Yeah, I seriously wouldn’t pass judgement and jump ship now when things are so close to fruition. Endless Space looks pretty interesting, but as noted the game is in alpha so there should be no big hurry to pick it up.
KevinC
1984
Since I often heard HDD grinding when switching menus, I popped it over to my SSD to see if it made any difference - nope! Well, other than the very fast initial loading times.
So yea, it’s just gotta be code optimization on the starmap display. UIs that overlay on TOP of the starmap are instantaneous, maybe they should just make all UIs that way!
Nice info, thanks all. I’ll probably try warlock and endless after the D3 attacks fades.
Just to follow up on this…
I tried the latest patch this weekend, and while the screen transitions were indeed much improved (worst screens would take around a second on the outside), I now have a bug that in a new game would hang my computer for 5 seconds or so each time I click on my homeworld.
I’m sure it will be fixed in time, and I’ll still be waiting around for when it’s all done, but I’d really love to get in there and try out some of the gameplay changes finally without having to deal with their shitty interface and it’s assorted bugs still. :|
Oh well… at least Diablo will be here soon. :P
KevinC
1987
There was a patch this morning, Sepiche, but I don’t know if it fixed the issue you were having. This was a patch in addition to the one released Thu or Fri of last week.
This week’s patch. Should be available on Steam in the morning PST.
r21284b
Critical fixes:
- Fixed a turn processing crash related to updating morale.
- Fixed an MP crash that could occur when clients joined a game while the host was in combat.
- Fixed an AI processing crash related to Leviathan research.
- Fixed a hang in combat related to positioning ships.
- Fixed an issue where in a multi-player game would hang if the client was in the first player slot.
- Fixed a multi-player crash that could occur is the host was not in the first player slot.
- Fixed a system-killer related turn update crash.
- Fixed the empty treaty crash.
- Fixed a turn update crash related to patrol missions.
- Fixed an upgrade mission UI crash.
- Fixed a potential crash that could occur when using the battle manager where neutral zones existed.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when interception targets left sensor range.
- Fixed a star map re-entry crash that could occur when resuming a game after returning to the main menu.
- Fixed a rare crash that could occur when joining a game in progress.
Other fixes:
- Support missions now work in the same system.
- SUpport missions no longer take an extra turn when in the same system.
- Research estimates are more accurate.
- Boarding pods no longer attack grand menace or random encounter entities.
- Fixed issues related to station targeting with non-tracking weapons.
- Fixed an issue with Suul’ka showing up in the design screen.
- Fixed some localization issues in the intel results dialog.
- Fixed scaling issue on Protean tentacles.
- Fixed known issues with the Fear psi power.
- Fixed an issue where psionic UI overlays could persist after combat.
- Fixed issues with disruptor effects.
- VN Berserkers now retreat correctly.
- Fixed Hiver carrier recovery animations.
- Default target filter and firing mode settings are now carried into combat from designs.
- Swarmers no longer generate multiple queens while others are in transit.
- Textures have been optimized.
- Colony faction morale now displays correctly.
- Fixed an issue where the design screen was not displaying the effects of ship design options.
- The login dialog is now displayed when re-entering the server browser.
- Fixed an issue where asteroid monitors and Morrigi relics would show up in combat as enemies after they had been neutralized.
- Fixed an issue where player-built asteroid monitors had some unresponsive turrets.
- Fixed an issue that was incorrectly revealing star map details to players.
- Fixed an issue that was allowing players to abandon enemy colonies.
- Corrected the order of ship section names displayed in the build screen preview.
- Fixed an issue that was allowing the display of information for enemy fleets out of range.
- Favorite invoices now use the newest available retrofit for each ship design.
- Fixed missing Phaser weapon icon.
- Fixed issues where player ship designs were not being assigned roles.
- Biome colonizers now show up in colonizer lists.
- Fixed an infinite repair point issue with stations.
- Fixed the black-sensor-view display bug.
- The build screen no longer reverts back to cruisers after invoice submission.
- Fleet lists no longer display irrelevant command points in the battle rider manager.
- Salvage projects now have 100% feasibility.
