1.0 - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly...

[Toby Haynes]

First up, given that I don't have a supported configuration (*cough*) I got this working on an Ubuntu Dapper AMD64 box - it IS possible I also relocated the install to a directory outside my home directory. /home is a separate partition on this system and I can't have a game like this soaking up the disk space.

My system is a AMD64 3400+ 1Gb RAM GeForce 6800GT 256Mb VRAM 64bit native Ubuntu 6.06 system with a motherboard soundcard.

To get this working on a 64bit linux system requires four 32bit libraries to be added to the installed game lib directory. I've a 32bit system installed alongside my 64bit one so I've just linked up the four libraries using symlinks but copying them into the lib directory would also work.

toby@nexus:/usr/local/games/DropTeam/lib$ ls -l | grep chroot

lrwxrwxrwx 1 toby toby 26 2006-06-02 13:00 libaa.so.1 -> /chroot/usr/lib/libaa.so.1

lrwxrwxrwx 1 toby toby 27 2006-06-02 13:01 libgpm.so.1 -> /chroot/usr/lib/libgpm.so.1

lrwxrwxrwx 1 toby toby 27 2006-06-02 13:01 libncurses.so.5 -> /chroot/lib/libncurses.so.5

lrwxrwxrwx 1 toby toby 25 2006-06-02 13:01 libslang.so.2 -> /chroot/lib/libslang.so.2

Performance-wise, it runs nicely most of the time. I've been playing through the first few campaign levels (on Easy!) and I've reached "Treachery".

The first few levels are fairly straightforward and the game introduces units a few at a time, which allows you to get a feel for each. I long for the manual so I can see precisely where the weak parts of each tank is

It's nice to see that there's a fair amount of variety in the scenery. The water looks good although it would be nice to have a wake for tanks fording rivers or entering/exiting lakes. The changes in gravity and atmospheric density do force different choices for attacking and maneovering which is fun.

I wish that levels with a clearly defined win point would exit when that win was acheived - for example on Forsaken, I'd killed all the enemy tanks, captured both towers. Being bored waiting for the level to finish I took my Apollo for a few jumps over the craters and smashed it up, only for my score to be wiped out back to 18 (it was some 36,018) which led to me failing the level that time. That wasn't nice especially as I'd acheived all that the briefing suggested I should acheive.

On "Treachery", trying to position all the tanks to ensure the win caused a major headache. I had to lock each tanks brakes once I had it in position. For some reason, the Opposition mysteriously found 1000 points once I had occupied the base which I could only offset by getting all four of my tanks close to the target waypoint. That seemed a little weird given that I had destroyed every tank I had seen and that all four of my tanks were close to the Galaxy ships.

At some points, the game stutters for about 3 seconds and then recovers fine. On the first level it continued at regular intervals until I finished off the last enemy tank. This can happen when a tank just comes into view or if I have a tank going nuts somewhere trying to follow my orders. I don't know if there is an issue with the AI soaking CPU time.

I've had a number of crashes (including one right at the end of Treachery when I had wiped out all the enemy tanks without losing one of mine :-( ). Because the SDL parachute deploys, I don't have a lot of information about the crash. I can try and attach a debugger but is there a crash log I can send in? How should bug reports be handled?

So - I've enjoyed this so far. The crashes are annoying and I'd like to see them fixed (and I'm happy to help track them down). I'd also prefer that levels with clear end points should end once those objectives are acheived rather than requiring the wait for the timeout.

Cheers,

Toby Haynes

[Kurtz]

The game looks good, and it´s fun to get some change from the beta scenarios.

here are some issues I have encountered so far:

1. My keyboard config from the public beta demo was gone. The name was still in the drop down menu, but the contents were empty (which had the effect that you could start the game and select a vehicle, but once you were "in-game" you couldn't do anything.

2. Crash when trying to uncheck "full screen" (report sent with the automatic tool)

3. Where is the OGRE? if I select OGRE, I become single layer, but I only have the "normal" vehicles. Is it planned for future updates?

4. Could you enable pasting in the license window when creating a new accout. It's a bit tedius to have to enter the license manually. It won't help me (who entered it manually), but it might be one irritation less for future players.

