Questions, problems, and comments
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:04 am
First I'd like to say how thrilled I am and grateful to the developers for another Starflight game. The original PC games were among my favorites years ago, and I've never been able to find anything else quite like them except maybe with Star Control. As I get started with The Lost Colony I can't wait to meet some of the old, familiar races again.
I apologize for the length of this post, but even as a veteran gamer I find myself confused about or having problems with a number of aspects of the game, something that I didn't expect for a 1.0 release and beyond but understandable with limited development resources. Some of these issues may be because I've so far found no documentation to speak of – no readme, no FAQ, no known issues, no wiki, and no background information. One of the great things about the original Starflight is that we didn't know exactly what we were in for when we started the game, but we did have some basic, vital background information about game mechanics as well as a little history of Arth.
I've been playing version 1.01 on Windows 7 64-bit for a few days now as a freelancer, and here are some issues I've come across already.
Questions:
[*]Top issue: Is there any centralized game information anywhere? I apologize if I just haven't found it, but it's frustrating to have so little to go on. The only source I've found so far is the forum. It's often difficult to find answers there if they exist because it is not a unified document, obviously, and its search tool is poor. It repeatedly tells me that my search terms are too common.
[*]What is the true significance of choosing a class? Do different classes have different missions?
[*]What is the importance of the various personnel skills? When creating a captain and choosing a crew what should one consider?
[*]Is it at all possible to see alien ships before an encounter? Is it possible to avoid them, or conversely, to find and meet them?
[*]On the navigator's starmap how is fuel measured? It clearly doesn't use the same units used elsewhere such as the cargo hold, trade depot, etc. I consume much more fuel in interstellar flight than the starmap says.
[*]I entered a couple of continuum fluxes and couldn't find the other ends to get back. Are fluxes one-way now, or is my navigator too unskilled to see the endpoints as could be an issue in the original games?
[*]The web site mentions an Opening Story, which I would hope would provide background information. However, I'm past the training missions and I still haven't found what I would really call an Opening Story. Aren't those usually at the very beginning of a game? Is it still to come? In Starflight, of course, this was in the game manual.
Problems:
[*]The shield and weapon toggle keys don't work for me. I have to use the buttons on the tactical panel, which is potentially bad in an encounter.
[*]Is hyperspace the only way to flee combat? I seem to recall that in the originals you could potentially escape by just flying away from the other ships. However, in TLC combat if I get too close to the edge of the battle screen my ship gets stuck.
[*]If I take out a loan then immediately load the game I find that I still owe the loan.
Comments:
[*]That the game needs to be run as an administrator on some versions of Windows really needs to be made clear somewhere where players can easily find it upon installation. One shouldn't have to go to the Internet to found out how to run the game without it immediately crashing when there's a known workaround.
[*]The ability to put a name or comment on a saved game would be very helpful.
[*]I've noticed that planetary mineral and lifeform resources seem to repopulate fully just by launching and landing again on the planet. I guess this was a design decision, but it makes no sense to me. I could understand lifeforms coming back over time, but minerals?
[*]There doesn't seem to be a weapon status indicator in combat. This could be helpful.
While I wouldn't mind contributing to some documentation I don't see how that could be done by anyone other than the developers or those who have extensive experience with the game. In the meantime, those of us just starting could really use some help. I also regret that I cannot assist with programming as I am an amateur at best and have no experience with Lua. I do, however, believe that with some proper documentation and a little refinement that The Lost Colony could appeal to a wider audience than those of us nostalgic for the good old days. Thank you again.
I apologize for the length of this post, but even as a veteran gamer I find myself confused about or having problems with a number of aspects of the game, something that I didn't expect for a 1.0 release and beyond but understandable with limited development resources. Some of these issues may be because I've so far found no documentation to speak of – no readme, no FAQ, no known issues, no wiki, and no background information. One of the great things about the original Starflight is that we didn't know exactly what we were in for when we started the game, but we did have some basic, vital background information about game mechanics as well as a little history of Arth.
I've been playing version 1.01 on Windows 7 64-bit for a few days now as a freelancer, and here are some issues I've come across already.
Questions:
[*]Top issue: Is there any centralized game information anywhere? I apologize if I just haven't found it, but it's frustrating to have so little to go on. The only source I've found so far is the forum. It's often difficult to find answers there if they exist because it is not a unified document, obviously, and its search tool is poor. It repeatedly tells me that my search terms are too common.
[*]What is the true significance of choosing a class? Do different classes have different missions?
[*]What is the importance of the various personnel skills? When creating a captain and choosing a crew what should one consider?
[*]Is it at all possible to see alien ships before an encounter? Is it possible to avoid them, or conversely, to find and meet them?
[*]On the navigator's starmap how is fuel measured? It clearly doesn't use the same units used elsewhere such as the cargo hold, trade depot, etc. I consume much more fuel in interstellar flight than the starmap says.
[*]I entered a couple of continuum fluxes and couldn't find the other ends to get back. Are fluxes one-way now, or is my navigator too unskilled to see the endpoints as could be an issue in the original games?
[*]The web site mentions an Opening Story, which I would hope would provide background information. However, I'm past the training missions and I still haven't found what I would really call an Opening Story. Aren't those usually at the very beginning of a game? Is it still to come? In Starflight, of course, this was in the game manual.
Problems:
[*]The shield and weapon toggle keys don't work for me. I have to use the buttons on the tactical panel, which is potentially bad in an encounter.
[*]Is hyperspace the only way to flee combat? I seem to recall that in the originals you could potentially escape by just flying away from the other ships. However, in TLC combat if I get too close to the edge of the battle screen my ship gets stuck.
[*]If I take out a loan then immediately load the game I find that I still owe the loan.
Comments:
[*]That the game needs to be run as an administrator on some versions of Windows really needs to be made clear somewhere where players can easily find it upon installation. One shouldn't have to go to the Internet to found out how to run the game without it immediately crashing when there's a known workaround.
[*]The ability to put a name or comment on a saved game would be very helpful.
[*]I've noticed that planetary mineral and lifeform resources seem to repopulate fully just by launching and landing again on the planet. I guess this was a design decision, but it makes no sense to me. I could understand lifeforms coming back over time, but minerals?
[*]There doesn't seem to be a weapon status indicator in combat. This could be helpful.
While I wouldn't mind contributing to some documentation I don't see how that could be done by anyone other than the developers or those who have extensive experience with the game. In the meantime, those of us just starting could really use some help. I also regret that I cannot assist with programming as I am an amateur at best and have no experience with Lua. I do, however, believe that with some proper documentation and a little refinement that The Lost Colony could appeal to a wider audience than those of us nostalgic for the good old days. Thank you again.