After owning the game for a long time, I have a few thoughts for the devs.

[VasVadum 1]

Plenty of people have mentioned some of the bugs I'm going to list off, and plenty of people have complained about the random crashes but that doesn't compare to the worst thing that's going on around here. The worst thing about the game, is that there's no one fixing it. No devs actively helping users with their issues, it almost seems like the game is abandon for dead and will never be fixed. Stop trying to fix stupid things like AI, and fix the areas that severely need it such as random crashing and broken parts that don't work at all. So what if your tank hits a rock when the AI is driving. It doesn't matter if you can smoothly get to the command center if the game crashes just before you hack it.

Anyhow. I have played a total of 98 hours according to steam (50 in the last 2 weeks). I took a long long break from the game for a while though and came back last week to try and complete all the achievements. It looks like the game had an update because now, there are more broken things, less fixed things, and the game crashes 3 times more often.

Bugs: (As of 1.06.0011)

1. SEVERE: Lean Mean Green Machine achievement appears to be broken. Not broken after all (Still testing though)

2. SEVERE: Game randomly crashes, there's no specific cause that I can determine as it's happened so randomly that I don't know what I did just before each crash.

3. Moderate: Manta Hooks can't pick up tanks every so often when you undock both from the carrier. The tank appears to be sitting to low for the manta to reach and thus it's not able to get to the tank while in water. I've only seen this so far at arctic islands, 3 times.

4. Moderate: Some command centers in campaign appear to be invulnerable. AS LISTED HERE

5. Moderate: Enemy carrier can no longer attack you except with plasma turret. I've seen this in strategy mode so far, every time I come into contact with the enemy carrier, I disable the weapons and the engines then just leave him there. After disabling the weapons, he comes to a complete stop, sometimes coming to a complete stop of his own accord even if I haven't disabled anything yet. Making strategy mode incredibly easy to win. I've been disabling, not killing, so that I could still enjoy the game a bit more by letting him attack my islands while I take all of his.

6. Mild: Well, I labeled this mild because I hate the enemy carrier in campaign. It's invulnerable and overpowered. Anyhow, I've noticed the carrier get stuck just below one of my islands, he stayed there long enough for me to capture 4 islands. And he ignored me when he was moving towards one of my islands, I passed by him (not in visual sight range) while he went the other direction. This is just before he got stuck. I think he went to the spot he originally saw me at when I entered his range then got stuck there since I tried my best to evade being near him.

7. Silly: Floating building pieces on a defense island. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=166586314

8. Mild: Walrus AI is worse than before. Sometimes they get stuck and can't even dock when right next to the docking platform. the AI shuts down and requires you to manually dock it with the carrier before it will work again. They try to take paths that don't work and somehow get themselves stuck in trees, and as someone else pointed out, they bump into your tank when using assist (I haven't noticed as I use Manta to play and Walruses to hack.)

9. Mild: Sometimes the carrier can't manually go to a location when in range of another carrier. Clicking doesn't set a waypoint so you have to manually drive the carrier out of range and then set destination to another island by time warping to it.

10. Moderate: When walking around, in character mode, your shield will sometimes be deleted due to a "heavy impact" that didn't happen. Like walking down stairs for example, or even walking down a hill or walking up a mountain.

11. Mild: Small turrets no longer work with auto aim (most of the time) and sometimes don't even show a hud indicator (like the red and yellow targeting square).

12. Mild: Completing the production of an island randomizes your list in the supplies section of the game so when waiting for an item to complete, you have to locate it in your supplies list all over again once it randomizes everything.

13. Moderate: Enemy walrus having what I believe is "HEAT" weapon, do instant kill damage to your walrus no matter how much armor. One shot kills anything and everything on the island. They also seem to nearly instant kill max armored max shielded Manta. This type of weapon would sink a carrier in real life in a single shot. It's as if they have a carrier grade rail-gun launching explosive rounds at you. You may as well call it "death gun".

14. Moderate: Submarine supply ship can not supply your ship when you are in range of an island half of the time. You have to leave a fair distance away from the island before you can get your supplies. I believe this is 2500m from the island.

15. Trivial: Mission on Nemesis forgets to take your hacking capsule after you take the island, probably due to the cut scene.

16. Moderate: Game alternates between bright and dark a lot. This seems to happen if you look remotely in the suns direction, things get really dark. Possibly related to bad bloom?

Suggestions:

1. Mild: No more carrier instant turning. This is both a visual issue (unrealistic) and an exploit, allowing both you and the enemy carrier (mostly the enemy carrier) to instantly turn to fire on you. You have to use the map to do this, but he can do it freely.

2. Mild: Visibility upgrades. A new item to allow you to see better in weather. I find the game rather not-fun when I can't see what I'm doing because of dust storms, snow storms, thunder storms, and volcanic ash. I got a headache and my eyes started to hurt quite a bit trying to play in a snowstorm with radar jamming going on at night time. That's 3 visual hindrances at the same time.

