Upcoming Huge Update for EM: What Are The Mercenary's Thoughts?

[pauldavidmerritt]

1. I would like to see the 'Alt' key to be a toggle feature, not a hold feature. On top of that, once the 'mouse toggle' was turned off by selecting 'Alt' key, the cursor should return to the center cross-hair. Playing the game, I've noticed after holding the 'Alt' key down for mouse selection and letting go, the cross-hair angle would through my ship directionally out of whack, having to compensate very often through game play.

2. Depending on how the new cockpit visuals/3D design will turn out, I would like the ability to toggle the 'Alt' key for mouse selection, moving to the edge of the screen (as if my head was, real-time, looking at controls in the cockpit). It would be great to have a bit of head-bobble effect through the cockpit to be able to interact with the fantastic control design of the cockpit. The best example of that would be to open the NAV menu through the center 3D gyroscopic display in the middle. On top of it, certain interaction with a 3D cockpit would add to the fantastic 'simulation' feel!

3. Would it be a bad idea to very slightly increase the side-to-side movement? It might give pilots--and beginners--a feeling of a tiny bit more control and use of this particular movement and maneuverability. It could be adjusted based on skill level selected so hardcore players would get the challenge, rookies could get a bit of 'maneuverability help'.

4. I would like the 'Esc' key to back out of any NAV/TRADE/CONTRACT User Menu's. That would make things a bit quicker to move from one menu to the next and simplify the control options to be user-friendly. I've been an AVID gamer for many a moon. Many games use a 'TAB' or 'I' key for Inventory or Stats when it all can happen on one screen. For EM, It's a bit more in depth, so it would be great if 'Esc' key could be used to exit Control Menu's/Options. If no menu's are open, 'Esc' would naturally take you to the Main Menu UI as it currently does.

5. Will there be more visual/graphical options in the display settings for a bit more control over quality vs. performance (Ex. Anti-Aliasing/Anisotropic)? I'd love to see the video settings to be a little more fleshed out.

6. It would be great if current owners of Evochron Mercenary got a great discount for the update. I will absolutely put my 'chips' in for this one. All in, baby! All in! I will be wearing this game on my sleeve, waving it like the Evochronean Flag!

Let me see your input on these ideas. Any other thoughts or anticipation on this exciting EM update? I'm about to wet my britches thinking about it; I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight!

[-splosives-]

What do you mean by "side to side" movement?
I think if anything in evochron is pretty perfect, it's movement. Inertial movement for total freedom, IDS for breaking, changing direction.
if you mean the "sidewards thrusters", then all you need to do is turn to inertial, and you'll see how fast you can go sideways.

You can already activate anti aliasing.
open your evochron directory, make a text file called "swscreen".
in this file, type "8" "enter" "0" "enter", so it would look like this

8
0


[Edited on 8-23-2012 by -splosives-]

[EN4CER]

You have a much better chance of the developer seeing this if you put it in the suggestions for expansion thread. Giving us different speeds based on skill/rank/etc would completely destroy the static statistics and make it nigh impossible to calculate an opponents speed or worse- your own. I do like the idea of the jets being a bit more powerful in IDS mode. That would really help us pull off tighter turns and make the small adjustments when docking, trading, or doing deliveries.

[pauldavidmerritt]

@EN4CER - Thanks for your input. I was actually looking for 'expansion suggestion' thread somewhere. Came across it at one point, but I must have been blanking out when looking for it again. *hand slaps against forehead*

@-splosives- In regard to Anti-Aliasing and such, I was more-so inquiring about the general used of those visual settings being available to the general end-user. Very few titles require the user to create a text file placed in game directory for additional video settings. At the moment, it's good to see it's got a quick-fix for it, though! I'm throwing out some ideas on more options other gamer's would like to see in visual settings for performance/quality adjustments.

The sidewards thrusters tweak is an idea to improve the feedback and response of the ship when a rookie starts playing his/her first time. I was thinking it might be a good idea to make side-to-side thrusters a hair more sensitive (possibly only in rookie difficulty mode).

[Capt_Caveman]

the expansion will have AA setings in game options menu

[-splosives-]

still not sure what you mean by more responsive side to side thrusters.
mine seem to respond perfectly whenever I push the button. their acceleration depends from frame to frame.
If you would alter anything about those thrusters, it would make things unrealistic. This is what newtonian physics are all about