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Universal Combat Advanced


Supreme Cmdr
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I can't wait for this release. It should be awesome!

Derek, just please play-test it first and make sure that all the planets and moons in the game can planet-fall without a crash to desktop!

Well.. except the hostile ones. We can't land on those anyway...

Been there, done that.

Not a good plan.

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I am going to do my best to integrate the fps elements (including UI) from AAW to the fps portion of UCADV. But remember, this game is a capital ship combat game, not a dedicated fps like AAW.

All the planetary bases (at this point, I am not planning to have any cities) in UCADV are going to be recreated from scratch. The goal is to have them be a cross between the base scenes in AAW and those in LOD. That's why there probably won't be any cities, just individual bases on the pre-existing habitable planets.

I can go all the way back to the first game released in 1996; and I have the source code going all the way back to the very first build back in 1990 I think.

This is great news, I do realize that it isn't a dedicated FPS - but it always nice to have fully fleshed out features, they're far more satisfying. I think moving to normal bases is probably a better idea then the cities which a great concept lacked the complexity and the gameplay motivation that a city should bring with it. As a bonus, as the FPS parts get better the bases become more and more interesting.

Twenty five years of source control? Thats is amazing - so many games and applications with lost source from the 90's and even the 2000's. Must have been nice moving from tapes to real source control. And, since you can go all the way back, you could always compile in a easter egg and have BC3K running on a console inside a base - you know so they have an excuse for when you destroy them - they were too busy playing it. ;)

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Wow! This is awesome news. I'm looking forward to it.

One thing about the original game that always bugged me was that the hyperspace engines would drain after jumping through a gate or wormhole to a new system. When trying to pursue ships across systems, they would always outrun me while I waited for my engines to recharge after entering a new system.

I wonder... Was I just playing it wrong all this time? Was this something that would improve over time with crew ability, and I just didn't give it enough time? Or is this how it was designed to operate?

If it is by design, would you consider changing it so that hyserspace engines don't drain anymore after inter-system jumps? Only drain the engines if used within a system, because the ship is unaided by a gate or wormhole?

Steve

As I've said before, I have no plans to make any gameplay changes in this game. All gameplay elements will be exactly as-is in the UCCE v2.0. I'm not planning on making this refresh a bigger deal what I've already planned.

And yes, engine and reactor upgrades do effect the hyperdrive recharge rate. Personnel AI has nothing to do with that.

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I can't wait for this release. It should be awesome!

Derek, just please play-test it first and make sure that all the planets and moons in the game can planet-fall without a crash to desktop!

Well.. except the hostile ones. We can't land on those anyway...

Been there, done that.

Not a good plan.

I have no idea wtf you're going on about. The last time I checked, there wasn't a single planet in the game that would cause a CTD because you entered it.

Since this is your mantra, I'll make you a deal.

If you can - with the latest UCCE v2 game which this is based on - prove (and verified by myself and others) that there is such a planet and that it is a fault of the game and not your system setup, I will give you a free copy of the new game. But if you fail in this endeavor or you don't do it (you have until Mon, Feb 9th), you will be banned (again) from this forum, permanently this time.

Over the years, I've adopted a zero tolerance for any sort of negativity (warranted or not) that serves no purpose other than to cause me undue angst.

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I am going to do my best to integrate the fps elements (including UI) from AAW to the fps portion of UCADV. But remember, this game is a capital ship combat game, not a dedicated fps like AAW.

All the planetary bases (at this point, I am not planning to have any cities) in UCADV are going to be recreated from scratch. The goal is to have them be a cross between the base scenes in AAW and those in LOD. That's why there probably won't be any cities, just individual bases on the pre-existing habitable planets.

I can go all the way back to the first game released in 1996; and I have the source code going all the way back to the very first build back in 1990 I think.

This is great news, I do realize that it isn't a dedicated FPS - but it always nice to have fully fleshed out features, they're far more satisfying. I think moving to normal bases is probably a better idea then the cities which a great concept lacked the complexity and the gameplay motivation that a city should bring with it. As a bonus, as the FPS parts get better the bases become more and more interesting.

Twenty five years of source control? Thats is amazing - so many games and applications with lost source from the 90's and even the 2000's. Must have been nice moving from tapes to real source control. And, since you can go all the way back, you could always compile in a easter egg and have BC3K running on a console inside a base - you know so they have an excuse for when you destroy them - they were too busy playing it. ;)

I just posted about the source control on Facebook actually.

