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Nox Celeste -> SUDG Newbie (5/4/2002 8:09:43 AM)
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All though I've only logged in six hours of playing - at the expense of losing sleep and getting my wife p-o'd - I'm extremely impressed with the game. Not so much because it's an independant game, but because it's so much better than the piles and piles of games (a.k.a. coasters) made by big game developers that are just collecting dust on my shelves/desk.
One thing I'm quite impressed about is the direct input that players have with the developer(s). In those big-budget games, what you see is what you get, regardless of what you see as a shortcoming in the game. I've read most of the threads on the BBS, and the developer replies to most of them. In time, now that the game is slowly gaining a "mainstream" audience, more and more info on what players want improved/taken out/etc will polish a great game into what I term a legendary game.
So far, I've only got a few gripes about the game. Well, annoyances is more like it. First, mines. I love 'em, they're the ultimate lazy-mans way to toss up a piecemeal defense of a system. But I hate their animations: Dancing and flittering around a coupla hundred miles an hour over the graphic of a planet - it makes my eyes hurt, especially if they're doing their little flutter over, say, my Homeworld. I'd much prefer if they just sat there like menacing little things until something hostile came into range. THEN they can dance around like little jumping beans.
Second, I like the basic ship designs. But, a little more detail would make me love 'em. A few pixels here depicting little lighted windows, or a red bloop here or there depicting flashing lights on the hull. What I've never seen done in any game, 4x or no, is real-time damage to the ships. Hit an un-armored destroyer in the side with a phasor bolt? I'd love to see a blackened sear mark right there, or even the bulkhead ripped open. Some games promise that (I.E. Starfleet Command II), but none actually deliver that sort of detail. I know, I know, that would take a decent amount of coding to do - it's just something on my wish-list.
The last thing isn't all that much, and I believe it's all ready implemented. I'll have to grab the manual again and look. But, a zoom-in/out feature. Nothing too spectacular, no rotation or panning up or down. Just an option to zoom in a frame or two.
Ah well... all in all, I absolutely love the game. If only the technical aspects are hashed out, and the gameplay/graphix remain the same, I'm completely happy. Tho, I'm sending the bill for my wife's anger management classes to the development team.
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