Indeed. The editor is on haitus for a while . I don't want anyone making more edits until the code base has stabilized again.

So are Matresses updates then.

Ah, ok. I parallelized parts of the turn processing to take maximum advantage of multi-core processors, so I thought that might have been the reason . You can bypass the turn processing sound by hitting Ctrl+Enter to end your turn.

Ok no improvent ctrl+enter, by pressing turn button seems litle faster. What is slow there with CTRL+ENTER is downloading game state from server anyway it fast to me.

My CPU usage actually goes >50% whilst running Supremacy, I'm not complaining here, I think it's cool that it uses both cores.

Yeah, I figure they're there, so I may as well use them .

hi,

while calculationg the next turn i got the following exception with the full version of the 20071216b thing:

Der Objektverweis wurde nicht auf eine Objektinstanz festgelegt.

bei System.Windows.Automation.Peers.GroupItemAutomationPeer.GetChildrenCore()
bei System.Windows.Automation.Peers.AutomationPeer.EnsureChildren()
bei System.Windows.Automation.Peers.AutomationPeer.UpdateChildren()
bei System.Windows.Automation.Peers.AutomationPeer.UpdateSubtree()
bei System.Windows.Automation.Peers.AutomationPeer.UpdatePeer(Object arg)
bei System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
bei System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)

----------------------------------------

what could be the reason?

That's an error I wouldn't expect to see. I don't use any of the UI automation libraries in WPF. Do you always get that error, or does it work sometimes?

I've to try it...

just a secound

yes i get it always. and always 4 times.

would you like to have more information about my steps?

I'm really not sure what could be causing that. Did you post the complete error log?

I'll try to investigate it this weekend. If possible, can you try switching your locale from de-DE to en-US and see if that helps? It might help narrow down the cause.

i have now quad core and turn times huge galaxy are near the same as dualcore quad core have turn times litle quicker anyway good work.

Thinking about it again, there's really not much time spent on turn processing anyway (~0.1-0.2 seconds), so I doubt the parallelization would be all that noticable. The rest is (de-)serialization of game data, transport, and UI updates.

i got this after exit game it stuck on turn generating player map updates if i load save game it stuck the same place

Can you zip up your savegame and post it to the forums as an attachment?

Mike, that error message has happened to me a few times, but I've never encountered the circumstances that Margus wrote about. The error message only comes up when you try to close the game - it's like the game is trying to load something instead of unloading it. It doesn't come up every time you close the game either, it appears to be random in nature, and it only started appearing during the performance improvement test.

OK i restarted my box it work normal now but exit game give me error as i posted but error not come always to exit game
EDIT: It stuck on turn 22 @ generating player map updates

Thanks Margus, I'll take a look at that savegame and see if I can find the problem. I'm aware of the error on exit issue, I should have it fixed by the next release.

Hi i tried the version and have run into mostly "energyproblems".
* My systems are producing enough energy for the stuf i want to use, but i can not switch them on
* and sometimes i need more than twice the amount of energy to run the shipyard or anything else.
* Another problem is that the foodbonuses switch of automaticaly so that my population is starving after each turn, so that i have to switch it on manualy.
* I think in the systems a scroling bar is missing. I can not build as fast as i get new buildings. The windturbine is the last item and if i want to build it as the first thing in a new colonized world, i have to put the things in the waiting list until i can choose the windturbine. Then i have to delate everything from my list.
* a problem a witch i thing it has to make with the stability of this particular release version is that after a few turns i can not activate the diplomacywindow, orders for the ships or the sciencewindow, nor can i suply buildings with energy. Now i'm restarting and play further.

But the game stays a very good one and i like the ideas and the way the game is developed and stil developing, so please don't stop .

This is a known issue, and it has been fixed in the code, and the fix will be included in the next release.

I believe this is a different manifestation of the problem above.

New farms should be activated automatically if you have a food deficit. I'll take a look and make sure that's working properly.

Sounds like you're right about the scrollbar. I'll check it out.

Yep, there are generally some issues with every pre-release, and this one in particular, is it comes from a highly experimental version of the code. When you can't use the menu items, you can try using the F1-F5 keys.

Glad you like the game . We're in business for the duration, so keep popping in and checking for new releases.

bah, sorry I vanished there for a while. RL took control and I just didn't have time for anything.

Was not using a 64bit OS, and just tested the fix on that pc and got no errors, so the fix did it. I just got a new laptop for christmas, and have been playing around with Vista ... not unhappy with it, and have had few problems so far ... MoO2 wont run ... but BotF works YAY!

I'll download the alpha and test it out later.

Oh, btw mike, what are you using for the main game menu tech wise? just a standard winforms controls? and what all different techs are you working with? I know you have WPF in there, but what else?

If you're referring to the main menu screen, it's just a stack panel of templated buttons. If you're referring to the right-click menu, it's a standard WPF ContextMenu control with a custom template applied to it. Most of the UI is done in standard WPF controls with custom styles and templates, but there are a few custom controls, like the BlockBar that I use for "percentage" bars, the UnitAllocationBars and UnitAllocationGroups that I use for the Production panel in the System screen.

