Wow! Many years ago, I was lucky enough to be a beta tester for the SFCs. And have been playing it less and less over the years, but ALWAYS had a soft spot in my heart for it. I'd regularly peruse the boards, and would post occassionally. As I'd upgrade the PC/laptop, would have to reacquaint myself with the headaches of installing, patching, changing the desktop link, etc., though the compilations made that much less painful (thanks, Pestalence, for the enhancement packs). And FireSoul's stuff has been out of this world. And one can't forget to mention all the great stuff the scripters, like NW, have been doing. Obviously, I'm not mentioning everyone: this is just the stuff off the top of my head as I would periodically orbit dynaverse.net . I held my breath like so many of us over SFC 4, but knew it probably seemed too good to be true.
But this, Frey and Bonk, wow, this seems like something different in terms of intelligent organization and available assets towards meeting realistic, and worthwhile, goals. I'll be upgrading the PC again soon, Win7, and will hopefully have a seamless transition with SFCDecade (is that a valid expression? SFCD?).
As I loved all iterations of this game so much, I have ALL my stuff. Even (I think) a beta test disk. And bonus mission disk (already reproduced here countless times). Even my autographed Taldren T-shirt! (Thanks, Erik and company, if you're reading this!)
But in the spirit of painless fundraising with minimum legal hassle, one thing that always bugged me when I would periodically reinstall SFC would be my inability to sort the latest and greatest models. Maybe I'm behind on this one, and it already exists, but I would gladly donate for a disk of updated, approved, hardpointed, best of models, broken down as appropriate by era and unique to refits. I always pictured the warp engines on the models as being the best telltale way of distinguishing eras, with the orange tipped TOS warp engines corresponding with early, TMP slotted warp engines with mid, and TNG with late. But you get the idea.
Anyhow, I think rethinking the model assortment, with appropriate quality control, variety, and just downright aesthetics, would give dynaverse an opportunity to make some donated cash with quality work already available on its website. Just not organized in any standardized fashion. Firesoul's extensive library of ship additions certainly has created a need for model variety. And I always thought that SUBTLE refit variations during gameplay enhanced gameplay in letting the player guess who they're fighting against on visual alone, before anything shows up on readout, so some real thought has to go into choosing the models along a refit family tree. And that is something for which I would think many would be willing to pay. Especially if you throw in a good user-friendly model choosing utility, if that seems desirable or practical (to allow future wholesale model changes/standardized model folder organization).
Just a thought, as I think this might not be a bad time to put thought into model organization/integration/updating within SFC, as well as be a possible way to make resources largely already available to work towards the financial viability of dynaverse/SFCD.
Thanks for reading this.
-TF
Topic: UPDATE #2 (Read 17813 times)