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As I've said before, I have no plans to make any gameplay changes in this game. All gameplay elements will be exactly as-is in the UCCE v2.0. I'm not planning on making this refresh a bigger deal what I've already planned.

Also, the first page in the thread said "

Below is what I am doing and is subject to change without notice.

12. An all new 32 mission campaign based on the Insurgent incursion into Lyrius (sound familiar?) and which will feature both space and planetary combat missions. And of course the standard free flight scenario will also be available during which you can still trade, explore, go look for trouble etc".

What I look forward to the most will be the new advanced campaign scenario. Combined with the new planetary graphics, I would buy the game just for that reason.

I also think there should be more time in between missions to allow for mining and buying replacement fuel and missiles. Will the game still work with a 1 gigabyte memory graphics card?

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As I've said before, I have no plans to make any gameplay changes in this game. All gameplay elements will be exactly as-is in the UCCE v2.0. I'm not planning on making this refresh a bigger deal what I've already planned.

And yes, engine and reactor upgrades do effect the hyperdrive recharge rate. Personnel AI has nothing to do with that.

Well, you are emphatically denying, then a little more time and you can change your mind. :salute:

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As I've said before, I have no plans to make any gameplay changes in this game. All gameplay elements will be exactly as-is in the UCCE v2.0. I'm not planning on making this refresh a bigger deal what I've already planned.

Also, the first page in the thread said "

Below is what I am doing and is subject to change without notice.

12. An all new 32 mission campaign based on the Insurgent incursion into Lyrius (sound familiar?) and which will feature both space and planetary combat missions. And of course the standard free flight scenario will also be available during which you can still trade, explore, go look for trouble etc".

What I look forward to the most will be the new advanced campaign scenario. Combined with the new planetary graphics, I would buy the game just for that reason.

I also think there should be more time in between missions to allow for mining and buying replacement fuel and missiles. Will the game still work with a 1 gigabyte memory graphics card?

The campaign is a mission based one and will have the standard norm for completion between orders (missions). If you want to go mine and do all that other stuff, the free flight scenario will still be there.

As I've said before, I have no plans to make any gameplay changes in this game. All gameplay elements will be exactly as-is in the UCCE v2.0. I'm not planning on making this refresh a bigger deal what I've already planned.

And yes, engine and reactor upgrades do effect the hyperdrive recharge rate. Personnel AI has nothing to do with that.

Well, you are emphatically denying, then a little more time and you can change your mind. :salute:

I won't change my mind because I have a limited time and budget for this refresh. My primary focus is on LOD, especially now that it's been approved for and headed to Xbox One.

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"I won't change my mind because I have a limited time and budget for this refresh. My primary focus is on LOD, especially now that it's been approved for and headed to Xbox One."

Who knows in the future maybe if "this refresh" have good sales. For sure I'll just buy it for the renewed graphical part and be native to win 7 64 (and 8 as well).

But this game with some additions would blow up the market, specially now with this space games boom.

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Wow I don't ever remember station lasers being that nice to me.

Also will keys from places like BMT micro for V2 be redeemable on steam?

No need for that. It's a free game. Read more about that here.

This is realy great and welcome!

Thanks!

And about this:

"

*
While there are curren
tly no plans to add any new features, we are working on a
surprise feature that will completely blow your mind, while adding an even more

immersive experience" :jam_on:

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  • 1 month later...

I know I'm prolly wasting my breath here, but wtf.

Suggestions if you make a UCCE Advanced addition:

* Bring back the 'switch to' command for shuttles and fighters. NPC pilots CAN NOT trade with stations and CAN NOT jump through flux fields. At least I haven't found a way to work this.

* Something in the game makes combat sounds incessant and prevalent ingame, even when there is no combat in the system, no combat in probe systems, and no intruders. Please look into this.

* Allow some way to add music ingame without the current, complicated file format system you have currently. I can't just drop any old MP3 into the music dir and make it work. It has to be a specific codex, and format.

* Fighters in escort of CC - STOP being in escort when they jump through gates. They default to SAD. If there is a hostile star-station in the region, the fighters will jump to that star-station and DIE! I have to manually click on each fighter ( after jump) and put them all back in escort.

* Also, there used to be an ALL function in the fighter command menu, where I could order all fighters to perform the same command. Please reinstate that feature.

Remember. Customer service is just as important and product production!

I know this is a niche title, but you should make the game as enjoyable and stress free as possible (without dumbing it all down for the masses).

