First impressions
 

Over all the game is good. It rocked on the newer home system (P4 3 gig processor, 128 meg vid card). Played for an hour, loved it

On my work system (P3 833MHZ crumby grahics card, no sound card.)the gameplay was not injoyable. In fact I warped to another system and got caught in a "Warp loop". Just back and forth between the 2 systems. Motion was very choppy.
I suppose that will teach me to play game demo's at work! LOL

Re: First impressions
 

way to many pirites! i started up a new game, kept getting attacked by a cruiser, 2-5 destroyers and 2 sat's and fighter's in the genisis system. had to take the long way around through amonkrie space. actually pretty safe as long as you don't go near there starbases. after i finished my mission's, i got jumped by two destroyers! and i had it on easy!

Re: First impressions
 

Interesting, I rarely get attacked by pirates. In fact I have to go look for them just so I can have a fight

Re: First impressions
 

When you take on missions and have special cargo aboard, the pirates will be out in greater numbers.

Re: First impressions
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or, if you're on an escort mission the pirates REALLY start hammering you. I got jumped by 2 cruisers, and about 3-5 destroyers all in one group. I was still in my destroyer, and I (not surprisingly) was bLasted out of the sky. But hey, that just makes the game interesting!!

Re: First impressions
 

Speaking of which, don't be afraid to run and repair- or, if you get jumped at a point, warp right back out. Had to do that on one of the Amonkrie missons..shoot, fall back, return, etc. Fortunately I was obsessive about upgrading my engines, so I was a bit faster than them.

Re: First impressions
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">there's an old chinese curse that goes 'may you live in interesting times'.

then there's 'may your every wish be granted'. also a curse.

Re: First impressions
 

My first impressions...hhmm. First off I am excited about the game having played the earlier Space Empire games and the concept seems like a lot of fun. First thing I did in the game was of course ram Freeport Station. Nothing in the documentation warns you about collisions. On the next try I got 2 cargo missions done, though I found the planets very dark and hard to see. Would be great if you could target them on the main map. In real life planets usually shine pretty brightly when the sun shines on them. Even if just for gameplay reasons the objects you can interact with should be brighter than the background.

On the way back I got in a tangle with some pirates, and barely managed to destroy them all. Ships move too fast relative to their weapon ranges so you just fly by, get one volley off, then turn around and do it over again. Slowing down helps but it still feels a little too "toyish" and not like I am in a capital spaceship. I went to pick up the loot, and since apparently there is no way to tractorbeam loot, I just ran over it, which of course blew up my ship.

So I reloaded, won the battle again and made it to Freeport station, which also happened to be under pirate attack. I defended the station, then went to go pick up the loot. As soon as I did Freeport Station blew me into smitherines. From reading other Posts apparently I become a criminal if I pick up some loot. Of course without a tractorbeam I really can't distinguish between which of the 4 containers all clumped together I pick up. In fact objects are so large in this game relative to your massive starship that you could easily run into some contraband cargo by accident and be blown up by your own people as a traitor. Pretty severe frontier justice.

So the game looks like it could easily be a lot of fun, but these little things in the game that interrupt the immersion pretty often prevent it from being a good game at the moment. I think with just a little more work it could be a real winner. Hopefully these things can be patched after release.

Re: First impressions
 

"My first impressions...hhmm. First off I am excited about the game having played the earlier Space Empire games and the concept seems like a lot of fun. First thing I did in the game was of course ram Freeport Station. Nothing in the documentation warns you about collisions."

Mmm. The readme isn't a full manual, and I for one wouldn't have thought to put that in there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

"On the next try I got 2 cargo missions done, though I found the planets very dark and hard to see. Would be great if you could target them on the main map. In real life planets usually shine pretty brightly when the sun shines on them. Even if just for gameplay reasons the objects you can interact with should be brighter than the background."

Press G. The grid that pops up makes everything easier to see. I do that a lot in Styx. And the planets are bright..on the side facing the local sun. As per reality, the other side is dark (and sometimes there are moons in shadow)

"On the way back I got in a tangle with some pirates, and barely managed to destroy them all. Ships move too fast relative to their weapon ranges so you just fly by, get one volley off, then turn around and do it over again. Slowing down helps but it still feels a little too "toyish" and not like I am in a capital spaceship."

No argument there, though that can be changed.

"I went to pick up the loot, and since apparently there is no way to tractorbeam loot, I just ran over it, which of course blew up my ship."

Uhh..what? I've never had this happen. Hmm..maybe they collided with an asteroid and you hit that.

"So I reloaded, won the battle again and made it to Freeport station, which also happened to be under pirate attack. I defended the station, then went to go pick up the loot. As soon as I did Freeport Station blew me into smitherines. From reading other Posts apparently I become a criminal if I pick up some loot. Of course without a tractorbeam I really can't distinguish between which of the 4 containers all clumped together I pick up. In fact objects are so large in this game relative to your massive starship that you could easily run into some contraband cargo by accident and be blown up by your own people as a traitor. Pretty severe frontier justice."

Its not permanant, and its rare to be grabbing cargo that close to be a station. Just press B afterwards and toss anything illegal overboard. After that they couldn't care less.

Re: First impressions
 

I haven't played much but am impressed by the ease of the interface. I find it easier than Freelancer.

On my first mission, I too rammed the spacestation. I did it on purpose to see if it was allowed and to watch the graphics. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif