Kudos and Criticism               
by Ambrosia Software Users

 
                         This section features reader responses to Ambrosia's software & service. We will
                         include the good with the bad, and address any problems brought to our attention.
                         These are real people writing real letters about real issues. Feel free to drop us a
                         line.

Escape Velocity Reactions

                WHOOOOOOOOOOOOEYYYY!!!!!!! Escape Velocity is the BEST game 
                Ambrosia ever made! It involves thinking, moving, buying, trading, 
                killing, dying, landing, etc, etc, etc. Right now (on EV), I'm saving up 
                credits to buy a ship, and get fighters, killers, flyers, thinkers, movers,
                buyers, landers, etc, etc, etc.

                -DMO

Well, we are glad you enjoy it. What we could do with your vocabulary. 

                I'm an addict! Oh yes I am! EV should prompt the user every 2 hours 
                that perhaps  should go outside and enjoy life... EV is only a game!!!!

                -Jason Whong

Really? You don't think it should be the other way around? I think life should prompt you every two hours to go play EV. What do you think? 

                Let the guys at Ambrosia know that Escape Velocity should ship with marriage 
                counseling software.

                -Exter@AOL.com

We can't get invoved in marital affairs. We leave that for the experts. 

                I was wondering... do you have an EV Anonymous group or something?...

                -Captain Dirkinator

Yes, but we do not know who runs it, nor who any of the member are. Strange... 

                Escape Velocity is, in short, the most fun I've ever had with my pants on.

                Actually, it probably would be the most fun I've ever had with my pants
                off too, if only the "Hire an Escort" function worked like I first expected it to. ;-)

                -Peter A. Cohen

Umm... You've been reading the personals a little too much. 

                My first E-mail letter contained the following line: "Space exploration,
                and trading gave me  the impression that EV was akin to Monopoly only
                more so." The key word here being *akin*, not suggesting a copy.

                Is there some reason spaceyard warships cannot be renamed business
                units, and these bartered on various planets? When a player gets enough
                properties on a planet, he collects the tribute as a merchant prince rather
                than a pirate. You've got lots of planets to be subjugated, and perhaps the
                Confederation would object just as strongly to cartels as to pirates.

                Likewise with the weapons window, remove some exotic weapons and
                put in some commercial enterprises for the successful trader to invest in.
                Stock market?

                Keep the piracy feature if you must, but not as the primary objective.

                Make it more difficult to amass a fortune. In the present form, it's only
                a matter of flitting from place to place, and the player becomes a millionaire.
                Add some setbacks in the play sequence. (Chance & Community Chest on the
                Monopoly board.)

                Allow players to operate more than one ship, and to trade under aliases.
                Multiple players? Preferably just me and the computer, but the rage now
                seems to be networking games.

                -JWGlover@AOL.com

We welcome all comments and criticisms. We are still tweaking EV and hope to have a very well rounded game when we are done. 

Maelstrom Rock

                These are really good folks...They once gave me permission to use
                Maelstrom as an example in an object-oriented programming course I
                was teaching. The first day I had all 23 students load Maelstrom and play
                it. There really was a pedagogic reason for that, but the most fun was the
                incredible noise 23 people can make if  they play a shoot-em-up
                simultaneously with the sound cranked to the max. We cleared the
                computer center and I could legitimately give a smug smirk to the
                director. Ah yes, those were the days. Then I wrote my CS1 text and
                life in the computer center got dull again.

                - Rick "WoBbing again" Decker 

Kinda makes you want to change the lesson plan, eh? 

Barrack debate continued: Is Barrack a Word?

                barrack v.i. & t. Orig. & chiefly Austral & NZ. L19 [Prob. f. N. Ir. dial.]
                O spectators at games etc.: shout vociferously (for), jeer (at).

                barrack n. Austral & NZ. L19 [f. barrack v.i] An act, or the action, of 
                barracking a person, team, etc.

