COULD be a great game but... RANT

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COULD be a great game but... RANT - 2/28/2002 11:46:00 AM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
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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.
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.
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. 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 the 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. 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.

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- 2/28/2002 2:20:00 PM

madmax88

Posts: 143
Joined: 1/14/2002
From: Montreal, Canada
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Easy chief.
For all we know, andrew's on vacation and matrix have their hands full with something a little more important than a virtual scout not being able to fire it's proton shotgun.

The game still have a few issues, granted. But they're nothing major. Some of the "problems" you pointed at can be solved by reading the user's manual.
Attacking prone vessels, i assume you mean ships in the early stages of the game. Then Hail the ship, arrogantly tell them that you're now at war for no reason at all and the kick the **** out of it.
To form a federation you need:
- 100% trust each side
- same philosophy (big endian, little endian)
- federation law (passed on each side, require technology "federation" on, and i stress, each side)
- one side proposes, the other accepts System you can't go to. There must be a reason. If not, send the savegame to tech support. The cd was loose in my case too, blame it on fedex for throwing the packages around or on matrix for not inserting a little bubbly cushion
in the case. So be it. But be careful, making hasty complaints will not give any result. Legitimate bugs shall be solved in time, the rest is in the book.

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- -mAdMAx

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Post #: 2

- 2/28/2002 5:50:00 PM

Marc von Martial

Posts: 10875
Joined: 1/4/2001
From: Bonn, Germany
Status: offline

WTF? WTF? WTF? Seems to be one of your fav words right?
Andrew is away for a few days, he worked very very hard on his titles for a very long time and definetly has deserved a break. Like a couple of other guys here too. Will you please grant it to him? Also, without want to sound snooty, please tell me one game company that you can actually dicuss with the programmer and staff about the game and get bugfixes and patches in "no" time? Our philosophy is to listen to customers complaints and wishes and see if they can or should be incorporated in the game. But please don�t expect that everybody put all other stuff aside in order to get you a bugfix in 12 hours after complaining. A few things are�nt bugs either. The DVD boxes actually hold the CD�s very strong. I tested it by throwing a box with CD inlcuded on the floor, it never came loose. Don�t blame everything on us please. If some pissed of FedEx worker tries to get some steam of by throwing his parcels around, its definetly not our problem. I got packages from overseas in a condition you would never think it�s a package anymore. We can look into making it extra save but that�s no promise. Thanks for listening

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Post #: 3

- 2/28/2002 9:17:00 PM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
Status: offline

Reply to MadMax:
Max, I realize I was a bit harsh but I'm not nitpicking here, these are real issues. More to the point, these are real issues that should have been caught by a blind man early in beta testing. This game is no longer shareware. As such, it's got to be judged by a higher standard. If I download something for free and find bugs I have no basis to complain. If I pay $50 for a game I expect it to have similar quality to what I find on the shelves at the local computer store. This game is already fairly rudimentary as far as graphics and sophistication so I would expect that at least the programming be solid. Regarding the specifics:
*By "prone" I mean disabled ships. I would dearly love to just "target and blow them away" but there's no command to do that. I can't hail them because the crew is dead. Don't know where in the users' manual it says how to do this. Given that there are 6 alien civilizations in my game with ~3 ships per, that's 18 alien ships. So far I've run across 5 that are "prone" and I can't do anything but look out the window at them as I fly by...
*As far as Federation goes, well, we've been at 100% trust for most of the game, we have same philosophy, I've passed fed law and given fed tech to my partner (along with every other tech I have). But, the proposal button is greyed out on my diplomacy popup and my partner won't do anything but offer me $500 every so often.
*I've already emailed the savegame file for this game, taking care to point out the "system can't get there from here" problem too.
Geez, I've played one game and have already run into this many major bugs (not to mention the fun of getting an unreadable CD in the mail). As I said before - if you're going to charge top $$$ for a game you should expect to be graded in that category. This isn't shareware anymore.

