Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates new up
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates new up Folks,I updated the original post at the beginning, but some people are going to jump to the end of the thread rather than check there, so here is the change log for the new update. Some things did not make this update, but we are planning to make a stab at online play, and other things might creep into it when we do so. The change log follows. One important note: Due to changes in the way the game saves new statistics, older save games are not compatible with this version. We're sorry if this causes loss of progress. nearby scan N no longer is limited to function only from your unit's point of view. It now works anywhere and displays anything within two squares of the cursor at the time you press n. It does not show anything that none of your units have detected. k and shift+k will skip earth if it has been taken over, no more invalid Mission descriptions added as cut scenes just at the end of startup sequence, directly before initial placement or what ever is appropriate given the mission context. You can toggle this using a new item in settings, cut scenes. This setting saves to the guidedog account. Rearanged settings menu items for a more logical order. planets discovered, static hazards discovered and mobile hazards encountered are now listed in status menu, game over menu and clipboard copy text. Note that this change makes it impossible to load games that were saved using earlier versions. examine square menu added. reports planet or hazard if any at the top, with all detail associated. Then lists the number of each ship types present for both alliances. Friendly ship types are sub menus. Hitting enter on the fleets sub menu opens fleet management menu, hitting enter on any other friendly ship type opens a newly created menu that lists every lonely ship on the square of that type. You can hit enter on a ship therein to select it. When listing the ships on a square this way, the type isn't read out for each item to reduce verbiage. Only the purpose if any, the id, and the efficiency, followed by autonav information if enabled is given here in concise format. You can open examine square menu by holding enter or by pressing ctrl+q. These work in placement phase as well. When you use place with map mode, the game now says "place with map mode" when map mode turns on, instead of "map exploration mode", if the current phase is placement. Helps understand whether you're in movement phase, or if you're still in place with map mode. * when not activated and you hit escape to continue with demonstration, a new menu appears prompting you to choose lightning game or close quarters mode. Fix sneaky bug that could cause ships within fleets to be thought discovered or not when they were the opposite. new lonely universe mode mission, combines capital planet start only with far corners mode New mission matching minimized start. Both alliances have a pair of space station or asteroid belts in addition to their capitals. new mission planetary bounty mode added. Get 50 credits for every asteroid belt or space station you colonize, only if the other alliance has not yet colonized it. The spoils of victory credit income is unaffected, but that starts for ice planets and up anyway. Planetary Bounty mode is compatible with existing victory conditions. Added a note of the selected difficulty to the log file. A couple new sounds, one for movement phase, and one for a planet being colonized. new sounds for successful intelligence gathering, combat on square, you win, and you lost. You win and lost experiences can be skipped by pressing enter. They should come after the victory condition met message is given, but before the voiceover says you have beaten the game, or you have been defeated! rename capital planet sound to our capital planet is here, play this when the capital is colonized by player, play a new, their capital planet is here sound, for a capital colonized by other alliance. New sounds for enemy ships on square, and capital planet. This only works when announcing the total contents of a square, which for the most part means just in map mode. Certain menus, like nearby, will as well. New sound for start of placement phase. Added cash sound for purchase phase and gun battery sound for combat phase, which only plays if there is actual combat. learn game sounds menu added to the main menu. Lists most sounds and plays the sound after giving a description. Press enter to repeat description and sound, or press space to just repeat the sound. We now have volume keys (f2 f3), and a scroller in settings, for general sound volume. This setting saves to guidedog account and to disk. Added a new setting to allow inverting the y axis. Off by default, this saves to the guidedog account. Now supports alternative speech packs. Place a folder in the program files/ExpandingKnownSpace folder th
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Aaron here.Pretty sure the code changes are finished. Jeremy is having an issue with his copy but I think his defender ate the game. We'll have to submit this version for analysis to try and stop this nonsense as soon as we settle on a final update for the next release, hoping this don't hit the customers as bad as it's hitting us. Barring unexpected issues, the changelog along with the game itself will be ready in a couple of days if not sooner. Just need to sift around for bugs.I just beat an epic game on insanely not fair. It kept steeling colonies back from me. I actually was trying to take them back, but some of the ones I had weren't back under my control yet by the time I gave that idea up and went for capital control. I'm glad I tested though, because I did find some missing speech files that I recorded but didn't actually get around to moving over.single nonstop session, no breaks.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (26 beta ).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 2 hours 43 minutes 21 seconds and ended on Monday, September 9, 2019 at 7:54 PM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2873 (95 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in insanely not fair difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - was not metColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - the solarian federation met this condition for 4 seasonsThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 19 colonies (47%) with the most ever held being 19. the interstellar union finished with 5 colonies (12%) with the most ever held being 9.the solarian federation colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 3 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 5 of 7 volcanic planets, 3 of 4 ocean planets and 8 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 1 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 3 of 18 earth type planets.the solarian federation discovered 31 of 40 planets, 78 percent. the interstellar union discovered 31 of 40, 78 percent. the solarian federation discovered 17 of 40 static hazards, 43 percent. the interstellar union discovered 37 of 40, 93 percent. the solarian federation encountered 17 mobile hazards, the interstellar union encountered 94At the end, the solarian federation was making 166 credits for 49% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 294 credits for 13% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 13706 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 37457.the solarian federation spent 10 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 435.the solarian federation purchased 117 interceptors, 591 destroyers, 58 frigates, 113 cruisers, 278 battle ships and 38 colony ships for a total of 1195.the interstellar union purchased 130 interceptors, 22 destroyers, 65 frigates, 36 cruisers, 1430 battle ships and 50 colony ships for a total of 1733.the solarian federation lost 4 interceptors, 258 destroyers, 28 frigates, 50 cruisers, 129 battle ships and 15 colony ships for a total of 484 (453 lost in combat, 31 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 139 interceptors, 36 destroyers, 73 frigates, 43 cruisers, 1246 battle ships and 48 colony ships for a total of 1585 (1398 lost in combat, 187 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 3 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 10.you have won 0 military, 17 colonization, 0 economic, 4 capital control and 16 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 1 economic, 0 capital control and 1 missions for a total of 23 wins, 3 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/460769/#p460769 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates ok so what's the changelog then? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/459616/#p459616 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.Aaron here. That's a perfect answer, the both of you. That's how we'll do it then. I just now pushed changes up until I only have two major things in the to do, so I don't expect it'll be long now. I'm excited! It doesn't have everything you guys asked for, or in fact everything we wanted, but we still have quite a lot of new things to show off. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/459609/#p459609 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.Aaron here. That's a perfect answer, the both of you. That's how we'll do it then. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/459609/#p459609 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I'm also sorry to hear you've not been well, though I'll look forward to the new version when it does turn up. As for the thread, I agree with Darren, edit the first post to include the beta number in the subject, then reply with details as occurred in crazy party, that way everyone will see the updated title and instantly know there is a new version, but the new releases room won't be cluttered up with too many threads about the same game. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/459424/#p459424 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates hi,sorry to hear you've had a bad time of it.i suppose what you could do is to rename this thread each time with the new release number so we know that there's been a new update released or something like that. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/459291/#p459291 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi all.Aaron here. Wanted to say we're still working on this and haven't forgot about you all. I fell ill in my stomach, it all got kicked off by eating a Flamethrower burger from Darry queen of all things. Somehow, even though I eat plenty of spicy foods, I reacted more badly than I expected. I've been nearly a full month recovering. I went from 150 pounds to 136 in that time.Anyway, we have still pushed out a total of 4 beta updates in that time, and we're introducing some improvements we're pretty excited about. We didn't make the end of August deadline like we hoped, but I have a darn good excuse.Do you folks think we should start a new thread for each public release, or continue the current one? I'm leaning on just adding it to the current one, but I'm really not sure. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/459252/#p459252 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Icemaster,I'm not sure in the case of Avast, but we have had reports of false positives from Microsoft Windows Defender users. Microsoft flagged all users of BGT as possible Malware due to a few programs written in the language. I suspect the same thing is true of Avast. We've been reporting these to Microsoft, and we'll do so to Avast as well. The game is not a virus, and we're very sorry that it's appearing to be one to some virus scanners and malware detection programs.The more users that can report that it is not malware, the better.Sidenote: We are still working on the update, but Aaron has had health issues, and we've been significantly slowed down. Take care, and thanks for the report and the question,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/454465/#p454465 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Any reason on why Avast would think it's a false positive? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/454071/#p454071 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Not to beat a dead horse, but I want to post this to demonstrate exactly how many ships can be involved in a game. One of our betas challenged me to beat the game on the first three difficulty modes on military victory. I managed that, but now i'm trying to do the same on ridiculous mode. my first outing ended in 25 minutes with the AI victorious. This one lasted longer, but still didn't work out well for me. There were upward of ten thousand ships produced in this game. At the end, the AI was moving around 8,800 a turn. Multiply your own experience with hazards and losses, and then think about sound spam with ships tied to individual sounds.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player lost! It'll be better next time?The game lasted 1 hours 43 minutes 19 seconds and ended on Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 11:44 AM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2900 (202 turns, with the interstellar union victorious.Game was in ridiculously not fair difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - the interstellar union met this conditionThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 2 colonies (5%) with the most ever held being 11. the interstellar union finished with 38 colonies (95%) with the most ever held being 38.the solarian federation colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 1 of 3 ice planets, 0 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 0 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 1 of 1 asteroid belts, 6 of 7 space stations, 2 of 3 ice planets, 7 of 7 volcanic planets, 4 of 4 ocean planets and 18 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 3 credits for 0% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 1468 credits for 98% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 8163 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 204652.the solarian federation spent 5 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 1010.the solarian federation purchased 389 interceptors, 263 destroyers, 44 frigates, 98 cruisers, 113 battle ships and 30 colony ships for a total of 937.the interstellar union purchased 342 interceptors, 48 destroyers, 165 frigates, 110 cruisers, 8223 battle ships and 52 colony ships for a total of 8940.the solarian federation lost 408 interceptors, 263 destroyers, 48 frigates, 101 cruisers, 181 battle ships and 16 colony ships for a total of 1017 (988 lost in combat, 29 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 18 interceptors, 8 destroyers, 2 frigates, 5 cruisers, 102 battle ships and 5 colony ships for a total of 140 (117 lost in combat, 23 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 9 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 87.you have won 2 military, 5 colonization, 0 economic, 3 capital control and 3 mission victories and you have lost 1 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 1 missions for a total of 11 wins, 3 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/452495/#p452495 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Couple of quick notes:Oversight: I forgot one item that we have completed in the update that was requested. The select planets menu during start up, now shows the planet type next to the name of the planet to make selecting specific types of planets easier.Sorry about that, a lot of ground to cover, and I just blanked.Story/achievement discussion: We're discussing doing something similar to what Dark suggested in post 110 as a stopgap. It's not the way I'd like to do it, and I don't think it fully satisfies those who would rather have a large campaign, but that is doable with the current infrastructure. We're also discussing achievements and possible unlocks from those. These if they happen will be very modest things. This last is still in discussion stage, it might still not happen, but it is being seriously considered. However, due to the infrastructure things I discussed in 125, any of this will be small scale and probably half measures. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/452166/#p452166 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates For example, I got the game, played several campaigns, and now I'm not playing it much. I did try starting a super hard game, but I haven't had time to play it. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/452153/#p452153 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Frastlin,I have to admit, I lean more toward Darren's opinion on this one, but achievements is something we could do. I'll add this to my list of things to look into. I'll also see if maybe we can't have it unlock some things as well. NO promises on either count. As to the story thing, if people want a story outline at the beginning and ending of missions, that can be provided. I don't think it's quite what people want, but I'm willing to do it. I've been taking notes on the suggestions people have made, and it's possible we'll revisit EKS later. After all, if we wanted to do a multiple faction version of the game, as suggested by the Blackscreen gaming team, we'd be better off setting the war during the Second Interstellar Wars where we could theoretically have 4 factions. If we did so, building long term campaigns, rpg elements, etc would be easier to do. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/452065/#p452065 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates i don't really see the point of achievements unless said achievements unlock something. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/452053/#p452053 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates If the stories are too difficult, could we have a list of achievements, similar to Super Egg Hunt?This would be a matter of adding an option to the main menu for achievements, adding a line to the copy text at the end of the game (or it could be another dialogue), and adding a line to check if the player has the achievement, and if not, give it to them.The most difficult part would be to actually place the achievments and create them.I'm thinking one for each mission, then some for defeating difficulty levels on a mission, then after these are added, there could be more complexity, like defeating the hardest mode 4 times, or playing 30 fast modes. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/452028/#p452028 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Dark,There's not so many turn based strategy games floating around that are accessible that I'm to the stage of I won't play something that doesn't give me a story based reason to do so.My comments in 123 were not that it's completely off the table, but that it's completely off the table for a fast update.The main issue is just a. how the game is structured, and b. creating a set of missions that would escalate and be interesting to play following a storyline. If I do a storyline like this, I want it to make sense and have cohesion, not just be a little bit of fluff at the beginning of each mission on the game. I could write one of those, but it wouldn't really satisfy me.That said, running a chained storyline like this would be interesting, but it would take some radical restructuring of how the game works currently. Essentially, we'd have to write a new mission and it would require a lot of major changes to how the game operates. Infrastructure things that go on behind the scenes. It's not something that is going to happen soon if at all with this game. Not because I hate storylines, or think they can't be incorporated, but because this is basically a finished game, and what you're wanting, at least to my reading, would need a lot of new infrastructure to work.If, when I get a chance to talk to Aaron about this in more detail, he says, no that wouldn't be a problem, then that might change things. The VG universe is a nice construct, and it is something we want to make more use of, but we also wanted to set up some base line assumptions first. We wanted Interceptor to introduce some of the technologies, a little more elaborate way of handling damage to a ship, and experiment with a fighter simulator. I want to revisit this and make it better and more complex, and incorporate a lot of the good suggestions we got from the forum. But to do so, we're going to have to essentially create an entirely new game. The infrastructure of Interceptor won't support all the ideas we received nor some of the ideas we had ourselves.TKS we did try to modify using the existing structure, and frankly it became a nightmare. The game was built quickly and with simple assumptions, and we had to totally restructure certain things. It's a mess right now, and I honestly think we might be better off starting from scratch, but neither of us wants to do that really.Yellowbonnet we built with the idea of expansion in it from the beginning. We know how we want to pursue that, and it's in the plans, but just not anytime soon.EKS was supposed to be the macro version of Interceptor to show off how some of the 2d map things from TKS and the ideas from interceptor about ships, how they interact, and what they do work together in a larger setting.With EKS, we were working with older code which we revamped. A lot of the assumptions of the game are fine, but the general infrastructure issues make certain ideas harder to implement. Because of the way the board is built, creating different board sizes, configurations, etc, is more complex than it should be. If we had used a different method for building it, it wouldn't be, but we didn't do that at the beginning. Going back now and fixing it would probably take a while just because of introducing new headaches into how things are handled.Right now the game is designed essentially to play through once and stop. For missions to build to a next mission in a campaign scenario, the game would have to be restructured to do that. It's not impossible, but again, to do so takes time and effort.So, it's not off the table, but it won't be happening soon. I get the wishing for more context to put around the game, but my interest in the game first and foremost was primarily as a strategy game. The missions introduce different situations where you have to use different strategies in most cases. The difficulty levels force changes in strategy. However, at the end of the day it's a strategy game. It could incorporate the suggestions about new units, and larger maps, and storyline easily, with a rework to make it a different conceptual space. However, we'd have to build that infrastructure from scratch, or else have several months or years to make it work the way it needs to with the current game. I'm open to your suggestion about how to make the game work as is, but i'd like some concrete examples. If you have my private email still, feel free to email me, or post here. I've been taking notes all through this thread, so nothing that was said earlier was lost, or ignored, just not acted upon immediately. If you are suggesting just working up some storyline based intros for what we already have, I can do so fairly easily. However, that wouldn't be my optimal solution to
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates eHi Jeremy. I'm liking the sound of some of those changes, especially the extra keys, however can I please make a case for the inclusion of successive story options, IE a campaign as I described in post 110. At the moment, there is little incentive to a player to try out the AI on harder difficulties or attempt different combinations of missions and variables. yes, they will provide differences in gameplay, however ultimately defeating the computer on the highest difficulty in total war mode will give the player no more tangible or practical reward than defeating the player on normal difficulty in lightning mode, the win message is the same, the plot is the same, the background and setting of the war is the same.Whilst Expanding known space is indeed a strategy game not an Rpg, it is a strategy game set within a wider universe, one which attempts to give players a distinct experience, hence background and timeline, background and timeline options which are intrinsically tied to the game's world and gameplay elements (players after all cannot choose their own capital or name their own factions). As well as background, it is also true that players like myself appreciate being challenged by a game, rather than having to construct their own challenges, after all people do not simply write their own sound rts maps and play them for the hell of it, they hand them round the community, one reason why Sound Rts has largely been a far more popular strategy game than Time of conflict, even though time of conflict is arguably more complex, or on an alternate level, consider how many extra tasks have been added to Eurofly. For myself, I know I am far more likely to play a game if I'm offered a reason for a given challenge and a preset list of challenge conditions, as opposed to simply being told "pick your poison and run with it" Also, my suggestion in post 110 was made intrinsically with the existing capabilities of Expanding known space in mind. I do not suggest introducing any extra factors in the creation of challenges for the player, since you manifestly have already come up with a customisable set of difficulty settings and victory conditions, I merely suggest implementing those in a more structured way to give players the longevity and increasing challenge factor of a number of tasks to complete.If you wish, I'd be glad to assist in helping write and decide upon story text to match an increasingly difficult set set of objectives and victory conditions, using existing elements of the Vga universe and different alternative circumstances for the war's probable causes and preexisting conditions, to create an existing set of challenges for the player. I really hope you'll consider this fact. The Blindfold games for Ios, despite some exceptional mechanics have never really met with as much acceptance in the community as they might. Part of the reason for this, is their sacrificing good game design and challenge for some idealistic model of inclusivity, by giving players access to so many games settings at the start of each title, that players have no insentive try any of them. Of course, Blindfold games have other issues as well, and manifestly Expanding known space is a much different game, still, I'd really hate to see Vga make a similar mistake in game design here, one which furthermore would not be difficult to rectify, given that all of the elements necessary to create player challenges already exist in the games setup anyway. I really hope you'll consider this arguement for a future expantion of the game. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451902/#p451902 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Darren,In answer to your question, so far the changes are these:1. We have created an o hot key that replaces the old on hand credits o hot key. This one allows you to see ships not on planets that have no autonav orders.2. On hand credits was moved to become extra information given with the t hot key.3. L now gives cursor location, and shift l gives location of last selected ship. This moves cursor location from the hot key u because of the next change.4. U and shift u now cycle through five purposes for ships: scout, defense, attack, and convoy. The fifth is unassigned. Putting a fleet or ship in scout mode now enables scout mode on it without going into the autonav menu. These purposes are displayed when the player looks at the ship or fleet on map mode. 5. We have prepared a text file that will list all file names in the speech folder, and the contents of each file for recording your own voice pack, or for translation. In addition we've created a utility that converts this string file into SAPI speech. It is not a complete fix, as because of the way our voice sends are written it makes Sapi rather choppy. However, it does provide an alternative. We still encourage the community to record their own voice packs and use those as the recorded speech will be much more effective. We are looking at things we can do to smoothe the SAPI speech out, and might include a pregenerated SAPI folder, but that's still being debated. Our stants is still that we're sticking by our original script, we're providing the alternative, but the onus of use is primarily on the end user.Those are the completed, or near completed items that we've worked on.Other items that are under discussion, and will probably be completed are these:6. Providing an examine square menu that will tell you all ships on the square that are not in fleets, possibly having submenus for each fleet to display its contents separately. We're looking into what options are the easiest and most efficient to code in a short time. This might take a completely different form in the final version.7. An option to flip the Y axis. I want to say the original reason we flipped it from common usage was due to complaints on the original TKS forum, but I might be wrong about that. For me, I always think of the map as the lower right quadrant of a cartesian plane with the origin in the upper left corner, but we get the confusion factor, and figured out an efficient way to provide a toggle.8. We're looking into a way to make map mode disappear once you place your final ship, and making this a toggleable option that would be a replacement for the current behavior which is the map hangs around until dismissed. The game used to cause the map to disappear, and it is messing with several beta testers when it doesn't. This might or might not get implemented as it is complicated, and currently not something called for by most customers.9. We're looking into introducing a second demo mode to provide more combat and/or a regular game experience. We're still debating which way we want to do this. Our original reasoning for using lightning mode was that if we set an arbitrary turn limit, there's no guarantee that a player will actually encounter the AI by that limit. Usually, yes, but not always. This one is going to happen most likely, but we don't know what form it will take.10. We're looking at adding two more missions. Currently, this is merely a speculative idea, so might or might not happen. one was suggested by this forum, another by beta testers. If others get suggested and we have time, and they are again efficient and easy to code, we will strongly consider including others. 11. We're looking at including three new stats in the game status, end game, and copy text options that would track how many planets out of 40 you have discovered, how many static hazards, and how many mobile hazards you have encountered. The same stats would be provided for the AI.12. I'd like to rearrange the way the copy and paste text is presented, if I can convince Aaron it's worth doing, but this might or might not happen. I include this one as a side note. This copy text is in line with how our other games have been set up for the most part, so it will probably stay as is, but I had originally wanted a more broken up format that might list for instance how many interceptors we bought, how many the AI bought, and alternate more to make the comparisons easier. 13. We're looking at where we could profitably insert sounds for those who want them, and still put them on a toggle for those who find it too cluttered, slow, or makes the game less responsive. Whatever we do in this direction, the soundscape will still be very sparse and will likely be mostly sounds to indicate small events, and shifts in game ph
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates so what can we expect from this new update?i did buy the game in the end because of smokes review if i'm honest. as much as i still don't like the voice i know in equal measure what i would love to see. multiplay. either 1 on 1 2 on 2 with multiple map sizes. with extra units such as gun platforms that sort of thing. or the ability to mine certain parts of the map. specific offensive and defensive units. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451866/#p451866 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Dark,Thanks. We appreciate it as always. I really like the introductory paragraph. Very well done.We are working on the update. Aaron's family lives and works a farm, and this is fair week, so they've been very busy. That's slowed us down, but we are working to implement those things we can.Some will have to wait on a more extensive update, or may never happen.Right now though, we have address three or four of the major concerns brought up here. We still have another 8 or 9 we want to address. No guarantees when this will be out, but any update we do will update existing copies of the game free of charge. We're hoping for end of August at the latest, but it might be longer depending on what roadblocks we hit.Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451814/#p451814 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates The game now has a db page which you can Find here, though I suspect i'll have to, well expand the entry when the game gets some updates . URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451699/#p451699 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates The game now has a db page which you can Find here, though I suspect i'll have to alter it again when the next version comes out to include more stuff . URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451699/#p451699 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates with the likes of AOE they had 2 modes of gameplay. 1 was indeed a story mode, the other was the open ended kind that just kept going until the game finished one way or other. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451607/#p451607 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I'm afraid I disagree there Drumbs. Command and conquer, civilization, age of empires, all had achievements and some degree of story. Yes, they were strategy games and focused on management and battling not rpg mechanics, but that didn't mean they didn't come with basic game design to go along with that, heck, these days pretty much every type of game, from arcade games to racing comes with progressive play options and achievements, and I know myself I tend to be more motivated to try harder challenges in the game when I earn something, even just a token for completing them, rather than just a straight win/lose scenario. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451576/#p451576 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates But it's a strategy game, not an rpg. Yes, there is some plot for the game world, but it's along the same lines as time of conflict. There's no story in that either.there is the stat thing at the bottom telling you how many games and of what type you won/lost.Having the mission, and clicking next would be weird, because you win the game, then you have to reconquer everything all over again. It just doesn't make sense. Plus, choosing missions based on difficulty is really subjective. I'm not sure how you would rate them.They are still working on the update though, so maybe that will help, and read the blackscreengaming review. It is a good assessment of what the game is and what it is not. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451563/#p451563 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Dark's ideas are exactly what I would like. Something where you just lick next and it takes you to the next most difficult mission or story.I would also be happy with an achievement system. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451555/#p451555 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates thanks for taking that into acount smoke. hey glad they won though! lol i had to listen through to see if they won. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451510/#p451510 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I'll take that into account for future recordings for game reviews.The recording of game play isn't anything which is edited for time or clarity. Those types of recordings are on the main site. This is to just give people a rough idea of the game so they know if it is something they would like to download and play. Like a supporting file to the review. I'll still keep it in mind for the next one though. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451472/#p451472 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates ok so am listening to this review. 