Running low on time, just responding to the actionable items.
Installation: Installer needs to have a "Create New Folder" option. I chose D:\Games\AI War Unity, but I had to create this folder myself (or old school folks can just type it in the input box, but most don't how to do this properly).
That's a really odd issue. I put it in the bug tracker (can you please do that directly next time, if you have time?).
Main Menu Screen: The parallax effect of the stars just doesn't seem right. It appears like the static part is just a transparent overlay or something...not giving the effect of depth properly. I restarted the game and those problems went away. I had a batch of clouds that had a severe 'banding' effect (similar to jpg compression) at first - restarting the game gave me a "new seed" I guess cause they were fine after that. Also, the menu in the left bottom corner just seems...I dunno...not right. It might be my symmetrical brain, but it seems out of the way down there and not all that attractive, though still effective and responsive. This is perhaps my biggest gripe cause it's simply not very user-friendly - more on that below.
Opinions on the starfields are a matter of taste, mostly, I think. Most folks have commented (via youtube) on how awesome it looks. Though now there have been some complaints when folks see it in-game. I really don't have time to chase this indefinitely, and nothing I do will make everyone happy, so it's one of those things that's probably going to stay as-is. I put an immense amount of work into it already.
Regarding the main menu organization, that's something that's extremely temporary. Though, the final version will probably be offcenter.
Game Setup Screen: There is noticeable lag in pushing buttons here and my machine is an i5-750 (Quad @ 2.6gHz) 4Gig @ 1333, GF 250 w/ 512M, Win 7 x64 (yeah, I know - the OS of DOOM).
It's just a bug of some sort, it's on our list.
The AI Type selection menu needs to be sorted. There is a "Random Easier" at the top and a few other "Randoms" at the bottom - these need to be grouped better to avoid unnecessary scrolling and it almost seems daunting and confusing trying to pick one as it is here. I never had problems going straight to what I wanted before.
This is sorted. It puts the Random option right at the top of each grouping. That way you can see all the easier, harder, etc, ones together. The order is identical to what it always was, I'm pretty sure.
The Map Type screen seems...I dunno...naked or something. I'd almost prefer to have a smaller window of the map rather than a full screen representation and have the option windows a bit more integrated and close together - the old way was very simple at a glance, but this is a bit confusing cause there are menus to the right and left as I'm trying to view the middle - it seems scattered and cluttered to me. It's like going into Home Depot trying to find a pencil eraser.
What screen resolution are you on? It's basically the exact same layout as before if you're on 1024x768, except that the Start and Cancel buttons moved. But everything else is the same. On giant monitors that might be a problem, though. Oh, I see that you answered that directly below. I'll put this in the bug-tracker.
Game play: The lower left menu's mouseover tips clip off the screen. My resolution is native 1920x1080 and when I mouseover every menu item, all info popups are clipped off the right side of the screen. The actual menus that come up after clicking an item are horribly irritating, off center, and nowhere near the menu. They pop up separate from the menu floating and require a click in space to get rid of. I would much rather see a mouseover menu style that goes away when you move the mouse away - way too much extra clicking.
The tooltips being offcenter is something we're aware of. Having to click to hide them is not, and we can't reproduce. Any info on how to reproduce would be helpful.
And what happened to my build menu?? I finally (out of memory) hit the B key and it came up - I never would have found it unless I scoured the key bindings - and that's knowing that it is there - new players are going to be mind-boggled with this iteration.
There is nothing different about the build menu... you click the command station, like always, to get it. B also works, but there is absolutely no change in this from version 1.0 even. Was it not coming up when you clicked the command station?
Also, I start the game and there are like 3 groups of units on my home planet - what is all this stuff? I feel like I have to re-learn the entire game all over again cause I'm completely lost trying to figure out what is what.
A lot of this is from the latest pre-Unity betas, but yes it's very different. In general, once you get used to the new stuff, it should overall seem easier. Though, the three starting areas aren't exactly helpful completely, and there are some known things we want to change with the cryo pods, etc. We haven't updated the tutorials yet because this is all still in progress.
It might be a good idea at this point to take the beta link off the forums and email current customers with the download link instead cause I share the concerns of initial installs from new customers, as well. At this point, I'm going to have to wait for more updates before I delve into this Unity version as I'm terribly lost trying to figure things out.
Most of your challenges seem to be with stuff that was in 3.189 pre-Unity, actually. And possibly you've hit some sort of bug where the menu wasn't coming up when it should, not sure. But the new version, in most respects, is not as different functionally as you seem to be making out; I suspect it's frustration over that one bug, from the sound of it.
I think the key word I am looking for here is 'ergonomics', or the lack thereof, that is confusing me. SlimDX version seemed to have things sit and popup where you would expect, not floating in mid screen off-center and not disappearing until I click into space.
That's just bugs -- it's not like we plan that, and that's the sort of thing we need to know about. Calm down, please.
Those won't stay long, and we didn't know they were there until we put out the current beta.
P.S. The most impressive feature is the Particle Illusion effects. I've been using that program since 2.0 and it just plain rocks all around. That will really kick things up a notch and deliver some eye candy to those who like flashy stuff.
Many thanks, glad you enjoy those. And yeah, that's a great program -- I'm a new user, so it's a ton of stuff to see all at once.
