Rico Jansen

quote:...then I sit in arima and the ship never shows up. Would I be able to find it in a neighbouring system? For starters. Yes! The Vagabond has obviously found it, or else it wouldn't have communicated the message, so it must exist. Something escapes the Lennen system at the start of the mission, unless you are there. Be there, or miss it. Nothing seriously happpens to the Vagabond at this time, I believe. As I said, I suspect something wrong with the script, but it's the only way I know how to solve it completely. Yes, if you have the freeware verison you need to apply a small patch that fixes the size of the intro movie. (Also ends abruptly, is corrupt so fails filesize check) After that you can edit the bc3k.bat file to disable debugmode. You should be able to get the patch from the same download site you got the game from. I got it from underdogs.org, I think. [ 09-27-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

THE time to throw a party! Cmdr Rico Jansen on commlink : "Everybody gather around the SC, incomming Bugnor loaded with champaign bottles!" (aftermath) SC : $%@^@#*$* You just ruined my Master!!! My congratualtions, SC!

Perhaps the ECV-Starball isn't in Arima (yet). About the Lennen Rescue mission, something happens at the very beginning of the mission which you probably have missed. But perhaps it's in your commlink log. I think this shouldn't happen according to the mission briefing and the communication messages, so I suspect it has a script flaw. Or I'm missing some braincells the SC has more of. Unless you want this topic to become a spoiler I'll do other a favour and not explain why and how it appears to be flawed IMO. Stealing cargo is simple: go into tacops and zoom up on your victim. Left click (or right, not sure) and a small menu should apear with a "collect" entry or something to that effect. Click on it and then you can select which one of your shuttles should 'mug' it. And of it goes. There should be an extensive amount of topics about how to 'debris mine'. (and even 'mugging' in the same topic) Do a search. Nose up and yaw to the right a bit.

Jeffery, excellent charter! Nothing to add or comment. Only the hierarchy is bugging me a bit. Discounts and all are quite high for the higher brass of the corp. But you acknoledged that allready. Only you say that they are entitled to X% discount "on all goods and services purchased from all divisions and subdivisions of the Corporation;". Being a merc job office, I don't really see what kind of services the chiefs should be able to make use of. Well, yes I do see. The admiral (I'll adress that later) can hire a group of its members and task it with any personal military efforts he desires. While I don't really see anything illegal about that (your choice, but consider the implications of those actions/orders), what's the point of it? Being the chief of a corporation you should not have any enemies (to fear personally). And market competition shouldn't get out of hand like that, then again, what's legal. Ofcourse, the admiral or board of v-admirals can decide that the properties of Guns For Hire, Inc. need to be protected by a squad/group of it's own members. But then it would be totally charged to the company's account, not to the admiral's or other employee/members. Goods I have no problem with. It's not uncommon in real-life to buy certain goods for reduced price through your employer. Besides, nothing keeps the merc company from having a (modest) 'tool store' as service to it's members. (except if there's an arms-free zone on the station, ofcourse) They'll have to find a way to get the items, and to sell it for more than they got it. But that's their problem. To adress Riga's profit problem: Since there is only one Admiral, (and not extremely many vice-Admirals, but hopefully alot more paying members), the losses that come from the higher-up discounts can be offset by the profits on the lower level side. These discounts don't really have to lead to debts, all depends on the balance of payers and recievers. One could set the net-price for the admirals to the company's buy price of the goods and proportionally scale up the prices for members more to the employee side. No profit margin on the admirals, full load at the bottom of the piramid. But then I suggest you make sure you get really really really cheap buy prices or you won't have many (member) customers. Admirals: While i believe an indie that wants to start a business is quite free (or perhaps totally free) in setting up his hierarchy, the title "Admiral" or "vice-Admiral" denotes some measure of power over others below him in the hierarchy. While the (vice-)admiral(s) have total jurisdiction when it comes to how to do business, they have no command power whatsoever over the members. I believe the title is ill-chosen. It does have a nice ring to it, but only if you like to have power over others. Which you don't. If they don't like what is demanded from them then that's it. They don't even have to salute. You're just offering a means to get a job for a certain price. The company offers people with a military occupation, but it is not the military. I recognise Jeffery said Admiral-ity was a placeholder for director-ship, it's just that I would think "director" would be in the first line of thought, instead of admiral. Something Epsilon mentioned: Insurance policies, a very interesting idea. But probably another type of business on itself. I think it's more likely for (any) corporation to organise an insurance policy (at a insurance company if an indie with enough credits likes to start one) for all their employees/members incase they get craft damage or something (if you lose your ship, the only thing you can do is whine, no way you can buy one back AFAIK). There's no way you should need a disability insurance for your AE. Your limbs won't (=can't) be shot off. But perhaps you need extended medical treatment because your AE has been on the verge of death due to an accident or something and needs to recouperate (cost of medpack/vacpacks/loan or nutripacks for medics, yada yada yada). We've got a paramedic caste anyway that should have a healing/resting effect. One could set up a moving space hospital. (if guests are allowed to enter the medibay of the ship) But I'm no medical expert to asses if there's a need in BCM. Perhaps Desylva knows better. Or another form of insurance is a life-insurance. Say that a merc-company's owner (Mr. Admiral?) wants to do the job himself. He could fill in the forms at a insurance company before he enters the frey so that the insurance company pays a given amount of credits to the merc company (to cover for any possible debts) when it's ends up stearless if the (sole)owner bites the dust. He'd have to pay rediculous fees considering his job, but that's choice. Ofcourse he doesn't have to, only if he feels sorry for those that are left and have to deal with his lack of presence. That would be a good company director. $ilk's towing fees: Don't forget this is about indies. You don't have to rely on fleets to render you assistance. Neither in real-life are you solely commited to doing business with the U.S Navy. Or whatever country's naval fleet. I suspect there will be a smart commander that chooses a craft with a tractorbeam and set's up a salvage/towing company of some sort. Their prices? Well, that depends all on the demand of his services. He can't be in two places at the same time. And in hostile teritory he'll need to pay for damage insurance fees. IF it pays in that situation. Ok, enough rant for today. ... besides, I need to vent some plasma. [ 09-21-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

Yeah yeah, don't rush me, am allready on my way.

A transformer mod is quite surely impossible. Does BCM have a way to initiate a transform (both directions)? Nope. Sure you can make a model of a Transformer character and swap it with your craft. But that's a onetime change of model. As is DeD. (dynamic entity deconstruction)

Depends on what you want to do. Docking is not possible. Raiders won't let you. But ofcourse if you have enough Vagrants and cloak fuel and can be carefull on your IOD trigger, then it's al yours. ... In any case when your BC or ICs get close enough to a raider station they'll be fired upon. [ 09-15-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

Personally, I try to check both simultaneous, but I do think it's going to create headaches in the future if board traffic picks up further. Remo, just for convenience, what kind of things can you alter to the boardlayout? Perhaps provide a link to 3000AD's Prime forum? [ 09-14-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

Ok, let me know when you got something done. Have to go now.

Say Blades, can you checkup on what happend to Gregs interview. Link is dead. Aramikes interview was a real laugh. You guys jousting back an forth. Hope to see more of them soon.

The accident is now a day old. And I still don't know what to say about it. Yesterday afternoon I believed I had woken up that morning. But seeing those images on the tv my mind was struggling with it's perception of reallity. First seeing one of the towers smoking and hearing is was supposedly due to a airplane crash. "Possible!", I guessed. With the towers being directly on the centerline of one of JFK's runways. But then, being just as shocked as the tv reporters, seing another plane going straight ahead into the other building. This was too much. It couldn't been happening. I thought I was remembering Hollywood movie footages in my mind. Diehard, Blue Thunder, Last action Hero. Aircraft, exploding highrise office buildings. Surreal! But "no!", wake-up call just happend. Terrorists took a different approach yesterday. Instead of threatening to take the lives of hostages in trade for release of prisoners, why not take them anyway and take a stuffed building with it? Heck, take too. Nah!, double that and put the US (and world) in a state of chaos and dispair. Or so they intended. And succeeded. My deepest condolances to those that are suffering goes without saying. There is no doubt that every person inflicted by this event should get all the help and support in any way or form. But feeling helpless is all I can do right now. Or so I think. Punnishment is inevitable. And justified. But if it should be portraied as a war, I don't know. A war described in laymens-terms perhaps. An unrelentless persue and erradication of terrorism and it's support for sure. But it should be hard and decisive. From the world at large. The USA does not stand alone in this. They may feel they do, but they don't. I hope they realise that. As for the mentionings of using nuclear force, I totally stand behind David Foss. Even considering the fact I most surrely owe my existance to those two boms. My dad and his family was put into a Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia when he was only months old. Him having been several times on the verge of death. I believe it gave me a very centered approach on wars. Both me and my father equally agreed about the neccesity of the Gulf War. Saddam had no right. But being a 14 year old, I think I was more jumpy about it that he was. He knows more than I ever will. (I hope, yet don't too) The feelings I had yesterday when experiencing the events were the same as I have felt when watching the latest Pearl Harbor movie. Downright anger. Were they justified? Absolutely. We know who caused the chaos in both events. The Japanese pilots and the terrorists behind the stick. But that's basically all we know about them at this time, except for that the Japanese government sent those bombers to Hawai. The US' intelligence authoroties may have information that makes a lead to Afghanistan or other Middle East countries seriously credible. But that is not for sure as of yet. Swift action is not part of the solution, I think. Fierce investigation and X-ray-like research into every possible direction is the immediate task IMO. (Apart from relief efforts in Newyork and Washington ofcourse) Then justice is served best. The last 24 hours have totally changed my reservations on Echelon. (the electronic intelligence evesdropping network the US and I believe New Zealand set up???) If you have nothing to fear, why fear? I like to end with the following consideration for all. I've said enough while wasting quite a few words. Don't start kicking at the first wasp hive you see, when you've just been stung by a bee. That might get you killed. [ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

