I really like the second background. I think it would be better that the first one.

I placed the image in the directory you specified, but it looks way too dark than the .png. You did mention Mike reduced its brightness, but it looks it's being reduced ingame (thought the actual background image file had its brightness reduced).

I'm referring mostly to the loading screen. Looks fine after (could go a little bit brighter).

Yes, the game does darken the image during game loading because of the way it works. During game loading, it prevent other operations taking place - such as the auto-updater. So it darkens out the game, kind of like how Windows darkens and turns everythign to black-and-white when you first click on Start Shut down (But before it asks for confirmation). The game does this to prevent an update taking place at the same time as game loading, which caused a few problems during previous versions of the game. This was added as part of the May update.

You therefore should ignore how the image looks during game loading, and just go by how the image looks as the map background during normal gameplay.

Added some variations:

http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Supremacy/Default.png
http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Supremacy/Default2.png
http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Supremacy/Default3.png
http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Supremacy/Default4.png
http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Supremacy/Default5.png

And if anyone wants to try some other colors go to

http://www.3dgalaxymap.com/Supremacy/Default.psd

You select a layer in photoshop. Then go to image> adjustments > hue/saturation and check Colorize.
Then play with hue, saturation and lightness

Have fun,

Rayden

I like the first variation above. Thanks Rayden.
I can see my house from here.

I like those different pictures you've done Rayden, I prefer the first one but the others are good too.

Hey IbnSaeed, welcome to the forums!

Thanks for letting us know about the problem. I'll send a PM to Mike and ask him to check it out.

Check to see if there was an auto save.
Welcome to the collective.

Connection was lost? That's odd, that should never happen because the "connection" is actually to a server which is on your computer.

If possible, could you open up your Supremacy folder and see if you can find a file called "ServerError.txt"? If the file contains any information (Ie. it has a file size greater than 0kb and it contains text) could you please copy-and-paste this text into a post or attach the file to a post for us? If you could do that, it might help Mike trace the cause of the problem.

The game deletes any error messages the next time you load a game, so this won't be possible if you've since played the game. It's also possible the crash was caused by something unrelated to the game itself, in which case no error would be recorded there anyways. So if the file is blank, don't worry about it. If it does have any text though, it could be very useful to us.

Hi everyone,
This is a great game, I just downloaded it and I'm already enjoying it. I can't wait until it's done. I do have one question, are there going be any nomadic races (i.e. Hirogen)? And if so, would that require a capability to just cruise through space, cannibalize systems, and leave? It would probably seriously change the dynamic of the game, but I'm just wondering. Also, are there going to be any free radicals or wild cards like a wormhole, transwarp hub, weird remnants of ancient alien civilizations, etc.? Just some suggestions.

Adranus, welcome and we are glad to have your suggestions.
In a word the answer is yes. There will be what we call random
events and issues the player will have to deal with. The hope is
to pull in some classic events from many of the shows. Most of these
features are still in the works.

As for the races we hope to see many of them act in the expected
manner. The Ferengi will act like leaches and your suggestion about the Hirogen is a good one as well.

Hey Adranus, welcome to the forums!

We don't intend to have wandering races in the game simply because of programming limitations; races like the Hirogen are in the game, but they will inhabit systems just like all the other races do. Some races will be able to expand though - they will have their own colony ships and will spread out to nearby systems, given enough time. Some races have multiple ship designs as well, rather than just having one type of ship or perhaps a ship that got an upgrade later on.

As Kenneth mentioned above though, we do intend to include random events in the game, just as BOTF had. In fact, Supremacy already contains one random event, a religious occaision that halts production in a random system for one turn. This event has a 1% chance of happening on each turn, and was programmed in just as a test to see whether the random events system works correctly. We intend to have a lot more random events in the game in future though. I've been working on a *potential* list of random events for several years now, which i've attached below. Normally i'd link to it on our Sharepoint site, but the server seems to be down at the moment. BOTF2 Random Events.txt [112.52 KiB]
Downloaded 382 times

Now I have to stress that I created this list purely as an example of what *could* be in the game, not what *will* be in the game; just because a random in my list, it doesn't mean it will actually make it into the game or that it will make it into the game in the exact way that i've written it. As you can see though, there are several random events involving combat or alien entities of some kind that will wander across space until they encounter a system or ships and will attack them. Discovering remnants of alien civilizations will usually mean tech advances as well.

Wormholes will be in the game, but will be a little bit different to BOTF. Wormholes will only be visible once you've encountered them, and this doesn't necessarily mean passing through the system, although you may be lucky enough to have this happen. Generally though you will ned to send a ship to go off exploring and scanning systems to discover Wormholes. Once you've found one, that doesn't mean it is stable or usable either; some Wormholes will lead off the edge of the map. If they do, then your ship will be lost permanently. Other Wormholes may also randomly shift position - they may have only one fixed end, or they might even have no fixed end at all! You will receive no warning when a shift happens - it will just shift. So finding a Wormhole isn't always going to be the blessing you think it is...

