"newbie" observations on beta 4

from Stardock Forums
While I played GC on OS/2 for many years, I'm calling myself a "newbie" because I just downloaded the Windows version last week. (Thank god for Dregnin.net's restart ability - took me 3 days on and off on a 28.8 line to get the whole thing downloaded).

The game is very playable and enjoyable, but I've noted a few thing I thought I'd mention here. Since I've just discovered these forums, I apologize if these have been noted and discussed before.

- One turn after invading and conquering the Venge homeworld, going to foreign relations and selecting Minor Races shows the Venge still there. Selecting the Venge at that point causes a CTD. I have a saved game that exhibits this problem - if you need me to send it in, can I just zip up the saved game directory?

- There might be a bug in the "fog of war" code. A couple of times I've found that I can't see my own ships unless I move them a couple of spaces, at which point they appear to be emerging from one of the "fogged out" areas.

- Minor misspellings - the planet list has "moral" instead of "morale". One of the minor races descriptions says "filled with great ideas but, unfourunatly, too short to acomplish many of them" where unfortunately is misspelled.

- When a technology is completed, a social or military project is completed, or an enemy planet rebels and joins me, the dialogue to choose the next technology/project is sometimes skipped. I'm not 100% sure, but this seems to happen most when an enemy planet rebels. Similarly, I've seen turns where having hit "done" on each of the planet dialogues after selecting new social and military projects, the game immediately jumps into the autopilot movements, movements of enemy ships, and the next turn, without stopping to allow me to move my ships that are not on autopilot. I just saw both of these symptoms in a single turn when two enemy planets rebelled and joined me.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks for the report.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
ACtually morale isn't spelled worng as much as the text is just getting cut off. We'll need to fix that (wish it was a mispelling, that's easy to fix!)

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
judging from Frogboy's posts, it's easy to see who is repsonsible for making all those errors. heh
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
A few more observations ...

- I sent a freighter from quadrant 11,0 to 2,7. When it arrived, GC erroneously attributed the source of the freighter to a different planet, in quadrant 4,8. I tried it again with another freighter from the same planet to a different system, and it again mis-attributed it to the same system in quadrant 4,8.

- I sent a constructor to create a starbase to mine a resource. Several turns later there was a CTD. On restoring the game from the last save, the starbase was still there, but the resource had disappeared. I could no longer create mining bases, but the AIs appeared to think the resource was still there - they kept sending constructors to it, even though my starbase was already there.

- The Space Shark appears to be stuck on top og a mini-freighter. This might be the same problem described in another thread as a Pirate problem.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
On the planet dialog, towards the bottom there's a circle with a left and right arrow, used to go to the next and previous planets - if I move my mouse pointer over the circle, I get a message "string not found" poping up.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
BTW, compared to the OS/2 game, the ship and planet animations are awesome. I could almost watch the planets rotate for hours, they're that good. :)
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Lame:

Just because Frogboy is posting the most, or that he knows what is causing the bugs, does not mean that he is the one making all the errors. We all work on various things, and we're all familiar with most of the code. We all make mistakes, and we all fix mistakes, and all the mistakes that we fix are not necessarily ours. Brad is, however, the best at keeping up with the forum, particularly over weekends and holidays.

It is not fun to read most of the posts on this forum. It can be very discouraging to read post after post of bug reports and criticism, with very little positive feedback in comparision. Add the fact that a lot of the stuff is redundant, and you have the added burden that you feel like it's taking a lot of your time just to go through the posts when you could be fixing stuff or adding new stuff in Gal Civ. So we don't need the added aggravations of personal remarks aimed at us specifically that may or may not be intended to piss us off.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
jmqarth,

Have you ever seen a development team as the final days of a production schedule wind down? It isn't pretty. Frustration, angst, tempers, fears (will we ever get it done in time?), and general caos all build to a fever pitch. A development team does not need any nudges towards the brink. They are there already.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Actually, that last post was supposed to be directed at Master Lame. Sorry jmqarth.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Positive feedback ok; The Game even in its late Beta stage is fun to play. I like the complexity and after many months playing I am still finding something new.

Keep up the good work I am looking forward to ver 1.0 and many more verision after that.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
All I can say is, Cari, Brad, Scott, and all of you at Stardock, I think I can safely say that we ALL appreciate the effort you are putting into GC. It is shaping up very nicely and is great fun to play. Many cudos to you all. :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Lucky Jack, even though your post was not intended to be directed to me, I feel compelled to point out that I've been in software development for more years than I care to admit to, and in my experience frustration, angst, etc aren't limited to the end of the cycle. I live in a Dilbert world, I hope and pray that Stardock is better.

Anyway, even with the crashes and other problems I've talked about in several threads on this forum, I'm really enjoying the game and just want it to be as good as it can be. I hope I'm coming across as constructive.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
John,

Your galciv forum does not give your e-mail address. How about sending yours to me at [email protected] . Your name sounds familiar.

Yes, most projects I worked on did have pressure from beginning to end, but it always seemed to be worst at the end of the cycle. I retired from operating system developmet programming three years ago after 21 years.

I visited Stardock last June and they have a real nice environment (not at all Dilbert like that I could see). They are a small company with a very able leader (Brad Wardell, the CEO). ALL of the people there seem to work together very well. I wouldn't minde working there myself, except I figure I have earned my retirement.

In watching the posts on this forum I get the impression that there are a LARGE number of programmers that have signed up for GalCiv. What about it Brad? Could you start a poll asking how many of us are programmers (or if you insist, "Software Engineers")?
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, I did it again. "Your galciv forum does not ..." should read "Your galciv forum registration does not ..."
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Keep up the good work Cari (+company). We really do appreciate the improvements. The game has progressed so much from the initial alpha stage and as mentioned before is now fun to play. Sorry for not posting enough positive feedback! The game is beginning to look awesome. Just a few more bugs to squash and it should be there.

Paul.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
:) Thanks guys. As Jack said, we do not have a Dilbertesque working environment, but it does get stressful during the last stage of development. I'll try to keep my Irish temper in check, though. :)
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
hey guys don't take all those reports on the wrong side!!!

i think all those people posting ctd reports and all this shit are just like me they really enjoy the game and want to see it become more and more... agreable!!!

those later days i try many different space strategy game and this one is really the best...

i'm really addicted... i try to play whenever i can... the last time i was so addicted it was when i played Civ 1, and before that Sim City and before (hum i didn't seem to remember) Alex Kid perhaps....

so keep the head up, have a big nice smille on your ugly face ;)
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
disterbman,

I don't think Cari was taking issue with any of the reports of problems, but I do think she was taking issue with the blatantly negative non-specific comment by one individual.
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Disturbman,

Jack is correct. I do not mind bug reports, though the length of my list is rather daunting at the moment. :) The point of my reply was that I object to negative comments directed at the developers, rather than feedback about the game. I know that I should ignore it, but some days it's harder to than others, and if I'm pissed off, I don't work as well.

So I'm not asking you guys to sugar coat anything, just to remember that if you're frustrated or pissed, that we developers get frustrated and pissed too.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
Cari, in my project (Lucky Jack and I used to work together) there's a guy who has over 60 "severity 1" problems assigned to him, with 3 different managers asking for daily status reports ... a problem created by management, who reassigned everyone else who knew the component he's responsible for to other projects. But enough about Dilbert=Reality. Thanks very much for your great work! It's fantastic to be able to interact with you via these forums.