I am pretty much indifferent to Derek Smart now despite having alternately admired/despised him throughout his career. So when I comment on the trailer it is without an opinion on the man behind it or his colorful history.

I watched that trailer and was of two minds. The space sections look tasty in their potential - I'll give this game that much at least. But the ground aspects (presumably this game is going to feature fps combat as all of the 300OAD games since Battlecruiser Millenium) look ... horrid. It's not so much the graphics, which look passable in still shots, but the art, such as it is, is as vanilla as you can get and the animation is utterly abysmal. Ship-to-ship combat has always been 3000AD's strong suit - yes, I actually played and enjoyed Universal Combat when I was commanding a cap ship. The problem has always been too many layers of ugly menus to do anything and the tacked-on and woefully substandard ground fps combat. I like complex games, and I'm not a graphics whore, but it seems that a lot of this series' "complexity" is really just shoddy, lazy design. And when graphics and animations are so bad as to be distracting from the already bad ground combat, even a tolerant fellow like myself is pushed to his limits.

If he were here DS would most certainly tell me that I am not his target audience and whenever I hear that I always say "Bullshit". I am the exact audience for this kind of game. But the delivery has to match the vision, which is where his games lose the massive audience he COULD have for such a game. And that's a shame.

SpectralMeat wrote on Jun 18, 2014, 12:45:

Creston wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 21:46:
Also, holy shit, he got gray! I feel his pain there...

Fending all you trolls off on this board took a lot out of him

Whoa, just snorted on they keyboard...well done!

Creston wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 21:46:
Also, holy shit, he got gray! I feel his pain there...

Fending all you trolls off on this board took a lot out of him

Creston wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 21:46:

SpectralMeat wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 19:26:

Dirwulf wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 17:25:
He couldn't help himself over a PC gamer. HAD to respond to the comments. Get yer popcorn.

There is a reason why his game is called line of defense

To be fair to him, his arguments in that thread are pretty well constructed and thought out. He stands by his freeloader comment, and apparently doesn't understand the sheer lunacy of calling someone who would PAY TO GET EARLY ACCESS a freeloader, but other than that he's finally matured enough where he no longer just engages in pointless flame wars. Good for him.

Also, holy shit, he got gray! I feel his pain there...

Idiot just can't help himself can he?

Beamer wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 17:34:
I mean, I understand thinking that open betas lead to freeloaders. They do - they attract people that just want a free taste of an upcoming game, not people looking to help squash bugs [note: I've been this kind of freeloader many times. There's nothing wrong with it.] This is why most treat open betas as stress tests, not beta tests. It's about testing your servers, not about testing the client. Or, in the new days of data collection, testing balance. But it isn't about soliciting feedback.

But saying you can't do a $30 EA because those people paying $30 would be freeloaders? Odd.

I really don't think this is any different from paying extra for Alpha or Beta access to Planetary Annihilation, or Tides of Numeneria, or Project Eternity, or dozens of other games. Hey, if that's your funding model, and people pay, more power to you. And by limiting (via price) the number and quality of said users results in a reasonable amount of more focused and valuable feedback, then that's an upside.

But accusing people of freeloading because they're interested in your game is counterproductive in the extreme. I may have played one of DS's games back in the early 90s (think it was a demo of BC3000) but have never since then, and his reputation is a big part of that.

SpectralMeat wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 19:26:

Dirwulf wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 17:25:
He couldn't help himself over a PC gamer. HAD to respond to the comments. Get yer popcorn.

There is a reason why his game is called line of defense

To be fair to him, his arguments in that thread are pretty well constructed and thought out. He stands by his freeloader comment, and apparently doesn't understand the sheer lunacy of calling someone who would PAY TO GET EARLY ACCESS a freeloader, but other than that he's finally matured enough where he no longer just engages in pointless flame wars. Good for him.

Also, holy shit, he got gray! I feel his pain there...

You know, I can see both sides to this and the way I see it is this...he should just ignore it, all of it. Do his thing, make the best game he can (which, truthfully, is more than most of us here can do) and be happy with that. Most vets here grow tired of the constant back and forth punch/counter-punch, at least after the first couple anyway ...the naysayers will always be there, much like school bullies, you just have to learn to ignore them. Eventually, even if it takes decades, it will become just another legend in PC history, much like the original BC3000AD. He can't change the past, none of us can. What's been done has been done. But he can change how he reacts to it's mentioning or projection on current projects. If he took the high road and said something like, 'Cmon, man, that's old news and over with.' People would grow sick of hearing it every time. It's a funny laugh to bring up in every thread but that's all it is or should be and eventually, God willing, will be forgotten...

