Re: Bugs ?
 

Other than maybe knowledge of Starfire, and AI, I dont see any reason for you not to release it. I mean I missed the whole small quarters thing, but of course I may not have actually read the whole component entry...

Re: Bugs ?
 

Currently, I would say the Ai is the biggest thing, which is solvable by just making it more than clear for anyone that there is no Ai whatsoever, and that they can't even try and use the stock AI, because that causes it to crash (something I found out when I was trying it just to see what happens)

Re: Bugs ?
 

I did mark it on the start up screen that the AI is not working. I can also mention it when I post it here for download. It will take about two days to convert it over. Another item I will warn about is that there are experimental systems that may or may-not work. I will also do as SJ did and make it clear that this is an "Open Beta". Problems ranging from broken components to spelling errors are expected. Did you get that list by chance? I was wanting to try and include it as part of this update. That will be the last of the 0.11-B update. Then I will make the change over to 0.20-B which will be actual conversion from Phase Out Generational to Complete Line Generational. Hay, shoot me if you want but I am making these terms up as I go along you know. I am the first modder to do this so I get that privilege! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also gentlemen let us start thinking of a proper name.

SFTC = S? F? Total Conversion

Re: Bugs ?
 

Hot off the press from Shadowstar I give you the SFTC opening screen. This is PERFECT!

Edit: I wanted to paste the image here but I think it must be to big? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: Bugs ?
 

Shang-Fire !!!!!

Also to give you an idea of what else takes up my time...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hhOXGJuddQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NxxzfR3tNU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQjYgxQQSEc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-y_n25tY4

Re: Bugs ?
 

It is not the size per se, but the fact that it is a BMP.

BMPs are the worst thing you can send online... You should hit it with a JPG or PNG conversion before trying to post it uncompressed on the net.

Re: Bugs ?
 

Thanks SJ, as always your guidance and advice are invaluable. I have decided to go with the touched up one David E. Garvais did:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...3-SFTCLogo.png

However; as I pointed out in the thread asking for help on this none of it would have been possible without Shadowstar.

Edit: Also I like David's suggestion of Solar Flare TC.

Re: Bugs ?
 

I have completed the conversion process and now all tech is forward phasing and retro-engineering is possible. However; to keep the components within there proper tech level I had to keep the dual restriction. Thus in the science window the components are still not displaying although they are still reading as "ready to be developed" when the specific tech area is clicked. Given this I have decided to create two versions of the SFTC. The one I have been working on will be the "by canon" hard core version. The second one will contain the spirit but be far more flexible. I will release both at the same time. Please if you have any bugs to report I need them ASAP. Now as for the name of the second version... well SFTC is already taken but this is still the SFTC right? So I have decided to call it:

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...4-SFTCLite.png

Nexus?
 

So PES, do you have copies of the Nexus Magazines that had articles on the older versions of Star Fire? I use to have almost all of them, and somehow they got lost in a move. Now I have like two, and only one has anything on Starfire, one of which is a good extended article on the Rigelians....which includes a large list of ship names, and a couple of other pictures of what they look like. Basically I ask, because there surely has to be similar articles on the other races...

Re: Nexus?
 

Honestly I have a lot of stuff, I mean a lot! I do recall having a few Nexas laying around but I don't know which or where they are right now. Why? I assume you want to create a ship list of names for the empires? I am sure if you ask Steve or do an internet search you can come up with the names. That would be easier [to a copy and paste] than retyping.

Re: Nexus?
 

Did I say 2 days till they were ready? Better add on a few more... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Nexus?
 

What is SFTC?

Re: Nexus?
 

SFTC = Star Fire Total Conversion. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Nexus?
 

That could be interpreted as copy right infringement. Or more likely based on "his" track record lots of threats of law suits. I am taking suggestions; however, as of right now I am going with:

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f2.../ModLogo03.jpg

Which was suggested by our resident art guru David E. Gervias. I am pretty partial to that one and will most likely keep it. Besides it is the only suggestion I have received.

Re: Bugs ?
 

But I really like the Solar Flare name...Solar=Star, Flare=Fire...

Re: Bugs ?
 

Now why didn't I see that; if it had been a snake... That's it than Solar Flare it is. The prize goes to David E. Gervais. You win a dozen cookies of your choice. Please PM Kana to claim our prize! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: Bugs ?
 

Why PM, I want my cookies in public, with fanfare and a medal! LOL

I thought the Solar Flare = Star Fire was obvious, that's why I didn't explain it. Oh well, I'm good at subtle and or obscure.

lol.

