The "Uber" Command: Modern Air/Naval Ops Thread

[spelk]

I've been going through some threads at Matrix - seeing the general vibe...seems to me I have it totally wrong. Not a single mention of any issues relating to the interface. Seems I must be one of the few who feels like I'm going where I shouldn't have to to get information.  :-[

I'm with you JD, it's easy to pull apart some of the UI, because its the first thing you wrestle with, and if it doesn't follow your intuition, it jars a little. I think a lot of folks who are Harpooners (if thats the correct term) are used to much worse UI's than Command can ever present, and as such Command is a real step forward. If you've NOT had to suffer many hours of Harpoon previously then perhaps you can come at Command a bit more critically?

The game is good, it has all the right mix of things many folks have been wishing for, for a long time. It's just missing a bit of TLC in the presentation department, and some usability quirks, but ultimately this is going to be a long term project and hopefully it will captivate us enough to keep us playing through the initial v1.00 release and beyond.

If the Warfaresims guys are willing to listen to their playerbase, as it seems they have been certainly here and on many other community sites, then I think good times are ahead. It certainly feels a lot more authentic than the likes of Naval War Arctic Circle, even if its not got all the dazzly bits that that game had.

A good sign, is that I've been thinking about the game and even the first tutorial scenario for most of todays daydreaming time - and I can't get it out of my head. I've even been looking for books that dish out some juicy details of modern naval/air ops combat - just to keep my appetite whet during the downtime when I'm not playing it. That's got to be down to the decent job the devs have done with the title. I know I certainly didn't feel any of these emotions after purchasing the rather pricey Harpoon collection, and finding it to be a bundle of overpriced old world confusing nonsense!

[JudgeDredd]

Good...and I'm not unhappy...far from it.

I was just mentioning how I seem to be the only one (and Nefaro) who mentioned getting to information easier...maybe just being a bit picky and maybe it does become second nature. As I said, only one tutorial mission in.

[Nefaro]

I've been going through some threads at Matrix - seeing the general vibe...seems to me I have it totally wrong. Not a single mention of any issues relating to the interface. Seems I must be one of the few who feels like I'm going where I shouldn't have to to get information.  :-[ 

Naa.. I've been posting the issues I've been finding.  I'm not seeing all that many people posting who have played it, other than the occasional performance issue or question.  There's at least two of us.

On top of that, the place is still seems to be a cesspit for spitting venom at people.

This should be expected with the Matrix pricing.  It happens every time. 

And I don't know what it is - but sometimes it seems when Iain posts they sometimes come off condescending - joking or not, if people's backs are up, you should either just stay polite or back out. They could have saved themselves all the negativity on release day by telling people the price a month ago. But nope...they'd rather take the shite on release day.

I was going to post my initial impressions over there and maybe my views on the interface - but I shan't bother...It'll just get my back up.

I'll stay here where it's nice and friendly and post my thoughts. Hopefully Dimitris and bostonmyke will stick around.

I can perfectly understand that.  I don't want to give any major feedback just yet, until I spend a good amount of time becoming familiar with it.  However, I am trying to report the issues I'm finding (or my lack of knowledge with how something is programmed) for investigative reasons towards improvement. 

Definitely don't want to stir the beehive at the moment.  There is an understandably sizable portion of potential customers who are a bit frustrated and it wouldn't do anyone any good to "get their back up" more than it already is.  I'm with you on that one.  It's also likely the exact reason people are so reluctant to post - if we're thinking it then others will be too.  Besides a few who don't mind wading in.  Watch the tip-toeing!  :P

[spelk]

Found the perfect background music

Soundtrack to Introversions Defcon game!

http://www.introversion.co.uk/store/

http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/DEFCON+Soundtrack/8189305

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey1-fx_1xlI&list=PLXyU3_p8d5cVfZPNpzFJmAugUyqkIdB8u

[spelk]

Was just dabbling with the Submarine tutorial, got to region C, but took it off mission editor, and started manually plotting waypoints, controlling speed, and depth - just to see if I could have a bit better success taking out the helo's trying to sink me, and I crept ever so slowly towards the zone, detected a helo, and wanted to set up a strike mission on it. So I clicked on my farthest waypoint set, and pressed delete, and it deleted my Sub from the scenario!!!! Ulp! I know a double press of F3 can clear the manually placed waypoint path, but I've deleted waypoints singularly before by pressing Delete. Didn't expect to flood the balasts and put her on the bottom though :(

[Dimitris]

LOL!

Any chance you were in ScenEdit mode? Deleting friendly units should be impossible in "normal" game mode.

[spelk]

Any chance you were in ScenEdit mode? Deleting friendly units should be impossible in "normal" game mode.

Oh, if I'd gone into a ScenEdit mode, I did it without knowing about it :)

I'll play again and see if it happens again.

[spelk]

It gets worse, thinking I was saving the autosave file in case I had to submit it, I seemed to have saved the broken scenario with the Blue submarine USS North Carolina deleted, and the scenario starts at that point! Bugger! Is there anyway I can get a fresh copy of that tutorial scenario without having to uninstall and install the game?

[Dimitris]

Certainly, unzip from the attached file.

No worries, it's happened to me too :)

[Kushan]

Not sure whats going on but I can't seem to play the release version. So far I've tried installing multiple times on two different HD (one SSD, one Disk) and both with and without my anti virus turned on. I've also tried redownloading. I can open the launcher, but I can click play all day long and nothing happens. I checked the task manager and the command .exe doesn't even appear in the menu. Attempts to start the game from the command.exe in the install folder have also proved ineffective.

Anyone else having this problem? I've never had it happen with any game before. Strange that the beta ran just fine on my PC.

[Dimitris]

Just in case, can you manually re-install .NET 4 and the Direct-X pack from the \PreRequisites folder? Thanks!

[Kushan]

Just in case, can you manually re-install .NET 4 and the Direct-X pack from the \PreRequisites folder? Thanks!

Thanks Dimitris, reinstalling direct-x fixed it. Strange that it didn't install even though the direct-x check box was checked during instal.

[Dimitris]

I suspect Capt Darwin is right in his guess that UAC is silently rejecting the D-X installation during the full install. I'll have to discuss this with Matrix's installer gurus.

[Nefaro]

A minor request -

Could we have a Hotkeys text page added to the Help menu?  A cheat sheet would be great!

There are some hotkeys which I can't easily find the accompanying interface order for (such as 'U' for Unassign).

Thanks!

[jomni]

Just a question.  Are there hot key commands that don't have an on-screen button counterpart? 
That is my pet peeve.  The best UI's does not require people to memorize hot keys.
And for each on-screen button, there should be a tool tip.