BETA 5 Download

For discussions about the release version of the game.
Post Reply
User avatar
Steve
Site Admin
Posts: 167
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:33 pm

BETA 5 Download

Post by Steve »

Link: https://sites.google.com/site/starflighttlc/downloads

Note: After several days of being flooded with hundreds upon hundreds of spam bots placing administrative requests to create accounts here, I've changed the system back to automated e-mail verification and signed up for reCAPTCHA. If you have any problems creating your account, please contact me directly at wirsz@hotmail.com

There have been a tremendous number of changes since Beta 4. Basically the game is plot complete, but elements of the plot are still in rough shape. There is no endgame video/message/or notification, so if you can complete quest 63, the next quest reports "game over." All I think we need at this point is for someone to do some quality testing on the plot and give me feedback.

I personally wrote all of the quests, and personally played through the entire game and know that there are no bugs or glitches that prevent any of the quests from being completed. Unfortunately I am not a writer and do not work in the game industry so again, I'm sure that the plot has rough spots.

If you're interested in helping, I would love for someone to give me feedback on each of the quests as they play the game. For example:

Quest 99: the runestone

- what parts of the quest did you like
- what parts of the quest seemed to make no sense
- at what point in the quest did you get stuck and have no idea where to go next
- any other impressions you may have about the quality of the quest
- suggestions on how to improve it or remove annoying aspects of it

If you do experience bugs or problems, let me know.

This package includes a star map and the galaxy editor. Since the answer to most problems is often to simply contact more alien races, knowing where they are located is essential.

There are three "plot advancement" quests in the game when a large amount of the dialogue of all alien races change. These missions have a specific goal, but you generally have to interrogate all of the alien races to discover what that goal is. Keep in mind that formerly friendly races may become hostile and formerly hostile races could become neutral or friendly during these shifts.

Thanks to toyotaed for helping me clean up the obvious problems with this release. Without his help this version would probably have been stuck in limbo indefinitely.
toyotaed
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:51 am

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by toyotaed »

Thanks for the mention, Steve. Much appreciated.

With the Beta 5 release, we have identified a few minor issues and all have been resolved so far. More testing is ongoing.

I, for one, am very impressed with the look and the feel of the game, it does indeed mirror the original concept quite well.

Regarding previous thread postings:

A few tweaks have been observed with regard to the ship's inertia; which is now a marked improvement

Thorium is indeed available, but, in limited quantities, on a specific type of planet

The repair facility now apparently requires more user input to rectify damaged systems when in the Starport

Enduriumis now automatically injected, as opposed to having your engineer to do each and every fill-up manually. Pretty nice improvement

More later.
twobitcoder
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:38 pm

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by twobitcoder »

Ah, I see we were both thinking about the game this week, Steve, since I just posted a huge note in the Beta 5 board. Probably you have links here that I didn't know about. Check out that post, I won't repeat here. In a nutshell, we have a Google Site ready to be filled in, and I'm redirecting starflightgame.com to that page where we will add a link here for discussions.
Dennis
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:32 am
Location: Germany

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by Dennis »

Hi Steve,

I startet the game several weeks ago, but don´t have the time to play it every day. Because of this I just made it to the point when the virus appears, but my first impression is that this is a fine story with well-done background. Many references make no sence at the first view because the player randomly stumbles over it, and of course the char cannot know what will happen and if there IS a story at all that could reveal a connection to strange happenings, ancient ruins, artefacts and so on. To speak only for myself, this gives a special attraction to the game.

The only thing that I had wished to this early point of view, someone could have told me a little bit more precise what mean the concepts "bow", "mace" "tower" and so on. I had nothing more than a single information from a Nyssian that these star constellations exist and perhaps a single star coordinate that belongs to each. At this time of the game I didn´t expect to need exact knowledge about the topic, wrote it on some piece of paper and dropped it. On the other hand, that is exactly what I mean if I say that some sentences the char randomly hears later in the game become unexpectet important, while much stuff seems to be useless blarney.

Perhaps it could be possible to create an encyclopedia with basic knowledge (from the perspective of a young, inexperienced starflight captain), or You could create a button to the options menu of each crew member which offers some general statements in his field dependence - for example the knowledge of the star konstellations, eventually the fluxes and other interesting things in the Navigator´s encyclopedia or some general statements and prejudices about the other races in the communicator´s encyclopedia. The amount of information could perhaps depend on his skill level, and that would be one more incentive to skill the crew menbers as much as possible.

By the way, why did You renounc the skill-training-option in the Human Recource Center at starport? Do good skills effect the game anyway? I cannot see the difference if a very good or a very bad Gunner shoots on an alien ship or lifeform (while trying to capture it), for example, or the difference whether an experianced or an unexperienced science officier scanns a vessel or planet.

If it does make a difference that will reveal later, it wolud be one more reason to gather minerals, lifeforms and pirate cargo, earn money and spent it to train the crew. If You decided that it would be better for the game to raise the crewmenber´s skills by letting them do their work, like it is right now, then You are surely right. But You could perhaps allow them to train in the HRC up to, let´s say, 50% of their maximum skill level and let them become real good only by getting real experience. My last question to this topic is if the Captain can skill anything, and if it does make any sence if he can.

Have a nice day

Greetings from Kiel, Germany
DBG719
Posts: 81
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:40 pm

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by DBG719 »

If you need help with the constellations, send me a private message and I will give you some hints.
User avatar
Steve
Site Admin
Posts: 167
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:33 pm

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by Steve »

Hi Dennis,

Let me go over your questions one at a time.

