Prelude:
I am an old X series fan and have posted a lot in the past and contributed to bug fixing and script corrections in X2. So knowing that egosoft has some issues I waited for the 1.3 patch before I paid loads of money for X3. I love the new graphics!!! Great ships, nice planet.... views.
I expect egosoft brought out X3 instead of X2-expansion because you need money. I also understand that you brought it out early to get the Christmas shopping money. I would rather have egosoft bring out software early then die
Unfortunately even after the 1.3 patch, it looks like there are still some serious issues. Note: I wanted to post this in parts DevNet, but it seems Devnet and Betatesting areas (I'm a Lev5 user) are not cleaned up, so if you want me to repost some of this elsewhere then I would appreciate a few pointers.
Running: X3 1.3, clean install, clean upgrade, no mods or scripts loaded.
System: WinXP Sp2, all the newest patches, newest D9c and MS-audio codecs on top of list
Hardware: 2.8Ghz Pentium, 1.25 Gigs Ram, ATI 9700Pro (Catalyst 5.13), Sound Blaster Audigy Pro (newest drivers). Running with almost not other stuff on system (even turned Virus protection off, which I do not do for other things
Mission Bugs:
Mission 2 (A Favour for Noah) everywhere: after a cut scene the last view on space gets shown for a few seconds before it blanks and shows the new location. Example: after the scene on the planet you get the last pirates-are-chasing-us-in-space view.
* Mission 2 (A Favour for Noah): part 1 where the pirates first attack you- The pirates still want you to drop the shield after you have vaporized them all.
* Mission 2 (A Favour for Noah): part 2 where you are being followed on the planet. This is basically just luck if you survive here, even with low resolution settings. As the player has really no influence on the outcome, a death at this point is just being cruel to your users.
I suggest that you make this part an "always win" in the next patch. Players are awarded the kills they make so that they can profit for shooting some of the pirates here.
* Mission 3 (The White Crystal): A jump is aborted when another voice message is received (e.g. Pirate message). An Example: enemy ship just jumped, you select Shift-J to jump, the countdown starts and then your cross-hair targets an asteroid, voice comes "Asteroid" and the Jump is aborted.
* Mission 3 (The White Crystal): after the Mafiosi drops the crystal the system locks into the box until Saya gets it, a sort of locked in cut scene. Bug: During this time the pirates continue shooting at your ship and there is nothing you can do about it as you are locked out of the controls... result: damaged ship (or worse death).
Missing Documentation:
* The star in the weapons display is not explained in the manual, even the new better 1.3 manual. Found out it is the laser lock now (button "k") by chance.
Bugs:
* Crash to desktop (CTD) during intense dog-fights and just after when I die (ending text comes in 3D). Was running at 1280x1024 (my LCD default) with everything set to high, no AA, 4AF, no post-processing. After going down to 1024x768 this has not happened as often. If you want a savegame or more, contact me.
* After being in danger the player ship blinks green-red in the sector map or property overview even after leaving the sector (or docking to a station) and being out of danger.
* When a new "speech" starts, the old one gets cut off. This leads to missing notifications and abortion of Jump drive countdown!!!
Suggested fix: you allow one voice for ship messages (e.g. "No target") and a second for messages. Further you should queue the messages (e.g. "We scanned your ship...") so that they do not get lost.
User Interface bugs:
* Some items have no graphics and show only the question mark graphic, e.g. silicon ore.
Suggested fix: all regular items should have a graphic.
* Keys "5" and "6" do not work in owned ship/satellite menus even though they are displayed, but the Trade with Station key "d" does!
Suggested fix: keys 5 and 6 need to work in the menus.
* "Best Sales" in icon menu is called "Best Locations" in "Trade Utilities" window.
Suggested Fix: rename "Best Locations" to "Best Sales" to be in line with the rest of the program interface.
* "Orders" in icon menu is called "Command Console" in rest of program.
Suggested Fix: rename "Orders" to "Command Console" (or "Command") to be in line with the rest of the program interface.
* F5 closes the second window instead of minimizing it like the first window. Pressing F5 again then shows window 1 normally, but window 2 is gone.
Suggested Fix: have F5 only minimize the second window just like window one, as expected.
* Sector Map zooms in and out on its own after a while (back to 100%). This is very annoying when outside of the normal sector range or when you are looking for something.
Suggested Fix: remove the auto-zoom in out while the sector map is open.
* Sector map back to 100 percent after getting info on sector map item (e.g. while scanning asteroids).
Suggested Fix: remove the auto-100% setting while the sector map is open and in an sub info display.
Autopilot Bugs:
* If autopilot is started just after passing through a gate and the target is straight to the side of the gate, the autopilot will steer you through the gate posts causing ship damage. Possibly a bounding box problem. Alternative fix: "Command refused" message just like near station docks.
* If collect wares in sector is used to pick up items that are near asteroids the autopilot will hit the asteroid causing ship damage. Alternative fix: "Command refused" message just like near station docks.
* Autopilot can crash into solar panel during autopilot docking maneuver when the dock is on the other side of the station. Happened to me when coming in from an east gate Profit Share and auto piloting to the solar station L Delta. Instead of going around it tried to go through the station to get to the docking lights.
