SE5 Demo Bug Reports & Annoyances/Requests

[Possum]

Captain Kwok said: What's the level of the help-text in the demo, does it give name of object and description?

Uhh, Kwok, are you seriously telling me you're in here discussing the demo when you don't even have/play it?

I'm majorly underwhelmed with the demo thus far.

It seems to me like it has too many bells & whistles, too much feature creep. There's too much damn flash & chrome that just gets in the way, and obscures or interferes with functionality.

Worst of all, the whole thing is way way way too click-intensive. My first session with the demo ended when my wrist started to ache, something that never happens with SE4. This is going to be an issue for older gamers in longer game sessions.

[Phoenix-D]

Kwok has the better IIRC, he doesn't need the demo.

Again, right click is your friend. So are the keyboard commands (backspace for cancel orders especially- no idea why that command got burried..) Ship design not withstanding SE5 doesn't have that many more clicks than SE4- and if you use shift-click, ship design is tolerable.

[CRM114]

Hey guys, the SEV demo really, really doesn't like my laptop for some reason. It's got an nVdia GeForce Go 6400 video card. Check out the nastiness.







I've tried all the detail settings and nothing helps. When I tried bypassing the 3D card by setting the game to RGB emulation, it just crashed continuously. Any thoughts?

[StarShadow]

Did you try changing the video from 'Auto' to 'Safe'? Also, what version of DirectX does your laptop support?

[CRM114]

That fixed it! Thanks, man.

[morphh]

I had the same problems as CRM114 described above - screen going wacko. This problem usually made itself apparent when I would open new windows in the game. My FPS would drop from 30 to less then 10 after opening a window.. when fps got down to around 7 the screen would flip out. I tried turning the memory to safe mode as described here but that didn't work - had problem where it would only show have the screen. Tried limiting the game to one processor core as described with no help. I'm running the game at 1900x1200 @ 32bit - changing resolution or color depth did not seem to do anything. My laptop is a Dell XPS M1710 with 2Gig with a GeForce Go 7900 GTX (512mb of vid mem) - So this is not a weak video system. (Tried multiple drivers - even beta).

I found that if I turned the Anti Aliasing off, it boosted my fps up to around 55, which pretty much fixed the problem. Also switching from 2x, 4x, or 8x to 2xQ or Application controlled worked. However, application controlled seemed to turn off the Anti Aliasing. So the best option seemed to be 2xQ, however, oddly - the game looked a bit better with it off (seemed to flip off and on when you went over the menus in 2xQ). I find it very odd that a single window will decrease the fps by 20 in any of my scenarios. This problem needs to be corrected. -- Morphh

[Devnullicus]

Bug Report:
I was playing the demo and the Abiddon decided that they didn't like me colonizing in their home system. So they wiped the planets out. This, understandably, annoyed me and so I brought in a few fleets and wiped out their empire.

As part of my crusade, I used intel and sabotage on them to the tune of about 25% of my intel budget. Unfortunately, my fun soon ended and I got a message saying I'd lost contact with the Abiddon (as I sterilized their last little colony).

When I check my intel screen, I notice that my defense was still 75%, but the 25% I had devoted to making the Abiddon's lives miserable was ... gone. Nothing I did could get my 25% budget back - the Abiddon had their revenge.

[ElectricEel]

Devnullicus said:When I check my intel screen, I notice that my defense was still 75%, but the 25% I had devoted to making the Abiddon's lives miserable was ... gone. Nothing I did could get my 25% budget back - the Abiddon had their revenge.

The percentage should be automatically deallocated when you end your turn. At least, that was what happened to me in a similar situation.

[Cyrien]

I am wordy. It is 12:49Am. I just finished playing like 5 games of the demo in a row all day. You are warned.

