Anthelion game announced

[Addic]

Nice game although the first mission was very linear e.g. go there kill everything (after retrieving data).

When will someone release a game with the range of Elite, missions and playability of Tachyon the fringe and X-beyond the frontier.

Elite - choose how you want to exist e.g. pirate, trader, vigilante, HUGE area to explore.

Tachyon - choose your alliancies, select your wingman, pick and choose your missions, Excellent story line.

X-beyond the frontier - complete various missions, explore, obtain MEGA ship upgrades.

I do like the game but I have some gripes so far (bearing in mind it is a beta). The following is intended as positive feed back, I'm sure you've worked long and hard on the project but may be the comments below will help to raise the standard a bit.

The back ground is very black, space is a lot more colour full e.g. 3d Star Fighter. Is it possible to include asteroid fields, fly through nebulas etc?

The function buttons (jump, home, retreat) don't appear to provide feedback when pressed e.g. colour change/audiable click - couldn't the ship vibrate or something as to display visually the great pressure it's put under when jumping?

The map screen is very basic brown dot or lighter brown/white dot. Where's the detail e.g. above, behind, below me??? I have to turn a 360 to find the targets.

What the hell is the fella pointing to on the introduction screen - bit small ain't it. It does look like it was stuck in the game to provide some sort of storyline weak as it may be (why the hell are the locusts attacking? Why do I care? who the hell am I? Am I on the good or bad side? Why not have an additional html/txt file which details the indepth story/history for those who are interested.

Will the d-pad be able to select the various ships in the full game rather than using the stylus to navigate in the prelaunch screen?

will the various ships (prior to launching) have additional ratings e.g. armour strength, amount of weapon/equipment mounts etc.

Why is there no mention of lasers being fitted as standard on the 'arm' section?

Will it be possible to pickup/buy/win upgrades e.g. weapons, shields, engines etc?

What's the likelyhood of being able to pilot some of the alien ships e.g. infiltration missions ala the movie ID4.

Will it be possible to actually dock with the space station/s or will all the cutscenes be static pictures?

Will it be possible to swap ships mid game, possibly via a space station docking, in game mission option etc?

will it be possible to save your position mid game play? e.g. I have to attend a meeting or access information on another application, I will lose my position/data.

Oh! I also encountered an error message, "The system encountered a storage card error (error code 5) If a storage card was removed, please reinsert it, and then select yes to retry or no to fail."

The storage cards (cf2 and Sd card via a silver sleeve2+ expansion pack on an Ipaq 3970) weren't touched/removed and I have 50 free memory on the CF card and 100 megs free on the SD card. I had to soft reset out of the error screen.

The game is decent enough, Although based on what I've played so far (a first beta version) I question the longevity of the game play.

[fetton2215]

first of all, its a pocket pc, and second of all, its a beta. i am sure the story will be explained in the full version.

[Jaybot]

Thats a load of questions, I'll try to answer as thoroughly as possible.

First:



That was the entire story and explanation for the Snails Beta.

Thanks.

Now, onto your other questions:

''Is it possible to include asteroid fields, fly through nebulas etc? ''

Yes.

''couldn't the ship vibrate or something as to display visually the great pressure it's put under when jumping?''

Yes it could, good suggestion.

''Where's the detail e.g. above, behind, below me??? I have to turn a 360 to find the targets''

Good question, I have no idea... of course, it really hasnt bothered me yet, as I was able to figure it out use it in about 10 seconds... but it definately has bothered others as well, and somebody is working on it.

''What the hell is the fella pointing to on the introduction screen ''

He's a dude giving a briefing for the mission, thats what I gathered anyway.

''bit small ain't it[?]''

um.. what is? him? or the screen... or his package? what are you referrring to?

''It does look like it was stuck in the game to provide some sort of storyline weak as it may be (why the hell are the locusts attacking? Why do I care? who the hell am I? Am I on the good or bad side? Why not have an additional html/txt file which details the indepth story/history for those who are interested''

I'd refer to the screenshot above for this answer, but I think I'll just let you wait until the final release to answer that jumble of questions

''Will the d-pad be able to select the various ships in the full game rather than using the stylus to navigate in the prelaunch screen? ''

Yes.


''will the various ships (prior to launching) have additional ratings e.g. armour strength, amount of weapon/equipment mounts etc. ''

and

''Why is there no mention of lasers being fitted as standard on the 'arm' section? ''


I'll let goro answer those, as he's the ship expert

''Will it be possible to pickup/buy/win upgrades e.g. weapons, shields, engines etc? ''

Maybe...

''What's the likelyhood of being able to pilot some of the alien ships e.g. infiltration missions ala the movie ID4.''

