From: Malcolm_Mackay@mindlink.bc.ca (Malcolm Mackay)
Subject: Re: AD&D spelljammer disappointment
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 18:02:13 GMT

> >Jeff Epler writes:
>
> >I got the Spelljammer game (Pirates of Realmspace) for christmas and have
> >been disappointed so far.
>
> I bought it about two weeks ago and am also very disappointed.
>
> >First, the install.  Two 3.5", hd disks.  The install runs in excess of
> half
> >an hour on my 386-40 with a 19ms, stacked hard drive.  (The compression
> they
> >use is ARJ.  I wonder if he's getting any money out of it?)
>
> It took about 10 minutes to install on my 486 33 Mhz, without a stacked
> drive.
>
> >The game dissolves to something like 11 megabytes, but gets about 2.8:1
> >compression on the stacker drive.  It gets along fine with stacker (loaded
> >high) and my shadowram UMB provider.  (It should also work with
> emm386.exe)
> >You need in excess of 600,000 bytes free memory.
>
> It's only about 6-7 megs uncompressed on my non-stacked drive.
>
> >About spelljamming:  Usually, the navigate function works correctly, but
> >sometimes it ends you up in the wrong place.  Several times I've set sail
> >for Torril, but ended up facing away from it and drifting when the
> computer
> >announced that we had arrived.  And once, going for Anadia, it left me
> >a whole 120 degrees (compared to the sun) away from the planet.
>
> >Also, travel times reported are often incorrect. (IE First reported as
> >"less than an hour away", time required may then start to fluctuate
> between
> >seven and eight days.  However, so far, travel time hasn't been an
> important
> >factor.
>
> I noticed this naviagation bug right away too. How could SSI miss it.
> Sometimes
> spelljamming seems to take you further away from your destination. Often
> times after spelljamming to a planet the program reports that I have
> arrived
> but there is no planet anywhere nearby.
>
>
> >The navigation screen is lacking too -- It shows a graphic representation
> >of the system (Inner, outer, whole thing, or "points of interest" that you
> >must discover yourself.)  However, I cannot figure out how to use the
> mouse
> >to choose my destination, I instead have to use the "new destination"
> button.
> >Being able to click on a pixel (Each planet is different in color) would
> be
> >much handier.
>
> In the naviagation screen I can click on a planet and select it as my
> destination. However I often have to click many times and you have to be
> exactly over the planet. No big time savings over using "new destination".
>
> >Also, the required computing power is excessive.  On a 386DX-40, it runs
> with
> >decent speed.  However, when my sister forced me to move it to the
> 386-25DX,
> >even simple things such as moving the sights in melee using the cursor
> keys
> >was quite sluggish.  Even though it is manipulating a 256-color screen,
> >it's only 320x200, and it's just moving a cursor.  Still, it took about
> >1/2 second for each move, and it wasn't my slow typing.
>
> Its also a bit slow on my 486, especially in the menus.
>
> >One final complaint.  Whenever you die, it scrolls a message about how,
> >two years later, the Neogi conquer the entire crystal sphere, plunging it
> >"into a new age of darkness" (or some such)  However, besides this message
> >at my death, nothing that I've seen even remotely relates to a Neogi plot
> >to take over Realmspace.  I assume I'll find that out later, after some
> >gameplay, or maybe I've missed something in the book or introduction..
> But
> >I don't think so..
>
> If you missed it then I did too, because I read nothing even remotely
> related to a plot in the manual.
>
> >So far, Pirates of Realmspace is a real disappointment.
>
> A real disappointment for sure. I've given up on the game. Even if the
> bugs were removed and the gameplay speeded up I doubt if I would play it.
> I was hoping for something a little different from the usual role playing
> game. The game certainly could have been made interesting. However it turns
> out to be the most unimaginative game in recent memory. Trading between
> planets for goods, performing minor and boring quests, how exciting.
>
> Anyone looking for a really good RPG would do much better to look at
> the Summoning (distributed by SSI, programmed by Event Horizons).
> Approximately 75-100 hours of top notch role playing in Summoning.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jeff Epler jepler@nyx.cs.du.edu or bx304@cleveland.freenet.edu (preferred)
>
> Signature under construction


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