* When in the options-controls menu during an automatic dock, it does not dock. You are just hanging under the dock when you go out of the menu.
EDIT: I consider the following bugs, but to stay professional I moved them down here to "missing basic features". If you are pedantic on only fixing bugs, skip to the next message below.
Missing basic features:
* There is no way to remap the right-mouse-button and scroll-wheel (seem to be hard coded). The default flies in the face of all other games out there: right-mouse = alternate fire (missile) and scroll-wheel should be configurable (e.g. speed throttle or next/previous target).
Suggested fix: allow change of the "hot key" / "right-mouse click" in the options control menu. This would be nice so that users can use that for missiles, which is more in line with user interface standards (alternate fire).
Suggested fix: allow change of mouse wheel in the options control menu. For example to use it for speed up/down, which is more in line with user interface standards.
* Best buy / Best sell do not allow you to select an item/station from the list for docking. Found out that "t" works but that is no great help.
Suggested fix: that a click opens the station info display (the one that has the show information, select as target,... items) and add a "navigate to this station" option.
* Depending an where you are in the interface you have 4 !!! different key combinations for zooming. +/-, Pos1/Del and Scroll Up/Down as well as the "Alt" key (Visual Enhancement Goggles) are used for zooming in and out in the cockpit, sector-Map and galaxy map.
Suggested fix: Numeric +/- can be used for all of those in all situations (there is no zoom out for the Goggles).
* There is no compass, so you do not know which direction you are pointing in relative to the sector.
Suggested fix: I guess the shield/ship display (that was described in the original manual) was supposed to do this... I suggest adding at least the rotating ship pointing icon later perhaps with the Gravidar upgrade (which is pretty useless so far as most sectors are much larger than the Gravidar display).
* When docked there is no display what you are docked at.
Suggested Fix: add station name in brackets to "Main Menu" title.
* You can go from galaxy to the sector maps, but not the other way around. Example: press "." for sector map, now you can not switch to the galaxy map.
Suggested Fix: have a up-arrow or galaxy map icon in the window or title bar to go to the galaxy map.
* When using the galaxy/sector maps from another ship you can not use that to steer that ship. You have to go all the way back via the console menu.
Suggested fix: that a click opens the station info display (the one that has the show information, select as target,... items) and add a "navigate to this station" option. (Same as best buy /best sell bug above.)
* Sector map zooms in a lot 25600%, but only has one zoom out to 50%. This means a lot of usfull stuf is not visible.
Suggested Fix: have one more zoom out to 25%.
* Comms (key "c") with a selected enemy during a dog fight and selecting the (only) option "1. Surrender" has no effect. What is that option there for then?!?
* Transport device can not be used to pick up boxes in space (salvage of wares).
* Gravidar view of 5k, between 1k and 10k would be useful (e.g. for fighters).
* There are status messages (e.g.: "xxx Missile installed") for all sorts of things... but not for "No missiles", which would be really useful when in the thick of it.
* No jump animation. (Nice swoosh sound though
* It would be nice if the time shift didn't stop every time I do something in the menus and when pressing the (exterior) view buttons to look around.
* HUD does not indicate weather you are in mouse-mode or not. The white mouse pointer is not always visible.
Suggested Fix: have an option for mouse users to change HUD color when in mouse-mode.
* While we have speed, shield an hull meters spread out over the entire display (very difficult to track with you eyes). There is no ship "energy" meter.
Suggested Fix: yes I know there are 8 ! meters for energy in the weapons display. They always show the same energy level for all weapons, might as well get rid of that and add an energy meter to the speed, shield, hull meter.
* AQC (automatic quality control) does not seem to do anything? I would expect it to turn off AA, AF and glow at least when things get rough.
Suggested changes to default mapping:
Note: normally when you buy a game, the default config is sane. In this case it is a mixture between X3 and X2
* Joystick Button-1 (fire) and Button-2 (missiles) are ok, but the rest stink. Nothing is mapped by default above Button-4.
Suggested Fix: Button-3 for Nearest Enemy Target. Button-4 for center-view (the coolie-hat is for view stuff but auto-center is off by default). Button-5 for auto-pilot toggle. Button-6 for SETA. Button-7 and Button-8 for next/previous enemy respectivly.
Final words:
Thanks for all the nice work on the graphics and the new mouse control system (well done guys)!
I paid a load of money for this (and the previous) game, so...
[rant mode on]
I also want to you to notice that in the "Developer Liaisons" during beta test, egosoft has one for everything EXCEPT for interface work!!!!
http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=87456
The menu systems stink (note the plural!). I am sorry but it is still true. It seems to me that egosoft has a lot of 3D and graphics guys, but zero user interface guys... (or perhaps two pulling in opposite directions?). It looks like they got caught halfway between an alpha-blended version of the old menus and an iconic menu system with some of the old hot-keys (e.g.: press "k" for laser targeting) thrown in for good measure. What a mess! While perhaps acceptable for the old X-fans, you are seriously loosing out with new customers because of this. Please clean up that blasted interface instead of dreaming up new 3D effects all the time.
[rant mode off]
