Alpha Feedback Thread - CDF Ghostship

Hi!

Tried out the alpha today. Pretty good... died in Maintenance though >.> Couple of bugs I've noticed:

1) When you are in the staircase area, sometimes if you jump from a higher area to an area near a door, you will float in midair.
2) When you move onto a corpse or something, you can get stuck, and have to use space bar to get away.
3) Gun flashes from the laser pistol temporarily obscure your vision making it difficult to know if you hit the target or not.
4) If you take damage, and grab a health kit, your health bar will flicker, appearing to increase, then decrease, very quickly between the two
5) Found a plasma pistol on the floor, with an arm attached, and didn't get any plasma pistol ammo. Unless that is intentional.

Negatives:
1) It is extremely dark in the maintenace area and without any form of flashlight, its hard as heck to see those aliens before they are right on top of you. Unless of course, I missed the flashlight button. The scope on the plasma pistol is useful, but restricts your view, and I actually ended up dying because I was trying to see in the dark with the scope, and an alien attacked me from the side.
2) There is no clear sense of direction for the first part leading up to maintenace. This can be either good or bad, depending on your perspective. And since the first part is very linear, it would be useful to know which direction one should go in.
3) What is the escape button? ie, how do I exit the game, while playing a game, without hitting ALT+F4 or dying?

As far as positives go:
-> Very atmospheric = It gives you a really good sense of dread. First time in a longtime I've felt that, so kudos to you, Shaun!
-> Proly more, as I get farther.

Suggestions for Beta, thus far:
-> Show an indicator somewhere how much charge is in your laser weapons, so that you will know when they are all charged up.
-> Show an exact number of HP left, in addition to health bar. Call me old-school, but a health number icon is very useful.
-> Sound Options... appears the alpha doesn't have sound options.
-> Show amount of clips remaining somewhere, so that you know when you should switch to lasers to conserve ammo.

I'll see about trying to get farther next time!

Thanks for quick feedback
Start with the negatives, The maintenance area is meant to be very dark, as will more parts of the ship as you explore. On your lazer pistol you have a tactical light (auto activated) use that for your flashlight, also the MK3 plasma rifle has a tac light also as you will see when you get further in the game.

I might put some more info in there, the ships computer audio tells you what to do, and i put an objective in for it step by step, first part (get to deck 7) second part locate fire, third etc. As there might be a lot going on the player might not hear the audio which is crucial. Also pressing (o) brings up your objectives panel.

The escape button is P (see controls in options - p = pause/exit) the escape key didn't work for some reason.

Other issues such as the stair case is a known issue and will be worked on, collision on dead bodies I am thinking of changing, if you jump onto them you can sometimes get stuck.

The mussel flash from lazer weapons is meant to obscure the view of the player, the lazer weapons discharge a lot of energy and have infinite ammo, so i had to try and balance the weapons and their advantages and disadvantages.

The plasma pistol with the arm attached, where did you find i? All of the first person meshes should have been replaced with the 3rd person meshes.

Also not forget you have maps. Unlike most games where you are spoon fed everything, this goes back to old school where you have to work to progress, and learn to navigate the layout of the ship.

Suggestions

The lazer weapons should display their current charge, i may make the top limit change colour when reached so you can notice its at full, this may be changed for a battery for the beta.

I will bear in mind the number for health, I want the hud to be as minimal as possible, and keep it to bars for health stamina etc, and numbers for ammo.

There are many options not available in the alpha as explained in the read me file, the sound is one of them, in the beta there will be customisable controls, full graphics options for tweaks etc and gamma, motion blur etc. The Beta will also feature the in game pause menu which is the only main hud element missing form the alpha due to time restraints being a single person with some help from the lead programmer for the last month. The beta will include a full pause menu which is explained in the alpha feedback thread on here. The Inventory screen will be the place where you can see what item you are carrying and how much ammo you have. When you puck up ammo or reload your current clip count appears in bottom left of screen for a short time.

Thanks for the feedback, only a handful of people have played this up to now and feedback is very useful in order to improve the bits that need improving and making me aware of bits that i am not aware of. Keep me posted

Hey Shaun!

Gratz on hitting alpha Mate!

I'm trying the story mode but I die everytime after the ship lands. It appears to finish the cinematic then it cuts to a 'death scene', from what I can tell, then tells me I've died.
Tried running god mode to stop it but that didn't help either.

Onslaught works with no probs! Those little buggers are fast!
I'll retry later tonight and will give ya feedback tonight or tomorrow!

Cheers,

Mick

Yeah let me know if what happens. It should not do that by any mean, and it hasnt happened on anyone elses machine in testing. If you still get it try doing a full uninstall using programs/features in control panel and try a fresh install. If that doesnt help let me know, and what spec machine you are using and what resolution.

Ahh, was just editing my response!
Sory mode working OK now.
FYI: I originally didn't see the install created shortcut and ran UDK.exe manually where I was having the issues. Eventually I searched and found the proper shortcut. Noticed was pointing to and invalid directory as it had "win32\win32\" in the path so I took the extra one out and re-ran the game and it's working OK now. Dunno if using the shortcut with the cmd line parameters did something to get it working OK?
Looking forward to playing later on!

