Here's an entertaining review: http://opnoobs.com/reviews/indie/item/594-sol-trader

An irrelevant tidbit from the author's bio (I had to chuckle):

Right now she is actively avoiding planning her upcoming wedding by playing Skyrim.

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So...is it bad?

No. Yes. No yes. Yes no. Yes no yes no. No?

I can’t tell, quite frankly. Part of me thinks I just don’t understand the game - that I missed something really critical early on and that would make a world of difference. The other part of me feels that the entire focus is on relationships and people, yet the mechanic is almost underdeveloped - too robotic and soulless to even remotely resemble people. I’m so torn.

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Also, my apologies Chris for being among your more useless and lazy beta testers.

Baile nam Fonn wrote: Also, my apologies Chris for being among your more useless and lazy beta testers.

Yes, I was also a useless and lazy beta tester, Baile nam Fonn. It wouldn't be the first time I've let a developer down in this way though.

Still, I don't feel too bad seeing as you totally missed me when handing out some of the rewards, Chris. Your eyes were probably full of stars and you were bewitched by the names of Josh Parnell and Flatfingers. *chuckle*

Yeah - I feel really bad about that fixed now!

I've been sneaking an hour or so of Sol Trader every night before bed recently (~8 hrs logged thus far) and have to say -- this is an excellent game!! I'm really impressed with the interesting / unusual take on a space sim as character-centric. Chris has done a fantastic job in this respect of making the world feel alive with history and NPCs that have far more depth than the norm (in fact, the most depth I've ever seen in a game!)

The game has more than convinced me that my focus on AI driving the LT Universe is on-point

I strongly recommend picking this one up now that it's officially out on Steam!

Thanks so much Josh. I've been feeling pretty down this morning to be honest, mostly because of all the bugs that surfaced despite lots of effort and play testing. This has caused some rather negative reviews on Steam: hopefully people will change them and post more positive ones after the big patch this morning.

So, anyway, reading messages like this makes all the difference. Thanks again, and best of luck with LT!

Chris

chrismdp wrote:Thanks so much Josh. I've been feeling pretty down this morning to be honest, mostly because of all the bugs that surfaced despite lots of effort and play testing. This has caused some rather negative reviews on Steam: hopefully people will change them and post more positive ones after the big patch this morning.

So, anyway, reading messages like this makes all the difference. Thanks again, and best of luck with LT!

Chris

Bah...the bugs will go away, but the game at the center of it all will only keep getting better, and personally I think it's already very compelling. Even in the past week the stability has increased a huge amount, so props to you for fast bug-cleaning! It's remarkable how fast you're pushing out patches. Didn't even realize there was a new one out this morning (which is great, because my play session last night was quite 'turbo-boosty' )

Thanks to you as well, and keep pushing! Those reviews are only going to get better and better. They're quite unfair in many regards at the moment. The most negative people simply aren't seeing the gem at the center of ST (and many probably have not played long enough to really understand it -- it did take me a while too!)

It's because put the effort into a really good automatic build system using Jenkins to build across Windows, OSX and Linux nodes, then automatically upload to a Steam preview branch Quite proud of it - rather sad almost no-one gets to see it They do feel the benefit in fast patches though!

chrismdp wrote:It's because put the effort into a really good automatic build system using Jenkins to build across Windows, OSX and Linux nodes, then automatically upload to a Steam preview branch Quite proud of it - rather sad almost no-one gets to see it They do feel the benefit in fast patches though!

Wow, that sounds fantastic...I can definitely appreciate that I also majorly appreciated it when I saw sol.exe is just over 1MB....and using only SDL (at least on Windows)...love the elegance

I hate to break in on this mutual admiration conversation gentlemen but can you tell me when I will get the additional game key for Sol Trader, Chris?

I'd like to pass it on to Nathan for inclusion in the pot of prizes for the next Limit Theory Fan Contest.

Glad you're enjoying the game Josh.

Sorry Victor: now the major bugs are sorted that's my next job. Will be today.

chrismdp wrote:Sorry Victor: now the major bugs are sorted that's my next job. Will be today.

Thanks Chris. I do understand how busy you are at the moment. I wish I had been of some assistance in helping you to squish some of those bugs before release.

I've just had the time to create a character and start a game. Didn't find any bugs in those couple of minutes I'll test the game in full this weekend. Can't wait!! I wish you the best of lucks with the fixing and coping with the rantings, Chris. Don't let them get to you, because most of them are just kids with no real world experience and even less in game programming

Victor Tombs wrote:

chrismdp wrote:Sorry Victor: now the major bugs are sorted that's my next job. Will be today.

Thanks Chris. I do understand how busy you are at the moment.

All queued up: your fulfilment email should go in the next few hours Victor

I've just read your latest update, Chris, and I have to say that the extra surprise you're including for qualifying backers is a very generous addition.

Victor Tombs wrote:I've just read your latest update, Chris, and I have to say that the extra surprise you're including for qualifying backers is a very generous addition.

Well, you've all been awesome