Star Control: Chapter 1 - BETA 2

A few thoughts.

I realize that there is still optimization to be done, but loading takes a while.

There needs to be a way to access the Codex while ingame.

Ceres training facility

• if you change the name of the flagship, the default name still appears in text
• targeting drone is too fast
• combat drone doesn't attack often, the same can be said for the 3rd one
• I don't think crew should be lost at the end of the tests

Were planets made bigger? It feels that way to me. Might have something to do with jumping not being available from the beginning.

New resources are spawned on Triton after talking with Wymdoo. 

The communication when you arrive on Triton blocks the launch icon and is not intuitive to close it first. It may confuse some people.

I am unable to land on Triton after the first time: When I try to select the landing zone on my second landing attempt, the planet spins uncontrollably and I can't select the landing zone.

Also the lander can't jump out of the new canyons making navigation more difficult although it looks really nice. If you can upgrade the jump ability later on, than this needs to be made clear to you.

The new trainer facility is a bit of a pain in the fact that the drone is way more maneuverable and faster then your capital ship. Hunting it down isn't that fun as you chase it until the zone shrinks and then it just dies in the cloud. I think the player should get an earthling cruiser to go with our flagship. 

Edit: Discovered 2 things

1.One the ENTER key will allow me to select the lander site (not intuitive)

2. Jump for the lander is disabled. I rebound the key and it doesn't work at all. Might be good idea to create a small tutorial on how to equip the jump thrusters for your lander before leaving for Triton

just took off from triton after completing the quest to hand everything over to wymdoo.  Had everything onboard before meeting up with him.  Game crash when scryve ship encountered mine.  Also, after getting the thrusters for 1,000 RU, it doesn't do anything like it did in the past-I can't get outta the river in many cases on triton let alone jump high into the air-something seems off about it.

I've assigned someone to take a look at this.  

1. Did the Landing Zong button work?

2.  Jump now requires you buy and equip a module first

After obtaining the lander laser I went to Mars.  When I find a hyperdrive, the dialog box pops up where the executive officer tells me about the module and tells me that's it's being taken aboard the lander.  When I left mouse click on the X in the upper right corner of the dialog box to close it, the laser fires.  Did the same thing on the other hyperdrive to make sure that I had actually clicked on the X, and the same thing happened.

BTW, I agree with the previous comments about the test drones in the Ceres base being too fast.  I won three rounds with them without firing a shot, just chasing them around trying to get in range until they killed themselves running into things.

I like the Training Facility. This will be great for players when they play their first game. I tried the 'Targeting' and 'Combat', but did not try the 'Throw everything at me'. It would be nice for the 'Combat' option to allow the player to choose from a small assortment of ships to test against. Easy, standard and hard or something similar. This will allow the training facility to be more usable later in the game. Or perhaps, once you have had an encounter with another race, you can do combat simulations against that species ship. This would allow you to do combat test so see how well your current ship configuration will work against it.

Also, I had asked this before, but never received a clear answer. I will NOT be in the Full Version testing, but will those not doing the Full Version testing ever see content outside of the current star system before September 18? Perhaps to visit the Tywom home world?

Keep up the good work.

First impressions of the new beta "I'll edit this as I go along"

Loving the easier access to dialog via keyboards, but I ran into the same issue as others with the numpad not registering a 1 as a 1 the fun stuff.

Most of the information from the commander on the Lexites is unvoiced at this time

Having no ability to jump on Titan is "ARG" worthy, especially when the keymap in the top right shows space to jump

On the lander modules in outfit fleet, it shows the cannon available to purchase but doesn't note if it'll increase the firepower or do nothing... -- maybe have a sold out on it unless you sell your lander cannon that's currently on the ship.

Bugs:

After talking with the Scryve Legate prior to the battle, when the Tywom comes up, all of the subtitles are shifted to the bottom of the screen instead of their normal position above the conversation choice window.

