I have to say that I admire your work.
Everyone has a point that they say "Enough". "No more".
I know I have said it many times myself.
Still, I do think that everyone on this here little planet we call Earth, the most important one in the universe so far as we can tell (feel free to insert any pun or joke you want here, star trek or other), everyone has his niche, everyone can do some things better than anyone else. Not sure how or why this is, still, it's the truth. We 're all here for a little time and we don't know when that time is up. Therefore, however much you want to go play Civ 5, please take some time to finish your job with the OP+ 4.1
SFC II in its latest form is the single best game in which naval tactics and the evolution of technologies of the spaceships of many different races. Besides, if SFC 4 ever takes flight, they 'd be fools not to use your work as a foundation for their game.
SFC II is a great game. Easy to get into, but quite difficult to master. With your shiplist, and the various bugfixes over so many years, it has reached its limits and did everything that it was designed for and even more.
Why is your shiplist important? The obvious reason I can think of is that with the final patch and your shiplist installed, SFC II has amazing potential as a training platform not just for multiplayer scenario, its most amazing potential for me lies in what AI programmers can do with it. There are so many levels that this game can be imporved upon (AI wise) and so many ways that the job done already can be used (one of the things I 'd do with it, if I had the time, money or expertise) is to try to make a layer of strategy superimposing on the tactical ship fighting game we' ve all grown to play and love, with enough AI variations thrown in and with Fleet admiral AI's (leading the fleet) commanding Commodore AI's (leading flottilas), who 'd command Captain AI's into fighting under pre-programmed doctrines. The player would get to make the grand strategy decisions (what to build and distribute enough hulls at different fleets) and just point and click where the fleet should go. The Fleet admiral AI would take it from there.
Gotta admit, I love SFC ever since I first played it. You have been the guiding force for its continuing development for many years now. Just finish the job, if you can, so that it will be ready for anyone who might use what you have created to start using this game as both an experiment into AI development that can be useful for programming students as well as trying to make that layer that will control this.
Other than harpoon and the other games like it, there is quite nothing like SFC in terms of complexity, yet instant accessibility, that could hone tactics possibly useful elsewhere. I am pretty sure naval cadetts will enjoy this game, once they get to know it, much like many of those who actually did play SFB over the years were actual sailors, who played SFB during the little time that they had off duty. It takes a connoisseur to appreciate a game of this caliber and I am sure that many will. If only they get to know it.
Why is SFC important? Well, I have seen some games over in bluesnews where some friends projected a home brew piece of ... software on screen. They roleplayed, got to yell "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead" and all that, and that 'd be fine, if it wasn't all just so fake, it was just a waste of time. They were just there to make a positive statement, speak up for tolerance, being PC, and whatever else their agenda might have been. THEY JUST DIDN'T GET IT. IT WASN'T A WARSHIP CREW THEY WERE TRYING TO ROLEPLAY, EVEN A FICTIONAL ONE EXISTING ONLY ON MOVIES, IT WAS LOVEBOAT. Don't get me wrong, their intentions were good, no doubt, still, they had no idea of ECM, ECCM, missile warfare, anti missiles, fighter/bomber launch, their recovery, CL, CA, DD, DN and every other piece of the alphabet soup that everyone of the, cadett, junior, active or retired navy personel would recognize and love just like they did in SFB. Because it does take one to know one. Because I, having played A LOT of sci fi in all its iterations (Proud owner of the original SFC and OP, saddly missed out on SFCII) not many others out there, if none can actually make a player feel that he 's in charge of a starship,
albeit a completely fictional one, no doubt. I don't know how many kids went to navy because of SFC, I do believe they were many, however.
I know that what I say will automatically trigger the
Get a life responseWilliam Shatner SNL skit Get A Life 1986-12-20still, that's fine. You know that there's some actual tactics in SFC, I know it, so do those who care enough to try to find out. I do believe that there's a lot that can be done with this.
I always liked games that let me know something more or actually understand a concept without a need for that concept to be explained. There are some games out there that once you have played and understood them, you just know. For example, once you play a total war game, you can understand what hammer and anvil strategy consists of, why the horse archers were so dangerous and then, after asking the right questions, understand a lot more about how and why Rome got to be where it did. I think that 's the reason why I got into modding myself. To try to make others understand by playing something that took me literally years of book reading and I still didn't get it.
In the end, a good computer game for me is one that allows a child to be taught, giving direction and drive to his natural curiosity. For example, one of the posts of the Taldren forum that I remember, spoke of a PC gamer, like us, who had his young nephews play alongside him SFC. Once he got down to explain the basics, they picked them up and in literally minutes were into it, having fun, no doubt. At the same time, however, they learnt, without even knowing that they did, all the concepts mentioned earlier, about ECM, ECCM, missile warfare, antimissile warfare, etc.
Think, then, how much easier it would be for those kids, who have acquired a grasp of the basics of naval warfare (even if a sci fi, completely fictional setting) to play harpoon (now that Harpoon's developpers have graciously allowed for a fully functional demo that will last months instead of days). Then, with careful guiding, they 'd learn how to lead a fleet, in a few hours. Since kids minds are much more able to retain information, than us supposedly grown ups, a career in the navy, or the merchant marine, won't sound like such a bad thing, after all. (If only someone told me, when I was 18, what kind of career I could have if I'd went into the armed forces or the merchant marine capt. school, I'd be very thankful now.)
Recruting tool, you 'd ask? It could be used like that, I suppose, still, I'd rather use the term "Appreciation" instead. They 'd learn how to operate alongside eachother, chain of command, in the best way possible, being part of a crew that will have them, under the stern guidance of their captain, learning and understanding exactly what the stations of a naval vessel are, weapons, etc. When I was young, all we had were toy planes and ships, nowadays, for those kids that are lucky enough, they can get to drive a ship, albeit fictional through their computer screens, using the ship simulators that are out there. SFC, through a fictional setting, can be a route to that, a way to let them get the basics, while having fun at the same time.
You see, The army, Marines and Air Force have it easy in this regard. They have first person shooters, very realistic ones at that, Air Force has simulators from the WWI up to present day, however the navy has, well, I don't know, what, harpoon? If that is the case, harpoon is very hard to get into and not many kids will have the attention span to actually want to play it. SFC can help there, I think, making some basic concepts easily accesible. Then they can play harpoon and actually understand and appreciate it as well. Then, who knows, maybe they 'll have a career in the navy, somewhere down the line and be thankful they got to understand what they did, when they did and in the way that they did.
Before getting off my wooden box and allowing you to keep my .02 cents, do it for us, the old geezers, who have enjoyed SFC so much, they got to lose potential girlfriends over it. (Nope, not telling who that schmuck was).
Your job is appreciated, in ways I can't even begin to express. You have earned the unwavering respect of everyone who has played SFC, liked it and then googled "SFC II Orion Pirates" even once to see what was going on. There is nothing you need to prove now. Please, try to find the energy and effort to finish this, because it IS very important.
Topic: FYI: work in progress: OP+ 4.1 (Read 111517 times)