Simparadox

quote:Originally posted by Brian1: I noticed the download for RC9 is only available on Gamespy... which looks like a site that pays for the service by ads. With no disclaimer about using your email for sale to spam ads I am reluctant to use their service. Is there someplace 'safe' to download from? Can anyone confirm that Gamespy doesn't sell or spam email addresses themselves? BTW, to the Supreme Commander about a 'pasy' service... we did pay for the game already. We are just looking the files to make it work. And yes it is my business if purchasing your product 'might' lead (directly or indirectly) to misuse of my email. In case you guys haven't noticed a huge number of games have patches only available through fileplanet. Most people hate fileplanet. Personally, I think it sucks. But if it's the easiest way for game developers to host their patches then so be it. Deal with it. And TRescott, the last way you're going to get your way from anyone in life is not by going off on a semi-coherant rant. You're certainly not making a hero of yourself with that post, especially since you're no even following the most basic of rules put out on the forum. And besides, what would you do if some other game you loved did something you didn't like and you didn't have any forum to post on it. Learn to have some respect.

quote:Originally posted by JJ: It seems to me the only way that if you wanna lead your Ground troops into battle is by doign a cmdr career and beaming down with them. Now an idea, (not for the next patch is to give the Marine Career a Planetary C&C type deal THIS IS NOT TO BECOME A WISHLSIT THREAD BUT TO SIMPLY DISCUSS THE WAYS TO IMRPOVE THE MARINE CAMPAIGN love to sc's thoughts on this I'm not really sure about this. It seems to me that the purpose of playing a marine is to play as a foot soldier. Cannon fodder. The guy on the ground charging the enemy base. My main problem is that it can sometimes be hard to find any kind of coordinated strike to join in on. Then again, I'm guessing it'll be better once GBS-II is released and we can have actual scenarios focusing on the marine caste.

quote:Originally posted by JaxFox: Why do we keep such a creature in our group you say? Two words Cannon Fodder "Hey you! Yeah, you! The smelly one! Mind charging that ancient great dragon over there? Yep, that's the one. Don't worry, we'll be right here. Behind this rock."

quote:Originally posted by Schmendrick: Well hell, since we're on the subject, could anybody explain to us noobs why wish list items are affixed such a stigma? I would imagine that, in most cases, it's because wishlist items are so "out there" that there's no chance of them ever being put into the game without an incredible amount of work. There's nothing wrong with discussing what you'd like to see in the game, but since these are official message boards I think most posts are interpreted as "Hey, SC, you know it'd be really nice if this was in the game *wink wink*". A random mission generator would probably be a huge task since there's nothing like it in BCM right now. It'd probably just be a waste of time to get into a debate about it (eh.. which we are now anyway, so..) since it's just not likely. I suppose a random script generator might be a good idea, but how is it really going to be that different from what Roam mode is anyway? Whenver I play Roam mode I always find plenty of things to do. I can be sitting near a station, minding my own business, when suddenly I need to defend said station from some sort of attack force. I think it really just comes down to not fixing what isn't broken.

quote:Originally posted by Brian1: [not sure if this is right place for this] I was thinking it would be kewl if you had the game had a random mission generator for the roam mode. Oh, man. You're gonna get beaten. Severely. Even I know better... Roam mode is meant to be totally open-ended. Right now it's the only viable way to play any caste you want in the game - even the harmless ones like explorer and diplomat. Because of that any kind of "random mission" generation would require an insane amount of possibilities. After all, you can't only allow missions for combat castes. And you can't expect a diplomat to attack a space station. And even if someone was willing to put all of that work in, I don't think BCM or GBS-II (And I could be totally wrong here) even supports the random generation of missions. Anyway, just way for the scripting system to be released. Then people will be able to make their own campaigns, complete with missions and objectives and such. Until then play around in Roam Mode, I've had an incredible amount of fun with it. And the campaigns that are available now aren't too bad either. EDIT: Besides, adding simple random missions to roam mode would probably just end up as an annoyance. Even after playing the game for weeks now every situation I get into still seems fresh. Like when a stormcarrier jumps in on top of me and half of my systems are down for repairs. Or limping back to base, hoping no one notices that my weapons are almost useless. Or figuring out a way to get my ship running again after the main computer is gone... hmm. Everything interesting that happens to me seems to involve an extreme amount of damage on my ship. Coincidence? I think not! Er... [ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