After replacing the Nuclear Missile with the Hypersonic Nuke the Primary Weapon shows blank & in trial battles it does not fire.

After adding the expanded storage for the lander, the storage capacity does not show while on the planet

When battling the Scryve Legate, bouncing off of Saturn kills no crew, however bouncing off an asteroid does kill crew

Hi,

"Yeah, I was on a planet and got stuck in a hole and then since I was unable to get out of it the lightning killed me. Ah well... I guess don't get stuck in a hole is the advice here, lol."

Also, I was going to buy the jump engines for the lander, but I for the life of me can't find where they're at in the ship upgrade screen to purchase? Or are they now there yet?

Still, I am having fun so, Thanks!

Gonna put here some "Bug/Glitches" and some minor Feedback,  just a few that i thought/saw while playing this Latest Build!  


1- I was unable to click on a Landing Zone directly, only via the Menu at the side, tried again and again, maybe someone else is having this problem?

2- When Zooming-in and out on the Solar System, the Space changes Hue just a little while passing through the Space Clouds/Nebulas, but some are Cropping, like, one second is a color, the other, the color changes, it should fade from one to another.
the sudden change is too jarring.

3- In talk screens, the very bottom and sometimes the side of the screen, still shows the Talk screen, took a screenshot to show what i mean (took while it was fading-in from a "explain to commander" transition):


4- This happened twice when the Scryve cuts to the Tywom:

5- This is more of a Nitpick but... THE HELMET IS OFF-CENTER! Since Build 1! This is bugging me   :

6- Is Mars landing-zone supposed to be like this? every time i click on the Zone menu, it changes the camera to this angle:

So far, only those~ 
Keep up the Good Work!

Check again.  I found them, and at least for me they helped a lot to get out of the crevasses.

One issue I have noticed is that the tywom's voice suddenly gets very deep sometimes.

Personally, I really like the new text font. Although the tywom font does not look right with some characters. I think it looks too jagged with the corners. Basically not curvy enough.

I also really like the green and purple atmosphere on Triton, like an aura.

Also, is the jump supposed to bot work right now?

On andrastea, I had gotten most of the radioactives on the planet and it said that there was only about 18 left. But I could not find it, so I gave up and picked up one of the blue elements and the uranium in the resources left panel disappeared.

On Callisto and it says silicon is a green element and rhenium is a blue element.

I seem to be able to buy the lander cannon after I got it from the lexite base. It also says I already have it equipped as well, it acts as if I can have two. I just got the extra gun on the moon, and nothing seems wrong.

When the commander asks "Do you trust him, Captain?" in the responses there is a third option that is not blank and unable to be selected. Actually, after she asks that there always seems to be a blank extra third option, it seems to replace the 'leave starbase' option. The only ways to leave it to go to the shipyard and an option to leave will appear once more.

It would be nice if your 1st officer let you know that your lander won't survive on certain planets. I'm the boss, need the info.

not sure where i can attach images, but this time around i noticed 2 lander UI bugs that weren't around last time.

the first, when finishing one of the resource kinds on the planet, some of the others still available have had their type icon change all of a sudden (on triton, nitrous oxide's icon changed into both gasses and common metals; on the moon, magnesium's had changed into common element like silicon's; on callisto, silicon's changed into rare earth's icon).

also, the lander's holds capacity display disappeared for a bit and later returned. it was still possible to find it with tab, but it was a hassle.

regarding the removal of the jump capability, considering triton, the first planet you have to land on has some huge rivers, it's probably wise to either make the access points out of the river marked, or a little less blocky and more apparently access ways.

i noticed mars' landing was more difficult than most of the other normal moons. probably due to it's higher mass compared. i think it's a nice physics change, to be honest, if a bit scary.

the game had a few freezes, compared to the last time i tried it (about a week ago). it might be local stress, but my cpu usage wasn't very high so i would actually assume it has something to do with GPU load and probably requires a bit of optimization.

