Ok, all of what the guy said in the first post... Just copy and paste it here... (My feelings are the same.)
A couple of posts down, the comment... "Currently, very few engine devs are really active"
- That is called abandonware. (The "Few" devs that knew anything, did not know the solution, so they stopped developing or are waiting for the answer to come bite them on the...)
Four years, and the intro still is not fixed, the "Chatting" still exists. (Trust me, kill the chat-AI, we are playing a game, not a "Guess what I want you to ask me, and how I want you to ask it.") Give us a list of the "Things we should be asking." The reason games have not used that type of interface since kings-quest... was because no-one liked it. That is the reason MUD's are still a 0.001% of the gaming population.
Fine, I understand that a lot of work went into these "Dialogs", but dialogs don't make the game. The "Game" is visual, interactive with the mouse, and requires navigation in 3D. However, the focus is on the simple-text "Easy to work with", MUD dialog. I never got past the first character, because I couldn't figure out "What to type". I don't want to "Figure out what to type", I came here to play a game, not write and read a novel. That is what forums are for.
My character creation, was the stupidest rule-set of them all...
You demand a last-name... in the "Name" box. (Mistake number one)
- You NEED two boxes. (First name), (Last name)
You demand that the first-name be unique??!?!?
- You don't know two "Bob's"?
- Why is there a last name, if the first name is unique?
The last name has no purpose... apparently... and must be unique?
- You don't know anyone with brothers and sisters? I am sure most of them have the same last name.
You have the ability to select other characters... but none exist..
- Disable the selection, like the body-settings are disabled, because they don't exist.
You have us type our "Mother" and "Father"... And the last names...
- Wouldn't the last name be the same as the father?
- Wouldn't the mothers name be the same as the fathers? (Ok, there could be an exception to that rule.)
- Would it not make sense to start the game, asking who your "Mother is" (First Name, Maiden Name) {Unknown being an option}
- Then ask... Who is your "Father" (First Name, Last Name) {Unknown being an option}
- Would it not make sense to have that info carry-over to your name... But allow you to choose... LAST NAME... (If you are married, and female, or if you are adopted, it would not be the same... That would prompt... "Is this your married name, or were you adopted?")
It would be within reason to limit names to (First name + Last name) = Original
However, denying a name because of "IamSomeName" is not "Iamsomename"... Seriously, change it to sentence-case, or don't allow upper-case to be typed. That was just annoying.
Actually, if a last name exists, it should show the user the family tree, and ask if they are part of that family. (They can not be a child of an existing parent, or a child of an existing child, unless they have the parents/childs password. EG, if this was me creating another EGO for my twin/sibling, I would know the original password. This limitation would also be bound to e-mail, so that I could not join other families, only add to my own.)
EG... If there was a last name "Smith"... (Already existing as the "Father" {"Fred Smith", of "Jane Doe" {Maiden name "Jane Smith"})
I would be limited to saying I was a third-cousin, at most...
My name "Bob Smith", who's father was "Abe Smith"... fathers relation would be limited to {"Abe Smith" = relative of "Fred Smith", but not the brother of "Abe"}
EG, Abe and Fred do not share the same father... but their fathers were brothers. (That provides enough personal space between players, so they don't take offense to people hopping inside their family tree.)
So "Jane Doe" {"Jane Smith"} would be a distant-cousin of the new character "Bob Smith".
Once I create "Bob Smith" son of "Abe Smith", (@ My E-Mail)
I am limited to creating only brother/sister "_____ Smith" {Maiden name "Smith", or new last name [Unique] if female/married.}
All creations have the same father/mother, or possibly replace one, not both, with a new [Unique]. For instances where siblings have half-relation. Separate mother/father. That may be a little more complexity than desired, but would lead to some interesting play options.
Since we all exist now {As in this game date}... It is safe to say that we are all potentially related in the time-line. Our set age would determine our potential tree-parent ages.
"Bob Smith" is 50 but his distant-cousin "Jane Smith{Doe}" is 20...
"Abe Smith" {Bob's father} is most likely older than "Fred Smith" {Jane's father}. (If that even matters.)
Otherwise, there is no point in having two-halves o a name, both halves being unique to all other {Place names}...
Smith Smith is possible... no one has First-Name Smith, and no one has Last-Name Smith... which is just crazy, but not as crazy as demanding there is only one "Bob" and only one "Smith"... that would make us all single-children, unmarried. (Which defeats the purpose of the "How many siblings do you have" question, which should not even be a question. That should be determined by the characters you create, or, if selected... would limit creation of characters to that number. If you ran out of siblings, you would have to create a new mother/father combo. But still keep one of them. M1&F1 = 3C, M1&F2 = 2C, M2&F1 = 1C, there would be no M2&F2... they would not be related siblings at that point. EG, M1&F1 get divorced... M1 marries F2, and F1 marries M2. The children from M1F1 are related by half to the children of M1F2 and M2F1.)