I found the plasma pistol with attached arm, behind a crate BEFORE you head down the stairs to lvl 7. If you follow the path straight forwards, ignore the entrance to the stairs and walk past, you will come to a fork. Going straight ends in a wall. Turning left goes to an inoperable door, and near that door is the plasma pistol with attached chewed off arm.

How do I turn on the tactical light for the laser pistol, if it isn't on already? I didn't see a light being shined out from it while using it, so I ended up using just the Plasma Pistol sight for vision

Ah, so "P" is exit, thanks!

By the charge amount in laser weapons, I mean when the gun is holstered and you are using say the plasma pistol. For example, I spent all my charge in the Laser Pistol, and it switches over to the plasma pistol. Without switching back to the laser pistol, I will not know when it is at full charge. I was wondering if a HUD option which showed the current charge, so that you would know when it was safe to switch to it mid-combat, without finding out it has very little energy, when you are getting attacked. The number of shots on the actual weapon is very clear, and is a nice touch. I'm just wondering about a HUD option

Palanduss wrote: I found the plasma pistol with attached arm, behind a crate BEFORE you head down the stairs to lvl 7. If you follow the path straight forwards, ignore the entrance to the stairs and walk past, you will come to a fork. Going straight ends in a wall. Turning left goes to an inoperable door, and near that door is the plasma pistol with attached chewed off arm.

How do I turn on the tactical light for the laser pistol, if it isn't on already? I didn't see a light being shined out from it while using it, so I ended up using just the Plasma Pistol sight for vision

Ah, so "P" is exit, thanks!

By the charge amount in laser weapons, I mean when the gun is holstered and you are using say the plasma pistol. For example, I spent all my charge in the Laser Pistol, and it switches over to the plasma pistol. Without switching back to the laser pistol, I will not know when it is at full charge. I was wondering if a HUD option which showed the current charge, so that you would know when it was safe to switch to it mid-combat, without finding out it has very little energy, when you are getting attacked. The number of shots on the actual weapon is very clear, and is a nice touch. I'm just wondering about a HUD option

Hope your having fun, THE FUN DOESN'T REALLY START UNTIL YOU REMOVE THE LOCK-DOWN for the ship on the bridge. In the alpha you have 4 decks to explore as well as Hangar 1 and Hangar 2 as well as the Main Access Corridor. In the Beta you will have the full ship - all 21 decks and the cargo hold.

The lazer pistol has a tactical light, it does not need to be turned on or off. The light on the tactical pistol has a limited range and will only light up close objects and environment. The light on the MK3 plasma rifle has much more of a range and a little more spread, exploring and finding weapons is the key to survival, there is plenty of ammo around but you need to find the weapons - 6 in the alpha. The pistols are the basic weapons rifles are much more powerful as you will see.

The hud really needs to be kept clear, in the alpha there are 6 weapons, 3 are lazer weapons so displaying those weapons current charge on the hud will be too distracting, in the full game there will be 12 weapons plus so displaying all that data on the hud is not really an option. But in the beta there will be the inventory screen as I mentioned earlier, the player can go to the inventory at any time and see exactly what weapons, items and ammo they currently have. That will probably help you in the same way as going to the inventory screen will pause the game. Its just the HUD what i really want to keep minimal in order to further immerse the player in the game world and give less distractions to the player while playing the game and especially in heavy combat.

Where are you supposed to go when you hit deck 7 decompression? I went to the Airlock (where you enter the place), and had 10 seconds before it decompressed and still died.

Edited by: Palanduss

Palanduss wrote: Where are you supposed to go when you hit deck 7 decompression? I went to the Airlock (where you enter the place), and had 10 seconds before it decompressed and still died.

In deck 7 maintenance, after activating decompression you must get back to the stairs. The compression chamber in the stairs takes a good 7 or 8 seconds to activate, si if you get the 10 sec warning just before entering the compression chamber to the stairs you will be cutting it fine, maybe too fine

Don`t forget you have the sprint mechanic - F key (sprint bar appears in lower left of hud) But I am sure you read the controls in the options menu

Ah... I must have gotten in at the 7-8 second mark and suffocated. Thanks... so... there is a sprint key. Good to know. I tried SHIFT and nothing happened, so thats proly why.

So, I got farther this time without dying, and noticed a couple other bugs along the way (I just went to Bridge and lifted Lockdown of doors) and saw more good stuff I liked!

Bugs:
-> For some odd reason sometimes when I kill an alien anklebiter (or w/e they are called) they will die... but then 2-3 seconds later come back to life and require killing again. Is this on purpose or, a bug?
-> I found my first zombie. But I can't kill him permanently... is this a bug? In fact I hit him with enough shots from the plasma rifle to drop in 3 times.
-> I know you mentioned that the AI does wierd things... but I thought I'd mention the AI bugs I've seen
1) Aliens will get stuck in walls and floors
2) Aliens will get stuck on moveable crates
3) Aliens will sometimes get stuck on dead corpses
4) Aliens will sometimes jump at you, and in effect jump over a ledge or barrier and fall to their death
5) Aliens will sometimes resurrect after killing them
6) Aliens will sometimes run right past you, without trying to attack you (had to chase one enemy for quite some time as it kept doing this)
-> I've noticed Medi-kits respawn after a period of time (maybe fixed like most Unreal gameplay? but dunno... didnt stand around long enough to find out)
-> I've noticed some ammo drops respawn after a period of time, while others do not respawn at all.
-> I found that disembodied plasma pistol again, but forgot where I saw it... when i checked back to its location after clearing the fire, it was GONE!
-> It took about 15 tries to use the console (e) on the bridge. I'd walk up to it and hit e and nothing would happen... I ended up looking all over the bridge for the console when that WAS the console. Eventually it did allow me to use it.

For the Goods:
-> I was very very VERY happy when I found that hidden laser rifle... made my day.
-> I am happy that you reward people for exploration... even if it does mean getting attacked by more enemies!
-> The atmosphere is AWESOME. Can't wait for the beta release!
-> From listening to the Captain's logs, I get the impression that there is lots of interesting stuff waiting for me in the alpha... thanks for giving us such a great alpha.

Questions/Suggestions:
-> How do I use the Map? I press M key, but it doesn't show me, the character, where they are in relation to the map. Unless I missed something of course.
-> The objectives menu is a bit simplistic. I understand that you don't want to hold our hands, but at the same time, I ended up wandering back and forth in the main corridor about 3 times before I realized I was supposed to go back to the staircase. Having a bit more clear objectives would be great. At least... for the first part of the game at least!
-> Will all those options on the Bridge Console show stuff in the beta (ie you can only see logs right now)?
-> Would it be alrite for the beta or final build to have a crosshair... or at least better iron sights? Hard to tell where my shot will land sometimes.
-> Its difficult to aim down the sights with the Lazer Pistol. It seems to prefer swaying left and right making it difficult to know where your shot will hit.

Graphical Issues:
-> I have a fairly powerful rig, and I'm suffering from poor framerates a good part of the time. I hope that the beta will be different. Usually I'm tough on games for poor framerates... but as this is an Alpha, its understandable.
-> I've noticed screen tearing, texture pop-in, texture fluctuations (where a texture will flicker a lot with a lot of ugly jagged lines), and the flashlight will not highlight areas covered in blood. Won't even make the blood on the ground more visible.

Anywho, just thought I'd say, after getting past the whole Deck 7 thing... I'm enjoying it immensely! I look forward to what is next in store for me in the Alpha!

Palanduss wrote: Ah... I must have gotten in at the 7-8 second mark and suffocated. Thanks... so... there is a sprint key. Good to know. I tried SHIFT and nothing happened, so thats proly why.

So, I got farther this time without dying, and noticed a couple other bugs along the way (I just went to Bridge and lifted Lockdown of doors) and saw more good stuff I liked!

Bugs:
-> For some odd reason sometimes when I kill an alien anklebiter (or w/e they are called) they will die... but then 2-3 seconds later come back to life and require killing again. Is this on purpose or, a bug?
-> I found my first zombie. But I can't kill him permanently... is this a bug? In fact I hit him with enough shots from the plasma rifle to drop in 3 times.
-> I know you mentioned that the AI does wierd things... but I thought I'd mention the AI bugs I've seen
1) Aliens will get stuck in walls and floors
2) Aliens will get stuck on moveable crates
3) Aliens will sometimes get stuck on dead corpses
4) Aliens will sometimes jump at you, and in effect jump over a ledge or barrier and fall to their death
5) Aliens will sometimes resurrect after killing them
6) Aliens will sometimes run right past you, without trying to attack you (had to chase one enemy for quite some time as it kept doing this)
-> I've noticed Medi-kits respawn after a period of time (maybe fixed like most Unreal gameplay? but dunno... didnt stand around long enough to find out)
-> I've noticed some ammo drops respawn after a period of time, while others do not respawn at all.
-> I found that disembodied plasma pistol again, but forgot where I saw it... when i checked back to its location after clearing the fire, it was GONE!
-> It took about 15 tries to use the console (e) on the bridge. I'd walk up to it and hit e and nothing would happen... I ended up looking all over the bridge for the console when that WAS the console. Eventually it did allow me to use it.

For the Goods:
-> I was very very VERY happy when I found that hidden laser rifle... made my day.
-> I am happy that you reward people for exploration... even if it does mean getting attacked by more enemies!
-> The atmosphere is AWESOME. Can't wait for the beta release!
-> From listening to the Captain's logs, I get the impression that there is lots of interesting stuff waiting for me in the alpha... thanks for giving us such a great alpha.

Questions/Suggestions:
-> How do I use the Map? I press M key, but it doesn't show me, the character, where they are in relation to the map. Unless I missed something of course.
-> The objectives menu is a bit simplistic. I understand that you don't want to hold our hands, but at the same time, I ended up wandering back and forth in the main corridor about 3 times before I realized I was supposed to go back to the staircase. Having a bit more clear objectives would be great. At least... for the first part of the game at least!
-> Will all those options on the Bridge Console show stuff in the beta (ie you can only see logs right now)?
-> Would it be alrite for the beta or final build to have a crosshair... or at least better iron sights? Hard to tell where my shot will land sometimes.
-> Its difficult to aim down the sights with the Lazer Pistol. It seems to prefer swaying left and right making it difficult to know where your shot will hit.