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Bugs ?
 

The SFTC and SFTC-Lite are now in the Scenarios and Mods sub-forum.

Re: Bugs ?
 

Sure beats "Stinky Fred's Total Conversion", though I've heard that's not such a bad mod either... Or was that a dream?

Re: Bugs ?
 

Any plans for a test game?. I'd be willing to try it out.

Re: Bugs ?
 

My first on-line game would be with my own Mod? This must be some kind of a new record. I have been saying I want to try an on-line game so I suppose this is the best chance. I get to bug test and play an on-line game. There are still experimental components that may not work as they should. However, I am still up for it. Someone would need to host and is there a set of instructions on "how to" process and submit your turn so I can know what to do? Finally which version would be played; the Full or Lite? I am playing a solo self vs self game of the Lite version now.

Re: Bugs ?
 

why go Lite when we can http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/skull.gif KICK YOUR BUTT! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/Injured.gif at full

Re: Bugs ?
 

ROFL, ya I'm not trying to fool myself into thinking I will win my first on-line game. I suspect I will get pounced pretty quickly. The Lite or Full version depends on what style of component progression you want.

SFTC Full = By "the book" style components in an SE4 style Generational progression. It allows you to retro build ships too. Let's say we have a treaty and I am two tech levels above you. You want me to build cream-of-the-crop warships and sell them to you for your use. I build the ships and tell you they are the best I can build. In fact they are fleet quality for my empire. In truth they may be two tech levels above you but are two tech levels below my real ability. You think they are top of the line because the only readings you have gotten of my ships are the pickets I let you see. Which are purposely two tech levels lower than my best. Keep in mind "tech levels" is just for example. Each High Tech level has sub-levels with various components.

SFTC Lite = This is SE5 style component progression. No retro-build unless I have completely missed that toggle button in the Empire screen.

Best to read the FAQ with each, that will give you a detailed description. Full version is going to allow you much more intricacy at the empire-to-empire level and empire level. Using the above example do you really want to picket your borders with the best of the best? Keep in mind this is an Open Beta. If problems are found in the game I can patch them then and there. There shouldn't be any "game breakers" if you know what I mean. I patch it and the turns won't work anymore. However; since it is still a Beta, I can't promise anything.

Re: Bugs ?
 

I have updated the heading description to clarify the difference between these two version of the same mod:

SFTC: The components progress in an SE4 fashion; that is they are Generational. This version structures progression and allows retro-construction of ships, bases, fighters, etc.

SFTC-Lite: The components progress in an SE5 fashion; that is they are Progressive. There is less structure in progression and no retro-construction.

Q: Ok PES but what is "retro-construction"?

A: Lets say we are allies and I am two "tech levels" above you. You are in a war and want to field ships with better technology for an added advantage to your forces. You pay me to design and build the best ships I can. I do and sell them to you as "fleet quality ships for my empire". In truth the ships are old technology for me even if they are new technology for you. That is retro-building. To the best of my knowledge this can't be done in SE5; unless I missed a toggle button.

Re: Bugs ?
 

I'd be up for a test game to help sort out the bugs and such.

As for which version to play, I've always prefered Se4's ability to use older equipement in new designs, allowing for a much richer cost vs. benefit approach to ship design. That being said, SFTC Full, all the way!

Re: Bugs ?
 

I have to agree, the ability to fool your enemy and ally into thinking you are a technologically backward empire was one of the strongest motivators for making two versions. One version that I think is the proper way to play (SFTC) and one that fits mainstream SE5 (SFTC-Lite). The problem with SFTC is that you have to right click to find the next area for research. SE5 can't handle the call for two requirement tech areas. I have reported this problem to Aaron and it does not effect game play or the components in any way. For some reason it just stops the component picture from being displayed in the Science window.

Re: Bugs ?
 

Are we still having problems with PBW? I'm sure Geo would upload the files you need to play...If we use PBW, I would certainly considert playing as well...

Re: Bugs ?
 

I have no idea how it would work. You would have to ask Geo but I think he has all of that fixed now. Since I have never done this before I would have to be a follower. Someone else would need to be the GM or whatever they are called. I will give my full support to the GM to help them along and tell them how to best setup the game. So who ever feels like doing the leader part don't think I am sticking you out in the cold without even the slightest support.

Re: Bugs ?
 