Despite the combat, this game was developed around a retro concept - gathering hints and solving difficult puzzles by reading lots of text and taking lots of notes. The Nyssian do indeed give you the "center" of every single important constellation ever used in the entire game hoping that you will write that information down, they are not actually giving you any particular system... or you could simply stare at the map long enough :) https://sites.google.com/site/starflighttlc/maps

One problem with an encyclopedia is exactly what you said - the developers are not from the perspective a young, inexperienced starflight captain. The few things you mentioned I tried to embed in the game:

star constellations: provided by Nyssian
fluxes: https://sites.google.com/site/starfligh ... ALIENRACES
basic knowledge of each alien race: https://sites.google.com/site/starfligh ... ALIENRACES
..etc..

If you want to write up a series of questions that I could build into a FAQ page for the Google sites page and also this forum, I would be glad to write the answers to each question and post them here.

Skill training option: this is a matter of programmers running out of energy. The engineering skill actually exists and it affects repair time and the number of minerals required. As engineering skill is used, it increases. All other skills (including combat) are either partially implemented or not implemented at all.

Capt. skill also is not implemented, but the original idea was that his skills were supposed to subtly affect the skill rates of all of his crew. Let's say you promote an engineer to captain, the captain's engineering skill and the engineer's engineering skill would be combined together...

Any other observations or ideas are very welcome. If I make enough small fixes, I'll push out a new version of the game.

Steve
Dennis
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:32 am
Location: Germany

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by Dennis »

Hi Steve,

of course you are right that a player can gain most informations he needs about aliens, fluxes, lifeforms and so on by simply reading the relevant text passage on the starflight homepage. The idea that it would be fine for the gameplay feeling to recover these informations out of a profession-based encyclopedia depending on the crewmember´s skill level is not so important. Also I can imagine that it would take a lot of time and effort to program this.

Regarding my questions, I posted all that I currently had to the game excepting this one: Is it of any use to earn money after the ship is fully equipped, apart from the need of fuel and reparature minerals?

Nevertheless, I will be glad to take the time and put together a series of FAQ from the whole forum so you can answer and post them on a FAQ-section on the starflight homepage. By the way, the prices for lifeforms and the size-information on the homepage seems to be outdated. I think the maximal use would be if the table contendted name/price/speed = high, low or whatever/danger = none, extreme and so on/the kind of planet where it is usually found (what would be a very useful information for the mineral table).

One last thimg for today: Because German is my language, I do not often get a chance to speak English. Feel free to improve me.

Greetings, Dennis
DBG719
Posts: 81
Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2011 5:40 pm

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by DBG719 »

Dennis,

You are right...if you do not want to spend time looking for fuel and repair minerals, you will need MUs in your Starport to purchase them. Also when in the combat mode, shoot a couple of asteroids...they yield "power ups" for things like repairing your shields or armor. In some of the later quests, the alien races will have an object or information you need and will want to trade with you for something of value....occasionally they ask for MUs. Good Luck and Good Hunting!
Dennis
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:32 am
Location: Germany

Re: BETA 5 Download

Post by Dennis »

Hi Steve,

I took some time and searched the foroum for user questions that may be of general interest for yuor FAQ section on the forum. Don´t mention if I repeated some of my own questions. In most cases, the questions included suggestions so I felt free to include them, too. Perhaps this colud become an "FAQ & suggestions"-section? :)

1.) Do I have fo follow the game in a strict linear order, or am I free to explore the game like I wish?
For example, if I find an artifact that no-one asked me to find yet, can I get it up and keep it for later?

2.) I am stuck in mission XY. Can I cheat or skip it, or can you give me some spoilers?

3.) Combat is (too) hard. Can I skip or cheat somehow?

4.) Can I play only one mission time by time or is it possible to play more missions at the same time?

5.) Is there a game manual within the game, for example for hotkeys, processes, alien race infos etc.?

6.) Are there more than one starport, eventually one per alien homeworld, or is the Myrrdan starport the only one?
If there are more starports, can I assign alien crewmembers there?

7.) How do I raise the crewmember skills, and of which use are they?
If still in developement: What about a thread to collect suggestions about the skills?

8.) Is there any storage, or could it be createt let´s say in the bank section, where I can warehouse things like
minerals, artefacts etc. and take them back later for a little fee?
Otherwise - could the trade depot keep the sold things a few days longer?

9.) Can I get info about the primary minerals and lifeforms on a planet with the orbital scanner readout,
and couln´t the scanner be modified to show ruins and artifacts?

10.) Could the hyperspace scanner report more than the closing of an alien ship, like the direction where it comes from?

11.) Is it planned to translate the game in other languages, and if it is, would help be wanted?

Currently I am in the "Terrorists"-mission (42?), and still have a lot of fun. It´s just one thing I really wished: That the ship wouldn´t be so boring slowly in hyperspace, and also in combat. For myself, I would like it best if the ship alsways maneuvers just like in a solar system.

I am recording the story while playing it from the perspective of the captain, and if you like to know how I experienced the game (after finishing), I will be glad to send it to you. Perhaps, some things like the conscience conflicts of a young unexperienced starship captain, dreaming to be "one of the good boys" and suddenly being forced by his mafia-like superiors to invade an alien space territory to seek and kill people that have done nothing bad to him, or the thoughts, histories and wishes of the crewmembers may give you some inspirations for the further developement of the game story. :D
Post Reply