[OT sorta} SFC?

Has anyone else received Starfleet Command yet? What do you think? More to the
point (and on topic), does the conversion of a tabletop starship tactical
combat game to a real time starship simulator give anyone any ideas (hint
hint, Jon)?

Take care,

Got it. Truly Awesome. a must buy.

> -----Original Message-----
More
> to the point (and on topic), does the conversion of a tabletop

Just got it today. I've been playing the heck out of the demo for a couple
weeks now.  This is an outstanding game - in depth, in graphics, in
gameplay, in everything!

Chris

> Has anyone else received Starfleet Command yet? What do you think?
More
> to the point (and on topic), does the conversion of a tabletop starship

> Has anyone else received Starfleet Command yet? What do you think?
More
> to the point (and on topic), does the conversion of a tabletop starship

Heh! If anyone out there in list-land has the financial backing,
contacts, knowledge and experience to turn FT into a mainstream computer game,
then talk to me! (Note that I mean something that will sell in computer game
stores - not just a computer-moderation program for the existing
wargamers....)
We have been approcahed about this a couple of times over the last few
years, but not by anyone truly able/willing to put their pounds/dollars
where their mouths are. One small UK software developer wanted to try it a few
years back, but went down the pan (through other projects, I believe) before
it could happen, and a person in the US was inquiring about it earlier this
year, but wouldn't tell us anything about what he'd worked on
before, or who he'd worked with - somehow I just wasn't happy with the
whole thing, and it went no further.....

Give us a proposal that has a) a decent chance of making it as far as the
stores, and b) stands to make us both some money, and we'll talk!

Just a little something for you computer types to chew on over the
weekend..... :-)

> Just a little something for you computer types to chew on over the

Its out of our league really, modern game expectations are so high you can't
write this sort of things as skunkworks the effort is enormous (ask Mike
Wikan).

In reality only a fully functional game house could get a mass market quality
game out, and they are chasing other mass market franchises or making up their
own backgrounds to reduce royalties.

Although its something I'd love to see, a 3dfx version of FT is probably only
ever going to be a dream.

> Tim Jones wrote:

Agreed. Unless there's a real development studio out there on the list who
wants to jump in full bore, the best you can you hope for from the list would
probably be shareware stuff. It can look good and be extremely popular (id
software started out that way), but probably not a lot of money involved.

Also, there's the 'market saturation' factor: between SFC, Homeworld,
Freespace 2, Freelancer, Independence War Deluxe, and the other dozen
or so starship/space combat games coming down the pipeline, even if a
publisher could be found to mass market FT, it probably wouldn't get the shelf
space.

> Although its something I'd love to see, a 3dfx version of FT

I'd be satisfied with just plain FTMap graphics.

This talk about stuff wants me to brush off my PBeM code and develop it once
again to what I always wanted; a fully automatic game playing
engine.  Yeah, I've got the free time for that.  Really.  (8-/

J.

> Also, there's the 'market saturation' factor: between SFC, Homeworld,

Yes this is a major factor too, BC3K, Imperium Galactica II (very cool cut
scenes) and I hear David Braeburn (Mr Elite) is doing a new revolutionary
game, down the road from here (Cambridge UK)

Also creating a real time strategy game from FT would sort of lose the plot a
bit. FT is an excellent turn based miniatures game. Computer comsumers deem
turn based games as old fashioned. What you could port would be the weapons
and background but you would lose most of the mechanics and abstractions it
employs because on a computer you can model things in much more detail.

> Although its something I'd love to see, a 3dfx version of FT

I think we could probably manage an SSI style wargame, aimed at wargamers not
eye candy junkies.

> This talk about stuff wants me to brush off my PBeM code and develop

Yep, join the 'ambition <> time' club, The ftmap PBEM system is bubbling but
its never going to be a 'commercial' product.

> I'd be satisfied with just plain FTMap graphics.
Personally, I've come to appreciate both styles of computer gaming. Turn
based stuff is still around - witness Birth of the Federation.  Scalable
real time games, however, take advantage of the computer being able to make
the game "come to life". I wouldn't classify those who enjoy good graphics
as eye-candy junkies.  Most SSI games have lousy graphics, which can
still make for an acceptable game. But SSI games have lousy graphics for no
good reason (read: it's not impossible to program a good looking and deep
computer game - the two are not mutually exclusive).

One of the things I find most ridiculous is the idea that for realistic
control - for a wargame to be truly realistic - it must be a turned
based game so you can manage all the minutiae to the Nth degree (something of
an elitist wargamer attitude). Real combat occurs in real time, with
time-sensitive decisions affecting real lives.  It looks nothing like
the overweight, unwashed, unshaven guy sitting in a rickety chair taking time
out to expound on the cross country speed of a T-34 with a full combat
load before he clicks on the icon one more time (or looks at the counter again
for boardgamers) to see what the combat value of that Panzerfaust team is
before moving it one hex closer to the enemy tank because statistically it
improves its chance to hit by around 12 3/4%.

For me, any game that can balance your ability to control all your units
effectively while maintaining the immediacy and tension of combat is a good
game.  In my opinion, SFC has done just that - and other game companies
are apparently trying to do the same with the other games that are coming out
soon.

> On Fri, 13 Aug 1999, Tim Jones wrote:

> >Just a little something for you computer types to chew on over the

well, it might be possible for a relatively small team of c hackers to do
something ftish with XShipWars:

http://fox.mit.edu/xsw/

an open-source unix space game thing, which does claim to run on win95.
i know very little about this, i just saw a reference tyo it somewhere.

tom