Topic: Starfleet Command : Commmunity Edition HAS GONE GOLD!!!!

[FA Frey XC]

First of all, it's been a long time coming.I'm literally trembling when I type this, for forgive any typ-ohs! Honestly thought, there so much that I want to say right now, the first thing I have to say is this:

Dynaverse.Net, in partnership with the Dynaverse Gaming Association and XenoCorp Inc. proudly present:



This was done for us, to be sure, but most of all, it was done for YOU.

For over eight years, volunteers at Dynaverse.net have toiled the midnight hours away working on a project that ultimately was a project borne out of love of a game made by people who have long ago moved onto other things. This project was given to us in trust and hopes that we could keep the torch alive for this community.

Yes, we know, there appear to not be many of us left. Appearances can be deceiving.

I am proud, so very proud, to announce that we have completed work on Starfleet Command : Community Edition. You will see a gold release here in the next week or two, once we get the art assets done and everything packaged.

All individuals who have previously purchased a copy of Starfleet Command: Empires at War will receive their free copy of Starfleet Command : Community Edition. We will have details on how to redeem your copy when the gold image goes live on the store. The price for Community Edition is NOT being raised, and will continue to sell at Empire at Wars price point in the D.Net store. We'll replace the EAW image with the SFC: CE image. The original will still be available for download if you really really want it

SFHQ and Strat are working on getting the Forge ready for our debute of the Community Edition! We'll be hosting the communities first EAW campaign on the new version, and invite everyone to participate and join in! Spread the word!

I want to take the time to thank all of the people who have contributed to this endeavor - there are so many who have come and gone that I don't want to take any chances by missing someone in naming names - instead I'll just say that over the last eight years I've had the pleasure and honour of working with some of the best and brightest volunteers in the world, in my humble opinion.

Thank you, so much, for taking something I had dreamed and turning it into a reality.

What does this mean?

SFC 2:CE v2.6.6.0 Release Notes

SFC 2:CE Game Client v2.6.6.0
-Updated Code to Visual Studio 2012 from Visual C++ 6.0 (that means we went forward over 10 years on the programming of the game)
-Full Windows XP/Vista/7/8 Support
-Updated to DirectX 7 from DirectX 5,6 (allows compatibility with in game overlays in EvolveHQ)
-Fixed Old Error with fighters in Supply Dock
-Changed Multiplayer port to 27200 from 2600 - 2700
-Support for SFC 2:OP weapons arcs (these are for a ShipList hopefully incomming from FireSoul)
-Support more ships per class (these are for a ShipList hopefully incomming from FireSoul)
-HET and other ship actions are no longer based on a dice roll
-Better support for multi-core pcs (runs more stable)
-A bazillion under the hood changes, fixes, updates you will likely never know about

SFC 2:CE Serverkit v2.6.0.0
-Updated Code to Visual Studio 2012 from Visual C++ 6.0
-Full Windows XP/Vista/7/8 Support
-Better support for multi-core pcs (runs more stable)
-Fixes for various crashes, hangs.. Much more stable than it used to be
-MySQL still works
-A bazillion under the hood changes, fixes, updates you will likely never know about

SFC 2:CE Mission API v1.0
-Updated Code to Visual Studio 2012 from Visual C++ 6.0
-Compatible with Visual Studio 2012 Express with Update 1 (making missions is free)
-Added mSetFighters
-Source of over a hundred missions
-Complete API Source for Mission Scripters delight

I'm going to have to get everything else together to list the actual changes - so stay tuned for this info.

What else is new ?

We're preparing a lot of upgrades! I've already purchased some core server upgrades and we'll be ensuring the rest of the hardware refresh goes well!

Holy crap that's a lot going on!

What can we do ?

Just stay tuned

- Frey Petermeier
January 4th, 2013.

[apollo2935]

SSEEEEWWEEEEEEEEEET    cant wait man.

[Leermeister]

Awsome

[Vipre]

Congratulations to all involved and more importantly thank you for the years of effort..

[Sirgod]

 

[E_Look]

Having not been around here for mucho years, could someone fill me in as to what this is?  Is this like a release of... sort of... a *new* SFC??!

[SkyFlyer]

Frey stop teasing me I want my downloads already.

[Nemesis]

 

[Age]

Congratulations from Star Trek Gamers as we haven't always seen eye to eye with each other.We hope the best with this some ss and videos would be nice.

[Dash Jones]

Congratulations.  How does it work with Win 8?

[SkyFlyer]

Congratulations.  How does it work with Win 8?

From the sound of it it works fine?

"-Full Windows XP/Vista/7/8 Support"

[Dash Jones]

Congratulations.  How does it work with Win 8?

From the sound of it it works fine?

"-Full Windows XP/Vista/7/8 Support"

Good, Cause thus far I haven't been able to get the other SFC's to work with Win 8.  Hopefully this runs smooth.

[Strat]

Yeah, I spent a considerable amount of effort to bring things forward to Win Vista/7/8. For example, the DX changes, security compliance, memory changes, etc..

In testing it has been working ok so far.

[Rod ONeal]

3 Cheers! Congratulations to all involved.

[Dizzy]

Ya'll, seriously, STFU! Really? Wow! This is great news. I'm pretty excited.

Someone's gonna have to remind me how to captain a starship again... I think I've forgotten what button raises the shields and fires the weapons... hehe. No I havent.

[Tulwar]

   Huzzah!

[FireSoul]

Hi Guys,

I've been thinking about the need for a OP+ style shiplist mod for SFC:CE : we want a shiplist that is as error-free as possible and offer as much balance as possible.

Here's a basic plan (off the top of my head) to make it happen.

• I don't have SFC:CE myself. It will be a pre-requirement to be able to test anything.
• I would need to determine what weapons used in SFC:OP do not exist in SFC:CE and remove the extra ships. ie: the TRBH/TRBLs, PhX and other X weapons, ..
• Adjust the YearLastAvailable for all of the ships that had X refits in OP+ to be '999'
• Strip out the extra pirate races and have a good all-round basic pirate race.  (I think OP+ 4.1.x basic non-playable Orion pirate race will do just fine)
• Make a new installer for this.