quote:Originally posted by Schmendrick: These people are always there. There's not a game store in the universe which doesn't have such creatures. And since you claim to never have seen such people, then there's only one possible explaination. It's YOU!!!! Mm hm... and how would you know that these people are always there unless you yourself are also always there?

quote:Originally posted by Cmdr Nova: You know, it doesn't even have to be disabled or show an SOS for you to tow it for a reward.... Also, it seems that if you get close enough to an active enemy to tractor it, it won't be able to attack the shuttle or whatever that's towing it. This definetly doesn't seem to be true for other CCs, at least not in my experience. Their PTA system will blow you apart if you try to get too near to them while they're still active. Although I haven't had any trouble ordering my shuttles to pick up unarmed transports for time to time and turn them in . [ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

quote:Originally posted by Brian1: I have an enemy fighter beat up and emitting an SOS. One of my own fighters was destroyed in the same battle. Is there anyway to capture the SOS fighter and bring it onboard for my own use? Everything I try leads to the enemy fighter exploding. Seems to explode whenever I turn off the tractor beam of what ever drags it to my carrier. Note: that the SOS fighter is travelling at a very high speed so I can't exit into a spacesuit unless it is first captured in a tractor beam and towed to a stop. No, you can't capture other ships for your own use. You can, however, bring it in for a "bounty" (experience or money). Have one of your shuttles tractor it and then order the shuttle to "Deliver to" (it's a choice on the orders menu) the nearest friendly station. Once the shuttle drops it off you'll get a reward. Or you can just get revenge for your lost fighter and blow the little ***** away.

quote:Originally posted by Emmett.hendrick: Jez I though I was alone on that one I would practice as much as I could before going on line and still get my ass kicked the only game I sort of did ok on online was Unreal Tournament. The majority of online shooters and real-time strategy games are based on habits. You need to play enough to instantly recognize where you should aim, when you need to shoot, what areas of a map are best to stay in, where the enemy (and that means human players) are likely to go, etc. etc. Like I said in my last post, there isn't a multiplayer computer game out there that can give you a whole lot of freedom in your actions. The idea is to learn the right pattern to follow and then follow it well. In counter-strike you stick with your team during the beginning of the game, if you don't then you could get ambushed by an enemy team coming in another direction. You need to know all the hiding places on the map, which ones are good, and so on. Fortunetly, once you learn all of this stuff you'll find yourself as one of the top two or three players every game (I think I'm still in the UGO server's top 100 for Counter-strike, even though I haven't played for months ). Unfortunetly, a little while after you learn it all the game stops being fun.

