Prerelease 1.202J (Visual polish, more planetary summary improvements)

[x4000]

I do see what you're saying about the blank space where the story scrolls though. When it first loads that's just a large empty space, and the text scrolls so slowly that I rarely see more than the first line or so. Perhaps the text could scroll a little more quickly? Or maybe start a little higher on the screen so that space isn't completely blank initially?

That's a good point, I'll put something in there so it is not blank at the start.

[Hyfrydle]

No splash screen for me either it just goes grey then the main menu appears.

[Haagenti]

My grey screen (running in windowed mode)

[x4000]

New minor version, mostly to see if this helps with the splash screen woes or what.

The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1202J.zip

-Previously, harvester exoshields had a mild attack.  With the increase in turret strengths, that is no longer neccessary.  The attack has been removed.

-There is now a header to the AI War intro story text, and the story text appears more quickly.

CHANGES FROM PRIOR PRERELEASES
--------------

-Scouts no longer show up in the mobile military section of the sidebar, they now show up as mobile nonmilitary.

-Turrets, force fields, and heavy defense items now always show up in the fixed military section of the sidebar, instead of the fixed nonmilitary.

-More changes have been made to hopefully show the splash screen.

[x4000]

My grey screen (running in windowed mode)

Okay, so that's not the splash screen at all, but rather it looks like part of a Vista title bar or something.  I have a feeling that J will fix your issue, but I guess we shall see.

[Haagenti]

J gives me a completely white screen.

I also liked the weak turret attack of exoshields. (nag...nag...the old days)
Sometimes a single fighter or Etherjet engages a very distant crystal or metal mine.
Actively doing something about it is a chore.

[x4000]

J gives me a completely white screen.

Peculiar.

I also liked the weak turret attack of exoshields. (nag...nag...the old days)
Sometimes a single fighter or Etherjet engages a very distant crystal or metal mine.
Actively doing something about it is a chore.

I understand -- but with the turrets having been increased, I think the main thing to to is just stick a single turret there in advance if you are worried, or have a bank of sniper turrets, etc.

[Echo35]

Nope, still no splash. On the other hand, I don't get a gray or white screen or any artifacts. I just click on the link, and bam, there's the game. No splash or anything. Oh, and OH MY GOD THE BEEPING! MAKE IT STOP! You know the chrip it makes when you click to send some ships to another planet on the galaxy map? THIS SOUND PLAYS ALL THE TIME NOW. And its not a regular sound either, it just sort of plays randomly. And I'm not sending ships anywhere. It just beeps and makes my ears bleed.

EDIT: Upon further investigation, it seems a cruiser I had ordered to another planet flew to the worm hole and was just sitting there jumping back and forth, but J seemed to make it stop doing that, so it just sits there, but the beeping stopped at least.

[x4000]

Nope, still no splash. On the other hand, I don't get a gray or white screen or any artifacts. I just click on the link, and bam, there's the game.  No splash or anything.

Hmm.  Well, maybe it is loading too fast to show it in your case.  Ah well, the splash is not the end of the world.  It's just kind of strange.

Oh, and OH MY GOD THE BEEPING! MAKE IT STOP! You know the chrip it makes when you click to send some ships to another planet on the galaxy map? THIS SOUND PLAYS ALL THE TIME NOW. And its not a regular sound either, it just sort of plays randomly. And I'm not sending ships anywhere. It just beeps and makes my ears bleed.

It sounds like you have a stuck DirectSound thread.  This has happened to a few people very occasionally, and it makes me wonder if there is something up with your DirectX version or audio drivers.  Or maybe this is a bug in SlimDX, I'm not positive.  Restarting the game has generally fixed that for people.  Does that not work for you?  I checked through the code, and there's only one place where it plays that sound and it's pretty bulletproof-looking (you never know, I guess, but I can't duplicate it and I don't see any issues in the code).

[Haagenti]

Ah well, the splash is not the end of the world. 

Agreed.

Another small nit. When I go to the Tutorial, it says "All campaigns are procedurally generated". Would more than 5% of the tutorial audience have a clue what this means?

[x4000]

Another small nit. When I go to the Tutorial, it says "All campaigns are procedurally generated". Would more than 5% of the tutorial audience have a clue what this means?

Hmm, I don't know.  I could say "randomly," but that's misleading.  I believe I've seen "procedurally" used in marketing copy for other games, but I couldn't say for sure.

[Varek Raith]

If I check 'Disable Desktop Composition' in the compatibility tab I get the splash screen.

Behold! Note, that weird effect around the splash screen is caused by said splash screen.



If the image is too big, I apologize.

[x4000]

Huh!  That's a great tip, thanks!

[Echo35]

If I check 'Disable Desktop Composition' in the compatibility tab I get the splash screen.

Behold! Note, that weird effect around the splash screen is caused by said splash screen.



If the image is too big, I apologize.

Ditto. When I turn off Aero in Windows 7, looks just like yours. Splash and weird box and all.

[dumpsterKEEPER]

Oh, and OH MY GOD THE BEEPING! MAKE IT STOP! You know the chrip it makes when you click to send some ships to another planet on the galaxy map? THIS SOUND PLAYS ALL THE TIME NOW. And its not a regular sound either, it just sort of plays randomly. And I'm not sending ships anywhere. It just beeps and makes my ears bleed.

It sounds like you have a stuck DirectSound thread.  This has happened to a few people very occasionally, and it makes me wonder if there is something up with your DirectX version or audio drivers.  Or maybe this is a bug in SlimDX, I'm not positive.  Restarting the game has generally fixed that for people.  Does that not work for you?  I checked through the code, and there's only one place where it plays that sound and it's pretty bulletproof-looking (you never know, I guess, but I can't duplicate it and I don't see any issues in the code).

I had this same thing happen to me a few prereleases ago and I never could figure out what caused it. As I recall, I had to restart the entire game (simply reloading the save again didn't do it) but then it went away and never came back. I didn't worry about it too much as I couldn't reproduce it. Perhaps someone will eventually stumble across the trigger for it.