Howdy All,
I've been lurking for ages and I finally have time to work on my own projects
now.
Is anyone else currently working on an online version of any of Jon's games?
I've been planning on creatomg a live version of Full Thrust for over a year
but i'm open to changing my plans. Which game would have more apeal to the
community... FT, DS2 or SG2? The sofware will be free and only made available
to those on the list.
Just asking...I don't want to duplicate anyone elses efforts and steal their
thunder.
Thanks,
> I've been planning on creatomg a live version of Full Thrust for
FTJava is being tested. SGJava, or something along those lines, would be much
appreciated....
Hi,
To further that, FTJava can be found at:
http://home.nycap.rr.com/davisje/ftjava/
It is getting better every day!
Cheers, Tony Christney
> On Saturday, May 3, 2003, at 08:01 PM, Laserlight wrote:
> I've been planning on creatomg a live version of Full Thrust for
> Stuart wrote:
While I'd love a DS2 version, I think that a FT version would be easier and
more popular.
> On Sun, 4 May 2003, Andrew Martin wrote:
> Stuart wrote:
As noted in other posts, FTJava is being worked on (and echoing
Tony, is getting better all the time :-), so I'll add in a second
vote for a DS2 game (DS2Java?). :-)
Mk
My Wishlist....
A Campaign Aid for FT. One with a 3D strategic map, and which allows delayed
orders and information, and multiple players on the same side.
Consider: CiC is 6 Parsecs (6 weeks) away from Fleet 1, and 8 from Fleet 2.
Fleet 2 fights a battle, the CiC only knows about it 8 weeks later. He issues
orders to Fleet 1 to go assist, which Fleet 1 gets 6 weeks later, and then
takes the somewhere-between-2-and-14 weeks to get there,
a delay of 16-28 weeks in toto.
(This assumes lots of small message torpedos or couriers
that are capable of FTL travel at 1 parsec/week until
they get in-system, then broadcast via EM radiation with
no effective delay).
Options for combat would be to abstract it, let the
computer handle it, or notify via e-mail to any of a
list of players that a scenario is available, and would they be willing to
play.
This could be played with 1 player on each side as the CiC, and multiple
players with a degree of autonomy over local forces reporting to him.
Many star systems would be "contested" with forces from both sides present,
neither with a significant enough advantage to force the other side to battle,
except by mutual agreement. But similarly, to effectively blockade a system,
you'd either have to have forces in the "inner zone" where FTL escape isn't
possible, but where all the planets are, or enough forces to cover all ( 6?)
outer zones, where FTL escape is possible, but you'd need approximate equality
to the enemy, who could be in any one (or more) of them.
This can be abstracted to a 2-D paper game, but with some
difficulty - you'd need a referee.
On or about Sun, May 04, 2003 at 02:17:30PM +1000, Alan and Carmel Brain
typed:
> Options for combat would be to abstract it, let the
...or to generate an FTJava scenario file. :-) I've been thinking about
something like this...
> Roger Burton West wrote:
Yes, I agree. A campaign-strategic game that would generate encounters
and fire them off to the FTJava server in an automated way.
> Yes, I agree. A campaign-strategic game that would generate
Concur! Stuart, think you can have that ready by, say, late afternoon today?
<g>
> Laserlight wrote:
:-) You forget that I'll need to do some things on my end too!
Can we try for mid morning Monday?
> > > Yes, I agree. A campaign-strategic game that would generate
No. And why are you wasting time reading email when you could be coding?
<grin>
Is this the time to rain on everyone's parade by pointing out that I haven't
touched Java in over 5 years?
I'm a C#, C++ and VB coder by trade. I'm thinking more of 3D rendered
environments, but I'm not opposed to pushing data to your FTJava server.
[quoted original message omitted]
From: "Stuart Ford" <stuart@forddata.com>
> Is this the time to rain on everyone's parade by pointing out that I
Hi all,
I've been reading these messages regarding an FT campaign helper, & wanted to
delurk to let people know what I've been working on in this area.
I was inspired by a recent article in "Minature Wargames" about a solo
campaign system for DBM/DBR. At the heart of it was an essentially
random diplomacy model where the various nations involved more between war and
peace over the course of the turns. It was very simplistic (no map, for
example, just cities for each player which could be taken by siege), but it
struck me as a place to start...particularly to build a simple campaign system
for FT. I'd like to take it further, however, particular by having some form
of map around which forces move.....
I've started to code this up as a Java program (well, I actually started
it in C++, but switched to Java when I realised I wanted a GUI rather
than doing it all on the command line ;-) ). If I get far enough along
with it, I plan to use the FTJava syntax to save the state of the fleets
involved (in the C++ version I'd planned to use a TeX-like language I
already have a parser for, but then realised this was a little silly as
there already existed an excellent format for defining ships :-) ) plus
some extra XML gubbins for the state of the campaign.
At present, a turn has 5 phases. A turn is imagined to last around 3 months:
i) determine who fights whom (based on the current diplomatic situation)
ii) fight those battles (done off-line as an FT-game)
iii) record results (victors take one of the losers planets), record damage to
ships etc iv) spend funds (replace expended missiles, repair damage, pay
maintenance etc) v) determine the diplomatic situation for next turn
If there is a move towards writing some kind of FT Campaign program, I'd
love to help out......
Cheers,
Nick
> ...or to generate an FTJava scenario file. :-) I've been thinking
> Yes, I agree. A campaign-strategic game that would generate
> Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 15:55:34 +1000
I was a C programmer (among other things) for about 20 years and retired
about 2 years ago (I took an offer and am now on pension). With retirement I
have been able to do the important things like paint figures and rebuild my
programming skills (companies today would rather hire someone with wanted
skills instead of
training
their staff). I've been taking classes in Java and C++ and have my
skills back up to a point where I'm going to try a couple of projects I've
been thinking about.