Well, Insurgents vs. Earth military are not exactly the same as inter-racial relationships. There is a special appendix dedicated to explanation of the current (start of bc3k game) state of affairs and their causes. But I believe the manual states exactly the same. The messages you recieve in Commlink are scripted only. Only those you got in free-flight, and perhaps more in ACM. (didn't get them yet) It's completely based on the story. There is no state-of-affairs reporting code in the game as far as we are aware of. And as Epsilon explained, passive means you've (this case Terrans at large) come upon the bad impressions stage. If you need to know a bit of the technical side of things, the GBS pack has a file that states the mutual diplomacy start-up state of universe. Friendlyness is described by a number between 200 and 0; 100 being neutral. But appart from scripted commands I'm not sure about the extend of interactive player influence on it. [ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

Riga, traffic shouldn't be much of a problem with this lousy wheater these days. But nevermind, I'm quite generous of nature. Don't forget that what I wrote is only about bc3k. BCM will most surely be quite different. First there will be something of a marketprice-sentiment among traders in multiplayer. Second as NPCs and player will influence the prices by supply and demand itself. Also, I can't remember having seen anything about (starting) inflation values on stations in the BCM 'unofficial official' docs. So I don't know how trade techniques have changed. But I have only skimmed those docs. Maybe that's why. BC3K is a start, just don't rely on it too much. (Saves newbie questions, I hope)

quote:Err, about those Ferengies,...Nothing special really. Just that my first topic with explanation of the bc3k price calculations I made was titled "My bc3k rules of acquisition". And now you mention that credits where credits are due. So, get me interested by firing up the bribe-ing machine. But I allready said yes, so it doesn't matter. Just kidding.

quote:Now, that's a very good idea about the mail/chat. Ever considered a career change?Yes. But it's not going to happen. I want my character to bite spacedust first. And perhaps I'll become a UCV affiliated to Primefleet. Or something of a fleet support role if that ever comes up from the ground. Not sure. quote:Rico, while on the subject of this website; I want to include some kind of trading-for-beginners section. I've read your posts about trading and would like to include them in the website. Do yuo have any objections about that (ofcourse credits where credits are due... )Sure go ahead, I'm honored. (The following only makes sense if you have read my very first trade post (= lost)) ... The sound of credits are music to Ferengie lobbes. I will need next week to check that member part you described. Only skimmed it. Looks ok, but that doesn't mean much. I'm in college now, can't be online earlier than monday or tuesday. Oh well, no hurries. [ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[RP] Guarddog will keep an eye out for suspicious traffic from Sygan, considering it's fluxfield link to Ramis. Will be on the comms ASAP when detected. Safe journey, my friend. [/RP] [ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

You'll have to join the insurgency for that. Sign up wherever Parias is holding out

quote:...umm if BCM took the system computer clock ...AND!! add 3010 years to it before doing position calculations. So you would know what time of day it is 3010+ year into the future. Usefull!! Now it would be cool if we could really go stargazing. With some sort of telescope zoom thing. Perhaps that FP binoculars thing works good enough for looking at space things too. Max 16x zoom if I read it correctly. Not much, but perhaps if we ask the S... (gagged). Hey, never heard of BCM amateur astronomy? [ 09-07-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

- In crew.html; I noticed the system engineers and flight engineers having the same pic. Is that intentional or not? - In fpitems.html; the nutripak description says it boosts FF. Shouldn't it have an opposite effect? Diminishing FF. (Or haven't I played BC3K/BCM enough lately?, could be mixing stuff up) That's all I could find by skimming it.

Remo?? If you get to see this soon enough. I forgot what thread where you mentioned the secure transmisison password request, but can you please send me a mail to [email protected] about this. Don't want to feel left out, ya know.

quote:They travel a lot, encounter all sorts of situations and can report this to the division. Nothing obligatory though, but these guys always tend to leak information Well, if they are leaking it anyway, why loose money on it. Why not offer discounts when you have people willing to fill in "We know where you went today"-forms. That's a way to get an idea where everyone is going. Like supplying screenshots from the tradcom infopage through email or something. Or just through chat/comm channel. [ 08-29-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

then why do you say "no one but SC has the ability to change your patrol"? (completely confused)

For the record, Fleet Leaders (should) have full authority in that respect. How else can they boss their fleet? [ 08-28-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

quote:I think they should fit in the mine launcher, though.....Take care when squating down over those leeches and crabs. [ 08-28-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]