I intend to create the shiplist PROGRAMATICALLY based on OP+ 4.1.1. This means I don't want to go do anything by hand if possible.

• Source in the OP+ shiplist into memory and parse it.  ( I already have this for my shiplist tests )
• Detect the components that do not exist in SFC:CE and remove them
• Adjust the YLA for the ships that have X refits in OP+
• Save result.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Weapons:
From the OP manual (not including the "easter eggs" of the TRBH/TRBL)
Phaser X
Phaser G2
Phaser A
Phaser B
Heavy Photon
Heavy Disrupter
ESG Lance
Plasma X
Plasma E
Drone V
Mauler

With the exception of the first weapon, and the last two, all of them only appear on "X2" ships.  The Phaser X can be replaced by Phaser 1, I don't see any way to replace the Drone V and the Mauler.

[FireSoul]

Weapons:
From the OP manual (not including the "easter eggs" of the TRBH/TRBL)
Phaser X
Phaser G2
Phaser A
Phaser B
Heavy Photon
Heavy Disrupter
ESG Lance
Plasma X
Plasma E
Drone V
Mauler

With the exception of the first weapon, and the last two, all of them only appear on "X2" ships.  The Phaser X can be replaced by Phaser 1, I don't see any way to replace the Drone V and the Mauler.

The PhaserX can be replaced by Ph1, but there would have to be a BPV decrease. :-/ For now, let's just remove the X ships.

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Ya'll, seriously, STFU! Really? Wow! This is great news. I'm pretty excited.

Someone's gonna have to remind me how to captain a starship again... I think I've forgotten what button raises the shields and fires the weapons... hehe. No I havent.

You can't forget what you never knew Dizzy.   

[Javora]

The PhaserX can be replaced by Ph1, but there would have to be a BPV decrease. :-/ For now, let's just remove the X ships.

I'm glad to see the X-Ships go away.  That was the one thing that I didn't like about SFC OP.  However I'm still hoping for a F-FFL+, hint, hint...
 

[FireSoul]

The PhaserX can be replaced by Ph1, but there would have to be a BPV decrease. :-/ For now, let's just remove the X ships.

I'm glad to see the X-Ships go away.  That was the one thing that I didn't like about SFC OP.  However I'm still hoping for a F-FFL+, hint, hint...
 

Then you haven't played a balanced game with my X-Ships  (not Taldren's inventions) VS an Andro fleet.

[Dizzy]

The PhaserX can be replaced by Ph1, but there would have to be a BPV decrease. :-/ For now, let's just remove the X ships.

I'm glad to see the X-Ships go away.  That was the one thing that I didn't like about SFC OP.  However I'm still hoping for a F-FFL+, hint, hint...
 

Then you haven't played a balanced game with my X-Ships  (not Taldren's inventions) VS an Andro fleet.

prolly also never played a late era slave girls server with me and dh123's xships.

[Javora]

I remember playing on your server Dizzy.  I just got board with X-ships and would wait until the server reset.  It was just personal preferences, nothing personal.

[Dizzy]

That's fine. Just dont confuse Firesouls xships or mine for that matter with the Taldren made non-sfb based cheese monsters that they arbitrarily decided to throw in the game to unbalance everything.

[Dizzy]

Hi Guys,

I've been thinking about the need for a OP+ style shiplist mod for SFC:CE : we want a shiplist that is as error-free as possible and offer as much balance as possible.

Here's a basic plan (off the top of my head) to make it happen.

• I don't have SFC:CE myself. It will be a pre-requirement to be able to test anything.
• I would need to determine what weapons used in SFC:OP do not exist in SFC:CE and remove the extra ships. ie: the TRBH/TRBLs, PhX and other X weapons, ..
• Adjust the YearLastAvailable for all of the ships that had X refits in OP+ to be '999'
• Strip out the extra pirate races and have a good all-round basic pirate race.  (I think OP+ 4.1.x basic non-playable Orion pirate race will do just fine)
• Make a new installer for this.

I intend to create the shiplist PROGRAMATICALLY based on OP+ 4.1.1. This means I don't want to go do anything by hand if possible.

• Source in the OP+ shiplist into memory and parse it.  ( I already have this for my shiplist tests )
• Detect the components that do not exist in SFC:CE and remove them
• Adjust the YLA for the ships that have X refits in OP+
• Save result.

I'd love to see an FS shiplist for SFC CE. Thanks FS! I couldnt imagine playing online without it.

So what would it take to add Xphasers to SFC CE? I'd rather see about adding Plasma Bolts 1st and having a toggle for single/double internals.

Oh, and FS... anyway you can limit spares parts by class? FF's 5, DD's to CA's 10 and larger ships like BCH's and DN's 15 with BB's at 20. Or something like that...

[Javora]

Oh, and FS... anyway you can limit spares parts by class? FF's 5, DD's to CA's 10 and larger ships like BCH's and DN's 15 with BB's at 20. Or something like that...

The thing I don't like about that is everyone would be racing to get the BB's and not bothering to play anything else for very long.  A game like that would quickly become one dimensional and boring.  People in FF would probably leave the mission after one or two Alpha strikes.  And how much space does a magical screw take up anyway??  lol.
 

[Dizzy]

If you played under another name what was it? I have the DB files and account names for almost all my servers. I can tell you how many missions you ran and how much prestige you earned and what ship(s) you were flying. Javora, I dont think you spent any real time on any of my servers. Thats pretty sad because they were PvP oriented. Of course hex flippers relished doing their thing, but I always tried placing more emphasis on PvP engagements to balance out how the game was tilted toward hex flippers. Anyway, had you spent any real time on my server you'd know that there were house rules requiring people to limit the number and type of ships on my servers so that they would not turn into BB fests. None of my servers ever had that issue. I had total control over player accounts and could edit someones prestige to zero and place them in a freighter deep in enemy space should they not follow the rules.  In 9+ servers I was forced to only have to do that once, although I think I did it three or four times just for fun and maybe Hexx got it more than once and never deserved it, hehe.

