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[matveich]

First of all, i must say, this game is really great. But before buying it, i want to know something.

OS:
After purchasing the game,will i be able to get all builds(win,lin),or only one? How good is linux support?

Gameplay:
How gameplay of the finished game will look? Some kind of spaz,starscape(turn-based strategy+rts/arcade)? or smth completely different(apart from tactical strategy part)?

will there be subsystems? can i damage them during fight? will firing on specific parts of the ship cause to malfunction systems, situated there(like engines will be disabled if you shoot at them,turrets explode and so on)?

What kind of game physics will be in final game? Is there any chanse to have something realistic?(without speed limit) Ideal variant is to have several types of physics.
It`s a bit late,but it would be nice to have exhausts to be rendered not only from main engines, but also from manouver thrusters.

[Alex]

After purchasing the game,will i be able to get all builds(win,lin),or only one? How good is linux support?

All. Linux is officially supported, though there have been a few reports of trouble with the ATI drivers on Linux. Linux support is not an afterthought, but since there are so many different configurations, it's impossible to test them all. Bottom line, if you have an issue, we'll work with you to try to resolve it.

How gameplay of the finished game will look? Some kind of spaz,starscape(turn-based strategy+rts/arcade)? or smth completely different(apart from tactical strategy part)?

Pausable real-time for the campaign map, with battles like the missions in the alpha.

will there be subsystems? can i damage them during fight? will firing on specific parts of the ship cause to malfunction systems, situated there(like engines will be disabled if you shoot at them,turrets explode and so on)?

To be determined. Trying some things out in this direction is planned, but I can't promise where it will go.

What kind of game physics will be in final game? Is there any chanse to have something realistic?(without speed limit) Ideal variant is to have several types of physics.
It`s a bit late,but it would be nice to have exhausts to be rendered not only from main engines, but also from manouver thrusters.

Roughly Newtonian physics with some adjustments for gameplay purposes. Realism takes a back seat to good gameplay in my book, though it can certainly serve to enhance immersion. But, I mean, you're already firing autocannons from spaceships - the battle for realism is lost before it can even begin

In particular, unlimited speeds are very tricky to work with and sound like more fun than they actually are (believe me, I've tried it!). I think it could be made to work if the game was designed specifically around that as the core mechanic, but Starfarer is most definitely not.

[matveich]

To be determined. Trying some things out in this direction is planned, but I can't promise where it will go.

Well, there is good armor damage system already, which can detect what part of the ship is being attacked.
All in all,having destroyable subsystems would be really nice,it would add more tactitacal elements to the game. Like disabling forward guns of destroyer with fighters to prevent it damaging your cap ships..

Roughly Newtonian physics with some adjustments for gameplay purposes. Realism takes a back seat to good gameplay in my book, though it can certainly serve to enhance immersion. But, I mean, you're already firing autocannons from spaceships - the battle for realism is lost before it can even begin

In particular, unlimited speeds are very tricky to work with and sound like more fun than they actually are (believe me, I've tried it!). I think it could be made to work if the game was designed specifically around that as the core mechanic, but Starfarer is most definitely not.

Good step would be to allow player to customize some parameters like top speed, amount of friction,turn rate.
Excelent example of games, utilizing fully newtonian physics, is Homeplanet and I-war. They are both in 3d, so that`s not the case, just an example.

[Alex]

Good step would be to allow player to customize some parameters like top speed, amount of friction,turn rate.
Excelent example of games, utilizing fully newtonian physics, is Homeplanet and I-war. They are both in 3d, so that`s not the case, just an example.

You can already do all that by modding the game Things you mention (aside from friction, which doesn't exist) are very easy to adjust.

[matveich]

well,after purchasing and playing a little, i think, i should post some feedback

first of all, this game is really very,very good. It has potential, and even  now, when it`s far from final state,it is entertaining.

several drawbacks, however:
1)some weapon groups cannot always be switched to autofire
i was flying attack frigate with grav beam on auto, then switched to manual, then tried to enable autofire=fail.
2) more rts features like extended command control:orders to protect ship, to follow ships and so on. waypoints also will be nice.
3) ability to choose comm ship at the beginning, not to switch after deployment.
4)strafes. ships starts rotating and moving forward instead of moving just to it`s side.
5)i don`t know why but ships not always follow orders the way i want them to. insted of moving to some location(move order), they attack enemy, if they are in your battle group(same group your flagship is)  or under attack

there were some problems with resolution when starting separate X session for the game(wrong resolutions were available in the menu), but this was fixed in new version.
also,is it possible to choose different audio drivers(not only alsa) in sdl?(it looks like you are using it)

all in all,these are minor bugs,i just hope to play campaign soon. keep up the good work.

btw,alex, are you from russia?

[Trylobot]

... waypoints also will be nice.

Waypoints are in. If you hold shift, and right-click any point in space, you can queue orders and waypoints.

... ships starts rotating and moving forward instead of moving just to it`s side.

I had some difficulty with strafing at first as well. Turns out that the ship tries to "follow" your mouse cursor, so plant your cursor on the enemy you are engaging, and keep it on him as you strafe. You'll circle around him, where the radius of the circle is the distance between you. After I got used to it, I couldn't think of a better way to do it.

... sdl? (it looks like you are using it)

He's using LWJGL, a video-accelerated graphics library for Java.

[Alex]

Glad you're liking the game!

