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[increpare]

I have to say that I also think it looks great (I really like the glow, and the colour-scheme).  I know I was supposed to test it out, but I've had internet/windows problems recently, so :/

[Alex May]

Thanks fellas. I was a bit worried that I caused those problems by having you install .NET 2.0. I hope it wasn't too deleterious to your system!

[shrimp]

Looking sweet! Love the little seedling graphics

(now that I can actually see them )

[Bezzy]

Well, time to give up!

Haowan and Boratso have won. (Again).

[increpare]

Thanks fellas. I was a bit worried that I caused those problems by having you install .NET 2.0. I hope it wasn't too deleterious to your system!

Nah; .net is the least of my problems!

[Alex May]

We'd like to get as much feedback as possible about the latest build.

You can get the game here.

Please have a look and tell us what you think! Hope you enjoy it!

[Tasoth]

Amazingly awesome game Haowan. And now for the demands  .

Code:

Completely Unnecessary Listo of Demans for Dyson

Gen. Gameplay Options:
	-ability to pan and zoom during a pause.

	-Mass move button.

	-increase icon size for seeds and plants.


Different sized asteroids:
	-Maybe 2, one that lets you get away with 1.5x the number of plants and the other that halves the total.

Map size:
	-Give us some options. Perhaps the demo's map could be the small setting, with a tiny one that is just a smaller pocket of asteroids. Higher settings could add additional belts, or rings around planets. Having random pockets of asteroids away from the main belt might be neat. 

	-Comets could be the main means of movement between belts or used as a lifeboat in event of an emergency.

Botanists A-gogo!

Plant options:
	-As a 4x player, I demand research options! Division maybe between shoot, roots and seeds? 
	-Shoot would open up unique possibilities at the cost of seed production, such as one shot engines to move an asteroid out of the belt, grow one or more together to pull total seed number, +/- modifiers for attacking/defending seeds.

	-Root I have no clue about. Maybe buffing core health, making plants harder to remove, speed up plant growth, etc.

	-Seeds just affects seed abilities with modifiers for combat, maybe the ability to spawn more then one plant when taking over a 'roid, etc.

Really, Really Unnecessary options:

	-Choice between Real time or turn based at the start up screen. This is awesome as is, but would make one helluva 4x.

[Alex May]

Completely Unnecessary Listo of Demans for Dyson

Gen. Gameplay Options:
   -ability to pan and zoom during a pause.

   -Mass move button.

   -increase icon size for seeds and plants.


Different sized asteroids:
   -Maybe 2, one that lets you get away with 1.5x the number of plants and the other that halves the total.

Map size:
   -Give us some options. Perhaps the demo's map could be the small setting, with a tiny one that is just a smaller pocket of asteroids. Higher settings could add additional belts, or rings around planets. Having random pockets of asteroids away from the main belt might be neat.

   -Comets could be the main means of movement between belts or used as a lifeboat in event of an emergency.

Botanists A-gogo!

Plant options:
   -As a 4x player, I demand research options! Division maybe between shoot, roots and seeds?
   -Shoot would open up unique possibilities at the cost of seed production, such as one shot engines to move an asteroid out of the belt, grow one or more together to pull total seed number, +/- modifiers for attacking/defending seeds.

   -Root I have no clue about. Maybe buffing core health, making plants harder to remove, speed up plant growth, etc.

   -Seeds just affects seed abilities with modifiers for combat, maybe the ability to spawn more then one plant when taking over a 'roid, etc.

Really, Really Unnecessary options:

   -Choice between Real time or turn based at the start up screen. This is awesome as is, but would make one helluva 4x.

Thanks Tasoth, glad you enjoyed it. There's some great feedback int here, some of which we'd already identified as problems, so it's good to see we're ont he right track!

(I think Borsato will also love some of those suggestions since many of them are actually dropped features form the original design )

[boxbreaker]

I just took over all the asteroids and its really nice.  I was red and my opponents were yellow, blue and black.  Yellow was eliminated very early.  Black had several asteroids, but never attacked.  Blue lasted the longest as he was on the opposite side.  Overall very easy to take over everything.

Just one little quirk/bug I noticed. I started near the top (12:00).  Blue was near about 6:00-6:30.  I expanded both directions.  When my clockwise group got to 5:30ish I tried to finish off blues last few asteroids, however, instead of heading to them like normal, they started going all the way around counter clockwise. I had to finish him off with my counter clockwise force.

[shinygerbil]

This is beautiful 

More variety would obviously be welcome, and I'd like to see a way to select multiple asteroids and then send their seedlings all at once, but apart from that it's all good

Oh, and more asteroids, multiple stars, more AIs, more aggressive AIs too. Basically more game :D

[Melly]

Let me be the first to say that this game looks crazy gorgeous.

The interface is fairly intuitive, and it doesn't take too long to figure out what to do. and it's really awesome to see the seedling traveling around and the plants growing.

That game's quite difficult, however. I'm not sure the interface is fit to manage so many asteroids, and the AI is relentless, at least in my experience. Easier game modes would go a long way.

Still, It's pretty fun.

Oh, and maybe keep the enemy seedlings from being able to circle my asteroids harmlessly, if you feel that would enhance the strategy.

