Is this intentional, or a bug?

[Vespero]

First off, incredible product. Truly top-notch. I am impressed that you are offering it for free. I do have a few questions, and you'll forgive me if they have already been answered, but I could not find the answer.
(1) When hitting hostiles with fixed weapons, I don't detect the same shield effect that occurs when hitting them with beam weapons. If this would occur, it would be much easier to tell if my marksmanship was being effective. If this is intentional, I would suggest chaning it. If not, how can I fix it?
(2) I have noticed that when ships have been damaged, what appears to be colored static seems to appear in their general location. Is this intentional? Are these supposed to be sparks? If so, I get it, but I wonder if it would not be more convincing if those sparks would trail along behind the ship rather than occur all around it. If not, how can I fix it.
(3) I have noticed that once shields are down, I am not seeing a hit effect against hostile hulls. Is this intentional, or is something missing?
I realize that this is a work in progress, so my intent is not to complain, just to inquire and be helpful.
Also, does the developers plan to add in-flight recorded speech to go along with the text? If so, I would be willing to donate my voice talents for free. I have done voiceovers for StarWraith 3 and RiftSpace, and I know other people with a reasonable amount of talent who would also be willing to donate to this cause.
Once again, congratulations. This is truly a superb program.
Respectfully,
Vespero de Sabara

[DirtyMagic]

In-cockpit voice is implimented, is it not? There just aren't any voice-files to support it yet? It might not be a bad idea to just get everyone to record a set of vocals or two and submit them. Some lucky dev could yes the best and discard the rest... sort of like Simon on "VS Idol".

The female voice set may be tricky... do any of us know any women?

[pontiac]

I remember that there where at least three replies to this post already.
Did the board software puke again?

Or is my time machine working for real .. whoa deja vu

Pontiac

[DirtyMagic]

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=2089

Methinks she's a double post.

[pontiac]

Thanks,

deja vu indeed

Pontiac

[Vespero]

Well, I know plenty of people who would be willing to contribute. I have men and women, representing different nationalities, having different accents, etc... All I would need to know are the necessary lines, and where to send them. So, developers, if you want some free labor, let me know what to say and where to send it. I can get you some good stuff. I even have some people who could do interesting alien voices. We could either do a voice effect somewhat like the Kilrathi in the WC series, have people speak using alien accents, or just have the aliens speak in their own language and rely on reading the text to understand what they say. There are many of us who would be delighted to add to this product.
By the way, I am still awaiting some help on my questions about shield effects and those random sparks. Thanks again.
Respectfully,
Vespero de Sabara
Macacos me mordem!

[DirtyMagic]

2) AFAIK, the "sparks" are supposed to indicate damage... an ion trail/warp core breach kind of thing. Not sure if heavier-duty effects are on the way or not.

3) Don't think there are indications of shots impacting a target. Good idea, though.

[G3David]

i could do some voices too.
being from the south, i could do some off the agricultural planets voices."ya'll"
ex. "yall cleared to land, just watch out for them cows"
i can do other accents to.

[G3David]

I could do some voices as well.
being from the south, i could do some of the agricultural planet voices."ya'll"
ex. "ya'll cleared to land, just watch out for them hover-cows on your way down"
i can other accents as well.i could probably do a couple of alien voices as well.
or you know what? we could use,for the mac. the built in text-to-speech thing for short-term, so people could add their own meessages and have them spoken and not have to add that much space.
is there a text-to-speech type thing for windows? That would be a great way to do that while keeping the size from getting out-of-hand

[G3David]

I could do some voices as well.
being from the south, i could do some of the agricultural planet voices."ya'll"
ex. "ya'll cleared to land, just watch out for them hover-cows on your way down"
i can other accents as well.i could probably do a couple of alien voices.
or you know what? we could use,for the mac. the built in text-to-speech thing for short-term, so people could add their own meessages and have them spoken and not have to add that much space.
is there a text-to-speech type thing for windows? That would be a great way to do that while keeping the size from getting out-of-hand

[Vespero]

You know, one of the nice things about radio chatter is that it is supposed to sound like it's coming through a com. So, you can make it low-resolution sound (doesn't take up much space), and it actually adds to the effect of it being broadcast and played through a speaker.
I think there is a text-to-speech program for windows. I've seen several of them, at least. I'd actually prefer recorded speech. You could even add the speech pack as a seperate download to reduce the download size of the game (remember old Wing Commander 2's speech pack... that's the ticket).
Once again, I do hope that something is going to be done about those random sparks. I think having them trail behind the ship would be great. Also, they could be useful as part of a "hull-impact" effect. When the shields are out, a few sparks could fly from the hull when it is hit by weapons fire. Just an idea. Once again, great game. It's only going to get even better with time.
Respecfully,
Vespero de Sabara