27-07-2005 18:53									#61
	Suffering from ads?

Unfortunately, no there is no save implemented yet
Gary was supposed to be doing it but he's been stick in RL for quite a long time.

	29-07-2005 16:13									#62
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I think that with the posiblity of saving, you would receive more imput from testers.
For sure I would try it more.

	29-07-2005 21:44									#63
	Suffering from ads?

I know and agree. In fact saving was one of the big priorities and is being implemented. The problem is the guy who does it has had problems and hasn't been able to work on it for a while. Once I have finished what I'm doing, I think I'll ask him where he is and if I can retrieve what he did and continue his part so we do get a save functionality working.

	28-08-2005 23:13									#64
	Suffering from ads?

In reference to bug 174, here's a shot of what I'm talking about:
(as you can see, the display is off-center)

Attachment: map.png
This has been downloaded 14 time(s).

	10-09-2005 16:59									#65
	Put an end to popups!

I have just downloaded this and taken a look at the demo, so I thought I would take a few moments to say a few things.

First, judging just by the dawn scenario, this game has a lot of promise. The discussion happening elsewhere on this forum also sounds promising.

Second, the download page for Demo 8 says that if you run this on a non-windows system, to let you know. I saw a reference to OS X, but not to Linux. I have run at least the dawn scenario under Linux successfully. For the record, I am using Gentoo Linux with Java support from the packages:
blackdown-jre-1.4.2.02
blackdown-jdk-1.4.2.01-r2

The command I used to run was simply:
java -jar ClashD8.jar -ef -seed
as taken from the batch file in the download.

Now to thoughts about the game itself.

Movement does seem just a tad clumbersome. It may just need some getting used to, but clicking on move, setting move orders, and then clicking on end move seems just a little too much effort. Holding down the left mouse button and dragging works, but a visual cue to show that it is indeed processing a move order would be nice.

When you add or take civillians from a square, the dialog box that asks how many you want is too short, so the right hand side of the box you type the numbers in is not visible. The result is that I needed to expand the box in order to see what numbers I am typing. This may be an issue with either the blackdown implementation of Java or some of the settings for my window manager (I have been adjusting a few things, so my window settings are not quite standard)

For the bullitin windows, a close window button would be nice. I can close the window through the operating system easily enough, but a nice close message button just seems to feel nicer. This isn't really much of an issue, but it is one of the first things I noticed when starting the game.

When issuing move orders, the units don't move instantly, but they all seem to move between turns. This isnt' what I was used to, and so I once sent an army chasing a barbarian army down the map, only to discover the barbarians were headed to the city my army was in to begin with. This was because I forgot that I can't assume my army will move before they do. Please don't misunderstand, I much prefer the method you have implemented, but it may just be worth mentioning somewhere.

An earlier post suggested removing the messages relating to how a tech is improving. It would be nice if you could mark a tech to watch, and you should be notified when any watched tech made some progress as well as when any new stuff is available due to research (from any tech). For example in the dawn scenario, I may wish to get reports on how Domestication research is going, but if Millitary research goes up, I'm not as interested (until such time it gives me some new benefit of course).

As you can see the issues I have encoutered so far are all superficial (other than the lack of a save, but you know about that already). From first impression the game seems to hang together rather well. I look forward to seeing future versions, and I will try to give more feedback in future.

	10-09-2005 19:31									#66
	Inflate your Upload Space

Thanks for the feedback lodgey. It's possible to end a move by double-clicking the target, which is a bit faster than going to the end move button. I agree it's not as fast as what Civ games allow, but couldn't think of something easier.

quote: When you add or take civillians from a square, the dialog box that asks how many you want is too short, so the right hand side of the box you type the numbers in is not visible.

That's not the case under Windows. It's quite hard to correct that unless running on the concerned OS as it depends on the way the java vm and libraries have been coded .

quote: An earlier post suggested removing the messages relating to how a tech is improving. It would be nice if you could mark a tech to watch, and you should be notified when any watched tech made some progress as well as when any new stuff is available due to research (from any tech). For example in the dawn scenario, I may wish to get reports on how Domestication research is going, but if Millitary research goes up, I'm not as interested (until such time it gives me some new benefit of course).

I already put in some code which lets the scenario/tech designer specify a message when a tech reaches a given level, replacing the 0.1 increments. What you're proposing is the ability to listen to a tech when it reaches a certain level.