quote:Originally posted by aramike: I've played very few table top games, and was not impressed. For one thing, sorting through grossly over-complicated manuals while arguing over a trivial rule is absurdity at its finest. If one could make a game with simple rules where STRATEGY, not rules, are the most important feature of the game, then maybe it'd be fun. Computer gaming, on the other hand, can accomplish both tasks quite easily. For one thing (and the most important), once in the game the rules are the rules. They are not open to ridiculous interpretations. If I'm playing a game, I want to play a game -- not enter into a debate. I've really got to disagree here. It seems to me that you're stating one of computer game's largest disadvantages as an advantage. When I sit down and play a game, computer or otherwise, I want to have some creative freedom. Have you ever noticed that nothing ever changes in the average online game? And that includes all the popular ones - Diablo II, Counter-strike, Quake III, Unreal Tournament, and so on and so on. The same applies for strategy games. Once the game has been out for a week or two every viable strategy is already known and it comes down to pure hand-eye coordination. This is especially true of real-time "strategy games", even though they try to hide it. In single player BCM might be the exception to the rule and BCO will probably have an equally wide range of options - but BCM multiplayer will probably fall victim to this as well. Not that it's a "bad" thing, just that one rarely plays an online game for strategy. On the other hand, you can't play single player forever (and this goes for any game) because eventually the AI will stop being a challenge. Then you get to go online and have a test of reflexes with people who are at about the same skill level as you. On the other hand, table top games allow for generally infinite strategies and total and complete creativity and freedom of action. I'll use roleplaying games as an example. You just can't compare the amount of options you have when a live GM is sitting in front of you running the story and when you're just playing through a canned adventure. No matter how many possible paths or endings it claims to have you're still forced to play only one way. I guess that's why I like BCM so much . This goes for table-top war games as well, although I'm not into them quite as much as I am rpgs. Not only is it more fun to have your opponent sitting a few feet away, but they allow for sooo many more options during play compared to computer games it's simply incredible. There's no need to dumb-down the rules as is done in computer games since the publishers don't pretend that there's any mass market appeal. It caters to a generally very intelligent group and there's no need to make the rules for anyone else. quote:For one thing, sorting through grossly over-complicated manuals while arguing over a trivial rule is absurdity at its finest. Just for reference - a rules laywer, ie someone who is interested only in how the rules can benefit him or following them to the letter, is a bad roleplayer. Someone you don't want to play with. Associating this type of attitude with roleplaying games either because of one bad experience or someone elses bad experience is absurd. As for the manuals, what can I say? I like to read. quote:Oh, and I have to agree with the earlier description of the "average gamer". I don't believe I've ran into one with good personal hygiene yet. Being a gamer should be a part of one's life, not one's life as a whole. Either you two live in one of the strangest places in the world or Connecticut is just some kind of sheltered little bubble. In my entire time playing RPGs, going to conventions, and literally asking people I met in gaming stores and book stores if they were interested in playing in a campaign I've yet to meet more than one or two people who even come close to fitting the description given. Sorry if I sound angry, but it's just such a stereotypical and uninformed thing to say it makes me crazy. First of all, most "gamers" I know play for 7 or 8 hours in once a week sessions. That would probably be about average for a roleplaying game player, some who have more time might play two times a week. That's compared to computer game junkies (damn it, I'm one of them too - but at least I admit I have no life ) who sit in front of a computer screen for four or five hours A DAY with no real social interaction mindlessly blasting away everything that moves. I'm sorry, but there's just no way possible you can compare that to interacting with a group of four or five other people in person playing a game that requires actual intelligence, creativity, and strategy. If you're not interested in table top RPGs then fine - but don't make them out to be "uncool" or played only by people who aren't fit to join in with the rest of society. EDIT: Buahahahaha! Post 100! Woohoo! Go me! [ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

quote:Originally posted by Badgerius: Don't forget RTFM! I'm guessing at least some of you have seen this, but if not: (Sorry for being off-topic, by the way) http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/apparel/3239.shtml

quote:Originally posted by Space Grunt: Sorry to be so vague, but what is the objective for an Explorer? I mean, if I just want to deploy drones and make money, then I would be a trader. Has anyone encountered any special sites or events that are exclusive to Explorers? There was a lot of discussion about harmless castes like the explorer a few weeks ago. Remember that there aren't any goals or objectives in "roam" mode and the only two campaigns are meant for insurgent and military commanders. That means there aren't really "objectives" for any of the castes except to play them as you think they should be played. If you're interested in wandering around and taking a look at different planets then you might want to try an explorer - but in terms of gameplay I find the military, trader, and raider campaigns to be the most fun. As far as I know, castes like explorer were just included for completeness.