- Fixed an issue that was causing the AI to continually redesign thee same ship role turn after turn.
- It is no longer possible to rename ships in retrofit orders.
- Fleet items in the admiral manager now display the correct empire color.
- Fixed a networking issue that was causing the game host to continue attempting to send game information to disconnected clients.
- Addressed a network issue where client connections were not being correctly terminated on timeouts.
- Fixed a display bug where the station retrofit list was not being cleared.
- Fixed the ship design generational mk. naming scheme.
- Addressed a handful of missing or broken text strings.
Additions:
- Implemented the last of the admiral traits
- Implemented admiral survival and capture mechanics
- Allies now share sensor data.
- Colony and trade values now display in red/green.
- Added a weapon range tooltip in combat. Hovering mouse over weapon icon will reveal max range circle for that weapon.
- Reserve fleets can now be filtered out of fleet summaries.
- Human factions can now use Node Maws.
- Double-clicking a battle rider in the battle rider manager is now a short-cut for adding them to the ship.
- It is now possible to build naval and science stations in neutral systems.
- Added an incoming fleet news event.
- Energy Cannons received balance pass.
Hotfix for the weekend. Should already be distributed:
r21284c
Critical fixes:
- Fixed a new core bug that was leading to AI expansion, design and fleet composition issues.
- Fixed a crash that might occur if a homeworld was eliminated.
- Fixed an admiral and Suul’ka related crash.
Other fixes:
- Fixed a rendering error that was causing particle effects to LOD out early.
- Fixed a bug that was allowing players to see enemy systems if they had naval stations.
- Fixed hiver gate, badge icon, naval icon and homeworld effect persistence upon re-entering the star map.
- It is now possible to build stations in independent systems.
- Fixed a case where a player could attempt to send two colonization missions to a system with one habitable planet.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing the star system tool tip from appearing in the first few turns.
- Fixed an issue that was making clicking to zoom in on a fleet tricky.
- Fleets no longer disband automatically when relocated unless there is not enough support capacity available.
- Fixed an issue that was causing Suul’ka to bore node lines.
- Station retrofit now has a scrollbar for weapon lists.
- Fixed the issue that was preventing freighters from moving in combat.
- Recent survey effects are now excluded from your own systems.
- AI now retires obsolete designs.
Well then I might just give it a shot again now…
Update : Okay, they still need to test their patches a bit more, turn times was never good, but at least I could chug along a game, now the turn times are unplayable. I guess its on wait again…however I must admit, they should reeeeallllllllly have a working copy now…its taken a bit too long imho.
This week’s patch/update. Getting closer to the “end” mostly focused on UI, performance, and bug fixes now.
r21407b
Critical fixes:
- Fixed a design screen selection crash.
- Fixed a rare encounter pre-combat crash.
- Fixed a rare combat related crash.
- Turn times are greatly reduced.
Other fixes:
- Fixed duplicate war declaration news events.
- Addressed some ambiguous wording in war declaration news events.
- Ship repaired speech events are less frequent.
- Players can no longer construct remote stations without Deep Space
Construction.
- Phase Dislocation no longer affects Prester Zuul battle riders.
- Trade stations are no longer available until FTL Economics is researched.
- Government shifts no longer occur until station building is complete.
- AI will no longer attempt to colonize systems with enemy colonies
unless is exempt from this limitation.
- Fleets will now relocate if their base is eliminated.
- Naval capacity now takes pending changes into account.
- New home systems are now automatically flagged as surveyed when
assigned to a player.
- Fixed a mining station bonus miscalculation.
- Enemy reserve fleets are no longer visible.
- Fixed an issue where the game was treating Propaganda ships as Police Cutters.
- Fixed unending rebellions.
- Fixed unending trade treaties.
- Fixed the sensor view bug that caused overlapping spheres to
eliminate each other.
- Load times are reduced.
- Reduced UI transition times from some screens.
- Fixed an issue that was preventing full repair of a ship.
- Protectorates no longer expire.
- Admirals now age at the correct rate.
- Suul’ka now enter combat again.