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Post #: 4

- 2/28/2002 9:36:00 PM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
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In reply to Marc-
I'm glad Andrew is able to get away and don't begrudge him a long vaca. Actually, I was shocked, SHOCKED when he did answer one of my posts a couple of weeks ago. I was really very impressed. I also don't expect the developer or anyone else to stay up all night fixing little peeves that I may have. That being said, I think the issues I've raised here are really major. These are not obsure little things that don't impact the game a lot but major gameplay issues that really should have been caught early in beta testing. I've read several posts on this board from people that have had similar issues. MadMax himself, quite a game cheerleader, posted that he'd run across the "can't target prone vessel" issue. Given that ~1/4 of the alien ships I've run across in my first game are in this condition and it seems problematic. Add to that the "can't form federation", again major - several other postings, etc. and I think you'll see what I'm getting at. As I wrote to Max above - this isn't shareware anymore and I would expect that major bugs like this be fixed not in 12 hours or 24 but BEFORE the thing goes gold. As far as the CD being loose, well, I'm glad you could throw a case on the floor without it coming loose but mine WAS loose and, apparently, so was Max's. So, we have loose beating secure 2-1 at the moment. Hey, I realize Matrix wasn't the outfit that scratched up my cd but you should EXPECT that most UPS workers aren't the gentlest breed and make sure the box is gorilla proof. How hard is it to insert an extra piece of plastic really? Needless to say, delivering a debris-coated unreadable cd isn't the way to make a great first impression. Hey, I was a VERY enthusiastic prospective fan from the time I started reading about the game until my cd first arrived. I have obviously soured pretty quickly. "WTF" isn't my favorite word but I think it just happens to be applicable.

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Post #: 5

- 2/28/2002 10:21:00 PM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline

bp, We'll be glad to look into your points as soon as Andrew returns. I have to say that in months of playing STUN

G, I have no major issues, but I recognize that the importance of these points is a matter of opinion. Certainly, Andrew is known for continuing work on his titles and has always been open and interested in improving and incorporating user suggestions. As you might imagine, for testing of various kinds I've had well over 10 final DVD case versions of our games shipped to my home. Only one arrived with the CD loose and it was not scratched up at all. I have to assume that you experienced one of the worst case scenarios. Our customer service should have responded to you in a timely fashion. I will try to find out what happened - in the meantime, could you please try contacting them again by phone or through our help desk? Thanks in advance. Best Regards, - Erik

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Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC

For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

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(in reply to BP)

Post #: 6

- 2/28/2002 11:53:00 PM

Andrew Ewanchyna

Posts: 229
Joined: 8/24/2001
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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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Post #: 7

- 3/1/2002 12:43:00 AM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
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Andrew & Eric, thank you very much for your prompt replies. I do appreciate very much your attention and as I have said am very impressed that the actual game developer would take his time to address customer suggestions (or rather pointed rants in my current case). I understand that your position is that my issues are "newbie" and/or addressed in the manual. True, as I said, I'm on my first game of SUDG. I think you're missing my main thrust however, or perhaps I haven't been effective in explaining myself. Either way, let me rephrase each issue: *Derelict Ships:
The manual DOES explain about the rescue mission and that you must have tractor beam or assault pod to retake derelict ship. I also understand that the rules say you can't target a derelict with weapons. Two things:
(1) I disagree with the can't target rule. It just doesn't make sense. I'm there with active weapons why shouldn't I be able to destroy an enemy vessel?
(2) I finally got my assault pod ship to get the rescue mission for a derelict but it wasn't a choice at first. I had to patrol the system for a while before the choice became available. Perhaps there is an override that will allow you to choose a mission not offered by the AI. If this is the case then I apologize for not reading the documentation more carefully. However, if I'm in a system with a derelict and can see it on the scree it SHOULD be a mission choice right away. *Diplomacy / Federation
I understand that I have passed the law and my ally hasn't. I also understand it can take a while but this has been a LONG wait. You said you think it's a cash flow problem for my ally. Fine, then maybe they should stop giving me $500 every few minutes. I did read the manual on this, I just don't think the AI is working correctly. *Can't Go to System
Thanks for your explanation of why I can't go to the Lyrae system for any reason. Again, maybe it's in the rules but in that case I disagree with the rules. It just doesn't make sense that I can't send my ships somewhere because, unbeknownst to me an alien is building (or has abandoned) a colony there. If I don't know it's there how can it impact my orders to my ship captains? Once again, thank you for your prompt attention. I do really appreciate you taking your time, Andrew, to respond. I do, however, take issue with your characterization of these as "newbie" issues arrising from "not reading the manual". I am a newbie, granted, but if you read the above I don't see how you can say this is an ignorance issue. These all have to do with the game logic and rules. In short, I read the manual and think these elements either don't work as described and/or the rule just doesn't make sense. Given that you're "tweaking" the logic in two places based on my comments I take it that you agree. Also, please don't post my email address in the forum. When I signed up I took care so that it would NOT be available publicly. Thanks and meant in good humor as a fan of the game that just thinks it could be and would like to see it made even better.
-BP

