Quality Assurance Version 1.0

[hellcatv]

well I never really try to play with autotracking....
but talons can be a bit tricky.

we really narfed them already--given that they had a good turning radius in the manual they *already* are worse than the orion...which didn't have "good" under turning ...
but we could consider narfing it even more... do 2 imrec missiles blow it up in 1.0pre5

 

[Maniac 23]

Dogfighting amendments

Talons shouldnt be too easy too kill that is not what i meant
I meant you should make it more fun to kill them therefore
making them easier to kill is not necessarily the best way. Probably decreasing their firepower and their hit ratio (at medium difficulty) would be much better options then to lessen their armor/shields.
Maybe you could also change the difficulty dynamically so that ships in your back are not as likely to hit you as the ships which atack you from the front (whose shots you can easier evade). This would make fighting a more rewarding and fairer experience as you are still outnumbered but have always 1 good pilot fighting only supported by some bad pilots
Maybe you can also adjust the difficulty dynamically depending on their number. (maybe starting with more than two)

Oh and Btw hellcat i think you are much too good in your own game

 

[hellcatv]

But wait: have you tried this on easy difficulty--I just assumed you'd be complaining about ease-of-play at easy.
medium shouldn't be cake...but easy should be easier...try it at easy and report back--we could make easy the default you know without breaking a sweat...

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

In addition to speeding bolts up, another possibility would be slowing the ships down, as the bolt speed seems about right compared to the old version, while ships are a lot zippier.

Speeding up bolts or slowing ships both have the same effect though, that of making the player easier to hit as well as the AI. It's a delicate balance.

Making the AI's aim worse seems to be a popular request hehe

 

[hellcatv]

if you look outisde though--they miss a fair number of shots

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

Of course they do. It's still a popular request though. Just not from me It's hard to make the AI any easier than it already is short of making it blatantly stupid.

 

[John Cordell]

Paradigm interior
Create one for 1.0 no base art should pop up here.

Shields up
Everytime when new ships jumping into the system they have lowered shields and have to raise them up again, it's illogical they should always appear with full shields.

Missiles
If we want to stay close to the original a torpedo and missile launcher is needed to buy in order to fire torpedos or missiles.
Missiles seem to be very ineffective, they should do more damage.

Communication
If an object speaks with you it should get an additional white rectangle around known from other WC games.

Deactivate Shields
In Privateer you could completely deativate your shields to get more power.
S-lowers the shields (till they are offline) / Shift-S let them rise up again

Turrets 3D Model
Is still missing and needed for 1.0 otherwise it looks a little bit weird (screenshot below)

Repair
When you have clicked on the fix button to repair a subsystem of your ship the button should disappear, now it stays where it is with no function.

Radar color code
I think the original Privateer had a different, why have you changed it?

HUD Images / Title Screen Update Package
I've uploaded a small package with overhauled hud images (as promised) and another title screen, if some 0.9ers or pres want to update their version. The most important change is that the HUD images are now top view and are correctly aligned to the shields. Some bases got a new image too. You can find the package on our privateer remake website (downloads). Just unzip it and replace the data in your Privateer game directory.

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

Shields up
Everytime when new ships jumping into the system they have lowered shields and have to raise them up again, it's illogical they should always appear with full shields.

???

Missiles
If we want to stay close to the original a torpedo and missile launcher is needed to buy in order to fire torpedos or missiles.
Missiles seem to be very ineffective, they should do more damage.

It's how vegastrike works.

Deactivate Shields
In Privateer you could completely deativate your shields to get more power.
S-lowers the shields (till they are offline) / Shift-S let them rise up again

who would ever want 0 percent shields? Right now 2/3ds and 1/3d are available, it's sufficient.

Radar color code
I think the original Privateer had a different, why have you changed it?

Believe it or now we didn't decide "hey let's make the colours different." Provide concrete examples and something could be done.

 

[John Cordell]

??? (Shields up)
When a new ship enters the system the target monitor shows that it doesn't have any shields, if you wait a minute you can see that the shields on that ship are recharging.

Radar color code (Provide concrete examples and something could be done.)
Original Privateer:
red - enemy
dark blue - friend
bright blue - jump points
yellow - missiles
brown - neutral or objects that can be tractored in (cargo)
white - objects that communicate with you
grey - bases

 

[scheherazade0xf]

the combat is a scales issue.

the original was like micro-machines playtime.

everything was slow and really close in.
the distances, in respect to ship size, were much smaller than now.
the combat was essentially slow motion.

the remake has a larger universe, things tend to get away from you, and get near you very quickly, and the average combat distance is larger, so the average target size is smaller...


another issue is that the enemy ships use their straffe ability. I.E. they fire sideways-thrusters to shift sideways, which player ships can't do.

imo this ability should be limited to ONLY limiting turn-slippage, rather than an actaul anytime-ability. it would also force enemy ships into flying in arcs, rather than doing-the-shuffle.

