Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Hello all,

I am a long time SEIV and soon to be 5 player who has lurked here for years. Amazon is selling SEV and has one bad user review. As I have not recieved ny copy yet I am not able to tell prospective buyers the game has merits.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Ummm why would people lie? The game is hardly what I would considered finished. There needs to be a penalty for realising your beta version software. A penlaty like turning off prospective buyers.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

He didn't tell people to lie and SE5 has alot of good points and the bugs that there were are qucikly being trounced in patches.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

So you are of the opinion that it is fien to release a buggy unfinished product as long as it is patched in the future? Complacancy like that is the reason for the PC game market being in the state it is in.

He is telling people to basically prop up a game he has not yet played himself! That is the biggest example of blind cheerleading I had ever seen. What about people who actually depend on these reviews to make their purchasing decisions? I have been burned many times by reviews that painted game that certainly didn't desrve my money as the best thing under the sun.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Then you didn't research the game enough. There are usually many reviews from different sources on any game, and I will usually want to play some form of demo of the game before I buy.

As for SEV, yes its buggy, but it is one guy, not a cast of 100 people or more. Plus his track record on any of his past projects is more of a reason to support his continued efforts. If you like SEIV, you will more than likely have fun with SEV. It will easily be around for 6 or more years just like its predecessor.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

How much do I have to research a game before I buy it? It used to be a quick glance at the box was enough. Now I have to read many reviews and play the demo ebcause all most games are now a days is pretty graphics and crappy or buggy game engine.

I like SE V but I could not honestly tell anyone to go out and buy it. I would instead tell them to wait a few months for the bugs to be sorted out. Why are you attacking me for having an honest opinion?

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Man those people who give the game a negative review without ever having actually played the game or know of the franchise are really just clueless. This applies to all negative reviews based upon the demo and not the full version of the game posted by poeple who haven't ever played an SE game before and don't have a clue to Aarons history with supporting his games.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Astax said:
Why are you attacking me for having an honest opinion?

Attacking? Huh? He was merely disagreeing; I see nothing construable as an attack?

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Why would you consider what SFI did to be a bad thing? I mean now that the game has been released the bug reports are coming in. Many new bugs have been discovered and are now being looked at by Aaron. The more people playing the game simply means that more bug reports are going to be generated and reported resulting in a better campusing of the issues and much more indepth patches and improvements.

I think that SFI did the right thing here even if it does cost some sales, in the end the ends do justify the means, and those ends are an improved game.

This is a vary fair statement. And no one is attacking you over your opinion. Like I have said before, the nay sayers often point out the flaws that no one else would dare to do. The end result is attention gets applied toward the problems. 1 nay sayer carries more weight than 100 pro-spouters.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Bought the game before the 1.08 patch, played it for hours the day I got it, didn't crash, didn't break, had a blast exploring the galaxy and tech tree. It was plenty complete(more so then the likes of moo3, civ3, star fleet command, tribes vengence and a few other games that did break on takeoff), and in no way a "beta" version, aside from stuff that I knew was in the bug reports that would crash the game(IE guy goes to a doctor and says it hurts when I do thi, doc goes don't do that) I still managed to find tons to occupy my time and attention, I had fun, I enjoyed it, these aren't lies. Maybe I'm just more intuitive then the average guy because I picked up the UI in a few minutes(I really don't see how you can't... between the lower right panel, the right click menu, the bar up top the hotkeys and the map....), even found the scrap facilities button on my own. Also, with the promise of further patching and maybe even an SEV gold, a rock solid community, I knew this was a very sound investment and would be more then willing to recomend it to other players.

Truth is computer games(and programs themselves, IE windows) have bugs, they will always have bug, SEIV still has bugs, nintendo games with all their army of QA still get bugs, glitches and broken games(IE the +5 bottle trick in LoZ OoT, the skulltulla cheat, ect). It's not like we have another MoO3 here, a game that was given tons of delays, and still released in terible shape and then abbandonned by it's company to a few modders who managed to make it about half as playable as SEV is now. SEV was developed on schedual, released more or less on time(jumped the gun a little but still patched within a couple weeks with another on the way), patched on time and will continue to be patched regularly for years with the combined efforts of a community far larger then moo3's. These facts alone should either negate any innitial dissapointments, or a tleast give enough of an optimistic outlook to warant a resounding recomendation to anyone from the hard core strategy fan or the newbie who has never even played checkers or chess but secretly longs to be a space emporer.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

The big knock on SEV for a newbie, IMO, isn't the bugs. It isn't any more buggy than many newly released games (which is annoying as hell, but..eh).

