As you may have heard, we've begun development on the newest installment of the Award-Winning Starfleet Command series of games.
Now, our team struggled with just how to make this announcement, because we're aware that announcements have been made before, then production went straight to hell in a hand basket. This makes for people to be rather suspicious of these particulars, -unless- we've got specifics and can give you some good time-lines / etc.
In good faith, we want to make sure everyone understands where and most importantly what we're doing. So I'm going to put it down in paper for you now.
NOTE !!!! THIS STUFF COULD CHANGE, IS SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE CHANGE, AND I MIGHT CHANGE IT JUST BECAUSE IT WASN'T CHANGING.1.) First, we've been dealing with the issues with EAW / OP availability, and the EAW WalMart code issue. We've been supplying keys for those individuals who've been able to prove they purchased the game, but there's many more who we had to turn away because we couldn't verify their purchase. Now, and after much hard work by our staff, we have an alternative for those individuals!
PReSEnTiNG ....
*drum roll*
Here, you will be able to purchase and digitally download the original EAW / OP games! Each game purchased will get it's own unique CD key, and will support Dynaverse.net! Each purchase will include software support in it's perpetuity! This means if you purchase a copy of EAW / OP from us, we'll include the updates / codefixes and releases on the Community version.
NOTE: This does
NOT include Starfleet Command 4.
We'll also be updating the Market to feature more cool stuff! How'd you like to be able to get a D.Net emblazened Hat? Or perhaps some "Romulan Star Empire" T shirts with custom made artwork on them? D.Net / XenoCorp coffee mugs! We'll also be linking the
Official D.Net Revised Strategy Guide in the store as well!
So much to browse, so many ways to support D.Net!
2.) Let's go over the stuff I mentioned in Update 1.
#1 Update the EAW codebase to compile on new(er) code. The objective here is to allow the game to run on Vista / Windows 7.
In progress. Our team of devs are making AMAZING headway in sorting through the code base and they are already making improvements. What kind of improvements?
Take a gander:
============================================
Bug fixes
---------
Fixed fighter bug where it would ignore other threats to
charge off and attack shuttles/fighters - now makes
decision based on relative ranges and threat
Dynaverse/vista compatibility improved somewhat
- currently improved stability, but not entirely reliable and not pvp tested
New features
------------
Added an sfc.ini setting to turn planet collisions OFF (collisions on by default)
- to set this, in sfc.ini file under the secion [UI] add this line:
PlanetCollision=0 to turn it **off**
(if set to 1 or the line is not present then planet collisions are on)
- means ships fly 'through' planets (rationalization is that you're
actually flying across the surface, though some of the camera
angles don't look that way)
- allows the planet to launch ftrs, pfs, drones, plasma
- also allows the planet to use transporters and short range weapons
against ships that are flying across it
****MULTIPLAYER WARNING****
***I still need to add the multiplayer/server versions of this setting***
(currently you need to trust that everyone you're playing with has it set the same)
Added an sfc.ini setting to enable "SFB mode" (off by default):
- to set this, in sfc.ini file under the secion [UI] add this line:
SFBMode=1 to turn it on (if set to 0 or the line not present then SFBMode is off)
- uses SFB style internals - e.g. 12 internals now can
destroy 12 systems, not the SFC-style 12 'half hits'
- uses SFB seeking weapon speeds: 32 for plasma, 8/20/32 for drones
- uses SFB photon ranges/to-hits (no more magic photons)
- cuts shield regeneration to about 2/3 of current pace
- mines last up to 100 turns instead of 10
- dropped mines are invisible except to the person who dropped them
(mines placed by transporter are still visible to everyone)
- set the hardcoded years so early era starts in 2256 instead of 2263
(the year Kirk meets the Gorn and the Organians)
Note: if you use this you should add 7 to the yfa/yla entries in your shiplist!
****MULTIPLAYER WARNING****
***I still need to add the multiplayer/server versions of this setting***
(currently you need to trust that everyone you're playing with has it set the same)
Numerous AI improvements
------------------------
When deciding to launch drones, the ai now considers
what direction the target is travelling - not just
what speed!
