Beta #3 Released

Discussion of the new series of beta test releases of this game.
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Steve
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Beta #3 Released

Post by Steve »

Starflight The Lost Colony - Beta #3

Version: Beta 3 (November 2009) (86 megabytes)

Direct Download: http://groups.google.com/group/starflig ... b/download
Full-screen version with no debugging messages: http://www.starflt.com/tlcbeta3a.zip
Torrent: http://www.mininova.org/tor/3108769

Manual: http://groups.google.com/group/starflig ... lay-manual

Quite a few features have been added since Beta #2: sound effects and music, a redesigned and rebuilt combat damage and repair system, new alien portraits, new artifact and ruin images, and countless minor bug fixes and interface tweaks. Class O stars now appear slightly different than class B stars.

Please report any bugs to the issue tracker. Before reporting a bug please read the current list of known bugs and make sure that your issue has not been reported already. The developers would greatly appreciate it if you would test each issue as thoroughly as you can and provide as much detail as you can.

Issue Tracker: http://code.google.com/p/starflighttlc/issues/list

The current aim of the developers is to finish the game as smoothly and as quickly as possible without adding significant new complexity or delay. There are a number of minor new features planned before the final release, but please keep feature requests out of the issue tracker and simply post a message to the mailing list or within these forums if you have ideas for the game as opposed to bug reports.

Hyperspace encounter hotkeys:

F1 - PIRATE
F2 - ELOWAN
F3 - SPEMIN
F4 - THRYNN
F5 - BARZHON
F6 - NYSSIAN
F7 - TAFEL
F8 - MINEX
F9 - COALITION
Jasmac

Re: Beta #3 Released

Post by Jasmac »

Hey all- New to this, here's some thoughts I've got on the game as it stands now

1. Fuel consumption seems disproportionate to distance travelled. burns incredibly quickly. Additionally, I've noticed a bug with the turning thrusters. When you're using forward engines(pressing down the up key) hitting one of the turning thrusters at the same time will A) Keep you going perpetually at that speed in the same direction as your forward thrust was, and B) not cost any fuel while going full tilt. This means that off one small burst of forward engine, you can travel indefinately. This also means when trying to align with a planet, the ship will not slow down as normal, but will be turning at full speed.

2. Planets and resource gathering. The planets are pretty cool, however MASSIVE. The speed the ship goes means that it could take upward of 10 minutes per trip to a planet just to say, find some endurium. Energy signatures do not show up on radar and due to the size of the planets are impossible to find. I literally just spent 25 minutes criscrossing a planet to find it, and still havent as of yet. The creatures on planets, even the most dangerous according to scans, do very little damage to the lander. Some more flavour text in regards to the lifeforms would be cool as well.

3. As the game system is fairly intuitive, the tutorial seems to be pretty long winded...it's tough to burn fuel all the way to a planet, come back, just to be sent back there again. maybe the tutorial could be condensed onto one nearby planet which does everything you need done there.

As the furthest I have been so far is the hyperspace tutorial mission, thats all the input I can provide. But it took me a loooong time to get here. And I still never did find the energy signature on the ice planet...
Apocolypse
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:27 am

Re: Beta #3 Released/Update

Post by Apocolypse »

Is there an update available for Beta 2 or do we need to download the entire Beta 3 release? Also, are the editors (Galaxy, etc) still available for us to play with and create our own missions, etc?)

Thanks !!!

BTW: I was very happy to see this game released. I gave up on the other Starflight 3.
Arthling
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:28 am

Re: Beta #3 Released

Post by Arthling »

Thanks for putting this up, Steve.


Apoc, there is no transitional patch but your savegame files should be compatible.


Jasmac, do you realize how big planets are for real? 10 minutes to completely traverse a planet seems kind of short, don't you think? :)

You will have to learn some of the techniques in reducing fuel consumption, like letting go of the thruster and coasting. This is not an arcade style game. We actually had to dumb it down a LOT from our original intention of making the ship move realistically in space. As far as we're concerned, the ship moves like an arcade game shooter compared to reality.

