spellman23

QUOTE (maty @ Nov 9 2009, 04:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Shiny. Too bad I don't have money to blow on a 3D system.

moddb

QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ Jul 24 2009, 02:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Can't they just code it to swap entities? That is, the building entities simply have a flag that says which team they belong to, and depending on what that flag is set to you get a different model, belong to different team, etc. QUOTE (R315r4z0r @ Jul 30 2009, 08:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I imagine it's whatever the current Engine can handle. Hopefully rigorous testing will reveal where the limit is. I know that in Empires the server gets really bogged down at around 24 vehicles total, so they capped it to 12 per team. Of course, the server could have this set to a lower limit if they want to emphasize infantry combat or they don't have the hardware to support more vehicles. Vehicles are really resource consuming in Source Engine, not as much in UT3.

Frankly, I like the newer approach. More techy, shinier, gives better representation of the data. However, it can blend in with the background too easily. Unless the HUD itself has contrasting colors (see R315r4z0r's post) it can and will blend into something. So, we need either contrasting colors or some way to differentiate it from the background, such as the Gaussian Blur suggested several posts pack.

QUOTE (Mighty BOB! @ Jun 1 2009, 06:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Hm, it's almost like this guy has taken an actual UI class. I agree completely. Also, some of the text could be larger or make sure it scale dynamically with screen resolution. There's nothing worse than unreadable text because the UI person forgot to scale it up.

QUOTE (Mr. Weedy @ Jul 31 2009, 08:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No, I mean User Interface in general. The HUD is annoying. The Voice Menu has too many layers. The Vehicle Construction GUI doesn't tell you if you're missing an engine or armor (and just doesn't let you build, frustrating new players). The key bindings to open the squad, class, and spawn menus aren't clearly labeled in-game. The class/skill/equipment selection system is getting better (they made it easier to tell when you have equipment choices), but is still a hassle to navigate. The tech tree isn't easy to learn and navigate.

I think some kinda of super meta game would be cool. However, I'm unsure about trying to cram a huge number of rounds into a small timeframe. This would make campaigns require dedicated time if you wanted to see it through to the end. Instead, what about a kinda of global game that occurs over a few days. Several servers host a particular viable battleground. Players are registered to a central system on which side they've signed up for this "set". Games are played out on the different servers (adjusted # of servers based on number of players signed up and number currently playing). Enough wins over a certain period of time on a server triggers that one side has won the territory. Central map changes (hosted on a website somewhere) and new regions open up, maybe special unique powers, etc. In this system, you can always have casuals come in and out and a "set" could take over a week, allowing people of different time zones to help out. However, if you set the # of victories to a lower number, you can have tight fast-paced single team matches where people may have to really plan how to allocate their players to keep the territories they want. The tricky part is determining which territories to fight over. If you have a top level commander, if they win a territory they get to choose the next offensive. However, if they don't respond in a certain amount of time, that territory is opened up again for counter attack by the enemy commander to try and take it back. A strategic choice is then made to temporarily shore up other regions before opening up a new front. Oh, and to prevent one player from being everywhere, there'd have to be a system that forces players to wait a set amount of time before they can re-enter a territory. That way, you can't instantly shift 10 players from one territory to the other, you'll have to have them "in transit" for a while. This may be over complex, but in my mind a decent way to keep this manageable and to let the casual players enjoy it, not just the pro clans.

QUOTE (havoc9826 @ Jul 31 2009, 12:03 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Heh, already have it. I put it down for a bit, got a bit draining, but probably should complete it some day. I also have Haunted, Angels Fall First, and Sanctum. I'm also watching moddb constantly and the Make Something Unreal for other awesome mods.

QUOTE (Mr. Weedy @ Jul 30 2009, 10:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> lol. I'm on the forums quite a bit, and yeah it feels quagmired. The two good devs that I interacted with and who made some nice improvements have left. =[ I rarely even play it now., the UI hurts too much. Ironically, the tech balance has somehow managed to have a semblance of balance. Too bad the classes are still blargh, not enough commanders, and the learning curve is stupified by bad UI.

Shiny. I've only played a bit of Mercenaries. Got bogged down in optimizing all my mechs and losing no one. =]

That was a sweet news update. the bounding box system looks pretty nice. A little glitchy at times, but really helps out, especially if you're covered in flames.

Bought it during a special. Mostly for the sexy mods being made for it like RenegadeX, but not exclusively for RenegadeX. Found this mod after the purchase.

Well, here's hoping it comes out soon. Let's see, that makes my wait list NS2, RenegadeX, and .... for the Empires devs to stop being stupid with their UI design.