Finished the tutorial. @Those who said they don't understand the interface: Read the tutorial!!!!!!!!! I made this especially for you!!!!!!
I never understoof why people have problems with controls. You select the move command and drag each unit. Hows that hard??
Right... everything is so intuitive, but some people seemed to have problems with the controls. So I wrote the tutorial
Just messing around by myself on one of the first missions I adapted to the controls pretty easily, but your guide should help others who are having more trouble and others who are maybe not getting the game because they're not sure what to expect with the controls.
I'll also write some more strategy example guides in the strategy thread... John, will you simply disable stockpilling or are you thinking about an alternative solution to make it harder to use, but still allow the user to do it? Btw, can we expext Online Multiplayer in Episode 2 or 3? I guess you won't, but please make a Level Editor for the users ;-)
there should be some mode where there's no upkeep limit or will too many units slow the game down and eat up too much memory
I believe he said he was going to disable stockpiling or limit it. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought they were going to release the multiplayer before the campaign missions As for level Editor. I'd love that. Make my own level, then play it in multiplayer/skirmish against A.I
actually John has said that it WOULD be difficult. To share the maps/make them etc. It was in the "upcoming" thread, he said he "might" consider it if there was enough demand for it.
Memory isn't nearly as much of an issue as processing speed. If you're in 8 player multiplayer, and everyone builds cruisers and scouts, then sends them all into a big clump together on the map, it'll slow down pretty bad. the technical limit on units is 512 on a map, I think, so 64 per player in an 8-player game. Some campaign levels go up to 80 for play balance, and I think both campaign levels 5 and 6 give the enemy more than that.
1) stockpiling: I like the concept, and I like how it has enhanced some people's strategies. However, I don't want it to make multiplayer too crazy, or give the person with a great economy too much of an advantage. The solution I'm thinking of now is a sort of "launch window", where a ship can't build another ship more than once every 2-5 seconds or something. That way, you still spend your resources as you otherwise would, an stockpile built up ships, but can't immediately launch them rapidly. Is that reasonable? 2) we've stated that online multiplayer should be ready for episode 2. 3) I'm considering a few options for a possible (POSSIBLE) level editor, one of which is a quick edit of my desktop PC level editor, and one is an in-game editor. I can't imagine putting in the full script editing capabilities that I have in the PC editor into the in game style editor, but that's where all the power lies! I mean, when a blue planet is destroyed, replacing it with a red planet is a script running in the level. Also, the scripting language is fundamentally low-level, an was designed for a programmer like myself, and would likely require a giant manual for anyone other than me. Even the other two guys on my team don't know how to use the level editor in it's current state! Anyway, I'm intrigued at the idea of putting in a level editor into the game, but making it pwerful enough to be useful would probably take a long time. If it happens (if! ), don't expect it until episode 3 or 4, or even later. No promises for this one.
One of my friends (very smart, very much into Starcraft) played through the whole game usin nothing but the multiselect action screen! It drove me nuts when I heard that! Apparently, some people don't listen to what the carrier is saying in level 1, and completely miss the squad multimove screen. It's my own fault, I think the UI is too complicated in level 1 to really intuitively find out which screens are the most useful. That's why, in the update I submitted, a lot o the UI is hidden in levels 1 and 2. When you get the update, you'll see what I mean. It just makes it a lot easier to understand the game the first time through without paying attention to the text bubbles.
I didn't think of this method at all! It's GREAT! It keeps the possibility to throw out ships a bit faster than normal, but removes the totally unreasonable advantage you have by now... YEEHAA!!! Expect to see me permanently online (well ok I still need to go to school etc, but expect to see me online very often ) *hopes* Of course it would be nice to have a level editor for PC/Mac AND for ingame, but if i had to pick I would go for PC/Mac. Installing a programm, registering it (like the Labyrinth 2 level editor... have you seen it? It's nice but I would like to have it as an installable program, that would somehow feel better than an internet application xD) and using it on computer. I already guessed that making a Red Planet when the blue one dies is done by a level specific script (because in one level I lost this red planet again while playing around with the controls and it didnt turn blue)... If it was possible to save levels as local files on the PC, too, you could deliver the campaign levels as scripting examples... I would do everything to learn that language
But please keep the overall UI as it is now. Showing only part of it in the introductory levels is a nice idea, but I often use all of the functions (I even use the cycle sometimes, I didn't think I would need it it's nice to see where the main resource areas are)
Some maximum sized 1on1 maps with popcap 150 or something like that would be nice... that would make it possible to build a real fortress made of battleship :O
The way it's set up, some buttons are removed, and you can't tap a unit to bring up its context menu. Where the buttons at the bottom used to be, there is a smaller button that says "enable advanced UI" or something like that, and touching it will instantly bring up the rest of the buttons.
