Build 47

[rob]

Hello Brave Testers!

We have just pushed build 47 live. Changes include:

* Improve resource (texture, memory) reclamation, especially at death
* Improve framerate by putting all lasers in a single nd2d cloud
* Add first type of item: protomodules
* Start on short-term item storage (no actual saving, just display)
* Add glassy background to chatbox & text input box
* Fade out chatbox after a period of idleness (pgdn to show it again)
* Make tank stop on menu open (we may undo this eventually)
* Revamp trigger UI to match item/protomodule UI style

As I've mentioned in other posts, protomodules don't and won't have any in-game effect; we are using them to implement collection, storage, trading and crafting. We'll be fleshing out these systems as fast as we can.

We are also trying out a new user interface style. Not that we really had an old one! It was just a hodgepodge of whatever we could get working quickly. The new style was suggested by Amit, and it's based on frameless translucent colored rectangles. Amit was inspired by the clean, see-through design of the player shield display that Craig Schwartz built last summer. We'll be slowly rolling out this new style to the rest of the UI elements over the coming weeks.

We gave out more invitations -- everyone who's played in the last 2 weeks should have at least 5 invites to give out. Please invite your friends to play!

As always, thank you so much for playing Grid 12. We really appreciate your feedback.

Rob & Tim

[quicklite]

If one of us did get invites, how would we know? I'm not saying that I definitely did or did not get one (and I'm fine with not getting one), but if I did, I'm not sure how I'd be notified of such :/.

[tarbomb]

I love the new styles. Borderless colored rectangles that move smoothly look great and very metro-like. Hopefully the prism pane, crystal buttons, and top right controls will be upgraded to the new frameless look too.

The storage seems to be working so far, but the location of the pop-up in the center of the screen means that opening it up in battle could cause massive disorientation in battle. The side would be a better place for this. Or, better yet, revamp the left side completely and have new items (and announcements - e.g. +100000 GS for clearing a region) all appear there, with old notifications and items disappearing as new ones entered. Clicking on the notification area would expand it downwards (covering the chat region) to show the full inventory view.

The disappearing chat window is just plain annoying. Having a bright box flash on and off at the corner of your screen is distracting and doesn't really improve gameplay. Instead, vanishing should be done on a message-by-message basis: a message lasts some amount of time before it disappears. That way, recent messages which can provide context remain on the screen, while older ones fall off individually as they age. Also, why page down to see the chatbox? Wouldn't page up make more sense?

Clicking on the chatbar still causes a click in the game window.

Pet peeve: the trigger icon for forward blink still looks like backwards blink.

quicklite: run /codes in-game.

[zub]

Random observations:
Protomodules shown on the left don't make a sequence and cover each other when you get more at the same time.
Teleporting zoomed out (into a battle?) results in unresponsive client for a second.
Getting lot of loot at once causes short term lag.
I would appreciate different background for loading and loaded triggers.
Background for textbox seems to be disruptive at the first sight.

[sven]

Performance Problems

Note: I used Fire Fox when testing, practically it's the only web browser I relied on... (Flash Player up to date: 11,7,700,169 As of April 24 2013)

• Each excessive use of the zoom feature with the mouse wheel or Q/E on a town area while moving (regardless of upgrades or amount of surrounding buffs/ debuffs) , the screen gets frozen temporary and the tank jumped couple spaces over. It happen aggressively If I wanted to zoom out to view which town I can teleport to. Should this be classified as Frame Drops, although I don't have anything running in the background nor seeing particle bursts? Refreshing doesn't help.
  
• Teleporting to a group of three (from what I've tried) appears to share the similar issue although I'm seeing rubber-band effect where users are moving out of places, I've taken damage by the minions when I did make that teleport... I couldn't see what was happening at the time just the after effects.
  

Bugs?

• Why is it possible that we can highlight (through cursor) the text within the input chatbox, is it really necessary? I griped upon this because it looks distracting...
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Also, there's a blank lined space after typing /help.
  
