Beta 2 - First Impressions and suggestions

[Vaylein 1]

Greetings,

I thought i'd share my first impressions of the 2nd Beta having just downloaded last night.

Overall I think BI has done a rather good job of capturing the magic that is Carrier Command. This game took me by storm when it came out many many moons ago and it's still what I consider to be essential gaming even today.

I guess my only issues lie in the simplification and console friendly approach BI has taken.

While the game does certainly hit the mark in many areas, the game does feel a little 'dumbed down' for the masses.

When I think of Carrier Command I think of complexity and strategy. CC:GM does certainly tick the boxes here but it seems to lack some depth when directly compared to the original.

The engine used does seem rather solid however the camera controls lack any form of acceleration which takes away from the polished feel. I'm sure this has something to do with making the game console controller friendly but this games roots are keyboard / mouse. I feel that there should be a distinction between how the game interpretes input from different devices. In its current state I feel the camera controls feel a little 'cheap' from lack of a better term. The lack of zoom also add to this problem. I would like to be able to zoom out and pan around the entire carrier. with enough distance to see what's around me.

The plasma cannon mounted on the absolute front of the carrier feels a little limited in my opinion. In the Original the laser turret was near center and could hit almost any target. I understand we now have the machine guns which is a fantastic idea however it would be nice to have a little more freedom of movement with the 'big gun'. I would also like to see the model shrunk slightly so it doesn't take up so much screen real estate. It feels a little too bulky.

Manta docking: In the original there was the ability to have a fully loaded manta sitting on the flight deck ready for take off. I would love to see this implemented. I remember a number of encounters where i've been ambushed and had my lift taken out. Having that one manta (if it didn't get owned on the flight deck) sitting ready to counter-attack was a solid strategy in my eyes and allowed you to get into the fight while putting all the carriers effort into repairing the lift. The auto docking and landing differs from the original too. I would suggest having a 'return to base' button or simply 'land'. This would allow you to get your manta out of harms way and back to the carrier, after which you would bring it into the dock for rearm/refuel if required, again, giving you options if you lose your lift.

Walrus docking: Similar to the above, perhaps with a 'return to docking cone' command.

Classic Mode: It would be awesome to be able to essentially play the old game with the new engine. Simply a randomly generated map with 60 small islands, fairly flat with little hills and shrubbery. Perhaps this could even be a small DLC for later, just for the old guy's like me and a small salute to this games legacy.

Unit Range: While I understand the requirement for a 'communications range' for the mantas and walruses the size of that sphere feels a little small. I would suggest almost doubling the range so you have more flexibility with your angles of attack ie. mantas swing around the island and flank while walruses take point, something like that. Also handy for putting a wing of mantas on point ahead of your carrier while approaching a defence island. Just gives you that more 'complete' feeling. Perhaps comms pods will suite this requirement but they'd be a costly addition to a wing.

Terrain: I love the way the terrain of the islands has been designed but I feel given the scale, they could be more walrus friendly. I've already had a few occasions where i've lost walruses due to them getting stuck half way up hills with small 'ramps'. Perhaps making the topology a little less dense would assist in this.

Manta Control: I'm guessing this is due to the mantas being 'redesigned' to be more like harrier jets than fighter planes. It's hard to aim the things! I understand that the controls suite the type of ship we're flying but maybe they could control similar to something like the mouse controls in freelancer in that you have a small amount of turret control while still being able to freely manouver the ship. Having that finer and more accurate targeting control while still retaining manouverability would be very welcome in my eyes.

Walrus Control: The controls of the walrus are very solid however the turret feels like it aims a little high. When coming up over a hill you can't really defend yourself from turrets. Would be nice if we could lower the walrus turret a few more degrees.

I'm not sure if it's just me but the control sensitivity seems to differ greatly between manta and walrus. Would be nice if we could meet in the middle and keep it common.

That's about all I've got for this round. When it boils down to it i'm absolutely buzzing being able to be part of the (re)development of one of the greatest games in history and so far BI has done a bang up job. It's so nearly there, with a few tweaks in the right areas this will be a classic and a title to be very proud of.

Of course if anyone has any dissagreements or comments on anything I've said here, please chime in and add your 2 cents.

We have the rare opportunity to be part of something amazing here, let's help BI make this everything it deserves to be and more!

[scareya 1]

[...] The engine [...] The lack of zoom [...]

I have no complaints about the looks. Well, the Grain Effect is something between needless and annoying. I agree, it would be nice to be able to zoom out a little more. But honestly it would not change the gameplay either way.