EDIT: And seriously, after viewing the mess over at PC Gamer and then the STEAM forums of the side app for this game, 'Tactics', it seems like the overall sentiment is this: 'If the dev would've kept his mouth shut and not acted like a 4 year old, I would have put money down'. Just leave it alone, Derek! You're your own worst enemy here now. Just shut your mouth, do your dev thing and let the game stand on it's own merits. Stop trying to micromanage the PR, it's not your strong suit, obviously...


=-Rigs-=

This comment was edited on Jun 17, 2014, 21:02.

Dirwulf wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 17:25:
He couldn't help himself over a PC gamer. HAD to respond to the comments. Get yer popcorn.

*gets out the White Cheddar popcorn flavoring*

Dirwulf wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 17:25:
He couldn't help himself over a PC gamer. HAD to respond to the comments. Get yer popcorn.

There is a reason why his game is called line of defense

anime is great! wrote on Jun 16, 2014, 19:11:
Devil's Advocate: I truly think that DS has a good game inside of him. He just needs help to realize it. It's kind of like George Lucas, if you've read up on it, he had terrible ideas planned for Star Wars that were all tempered by a good crew. Not so much tempering in the prequels, though. Mr. Smart just needs the right team to help him put together his sci-fi dream.

Why did I suddenly picture a woman with a black eye mumbling about doorknobs just now?

I mean, I understand thinking that open betas lead to freeloaders. They do - they attract people that just want a free taste of an upcoming game, not people looking to help squash bugs [note: I've been this kind of freeloader many times. There's nothing wrong with it.] This is why most treat open betas as stress tests, not beta tests. It's about testing your servers, not about testing the client. Or, in the new days of data collection, testing balance. But it isn't about soliciting feedback.

But saying you can't do a $30 EA because those people paying $30 would be freeloaders? Odd.

He couldn't help himself over a PC gamer. HAD to respond to the comments. Get yer popcorn.

jdreyer wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 15:14:
How is it these days? Can you get stuff on GoG, Humble, Steam, etc?

It's great these days. I can get stuff on all of those, sometimes cheaper than US prices. Very few games are unavailable here, even if quite a few are region-locked on Steam.

That said, back then, digital distribution was at its infancy, and virtually non-existent around here, and retail distribution here was very limited and often overpriced. Some games took over an year to get released here, some never got released. Those were dark times, but they're definitely long past now.

Wolfox wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 11:13:

Cpmartins wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 08:33:
3KAD was the second game I've ever bought in my life (living in Brazil is no cheap thing I tell you).

Heh. I'm in Brazil as well, and I got the game imported back then. Not the second game I bought (that would be Rise of the Robots, which was another major disappointment), but it was definitely not easy and not cheap. :-)

How is it these days? Can you get stuff on GoG, Humble, Steam, etc?

You gotta give DS credit, he has gumption.

SpectralMeat wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 12:43:

Creston wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 11:40:

ASeven wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 07:53:
Did he just call any future buyer of his game freeloaders??

Yes. Yes, he did. Welcome to the world of Derek Smart, where you buy his game, and then get called a stupid fucknozzle by him or his tardbilly friends if it doesn't work.

Maybe that is a new fetish
Some people like to be punished, even if they have to pay for it

"Normally you pay double for that kind of action!"

Creston wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 11:40:

ASeven wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 07:53:
Did he just call any future buyer of his game freeloaders??

Yes. Yes, he did. Welcome to the world of Derek Smart, where you buy his game, and then get called a stupid fucknozzle by him or his tardbilly friends if it doesn't work.

Maybe that is a new fetish
Some people like to be punished, even if they have to pay for it

nin wrote on Jun 16, 2014, 21:19:

xXBatmanXx wrote on Jun 16, 2014, 21:18:
If I recall correctly, he said he would never post here again - and we all rejoiced....

Pretty sure he posted after that, too...

Yeah I remember him getting busted using alts in one of those last discussions, and Blue chimed in and said that the posts from the other account were coming from the same IP as Derek's, and the "other poster" claimed he was VPNd into Derek's network.

Found it, this was his alt that Blue called out

ASeven wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 07:53:
Did he just call any future buyer of his game freeloaders??

Yes. Yes, he did. Welcome to the world of Derek Smart, where you buy his game, and then get called a stupid fucknozzle by him or his tardbilly friends if it doesn't work.

Cpmartins wrote on Jun 17, 2014, 08:33:
3KAD was the second game I've ever bought in my life (living in Brazil is no cheap thing I tell you).

Heh. I'm in Brazil as well, and I got the game imported back then. Not the second game I bought (that would be Rise of the Robots, which was another major disappointment), but it was definitely not easy and not cheap. :-)