Progress....

Gilbert's picture
Gilbert
March 12, 2013 - 7:59pm
 There has been much silence on this project and it has taken on a new direction. The game has been made; however, it does still have non-functional parts and a few that are having a hard time dealing with SF rules on construction, everyone knows what that is, the MHS. The basic physics was being a pain with the MHS as the means of defining the hull for the equipment installed onto the ships.
 
  There has been changes to the sequence of events such as the turns and the ten minute turn had to go, it is now real-time.

  The MHS was giving everyone a headache, go figure, so, it has been changed to be more realistic and keeping with the SF flavor. The MHS is now the symbolic representation of the mass and limitations to the number of systems the ships can carry.

   Missles did not really have a MHS, they do now for the sake of the symbolic mass disrobutions. The seeker is 1 MHS. There are two torpedoes in a MHS. the rocket battery a assault rock has 4 per MHS. The ICM has 8 per MHS, these are based on the seeker's cubic meters of 40 then the assumed mass of them when you compare them to other weapons. This system worked like a charm but some of the ships had to get revamped due to this change but not much. Furthermore, with the use of the MHS more as a mass, the engines to HS works much batter, better than we expected.

  I know your question about the MHS is going to be "Why are you keeping the MHS when it is giving so much grief?" Well, it is part of the system and keeps the flavor of SF; however, this will go the way of the Dodo and have a mass system instead of the MHS headache.

   More weapons had to be changed to make the game less boring and leave one feel let down.
  
   The seeker has had the range of 36 hexes already and in the game has two modes, mine and missile. The seeker missile rack has been changed to also incorporate a magezine that carries 4 seekers internally but this does not shed the mas of the seekers.

   The torpedoe is no longer limited to 4 hexes, it now has an effective range of 12 but can go 16 with only 1d10 damage. After 4 hexes, it begins to lose its punch at the rate of 1d10 per 4 hexes. it is done at 20 hexes. The torpedoe launcher has a magezine that carries 8 torpedoes this does not shed the mass of the torpedoe.

   The assault rocket has a range of 8 but this does not mean it will hit, it is still just a propelled projectile with a warhead. The assault rocket launcher has a magezine that carrie 4. Again, this does not give any free space, the mass is still accounted for it the hull.

   The ICm has a magezine that carries 24 but the mass is still not included in this, either.

   The energy weapons have a charge time the MHS was used for the time in seconds just to fill in the gap for now but it seems to work good. There is a slew speed on the turrets that is incorporated into the game and seems to work well so far in the playtesting. The slew allows for laser batteries to be the only energy weapon to target fighters and missiles. There is nothing to stop oppurnity shots with other weapons on incoming missiles.

  Defenses are being left alone except for the MHS being used as a mass symbol. 

  Hull points have a MHS too to reflect the mass that it has but currently the default hulls get their HP for free but more cost 1 MHS per 5 HP extra. The loss of ADF/MR still gives 5 HP, right now.

  New hull armor is going to be used in the game, so far, only a composite armor has been implimented to give 10 HP per MHS.

  Now the hard part and the part that will kill the MHS completely, the engine to hull size. OMG, the engines have no base that I can find to start from in the book. For a good example, look at the HS 19 compared to the HS 20, that just ain't right. Several ideas have been tried and non have made a good base to start from, so, there might be a new system implimented to take care of this engine delima.

   The game has been reduced to 2D instead of 3D due to the fact that there are only 5 ships in 3D. The Assault Scout, Frigate, Destroyer, Carrier, Battleship, and the Ag Ship just for fun but not used except as decor in the scenes. All the ships are UPF designs, no Sather ships but the destroyer, ok, there is 7 total. All the other are conic shapes denoted by there color for UPF blue and Sather red. Spacestations are just big donuts nothing to the sizes except by consulting the station roster in game. The 2D uses the ship counter from the game board.

  Something that is new, is how the sensors work. Once you scan a ship, it's signiture is logged for future references, for other uses as well but it is not implimented due to other problems.

  The rest is just pounding out the kinks that the rules have tons of and some bugs that pop up now and then. The ships turning is in 60 degree incrememnts left over from a turn based version. The AI works descent but needs to get some attention. The fleet AIs target the same ship, must be an error in there somewhere. I think I missed something in the AI code.

  The networking part works on my lan but not over the internet, it has something to do with the port forwarding. I am not going to worry about the port forwarding until the game gets to be a better play and more of the issues resolved. 
  
  These are just some of the things done and being done. We haven't been working on it for every waking moment due to jobs, school, and real life. Just to let you know, it is being worked on with its progress on where it is at for now. 
   
Comments:

Gilbert's picture
Gilbert
October 4, 2013 - 12:02am
A screenshot for discussion.

   This is an old program I made using Basic that is getting redone with more modern features. The text is from the Star Frontiers font with ship silhouettes from the book as place holders for the game. This is here to get responses from what others have to a game or game play support software that can help referees manage more details in their games. I intend on getting more graphics with this screen and there will be more details that can be managed as for ships and battles, so far, only 0ne-on-one ship battles.
   The status for this is, is is playable and uses advanced rules with only the screen here for the graphics for the managerial side of the game than tactical.
   This can and will be compiled for Windows, Linux, Apples, and Android operating systems and quite a few more and can be done upon request for many others.
   The graphics are capabable of 64 bits. The power that is available in modern systems will allow for many more features to be added with the use of multithreading to do the dirty work for multiple operations.
   This can have network added to it, which I do plan and there will be no limits on how many can connect except for the memory, processor power, and band width to the internet.
   The screen example is on;y at 1024 by 768 as a default; however, resolution adjustment can be made through manual or automatic changes.
   What am I looking for? Input from fellow players and referees on getting modernization to either support software or maybe a full blown game.
   This version will be playtest ready by next week Wed or Thur and networking operational by the weekend. I would like to get two sides of play comments, one, game players. two, experienced referees/players of SF, depending upon which route this may go.