The big problem is the documentation. The tutorial is still a canned series of text messages, the manual is a bit better but still quite weak, etc. How many times have we seen the "my ships won't shoot!" "are you putting ordinence on them?" thing, or "how do I do XXX", etc.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Frankly I'm one of the noobs that is disappointed with SEV. I read the reviews of SEIV, played the demo, and bought the game. But now after getting deep in and having it crash after slowing down, and having experienced trading bugs, I would not recommend this to anyone else new to the franchise.

I understand that the author is the sole programmer, but that does not excuse him for releasing a product that wasn't finished.

I work in the industry, so I know that PC games are released buggy all the time, but it's never right to release a game that has major bugs like this. Thankfully I found this forum and discovered that SEIV was released the same way, so I bought that and am playing it instead. SEV is sitting on my shelf, and for a few months it will remain there until some of the major bugs are patched.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

It wasn't just his decision. SFI was involved and they knew full well what they were doing. While many people may not agree with what they did, at least they are doing the right thing and using the feed back that they are getting to make the game a better game.

You speak of major bugs.... I am sorry jeku, but what major bugs are you refering to? Most of the bugs that have been reported are minor. IIRC most games that go gold have a patch waiting for them when they hit store shelves to addres a host of minor and a few major bugs that cropped up after the demo release. That is exactly what was done here.

I speculate that SFI and Malfador needed more feedback about the game so they opted to release it sooner rather than later with the hopes that the community would step, as they have indeed done, and report all the bugs they have found. This kind of tactic, albeit negative in the short run, will generate a lot of negative feed back but altimately will produce a far better game.

Please list the major bugs that you are refering to. If they are indeed game killers then they MUST be addressed asap.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Do you have any proof that SFI forced Aaron to release? I ask because every single game he has made has been released rather buggy... SE4, SF, DO, probably even SE3...

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

You accuse others of having an agenda, then you admit to one. You want to punish someone because you're not happy. How is that more noble than someone who wants the game to do well, knowing that patches are coming out?

All in all, despite Malfador being such a small company, their patch record is better than most large companies. Plus, the game JUST came out.

It is fair to say, that new buyers should know that some parts of the game are still not working, but that is NOT what you said. You said you want to punish someone because your not happy. I would agree with you too, that someone who doesn't have the game should not be posting reviews, good or bad.

But how does "punishing" the developer help anything?

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Please, Atrocities, don't be hostile. There are plenty of issues - that is plain obvious - and people could argue with good arguments that some of them are major.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz *DELETED*
 

Post deleted by Mindi

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif

Yeah... answering lots of se5 modding questions; agreeing with a lot of complaints and posting many of my own; telling people to email them to MM to make sure they are read; working on a little solar system mod (that Kwok incorporated into his balance mod); actively beta testing the game for a year and a half; that whole Wiki thing... These are all prime examples of having nothing to contribute and dickery, right?

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I don't think he was being hostile, I think he was just asking for clarification. Not in the most subtle fashion, but subltey has never been AT's forte. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif (not that that's a bad thing)


Huh? I don't get it. Every response I've seen from Atrocities or Fyron (or from the vast majority of those on this forum) has boiled down to either, "That's a problem alright, you should report it to MM," or "That's been a problem for a while now, so until it's fixed, here's how to work around it." Which would seem to fall into your first category of "address and improve the product", yet you dumped Fyron & AT into the second category. I'm lost, to be honest with you. Maybe a diagram or something might help?

There seems to be a number of people on this forum who seem to believe in some sort of conspieracy against those who don't like SE5, simply because (from what I can tell), most of us aren't interested in creating threads pointlessly slagging SE5, but rather encouraging people to contact MM, providing workarounds, and urging people to be patient, given Aaron's track record of patching the crap out of his games.

Yes, SE5 was probably released a little to early, yes there are a lot of bugs, and yes it's not the most polished game ever released. We know that. Griping about it endlessly isn't going to help. Sending in bug reports & suggestions, which is all I've ever seen Fryon & Atrocities suggest, will lead to SE5 being a game we're all still playing 6 years down the road.