As for other new technologies, I compile using the C# 3.0 compiler against .NET v3.5, so I get all the new C# language features like Lambda functions and expression trees, which I use extensively. I make use of LINQ (Language INtegrated Query), which is a query model with a built-in SQL-like syntax. I also use the new Parallel Extensions for .NET v3.5 (December CTP), which adds some great mechanisms for parallel computing (taking advantage of multiple CPU cores). Strings and I are working on a combat system using XNA. As you know, the UI uses the WPF--I don't use WinForms at all, except perhaps to host the combat engine in the future. Lastly, the client/server system is a WCF service with a duplex client (basically a session-based client with callbacks). I think that's it .

yeah ... wpf doesn't like XNA much, but XNA is so much less convoluted than using directx. Thats what I have been working on, will probably just go to straight XNA/C# for mine, its so much easier to write the background code for me. I am not handy with graphics, and XNA takes a large chunk of the tedious part out. Already have a basic menu system built(and I do mean basic, selectable text FTW) and am working on getting the main map display up. once that is done, its on to working on designing the interface and rebuilding my XML style sheets for a bit more improved game modification.

I just found this Alpha and I like what I see so far. I have found a few things and thought of a few more.

I keep getting some kind of error that slows down all my pop up screens. It is not such a bad problem since I can use the Esc key. I get an error report and clear out the bug when I restart the program. The bad part is that the report claims it is saving to a file and the file is empty.

wow, Huge map is a HUGE map.

I was sorta hoping that we would get away from upgrading everything every time it goes up in level. Can I get some kind of command to upgrade from a 1 to a current max? That way I will not have to go in every 10 turns or so and hit upgrade five times.

I have not seen any easy way to tell if one of my planets is not producing anything. Sure, there is the end of turn summery but that is always full of information that I do not need. I really only need to know if I have a new ship, starving planet or a completed work.

I have all this money and I do not see any way to spend it.

Production rate is way to slow. I need to be able to upgrade everything AND build any new tech items BEFORE the next tech level is ready.

Is there a Cruiser II? I see the I and III but not a II.

Construction ship is missing a description.

Cruiser III description, "potentia ly"

Should the colony II have a range of 13? That seams a little to good.

I was able to build a colony on a planet that was shared by me with the Founders. I was not at war with them. I would think that should not happen.

Can you move BUILD LIST to the left of PRODUCTION?

The Baku has zero population. I do not know if something happened to them.

I am having the power problem that other testers have talked about. It shows 100 and I want to use 75 but I do not have enough.

Will I have to do some Terraforming in this game? Moons also?

I was able to get every Minor to join me. They also joined me without me spending a dime. I take it this part is not complete yet.

I have lots of black space even tho I own every planet that I can get. I think that is because if do not have a good enough scanner yet.

I like that I can tow a ship. I do not like that the tow ship is my colony II ships. 13 range Vs my best scout ship's range of 9.

Can the upgrade section of Build List have a line below it that locks the first non upgrade item in place. It is a pain to build 2 farms. Hit the first farm and wait for the list to move when the farm upgrade goes away.

I am only tech 5 at turn 170 so I may have more feedback later. No need to reply to all of my questions. Most of them are there to help you to think.

Great! I always appreciate thorough testing. There are several known issues, and doubtlessly many more that I'm not yet aware of .

hmm, that is bad. I can't track down the cause without an error report.

Yep .

I'm not terribly fond of the current system either, particularly that new facilities have the same tech requirements for all categories. Your suggestion of auto-upgrading facilities is interesting. I'm already planning on including a "System Viceroy" that will use the game's colony-level AI to manage your build queues for you when you enable that feature. I could provide a second "Prioritize Upgrades" option as well.

A few people have suggested a "Colony List" screen with details of current production levels, resource levels, etc. It's on the "To Do" list.

Yeah... I have some ideas for that, but I'm open to hearing more.

Agreed. The costs and production output levels need some serious tweaking.

There should be. It may not be entered correctly. I'll check it out.

A lot of things are. There are also several items with no build cost. The tech tree is a work in progress, and that work is temporarily on hold while I'm refactoring some of the game code.

Maybe. But keep in mind that the galaxy sizes are much larger than BotF, so the ranges can't really be compared as apples-to-apples.

No, you shouldn't be able to do that, so it sounds like you hit a bug. What race were you playing as?

It would be easy to do, but why? You must offer a compelling argument for doing so .

Thanks, I'll look into it.

The problem is that I accidentally used net energy instead of total energy in one of the equations (or maybe the other way around). I've already corrected this issue in the code, so it will be fixed in the next release.

Yes and no. Terraforming will probably appear, but it will work quite differently than in BotF. If you search the forums for 'terraforming' and look at the most recent posts, you should be able to find my explanation of the system.