Amongst the changes in the next patch will be the replacement of Minerals and all Mineral icons with "MC" for Mega Credit. How much is a MC, more than a buck less than infinity. Organics will remain unchanged using the default SE5 icon. Finally I am thinking of changing the Radioactives icon with a little figure of a person. I have no art skills so it may just be as simple as a stick figure. I will try to search the net and probably ask David if he can help me. The challenge is that it must be discernible as the figure of a person and still fit in an area no larger than 19x19 pixels. If all else fails I can always go with this == [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Running.gif[/img]. I seriously doubt David would even find this fun much less a challenge. I think I will PM him after this post as I don't want a person running, it looks dorky you know?

Anyway back on the Radioactives, or Personnel as they will be called. I am thinking of setting this to be the same as the number of crew that hull size calls for. So lets take a Destroyer for example. A DD requires 30 crew so the initial cost would be 30 Personnel and maintenance would be 4 or maybe 5 if SE5 rounds up. I'm not sure? This would reflect the initial crew for manning the ship and the maintenance would reflect the crew rotation. New members coming on board to replace those who have rotated to another ship or left the service, etc. Thoughts anyone?

Re: Bugs ?
 

I like the idea, considering it is like the table top game. Yet how does this interfact with SEV crew and control requirements? Do those thirty crew equal the number of crew SEV requires? Also since crew is taken from the population, how does this 'new' resource (crew/radioactives) correspond to the population of the plant?

Re: Bugs ?
 

I can tell its been a long time since you played. Crew from planets was cut in favor of streamlined rules. You just build and go now. They figured that since you must have a supporting population medium size or larger to build ships the crew you need will be there already.

SE5 Crew and Control are set by me. Take a look at SJ's GGMod. He has a very complex crew system. As for the crew/planet portion of your question I don't know of anyway to tie the two together outside of the fact you need to build facilities. Limiting the crew points to only the system they are produced in is not possible. SE5 will not restrict the ability the SpacePort uses. In other words I can't tell it to ship only organics and MCs but not personnel. In this case I won't need to rely on handwaveum to explain what is going on. This is an interstellar empire so populations and crews are going to be shipped about. Not by canon but if I was going by canon I would have to restrict the ShipYard Component to only planets with certain populations. That won't happen! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

My ideas for a facility are "University" which produces trained personnel for crews. I was also thinking of "Military Academy" which would have half the production of the University, cost twice as much, but provide the training ability in conjunction to the resource production. I am thinking of taking out all the production ability though, with the conversion to MC land is no longer in shortage. If I can ever get this planet generation sorted that will change the land surplus some. But I still need to get the right ratios of available space to planet size sorted out.

Resource Changes
 

Here is a capture of the change over to the MC system. Ok I know it isn't greatest but at least you can read the letters. I think they are a wee bit to large.
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...83-MC_Test.jpg

Next Patch to SFTC
 

I didn't have plans to post what is on the next patch until I had it ready to go. However, considering the recent discussion over Retro-Construction I decided to post this:

2. Added -- Components may now be sorted by clicking “Filter Comps” in the “Create Design” Window. Options for sorting are “All Components”, “HT 1”, “HT 2”, so forth up to “HT 16”, and “Required” as in components that are required on most but not all designs.

That will make the design portion of normal and retro-construction much easier.

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

I will need suggestions as to how many people would work in the following facilities:
Space Yard
Space Port
Resupply Depot
Industrial Complex
Organics Farm (I spelled Orgasmic first http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif; glad I caught that one)
Research Center
Forward Supply Base
University

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

Organics Farm (I spelled Orgasmic first ; glad I caught that one

ya should have left it in http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

other then that why does se4 have up to lvl HT18 in it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

I'm afraid you lost me here. SE4 has level HT18 what? The SFTC goes to level HT16 for hull sizes, industrial output, and tech area satisfaction for some components. The SFTC-Lite only goes to HT16 and that is for hull sizes and industrial output. Is that what you meant?

Re: Bugs ?
 

Well if you change Rads to Crew, then you will have to consider what creates crew on planets. So far I assume you mean facilities. But as it stands now planets can produce the three different resources, so you would have to change or remove the reference to Rads from all of the planet/system creation crap. Plus can the planetary 'resource percentage' boost the output of 'crew'? I mean it all sounds good in theory and on paper, but will it actually work in the end...I still think that Aaron needs to gives a bit more control on changing and implementing resources. If a modder wants one, or 10 it should be an option, and being able to change the name to whatever is appropriate would be nice as well...without having to go in and change Icons and pics and such...

Re: Bugs ?
 

How exactly do you propose to change the resource without changing the picture? It'd be a little odd to have a radiation symbol hanging around if radioactive have been replaced by something else.

