I didn't mean to say you were bugging me Ringold . Just that the game is still early in development, so it's not too late to drop in on the forums and have some say in the final features.

Nevertheless, I appreciate the kind words . However, I can guarantee you that there's some things that don't work perfectly, but that's what the prereleases are for--you guys can help me figure out where I screwed up .

Small bug i found.

When using clean 17th version. I started the game fine and i went to build a shipyard then windturbines. They build but they didnt show in structures window, i then clicked turn a few more times and still nothing, i was gona quit and post this but when i was at main menu i saw load so i loaded game and lo and behold the structures appeared this time.

Also the sound effect when clicking on turn is too long, can it be alot shorter please?

Oh and 1 more small critisim is that the the smaller text on galaxy screen on left panel is hard to read as letters are touching each other practically. Is there anyway to force spacing from one letter to the next so theres a gap between letters?

Also if possible force the music to play 75% instead of 100% volume, as its a bit loud for my taking and music shouldnt be so bold in games it should gently accompany the gameplay so i usually have music in games 50% but 75% might do.

That or have a options screen with adjustable volumes for effects, music.

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Also i notice the build que doesnt work. I think it did when i started the game about 10 mins ago but not now possibly due to load or somit i duno. I will check if it happens in a new game so if it works in new game ill post if not and still doesnt work ill just not post about it as if i dont post about it u will know it doesnt work.



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Hmm other system i have works as in shows build que with whats been built so tryed somit on sol and just built normal building instead of just ships and lo and behold build que works. Just doesnt inclued ships in the que. Which is weird.

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Btw i love the asteroid animations. Looks cool.

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Resources used and cpu usage. When minimized while typing on forum and uploading this small pic. Incase you wanted feedback of usage. Turn 48 im on btw.

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Btw i duno if it was dicussed but are you planning on any features like a rename a ship. For instance if i wanted my new destroyer to be called U.S.S Loanshark or somit could i do that? Would make it more personal.

Here's a for the structure list problem.

The dotted border around the tabs is something I need to fix in a lot of places. I just have to make it so the controls aren't focusable.

Fixed.

Btw i noticed the growth rate of system (overall growth rate) differs from total combined planets growth rate.

Sol 3.8% growth rate
11% growth rate tho if you count all the planets individual rates up.

Growth rate of a system is calculated by taking the individual growth rate of each planet, multiplying it by the ratio of the planet's max population over the system's total max population and then adding the resulting values. I believe this is the mathematically correct way to do it.

Awesome work Mike, it's coming along fantastically. It looks great, feels great, and is clean and fast as you could wish for. A couple of minor points -

- The population of Sol reads maximum 190 on the Galactic map, but still the starting population of 85 in the system view.

- I encountered a system with just two Gas Giants in it, no colonizable worlds.

- I was momentarily confused by the delay in a ship build, only to realise I had insufficient Raw Materials. Would it be possible to implement a 'Raw Materials shortage' warning popup..?


Merely Cosmetic Aspects

- The Planets. Other than Venus being smaller than it should, and red, the planet scaling overall seems to be off. Huge planets like Jupiter etc should be as they are - massive, but I reckon it would better with the other planet types, large and medium rocky inner worlds, should be much smaller by comparison. A more realistic visual scale difference would grant a greater sense of authenticity, whilst retaining the intrigue of what each system has to offer when you first encounter it, rather than an initial shock of the monster planets that you find in each system.

- (Small issue) The planet animations, and the asteroids, look gorgeous, but I'm not 100% sold on the moon graphic abover each one. Either they're too big, or they're too prevalent, in that every planet seems to have one. I think I can get away with saying it as I think I originally suggested that format displaying moons, but I'm not sure now. Perhaps it's too late, but maybe it would be easier on the eye to have a single, simple icon in the system to indicate that colonizable moons are present, and the number of them.

Also, with the moons above each planet it precludes the possibility of showing bonus icons, such as Food, Energy, Raw Materials and Deuterium, over the specific planet where the bonus can be found, as in Botf1. These are just thoughts...

- I found a two Volcanic planets positioned in the far reaches of a system, coming after the Arctic worlds.

- LOVE the waypoints, and everything else..

Yes Dafedz, you did come up with the Moon displaying system - I think I was the person who first showed your mockup to Mike though.

I hadn't thought of the Moon vs bonus space problem. That's something that we're going to need to sort out. The only alternative that I can think of is to rejig it so we can use the space under the Planets as well. We could then use this space to display either the Moons or the bonuses.

I agree about there being too many Moons, but I believe this is a matter that is already on MStrobels to-do list. He certainly knows about the number-of-Moons-above-Earth problem, anyway.

As for the Gas Giants without habitable Planets problem, this is something that was (Briefly) discussed on the forums. Having Gas Giants on their own is more realistic, afterall, not every Star would have rocky Planets - in fact, it should be a possibility that some Stars don't have any Planets at all!

Part of the spirit of the game is exploration, afterall. It isn't particularly interesting if you *know* that a Star WILL have at least one Planet around it...

Gas Giants will actually have a use this time round as well. They are the primary source of Deuterium in the game, and will be a vital source of fuel for ships outside your borders.

And as for the Volcanic Planets beyond Arctic Planets, this is a matter that i'm surprised at. We discussed this quite a long time ago and we came up with the idea of habitable zones within a system, and the like. This is perhaps something that MStrobel has either not yet implemented, or something has gone wrong with the system.

No problem and i figured u might have thought about it but i had no way of knowing so hence the idea.

You could invent up a new system view that is radically different but is more revolutionary than the old botf style. Be mad and think out of the box to see what u want and how YOU want to display it. After all its ur game, basing it on old botf UI is nice but it doesnt have to be rock set to old botf style game as this is meant to be a new game.

So whatever works mate you just do it.

Personally im fine with the way it is. Tho to get more head room you could have moons over the planets/gas giants and have them rotate around the planet as in from behind, move to left of body then in front then right then back behind. Not much of a head room but might be enough. Plus wont look that bad i think.