Hey everyone. We've got a new game out called Star Wraith 3. You may have seen it before, as it's been self published for a while, but we've been recruited to help take it to the next level. It's a space shooter simulation and if you're familiar at all with either the Star Wars X-wing series games or any of the Wing Commander games, you'll be able to hop right into this one no problem. Written in Dark Basic, and using top notch special effects, it's gotten great reviews by almost everyone who's seen it.

In-game cinematics are super high quality and the gameplay is phenomenal. Every explosion is unique using randomly spliced textures. An in-game, voice over tutorial is there to help you get started (don't shoot the instructor!), every control can be keyboard mapped, online multiplayer cooperative and deathmatch modes, instant action options, a mission editor, space to planetary missions (be careful not to fly too fast coming in. You'll burn up in the atmosphere), asteroid fields which can be used to your advantage, wingmen who follow your commands, kill trackers, weapon selection, and more! Click here (http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/features.asp) for a full list of features.

You play the role of a Terran Star Wraith pilot based in the fringes of the universe. The Terran confederacy is being torn apart by civil war while there is an alien species lurking on the outskirts of the known galaxy. Pilot your Star Wraith through a dynamic campaign of over 20 missions that reacts to your choices, successes, and defeats! Each mission path is different, culminating in a final battle where the future of mankind is at stake.

http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/

Screenshots:
http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/images/cutScene1Large.jpg
http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/images/carrierExplodingLarge.jpg
http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/images/bogeysEverywhereLarge.jpg
http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/images/planetViewLarge.jpg
http://www.gamethoughts.com/starwraith3/images/shipExplodingLarge.jpg

Any and all comments/suggestions are welcome.

writte in Darkbasic?? arggh!!! :D
I will release soon one written in Blitz3D, the best language ;) hehe
just joking, don't want to start a flame here! anyway good work, the screenshots are really cool!

(unluckily I have no time to play game now)

<flame>C++ rules</flame>

Yes, the screenshots are cool, but the game is far better than the screenshots indicate (as always). Give it a try when you get a chance.

Hey Mike, just tried the demo... I'm impressed! Very polished. I normally don't play this type of game, so I'm not the best critic, but its really cool! Thumbs up!!

Originally posted by mtaber
<flame>C++ rules</flame>


oh yea...

great work Mike!
demo is much better then the screenshots, took me back
a few years when people knew how to make a good sci-fi
simulators like X-wing and such.

thumbs up!

Just to be clear, I didn't write it. I'm just helping to publish it. Credit for the creation goes to Shawn Bower. It's really an amazing game though. I've already been getting feedback about it saying that it's so much better than Wing Commander was. It's pretty gratifying to hear stuff like that.

Wonder how much development time it has spent doing such a cool game alone...!!
(if he did it alone of course :))

...and also (though a bit off topic), I wonder whether its worth going the Darkbasic/Blitz3D route myself.

I'd be interested in hearing Shawn Bower's views/experiences on using third party engines like those mentioned, compared to proprietary C++ engines.

I can tell you mine (my game is due to release soon).
I tried both darkbasic and blitz, and surely I opt for the second, for a main reason: stability and bugs.
While the first one (I'm talking of course about DB PRO, not the normal darkbasic which is outdated now) is still "work in progress", Blitz is really solid and bugs-free.
I've managed (well, I have yet to finish it, but I am at over 80% of completion) to write a soccer management game with Blitz, and never thought that I could really make such a game with that language.

However, if you know C/C++ well, is surely better to go that way, unless you need to do things fast.
With C and good libraries (SDL, Allegro, etc) you can write games pretty fast, even if not like using Blitz. You have a lot more freedom though.

To sum up:
Blitz/DB = easier, faster BUT you have limitations and speed problems
C/C++ = speed and no limitation BUT more difficult and maybe less fast to write your games

So far as I know, he did write it alone and it took him quite a while. He wrote Star Wraith, and Star Wraith 2 using a similar engine, so he's been tweaking it for a couple of years now. It's not as if he just picked up one day and wrote it all from scratch. A lot of it he was able to reuse from previous projects.

Great game! We've already checked this one out at GT. Came real close to a 10. ...of course our reviewer liked necrotech :)

Hi Mike.

I think its a good game and all.

But.. and I dont want to sound harsh or anything, so please dont think thats the intent.

Its not really that pretty :)

It works great, but it doesnt particularly look nice.

The hud is way way too big and detracts a lot from whats outside of the ship.

Space is kinda dull in there too, lots of stars but the rest kinda looks a little dull. The ships arent great either.

Ive not gotten our new ships setup in game yet, so I cant show you some comparisons, but if you want to look at a fairly nice looking space game environment I'd say the current leader (purely in terms of looks, lets not go there gameplay wise) is Eve online.

Thats my art goal for Deep Space Legends (my own XWA style game in development) and with our new concepts and models in place I think we're getting there.

Ok, I'm using a pretty heavily modded Torque (tribes 2) engine, so its not going to be the same as Blitz or Darkbasic, but still, mostly these games are based on quality of content art wise.

Dont think I dont appreciate the game though, its a hoot to play, just let down a bit in the visual department (in my opinion).

Phil.

