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  #11  
Old February 15th, 2009, 08:25 AM
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Default Re: Star Trek Supremacy 4x BOTF 2

Hey guys, i'm Matress_of_evil; one of the admin from the BOTF2 forums. I'm also the guy that is implementing the game database for Supremacy. (Buildings, ships, stats, text, etc) Our spies came across this thread about Supremacy two days ago but my account has only just been activated.

To answer the questions that you've posted here, yes, Supremacy is a fan-made game and no, we do not have the licence to make Trek games. However, the powers that be have been very tolerant of fan-made stuff in the past. We also have absolutely no intention of making any money from the game - we've created Supremacy as a labour of love, not to line our pockets. The game will always be freely available for download from either the Supremacy website or the BOTF2 forums.

...

Ed Kolis, Skirmisher, and Atrocities, i'm really surprised that you have criticisms about the UI - to my knowledge, you're actually the first people to criticise that part of the game in several months - we actually get a lot of positive feedback about the cleanness of the UI. What precisely are your criticisms? We're always looking for feedback, and will always consider making changes where the community wants them.

Mike (The developer, AKA Mstrobel), also plans to scrap the current Cardassian UI; this is because it is based on a very old template of the Federation UI, which has since been updated. This means that there is now an incompatibility problem with the ship orders in the Cardassian UI. (They are blacked out unless you hover your mouse over them) Mike is going to rebuild the Cardassian UI from scratch, so don't worry, the scrapping of the UI won't be permanent.

...

Skirmisher, the problems that you noticed are easy to explain: the game is incomplete, and is a VERY early test version as you said. All of the empires and minor races have been implemented, but the game lacks an AI - the other races quite literally don't even know how to feed themselves, let alone know how to build ships and expand to other star systems. The AI will be the single most complex-to-program part of the game, and Mike has barely started programming it yet; it won't be ready for several months at least. But an AI is coming; we have some major plans for how to use the AI to make life easier for players, such as implementing a programmable system governor to take over much of the micromanagement for players that prefer to concentrate on the big picture. (Players that like micromanagement will be able to turn the system governor off) Mike is referring to this style of gameplay as "macromanagement", which he explained in His News Article On Startrek-Games.com. (Link) The "generic disposition" of the minor races is also caused by this lack of an AI.

...

We do also plan to have tactical combat in the game - in fact, the combat system is already being worked on by CdrWolfe. It is being developed as a separate program that will be merged into Supremacy later on once it is complete. This means that people can download and test the combat system as Wolfe develops it. In fact, we already have a working demo of the combat system which is available for download from Here. (Link) Just like Supremacy though, it is far from complete, so don't expect it to be perfect. To run it, you need to meet the same requirements as Supremacy, which requires the installation of Microsoft's .Net 3.5 SP1 Framework. (Link) If you can play Supremacy, then you already have this installed. Both Supremacy and the Combat system will simply crash during loading if you do not have .Net 3.5 SP1 installed.

Once you've downloaded the combat system, you MUST unzip it into C:/Demo. DO NOT UNZIP IT TO ANY OTHER LOCATION. If you unzip it to any other location, such as D:/Demo, C:/Demo/Demo, or C:/Program Files/Demo, the combat system will not work. This is because the combat system only looks for files in this location; if it can't find them, it doesn't attempt to look in other locations. This is a known problem and will hopefully be fixed in the next update.

Instructions on how to play the game are included in the Demo folder, so please read them before you play.

If you wish to discuss the combat system/post feedback, please do so in This Thread (Link).

The current version of the combat system suffers from the following known problems:

1) A memory leak. Please try to limit the number of ships during combat to ensure it remains playable. Wolfe is tracing the cause of the leak and will hopefully fix it in the next version.

2) The combat demo doesn't always close properly: you will need to do Ctrl+Alt+Del and forcibly close it if this is the case. You *may* notice sound or display problems after the game closes until you forcibly close the .exe via the task manager.

Enjoy.



...

Terraforming isn't yet in the game - but we do plan to implement it. Terraforming will be slightly different in BOTF, as it will physically cause planets to change from one class to another, instead of simply making them inhabitable. Terraforming will also be possible multiple times on a single planet, depending on your tech level, for example, terraforming a Desert planet may make it change to a Jungle or Terran planet. If this isn't what you needed, (I will explain this in a minute) you may be able to terraform the planet again, if you have a sufficient tech level to do it.

