beta test feedback

It pretty much crashes every time I’ve shut down. It’s only taken me to the survey once out of however many times I’ve shut it down.

And also, no, it’s never crashed on me during gameplay, but I’ve had to restart because when I lose a scenario, I try to start a new one, but it doesn’t let me click on a country to run…

ah that’s a new bug then. Bah.
I’m still hunting this nightmare shutdown thing…

I could so see that as an episode of Supernatural or something.

Democracy 2 Beta
First Impression. This step by step review Ive made as a fast recon of the game and default
functionality. I Went over by most windows and written something if i felt need to do it.

This first impression review doesnt get too deeper into game balance, politics functionality,
and other content information about the game, but focuses in the visual details, friendly menues,
options and information given to the player.

My next review will be more deeper about the game functionality and hope theres something from my
point views that may be usefull for you.

You can say anything about the review (if you think im stupid because talking about this, no problem
just tell and ill change the review way, or anything you would like to say, dont hesitate on doing it)

Ok lets start:

  1. Running the Game: Everything seems fine though somehow I dont like that very
    yellow background. Also the music is not bad but i think there are better ones.

  2. Wanted to Increase Resolution: Wheres my resolution slider?

  3. Starting new game: Custom Countries? Sounds good as for a game, you can customize the country
    you want to start with. But somehow I Miss the real countries. Those made me feel I was controlling
    Real life countries, setting England as a socialist country, etc

  4. I will chose Revelopia (Capitalism Heaven). Great, a customization Window. I Hope each country
    Starts by default with different options. For those players who doesnt like to customize each
    thing

4’) It seems all countries have the same default slider values. Shouldnt this be different by
default? Also, Im thinking, if youre going to chose a full capitalist country, shouldnt you
be somehow limited for being Envoiromentalist, or socialist…? (as examples).
Also, its missing a “Restore default” buttong, though it seems going back and chosing againg
solves it.

  1. BUG FOUND: I right clicked in the Custom Window Menu, and the mini-menu appeared. When I
    Chosen “Poll” I couldnt do anything else in the game. Had to Shut down and restart game

  2. I Wonder what effect the “Party Name” does in game? or is it just a name? No Tips on it.
    But sounds very interesting for now

  3. Started the game, ive got the presentation window now. It seems there are some icons
    in there showing current situation but when I move the mouse over them, nothing happens.
    So i have to know by icon image whats the current situation?

7’) One time, when i clicked on one of the Current Situation images, the game crashed with those
window report errors. Didnt happen again though

  1. I have started the game finally now, im in the main Screen. Woah, it seems when i point the mouse
    over a Policy everything goes 100% Black. I Know it is very comfortable, but I would personally
    reduce from that Black to some minor transparency (though not as Democracy 1, but a middle point)

  2. OMG Democracy 2 is getting very complex, i have in there lots and lots of policies already
    working out in my country. It was simplier in Democracy 1 because I had few and i could take
    some decisions faster. Though I like it now, the more complex, the more real the game gets.
    Though I still get a feeling of what to do next, solving those problems i Have in there… or…
    The game is too open and that is good i like it. I will get more into it

  3. I Love the new policy window. Like a lot that Encyclopedia too, very usefull because you
    learn a lot, very educational for people like me! Who are studying these stuff in college,
    its a good support, great work. Theres an Image of the Minister in Charge in there (Petrol Tax)
    and his efficiency. I wonder how all this about the Minister works.

  4. Cost and Income buttons in Policy windows. I entered in here but the information given
    is not easily understandable or it is unfinished. The title says PetrolTax_income (I would
    change it to Petrol Tax Income Information or something like, though I know thats something yet
    unfinished). The information says something about car usage value and then it says some stuff like
    IN[1.0000]Dot… etc I Wonder if im a newbie on political and economics information or if this
    is something weired :stuck_out_tongue: Anyway, no info or texts about it, maybe a Tip window for it?

