Topic: Starfleetcommand 4: Posssible ?????

[gplana]

As everyone else has been putting their two cents worth in, I guess it's my turn.

As you may well imagine from my background, I am a die-hard SFB'er in terms of the rules. By that, I mean that I prefer all of the rules-based things that go with SFC-OP, and that I do not like SFC3 rules because of all the changes that were made; four shields vs six, and so forth. I just consider things like the Phaser-A, -B, and -X in SFC-OP to be weapons that the Steves haven't  published yet.

But ... once the game starts, I prefer more of a TNG/DS9 ship mix; I deal with this by (in my shiplst.txt, anyhow) making all of the purely SFB hulls as pre-X ships, and then treating all of the ships seen on TV recently as X1- and X2-ships. I can definitely say that while I love SFB, I've been playing the same hulls for so long that it is no longer that much fun. (And to give you an idea as to what I mean as a "long time", my first Staff credit on an ADB product was with Module R2.)

Not that I dslike the straight SFB races and ships, though. I got real excited when I heard about the GAW mod, and was very dissapointed when I heard it was for SFC3.

Anyhow, I'm around here a lot, just in lurk mode. I gotta get myself a neat .sig graphic!

[Pestalence_XC]

Gary, check out the UAW mod by Chris Jones for Orion Pirates.. if covers all eras from TOS to DS9 and even it mixes in some Star Wars and BSG and more.., but for the standard campaign, what he has done as a mod is fantastic.

[EmeraldEdge]

Gary, you'll probably have people offering graphics to you by this evening.   I know what you mean about the same old hulls.  It's nice to have them to go back to, but every so often you need something fresh and different.  I've had a few mods that take things and turn them on their ear as far as how certain elements are used in the game.  Never got around to completing them, but always intend to.  Maybe I'll get the runnin' in my "spare time"? heh.

[GDA-S'Cipio]

SFC may be based off of SFB (that is based off of trek), but it is not a copy of SFB, it is its own game and stands on its own merits.  Even in some ways, SFC3 is based on this same game, though more different then the first 3 versions. Also remember, SFB isn't a 4 letter word   Its the interpretation of SFB thats in question, just like people's interpretaion of trek.  To each person, the star trek universe could mean something a little different (as you can see in this thread).

Actually, I think SFC is SFB.  It was intended to be, and is, as close to a real-time version of SFB as the designers could manage.  (With the inevitable gaffs included.)  Saying it isn't SFB because it doesn't include all the rules is a little like saying I'm not playing SFB when I go to the national championships, since tournament rules are very abbreviated.

Perhaps the real problem (or at least most of the arguments) stem from the fact that the D2 isn't Federation and Empire, and no serious attempt was ever really made by the designers to make it so.

Fans have gone a long way towards making the D2 a lot closer to F&E over the years with mods and player-side rules, but there have been a lot of arguments along they way, as well as a lot of D2 players who don't really agree the effort should be made.

I agree with earlier posts.  It was very frustrating seeing early patches address things like BPV balance or extra points of hull or power -- which any D2 admin could have done with a simple shiplist edit -- when there were serious D2 bugs that needed fixing.  I'm glad to see the bugs mostly got solved in the end, however.

-S'Cipio

[FPF-DieHard]

Is "Neverwinter Nights" D&D?

Can a good Trek game exist if it is not based on SFB?   Yes.

Have I seen one better than OP? 

[Rod ONeal]

My argument for sticking with the SFB ruleset is that it's a very complete ruleset with years of playtesting and balancing. We've also had years of playtesting and balancing for SFC. If you scrap it, or indescriminently add to it, you have to start from scratch with something that is unproven and untested.

I think that if you want to make a TNG Trek game you'd be better off petitioning Activision for the SFC3 source code. At least what is there already was done by experienced professional game designers (even if they were rushed and couldn't make it as good as they wanted to).

With that said, I believe that people should be free to mod/change the game to be whatever they want it to be. If only the SFC2/OP code gets released then let the "2 camps" do as they'd like to. It's quite possible that they'd end up meeting somewhere in the middle down the road, anyway. Or we might end up with 2 really good games to play.

I'm sure that even the strongest SFB ruleset supporters would like to play a good starship combat simulator with Cardassians, Borg, Breen, Dominion, etc... It's just that many of us want to play SFB/F&E on our computers with people from all over the world, and have wanted to do so for many years and don't want to let that dream go.

[Chris Jones]

Pesty -  thanks for your support here. I think that since OP was geared to SFB out of the box, the majority of responders in this thread and threads like it will be SFBers. TNG for OP really is a great concept, and it does work.

[Davey-E]

Give us ST - EVE in 3d space with all the races, planets, systems etc,

Then lets have a real campaign with ALL the gameplay lasting years 

[Ravok]

Pesty -  thanks for your support here. I think that since OP was geared to SFB out of the box, the majority of responders in this thread and threads like it will be SFBers. TNG for OP really is a great concept, and it does work.

 I can absolutely vouch for that!   After playing this Mod I really feel sad for SFC3 . This is what it was supposed to be.

 I keep hoping #3 will be fixed some day tho.

 As for the rules im not picky. I can live with either. Its the game, the Mods,and the people that matter to me.