Initial Feedback for Rebellion Alpha Version

[hames]

(Seems the forums had some sort of issue and a backup had to be put in place? My user name and all my posts got deleted...had to re-register).

 

Overall, I think the game is really fun and I enjoy it a lot. This is just my feedback and thoughts. I do realize this is an Alpha version and it has a long ways to go. Also, I have only played as the Empire. Also, I don't really play Sins so I am not a "master" about it. I played it a bit in 2007 and 2009 but no more than 10 hours worth.

 

I didn't have a single crash unless I played a bogus map

 

1. I can seem to build ships without researching the technology for them. For example, the torpedo spheres. Is this intentional?

2. The ISD-II and the ISD-I seem to be very close to each other in the game. I personally feel they are a bit too close. According to the star wars wiki:

"The Imperial II was built with a heavily reinforced hull, stronger deflector shields, and greater firepower than the original Imperial I class."

I'm not sure about the exact differences (would have to look it up), but I'd personally like to see an increase between the two and offset it with:

- Having to research the ISD-II and

- Then a much higher resource cost.

3. I would really like to be able to build VSD I's and VSD II's.

4. I assume the ships are all to scale and everything? They look very very nice and I can sometimes get some really nice shots in game that remind me of the movies - GREAT JOB!

5. This is a minor one, but would probably help me out a bit. I noticed that sometimes the unit icons are not very clear and/or too small. I'm not sure if these can made a bit bigger or if there is an option in game? I play at a big resolution - 1920x1080 so I suspect this is partly my issue.

6. With the conversion to Rebellion, what are your team's intentions for the new techs that came out? Will you be adding most of them in but converting them to a Star Wars flavor?

7. After the patch last night to Sins, I noticed that sometimes I would get no particle effects during combat but ships would take damage. I previously was able to get them.

8. I think there is a sound file for when ships leave hyperspace and it is from the default Sins ones so it seems out of place. I noticed that you guys took a lot of the sound files from EaW (great idea and game, btw). I seem to recall there may be a sound file for fleets arriving at their destination you may use.

9. Just a general question - but are there any custom maps that come with the mod that are of the galaxy? I don't really know what is from the stock Sins or where to really find a map to have TRUE galactic domination!

 

 

Thanks!

[Evaders99]

Yea not sure what database got transferred here. Arg. Sorry for the trouble.

[Lavo]

1) Most ships don't require technology. The Torp. Sphere does though, I'll look into that.

2) I plan to change this in the future.

3) No. While the Empire had VSDs, they were constantly phasing those ships out, and it would take away from the Republic's line of ships. More importantly, there isn't enough space in the Empire's line up for another ship. There currently is a single slot open; and this will be taken up by the Lambda (envoy). The DP20 will be taken away from them and retooled into something new, however the slot will be taken by a retooled Vindicator (the current Republic's Vindicator will be getting a name/model change).

4) Thanks!

5) Depends on the icon. Most are already as large as possible, some are small. There are others that don't even have any icons; those are a priority. I also am not great at making icons, and atm, I'm the only one making them. If you're willing to make bigger ones, or even new ones, the help would be greatly appreciated.

6) Tech has been a WIP since forever. The new techs are pretty much inconsequential to us, if anything making older techs properly work, such as shield penetration, is a much bigger feat for us.

7) Rebellion broke a lot of particles, unfortunately. These will take time to fix.

I'd be open to a new sound. Just need the file either in OGG, or in a lossless codec (WAV, etc).

9) There are some in the Entrenchment version; they need fixing.

[hames]

Thanks for your responses Lavo.

 

3) No. While the Empire had VSDs, they were constantly phasing those ships out, and it would take away from the Republic's line of ships. More importantly, there isn't enough space in the Empire's line up for another ship. There currently is a single slot open; and this will be taken up by the Lambda (envoy). The DP20 will be taken away from them and retooled into something new, however the slot will be taken by a retooled Vindicator (the current Republic's Vindicator will be getting a name/model change).

 

Oh, so there is only one slot left? They didn't implement scrolling? I was wondering/hoping they did implement that.

But from a balance stand point, what you said makes sense.

 

I'd be open to a new sound. Just need the file either in OGG, or in a lossless codec (WAV, etc).

 

I'll see if I can find the file in my EaW game.

[evane241]

1) I have played a few games using the alpha release, and I noticed that usually at least 1 player seems to start off with just an asteroid connected to their home planet, otherwise they are completely isolated from the star. I know that the pre-made maps crashing is known, but I didn't see this issue mentioned anywhere. This happens at least 75% of the time I would say when starting a random map, a lot of times it's an enemy that is stranded, so you can never really be sure until half way through the game.

 

2) Also I encountered a couple minidumps that I wasn't able to relate to any ability or occurrence in particular, but after changing the effects detail from highest down to high, the game didn't seem to crash again. I know that this is a known issue in the Entrenchment release, however I also did not see a mention of it for the Rebellion release.

 

3) Is there any chance that the number of "String not found" planets listed in the map designer can be reduced? It's very time consuming making a map when there are about 200 available planet types, 75% of which are "sting not found".

 

4) Lastly, I would also like to see an alternate "phase jump complete" sound effect. I should be able to get one and convert it to a .WAV if you would like

[Lavo]

1) Yes, all of the random maps except the Small one are broken. This exactly what I was referring to, unfortunately.

2) Yeah, it's back in Rebellion as strong as ever, Reb is even more resource intensive than Ent.

3) If someone is willing to go through the entities/string file, I'd be happy to put in those fixes.

4) It's either got to be in OGG initially, or be converted from a lossless source to OGG. Send me whatever you find and I'll see what I can do with it.

[Orange_oberst]

Compared to the last version I played ( entrenchment) this is much more polished.

 

Love the new economy ( end game research really expensive) and planet ressource distribution / upgrade cost. Way more balanced than vanilla sins imo. Forces you to make long term planning and strategic choices.

 

 

Much much more fun. Best mod i've played so far

 

 

Love the fact that starbases are weaker so you can't spam them ( played empire)

 

 

Pirates are sooooo strong, I guess it makes them more usefull.

 

Cant wait for capital ships skills + ulti and ssd skills

 

Would like death star one day

 

 

Had no crashes , played random small maps. A few glitches in tech tree ( torpedo sphere, you can build at some point without research, its as if another tech unlocks it)

 

Well done!

 

Looking forward for beta

 

Do you have an eta ?

[Lavo]

I'm planning to get another patch out later this week, will have fixed supercaps, fixed abilities, and hopefully some other goodies.

[evane241]

I noticed that there was a "hyperspace jump complete" quote in the Warlords 0.45 mod for Homeworld 2, could that be used for Sins perhaps?

 

Looking forward to the next release. I would like to make a donation, but would prefer not to use PayPal since they charge a rather large fee. Do you have a Bitcoin wallet, or Dwolla account?

[Evaders99]

I don't remember what we did for Warlords. It might be the existing sound file, since HW does call it hyperspace?

 

Sorry, no Bitcoin or Dwolla unfortunately

[evane241]

Just made a donation to swrebellion.com. In the future, you guys should think about accepting Bitcoin, there is less of a fee to convert it to USD, or whatever your preferred currency, than PayPal charges just for their overhead. Also you might find other people are more willing to donate via that method than putting the charge on their credit/debit card, myself included.

 

Also, Dwolla, is a US-only based electronic payment system, extremely similar to PayPal, however they charge a flat fee of only $0.25 per transaction, as opposed to $0.30 + 3%. People would be less likely to use this service, but it might be worth making available since the transaction fee is almost nothing.

 

Looking forward to the beta release for Rebellion, is there an update on a possible ETA?

 

Regarding the mini dumps with "Highest" detail settings; I remembered an old trick I used back when Fallout 3 first came out, that allows you to modify an executable so that it can use over 2GB of memory:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ1_RG8QblM

 

It's not exactly a secret, but not everyone knows about it, so it might be worth adding these instruction to the mod's readme?

[Lavo]

It's not exactly a secret, but not everyone knows about it, so it might be worth adding these instruction to the mod's readme?

Using LAA or something similar makes the game unstable; Stardock themselves considered it and voted against it due to this. We mentioned this in the old Entrenchment versions, however, due to how Steam is, doing such a trick is a very bad idea, as Steam will throw a fit and ensure you cannot play MP anymore. At least, I think, until you verify the game's cache, aka "fix" it.

[evane241]

It's not exactly a secret, but not everyone knows about it, so it might be worth adding these instruction to the mod's readme?

Using LAA or something similar makes the game unstable; Stardock themselves considered it and voted against it due to this. We mentioned this in the old Entrenchment versions, however, due to how Steam is, doing such a trick is a very bad idea, as Steam will throw a fit and ensure you cannot play MP anymore. At least, I think, until you verify the game's cache, aka "fix" it.

 

 

Well I can't speak to the Steam version of the game, but the standalone download from Stardock works great with this enabled, played several matches with all effects on highest detail and no crashes.

[Lavo]

Well I can't speak to the Steam version of the game, but the standalone download from Stardock works great with this enabled, played several matches with all effects on highest detail and no crashes.

Rebellion requires Steam no matter where you buy it from.