AI War Beta 3.701 Released!

[TheMachineIsSentient]

Yeah, sorry Fox, when I started moving over topics, I didn't copy a lot of things. I copied any relevant posts, and I put them all into one bug report, without regard for the name of who did it. However, I did copy the direct URL of the post I moved, so if you want to know the original author, you can do that by following the link on my bug report.

[HercMighty]

For the expansions is the check mark to denote to use them or to disable them?

[Lancefighter]

welcome to the forums!

Checkmarks mean the expansion is enabled.

[Shardz]

Aesthetic comment:   Better now as the conversion is still young ;P

The stars are very nice........ except theres too many ;p I am only mentioning it because tis the same problem with the background noise that was there before - the star "parts"have too much low-brightness noise which results in the "splotches" of brightness in the nebula. But now its not because of editing error but rather because the starfields as they are now are too densely populated when they are layered over each other.

The weird thing is i can't trace back the noise to any particularly star image.png...so they are all contributing to the effect but if they are "layered" then the starfield png's need drastically less stars than they have now. Someone just needs to go trough them with the eraser (heh no thats pun on my name) and make them a bit drastically more sparse.


So this is not always as noticeable depending on what starfields are used how (as this seems random)

Just dropping this here as thats the first thing that i noticed, besides that the new effects are awesome, though i would also kindly request to have all GUI elements (and of course, sprites in the research and galaxy tabs) preloaded at all times. I opened the research and galaxy tab and i saw it loading which makes the GUI appear the very opposite of "snappy"

Besides that it looks all pretty well and nice, particularly the engineer beams are very neat ;P

Edit: Also

Can we get FPS Limiter and Vsync settings please? 

I'll have to chime in here and agree with the star density. It's almost like dumping an entire can of fish food into an aquarium and trying to look down through it. I want to take my hand and squeeze a ton of them together and form a nebula or something...LOL. I had one game that had so many stars that the background (space) was almost 75% gray. The Vsync is also a good idea to avoid 'tearing' and I'm all for that one, as well.

It would be much easier for me to test this game if the last 5 or 6 blockbuster releases didn't suck so bad...

Command & Conquer 4    :  Fail
Elemental: War of Magic  : Disaster
Supreme Commander 2:   : Laughable
Disciples III: Renaissance : Mediocre
Civilization V                  : Disappointment

It seems I've spent all year pouring over lack of features, game stopping bugs, ineffective game mechanics, and other various sundry items not worth mentioning. I'm not sure how much help I can be at this point other than to point out stuff that is happening on my end and trying to grin and bear it all.

I do have faith in Arcen, that isn't debatable. But it's my level of patience that I question the most at this stage.

[Eagleheart]

I am unable to select anything with the mouse, either with just clicking or dragging a box, so it's pretty unplayable. 

[Lancefighter]

press alt - it... ah hell with it. Link to come.
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7278.0.html

read that

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

[Buttons840]

It would be much easier for me to test this game if the last 5 or 6 blockbuster releases didn't suck so bad...

Command & Conquer 4    :  Fail
Elemental: War of Magic  : Disaster
Supreme Commander 2:   : Laughable
Disciples III: Renaissance : Mediocre
Civilization V                  : Disappointment

It seems I've spent all year pouring over lack of features, game stopping bugs, ineffective game mechanics, and other various sundry items not worth mentioning. I'm not sure how much help I can be at this point other than to point out stuff that is happening on my end and trying to grin and bear it all.

I do have faith in Arcen, that isn't debatable. But it's my level of patience that I question the most at this stage.

What are you trying to say?  I am reminded of my first encounter with Arcen:  I had a problem with the game, and posted in the tech support forums, and 5 minutes later the company owner and lead developer had responded to my post with a fix which worked.  What more do you want?

Also, I enjoy Supreme Commander 2 and Civ V.  If you don't like anything the industry has produced recently, I'll be the first to support your efforts to create your own game, and remind you that there are tools freely available to do so.

[Mánagarmr]

Good grief, I can't believe I missed that /BONK.  Thank you.

You think that is bad? I missed there _were_ any release notes at all xD

[Shardz]

What are you trying to say? 

I feel I was fairly clear and concise with my wording...

Also, I enjoy Supreme Commander 2 and Civ V.  If you don't like anything the industry has produced recently, I'll be the first to support your efforts to create your own game, and remind you that there are tools freely available to do so.

Fine. I'll leave for a few months and just pick up my retail version when it's finished.

[jordot42]

Fine. I'll leave for a few months and just pick up my retail version when it's finished.

See you when you get back, buddy.

Well, you can't please everybody.

[Eagleheart]

press alt - it... ah hell with it. Link to come.
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7278.0.html

read that

Oh, and welcome to the forums!

Ah, thanks! Rather glad I can play it now, was pretty excited about this new engine. Wasn't able to connect to anyone on the 3.7, about to try it on the 3.701, hope it works.

[Lancefighter]

yeah, i think multiplayer is a tad messed up for the time being on the unity side

[vonduus]

Fine. I'll leave for a few months and just pick up my retail version when it's finished.

lol - great comment, it says a lot of the big corporation gaming industry. And I know exactly how you feel, I have had a lot of bad experience with some of the much hyped releases over the past few years, the Total War series comes especially to mind, it took them almost a year from release to get Empire Total War working properly.

But don't point your finger at arcen games, what we are dealing with here is explicitly said to be a beta version, with lots of bugs. Arcen is not dishonest. But even knowing this, it can still be difficult not to get a little bit angry when your game gets screwed because lots of stuff isn't working properly -  yet, that is. I did some bug testing today, and then went back to play 3.189. And when 3.172 is out I will do some more bug testing, and again go back to 3.189 to play a proper game. Some day we shall all arrive at version 4.0, so I can leave the old version for good.

I will probably keep a 3.160 version on my harddisk, though, because my co-op pal is opposed to some of the later changes.

The bottom line for me is that the Unity port is working, and that chris and keith are working very hard to make it not just working, but actually working well. I can see the potential in this port, and I am in a frame of mind these days where I believe I can report some bugs without becoming overly abusive

Think of this as an art work in progress, with you being one of the co-workers. And never comment on anything when you are angry, unless your anger results in sarcastic gems like the one quoted

[Eagleheart]

yeah, i think multiplayer is a tad messed up for the time being on the unity side

Yeah, still doesn't seem to be working. Oh well, at least I can enjoy it single player.

[Diazo]

Well, just wanted chime in that despite the fact that the bug reports are flooding in, overall the Unity release is really good.

Just played a quick test game in 3.701 vs a couple of Diff 10 AI's. I in no way expected to survive very long but I wanted big fights quickly to test the game out and it delivered.

Both AI's threw their first waves at me only 4 seconds apart so I had to deal with 3k ships incoming at once.

Including my own units, that meant it ended up with 4k units in my system fighting it out and while there was the occasional hiccup and noticeable slow down (notably when the waves warped in), the battle went smoothly and I got to watch my home command station go boom without any problems with the game mechanics.

While a fight with 4k units going at it is not the largest battle you'll see in a game, it is pretty big and the game handled it perfectly.

Good job guys.  

D.