I really like this concept and will definately ggive this game a try, but personally 'cause I can't speak for everyone else, but I would like a Star Trek game with everything . ALL the weapons, ALL the ships, ALL and I do mean ALL the races. The ability to have a couple of hundred years to start with ENT(pre TOS),TOS,TMP,TNG and beyond. We all talk about what we'd do IF the source code was ever released and now here's Kenjar, creating a brand new game from scratch and from what he's stated so far,it would seem he would have the capability to accomplish most of what we've all wanted.
I went to your site Kenjar and read that news blurb of yours, and I agree, to an extent about gaming purists. So I ask ya why limit your concept to just smugglers ? Pretty much as I think about this (and please there is no offence meant) I'm looking at this as Han Solo in the Trek world. By all means keep the ability to CHOOSE to be a smuggler, but also incoporate the ability to play all the races. So say hypothetically you and I are playing on-line. You're a smuggler trying to reach Fed space and I'm playing a Fed starship on patrol along the border. Then instead of AI scenarios that ya spoke of, I have to stop you, I have to arrest you etc. But you make a run for the neutral zone, I in my stupidity violate the neutral zone to catch you, but lo and behold, here comes (again for example) Sandman in his Klingon D-7 and here I am pants down in my lil border cutter, your off and running and I'm in the S***er. Now to me that would be REALLY interesting. Or ya jump through the wormhole near DS9 and someone pursues in a runabout and low and behold on the other side you come face to face with the Dominion's polaron beam up close and personal. 
Ok I'll hush up now. Like I said I really am looking forward to trying your game, but if ya can put everything into this game that ya want, why stop at just smugglers ?
I agree completely, that would be an ideal situation. But what you are talking about there is an MMORPG, they require servers to be paid for, supported and maintained. I don't plan to spend more then 3 years on this project so I sad down and asked myself "What can I actually achive?". It might just be another AI controlled universe but at least you dno't have to pay a monthly fee just to play it. There will be a multiplayer part to the game, but I've only planned to be what Bridge Commander should have been because it's only combat was very simple. I hope to match that, with all of nanoFX's enhancements and all the advantages of a DX9 graphics engine.
But that's not all, I spend almost 4 hour today reorganising the code so that if, for some reason I found myself in a position where I could not continue, someone else would be able to pick up where I left off. I've added a section for plugin's as well. Now these will nto work in the same way as BC, you will need the source code, but all you'll need to do is type in your little addion as another subroutine then under "Init_Game" just type in Gosub xxxxxx_plugin, you can disable exsisting subroutines simply by typing rem before the gosub command. I could have started this project over six months ago, but I've been researching languages. C+ is frankly expensive and a bloody pain in the ass, the same is true for Java 2 except for the expensive bit, and delphi as well as visual C, or basic really are not that easy for an every day person to use. On the other hand I did like the idea of using a BASIC programming language. It is easy to learn with real language words like "Print" and "Goto" plus BASIC has been around since before the Atari 200 so plenty of people have heard of it or debt with it. I personally learned on a BBC Master. DarkBASIC takes this common sense language to the next level with commands like
load object "starship.3ds",1 to create a starship on screen complete with textures, bump mapping and light maps. And with futher commands like "position object 1,x,y,z" it really is an easy language to use and dirt cheap at £40 pounds for the download version. So while at the moment I might be designing it to be a han solo smuggler type of game, though I personally like to think I am basing it more on the Elite Frontier and X series games, once I've finished someone else will be able to add what they like with most of the foundations already laid.
Also, the idea behind my game is to present another point of view other then starfleet. All we've ever had is the well off human perspective. It is all very well pichard preaching from the bridge of the federations flagship but what about the marqies? Or the people living on the edge of federation space being killed off by unknown aliens and stange space phanomina. It is about as far from the idealistic earth that startrek preaches to us all the time. The frontier of federation space seems more like a 3rd world country then the dream that is force fed by Pichard and Kirk.
Of cause you don't have to smuggle, the real idea about smuggling is an excuse to cross into other empires space, after all in the StarTrek films they are always going on about how illegal romulan ale is, yet they seem to have enough to keep any klingon deligates happy don't they? Someone has to be smuggling the stuff don't they? But as I say, the choice is yours, the only choice I don't present to you is the joining of starfleet. Though I do hope to have people running missions for them.
The other aspect I hope to include is that of hiring crew. In starfleet crew is assigned or you have a large constant pools of officers and crew mates to get, it prob isn't the same for civilian traffic, didn't they say in Enterprise that all the cargo haulling people where leaving to join starfleet? I want to include things like reputation points as well, for instance, if whenever you get in a fire fight you end up loosing half your crew then your reputaion is going to take a hit and people are not going to want to join your crew, but if you manage to keep your entire crew alive in most fights or only loose a few then your reputation will be higher. I want to add things like if you buy internal upgrades like secuity fields to keep your crew safer from boarding and hull breaches then your crew will be more likely to stay alive. I want to add things like having the option to make your secuity fields leathal (on contact and bouncing weapon fire back at the originator (which is against federation law)) then you will suffer less losses due to boarding but will run the risk of starfleet finding out and fining you.
I know money is techniqelly no longer in effect in the federation, but the producers of star trek have never managed to clarify what actually replaces it. Civilian captains must obtain their transports somehow. Also how does trade take place between the different empires? So the only logical thing I can do is create some kind of currancy. Unless someone else can come up with a system of cause I am open to ideas.
So basically, I am making this because I am sick of the one sided story that star trek always gives us. You will have a choice, will you always do the moral thing? Or will you act like a friengi? Will you smuggle goods between the empires or put in an honest days work? Will you spend lots of money looking after your people, and making them happy or constantly upgrade your weapons, shields and warp drive reguardless of their well being? This will be a game that reflects your personalilty, I can't and won't tell you how to do so, I just want to lay the options in front of you, and later on, another modder can come along and put his or her options in front of you. All I am giving you is my view of life after first contact, when the code is released, you can come and give your own.
leathal secuirty fields
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Topic: Star Trek: Trader new game project (Read 12850 times)