The times you are describing are as they should be. This is not a twitch game, it's an old-school adventure game. Besides, do you know how far it is to the nearest star from here? 4 light years. and one light year is trillions of miles. Being able to cruise with a class 1 engine alone is pretty remarkable. You dont want the game to be so easy that you can finish it in a single afternoon, do you? That isn't Starflight, that's R-Type. ;) Thanks for your input nonetheless.
MrCatburt
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:53 pm

Re: Beta #3 Released

Post by MrCatburt »

First and foremost you are all doing a great job on developing the game, can't wait until it's finished. However I'm a bit lost on the color coding of the star systems there isn't any information on what class of solar system each color represents other than O class is dark blue. Otherwise I'm enjoying the game. Keep at it people.
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Steve
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Re: Beta #3 Released

Post by Steve »

Fuel consumption seems disproportionate to distance travelled. burns incredibly quickly.
Fuel usage is extremely proportional to the engine class. Class II engines are twice as efficient as class I engines, and of course class VI engines use only 1/6 as much fuel.

Also as Arthling mentioned, fuel is used to accelerate the ship and when the ship reaches its maximum acceleration, fuel is just wasted. Conserving fuel requires you to make as few course changes as possible, and as mentioned before, recognizing the ship's maximum speed and only pressing the accelerate button occasionally to maintain it.
Additionally, I've noticed a bug with the turning thrusters...
Thanks, details added to the already open issue: http://code.google.com/p/starflighttlc/ ... ail?id=145
Energy signatures do not show up on radar and due to the size of the planets are impossible to find. I literally just spent 25 minutes criscrossing a planet to find it, and still havent as of yet.
This is absolutely intentional. Originally Arthling made energy sources appear on the radar map, but every single artifact, ruin, and special location in the game would be too easy to find and no one would be searching for hints for landing coordinates. The alternative would be to either not notify you that there is something on the planet, or make the game too easy by showing you everything. The energy notification really is there to bug you and also let you know that there is something on this planet that you will run into some time in the future.
The creatures on planets, even the most dangerous according to scans, do very little damage to the lander.
Added: http://code.google.com/p/starflighttlc/ ... ail?id=148
Some more flavour text in regards to the lifeforms would be cool as well.
Such as a long verbose description of the lifeform's appearance when it is scanned? This actually is not a bad idea since we could reuse alot of the old descriptions used in the classic games and it would not be too difficult to add similar text for our new lifeforms. I'll look into this as well.
As the game system is fairly intuitive, the tutorial seems to be pretty long winded...it's tough to burn fuel all the way to a planet, come back, just to be sent back there again. maybe the tutorial could be condensed onto one nearby planet which does everything you need done there.
As said before, there is a way to skip all of the training missions. Beyond this, I'll rewrite couple of the training missions before the next beta to make a few of the more original and less tedious.
Is there an update available for Beta 2 or do we need to download the entire Beta 3 release?
Quite a number of resource files were changed for Beta 3 and I assume by now most people downloaded it. For the next Beta I will look into creating an update patch.
Also, are the editors (Galaxy, etc) still available for us to play with and create our own missions, etc?)
Most of the editors have been made obsolete by changes in the code over the years. The only remaining operational editor is the galaxy editor, everything else has been created by hand by digging into XML data and LUA code. Possession of the galaxy editor would make many of the missions far easier and almost simplistic, but I'm sure it could be released someday or to those who want to use this engine. Personally I would rather wait to release this editor until after the final release is out. I would rather not have beta testers cheating and relying on an editor if some aspect of the game is too difficult and needs to be changed.
However I'm a bit lost on the color coding of the star systems there isn't any information on what class of solar system each color represents other than O class is dark blue. Otherwise I'm enjoying the game.
I'll add this detail to the ongoing game manual soon:

http://groups.google.com/group/starflig ... lay-manual
Zael

Re: Beta #3 Released

Post by Zael »

Can I recommend decreasing the resolution. I like 1024x768, but if you go with 640x480 then Starflight - The Lost Colony could be played on netbooks. It seems to me like this is a perfect game to go on a netbook.
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Steve
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Re: Beta #3 Released

Post by Steve »

Unfortunately with the current programming and graphics this would be a major undertaking to redo. Again after the game is released someone may elect to work on this...
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