I first want to find out if there is any interest left for this type of project before I create a project that will just taking up space. As for what can be done, I have gruaduated with a Bacholeors degree in Game Software Development and this has been more of a hobby to see SF get into having programs to help out.

   Please, your comments are needed for this idea to see if there is any interest in it's pursuit.

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
October 4, 2013 - 6:14am
Well, I at least would be interested in seeing it.
Ad Astra Per Ardua!
My blog - Expanding Frontier
Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site
Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine
Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine

Gilbert's picture
Gilbert
October 4, 2013 - 7:51am
 See it do what? Specifics would be more helpful because at this point it can be made to do either the game or support role.

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
October 4, 2013 - 9:15am
Well, as of yet I haven't seen it do anything.  It will be interesting to see what you have and then make suggestions. 
Ad Astra Per Ardua!
My blog - Expanding Frontier
Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site
Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine
Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine

Gilbert's picture
Gilbert
October 4, 2013 - 9:22am
 That's just it, it is early enough to have it do whatever is needed or wanted to do. The basic idea was to handle combat; however, after all the info is in, it can easily handle construction. I will make it handle combat for now and get all the advanced ships and rules in for combat. The lower light blue boxes are intended to be buttons for various stages of gaming rpg, refereeing, or just general info at one's finger tips.

Gilbert's picture
Gilbert
October 8, 2013 - 6:03am
  I was interested in how many people were interested in having this happen. So far, it seems no-one is interested in this happening. I will post screenshots after I have it with better graphics, which I was hoping some of the artists on here would be interested in the game and like to see it in better shape. Its just that no-one is interested in it. This is being made right now whether if you believe it or not. I wanted experienced players from here to be on the creation on the game and game support software.

  I will stop in next weekend. There are other game sites that are more than happy to have some software to help out with there game sessions. Maybe, I will not be too busy with those and still be able to work on an SF one.

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
October 8, 2013 - 8:15am
It's not that no one is interested.  However, you've posted this into a project that has three active members including yourself (plus me and Karxan.  Everyone else I either don't recognize or I know they haven't been active in months/years and I'm on-line every day).  No one has really seen the posts.  So it's not surprising you haven't gotten any responses.  You should post something in the general forums.  It will provide more visibility.

For the rest, take this as constructive criticism.  Heaven knows, I'm just as bad about this as anyone. Smile

The other thing is that there aren't really any details on what you are thinking of doing.  You posted a really small screenshot that looks interesting but provides little detail (Athough I see you used the font I made).  The original post, which I just reskimmed quickly without reading, seemed to talk about a combat game, and you mentioned something different as a possiblity in your recent post but there aren't any details.

Is it a star ship design tool? A straight up combat simulator?  At GM reference guide?  All or any?  What capabilities does it have now or are envisioned?  There's just no information (or I haven't had the time to find it) and no demo to play with.  Put a playtest version up once it's ready and you'll probably get more feedback.

My short term suggestions would be to tag the code as is so you have a checkpoint and build the game.  Everybody likes games.  Then if people want a gaming aid, you can go either expand as needed or more likely go back to the tag point and build out a separate piece of software that supports that.

I'm actually quite interested, both in seeing what you have and possibly helping you on development. (I am a software developer after all.)  Remember, I've built a nearly complete version of the board game (it lacks seeker missiles and the repair turn), I might be able to provides suggestions/ideas.  But I'm also swamped with getting the next issue of the Frontier Explorer out right now (and have been for the past month) so I'm a little distracted.
Ad Astra Per Ardua!
My blog - Expanding Frontier
Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site
Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine
Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine

Gilbert's picture
Gilbert
October 8, 2013 - 9:08am
  I did not understand the access capabilities of how people can get to it. Now I understand that the access is limited, thank you for that bit of information. Much needed info and to keep in mind for future reference.
  As for what can it do, at this point all the above listed by you can be done and put under simple buttons to get to the tools. I am looking at a multi-tool program that can make save files of the ships for role playing or used in combat control with a possible ability of scripting in house rules and equipment.
   My thoughts are to get others involved to see if I can get some graphics from the artists or anyone who wants to give it a shot. What people would like to see put into it like maybe include some kind of mining aspect to it or carry cargo and freight. The combat system is very simplified by not having deep graphics and go with probabilities of things happening.

   The suprise is going to be in the AI that I have for this game that will learn from players; however, the leaning part can be curb checked with certain actions which will remain a hidden and the players will have to figure it out as they play. 

   Maybe I need to make a new project and get out of this one that seems to be dead from what I understand.

   It would just be easier to get an idea from others now than it is to make changes later as it will be in the code already and not needing rewriting for each change; although, that would not be that hard.

   And this is a public apology for what I did, I did not understand the access to this forum.

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
October 8, 2013 - 4:39pm
No problem.  You don't really need to make a new project if you don't want to.  Just make a post in the general forums pointing here to bring peoples attention to it.

And if you have something working, make it available, you'll get more feedback that way.  Most of it will probably be complaints Smile  but that will at least tell you what people are expecting or what they'd like it to do.

Make executables for whatever OSes you can and post them in the download sections.  Then start a new forum topic to discuss it and post in the general forums with a link to that topic telling people about it and pointing them to the downloads.  You'll get at least some response.
Ad Astra Per Ardua!
My blog - Expanding Frontier
Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site
Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine
Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine