Topic: "All Good Things.." Final mission for SFC. Tribute to James E. King III

[Centauri Vaughn]

Team SFB "Starfleet Battles" for EAW is now available. This is my final mission for SFC, and it is dedicated to James E. King III A.K.A MagnumMan.
I started scripting missions for SFC in February of 2001 (for the Empires at War release) with barely any knowledge of C++ programming. For the most part everything was just trial and error.
 I averaged about 2 questions a week on the Taldren forums for advice and help.

As I progressed in understanding the API and C++ I started to push further in to what I can do as far as mission events.
I first contacted MagnumMan via email about a single player mission titled ?Tomorrow?s Enterprise?, a mirror mission of ?Yesterday?s Enterprise? from the Romulan perspective during the battle at Nerandra III. His reply email arrived in several hours. From that day on I sought his advice and knowledge, from that day on he has always been there.


The following is a conversation snip let from 2001 when I started chatting with Mag to 2002. I call this "King 101".  

7/25/2001
MagnumMan:  As for becoming a programmer let me ask you a question.  Do you know the difference between an array and a pointer?

If you can tell me what the difference is between a pointer and an array, you will be home free.  That is the hardest concept to grasp.  Once you do, everything else locks into place.

Centauri Vaughn: I see that I have a lot of studying to do...  No one has taken me by the hand and taught me C++ outside of the tutorial, your help, and a lot of trial and error.

7/18/2002
Centauri Vaughn: Hey Mag..  I am beginning to realize what you meant when you say things got easy for you once you understood the concept of pointers and arrays..

MagnumMan: So let me ask... What's the difference between a pointer and an array?

Centauri Vaughn: well..an array is used to store data. there are different kind of arrays. Dynamic, static, dynamic changes its size, static is like a constant.

MagnumMan: Let me put it another way...
char *p = new char[4];
char c[4];

Centauri Vaughn: ok..char *p = new[4]; 4 being the index value for the array  you can use .  
then  you have char c[4];  from what I see c[4] would hold the value of char times p..   They are both the same.

MagnumMan: Correct, they are both the same. Arrays and pointers are the same thing...


         


 As most (if not all of us) know, MagnumMan has provided the SFC Community with two of the most popular multiplayer missions ?Coop Ace? and ?Sector Assault? for the SFC2 Releases then took it a step further with his scripting utility ?ShipList? library.
His most recent contribution to the community is Khoro Mag along with Dutch Blomenkamp A.K.A Khoro, which provided the community with patches, server kits and utilities.  

It was his shiplist library along with his dialog concept for Coop Ace and Sector Assault that paved the way for Team SFB (Starfleet Battles) for SFC3 EAW and Team TNG (The Next Generation) for SFC3.

Team SFB is my final mission release for SFC and is dedicated to MagnumMan for all of his efforts. I have set in motion plans to become a game programmer, for that I also thank the people at Taldren.

It has been a great learning experience and personal experience working with the SFC Community.. I wish all of you the best.

But like all good things..    

Sincerely,

Vaughn G. Martin A.K.A Centauri Vaughn  
SFC Mission Scripter 2001-2003
 


TEAM STARFLEET BATTLES (For SFC2 EAW)

 Team Starfleet Battles

 
         

[FireSoul]

Not for OP?
-- Luc

[Centauri Vaughn]

 

Quote:
 Not for OP?

More people play EAW online(30-50) vs OP (7-12)..  

[FireSoul]

I don't have a polite way to respond to that.

[Centauri Vaughn]

 

Quote:
I don't have a polite way to respond to that.

You can draw more fly's with honey my friend..

 
I am with you as far as OP vs EAW. OP runs smoother and I love the API for it. But I have logged on GSA many of nights just to see a hand full (if that) of players for OP.

I have 6 mission for OP that were released last year..(4 single player and 2 multi)  You can find them here:

 Sector Wolf 359

This site will not be around much longer.    

[FireSoul]

but to run it on OP, you just recompile the same source.
.. there's only about 2 functions that are different between the 2 APIs.. (setting max speed, for example) and there is even a trick that can be used to detect if it's being compiled for OP or EAW..

.. ie:
#ifdef USING_OP


It's dead easy.
-- Luc

[Centauri Vaughn]

Would you like to play an OP version release of TeamSFB?

I know what you are talking about Firesoul, you did it with Coop Ace.  

[Klingon Fanatic]

Quote:




Would you like to play an OP version release of TeamSFB?

I know what you are talking about Firesoul, you did it with Coop Ace.  

I sure as heck would love to play this in OP!


KF

[FireSoul]

Quote:

Would you like to play an OP version release of TeamSFB?
I know what you are talking about Firesoul, you did it with Coop Ace.  

I'll let the other people answer that..
.. I'm probably not the right person to ask since I support OP so much..

[FPF_TraceyG]

Quote:




Would you like to play an OP version release of TeamSFB?

 

Absolutely, yes please. I firmly think we should be porting as much as possible between EAW and OP. Given that there are very few differences between theire respective API's, this would be something worth doing.

Nice work by the way...  

[Rhaz]

I'm up for an OP version too!

[Rod O'neal]

Thanks for doing this for all of us. I appreciate it. I too wouldn't mind having an OP version.
Also, I noticed it said that, "Source Code for your scripts was coming soon." I'm looking forward to that also.  

[B5er wanna be]

 Spin one up for OP please...