-scheherazade

 

[hellcatv]

I thought we measured everything--i.e. the time it takes to fly from one nav point to another...
perhaps ships are too small...but if you're any bigger then you get pummelled by the AI even more...

I thought we got rid of the AI's ability to strafe in this version

 

[scheherazade0xf]

which is why we need an enemy-aim-fubar variable
they shouldn't all be top notch gunners.

-scheherazade

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

Time to get from nav point to nav point is almost the same as in the original. However ships are relatively smaller (or rather the universe is larger). If we enlarge the ships much, they will soon be way too big compared to planets and things (they are too big already) and if we make planets bigger, then all the complainst about being able to see planets from other nav points will be intensified. Or we could make everything bigger and deal with longer transit times, but it was important to me to be able to play without autopilot with a little patience, as in the original.

Consequence, ships are smaller and everything feels a little faster. I don't find it a proble, since having AI that's harder to hit means the player is harder to hit too (as long as the player dodges.. the AI does have quite good aim, which could conceivable be changed without upsetting other ratios).

Anyway, it would be pretty hard to adjust size/distance of anything right now without making something else feel worse.

When a new ship enters the system the target monitor shows that it doesn't have any shields, if you wait a minute you can see that the shields on that ship are recharging.

It isn't entering the system that does that, it is being created. It's the same with your ship. WHen it is spawned (at the beginning of a game) the shields need to charge. NPC ships that jump to a new system do not IIRC lose shields, just NPC ships that have barely spawned.

Thanks for the list of colors I'll take it into consideration, but I do prefer having friendlies be green. It ties in with the well known stoplight scheme and all.

 

[John Cordell]

"Thanks for the list of colors I'll take it into consideration, but I do prefer having friendlies be green. It ties in with the well known stoplight scheme and all.
Try to stay as close to the original as possible.

QA - see the screenshots below
Damage Report
Damaged Target Screen
Radar Screen
Info Screen

 

[scheherazade0xf]

getting rid of the background pic would take care of readability.


also, i don't suggest changing sizes.

i do suggest :

-aim fubar for enemies, based on difficulty level and AI pilot skill (ace, veteran, etc)

-removal of physics changes for different skill levels (if it hasn't been already, last i checked on that, it still was there)

-a lock on flight dynamics, where ships only fly in arcs, or in slipping-arcs. no sideways motion allowed. (sideways thrust only used to maintian an arc path) (also, daniel, you mentioned this was done already. last 1.0 pre i played (3 or 4 i think) still had ai straffing about, so i'll take another look at it.)

-scheherazade

 

[hellcatv]

hmm well AI hasn't changed for ages...maybe there's one script that still does that...if you could track it down let us know

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

"Remake has lock on left but it's on the right in Privateer

Seriously, if you were going to mention that Lock is on the wrong side, why didn't you mention that the green lines totally don't match either? You might remember there is more than one style of radar display. See attached pic for original and remake versions.

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

I don't think the ai is trying to slide, or employing side thrusters to do so. I think it has to do with them turning quickly and momentum continuing for a while to carry them in the direction they were headed before. They're not trying to do it, but thanks to Newton sometimes it happens anyway.

One possible fix would be upping their lateral thrusters to keep them always headed rigidly forward. This would make them ridiculously maneuverable. We could also limit their turn speed. I also find that less than optimal. Either the player's speed would go down with it, or we would be letting the player 'cheat.' I don't think there is much that can be done about it. The player can slide too (though it is hard to hit when you do) so it comes down to the AI's aim again (IMHO).

 

[BachManiac]

why are the enemy (and all other) ships on the MFD 180° rotated? in the original version the ships looks down and in Remake they looks up! I think it would be better if they were not rotated like in the original version!

the points in the radar are to small (non locked ships ect) they only are 1x1 dots.... I think it would look better if they were 2x2 dots, because with 1x1 they are hardly to see....

 

[John Cordell]

Seriously, if you were going to mention that Lock is on the wrong side, why didn't you mention that the green lines totally don't match either?
Hehe, you know it starts with the "lock" on the wrong side and ends with a different tractor beam, missile/torpedo launcher or radar appearance I just saw it and want to report it. It would be more important for QA to fix the "Lock" flicker. Turn it on or off but not let it flicker constantly around.

why are the enemy (and all other) ships on the MFD 180° rotated?
You mean in the "New HUD Target Images" package? Because the shields are aligned back to forward so must be the ships as well. Maybe hellcat or mamiya can change it then i would rotate the ships as well and update the package

the points in the radar are to small (non locked ships ect) they only are 1x1 dots.... I think it would look better if they were 2x2 dots, because with 1x1 they are hardly to see....
Agreed. I've attached an example image.