Day #1

I also have the stuttering but worse than Kelbris.
ping 72, download 1.72Mb/s
I'm pretty certain it is download bandwidth constrained, discussed at length in my notes sent to Jarobi
The only remedy I know at the moment is to replay until it doesn't stutter (until it is fully buffered)
For me the stuttering started in the intro about the point where they start to talk about eugenics

 

does yours stutter from the start or from when the video starts glitching out like my issue? I know my speed is ok because I watch youtube (not at the same time as testing obviously) and it runs fine, no stuttering in the audio or anything, the video runs smooth as can be, just the audio.

 

Was talking to Nikel through the IRC and he suggested that it could be an issue with lag between my machine and the CMS. Anyone here have an idea what could be causing it?

 

I had no issues acquiring the game, downloading or connecting. The mission went fairly smoothly, I had already read in here about the ambiguous answer for part 2 and I'd also like to see both answers accepted there, if the change hasn't already been made.

The two bugs I found were:

• After achieving "Accuracy," the icon did not appear lit until moving away from the mission tab and back. I can't reproduce this now on my own.
• The Sound FX toggle in settings does not seem to function. Personally, I find the flickering light sound in the sitroom annoying after the first repetition and prefer to mute it, which the button did not do. I quit the client and reopened it to be sure and I could not make the Sound FX button work properly.

Good things:

• The briefing video is much higher production quality than the ones from the beta.
• The music.
• Nice, simple introductory puzzle.
• Looking forward to the next one.

I can't test the video stuttering because my dedicated graphics card has decided that it doesn't really want to do work today, and the integrated graphics run fine with a bit of lag normally. Also the mission sphere is pink. But this chipset is about 5 years old now so not something to worry about.

 

Our systems behave differently, my video stops and audio, too. It begins much earlier in the video than for Kelbris, then for the remainder of the video it halts and then starts again for fractions of seconds on & off, basically strobing its way through to the end. Maybe it would be best to not let it start until it is fully buffered but I have no control over that.

 

The third time I launched the client the Sound FX button worked properly.

 

Speaking for the demographic who already has Steam but hardly ever uses it, activating and installing the game was no problem at all. It took just a few minutes. I’ll try it on a second, older POS computer in a bit. Mission was easy, of course. I like that the image for the second part was a larger copy of the same one. This was not needed, but it was a good incentive to just look more closely at it rather than try to overthink the mission and look for metadata or steganography.

 

I just noticed that the far left side of the screen is cut off, so if there is any kind of hidden message in "the communication below" I can not see it fully. Tried increasing resolution to 1280x720 from 1024x768 but it still has the little missing bit of the screen.

 

The thing I always do with images in the evidence section is to "Show In Browser", that way they aren't cropped by the client.

 

I run the client in windowed mode. I didn’t get video stuttering as some others reported when I was using the client normally, so I tried to provoke it. I was only able to get video stuttering when I grab the title window for the TBW client and move it around. I just launched the Beta 5.0.1 client and saw the same behavior, so this isn’t a new development for this client in my case at least. The opening credits for the game do not stutter when I do this, however.

Also, I was able to stream the game to a second computer without any other issues so far. The only difference between the two is that it shows up as full screen instead of windowed on the second computer, but I assume that is a feature of Steam streaming.

So there are now two things I learned about Steam today. This beta is making me smarter already : )

 

I finally solved the mission, damn my vision not letting me see the clues.

 

Download & Installation went smoothly.
Updated clearance level to Yellow
I noticed that all classes other then Agent were locked for me.

introductory cutscene did have a LOT of stuttering unfortunately, mainly after the commanding officer stepped in and started introducing me to the mission.

I have restart the client. Change all my settings. (full screen, windowed, etc...)
Always the same problem. The stuttering only starts after the commander starts talking, the Morpho part at the start runs fine.

Anyway, mission 1 parts 1 and 2 are completed without problem.
Accuracy 100. Mission completed 1.
Really easy. Good introduction.

All classes other then Agent still locked for me.
Achievements work fine.
Everything work fine, except the video.

Annnd... The "skip" button from the video.

 

The skip button worked for me just fine

 

I see what you mean about using the zoom in for the second image instead of opening it in a browser. I think I have always opened images in a browser from the very beginning since I copy them into my journal anyway. It just seems intuitive to me. But I can see how a new agent might simply miss the initial “show in browser” button and just gravitate to the magnifying glass icon. There is no “show in browser” button once the image expands. I would put it low down on the priority list, but it still might be a sensible idea to keep that button visible somehow even after the image expands. People who still prefer to view the image in game anyway can continue to just ignore it.

 

I actually noticed it right after I made that post, I wonder, what resolution do you think would NOT have that issue, for instance if there is a clue in the code box in the future, it would be nice to know how many letters/numbers we need to input, rather then seeing 1 less and getting the accuracy lowered. BTW, good job on hiding the steam achievements until they are unlocked, tried using SAM to check and even that failed (was testing to see whether it would actually work or not, if so it would have to be altered to not work due to greenlight operative achievement).

 

For me the lot went smooth, no download issue, no install issue, no video stuttering, both answers were easy to decipher and took a matter of seconds. Good starter mission for someone that has never done something like this before. I like the interface, everything seems pretty clean and straight forward. I was clicking about in the interface and haven't had any issues so far.

I have seen the people commenting on the clarity of the second clue being in question, and I can understand the issue, but as someone who comes from a military family, the op and then the outcome are the order it is supposed to be. If communication gets cut early, you wanted whoever you were checking in with to know. If you (using a different example so as not to give away the answers, just in case) are sent to assassinate a world leader, you want to say the op you are reporting to, so if you cannot deliver a full report they have a general idea of what the report is about. If you say "failed" and then cut off, they have no idea of knowing what failed. If you start by saying "assassination" then they know what to look for. At least that is how I was taught.

Or maybe it was because the first message was top to bottom, left to right, so I read the second message the same way.

But still, black ops!

 

Also for the resolution issues, I run at 1440x900, I can do more but I don't. And for speed test I have 8ms ping, 151.38 down and 10.18 up. Just to add to your data collection.

 

Theme : SCI-FI
I think the theme is not very suitable for the mission.

Anyway... I will continue in French (because i'm French and stupid) :

-----------
Je viens de remarquer quelques problèmes :
- impossible de changer son numéro de téléphone une fois celui-ci défini. (Si on perds son portable, ou si on déménage, c'est problématique).
- Impossible de changer son adresse une fois celle-ci définie. (Si on déménage, c'est problématique).

A propos de déménagement...
J'ai remarqué que j'étais localisé sur vers Paris, alors que je me situe dans le Sud-Ouest, vers Toulouse.
J'ai pourtant rentré mon adresse correctement pour changer "Clearance Level : Yellow"
Comment faire pour être localisé correctement sur la carte ?
------------
- Clearance level : green is locked.
- Only the Agent class is usable for me.

Oddly, the number of agents enlisted is not the same for the Beta client (1005), and the "pre-release" client (825).
What explains this difference?

 

I wouldn't say that the information is confusing as such. It's just that having the image so zoomed in made it a bit difficult for me to realise what I was looking for. I didn't think to open it in a browser and I imagine many new players would probably feel the same.

Also Green level is also locked for me. But wasn't this the one that required legal don't sue us if you come to harm paperwork? If it is then would it be worth mentioning why it is locked to some players (maybe a roll-over message along the lines of "Only available to Agents who have undergone medical testing. See Forums for details" sort of message)