[...] The plasma cannon [...]

Good enough for me, even if the carrier fights differ somewhat from the original. The need to position the carrier correctly for using the primary gun even increases the challenge.

[...] Manta docking [...] auto docking and landing [...]

I see your point. But the new simplified method of CCGM is no real loss IMHO. If you need the mantas out and ready without relying on the lifts simply launch them. According to Zozo the assist function will allow the mantas to follow any target (i.e. the carrier) in close formation. That ready enough for me.

[...] Walrus docking [...]

Difficult. Firstly the Walrus' are much slower than the carrier. It will be impossible for them to keep up with it. Secondly the open bay door would restrict the carrier to not moving to avoid damage to the doors.

[...] Classic Mode [...]

Great idea. I second this one! The islands would look like shit, though. :)

[...] Unit Range [...]

The range is enough to cover a complete island if there is no scrambler around. Nevertheless I do miss the Range Extender somewhat to send a Manta ahead to another island. Agreed. I see one major problem, though: Presently it seems like only one island is loaded into memory (the loading seems to be done just after arriving at the new island by timewarp). If you could send a Manta ahead to a second one, I am afraid there would be no simple switching between the carrier and the forwarded Manta. The engine just doesn't allow that. Correct me, if I am wrong, Bohemia!

[...] Terrain [...] more walrus friendly [...]

That's what the Hook is for.

[...] Manta Control [...]

I agree. Fine tuning is needed - especially to make targeting easier. I could live with Auto Aiming, though.

[...] Walrus Control [...]

No complaints from my side. Other than the Mantas the Walrus' should feel heavy and chunky, which they do. The fighting with Walrus' needs a little planning - perfect.

We have the rare opportunity to be part of something amazing here, let's help BI make this everything it deserves to be and more!

I couldn't agree more!

Edited May 9, 2012 by ScareYa

[nww02 1]

The one-island-at-a-time (no long-range mantas), the lock-in-timewarping and the sudden 'clunk' when you arrive at an island are, for me, the biggest showstoppers. They utterly break the 'flow' of the game and make it feel inferior to the original, while absolutely every other feature feels superior (or will be superior when they've rebalanced it)

We've been ruined by Bethesda's huge worlds with background loading threads, so are less generous to such things as 'loading screens' in what should be an open world. The devs *have* to look into background loading, and the ability to switch focus to another island smoothly, otherwise the critics will get their claws stuck in.

[scareya 1]

I would love a real open world without any loading screens, too. With proper background loading it would be possible to manually sail to each island (without using the timewarp) and to sneak up on them before the attack. I am just afraid that is too much of a change at present stage. I honestly doubt that CCGM could be released in 2012 if you would change the present game that much...

[Vaylein 1]

I agree, having a complete open world would greatly improve the experience. The forced time warp and subsequent loading screen is definitely off putting. I would've really liked full free-roam with Manta comms pods. I loved sending my advance wing over ahead of the carrier. There was just something cool about it :)

Having now sunk a bit more time into the game I have to agree with many of the points ScareYa has mentioned, especially the hook! Love it!

nww: You're totally correct with your Bethesda comment. They've raised that bar high enough in this regard that it's just expected these days. Bring on 64-bit engines so it can address enough memory to keep the whole map (or at least the majority) in RAM!

Once you get around the consolie controls the game does function very well and IMHO BI have actually dont quite well in making the game work across all platforms while still retaining good usability on a PC.

I would imagine though that if this were a PC exclusive title we would have a much better UI and probably more like the original.

I'm not sure if it's been brought up before but an editor would be a sweet addition (like the GECK for Fallout or TorchED for Torchlight). I'm sure once the community got hold of such a tool we'd see some amazing things.

[nww02 1]

I agree, having a complete open world would greatly improve the experience....

<snipped for brevity>

I thought more about this last night. CCGM borrows paradigms from a number of base genres, and recombines them into something Almost unique*. But we're all so entrenched in what those base genres will offer, that it can be easy to point at something and say "Well, even back in Supremacy I could vary the proportions of things being produced".. or "Even the original CC offered open-world"....

The thing, for me, which makes CCGM so awesome is that it's not any one genre... CCGM offers:

• Open-world: Bethesda has coloured our expectation for streamed tile-loading.
  
• A zoomable map with 'bases': Westwood, Blizzard and THQ have coloured our expectations of what a map should /do/, and how zoom should work.
  
