Supreme Cmdr

Fer crissakes uninstall the game and re-install + patch using the procedure in the FAQ.

untouched since the last time. Which was several months ago. Got other priorities.

LOL!!! Alrighty then.

No, it has nothing to do with officer AI. If it did, it would be mentioned in the manual or the appendix. And thats why you found no mention of it. Everything about the PTA system is accurately documented in the manual.

heh, that'll teach 'em. [ 05-19-2003, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

quote: Originally posted by mihau: Yeah, I also noticed this. After destroying some bases with my fighters the game started to slow down. I had to save and restore every 10 mins, just because of that. Even adding more RAM didn't help. And then I found out a solution. I dropped nukes on all of the bases that I had destroyed. Result - the game started to run as well as at the beginning. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to check if this works while having more bases destroyed. You may check this, if you want. Read what Tyrn wrote. Base destruction has NOTHING to do with this performance slowdown. It all has to do with the number of zones that are activated and kept active. Destroyed buildings require only about 1% of the AI processing that is required if they were active. Fact is, unless you have a high end system, you shouldn't go about blowing planetary shit up on a whim - because you'll regret it. The planetary regions require about 5x more processing power than the space regions. Just becausse you can, doesn't mean that you should.

Brian Rubin's short E3 take is up. Going to be posting these as I become aware of them. If anyone comes across any, be sure to post them here please. quote: Originally posted by Epsilon 5: That's great, and I have the urge to see what the usenet boys will say on that "the BCG showbox was nowhere in sight" , or "everyone was laughing at derek" and stuff like that", just to see how low they can be (I like to laugh at them) ... but nonetheless this is great news! Does anyone even pay attention to those morons any more?

The revised mp restrictions are in the BCM Gold FAQ. Check the downloads page. Then wait for the patch release before making requests. That would be better, since you would have actually played the mp version of the game.

Yeah, I had a blast. Here is what I posted on another board earlier today. quote: ...and this is where I almost (?) commit career Hari Kari. Quite frankly I usually hate going to E3 simply because, while I've had very good experiences in the past, going to E3 when my game is being shown, has always had a traumatic effect on me due to what happened back in Winter 1993 CES when Tom Frisina (now a GM at EA) of the failed Three Sixty Pacific, canned my first game on the first day of the show because ...it wasn't like Wing Commander. History eventually repeated itself at the 1995 E3 show when the failed Intracorp (they were pushing the failed Shatner vehicle, TekWar at the time) canned the project - again - on the last day of the show. And I shortly ended up at Take Two later that year. ****ers. But this year has been quite surprising and I've never, ever been in a situation where literally everyone who saw the game (gamers, buyers, media etc) said anything negative about it. Even if they were thinking it, their expressions and comments didn't show it. On the contrary, they were more startled than anything else. Funny thing is (and this is not confidential or anything but if it is, you'll probably be reading about my contract termination very soon) Dreamcatcher informed me, just several days before the show that BCG wasn't going to be on the show floor. But rather that it was going to be in a closed media session in one of the booth offices in order to provide a one-on-one environment with the media and not be subjected to the noise of the show floor. Right, I thought. IMO, they didn't figure that the game was strong enough I think to impress and that it would take too long to demo and give the full impact. They were showing, Pain Killer (12 systems), Arx Fatalis (2 systems), Beach Soccer (4 systems) and BCG (1 system). Yep, BCG was moved to one of the Beach Soccer machines. Go figure. As I understand it, at the pre-E3 sales meeting, some of the execs don't ...get the game, which left the frustrated sales and QA team (as well as my capable Product Manager) with very little to go on - even though I know that some in the company didn't even think it was a good idea to sign the game, let alone two of them. So, those of this opinion, just helped to make this decision of not showing the game on the show floor and for whatever reason. .....which all led to my subconsciously missing the first day of the show because, funny enough, I missed my first flight out because I had the flight departure times wrong. Not that I was excited about going - especially not after what I'd been told. However, once I arrived there, the decision was reversed and the game was to be shown on the show floor (I dunno if my email to the top exec had anything to do with this change) and it went uphill from there. Very quickly, one of the QA guys and I, had the system and game up and running and the BCG poster boards tacked on the booth walls. We were good to go. Now that I think about it, I wasn't particularly excited about it all at first. If anything, all I was thinking about was how I was going to not only make my game the most highlighted and awe inspring than anything else in that booth, but that I was also going to do a damn good job of it and show these folks [the jaded ones that is] just who the they were fooling around with. I don't think that, in their entire lives, they've ever met anyone with such conviction and resolve. In other words, I was going to make them pay by making them realize that there is a place for niche games and that there are people who actually like and play these games. Its not all about mass market drivel. There I was, literally every minute I was at the booth (which was practically the whole time), trying to cram a game that takes close to a week to get familiar with, into 15 min sessions in order to highlight it without boring anyone. Boy was I surprised. The more stuff I whipped out, the more whoa! and wow! I got - and of course, knowing me, it all went to my head and I proceeded to go overboard with the sensory overload. Right up to the point when maxgameplay.com showed up, complete with camera crew and shoved a camera and mic in my face. Thats probably the last time they do that because I didn't have anything positive to say about how the industry is handling this whole copy protection thing. There I was, in my element (if you've ever heard or seen me pitch one of my games, then you get the idea), doing my thing, then Cindy Yans shows up for our appointment. Yes, Cindy!! OK, this may not seem like a big deal, but you've got to go back, way back to appreciate just what it means to be sitting and chatting with Cindy or any of the media folks from back in the day talking about a game that, well, few people care about ( especially the publishers themselves). The people you only get to see once in a while, but whom you get to harrass via email (just ask Bauman) every now and then. E3 for me this year was the highlight of my career I think. I went there disappointed but it got better once I had a plan all worked out and my determination to not allow anyone dampen my spirits or the premise of my game, helped a lot. In fact, I almost didn't go, but I didn't want to get Gladguy into trouble. Thinking about it, I only went because of him. I mean, what is the worst they could've done? Cancel BCG? heh. Been there. Done that. Still get my games shipped. But I'm glad I went because that didn't leave any question nor doubts about the game itself. The Dreamcatcher sales, QA and media crew exceeded my expectations of what team spirit is about. No, seriously. From the low level QA guy to the top notch media guy, they were just a bunch of really great folks. Off the show floor and on. Having worked with lots of publishers in my time, mingled with a bunch of *******s (most of whom are unemployed as I type this) in the industry, these folks are simply put, the best I've ever had to work with. Must be because they're Canadians and less egotistical and backbiting than their American counterparts? But by the same token, knowing that some of these people were - behind closed doors - saying and doing things which would lead to my game being shown behind closed doors - or worse - canned, makes me think about whether they're genuine or just good actors or actresses. I just think that they are in fact genuine but simply scared. Frankly, at the time, I didn't give a toss either way. I wasn't there to make friends (though I think I made a few). I was there to, once again, defend my game - as I have done most of these 14+ yrs and to ensure that nobody made light of - nor discounted - the hard work and dedication we put into making these games. At any rate, the entire time I was there, it was like I was the highlight of show (which I was, being the only industry figure they've ever had, until Jane Jansen who they recently signed) and their company. Makes you wonder what the suits were thinking, by trying to put my game in a closed session and accidentally treating it like a second class citizen just before the single most important industry event. The more I think about it, the more I think that, quite frankly, they don't know what to do with my games or how to position them. And I told one of the execs this (as well as my newly appointed Exec. Producer) as my #1 complaint. If you think about it, Dreamcatcher were all about adventure games and one or two other titles, so, one can't blame them for not having much experience in handling the diverse types of games they're going to be coming across now that they've decided to branch off into other areas (and split the company into two divisions, Dreamcatcher Games and The Adventure Company). .....and then they go and compound the problem by signing not one, but two Battlecruiser titles. If anything, they're brave. And probably too confident in my abilities and that of the games? I dunno, but I think the whole thing with E3 and the initial decision to not show it on the floor is that someone got scared. And like Lemmings, the rest of the crew followed suit. At least up to the point where the guy who signs the checks vetoed the whole bloody thing and left it up to me. Probably to hang (or possibly too much faith in me) myself? Nice one. It doesn't help either that some of the retailers are down right mean and hostile toward space sims. No seriously - I heard one such story (about BCM Gold in fact) about the troubles one DC sales person had pitching the game to a retailer, that made me so mad, I almost choked on my lobster ravioli. The retailer's buyer, as the story goes, literally tossed the game box across the room and said something like ...no more ****ing space sims!. So, is it a surprise that these people [DC] are scared of the ramifications of trying to position a niche title - a space sim no less - at some of the retail stores? I blame MS (Freelancer), EA (EnB), Infogrammes (both IWar games) and Simon & Schuster (Eve) who spend millions and millions of dollars on space games only to see them languish at retail - but most of all, I blame the gamers. The good thing is, now that no publisher is going to even think of signing up another space game (BCG and the upcoming X2 are the last worthy retail space sims in development I think) we'll see what happens. Like Elite, 10+ years from now, they [gamers] will be thinking ....damn, I wish I had that space sim to play or they'll be looking for win9x emulators to play the games of today on systems of the future in the same way they today look for DOS emulators to play games like Elite, WC and Privateer on. Thats when they [gamers] will know just how much influence they had in killing the genre. Which is exactly why I'm done with it and I'm sure that my small fan base will keep the MMO version of BCG going as it [bCG] is going to be the very last space sim of its kind. Ever. ...and all of this disheartening stuff about this whole E3 thing, led me to come up with an emergency plan (in the event that I did in fact get canned) and to - for the first time - pitch my WIP XBox (as everyone probably knows by now, DC has first rights of refusal to my next game) game (a space/planetary vehicular and first person combat action game - think XW vs TF meets BF1942 and you'll get the idea) to another publisher and got a hand shake agreement at the end of that E3 breakfast meeting. Unless DC can match the offer (which is up to them at this point), I'm gone once BCG ships in Q3. I'm not in the mood for all this disheartening stuff and political nonsense. All I want to do is develop games and I'm going to keep doing that, no matter what. I don't know what it is that publishers (except maybe Interplay) don't get about this very simple premise that Derek Smart is about, but from where I'm sitting, the space sim genre, as we once knew it, is done That pretty much covers it for this year's Battlecruiser @ E3 saga. [ 05-18-2003, 11:38 AM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