[Wishkah]

As regards awaiting the timeout on missions... if you quit the mission when you've fulfilled all your objectives and your score is higher than the opposition's, you win. Same as waiting for the timeout, without waiting for the timeout! Yay science.

[poesel]

I have also some issues:

- if I press quit on the scenario startup screen then the game crashes (SDL parachute...)

- if I start a scenario the game crashes too

- multiplayer worked for one and a half scenarios and then crashed (I was doing nothing special)

I never had the client crash with the demo (same machine).

Other things:

- my controls were also empty but I had a bachup of the demo files and it works with the copy

- I cant see lava although it can burn me. My machine is rather slow so I have every graphic option turned off. Still it would be nice to at least have a hint that there is something dangerous.

- running the runUpdate.sh updates version 1.0.0 to 0.9.92...

- is there a changelog or is 0.9.92 = 1.0.0? (except scenarios etc...)

- I couldn't carry over my name from the demo - now I and everyone I knew has a new name...

[ClaytoniousRex]

Thanks for the info, guys.

I wish that levels with a clearly defined win point would exit when that win was acheived

For those scenarios with a black & white objective such as that first one on Archipelago you should be getting a message that says you've accomplished your objective, get the points for it (1,000 in the case of Archipelago), and then you can quit at that time with a victory. When you try to quit without a victory you should be getting a dialog that warns you that "if you quit now the scenario will be a defeat - are you sure you want to quit?" It sounds like this isn't happening for you, Toby. Is that right?

is there a crash log I can send in?

The best place to start is by emailing your DropTeam.log file to me. Then we'll take each one from there. The upcoming 1.0.1 release has probably already fixed it, but you never know.

The crashes are annoying and I'd like to see them fixed (and I'm happy to help track them down)

They definitely will be and very soon!

My keyboard config from the public beta demo was gone.

Yes, we've fixed this for 1.0.1 but some people are definitely going to get hit by this in the meantime, unfortunately.

Crash when trying to uncheck "full screen" (report sent with the automatic tool)

Were you logged in as user Oskar? That's the only report like this we have so far. If that's not you, then can you send the .zip of the crash directly to me?

Where is the OGRE?

Here is some OGRE info.

Could you enable pasting in the license window when creating a new accout

I hear ya. It's one of those few really dirty cross-platform problems. Maybe we can do it just for Windows, though.

Poesel, your issues sound quite severe, probably all stemming from some basic problem. How much and what exactly did you copy from the demo into the retail build? That could be bad news. Can you send me a DropTeam.Log from the crash when you start a scenario? Thanks!

[dan/california]

The game overall is excellent. It runs flawlessly on my 20" intel mac.

One small things.

Is there a pause button in single player mode? I keep getting reduced to smoking wreckage while looking for a command I have not memorized yet. This is what happens in a firefight when you don't know what you are doing, but I already know that I don't know what I am doing. It is why am playing single player and trying to get it together.

[WineCape]

Toby,

Ubuntu you say May I add that Mark Shuttleworth (of ex-Thawte) is a friend - good to see that his invested Ubuntu project is coming around...

[Kurtz]

Yes, thats my report you got. It's repeatable, so just tell me if you want me to do something different.

Thanks for the OGRE info, I searched, but probably was too tired last night to see that one.

[Caseck]

Repost from beta-multiplayer test forum.

Probably need a post-release thread somewheres around here! Please throw this in there when you get the chance. (Or if I'm stuipid and just missed it.)

Real issues:

Battlesight round (round in a main gun) automatically TURNS INTO the newly selected round when ammo selection is changed. Should have to reload when you do that.

Lasers should be measured by WATTAGE, not by Millemeters! (Or Kw or Mw as the case may be!) That's like measuring a gun shell by color.

If I have multiple dropships, why can't I make multiple simultaneous drops?

You lose all your dropships, game over...

Balance:?

AI ground turrets are pretty weak. I grouped 5 of them together and they couldn't take out an ATGM vehicle. Maybe TURRETS should have missiles. They're already vulnerable enough to arty!

Mines dropped by dropship? Maybe if they walked to their location... Why not dropped from orbit like the smoke/ecm/HE? Seems a bit silly to fly a ship down to drop dumb mines! US Army doesn't even do that with UH-60s anymore! Not when an arty-shell can do the same thing!