Resource shenanigans as what R0binicus said in reply #12:

I was trying to collect all of the yellow resources on Adrastea and couldn't find the last one on the list. Then I noticed it was Zirconium Oxide, which was supposed to be blue (and was correctly blue on the surface). When picked from the surface it was correctly removed from the list.

I happened to take a screenshot a few seconds before that, when there were still some Francium samples remaining:

Also, Very Important Nitpicks:

• Adrastea must be the innermost moon of Jupiter (of those depicted in-game), as it was in previous builds. Or, better alternative, leave it as it is now, but rename Adrastea to Himalia.
• Enceladus must be inner to Titan. Alternatively, rename Enceladus to Iapetus, but then some world-editing will be required because Iapetus has some cool unique features (but no geysers).
• Ceres should be spherical. I know it's an asteroid, but it's a very big spherical asteroid. It is also classified as a dwarf-planet (as the game correctly recognizes) which makes it spherical by definition - you can't have potato-shaped dwarf-planets.

In addition to the squares I also noticed the resource coloring bug...

I think that without jumping planet exploration takes too long.

Ceres training facility, like the backstory. As stated before, You win the fight by fatigue (shrinking arena).
Also, Why kill crew in a training exercise?

The Vindicator has Point Defense secondary weapon so what this guy at Ceres says is incorrect.

After I visited the Europa Monument and the Lexite moon base my cargo indicator messed up:

Is the nuclear missile worse than the base missile?  I can't tell from their descriptions and I can't tell by comparing RU because the RU for the nuke does not display.

I want to be able to store modules because selling them only gives me 50% back.  You know I could outfit the Vindicator for a mining run and store my combat and fleet support modules then I could outfit it for combat to continue the main plot.

I know in SC2 when your lander fills up any leftover minerals get lost, but I prefer that the leftover minerals get left behind where they were instead.  So I don't have to call my lander back to orbit before it is full because I am worrying that if I fill it up I might waste some RU.

I noticed the Ceres "Throw everything you have at me" secondary fire drones do 1 crew damage or less.  Is that supposed to happen?  I thought the Ceres guy said watch out I might destroy your ship.  Also the mothership drone does not use its primary fire well when you get in range.  I beat it with an Earthling Cruiser taking only 2 crew damage.  I needed the speed and acceleration powerups to catch the mothership but other than that it was easy.

Hmm. He already does. Right on the planet scan window he warns you.

Hi RagingTy,

I head up the QA and Support teams here at Stardock. You said you encountered a few freezes, where specifically do they occur, if you rememeber? Also could you send me your dxdiag and let me know what settings you run at?

Thanks,

Jeff Sanders

Ok - Here's a dump of thoughts/feedback/notes etc from this build. Overall - it's looking AWESOME, this is me trying really bloody hard to nitpick for the greater good of the game so it can be the best it can!

1) Startup 'Starcontrol Origins' loading screen: The tune is awsome, but this screen lingers for a while before it goes to the Tywom ship loading screen and then into the main game start menu. Hard to know...is this a loading screen? Or is this something that I have to sit through? Great the first time, by the second or third time I want to click through it to get into the game. Needs some kind of indicator, OR the ability to click/esc past it.

2) Music needs to turn off when you alt-tab/minimise out of the game. That's a normal expectation of games these days. Would assume game would pause but not too fussed if it didn't. 

3) In the 'Codex' screen off the main menu. Esc doesn't take you back to the main menu, it just makes the cursor disappear - until you move the mouse again. Also quite clunky going 'back' to the main menu in that it takes a good second or two (which is funny because it LOADS into it super fast) and the click sound from when you push the button doesn't happen until the load back into the main menu is complete.

Edit: It doesn't take you back a step in most menus, but it should.

4) Maybe just me, but I have two monitors and I'm having trouble having the window 

5.) Still need some way of seeing which dialogue options we've already chosen? (The old darken the text slightly approach?)

