. I use these dates in naming my designs. I know that I could just make a note of the date before hand.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Bug: Sometimes, computer confuse my empire and an AI driven empire.
During one of the test games, I've got several battle reports, and according to them my ships won several battles against other fleet.
The only problem is that I had no ships at all in this game, and even had no contact with an opposing empire. I just sat down in my home system and hit F12. Ministers were off. No over systems were explored.
Furthermore, combat log was availiable, so I could see ship designs and such. After that distant system appeared on the quadrant map, though it was obscured.
Weird.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Bug: when you fill a construction queue with a custom list, it will delete & replace anything already in the queue. It should add to the bottom without deleting anything.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Annoyance:

Upper Deck
Middle Deck
Lower Deck

on ship designs are all the same; there's no gradual tapering, etc; and small ships have too many decks; small ships should only have one deck; to represent that they're small!

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Request:

Add Weapons Component Only Slots to Ship Design.

I like how you have "Inner, Outer, and Armor" component slots; but the lack of a weapons slot feature really does make the game a bit unrealistic; because in real life, ships don't bristle with weapons; there's only so much large/medium calibre weaponry you can put on before you run into structural and arc of fire limitations.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Im really wondering what 50 Beta-Testers did all the time. There is so much obvious stuff...?!

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Quote:
".. because in real life,ships don't bristle with weapons.."

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..

Edit:

No offense intended, but when you consider the entire premise of the game isn't very (or, at all) realistic, asking for more realism is rather pointless, and tends to end up sucking a lot of fun out of games like this.

Re: SE5 Demo Bug Reports
 

Well, we sent in bug reports, the list is quite long. We designed a whole web page with a discussion area and voting system to toss around ideas and features and to sort them by relevance. This list is quite long, too. We discussed a lot about the game in IRC. We made some Mods (for planets and systems, for tech, for balance...). We reported for about a year about UI issues and how to improve the UI. We did all of this in our spare time without much support from SF besides the existence of an beta forum. Please feel more then free to report all issues.