And the screws on a ship not taking up space? Thats been debated. A FF with 10 spares is carrying around 3 extra warp engine nacelles in the cargo bay. Does that sound realistic?

[FPF-DieHard]

Dizzy -  you can control spares on the server-side shiplist.

And yes, the X-ships we used in SGO were awesome.  Just dump the PHx for PH1 like we did.

No maulers though . . . that sucks.

[Javora]

And the screws on a ship not taking up space? Thats been debated. A FF with 10 spares is carrying around 3 extra warp engine nacelles in the cargo bay. Does that sound realistic?

Not any more realistic than those spare parts being used to repair anything and everything.  Than again it's hard for me to debate realism in regards to a Star Trek game.  The other end of this issue is that hex flippers will have an easier time flipping because mission times will be greatly reduced with the loss of repair screws.  Imagine what would happen if you have a FF flipping hexes at two or three times as fast as a BB?  This is one issue that I think Erik Bethke got right.

[FPF-DieHard]

And the screws on a ship not taking up space? Thats been debated. A FF with 10 spares is carrying around 3 extra warp engine nacelles in the cargo bay. Does that sound realistic?

Not any more realistic than those spare parts being used to repair anything and everything.  Than again it's hard for me to debate realism in regards to a Star Trek game.  The other end of this issue is that hex flippers will have an easier time flipping because mission times will be greatly reduced with the loss of repair screws.  Imagine what would happen if you have a FF flipping hexes at two or three times as fast as a BB?  This is one issue that I think Erik Bethke got right.

Did you even play the game?  What you're saying makes no sense.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

I don't get it either. 

[Corbomite]

 

What about fighters and PF's for all races? Was the jamming on the ISC I-Torps fixed?

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

I don't think that was reported. Not that many people picked up the beta testing offer from what I saw. I flew Mostly Fed with some Romulan during testing. Saw a bit of ISC AI, a lot of Rom and Klink AI.

[Corbomite]

Mirak UI bug (something to do with transporters IIRC)? PPD bug? Cloak working like OP? Planetary defenses FA fixed?

If this version just managed to get a very old game playable in today's environment that's fine and good, but there were many other problems with EAW that got addressed in OP and it would be nice to know if this is still a work in progress or are they done.

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

Mirak UI bug (something to do with transporters IIRC)? PPD bug? Cloak working like OP? Planetary defenses FA fixed?

There have been a lot of 'old' bug fixes, I personally don't have a list of all of them but while it certainly may not be every bug squashed given how many there were, a lot of fixes sure have been done beyond Windows 7/8 support.

[Corbomite]

There have been a lot of 'old' bug fixes, I personally don't have a list of all of them but while it certainly may not be every bug squashed given how many there were, a lot of fixes sure have been done beyond Windows 7/8 support.

That is good to hear. Is the code open to more fixes/enhancements or are you guys done?

[Javora]

Did you even play the game?  What you're saying makes no sense.

Yep, mostly OP.  My line of thinking here is that the AI ships will have the same amount of repair screws as people playing.  With so few repair screws, the mission times for smaller ships will decrease to a point to where someone in a small ship could flip a hex in half the time as someone with a large ship with 20+ repair screws.  As people fighting large AI ships would take longer to deplete the AI's repair supply.  That's assuming that the AI will even repair their ship, I've seen quite a few missions where the AI wouldn't repair anything and I would end up beaming over a bunch of repair screws before capturing a ship.  But that was way back during the old Interplay servers.

[FPF-DieHard]

Did you even play the game?  What you're saying makes no sense.

Yep, mostly OP.  My line of thinking here is that the AI ships will have the same amount of repair screws as people playing.  With so few repair screws, the mission times for smaller ships will decrease to a point to where someone in a small ship could flip a hex in half the time as someone with a large ship with 20+ repair screws.  As people fighting large AI ships would take longer to deplete the AI's repair supply.  That's assuming that the AI will even repair their ship, I've seen quite a few missions where the AI wouldn't repair anything and I would end up beaming over a bunch of repair screws before capturing a ship.  But that was way back during the old Interplay servers.

A zillion % not important.  AI dies so fast it doesn't matter.   

PvP mattered and back when people were able to have 30-40 screws on a ship it was f*cking retarded.

[Leermeister]

Cant wait! When can you buy this? i only have my old game i bought in the stores a long time ago-- best star trek game ever, love the dynaverse! Im glad you guys are keeping this game alive , great new years news! this should be the real star trek on-online game

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

There have been a lot of 'old' bug fixes, I personally don't have a list of all of them but while it certainly may not be every bug squashed given how many there were, a lot of fixes sure have been done beyond Windows 7/8 support.

That is good to hear. Is the code open to more fixes/enhancements or are you guys done?

were never done lol, we'll be here doing..stuff

[Corbomite]

were never done lol, we'll be here doing..stuff

Again, good to hear. It'd be nice to know that the things in this thread that I had compiled as issues (oh so long ago!) are getting some attention.

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163380743.0.html

[MrMalkav]

Well done on releasing this I only spotted this site after I found and installed SFC:OP and enhanced package V5.0.  After the disaster of Legacy/Lagacy I really missed SFC, I like ST Online though its a shame it isn't more like SFC with regards tactical and the scary amount of money and restrictions for getting the ship you want  .  I was slightly disheartened by SFC3 in that there were fewer races plus I prefer the older style kirk era ships.  Not meaning to sound dense as I am new here and will read more into SFC:CE (promise) but:

1. Does this support higher/widescreen 16:9 resolutions? It is the most annoying thing at the moment with Orion Pirates as stuck with 4:3 resolutions. I want to fill my TV with SFC goodness 
2. In your opening post you state All individuals who have previously purchased a copy of Starfleet Command: Empires at War will receive their free copy of Starfleet Command : Community Edition. We will have details on how to redeem your copy when the gold image goes live on the store. The price for Community Edition is NOT being raised, and will continue to sell at Empire at Wars price point in the D.Net store. We'll replace the EAW image with the SFC: CE image. The original will still be available for download if you really really want it

How does this work, is this only if you purchased a copy from DNet Store? I bought the Collectors Edition (retail) ages back with SFC 1&2 enclosed with some Trek RTS (forget it's name) then bought Retail copy of SFC-OP & SFC 3 seperately. Would I also qualify for a copy of SFC:CE?