- Weapon panels are now cleared when re-entering screens and dialogs.
- Fixed some design-naming issues.
- It is no longer possible to break the transition to the station
placement screen.
- UI now refreshes after retrofitting or repairing ships.
- Retrofitting will no longer produce two sets of drones for a ship.
- AI no longer retires ships constantly.
- AI now redesigns for missing ships, such as gates and bores.
- The research ring around the tech cube on the star map no longer
disappears at certain camera angles.
- Mission screens now lock focus on the target system.
Other changes and additions:
- There is now a two-turn moratorium on AI actions when it takes over
for a dropped player.
- Clicking a module or weapon icon in the design screen will now close
the associated selector if it is open.
- Economic and research efficiency maximums have been increased to 200%.
- Enemy fleet lines are now visible when their destinations are visible.
- Up and down arrow keys now function in place of the mouse wheel for zooming.
- Sensor range bonuses are now applied to stations.
- Large asteroids are now selectable.
- Added tech requirements for gate stations.
- Station construction screens now have a Commit button that will
automatically place the new station.
- Individual ship selection in combat will now yield additional
information about critical issues.
- Ships losing crew in combat are highlighted to bring attention to the damage.
- The star map tech cube tooltip now displays technology info and ETA.
I’d just like to point out that it was almost seven months ago that they said it would be a “month or so” until they were where they should have been at release. And how long have they been a couple of weeks away? What are the odds that they run out of money before this is something that should have been shipped?
Yeah they should just stop patching the game imo.
MikeJ
1994
Hmm, turns and screen transitions are definitely much snappier now. The screen transitions are still just a tad too slow though. For me, the big thing will be when the AI can build decent fleets. I’ll let others try that out.
Blips
1995
I’m curious if Kerberos is going to be in any position to develop the expansions they had planned for the game.
There’s two expansion planned, each introducing a new race. The second will be focused on ground combat. AFAIK they’ll be shifting over to the expansions and put the main game on maintenance mode after the “all clear.”
MikeJ
1997
Well, it’s basically make the expansions or close the studio. I doubt they are going to make much more money from the core game. Given they have sunk so much into fixing the core game, they probably believe they can hold on long enough to ship an expansion.
Well finally I was able to put in a bit of time after the patch late last night and not get fed up on the first turn. :P
I was still getting some massive slowdowns when I clicked on my home system after giving fleet orders the first turn, so I deleted the game and completely re-downloaded and re-installed, and that finally seems to have helped the problem. I still get a few seconds lag when I select a system sometimes, but it’s much less of a burden than it was before.
And now that I can play for a little longer at a time it seems pretty interesting. I’m going to need to read up on the government system in particular since somehow through my actions over 20 turns last night I was swiftly plummeting toward Anarchy on the government track. :P
One odd thing I noticed that will might keep me from playing though was that when I order modules built on my stations I get charged for them and take government hits for building them, but they didn’t get added to the station. My default naval station also didn’t have any modules on it when the game started.
Edit: Looking at the forums apparently this will get fixed in another patch today hopefully, but supposedly saving the game then loading the save will make invisible modules appear, but if you queued up too many it could put you over the module limit.
Ground combat? that’s going to be interesting.
Ground combat between the devs and angry gamers!
I kid, I kid…
That’s great to hear - not that the game is poor with “only” the original races, but seeing how fleshed out and distinctive they are gives me reason for excitement when I get word about new ones being added.
As for ground combat … well, I guess we’ll have to see. That could be awesome and it could be awful. I like a game-within-the-game concept for ground combat, but unless a lot of attention is paid to it then problems which are seemingly more avoidable in a space environment (pathing, for instance) can suddenly feel like immersion breakers. Here’s hoping!
Sarkus
2002
Except that the “all clear” date is an endlessly moving target. Not that I’m blaming you, but in early April the “all clear” was supposed to be three weeks away, and that was not the first time such estimates had been reported.
I suppose it doesn’t matter at this point one way or the other. Those who still are following the game are in it for the long haul regardless but I do suspect that the number of people planning to pick it up when its done has dwindled to a very small figure.
