Sun Feb 23, 2003 3:57 pm
Space is ... Empty.
And strangely inhabited by only two or three voice
actors. A few ships here and there, identicle looking
space stations scattered about and incredibly dull
appearing debris fields. There's the painted 'space
backdrop' that never really changes and those
fingernails-on-chalkboard-nerve-wrackingly-painful
looking space-lane rings.
Ah well, there's always planetside. But holy space
dingleberries! There's only one city on each of these
planets and only one bar, one ship dealer, one
merchant house in each city - none of which have names
but are just referred to as 'bar', 'ship dealer', etc.
And only about ten different people... Where are all
the locations, and even more bothersome, where are all
the freakin people?!? No one's walking around, no
guards, no crowds, no body. Well ten people per
planet, at least they're all unique, bubbling with
their own imaginitve ideas and personalities (but
identicel voices). But, oh, snap."I work for -----, we
don't own the place but we hold certain influence with
those that do." I never thought I'd get tired of
hearing that. But it seems I was wrong.
Why is there a "go to" command in my space ship. For
the love of Pete let's call it "auto-pilot" or
something that reminds me that I'm in a starship.
We may have strayed TOO far
from 'space simulation', towards 'arcade shooter' with
that one. The complete absence of a radar of some
sort is horrible enough. And someone buy the AI some
new dogfighting tactics, flying out ahead of you in
spirals then turning and charging then flying out
ahead of you in spirals then turning and charging,
etc. is not so interesting. The navigation interface
is pretty disapointing also. Default zoom is too far out
and zooming in will take you right into a blackhead on
Trent's (or whatever his name is) nose.
And fixed prices with nondynamic economy. Dayumn,
if I was interested in that I'd go buy gum at K-mart all day...
That seems like a KEY element in a space trading sim.
Hopefully the real game is not as bone-crackingly dry
and deserted as the demo. This could be one boring
and uninteresting game.
clavicus
actors. A few ships here and there, identicle looking
space stations scattered about and incredibly dull
appearing debris fields. There's the painted 'space
backdrop' that never really changes and those
fingernails-on-chalkboard-nerve-wrackingly-painful
looking space-lane rings.
Ah well, there's always planetside. But holy space
dingleberries! There's only one city on each of these
planets and only one bar, one ship dealer, one
merchant house in each city - none of which have names
but are just referred to as 'bar', 'ship dealer', etc.
And only about ten different people... Where are all
the locations, and even more bothersome, where are all
the freakin people?!? No one's walking around, no
guards, no crowds, no body. Well ten people per
planet, at least they're all unique, bubbling with
their own imaginitve ideas and personalities (but
identicel voices). But, oh, snap."I work for -----, we
don't own the place but we hold certain influence with
those that do." I never thought I'd get tired of
hearing that. But it seems I was wrong.
Why is there a "go to" command in my space ship. For
the love of Pete let's call it "auto-pilot" or
something that reminds me that I'm in a starship.
We may have strayed TOO far
from 'space simulation', towards 'arcade shooter' with
that one. The complete absence of a radar of some
sort is horrible enough. And someone buy the AI some
new dogfighting tactics, flying out ahead of you in
spirals then turning and charging then flying out
ahead of you in spirals then turning and charging,
etc. is not so interesting. The navigation interface
is pretty disapointing also. Default zoom is too far out
and zooming in will take you right into a blackhead on
Trent's (or whatever his name is) nose.
And fixed prices with nondynamic economy. Dayumn,
if I was interested in that I'd go buy gum at K-mart all day...
That seems like a KEY element in a space trading sim.
Hopefully the real game is not as bone-crackingly dry
and deserted as the demo. This could be one boring
and uninteresting game.
clavicus
)