Many thanks to all who have made this happen can't wait to see what you have created.  It will be good to be back     

[KBF-WillWeasel]

Well then very happy to see this coming near it's final completion. I have no other real input otherwise.

[Arch]

So excited about finally being able to play easily on Windows 7, nice work!!
I do have a question: will any more resolutions be added? My monitor is 1680 x 1050, and so I can't run it at 1600 x 1200 and must use the very blurry 1280 x 1024.

I'm also really interested in fighting with other people, as I've only played with the computer over the several years that I've messed with the game, on and off.

Cheers,
David

[lui209]

Good job guys! This is going to be pretty amazing!

[Lono]

SO AWESOME!!!   Seems like I have come back to the forums just in time!

Thanks everyone involved - you are incredible!!!!

 

[BlazinBud]

Clearly a job "Well Done"  I m also wondering about the higher resolutions on widescreen monitors?

[KAT Chuut-Ritt]

Some comments from some old players on another forum which I will relay the questions and answers to.  I don't know the new product to give full answers:


Squiggy(the grape) So... same old game but now it crashes less?

Sockfoot: I seem to be missing a fundamental point here.  Will this be available for purchase/download etc?

Kor: I'm assuming free download as long as you have your EAW key.

Gook: Hate to be a party pooper, but is this going to be "cruisers at dawn" duelling or are we actually going to be able to run fleets, and fly what we want, the way we want (deep strikes etc) duellist obviously get their CCs, but what about the Kzin fo example can we use drones rather than castrated disruptor boats with a few drones added?
I'd love to have a go at a campaign, but a CW 3 type rather than the usual fare that has been foisted on us the last 8 years or so.

Squiggy:  Do I have to dust off the old Atari?

A sequence

Gook :
I think we have all missed the most important point from a practical point of view, and that is, will it be just a click to get in? I can't see anybody these days getting into their router and setting up a DMZ to play a 12 year old game. We did it because most who played were geeks and didn't mind, noobs will probably go DMZ??? and walk away. So I hope that is fixed or it doomed before it starts.

Kor (in reply to above)
http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.ph … 932.0.html

Gook: (in reply to Kor above)
Ouch, can't believe they haven't fixed this in all this time. No chance of a mass revival then, a few "diehards" but getting any numbers without this fixed will be very hard.

Was Kor's link accurate as far as the new Gold?  or was that a previous situation?

[FPF-DieHard]

I hate to agree with Gook, I really do because he's a tool, but he's right.   The router configuration silliness just plain sucks.

But there's really nothing that can be done about that is there?

[Strat]

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163392868.0.html -Approach to dealing with networking.

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163392850.0.html -Requires less ports

Mini Dev Blog:

This is the reseach and work I've done in this area.

Back in that era, most multiplayer games operated on a mesh network type. That is, while only one host was 'master', all were server's and client's sharing data to each other equally. This meant each participant in the multiplayer game was sending and requesting data from each other member. This was because at that era, there is not the same availability for full time servers to handle loads, and a client desktop could not be counted reliable (modems) or powerful (desktop crashes, slow) enough has server host for a 'star' type multiplayer environment. This is why DirectPlay required ports open for each multiplayer client, each member had to be accessible to each other participant. It provided fault tolerance, and load sharing. In DirectPlay 8, there was introduced the 'star' type API, but this was too far after SFC OP to ever be used.

Other games, like WOW, EVE, LoL, STO, SWTOR... the list goes on.... Operate on a 'star' network, with privately owned servers being the center of the star. Since they route data between each participant, clients need not be directly accessible to anyone. Their external ports are closed, and they merely request game data from the central server. Think of it as a network relay system, clients communicate through a central server, that may do nothing but relay data between participants.

... Part TWO Tomorrow, I will explain why we are not able to implement that for this game. And why I would like to explore EvolveHQ as a workaround.

Kors link is incomplete. I don't know what he was pointing out.

[Leermeister]

Not that big of a deal to open ports, it will just be alot easier for people to play by it being able to run on windows 7-- allot of games you still have to open ports to host games, and if you really cant open ports just plug your PC into the modem no router

[IndyShark]

Great job guys! This is very exciting.

[Strat]

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163392868.0.html -Approach to dealing with networking.

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163392850.0.html -Requires less ports

Mini Dev Blog:

This is the reseach and work I've done in this area.

Back in that era, most multiplayer games operated on a mesh network type. That is, while only one host was 'master', all were server's and client's sharing data to each other equally. This meant each participant in the multiplayer game was sending and requesting data from each other member. This was because at that era, there is not the same availability for full time servers to handle loads, and a client desktop could not be counted reliable (modems) or powerful (desktop crashes, slow) enough has server host for a 'star' type multiplayer environment. This is why DirectPlay required ports open for each multiplayer client, each member had to be accessible to each other participant. It provided fault tolerance, and load sharing. In DirectPlay 8, there was introduced the 'star' type API, but this was too far after SFC OP to ever be used.

Other games, like WOW, EVE, LoL, STO, SWTOR... the list goes on.... Operate on a 'star' network, with privately owned servers being the center of the star. Since they route data between each participant, clients need not be directly accessible to anyone. Their external ports are closed, and they merely request game data from the central server. Think of it as a network relay system, clients communicate through a central server, that may do nothing but relay data between participants.

... Part TWO Tomorrow, I will explain why we are not able to implement that for this game. And why I would like to explore EvolveHQ as a workaround.