I haven't tried it yet, but just looking at those screen shots, I'd have to agree that I don't particularly like the HUD. Way too bright-shiny-blue. It almost looks like I should just be worried about my stats, not those little ships flying around out in space. In addition, a few of those labels don't match the theme. I'm referring to the "ENERGY" "CM:99" "50" and "A50" label. They are in plain arial text, while "WEAPONS", "WING" and the other labels match the bright-shiny-blue theme. Also, it might be better if the HUD could look like a more integral part of the cockpit rather than just some overlays drawn on top of it.

HUD hangups aside, I think those screenshots look quite good.

Originally posted by zoombapup
Hi Mike.

I think its a good game and all.

But.. and I dont want to sound harsh or anything, so please dont think thats the intent.

Its not really that pretty :)

Originally posted by zoombapup

Its not really that pretty :)



I think he is right. The quality of the artwork is the weak point of the game. Good artwork is a way to put a story into the game without writing a single line of text. It is a way to get people hooked to your game.

You know, in my local supermarket there is that cupboard where the Star Wars Lego stuff is laying around. The Millenium Falcon is always nearby sold out. I don't think this stuff is only sold to kids. It is the way this spaceship looks like. Somebody had a lot of work by modelling this ship that special way. And this quality pays off, more then 20 years later they still make millions of cash out of it.

The graphics in your game are very generic. This makes the game laking character. I can't play the game on my Mac OS running computer over here so I don't know about the gameplay, but I would suggest to work on originality of your artwork.

Just my 2 bytes.

P.S. Nevertheless very impressive work.

Hey, I was the one who reviewed Star Wraith 3 (I didn't review Necrotech, tho).

http://www.gametunnel.com/html/reviews-45.html

Like I said in my review, all they have to do to make Star Wraith 3 a world class product is beef up the ship models and the GUI. If you at all liked the Wing Commander series then you should enjoy SW3.

I also gave it bonus points because no one in the mainstream video game industry seems to be able to write AI anymore and this was the first space fighter (even compared to recent releases) where your wingmen weren't completely useless and the enemies weren't braindead. I mean, really, respected publishers with millions of dollars and teams of 30+ people can't write decent AI? It's inexcusable! (steps off soapbox)

KNau, have you played the two Conflict/Descent: Freespace games? Those truly kick ass.. from what I can remember, the AI was really decent too. And don't get me started on the storyline, best ever in a space game imho :)

Just tried the game.. <flamebait>Those are some ridiculous load times! I (c++ coder) could get that to load in 2 seconds, while this basicdriven thing took 3 minutes on an Athlon 1800XP</flamebait>

Otherwise, except for the overblue HUD it looked pretty cool. I was killed in less than a minute though so I didn't get to see much, and I didn't feel like sitting through one of those load times again. I recommend some serious optimization, or whatever it takes to bring those load times down.

In the settings, you can change the HUD to either blue, green or red. :)

If it took 3 minutes to load on your Athlon, then something else is wrong. It only takes about 5 seconds or so on my machine and it's an Athlon XP 1800 as well. 32Mb GeForce 2 MX card.

I closed a bunch of programs, and started it again. Just "Generating current campaign situation" took over a minute, so I didn't even bother to try to go in-game.
Specs: 1800XP, 512MB, Radeon 9500Pro with Catalyst 3.6 drivers

Direct from the developer about your loading problem with Star Wraith 3. I don't know whether you should try and roll back your drivers or not. It's worked fine for me sometimes, and not others, so do so at your own risk. :) We don't have an ATI card here in the office, or I'd try it out myself and let you know, but if he says thats what the problem is, my guess is that he knows what he's talking about. He has one, and he did write the game.

Begin developer response:
Best advice you could offer would be to have the person uninstall/rollback the driver set to something EARLIER then 3.5 (3.5's have some similar issues, but no where near as bad as 3.6, 3.2-3.4's are preferred). The 3.6 Catalysts have cause numerous problems in numerous games, here's a short list (there is a whole lot more I'm not including here):

- Star Trek Elite Force 2 performance reduced over 50%
- Enemy Territory experiences major speed issues
- Intermittent black screens in various games
- Stability issues in several games
- Tiger Woods 2003 occasionally freezes on loading screen (sometimes
takes several minutes to load), various in game freezes and pausing
- Earth & Beyond performance issues and freezes
- Graphics issues with Battlefield 1942
- Several games crash when in loading phase
- Unreal II crashes at intro and in game, long delays in various parts
of the game
- General system instability

The fact Star Wraith 3 would work without a crash or freeze on these drivers is somewhat amazing. My 9500 Pro is useless in many games now until ATI fixes these problems or I rollback the driver.

Rage3D forums are flooded with people experiencing similar problems for 3.5 and 3.6 drivers, here are a few quick links:

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=d56525c69688fe63dcc16f5899c
957c6&threadid=33699453&perpage=20&pagenumber=2

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=d56525c69688fe63dcc16f5899c
957c6&threadid=33697611

(notice how many items are still broken in the 3.6 update)

Turning fastwrites off or setting AGP to 4X may help some specific issues (these options have failed for most users though). Might want to suggest that before rolling back the driver if the user is just trying to get my game to work.

Bug reports can be submitted directly to ATI through this URL
(although hundreds were already submitted within the first few days these drivers were released, lol):

http://apps.ati.com/driverfeedback/

In short, there isn't much developers can do to correct this issue,
it's ATI's fault. Starting with 3.5, ATI seems to be breaking more
things then they're fixing. I can give you some technical reasons why these drivers do this in so many games, if you're interested (has to do with infinite looping bugs and improper legacy coding).