Alrighty, I guess I'm going to take my life in my hands and report a little graphical oddity I think I may have found. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, and I only now noticed it with RC9 of the new patch. I've noticed that entire pieces of the shuttle model (only on the shuttle mk2) completely vanish. Usually it's the main "cabin" section of the model (the biggest part), although sometimes one of the rear "wings" will vanish too. Now, I suppose this could be a driver issue - but since I'm using the latest drivers for every bit of hardware on my system and haven't experienced even the most insignificant problems in BCM since playing it on Windows 2000 it wasn't really my first thought. It seems to occur at least once every game regardless of graphic preferences in the game or whether my video card/cpu is overclocked. I can send you a screenshot if you need to see what I mean. Thanks,

quote:Originally posted by Soback: What are you going to do when you go to sleep? Probably land on a relatively safe planet. I was thinking about docking, but I want the game to actually continue in real-time for as long as I can. I've had it running since I made that post. Set up a new terran military roam game and I played it for a few hours. Overnight I landed on the moon while my drones did some work. I just left a few minutes ago and deployed probes to nearby systems, now I'm running a patrol around the Earth jump locations, Earth itself, Galcom HQ, etc. I have to say, it's been a pretty damn cool experience so far. I can play without actively seeking out a lot of trouble, since I only have to go over to the computer when something comes up. So far I've already foiled two Gam attacks just because I happened to be patrolling the area when they came in.

quote:Originally posted by Gamaliel: Keep 'em coming guys. BTW Simparadox, why were you attacking a scientist starstation?!? What did my colleagues ever do to hurt you, hmm?? I guess my next question would be: What caste were you playing in those pictures? Just curious...Please don't kill me!! Gamaliel out. Raider. If it's red and within hyperjump distance, it's dead.

quote:Originally posted by JaxFox: So do I, I bought Alternity with Dark Matter when it first came out. I still have yet to forgive WoTC for canceling it. Anybody ever have problems with the dreaded two word? rule's lawyer. These guys would drive me nuts. Of course it all depends on how you would handle them. Me, I would just close the book and hand it to them and tell them they can now run the game. Naturally the rest of the players would be ready to lynch the poor SOB that decide to quote the rules to the GM/DM. Golden rule, the GM/DM is God of that game. And most GM/DM have no regret's on rolling every dice they own to smite the fool who dare oppose them. *sigh* those where the good days For the past two years I've been in a bit of an rpg dry spell. Seeing as how I'm the only person in my little clique who went to college in-state and that most of the other people at my college are stuck-up rich kids who wouldn't give RPGs the time of day... well, I've been stuck playing D&D 3E and occasionally Alternity with either one (yes, that's right, single player games... I was that starved for playing an rpg ) two gamers that I actually know in the area. And both of them have to be the biggest rules lawyers I've ever seen in my life. What makes it even worse is that both of them are fun to play with and good roleplayers, but when it comes to little rules issues they fly off the deep end. It's like neither of them understand the concept of skipping cumbersome or out of place rules to advance the story. They're at least tolerable, though. Back in high school I played with a group so obsessed with rules they would stop the game and demand to see whatever monster compendium I happened to be using (usually the Monstrous Manual, since this was back in the 2nd ed. days) to make sure I wasn't stacking the deck against them or giving them less experience than they deserved. I'm just working at hunting down a group of players for either a serious D&D 3rd Edition, Alternity, or Vampire game right now... and I swear if I get even one rules lawyer I won't hesitate to strike him down with a "Bolt of the Infinite Wrath of the GM" .

Sorry for taking so long, Commander. I'd like to take command of a Questar class heavy cruiser, if possible. Thank you,

...okay, maybe not. I'm probably not the first person to try this, but I figured it might be fun. Before I get into explaining my plan I should say that I have about five computers in my room (and parts for a few more - so sue me, I'm a geek - I like being able to choose what OS I want to use on a daily basis ). The computer I use for work (web development) is a 1.4ghz Athlon with a Radeon 8500, but I've got a terrible HSF on the cpu and it tends to overheat when I run games on it for any prolonged period of time. Anyway, my new HSF came in the mail yesterday and I can keep it running intensive programs for almost 24 hours straight with no heat issues... ...once I realized this, I knew what I had to do. For the next week I'm going to keep a BCM game running on it 24/7 (Yes! Screw work! BCM forever!) and try to survive the entire time. I'll run actual system-wide patrols while I'm doing work or playing something on another computer, taking over the helm when a serious situation comes up. During repairs I can come back onto this computer and feed my BCM Forum addictions. Yes... for the next week I will live the game! Muahahahaha! I'll keep you all posted on how it goes... Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any serious trauma or depression brought on by the above glimpse into my pathetic life.

