I havent tryed the demo yet but i would like to comment on the screenshots i have seen.
The hud looks okish but a bit messy in some parts, the top bars 2 of em i think which i guess are shield and hull look a bit big and not very nice to look at. The cockpit in general looks ok but it could be filled out a bit more with moving some of the central hud info into the cockpit area as a dial or monitor. The central indicators I would look at freespace 2 for the hud for the center of the screen as its wonderfully layed out and has all the right info where it needs to be. Also use some transparency on some bits so you can see the ships through them more etc.
Also look for more tips on hud design and implimention from freespace 2 as in squad info, and if you have the ability to switch energy to engines shields or weapons to do something similar as fs2 did there as well. Also i really liked fs2 icon in 3d of the ship you were locked on and saw its shields status by indicators and also hull damage. I really wish some other space game did this as its rare to see but really nice to have.
I have dled the demo i will be trying it soon, i hope i get a good experiance from it as i like fs2 so im hoping something similar.
I do like the gfx but some parts look a bit low res namely the planet textures as in blotchy or pixel looking. Could these be improved perhaps before release? I know its a cheek to say but after seeing how planets can look by a very small development company with very limited resources (egosoft x3 reunion) i do wonder if these could be improved to match or beat egosofts gfx. Tho not a huge priority for me as i want gameplay above gfx but as i said if egosoft can do them and there a tiny development company then i wonder if you guys can do just as good. I hope so.
As even tho i like x games i am a bit tired of the same game from them so after something new which is proving hard as theres been a few space games out and there all been a bit dire to say the lease. Your game has promise tho. So best of luck with it and ill keep my eyes on the forums for posts regarding gameplay and gfx in the future.
--
Edited :
Ok tryed the demo the game seems very nice, the text is a strain to read when ** res is 1280x and very hard with 1600x res on a 19" crt screen. So possibly look into this as i dont wana put my eyes right near the screen to read all the time lol.
The hud isnt too bad but as i said previously their is room for improvement especially the enemy ships hull and shield indicator as i would recommend placing it at the very top not about a inch down from the top as its in the way.
Some effects need polish the transwarp thing where a cap ship comes from the ring of electric thingy has visable looping it should appear seamless. The explosion effects need some polish as they look too fake at the moment and the shockwave is too big for fighters blowing up. Also i could barely hear a nice explosion when i kill them id like to hear a nicer and louder explosion but i know ** not supose to hear sound in space but lets leave that part of realism out shall we for infavour of fun and gameplay experiance.
Can the waypoint colour be white instead of pink?
I have a x1950pro card 512mb agp and i get shimmering on textures and models arnt smooth and im using 16x af with HQ on and 6x AA, it doesnt look like aa is working so i'd like to know how to get it working and possibly can you put antriscopic filtering and anti antilising options in the game options screen as well as resolution chaning instead of doing it outside of the game.
I think thats it for now with the critaism which i hope i didnt get too bad with as i tryed to keep it constructive as i could.