  5. I Lately noticed that black icons are policies, blue icons are Statics/Informations. Red icons
    are known from the beggining that they are problems and situation so those are fine.

  6. I Like those “category” backgrounds, but i miss the names on them. I Can know which one does
    what, but some new people may not (they may do the tutorial but they may not).

  7. Checking those menu buttons at the upper right. They’re fine. Ive found that Cabinet Menu and
    it is Awesome. I will get some experimentation with it to see how it works in the future. I will
    fire that Law and Order minister who has sympathie for the somkers and envoiromentalists and appoint
    a new minister

  8. Intelligency brief and the quarterly report is OK

  9. Bug? I Opened party window and a Tip pop-up came up. but I couldnt close the tip until I closed
    the Party window :stuck_out_tongue:

  10. Information Menues are very good since they are more detailed, though I would give some
    color to those icons and give them somehow life. Next Turn button for example seems too hidden

First Impressions CONCLUSION:

The visual details are comfortable right now, but im sure you can make some polishing on it,
by chosing some better colors on them, or giving some enhancement on the buttons and stuff.
This will make a good point for people when going from Democracy 1 to 2, they will fill theyre
playing a new game. Though dont think im saying the visual details are bad, but
just a point of view. Im not an artist but some colorfull Huds make the impression of the game
very good. Personally I like the Civilization IV game HUD for example. Next time i will try to
say what i would change on this

When starting a new game, I like the custom countries, but somehow I liked it a lot when playing
with real countries. Personally I always waited for more countries added in Democracy 1, as
Argentina, with new features as corruption inside the gobernment.

Also, those countries have their party name set by default, but I would set more differences
between them by default, so each time we play, we get a different game from the previous one.
Correct me if im wrong but I noticed that you can do with all countries a customization that
leaves them almost identical

In game, I really like the new stuff, those statiscs icons are very good, policies windows
are very detailed now and that encyclopedy inspired me to play it better since I want to learn
more about politics. Though I would change those icon colors so theyre more attractive

As a first impression the game seems a bit hard, because you start with lots of stuff in the window
and you may now know where to begin! You may go crazy and frustrate if youre impacient, though I
know this is a game for pacient players

With this I mean its like the game sometimes has a lack of direction, but it depends on the player
i think

The windows and the tips are OK so there isnt much confusing stuff when you look for policies and
situations. Personally I like the design of information shown

About technical issues I got some random crashes (RARELY) but i will look more into it and try to get if it happens with a certan action

Thank you,
Revolucion09

And btw, my friend seen and played Dem1 a bit. He said the game was easy and that he got reelected 6 times with no problems…

He got easily a surplus always, and a bit before the new election he wasted all money on doing all the best for people and done

He said you should take more in mind how to manage country money

I dont know if he is being true or if hes exagerating. I didnt play enough Dem1 honestly but im very into Dem2 already.

So dont take my friends thinking if hes just saying no-sense stuff

remember this is about Dem1 and what he said i seen no differences yet in Dem2 about it (though i still didnt play seriously dem2 yet)

I tested Democracy 2 a little this afternoon and this is what happened so far.

Started game for first time and numerical keypad cannot be used to enter activation id.

Very Pro-American graphics. For marketing purposes i presume. Good menu music for game type. Clicked ‘How to Play’. More American graphics graphics on tutorial welcome screen.

Noticed voter group rectangle graphics haven’t been updated. Nice clear situation icons and screen fade works well to enhance lines between icons.

As a visual aid for the player icons that need to be clicked could flash during tutorial. Encountered a problem after minister screen. Icons vanished so i could not continue the tutorial from ‘Click gun icon on the left of the strip of icons at the top right of the screen.’

I pressed escape key and game went back to main menu. I then clicked the ‘How to Play’ button again. Game started to load and shut down. Started game again and tried tutorial again.
Same problem as before, icons vanished at the same point. Escaped back to main menu and tried ‘New Game’ button.