Re: Bugs ?
 

Changing the symbol is easy.

The planetary value would involve how well the local people take to space work. Think combinations of local gravity, culture, tech utilization, etc. Universities could improve the value via education. Extraction/Recruitment centers would probably reduce the value, since they're skimming off officers.

Or if you want the resource to be more general "work", then the value would be the economic efficiency of the colony. Work storage facilities would be vacation centers and amusement parks (When not needed, people "take vacations" (filling storage), then later they "work overtime")

Re: Bugs ?
 

Ya, what he said. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I know it won't model a resource "Personnel" efficiently. And while I agree with you Kana, that it would be nice to have that level of control over a new resource we don't. So I will have to use what I... have(?). Now as SJ said I am going to change the icon from rad. I discussed this in an earlier post. I also posted a pic of the change from Minerals to "MC". Changing the pic is really no challenge at all. Now if David can get me a nice pic to use. I don't plan on this resource being "crew" it will be more abstract like crew/workers. I have no plans to implement a complex system of entertainment centers, el etc. I prefer the simple and straightforward. Universities will produce the crew/workers. Storage is arbitrary as I can't set it to zero. Likewise there is no way to control the reduction in workers (Rads) when finite resources is on. If it is really that important to have an explanation as to why the resource is decreasing than say it is apathy. Over the years people grow more apathetic to work and want the machines to do it all while they sit in front of the Smell-O-Vision. It's just a game and there are limits. Some handwavium will be introduced into the system and most players won't care about the whys after a turn or two; if they ever did in the first place. As for the resource being affected by Rad/Personnel percentage so what? You can't say every city in your state produces the same number of graduates; between state-to-state maybe; how about country-to-country? No than how about from planet-to-planet.

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

I'm afraid you lost me here. SE4 has level HT18 what? The SFTC goes to level HT16 for hull sizes, industrial output, and tech area satisfaction for some components. The SFTC-Lite only goes to HT16 and that is for hull sizes and industrial output. Is that what you meant?

[/quote]

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif ok then how do I do a quote http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

ok go easy on me i'm still learning how to do this

umm the file is the one I got off of the Post#http://seiv.pbw.cc/graphic/index.jsp and on high tech it go's to HL18 thats where I saw it

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif
Just hit the quote button, then click at the end of the word "[ /quote ]" and press return to make a new line.

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

ok got it thanks

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gifOMG! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/eek.gif
That attachment is from the SE4 version of this mod! Holy Crap Batman! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... let me get my breath...
Ok, sorry man but development of the SE4 version was dropped long ago. I didn't even know there were any copies out there. This is the SE5 version of the Mod and if you haven't bought SE5 to try it out, you're missing out! SE4 just didn't allow me flexibility to make the mod the way it should. With SE5 I finally have all the tools I need. At least now I understand why you asked about HT17 and HT18. They were only progressions of components already developed. I think ECM was one at HT18 and EC-CM at HT17. I decided to cut the TC off at HT16 where the last of the new items are developed. That meant shifting the LN, JG, BS9, BS10, FT14, and FT15 hulls down to go into the new cutoff. The following changes were made, and I am assuming that you know what the abbreviations stand for, if not let me know.

Moved up from IND2 to HT1: SS
Moved down from HT16 to HT15: LN, BS9, and FT14
Moved down from HT18 to HT16: JG, BS10, and FT15
Some components were also moved to fit house rules

Sorry about that my friend please ask any questions you may have; I will understand where you are coming from but I strongly encourage you to download and try the SFTC for the hard-core experience (which I suspect you want) or the SFTC-Lite for a more mellow SE Series feel.

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

I do have SE5 and ya I still am learning about what you based the mod on (it looks like a cool board game)

I was playing the se4 mod to see what it was like. [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon09.gif[/img]

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

I hope you enjoyed it, don't be shy about leaving comments and suggestions. Point out the bad or good, what you like or don't like. All comments are welcome here my friend. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

Starfire is also a series of books (written by the guy who helped design it, David Webber). I've never seen the game.

I have 2 books, In Deaths ground and The Shiva option, which detail the bug war. There are 2 others I know of, Crusade, which is a sort of prequel I think, and something about a human civil war I don't have much interest in since I despise Humans unwilling to obey the homeworld. There is another book coming out recently which we have agreed, or mostly PES says, isn't good.

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

Crusade was the best of them all. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif We must FREE Holy Mother Terra!

Re: Next Patch to SFTC
 

Really, hmm, maybe I'll pick it up. It's at my local bookshop but I keep skipping it.