ARENA COMMANDER IS OUT

While I am a fan of the IXM design...looked like a flying tank with a bit of bat mobile...I think 4 Horseman was the most complete ship and deserved to win.
As for the 3 Dingo ship. I think it should be made a bit bigger and be a "light mobile command ship" for groups of fighters or gunships. They allready had something in the inside that resabled a command center.

As far as Arena Commander is concerned. I played a few rounds and I still have quite some problems with odd mouse behavior. Sometimes my character moves without me touchig the mouse at all.
Also when I switch between the two flight modes to fast it feels like I am stuck in one or the other mode for a short time. Don't know if that is intentional.

Beside this technical problem I have to say I like the idea of the two flight models and that, beside some fin tuning that will come with time, I allready like the behavior of the ships. Maybe make one mode just a bit more arcade and the other a bit more sim like and its good enough for me.

Still there are two main issue that I have. First I don't have a feeling for the speed. I know from the indicator that I move at a certain speed but I don't "feel" it. I can't tell what speed I or direction I am moveing by just looking outside. Its kinda odd.
The other issue I have is with the HUD. I know that I can cycle through a lot of detailed information but I prefere these kind of things to be an extra menu and have a minimal HUD with the most importend informatios showing.
Shields, weapons, speed, hull....thats pretty much it. Make all the other informations an option that I can open when I want to know so much details.
Else the HUD from the general design looks good. I espacial like the missile look on.
 
Be sure to chek other attached USB devices. I had a HOTAS, my simple joystick, rudder pedals, two touch screens, and my mouse active, and all of them gave input, so I wondered what kind of tourette syndrome was going on.
Plugged out everything but the mouse and it worked better. :)
 
But Overall Star Citizen has a better Performance for a Pre Alpha as Battlefield 4 Release :D
I found a new xml file for my Thrustmaster T16000M in the RSI Forums and now worked perfect.

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a teammade make a short movie and look yourself:

 
Now a little feedback from the Multiplayer:

It makes a lot of fun, but the fights are soon over. Maybe too soon.

Remember the discussion from the Hornet Promo after the 300i was shut down by the Hornet with 8 guns in about 10 seconds? Now I take out a 300i with 4 lower guns in about 5 seconds (or die in the 300i in that time). The Aurora is a Fly-by-kill. Privateers Tarsus is against that a heavy tank in space. I don't know exactly. Again it makes fun. But in Arena Commander dead is not really bad. I can respawn and fight again. But in the PU such a short fight and dead are more terrible. It costs money for the Upgrades and time to wait for your insurance fighter.

Now what could CIG do? More armor or shields? Less damage from the guns and Missiles? That would be also then harder to kill NPC ships. Or stay at those stats and in the PU everybody is flying carefully or even PVE Mode only? It feels like in WW2. Few shots and you going down.
At least one should be fix one way or another - we need more infos when we getting hits. I hear the boardcomputer : Shields down. What? Where?

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I couldn't play yet, but I agree. Shields are far too weak IMO. The same thing applies to Vanduul Swarm.
As it is now I don't look forward to dogfighting very much. Because one salvo and you are dead. Not exactly what I would consider a fun dogfight in a space sim (in the flight sims I fly that is pretty much normal, but I don't like it in space sims. Takes away the tactics.)
 
Have you test in Vanduul Swarm already the full loadout of the Hornet? :D
From my SHornet the Laser and Neutron:
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Making this pic big to see better the front nose guns :D
 
Heres a bit of footage I recorded from Vanduul swarm loaded with OP omnisky lasers in Hornet. Playing with an Ancient Top Gun Afterburner II HOTAS setup, I have to say the flight model has really grown on me great fun!

 
I Keep that up. The flightmodel is amazing if you understand the controls and use coubled/decoubled mode :) Much more a simulation than any Wing Commander before.

Today I get this on my Hangar from my subscriber teammade for a Skin ;)

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Amazing Details in that small deco ship. I want that on my desk :)
 
As promised, I have here some pictures of fail-boat. No guns, no engine, no right wing or tail but I wasn't dead yet.

Believe it or not, she could still maneuver but I was basically a rock. My final act before ejecting (after the next wave spawn) was to unleash my last 3 missiles. I'm pleased to report that each missile was well fed and ask for seconds.

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Honor above all.
 
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That hornet looks like it got stung. ;) but got a few stings in before the end.

I think the shields at the moment are underpowered, as previously mentioned. I may be in the minority here, but I think the missiles are overpowered. One hit kills are a bit much. I suspect in the coming months the balancing will be vastly improved.
 
The problem actually boils down to the powerplant being grossly inept at its job, currently.

To put into perspective, The Hornet (as well as the Aurora) only generates 500 power units whereas the 300i's generates 10,000 power units!

Everytime you pull the trigger your shields drop with the added recharge needs of the guns. The shields already don't rate 100% power and this makes them paper thin as it is. To counter this (till next equipment update patching) I installed the Behring M4As that come standard with my Constellation and Super Hornet. They currently have no power requirements and have a bit more cutting power then those underpowered Bulldog repeaters. I still don't get full shield coverage, however I no longer have such an awful spike in power consumption.

The power constraints DO affect how your thrusters perform so if you're taking hits and firing AND maneuvering you may start to notice a decrease in handling.

Thankfully, all is temporary. At least the afterburners behave like afterburners again.

Of course I can't get into a multiplayer match with this setup, but it makes the Swarm that much more enjoyable as I adapt to the new physics model. MP isn't too big a concern for me till some of the kinks in the flight dynamics and parts are ironed out.
 
Speaking of afterburners. The feeling of speed is about right when using them. Else I still have the feeling of going pretty slow. I hope they will up the speed just a little bit.
 
Anyone else on multiplayer? Its bombing out a lot on me with a crash to desktop, but finding it an absolute blast to play. First killstreak and it crashed:( Dont think the missiles are that OP at all they are pretty easy to evade with chaff hopefully they will introduce a beeping tone for missiles that increases in regularity as they get closer.
 
Thrakkath said:
Anyone else on multiplayer? Its bombing out a lot on me with a crash to desktop, but finding it an absolute blast to play. First killstreak and it crashed:( Dont think the missiles are that OP at all they are pretty easy to evade with chaff hopefully they will introduce a beeping tone for missiles that increases in regularity as they get closer.
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I rather like the idea of the beeping tone for the missile.
 
Has anyone had luck with MP? I've tried a handful of times but never get past the splash screen where it's trying to connect. I've tried both maps. It just seems to hang there forever or kick me back to the hangar.
 
Dundradal said:
Has anyone had luck with MP? I've tried a handful of times but never get past the splash screen where it's trying to connect. I've tried both maps. It just seems to hang there forever or kick me back to the hangar.
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No, all I've been doing is hitting the Spectrum button, load screen, wait, kick to hangar. Apparently, this is a recurring issue. I really don't mind I'm not getting in, I'm still feeding the servers netcode. According to the recent commlink, all our successes and failures are being logged and providing valuable data.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14005-Update-Improving-Multiplayer

All is Alpha and waiting to fixed/patched/upgraded so I'm just going to ride the wave.
 
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