Correct. The diplomacy system is still in early development and has no AI as of yet. For now, the recipient will accept any proposal that you send them.

Probably . You can use long-range ships to explore as well.

Right now, any ship can tow another. I may set more specific parameters for what types of ships can tow. I'm open to suggestions.

That's not a bad idea. I'm not sure it would work well at lower resolutions, but it's worth looking into.

I appreciate the thorough and constructive feedback. Nothing in the game is set in stone, and there are certainly several areas in which the game could be improved .

No they don't! Check the files for the last update I sent you, Mike. I randomised the tech requirements for the new buildings to make it more interesting, although I did not change the requirements for existing buildings; I can do that in future though. Some of the new structures have NO tech requirements in particular areas, but may have relatively high requirements in others. The levels aren't necessarily the same for each research area either. Besides, it doesn't really make sense that you need weapons tech to build a farm...unless you're "farming" Klingon Targ Beasts, that is.



I noticed some strange issues with the ships myself, but I can't actually see anything wrong in the editor. It may be some sort of conflict with the ships of other races, however; simple names like "Cruiser" are extremely common in the shiplist. I'm thinking about renaming the ships so instead of simply being "Cruiser", they are now shown as "Federation Cruiser" etc. It would certainly make it easier to mod the game in future if I did this, because the current system requires you to trawl through the shiplist before you can find the ship you want to edit in the editor.



I know what the problem is; the Baku homeworld is set to be a random instead of a specific planet. It's a hangover from the old planets glitch. Ba'ku somehow slipped through my last update. If there's one, there are likely to be others, especially if the race has only one planet in their system.



Could you set this as a selectable option in the editor, Mike? I'll be able to set up which ships can do so when you remove it as a default setting, then.

...

Welcome to the forums, Kellir! We like having fresh perspectives and input regarding the game.

Had 2 lock ups I did not get an error until I forced the game to end task through windows task manager
-error log: “Attempted to access an unload AppDomain” I got the lock up by doing a left click of the mouse while waiting for through a turn cycle.

Some new game suggestions:

1: In the build list the option to have a double click on the items first click to act as a “hilite” or a “more info button” since some of the descriptions / specifications on build items go passed the allowed window space you have to carefully move your mouse over to the window to view the information, or you are forced to review the information from the tech window.

2: Scout ship options and AI: the game notes that scout ships are used for patrolling and intelligence gathering on neighboring systems.
-A: There should be a right click list to portal neutral/empire zone: ships would move in conjunction with the empire outer zone. Searching for ships trying to cross into your empire, and the AI will go in pursuit mod chasing any intruders that enter your occupied space and force them out of the system or places you into combat with them if your scouts catch the intruders.
-B: Gather Intelligence mode if a Scout is set to gather intel on a neighboring empire a screen will ask you what empire do you want to gather intel on you make your choice and the ship will have to remain stationary near zoned empire you are gathering intel on. The ship also would have a high percentage chance of being captured by that empire; as a risk to your empire.
-C: AI change to empires should be affected if you set a scout ship to gather intel to weaken relations with that empire.

3: AI features battle options: “conditional surrendering” if you are up against a force that you are losing to a conditional surrender will allow you to keep your task force and make a trade of materials and money, solar systems.

4: Money Uses: (since I seen you where up for some suggestions) adding specialized training to create troops like MACO’s. MACO’s can be useable in ship to ship or ship to ground combat; to add a higher percentage of success rates in combat situations. Red Squadron teams; useable only for ship combat bonuses. Black Ops Intel groups; useable only to scout ships to gather better intel. Each of these should be considerably high priced options to purchase to offset their usage.

Minor suggestions:
Solar Prospection Chart: this chart lists systems you have scanned their population size and resources available for future growth decisions. (I may have suggested this before I can’t remember)

(Oh P.S. to tackle the towing debate) Ship towing: All ships should have this feature. I have never seen a ST esp. where a starship did not have tractor emitters. But maybe slow the ships down to a crawl when towing.

-Val

good one with the conditional surrender.
"medium" one with the automatic borderline scouting. Many borderlines will not have a uniformly continuous border so the AI will most probably have to work with more complex algorithms that still produce *any* value in such cases. Much less will those values be anything a human player would call sensible. Just think of enemy enclaves in your territory, how to calculate a good path through that without missing valuable sectors to scan for in every possible scenario?
a less good one I think is the towing as far as I am informed about towing through warp. I mean I'm not the ST series expert but I think tractor beaming is something that works only in non-warp resp. impulse scenarios due to the extra amount of energy necessary for the warp "bubble" to take the other ship which has no impulse and most likely then also no warp drive ready with them. So I think, special ships with extra warp drive capabilities are needed to tow disabled ships into another sector (remember the 20 lightyears in diameter ).

I just downloaded it sorry for bad lang but I'am dutch.
I'am going to play it and if I have comments i will putt it over here.
O I gut it from Halling Freqenty.
Greets Cooter

Welcome and no problem. Your English is much better than my Dutch.