SE5 Demo Bug Reports & Annoyances/Requests

[dmm]

I think I found a MAJOR bug in space combat involving missiles and PDC.

Summary:
In the simulator, if the combat resolution is set to high speed, the PDC miss frequently, while at low speed the PDC either never allow a missile through (Tactical, 1/2 speed) or seldom allow one through (Strategic, 1x speed).

Details:
I am pitting two LC3s (500 kT) against each other.
Alligator has 4 A8 Armor, 10 PDC8, 12 CT-2 Engines, 2 DUC6 with LargeMount6, and CombatSensor11. LCM has 8 A8 Armor, 1 PDC5, 12 Ion-5 Engines, 5 CSM9. Both have 1 LifeSupport2, 2 CrewQuarter1, 1 Bridge1, 1 SupplyStore2, and 1 BasicSensor11. Both have OrdStore2 (1 for Alligator and 3 for LCM). All engines and weapons are in outer hull; all other non-armor in inner hull.
In either tactical or strategic battle simulations, the Alligator ALWAYS wins if I run the simulation at low speed, but the LCM ALWAYS wins if I run it at high speed.

[tmcc]

Interesting behavior. I think I remember something like this happening in Starfury as well, but I have not played that in a while. Coincidence??

Have you recreated this bug with other PD weapons like the Flak Cannon or Bomblets? It would be intertesing if it were weapon specific vs. general PD routine.

[dmm]

I also have a complaint about missile combat and PDC, which may or may not be a bug.

If I pit several LCMs against an equal (or even somewhat greater) number of Alligators (see previous post for descriptions), then the LCMs ALWAYS win, regardless of the speed setting of the simulator. What happens is this: when the leading LCM shoots its missiles at the leading 'Gator, all of the 'Gators shoot all of their PDC at the missiles. Then the second LCM shoots its missiles, and they ALL get through, because none of the 'Gators has PDC ready.
Unless this is fixed/changed, there is absolutely NO point in using PDC for missile defense, and absolutely NO point in trying to fight missile ships with direct-fire weapons with range < 9.

[dmm]

tmcc said:
Have you recreated this bug with other PD weapons like the Flak Cannon or Bomblets?

I tried making Alligators that relied on FlakCannons and/or Bomblets instead of PDC, and they always lost to the LCM, so I gave up. (Granted, they were 5 tech levels behind my PDC.)

[Ronik]

I've had two errors in the demo so far, in a few hours of playing...

I got a "Range Check Error" when trying to trade 2 of my starcharts for 1 of another empire's charts... I accidentally added the single chart for the other empire twice, and when I went to delete it, it crashed... The error wouldn't go away and I had to use the task manager to exit it...

The other error I got, I can't, unfortunately, remember quite HOW I got it... But the error was "Canvas Does Not Allow Drawing"... I got a gray screen, with the "windows is angry" error message sound after minimizing and clicking on the game on the taskbar. I got this just a few minutes after I had to restart SE5 for the other bug... I had to quit it with the task manager then too.

Otherwise, is there any way to disable ship movement animation? I find it annoyingly slow... Though that could just be my computer...

[wrongshui]

There's a fast movement option in the options.

[Ed Kolis]

I don't think you can disable the animation, but there is an option under Game Options (hit escape then Options) to make them go pretty fast...

[ckotchey]

Ok, I've played a tiny bit with SEV so far, and the game itself seems fine on the surface, but I *really* have issues with some of the GUI workings that are just plain annoying! (I'll limit this post to UI peeves)

* Pop-up Help text: the popups are very large, and very intrusive. When I turn it down to the "medium" (title only) setting, it's only slightly less annoying - is it really necessary that when I put the cursor over the "close" button that a popup that says "close" pops up? The ONLY buttons that really need pop-up help text are those buttons that have no text, like the ship order buttons, and the order buttons at the top of the screen. Turning the pop-ups off is best choice, but then I get all those picture-only icons mixed up!

* Scroll Bars - this is a pet peeve of mine - the "slider" in the scrollbars should resize itself (as it does in Windows) to indicate what percentage of the actual window is currently visible.

* The "Layout" buttons (and similar) - Ugh! Too many clicks to hit "layout", then find the appropriate display type, select it, then it "OK". All the layout options should be much easier to find and select.

* The Icon/Images that hover over colonized planets and my ships are ENORMOUS!! I can't see anything that is beneath them - even the name of the planet itself! Do they have to be so big?? And when a ship is in the same sector as a planet? Forget it! Can't read the name of ths planet, ship, or anything because all the text is piled up over each other! Maybe you can put the planet name UNDER the planet, instead of over it. Then, let's make those fonts a lot smaller so we can avoid the overlay issues.

* In the ship design window, the background image of the ship's shape gets "dithered" in the background of the icon representing a ship's components - this makes it rather hard to see the component icon - makes it hard to see & guess what it is.

* In general, I'll blanketly say that if anything is HUGE - it should be made smaller. The beauty I liked of SEIV is that everything is small, easy to read, and easy to access. Too much of the text, list items (like your turn log), icons, etc., is oddly gigantic. As a general rule, I'd say that if you can make anything smaller, and thus reduce/remove the need for scrollbars, then it's a very good thing. (oddly, though, the opposite direction seemed to have been taken for the ships' orders buttons, which are VERY tiny and hard to decipher).

Keep it simple, clear, and small.

[Suicide Junkie]

* The Icon/Images that hover over colonized planets and my ships are ENORMOUS!! I can't see anything that is beneath them - even the name of the planet itself! Do they have to be so big?? And when a ship is in the same sector as a planet? Forget it! Can't read the name of ths planet, ship, or anything because all the text is piled up over each other! Maybe you can put the planet name UNDER the planet, instead of over it. Then, let's make those fonts a lot smaller so we can avoid the overlay issues.

I bugged Aaron about that a ways back.

If you look in the empire options, system view I think, there should now be a flag /icon sizes option.
He did add a "small" option, but for the life of me I can't see why he also added a "Larger" option... symmetry perhaps.

[Phoenix-D]

That option is there SJ, but it also makes the status icons and numbers of ships/units smaller. :/