Oh! Oh! My turn! First of all, sorry about not having these on a website yet. I'm just too lazy at the moment. I intend to put these into a narrated story eventually on a site that actually has a nice layout, but for now I'll just let you take a look. Note: These ARE NOT thumbnails so they're rather large (about 150kb each). I run in 1024x768, but I shrunk these down to 800x600 for smaller file size and then converted to jpeg. Kill Resnig - Hmm, think I'm a good enough shot to take just Resnig out? Victory! - Took me a while to get this shot, but I like it. This is sort of my victory claim after taking out a station... Noo! Run away! Run awwaaay! - This is during my assault on the station. Took a wrong turn and turrets started pounding me. Yeah, and that's for shooting at me! - Muahahahahaha! Die, station! Die! Muahahahahahaha! And finally... I was only going to post one of these, but I couldn't decide which one looked better. Both of these are seperate fighters, both ended up quite dead. That's what happens when you mess with me. That's right. Uh huh, yep. Gonna die - Lucky little b*stard only had to feel the pain from one of my turrets. Gonna die a whole lot - Muahahahahahahaha! Stupid fighter! Buahaha! EDIT: I have a few more cool ones, but I'm not going to bother posting them here. Tommorow I'm going to set up a "Stories of Battlecruiser Millennium" mini-site on my server and set up a graphical narrated story of Sirus and the GCV-Vagrant (ship pictured in all the shots above). I haven't actively set up any of the situations in this game, I've just taken screenshots when something interesting happens. To be honest, so many amazing things happen in BCM every game is practically begging to have a story told about it. [ 12-10-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

quote:Originally posted by Schmendrick: Well i've tried to resist the urge to rant about RPG systems but I just cant. I absolutely despise 90% of the RPG systems out there. Most notably AD&D. The main problem with them is the basic hit point system. It just doesn't make sense. I don't care how big and bad you think you are, if I smack you with a 5 foot slab of sharpened steel, your ass is going down. Now the standard rebuttal to this is that hit points are just an abstraction reflecting both the health of the character and that characters ability to avoid damage. But this breaks down when you apply it to damage received from non-combat related happenings, e.g. A boulder rolling down a hallway squashing anybody in it's path. The level 1 character is nothing but a greasy smear on said boulder. The level 30 character however (apparently due to his extensive experience in boulder collision) is merely scratched. He dusts himself off and proceeds to single handedly beat the hell of 3 or 4 dozen orcs. That much I can agree with you on. Hit points are kind of odd - but they fit the "feel" of D&D. It's not a realistic game. Characters get smacked around like crazy, do insane heroic things, and still come out on top. That's what makes the game fun. Don't look down at hit points across the board, though. Check out Alternity for an example of how they can be used in a fairly gritty, realistic game. One of my favorite systems was the D6/Original Star Wars RPG system. I loved the way everything was done in it, especially combat. The damage system was great. Your character had an endurance which could only be improved through extensive training (ie, loads of character points) and you rolled that against damage to determine how badly you were injured. No skill points were used, instead you just rolled to find out the actual EFFECT of the damage (stunned, wounded, severely wounded, incapacitated, etc. - an extremely advanced character could easily be killed with a single hit). Also, sorry about jumping at you in my last post. It just pisses me off to some degree when gamers look down on other gamers. quote:I remember playing old CRPGs like The Bards Tale and Wizardry and thinking to myself "Wow, this is cool, but imagine what they'll be able to do 5 or 10 years from now!". The really disappointing thing is that they aren't doing anything now than they were back then. We've all got computers that can process an absolutely obscene amount of data in the blink of an eye, and all that games use it for is making prettier pictures. Nearly every CRPG out there still uses the same lame roll to hit, roll to damage, subtract damage from hit points, rinse, repeat combat system developed 30ish years ago so that drunken college students wouldn't get confused by having too many numbers written on their character sheets. Personally, I think Pencil & Paper RPGs just don't belong on computers or console systems period. PnP RPGs are great to play around a table with friends when you're actually rolling the dice, consuming insane amounts of junk food, and actually interacting... but when you're playing a computer game the game should try to simulate reality (or some fictional version of it in lane with the game's settings) as closely as possible. There's no reason for hit points when you can model the actual effects of a sword blow on a character without needing the player to look up loads of charts and such. The problem with CRPGs is that they try to capture that "tabletop feel" and they just can't do it. [ 12-10-2001: Message edited by: Simparadox ]

