Messages

1

Discussion / Re: some thoughts

« on: January 03, 2010, 06:32:03 pm »

(btw, maybe such link should be put in download section of project website?)

Well, maybe it's not such a good idea. I gave version 2.3 a try and I am quite disappointed. It's far from "stable", game crashes so often that it's impossible to play it. :/

2

Discussion / Re: some thoughts

« on: January 03, 2010, 02:04:57 pm »

Sorry I didn't know that "last stable release" is almost 2 years old. It makes my previous post quite stupid. But again the project main website is misleading - informing people about last changes in news section and not providing links to playable is confusing. You can't expect that the players will know development cycle or check SF tags or releases' dates (or maybe you like replaying to annoying posts like mine ). Anyway, sorry for wasting your time and thanks for link to the last builds (btw, maybe such link should be put in download section of project website?)

3

Discussion / some thoughts

« on: January 02, 2010, 03:39:33 pm »

I've been recently playing UFO:AI(2.2.1) and I must say for quite some time I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately there are many things I didn't like.

I feel cheated a little because the game isn't finished (yet?). Game version is 2.*, there's no where word "beta" and on project main page last news about changes indicates that all the game needs are minor tweaks like "Weapon balancing". I felt little disappointed when I noticed so many things are not implemented or don't work well. To make things worse from the wiki I can see that instead improving existing features developers are trying to make new functionalities. I think that finishing "basic" game first and then adding new features like "Off-base UFO Yard" might be a better choice...

But the thing that irritated me the most is lack of usability. To do simple things I have to click so many times, often repeat same things again and again. That's not only fault of UI, some things are broken by design. Why do each scientist or "worker" need to have name? I mean why do they have to be distinguished? After building a workshop and trying to "populate" it I must tick boxes and count in my mind how many slots in workshops are left. Maybe ordering them like in original UFO wasn't such a bad solution? Or maybe one can go one step forward and remove workers and scientist - scientist are in a package with a built lab.

Setting up a ship is another issue. Instead of many tabs and clicks, the ship could be equipped on one "screen". Instead of making it easier I noticed there are proposals to make additional tab for pilots. By the way I think pilots idea is not a good one - for now UFO:ai is strategy game not Sims.

There's more things I don't like: showing white text on white snow or inconsistencies in buying/selling and transferring equipment (to transfer a ship form one base to another it takes time, but selling the ship and buying same model in another is instant). But for now I' d like to see how do you respond to critic