3 problems with it:1. the person reviewing it is talking over the in game speech a lot of the time so it makes it difficult to hear what the game is doing at times.2. the guy so far is not explaining exactly how he's doing what he's doing. some things he is explaining but not others. 3. when going through various options the guy is not allowing the speech to complete what it's saying. which creats the obvious problem of not knowing entirely what is happening. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451364/#p451364 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates We just put out a review on Expanding Known Space and we are running a giveaway as well. You can check out the review and the giveaway below.https://blog.blackscreengaming.com/revi … 7/26/2019/ URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451314/#p451314 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I know I posted stats earlier for a larger game, but as I was beta testing some of the things for the update, I had a really rougher game than I've had in a while, and thought i'd share. This is by no means a large game, but it gives a different flavor to people who have been seeing much smaller games.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (22 beta ).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 1 hours 44 minutes 51 seconds and ended on Friday, July 26, 2019 at 7:45 AM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2866 (65 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in ouch that's really not fair difficulty. Mission far corners mode was enabled.Military victory condition was assigned - was not metColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - the solarian federation met this condition with 70% for 4 seasonsEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - the solarian federation met this condition with 71% for 3 seasonsCapital Control victory condition was assigned - was not metThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 28 colonies (70%) with the most ever held being 28. the interstellar union finished with 11 colonies (27%) with the most ever held being 19.the solarian federation colonized 1 of 1 asteroid belts, 4 of 7 space stations, 2 of 3 ice planets, 5 of 7 volcanic planets, 3 of 4 ocean planets and 13 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 3 of 7 space stations, 1 of 3 ice planets, 2 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 5 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 263 credits for 71% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 240 credits for 25% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 9045 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 19952.the solarian federation spent 0 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 325.the solarian federation purchased 287 interceptors, 429 destroyers, 32 frigates, 111 cruisers, 104 battle ships and 49 colony ships for a total of 1012.the interstellar union purchased 96 interceptors, 18 destroyers, 96 frigates, 25 cruisers, 705 battle ships and 48 colony ships for a total of 988.the solarian federation lost 82 interceptors, 193 destroyers, 9 frigates, 20 cruisers, 29 battle ships and 9 colony ships for a total of 342 (309 lost in combat, 33 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 74 interceptors, 18 destroyers, 75 frigates, 18 cruisers, 441 battle ships and 24 colony ships for a total of 650 (621 lost in combat, 29 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 4 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 12.you have won 0 military, 3 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 1 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 0 capital control and 1 missions for a total of 4 wins, 1 losses.During the course of the game I lost Zion, Vishnu, Vesta, Grunwelt, Paradise station, and Amundsen. I managed to retake Vishnu, Zion, Vesta and subsequently lost Vesta again. The only reason I won was because I made a lot of smaller strike fleets and sent them to run around in his rear area striking where he didn't have many forces. Between colonizing planets he had skipped or not gotten to, and taking over his colonies, I managed to win. I never saw Bolivar, but likely couldn't have taken it over in any case. The AI in ouch that's not fair mode sometimes has upwards of 120 battleships on Bolivar. Still it was touch and go, even til the end of the game, he was still sending fleets of 20 battleships to Earth. in addition, these were not single large fleets. There were multiple occasions where fleets of 20-30 battleships struck me at multiple points. There was a point in the midgame where I was fairly sure i'd end up losing. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/451229/#p451229 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Personally, I don't think there would be too much of a problem with a game that combined some of the strategic aspects of EKS with the trading, provided it was set later in the universe, say during the war with the grays in the 31st century, that way you could even have factions for the different alien races and varied ship types. Personally, I'm still waiting for that space colonisation game, since I Love the idea of managing a colony with new settlers, trying to use resources and make the most of what is out there, but that's probably an entirely different project. As for story in Expanding known space though, on the one hand I do see the problem. Expanding known space pretty much covers the entire war on a macro level, what with each planet in the game actually being an entire planetary system and endings involving the total defeat of the other side, thus no chance for say different sabotage or siege missions as in something like Sound rts or tactical battle. A smaller scale battle game where you controlled intersystem ships with more random astronomical bodies, comets, asteroids, planetoids, which looked at things on a smaller scale might be another future idea.However, that being said, I don't think expanding known space is without story possibilities. one idea might be to change the missions to give different alternative takes on the war, by making each mission its own alternative universe version. for example, there could be a version where interstellar radiation caused lack of communication, meaning that earth lost touch with its far flung faction years before, and only realised that they were at war when they received an announcement that the capital of the other side was renamed Bolivarr, thus necessitating a push out into space to reconnect with distant colonies.Another version could involve the discovery of a rich tradable resource somewhere in the galaxy, thus necessitating an immediate push to colonise that planet.Another story might be a sudden break through in technology by one side or another which makes a given type of planet more desirable, thus necessitating a war for economic control, for example, say a plague was threatening earth's eco system and so a push to colonise earth like planets developed, or maybe scientists on bolivar discover a sudden faster method of creating fusion through hydrogen, making ice planets more valuable. Its a matter of basically considering alternative universe reasons for the war, or alternative circumstances where the war could've taken place, then putting those into the story context of game missions, heck you wouldn't really need to program any alternative events, just intro and outro text and some pre selected victory conditions.You could also consider a successively harder locked campaign in which the player had to take on increasingly difficult versions of the same war with different stories, perhaps with the player rising in ranks or earning different medles along the way, EG the player could start as a commodore nobody commanding a galaxy would be a private), then progress through rear admiral, fleet admiral, grand admiral, space marshal third class, space martial second class, space martial first class and supreme commander.For example, instead of the demo simply being lightning mode, tell a story about how tentions are developing between Earth and the outer colonies who threaten independence, and how earth's council have decided a gesture of strength is needed to convince the rapidly developing Interstellar union that they still need the help fof the mother planet, so a massive colonisation and occupation effort is planned, since if the solarian alliance can show a strong and resourceful presence in the galaxy it might prevent total interstellar war. then progress through different stories about how the war came about, some with one side being stronger or better equipped (corresponding to changinges in the AI), or with different victory conditions. The tools are all already there, all of the varieties in game setup and so on, its just a matter of creating the story and successive campaigns to use those tools. this isn't to say the different startups are a bad thing either, just that as with the lack of sound, this is one area where perhaps the game's atmosphere and progression as an experience needs to be brought in line with its strategical gameplay. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450743/#p450743 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I would like a progression or levels so that I feel like I'm going through a campaign or progressing in some way.Perhaps it could be as simple as you're a general jumping through 3-5 year chunks and every so often one of the factions calls on you to lead ships to win a battle. I just want something that will progressively make the game harder while making me feel like I'm part of the story somehow.I would also love to see a high scores board. This game would also be perfect for multiplayer battles, similar to Starcraft. Rather than making it turn-based, both players could set their ships at the same time, then the maps only sink once both have made their moves. Then there could be rankings. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450722/#p450722 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Frastlin,This game was envisioned as more of a pure strategy game. We're working on some more story based games in future, but Expanding Known Space was an early project we returned to. It also is laying groundwork for where we want to go with a possible Interceptor sequel. In terms of story ideas for possible use, I'm all ears. We focused at first on the lower hanging fruit to start with. As you can see, this game is more ambitious than either TKS or Interceptor. The TKS expansion we're working on incorporated a number of the ideas people here and elsewhere suggested. Trying to combine it with EKS might be a little daunting, but I think when we release the TKS expansion it'll have a little more to do both in terms of commercial opportunities and in terms of combat. The main problem with combining the two games, as I see it, is both a historical time period one, and a mechanical issue. The two games take place 300 years apart. Further, it'd take a lot more infrastructure to handle the buying of goods on planets, the tracking of commercial opportunities, and the military aspects of the game. I agree, though, that would make for an intensely complex game with a lot of potential for interesting play options.Keep the ideas coming. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450670/#p450670 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Oh, I didn't realize that the id of the ship was being announced as well. I don't think we need the ids until we open a menu.I would love to see some kind of story line, set of achievements, or something more than just me going down the list of campaigns and options to try out my skills. I love the game, I would just like a little story to play with.I would also love to see a mixture of traders of known space and this game! URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450659/#p450659 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates well like i say i'm rather disappointed in the fact that the voice is such a putoff. something really does need to be done in order for me to go back to this game. lol no i'm not the be all and end all of course not. but my point is that i'm evidently not the only one that thinks what they do about the voice in the game. i did read about people's dissatisfaction with the voice before i downloaded the game but i did want to try it first. i like to draw my own conclusions with regards to any given subject. yes i'll take on board what other people think but that can only go so far. there's no point in agreeing with a given thing if you are simply following the pack. you need to be able to make your own informed decision and act accordingly. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450594/#p450594 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I've seen a lot of people saying. OMG professional voice acting is expensive. I charge 10 cents a word. That's the going rate for freelance work, and I tend to be fine with working out deals for game devs and stuff if it's a large project. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450559/#p450559 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.I'm so glad that because of the new tutorial, I finally got the basics of the gameplay. I got surprised that I completed the demo version so quickly and easily. I will play the demo version some more to get more used to the gameplay.Thanks for the demo in post 84. I look forward to give that a listen as well.Regarding the voice discussion:I must at mid it took a while for me to get used to the voice as well, and I understand around 90% of the messages. It's funny that it's many native English speakers who complain most about it. It's really nice that Liam and Dark and properly others are offering to be voice actors for the game. Maybe make voice packs as extra purchases? I would gladly pay for a voice pack like this. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450558/#p450558 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @101 don't quite see your point since playing with that voice for an hour or so would probably give me a headache. I don't think anyone is expecting the voice of god himself, and I also don't think it's too much to ask. But don't want to hijack the topic, so will stop with this line. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450524/#p450524 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Frastlin,I've added a note to create an examine planet hot key or menu option. This isn't a big deal, and should be easy to add. I get the issue. Since individual ships are read with their identification number, it can lead to confusion sometimes. Is 3 interceptors, destroyer 2, and frigate 9 5 ships or 14? If you are having trouble with how the voice spaces these, you might try playing with the end cue before delay option in the settings. THat might help, but I think I see where you're coming from on this.Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450518/#p450518 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @drums61999, thumbs up. I will admit I've heard voices I prefer in voice acting, but as when reading a book with a narrator, I get used to the voice pretty quickly. Having voice acted in games myself, I'm also quite aware how much work goes in to voicing, though as I said, if the VGA crew want any help from myself or Mrs. Darkk voicing wise we'd be glad to help, either for a fairly small fee or voluntarily depending upon the amount of time and work involved. If a screen reader option were available at this point I probably would continue with the game voice for variety and because I'm used to it as opposed to listening to Daniel all the time.One thing I will say, is I do believe the voicing would be less of a concern if the game used more sound effects for its atmosphere, as interceptor did, so really hoping these will be added in a future update. While I appreciate people have differing opinions on game voicing, in the case of expanding known space the voice is also very much only the short end of a very long stick, indeed given how many people in this community have longed for more complex strategy games and to get away from basic reaction game play, it does seem slightly odd people are getting hung up on the window dressing so to speak. Yes, window dressing is important when attracting new players, but its not window dressing that has made me already spend a good few hours playing expanding known space and will likely make me play more.@frastlin I'm not sure what you mean. When you move onto one square you should be able to see all of the ships in that square irrespective of what they are whether they're combined into a fleet or not. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450511/#p450511 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @drums61999, thumbs up. I will admit I've heard voices I prefer in voice acting, but as when reading a book with a narrator, I get used to the voice pretty quickly. Having voice acted in games myself, I'm also quite aware how much work goes in to voicing, though as I said, if the VGA crew want any help from myself or Mrs. Darkk voicing wise we'd be glad to help, either for a fairly small fee or voluntarily depending upon the amount of time and work involved. If a screen reader option were available at this point I probably would continue with the game voice for variety and because I'm used to it as opposed to listening to Daniel all the time.One thing I will say, is I do believe the voicing would be less of a concern if the game used more sound effects for its atmosphere, as interceptor did, so really hoping these will be added in a future update. @frastlin I'm not sure what you mean. When you move onto one square you should be able to see all of the ships in that square irrespective of what they are. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450511/#p450511 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I would like to be able to view all the ships on a planet without needing to fleet them. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450502/#p450502 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates vga wrote:We are working on generating a text file with the file names and the strings each file has which may help translators or other players who just want to mod the game by providing their own pack instead. The bulk of the work here will be on whom ever wants to make the mod, but it should be a possibility. I have to code a new entry in settings though to allow for this, because if you put modified speech files in the speech folder the next time the game updates it may accidentally delete them if they're in the default speech folder. So this will involve pointing the game at a completely separate folder.That should help those who don't like the voice, and that sounds like it is what you all are asking for. It also allows for the game to be translated into different languages.Still, I hate ESpeak, but I would play a game that used it because of the game, just like I do with microsoft Anna. The problem here is that while this happens on mainstream forums, it is not the main source of advertising for the game. Not to mention the much wider audience. When four or five people there don't like something it probably gets lost in the noise, whereas here, that is a decent percentage and can dominate a discussion so much that the advertising of the game is overshadowed.yes, but since it's a smaller audience, shouldn't they take those four or five people more seriously because it is a larger percentage?Keep in mind too, the developers are blind, and might be in the same boat with limited resources to buy fancy things like voice actors or sound libraries. It's not like the amount of sales they are going to make, even if it becomes a top game is enough to live on. Manamon sold what, 300ish copies? That's $12,000.00 at $40 per copy. If EKS did the same, it would net them $6,000 to split between two of them, and that's not counting after credit card fees. I think the fact they are working on another way, even if the onus is then on the user to make recordings, is a fair compromise.Still too, not liking someone's voice for voiceover work, is like saying blind people can't do web development because they can't see fonts or work with image placements. If you actually listened to my demo all the way through that I posted in post 74, or tried the game, you would get used to it. Sighted people don't understand or like our synthesizers either, but we are used to them, and while we might prefer eloquence over sapi, or dektalk over eloquence, we muddle through and eventually are okay with it.I am very disappointed that there have been fewer discussions of the game itself rather than the cosmetics because it really is a pretty awesome game, and the update should incorporate some of the suggestions brought up by people here once the bugs get worked out. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450497/#p450497 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates vga wrote:We are working on generating a text file with the file names and the strings each file has which may help translators or other players who just want to mod the game by providing their own pack instead. The bulk of the work here will be on whom ever wants to make the mod, but it should be a possibility. I have to code a new entry in settings though to allow for this, because if you put modified speech files in the speech folder the next time the game updates it may accidentally delete them if they're in the default speech folder. So this will involve pointing the game at a completely separate folder.That should help those who don't like the voice, and that sounds like it is what you all are asking for. It also allows for the game to be translated into different languages.Still, I hate ESpeak, but I would play a game that used it because of the game, just like I do with microsoft Anna. The problem here is that while this happens on mainstream forums, it is not the main source of advertising for the game. Not to mention the much wider audience. When four or five people there don't like something it probably gets lost in the noise, whereas here, that is a decent percentage and can dominate a discussion so much that the advertising of the game is overshadowed.yes, but since it's a smaller audience, shouldn't they take those four or five people more seriously because it is a larger percentage?Keep in mind too, the developers are blind, and might be in the same boat with limited resources to buy fancy things like voice actors or sound libraries. It's not like the amount of sales they are going to make, even if it becomes a top game is enough to live on. Manamon sold what, 300ish copies? That's $12,000.00 at $40 per copy. If EKS did the same, it would net them $6,000 to split between two of them, and that's not counting after credit card fees. I think the fact they are working on another way, even if the onus is then on the user to make recordings, is a fair compromise.Still too, not liking someone's voice for voiceover work, is like saying blind people can't do web development because they can't see fonts or work with image placements. If you actually listened to my demo all the way through that I posted in post 72, or tried the game, you would get used to it. Sighted people don't understand or like our synthesizers either, but we are used to them, and while we might prefer eloquence over sapi, or dektalk over eloquence, we muddle through and eventually are okay with it.I am very disappointed that there have been fewer discussions of the game itself rather than the cosmetics because it really is a pretty awesome game, and the update should incorporate some of the suggestions brought up by people here once the bugs get worked out. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450497/#p450497 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @defender i have to agree with you. being blind and now totally blind i don't beat about the bush i say what needs to be said and with no filters as i see no need for them. that's not to say i wish to hurt anybody because i don't. equally you have to be realistic about a given situation. if a given thing doesn't work then it just doesn't work. there are plenty of people out there who don't have speech impediments who's voices are not suitable for voiceovers. whether this guy is deaf and has speech issues as a result of that is of no importance what so ever. his voice is just not suitable for this sort of thing. not his fault obviously because we can't help what we sound like but if something doesn't work then something doesn't work and there's just nothing that can be done about it. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450489/#p450489 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Precisely. You have a small, niche market that will try anything, and if it is free of charge, they'll play the heck out of it even if it is mediocre at best. I think your game probably is beyond mediocre, and probably pretty good from what I've heard of it. However, this small, niche market also has a bit of an issue, which is finances. When you sell to a group of people with limited cash to spend on frivolities and luxury items like games, they are going to want to make smart purchases. To go along with that, they will want to feel as though the thing they're buying is worth it. When you have such an integral part of the game as the voice be less than optimal, it really does detract from the experience.Your attitudes aren't helping matters either. And while you say change is at hand, I didn't see much commitment to that end, just that things would be looked into. However, maybe I missed something. But hey, maybe your sales numbers will speak to you in a way that you will be receptive to, as you have been minimally receptive toward us. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450487/#p450487 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @VGAI don't think it's that people truly believe a partially def person should feel like they can't talk for fear of shame, hell I have allot of partially def friends, one of them even sings a couple songs he's memorized and sounds pretty good too, but he's also a tech instructor and I'll sure as shit ask him to repeat him self when I can't understand something, because not doing so would waste both of our time.More I think it's that, because we are also disabled, we don't feel like we need to dance around the issue, yank your chain and wear kit gloves quite as much as someone who isn't. We aren't terrified of going directly to hell without passing go or collecting 200 dollars by saying something...A blind person drawing graphics for their game is a crap idea if they don't have enough vision to do it properly, and so is a person with a speech impediment (if it's strong enough to be a problem for people) doing voice over workThis is just fact, feelings shouldn't enter into it, but that's unrealistic as we're humans. And again it only really matters this much because the game is paid... Before the only one it hurt was you guys, now it's potentially the customers.We've said it allot of times in allot of ways. Nicely and not so nicely... It's too bad it had to come to a head like this but you probably should have just listened to us earlier and bit the SAPI/Screen Reader bullet despite the issues, as many games have in the past successfully, or gotten someone else to do vocals or recorded TTS samples and used them with your existing system.And let me make it clear that I'm not excusing people being super blunt or dickish about this either, but the truth still remains weather or not any of us likes it, and trust me, no one with even a shred of empathy wanted to say anything that could hurt Aaron's feelings once they found out it was a disability, they just felt they had too at a certain point despite their misgivings about it.I still enjoy intercepter despite the voice, and I think I could deal with this game too as the gameplay would probably make up for it, but it's still a menu driven game and it would be distracting from the experience you've worked so hard to craft for us.Either way though I don't have the cash for it LOL. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450483/#p450483 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @VGAI don't think it's that people truly believe a partially def person should feel like they can't talk for fear of shame, hell I have allot of partially def friends, one of them even sings a couple songs he's memorized and sounds pretty good too.More I think it's that, because we are also disabled, we don't feel like we need to dance around the issue, yank your chain and wear kit gloves quite as much as someone who isn't. We aren't terrified of going directly to hell without passing go or collecting 200 dollars by saying something...A blind person drawing graphics for their game is a crap idea if they don't have enough vision to do it properly, and so is a person with a speech impediment (if it's strong enough to be a problem for people) doing voice over workThis is just fact, feelings shouldn't enter into it, but that's unrealistic as we're humans. And again it only really matters this much because the game is paid... Before the only one it hurt was you guys, now it's potentially the customers.We've said it allot of times in allot of ways. Nicely and not so nicely... It's too bad it had to come to a head like this but you probably should have just listened to us earlier and bit the SAPI/Screen Reader bullet despite the issues, as many games have in the past successfully, or gotten someone else to do vocals or recorded TTS samples and used them with your existing system.And let me make it clear that I'm not excusing people being super blunt or dickish about this either, but the truth still remains weather or not any of us likes it, and trust me, no one with even a shred of empathy wanted to say anything that could hurt Aaron's feelings once they found out it was a disability, they just felt they had too at a certain point despite their misgivings about it.I still enjoy intercepter despite the voice, and I think I could deal with this game too as the gameplay would probably make up for it, but it's still a menu driven game and it would be distracting from the experience you've worked so hard to craft for us.Either way though I don't have the cash for it LOL. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450483/#p450483 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates vga wrote:We released updates to all of our games except Interceptor within a month or so of their release to address issues brought up by the community--other than the sself-voicing.Well now you can do that as well because of 87's offer URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450466/#p450466 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates unfortunately people are not going to read every single posting in this thread. as such you will get people who will look at the game, jump onto the forums, either post their own thread with their findings good or bad or add to an existing thread good or bad. it's something that is done universally whether it be here or on a more mainstream site. it has to be said however that on a mainstream site it can be a lot more cutthroat than this. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450462/#p450462 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Ironcross,I would agree with you if there hadn't been numerous points made earlier that we were looking at changing this setting.As to your opinion of the voice, that's fine, but the reason we did so are twofold:1. Of the two of us, at the time, Aaron had the better microphone and recording setup to handle the voice duties. 2. Paying for professional voice acting is frankly unrealistic. It would either be prohibitive and basically cut any profit we make to 0, or it would cause us to price the games far above where we wanted.We could have others do so on a volunteer basis, but that then puts our production schedule at the mercy of numerous others whom we have to wait on, possibly not use depending on recording quality, and then coordinate.For the first few games those considerations decided the matter.With this game, the fact is like it or not, the voice is part of what sets our games apart from others. I accept your point about international players, but if the game is in English, no matter the voice, it's possible to run into the issues no matter what device is delivering the text. Working with the community has been something we have done extensively in the past, so I find this line of argument fececious at best. We released updates to all of our games except Interceptor within a month or so of their release to address issues brought up by the community--other than the sself-voicing. The only reason we have not offered an update to Interceptor yet, is that we are planning to do a complete overhaul of the game to make it a better experience, not just apply some patches to a game that we felt, in retrospect, was not as good as it could be.We have addressed this voicing issue numerous times, just in this thread, not to mention in previous threads. We have noted three times now before this that we're exploring use of another synthesizer. We're not going to address this further. At this point, continuing to argue about the voice is frankly, an attack. If someone tells you they are changing something, then continuing to criticize the thing being changed is not constructive nor criticism. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450459/#p450459 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates i don't actually think anybody is attacking anybody here. the point sadly is that if you're relying on a voice to play a game or access a given application then said voice needs to be clear and easily understood. the voice used in this game is neither clear, easily understood or easy on the ears. a lot of work has gone into this game that much is obvious, but the in game voice really does not do it any justice at all. sadly i cannot play a game with a voice like that and will be uninstalling which i find disappointing. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450457/#p450457 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @90 It would still have been an insensitive remark even not knowing that. Try attacking the problem and not the person. I think we're all too quick to forget that there are real people behind the keyboard at times.@89 your ideals do not line up with reality, unfortunately. You claim we quote, want it both ways, end quote; that is simply not the case. Seeing how the main method of feedback in this game is recorded human speech, it is not unreasonable to assert that the voice in question should be clear, easy to understand and at least somewhat pleasant. You seem to be forgetting the fact that we do have a fair few international community members who do understand English; however, with it being their second or even third language, a clear voice would really help them out.Further, you seem to be under the impression that people are complaining about a perfectly pleasant voice, and that's just not the case. I don't want to harp on about it because of the circumstances, it's not exactly a nice thing to do, but perhaps the decision to do this in house with someone was a bit ill-conceived. As to your comments on whether a person with a speech impediment should use their voice professionally, i would say most likely not. I don't use my eyes professionally, and most totals wouldn't either. VI people might, depending on the severity of their condition, but even then, it's not affecting anyone else, and they're able to do what needs doing.I understand how this is a touchy topic. I don't exactly enjoy pointing out someone's disability or making that the focal point of the discussion. In this case though, I will say that the voice in question is not suitable for professional work. I don't have any malice or ill will towards the owner of that voice, and indeed wish them well and the company itself well in its pursuit of making more games.Yes, I agree that the decision is yours, but pointing out that intransigence and close-mindedness will hurt the game and the company overall is simply criticism. Take it or leave it as you will. The best games strive for a balance between the developers' vision and community feedback ((suggestions, criticisms, etc.). URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450450/#p450450 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I’M so sorry. I did not know he is deaf. Again, sorry. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450437/#p450437 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Liam,Thanks for the offer, and for the comment in post 88.Re: voice discussion.I can only assume that people are either choosing to ignore, or haven't read, the thread just on this page of the discussion. Aaron has mentioned twice in this page that he's working on a solution, that while it might not meet with any of the critics' approval, is a solution that they can take advantage of.As to whether our intransigence is hurting the game, or whether people's stated discontent should be a reason to change it, the final decision is ours. We listen, and we have talked about this issue with each release. Given that a number of people on this forum have complained about the name of Guidedog as being too blind specific, i'm surprised that so many people think that someone who has "a speech impediment" or is "profoundly handicapped" should not use their voice or perform useful work in society.You can't have it both ways. Either you want things a certain way, or you should encourage entrepreneurship within the disabled community, no matter whether it's a blind person, deaf, mentally challenged, or whatever you wish to pick.That said, as I pointed out earlier, Aaron's already made two announcements of a change in this policy, so it seems even worse to continue to beat on a dead issue.Frastlin,What would you like to see as an alternative to the current way ships are discuss on planets? If you fleet them up, you can see them in a menu one at a time or on scrollers. If you choose not to, the way we did it seems to us the most elegant and least spammy way of handling it, but we're open to other suggestions.Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450436/#p450436 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates From the demo that was made, I would agree. The voice is unpleasant to listen to and while I can understand it, it takes a bit of effort.As a sort of rebuttal from one of the sentiments posted earlier, about the developers making games they themselves would want to play, that's fine. In fact, it might even be better than making a game just to make one. The fact is though, quite a few people have expressed discontent with the voice that is used, and I think quite reasonably so. I as well do not wish to be rude, but the person narrating the game does seem to have somewhat of a speech impediment. When you have a situation like that, you just don't use your voice for professional grade projects. This is a commercial game after all.I get not wanting to have to pay for voice actors, thus, driving the cost of the product up, and maybe even out of affordable range for some; however, your intransigence on this issue is leading to a situation that detracts from the overall experience.Also, I would like to point out that as the developers', claiming that you all have no difficulty or problem with the voice is... hmm, I'm trying to find the right word, not irrelevant, but perhaps less relevant because you're so close to the issue. It's a similar problem to educated sighted TVIs and O&M instructors thinking they know what it means to be blind or VI. Yes, their field of study grants them some insights here, perhaps quite a few, but there is just no better thing than experience.@87 That was an extremely insensitive remark. You have to remember that developers are still people. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450434/#p450434 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates mazen wrote:Sorry but the voice is shitNo moderation or anything, but there is no need for that sort of comment. The author of the game is profoundly deaf so I think that has a lot to do with his voice being the way it is. Either way. Why not be constructive instead? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450427/#p450427 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Sorry but the voice is shit URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450420/#p450420 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates The number separation is difficult to understand. I am not able to tell how many of each ship I have on a square. I know, but for some reason I can't hear, I'm hearing the wrong number, or I'm just not understanding.Thus saying, I really like the game!I would like a scan function where I can see what's around me, similar to n when you are on the planets you own, but I would like it everywhere.It would also be cool if there were spatial sound effects for enemy movements.Is there some way where I can make my colony ships the last to be attacked in the fleet? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450418/#p450418 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates So I'm going to echo the sentiment of others.I can not get in to these games due to the recorded speech. I don't want to be rude because I know what it's like to put a lot of time and effort in to a project, but the speech detracts immensely from the overall experience.if you are dead set on using human speech, I would be willing to sit down and record professional narrations for your games if you guys want. Get in touch if you'd like to work out something. I'm fair and will work for a decent price. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450402/#p450402 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates well at the very least i think that you should be allowed to use your own screen reader if the default speech isn't to your liking. can you please make this possible? would certainly encourage me to play the game somewhat. it's well i just don't like the speech at all. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450395/#p450395 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.On our end the speech is not unclear. There are quite a few people playing it without issue. Two things come to mind.1. The speech is pretty loud. Try turning it down in settings or just by pressing f5 after the game is running. Even if it doesn't sound loud, it might be possible that it is distorting the compression on your sound card. I actually have a sound card that does that, and I have to turn affects off in windows itself. I have issues with everything sounding silly though when this is on, and I quite honestly wonder why pc manufacturers even bother. With this Lenovo if I wear headphones and use my screen reader or play any game for very long at all my ears start ringing and I get dizzy and my head hurts, until I turn Dolby off.I also have a little tablet AsusTeK T100TA-Am that distorts if the speech is at anything louder than say, -10 on speakers. Works fine with headphones though. The speakers distort easily on that tablet anyway so this is not a surprise.2. The speech files are all jumbled together. It may take practice to understand the speech this way. The default separation is what we think is a good compromise of intelligibility versus efficiency, but it may help to try setting speech file queue before end delay all the way down to 0 to bring this more in line with how most games using recorded speech work. This item is also in settings.3. Can't promise anything yet because this is in the early stages and we may hit an unforeseen road block, but we might possibly be making it easy to switch to a different speech pack.Aaron URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450349/#p450349 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates hi,i've just tried this game.i'm sorry but i cannot stand the voice that is used. it just sounds terrible and i would consider it to be unclear.are there other voices that i can use and if so how can they be accessed? if not then i'll sadly have to uninstall this game and i haven't even started playing yet. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450320/#p450320 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Well just to tell you guys I have the game now as of 2 days ago.Not played it yet. but still URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450319/#p450319 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates yeah I see. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450303/#p450303 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.Aaron again.I've got code that can do this, but it doesn't work well with delaying. This is because the screen readers don't report through their various access methods this relies on when they finish speaking. There's a similar setup to how GMA's games handle it, where it goes by the number of words and you calibrate it by letting it say something and telling it when it stopped, then that creates a bit of an average that sort of works.There's also the issue that if you want to interrupt the speech you can't do so with control unless the screen reader supports speakInterrupt with a blank string. I think all of them do. Note that if you don't need the keyboard hooking function in the game to be on then control will work anyway.The main issue is that delay estimator thing isn't always accurate. You'll have the game continuing on either too soon or too late in situations where it was supposed to wait until speech finished.A future game we have planned will need a lot of long winded speech output that won't lend itself to recorded speech, so we'll likely explore this and hopefully other options while we're at it at that point.Another reason not to do this though is that players can slide in a translation for the game, or their own preferred speech folder even if the same language, then all the recorded speech might be in say, Spanish even though the game is really English. It's never perfect, but it's sometimes good enough to get by, where translating all strings that would go to the screen reader or SAPI or which ever is not a simple proposition for us or who ever wants to handle the translation.We are working on generating a text file with the file names and the strings each file has which may help translators or other players who just want to mod the game by providing their own pack instead. The bulk of the work here will be on whom ever wants to make the mod, but it should be a possibility. I have to code a new entry in settings though to allow for this, because if you put modified speech files in the speech folder the next time the game updates it may accidentally delete them if they're in the default speech folder. So this will involve pointing the game at a completely separate folder. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450292/#p450292 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Yep, that definitely makes sense and I understand.What about using the output through the user's screenreader? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450286/#p450286 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.This is Aaron.SAPI is fairly easy to break. Over the years I've run into problems with it a few times, and I've heard discussions of other people having similar horrors with it. Some voices will leave parts of themselves behind when you uninstall them, or perhaps they remove too much data, and now SAPi either doesn't work at all, or the voice is still there but doesn't work. My Yoga2pro laptop has several voices that don't work, for instance, even today.This is when a customer contacts you to help them fix their SAPi since your game can't speak through it, even though the game itself is not the problem.Additionally, many voices have an issue that causes a long delay after something is spoken before the voice reports that it's not speaking anymore. this results in long pauses in between strung together phrases. Microsoft's own SAPI5 version of the One Core voices like David are among the worst.On my system, my game is silent for just about a full second and sometimes even longer before the game is able to continue, if it is waiting for SAPi to finish. I wind up just using the SAPI5 version of ESpeak on all of my computers because the rest are just terribly slow. I like Eloquence, but I haven't decided to buy the SAPI5 version of Eloquence yet.Recently, just before releasing EKS, I was troubleshooting a problem where my game crashed after Windows 10 updated to version 1903. When SAPI would try to speak, game crash every time. I have code that tries to check if a voice is going to work, and if not, it spells the message using the recorded speech instead. This wasn't working. Come to find out, I forgot to account for the internal list of voices not containing as many voices as the number the currently saved voice was. This is called an index out of bound. I call the fact that I missed this crappy coding on my part, and the fix was relatively easy.However, I got the crash to stop, and then I was experiencing a several second pause every time SAPi would be supposed to say something, but not actually hear anything but silence. Even in settings in the game, I could arrow across the voices and it would never say anything.I wound up setting up alerts to show me when it was trying to say things just what it was saying. Then I backtracked my SAPi code and alerted the heck out of it too trying to find the issue. I had at one point the knowledge that for some reason, the voice was reporting at speaking immediately, even though it wasn't speaking. The fact that it reported as speaking caused the code then to not break out and revert to spelling. So how in the heck was this the case? Since when did SAPi report speaking when it really wasn't? I banged on this for about an hour and a half changing a lot of code in the final release version of EKS, something I really didn't want to mess with.Come to find out, it sort of was not a bug in SAPI after all, but it kind of was as well. I have the VB Cable driver installed on this computer. Before the Win10 update, everything was fine. VB Cable lets you put the audio output to its own virtual sound card, then you can pick up what went into it on the other end by pointing the input/microphone selection of what ever apps you want to it. You can listen to VB Cable through the default sound output device using the native windows functionality for that, so you can continue to hear what ever it was even though it was not being piped to the regular sound card directly.What I had done was used the advanced app settings in the Win10 settings app under sounds to force Eks to output through the VB cable, even though EKS doesn't support that capability on its own. I then used Team Talk to listen to VB cable on the microphone side and was able to stream something I had recently changed over Team Talk to show it off to a close friend to see what they thought. It worked great, they heard everything just fine.After that Win10 update, somehow Eks was still outputting through the VB Cable, even though I know I changed it back to the default output when I had finished. Plus, in the past, any time you close out a program that has been forced to a certain output like that from the sounds section in pc settings, it reverts back to default anyway, a fact I found somewhat annoying when I closed the game out and opened it again to start fresh with a new game and such.But, for some reason, SAPi couldn't be heard, while the recorded speech was working perfectly. Beats the heck out of me, but I was pretty annoyed about that, to say the least.So saying, it has always been my policy to keep these games as self contained as I can manage. Besides the fact that I've always liked a game that used recorded speech myself, I just wanted to be able to do that too. We've both mentioned this before, but fortunately or perhaps unfortunately, we're prod
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hello there.This is mainly a curiousity than any thing.FAQ wrote:Q. Why do you use recorded speech? A. There's multiple reasons. Aaron had programmed his voiceover script for BGT (available atAaron's personal site) and wanted to use it. Second, SAPI voices, which are the next most common voices used in audio games have issues. The recorded speech offered a reliable voice option that because it is downloaded with the game would work on all systems. Some of our games use a mixture of recorded speech and SAPI, but we've become fond of the recorded speech output.I'm actually curious to know, what are those sapi issues? I'm sure that knowing them will surely help developers in the audiogames community.I've never used sapi much, but certainly knowing about it's issues will greatly help.Thanks in advance for the response. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/450250/#p450250 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Dark,In answer to your question about planetary defenses, there's two answers. One is the historical one, i.e. planetary defenses of the type you describe just aren't available at the time of the First Interstellar Wars in our universe.The second is the technical game design side of it. We initially had thought about having stationary defense stations for planets and/or mine fields and possibly sensor arrays. Once we started talking about it though, the stationary gun platforms for planets, in practice, weren't that much different from battleships. Rockets for planets would be extremely expensive unless fired from orbital platforms, and again, this ended up in practice being something like battleships. The mines made things very tricky. You'd have to mine around a planet, leaving a corridor in or out, and mines in essence would be hazards that would only do limited damage to incoming ships. A big enough fleet of ships wouldn't even be inconvenienced. Also, if we had mines, reasonably, we should have mine sweepers, and this added another ship with little practical use. The sensor array idea was proposed by one of our beta testers, but once we started arguing about the logistics of it, again, we decided that if you want sensor arrays, the best route is to string interceptors out.EKS is supposed to be more about the tactical problems of using the hazards, planets, and ships on the board to best effect, not about the realities of a real war in space. That way madness lies because first off, physics would have numerous things to say about how dumb this entire idea is. War in space that is, not your planetary defense ideas.SLJ,Glad the tutorial helped. It was a larger and more involved project than I first thought, but I think it does cover the gap you noticed.Aaron and I have already started working on an update to be released soon that addresses some of the issues raised here and some that weren't. I make no predictions on when it will be finished. Finally, this morning, I decided to play an insane mode game, and I was beaten miserably, and after listening to Michael's easy trouncing of the AI I wanted to give the Interstellar Union it's day in court so to speak. Before I post this, let me say that it is possible to beat Insane mode, and I have done so. I believe I sitll have the log if anyone wants to see it. On the higher difficulties, the matter becomes more of survival and out colonizing the enemy or gaining control of the economy. That did not happen in this game . So here's my stats:Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player lost! It'll be better next time?The game lasted 27 minutes 59 seconds and ended on Saturday, July 20, 2019 at 7:40 AM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2855 (21 turns, with the interstellar union victorious.Game was in insanely not fair difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - was not metColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - the interstellar union met this condition for 4 seasonsThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 16 colonies (40%) with the most ever held being 16. the interstellar union finished with 14 colonies (35%) with the most ever held being 14.the solarian federation colonized 1 of 1 asteroid belts, 3 of 7 space stations, 2 of 3 ice planets, 3 of 7 volcanic planets, 1 of 4 ocean planets and 6 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 0 of 7 space stations, 1 of 3 ice planets, 2 of 7 volcanic planets, 1 of 4 ocean planets and 10 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 124 credits for 34% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 1236 credits for 58% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 1803 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 12752.the solarian federation spent 0 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 105.the solarian federation purchased 27 interceptors, 73 destroyers, 10 frigates, 18 cruisers, 22 battle ships and 21 colony ships for a total of 171.the interstellar union purchased 40 interceptors, 5 destroyers, 8 frigates, 8 cruisers, 500 battle ships and 15 colony ships for a total of 576.the solarian federation lost 19 interceptors, 29 destroyers, 3 frigates, 5 cruisers, 17 battle ships and 2 colony ships for a total of 75 (71 lost in combat, 4 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 4 interceptors, 0 destroyers, 2 frigates, 0 cruisers, 3 battle ships and 1 colony ships for a total of 10 (6 lost in combat, 4 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 0 ships to changing loyalties, the in