I like this demo and I think the game will be great. Most of the bugs don't bother me that much. MM has great record on that account. I noticed most of the bugs others have already posted (I read all 20 pages! *pats self on back*)

But I do have a few issues... not bugs just issues that really need to be fixed. Not things that can be modded or SHOULD have to be modded but that just should work the proper way (and yes for some things there just is a wrong and right way)
Ok. My biggest complaints are the following:

1. Units are listed as individuals and not stacked... this happens everywhere. Must be changed. The game will be super unwieldy late game if it isn't. Especially in the larger 10x slower research moded epic games that some prefer (ME).
Example:
Even when you minimize the images in the lists when you are building 10 fighters at 20 planets in a single turn that is 200 individual entries and out of those 200+ entries I need to pick out just a few that I need to take action on, for instance launching those new Helios IV recon satellites that my planets will be finishing up over the course of the next 5 turns to scan for my enemies new cloaked ships around my planets... but alas the list is filled with all of those hundreds of fighters).
Example 2:
Alternate instance being when trying to make sure my carriers have loaded up the proper fighter loadout. Check the carrier cargo listing and it just shows row after row of fighter pictures. I have to right click on each one to even find out what it is. I have to whip out a calculator and start dividing the fighter hull size by total cargo kt carried just to find out how many fighters I have... and that only works if all the fighters are the same kt size!

2. Flags and banners on planets. Smaller or with alpha seethrough or whatever it is that makes things still visible and legible but that you can still see what is behind them adequatly.

3. Those darn tooltips just need to stop popping instantly and hovering around blocking everything I need to see. An option for setting the tooltip delay would be nice and is just about standard in almost every other game with tooltips now adays.

4. The AI absolutly has to have at least a minimal understanding or scripting of the diplomacy options.
Example:
Me and the Amonkrie are both at war with the Xiati we have a nice little relationship going on and are getting along fine. They propose a very progressive and nice treaty that includes trade, scanner sharing, immigration, mutual intel, no planet bombing or blackholes and other evil stuff... and then... no research for either of us. Umm... what? So I alter it and send it back with only the no research option removed... and they reject it. The lights are on but I don't think anyone is going to answer the door... everyone is too busy walking into the wall over and over.

5. No screen clicking bleed through. I don't want to click on an option on the screen that popped up over the old one and wind up changing an option on the underlying screen as well. Almost certainly just a bug... but annoying enough for a mention.

6. I love the LOS and all... but it is minorly annoying when I have basic scanners with great range and cloaking detecting scanners with much less... so I have scanner systems that use both... but I can't tell exactly where I can start seeing the cloaked vessels and where it is just normal scanning. Maybe a darker green for the scanning squares where you have a second scanner with more functionality but less range?

7. I minor suggestion (thus at number 7) but I would really like to see more done with the whole ship design system. The squares are nice and all and I like the decks but there just isn't enough there to really justify it. Yah 3D hit detection and everything in battles is swell but is the average joe gamer even going to be aware of that option? Reading through the posts here several people already weren't aware of that and were missing the simpler setup of the lined up components in a list. The current system is also too easy to exploit.
Example:
I always split my engines into four seperate groups. One in the back one up front and one for each side. Thus my ships may be more likely to lose some movement in battle but they are far less likely to lose all of their movement, in addition since engines take up 10kt but have 20kt structure they actually make a decent early make shift armor between my enemies and more important systems... like my weapons. And still decent later game because hey... the make skip your shields and armor... but those engines aren't either. So they still have to take em out... buying you just enough time to get off that last volley to take out your enemies weapons and then the rest of him. And then of course weapons in the internal slots... etc etc...

That's about it for now... I need to sleep now since it is 1:16AM now! More SEV in the morning... ahh... the joys of being your own boss.

PS: For the decks. Does anyone know if the 3d detection system for combat damage takes them into account. I mean the battles are 2d flat plane? But If I have armor on one deck and not the others is there a chance of a hit hitting on those decks and taking out stuff on the inside of that deck since it has no armor? Because if not... it should. Maybe randomly choose a deck with something on it to hit for each shot and apply damage. No putting everything in the three decks internals and only have armor on one level to protect it all or have all three levels armor layers being applied as a single one to the different sides.

[Suicide Junkie]

About the decks;
There is nothing 3D about it, they're just to prevent you from running out of slots on your ships.