Kors link is incomplete. I don't know what he was pointing out.

Quick Part 2:

Ok so...

The reason mesh worked then and not now: Back then PCs were connected directly to the internet via modem, there were no firewall's or home routers. It was easy to open a port. Now a days, its very HARD to open ports. So the old mesh style stuff becomes very inefficient.

Why we can not do 'star' type multiplayer networking:
1) Requires Redesign, from scratch, the entire networking portion of the game. Which by the way, is also tied into the UI. So it pretty much means at everything from new from scratch networking made to connect to the existing game interfaces, to touching various UI elements. It means changing allllllllllllllllllll kinds of stuff alllll over.
2) Requires developing a server module from scratch, to act as the relay
and
3) Infrastructure: Who's gonna host the relay? WOW and such have their own servers, and massive ISP they pay to support hosting millions of games and the data transmitted. Right now, dynaverse.net can barely handle a handful of people downloading the game and visiting the website at the same time. Sure, it could host a few simultaneous games, but his resources (server and ISP) would get maxed fast. We don't have the infrastructure to provide a relay for gamers.

Work around:

EvolveHQ. This app basically joins your PC to a private relay system, through their own infrastructure. (Hey they even provide voice chat) It does not require opening any ports, and captures automatically game traffic to share with other participants. It's a relay made just for older games. However, you have to get used to the app, and its not lightweight the way gamespy was. Pros and Cons...

[Tumulorum Fossor]

Late to the congrats party but have been monitoring comms for awhile, waiting for something like this.

My Win8 lappy awaits!

Thanks!

[Tuscarora]

Also another belated congrats! 

Glad to see this is coming to fruition.  Standing by.

Tuscarora

[Martothir]

Just discovered these forums yesterday and I'm super excited to hear about this project! I'm eagerly awaiting this rerelease of one of my favorite games of all time. The nostalgia factor from anticipation alone is killing me! 

[Komodo]

Yep- it's been a long time since I last posted LOL. Hi again, folks!

I know this has been in the works for a LONG time here, so this is GREAT NEWS!

I still have my old disks, haven't played in quite a while now, but still have very fond memories of when I did. Looks like I'm gonna have to peek in here more often, waiting for its release now. Is it a little late, or is there something I missed somewhere?

[Pojo92]

Great game! Great News!!! I was sort of in on the tail-end of OP's run of popularity on the D-Net, played moderately (As much as I could--young family constraints and all) former SFB-lover, and LOVED the game.  As good an adaptation of SFB to the PC as I could have imagined.  Soooo, when this is fully available: I'm in! 

[Magnum357]

Reporting in.

[Luimos]

WONDERFUL

[Martothir]

Any updates regarding the upcoming release date? It's been in the back of my mind ever since I saw the project announcement!

[Strat]

The final version is done.

We are waiting on the site owner Frey to release it.

[Confused]

I am in shock. I've lurked these forums probably once a year since I was 12 waiting for this, I can't imagine how much effort went into this, with the (I'm assuming) limited budget that you had.


I ABSOLUTELY can not wait to get my hands on it.. It might be available now, I just had to post immediately!


Thank you ALL for this.

[d4v1ks]

  I'm very happy to see this happening. I can't wait to put my hands on that release and play with my brother. I thank you all for your work.

[IronDice]

  Can't wait to see it on the store!

[K1ng]

hello
this is awesome
Can t wait for this :p

wil this have the same connection type as sfc3 ? i had some problems with my router wich were to say the least a pain in the *!* :p

[Messiah]

Great googly-moogly!

This is done? When can I buy this sucker?

I did buy SFC2, way, WAY back in the day but i'm pretty confident I don't have the disk anymore, nor the CDKey...

[Messiah]

*sigh*

Is it bad that I'm checking this site several times a day in the hopes I can buy/download this?

[Strat]

We're all in the same boat. It's in the hands of FA Fray XC.

All I can say is its done, and on his server for use..

[Messiah]

Ugh. It's licencing isn't it? He probably got some sorta cease & desist...

[Messiah]

LOL, I'm older than you at 32 and played this WAYYYY back in the day when I was in my early 20s!

I even remember Frey from way back in the day when I used to run with SFCShadow, Crim, etc :p

[Messiah]

Very true. For me personally, I'll be stepping back in after a hiatus. I pretty much stopped playing way back in '03-'04. Stumbled back to this site at least a few times since that time...

Whenever I think of this game, it always brings back fond memories. It's time to make new ones with this new... 'update'?

So, I will be (im)patiently waiting for the release! haha.

[Martothir]

*sigh*

Is it bad that I'm checking this site several times a day in the hopes I can buy/download this?

I've been checking daily since I found out about the project and its impending release. Haven't played this game since it was new back when games were sold in boxes.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

I'm getting too old to keep waiting.

[K1ng]

hmmm i just bought sfc2 from the dynaverse shop but im having trouble installing it (is it windows 7 proof ? ) setup won t launch  , it piles up in my procces screen

[K1ng]

never mind i turned of some programms and it just started  :p

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

Ehh. Too old. Too old. What's the worse thing that can happen to you, crash your ship into a planet bc of slow reflexes. 

I could die before I ever see a campaign with CE. Freedom 55 isn't. 

[Messiah]

Man, I can't imagine the wait for people who've known about this all 8 years until now. I was lucky in that I've stumbled into this place only twice or so over the past 8 years and thus was kinda ignorant of SF:CE.

I guess a lot of us are so trained in that once we here 'It has gone gold!" we think of major developers and how those particular games tend to release a couple weeks later, and not like here wher eit's been almost 4 months since Gold was announced and nothing. I guess you have to keep in mind this is just a bunch of volunteers (?) working on really old code.

But still, damn... hearing it's gone gold and 4 months and still nothing? That carrot is one evil sonofabitch :p

*updates main page again to look for dl link*

[Messiah]

I'm also curious what the hold up is. Bugs? Stability? Real Life issues? I know Frey had some personal stuff going on that obviously takes precedence. I hope he's okay.

