Bugs and thoughts on the CCGM P&C Beta

[AegisPrime]

Hi everyone - long-time fan of CC on the Amiga and thrilled to be able to play BI's re-imagining of it - noticed a few things in my play-throughs though - some of these will be familiar to you (just adding my voice) other have possibly gone unnoticed so I'm posting them here

1) Production is agonizingly slow - this may improve when you have more islands in the final game but right now it's painful (I spend a lot of time just 'time-warping' back and forth between islands so I can build stuff) - either it needs to be sped up or a 'global' time-warp button needs to be added to accelerate the game.

2) Crashes - this game crashes a lot - just random lock-ups and freezes - sometimes when quitting - overall it feels very unstable.

3) Carrier difficulty - is it just me, or does the enemy carrier either seem incredibly strong (I once had it nuke all my systems in under a minute) or incredibly weak (I've caught up with it several times and blown it to bits without sustaining any damage whatsoever) - enemy carrier A.I. seems just really - off. Seems strange that it doesn't release Mantas or Walruses either? Also, when you sink it - it uh - just sits there - could we have it sink? (in CC it actually blew to bits).

4) Sort-of related - I've actually suffered more damage at the hands of some Walruses chasing me from an island blowing the c**p out of me with rockets - makes the enemy carrier just seem kind of anti-climatic.

5) And speaking of that - why do we win when we capture the penultimate island? I want to win the game by capturing them all!

6) I've noticed what I consider a bug with the carrier's defensive/offensive targetting - if you're near it, it'll target an island's command center - I tried carrying a Walrus equipped with a hack module via a Manta, fought my way past lots of enemies, dropped off the Walrus only to find the carrier had blown the command center to bits

7) Oh, and if you leave the carrier in range and build a new command center, it'll start shooting at that too

8) Which may or may not have caused another bug - in one instance I set up a command center only to find (when it was built) that it wasn't defence, mining or factory (wasn't doing anything in fact) and it wouldn't let me change it to one of those (and weirdly, when I tried it put a big, blue 'X' over it on the map - wha..??)

9) Oh, and why doesn't the carrier defend itself when you have it selected (as opposed to the Mantas or the Walruses) - I like watching stuff happen from the carrier view but if you use that and you're under attack the carrier won't fight back

So that's my first impressions - despite its quirks though, I love this game - can wait to play the finished version - good job BI!!

*AAARGH!* Here's another bugbear - had a run in with the enemy carrier - both of us took some heavy damage - he runs leaving his Walruses behind which happily do more damage to me than the carrier did - I plot a course to follow and finish the job but my engines have been taken out by the Walruses. Thing is, I can't launch anything because I'm 'not stationary' even though my engines are out - I proceed to get the c**p kicked out of me even though I've got a (working) hangar full of Mantas and Walruses

[Gazzareth]

1) It can be very slow, especially if you do not have enough resource islands to keep up with your production - should be better with more islands though AND there is a slider to alter this in the full game.

2) Not had any crashes since Beta 2

3) If the enemy carrier gets the jump on you then it can wipe you out pretty quickly - and vice versa, seems Ok to me. Oh and it did release Manta's & Walruses when I came across it ..

4) Especially if you don't see them come and attack .. ..

5) I guess that would be a bug (just on the penultimate island in my current game)

6) & 7) Never come across it - although I have manually attacked the command centre with the carrier and rebuilt without the issue... Thinking about it, was there anything the carrier may have been targeting behind the Command Centre ??

8) Not seen that - bug ??

9) Known bug.


G

[JuggernautOfWar]

Please delete post if you can moderator.

[AegisPrime]

6) & 7) Never come across it - although I have manually attacked the command centre with the carrier and rebuilt without the issue... Thinking about it, was there anything the carrier may have been targeting behind the Command Centre ??
G

Nope - my carrier has it in for command centers I have to make sure the carrier is out of range if I'm planning to hack one

[OnyxBMW]

I've only done 1 game, so keep this in mind:

