Topic: Why there will never be an SFC4 (Read 20535 times)

Age · « **Reply #160 on:** June 15, 2004, 12:32:27 pm »

I was thinking on how to attract more people to this game and aiming at the under 30 group of the population of any country.It may not sell well with pureist like your self but I was thinking on the hole of the gamers out there and those that aren't even on this forum.How could this game be mass market to them.Star Trek Elit Force is an example of this 1 and 2 it is very popular amonst the gaming community and it did well made by Activision to.I am not sure what the answer is to get more people into SFC.What I would like to see is a bigger market for SFC games other than those who play it in this forum.

J. Carney · « **Reply #161 on:** June 15, 2004, 01:27:02 pm »

Age...

Elite Force is just one of a myriad of so-so FPS games out there- it is a copy of a copy of a copy of all the other FPS games out there and is only popular because it is familiar and requires only the intelegence necessary to 'point and click' to play. SFC is totally different- it is supposed to be complicated, afte rall you are running an entire starship.

Don't get me wrong... I've been playing Activision games since Pitfall came out for the Atari 2600. By and large they make good product. I just don't like the way that they 'dumbed-down' SFC to make SFC3 easier to play and I do not like the way that they turned it into a 'movie game' for Nemisis instead ofkeeping it like SFB and putting the Ferengi, Cardassians and Dominion in it. Then you could have had all the weapons that the Cardies and Dominion had in Dominion Wars and fighters and some greater weapons diversity to boot.

Imagine how good a game it would have been if they had included all these things.

DH123 · « **Reply #162 on:** June 15, 2004, 01:31:16 pm »

Quote:

for those who are hard -core sfbers, sfb on line is your dream.

if i were you guys, i would lobby starfleet games to advance that product. i think you have a much better chance. that is not meant disrespectfully, but out of fact.

I like real-time, i honestly don't think I could play this turn-based anymore. Haven't actually played SFB in 9 years though the books make great reading and the SSD are cool Trek porn.

But Nanner is right. With all the legal BS going on with the Trek franchise, we are more likely to see a "real-time" SFB PC game than an SFC4.

The best hope for SFB gamers is that the Trek franchise becomes so devalued by B&B's bungling that Paramount gives up resisting ADB and let's them expand into host-based computer products.

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #163 on:** June 15, 2004, 01:51:04 pm »

What I would like to see is ADB license the rules to Taldren and the two (with fan input) create a non Star Trek spaceship simulation.

Change all the terminology away from Trek. Phasers become lasers, Disruptors can be particle cannons. Missiles can stay missiles as the term is generic. Warp engines becomes the fusion or antimatter engines. Impulse drive (not engines) becomes gravity drive. To make it more interresting you should not have to maintain your motion just pay energy costs to change it. Warp drive becomes hyper drive and is used to jump from system to system. All battles are at sublight speeds.

It would still be based on SFB but also be a unique product all its own.

Depending on the web of contracts ADB may not be able to license the rules for a non-Trek game without Paramounts permission, but I can dream.

Age · « **Reply #166 on:** June 15, 2004, 04:39:57 pm »

I find SFC3 a Little harder now than out of the box version with the build 531 now patch up.I find the Romulans are more scarier at close range than before much like SFC2.I find disrupute where you lose points if your ship is destroyed a lot more difficult.I will agree it would have been nice to see more races like the Cardiassons,Dominion,Breen,Ferengi and Rekellions all playable.I think if Activision had released it after the movie came out well after the new year.They would have had a better indicator as how to release the game.They could of had all these improvements done but yet again another publisher in a hurry for release lets the SFC gaming community to fix up the product for them by adding the mods to them.They don't heed the advice of this company don't they I guess this company can say we told you so.

AngryAndroid · « **Reply #167 on:** June 15, 2004, 04:51:03 pm »

Read some of the thread, not going to do it all (bloody tired).

I read a few interesting things though, at the start, someone said how great chess was because of how mathematicaly it allowed you to basicaly derive so many variations. I instantly thought of SFC3 then, simply because of how customizable it was and what the modders have run with. Each ship can be tuned and tweaked, flown vastly differently. The variety of battles I've had with SFC3 and the varying tactics used has been great. For the better players, they too have a huge amount of variety, somewhat like the chess analogy.

I've never played SFC2, but did 1 and 3. So honestly, I can't run it down one way or another (not that I'd like to). But SFC3 did keep me comming back for a long time, and I'm as much a fan of games like MOO as I am of UT. So eh, I find criticsm of SFC3 to be just in only a few cases, but sometimes people just seem to run it down because its not SFB.

I reckon there are enough tallented folk in the SFB community and ST community, to develop a PC game of SFB. It'd be great to see that side of the player base go and make what they really want, rather than wait around forever for a developer to never quite make it. Then maybe they could stop hating SFC3 for not being their perfect game, when really, its simply not as bad as they sometimes make out.

SFC4 would be great, but a huge rethink on past mistakes would be needed. But with a dwindeling ST fan base, what publisher is going to take that risk and looking at these forums, what developer would either?

