Saturday, September 8, 2012
Creepy interface issues
Starting construction on an item: while passing through the NEW OBJECTIVES" popup, the cursor loses focus. The only solution was to dismiss the N/O popup before starting the construction selection.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Gameplay comments
(Yeah, it's not Flash related, but, in a sense, it is, because the only interface in Empire to the gameplay engine is through Flash.)
Get rid of all the housekeeping bullshit. Someone commented on SimCity xx00 by asking: does the mayor of a city poke around in every single problem to make sure it gets resolved? Maybe in a small, small town but not in any more than modest sized one. Same complaint here. Why do I have to fiddle with all the details to make any progress in Empire? Frankly, the idea of having to check all these tiny tiny things when I am ten levels higher makes me cringe.
Does the American general in charge of the forces in Afghanistan check to make sure checks are distributed correctly on payday? OK, I'll stop, but you get my point.
If the connection drops for a few seconds when the Empire screen does not have focus, no re-connection should be necessary.
Get rid of all the housekeeping bullshit. Someone commented on SimCity xx00 by asking: does the mayor of a city poke around in every single problem to make sure it gets resolved? Maybe in a small, small town but not in any more than modest sized one. Same complaint here. Why do I have to fiddle with all the details to make any progress in Empire? Frankly, the idea of having to check all these tiny tiny things when I am ten levels higher makes me cringe.
Does the American general in charge of the forces in Afghanistan check to make sure checks are distributed correctly on payday? OK, I'll stop, but you get my point.
If the connection drops for a few seconds when the Empire screen does not have focus, no re-connection should be necessary.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Started playing Empire game (and this is not a rec') today, and saw more abuse of Flash software.
Am running an Asus netbook with two Atom processors--not a gaming computer, but more than adequate for most tasks. Yet, when I am playing Empire (via Chrome), cpu usage climbs to 80 to 90 percent and the Empire cursor crawls across the screen. Now, we're not talking about a real 3d sim, nor are we talking about photo-realistic graphics (they're adequate):
I submit to you, dear reader, that Empire is a novel use of Flash and it is amazing that Flash can run the front-end of this game, but it is painfully obvious there is a misfit here. Why does the Roller Coaster Tycoon game run an order of magnitude faster, and more smoothly, on older hardware?
My direct comparison is to Tribal Wars (although I cannot speak to the underlying gameplay engine just yet.) Empire is an interesting take on the front-end; things are a lot livelier and the little animations make things look a bit more realistic, but I guess my question is: why did I pay for these slight improvements with a trade-off for almost glacial response?
A review of the game; we both agree the user interface needs work.
Am running an Asus netbook with two Atom processors--not a gaming computer, but more than adequate for most tasks. Yet, when I am playing Empire (via Chrome), cpu usage climbs to 80 to 90 percent and the Empire cursor crawls across the screen. Now, we're not talking about a real 3d sim, nor are we talking about photo-realistic graphics (they're adequate):
I submit to you, dear reader, that Empire is a novel use of Flash and it is amazing that Flash can run the front-end of this game, but it is painfully obvious there is a misfit here. Why does the Roller Coaster Tycoon game run an order of magnitude faster, and more smoothly, on older hardware?
My direct comparison is to Tribal Wars (although I cannot speak to the underlying gameplay engine just yet.) Empire is an interesting take on the front-end; things are a lot livelier and the little animations make things look a bit more realistic, but I guess my question is: why did I pay for these slight improvements with a trade-off for almost glacial response?
A review of the game; we both agree the user interface needs work.
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