Anywho... that is besides the point... I had to drop my name to lower-case, once I figured out that is what the problem was. (It was not clear.) Leading to a website in the middle of playing a game is not a solution. Just tell us there, what is wrong with the names. Seriously, we need to go to the internet to see what you can't tell us in the game. How about making us create the name on the internet... Use that as our login for the site... Great, now I have three logins... one for the site, one for the game, and one for the forums...
Going into the game, the mouse control just stinks... Sorry, no kind words there. My player seems to have epilepsy at random points in the game, throwing his arms into the air, swinging one, jumping forward, sticking to the ground, jumping sideways... The mouse-view jumps forward, locks the view, lags as it looks around, and I have to constantly pick-up and move the mouse to get full range looking. The rotate-view, rotates the player also... now I loose my facing, when I am attempting to get a better view of the scene. If this were a fight, I would now be swinging away from my target. That is not a good interface design. The player loves to look at the ground... If there were a horizon, I would never see it... I feel like I am walking around like the hunchback of notre-dame... I don't recall ANY game with that awkward look-down view, which seems locked into place.
The camera view is like a drunk bird following the player... That was said to be harsh... There is no other way to describe it kindly. (It is not lag, that is programmed code, which everyone keeps "referring to" as "LAG"... they/we are not talking about "Net-lag" or "Video-lag", we are talking about the "Camera-lag" that the programmers have setup to make the camera act like a drunk bird.
Turning is like a rubber-band... it has an elastic delay to start.. then has a delayed stop. If I move my mouse... move my view... NOW, and if I stop moving my mouse... stop moving my view... NOW. If I had to play this for hours, I would fail a sobriety test, and possibly get sea-sick from all that whip-snappy motion.
The turn-speed goes from slow, to way too fast... overshooting what you actually want to look at. Feels like I am driving a hovercraft, not controlling my head-motion. (Which is what the camera should be simulating.
When I attacked the RAT, with my hands, because I couldn't figure out what the armor guy wanted me to say, to get the weapon...
"You are not close enough to your target"
"You are not facing your target"
I was directly in front of the damn thing, and at one point, on top of it... Killed it, even though it kept saying those two lines over and over. (Detection is out of whack.)
The story-line says I start off underground... but I am apparently in an above-ground city. With junk and unexplainable walls all over the place as limitations to my travel. If the stuff looked like it belong there, I wouldn't mind... but it looks like it does not belong there. Start us inside the underground, like the story says... and have the tutorial be room oriented, if each section must be completed in order, or all MUST be completed to get into the game.
Since I could not complete any of the tutorial sections... I never got to play the game.
Conclusion, within the first half hour, I have completely lost interest in this game, and considered the 10 hour download, and 3 hour setup/debugging a total waste of my time. I'll check back in another four years... and give it another try. These issues are usually handled before the game creation takes place. Not after four years.
Cool graphics engine though... Love the lighting...
- World physics need major work.
- User input needs major work.
- MUD style play needs to be dropped and replaced with something that requires less thought to use. Or can be figured out without having to read a novel of instructions.
- Distance calculation formulas are sooo far out of scope, they just need to be rewritten.
- Collision detection has to be done PRIOR TO MOVING, not POST MOVE, when you have moved into a hole. This is time-based, you need to step-through DISTANCE/TIME not FRAME/TIME.
- GUI needs some small adjustments, where lettering does not fit. Letters are being cut off.
- Game Setup needs to have redundant stuff removed... and needs to check for available options.
- - (800x600 only full screen at 800x600 resolution.) Other issues also because the game is actually larger than 800x600 when you select 800x600, even without the window frame. Your proportion code is not correct. You just think it is. Which is why 800x600 windowed has trouble fitting on 1024x768, and why 1024x768 has troube displaying on 1280x800.
- - If YOUR GAME does not display in 16 bit or 24 bit... then remove them from the selection.
- - Explain what those other settings are... we have no idea what those do in the game. We are not programmers, we are players (Clients).
- Change the name of the start-shortcut that says ("StartClient") to say ("Play Steel Blue")... To you it is a client, to us it is the game.
- Merger the installer with the updater. Auto-run the updater after the install and create the desired install-paths into the shortcuts or store them for use when running the updater from a bat-file.
- Get the game down to a minimum size for install... force an update after it runs... if it doesn't run, no need to update with the other half of the game. (Thus, it is not as large of a waste of time for us, if it doesn't work. Or even if it does work.)
NOTE: It is word of mouth that carries the largest weight in a game like this. Since there is no money to advertise over the word of mouth... you are left with all these people's thoughts and impressions as your advertisement. Now I know what they were all talking about.
I regret to say, these issues which seem to be part of the engine, and not issues specific to the game, have completely dissuaded me form considering the use of this engine for anything serious. (For anything that would be expected to make money.) As a free-game... I don't think I could pay people to use this, as it is now.
Good luck with future development. I hope you find the people you need, that are willing and able to fix the problems this engine has.
