Intro logos on startup

[AlexV]

Is it possible to disable or skip the intro logos in any way? 10 seconds of Hidden Path/LTC/Defense Grid logos (pretty as they may be) does get a bit old after a while.
I tried the usual key-presses to skip, but no luck. Didn't seem to be any obvious video files in the game directory to delete either, and no mention of any command line switches in the manual.pdf either.

[jeff]

The screens aren't skippable.* This isn't because we want to force logos on you, rather it is because that is when we are doing our background loading of the game.* We did the logos instead of a loading bar.





Jeff

[Echo]

To expand on what Jeff says, yeah- it was a decision we made to load most of the resources up front to make the loading of levels and restarts very quick in game.*

[AlexV]

Thanks for letting me know. Level loads and restarts are pretty quick :-)

Perhaps in the next version you might include a small "loading" progress bar or something near the bottom, it would serve to avoid confusion. Just a suggestion.

[xep]

your explanation seems to make sense, but for half of that time, my cpu+hdd does nothing, so is clearly a delay there, to take a better look at the logos and not only for the loading sake and if you did care about some (small amount of) people who want to get faster in the game, or will rather see a loading bar, you could have coded that option (first one coded in seconds even). but is ok. great game, and thanks for that (oh, yes, you're welcome for the pay )

[jeffpobst]

Hmm, we actually feel the same way you do, we spent a lot more time on implementing shorter loading than a typical game does. We told you the truth above, perhaps your computer caches info off the hard drive and then takes time to fill up memory and load the app data after the computer drive is done accessing data. Honestly, there is no added delay of any kind, you'll find that if you run the game on a much faster computer it also loads much faster (which wouldn't be the case if we were introducing delay). I think the only legal requirement for how long the screens are up is the ESRB one, but it's done long before the loading is.

[xep]

...Honestly, there is no added delay of any kind...

Thanks for the quick reply. OK then, I'll take your word on it. I'm not really a high level programmer
PS. Even Sysinternal's Process Monitor, shows a couple of gaps in any activity, for about 5 sec each.

Anyway, I really like the game and you've done an amazing work with it. Oh, and all the DLC. Thanks!

[xep]

ALT+Tab after the launch (first white screen), then ALT+Tab after 6 sec,
it will shave about 10 sec (16 sec is the normal/logos loading time)

[jeffpobst]

I asked the engineers about what you found, they'll see if perhaps we assumed a maximum speed machine for load rate when the game was made in 2008 and that assumption has changed. Something to look into.

[NightBirdDS]

I think that may very well be the case. I am loading the game off of an SSD and it's no faster to load up than it was on my WD Black drive. Not that it's a big deal, a few seconds isn't going to kill us, but it is a weird artifact.

[xep]

jeffpobst, you're too kind. A "/nointro" will be most helpful

NightBirdDS, even half a minute will not kill us,
but I just like to get fast in the game and
maybe even more so, to get rid of the "advertising"


I have a few very bad examples of games , where you have to login to steam, start the game (desktop shortcut to the game will make one of these two, but just go with my version), wait for the logos (you can not skip them), press a key after the intro starts to skip it, login to another account like microsoft games, then a couple of warnings about not resetting the computer during the saving time and things like that (showing this every time you start the game, not only the first time), then a message in the center of the screen "press any key" (this is most hilarious), then you click load game, select the game and even if you just started the game it asks "are you sure you want to load it?" (good one too), and you're in the game. Damn, this itself is a game. I'm already bored and annoyed before starting to play. But that's just me and another hand full of people.

[xep]

...I think the only legal requirement for how long the screens are up is the ESRB one, but it's done long before the loading is.

And speaking of this, you mean the one where it says "online interactions not rated by the esrb"? This apply to multiplayer games where there is an interaction. Don't tell me that you have to show that message just because you have the leaderboard or because steam has a community (that has nothing to do with the game) or... you're planning a multiplayer patch and this warning just slipped (because you will not have to show it for a future feature)

[jeffpobst]

Yup. For ESRB we had to include that because other user names on the scoreboard could be words or symbols out of our control to manage. If you were a parent concerned about that kind of thing and saw some steam or Xbox username that was offensive to you, that message would explain why the game you purchased had that word in it.

We were originally planning multiplayer as well, but that is why it was left in.

[xep]

...because other user names on the scoreboard could be words or symbols out of our control to manage...

We were originally planning multiplayer as well, but that is why it was left in.

True, true... I tend to forget that because all the other resources on net and tv, even more so. (Yes, you can install a net nanny, but you can't do much about the tv, and street life. But let's not get into that.)

I can't really imagine how a multiplayer will be like, but some realtime competition sounds quite fun. Too bad it didn't made it in, but who knows... maybe in the next version


As for the intro logos, there is one more thing worth mentioning. The first white screen... Can't you make something less "aggressive"? Like a black one. The first logo fades in from a black screen anyway.

And here is the "no intro" petition explained a bit better: If you really like this game and if you launch it 20 times a day because you want/have to do something else in between, or just because from time to time you think of some new strategy you want to try, these "logo flashes" could get a bit annoying. If you start it like once a week, then... it ok... you get the idea.


Quite a responsive dev team here and even on steam forums... Good job.


Out of context...

There's a "bug" that I didn't searched for posts about it and I'll mention it here just as a note: if you set the voice to zero, you can still hear them in CHAS.

And the speed should really have a "+" and "-" key assignment with at least 3 levels (maybe even pause, but I'm not sure about that) because sometimes you'll have to keep F pressed trough the whole level (there is a trick you can do if you don't have to build: if you press F and then open a build window, you can release F and the game runs in the background at high speed). This is another thing that I didn't searched for the right thread to post on, and I'm sorry about that (I hijacked this thread and turn it into a "fast player requests" one). And yes, it "ruins" the feeling of the game if you add even more speed, but after many hours spend with it, most of the time is about strategy and how fast can you test yours. I still take some time to watch the beautiful graphics in closeup. Erm... Speaking of that...

I've noticed http://www.hiddenpath.com/games/defe...egory=Spoilers and is most helpful, but why not allowing zooming out more? It seems you have something like the reason StarCraft2 invoked: "we want you to look at the beautiful graphics we made and to get a feeling of close to the action"... (And not even an interface scaling/alternative option. Still speaking about SC) All this sounds good and sweet, but for me (and I waited this second version hoping for this zoom out option), this is most annoying. Is not a 3rd person game, is a strategy game. And this was the reason I bought RUSE instead of SC2

But enough ranting. Thanks for your time, and don't mind me too much.
I'm quite happy with the game. I have all DLCs