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Post #: 8

- 3/1/2002 4:41:00 AM

Andrew Ewanchyna

Posts: 229
Joined: 8/24/2001
Status: offline

Sorry about including your email in the last post, thought I'd removed it. I've edited it out. "*Derelict Ships:
(1) I disagree with the can't target rule." Fine, but this hardly makes it a broken game as you insinuated in your original post. It hardly seems fair of you to characterize the game as full of bugs just because you don't like how some things are implemented. "(2) I finally got my assault pod ship to get the rescue mission for a derelict but it wasn't a choice at first. I had to patrol the system for a while before the choice became available. Perhaps there is an override that will allow you to choose a mission not offered by the AI. If this is the case then I apologize for not reading the documentation more carefully. However, if I'm in a system with a derelict and can see it on the scree it SHOULD be a mission choice right away." Of course you can override any default mission the AI offers. It's only for convenience that it offers you something. Just pick something (star, planet, derelict), see the new missions light up on the navigations popup and pick the mission. For every person who says that your situation should result in rescuing derelicts, you'll get others who say concentrate on war missions. "*Diplomacy / Federation
I understand that I have passed the law and my ally hasn't. I also understand it can take a while but this has been a LONG wait. You said you think it's a cash flow problem for my ally. Fine, then maybe they should stop giving me $500 every few minutes. I did read the manual on this, I just don't think the AI is working correctly." I've changed the logic now so it won't waste it's time building informants (which is what it was concentrating on) while it's ally is waiting for the fed law. As far as giving you gifts, your people will lose trust with your ally after not building the fed law for a while. The ai is just trying to keep things at 100%. *Can't Go to System
Agreed and I've changed the logic to handle this transitional phase so you can go there. No offense, but you can't honestly expect me to answer every forum question, every time. It takes too much time. As I've stated before, just because I don't answer posts, doesn't mean that I don't read them and check if something is not working correctly. More than once, I've asked people to send me saved files so I can take a look. Guess I should have done that here. Please don't get so offended if I'm not directly answering your forum questions in the future. That's part of the reason of having a forum in the first place. And finally, I do thank you for taking such an interest and helping me make the game better.

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Developer of Starships Unlimited

(in reply to BP)

Post #: 9

- 3/1/2002 5:13:00 AM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline

First, thanks to Andrew for stepping in. I took Marc's word that you were away as gospel, should have known you were just programming. :-)

quote:

Originally posted by bp:
I'm on my first game of SUDG.
(1) I disagree with the can't target rule. It just doesn't make sense. I'm there with active weapons why shouldn't I be able to destroy an enemy vessel?
(2) I finally got my assault pod ship to get the rescue mission for a derelict but it wasn't a choice at first. I had to patrol the system for a while before the choice became available. Perhaps there is an override that will allow you to choose a mission not offered by the AI. If this is the case then I apologize for not reading the documentation more carefully. However, if I'm in a system with a derelict and can see it on the scree it SHOULD be a mission choice right away.