That being said, if you could provide links to posts I may have missed where Fyron & Atrocities are being unhelpful elitest snobs, then maybe I'll have to rethink my position.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Now its true almost everyone hates Fyron but that is what the FHC(Fyron Hater's Club) meetings are for we don't talk about such things here.






j/k We love Fyron





help hes got a gun to my head and hes making me type things

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Meh, fyron gets a little abrasive on occasion and atrocities seems bipolar, but both are all around good eggs.....

I too would like to know what game breaking uber bugs were there that made the game a so called "totally unblayabe alpha version". Because with the work aounds for the few fleet glitches, and avoiding breaking the thing on purpose I played and enjoyed for hours on end. Most of what was going wrong seems to be due to hardware specific issues(which malfador can't really fix without reports from several hundred machines), that or the problem is between the keyboard and the chair(some of the hothead posts I read seemed to come from plaers without enough patients to sit through a commercial on tv...)

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I am sorry Mephisto, I was neither being hostile, sarcastic, or rude. I simply would like to know what bugs he is refering too. A list of these "major" bugs should be compiled and then sent to Aaron. That is the only reason for that comment.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I did not intend for the tone of my comments to come across as being hostile. Please read them without reflecting any anger into the comments. As stated above I was not in any way attempting to be rude, mean, sarcastic, or hostile.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

If I were asked to vote for the most valueable contributer to SE franchise in the last five years I would vote for Fyron without any hesitation. Fyron has done more for this franchise than even malfador has been willing or able to do.

Shrapnel Games is also a dynamic contributer to the success of the game and has been gracious enough to give us a forum to post in even after they no longer are the game publisher.

But we are talking about individuals and as such, Fyron is one of the most dedicated, hard working, loyal, knowledgeable, and experienced guys in the SE community today. No offense inteneded, but if Fyron is insulted, we are all insulting by proxy.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Hold on there you are way out of line! True enough the game has issues but going on the attack against members will not get your point across. It is true that Atrocities and Imperator Fyron can be a bit obstinate at times, indeed I have had a run in or two with Imperator Fyron; however, saying that they are being dicks? You are trying to make me laugh right? Both of them have contributed in ways you can’t imagine. Do you really think they base treatment of others on forum posts made?

When I joined the community was very open and everyone expressed their opinion. Then the community changed and all I could read in every thread was pointless arguing. Now I see the forum returning to the days I loved. I was so angry at two points I left saying I would “never return”. My point is I have been here for a long time and seen this place and some members change; however, Atrocities and Imperator Fyron have always stuck to their guns. You knew from day to day who they were and how they would treat you. Your accusations are utterly unjustified and undeserved.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

"I am sorry jeku, but what major bugs are you refering to?"

No problems, man. For one I can't play the game for more than 1.5 hours at a time without it crashing to the desktop. This happens every time I play, usually just after the ship's speeds start getting noticeably slow and "jagged".

I thought there was a slight chance it was my system, so last weekend I reinstalled XP (which I usually do every 4 or 5 months) and the game--- same thing.

The other thing is the trading bug, which admittedly is minor, but still annoying. I like to trade for different planet colony technology, and trading is broken.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

FYRON LOOK!!! LOOK!!!! neither/nor, either/or!!! I told you it's rare!

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Youch. You reinstall every 4 or 5 months? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif
Use an alternative browser, man!

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Haha, I use Firefox, and no I don't have adware, spyware, and/or virus problems either. I just prefer a fresh clean OS to one filled with crap that should have been removed after uninstalling a game.

I regularly install 2-3 games a week on my home computer and uninstall them soon after, and no matter what they always leave behind junk that eventually slows the OS down noticeably. Oh well http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

AT and IF can sometimes get a bit defensive, but frightlever's characterization is WAY OFF. Not everybody is warm and fuzzy (kind of like ... um ... never mind).

