Comments on v. 0.3.9

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shrinkshooter
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Comments on v. 0.3.9

#1 Post by shrinkshooter »

Only a couple things: when you select the tech tree screen, you can't see the autolabs tech when all techs are being viewed. I also think it would be a good idea that the panel allowing you to choose which techs are being viewed should be able to be drop-down or minimized. If it already is and I somehow missed this then ignore that. Also, I don't know if it happened for other people but the background music kept having short, split-second static interruptions. I have a suggestion for the music but I can't attach .mp3 files to posts.
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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#2 Post by Geoff the Medio »

shrinkshooter wrote:...you can't see the autolabs tech when all techs are being viewed.
You can move the "Display" window to uncover it.
I also think it would be a good idea that the panel allowing you to choose which techs are being viewed should be able to be drop-down or minimized.
If resized to a vertical column, it takes up a lot less space.
Also, I don't know if it happened for other people but the background music kept having short, split-second static interruptions.
I haven't heard (pun intended) of that recently. Try updating your sound card drivers.
I have a suggestion for the music but I can't attach .mp3 files to posts.
Post them elsewhere online and link to them like is done with previous audio submissions on the audio forum.

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Ray Radlein
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#3 Post by Ray Radlein »

I installed 0.39 over a perfectly functional 0.38 installation, and now it doesn't run. Clicking the icon simply opens a console window, displays the command line options, and exits. I uninstalled and reinstalled 0.39, with the same results. Running from the command line itself also simply displays the command line options. I suppose I should uninstall it and reinstall 0.38, to make sure that that still works...

Any thoughts?

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#4 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Delete config.xml in

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\FreeOrion

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shrinkshooter
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#5 Post by shrinkshooter »

Are the 128x128 icons too big for the tech screen? I see that they're downsized, and while they're still adequate quality, many of them are a bit blurry and have lost their detail (which was rather low to begin with). I'm sure this wasn't an oversight, but will there be any concession in the future to keep them at their original size? This would ensure the greatest amount of detail, and 128 px isn't too big. I hope. Of course I understand that the icon size may be/is being pushed aside to make room (literally) for more important gameplay elements.

==edit==

Oh yeah, and I apologize because this is very nitpicky, but the white outline seen when selecting a planet should be antialiased.
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Ray Radlein
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#6 Post by Ray Radlein »

Geoff the Medio wrote:Delete config.xml in

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\FreeOrion
Bingo! Worked a champ. Except -- except that now I can't seem to switch it into windowed mode. I keep changing the graphics options to "custom window size," (at 1280x960) and it keeps opening up fullscreen at 1280x960.

And now I changed it to custom windowed at 1024x960 (in case it was having trouble opening up a window the full width of my 1280x1024 desktop), and it opened up a tiny 1024x960 display in the lower-left corner of a 1280x960 screen, and then wouldn't let me select anything, presumably because it couldn't figure out where the mouse pointer was in relation to the buttons. I think I'm going to go delete the config.xml again...

tzlaine
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#7 Post by tzlaine »

There's a run-windowed link in the Start menu.

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#8 Post by Geoff the Medio »

shrinkshooter wrote:Are the 128x128 icons too big for the tech screen?
At smaller resolutions, yes. Ideally the tech detail panel resizing would be a bit smarter, and expand the icons when there's space, and this might happen in future.
Oh yeah, and I apologize because this is very nitpicky, but the white outline seen when selecting a planet should be antialiased.
It should really be replaced with the planet selection indicator that's in SVN.
I keep changing the graphics options to "custom window size," (at 1280x960) and it keeps opening up fullscreen at 1280x960.
The custom resolution option should have "windowed" in the name. I got confused about how it worked (or used to work) and gave it incorrect text. To run in windowed mode, use the "windowed" shortcut, or run from the command line, in which case it will default to windowed mode. Run "freeorion -f" to start in fullscreen from the command line.

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Ray Radlein
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#9 Post by Ray Radlein »

Duh. Of course there was a "windowed mode" Start Menu entry. :oops:

Works great now.

