Ah... the Galaxy's Edge maker. I have a few things to say to you.
First off, I have spent the past 2-3 days playing it (in EVO 1.01, though. It's been a long time since I played, and I just found out about the patch), and although the concept seems interesting enough (I was thinking of doing something similar before I found out about yours), various gameplay issues made playing the game seem more like "work".
And now, for the criticism:
1.MODIFY THE !*@&!!@! ALIENS!!! At the very least, either reduce their power or limit the systems they can suddenly appear in (perhaps just the outer systems with no one around). True story: I was taking off from Earth in my little Shuttlecraft. Next thing I know, a horde of aliens shoot in, zoom right by me, and blow me to pieces in the space of 1.3 seconds. I wasn't happy, to say the least.
2.What are all those extra buttons on the personal computer? Distracting...
3.Increase the number of missions. While in EVO, I could get 4-5 new missions by just checking out the Mission Computer, in GE I have to get them via Email (and just one at a time). It wouldn't be so bad, but the chances of getting one are slim, and the cargo missions (the ones that are oh-so-important at the beginning of the game) usually have one of the outer ports as a destination! (Not exactly accessible when all you have is a little shuttlecraft.)
3b.How come there's no government-specific missions right off the bat? I'd assume they'd want something minor, such as delivering cargo to other outposts (come to think of it, I didn't see any other Earth nation outposts besides those around Earth & Mars... is that ALL there is?). I quickly began to think of all the governments as just "a bunch of governments"...
4.Some of the ship graphics have "lines" at the edge of their sprite. It loses a bit of the realism when lines wink in and out around the ships.
5.Increase the range of the Regional Maps! They aren't very useful when the nearest port is more than 2 jumps away, forcing the player to do a bit of suicidal exploration.
6.Work on the energy-generating reactors. The Solar Panels & Kinetic Generators are almost TOO weak, while the Tokamak Reactor appears to be severely overpowered, allowing almost instantaneous regeneration of energy. (The only thing that could suck that baby dry is a trigger-happy laser fanatic.) Not only that, but there's nothing inbetween the Solar Panels & the Tokamaks. Would it be too much to ask for something like a Fission or Biomatter Reactor to fill in the gaps?
7.Speaking of lasers, don't you think they suck out a bit TOO much energy? For a medium ship like a Transporter, a single fight with a fighter sucked out almost FOUR HUNDRED units of fuel. (I should know. I couldn't beat it up and it was regenerating armor faster than my Solar Panel & Kinetic Generators could kick up the juice.) I was pissed that even a Transporter almost maxed out w Power Cells & Solar Panels couldn't build up enough energy to destroy a single dinky fighter, let alone actually try to defend itself. I had better luck with the next fighter (a Widget), but it still sucked out TWO HUNDRED units.
Needless to say I was surprised that the Ruby Laser (which only does 5-8 points of damage per hit) sucked out 10 units of fuel per shot. That was quite a bit... Wouldn't a value like 3-5 units still be enough to keep it "realistic" while allowing enough energy to actually destroy something?
8.A Marine Suit increasing strength by 200 marines? Maybe something like 20, but 200?
9.How come there's hardly any deviation in the cargo prices? I can't really make a selling of anything when everything's the same price (almost) at everywhere.
10.No escape pods? How will I survive?
11.The fighters that warped in had no fuel to shoot with, making them "easy targets". I assume this uses the fuel regen property in 1.02 (which wouldn't work in my 1.01), but I must make sure...
MAIN FLAWS:
Starting out is very tedious, repetitive, and consists too much of guesswork. It gets boring running errands back & forth from Earth & its stations to earn enough money to jump more than just once. (Also, you often get immediately killed by either aliens or the killer robots at the beginning. I should know, I died 3 times before I finally got out of Earth orbit!)
Also, there's no storyline thread to hook on from the start, forcing the player to do generic stuff for quite a while until they build up enough force to TRY to attack something, after which they can start the plot missions. Of course, that's assuming they don't get immediately killed by the A.O.R.F.H. (Aliens Or Robots From Hell)
Finally, things seem to go TOO slow... Ships cost a bundle. It took me 2 days to upgrade my ship in EG; in the original EVO, it took me 2 hours. And yes, I'm still doing trade missions...
CURRENT OPINION:
With a bit of work, this could be a very good conversion. But for now, I can't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the patience of a saint.
MY SCORE SO FAR:
40
I'll think of more when I revisit the game later.
I'm creating a Galaxy's Edge Bar. The bar is located on the International Space Station (y'know, the one that's been taken over by independent spacers). I figure it's a pretty neutral area, so you can be from any government. Oh yeah... and it seems that Cameron Xerxes is out to get us.
reincarnation is sooo fun 