6.) Is it just me or are there tons of new little and awesome sound fx? I feel like the levels are better now, like the thrust of the ship etc is noticable. Nice!

7.) Still think we need more variation of loading screens. Are there going to be more than just the Tywom ship? You must have a TON of art or assets that would look amazing during this time. Loading screens are necessary evils though, so give us tons of lore to read (and please, not just the same 10 things) or lots of pretty pictures!  I mean, I *need* to see a picture of the StarControl starbase when I dock at it!

8.) Combat camera feels weird now - too close, I spend 80% of the fight chasing the orange indicator icon around the edge because it's zoomed in and I can't see the enemy ship. Starcon2 had some way of doing it so that you could (almost) always see the two ships. I think that keeps the tension heightened.

9.) In the combat training sessions the enemy AI kept just hanging in the green glowy miasma that slowly encroaches as the fight progresses until they blew up.

10.) I have dual monitors and the mouse won't stay locked to the game if I drift it out of the  

11.) Planet views when gathering resources. The different camera angles (1,2,3,4) are great, however my personal favourite, 4, which gives you a nice wide angle view from far away gets really....fog of war-ish, so it feels like the mask-tool on photoshop or something. A lot of the detail, gets washed out so it looks a bit cheap. Is there a way to reduce the 'distance fog' effect??

12.)  Lander lasergun noise too loud compared to other sfx (collection noise, jump etc) on the planet.

13.) Tywom cuddle drive: "Hyperspace speed 10% maximum possible." What does this mean? That I can go 10% of the maximum speed that the game permits with maxed out items and stuff? 

14/) Weapons in the ship loadout screen: There are some options to buy, but apart from the price I have no idea what they're going to do. Does the 'basic missile' for 500 RU improve up on the default nuclear missile launcher that comes with my ship? Would be cool if there was some kind of comparison data to see what you're getting for your buck! 

As an extension of this, basic missile isn't working. If you equip it it doesn't show up on the right hand side of the screen during fleet battles, and if you remove the nuclear missile and replace it with the basic missile, it *still* says nuclear missile but your ship is incapable of firing.

15.) Bug - Dialogue for the starbase commander (always option '2') disappears on rare occasions. It has the 2. but then no dialogue written after. If you select it, the commander replies as if the dialogue had been spoken.

16.) Hard to land on training facility around ceres without always landing on ceres. Maybe I'm just a muppet.

Nothing else to report! It's looking amazing! Bring on the full game test! 

Hi Corgano,

In the Outfit Ship Screen the jump upgrade for purchase is available under Lander Modules.

Here: https://www.screencast.com/t/J6gHuFO2U , please let me know if this helps. Glad to hear you are having fun!

Thanks,

Jeff Sanders

I can use the afterburners (just need some space to get up to speed) to get out of crevasses without the anti-gravity jump.  Are there larger crevasses or plateaus outside of Sol that I can only get out of or to by jumping?

do you have a mail i can send the dxdiag to? though i did mention my specs.

win 7 pro 64 bit, i7-6700, 32 gigs of ram and geforce gtx 1070. didn't change the settings, so i'd assume default? couple of short hangups during world exploration, can't remember which worlds, and once during space flight, when the camera zooms out from earth and near saturn.

Thanks Ty, I must have missed where you mentioned your specs previously. Feel free to email me at [email protected] 

It's very good for an Alpha IMO.  I saw no bugs in my run other then the nipicks above.  I still hate the landing sequence, it's pointless, but also found a big source of my frustration is lots of gaming on a PC.  I want to fly a flying ship like it's flying, not like it's on the ground.  I push up to go down, and down to go up, it's so built into my brain that even when I'm thinking about it I get it wrong.   I still find landing a meaningless minigame, but Hopefully later in game there is equipment to remove it (hint hint)  because I think it will get very old after landing a few thousand times. (or a few dozen)