Screenies comparing versions.

[freespace2dotcom]

OK, so first off, I certainly don't want this to come off.. as impatient or something, (although I kind of am, hehe) but more as a point of fact so that the record can be set straight for Y2's sake.

I still haven't played DLC 17 outside of what I tested while it was in beta for the team. I pointed out at that time that there were... size issues... with how the Steam version of DLC 17 handled things, and to the team's credit they did manage to make the game playable from that. However I can't help but feel that it was a band-aid when it kind of needed something more. I had given those screenshots as an example, not as they were the only things that needed fixing. Compounding things was that I didn't play 100% during the beta as I didn't want to spoil anything until "it was ready"

Here's a list of screenshots comparing some things that were never fixed when dealing with older monitors and lower resolutions. Note that I honestly don't really care about Y1 at this point. I still have DLC 16 installed, and plan to soft patch the story elements of 17 into my impulse version because of these issues. This is only a friendly pointing out so that Y2 does not repeat this. I will be very heart broken if it comes out after all this waiting and it also has this issue.

All resolutions are at 1024 X 768. (My monitor is capable of more but it makes things even more impossible to read) The First images are DLC 16 (Impulse) the 2nd ones are DLC 17 (Steam)

 

The opening.

By adding the border, the rest of the text got crunched up Juuuust enough to make it difficult to read. There's no way to increase this text size either. The entire Character creation process is plagued by this issue.

The inventory screen. (This is probably the biggest issue with Y1's steam edition that I have)

Note that I have raised the text size on the steam version several times, in order for it to be the same size as the default text size in DLC 16. This does not help the inventory screen, which is significantly smaller. The clock menu is still smaller also, although it is nowhere near as tiny as it was in the beta. *shudder*  The control interface screen is as bad as this also, but I never control people so it's less noticable and hardly worth mentioning except as an addendum.

The Calendar Screen

Even after the calendar was sized up from what it was in the beta, it's still a fair bit smaller from DLC 16 (Also, After deleting my Cache, DLC 17 can't find the mods to load any of my saves, even DLC 17 ones, lol. Hence why the new game here. Probably after it rebuilds one that will go away but I probably won't let it, heh.)

There are a couple other minor issues with DLC 17 like the text occasionally stuttering as it figures out how to format itself, but that was also made tolerable by the addition of the marker to help you find where the new text is. I must admit that I felt that the way the previous version handled it was better in my opinion, in that the new text displayed automatically, with the old text being pushed aside requiring the use of the previous key to re-read it. I know why there was a change. The Steam version has a lot of empty space, and they were trying to fill it, but I think the net effect is a negative. Just an opinion! I also greatly prefered choosing my clique name when I first befriend someone because my choice of name depends on who I befriend. Kind of hard to know that without extreme advanced planning if you're forced to name it right in the beginning, imo.

In order to get the story and adventure text readable in DLC 17, I have to increase the text size, but when I do that, this happens.

Also, although I mentioned it in the beta, There is an issue with selecting things It used to be that in DLC 16 you could click anywhere in the red or blue circled areas to bring up the list of selectable items, but now you only have that small area in the blue circled area.

What is most painful is that DLC16 will freeze up if it tries to load a cache from the steam version, so I can't exactly mix and match as much as I would like to. I just can't quite agree that the Steam version is as definitive as the team would like it to be.

Anyway. I know why things are so small in DLC 17, and I know that the team knows why also. I just want to point this stuff out for posterity because if I don't and something happens to prevent me from enjoying Y2 to the fullest extent, I'll probably shoot myself... in the foot... With a water gun... But I'll still feel really bad about it! I also want to point out that because I can't enjoy the Steam version 100% that I'm waiting on the modbase to patch DLC16, AND that I will complain without mercy if my patched DLC 16 saves won't load in Y2. Not that I expect that, mind you, I just expect the perfection that you guys expect of yourselves and am more than willing to remind you.

 

Oh man this post was a lot of work uploading images! I really love Academagia way too much to put in this much effort griping. hahaha!

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

I'm pretty sure there will still be some work after launch, but as always, keep it coming.

[freespace2dotcom]

Yeah. I was kind of hoping that these issues were going to be fixed without me nagging, since I knew the team had been made aware of them.

I just kind of wish that the older versions of the game had not been so completely written off since the sizing issue does not look like it will be 100% fixed before the Steam version is done being worked on. That being said, I agree that despite these problems DLC 17 is playable, even if I feel it is not as enjoyable for me as my trusty Impulse version.

And the last thing I want is for Y1 to suck away more time from Y2's deveopment. I can manage, even if it required fudging around with the modtools.

But, there won't be an Impulse version of Y2 that I can fall back on, and this is an important issue for me, so that's why I made this thread.