AI War Beta 3.712 Released -- Multiplayer Lobby!

[Shardz]

In the blowout game I had, I was on my home planet making star ships, then switched over to a newly acquired planet and proceeded to build my routine structures to gain resources, secure the wormhole, etc. I was doing this for about 4 minutes when all of a sudden..."YOU HAVE LOST..." comes on the screen. WhatWhatWhat? I frantically check my planets...then my home planet...and everything is gone. Wiped out completely. I had no notice, popup, nothing...game over.

I flash back to the old C&C days where they had that female "AI" voice that would tell you this stuff...and now I know why they did that. I would actually like to have a full suite of audio clips like that to inform you in case you miss the message...cause it's easy to do apparently. But then again, that might drive people crazy...I dunno.

I'm also missing the minimap. I haven't seen much talk about this, but I'm finding my high resolution real estate empty without it. Switching over to another screen to view this info isn't as convenient as all the info that was on one screen and seems a little clumsy to me. I think I know what Chris is shooting for with a more streamlined interface and all...and I get that, but I'm still missing that little box that I could look at for a second at a glance to see if the coast is clear. Some will argue that it's just as easy to hold down the "T" key, but I would be able to get this info in a split second without pushing anything before...plus, I just miss that cool little tech-like graphic that I'm so used to in other RTS's.

Ok, I let the cat out of the bag...let the rocks fly.

[x4000]

As far as not being able to see "if the coast is clear" at a glance, we've made that vastly easier than ever for the current planet.  For one, just glance at the planetary summary (the big palette to the right), and it will tell you.  For another, if the top item in the alerts box to the upper left isn't "X enemy ships at this planet" or if that box isn't present, then the coast is clear.  And lastly, if the Attack indicator at the top right isn't higher than 0, then there aren't any ships on any of your planets.  It's actually way more informative than ever, now.

[Shardz]

As far as not being able to see "if the coast is clear" at a glance, we've made that vastly easier than ever for the current planet.  For one, just glance at the planetary summary (the big palette to the right), and it will tell you.  For another, if the top item in the alerts box to the upper left isn't "X enemy ships at this planet" or if that box isn't present, then the coast is clear.  And lastly, if the Attack indicator at the top right isn't higher than 0, then there aren't any ships on any of your planets.  It's actually way more informative than ever, now.

Well, the first two items here are great if you are already on the current planet. If not, then I'm basically looking for a little green or red "1" up in the menu...and with all that goes on in an instant in this game, it's apparently not enough to catch my attention that my home planet is taking heat. Whatever I'm doing at the moment is trivial if my home planet is under attack...especially if I'm not on that planet screen at the time. I'm thinking some bells and whistles might be in order for this scenario because that little number isn't catching my eye well enough considering the severity of that particular event.

[keith.lamothe]

The number directly to the left of the attack number is the number of planets under attack.

I have some ideas for making it a little easier to know more specifics, but right now we have to deal with serious bugs rather than feature requests.

[x4000]

Yep.  Having an easier way to know when a planet is under attack is an interesting idea and something we'll look at at some point, but probably not until next week at the earliest.

[Shardz]

Okie dokie...I mean, I know there are tweakable elements in the game for the color blind and such...and now I'm wondering if I actually need those options on or not at this point.

The reason for bringing it up is because I didn't seem to have the organizational problems in the SlimDX version as I appear to be having now. I was wondering if it was just me or perhaps due to some other element which changed or hadn't been implemented yet. I've also never had my home planet taken out while I was on another screen (or actually ever), so that started me thinking that either I need to revisit the tutorial or change the way I've been playing.

As for the minimap - it's quite feasible to not use it at all as Chris has stated, but I find it to be a guilty pleasure and just simply enjoy having that little panel of info there. As it is now (and no criticism to Keith at all), I will probably just try to ween myself from it entirely 'cause I have too much going on as it is to mess with one more momentary toggle switch.

[keith.lamothe]

As for the minimap - it's quite feasible to not use it at all as Chris has stated, but I find it to be a guilty pleasure and just simply enjoy having that little panel of info there. As it is now (and no criticism to Keith at all), I will probably just try to ween myself from it entirely 'cause I have too much going on as it is to mess with one more momentary toggle switch.

No offense taken, the hybrids handle that side of things   But there's no particular reason (other than not being able to get to it right now) we can't have an option for it to always draw the minimap, just in the lower-left of the screen or something like that.  But it wouldn't work for all resolutions.

So the feedback is helpful, in giving us ideas what to do later when things aren't so crazy, just keep your expectations reasonable

[Winter Born]

I think ditching shields for armor will make for much less confusion vrs Force fields

now that AI turrets and permamines are no more , it would seem that cleanup drones have only minefields left to remove as a reason for existance.


I think your Guardians could use a thread for Ideas with a recommendation to put them in the Mantis

Minefield laying Guardian for the Mineloving AI, Stealth Guardian with tractor beams to snare your ships --

Can see many permutations on this like the new guard posts -- some more generic types used by any AI and a specialized one that fits a particular AI's theme

[x4000]

Mostly I'm not soliciting ideas for guardians quite yet, I know what I'm going to do for the first batch of them.  But, when we're doing the next expansion I'll be more open to discussion on that stuff -- right now we're just low on time.

[Shardz]

No offense taken, the hybrids handle that side of things  But there's no particular reason (other than not being able to get to it right now) we can't have an option for it to always draw the minimap, just in the lower-left of the screen or something like that.  But it wouldn't work for all resolutions.

So the feedback is helpful, in giving us ideas what to do later when things aren't so crazy, just keep your expectations reasonable

Yeah, that's what it is basically; feedback. Just my random thoughts on playing experience with the new builds coming to light. I know there is a ton of stuff for you guys to do right now and I'm not even at the suggestion stage - I was more interested in other opinions about the matter (mostly for a sanity check again lol).

Some tech stuff for you two while I'm here slappin' my fingers around; for me, performance is silky smooth with the Unity engine in effect. I had a full AI Mk IV planet battlefield scenario going on with at least 2,500+ ships total waging combat and then all the relative buildings, effects, etc. I'm running the game at High [Default] and it didn't dip under 39.7 fps. This isn't the best benchmark machine for your mission statement, but stuff is quite sweet over here.

[Winter Born]

np

[keith.lamothe]

Some tech stuff for you two while I'm here slappin' my fingers around; for me, performance is silky smooth with the Unity engine in effect. I had a full AI Mk IV planet battlefield scenario going on with at least 2,500+ ships total waging combat and then all the relative buildings, effects, etc. I'm running the game at High [Default] and it didn't dip under 39.7 fps. This isn't the best benchmark machine for your mission statement, but stuff is quite sweet over here.

That is certainly good news

[x4000]

Some tech stuff for you two while I'm here slappin' my fingers around; for me, performance is silky smooth with the Unity engine in effect. I had a full AI Mk IV planet battlefield scenario going on with at least 2,500+ ships total waging combat and then all the relative buildings, effects, etc. I'm running the game at High [Default] and it didn't dip under 39.7 fps. This isn't the best benchmark machine for your mission statement, but stuff is quite sweet over here.

That is certainly good news

Ninja'd.

[Giegue]

how do I check my computer's RAM?

[x4000]

how do I check my computer's RAM?

Here's one good explanation: http://www.sharpened.net/helpcenter/answer.php?106