How is the game now?

[Fyron]

Phoenix-D said:
"Why are some common options stuck into sub-menus?"

That one is easy; there is not always enough space for buttons, given the massive sizes used. This is particularly true of the construction queue window... oi. When we started complaining about this stuff, Aaron said it was too late to try to restructure the basic framework of the UI... :-\

Yimboli said:
"Or the publisher? *cough* moo3 *cough* "

The developer/publisher relationship between MM and SF1st is not the same as what Quicksilver and... whomever it was... had. AFAIK, SF1st did not contribute (much? any?) money to develop SE5; it was funded by MM.

[parabolize]

GuyOfDoom said:
The complaints I hear range from "it runs slow" to "I hate the UI" Which translates to "I've played SE IV for so many years that I hate things that are different."

I spent about two years of my life constantly changing my desktop environment. I love changing my UI but I think SE5's interface was overall a step backwards. It did add great stuff like hexes but SE5 displays data poorly more often then not like the combat log.

GuyOfDoom said:
SE IV was a great game there is no doubt, but instead of continously critiquing SEV how about people volunteer to help fix it.

Its code is closed source; what else is there to do besides test and report?

[Uncle_Joe]

The problems at this point are just a ton of little niggling things that combine to reduce the fun of playing.

Even slight interface items like the Planet names covering up the red/green dots for habitability are annoying. Is it a big deal? Of course not, but its repeated clicks to remember which planets are where etc.

Also, its handful of clicks to be able to find out what facilities are on a planet instead of a simply r-click on a planet.

Giving orders to ships is semi-uninituitive as well. I have to pick up the sector, click the ship and then click it again to see what orders I have given already.

And for some reason, ship design which used to be a lot of fun in previous versions seems tedious in SE5. I cant place my finger on exactly why, but I all I can go on is that I used to look forward to designing new ships when I got new hulls or components but now it seems like its a bother.

Finally, the most telling thing for me is that even though I've been waiting and checking every day for the patch, when it came out I downloaded it, fired up a game, played for about a dozen turns, saved it, and havent really felt like starting it up again. That is COMPLETELY subjective, but its just a feeling that the game isnt really that fun for me unlike SE3 and SE4 where I could lose myself for hours thinking 'just one more turn...'.

[zen.]

parabolize said:
I spent about two years of my life constantly changing my desktop environment. I love changing my UI but I think SE5's interface was overall a step backwards. It did add great stuff like hexes but SE5 displays data poorly more often then not like the combat log.

So I take it the SE5 UI isn't moddable like SE4? I'm a huge fan of 3&4, but I'm also currently holding off on SE5. If it is moddable, has anyone made new skins?

*recloaks*

zen

::edit:: Thanks Fyron, when I said 'moddable' I meant skinnable.