Andrew Ewanchyna -> (2/28/2002 11:53:00 PM)
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I'll just post my response to your email here for brevity.
Thanks for the saved game. I responded to each of your concerns in the main text below. I'm sorry you're finding some things frustrating, but I consider all your questions "newbie" ones and I don't always respond to those in forums. I apologies if you felt that you were being ignored. I've *not* been on vacation but working on version 1.2 and my next game. Who has time (or money) for a vacation?
----- Original Message ----- Subject: Review of ComV of Starships Unlimited
> Andrew- > I bought your game and LOVED it initially. Here's my take on it at this > point as I just posted on the Matrix forum. Any input you would like to > add? > > > > In my brief, two week (~5 hours/week) experience with this game I've come to > the following conclusions: > 1. The basic elements are there. It COULD be a great, i.e. very addictive > and fun, experience. However, there are some major programming flaws that > really are a buzzkill. Not ready yet for prime time. See following points. > 2. HORRIBLY annoying not being able to attack prone vessels. They're there, > I can see them, but my ships ignore them! If I don't have assault pods I > should be able to just destroy them. If I do have assault pods I should be > easily able to board and capture them without an elaborate "patrol system > until I get close enough" dance. There NEEDS to be a manual order to > navigate/fire at wherever coordinates I choose. This is a MUST.
This is not a MUST. The game is based on rules. One of the rules states that you can't target derelict starships. The game changes every time you play it. You happened to have a game where there are 4 starships without crew.
Derelict starships must be either towed back to a world using a Tractor Beam or have Assault Pods launched at it to recrew it. The two races with the derelict ships don't have either technology yet. Therefore, they become the prizes of whoever can do this. That's part of the gameplay. This has its very own mission, the Rescue mission. No need to dance your way with a patrol mission to the derelict's doorstep.
For the record, go to the help manual (press F1 while in the game) and under "Starships > Rescue Starship Mission", you'll see when you can do the Rescue mission. I admit that the documentation could be made clearer by adding this fact to more sections of the documentation.
> 3. Diplomacy needs major revisions. I've met every possible criterion for > federation with my ally FOREVER but the jerk won't acknowledge. I've given > him every tech I have, had 100% trust forever, given him money, retired all > informants/spys, given him systems. What am I supposed to do? And, when I > select the diplomacy popup I get messages sent by/to other players - very > confusing.
Once an ally reaches 100% they need to pass a federation law. Take a look at the Diplomacy popup. It shows that your race has passed the law (there's a purple "FED LAW") besides "Terran Race") without the corresponding "FED LAW" besides the Mirrsh Race. It costs money to pass a fed law. Maybe the Mirrsh have better things to spend it on (like more ships). A race can take it's sweet time passing this law. Consider it the pains of democracy.
That being said, I noticed that they were waiting for more cash but still had pretty good flow as it was and a good-enough amount of cash ($3000), so I've modified the logic a bit to take this situation into account. This is more of the endless tinkering that I do.
Hint: try giving them tons of money or resource systems as gifts.
For the record, if you go to the help manual and go to "Diplomacy > Formal Relations > Federation", you'll get the complete list of prerequisites.
> 4. There's a system I just can't go to. WTF? It's an enemy's LAST resource > system and a gem. Why can't I go there? Again, there needs to be a "go to > xxx" place command. >
Well, if you must know. You can't send your ships to raid Lyrae because the owners are in the process of building a colony there. It's quite possible that due to war or cash problems, they've temporarily abandoned it. If you go to the star map, you'll see that there is no line connecting Lyrae to any other world. If they completed the colony (still have pods to send) then you'd still not know about the new colony unless you passed by, an ally found out or a pirate told you.
You can't Patrol any enemy star system. Because it's no longer a Resource System, you can't raid it either. It's in a transition state of becoming a colony. Something that rarely happens for very long. I'll modify the logic to allow you to raid the system at which time you'll arrive, see the Outpost and attack it. Hardly a game breaker bug. Why not just attack or capture the homeworld and be done with the race.
> In case anyone's interested (and besides MadMax and myself I don't see that > too many people are), I have the latest edition of the game (and by the way, > my CD was loose in the case, very scratched, and unreadable until I lovingly > cleaned it off with soft cloth+cleaning fluid when I got it - a fact I > CALLED into Matrix's customer service two weeks ago and haven't heard back > from them though they promised to "resolve the problem in <48 hours") and th > e latest patch, 1.1, installed. As you can tell by my rant I'm a bit > unhappy with the experience. I don't know where Andrew is because he hasn't > weighed in on any of the issues I have enumerated here in a week or so of > posting. >
The scratched disk is out of my hands and is something for Matrix Games to look into.
I have not posted to your many questions because I consider them typical newbie questions that arise from not reading the manual. I figured someone would set you straight sooner or later.
Anyways, I've heard such a scathing rant against Starships Unlimited only once before, for some completely different things that the guy couldn't do (e.g. didn't know that you could override the default starship missions). When I explained things, he came to realize how good the game was and replied back some time later on how wrong his original rant was. He realized that there's a lot of detail in the game. That it isn't your typical shallow space conquest game. While I can accept some of the blame (the user interface should somehow baby people more and the documentation should be clearer in some areas), it is one of the disadvantages of writing a somewhat complex game. I hope you'll come to appreciate the nuances of the game over time.
> Bottom line: great potential but don't buy this thing until the bugs are > worked out and you can be sure of customer support from both Matrix and the > developer. > > You've got to let me jab at you for this statement (meant in good humor, promise): Or read the manual once in a while!
Andrew
[ February 28, 2002: Message edited by: Andrew Ewanchyna ]
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