GameSpy have their BCG coverage up. And here are some shots from the new interface. Check GNN for more E3 related news

....and so the madness continues. Dear Lord make it stop.

....bastards

quote: Originally posted by Tyrn: See that little blue arrow next to the word posted right above this line? That icon is the link to the related post, just right click and copy the link. aha!! so thats how you do it.

quote: Originally posted by Spindoktor: quote: Is there anything we can do to help? Yeah... Siddown!! hehe

The CDROM drive is probably an older model that is not compatible with SafeDisk 2.0 copy protection. If you go to www.macrovision.com there is a list of compatible CDROM drives there I think.

I deleted it because it was in the wrong forum

quote: Originally posted by Eclipse: I think I remember having this problem a long time ago and it seemed linked to either the copyprotection not liking my CD drive or leftover save games not being deleted when the patch installed... If my memory serves me, having savegames that are incompatible with the new version can cause the game not to start; it has been a long time so I could be wrong. Your memory is faded I'm afraid. That INI file is created by the Installshield program. The patches only modify it in order to enter the patch version number in the version field. If the file does not exist, then there is nothing for the patch to enter info into, so it creates an empty file. The file knows nothing about the default settings of that file as that information comes from the installer. The copy protection has nothing to do with this, nor saved games. All that does is check the for presence of the CD. Thats all it does. And, unlike some games (e.g. Morrowind), I don't use the copy protection when the game is running because that just slows it down and causes all kinds of problems.

quote: Originally posted by left-eye christ: I think i figured out the problem...sort of. The bcsetup.ini file created by the patch was totally blank. so I replaced it with the original bcmsetup.ini file and everything seems to be working ok. If this is something i really shouldn't do please tell me the real solution. That file will only be blank if a previous version was not found. Why? because the patch enters the version number into it. And why would this even happen? You either (a) didn't install the game correctly or ( you didn't apply the patch correctly. And where the heck did you get the 'original' file from, if the one you're talking about was blank? In short, you've borked your environment. Read the FAQ, uninstall, reinstall, do not pass Go, do not collect any EPs.

quote: Originally posted by Emmett.hendrick: quote:Originally posted by KreKol: Wonder if it comes with a web cam? Argh J****!!!!!!!!! Thats gonna taking some serious drinking to get rid of that mental picture. LOL!!! tell me about it. I don't drink, but after reading that, I'm considering making a beeline for the cough medicine.

OMG, that looks wicked. Could give WoW a run for its money. http://www.lordoftherings.com/meo

quote: Originally posted by Darkling: quote:Originally posted by Spindoktor: this would afford you the opportunity to control prices. And then, of course, this would now make these areas highly desirable for attack by the AI (or other players?? MP?). I think the problem with that is that BCM/G doesn't have a "Market" Economy, (which would require a WHOLE LOT of programming) and I'm not sure the SC is ready to implement something like that (though, who knows, maybe in BCO?) Correct. And I have NO plans to implement one. The way trading currently works is fine. If anyone wants a boring game based on a boring economic model, well, there's always Eve.

quote: Originally posted by MIKE113: Nice! I'm thinkin' that Lumber and Wood products could be lucritive! LOL!! you planning on giving Resnig a new day job?

In fact, we're working on getting it such that the areas you know as 'scenes' can be flagged as complete forests with wall-to-wall vegetation. It was easier to do it this way because flagging an entire planet would bring any computer to its knees. Just think, you're running across grassland....and then you meet this wall of forest thats going to take you the best part of a long time to span.

quote: Originally posted by Darkling: Maybe you should consider going with an inexpensive Local guy like 186K in Boca, (as a backup) they've got triple TC-3 Connections to the Internet, are super cheap and can have a server up for you within 24-48Hrs. I know, I've used them before when I setup some email servers. ok, please send me some information via email. We paid xgamer for 3 months in advance and I have no intentions of renewing it once they have fulfilled that obligation.

Oh please, thats nuthin'. Wait'll you see the shots that are coming out of E3. You'll wet your pants. heh