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

There ARE some bugs, like the trading one, that are rather important. And it boggles the mind how they got through beta testing. Also, I think I might change my tag line to "Give me back the 2D interface, or give me death." That said, there are no "game breakers." The game is a lot of fun, and it is quite reasonable to expect (based on past history) that it will get better. Aaron has a whole month before the Christmas present-buying rush, and then a month after that before gamers start spending their Christmas cash.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Getting back to Fiveangels's original post: There are now 3 reviews, 2 very positive (but honest about some shortcomings) and 1 very very negative. Really, I think one star is way harsh! Anyway, I think Fiveangels's suggestion is a good one.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

"dicks"
"complete dicks"

I don't get it? How are we being "complete dicks" to the SE cause?

I'll tell you what, why don't you email Aaron Hall and the guys over at SFI and ask them if they think either Fyron or I are being "complete dicks" to the SE cause. While your waiting on their response I would like to take it one step further and politely ask you what you have contributed to the SE cause in the last six years? I want you to understand that I am not being rude or sarcastic here, I am simply asking a polite question of you.

Lets look at what Fyron has done. At his own expense he not only devleoped SE.net, but pays the hosting cost for it. A site that mind you is the second most popular after these very forums here. Fyron is the author of several highly popular mods and is considered to be one of the pillars of the SE community and is in the SE V Beta.

As for myself, well I have generated over 50 ship sets, been involved in two beta tests for Aarons games, including SE V, and with much help from members here and at SE.net produced a Captain Kwok inspired Star Trek Mod. I again humbly ask you what have you done?

I can tell you one thing that you have done, you have come here with a new identity, without tell us who you used to be, and called two people "complete dicks" with no justification or evidence to back up your insult.

Therefore I submit to you that you don't know what in blue hell your talking about and I find that rather disconcerning given the vicious nature of your comments. I garentee you that no one here will take anything you have to say seriously again if all you do is insult people like Fyron and myself.

So please take a moment and consider what your about to say before you post it. Chances are you will find more people receptive to those who don't go around calling poeple "complete dicks."

And for the record, I am not a dick, I am an upper case dick who loves the SE franchise and will support Aaron and his games long after you have once again forgotten your password to this site.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Let's hope Gamespot doesn't review it yet that's for sure http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

But I like the 3D interface myself.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I already forgot mine!!! thank goodness it's autosaved. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I'd like a diagram also please. Thanks!

Cheers!

EDIT: oops on the double post. didn't see page 3.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Frightlever - You are acting like a real piece of trash. What is up with you people? A game with a couple bugs. you and your cronies come and complain. Fine, point taken. Bugs acknowleged. Patches on the way. Heres a list of work arounds.

But wait! We didn't sympathize enough! Unless people jump on your "lets burn this place down!" band wagon, then people are being "complete dicks"? How the Hell much hand holding do you and your cronies need?

You guys aren't going to be happy until there is a petition against SE5 and the boards close, and all the games are reacalled and Malfador and the developers are out of business because your game crashes and some features aren't available yet. And then, just as AT said, you'll move on and harass someone elses game.

And you call SOMEONE ELSE a dick? Wow. You say that someone who 1. makes shipsets 2. has been here contributing for years 3. Is a non-paid volunteer beta tester, HE is a dick?

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I have to agree that SEV is majorly bugged etc. However, i dont think AC and Fyron are dicks :p They have contributed a lot to the community, from awesome mods (STM, Adamant) to a msot competent website, over a wiki onto hundreds of posts helping both newbies and veterans alike.
Remember that.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Speaking as a former admin of communities, and one that was a dick to people in the end, AC and Fyron have given a lot of this community and a lot of big contributions and they were not as bad to people as I used to be. (Fyron is blunt, but if you balance it with a side of Kwok and a helping of AC, it's nothing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif )

I don't think the comments directed to them were at all warranted.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I for one would like to be introduced to AC.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Hey guys thanks for the support however we should focus our efforts back onto the topic at hand. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Well, I guess everything is said now and as one moderator of the shrapnel board says: "Discussing the matter at hand is fine, discussing each other is not" we really should return to the topic.

I'd honestly want to thank AT and IF who did not put gasoline into the fire! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

They have now; see this thread for discussion.

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

Gamespots review was very fair given what they had to work with. They pointed out some good things such as the game is going to be supported and improved, and that it has great potential. The bugs just killed the review though. We all knew this was going to happen, as did SFI and Aaron, but it was a gamble and lets hope that the end results pay off for them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Put some reviews on Amazon plz
 

I started trying to clean up this thread, but frankly I've already spent too much time cleaning up other people's immature posts this morning. Locked.