When deciding to launch plasma, the ai now estimates chance
of a hit on the actual plasma speed (used to assume plasma
travelled at speed 40, and figured launch was ok as long as
plasma at that speed would do at least 20% of its potential
damage - led to many wasted plasma shots)
When deciding to launch wild weasels ai now considers its speed,
facing, and the relative position of the seeking weapons it is
fleeing - less likely to weasel when it would probably outrun
the weapons anyway
Altered ai weapons fire so it is less likely to waste a weapon
beyond its effective range
Significantly increased chances ai would use its pseudo-plasma
if one were available
Added officer quality for ai officers
rookie 5%, junior 20%, senior 50%, veteran 24%, legendary 1%
Ai now less likely to overkill a target if weapons en route
already have high chance to kill it
Tweaked tbomb and hit-and-run officers to cut down on out-of-range strikes
Added some variability to when ai launches fighters
AI weapons officer should now place greater emphasis on hitting
weak or down shields rather than strong ones
Filled in the captain personalities - Taldren supplied a framework
but never implemented the personalities, now captains have a
bell-curved random personality defining anger, nervousness, resolve,
willingness to sacrifice ship, and aggression
When picking tactics and objectives the ai no longer single-mindedly
picks capture/destroy, now it looks at the mission objective,
the relative strengths of the ship/target, and the health of the
ship and target to pick between capture/destroy/defend/disengage,
and to pick between overrun/snipe/standard combat
When re-assessing offense/defense/navigation priorities and a desired
closing range, the ai now doesn't just randomly pick a close range,
it looks at racial armaments of itself and the opponent, the mission
objective, the relative strength and health of the ship and target,
and the personality of the captain
Greatly tightened up formation keeping - how close they'll
stay now depends on tightness of setting, but is always
much tighter than old defaults (where they figured they
were in formation if they were 30 hexes away!)
Ensured hit and run officer doesn't use marines if ship is getting
vulnerable to capture
Scripting improvements
----------------------
NW/ED scripts stripped down (many issues are now fixed more cleanly in the client,
so ugly/less stable hacks in the scripts are no longer needed)
Each is recompiled against the latest Sfc2 library builds, hopefully more stable
===============================================
The SFB mode is a BLAST to play - I've forgotten how utterly lethal weapons really were in SFB compared to SFC.
The AI is still dumb as a brick, but a less-dumb-brick than it was.
I've got a solution worked out for one more biggie, just haven't coded it yet:
- letting all races have both PFs and fighters
Next big fix on the to do list
==============================
This is a biggie that I've figured out how to fix, but haven't written the code yet...
Enable all races to use both fighters and pfs (without mucking with donor races etc)
- only catch is shiplist updates:
- ships that carry PFs MUST have their special role set to W,
ships that carry fighters MUST have their special role set to V
(otherwise they will be unable to resupply ftrs/pfs in supply dock)
- obviously someone needs to update the actual shiplist/fighter lists
with new pfs, fighters, carriers, and pfts
How it will work:
implement a new special role category for ships that carry pfs,
check it in supply dock to see if you need to populate fighter list with pfs
also in supply dock check for the 'v' to see if you need to populate fighter
list with fighters
add settings in Ship.h to specify if ship carries fighters/pfs
defaults to false for both
in reading spec list set to true based on special role flags
in saving to db file add setting to list of things to write
in loading from db file add setting to list of things to read
in shipsys\shuttlebay.cpp change the mGenerateFighter routine
to use that flag instead of the hardcoded gorn/rom/lyr
#2 Update the EAW codebase to match the fixes / enhancements available in SFC: OP. (This will allow us to optimize the serverkit, as the serverkit for EAW never had any issues with MySQL.)
In progress, currently being developed in tandem with the new OCI (Online Campaign interface), new artwork being done.#3 Unlock the stuff buried inside EAW for use in SFC4.
In progress!#4 Upgrade the engine itself if possible to something more current.
In progress, hopefully Quicksilver will be onboard soon.#5 Roll out the Strategic Combat Simulator interface (SCS)
In progress! The OCI is the framework for the SCS (Strategic Campaign Simulator).#6 Introduce Crew Pools, online enhancements and perpetual career tracking online with the ability for Campaign Masters to issue medals, commendations, etc.
In progress! This project begins with the OCI / SCS development. Now, you may be a bit confused, and that's understandable. "What's the difference between the "Community Edition" (or "Collectors Edition" as we're starting to call it
) and Starfleet Command 4 ?
Let me help you with this:
Starfleet Command : Community / Collectors Edition
Tentative Title : Starfleet Command EAW : Game of the Decade Edition.
Purpose: This will be the version of SFC that will run on Vista / Win 7.
- Ideally it will incorporate all the functionality of OP but without the cartel / Orion Pirates Syndicates layers on the D2 campaign engines.
- This version will NOT contain the Orion Pirates cartel layer or Cartels as implemented in SFC: Orion Pirates.
- This verion will have an updated code base, and a exacting list of bugfixes and enhancements as well as additional functionality as developed.
3.) The Dynaverse.NET fundraiser for 2011 is launched!
Please consider supporting the ONLY Official Starfleet Command site on the internet! Our goal this year is to raise over 1000 for licensing if necessary to update the core graphics engine! This will also cover the incidentials of operating and developing SFC: CE / SFC4.
4.) Renovations!
We'll be down for about a week the second or third week of March, as I'm having some massive renovations done at the house. This includes converting the garage and additional space into a mini-server room!
I'll post more about this in a separate thread the closer we get to the date.
So there you have it! Update 2... and it's a good one!!!!
Regards,
(edit by FoaS, Bonk for layout)
Topic: UPDATE #2 (Read 18155 times)