[Strat]

The game is totally done and the Finalized installer is uploaded to his servers.

No one has heard from Frey. I don't want to post it on my own for getting in some sort of trouble. So it just waiting on him.

[Messiah]

Yeah, I'm so looking forward to getting back into the game and playing and flying a ship around. It's going to be so much fun!

I wonder how many people will actually end up playing this. Will it be just a few dozen people?

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

I don't know how long you guys been waiting but I'm 27, it's been years now, it's true, with age comes patience, bc I'm like whatever, it'll arrive when it'll arrive.

Adam

Way to make some of us feel old, dude!
 

I kid, I kid.    I picked up the pocket edition of SFB around the time it came out, before the Designer/Boxed Edition even existed.  I still remember marvelling when the 1st expansion came out, and gave us a bunch of new toys!

So, yeah, I've been checking in regularly to see what's up with CE.  Of course, I keep hoping for something more grand, as I've been wanting to play full blown Tholians in SFC for a while now, and Andos would be fun too!  But that'd take more resources than are currently at the plate.  CE is a small step in that direction, or at least a lot of us hope it is.

SFC is just as addictive as SFB ever was, without all of the record keeping and long monotonous hours trying to finish battles/campaigns up!  I haven't played SFB since SFC came out... and I was a definite SFB junkie, when I could find other players that is!

[Corbomite]

The game is totally done...

I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but it is in a playable state no worse than when it was live before.

[Messiah]

The game is totally done...

I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but it is in a playable state no worse than when it was live before.

Haha, I almost DON'T want to hear that it's playable... the selfish part of me that wants to play this sucker constantly asks "Then why can't we play it?", but then the smart side of me remembers that these are volunteers keeping this boat flying, and it's amazing we got this much!

[Strat]

Well I will add that if this game gets enough boost (attention) I have a very nice todo list to work on.

[Messiah]

I wonder if there's any sort of plan to advertise when it's finally downloadable? IE send out an email to all the gaming/mod sites and say "hey, this game exists! Check it out!"

[Messiah]

That would be pretty cool. Although, if I remember right, FireSoul was a pretty badass modder so I'd be happy with his designs. Is he still involved in the community or is he gone too?

[FireSoul]

That would be pretty cool. Although, if I remember right, FireSoul was a pretty badass modder so I'd be happy with his designs. Is he still involved in the community or is he gone too?

I'm waiting too. I want to wait till there's an actual release to complete any work modding it.

.. btw.. any legal experts in the house?
Are there any legal blockers for me if I want to take OP's sprites.q3 file, modify the loadup image to match SFC:CE's and add that to a "CE+"? It would solve a lot of OP+ porting issues, like keeping all the mountpoints and such. Initial tests indicate that the game just.. works.. with it. (not fully tested)

[Strat]

If you have RC 4 you have the final release. The only difference in RC 4 and release is the 'RC' in the installer. I'm not making any changes for the foreseeable future.

I believe the reason Frey is waiting is because he does not like the current load screen and wants it changed out. But no one has the ability to change it but Marstone whose MIA.

Right now unless you have some access on your own, the sprites.q3 is not editable anyways. I would say for now not to worry about the load screen. It's lost subject right now.

[Messiah]

If you have RC 4 you have the final release. The only difference in RC 4 and release is the 'RC' in the installer. I'm not making any changes for the foreseeable future.

I believe the reason Frey is waiting is because he does not like the current load screen and wants it changed out. But no one has the ability to change it but Marstone whose MIA.

Right now unless you have some access on your own, the sprites.q3 is not editable anyways. I would say for now not to worry about the load screen. It's lost subject right now.

That's the only reason? Really? Is this something that could be patched later?


Aside: Doesn't SFC:CE Already have mods for the ships? IE TNG era ships (as well as TOS & TMP ships)? I was under the impression it had that huge range of ships. Am I wrong? Does it only have TOS ships?

While on that subject, what races are playable? Did anyone add TNG era races? Namely the Dominion?

[Strat]

There are OP arcs. It can almost completely support the OP+ shiplist.

It is up to modders to take advantage of these features.

[Messiah]

Whoops! For whatever reason I thought SFC:CE was going to have TNG era ships! I guess I got some stuff I read mixed up!

Oh well, that's what all those excellent mods are for. Looking forward to it!

I guess it will be kinda weird to see the original schematic for the ship, yet use a modded one, haha.

[Strat]

Perhaps, if the power that be don't punish me, I can revert the entire thing to a public beta...

[Messiah]

YES! Please let us have access!!

I do love the look of the TNG ships, but would still be incredibly happy with TMP era ships already available in the game. I know mods will eventually surface so I'll simply dl them when they are available and use them in the game.

Although, it would be hella cool to fight against the Dominion... :p

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

OK time to put some answers here.

Firstly, apologies to everyone for the lack of words, it simply comes down to there, both me & Frey work a lot of hours at our jobs, and when we get home for the end of the day we don't usually have the mindset for discussing these type of complex admin issues daily, and mainly  just during limited hours we both have off (which is further consumed by RL obligations/stuff). Hence, what turns out to be a week of real time is no more than a day of time I have and Frey has to get stuff done.

We've still be working a lot behind the senses for preparations. Most recently we've been doing infrastructure upgrades and upgrading to more modern servers and OSes. For the most part we have completed these, though not completely done. While you don't notices these upgrades and fixes, they will matter quite a bit towards handling any sort of stress across the database, game server, or web servers combined and we don't want to cut any corners, so yea it has been slow, but steady progress on this end. While not complete, it's done enough we can proceed further down the line.

Pretty much though now I believe we are down to figuring out exactly which option we want to use to deploy CE in the most efficient manner, it's a bit more involved than that sounds, but the hardest part is over with so I say we are just about there.

I know your eager, so am I, but this extra stuff were doing will help a lot so you don't have to worry about server reliability (which is a reward in itself!), that's for sure

Finally apologies for any lack of word, we just don't have a dedicated PR person and time is short! Prepare to fire phasers.

[Messiah]

Great to finally get a status update! Here's hoping the game will come along shortly...

[Doskious]

Speaking as someone who eagerly awaits the release of SFC:CE but also works in the Operations office of a major data center, Thanks Very Much for pursuing backend upkeep and stability-minded upgrades.  A stable release later is always preferable to an immediate unstable release.

I know I'm new here, but I played SFC and SFC:EAW at release and mourned the day I lost my install disks...  When I discovered this project, I knew that I'd have to get it.  Thanks for all the hard work.  (So excited!)

[Messiah]

Don't listen to him and his appreciation! We want the game now dammit! :p

All the hard work is definitely appreciated. Lets hope we see it soon (long weekend perhaps?)

[Messiah]

Happy Easter long weekend to all those who are so inclined! Here's hoping we'll see the game soon!

[Messiah]

I am always shall be... your friend.

EDIT: I also like to think my nagging got us a status update 

[Mazeppa]

OK time to put some answers here.

Firstly, apologies to everyone for the lack of words, it simply comes down to there, both me & Frey work a lot of hours at our jobs,

...

Jobs? 

Wow, things have changed in 7 years.  I remember when LordKrueg would talk all us Coalition pilots  into calling in sick so we could hit the Alliance at 9 AM on a Monday.

Just kidding, guys!  Thanks for all your efforts!

[Commander Maxillius]

Well, I just JUST got OP working on LINUX!!  L I N U X!!!!  So I'M BAAAA AAAACK!!!  I hope CE will work on WINE the way I have it set up because I set it to run as if it's Win98.  OP works with the OP+ 5.0 Enhancement pack almost completely lag-free.

So yeah, I can't wait for CE to finally be released.

[Messiah]

Welcome back! Gather round while we trade stories and wait for the game to drop!

[T-Rex_NT]

Where can one get this game, the link on previous posts are broken?

thanks,

T-Rex_NT

[T-Rex_NT]

thanks Bud,

T-rex_NT

I hope it's soon.

[Commander Maxillius]

The way things go around here, CE will be released around the time people are getting rid of their Windows 8 machines 

[Strat]

I won't be doing this old jaunt again if that happens.

[Commander Maxillius]

Yeah, I get how life happens and all that, but if I read your other posts on the subject correctly, all you're waiting on is the word.

Come on, Frey, give the word


(Not to be ungrateful or anything)

[Strat]

Unfortunately I'm somewhat of a hypocrite. I know what it's like to see awesome work unfinished and wish the Dev would complete it. In many cases he's the only guy on Earth with the interest. (Fortunately I documented everything so I could be replaced should someone want to)

Now I find myself in those boots. 1) The game never took off. 2) I'm busy now in RL.

To do what I did then was basically a part time job for 7 months. I don't have the time to do that -- right now at least. So here I am, guilty of my own complaint of other devs.. I am forced to move on with things.. I realized the other day, as a matter of fact, how I started in late '11, and worked so much.. and now haven't touched it in several months.. It was nostalgic.

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

 

[T-Rex_NT]

So SFC is truly dead??

 

Rex

[Leermeister]

well the version of CE that they have now is better than nothing

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

New update: Nearly there, good to go with most everything now, finishing up legal stuff with this.

[Brush Wolf]

New update: Nearly there, good to go with most everything now, finishing up legal stuff with this.

Legal stuff? It could be centuries then.

[FCM_SFHQ_XC]

New update: Nearly there, good to go with most everything now, finishing up legal stuff with this.

Legal stuff? It could be centuries then.

not quite that bad lol, most of that annoying stuff is done already, just wrap-up.

[Brush Wolf]

New update: Nearly there, good to go with most everything now, finishing up legal stuff with this.

Legal stuff? It could be centuries then.

not quite that bad lol, most of that annoying stuff is done already, just wrap-up.

I figured as much but I had to say it.

[maelstorm]

This may not be the thread to ask about this but i can't think of where ealse.  I have the original store released disks and cd key on jewelcase (empire at war).  So do i need to make another purchase for this? or is there a way i can verify my copy and get this at no additional fee?

[maelstorm]

thanks for the reply!  (been playing eaw to brush up on tactics)

[Sssjim7]

Hey everyone... just fumbled onto this page by accident... I thought SFC was long dead and gone...

Nice to see some names in here I haven't seen for 10 years or so... very cool!  So I guess my first question has to be - will there be an API so we can write our own single player missions with this... or has the whole project morphed into an on-line only kind of thing????

Just curious... I always enjoyed the single player part of the game the best...

Anyway, when this comes out I will definately check it out:)

Thanks,
Jim

ps.  What is with all the security on the forum?  Having to type in images, gfedcba and Kirk everytime seems extreme... ???

[zorprimal]

Ok is this out? How do I get it? I'm at zorprime2000@juno.com let me know I miss my SFC

[AtomicEdge]

Watched Star Trek Into Darkness > Remembered How Awesome SC Was > Found this site > Found this thread > Got Excited > Read Whole Thread > Got suspicious > Checked Frays post history > Nothing since Feb > Gave up hope

That's a stressful 12 hours.

[d4v1ks]

Fear not! There's a beta version of SFC CE available for download in the FTP page! You can got a taste of what we are waiting! Just pay attention that are some missions bugged. Its a known issue. But it works just fine!

[AtomicEdge]

Does it run on Windows 8 as mentioned in the patch notes?

[knightstorm]

Will someone please delete this thread!  Yes, Frey shouldn't have declared the game to be gold until it was up and available for download, but I'm really getting annoyed with people complaining every week.  And you don't want to see me when I'm annoyed.

homer hulk

[d4v1ks]

lolol

I understant your sense of humor   

[FPF-Tobin Dax]

If you do get caught, we can help?

[maelstorm]

I'm curious.  when i loaded up originally and yet again. i found myself slightly dissapointed that andromedans were not in the game.  Will they show up in this or SFC4??  i'd really like to get a chance to blow some up (or use them)

[maelstorm]

Thanks for the info Adam! i'll look into the mod (i never picked up orion pirates ouch). I will also look into the mission thread.

[Messiah]

d'oh, still nuthin' huh?

[maelstorm]

Fear not! There's a beta version of SFC CE available for download in the FTP page! You can got a taste of what we are waiting! Just pay attention that are some missions bugged. Its a known issue. But it works just fine!

i've been looking for it but can't find it in the fpt site. Was it removed?

[knightstorm]

d'oh, still nuthin' huh?

uggh...

[RazalYllib]

While the clock runs with a tick and a tock
I pass the time gazing out the airlock
Hoping that the passion will not grow cold
Since S-F-C-C-E was announced gold

The poor non-players cannot really know
What thrill comes from a well time phasers glow
Dancing as wingman in tight formation
Inflicting as a team devastation

If the wind shifted just right tomorrow
Tears will be freely shed not in sorrow
Joy for the interesting things to come
In future battles around distant sun

-razz-

[[RK] Castrin]

Wow, come back to the forums and see this thread after being away for a while.

I'm looking forward to seeing this out. Guess I'm going to have to find my EAW disk (and case).

Peace.

[[RK] Castrin]

I don't know how long you guys been waiting but I'm 27, it's been years now, it's true, with age comes patience, bc I'm like whatever, it'll arrive when it'll arrive.

Adam

SFC is just as addictive as SFB ever was, without all of the record keeping and long monotonous hours trying to finish battles/campaigns up!  I haven't played SFB since SFC came out... and I was a definite SFB junkie, when I could find other players that is!

Only time I could find someone to play SFB was at GenCon and Origins. Sadly I haven't been to Origins for years (not even sure it's still around) and GenCon hasn't had SFB matches for years too. *sigh* I still recall the great Captains matches there.

Peace.

[TAnimaL]

funny timing - Origins is still around and is a couple of days thru next weekend, for anyone in the Colombus Ohio area, and Gen Con is in mid August in indianapolis. ADB will be at Origins, but these days "SFU" events mean products like Federation Commander, A Call to Arms and Starmada and less SFB. There's no SFB on schedule at Gen Con as of now.

Hee, I wonder if "we" could ever get it together to have a SFC event at some con. ACtually see each other face to face.

[d4v1ks]

Well, you can all still play SFB against several people in the "SFB online" program.
Theres like 40 regular players there.

[[RK] Castrin]

Well I'm already going to GenCon so if your there drop me an email from this forum and maybe we can say 'Hi'.

Read through the Origins book (thanks for the tip) and didn't find any SFB entries. Kind'a sad really.

I looked at SFB Online a while back, probably need to look at it again.

Peace.   

[EschelonOfJudgemnt]

I just gotta say...

Since playing SFC I've had no real desire to go back to playing SFB the 'old fashioned' way...

Sure, this means no Andros and Tholians (I love Tholians), but completing a battle in 5 minutes instead of 5 hours has a certain appeal...
 

Props to the SFC designers for ruining SFB for me!
 

[TAnimaL]

I'll second that, Eschelon, especially since I don't miss the Tholians

If you really find yourself missing the SFB experience in SFC, set the game speed to "1". And make sure to pause every 5 minutes to check on something in the rulebooks.

[Czar Mohab]

If you really find yourself missing the SFB experience in SFC, set the game speed to "1". And make sure to pause every 5 minutes to check on something in the rulebooks.

No nostalgia is worth this ^^^ level of pain.

Besides, you forgot to add "roll 2d6 periodically". It will help with setting that "authentic" feel.

The Czar

[Czar Mohab]

That's the kicker.

EoJ pointed out that a single battle could take 5 hours - I'm assuming it was in reference to any two ships captained by two experienced yet still novice players on opposite sides. Also could be small fleet engagement by two veteran players.

EoJ did not, however, mention that a single turn could take 5 hours (keeping in mind that one SFB turn was ~1 minute of "real time") provided the conditions were right - I want to say somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 ships on the board with 2-4 players, at least 1 novice.

Nor did EoJ mention that a single impulse (1/32 of 1 turn; ~2 seconds of SFB "realtime") under the right circumstances could take up to 5 hours to conclude - this would be some kind of large fleet (10ish ships per fleet, 2-3 fleets) engagement with many players (somewhere around 4 players per fleet), a crap load of drones/plasma on the board, fighters, shuttles, PFs, etc... The kind of engagement where at least one non-playing person sits back and plays judge just to help the game keep going forward...

Yeah, it was a blast.

And for the love of Pete, NEVER sneeze towards the board...

The Czar

P.S. You say back in the day as if it was some long forgotten time... Was only a decade ago or so when I stopped playing SFB in earnest... That's only like yesterday, really...

[TAnimaL]

And for the love of Pete, NEVER sneeze towards the board...

LMAO, for sure!

We (my very small playgroup) never did a 10-per side battle, but we had several 3-4 per side that we played across several nights, at about 2 1/2 hours per night. Ground bases on a moon around a ringed gas giant, a baker's dozen worth of PFs, plus fighters. Frigates diving through the rings, marine assaults, escape pods to be rescued.... craazzzzyyyy. However, there was plenty of time between impulses for the Captain to have his Jack & coke replenished by the yoeman.

As far as 2d6 go, while I do miss the clack of rolling them, the feeling of rolling a 6 when you need a 1 to 5 is equally matched in SFC when you watch your 4 photons fired at range 3 still go sailing past your target and disappear into the distance.

(I actually did a few timelapse video recordings on afew battles, geek that I am)

[Age]

Great to hear.Where do you dl it from?

[FA Frey XC]

We're dealing with some staffing issues, as well as in the middle of the hardware refresh AND some russian groups have apparently decided to target D.Net for spam / advert attacks. If you've downloaded a older ISO of SFC:CE and are waiting for a new download, please email admin@xenocorp.net with the following:

D.Net Account name
Shop Purchase # / copy of sale notification from shop