Graphical Issues:
-> I have a fairly powerful rig, and I'm suffering from poor framerates a good part of the time. I hope that the beta will be different. Usually I'm tough on games for poor framerates... but as this is an Alpha, its understandable.
-> I've noticed screen tearing, texture pop-in, texture fluctuations (where a texture will flicker a lot with a lot of ugly jagged lines), and the flashlight will not highlight areas covered in blood. Won't even make the blood on the ground more visible.

Anywho, just thought I'd say, after getting past the whole Deck 7 thing... I'm enjoying it immensely! I look forward to what is next in store for me in the Alpha!

Good, I am glad you are enjoying it.

THE AI

The AI is dessigned to pretend to die randomly, and then randomly jump back up and get you. LOL so be cautious. My lead programmer was laughing all day when i told him about this and while coding it but that is the way they are meant to be. So do you waste ammo making sure they are dead, or just be extra cautious, Its up to you! more fun and un-predicatble! WATCH OUT FOR THE GREEN ONES!

There is the odd bug where they might get stuck on something but generally break themselves free after a time. This will be sorted for the beta.

The biters will judge your movements and pounce at where you might be heading, some right at you, they are sneaky little things. They are still very much wip but working better and better over the last few weeks.

The Zombies only die with head shots. Sometimes they take a lot to die, but you see a big splat and they do a dying scream when they die. After they take so much damage they drop to ground, and randomly get back up! they keep doing this untill you hit them in the head enough times.

Weapons

There are 6 weapons in the alpha and there will be many more in the beta. Unfortunatley there will be no cross hair, im making this a little more realistic in the sense that you dont know exactly where you going to shoot but after a while you get better. This also makes you appreciate the lazer lights a lot more when you get them. Also using the sights on plasma weapons can be quite accurate but again depends on range of weapon. I will be changing the idle anim for lazer pistol when aiming to make it a little easier with that.

MAPS

The map system is used for manual navigation, again this is a game where you have to work things out your self and be a little more tacticle than most games which spoon feed you everything. The map screen is accessed by pressing m, this is just a map of the deck you are on so you can work out where you are by the signs and landmarks and then plan a route. In the beta the map system will be attached to the in game pause menu, same as inventory and journal.

Objectives

The objective panel just highlight the main objective. In the beta you will have the journal which will give you hints and more detialed descriptions of objectives. But this as all the rest of the in game pause menu stuff will be in the beta.

Bridge computer

This is something which i thought i had changed but obviousley didnt. I am making it so all console access points are just activated by being close to them instead of aiming to interact.

Ammo respawns

Ammo and medkits and such respawn in the alpha, but in the beta they will not. Exploration will play more of a role as you will need to search the ship for weapons and medkits, shields and quest items. They will also be randomly placed so each new game will be different, they wont be in the same place.
So certain areas of the ship are havens for pickups, eg the armoury for ammo, medical for medkits etc. So in the beta you would find bits of ammo along the way but can keep going back to certain places to fully stock up before venturing out again.

Graphical Problems.

The light problems I am aware of, The doors, boxes and other thing as well as the blood are lit badly by the players tac lights. This is a known issue which should be ironed out in the beta.

What sort of spec are you running? and what resolution? Feedback on these facts are very helpful for future optimisation.

There has been very little optimisation done for the alpha, but the beta will be a more optimised version. The options screen on the beta will have further optimisations like AA, depth of field, motion blur etc.

If you have just taken the lockdown off then the game is about to get fun

ps - sorry for spelling/gramma, its 3am here and its a been a very long day

Edited by: MAGStudios

Finally back!
I've read through some of the discussion above and will go back through properly, hopefully tomorrow, to see your previous responses Shaun.

Admittidly I found it rather fustrating at first. Those lil buggers can move quick and I died..lots. I don't mind dying occasionally but it was happening on a regular basis. Once I started getting used to it though things got better...then I finally found the laser rifle and the fun factor kicked in!
At first I was b-lining to the objectives and not exploring which didn't help me much. In two runs I even missed the pistol in the hanger so running around with just the laser pistol was quite a challenge to say the least. I was almost going to say that the laser pistol needed to recharge quicker, however once you get the rifle it balanced out quite nicely. It's slow enough to keep up the intensity which is good. So far I've only gotten as far as unlocking all the doors but I haven't left the main corridor. I will get back to playing this when I get the chance.(hopefully in a day or two)

Some thoughts/feedback: (in no particular order)
(I'm not sure of all that's already been discussed so my appologies if I go over anything you've already commented on.)

*I like the sway on the laser pistol but it'd be nice if it was centered properly when you aim. I often found it still swayed slowly until I shot off a round after which it would center properly. When crazy non exploring folk like me are only stuck with the laser pistol every shot counts.

*Some kind of crosshair for the laser pistol would be nice. I don't mind using the model itself but I'm not sure exactly how the '3 pointy bits' line up to show the shot direction. Maybe make the 'alingment vector' more noticable.

*I was picking up ammo but none ever seemed to replenish the pistol unless I found another pistol(I think). Not sure exactly what that other ammo was that I was picking up. Maybe add some more detailed naming convention for ammo pickups. Is there ammo clips for the pistol in the alpha or just pistol models for now.

*Collision issues. I'm sure you'd already be aware of this. Biggest annoyance was issues with the striped areas when walking into airlocks. Through mapping in UT3 I know 'static' bodies are always a pain when it comes to collisions. Boxes too.

*Atmosphere is awsome!! Top marks in this regard! Love the rotating red lighting and the darkness! We need more of this in games!

*Performance on my rig was fine, haven't seen any drop in framerate, runs very smooth!! (I'm running i7-920@3.6Ghz, 6gig Ram, 660Ti SLi)

*When the AI spawns, especially in the main corridor it always runs down in a center line making it easy to pick them off. Maybe have additional paths so they don't follow in a single line.

*The airlock doors aren't quite sealed, you can see through the centre seams while you're waiting for decompression.

*It'd be nice if useable terminals could be somehow be visually different from the non-useable ones. I'm not talking about making them completly stand out but just enough to make the player think "That looks kind of important. I wonder if that can be used."

*Objectives are a bit simplified. I accidently found the useable terminal in the 'main corridor' after wondering why I was stuck in here then started looking for ammo. Maybe something like "Find "the terminal"/"a way" to remove the lockdown" so then I know that there's something in here and I should look for it. I'd even maybe suggest when the player first starts playing the game popup a message hinting for the player to search the bodies. That way a player will find the pistol and the idea of exploring is instilled in the players mindset. When I first played I just went for the crashed ship, killed the 2 waves then went into the other corridor without exploring the bodies, hence never found the pistol. I'd just assumed it was in the corridor and not earlier. Ahh modern game design to cater to dumb folk has made me lazy. :x

*Weapon models are looking good so far. I can't wait to find the other 3. Ghostship becomes hell of a lotta fun without the fustration once you have the laser rifle! Good stuff M8!
*Audioscape seemed quite fitting as well. Adds very nicely to the visual atmosphere! I gotta try it with headphones sometime...and in the dark!

*I also found the pistol attached to a dismembered arm. 1st main corridor, walk past the stairs to the end, turn left and it's at the end near the large doors. I kind of liked how that was sitting there though! Still in the soldiers death grip as he got chomped on. D:)

All in all I enjoy this more and more everytime I play it and I'm finding myself earger to jump in to continue my journey through your creation!

I'll provide more feedback as I play it more!

Cheers!

I agree with Lord_Porksword on several points.

-> Playing with just pistols to start off with made the first part of the game somewhat frustrating. When I got the laser rifle, I was quite happy. And then I could enjoy the scenery more, and less the fact that I have no ammo in my guns.

-> I agree the Iron Sights on the Lazer Pistol could be improved so that we know what we are trying to aim at. Mostly, I just fire it without aiming down the sights as I can't tell where it will land anyway.

-> It would be nice to know what kind of ammo we just picked up. I know it says "Picked up Ammo" briefly, so I was wondering if that could be changed to "Picked up Plasma Pistol Ammo", so that maybe we can learn what the individual ammo models look like so that we know what kind of ammo we are about to pickup!

-> Performance on mine, may be because of my rig... I have an i7 quad core 2.4ghz w/ 2 threads, with 6gb RAM and a 1.5 gb graphics card (or 1.0gb according to nvidia... I really don't know why there is a discrepancy). Is the game optimized for quad cores? If it isn't that may be why, because then technically I'd only have a 2.4ghz processor.

-> I agree that having terminals that are useable appear slightly different... not so much that is like seeing something with gigantic arrows pointing towards it saying USE ME USE ME USE ME!

Also as a somewhat of an aside... Would it be possible to switch the flashlight to the laser rifle rather than the plasma rifle? The reason I ask that, is because most of the time in exploring I have the laser rifle equipped for dealing with targets at a range (unlimited charge after all) and switch to the plasma rifle to deal with close range targets or use the scope to see great distances away. Plus, we do have a flashlight on the lazer pistol!

Lord_Porksword wrote: Finally back!
I've read through some of the discussion above and will go back through properly, hopefully tomorrow, to see your previous responses Shaun.

Admittidly I found it rather fustrating at first. Those lil buggers can move quick and I died..lots. I don't mind dying occasionally but it was happening on a regular basis. Once I started getting used to it though things got better...then I finally found the laser rifle and the fun factor kicked in!
At first I was b-lining to the objectives and not exploring which didn't help me much. In two runs I even missed the pistol in the hanger so running around with just the laser pistol was quite a challenge to say the least. I was almost going to say that the laser pistol needed to recharge quicker, however once you get the rifle it balanced out quite nicely. It's slow enough to keep up the intensity which is good. So far I've only gotten as far as unlocking all the doors but I haven't left the main corridor. I will get back to playing this when I get the chance.(hopefully in a day or two)

Some thoughts/feedback: (in no particular order)
(I'm not sure of all that's already been discussed so my appologies if I go over anything you've already commented on.)

*I like the sway on the laser pistol but it'd be nice if it was centered properly when you aim. I often found it still swayed slowly until I shot off a round after which it would center properly. When crazy non exploring folk like me are only stuck with the laser pistol every shot counts.

*Some kind of crosshair for the laser pistol would be nice. I don't mind using the model itself but I'm not sure exactly how the '3 pointy bits' line up to show the shot direction. Maybe make the 'alingment vector' more noticable.

