Review

1. Amazing & Beautiful.
   
2. New sights & sounds! Yay!
   
3. Not as large a gameplay or technological breakthrough as from V37 to V38, but still a great job.

Raves

1. Awesome new sights! ... :
   
   
   • Seagulls
   • Jets
     
     However, I disagree with Willis's & BOY's suggestions for jets :
     
     
     Willis Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:58 pm wrote:
     suggestion: the models of jets and choppers, could ...
     _MAYBE_ be larger ... They look cool but are tiny
     
     
     BOY Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:28 pm wrote:
     the jets do move a bit too fast to really see them well
     
     
     Jets are reasonably scaled in size compared to tank sizes & are reasonably fast.
     
     Besides, the jets look marvelous. And even if they don't feel marvelous, it is better for jets to look marvelous than to feel marvelous, right baby?
     
     Jets rock, yeah baby yeah!
   
   ... and sounds! :
   
   
   • Bird squawks
   • Cricket chirps
   • Frog ribbits
     
     
     Say that five times fast!
   I love them all! Awesome job!
   
   
2. Favorites Menu
   
   Perhaps the most useful new feature that I've seen. Intuitive & useful.
   
   The only request I have now is that the Buy window remember what tab was last used from round to round & start on that tab in subsequent rounds.
   
   Since I've added a few of my favorite things to the Favorites Menu, I want the Buy window to start on the Favorites tab every round.
   
   Great feature though! Thanks to all who contributed to its development.
   
   
3. Improved Frame Rate
   
   Since I have a slow? 1.7 GHz PC, my frame rate often drops to well below 1 frame per several seconds during Death Head & Funky barrages.
   
   I'm pleased to notice a slightly better frame rate in V39. However, DH & FB barrages still drop to less than 1 frame per second, but it is still much better.

Rants

1. Shot camera still does NOT follow rollers underwater as in V37.x.
   
   V39 roller shot cam does follow rollers as they fly through the air or move along the ocean floor. However, the camera remains above water while following the path of underwater rollers.
   
   Can the roller shot cam revert back to V37.x style which instantly moved the camera underwater when rollers go underwater? This is helpful to follow the path of rollers & see how you need to correct your aim for underwater rolling rollers.
   
   
2. More Client-Socket-Closed Disconnects
   
   I've played two full V39 games. I've been client-socket-closed disconnected four times.
   
   Unfortunately, this is a very high fault-to-non-fault playability ratio.
   
   
3. Opponents' Instantaneous Fuel Movement
   
   As Willis mentioned, opponents' fuel movement is shown as an instantaneous teleport. A player's own tank movement is animated as expected. Only opponent tanks appear to instantly teleport.
   
   As BOY said, "fuel bug is not critical but it is more fun to see the tanks moving ".
   
   
4. V39 Tank Status Tool Tips fade in when the cursor hovers over any player tank. V37 & V38 tool tips appeared & disappeared instantly whenever the cursor hovered over any player tank.
   
   Although this could be considered useful to players who move the mouse a lot & don't LIKE tool tips instantly appearing all over the map, it is a waste of 0.5 seconds to wait for each tool tip to appear.
   
   Scorched3D is a game of seconds. Each second & fraction of seconds is crucial. If I have to check several opponents' status tool tips to make my next decision, that's several extra seconds wasted waiting for their status tool tips to fade in.
   
   Don't make us wait for status tool tips to appear; make them appear/disappear instantly as in V37/V38. Or at the very least, make it a client-side option to enable/disable.
   
   
5. OBNOXIOUS & ANNOYING
   PLAYER'S MOVE ANNOUNCEMENT
   
   I know when it's my move.
   
   Now the game tells me it's my move in OBNOXIOUSLY HUGE text which gets in the way for 3-4 seconds while I'm trying to MAKE my next move.
   
   Either make the player's move announcement :
   
   
   1. Smaller & less obnoxious
      
      
      OR
   2. Disappear immediately upon any player keyboard or mouse input

No but it does follow them. Just press ALT to toggle off the camera cliping.



A few people have compained about this. Its either because my server bandwidth was used up during this time or your connection is very slow.
(I was using the internet on the other computer at the time).



Already fixed.



There is already an option in the display.xml file to change this.



But do all players? I'll have a think about it.

I think what makes it feel so large is the border around it. The font size between v38 and v39 was not changed right gavin?

Suggestion:

The inventory tab is nice at times, but can you set it up that upon one buy round to the next, expired inventory is still displayed? Here's an example:

Round 2 Buy Round: I buy 10 baby rollers and sell back 4.
During Round 2: I use 6 (all) baby rollers.
Round 3 Buy Round: Inventory does not show baby rollers becuase I have none.

For people who would focus around inventory tab it would be beneficial to hold in its memory for at least 1 extra round what it had.

if we have a tank firing a missile 3 times bigger that itself,what do we care scaleO_o?

