AI War Beta 6.043 "Controllers Out Of Control" Released!

[TechSY730]

As someone paranoid of economic death spirals, the thought of turrets being the same cost over marks actually is very, very enticing, and fundamentally adjusts their value in later game.

Yes. This makes the Mk. II and Mk. III turrets much more enticing.

[Oralordos]

I think I agree with Faulty Logic, it's a bit too bright. It looks very cool, but it is blinding after a bit.

[LaughingThesaurus]

There's something just missing in that title screen but I can't put my finger on it. There's just some more element of depth I felt more when it was the natural game screen, I think, so I might just need to get used to it. I do recommend one serious thing though. If you can, put a little gray translucent box under where the title scroll is. That would be excellent. I think it needs something so the white text is more readable against the bright background. The element of depth comment is, as far as I know, purely irrational nonsense.

[doctorfrog]

Gettin' frank about title screens:

The normal title screen we're all pretty familiar with has been pretty good in the past:
- it's different every time and shows off some of the inherent versatility of the game
- it's brightness/saturation settings inherit from what you've already set, and thus it also reflects player preference
- it's rendered at a 1:1 ratio per pixel and looks sharp

This new title screen:
- is the same every time
- has a big bright spot in it, a brightness that is never present in the game itself unless an entire planet is exploding (perhaps that is what is happening here?)
- lens flare is also one of the most cliched photoshop effects you can add to an image. If anything, understate it.
- stretches to fill my screen with obvious blurring, indicating that the source image is low-res (this is on a 1920x1080 monitor, what I believe is an extremely common resolution)

The last two are the biggest issues, and affect how professional the product is perceived in my view.

I also feel that the the title logo could use a little (not a lot) of texture. The gray gradient feels a little unfinished.

edit: just checked the source image and it's 1080p all right. But it still looks fuzzy to me. Are we not able to bring back the original title screen?

[Coppermantis]

Yeah, it does appear low-resolution for some reason. I still think that it's really cool, but seems slightly off. With a little improvement it could easily be better than the original, though, at least in my opinion.

[Histidine]

On that note, why is the VotM logo so much bigger than the others?

Very_ importantly: Now a core turret cannot be placed on the same planet as a turret of the same type (needler, mlrs, laser, missile, etc) of a lower mark, and vice versa.

This feels kinda arbitrary (though it's not like I have a better solution).

[Kahuna]

About the new main menu background...

No please.. don't do it.. you (not anyone specific) already destroyed the planets.. don't destroy the main menu too. Make the old background DEFAULT and have this as an optional background.

I'm not trying to be an a-hole nor am I trying not to be... I'm saying what I think.

EDIT: Oh and this background doesn't move. The old one was perfect. It looked nice and clam and it fit the overall style of AI War.
The problem is.. the art style was completely changed.. the change was too drastic. Same thing with the planets. This new background and the planets don't even fit that well with the in-game graphics (ships and buildings and stuff). Would you be happy If one day when you woke up your car would suddenly be bright pink? Don't try too much and don't try to be too fancy. Keep it simple. The new background is also low resolution.. yes the MainMenu.png is 1920x1080 which is bigger than my screen.. but it seems like it's low resolution.

[keith.lamothe]

- has a big bright spot in it, a brightness that is never present in the game itself unless an entire planet is exploding (perhaps that is what is happening here?)

Hey, gotta get our planet-cracking somehow.

I believe the artist contracted for this was going for an "eclipse" effect.

- lens flare is also one of the most cliched photoshop effects you can add to an image. If anything, understate it.

I'm not sure if we have a version of the image that such things can be modified (without messing with other stuff), but I'll keep that in mind.

- stretches to fill my screen with obvious blurring, indicating that the source image is low-res (this is on a 1920x1080 monitor, what I believe is an extremely common resolution)

(...)

edit: just checked the source image and it's 1080p all right. But it still looks fuzzy to me. Are we not able to bring back the original title screen?

Are you saying it looks fuzzy even when you're looking at the image itself outside the game, or is that just a problem inside the game?


Anyway, if anyone else has feedback on the title screen (either way: like it, hate it, don't care, whatever) please let me know.  We don't have to keep the new one but I don't think Chris is going to be happy about "2 or 3 players in the release thread didn't like it" as a reason for "sorry, we can't use that image you just paid that contractor $200 for"

[Aklyon]

Do all the expansions have a seperate title screen?

[Kahuna]

Do all the expansions have a seperate title screen?

no

[RodlenJack]

New player here (just got the game a couple days ago in the bundle).  I'm not a fan of the new title screen: it's hard to look at.  This is due to the apparent focus of the image being the big bright area on it.  I don't have a problem with the art style, but the image is a tad too bright overall and has that one painful spot that's way too bright.

I do also prefer the old screen's overall style to the new one.

[Toranth]

Anyway, if anyone else has feedback on the title screen (either way: like it, hate it, don't care, whatever) please let me know.  We don't have to keep the new one but I don't think Chris is going to be happy about "2 or 3 players in the release thread didn't like it" as a reason for "sorry, we can't use that image you just paid that contractor $200 for"

I like the image, although I do feel a little sad that the variety is gone.  Maybe sometimes this, sometimes a planet?

I also agree that something darker behind the text scroll would be nice.  It's not unreadable, but it's not always easy to read either.

[Kahuna]

Anyway, if anyone else has feedback on the title screen (either way: like it, hate it, don't care, whatever) please let me know.  We don't have to keep the new one but I don't think Chris is going to be happy about "2 or 3 players in the release thread didn't like it" as a reason for "sorry, we can't use that image you just paid that contractor $200 for"

The question is.. why would you pay 200$ to "fix" something that isn't broken. Why would you COMPLETELY change the art style of the game just like *snap*.. for no reason. There was nothing wrong with the old background... OR the old planets...

the planets were updated and now I play with planets disabled.. sure I could manually mod the "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\ai war fleet command\RuntimeData\Images\Starfield\Planets" folder and replace "bad" ones with copies of the good ones but I haven't got the T out of my A.. but I shouldn't have to do that.. so if you ask me.. the money used to update the planets went down the drain.

This waste could have been avoided with a simple poll for example: "Is there something wrong with the main menu background? Yes or no. If you voted "yes" explain what is wrong.

Now I'm not the developer of this game.. but because I care about you, about this game and people in general.. I don't want you to take a dump into your own coffee can.. or into anyone else's for that matter.

If it isn't broken don't fix it. Keep it simple.

[keith.lamothe]

I don't think Chris felt that it was broken, just that it could be better.

We do generally avoid fixing what isn't broken, but if that were our #1 priority then there wouldn't be expansions, so it's not quite that simple

Personally I think the image is nice but that this may not be a net-gain over the previous iterations.  Similar to how I feel about the changes to the planets in 6.0 (the new variety was nice, but ultimately the newer planets didn't have as good a quality overall).

But what I personally think isn't really here or there in terms of art choices, which is why I'm trying to figure out what y'all think.

[Eternaly_Lost]

Tone down the glare and it will be fine.

The rest of the image is nice, it just that one bright spot is painful. Cut it back a lot and it will be fine.

Not sure if it really is better or worse without that part, but with the glare it is a lot worse.