Dev 8 Beta Feedback

[71]

In case anyone has any general feedback for Dev 8 (currently on the beta branch), this would be a good place for it.

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One thing I noticed was that using F1 to trigger time dilation doesn't properly scale the time between commands. If anything, it makes it faster rather than slower.

[Zarkonnen]

Thanks for the additional feedback! I now have a to-do item that reads "Make MP messages bigger and last longer", which makes me giggle.

[71]

--- Here begins BETA 5 ----


Looks like the game is pulling the (abbreviated) descriptions for designs from the Steam thumbnail and not the full text version on the design's main page.

I re-uploaded a design that had a long description only to find the latter portion of it had been removed in the process.

[71]

I dug some more into the F1-time-dilation weirdness. I've been noticing that ramming effectiveness was heavily dilation dependent, so I went looking into the real-time speed differences of ships crossing over a given piece of leveled terrain. Below are the times (in seconds) needed to cross the same distance.

	Normal	F1	Ratio
Air	2.3	9	3.9
Track	16.5	259	15.7
Legs	28	429	15.3

Now I'd been under the impression that F1-time is supposed to be everything running at 1/2 normal time progression, in which case the ratios should all be roughly 2.

Even assuming it's actually running at 1/4 time, and the Airships behave correctly, landships are essentially crippled by F1 time, traveling at a mere 1/4 their normal movement speed and consuming roughly 4 times more coal to cross the same distance.

[71]

There's a bit of graphical instability with the background if you do a little more than your typical landscaping.

In Combat mode:
1) Dig out the far right corner of each spawn box.
2) Use Levolution to level the terrain to the dug out level.
3) Dig out the middle terrain.
4) You should see something like what's pictured below.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=632611724

EDIT: Also note it's not a purely cosmetic issue. It appears you can't add new terrain blocks to the area that doesn't have a background.

[71]

Probably outside the realm of beta fixes, but related to both speed differences and terrain manipulation is the rather extensive degree to which tracked vehicle speed can be altered (namely enhanced) by the underlying terrain.

I constructed courses of equal length and tested the time it took a large tracked vehicle to cross from one end to the other (in triplicate). Everything is run in normal time.

Course        	Time	Speed	
Level terrain	12.55	1.00	
1w-1d rumble	7.74	1.62	
2w-1d rumble	6.32	1.99	
4w-1d rumble	6.13	2.05	*
4w-2d rumble	5.09	2.47	*
4w trench     	5.35	2.34	
6w trench     	6.13	2.05	**

Indicating that by simply roughening the terrain, the player can greatly enhance the capability of their landships well beyond what might be considered realistically possible, especially considering that level terrain gives the worst performance by a wide margin.


For reference

1w-1d rumble
2w-1d rumble
4w-1d rumble
4w-2d rumble
4w trench
6w trench

*Indicates modest damage to track during testing.
**Indicates heavy damage to track during testing.

[71]

I don't always use High-quality graphics and Lighting effects, but when I do, I get graphical errors like these.

With just High-quality graphics, only the barrels of weapon modules are whited out, everything else returns to normal.

With both off, everything is normal.

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EDIT: I just realized it's advertised as whited out on the store page...bug or feature?

[bostondogguy]

when is the next update gonna be out?

[Zarkonnen]

Thank you for your detailed efforts, 71.

Graphics error through too much levelling: Looks like it randomly doesn't draw the background, yeah.

Terrain influence on landship speeds: Yeah, come to think of it, I noticed that too but thought it was just the effects of gravity. Will investigate on the basis of your data.

High-quality graphics and lighting effects: So the issue is that the barrels of weapons modules are too white in the module list?

[Zarkonnen]

bostondogguy - I currently expect there to be one last beta on about Tuesday, and then the actual release of dev8 shortly after.

[71]

Originally posted by Zarkonnen:

...So the issue is that the barrels of weapons modules are too white in the module list?

High quality graphics + Lighting Effects = modules in module list are fully white (screenshot)

High quality graphics only = modules list properly textured, but not muzzles (screenshot)

Both off = module list showing all textures properly, including muzzles (screenshot)

I'm not sure what is considered "proper" behavior, but it should consistently be one extreme or the other.

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There's an unrelated issue with duplicated crew images both on the workshop and within the 'Open designs' page in-game. Example

[71]

------ Here begins Beta 6 -------

I have mixed feelings about the new modules list look. Although it does resolve the options-dependent variability, it in some cases obscures some of the modules due to lack of contrast (coal storage especially).

Assuming we're sticking with the dark background, I think the best move would be to grayscale all of the modules and decrease or eliminate the gold borders, with the intent to create more of a high contrast 'blueprint' look as opposed to simply a miniaturized module graphic.

If you can recreate the Main Menu background look on a module-by-module basis, that would be clear and thematically consistent.



...and yes, I realize the irony (hypocrisy?) of suggesting you grayscale graphics you just labored to give their proper colors. Obviously, you should ignore me if you're content with it.

[71]

Keel HP bonuses don't show up in the Hitpoint Overlay until you add a module after adding the Keel.

All this time, I thought keels were a lie.

[Trekker]

I have found a bug in beta 8.2. I don't know if anone else has this problem, but i do know that my ship is sanguine, not pink.

Example: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198279871903/screenshots/#scrollTop=0

It appears that the colors are desaturated.

[Zarkonnen]

This is now fixed in the newest 8.2 beta. Thank you for reporting it. :)