I'd love to see airbreathing Gunships hovering around, dodging behind terrain somewhere in the future! (Limited fuel supply, light construction... Missiles and cannon! Atmosphere and gravity limited...) But I'm biased.

Maybe there should be a differentiation between stuff that can be built on the ground (indigenous airbreathers) and the anti-matter powered orbital equipment...

And I miss my GEV with short-range fire and forget missiles!

Would love to see a high wattage PULSE LASER TANK. Hover or tracked. Yeah, a lot of recharge time, but I'm not a big beamer fan.

Bug-wise, I have encountered NONE so far. I have yet to have a crash, so you have put out one rock solid game. Can't wait to see it grow!

[Kurtz]

Good point about the ions, but it's much easier to get some info about the power with the millimeter designation - you can compare it to other weapons.

On the other hand, "light", "medium" and "heavy" could be more fitting descriptions.

The reason why you can't do multiple drops is probably because that would allow you to totally overwhelm the enemy by suddenly dropping lots of units. A play balance thing.

[Caseck]

Specifically it should be output wattage... But I'd still be happy with light/medium/heavy.

I do not like the millimeters. It's not technically accurate. Keep the SCIENCE in SCIENCE-FICTION...

[Caseck]

I wouldn't mind seeing the "LIMITED DROPSHIP SORTIES" a user option. I'm curious to see it both ways.

[poesel]

I found the source of my crash problem: if I turn off the sky box, the game crashes. Repeatable and just that option.

I may be wrong but is the skybox thing connected to getting the smoke cloud when you fire? I have the same settings in demo and now except for the skybox and there was no dustcloud in the demo for me.

One other thing I noticed: when I cross the next to last bridge in the first scenario, my framerate drops to ~4fps. Before and after and on other bridges everything is normal.

[ClaytoniousRex]

Poesel, that is also why you couldn't see the lava. Fixed for 1.0.1.

[Wishkah]

I would say the biggest problem I'm having is a tendency to freeze for several seconds when switching into, or less often out of, the gunnery view. Switching in, the viewpoint zooms down to the back of the turret and then everything freezes there for some time before actually changing to the sights system. I haven't noticed any particular pattern to it, but it's a pretty major issue because usually when you need to shoot, you need to do it in a hurry (if you can see them, they can see you!). I don't think it's graphics-related because it's been happening with lower-demand settings too, and it happens both in network play and single-player. It seems a bit odd to me because apart from a change of viewpoint I can't really see what's different to the regular view.

Running on an Intel Mac.

[Toby Haynes]

Originally posted by WineCape:

Toby,

Ubuntu you say May I add that Mark Shuttleworth (of ex-Thawte) is a friend - good to see that his invested Ubuntu project is coming around...

Mark should be pleased with Ubuntu - it's an absolute pleasure to use and administrate. I say that as a long-time Linux user who works and plays on the platform and who has used several distributions. Maybe more importantly, he's managed to culture a community who looks out for each other on technical issues and that may be his greatest acheivement. Long may it continue.

Cheers,

Toby Haynes

[Bnej]

Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

...For those scenarios with a black & white objective such as that first one on Archipelago you should be getting a message that says you've accomplished your objective, get the points for it (1,000 in the case of Archipelago), and then you can quit at that time with a victory. When you try to quit without a victory you should be getting a dialog that warns you that "if you quit now the scenario will be a defeat - are you sure you want to quit?" It sounds like this isn't happening for you, Toby. Is that right?

I've never seen this. On "Treachery", I reached the dropships ~10 minutes to spare, the score went to 1000-something, dropped back to 0 in jumps of 250, went back to 1000 etc until the time ran out. Then the game crashed.

I've never seen a "victory" message, even on the first level when I finished it.

[Toby Haynes]

Originally posted by Bnej:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex:

When you try to quit without a victory you should be getting a dialog that warns you that "if you quit now the scenario will be a defeat - are you sure you want to quit?" It sounds like this isn't happening for you, Toby. Is that right?

I've never seen this. On "Treachery", I reached the dropships ~10 minutes to spare, the score went to 1000-something, dropped back to 0 in jumps of 250, went back to 1000 etc until the time ran out. Then the game crashed.

I've never seen a "victory" message, even on the first level when I finished it. </font>