quote:Originally posted by dnoyeB!: Towing a ship depends on its weight is unrealistic in what respect? Sure, the acceleration should be affected and pulling one off the planet should be affected, but dragging one through space should not be affected by its weight. Only the acceleration should be affected, but not the top speed. Of course its less stable if you try to sidestep an asteroid with a massive ship in tow during warp I assume with a valid plotted course thats not an issie. The engine should only use fuel during acceleration or deceleration anyway. Once it reacehs speed, you should be able to switch it off and cruise. I assume that logic is handled by the computer. I hope It doesent burn fuel during normal travel though. [ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: dnoyeB! ] Except that BCM doesn't use a real-world Newtonian physics model!. Realistically, there should be no top speed (up until just under lightspeed) for ANY ship in the game, but there is. So if towing is going to be moved into the more "realistic" direction then the mass (not weight, big difference) obviously has to be a factor. And since the shuttle already has a top speed, that should be lowered as well.

quote:Originally posted by JaxFox: There does seem to be alot of power gamers out and about right now. I agree it's not really not there fault since most do not have a experienced gamer to guide them in the ways of good roleplaying Of course games like Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition does not help matters, heh give me 2nd edition any day Who remembers what THAC0 stands for and how is it calculated? Ahh... must... resist... oh, god... screw it, gotta say it: I love AD&D 2nd Edition. I played 1st Edition. But how can you possibly say that the third edition rules are more Munchkin-esque than earlier editions? They have a few loopholes, but the system itself is definetly less focused on combat and power gaming. Ah, well. No biggie, D&D isn't even my preferred system. I miss Alternity (Dark*Matter has to be my favorite rpg setting of all time) .

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: In a future patch update, I will implement code which has stations launch a pair of escorts for non-hostile careers. I also plan on implementing the ability to emit an SOS transponder so that a station can answer your distress call and send in re-inforcements. This is in my XP1 wish list, but I'll probably include it in a BCM patch. I realize that non-hostile castes are having a hard time out there. But until I come up with this and other solutions, stick close to your stations and ensure that you are no more than 1 or 2 jumps away from safety. And if you want to mine and roam around freely, go to the sub-regions of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. You'll have the entire regions to yourself. [ 12-10-2001: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ] Awesome. That's definetly been my second biggest complaint so far, so it'd be great to see the friendly castes get a bit more help. Man, and as if the game wasn't great enough already.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: I agree. SC, did you read the user comments by Darkvader and Hamblin? You might want to check them out - funny stuff.

quote:Originally posted by Gamaliel: Those are pretty pictures, Barron. Well...except for the last one, LOL. I think I will keep a safe distance from Valkerie space from now on. And to think that the game reviewers say that this game doesn't have good graphics. I guess they need to play the game longer and see more of the universe. Gamaliel out. Yeah, I've gotta agree. When I first saw the graphics I wasn't incredibly impressed with them, but I think it has a lot to do with the expansiveness of the universe. There's a lot of emptiness out there and I think (when you first start playing) it dulls how good what is there looks. The ships look great and the scale is just so incredibly cool. I love looking at a (very nicely detailed) fighter, zooming out until it becomes a tiny speck to see (an also very nicely textured) my battlecruiser, and then zooming out even more to get a look at a space station. Honestly, I'd say planets and planet-side graphics are probably the weakest part of the engine. But no complaints there, just being able to go down to the planets is such a great feature that I could almost forgive any little problems with it.