• Bases with lots of 'stuff' on them: most 4x space games (e.g. Sins of a Solar Empire) force us to expect multi-location battle-management and upgradeable/configurable bases.
  
• Resource-based production: Master of Orion coloured our expectations of supply-lines, delays, resource requirements etc.
  
• Vehicle-based combat: Many FPS games colour our expectations of fire-arcs, splash damage, telescopic sights, etc etc etc etc...
  
• Carrier-based combat: The BattleCruiser series, much loved or disliked, has given us a few pointers on both what to do, and what not to do.
  

In short, we're a spoiled lot, us. We've had 25+ years of superlative gameplay, from some pretty awesome developers (including the immortal GadgetMind himself).

* - Battlecruiser series comes close on a few points.

[nww02 1]

I've uploaded a complete list of all the 'suggestions' I've come across while playing the Beta 2 to the 'feedback' site. 36 pages of them ;-) I hope BI find them useful rather than impertinent.

http://www.carriercommand.com/feedback/file_download.php?file_id=174&type=bug

[Wh1sper 0]

Great work, even if some of your Ideas somewhat to heavy to implement until septempre ;-)

I would vote to finish and brush up the current functions and enhance the game in the future in hope to build a bigger, strong community.

The game has the power of being a long time game BI:do not miss this!

(back from vacation, I am, so sorry about digging this out of the thomb)

[Blitzwing 1]

Alright I'm going to add my first impression of Carrier Command as well.

I was really looking forward to be able to finally try it out, sadly though my hype came to screeching halt as I realized that the game crashes a LOT!

I have up to date drivers, an intel Q6600@4x2,4GHz, 8GB Ram and a GeForce 560Ti - more than enough to play this game I recon. But whenever combat is going on the game has a high chance of crashing which is somewhat frustrating. Okay it's a Beta but since this game is going to be released in mere months... I had Games in Alpha Version crash less often!

It is nice that you're able to take control of your different units but I feel like I'm making things worse if I take command during combat.

The fact that visibility decreases during night or heavy weather is nice but it seems like the AI is simply ignoring the fact that you'd be unable to see anything.

If you take control of a Walrus you're usually somewhat fine - aiming and steering is okay and you actually hit stuff. Piloting a Manta however is a totally different thing. Actually hitting something is insanely difficult because the damn things are very hard to keep stable. It also seems like the AI is having some problems with stability since Mantas often look like they're drifting off which can be frustrating - especially when they're drifting into the range of an AA-gun that tears them apart so quickly you can't pull them away in time.

There is also another issue when you send all 4 mantas on an AA-gun they should destroy pretty quickly with taking some minor damage - sometimes they just seem to circle the AA while it shoots down one Manta after the other while the Mantas just hover/circlestrafe without doing anything.

Walrus AI appears to be really stupid at times too - encountering a destroyed enemy walrus in the middle of the road can put a halt to your entire invasion force as the first walrus attempts to push forward, but retreats after recieving minor damage from ramming the wreck. All other Walruses wait patiently behind instead of just driving around the obstacle.

The landscape (while looking really nice) is proving very challenging for the AI. That's when I usually take control of the units to get them over the terrain in atimely fashion.

Carrier guns should also be AI controlled as long as you're not actively controling one! Giving your carrier the attack order should work and make it fire upon the target!

Annother feature could be an automated switch between different Quad Cannons when you're tracking an enemy Manta. When the target moves out of the arc of one turret you automatically switch to the next turret enabling you to keep track of the Manta.

Also Carrier Weapons need zoom, so you could support your troops from the shore.

I also had the impression that I could take over Repair/Refuel/Ammo Stations while invading an island. I didn't have the option of hacking into any of those installations. Warehouses did work though.

As mentioned by someone else before - the game needs a time warp button - setting sail should not be the only means to time warp!

I seriously hope the game will come with a tutorial.

I'm sorry that this is mostly negative feedback, but since I have the issue with the game crashing far too often I didn't have the oportunity to enjoy it over a longer period of time :(

But I'm still having good hopes for this game, and I'm looking forward to seeing improvements :)

[Dajunka 10]

I have found that most of the bugs raise their heads when a lot of things come together all at once, such as a battle with the enemy carrier.

Your units don't respond to orders, your units don't shoot, the AI goes to sleep, the enemy carrier can't decide if parts of it are damaged, destroyed or at full health, your carrier can't decide if parts of it are damaged, destroyed or at full health. It's a cluster ****.

Good job it's only a beta.