1) Hopefully won't be a problem in live with the production speed slider, but the bigger issue appears to be that you can't warp without running around between islands. Would be nice to time warp without treading water.
2) Haven't noticed any crashes/lock ups in the ~2 hours I tried the game so far. As a note, I wasn't playing on or near max graphics, so this might be contributing.
3) Definitely noticed the Carrier AI being off. When I finally ran into it, we met bow to bow. It destroyed me because if I ever enlarged the carrier view to steer it, my guns would stop firing outright (as you mention later). But, then I found a different problem. I got around behind it, manually took over the quads, killed all the units they sent out after me, and then destroyed their turrets with my remaining quads (it had wrecked all my drones, mantas', walrus', destroyed the port batteries and the main gun). Maneuvered my ship to approach theirs from behind, and just hammered away at the ship without issue or difficulty. It just sat there. Took a minute or 2 for the offensive gun to finally come back up, but once it did I just manually fired it at the carrier until it finally died. had no indication of what health it had, though, so I didn't even know I was destroying it until I got the end-of-game message. Definitely needs some help, though. Other things of note, would be nice if I could tell my carrier to attack theirs, since if I lose all my units, yeah...
4) Haven't noticed this, but the balance seems off between what actually damages what. Overall the carrier seems simultaneously too vulnerable and too well armed at the same time.
5) Haven't won the game this way yet
6) I noticed this as well. It seems the gun is supposed to bombard the island emplacements, but it only seems to go after certain things. Would be nice if it was consistent and that you could tell it what to shoot automatically and so on.
7) Thankfully it at least has a shield while building...
8) Didn't notice this, doesn't mean it didn't happen, however.
9) Yeah. This needs to be fixed. It won't even defend itself if you're on one of the guns. Have to basically be selecting something else entirely while maneuvering the carrier. This is near-gamebreaking a bug.

The game has a fairly long way to go, but my initial impressions are still positive.

And, honestly, considering we're supposed to be a commander of a carrier ship, I'd much prefer the vehicles I haul around were more powerful than the carrier I'm using. I mean, I may as well be in a battleship with 1 offensive gun with how it's set up. Hell, when I played, the walrus and mantas weren't even shooting at my carrier or in general being threatening to my ship. They caused a lot of damage, yes, but I still got behind the carrier and destroyed it because of the limited weapon firing arcs and the strange AI on the guns and enemies.

[AegisPrime]

Thanks for sharing that! It's interesting to read other peoples thoughts an experiences with the game.

Despite all the bugs and the frustrations though, I have to say I'm loving CCGM

Yesterday I took a sortie of 4 Mantas and 4 Walruses out to soften up an island - took out a few major targets but was getting pummeled so I ordered a retreat - as I headed back to the carrier it opened fire with all weapons on my pursuers - enemy Mantas and Walruses were exploding all around me as I limped back to the deck - everyone made it back 'alive' - freaking awesome - I had the biggest grin on my face - what a game!

*Edit* In a way, it's a shame BI felt they needed to added the first-person campaign - CC really doesn't need it - all the elements are there (even in the beta) for a kick-ass arcade/strategy game - if they'd invested the time spent on the campaign polishing the strategy game until it shined we'd have had an all-time classic and probably the best reworking of an old game ever. CC isn't a game about experiencing someone else's story - it's about making your own epic story within the world it gives you. Still, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the final version of the strategy game fixes all these issues and adds more to the experience.

*Edit 2* Just managed to get a lone, crippled Walrus back to the carrier - chased by 4 enemy Mantas taking pot shots at me - as the carrier loomed out of the mist ahead of me bright blue bolts of plasma shot from its bow and broken, flaming pieces of Manta showered down around me as it took out all four in a few seconds

[JuggernautOfWar]

One of the biggest problems I'm having is units not engaging the enemy. They will line them up perfectly in their sights, but then they won't shoot half the time. I have to take control of them and manually fire to get anything done reliably. Basically the AI suffers from ArmA2 symptoms of staring at enemies without engaging. Has BIS announced any changes or fixes they have made from our feedback? These forums seem pretty dead...

[Harbinger]

I completely agree with you Juggernaut - units not engaging targets that they have a firing solution on, is the most utterly frustrating aspect of the beta.

I really hope it gets fixed.

[Gazzareth]

One of the biggest problems I'm having is units not engaging the enemy. They will line them up perfectly in their sights, but then they won't shoot half the time. I have to take control of them and manually fire to get anything done reliably. Basically the AI suffers from ArmA2 symptoms of staring at enemies without engaging. Has BIS announced any changes or fixes they have made from our feedback? These forums seem pretty dead...

They made some changes from suggestions / bugs on Beta v1 - although we heard very little until Beta v2 came out - lets hope we get a v3 soon !!

G

[JuggernautOfWar]

I completely agree with you Juggernaut - units not engaging targets that they have a firing solution on, is the most utterly frustrating aspect of the beta.

I really hope it gets fixed.

Yes it is. It ruins the testing experience for me. Everything I have dies due to staring at the enemy, firing only rarely. Quite frustrating.