Starfury : Lacking a lot?

[Renegade 13]

Originally posted by Markavians:
This seems like a game released ahead of schedule just to prove a feature (3D models for SE:V?).

You have to remember that Malfador is really one man doing all the programming. Therefore, adding features like those you described takes a long time. Also, Malfador is a small company that (I assume) can't afford to wait for another year even to add more, better features. Money is always a consideration.

There is hope that some of your suggestions may be incorporated into future patches too.

I agree with you that there are some things that could have been done that would greatly enhance the game. Personally though, I very much enjoyed the game, and have spent more hours than I should have playing the game . I guess we'll just have to see what comes.

Just my opinion on the matter.

Renegade 13

[Markavian]

To compensate for the extreme reality of scale, I would have made a game that focused around a holographic map, representing the galaxy, not pretending that was the way things happened.

I'd also program in auto path finding, and stick the camera at a higher rearwards isometric angle, kinda like in C&C games I geuss (Emperor: Battle for Dune, Generals).

I suppose theres no changing the current model now, but the game has set out some fun ground rules.


Maybe Aaron should hire some more programmers?

[dHay]

Originally posted by Markavians:

Maybe Aaron should hire some more programmers?

Hmm, lets see. At approx $40 retail, say Malfador gets $20 per game. (Probably high.)

Low end programmer salary, $60,000, plus overhead, might bring that up to $90,000.

Thus, one more programmer is roughly 4500 sales/year. That is just to break even, maybe.

The numbers can be better or worse than this, but it shows that games at this level are not done to get rich....

[Phoenix-D]

How exactly does the higher camera angle help? That and if you really want it, try the function keys for the above/below views, and adjust the distances in the text files to taste. Not sure if you can adjust the angle for the default view, haven't tried that.

[Markavian]

Even so, the game was still lacking a lot. If it was made even better, they'd sell more copies right?

What were you getting at?:

that games at this level are not done to get rich....

.

How exactly does the higher camera angle help?

Well, the function enabled camera angles aren't very useful, they're not zoomed out enough. It be really useful to see the solar system from a zoomed out perspective, like the top down map, but you'd easily be able to see your vessel is. in relation to everything else.

[Phoenix-D]

EV: Nova does that. It ends up not working all that well- either you're zoomed in tight enough you can't see much (and get shot from off-screen) or you're zoomed out so far you can't make out detail.

You can adjust the top-down view distance, though. What you want is to adjust these lines

code:

---

Viewing Distance Side                                := 10

Viewing Distance Overhead                            := 50

Viewing Distance Above Behind XY                     := 10

Viewing Distance Above Behind Z                      := 5

---

for any ship you'd care to use that with.

[Phoenix-D]

Just tested it. Going for what you'd like doesn't work so well, for the reasons I mentioned..you'd have to adjust the scales of everything to match as well.