I think the key point here is that these really are design points rather than bugs. Fine, you'd like to target the derelicts. The designer would rather have them be there for salvage, etc. With respect to the mission delay, I haven't seen this problem on the occasions when I've gone to a derelict location. Perhaps Andrew knows why this would be the case. Personally, I've always had it as an important destination choice as soon as the ship becomes a derelict - very easy to assign.

quote:

*Diplomacy / Federation
I understand that I have passed the law and my ally hasn't. I also understand it can take a while but this has been a LONG wait. You said you think it's a cash flow problem for my ally. Fine, then maybe they should stop giving me $500 every few minutes. I did read the manual on this, I just don't think the AI is working correctly.

After 50+ games of STUN DG, I've never found the timing on Federations to be a problem. Yes, it takes a while, but it should. I feel that if it went faster, this would be too easy a route to victory. Two races allying so closely should be rare and difficult to achieve. Here, again, I feel this is a design decision.

quote:

*Can't Go to System
Thanks for your explanation of why I can't go to the Lyrae system for any reason. Again, maybe it's in the rules but in that case I disagree with the rules. It just doesn't make sense that I can't send my ships somewhere because, unbeknownst to me an alien is building (or has abandoned) a colony there. If I don't know it's there how can it impact my orders to my ship captains?

Your point is well taken, but I've also never run across this situation so either I'm misunderstanding you or this is a really unusual game you have going. Andrew's response here will no doubt be more helpful than mine.

quote:

I do, however, take issue with your characterization of these as "newbie" issues arrising from "not reading the manual". I am a newbie, granted, but if you read the above I don't see how you can say this is an ignorance issue.

No one is saying you are ignorant, but lots of people have played without coming up against these issues, mainly because if encountered they were recognized as design decisions. Characterizing them as major flaws/bugs amidst a rant of sorts is definitely misleading since these are subjective observations.

quote:

Given that you're "tweaking" the logic in two places based on my comments I take it that you agree.

Well, it means that Andrew and the rest of us at Matrix do take user suggestions and concerns seriously. I think you can garner from Andrew's response that he understood the problems as you saw them even if he didn't agree with the degree of importance you placed on them. Nevertheless, chances are excellent that you'll see adjustments made in a future update.

quote:

Thanks and meant in good humor as a fan of the game that just thinks it could be and would like to see it made even better.

Thanks for your feedback, hopefully we've all understood each other now and found some common ground. Regards, - Erik

_____________________________

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC

For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

(in reply to BP)

Post #: 10

- 3/1/2002 7:31:00 AM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
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Again, thanks to both Andrew and Eric for your responses. Andrew:
Just want to make clear that I was NOT offended in any way by a perceived lack of attention on your part. Quite the contrary, I've noted several times how impressed I was at getting attention from the developer. Don't know where you got that. The only thing that came close to offending me was telling me there were no "real" issues and all my newbie problems stemmed from failure to read the manual - a misconception I am glad to see we have now put to bed. I would like to lobby one last time for a "fix" to the "can't fire at derelict" issue. You hold that this is a subjective game design decision. I continue to believe it makes no sense. Think about it. You're commanding your starship in a battle, the last guy on the opposing ship dies and suddenly the button on your weapons console goes dead? What, the alien's ghost disconnected all your weapons? There's an intergalactic Geneva convention against firing on a "tomb ship"? At the time I didn't have the tech to salvage the ships and wanted to destroy them rather than leave them for my enemies to reclaim. As silly as it sounds, realism really is important in sci-fi. If not, why go to the bother of all the sci-fi trappings? Why not just do a really complex and advanced game of 8-dimensional tiddly-winks or something. Since reason seems to be on my side here, I still think that trumps the "that's just the rule" argument. The question should be why SHOULDN'T I be able to fire rather than why should I be allowed to do it. At least how about a box in the game options to turn it on or off? How about a poll? Given a similar situation to my own, what would players prefer to do: be able to keep firing on an enemy target they'd just been shooting at, or have the intergalactic referee step in and turn off their weapons? Erik:
Thanks for your input but I think Andrew has addressed pretty much everything. You say these things aren't bugs, Andrew's "enhancing" 2/3 of them (and hopefully will get to the third) so I'll draw my own conclusions. I will say that I still consider these things major issues that DO have a major impact on gameplay. Look at it from my perspective. I'm early in my first game and: I'm not permitted to fire on 1/4 of the alien ships in the game, hamstrung by an ally too busy building a cyber-CIA to federate with me because his spy network is eating up all his cash but he's giving me $500 a turn anyway and perpetuating his money problems, and one enemy I'm close to eliminating I can't go to his last non-homeworld system for god knows what reason (Andrew thought I should just go attack the homeworld but I only had two ships and didn't feel up to that task)... Like I said, I'll draw my own conclusions.