J. Carney · « **Reply #168 on:** June 15, 2004, 05:01:56 pm »

The Trek fanbase isn't shrinking... what's happening is that people are having a backlash agianst B&B [bleep]ing it up so bad.

People who like TOS still watch it; people who like TNG still watch it; people whoo like DS9 or Voyager still watch those.

Even the people who think (through the evil influence of Satan himself) the Enterpries is still good are still watching it.

People are not falling away from Star Trek, just the people that are writing it right now.

3dot14 · « **Reply #169 on:** June 15, 2004, 09:06:44 pm »

I am not nearly as ambitious as MaxPower.

For me, OP with:
*Electronic warfare/Scout functions (I don't even want the SWAC, ECM drone etc., just make Scouts work.)
*Plasma Bolt
*More detailed Fleet Control. (the SFC2 interface is good, but missing some of the orders that are possible in SFC1 and 3)
*(and Andro + Tholians of course)
is enough.

I haven't played online for a long time. (Time constraints + firewall), but OP against Computer is still fun.

As Nanner said, 2 and 3 are different, each have the ups and downs.
But, they should not have been lumped together as sequels. That is my one primary gripe. I would've cheered on SFC3 as a spin off of the series.
(The failures of such mid-series conversions are much more numerous than successes. In fact only success I can think of is Warcraft3. But that is Blizzard, an extraordinary case...)

I personally prefer SFC2OP/SFB because of 1.) the wonderful backstory. Trek TNG (based on TV and movie) are simply to wishy-washy to make a solid background out of. 2.) SFB is done in a "impartial" way. Each race is given about the same amount of chance to win. (No preferential treatment for anyone because they are "the good guys". For the Most part.) So I would rather see SFB made as a computer game than I do TNG.

This is interesting, there hasn't been an outburst like this since... well the last outburst about SFC3.

Merlinfmct87 · « **Reply #170 on:** June 15, 2004, 10:19:07 pm »

IMHO?

Taldren can't seem to find a decent publisher since Interplay. They either want to dumb it down or change it somehow or other. I think it would be better if they opened up the weapons/systems to modders, so we could PUT IN scout channels, PA panels, Webs, Plasma Bolts, etc.Ii think Modder's could do a better job simply because they don't have to fight the publisher's who are screaming TOO MUCH EFFORT IT WON'T SELL yada yada yada.

And if your worried about Modder's making cheese ships... Just take a look at FireSoul's wonderful work. Talk about sticking to the core...BRAVO FIRESOUL!!!

Now if Taldren finds the ideal publisher, I'd be thrilled to pieces, which raises the question of how I'd play it...

ANYHOW, that's my pipe dream.

And I'll take every one off of that list your running, thank you. Aren't I modest?

Age · « **Reply #171 on:** June 15, 2004, 10:56:29 pm »

They can always do it themselves publish it.

Crimmy · « **Reply #172 on:** June 16, 2004, 12:06:23 am »

Actually...one of Erik's pet Ideas is to sell a game via Download....it would slash production costs, but it also means no game on a shelf at your local store for gift or impulse buys.....

question is....would the lower production costs offset the lower potential revenues?

Dunno....but if you figure ALOT of modern gamers are also net-o-philes...getting word out about a new game might not be so hard...

Merlinfmct87 · « **Reply #173 on:** June 16, 2004, 12:24:41 am »

That would be cool.

No, that would be VERY cool.

Merlin

Bonk · « **Reply #175 on:** June 16, 2004, 05:52:38 am »

As long as it is available WITHOUT a credit card... like mailing in a money order to get a licence number or something... and also must not contain any nasties like Cdilla....

E_Look · « **Reply #176 on:** June 16, 2004, 11:16:05 am »

What is Cdilla, Bonk?

Merlinfmct87 · « **Reply #177 on:** June 16, 2004, 02:33:54 pm »

I thought this sounded familiar...There is another game called Siege of Avalon that was sold online initially as a download, then they released an "Anthology" edition in the stores that incorperated all the chapters and fixes(well, most of them, there is still a patch you need to download).

The game is excellent and AFAIK it sold rather well.

So there IS prescenence for this type of game selling. After all, SFBOL is an online-only product. It is not sold in stores.

Take care, and get coding!

Merlin

The_Infiltrator · « **Reply #178 on:** June 16, 2004, 06:23:31 pm »

Internet releases aren't a problem. There are several excellent and outstanding games that have been done in this format, including these.

Merlinfmct87 · « **Reply #179 on:** June 16, 2004, 10:15:36 pm »

Keep those links coming, that site looks rather good...

Merlin

News:

Topic: Why there will never be an SFC4 (Read 20535 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Age

J. Carney

DH123

IKV Nemesis D7L

EmeraldEdge

Karnak

Age

AngryAndroid

J. Carney

3dot14

Merlinfmct87

Age

Crimmy

Merlinfmct87

Rod O'neal

Bonk

E_Look

Merlinfmct87

The_Infiltrator

Merlinfmct87

Topic: Why there will never be an SFC4 (Read 20535 times)