3. Mild: Less storms, or less storm length. I enjoy the beautiful scenery of the game. I love being able to see far and so much stuff. Especially on green islands with lots of plants. Examples: 1 2 3 4 5 MORE

4. Mild: Scout Drone v2, for islands you already captured. A scout drone that you can manually fly and can take no damage. Sort of like a no clip camera without the ability to go through objects. This'd be great for taking pictures of nice things. There were times when I just wanted a picture of something without any of the game's UI in the way so I could use it as a wallpaper but it wasn't possible unfortunately.

5. Mild: Manta engines should play a sound before they are released from the manta dock. Signifying the engines coming online, rather than just instantly popping on. Maybe a slight explosive or igniting sound to signify the manta engines quickly turning on. They should also turn off the instant they land on the ship rather than staying on when their wings fold.

6. Moderate: Sensitivity in suit (walking on foot) mode needs to be adjustable or turned down. If I jerk to the left quickly like I would in most FPS games, I do several 360s and my character falls over puking as if drunk (ok, that last bit doesn't happen, but the several 360s has happened before).

7. Mild: When you destroy a command center, if you leave the island and come back, the AI should still be there as you left it ready to continue fighting you. A new island status type (like Production, Defense, and whatnot) should indicate that the island was attacked and command center destroyed, this would stop people from killing a command center then leaving to waltz right back in to capture with no resistance at all. The enemy AI is buried below the command center after all and the only way to shut it off is to capture the island.

8. Mild: Make anti-air weapons only do high damage to air units. Example, quad gun for the walrus can kill tanks faster than a gatling and has massive amounts of ammunition. I even killed buildings faster than 2 walruses with machine guns. All I had to do was back up on a hill so my tank could aim at those buildings or ground units. Same for the carrier anti-air defense cannons. They do tremendous damage to anything they hit, about as much as the Plasma Cannon it seems.

9. Mild: Camera for looking down on the manta when using bombs. So you can hover over your target not moving and drop the bomb.

Edited August 7, 2013 by VasVadum
1 new thing

[disorder 1]

There are probably only 1 or 2 devs allocated to this game. CC really needs strong sales and it hasn't had any. Most resources I'm sure wil be allocated to DAYZ and ARMA3 for example.

If more people bought the game (and similarly, if the game was priced competitively) then there may be more frequent patches. Hope there will be in the future.

[rob04 10]

There is a problem with the torpedoes always exploding when dropped by a manta. I recently looked at the feedback tracking site http://www.carriercommand.com/feedback/my_view_page.php and someone from BIS said they are aware of the problem and will fix it in the next patch. The date this was posted was August 5, 2013. This means, in my opinion, that there should be another patch. When it will be released is the question, though.

[species1571 64]

There are probably only 1 or 2 devs allocated to this game. CC really needs strong sales and it hasn't had any. Most resources I'm sure wil be allocated to DAYZ and ARMA3 for example.

If more people bought the game (and similarly, if the game was priced competitively) then there may be more frequent patches. Hope there will be in the future.

One of the devs stated on Steam discussions board that the teams involved in those are separate.

I also posted the observation on Steam about the flurry of activity on the boards during the summer sale, and that it seemed the game would probably make more money if it was permanently at the price it was during that time.

[Nifty 1]

Hi,

thanks for your thoughts.

Its definitely not like we dont care about the game anymore. We are really glad that some of you have the faith for the game and post their thoughts. We read everything and discuss about most of these things.

And patches will be still coming out.

[VasVadum 1]

Hi,

thanks for your thoughts.

Its definitely not like we dont care about the game anymore. We are really glad that some of you have the faith for the game and post their thoughts. We read everything and discuss about most of these things.

And patches will be still coming out.

I gave all the ideas and bugs colored indicators on their importance to help you guys decide what needs fixing the most.

There is a problem with the torpedoes always exploding when dropped by a manta.

I have yet to experience this, I will post the bug when I try it though. But that does give me an idea to add to the list, thanks for reminding me. :P #9 is the idea.

If more people bought the game (and similarly, if the game was priced competitively) then there may be more frequent patches. Hope there will be in the future.

I bet more people would buy the game if it had less crashing and some of these bug fixes. If I see that some of these bugs are fixed, I would pester my friends about the game (like i pretty much already do with all my screenshots). It would probably sell more if it was reduced in price a bit. I have 3 friends who want the game on steam. One of the I know IRL. $32 is quite expensive for an old game but then again it's still pretty good. With the bugs it has though, it should be reduced in price unless the critical bugs I mentioned like the random crashing, are fixed.

Also, Nifty, do you know if some of my suggestions will ever happen? I love taking snapshots. It's such a beautiful game and I have many opportunities to get great screenshots but the hud is in the way all the time. That's probably the most important suggestion to me (#4). Though you can probably just add an option in game to have a hotkey remove the in game UI and bring it back.

Edited August 6, 2013 by VasVadum

[species1571 64]

I love taking snapshots. It's such a beautiful game and I have many opportunities to get great screenshots but the hud is in the way all the time. That's probably the most important suggestion to me (#4). Though you can probably just add an option in game to have a hotkey remove the in game UI and bring it back.

