Posted November 02, 2012
I installed M.A.X. to study it. Unfortunately, Dosbox-titles never run as they should. The sound stutters sometimes and the performance varies depending on the amount of objects shown.
The interface is clunky. It's a title from 1996, but that does not explain some of the bad decisions, which were made. If you play with time-pressure, you need to give out a lot of commands. Then you have to cope not only with the Dosbox-lag, but with several other issues.
Hotkeys are mostly absent. The manual sometimes even states them wrong., e. g. 'e' stands for enter, not for 'end turn'. The 'enter'-key ends the turn. Most display-filters are missing, except 'g' for toggling the grid. Many more options could have been programmed into it, even if it's a DOS / Win 95-title. The technology wasn't limited in that regard.
The interface is often dualistic and ambiguously structured. Both symbols and numbers are shown for many statistics. Units can build structures without clicking the build button, while structures, which can queue, have that one. There's a question-mark-button and the right-click-option to access information about objects. Their functions are overlapping, but not the same. The interface is bristling with useless functions, although everything should be focused on max overview. Instead, it's often max gimmicks. What about the play-pause-thingy on objects? Just transfer it into the options. The survey-indicator is not triggered, when they surveyor is selected. Surveying numbers are hard to read. Hits, which denote hit-points, have a green bar, as well as ammo.
The pure left-click-interface is a problem. Many miss-clicks can happen and there's no reason, why every command should be given with only one mouse-key. It was probably done, because some people were using a gimped one-button-mouse. But that makes M.A.X. also gimped.
Not only the graphics are ugly, but the presentation is not able to supply the user with the amount of information, which is necessary to assess the situation. Once a few filters are applied, the pixels-mash get overwritten with other pixels. Names are cut, when you zoom out. Tiles on the map are designed in a mis-leading way. What sometimes looks like a ramp is in fact a solid barrier.
That's my first impression after finishing the 15 tutorial missions successfully.
When the performance issues are fixed, I might take a look at the concepts, because that is what's really interesting.
edit: The screenshot shows why it is not advised to play M.A.X. without additional health insurance contracts for eye and vision.
edit2: Only four of nine filters were switched on.
The interface is clunky. It's a title from 1996, but that does not explain some of the bad decisions, which were made. If you play with time-pressure, you need to give out a lot of commands. Then you have to cope not only with the Dosbox-lag, but with several other issues.
Hotkeys are mostly absent. The manual sometimes even states them wrong., e. g. 'e' stands for enter, not for 'end turn'. The 'enter'-key ends the turn. Most display-filters are missing, except 'g' for toggling the grid. Many more options could have been programmed into it, even if it's a DOS / Win 95-title. The technology wasn't limited in that regard.
The interface is often dualistic and ambiguously structured. Both symbols and numbers are shown for many statistics. Units can build structures without clicking the build button, while structures, which can queue, have that one. There's a question-mark-button and the right-click-option to access information about objects. Their functions are overlapping, but not the same. The interface is bristling with useless functions, although everything should be focused on max overview. Instead, it's often max gimmicks. What about the play-pause-thingy on objects? Just transfer it into the options. The survey-indicator is not triggered, when they surveyor is selected. Surveying numbers are hard to read. Hits, which denote hit-points, have a green bar, as well as ammo.
The pure left-click-interface is a problem. Many miss-clicks can happen and there's no reason, why every command should be given with only one mouse-key. It was probably done, because some people were using a gimped one-button-mouse. But that makes M.A.X. also gimped.
Not only the graphics are ugly, but the presentation is not able to supply the user with the amount of information, which is necessary to assess the situation. Once a few filters are applied, the pixels-mash get overwritten with other pixels. Names are cut, when you zoom out. Tiles on the map are designed in a mis-leading way. What sometimes looks like a ramp is in fact a solid barrier.
That's my first impression after finishing the 15 tutorial missions successfully.
When the performance issues are fixed, I might take a look at the concepts, because that is what's really interesting.
edit: The screenshot shows why it is not advised to play M.A.X. without additional health insurance contracts for eye and vision.
edit2: Only four of nine filters were switched on.
Post edited October 11, 2013 by Perscienter