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Ray Radlein
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#10 Post by Ray Radlein »

From Your 0.38 Release note:
This is mostly a bugfix release; the crash when an AI empire was defeated issue in particular should be fixed.
Guess what happened to me (running 0.39 just now!) the first time I clicked "Turn" after defeating my first AI empire?

A crash so hard that I had to power down my computer.

Now, it's possible that this was just some kind of coincidence, since I was actively running two other lower-priority processes in the background: a download of Fellini's Amarcord from our ReplayTV DVR to my computer using WinDVA, and a 2-pass XVID transcoding of Rushmore from its DVR format (MPEG2) to an AVI file using StaxRip (annoyingly enough, they had both been running for several hours, and both were trashed).

So it's possible that there could have been some problem with system resources that reared its head without prior warning right at that particular moment. But it certainly is a coincidence, if so.

I have saved the AI log files, freeorion.log, freeoriond.log, and my config.xml, if those would be of any assistance (and at any rate, I'm not about to start FreeOrion back up at this hour, in case there's some other transient file you might need somewhere else).


[edit: Since I posted this, my computer has had a couple of other flaky episodes while not running FreeOrion, which would seem to increase the odds that the timing of the crash I had really was just a coincidence]

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#11 Post by Geoff the Medio »

You might as well post the log files, in case something interesting is in them. There might be an autosave from a few turns before that you could reload as well, immediately save another copy (since the autosaves might get deleted if you play more turns) and then see if you can replicate the crash.

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kroddn
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#12 Post by kroddn »

Geoff the Medio wrote:
shrinkshooter wrote:Also, I don't know if it happened for other people but the background music kept having short, split-second static interruptions.
I haven't heard (pun intended) of that recently. Try updating your sound card drivers.
I get those errors too on 2 of my linux-systems. I think there was a thread about this somewhere here in the forum... but i cannot find it quickly.
Last edited by kroddn on Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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shrinkshooter
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#13 Post by shrinkshooter »

Also, I noticed that ships have a set amount of time for when they are due to be completed. The way it worked in Ascendancy was that you started with a hull size, which took a certain amount of time depending on how good your production was. Then the time increased for every part you added to the ship, again decreased by how good production was. This made the player try and balance what was needed or what would be needed with how long they would need to wait for the features. Many times it was not always the best to fill all the slots, it would take too long; sometimes you could fill the slots with extra armor or shields with little time-cost. I was wondering if we could (or should) do that for FO.
Geoff wrote:
Also, I don't know if it happened for other people but the background music kept having short, split-second static interruptions.
I haven't heard (pun intended) of that recently. Try updating your sound card drivers.
They're as updated as updated can get, and the sound works fine for all my other games (and I have lots).
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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#14 Post by Geoff the Medio »

shrinkshooter wrote:Also, I noticed that ships have a set amount of time for when they are due to be completed. [In] Ascendancy ... the time increased for every part you added to the ship, again decreased by how good production was.
FO ships and buildings (and techs) have a minimum build time and a maximum PP (or RP) per turn you can spend on them. Spending less than the max cost / turn will increase the actual time to build beyond the minimum possible. Adding parts to a design can increase both, or neither, of the minimum build time or maximum PP / turn you can spend on the ship.

Edit: However there may be a bug in v0.3.9 about the total cost being displayed instead of the cost per turn on the ship design screen. This may be treated inconsistently in code by different types of things that can have costs and times associated with them, and I'll have to take a look at it.

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MikkoM
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Re: Comments on v. 0.3.9

#15 Post by MikkoM »

I am having problems running this version as well. When I try to run FreeOrion from the desktop icon, it opens a window with text that then closes fast and that`s it. I don`t know if this could be the same problem that Ray Radlein already had, but if so I apparently can`t even find this file from my computer:
Geoff the Medio wrote:Delete config.xml in

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\FreeOrion
I am using Windows XP with Service Pack 2 as my operating system and version 0.3.8 run fine on my computer. Any thoughts?

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