...

I've sent Mike a PM, IbnSaeed. He hasn't replied yet, but he will once he knows what the problem is or at least has some ideas. Please just be patient. I'll pass on this new error report to him as well.

But where is Mike. Haven't seem him post in this thread for a while

He's around, don't worry. I bombard him with PM's so he knows quickly if there are any major issues going on with the game. I've already sent him a PM about all the issues you're experiencing so don't worry. He either hasn't had time to post yet or he's still working on the fix. He posted in another thread an hour or two ago which is how i know he's around.

I think that there should be atleast 3 more developers working on this game. If only 1 works on it, the game will get delayed 3 to 4 more years. Since everyone has their real life to care about first.

So if there are 3 to 4 developers, when one of them gets busy, the rest can continue the work.

Lets do it like Microsoft. A team starts to work on the code in Silicon Valley on day one. That afternoon they hand it off the the team in India. At the end of the day in India they had it back to Silicon Valley. Work never ends until it is completed.

you got to love outsourcing

i updated:
http://www.4shared.com/file/109807999/8 ... erLog.html

and this is what i get, when trying to start the game, in error.log:
Could not load file or assembly 'AvalonLibrary, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b5d01516e28df45f' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)

at Supremacy.Client.GameScreen.ResumeAnimations()
at Supremacy.Client.GameScreen.OnShowCore() in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\supremacy\Mainline\SupremacyClient\GameScreen.cs:line 135
at Supremacy.Client.GameScreen.GameScreen_IsVisibleChanged(Object sender, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) in C:\Users\Mike Strobel\Workspace\supremacy\Mainline\SupremacyClient\GameScreen.cs:line 118
at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseDependencyPropertyChanged(EventPrivateKey key, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args)
at System.Windows.UIElement.OnIsVisibleChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.DependencyObject.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.DependencyObject.NotifyPropertyChange(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args)
at System.Windows.UIElement.UpdateIsVisibleCache()
at System.Windows.UIElement.InvalidateForceInheritPropertyOnChildren(Visual v, DependencyProperty property)
at System.Windows.UIElement.OnIsVisibleChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.DependencyObject.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.DependencyObject.NotifyPropertyChange(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args)
at System.Windows.UIElement.UpdateIsVisibleCache()
at System.Windows.UIElement.SynchronizeForceInheritProperties(UIElement uiElement, ContentElement contentElement, UIElement3D uiElement3D, DependencyObject parent)
at System.Windows.UIElement.OnVisualParentChanged(DependencyObject oldParent)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.OnVisualParentChanged(DependencyObject oldParent)
at System.Windows.Media.Visual.FireOnVisualParentChanged(DependencyObject oldParent)
at System.Windows.Media.Visual.AddVisualChild(Visual child)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.set_TemplateChild(UIElement value)
at System.Windows.StyleHelper.AddCustomTemplateRoot(FrameworkElement container, UIElement child, Boolean checkVisualParent, Boolean mustCacheTreeStateOnChild)
at System.Windows.Controls.ContentPresenter.UseContentTemplate.BuildVisualTree(FrameworkElement container)
at System.Windows.StyleHelper.ApplyTemplateContent(UncommonField`1 dataField, DependencyObject container, FrameworkElementFactory templateRoot, Int32 lastChildIndex, HybridDictionary childIndexFromChildID, FrameworkTemplate frameworkTemplate)
at System.Windows.FrameworkTemplate.ApplyTemplateContent(UncommonField`1 templateDataField, FrameworkElement container)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.ApplyTemplate()
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.Controls.Decorator.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
at System.Windows.Documents.AdornerDecorator.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.Controls.Border.MeasureOverride(Size constraint)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.Window.MeasureOverrideHelper(Size constraint)
at System.Windows.Window.MeasureOverride(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.MeasureCore(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.UIElement.Measure(Size availableSize)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.SetLayoutSize()
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.set_RootVisualInternal(Visual value)
at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.set_RootVisual(Visual value)
at System.Windows.Window.SetRootVisual()
at System.Windows.Window.SetupInitialState(Double requestedTop, Double requestedLeft, Double requestedWidth, Double requestedHeight)
at System.Windows.Window.CreateSourceWindowImpl()
at System.Windows.Window.SafeCreateWindow()
at System.Windows.Window.ShowHelper(Object booleanBox)
at System.Windows.Window.Show()
at System.Windows.Application.<RunInternal>b__8(Object obj)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)

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ps maybe updater didn`t reconize my modification`s in database and that`s the reason, that the install was screwed by upgrade?