... sdl? (it looks like you are using it)

He's using LWJGL, a video-accelerated graphics library for Java.

And OpenAL for the sound (through LWJGL).

1)some weapon groups cannot always be switched to autofire
i was flying attack frigate with grav beam on auto, then switched to manual, then tried to enable autofire=fail.

Hmm. There's an occasional bug where tabbing in and out of the game can screw that up. Thought I fixed it but it's still showing up (though more rarely). If that happens, press "Alt" and you'll be able to use autofire again. If that's not what's happening for you, I'd love to know the steps to reproduce.

Another way around this is to change the key bindings for autofire to something else, without a modifier key.

2) more rts features like extended command control:orders to protect ship, to follow ships and so on. waypoints also will be nice.
5)i don`t know why but ships not always follow orders the way i want them to. insted of moving to some location(move order), they attack enemy, if they are in your battle group(same group your flagship is)  or under attack

I hear you. Working on this - I think part of the problem is the RTS-like UI gives you unrealistic expectations for the level of obedience. And RTS unit doesn't have much in the way of brains and blindly obeys. Starfarer ships can't do that and still be interesting opponents in direct combat.

btw,alex, are you from russia?

Yeah, a *long* time ago

[Avan]

Ok yeah, I just encountered the alt-tab bug myself yesterday, and I was pretty sure it had been fixed.

[Darloth]

2) more rts features like extended command control:orders to protect ship, to follow ships and so on. waypoints also will be nice.
5)i don`t know why but ships not always follow orders the way i want them to. insted of moving to some location(move order), they attack enemy, if they are in your battle group(same group your flagship is)  or under attack

I hear you. Working on this - I think part of the problem is the RTS-like UI gives you unrealistic expectations for the level of obedience. And RTS unit doesn't have much in the way of brains and blindly obeys. Starfarer ships can't do that and still be interesting opponents in direct combat.

I have often thought that RTS games need to have a choice between "Please do this" and "I really, really, really need you to do this, now, no matter what else is happening", for a much higher priority order than the normal.

If you think you could work that in, I suggest double right-click as a possible obvious command to prioritize an order higher.

I like the way that currently what the AI does instead of whatever I told it usually seems to be sensible though, but once or twice it has been really annoying to see some wasps get distracted with a nearer but less important target, or a group split up when I want them to stay together or likewise. Even so, if the AI continues to make realistic looking decisions, I can accept that as commanders exercising their judgement even if it's not what I would immediately want, and work around it, but it is a nice to have suggestion, so I thought I'd post it.

[Alex]

I probably shouldn't talk about it before making sure the new approach is going to work, but...

The idea is you'll be able to give general tasks ("capture this objective", "defend this location", "strike this capital ship") and the AI will automatically assign ships to fulfill those. You'll also have access to a limited number of "direct orders" that you can use to assign a particular ship to a specific task. You'd only get a few of those per battle.

The end result should be much like what you're saying, and in addition, since you're not giving direct orders most of the time, the game won't set you up to expect immediate obedience - i.e, it should be more apparent that these are independent commanders making their own decisions.

Again, though, I shouldn't be talking much about it. There's quite a bit of work ahead to proof this approach out and make sure it works well

[CommComms]

I probably shouldn't talk about it before making sure the new approach is going to work, but...

Look, if you don't tell us how it's going to work then how are we supposed to tell you how it should work?  Also, we can't possibly have unrealistic expectations if you don't give us a baseline first.  Nevermind that we can't bother you constantly about when if we don't know what.  So really, telling us these things ahead of time is a vital part of the development process. 

[Flare]

Aren't you rather pushy .

[Alex]

Look, if you don't tell us how it's going to work then how are we supposed to tell you how it should work?  Also, we can't possibly have unrealistic expectations if you don't give us a baseline first.  Nevermind that we can't bother you constantly about when if we don't know what.  So really, telling us these things ahead of time is a vital part of the development process. 

An excellent point, good sir. Please allow me to profusely apologize for not discussing this in detail much earlier  - preferably, before I've had time to think through, or even about, it - and thus inconsiderately depriving you of sufficient time to build up unreasonable expectations and an adequate list of grievances against the not-yet-existing implementation.

It won't happen again!

[Dibuk]

Look, if you don't tell us how it's going to work then how are we supposed to tell you how it should work?  Also, we can't possibly have unrealistic expectations if you don't give us a baseline first.  Nevermind that we can't bother you constantly about when if we don't know what.  So really, telling us these things ahead of time is a vital part of the development process. 

An excellent point, good sir. Please allow me to profusely apologize for not discussing this in detail much earlier  - preferably, before I've had time to think through, or even about, it - and thus inconsiderately depriving you of sufficient time to build up unreasonable expectations and an adequate list of grievances against the not-yet-existing implementation.

It won't happen again!

It's nice to se a developer that can take a stand towards know-hows. Kudos for you Alex!

[Tchey]

Hi there, i'm new aroud here but i've preordered the game several weeks ago.

I've read part of the forum, but something is not clear in y little head.
The final game will be a sand-box, with an semi random galaxy in which i can do what i want, or a mission-box like in a34 with a quite linear campagn and several missions to accomplish ?

Maybe it will be both, like X-Universe games ? A big galaxy with some plots and missions i CAN do, but nothing i MUST do (apart from some special mission with a reward like an unique ship) ?

Thanks and sorry for my english, i'm from France.