Country list came up and now none of the buttons work. Can’t ‘Go Back’ or ‘Select’ a country. I assume this is something to do with the escape key. I tried ‘Quit Game’ button and Vista stated the game has stopped working. No survey.

I will report more when i resume testing.

there will be a new version soon. I’ve fixed tons of the stuff that’s been reported. I agree on the american ness of the game. It is SO HARED to find any commercial quality available artwork that is on the topic of democracy that doesn’t assume Democracy == America.
It’s very annoying. I will have to experiment…

I too object to the Americanisation, but I have to admit that it still looks very nice!

I am actually tempted to already start to mod, but I’ve refrained from doing so since it’s not even a finished game yet. However it’d still be awesome to have an in-game ‘modding interface’ complete with pre-made symbols and an upload image function.

One thing I’m not especially enthusiastic about is that although you’ve done quite a lot to differentiate the countries, they still seem to share some common situations which tend to become annoying having to fix each game. Of particular note is the asthma epidemic which seems to plague virtually all countries in Democracy 1 and 2 alike. I’m not really aware of the current situation but it seems like Democracy would label every developed country in the real world as having an asthma epidemic. This is especially odd because parents seem to be extremely annoyed about it…

point taken.

There is a NEW VERSION. you can download and try now. its version 1.01. Best bet is to nuke everything and reinstall from scratch just in case.

I’ve fixed a lot of stuff, but not everything (yet), it’s just been so long since the first release i thought we should try this one now.

I still have this evil shutdown bug, which I thought I’d fixed ;( although it does not happen on my XP laptop (single core).
If you try the new version please let me know if it crashes on shutdown, if you have vista or not, and if you have dual core.
Cheers.

changes:

I just lost an election in Zambezia too - I was on 51% and rising the turn before…

Edit: Also it crashed when I tried to load an autosave.

Edit2: Uhm, where do we download it from Cliffski?

Edit3: Nvm, figured it out.

This is not a bug but a complaint. ZAMBEEZIA IS IMPOSSIBLE. >.<

I’ve only managed to get elected when I set the term length to 5 years. With 4 years, I’ve lost every time. And that’s at least 20. And I’m not even gonna try 3 years.

/end rant

Played another game, chose Malaganga, the countries sound like African states. I didn’t adjust the advanced options but i was very happy with the amount of options available. Loads of situations to sort out and wow, look at the new layout, excellent. Lots of icons, spent some time scanning them.

Looked at the Encyclopedia, think i spelled it right, because on the game it was spelt Encylopedia, which is correct? All the text was messed up all over the screen with numerous spaces and omissions. The new policy screen is well laid out and clear and i think the minister graphics are excellent for an independent game.

Played through the first term and managed to just get re-elected although i did not increase the difficulty so i don’t think it will be easy on a higher level. After the election, the quarterly report stated that the election was drawing near even though i had just won it. Didn’t find any major bugs on this play through although i will be trying the new version next.

Major error alert!

The latest version of the game won’t start a new game.

When I press ‘start’, it just reloads that page.

I have the same problem, clicking ‘start’ doesn’t load the game. I attempted to load a previously saved game and that crashed the game.

eek ill investigate

did you install to a fresh clean directory? My tests show it works here, yet crashes when you click on a voter group :smiley: I’m fixing that now, I’ll post here when I’ve updated it.

try grabbing the file again, i just updated it…

Still doesn’t seem to have changed.

I re-downloaded the file and briefly tested. Game still does not load after selecting ‘start’ button in new game screen. Also, if you click ‘how to play’, that doesn’t work and if you select ‘new game’ the tutorial hints appear on the select a country screen. How do i upload images so you can see?

this is so weird. i will have to investigate over the weekend. Typically, the damned thing works fine here ;( Have you installed this new version to a new location to make sure your are running the right one?
I’ve tried it on vista and xp and it seems to be running ok. does the start menu button not even highlight with mouseover?

cheers for your help.