AE v3.2.0

[Space Borders]

I've removed the v3.1.5 build before it went through the review process for multiple reasons (mainly because there were some issues). Anyway v3.2.0 is pretty much done. There's a ton of cool new stuff in this update:

- Super smooth background textures (trust me, this is a huge improvement).

- Fog effect that depends on the level of zoom.

- New explosion effects for capital ships and stations.

- New intro.

- Lots of minor UI tweaks (for improved consistency & responsiveness).

- Rotating asteroids.

- Background asteroids less distracting.

--> Will submit a final beta that includes all of the above tomorrow.

What I'd still like to add before submitting the app to the App Store:

- Improve decorations of all the campaign missions, like asteroids and space stations.

- Updated splash screen.

That's it, then it's going to the App Store hopefully.

[Space Borders]

Just wanted to let you know, v3.2.0 has been submitted for testing.

[three3pryme]

Was 3.2.0 on TestFlight? I looked and it said the latest was v3.1.4. I'm probably looking at the wrong link.

[Space Borders]

Apple has yet to review it unfortunately. Usually takes about 48 hours.

[Space Borders]

Some problems I found with this release:

- There are a bunch of sandbox units preloaded, but you can’t select them. That needs to change obviously.
- Now that the camera rotates it’s difficult to keep track of directions, which are often used during mission objectives.
- Most missions need a makeover. More asteroids and stations, new iOS devices can handle it very easily.
- Missions need to be easier to follow for newbs. Looking at them objectively, they can be pretty confusing.

[three3pryme]

So I just played 3.2.0 for roughly 60 minutes and so far went through the credits, tutorial, and mission 1.

Everything seems to be running really smoothly and I am digging the new fog effect.

A few problems I've run into however is that the interface on my device (IPad Mini 2) is very small and/or misplaced in some cases. I've attached some screenshots below. This also includes text and button placement.

I wasn't sure wether this was intentional and may be more of a QoL issue than anything. 

I havent seen seen any other issues so far, but I will Play the beta again soon.




UPDATE: Mission 2 "Overload" is incredibly laggy with frame rate dropping below the 20's, and moving the camera is an issue. This wasn't happening before I installed the beta but it may likely be from the particle effects from the background, and/or my device is beginning to age.

[Space Borders]

Thanks for the feedback. You’re right, the particle effects are pretty intense on my iPad Air as well, causing severe lagging. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that before submitting the build. It’s fixed now though.

With regards to dialogs. That’s indeed how they should appear on an iPad. Essentially all elements should have the size they’d usually have on an iPhone. Do you find it difficult to read / interact with them?

[Clinkzbone]

Nov 10, 2018 2:38:19 GMT -5 Space Borders said:

Some problems I found with this release:

- There are a bunch of sandbox units preloaded, but you can’t select them. That needs to change obviously.
- Now that the camera rotates it’s difficult to keep track of directions, which are often used during mission objectives.
- Most missions need a makeover. More asteroids and stations, new iOS devices can handle it very easily.
- Missions need to be easier to follow for newbs. Looking at them objectively, they can be pretty confusing.

Agreed about (2), it is pretty disorienting. A compass would probably do well to solve the issue. I think a big part of it is actually the backgrounds as well. They're a little too bright, I think, which can make it hard sometimes to see details.

For (4), I think that a big part of it is that people just quickly tap through the text without reading it. Unfortunately, I can't really think of a good way of dealing with this issue. One way I suppose would be nav beacons and timers, but that kind of takes away from the gameplay a little if you ask me? Maybe you can make it optional in the settings, but default ON so that new players benefit. Or perhaps a more detailed objective log, rather than the sometimes vague hints we currently have. A compass would sometimes help as well, like in Overload and Starport One.

As a side note, is it just me or are the alien carriers in the main menu just sitting there and not actually doing anything?

I personally have no performance issues, but YMMV. Why are the additional graphics settings missing from the menu now btw? Those would probably help.

[Space Borders]

Agreed about (2), it is pretty disorienting. A compass would probably do well to solve the issue. I think a big part of it is actually the backgrounds as well. They're a little too bright, I think, which can make it hard sometimes to see details.

Alright, I think it should all be a lot better now. To briefly summarize:

The disorientation was caused by:
1) Camera rotation.
2) Intense brightness / glowing of both fore- and background that was fused with the fog effect (very obvious in "Overload").
3) Lack of structure in map (mostly random asteroids).

