Emperor: Battle for Dune is a top-down RTS developed by Westwood Studios (now part of EA Los Angeles) and released in 2001. This is the third game in the Dune RTS series and the 1st to use 3D graphics for gameplay.
Doesn't the GUI cropping render the game unplayable? For instance, a number in the right-hand corner gets cut off. Isn't that number kind of important?
Yeah, that's the amount of cash you've got. But really, cash in Emperor is not exactly hard to find. The cropping issue is still a serious one, though, more for the fact that it makes navigating the menu system extremely difficult.
So, would you say any of the flaws render the game unplayable? Or do they just make aspects of gameplay inconvenient?
Also, the "cropping issue" shouldn't make it difficult to determine that the game is vert -. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, the "cropping issue" you describe *IS* vert -. Vert - means "the top and the bottom get cut off in widescreen."
Also, the "cropping issue" shouldn't make it difficult to determine that the game is vert -. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, the "cropping issue" you describe *IS* vert -. Vert - means "the top and the bottom get cut off in widescreen."
I believe PS means the menus and HUD are also cropping. Which is not an assumed behavior with Vert - games.
From the conclusions I came to when initially trying to get this working in widescreen, Emperor: Battle for Dune slices both the top and the bottom of the HUD and the 3D world underneath. So yeah, it's vert-neg.
And while the loss of credits doesn't render the game unplayable, the menu cropping is enough of a pain in the arse for me to want to fail it. If we're being lenient, though, I guess it could get an E. ;)
I'd like to hear dental's opinion. I think we can all agree that this flaw is, at the minimum, a consequential flaw, but there are two others that are more severe. I'll re-iterate the descriptions of all three.
Consequential flaws are more than cosmetic, and disrupt gameplay and/or narrative to some extent. Some might prefer to play in 4:3 than deal with consequential flaws. Any game with consequential flaws will receive a C.
Damaging flaws are more severe than consequential flaws. Some may think that a damaging flaw defeats the purpose of using widescreen. Any game with damaging flaws will receive a D.
Fundamental flaws break the game. You can enable widescreen in the game, but it does something that makes playing it impractical. For instance, it might cut off a GUI button that you need to click on to do something important. Any game with fundamental flaws will receive an F.
Dental - which of these do you feel best describes the sum of the problems that widescreen causes in Emperor?
Soduka, I think the F grade is a bit too extreme. Yes, it's pretty bad that you have to switch out of the game then kill the game's process in order to completely exit from it. Just because the 'Exit' button is cut off screen. On some resolutions, you can just make it out at the edge. So you can exit it out via the 'Exit' button.
Also, it can be annoying to move the mouse slightly up passed the button for the game to actually register the button active. The worse case is when you start a new game and in the screen where you pick one of the three house to play. Say you want to go back to the main screen. You can't if the cropping is bad enough to cut off the 'back' button. Again, on some resolutions, you can still see the top part of the button. That's enough to register a click.
So it depends on which resolution you pick. Some are more severe than others at least on my system. The cropping is pretty bad at 16:9 resolutions (1280x720, 1360x768, 1600x900, and 1920x1080). The ones where you have to alt-tab out of the game and kill it's process to exit.
While quite playable at 16:10 resolutions (1280x800, 1440x900, 1680x1050, and 1920x1200), it's bad but doesn't prevent you from exiting the game or navigating the various menus or enjoying the game. :P
If I play in 16:9 resolutions, then I would say it's a damaging flaw.
If I play in 16:10 resolutions, I would go with consequential flaws.
People!
You seem to have overlooked that switching to any custom resolution (be it WS or not) does not adapt the internal game code.
This has the nasty side effect that you can't click buttons and units where your mouse cursor is.
Instead, it is shifted and you have to compensate by clicking slightly off a button or a unit.
The higher the custom resolution, the higher the shift, which makes the game practially unplayable, because selecting single units out of a bunch many will make you miss and select a neighboring unit.
This is already apparant in the main menu, where you have to click between the buttons.