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Post #: 11

- 3/1/2002 7:52:00 AM

Erik Rutins

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline

quote:

Originally posted by bp:
Thanks for your input but I think Andrew has addressed pretty much everything.

Glad to hear it. I didn't actually see Andrew's post before writing up my reply (started replying, took a while to get to that submit button) but I'm glad he had time to post again and straighten things out.

quote:

You say these things aren't bugs, Andrew's "enhancing" 2/3 of them (and hopefully will get to the third) so I'll draw my own conclusions.

Well, we can agree to disagree on the bug issue, but what I really disagreed with was the "major" designation. I do respect that they play a major role in your enjoyment, and I'm glad Andrew will be making some tweaks. Best Regards, - Erik

_____________________________

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC

For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

(in reply to BP)

Post #: 12

- 3/1/2002 10:25:00 AM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
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Thanks Erik-
Excellent solution. Now, about my scratched up cd... (just kidding). Cheers -BP

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Post #: 13

- 3/1/2002 10:48:00 AM

madmax88

Posts: 143
Joined: 1/14/2002
From: Montreal, Canada
Status: offline

Just replace it with one of your Chris Isaak cd and listen to him while playing!

*joke*

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- -mAdMAx

(in reply to BP)

Post #: 14

- 3/1/2002 11:03:00 AM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
Status: offline

Max- I don't know who Chris Isaak is. I am a man completely devoid of humor. I only live to point out minute flaws that don't matter a whit and only exist because I failed to read the manual. I am very insecure. While we're on the topic of music, I have mine turned off on SUDG because even though I like the music, I chose the "software" option from the game options but it STILL insists on spinning my hard drive (wear and tear) and I've gotten sensitive since my last bout of HD failures (you should see my posts to THOSE folks). I feel a good, cleansing RANT coming on over this one! In case you're wondering, I am completely kidding. I really do love this game and can't wait for the next patch (it's been out for what, a month? -we're all newbies!). You've got to admit that this series of posts has made for good theater though. In all seriousness, I think kudos are warranted for you, Andrew, Marc, and Erik for your clear devotion to the enjoyment of the end-user. That's what it's all about (and what makes the bucks come in).
-BP (where's that "codger gremlin"?)

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(in reply to BP)

Post #: 15

- 3/1/2002 6:56:00 PM

madmax88

Posts: 143
Joined: 1/14/2002
From: Montreal, Canada
Status: offline

Well actually, this game's been around for a lot more than a month, at least STUN has been.
It's practically the same game, with new graphics and a few tweaks.
Let's say it has come a long way and is still evolving.

What's bp for anyway... Baden Powell, scout founder .... or razz razz maybe.

(razz) Ps: Try playing the game with the tech level turned to Singularity age before the game ; it gives place to many interesting events.

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- -mAdMAx

(in reply to BP)

Post #: 16

- 3/1/2002 8:56:00 PM

Posts: 61
Joined: 2/11/2002
Status: offline

No, "BP" are just my intials and they don't stand for Baden Powell (who?). Didn't even realize you could start the game with advanced techs. Interesting but then how do you sqaure that with teh fact you start with 1 ship and haven't explored anything? Did your civilization just say (you know, rockets are nice but we think we'll wait for jump drives before we explore anywhere)...

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(in reply to BP)

Post #: 17