[Lancer]

Fun game, but I spent about an hour and a half playing and I couldn't win. The final asteroid I didn't own was invincible. No matter how many units I sent to it the asteroid's health stayed constant as they collided with the asteroid and exploded. The reason the asteroid's health was constant was because a tree was stuck in the planting process. One of the roots kept going around that upside down house shape and couldn't reach the core.

One feature that would be nice to have is a key that would display the number of trees and units on every one of your asteroids. That would make it a lot easier to keep track of what you're doing when you have a lot of asteroids to manage.

[Gainsworthy]

Ah, calm, beautiful galactic domination. We don't get enough of these. Difficult, too.

Suggestions echoing my thoughts have been listed, though I'd love to see some more interesting random planetary effects. Even if it's just cosmetic- extra wild life, things living below the planet's surface (extra tough to conquer), or odd little artifacts which could be transported from asteroid to asteroid to give them a much needed boost.

[Alex May]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Just one little quirk/bug I noticed. I started near the top (12:00).  Blue was near about 6:00-6:30.  I expanded both directions.  When my clockwise group got to 5:30ish I tried to finish off blues last few asteroids, however, instead of heading to them like normal, they started going all the way around counter clockwise. I had to finish him off with my counter clockwise force.

Thanks for this - sometimes the asteroids get so spread out that the networking stage leaves a gap in the ring and you end up with a C-shape for a path netowrk. i'll try and think of ways to fix that in a fool-proof way.

That game's quite difficult, however. I'm not sure the interface is fit to manage so many asteroids, and the AI is relentless, at least in my experience. Easier game modes would go a long way.

Still, It's pretty fun.

Oh, and maybe keep the enemy seedlings from being able to circle my asteroids harmlessly, if you feel that would enhance the strategy.

Thanks Melly 

Yes, I think I might make the seedlings that are travelling staly much further away from the asteroids. It's confusing people.

It's interesting that you found it difficult while others found it really easy. I wonder if it has to do with how well the AI developed in the early game.

(btw, I think your problems with XNA are not to do with .net 2.0, as this game requires that to be installed and working!)

Fun game, but I spent about an hour and a half playing and I couldn't win. The final asteroid I didn't own was invincible. No matter how many units I sent to it the asteroid's health stayed constant as they collided with the asteroid and exploded. The reason the asteroid's health was constant was because a tree was stuck in the planting process. One of the roots kept going around that upside down house shape and couldn't reach the core.

One feature that would be nice to have is a key that would display the number of trees and units on every one of your asteroids. That would make it a lot easier to keep track of what you're doing when you have a lot of asteroids to manage.

Thanks Lancer - I'm really sorry about that bug. I thought I had "fixed" it by timing out the root growth program after a certain time, but it's clearly not working / taking far too long. I'll find a more foolproof way to fix it. Again, really sorry about that

Overview trees/units, noted. Thanks!

Ah, calm, beautiful galactic domination. We don't get enough of these. Difficult, too.

Suggestions echoing my thoughts have been listed, though I'd love to see some more interesting random planetary effects. Even if it's just cosmetic- extra wild life, things living below the planet's surface (extra tough to conquer), or odd little artifacts which could be transported from asteroid to asteroid to give them a much needed boost.

Cheers Gainsworthy, yep, would love to add more meat to it really, but it was hard enough getting to this stage with AI that was even remotely challenging! Really didn't think the AI through either, so it's all a bit of a mess.

[Melly]

Well, I figured out that playing defensively is a big waste of time. The best way is very agreesive colonization as fast as possible (and quickly expanding all the asteroids you get). if you're being attack in one front just keep fighting back while furiously expanding the other front and you should eventually win.

I also got the invulnerable asteroid bug. Once it was around the beginning of the game, last time it was the last asteroid, which I couldn't colonize because of that, so I couldn't win.

Have I told you how gorgeous this is? I kind of feel that the hectic way you have to play in order to win goes a bit against the game's atmosphere, which imply a more serene gameplay. It's probably the reason I was having problems beating it before, I was so mellowed out that the enemy overran me.

[Hideous]

It crashes during the loading 

[Alex May]

It crashes during the loading 

Hmm, jollifish was getting this too. Seemed to hang and stop responding on the loading screen. Is that the case for you? How long before you gave up?

Well, I figured out that playing defensively is a big waste of time. The best way is very agreesive colonization as fast as possible (and quickly expanding all the asteroids you get). if you're being attack in one front just keep fighting back while furiously expanding the other front and you should eventually win.

Yeah - I think because there's no penalty for moving seeds past enemy asteroids, it makes defensive play completely moot. Thinking to fix that maybe maybe maybe

[Alex May]

We've updated the game parameters a bit and fixed some minor UI issues (near-invisible tiny seedlings for example). We also increased the possible number of enemy factions to 10 and fixed the palettes.

If you downloaded it before, please grab the patch (edit: patch removed. please download the full version instead:)) instead, which is a much smaller download that updates the program but doesn't include all the runtimes and music etc.

[Hideous]

It crashes during the loading 

Hmm, jollifish was getting this too. Seemed to hang and stop responding on the loading screen. Is that the case for you? How long before you gave up?

It didn't hang at all, I got a "dyson has to close" message.

[Alex May]

It crashes during the loading 

Hmm, jollifish was getting this too. Seemed to hang and stop responding on the loading screen. Is that the case for you? How long before you gave up?

It didn't hang at all, I got a "dyson has to close" message.

And you've definitely installed .NET 2.0? Did you manage to run Cottage of Doom on this machine?