You really could get it right this time, if you just listen to the people who actually play this game.

Space-simmers aren't overly concerned with graphics, what we care about is game-play.

Graphics are easy to update. Game-play - not-so-much.

Thank you

You can ban me now. ;)

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I will finalize the docs later this week and will share it online once it is completed.

Basically there aren't going to be any new features or gameplay mechanics in UCADV. The update from UCCE v1.0 to v2.0 was very substantial, but that's not the extent of this ADV upgrade.

Below is what I am doing and is subject to change without notice.

[...]

EVERYTHING HE SAID ABOUT HOW THE GAME IS GOING TO BE [...]

Before you ask; no, I have no plans to update, let alone release the GBS scripting tools for this. I may consider doing it at a later date depending how sales go.

Derek, on my opinion you could do like this:
The game would be like this:
1.-Game will have Engstrom class and it support classes (ships, fighters, ground vehicles).
1.1-The ship and support classes things will be EXACTLY like they were, or how they werent suposed to be (in the case this ship was not fully made on previous games because the lack of time, money or whateaver).
1.2-You will be able to walk into first person mode inside this ship
2-Game will have ONE type of star station
2.1-The starstation will have the same amount of detail (or more if the star station was not fully realised, because of the lack of time, money or whateaver)
2.2-Player is able to walk first person inside the star station.
3-Player is not able to walk on a planet on fps mode.
You would make an kickstarter (or whateaver site you prefer) and ask for the ENTIRE money needed to produce this thing (this includes the money kickstarter will get from you and the money you will use to give prizes to users that back your project).
Do you know the DCS simulator series? Your game could be some sort of the scifi version of DCS, super mega ultra detailed but with mostly one ship.
Then IF your game is backed, after you release it, you try again, now doing some planetary vehicles and on this specific version finally including planetary fps.
Then newer expansions would be new spaceships or new pack with various planetary vehicles.
The point of this idea is to save money and time by making only one ship (and his subships), and also with it because to really focus on this ship and make it with extreme detail. Also with kickstarter you just make the game when and if you discover people liked it
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...
On 1/6/2015, 8:10:13, Supreme Cmdr said:

This will be a precursor to my exploratory research into the viability of doing a remake of the original Battlecruiser 3000AD game but in full first/third person inside the carrier like in Line Of Defense.

Fantastic news. This has touched me and it is the reason I am registering on this forum after well, more than a decade stalking the forums without and almost two decades of playing the games.

I'm going to be honest because its what I'm good at. I don't like the other games you've made. For me it is only about Battlecruiser and it being improved, polished, upgraded and assembled through the years. I don't care how you rename or claim to see it as different games, I'm just glad you're sharing the process with everyone.

---

On 1/25/2015, 6:44:28, Steve Schacher said:

One thing about the original game that always bugged me was that the hyperspace engines would drain after jumping through a gate or wormhole to a new system. When trying to pursue ships across systems, they would always outrun me while I waited for my engines to recharge after entering a new system.

I wonder... Was I just playing it wrong all this time? Was this something that would improve over time with crew ability, and I just didn't give it enough time? Or is this how it was designed to operate?

If it is by design, would you consider changing it so that hyserspace engines don't drain anymore after inter-system jumps? Only drain the engines if used within a system, because the ship is unaided by a gate or wormhole?

 

On 1/26/2015, 12:55:20, Steve Schacher said:

It would be nice if the hyperdrive system were changed to one where the engine drains based on distance traveled (assuming that hyperspace speed is fixed), and not the one-size-fits-all way that it works now. And also clarify whether gate and wormhole jumps are hyperdrive-assisted, or don't drain the hyperdrive engines on inter-system jumps.

What the hell are you talking about? Didn't Derek asked to stay on topic? You have to be kidding.

Will you please RTFM, more precisely the "2.  ENHANCED NAV MODULE" part. Jesus.

---

On 3/31/2015, 12:29:08, Shingen said:

* Allow some way to add music ingame without the current, complicated file format system you have currently. I can't just drop any old MP3 into the music dir and make it work. It has to be a specific codex, and format.

* Also, there used to be an ALL function in the fighter command menu, where I could order all fighters to perform the same command. Please reinstate that feature.

You can't just drop any "MP3" nowhere, if it works with a crappy player, that's a miracle. Here's the deal, if Derek accepts my help, I could write a simple batch script using ffpmeg maybe so you can drop any mp3 on the music dir and run the script so it goes to a format the game wants. It could come along with the game files like Directx. Or you could have done it by yourself already, couldn't you?