Next update to Deadly Islands mod has this.

[VasVadum 1]

Next update to Deadly Islands mod has this.

I don't really want to install a mod.

[RichardCranium 1]

8. Mild: Make anti-air weapons only do high damage to air units. Example, quad gun for the walrus can kill tanks faster than a gatling and has massive amounts of ammunition. I even killed buildings faster than 2 walruses with machine guns. All I had to do was back up on a hill so my tank could aim at those buildings or ground units. Same for the carrier anti-air defense cannons. They do tremendous damage to anything they hit, about as much as the Plasma Cannon it seems.

The current behavior is realistic. The German 88mm AT gun from WWII fame started as a 88mm AA gun. The Quad-50 used in the Korean War started off as an AA gun.

[RichardCranium 1]

I do like your suggestion about the bomb sight. At the moment, the bomb sight is useless; it doesn't provide any information about where the bomb is going to land. That was semi-acceptable in the original since the bomb there would bounce on the ground, spitting out bomblets with each bounce, until it hit something or bounced too many times.

[rob04 10]

13. Moderate: Enemy walrus having what I believe is "HEAT" weapon, do instant kill damage to your walrus no matter how much armor. One shot kills anything and everything on the island. They also seem to nearly instant kill max armored max shielded Manta. This type of weapon would sink a carrier in real life in a single shot. It's as if they have a carrier grade rail-gun launching explosive rounds at you. You may as well call it "death gun".

You are right, but could it be that these walruses have howitzers instead of HEAT guns? I'm not certain, but howitzers might do more damage and have a longer range than the HEAT guns. That might explain, at least to some extent, how the enemy walruses are getting "one shot kills".

[Nifty 1]

You are right, but could it be that these walruses have howitzers instead of HEAT guns? I'm not certain, but howitzers might do more damage and have a longer range than the HEAT guns. That might explain, at least to some extent, how the enemy walruses are getting "one shot kills".

I believe those walruses has a Howitzer gun. You can check it when you equip Scanner on one of your unit and then hover over walrus in the map.

[disorder 1]

I believe those walruses has a Howitzer gun. You can check it when you equip Scanner on one of your unit and then hover over walrus in the map.

The AI is too good of a shot. It might need more randomness to the spread at longer ranges. Especially for indirect weapons which should be kind of area fire.

[VasVadum 1]

I believe those walruses has a Howitzer gun. You can check it when you equip Scanner on one of your unit and then hover over walrus in the map.

It's a bit unfair to be driving along and then a nuke like bullet hits you out of the blue, killing the firewall you are 50 feet away from and you and everything around you in a single shot. Just rename this weapon "mini nuke" if you leave it the same because it's rather frustrating that it's that powerful. Armor MK2 doesn't even stop the one shot kills with their perfect aim.

Also, take a look at the first post every so often. I'm adding new things here instead of making new topics. Once I compile a list, I can try to find better details on the bugs and take it to the feedback thing in your signature. Also waiting for an update so I can re-test most of these things before I do that.

-----------edit-------------

I did a little research on the Howitzer. It is not an anti-tank weapon and it MIGHT disable a tank if you hit one with it. It's not a definite.

Was the Howitzer an anti-tank gun?

In general, no. Most howitzers had a short barrel and light powder charge, mainly to make them light and manoeverable, such as for "mountain guns". They certainly weren't designed as anti-tank weapons but a hit from a howitzer round might disable a tank.

In today's modern militaries, all field guns are now howitzers (the primary definition of a "howitzer" vs a normal gun is that a howitzer is capable of elevation about 45 degrees from horizontal). While their primary mission is long-range indirect fire, they all have direct-fire capability. They also come with a wide variety of ammunition. While they don't have the APFSDS-style kinetic penetrator typical of direct-fire guns, they do have both a variety of HEAT and HESH rounds that can be very effective, plus they are capable of firing a number of different guided weapons.

So, the answer is: YES, the modern howitzer definitely has a significant anti-tank capability, though that is not their primary mission. When used in the anti-tank role, it is almost always via indirect fire dropping a variety of specialty rounds on the tops of tanks a considerable distance away. Using a howitzer in a direct-fire anti-tank role is generally a sign that something has gone seriously wrong with the tactical situation.

Edited August 8, 2013 by VasVadum
Howitzer research

[atroublestarter 3]

Great post!

A few notes:

This should probably be in the troubleshooting section? not sure but that's where I posted my bugs list

16: appears to be fixed in the latest patch

8: The walruses appear to no longer be driving into you when assisting you. I think this got changed in the latest walrus AI improvements, albeit, that's the only thing that seemed to of improved!

7: There is also a floating door on one island, unfortunately I can't remember it's name but it's always there!

In suggestions:

5: I believe I found a sound file for manta engines coming online, but the game seems to just not use it!

9: Species has introduced that feature in his latest deadly islands mod :-)

It's crazy how I thought i'd found most of the bugs in the game, and yet so many things on the list are new to me. Makes me think the game is in a worse state than I originally believed, with people of the community making fixes better and quicker than the devs, as you first pointed out.