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Okay. I made a demo. I forgot to change the settings though so my voice is on the left the game is on the right.Good luck!Click here for my EKS demonstration URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449881/#p449881 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi.@Jeremy: Wow. Thanks so much for the tutorial. Fantastic job. You're really working fast on this project. It's amazing... Time to look at it later today. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449781/#p449781 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates So, I recorded a game, but my commentary didn't come through. I will rerecord tomorrow and hopefully have one up by then. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449693/#p449693 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Well next game I'll probably try mixing things up, though as I have places to be this afternoon and obviously the game takes time war will have to wait. Btw, interestingly enough, I read the section on added to the documents and it confirmed one thing which happened in my last game, the reason the IU had so few ships was because I had one of my fleets sitting on one of their colonies. Since they didn't have a colony ship they couldn't take the planet, but it does explain what had happened to their fleets. the one thing which I do find odd in terms of the game, is that there aren't any planetary defensive structures like ground to space missiles or those huge great ion cannons as in the Hoth battle in empire strikes back, since it seems a bit odd both that your ships can't actually inconvenience an existing colony, and that long established colonies don't have the chance to fight back against occupying fleets.still, presumably such things might be possible in future expansions.It'd also be interesting both to play with the size of the map, and the quantity and type of different available planets, for example, imagine a barren map where apart from the two respective capitals there were no other earth or ocean type planets, just the 18 lower income types making salvage much more important. I'd also love to see a combination of the four corners and capital start modes, where you start in one corner with your capital, and need to get everything through exploration, eventually meeting the enemy and having to push them back to the very far boundary to win. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449643/#p449643 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Well next game I'll probably try mixing things up, though as I have places to be this afternoon and obviously the game takes time war will have to wait. Btw, interestingly enough, I read the section on added to the documents and it confirmed one thing which happened in my last game, the reason the IU had so few ships was because I had one of my fleets sitting on one of their colonies. Since they didn't have a colony ship they couldn't take the planet, but it does explain what had happened to their fleets. the one thing which I do find odd in terms of the game, is that there aren't any planetary defensive structures like ground to space missiles or those huge great ion cannons as in the Hoth battle in empire strikes back, since it seems a bit odd both that your ships can't actually inconvenience an existing colony, and that long established colonies have the chance to fight back against occupying fleets.still, presumably such things might be possible in future expansions.It'd also be interesting both to play with the size of the map, and the quantity and type of different available planets, for example, imagine a barren map where apart from the two respective capitals there were no other earth or ocean type planets, just the 18 lower income types making salvage much more important. I'd also love to see a combination of the four corners and capital start modes, where you start in one corner with your capital, and need to get everything through exploration, eventually meeting the enemy and having to push them back to the very far boundary to win. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449643/#p449643 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Shane, At one point we had the planet type assigned in the planet selection menu, but at the suggestion of the beta testers we took it out as it was making things too easy. Since this information is available in the documentation, there's not any real reason to continue Hiding it. I will make Aaron cry, and suggest that tthis might be a real easy addition to an update. We could either put it back, or alternatively, to make m work in the planet selection menu.The earthlike planets in the game, assuming I don't forget one are: Earth, Terra Nova, Vesta, Vishnu, Grunwelt, Bubba Elyssium, Olympia, and Zion for the Solar Federation. For the I.U. they are Bolivar, Charlemagne, Gautama, Ishtar, Magellan, Mandela, Osiris, Wovoca and ZengHe. I have the feeling I"m forgetting one or two, but that's the majority of them.Dark,That is an exceptionally fast game. The AI is a slow colonizer. We tried various tweaks and hacks to get it to do better, and never came up with a way to speed it up to player standards in normal mode. However, a lot of the AI's problems often have to do with cash flow. On higher difficulties, this is less of a problem, and the AI becomes very aggressive at colonization. It still doesn't do as well as a human player would with those resources, but it's better. In reference to Earthlikes colonization, etc, I did post a new version of the documentation with more info about spoils of victory, occupation of planets, and colonization and how it works. I'm glad you whipped them so thoroughly, the Pax Solaris can begin that much sooner in your universe:)Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449631/#p449631 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @Shane, yeah, some way of knowing planets in the start menu would be nice, though generally these days I just tend to go with teranova and illissium by default.Good to read the tutorial, it confirmed a few things I originally thought. Well that game was fun. Amusingly enough after asking about a military victory I achieved one, mostly because I detected the other side fairly quickly, took moloch which was in their teretory and comparatively close to two of my colonnies, then used that as a stepping stone to take ultima station which was not far away from bolivar. Amusingly, I also had a wormhole which helped me by catapulting one of my huge battle fleets up near two of the enemy's tiny colonisation fleets, meaning I denied them another colony. I was wondering if I'd missed a planet before arranging the assault on bolivar, but had two fleets combine to form a huge uba fleet which destroyed the enemy's main force, then that fleet met up with my wormhole transported and very experienced battle fleet and they all came together on bolivar, which turned out to be both the last planet to take, and the last of the enemy's forces . I almost felt sorry for them, well almost, though methinks I will probably try some different conditions next game, I rather fancy the far corners version. Actually it sort of surprises me the Ai doesn't colonise more planets, especially those on the opposite side of their capital. Then again I freely admit that in this game I was comparatively lucky in discovering one of their colonies earlier and taking it out, though it surprised me they didn't then send out a colonisation fleet from the other side of their capital to increase their resources.Ha, their loss.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 1 hours 1 minutes 1 seconds and ended on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 12:29 AM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2854 (17 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in normal difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - the solarian federation met this conditionColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - was not metThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 11 colonies (27%) with the most ever held being 11. the interstellar union finished with 2 colonies (5%) with the most ever held being 4.the solarian federation colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 2 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 3 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 6 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 0 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 1 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 112 credits for 30% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 17 credits for 1% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 1272 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 330.the solarian federation spent 25 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 5.the solarian federation purchased 5 interceptors, 15 destroyers, 5 frigates, 3 cruisers, 35 battle ships and 11 colony ships for a total of 74.the interstellar union purchased 21 interceptors, 29 destroyers, 0 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 6 colony ships for a total of 56.the solarian federation lost 0 interceptors, 1 destroyers, 0 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 0 colony ships for a total of 1 (0 lost in combat, 1 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 21 interceptors, 25 destroyers, 1 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 6 colony ships for a total of 53 (50 lost in combat, 3 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 1 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 0.you have won 1 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 2 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 0 capital control and 0 missions for a total of 4 wins, 0 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449627/#p449627 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @Shane, yeah, some way of knowing planets in the start menu would be nice, though generally these days I just tend to go with teranova and illissium by default.Good to read the tutorial, it confirmed a few things I originally thought. Well that game was fun. Amusingly enough after asking about a military victory I achieved one, mostly because I detected the other side fairly quickly, took moloch which was in their teretory and comparatively close to two of my colonnies, then used that as a stepping stone to take ultima station. Amusingly, I also had a wormhole which helped me by catapulting one of my huge battle fleets up near two of the enemy's tiny colonisation fleets, meaning I denied them another colony. I was wondering if I'd missed a planet before arranging the assault on bolivar, but had two fleets combine to form a huge uba fleet which destroyed the enemy's main force, then that fleet met up with my wormhole transported and very experienced battle fleet and they all came together on bolivar, which turned out to be both the last planet to take, and the last of the enemy's forces . I almost felt sorry for them, well almost, though methinks I will probably try some different conditions next game, I rather fancy the far corners version. Actually it sort of surprises me the Ai doesn't colonise more planets, especially those on the opposite side of their capital. Then again I freely admit that in this game I was comparatively lucky in discovering one of their colonies earlier and taking it out, though it surprised me they didn't then send out a colonisation fleet from the other side of their capital to increase their resources.Ha, their loss.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 1 hours 1 minutes 1 seconds and ended on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 12:29 AM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2854 (17 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in normal difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - the solarian federation met this conditionColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - was not metThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 11 colonies (27%) with the most ever held being 11. the interstellar union finished with 2 colonies (5%) with the most ever held being 4.the solarian federation colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 2 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 3 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 6 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 0 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 1 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 112 credits for 30% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 17 credits for 1% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 1272 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 330.the solarian federation spent 25 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 5.the solarian federation purchased 5 interceptors, 15 destroyers, 5 frigates, 3 cruisers, 35 battle ships and 11 colony ships for a total of 74.the interstellar union purchased 21 interceptors, 29 destroyers, 0 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 6 colony ships for a total of 56.the solarian federation lost 0 interceptors, 1 destroyers, 0 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 0 colony ships for a total of 1 (0 lost in combat, 1 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 21 interceptors, 25 destroyers, 1 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 6 colony ships for a total of 53 (50 lost in combat, 3 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 1 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 0.you have won 1 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 2 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 0 capital control and 0 missions for a total of 4 wins, 0 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449627/#p449627 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @Shane, yeah, some way of knowing planets in the start menu would be nice, though generally these days I just tend to go with teranova and illissium by default.Good to read the tutorial, it confirmed a few things I originally thought. Well that game was fun. Amusingly enough after asking about a military victory I achieved one, mostly because I detected the other side fairly quickly, took moloch which was in their teretory and comparatively close to two of my colonnies, then used that as a stepping stone to take ultima station. Amusingly, I also had a wormhole which helped me by catapulting one of my huge battle fleets up near two of the enemy's tiny colonisation fleets, meaning I denied them another colony. I was wondering if I'd missed a planet before arranging the assault on bolivar, but had two fleets combine to form a huge uba fleet which destroyed the enemy's main force, then amusingly enough that fleet met up with my wormhole transported and very experienced battle fleet and they all came together on bolivar, which turned out to be both the last planet to take, and the last of the enemy's forces . I almost felt sorry for them, well almost, though methinks I will probably try some different conditions next game, I rather fancy the far corners version.