  
  
  
  

[quicklite]

tarbomb, thanks man

Though I'm not a fan of the new trigger interface. I like the new symbols, but compared to the rest of the interface, its size, color, and style just sticks out like a sore thumb imo. But I love the new shields, the new chat bar and the new prisms. They look far more refined and fluid, and are a nice aesthetical touch. I do get random, but painful lag spikes when I play in-game though.

And as for protomodules, for anyone wondering, there is only one type, and the levels range from 1-10. However, something that really bugs me is that they only drop from small fortresses. If this is intentional, then so be it, but when doing some clearing on my blue sector today I noticed that I got a buttload of protomods from small fortresses (including 4 lvl10 ones), but I never got one from any watchtower or drill that I fought.

[rob]

About protomods dropping from small enemies...they are for testing, they don't do anything, relax man! Real loot will drop from real enemies.

[quicklite]

I am relaxed, I was just...confused, I guess
Your logic makes plenty of sense, but I was just wondering if it was intentional or just a hilarious mishap ^^

[hypevosa]

Aww, and here I was hoping protomodules dropped from small enemies to encourage clearing and give the small enemies a purpose for all players to kill.

[sven]

The chat box has a crisp and clean transition whenever it's not in use is quite resourceful of interface use! When a new text message is shown, it gets blatant... :\ Sort of ruins the momentum, doesn't effect the game-play but doesn't transits well. How about an option to keep the entire chatbox transparent? It would look as if it was display through a hologram built in.

The new trigger designs looks tacky at first, but later I got in over it. The simple surreal style resembles to the radical nuclear symbols or should I say road signs. ^^; I'm looking forward to the overall UI change.

Edit: I just noticed the note on the previous build... Please disregard the message that I make about the map doesn't update. I assume it counts to traveling through minions as well. (Screen Sample)

[rob]

I found and fixed a bug in the bulk invite code generator. Those that have logged in within the last 2 weeks should have at least 5 codes now. The script had been counting used codes against you.

[amitp]

I like the new UI elements

[sven]

Apr 24, 2013 12:24:08 GMT -5 rob said:

* Make tank stop on menu open (we may undo this eventually)

Aye, the tank did go for a halt when a menu pops up. The q/e zoom key can be jam when on hold then opening menu causes it to stuck until press the zoom keys again respectively. It's very minor, idling still kicks off as it suppose to since no moving made but the zoom which doesn't count.

As for the graphics...

• The map icon for the Delta Refinery [Large Triangular] has the top tip chipped off! (A bit detail gripe)
  
• When there's enemy within a town, the edge view tends to react differently while the tiles are conflicting to one another. (Screen1, Screen2)
  
• Can you please lighten up the solar region (Interface and Area) just a slight? Apparently, I finally accepted amitp's year old advice on tired restoration so I took small steps by lower the brightness setting on the computer screen along with using F.lux. This happens the time after Build 44... Usually the brightness was set up to 90%, until the advice took place which is now 80%. The solar region is nearly dark as the void of unexplored areas.
  
  tl;dr - I accepted change of brightness to restore my ability to be tired again. Before, the brightness was 90% the hue of magenta is seen on solar region, After 80% brightness, the solar region is dim as the void. Changing the brightness is quite inconvenience when the the color of the solar region supposedly be a bright region, imo.
  

[Vipname]

Hello everyone. I was invited by Mr.kakugo yesterday.
First of all,I would like to thank the developers who provide us with this great game.
Because I'm really newbie,I would like to mention fine comment about Grid12 after I have sufficiently skilled.

The only one point that I noticed is the distant view after teleporting.
Although we must zoom out to teleport to a player who is far away,zoom level is also fixed after teleporting.
In such a case,I felt it is troublesome to zoom in after teleporting.

Since I still have not read through the article in the past,please skip if you're already discussed.
Thx.

[gingerbear]

The new build has a really smootr graphics, but at the cost of having an almost constant mini rubberbanding effects, at least for me...

I like the new UI, except for one small detail. Could the protomodules be sorted together? I find it a bit uncanny having to scroll through all of them if I want to find one (I know they don't do a thing, but let's assume they will), It would be a little more comfortable if I saw for example Module Lvl 5 (x6), instead of 6 pieces scattered all around the pages.