Regarding the "ALL" function, I miss that too. Now that you mentioned it, there are some repetitive tasks like ordering marines in batch while in FPS for instance that could have a "button" or something.

Also, since I am Resnig, Paul Resnig I feel that I m in position to ask for a "Send all (or most all) marines on search duty" command for purposes of dealing with intruders, so as to clean up my name from all these rumors. It has come to my attention that most players think they should send me to detention hold right after they hear "priority one alert", and that's kind of insulting, actually.

A "Deactive launch and transporter control power" as a panic measure, without even going into Logistix would be useful as well.

The other things you said and I haven't quoted are related to low AI stupid marines that you decide to put on control of your shuttles, and those things have been discussed elsewhere, why are you wrecking this topic?

---

On 4/7/2015, 4:38:27, spaceman00 said:

You would make an kickstarter (or whateaver site you prefer) and ask for the ENTIRE money needed to produce this thing (this includes the money kickstarter will get from you and the money you will use to give prizes to users that back your project).

Then IF your game is backed, after you release it, you try again, now doing some planetary vehicles and on this specific version finally including planetary fps.
Then newer expansions would be new spaceships or new pack with various planetary vehicles.
The point of this idea is to save money and time by making only one ship (and his subships), and also with it because to really focus on this ship and make it with extreme detail. Also with kickstarter you just make the game when and if you discover people liked it

I was going to suggest crowd funding for the Battlecruiser remake, as it has already been suggested and considered, actually.

I'm going to be honest once again. I've never payed for any of your games and the reason is that I just don't like this kind of method and I will never like. Crowdfunding on the other hand it's something that I do like and I will definetly invest a lot in a crowdfunding game when you pull that out.

As for spaceman00's comment, I suggest you to go see about the story of Wasteland 2. In short, Brian Fargo has released the game on steam (hate it) and good old games (love it), then actually "finished up" the game and released the "director's cut" edition, which was given for free for the backers, just like a patch or something. It's one of the stories to get inspired when going towards that path.

Let me state this again. I am anxious to finally show my support in a financial way to the 3000ad games if you decide to try crowdfunding.

---

On 1/7/2015, 6:10:02, Supreme Cmdr said:

Who remembers this bridge image from the original 1996 Battlecruiser 3000AD game?

Can we have this on UCADV?

ucadv_ots.png.fcc9658b7457f775a5623a4b2a

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Hi Paul,

Welcome to the forums!

As far as the remake of UC is concerned, it's kind of being redone with Universal Combat: The Lyrius Conflict DLC over on Steam.  You can find out more about it by perusing the forums over there:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/345580/discussions/0/617335934131084991/

-Sho

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15 hours ago, ShoHashi said:

As far as the remake of UC is concerned, it's kind of being redone with Universal Combat: The Lyrius Conflict DLC over on Steam.  You can find out more about it by perusing the forums over there:

I've read all that before I wrote here, but I can't interact there because it requires an account on steam which I couldn't do without disregarding and disrespecting their terms of service, in which case, if I'd do that, I wouldn't want to write there anyway becuse it would reveal my identity, they would realize that I have 3000ad games from them and therefore, I'd get banned from there for disrespecting their terms.

Also, I wanted to attempt to bring discussion back here. I like this forum.

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  • 6 months later...

Its been some time ... since I was visiting this forum... as everyone can see I returned just to say that I'm very excited at news of UC getting the feel of FPS (walking inside ship and stations, bases on planets). Since the beginning - 1998 I guess - when I first bought BC3000AD with PC World Computer magazine cover CD, all the time playing UC, UC:AWA, UCCE (i still own 3 copies of game : DVD-Box, from Direct2drive, and from gamersgate.com), I was hoping that this will get into the game. I remember reading all those 100+ pages many times, and just dreaming that some day I will be walking on these ships with my crew etc.

This game even today is still unique and advanced in many aspects that no one has explored in such way. I look forward to SC expanding this game and this genre.

I also subscribed game on steam, but the free release, so I'm waiting for The Lyrius Conflict DLC to be completed, since there seem to be no way to get one of  already bought copies/licences to steam (or I'm wrong ? hmmm....).

I wish You good luck in Your future plans for this series, SC. Adding tutorials for new players, besides youtube videos that people started publishing, into the game just to get them excited more looks like good idea (someone has already mentioned this). Game is and allways was great, just not everyone discovers this, like I did.

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