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 1 hours 1 minutes 1 seconds and ended on Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 12:29 AM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2854 (17 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in normal difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - the solarian federation met this conditionColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - was not metThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 11 colonies (27%) with the most ever held being 11. the interstellar union finished with 2 colonies (5%) with the most ever held being 4.the solarian federation colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 2 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 3 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 6 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 0 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 1 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 112 credits for 30% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 17 credits for 1% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 1272 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 330.the solarian federation spent 25 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 5.the solarian federation purchased 5 interceptors, 15 destroyers, 5 frigates, 3 cruisers, 35 battle ships and 11 colony ships for a total of 74.the interstellar union purchased 21 interceptors, 29 destroyers, 0 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 6 colony ships for a total of 56.the solarian federation lost 0 interceptors, 1 destroyers, 0 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 0 colony ships for a total of 1 (0 lost in combat, 1 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 21 interceptors, 25 destroyers, 1 frigates, 0 cruisers, 0 battle ships and 6 colony ships for a total of 53 (50 lost in combat, 3 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 1 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 0.you have won 1 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 2 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 0 capital control and 0 missions for a total of 4 wins, 0 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449627/#p449627 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates question, is there a way to tell if a planet's earth like, oceanick and all that when i'm first choosing my planets or do you have to memorize it? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449621/#p449621 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I have created a tutorial and uploaded it to the web site. The link is https://www.valiantgalaxy.com/eks/tutorial.htmlI have a link to it on our front page, and on the Expanding known Space page itself. Hope this helps.Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449609/#p449609 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Dark,As to how to achieve a military victory, it's easiest if that is the only victory condition, or the only one with capital control victory. it's possible to do it on other settings, especially if you find the enemy's planets quickly, and eliminate all but Earth or Bolivar then take that last, but it's extremely unlikely as a scenario. Military victories are fun, but time consuming ways to play the game.As to fleet composition, this honestly is a matter of taste. I like destroyer wolf packs for exploration and strike forces to slow up large enemy concentrations. Since a fleet must stop and fight if it's in a square with enemy ships, using interceptors or destroyers to slow down advancing enemy fleets while you build defenses can be very effective. However, that said, having a large fleet of battleships is very deadly as well.The real advantages of the different ships are these:Destroyers gain 1 more square of movement making them by far the fastest ships. They lose this advantage in fleets.Edit: They lose this advantage when part of a fleet that has anything which is not a destroyer.Frigate allows salvage of capital ships giving 1 credit per destroyed capital ship in a fight. For instance, in the tutorial game I played yesterday, the AI sent a fleet of 21 interceptors, a destroyer, and two battleships to a planet. When I destroyed this fleet, I gained 3 credits income because of having a surviving frigate.Cruisers can repair other ships. This is more important in defense, but it can be useful when traveling across the board, as cruisers can bring ships damaged by hazards back up to speed before they engage the enemy.Battleships can fire on more distant ships, and hold fleets together. The second is the more useful ability. Long range fire is inaccurate, and while it helps, it's sometimes less effective than one might like.When we first began play testing, I used almost exclusively destroyer fleets. They were fast and hit fairly hard. However, as we retooled the AI and he began using more and more battleships, this became a more and more dicey proposition. Further, once we introduced the larger ships' abilities, it became harder to ignore the benefits of having the others.Nowadays, I generally like to have a colony ship, as many battleships as I think I can afford, one to three cruisers, a frigate, and round out the rest of my income with destroyers. I send these small attack fleets out to colonize and rampage, while I build larger fleets to take out hard targets or for assaults on the capital.One of the beauties of the game though is that it supports a number of play styles. As Michael mentioned earlier, he virtually builds only three or four large fleets, and just sends them around the board colonizing and destroying enemy forces. I prefer a number of smaller attack fleets. One of our other beta testers uses something of a hybrid. Aaron generally uses mostly battleships and little else. All of these work, they just take various amounts of time to accomplish.If you'd like a different style game, but don't wish to go off normal mode, you might try matching optimal start. This provides both alliances with three earthlike planets to begin with. It's a subtle change, but it makes a large difference over time.The game takes a while to really understand. Our beta testers were hitting around a month or so before they hit their stride, but once you begin to see what your preferred playing style is, the game can be very rewarding. Then you switch difficulty levels, and you have to change I'll warn you, I know with me at least, going up difficulty levels forced a complete rethink of strategy. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449596/#p449596 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Dark,As to how to achieve a military victory, it's easiest if that is the only victory condition, or the only one with capital control victory. it's possible to do it on other settings, especially if you find the enemy's planets quickly, and eliminate all but Earth or Bolivar then take that last, but it's extremely unlikely as a scenario. Military victories are fun, but time consuming ways to play the game.As to fleet composition, this honestly is a matter of taste. I like destroyer wolf packs for exploration and strike forces to slow up large enemy concentrations. Since a fleet must stop and fight if it's in a square with enemy ships, using interceptors or destroyers to slow down advancing enemy fleets while you build defenses can be very effective. However, that said, having a large fleet of battleships is very deadly as well.The real advantages of the different ships are these:Destroyers gain 1 more square of movement making them by far the fastest ships. They lose this advantage in fleets.Frigate allows salvage of capital ships giving 1 credit per destroyed capital ship in a fight. For instance, in the tutorial game I played yesterday, the AI sent a fleet of 21 interceptors, a destroyer, and two battleships to a planet. When I destroyed this fleet, I gained 3 credits income because of having a surviving frigate.Cruisers can repair other ships. This is more important in defense, but it can be useful when traveling across the board, as cruisers can bring ships damaged by hazards back up to speed before they engage the enemy.Battleships can fire on more distant ships, and hold fleets together. The second is the more useful ability. Long range fire is inaccurate, and while it helps, it's sometimes less effective than one might like.When we first began play testing, I used almost exclusively destroyer fleets. They were fast and hit fairly hard. However, as we retooled the AI and he began using more and more battleships, this became a more and more dicey proposition. Further, once we introduced the larger ships' abilities, it became harder to ignore the benefits of having the others.Nowadays, I generally like to have a colony ship, as many battleships as I think I can afford, one to three cruisers, a frigate, and round out the rest of my income with destroyers. I send these small attack fleets out to colonize and rampage, while I build larger fleets to take out hard targets or for assaults on the capital.One of the beauties of the game though is that it supports a number of play styles. As Michael mentioned earlier, he virtually builds only three or four large fleets, and just sends them around the board colonizing and destroying enemy forces. I prefer a number of smaller attack fleets. One of our other beta testers uses something of a hybrid. Aaron generally uses mostly battleships and little else. All of these work, they just take various amounts of time to accomplish.If you'd like a different style game, but don't wish to go off normal mode, you might try matching optimal start. This provides both alliances with three earthlike planets to begin with. It's a subtle change, but it makes a large difference over time.The game takes a while to really understand. Our beta testers were hitting around a month or so before they hit their stride, but once you begin to see what your preferred playing style is, the game can be very rewarding. Then you switch difficulty levels, and you have to change I'll warn you, I know with me at least, going up difficulty levels forced a complete rethink of strategy. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449596/#p449596 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @Crashmaster, the Vga crew have said they're working on a paid expantion to tks, which is why I assume its currently listed as not activated. Its cool though that Tks now has all the planets and the large map which Expanding known space does, though in the future changing map size might be a factor to play with game length etc in both titles.While I do have a credit card to use on Amazon and for situations where I can't use Paypal, Paypal might be a good thing to consider in the future, since it is the most popular and easy to use payment system, indeed if I'd had the choice I probably would've used Paypal over my credit card simply because its quicker than typing in all my card numbers . @Vga, the game was fun, though I probably will want to explore things a bit more on normal difficulty before I go higher. For example, I'm still not exactly clear on how the different ship types work together, and as I said there were some occasions where movement was a bit weird. Plus I'd like to try some of the other victory conditions, E.G I'm not sure at this point how you actually achieve a military victory without taking over most or all of the enemy's colonies so that they can't build any new ships. Towards the end of that game the enemy was making a lot of tiny fleets, but I was just ignoring them and building more battleships whilst I waited to win.One other thing I'm not entirely sure of, is what the best fleet composition is, since it seems at the moment as colony ships are necessary to actually take an enemy colony, and battleships move as slowly as colony ships, constructing faster fleets doesn't seem worth while. Even for defence it seems your best off just leaving fleets at points you want defended, rather than trying to move more quickly. then again manifestly I've got more of the game to try out. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449577/#p449577 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates @Crashmaster, the Vga crew have said they're working on a paid expantion to tks, which is why I assume its currently listed as not activated, I'd be interested to hear about the changes though. While I do have a credit card to use on Amazon and for situations where I can't use Paypal, Paypal might be a good thing to consider in the future, since it is the most popular and easy to use payment system, indeed if I'd had the choice I probably would've used Paypal over my credit card simply because its quicker than typing in all my card numbers . @Vga, the game was fun, though I probably will want to explore things a bit more on normal difficulty before I go higher. For example, I'm still not exactly clear on how the different ship types work together, and as I said there were some occasions where movement was a bit weird. Plus I'd like to try some of the other victory conditions, E.G I'm not sure at this point how you actually achieve a military victory without taking over most or all of the enemy's colonies so that they can't build any new ships. Towards the end of that game the enemy was making a lot of tiny fleets, but I was just ignoring them and building more battleships whilst I waited to win.One other thing I'm not entirely sure of, is what the best fleet composition is, since it seems at the moment as colony ships are necessary to actually take an enemy colony, and battleships move as slowly as colony ships, constructing faster fleets doesn't seem worth while. Even for defence it seems your best off just leaving fleets at points you want defended, rather than trying to move more quickly. then again manifestly I've got more of the game to try out. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449577/#p449577 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I agree with the post on paypal.I can buy it but I will need a sightling to read the card information.Just about every site allows paypal, or paypoly direct net banking or something.If you guys missed it, traders of known space or tks got a major update with all the extras and is good.However while the game is free it still says not activated.As well as that guide dog client just doesn't load I mean you can load it manually with say other games and then load tks but while it says its a free game hitting the activate button puts on a page which it says not available to buy or something.If its a free game, and you ask to activate it shouldn't you just get a free activation or well why bother loading the client or attempting to load it, and why it doesn't load the client itself.Also the client should be able to be loaded manually outside a game and be able to be loaded at startup by configurations.As for the name.We have gdg, guidedog games, sounds like gog, good old games.Its probably playing on gog thats what I think about it anyway.Its a pitty about paypal though. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449519/#p449519 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates it's good i can get my brother to buy it for me and give him the cash, but i agree with post 62, paypall's very popular. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449517/#p449517 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I don't want to appear hypercritical, but isn't the point of linking the games to a centralized platform really to ease both the developer and player side of things. But if Guidedog games doesn't even accept PayPal, what good is that to the players.PayPal is popular, though I disagree with their handling of certain things and some of their rules, but nevertheless, it is a popular payment method. GDG has no reason not to accept them. Some businesses do, and we the customers might suffer a bit, such as Google and Android Pay, Apple and Apple Pay, and so forth.Instead of implementing payment methods one by one, the developer of GDG could just use BrainTree and do all the popular ones at once.Also, while not every country has access to PayPal, for the ones that do, people could get the game just by selling stuff. For instance, without having PayPal tied to a card or bank account, they could sell things they don't need or want anymore on eBay or some other site that works with PayPal, then just use their balance to buy the game without having to link to another payment method. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449505/#p449505 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates As to playing against other players online, this would require a server, which right now, isn't something we're able to do. It's something we would like to pursue however, and we're investigating how best to go about it.Shane, unfortunately, currently the answer is no. Dentin is working on this, but it's been low priority thus far, and he's got limited time to spread among his various projects at the moment. We would like to implement paypal support at some point, and it's possible, that you might email Dentin at Guidedog and ask if he'd be willing to handle a paypal transfer. I know he has done so for Alter Aeon. This isn't a guarantee, just a possibility.I'm glad people are enjoying the full version of the game. Dark, I don't look at game duration, I look at game turns. 40 is a good game. Just judging from your comments, and your stats, you might try going up a difficulty level or so, but you might want to play a few more games on normal first. I have finished a tutorial document, but it's currently being reveiewed by the beta team and Aaron before we post it. Once they're done I'll put it on the web site and link it up. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449499/#p449499 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates hi, is there any way to pay for the game with paypall, i can only find the card field and my dad is wierd about only using paypall.so far from what i've played, it's grate, keep up the good work. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449475/#p449475 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates "Iron cross, yes I assumed Breed memorial was a miner translation wangling, my point is just that a name is a name, and a rose would smell as sweet etc.Well I've bought the game and won my first victory. It was a bit nonsensical since I was still trying to get how stuff worked, EG I don't think I quite get whether two fleets need to be in the same square to fight or not if they have battleships, or how two fleets move together. Also, sometimes even when I set the auto nav to move one square, my ships didn't move, which was odd when I was trying to get some reinforcements to catch up with a fleet or put my fleet into the same square as an enemy fleet, indeed a bit more on combat and fleet movement might help as things were getting a wee bit complex there.I would still like the ability to see at a glance whether a fleet has a colony ship or a battle ship, since that would make things easier I think, also it would be handy to be able to get a list of colonies by the other side, since towards the end of the game I was hunting down planet to colonise, and forgot about one colony of the other side which was in an inconvenient place. it would also be nice to know the distance to a given auto nav destination once set, so you can check if your sending your fleet light years away.Amusingly enough, just after I finished capital control for four turns, I also got control over %72 of the galaxy, so I would've won economically too, indeed I was playing a little conservatively at the start in terms of colonies, then only noticed later that the other side didn't have half as many colonies as I did. Towards the end I was pretty much just banging all my cash into battleships and using auto placement then waiting things out whilst some of my fleets colonised planets and the auto placement just reinforced my colonies while I won. Oh, and the game took a wee bit longer than expected since Mrs. Dark and I stopped for a chat mid way through, so the total length is not a reflection of how long the game took, though any game that I found this engrossing for at least two and a half hours just playing one match definitely gets a thumbs up from me.Still, I didn't think I did too badly for a first try and I'll be interested to see how other games go.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 3 hours 9 minutes 27 seconds and ended on Wednesday, July 17, 2019 at 5:38 PM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2860 (40 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in normal difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - was not metColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - the solarian federation met this condition for 4 seasonsThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 22 colonies (55%) with the most ever held being 22. the interstellar union finished with 7 colonies (17%) with the most ever held being 9.the solarian federation colonized 1 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 1 of 3 ice planets, 7 of 7 volcanic planets, 2 of 4 ocean planets and 10 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 2 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 0 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 5 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 216 credits for 58% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 64 credits for 21% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 4862 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 3185.the solarian federation spent 30 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 80.the solarian federation purchased 23 interceptors, 29 destroyers, 29 frigates, 27 cruisers, 131 battle ships and 26 colony ships for a total of 265.the interstellar union purchased 66 interceptors, 18 destroyers, 18 frigates, 24 cruisers, 77 battle ships and 20 colony ships for a total of 223.the solarian federation lost 4 interceptors, 2 destroyers, 3 frigates, 1 cruisers, 1 battle ships and 1 colony ships for a total of 12 (11 lost in combat, 1 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 53 interceptors, 18 destroyers, 13 frigates, 21 cruisers, 34 battle ships and 7 colony ships for a total of 146 (111 lost in combat, 35 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 7 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 0.you have won 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 2 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 0 capital control and 0 missions for a total of 3 wins, 0 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449466/#p449466 -- Audi
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates "Iron cross, yes I assumed Breed memorial was a miner translation wangling, my point is just that names don't matter as much as the thing itself. Well I've bought the game and won my first victory. It was a bit nonsensical since I was still trying to get how stuff worked, EG I don't think I quite get whether two fleets need to be in the same square to fight or not if they have battleships. Also, sometimes even when I set the auto nav to move one square, my ships didn't move, which was odd when I was trying to get some reinforcements to catch up with a fleet. I would still like the ability to see at a glance whether a fleet has a colony ship or a battle ship, since that would make things easier I think, also it would be handy to be able to get a list of colonies by the other side, since towards the end of the game I was hunting down planet to colonise, and forgot about one colony of the other side which was in an inconvenient place. Amusingly enough, just after I finished capital control for four turns, I also got control over %72 of the galaxy, so I would've won economically too, indeed I was playing a little conservatively at the start in terms of colonies, then only noticed later that the other side didn't have half as many colonies as I did. Still not bad for a first try and I'll be interested to see how other games go.Game Statistics for Playthrough of VGA Expanding Known Space, Version (21).The player beat the game! woohoo!The game lasted 3 hours 9 minutes 27 seconds and ended on Wednesday, July 17, 2019 at 5:38 PM.The war between you (the solarian federation) and the enemy (the interstellar union) started in 2850 and ended in 2860 (40 turns, with the solarian federation victorious.Game was in normal difficulty.Military victory condition was assigned - was not metColonization victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metEconomic victory condition was assigned (60%) - was not metCapital Control victory condition was assigned - the solarian federation met this condition for 4 seasonsThe enemy was in normal mode.the solarian federation finished with 22 colonies (55%) with the most ever held being 22. the interstellar union finished with 7 colonies (17%) with the most ever held being 9.the solarian federation colonized 1 of 1 asteroid belts, 1 of 7 space stations, 1 of 3 ice planets, 7 of 7 volcanic planets, 2 of 4 ocean planets and 10 of 18 earth type planets.the interstellar union colonized 0 of 1 asteroid belts, 2 of 7 space stations, 0 of 3 ice planets, 0 of 7 volcanic planets, 0 of 4 ocean planets and 5 of 18 earth type planets.At the end, the solarian federation was making 216 credits for 58% of the total income, the interstellar union was making 64 credits for 21% of the total income.the solarian federation made a total of 4862 credits, the interstellar union made a total of 3185.the solarian federation spent 30 on intelligence gathering, the interstellar union spent 80.the solarian federation purchased 23 interceptors, 29 destroyers, 29 frigates, 27 cruisers, 131 battle ships and 26 colony ships for a total of 265.the interstellar union purchased 66 interceptors, 18 destroyers, 18 frigates, 24 cruisers, 77 battle ships and 20 colony ships for a total of 223.the solarian federation lost 4 interceptors, 2 destroyers, 3 frigates, 1 cruisers, 1 battle ships and 1 colony ships for a total of 12 (11 lost in combat, 1 lost to hazards).the interstellar union lost 53 interceptors, 18 destroyers, 13 frigates, 21 cruisers, 34 battle ships and 7 colony ships for a total of 146 (111 lost in combat, 35 lost to hazards).the solarian federation lost 7 ships to changing loyalties, the interstellar union lost 0.you have won 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 1 capital control and 2 mission victories and you have lost 0 military, 0 colonization, 0 economic, 0 capital control and 0 missions for a total of 3 wins, 0 losses. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449466/#p449466 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
2019-07-17
Thread
AudioGames . net Forum — New releases room : RTT entertainment via Audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Hi. Congratulations on the new release. I have played your previous games and I absolutely love them. I will demonstrate this game on my YouTube channel when I get back home. Unfortunately, I am not able to purchase the game at this moment. Do you think please add the ability to play with friends? URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449461/#p449461 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I would be willing to bet that Breed Memorial is just a bad translation from Japanese to English. Japanese does not translate at all well, because it's so complex. I have Yukio from nyanchangame on my twitter just because 99.5% of his tweets are in Japanese and its fun running them through the various translation services to see how badly they mangle it. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449446/#p449446 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Well personally I'm a huge fan of actual guide dogs, having had one for the last eight years, but my issue with the name was more because it highlights the "blind" nature of the audience rather than the "gamer" nature of the audience, as well as being a trifle inaccurate for a games client, search engine or other index tool like the whitestick.co.uk site fair enough, game platform for having fun, less so. Then again, to not use something simply because of the name strikes me as going a bit too far. As I said, there are plenty of things I am not crazy about the name of. Breed memorial for example strikes me as a bit of a strange name for a game about monster training and competitions, since there is very little breeding and nothing memorialised, that doesn't stop the game being all kinds of awesome though .I'll probably buy the game this evening and see how things work in longer matches. I do think perhaps that o and shift o command might be helpful for dealing with scattered ships, but we'll see. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449439/#p449439 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates SLJ,Honestly, when I prepared the quickstart section, I did it under protest. I knew there'd be people who would want to start with little or no preparation, so I tried to cover the basics as best I could. That said, you're right, it doesn't give enough information, hence the note at the top of the section about the rest of the documentation having much more information. I will try and put together a how to play step by step document that starts with the beginning of a standard game, and post that to the EKS web site. I have to do some work on the documentation today, and that's a worthwhile addition.Dark,I'm glad it's coming together more for you. As to the self-voicing and GDG issue, I agree it's a matter of opinion and people are emotionally tied up in the GDG argument as well. Dentin's choice of the name was to make it clear who the target audience was, and for the significance of guiding people to the games they wanted more than any stereotypical ideas about dogs.I personally dislike the use of guide dogs, and have issues with them, so I am not a fan of the name, but I think it encapsulates what the point is quite briefly.In answer to your scattered fleet issue.If you know what ships were in the fleet, you can search for them with the go to menu or with the y and s commands to find them and give them new orders. I find a method that seems quicker for me is to scroll through the board using the control arrow keys. I go to 0,0 with home and page up, then use control right arrow to see what is on the top row if anything. If the arrow announces merely 0,0 then there's nothing of interest revealed there. I then go down to 0,1 and do the same thing and so on and so forth until I get to 0,19. By this time I've found all the ships, and given them new orders based on their local conditions. Scattered individual ships from fleets sitting around without orders are not completely useless, but this is hard to see in a lightning game. They actually perform two very useful functions in a big game on one of the other modes. First and foremost they make good observation posts: you can see some enemy fleet movements, sometimes find new planets, and generally locate what's within their scanner range. Second, they draw enemy fire. The AI doesn't like ships in its section and goes after them. This often reveals where the AI is, where it is strongest, and places to avoid in games of higher difficulties where the player is often at a disadvantage.I'm not arguing that fleet scattering is fun. I hate it just as much as the next person. However, it isn't the disaster it might seem in every case. Take care,Jeremy URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449433/#p449433 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates Glad that helped Slj, obviously I'm still learning the game myself since I've only played the lightning mode thus far, and strategy games always tend to have a longer learning curve than other game types just by nature of what they are.A tutorial or example of play probably would help though. The documentation is quite detailed, and the program offers a number of different methods of doing each thing, plus, even at the start of the game you have to think about things like buying different ship types, its not say like sound RTS where the very costs of units automatically dictate the order in which you buy and use them. I'm quite looking forward to trying the game more extensively, which I'll hopefully get to do today. URL: https://forum.audiogames.net/post/449399/#p449399 -- Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates
Re: Announcing Expanding Known Space from Valiant Galaxy Associates I personally agree entirely with rashad about the fleet according to composition, that would be a really handy way to remember what you intend specific fleets for when looking through them. For fleet scattering, it would also be nice to have that o and shift o command to find ships awaiting orders, that way if worst came to worst you could find your scattered ships and just order them back to one of your planets rather than having them sit around do nothing or effectively be lost, after all in sf series like Startrek etc ships could still navigate home on their own even if it would take them a long time, look at voyager. As to other comments, I'll admit I'm feeling a bit more kindly inclined towards the guidedog client these days, especially that now both my lady and I have computers. You wouldn't believe how much trouble hardware specific keys can be, and to not have that hassle is a major help. There are several games I just haven't installed because of their hardware specific keys. As I said back at the time I'm not a huge fan of the name "guidedog games" myself, but hay I don't really think much to the name "breed memorial" either, and people will know how much I enjoy that game. As far as self voicing goes, the voice could be a little clearer, but as I've done voicing for games myself I'm not going to argue about this, and playing with speech delay is often a good idea. My personal one major problem with the self voicing is that the developers aren't really taking advantage of the fact that this is an audiogame and not a text game, since at the moment there are so few sound effects, you might as well be playing with text, thus the point of having a game which is an audio game with self voicing capacity isn't' really being met. for Slj and others having trouble I'll try and explain a bit of how things work, since unfortunately there are so many different methods of doing each individual thing, and the documentation explains them in detail, that it is possibly a little confusing when your learning the game. The game is played on a 20 x 20 board. In this board are planets, ships and hazards. For each planet you own, you get some more income per turn which you can use to buy ships, thus the first phase is the purchase phase where you decide what ships to buy and which planet to put them on. After this comes the movement phase when you move your existing ships around the board. Your objective here is to explore the board revealing more planets, colonise planets, and possibly fight off the enemy. Each ship type can move a different number of squares per turn, but only in the cardinal directions, destroyers can move three squares, interceptors, cruisers and frigates two while battleships and colony ships can move just one square. The most basic way to move your ships around is to go through them with s and shift s, and then just move them with shift and the arrow keys, however this is rather time consuming, so there are a large number of different ways to order your ships, for example if you hit A you can open the autonav menu where you can set a destination for your ship like another planet, or set your ship on scout mode where it'll automatically move across and down each turn exploring the board for you. Hit V on a ship to see if it has an autonav set.Since you have a lot of ships, a good way of speeding things up is to gather them into fleets. As well as being an easier way to move large numbers of ships around, fleets also offer ships protection from hazards or enemy attacks . Fleets will always move at the speed of the slowest ship, so a fleet with a colony ship will move at one square per turn, even if it contains faster ships like destroyers and interceptors. Just as you can go through your ships and order them with s and shift s, you can go through your fleets and order them with f and shift f You can make and manage fleets with the e key, including adding more ships to them. After you've finished moving your ships around, there then comes the combat phase, if there is any combat, and finally the placement phase, when those ships you bought will appear on your planets. Your then back to purchicing ships for your next turn.In the lightning game, your objective is to colonise as many planets as possible, which means first launching destroyers or interceptors to explore the board (use the autonav scout mode). then building colony ships and sending them out, preferably with a decent escort fleet), to colonise new planets. So, begin by sending an interceptor or a destroyer off with scout mode, though leave the rest of your ships since even after you build a colony ship you'll need some escort. You should find some nearby planets to your colonies very quickly, make sure to explore the board with the arrows, so in the purchas
