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Author Topic: A few things.  (Read 2619 times)

Offline Psawhn

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A few things.
« on: September 27, 2007, 05:49:59 am »
These are all from the newly released 2.2 beta installer.

Maybe not quite so much a bug, but the priority of the game (as seen by windows task manager) is set to "High." On my machine (Windows XP Home SP2, AMD Turion 64M (1.58GHz), 1.12GB Ram) this causes the keyboard to be very slow and unresponsive. Even simple tasks such as entering names in text fields is difficult, and it makes the game nearly unplayable. (I still maintain a high framerate, 60fps, throughout)

Setting the thread priority to normal via Task Manager fixes the problem. Is it possible to change the game setting so it is 'normal' by default?


Other bugs:

In the 3D geoscape, the aircraft path trajectory line is drawn incorrectly when the aircraft is behind the horizon. Instead of the line reaching from the horizon to the target destination, it is drawn, through the globe, from the aircraft's position along the correct path, but stopping short of the destination. The length of the line corresponds with the destination's distance to the horizon.
I'm guessing this is the same algorithm that clips off the aircraft's trajectory line when its destination is behind the horizon.

When equipping a weapon in the base equipment screen, the bottom line of the weapon information text superimposes on the weapon firemode text - resulting in incomprehensible gibberish ;) . The weapon statistics needs to be moved one line upward.

The sound of the shot/explosion that kills an alien is inaudible, but the scream sounds niicee. :)

The Stingray Interceptor (listed as Dragon interceptor. Nice name ;)) can be produced without requiring research. I haven't yet tested to see what happens when this craft is built or sent on missions.

Only the TR-20 Rocket Pod and Rockets can be produced, and they are listed as "base-defence weapons."

When equipping a craft with Polymer Armour, there is no 'warning' (aside from the text in the UFOPaedia) that it will take 24 hours to equip. Removing the armour immediately still takes 24 hours to strip off. Perhaps armour can be added/subtracted incrementally in a counter?

There are no night lights on the dark side of the 3D geoscape.

And under not-quite bugs/ suggestions:

In the aircraft equipment screen, if a model is not found then the previous model loaded is kept. Perhaps a generic "Model Not Found" model can be used?

The aircraft equipment screen is very counter-intuitive. A better method would be pop-up menus when a player clicks on the (+) add icon, which the player can then select.

The UFOPaedia interface is difficult to navigate: the buttons should be grouped in one corner of the screen, maybe two, and definitely not among all four corners.

The information dialog for building new base facilities occludes the bottom (and especially bottom-left) base facilities. Only because the screen is squished is it possible to mouse over the facilites to see what they are. The information box should be moved to take up space from the facilities list, leaving the base screen unobstructed (and unsquashed).

The extra menu for Healing/Implants on a soldier is superfluous - there should instead be buttons for each soldier in the main hospital screen (which looks nice :). (Can the menu system handle this?)

The sounds for many human weapons are too high pitched and too quiet. They lack "oomph" essentially. That's not to knock Alex's work at all - he's done a good job :). Still, a shotgun should sound like a shotgun ;).

Plasma explosions are no longer blue. It could have just been a trick of my eyes, but I was sure that they were slightly bluish before. :P


Anyway, it's still a great job all y'all have done. You've definitely inspired me to work harder on some more artwork (missing aircraft equipment, maybe), perhaps even daring to look into menu files.

Offline Zenerka

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Re: A few things.
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2007, 03:31:10 pm »
The Stingray Interceptor (listed as Dragon interceptor. Nice name ;)) can be produced without requiring research. I haven't yet tested to see what happens when this craft is built or sent on missions.
Fixed, but they (both Stingray and Dragon) won't go to 2.2 unfortunately.
Only the TR-20 Rocket Pod and Rockets can be produced, and they are listed as "base-defence weapons."
Base view -> Aircraft -> Production. No bug here.