Each of the races will have their own terraforming and planetary tastes as well. For instance, the maximum populations and growth rates of a system are flexible and depend on the occupying race; Humans find Terran planets the most comfortable, whilst the Cardassians prefer Desert planets. This means that Humans will have the highest populations and population growth rates on Terran planets, whilst the same is true on Desert planets for the Cardassians. So if a system full of Desert planets was inhabited by Humans, it would have a lower maximum population and population growth rate than if that same system was inhabited by Cardassians. The Humans would also attempt to terraform it towards their Terran ideal; the Cardassians would leave the planets as they are though because Deserts are their preferred type.

...

Thanks for posting those links for people, PsychoTechFreak. I actually updated the Supremacy Wiki on Startrek-games.com yesterday with some new information about the Combat System. I'm also the Supremacy Ambassador on Startrek-games.com so it's my job to maintain that Wiki.

...

Yes Atrocities, we do need all the help we can get. As we're a fan-based project, anyone and everyone is welcome to join and contribute whatever they want for the game(s). Whether you can program, make models/texture models, make images, write text, compose music, do voice acting, or playtest the game, we're always happy for anything you contribute. All work submitted wil always remain yours and will be removed at your request (Although we obviously hope no one ever actually asks us to do so). You will also be credited for your work in the game(s).

I say game(s) because the BOTF2 project is a collaboration of several game; Supremacy is our flagship game, but it certainly isn't the only game we are working on. Amongst others, we're helping to create Birth of the Empires, Star trek: Allegiance, and Star Trek: New Beginnings. Any resources that are generated for the project (Text, images, models, music, whatever) can be used by any of the games, although it is still down to individual content creators to decide if their content can be used in such a way.

All game content is uploaded to our Sharepoint Site, (Link) where it can then be held, edited and used as necessary by those who have access to the resources. User accounts are limited to only those that need them to maintain the security of the files.

...

I'm sorry this post has become so long, so I'll leave it now. I hope I haven't fried anyones brains with all this info, and if anyone is still reading this, please let me know if you require any more information about the game(s). Please also sign up to Our Forums; (Link) we're all very friendly people, and our forums contain a lot of information about the various games and their development. I hope to see you all on there.
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  #12  
Old February 15th, 2009, 12:06 PM
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Default Re: Star Trek Supremacy 4x BOTF 2

Thanks for the post M_o_E.

I don't have a problem with the UI. I'm thrilled to see the game in production.
I understand the game is young. I was just making some quick observations about the current version.
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Old February 16th, 2009, 04:17 AM
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Default Re: Star Trek Supremacy 4x BOTF 2

Hello,

Please don't think that I am criticizing your work. I love it. I just made a point that I kept hitting the buttons at the top before I realized that I had a right click menu. Its really just a preference thing. NOTHING BAD. Love what you have done so far.
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  #14  
Old February 16th, 2009, 04:20 AM
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Default Re: Star Trek Supremacy 4x BOTF 2

You know you stumbled upon a wicked source of lazy talent here too. From artists to programmers.

I hope we can get you some folks to help out. Most of us love a good challenge and it was BOTF that got me into 4x gaming in the first place.
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  #15  
Old February 16th, 2009, 07:53 PM
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Default Re: Star Trek Supremacy 4x BOTF 2

Don't worry guys, I didn't take what you said as criticism. We want the game to be as good as it can be, and a new pair of eyes can sometimes see things that ours can't - therefore the more people that test the game, the better.

One of the main criticisms of BOTF has always been the UI - it was good, but there are so many ways that it could be improved upon now that technology has moved on. And that's precisely what we hope to achieve with Supremacy. Seriously, if there is anything that you want changed, removed, or added, just let us know. One of the most recent changes has actually been the addition of new keyboard shortcuts, all of which were suggested by users on the forums. It might be something that in retrospect seems incredibly obvious, but it wouldn't have been implemented if people hadn't actually said something about them. Mike is making the game FOR the community, so the community needs to be involved. Whatever ideas you have, no matter how big or small, please let us know about them.

...

As for helping with the game, we really would like all the help we can get - in fact we have a whole forum section dedicated to just that, which you can find Here. (Link)

More specifically though, we've got threads on different jobs, so if you'd like to get involved, please check them out:

General Job Information (Link)

2D Artists Needed To Make Minor race Emblems (Link)

2D Artists Needed To Make General Building Images (Link)

2D Artists Needed To Make Minor Race Special Structure Images (Link)

Musicians Needed To Make Music For The Game (Link)

Writers Needed For The Starship Descriptions (Link)

Voice Actors Needed For The Combat System (Link)

Hopefully this will drum up some help for the BOTF2 project. Thanks to anyone that wishes to help.

...

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post; the Combat Demo is incompatible with Windows Vista. Wolfe is working on a fix which should be part of the next update, whenever he releases it. Sorry if you use Vista. You might want to consider upgrading to XP.
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