[.86][Bug] Polishing the product

from Elemental Forums

I have a great time with .86 - and doubtlessly the improvements and new content in Beta3 will prove spectacular. But there's quite a bit of small glitches that should be addressed; polish that makes the game more professional and clean

  • Spelling mistakes should be eliminated whenever encountered
  • When I meet Emperor Kravax (or one of the other emperors, I'm not 100% sure it is Kravax) for the first time he refers to me as "Emperor Kravax", I believe the string uses the wrong faction ID parameter
  • The faction-power list in the top-right of the main game screen, I've had two separate instances of bugs: once it was positioned too far to the right, showing just a few pixels of  the left-most part of the list. Once it was displayed under the small component above it (the one where you can click to see food/material distribution)
  • Occasionally in combat the UI for unit spells/special actions disappears
  • Occasionally (typically with ranged magical attacks or spells) the origin of the attack seems to come from the far-off map (where I imagine the origin (0,0,0) of the map to be)
  • In the faction creation screen, when selecting a positive trait, the hint text doesn't update any more when moving the mouse over other options
  • Some animations (smoke for example) doesn't render properly in the fog of war, creating stark-white squares that rise in the fog of war
  • Selection of improvements in the city-build-menu doesn't always feel pleasantly responsive - occasionally under pressing such that when I expect to place an improvement it does not, or over pressing such that buildings I did not want get built)
  • Selecting a subset of units within a group of units is clunky, the mouse tends to "snap back" to the most recently selected unit when I try to quickly select multiple units
  • The mouse cursor should be explicitly updated whenever a context change happens (for example a menu is opened, or after a unit switch in combat). If for example I have 2 archer units in combat, then shoot at one enemy the cursor becomes a "not-legal-to-shoot" cursor and switches to the next archer unit, the cursor is still "not-legal-to-shoot" until I move the mouse a bit so that it updates to "oh, yes you can shoot"
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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Going to start off with a thank you =)  The more stuff we all find the more stuff Derek and Brad and Co. will get fixed.

 

Spelling mistakes should be eliminated whenever encountered
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Suggest posting this and most of the following items as well in the Support (ie BUGS) forum.  You need to give specific examples and having them in separate threads is probably a good idea.  The search engine is kind of crummy IMO but it is also worth searching to see if it has already been reported and then adding to the current thread(s) with any new information available.

 

The faction-power list in the top-right of the main game screen, I've had two separate instances of bugs: once it was positioned too far to the right, showing just a few pixels of  the left-most part of the list. Once it was displayed under the small component above it (the one where you can click to see food/material distribution)
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It's movable, grab it and move it.  If it looks funny you probably moved it by accident.

 

In the faction creation screen, when selecting a positive trait, the hint text doesn't update any more when moving the mouse over other options
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Reported a few times already.

 

Some animations (smoke for example) doesn't render properly in the fog of war, creating stark-white squares that rise in the fog of war
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This seems tied to the memory leak issues and is hopefully fixed in the next iteration.  Exit the game and relaunch it and life is fine again.  Annoying though I agree!

 

Selection of improvements in the city-build-menu doesn't always feel pleasantly responsive - occasionally under pressing such that when I expect to place an improvement it does not, or over pressing such that buildings I did not want get built)
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Seen this too.  If I exit the city build menu and enter it again life seems OK.  Supposing it's a memory issue again.

 

Selecting a subset of units within a group of units is clunky, the mouse tends to "snap back" to the most recently selected unit when I try to quickly select multiple units
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Not experiencing this.  I use shift-click, is that what you're doing?

 

The mouse cursor should be explicitly updated whenever a context change happens (for example a menu is opened, or after a unit switch in combat). If for example I have 2 archer units in combat, then shoot at one enemy the cursor becomes a "not-legal-to-shoot" cursor and switches to the next archer unit, the cursor is still "not-legal-to-shoot" until I move the mouse a bit so that it updates to "oh, yes you can shoot"
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Been looking at this myself, to some extent I think it's because your first set of archers shot the target and killed some of the enemy figures, and then FE redrew that unit.  When it does so you are no longer highlighting a figure (since they moved).  it's annoying to be sure.

- Manii Names

 

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Manii, reply 1
Selecting a subset of units within a group of units is clunky, the mouse tends to "snap back" to the most recently selected unit when I try to quickly select multiple units

Not experiencing this.  I use shift-click, is that what you're doing?
 
End of Manii's quote

Yes, shift-clicking. It is very subtle, to be sure, not like a big jerk of the mouse. It's not even a problem if you do it slowly, but if I try to do it quickly, I get laggy mouse movement as if the mouse is being held back.

I suppose it might be doing some big render step to highlight the selected unit during the mouse update routine that prevents the mouse from being properly updated in the interim.

 

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Another quality UI improvement post. Excellent feedback!