Anything is possible, and that wouldnt be too incredibly difficult to implement, but that may be beyond the scope of this game. I'll elaborate in a few seconds.

''Will it be possible to actually dock with the space station/s or will all the cutscenes be static pictures? ''

Yes it will be possible, No it will not be static pictures.

''Will it be possible to swap ships mid game, possibly via a space station docking, in game mission option etc? ''

You mean, in-between missions? Of course!.. If you mean during a certain mission.. its entirely possible, whether a mission will actually call for it is another story.

''will it be possible to save your position mid game play?''

Possibly, we are still trying to decide whether it is feasible or not right now.

''The system encountered a storage card error (error code 5) If a storage card was removed, please reinsert it, and then select yes to retry or no to fail."''

Thanks for the feedback.

'...based on what I've played so far (a first beta version) I question the longevity of the game play.''

Yeah, based on what you've played so far... a mission that can be finished in less than 2 minutes on impossible difficulty, yeah, the longevity of that beta mission should be questioned... especially when its in the game with tons of other missions that are all completely different scenarios with multiple objectives.. that mission might not even make it into the final game.

''When will someone release a game with the range of Elite, missions and playability of Tachyon the fringe and X-beyond the frontier. ''

When the developers of Elite, Tachyon, and X-beyond join together and form the ultimate-super-space-shooter developer group. There are also other reasons why no one has done it, besiudes the fact that they are three seperate games. I'll give a short example:

I like Captain Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, and Fruity Pebbles cereal. I always wondered why no one ever combined the three; Captain Crunch for its great crunch, Cocoa Puffs, for its Chocolatey goodness, and Fruity Pebbles for its unique shape and incredible flavor. So I decided to mix them all up myself... and it was horrible, the fruity pebbles messed up the flavor of the cocoa puffs, and ruin the crunch of the captain crunch, and then, the coca puffs turned the milk all chocolately, and so the fruity pebbles flavor was ruined as well.



Oh, and a few more.. even though they weren't phrased as a question:

''choose how you want to exist e.g. pirate, trader, vigilante, HUGE area to explore''

Not yet, not in this game, this will most likely be covered in a sequel/expansion to this game.

''Tachyon - choose your alliancies, select your wingman, pick and choose your missions...''


Same answer.

''..., Excellent story line.''

This game Will have an excellent storyline, you'll just have to wait for it.

''X-beyond the frontier - complete various missions, explore, obtain MEGA ship upgrades.''

This will most likely be covered later on in an expansion or sequel.

One more thing, the game does has to be able to fit on a pocket pc, not everyone has a 1 GB Microdrive like me in fact most don't even have a 64MB SD.

I think thats it for today, any more questions, please ask.

[James S]

[Jaybot]

[Addic]

[Addic]

[efortier]

[goro]

[Mechcommander]

[mini me]

uhm, quickie impression. disclaimer, I am not a big flight simulator player, more of an RTS player so you can probably ignore all my input.

preformance is very smooth I love it.

things that cought my eyes quickly:

-The briefing text scroll. Not everybody reads at same speed. How about have slower text scroll, and let user speed it up with pushing buttons if they want to. It's better than having the computer flip the text so quickly and user end up missing what is being said and forced to repeat the whole briefing sequance again.

-I think the frame and button frame decoration in the briefing screen are too dominant. It ends up ruining the aesthetic coherency. I can't decide if I am sitting in the same room with the briefer, or I am in some sort of video conferencing. Just a little tweak here and there would go a long way. (I love a briefing scene that is well thought out. Little details tickles me. )

-What is with the ship having the ability to instantly stop when the trottle is pushed all the way down. .......how about deceleration before stop? It doesn't have to be an accurate rendition, but better than instant stop. Little pretend physical realism goes a long way ya know heh...

-the spaceship front cabin beams! aarghhh ...well, if you insist futuristic space ship has a cockpit beams like a WWII German plane, how about at least hang a couple indicator in the beam instead of letting it bare? oh I dont' know, weapon status, a couple of blinken lights and what not... (and fer gawd sake, that beam has a grimmy color. It's fungus green! Haven't they got Windex in the future? )

-okay this is more serious. I quickly lost orientation after a wild chase. Yes I can watch for the nebula, galaxy, planet etc for space orientation, but that still won't give me horizontal plane orientation... How about putting a artificial horizon in the mini viewer? But again, I am not a flight sim player, maybe this is only my RTS head wanting a mini map that can keep me update on big picture.

- How about smaller enemy ships in formation? I like shooting sitting ducks sometimes.... It's easy but fun too.

well okay that's a quickie from me.
nice game btw.
cheers.

[Lobster]

[blackdog]

[Tanis]

[sponge]