*I was picking up ammo but none ever seemed to replenish the pistol unless I found another pistol(I think). Not sure exactly what that other ammo was that I was picking up. Maybe add some more detailed naming convention for ammo pickups. Is there ammo clips for the pistol in the alpha or just pistol models for now.

*Collision issues. I'm sure you'd already be aware of this. Biggest annoyance was issues with the striped areas when walking into airlocks. Through mapping in UT3 I know 'static' bodies are always a pain when it comes to collisions. Boxes too.

*Atmosphere is awsome!! Top marks in this regard! Love the rotating red lighting and the darkness! We need more of this in games!

*Performance on my rig was fine, haven't seen any drop in framerate, runs very smooth!! (I'm running i7-920@3.6Ghz, 6gig Ram, 660Ti SLi)

*When the AI spawns, especially in the main corridor it always runs down in a center line making it easy to pick them off. Maybe have additional paths so they don't follow in a single line.

*The airlock doors aren't quite sealed, you can see through the centre seams while you're waiting for decompression.

*It'd be nice if useable terminals could be somehow be visually different from the non-useable ones. I'm not talking about making them completly stand out but just enough to make the player think "That looks kind of important. I wonder if that can be used."

*Objectives are a bit simplified. I accidently found the useable terminal in the 'main corridor' after wondering why I was stuck in here then started looking for ammo. Maybe something like "Find "the terminal"/"a way" to remove the lockdown" so then I know that there's something in here and I should look for it. I'd even maybe suggest when the player first starts playing the game popup a message hinting for the player to search the bodies. That way a player will find the pistol and the idea of exploring is instilled in the players mindset. When I first played I just went for the crashed ship, killed the 2 waves then went into the other corridor without exploring the bodies, hence never found the pistol. I'd just assumed it was in the corridor and not earlier. Ahh modern game design to cater to dumb folk has made me lazy. :x

*Weapon models are looking good so far. I can't wait to find the other 3. Ghostship becomes hell of a lotta fun without the fustration once you have the laser rifle! Good stuff M8!
*Audioscape seemed quite fitting as well. Adds very nicely to the visual atmosphere! I gotta try it with headphones sometime...and in the dark!

*I also found the pistol attached to a dismembered arm. 1st main corridor, walk past the stairs to the end, turn left and it's at the end near the large doors. I kind of liked how that was sitting there though! Still in the soldiers death grip as he got chomped on. D:)

All in all I enjoy this more and more everytime I play it and I'm finding myself earger to jump in to continue my journey through your creation!

I'll provide more feedback as I play it more!

Cheers!

A lot of what you mentioned is explained above

1 other note is the ammo pickups, these will be named in the beta, they where orginally named but that must have been lost when implimenting the save system. There are 3 plamsa weapons in the alpha and they all have different ammo. They are the plasma psitol, MK3 plasma assault rifle and the MK 4 plasma assault rifle prototype.

The pistols are only the begining and the fun doesnt really start until you start exploring after taking off the lockdown.

This is a game where the player must work to progress through the game in all respects. I will be making usable consoles and computers have a different screen so they can easily be identified.

The game is not optimised for 4 core or 6 core etc, this should run fine on most pc`s with at least a medium spec. The only thing i can think at this moment in time with fps rates is the graphics card somehow. I will look into this further and gather as much feedback as i can before the beta release.

Lord_Porksword wrote: *When the AI spawns, especially in the main corridor it always runs down in a center line making it easy to pick them off. Maybe have additional paths so they don't follow in a single line.

Forgot to mention this one, The ai does not use pathing or navmeshes! This is a new cutting edge WIP AI that can manouver around any terrian without the need for paths and such. So these are much more unpredictable. The biters are still in the early stages yet and much more will be done to them by the beta release. In some corridors they might all run straight at you, other times they will move around a little more, they are totally random and unpredictable making for more challenging and varied gameplay:)

It'll be interesting to see how the AI will go in the upcomming versions. I have noticed the behavour you're talking about already. In the Hangar they were definately more random than in the 'main corridor'.

@Palanduss
Regarding the game engine, it should scale up depending on how many CPU cores you have. UE3 has always been CPU heavy but an i7 quad should handle it fine I'd think. I think Shaun is correct in that it could be your gfx card. Dynamic lighting will tax the card somewhat. Out of interest what exact card do you have? Also can you take a screenshot or describe of the part of the game where it runs slowest? This way it can help Shaun identify an area that may require optimization or at least nail down why there's some performance issues on your system.

Before I forget...Shaun, is there any chance sprint can be changed to the shift key. It just feels natural to hold that down for sustained periods rather than the F key.

Later today I'll find some time to read through the posts above to make sure I don't repost anything that's already been addressed.

Palanduss,
Dunno how much you know about the Unreal Engine but if you press the ~ key (next to the 1 key) and type "stat fps" it'll give you your framerate. Mentioning your framerate could be quite useful for Shaun. Also what exact gfx card do you have?

Shaun, would you be interested in us giving you framerates, in certain areas, for different gfx setups? I have more than one PC at home and all use different gfx cards, so I can provide some framerate details across these machines, if it'll help?

In the readme it's mentioned that if you open the map then press the m key again the map stays stuck on the screen. I've found that pressing the m key a 3rd time then exiting it properly will close the map screen.

Edited by: Lord_Porksword

Got farther in the game today. Found the MK4 Plasma Rifle (not gonna say where so i don't spoil it) and it is a blast... except for not having a flash light. I revisited Maintance Deck (7), and was wondering if there is any value of visiting it again in the beta... as I explored the entire place and found nothing new. Found some more bugs:

-> You can apparently pickup Large Medi Kits and Armor EVEN when you are at Maximum health or Armor.
-> I was exploring Medical Deck, and came across the quarantine area with the zombies inside. They can apparently hit you through the glass, and I ended up dying... I was not amused. I now have to RECLEAR the entire deck. By glass, I mean that quarantined area with a door and there is a clear glass on the side... I wanted to see what was inside BEFORE I opened the door... they saw me and before I could get away they hit me to death.
-> My worst framerate thus far is in Medical Deck. I had FRAPs active, and I saw my FPS drop to single digits several times.
-> I shot a zombie 10 times in the head with the MK4 Plasma Rifle and he revived twice on me. I used the MK3 Plasma Rifle on a different one and killed in like 7 headshots and only revived once on me. I'd figure the MK4 would do more damage, yes?
-> After I had cleared the Bridge... I decided to return after heading to Maintance. I found ALL the same monsters alive again, including the wall things. Is this supposed to happen? The same with Deck 3... returning there, causes all the same monsters to respawn in their typical places, when you first head thru that area when you go to remove the fire.

Suggestions:
-> After dying and having to reclear decks all over again... would it be possible to have a personal save system where we can save at any time... to prevent having to redo decks when you make a mistake?
-> After finding the awesome MK4 ... I still found myself using the MK3 more as it had a flashlight. Would it be possible to give it a flashlight, even if its fairly marginal, like the Lazer Pistol one?

My graphics card is a 525M GT, and my cpus are i7-2630QM @ 2.00ghz (I thought it was 2.4... but remembered it can overclock to 2., 4 cores, 2 threads per core... so essentially 8 cores... but if it isn't optimized for 4+ cores...

Anywho, despite dying and having to reclear areas... I'm having a blast exploring. Keep up the great work, Shaun!

Ahh so you're playing on a laptop I gather?
That gfx card is for mid-range gaming at best so it will be why you are getting bad framerates.

Unless its an alienware laptop like mine you may well have some fps issues.

Saving in game is planned for beta release. This save system was all last minute, I only managed to get a coder to work in SAave syetem, AI and getting the hud all up and running in the last month. So the beta save system will include the full ingame menu along with instan save and you will have save slots so you have numerous games saved at one time.

All feedback is much appreciated, dont forget when using fraps it uses a lot of resources, and also if recording you can half your frame rate compared to what it would be without fraps running.

Aliens spawn in same points at the moment, in the beta all aliens, pcikups and quest items will spawn randomly

Deck 7 - more will happen here in the beta, deck 3 changes after lockdown with access to store rooms and other areas etc. In beta you will also have access to environmental control on deck 3 and communications on deck 1. These where left off becase these areas also access other decks of the ship, such as cold storage on deck 4 which also gains access to cargo hold.

Ok.. got farther... word of the wise... DO NOT OPEN THE STORE ROOM! Just saying.

Also, found the last weapon... I like it. I can't believe I missed it the first time. Its like a supercharged fully-auto Lazer Rifle. Wish IT had a flashlight. Wouldn't it make more sense though to have it as Slot 5, rather than Slot 6? Reason I mention it, is because the laser pistol and rifle are odd numbered weapons.

Finding a lot of wierd collision bugs the farther I go into it...

-> When you kill enemies sometimes their corpse spasms.
-> When you kill enemies sometimes they get stuck in the ceiling
-> Sometimes when you hit a crate or barrel too hard, you take damage.

Though, now that I have the two "big" guns... I feel a bit unstoppable... except when i came near the storeroom.. then i felt in danger again... I'm happy to see that although the best weapons can still come up against tough enemies.. that in some ways require having them unless you intend to backpedal a lot.

I'm loving this Alpha!

Cheers for not giving too much away M8!
Your comments are making me more hungry to get back into it....if only I had more time to game...

Found the 1 exit... question to Shaun... does the waves end... i ask because I killed 4 of those big ones, and they kept coming.. Or a better question is... where is the diagnotics console? Is it the console right next to "exit"? Disguising "exit" to not give it away.

Also couple more bugs:

-> The enemy I fought I think was supposed to be a Stomper... but it doesn't look like one. Instead it looks like an overlarge little biter that makes big stomping noises.. takes a full clip of MK4 Plasma Rifle too!
-> I found a disembodied plasma rifle with arm attached in Hangar 2. Similiar to the pistol found in Deck 3. Also, can't pick it up for ammo... though that might because I had 21 plasma rifle clips... There is a lot of ammo around.
-> I dunno for sure, but... I didn't encounter any "rats"... I've been to all the decks available and the areas available, and didn't find any... maybe one of the little biter things I encountered was supposed to be a rat. Do the "green" ones mean little biters.. or are they a seperate kind of little biters?

Edited by: Palanduss

Palanduss wrote: Found the 1 exit... question to Shaun... does the waves end... i ask because I killed 4 of those big ones, and they kept coming.. Or a better question is... where is the diagnotics console? Is it the console right next to "exit"? Disguising "exit" to not give it away.

Also couple more bugs:

-> The enemy I fought I think was supposed to be a Stomper... but it doesn't look like one. Instead it looks like an overlarge little biter that makes big stomping noises.. takes a full clip of MK4 Plasma Rifle too!
-> I found a disembodied plasma rifle with arm attached in Hangar 2. Similiar to the pistol found in Deck 3. Also, can't pick it up for ammo... though that might because I had 21 plasma rifle clips... There is a lot of ammo around.
-> I dunno for sure, but... I didn't encounter any "rats"... I've been to all the decks available and the areas available, and didn't find any... maybe one of the little biter things I encountered was supposed to be a rat. Do the "green" ones mean little biters.. or are they a seperate kind of little biters?

The Stompers are not in the alpha, the full line up of biters are all in, normal, green and Big biters. The Stalkers are in the alpha which you have met lol, these will be much scarier in the beta when they crawl around the walls and ceilings.

Other aliens in the beta will be :

Stomper - huge 10 times your size, and it stomps on you!
Little Ones - Rat ike creatures which are hard to hit because of their size but dont inflict much damage
Big Ones - Huge clumsy 4 legged and quick. Watch out for these
Flying Ones - Look up!
Eggs - Can spawn biters and little ones
Creepers - these have a nasty ranged attack, evil things!
Tenticles - These will grab you and pull you towards them inflicting Damage

For the full game there are 3 more but I wont spoil the surprise!

Console you mentioned is Service Pad 4, right next to the pad where you find it, look for the pad console near the ramp of the pad, each pad has one and is linked to the attached pad.

RAT - LOL, i should have explained this more, but it will be in journal in the beta. RAT = Remote Access Terminal, these are in the main access coridor and a few scattered throughout the ship.

Oh and weapon slots are meant to be customisable via the inventory screen, for the alpha these are just set. Same applies for all controls which can be customised in options, so you can assign shift to sprint

Oops I meant to say "Little Ones"... that are said to be like rats.

When it says to reconnect the **** line... how do I do that? I approached some **** cannisters and I didn't get a prompt of any kind. I tried some hoses on the ground but that didn't do anything either... and with Little Biters and Big Biters chasing me I had very little time to stay in one spot.

Tried out Hanger 2 - Onslaught = Its pretty good. Can't wait for the beta!

Edited by: Palanduss

I see what ya mean about opening the storage room.
Got some zombie action on the bridge. Glad I read the part about aiming for the head.

Found one problem area on the bridge in the corridor near the staircase:

There's boxes where the arrow is. You kind get stuck on these and they can kill you when you try to jump around them. You may want to tweak their positioning or make them static so they can't hurt the player. Also not sure if the striped edging on the floor is BSP or not but you may want to align that texture.

Dunno if you plan this but it'd be nice to see a slight bright-to-dim pulse on all the computer screens to make them feel 'active'.(even though the system is offline)
Yes, you may want to set the triggers to be distance based rather than having to aim at them. I had a bit of trouble accessing the bridge controls as I'd walk too close and couldn't find the activation point.

The ceiling fans on the bridge may want some noise as well.

Red rifle is pretty cool. I like the rapid fire!

I had the other assault rifle that fires bullets but I wasn't able to find any ammo, or the ammo pickups weren't replenishing either the pistol or the gun.

I really like the corridors with the moving tenticles. Good work on the visuals for these Shaun!

Regarding hangar 2, I found my weapons weren't lit and appeared black. Not sure what was happening with the lighting in there but they seemed black even though I was near a light source.

Had a good laugh at the Big Ones. Ran around the corner and thought "holy crap, retreat retreat!!" just before I got eaten!

Only got as far as opening the storage room and hangar 2. Hope the above feedback helps!
Will play more later this week!

I can happily say it's quite a lot of fun so far.

Captains logs were a nice touch! Are there plans to include more logs from other crew members so we can learn about how events occured on the ship or station?

@Lord_Porksword
1) The Hangar 2 part with unlit weapons I found the same issue with. I thought it was just my graphics playing with me so I Ignored it .
2) The other rifle, (im assuming MK4), is supposed to I think fire plasma bolts... instead it fires bullets. Theres ammo for it, you just have to look hard enough. I believe I have 13 clips of MK4 Ammo, and 21 clips of MK3 ammo. But, I would say that I can't find ANY Plasma Pistol ammo. After using up its ammo to kill wall tentacles, I haven't found any ammo clips for it, anywhere.
3) I'd assume you'll get other logs once we have access to Deck 6 - Security. You'll notice when the computer says where hostiles are it says: Unknown lifeforms on decks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 (skipping 6). I'd assume the barricaded crew are there, as Shaun mentioned somewhere that we would be able to encounter the crew!
4) Boxes and Crates are awesome to have, except when you can hurt yourself on them.
5) I know this is probably a small thing but... whenever you jump or get hurt, you sound like a Liandri Assault Bot. Maybe switch the sounds to a more human actor in the UDK?

6) When you reload your weapon, does it throw away the current ammo and add a fresh clip OR is the current ammo stored somewhere where I cant see it?