Game 5 is now on!
Welcome to all our new testers! For new and old, we're mostly here to have fun, but we also want to find bugs and test features. Hopefully you can keep up to date on this thread to know about bugs that are found, fixed, etc.
If you do find something you think is a bug, it is best to not submit orders and post here to check; it may slow the game down, but it really helps when I go in to debug if things are in the potentially bugged state instead of moving on.
When new phases are available, you'll receive an email. Many junk filters will consider it spam, so go look through if you see that the game changed phases and you didn't get a notification.
We're playing on an enormous map this time, so scroll around. Hopefully no one will have trouble going off the map this time, but you guys may find scrolling around and keeping situational awareness a challenge. For now, I have no plans for a mini-map, but this will be a good test to see how necessary that may be in the (far) future.
For this game, we are primarily looking to test the following features:
1. Skill Level
Take a look and you'll see everyone was assigned a random skill level. Aside from Ironduke, everyone should have a set of 3 unique ranks, so you can get a feel for how much it affects things. I'm pretty confident that this is working fine already, but this is the first time we test it, so it may be bugging. It will be hard to determine if things are not working vs. unlucky, but hopefully by the end of the Game we'll have enough field reports to show that statistically those with higher rank did better...
2. Missile Evasion
We've been tackling this a lot in Game 4, which is still on-going, but we still don't have full confidence in the correct behaviour. Keep firing missiles and try to avoid them!
3. Tailing
It seems mostly functional now, but tail whenever you can, even if you don't really need to. We need to make sure it behaves properly. (Tail your own ships if necessary)
4. Turrets
Rear-turrets should be working okay, but I can't remember if we've even tested side turrets. We'll need to test against the broadswords carefully and make sure that the turrets do fire properly. In theory, you can point defence with a turret, but it will pick its own target. You can do so by reserving all its shots. Additionally you should be able to fire all turrets independently of your main gun, but again I cannot recall if we actually tested this yet in the past or not.
If you look carefully, you'll also noticed one unannounced surprise: Asteroids. For now, they are just for show. If I find time, and if the game is running particularly smoothly, I may start experimenting with Line-of-Sight or Collision, so check back here for such an announcement. For now though, you should be able to just fly over them without any impact on gameplay at all. (Consequently, this is the first time I use the indicator icon for them; I find it is a bit dark, so I may have to lighten it up).
For those that haven't played before, if you're the last one to submit an order, go back to the turn selection screen and reload it to force a processing/check for a new turn. This can also be the moment where some of the weirder, one-time error messages can appear that we haven't nailed down yet, so if that does happen, be sure to copy and paste them here for me, 'cause they're near-impossible to recreate. Eventually I'll get the automatic turn refresh feature working, but it is low on my priority list.
I've also tweaked a few behind-the-scenes features, like game visibility (so I can work on creating games without showing them until they're ready) which seems to have worked while I built Game 5. I also redid the permission-level system so that my user wasn't hardcoded and is now flagged as a game admin. If any of you seem to be able to give orders to all ships, let me know, 'cause that means the new system is bugged.
We're close to finishing Phase 5 of testing, and some of the features I've listed above, like the asteroid work, falls into what I'd consider Phase 6 development. We may transition phases mid-game, depending how well the pilot-skill system goes and how long this game takes.
Enjoy Alpha Test Game 5: Battle Royal
Welcome to all our new testers! For new and old, we're mostly here to have fun, but we also want to find bugs and test features. Hopefully you can keep up to date on this thread to know about bugs that are found, fixed, etc.
If you do find something you think is a bug, it is best to not submit orders and post here to check; it may slow the game down, but it really helps when I go in to debug if things are in the potentially bugged state instead of moving on.
When new phases are available, you'll receive an email. Many junk filters will consider it spam, so go look through if you see that the game changed phases and you didn't get a notification.
We're playing on an enormous map this time, so scroll around. Hopefully no one will have trouble going off the map this time, but you guys may find scrolling around and keeping situational awareness a challenge. For now, I have no plans for a mini-map, but this will be a good test to see how necessary that may be in the (far) future.
For this game, we are primarily looking to test the following features:
1. Skill Level
Take a look and you'll see everyone was assigned a random skill level. Aside from Ironduke, everyone should have a set of 3 unique ranks, so you can get a feel for how much it affects things. I'm pretty confident that this is working fine already, but this is the first time we test it, so it may be bugging. It will be hard to determine if things are not working vs. unlucky, but hopefully by the end of the Game we'll have enough field reports to show that statistically those with higher rank did better...
2. Missile Evasion
We've been tackling this a lot in Game 4, which is still on-going, but we still don't have full confidence in the correct behaviour. Keep firing missiles and try to avoid them!
3. Tailing
It seems mostly functional now, but tail whenever you can, even if you don't really need to. We need to make sure it behaves properly. (Tail your own ships if necessary)
4. Turrets
Rear-turrets should be working okay, but I can't remember if we've even tested side turrets. We'll need to test against the broadswords carefully and make sure that the turrets do fire properly. In theory, you can point defence with a turret, but it will pick its own target. You can do so by reserving all its shots. Additionally you should be able to fire all turrets independently of your main gun, but again I cannot recall if we actually tested this yet in the past or not.
If you look carefully, you'll also noticed one unannounced surprise: Asteroids. For now, they are just for show. If I find time, and if the game is running particularly smoothly, I may start experimenting with Line-of-Sight or Collision, so check back here for such an announcement. For now though, you should be able to just fly over them without any impact on gameplay at all. (Consequently, this is the first time I use the indicator icon for them; I find it is a bit dark, so I may have to lighten it up).
For those that haven't played before, if you're the last one to submit an order, go back to the turn selection screen and reload it to force a processing/check for a new turn. This can also be the moment where some of the weirder, one-time error messages can appear that we haven't nailed down yet, so if that does happen, be sure to copy and paste them here for me, 'cause they're near-impossible to recreate. Eventually I'll get the automatic turn refresh feature working, but it is low on my priority list.
I've also tweaked a few behind-the-scenes features, like game visibility (so I can work on creating games without showing them until they're ready) which seems to have worked while I built Game 5. I also redid the permission-level system so that my user wasn't hardcoded and is now flagged as a game admin. If any of you seem to be able to give orders to all ships, let me know, 'cause that means the new system is bugged.
We're close to finishing Phase 5 of testing, and some of the features I've listed above, like the asteroid work, falls into what I'd consider Phase 6 development. We may transition phases mid-game, depending how well the pilot-skill system goes and how long this game takes.
Enjoy Alpha Test Game 5: Battle Royal