Posted May 13, 2022
Ever since I was a kid and bought a copy of Sentinel Worlds from the cheap-o rack, then learned about Hard Nova from Home of the Underdogs and bought a used copy, I've been a big fan of this kind of game. Squad based gameplay, customizable characters who have skills in both space and on the ground, a wide universe to explore, it's all very fun and immersive. The only real problem I had with those two games was the mostly automated combat in both space and on the ground, and the limited amount of places to explore, but because they're both DOS games, no big deal. Stellar Tactics improves on both those aspects and hits high note after high note from what I've played. Great work!
Here are some things I saw to take a look at that I didn't see others talking about. I didn't include things already mentioned like the problem of attacking an enemy, passing turns to the next character, then having the next character run up instead of attacking too (right click autotarget is a big help on this), but anyway:
- Pitching up and down during space combat has some trouble. Sometimes the ship won't pitch at all and I have to click on "follow" to go after the enemy before I can pitch again, but the more common issue is that pitching directions will randomly swap the up and down controls, even during the same battle. I have my keys set to W and S for pitching down and up, A and D for turning, and Q and E for speed, but the problem persists even if I switch keys to Q and E or the arrow keys, so I don't think it's a key issue.
- Not sure if this is a bug or not, but the turn order often indicates that the enemy should be going next, but I'll suddenly get another huge bunch of turns for my guys out of nowhere. I don't think it's related to surprise because I'll consistently get 2 turns for every turn they get as longer combats go on. I'm playing on Hard mode, not Extreme, if that's part of it.
- Very rarely I'll board and raid a ship with lockers that can't be looted, but they highlight. The lockers were in the same room as the exit airlock door if that helps.
- This was a rare one, but I had one of my characters get stuck falling behind a set of stairs while running around on a ship raid. It only happened once in 20 hours of play, so not a huge issue.
- Another pair of rares, but I had one game where the unprepared autohack tool didn't appear in the container on the Dauntless so I couldn't have that dude get it ready for me, and another where the Spider Queen didn't come out of her cubbyhole and attack no matter how much I ran around her nest. Seriously low priority because of the frequent autosaves at that point, so no biggie.
- There's a typo for ship raiding on the window in space mode where it says "Repairing Sheilds".
- Unarmed weapons are missing graphics in the bottom left window, and even when equipping moddable unarmed weapons, the inventory screen still says mods aren't available. I can still put mods on and take them off, though.
- Keybinds for characters don't persist to space mode. I rebound character keys to 1-4 and it works fine in ground mode, but in space mode, I still need to use F1-F4.
- The 2 Handed Sword special move (Pierce? Lunge? Thrust?) seems to move way too slow like it's just touching the tip to the enemy. If the animation were as powerpacked, quick and grody as the spear one, that would be perfect. I seriously wince when I see the spear one, it's so beastly.
- I can't scroll diagonally with my mouse in ground mode, but I can with my keyboard.
- It would be great to be able to right click to make characters change facing (as long as I don't right click an enemy, which should autotarget) to save time.
- Most of the grenade icons in the bottom left during ground mode are missing.
- When running out of an item by using it up (the last medikit, the last gas grenade...), it leaves a grey box behind in the inventory. The box goes away when dragging an item onto it.
Looking forward to the next update and keep up the great work! :V
Here are some things I saw to take a look at that I didn't see others talking about. I didn't include things already mentioned like the problem of attacking an enemy, passing turns to the next character, then having the next character run up instead of attacking too (right click autotarget is a big help on this), but anyway:
- Pitching up and down during space combat has some trouble. Sometimes the ship won't pitch at all and I have to click on "follow" to go after the enemy before I can pitch again, but the more common issue is that pitching directions will randomly swap the up and down controls, even during the same battle. I have my keys set to W and S for pitching down and up, A and D for turning, and Q and E for speed, but the problem persists even if I switch keys to Q and E or the arrow keys, so I don't think it's a key issue.
- Not sure if this is a bug or not, but the turn order often indicates that the enemy should be going next, but I'll suddenly get another huge bunch of turns for my guys out of nowhere. I don't think it's related to surprise because I'll consistently get 2 turns for every turn they get as longer combats go on. I'm playing on Hard mode, not Extreme, if that's part of it.
- Very rarely I'll board and raid a ship with lockers that can't be looted, but they highlight. The lockers were in the same room as the exit airlock door if that helps.
- This was a rare one, but I had one of my characters get stuck falling behind a set of stairs while running around on a ship raid. It only happened once in 20 hours of play, so not a huge issue.
- Another pair of rares, but I had one game where the unprepared autohack tool didn't appear in the container on the Dauntless so I couldn't have that dude get it ready for me, and another where the Spider Queen didn't come out of her cubbyhole and attack no matter how much I ran around her nest. Seriously low priority because of the frequent autosaves at that point, so no biggie.
- There's a typo for ship raiding on the window in space mode where it says "Repairing Sheilds".
- Unarmed weapons are missing graphics in the bottom left window, and even when equipping moddable unarmed weapons, the inventory screen still says mods aren't available. I can still put mods on and take them off, though.
- Keybinds for characters don't persist to space mode. I rebound character keys to 1-4 and it works fine in ground mode, but in space mode, I still need to use F1-F4.
- The 2 Handed Sword special move (Pierce? Lunge? Thrust?) seems to move way too slow like it's just touching the tip to the enemy. If the animation were as powerpacked, quick and grody as the spear one, that would be perfect. I seriously wince when I see the spear one, it's so beastly.
- I can't scroll diagonally with my mouse in ground mode, but I can with my keyboard.
- It would be great to be able to right click to make characters change facing (as long as I don't right click an enemy, which should autotarget) to save time.
- Most of the grenade icons in the bottom left during ground mode are missing.
- When running out of an item by using it up (the last medikit, the last gas grenade...), it leaves a grey box behind in the inventory. The box goes away when dragging an item onto it.
Looking forward to the next update and keep up the great work! :V