One of those projects is a campaign management system which automates the
record keeping for a campaign. I planned to start with a space environment in
that it is one of the simplest (try trade routes through mountains for
difficulties). This should give me something to practice my skills on.
I may be needing some testers on an individual basis (my Java server is only a
single user freebie and I don't want to convert any of my other systems at
this time and expense).
One thing to remember is that when dealing with people around the world real
time is impractical (12 PM for me is 6 PM in England and after 3 AM in
Australia). So any volunteer will not sacrifice sleep for the cause.
Hey all:
First of all, hey Stuart! Long time no see!
Second after reading all the info on FTJava, I was wondering if a "plug" of
some sort could be developed for Power Projection (i.e. vector movement,
sandcaster clouds, nuke blasts, etc). I'm running into a lot of difficulty in
finding people who want to play this and any other form of Full Thrust. It
looks like the PBEM route maybe the only way I can get a game in.
Later, Mark A. Siefert
[quoted original message omitted]
> "Mark A. Siefert" wrote:
Hi Mark,
One of the Power Projection developers sent me a PDF file draft set of rules
for me to look over a few months ago. PP has its own unique feel, but one of
the objectives of FTJava was to permit the use of new weapons, game mechanics,
etc. to handle a variety of variant gaming
systems. A PP "plugin" is feasible, but non-trivial.
One way for you to help would be in the area of Traveller ship GIFs or PNGs.
> On Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at 11:33 Europe/London, Jon Davis wrote:
> One of the Power Projection developers sent me a PDF file draft set of
That would be me. From a BITS perspective, we're also interested in seeing
FTJava support PP, but we've not really got much time at the moment (for some
reason people keep on asking us to finish the capital
ship rules ;-) soon..).
> One way for you to help would be in the area of Traveller ship GIFs
Jon - would you be after specific ships (individual artwork) or generic
counters for classes (eg DDs etc)?
Cheers,
> > systems. A PP "plugin" is feasible, but non-trivial.
"Feasible, but non trivial"--does that mean it'll be ready tomorrow?
<vbg>
Seriously, I'll add my vote for a PP plug-in. Ordered the rules
Sunday, Steve Jackson Games shipped it Monday.
> moment (for some reason people keep on asking us to finish the
Yeah, aren't you done with that? No? How about now, are you done now? No? Can
you be done in ten minutes? I want it in ten minutes <etc etc>
(Yes, I have had customers like that. NSTRH: "I want to take it to our board
meeting" "Okay....what date is your board meeting?" "Ten minutes." This from a
large comP&Gany, not that I'm mentioning any names).
> On Tue, May 06, 2003 at 05:29:15PM -0400, Laserlight wrote:
> (Yes, I have had customers like that. NSTRH: "I want to take it to
"OK, for ten minutes' time I can give you a cardboard box with the word
'PRODUCT' painted on it. Give me fifteen minutes and it'll be covered in
silver paper."
> Dominic Mooney wrote:
I wonder why that may be. :-) PP is not a high priority on my list
for FTJava either. I need to accomplish other tasks before moving in that
direction.
> > One way for you to help would be in the area of Traveller ship GIFs
> Laserlight wrote:
:-P Very big tongue!
> On Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at 22:29 Europe/London, Laserlight wrote:
> systems. A PP "plugin" is feasible, but non-trivial.
I suspect that a big stumbling block will be the 2ndry weapons tables (used
for lasers, missiles, energy weapons and small PAs and Meson Guns).
> Seriously, I'll add my vote for a PP plug-in. Ordered the rules
Let me know what you think, either here or direct...
> moment (for some reason people keep on asking us to finish the
It's that annoying real life thing - if gaming paid me as much as
engineering I'd be dedicating far more time - as it is, I think I'm
going to have to take a few days holiday to finish the book. <tongue in cheek>
I work to be able to afford the leisure time to spend on games
</tongue in cheek>. The reality is that a combination of bad news in
the family for Andy (doing layout) and silly workload for me killed the
Salute release date :-(
Cheers,
> Dominic Mooney wrote:
:-) Says you! That's why we're using object oriented coding...
Let's see: Task Degree of difficulty
p.8 - Structure boxes - done
Fuel boxes - minor
Drives - np
Bridge - minor
p 9. Configuration - minor
Streamlining - np
Agility - minor
Frozen watch - minor
p 13. Sandclouds - major
Nuclear detonations - major
Vector movement - done
Gravity - major
p 30. Fire arcs - done
p 31. Weapon ranges - trivial
p 31. Range modifiers - major
p 33. Spinal arc - minor
Charged weapons - done
Crew quality - minor
p 37. Secondary weapons - minor
38 Sandcaster effects - minor
p 41 Missiles - major
Damage resolution - done
Catastrophic damage - minor
p 48 Damage control - done
Graphic SSD display - major
The use of space terrain and sandcasters is new and the tracing of lines of
fire is new to FTJava and would be a major task. I know the math; I wrote
image ray tracing code for my Master's thesis. It'd take time to write and
debug.
> Seriously, I'll add my vote for a PP plug-in. Ordered the rules
Two great minds; I sent a check in last week.
> Yeah, aren't you done with that? No? How about now, are you done
Sorry, folks, but I was actually happy it'll be a few weeks to months. Means
the Lite version has a chance to get perused before I feel the itch for the
full version.
Unfortunately, reading is about all I get to do of late. I need to
cultivate me some more nascient vacc-heads locally.
The_Beast