Spring beta-test version 0.1 - impressions

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 17 Apr 2005, 21:42

TAFF ships are gunships with a really slow turnrate, so no way they will be making those manuevers.

I CANT POST SCREENSHOTS until I find a place to put them in. Wait, maybe I'll upload them into an attachment at TAU...

AF · Post by AF » 17 Apr 2005, 21:57

Fine just give them to em and I'll host them for you, my contact details are in my profile

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » 17 Apr 2005, 22:35

imageshack is very useful, easy free hosting

glad to see it looks and plays well...i can't wait to fly a hawk around

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » 18 Apr 2005, 11:09

Hmm well the high trajectory button is available for planes as well. I don't know if they get shot in a high trajectory. Maybe you could switch up and down in a dog fight. The bomber reload rate is however fixed, but you got area bomb in return. And maybe from high altitude they can't be hit so easily.

They have nice moves, and you can even control it directly in fps style or but it's not easy to do.

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 18 Apr 2005, 11:23

The trajectory button is available for EVERYTHING, even con bots. They'll need to make the GUI detect whether the unit has a ballistic weapon or not in order to display the button correctly.

Storm · Post by **Storm** » 18 Apr 2005, 13:48

Sean... Go to here and upload your screenshots. FU is open for anything TA-related.

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 19 Apr 2005, 18:13

I WANNA TRY IT!!!!

Please?

some one send it 2 me or something!

ephillips · Post by **ephillips** » 19 Apr 2005, 18:46

I've been following this from pretty early on, and its amazing to see how far its come in those last videos - its one of the better looking games on the RTS market at the moment.

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » 19 Apr 2005, 22:35

Yes but only from very close and if you have a GOOD DX9 card. 6600GT min for all the visual stuff. Most of the time you will be zoomed out a lot and it's really a shame you don't see a lot of detail.

But I only bash at DOW, SC, AOW and all those stupid 640x480 or any resolution games that won't let you zoom out enough, because the makers decided they wanted the player to see the detail they put into their game instead of making it playable.

I just hope the high hopes ppl are having won't be putting them off eventually if spring turns out a bit of a dissapointment. It aims to be the best RTS ever, but it surely isn't at the moment. That's something for the future.

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 19 Apr 2005, 22:54

DOW lets you zoom out plenty enough. You never have enogh units to need to go out thuther.

Lucky I got a gf6800 gt then isnt it... it will be ausome to play this and all the action from any view point man cant wait.

aGorm

sparkyhodgo · Post by **sparkyhodgo** » 19 Apr 2005, 23:04

Redfish, could you tell us what else, besides the trajectory buttons, needs work? Are there any features of OTA missing?

Redfish · Post by **Redfish** » 20 Apr 2005, 15:36

Sorry Agorm but I dissagree with you about DOW. But that doesn't matter, as long as you have fun playing it.

If someone sends me a place to upload pics i'll gladly do it.

Sparkyhodgo: Besides the GUI which needs work I think the game is pretty much done. It's very playable. That's why I've been hearing that I will be released this week over and over again. There are just some guys who are working on Spring but aren't fulfilling their part of the bargain as I understand it. That's what is keeping it from being released.

More specifically: things i've notice thus far:

Planes can't guard... :S
High trajectory only works for projectile firing units, but the button is also available for most units, which doesn't make sense.
Assigning your own shortcut key combinations like CTRL + P is still a bit buggy. Doesn't work flawlessly yet.
Minimap no issuing commands

Bombers reload rate has been fixed, meaning you can't bomb 2 patches in 1 run if they are close to each other(which probably is supposed to be like this).
Still some bugs in the H key share screen.
Multiplayer lobby... No idea about this. I think it's related to what I explained above about ppl not fulfilling their jobs.
No easy way to change units used in the game yet.
No spacing in tahook, but will also not be introduced as i understand it.

Just minor things really, you can play the game.

Gabba · Post by **Gabba** » 20 Apr 2005, 17:08

Redfish wrote:Planes can't guard... :S
Minimap no issuing commands

The other problems I can cope with, but these two are gonna be major annoyances... Perfect examples of things that are worth fixing before the first release.

sparkyhodgo · Post by **sparkyhodgo** » 20 Apr 2005, 17:44

Sean, I see from your screens that TA Hook is working. But is demo recorder's whiteboard? I imagine it would be hard to write on the ground in a 3d game, but I really liked that feature.

sparkyhodgo · Post by **sparkyhodgo** » 20 Apr 2005, 17:52

And I simply must know: is there dual-monitor support? I drool at the prospect of putting the overhead map on one screen and dealing death and destruction on the other.

If not, you can bet I'll lobby for it!

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 20 Apr 2005, 18:20

First, explain to me what TA Hook is.

I never installed any TA apps except for modding tools and Conflict Crusher.

The minimap really does not accept commands yet, but since it's usually dragged and resized by left-click, as all other interface parts are, and right-click jumps camera to that location, there will have to be some control changes before issuing orders through the MM becomes available.

Actually, constructon planes CAN guard, so that doesn't sound like the correct problem here. Yes, I did notice common fighter craft not being able to guard (strange, it did work before), but I think it has something to do with the default TA data that is being read improperly.

Torrasque · Post by **Torrasque** » 20 Apr 2005, 18:22

Having a "mini" map on one screen could be AWESOME :)

sparkyhodgo · Post by **sparkyhodgo** » 20 Apr 2005, 18:23

TA Hook is the click-and-drag function that lets you queue up lines of buildings and dragon's teeth. I can see from your screens that TA Hook is already implemented.

And for Torrasque and me, can you tell us about dual monitor support? There are not nearly enough games that have it--pretty much just Flight Sim 2004.

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 20 Apr 2005, 18:30

Ah, so THAT is TA Hook. I just call it row build, for simplicity's sake.

I don't know about dual monitor support, as I have access to only one.

I have seen nothing in config files that would lead me to think that there is such support.

Anonymous Joe · Post by **Anonymous Joe** » 20 Apr 2005, 23:56

I believe there are NVidia tools that allow dual monitors, without specific software support.

you do need a good card and 2 LCD/CRTs to take advantage of it...oh and a 'modern' GeForce (FX or 6800)

Spring RTS Engine

Spring beta-test version 0.1 - impressions