                In every day use, Australians 'barrack for Carlton' or 'barrack for the
                Adelaide Crows.' The word is used as a shorthand for 'this is the team
                I hope wins each week and if they don't I'll be vaguely depressed on
                Monday morning and if someone barracking for the team that beat
                them comes near me to gloat I'll probably growl at them.

                As far as I can work out, it encompasses some of the meaning of 'root
                for' as used by USonians but also covers some of the territory taken by
                the phrase 'to follow' (eg 'I follow the Cincinatti Reds.').

                It's interesting to observe that the term is reserved for teams involved
                in domestic competitions. Australians don't 'barrack' for Australia
                when it is playing an international fixture (whether it be cricket, soccer,
                hockey, netball or whatever).

                Moreover, Australians don't 'barrack' for cricket teams at any level:
                District; First Class; or Test (International). First Class cricket is played
                between states, so identifying your home state is tantamount to identifying 
                which team you want to win the Sheffield Shield. People who follow 
                District cricket tend to identify themselves as 'supporters' of a particular 
                team rather than suggesting they 'barrack' for said team. 

                -Brian Forte 

Yea, well... so what? 

Andrew's Parents Gotta Be Proud

                In the comp.sys.mac.games.action newsgroup, Andrew wrote:

                "Barrack Discretion allows you to permanently change two sounds in Barrack
                that some may find objectionable or not suitable for children.

                You guys are *truly* a class act. As a hard-core Christian, I was a little
                put out by the "oh my God" statement that I found in the game. But,
                knowing that not everyone believes the same way I do, I chose not to
                say anything to you guys because I know you're so busy doing other
                projects, etc. That, along with the fact that it isn't a pattern with you
                guys to insert questionable (morally that is) sounds into your games.
                So, to have you offer to change the sounds, just in case it might offend
                someone, really speaks highly of you and your organization. I commend
                you and Ambrosia for your sensitivity to others and children and for
                consistently producing outstanding work. Keep it up Andrew!

                -Chris Vaughn 

Hey, it's the least we can do. Besides, we don't want folks poking around the Barrack files with ResEdit. Only trained professionals should be performing these operations. I feel like Mr.CyberWrench. 

Great Game, But...

                I had just picked up 20 tons of industrial goods in the Antares system.
                I was cruising back to Earth in my shuttlecraft "Magellan III," when
                out of nowhere appeared the most dispicable creature in the known
                universe. I was caught red handed - nowhere to escape, nowhere to
                hide. If I'd had more warning, I might have been able to escape, but,
                alas, I knew that I was doomed.

                Fortunately, I was able to come up with a good enough excuse to keep
                my boss from firing me on the spot. I told him I was checking the
                color bands and pixel widths on my monitor. Can you believe he
                fell for that?

                -DMcnab1959 

Bosses are pretty dumb. It's amazing what you can pull off. I remember this one time... oh, Hi
Andrew. 

Hector Under Glass...The Threats Keep Coming

                From the Comp.Sys.Mac.Games.Action.Newsgroup, Andrew wrote:

                "Geez! Bloodthirsty bunch out there -- everyone wants to roast poor Hector. :)

                If he jumps in the middle of one more furball, I AM going to roast him! ;)

                EAT JAVELIN, YOU FEATHERED FREAK! :)

                -Chris Krueger 

Poor Hector. We give him a job and people use him as target practice. He just can't win. 

A High Price to Pay

                One of my colleagues (an unemployed lawyer) and I (an employed
                lawyer) have had a running competition on Barrack for about 8 weeks.
                We figure at $180/hr we have clocked up over $200,000 in lost time
                on this bloody game.

                -Emmanuel 

Golly, is that what you guys make? I'm in the wrong business. 

Poetry Corner

                Ambrosia is like a shinning light,
                It brightens my day and keeps me happy all night,
                When I score big, it cheers me no end,
                And best of all, my girl's still my friend,
                Cause she loves 'em too, the first time ever,
                It's Maelstrom that won her all the shootin' and fervor,
                Now that is what gamin' is supposed to be meaning.

                -Andrew aka Bladez 

Ahhh... I can feel the love.