Thomas Braun

Just wanted to say: Graphics will always fail without gameplay. If the game sucks, only a fool would keep playing to watch the pretty graphics. The oldest game I still play is MOO (Masters of Orion 1). It's and old DOS game and it uses XMS so it's a pain to get working with Windows. But it has such open gameplay (you had to take over the galaxy) that I still play it. I also have MOO2. I have a copy of BC3k, but when I got it (when I was maybe 12) I couldn't play it (it was too confusing for my simple mind). Now, BCM is here, its awesome, and I think it will outlast most other games simply beacause of how in depth and open it is. And besides, the graphics are pretty darn good too! And this is compared to FPS games. Just turn up the Resolution!

First, I want to say that I love BCM and that there is probably no game out there that compares with the concept and scope of BCM. But, I was reading through the BCO stuff, and noticed a lot about "crappy" Newtonian physics. There is only 1 game that I have ever seen Newtonian physics done right in, Terminus. It offered thrust capabilities for all directions, infinite acceleration (up to the point were it would tear your ship (always a fighter) apart). Just saying there are some (at least 1) good Newtonian physics engines out there, even though the game wasn't great at all. But, my question is what is the concept (or operating theory) behind the SC's aparently inertialess physics (except on impact). Is it like the Inertialess Drive from 3001 (in the same series with 2001 and 2010), or is there no concept behind it and we're just to take it on faith that it works. [ 01-27-2002: Message edited by: T-WOPR ]

quote: Its all about the ecosystem. You gotta have balance or else things get all weird. If you dont keep their numbers in check, the ecosystem will be overwhelmed and bad things will happen. Ha Ha. Thanks for the comparison. I think I can handle that.

After I was playing for a while, I noticed that the Galaxy slowly becomes increasingly crowded. Is there some kind of "Lemming" AI, for example all hell breaking loose on the Credian - Gammulan border, or will new ships be generated until the point where it overwhelms my computer and I have to start over. Just curious especially since the manual describes at length how ships are created several jumps from where other certain ships are created. It sounds like this could start a domino type effect that would eventually overwhelm the Galaxy.

In fact, only minutes ago my AE was killed after one level 30 Raider assualted the bridge and took out 3 level 15, 17, 18 marines. While this was happening, 3 of his buddies stole both the shuttles, not that it really mattered anyway. The AI in BCM is awesome!

Yeah, the AI scares me.

Hey there Venomous I too have tried to save real life so that I could get extra sleep. It didn't work for me either.

All fixed now.

Stupid of me to incorrectly write an incorrectly written quote. . .

wow. That's pretty cool. Never really thought about it that way.

Nope everthing was fine. As soon as I started to move my CC they loaded up. Really strange. I also think a Storm Carrier has been following me around (can they cloak?) b/c sometimes my scanner picks up a red blip and I get just enough time to read "Storm Carrier" and then its gone. It happens all the time. In another situation I had a group of AI 20+ intruders (3) come straight for the bridge and go after my AE. Nothing else took damage. Just me. I thought that was weird too. Normally they try to steal stuff (or at least shoot back at the marines).

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! That crazy stuff again. I have a friend who tries to do his JAVA code in Leet. It doesn't work for obvious reasons.

Oh. . . I see, sorry. The SC will probably delete the thread then. But there's other stuff too that isn't documented. Like SC's flying circles around the CC after they've been ordered back to base. (I hope that's not in the VC too (I didn't see it)).

I usually play Terran Military but decided this morning that I would try commercial. After a short time a noticed 2 other commercial ships set to Escort me. They never did anything, just followed me around wherever I went. Anybody know why they do this? Does anybody else wonder about some of the weird stuff the AI does?

Sorry SC, I missed the other thread about this. I didn't know there was anything wrong with 2181 drivers but I'll go back for an older version (or newer?). And Comcast hasn't given anyone new email accounts yet (kind of imagine they won't) and I haven't had a chance to try hotmail or anything but I'll do that too. Thnx

. . .when you never sleep or go off duty because your FF always reads N/A. . . . . .when you sit around for a day watching the perscan to make sure your crew members really eat 3 meals a day. . . . . .when you make assumptions on your crews' social lives based on who they eat with in the galley. . . . . .when you wish there were a way to get inflight movies on your Storm Carrier. . . . . .when you jog around your Storm Carrier for exercise. . . . . .when you start beeming low AI marines onto hostile planets so you can get better ones. . . . . .when you finally forget to turn off the Launch control when you're invaded. . . . . .when you fall asleep at the keyboard and see a time several hours into the future and think you have found the secret time compression key ---All fun stuff and some of it is really worth trying while you're waiting for your miners to fill up.

I'm using the newest patch for BCM (1.0.04 RC1) and I was just wondering if a couple of strange things are wrong or if I am just a complete fool: A.) Jupiter's moons sometimes become clear. They DO NOT dissapear. I've already read why this happens. They become translucent grey disks when viewed directly. B.) BCM seems to crash a lot. I'm sure the amount of processing going on is sheerly monumental but it is sometimes frustrating for me to need to restart my computer every hour or so. I was just wondering what the deal is.

Hmm. . . I tried that near Mercury and before I made the jump back to Earth the stupid thing repaired itself enough and blasted me with my shields down. No wonder I haven't made Strategic Commander yet.

As far as I know, you can't communicate with any other ships or stations. If anyone knows how, it would be nice if they would post here.

So nobody else has tried that yet? Wasn't anyone else curious about what it did?

Yeah, I just wanted to see what it would look like and what kind of response I would get here. Now I know both.

I blew Earth up with a R.A.N.D.O.M. It still looks the same from space but from close up it's ugly. All of the cities and bases are gone and the terrain is ugly and black, all of the oceans seem to have dried up too. Problem is I dont have any web space to put the pics on. . .