Hi there! First of all, congratulations on getting the beta released, I was impressed to see the game came packaged within a 450mb download file which was simple to download (similar to MMOs with the launcher). I know it's a beta but I will list the <bugs?> I come across. Upon first boot-up, the options are pretty solid; I like the fact you have resolution scaling which allows you to greatly fine tune performance. <bug?> I have noticed that if you change the options within a game that it takes a while (black screen) for the game to sort itself out before you can start playing again. Also having a bit of lag/PC slowdown as other users have been experiencing. PC Spec: Intel i5 4670k 4.0GHz 16GB DDR3 RAM 256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD ATI 7970 3GB Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Audio options are good, some games for some reason lack a "master volume". Camera setting are good, PLENTY of keyboard hotkeys to use, <bug?> I can't use the mouse scroll wheel to navigate this option. UI has some nice options, <add?> although an explanation feature could be handy as I don't personally know what "Orbital Shell" is. (sorry if this information is located within a readme) Creating a game seems a bit tricky, I'm guessing there isn't a way to team up with bots and go up against another bot army? Also having to login continuously to create a new game and have the "server" generate a new system whenever you wish to play doesn't seem very good. Upon going into a 1 vs 1 skirmish, the game booted in to the game lightning fast which was impressive and my first impression was that the planets look great, the look and feel of navigating is very good although zooming out of planets feels a bit sticky, <add> adding in the feature to double click planets within view will allow you to go to them would be handy. I have noticed that some games, you start with zero resources and others you start with more than you'll ever need. Is this changed based upon the economy handicap you can give yourself? (I was set to 2 and AI 1). Whilst building a base, <bug?> I noticed that foliage and rocks don't seem to go away. <add> I think the factory queues could use an unlimited build function. Deleting buildings and units takes too long and there is no indication that I have decided to do so. Any white text on the screen can be obscured by bright terrain/white rocks/snow, especially when the sun is beaming down on it. I think adding a small black outline around this text would prevent this from happening. Apart from that I'm impressed so far, I can see the inspiration from Supreme Commander and I love it.
The game taking long to load after changing ingame settings is a known bug - it even says so in the launcher right now. You will have to login to Ubernet until the retail release, then you will be able to host local and LAN games aswell.
All your points you brought up were very good, and none balanced based a lot. Where were you during alpha? I am sure they would have given a key to anyone this fairly structural in their analysis and generous and subtle in their opinion areas. Anyway, in this subforum's top posts (stickies), there is one with a bug tracker site in it. It uses same forum login info, and has a list of bugs posted by players and details about them. Most of yours were well known but it seemed like you found them without prior knowledge in detail with what we know about them which is effectively reinventing the wheel so you did a great job finding on your own what other new players post about on inconvinent run-ins.
The resources you start off with ARE based on that handicap number you were wondering about. Its actually a Multiplyer so setting it to 2 or 4 is 2x or 4x normal, 1x is normal and if you set it to 0 that is sandbox mode, like setting an AI to 0 means he will not be able to build anything and he gets no resources from anything. (the sandbox)
Hey there, Thanks for your kind words TrophySystem & Terranfoe. I wasn't aware I could get into the Alpha with my kind of analysis with the game haha! I bought the game through the website and got the Beta access as a bonus, the main reason why I did actually review my experience was because of the Youtube video that was at the start of the game saying that I should post my opinion. I will take a look at this bug tracker next time I encounter a new bug within the game, Also I figured that is what the handicap did,