The changes that greatly improved my experience so far:
1) Added a compass as you suggested to both the mini-map and strategic map. At least this should allow the player to reset the camera if still confused. Was actually even considering a reset button.
2) Decreased the back- and foreground glow effect. Removed the background color from the fog effect which was greatly interfering with the foreground. The fog layer is also moving faster now, since it's supposed to be closer to the camera.
3) Asteroids are now strategically placed to indicate paths, rather than being totally random in nature. This should help a lot with orientation.

For (4), I think that a big part of it is that people just quickly tap through the text without reading it. Unfortunately, I can't really think of a good way of dealing with this issue. One way I suppose would be nav beacons and timers, but that kind of takes away from the gameplay a little if you ask me? Maybe you can make it optional in the settings, but default ON so that new players benefit. Or perhaps a more detailed objective log, rather than the sometimes vague hints we currently have. A compass would sometimes help as well, like in Overload and Starport One.

For now we have the compass. The log idea sounds pretty good actually. Will see what I can do about that. I actually added nav beacons in some missions along the rearranged asteroids haha.

As a side note, is it just me or are the alien carriers in the main menu just sitting there and not actually doing anything?

I think it only seems that way. These are the drone carriers, so they spawn at far greater intervals than the regular carriers. If you observe a specific carrier for long enough, I'm positive you'll find that it'll spawn new drones eventually. It normally takes it one minute to spawn a new set of drones. Since the previous set is probably killed very fast, it's gonna sit there for a whole minute doing nothing. The next update I'll submit will actually allow you to manually move around the intro map.

I personally have no performance issues, but YMMV. Why are the additional graphics settings missing from the menu now btw? Those would probably help.

Me neither, on both the iPad Air and iPhone 6s. Quite frankly, I do not want to totally restrict the game in favor of a few very old devices. I'm pretty optimistic that the game runs smoothly on the 5s and above. Regarding the settings, I always felt that those were workarounds rather than features. I hope to release the game in a condition where they are simply obsolete.

Have submitted a new build to Apple (v3.2.1) that fixes everything mentioned in this post. Really, really hope it takes care of the recent issues.

[three3pryme]

One more thing to note, I can't really send a screenshot because it happens too rapidly (for lack of a better term) but some lighting effects that are green (ex. The destroyed Titan on mission 8, as well as the Alien mothership) sometimes glitch out and turn a blackish color or have a black square outlining the individual particle effects. It's a bit hard to explain but the black graphic so would sort of flicker at random rates extremely quickly, as a result I've tried screenshotting it but I can't catch it in action.



This does not happen with background effects or User Interface

[three3pryme]

Nov 11, 2018 2:39:08 GMT -5 Space Borders said:

With regards to dialogs. That’s indeed how they should appear on an iPad. Essentially all elements should have the size they’d usually have on an iPhone. Do you find it difficult to read / interact with them?

It's less of a matter in how large some of the Elements are but rather the proportion compared to the size of the screen on said elements. It's somewhat distorting and strange to the eyes, and in a few cases I can't tell what's what (Like what ship I want to launch from the Odysseus).

[Space Borders]

One more thing to note, I can't really send a screenshot because it happens too rapidly (for lack of a better term) but some lighting effects that are green (ex. The destroyed Titan on mission 8, as well as the Alien mothership) sometimes glitch out and turn a blackish color or have a black square outlining the individual particle effects. It's a bit hard to explain but the black graphic so would sort of flicker at random rates extremely quickly, as a result I've tried screenshotting it but I can't catch it in action.

This does not happen with background effects or User Interface

Yep, know exactly what you mean. Nicely caught btw. This usually happens when two particle effects overlap that happen to have blending functions, that multiply the alpha channel of underlying particles to produce a color value. When the underlying particle has transparency (alpha = 0) and it's multiplied with any other value, the total is 0, resulting in black color. Hence the weird looking artifacts. Never thought of it as much of a problem though. Could probably be solved by experimenting with different blending functions.

PS: If you want to capture a certain moment, the best way is to probably use the screen recording function, then screenshot a specific frame afterwards.

It's less of a matter in how large some of the Elements are but rather the proportion compared to the size of the screen on said elements. It's somewhat distorting and strange to the eyes, and in a few cases I can't tell what's what (Like what ship I want to launch from the Odysseus).

Fixed! Menus will appear large on iPads again, just like before, but with better resolution.