I'll keep it short NOT

DITTO to everything hobbesme said

my only rave: LOVE IT! I really dont give enough Kudos for the great stuff

rants:
ya, hobbesme is right, the "your move" message is a bit big, I wouldnt mind of it were red or purple or pink even, so long as it was not OVER the buy window, which i often move around. the message makes me hesitate when I mouse to move over to the tab and drag the window to survey the field, even though the drag works as though the message really was not on top of the tab..... it still "appears" to get in the way.

i realize this is only a nuisance to a few of us veterans but I have no idea if noobs felt this way. It would be nice to have a panel of total noobs review the game. after like an hour of play or something.

I would have to say, that the customization options of the interface would still be nice to be more enhanced. (like the tab memory thing hobbesme suggested) One thing that would be nice is to have a couple of different looks to the GUI that could be selected from a preferences list (for instance, the naked GUI and either square or grid style minimap could be an aption, as apollo has suggested.)

If you wanted to go totally wild, you might want to include an option that gives players choices as to where on the screen the menus appear (side top, stack etc.... and color and scheme options of that sort.

One thing might surely to be have a default for having the top menus always show, as it its, the noobs/boobs dunno that they are even there at first.

ahhh, and then there is the list of things that are customizeable already! I am not sure i remember what they are. the command for instance that allows viewing underneath the terrain... forgotten it already after shockwave told me it. its not in the command line list of commands in help file.....

options such as configuring mirv spread properties perhaps make that a player option as well as a modder option..... that is one thing i have always wanted to explore for the S-mirv but never have explored much modding due to all the other things I am up to

I can add some of these to requests lists perhaps heh

Unfortunately, this is the only feature to have retrograded -- i.e. previous V37 implementation was superior to V38/V39.






Did find two options in display.xml to change tool tip display :

• ToolTipTime
• ToolTipSpeed

Unfortunately, the comment for ToolTipSpeed is inadequate to describe the range & effects of different values :

• ToolTipSpeed = 6 (only comment in display.xml)
• ToolTipSpeed = 0 tool tips disabled
• ToolTipSpeed = 1 slowest fade in
• ToolTipSpeed = ?? fastest fade in

I experimented with ToolTipSpeeds of 9, 10, 99.

9 or 10 is probably the fastest tool tip fade in value, but decided to go for overkill with value of 99.





However, in configuring the tool tip settings, I discovered the following configuration/user interface defect :

Changed or added comments to the display.xml file are deleted each time Scorched3D reads/modifies the file.

If these configuration files are inadequately commented, the user should be allowed to add/change comments AND NOT have the game DELETE these user comments.





Lastly, I found a Favorites Menu bug :

For games with limited Arms levels, weapons that are NOT able to be purchased due to the current round's arms level limitation still appear in the Favorites Menu of the Buy window & can APPEAR to be purchased & sold by the player.

The player can click to the Weapons & Defense tabs to see that these items are NOT allowed during that round -- but they are still available from the Favorites Menu.

Thankfully, whatever item(s) which should NOT have been allowed to be purchased were purchased, the money for the item(s) was not actually debited. It appears to debit in the Buy window while purchasing, but is immediately returned when the Buy window 'OK' button is clicked.



Example for a game with initial arms level of 3 & end arms level of 10 :

Round #2:

Purchased from Favorites Menu :
Purchased 8 parachutes - sold 6
Purchased 10 batteries - sold 5
Purchased 10 napalm - sold 5
Purchased 10 baby rollers - sold 6

In Round #2, NO napalm was available.


Round #3:

Purchased from Favorites Menu :
Purchased 5 diggers
Purchased 2 funky bombs

In Round #3, NO funky bombs were available.


Round #4:

Purchased from Favorites Menu :
Purchased 1 death head
Purchased 80 fuel
Purchased 10 napalm - sold 5

In Round #4, NO death head was available.

so far the only problem I've got is the sound when it is your turn, I've added a second or little bit more so it doesnt' run over some sounds at the end of the last turn.

This comment is of no importance, but i must recant my previous "ditto" to hobbesmes post. there is one thing I must clarify



the jets perhaps are reasonably fast, but their speed seems like it its near supersonic. That is cool but the speed at which they change directions would be catastrophic to the pilots. THey would be pancakes. They give me the impression of bugs flying around a room.

You're right on both accounts -- the speeds are often near-supersonic & clearly the directional changes are at shear-force levels :

1. Considering that Mach 1 is ~1100 ft/sec & that each sub-sector of the playing field is an estimated 800 ft, the jets often fly 1+ sub-sectors per second so they are at or above supersonic speeds.
   
   
2. Also, the jets perfom maneuvers that are only possible in the virtual world of computer games or B-action movies (Hot Shots, I'm looking at you!).
   
   But this is a direct consequence of the restriction that all aerial objects are confined to the playing field and not the entire virtual world.

No they are not, that is just what I have chosen so you can see them better.