Topic: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)  (Read 80059 times)

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Offline Lieutenant_Q

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #120 on: November 23, 2017, 12:53:49 pm »
The size of the playerbase is the biggest issue, even back in its prime, SFC was really a niche market.  It hurt that networking infrastructure and technology limited it to what it was.  Could you imagine what the game would be like if SFC1 was released just 4 years later?

Today's players don't really want what SFC was, it is a blessing and curse.  A DD is a DD is a DD, no matter how many times you see it and fly it.  That's not what the players want anymore.  They want the customization, they want the ability to grow their ship as they keep playing.  But most of all, they want all their work to be recognized.  If someone's put 300 hours into the game, they want something for it.  Not what happened at the end of every SFC game, Side A wins, Side B loses, reset the game and start again.  I love that aspect of the game, as do most of the people here, but unfortunately we are a part of shrinking minority.  I don't want to speak for everyone, but I'm sure that most of the people here would have jumped at the opportunity to play in a 10v10, or a 15v15 match.  But instead the best we could hope for was an experimental (and very unstable) 4v4.  Even the 3v3s didn't work very well if even one person wasn't on DSL or better.  And in 2000-2003 most people were still on dial-up.  And the problem is that that can't change without a major re-writing of the code, the network code was a product of its time, and hardcoded into it.

Its just unfortuante that we are where we are with SFC.  Because I would put the depth and the immersion of SFC up against even the most popular MMOs.  But the complexity of the game scares away casual gamers, and the inability to "Level" pushes away the hardcore gamers.  To be frank, I don't want to simplify the game, and I don't want leveling, and that makes me a minority in the gaming community at large.
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Offline d4v1ks

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #121 on: November 25, 2017, 07:09:00 pm »
Thanks for your opinion Q. :)
« Last Edit: December 01, 2017, 01:28:54 pm by d4v1ks »
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Offline Nemesis

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #122 on: November 26, 2017, 10:05:59 am »
They want the customization, they want the ability to grow their ship as they keep playing. 

If that is what was wanted we would all have moved to SFC 3 - but we didn't.

Sure it would be nice to be able to just upgrade the existing D7 to D7B when the newer model came out without having to trade in the existing ship but it works well enough as is.


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Offline Tumulorum Fossor

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #123 on: December 14, 2017, 08:54:53 pm »
I know it's getting CLOSE, Carlos!
Let me know how I can contribute when the time comes!!!

Offline d4v1ks

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #124 on: February 06, 2018, 07:32:50 pm »
I know it's getting CLOSE, Carlos!
Let me know how I can contribute when the time comes!!!

It is done.
I sent you an email with it!
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Offline outlaw78

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #125 on: March 18, 2018, 10:03:52 pm »
So how can I get on the bandwagon for SFC III servers??? Haven't played this game in many many years.  Would love to experience the online part again if that's even possible since I can't see to get the dynaverse side of it working.


Offline d4v1ks

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Offline Praxis

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #128 on: October 29, 2018, 01:51:49 pm »
I tried to get SFC  2, OP, or 3 working in a dynaverse a couple months ago and eventually gave up.  Nothing I found online seemed to work anymore.

d4v1ks, does this new version of SFC launcher work?  And *how* does it work?

Offline TarMinyatur

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #129 on: October 29, 2018, 02:45:03 pm »
I was playing on Falconer's server for Orion Pirates 2.564 recently. The launcher works. ZeroTier is an application that creates a virtual LAN that you'll need.

Check out the Starfleet Command subforum in hotandspicyforums.com
« Last Edit: November 09, 2018, 12:59:35 am by TarMinyatur »

Offline PoleronCrow

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #130 on: November 09, 2018, 12:09:46 am »
Gameranger works fine.. i read on another forum were some were saying it crashed all the time..i haven't experienced any crashes

it seems everyone i played with uses the op+4.0 mod ship list...we must of played like 20 games ranging from early to adv 3v3's was awesome

usually at night during the week and on weekends is when i found games these last few weeks...

Offline [UFP]Picard

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #131 on: April 19, 2020, 07:35:54 am »
I am trying to set up SFC2 so me and some old friends can play. I got the SFC2 Community Edition a few years back.

1. Is it better to use SFC2 EAW instead of SFC2 CE with the launcher?
2. Will the SFC launcher work with the latest 2037 patch?

Thank you!

Offline d4v1ks

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #132 on: April 19, 2020, 08:40:31 am »
you will need 2.037 for the launcher to work

https://hotandspicyforums.com/sfc2-empires-at-war-patch-2-037-t20068.html

the launcher is not compatible with the 'community edition'
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Offline Tulwar

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #133 on: April 25, 2020, 09:53:06 pm »
They want the customization, they want the ability to grow their ship as they keep playing. 

If that is what was wanted we would all have moved to SFC 3 - but we didn't.

Sure it would be nice to be able to just upgrade the existing D7 to D7B when the newer model came out without having to trade in the existing ship but it works well enough as is.

I don't want to wait months while the workers in the ship yard strip the old equipment and install the new equipment!  I couldn't agree with you more.  If I want to change the equipment on a ship, I want to do so, because it wasn't designed right in the first place, or I want the ship to perform a different role.  That means that the weapon available in the game must serve some specialized purpose.  The SFB based game did that very well.  You couldn't change the ships in game, but a destroyer escort was a very different animal from the standard configuration.

In SFC III, "customization" boiled down to what worked best for the player.  If a configuration worked better for one player, then it would probably work better for most.  Any ship that wasn't configured that way would be a mistake, so how could a responsible authority allow it out of the ship yard?  If it came to old vs new equipment, then why would upgrades be done piecemeal?  I can't make sense of customization.

I meant to just say "bump."  I didn't mean to relight the SFC II vs. III flame war!
« Last Edit: May 02, 2020, 05:44:11 pm by Tulwar »
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Offline TarMinyatur

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #134 on: June 27, 2020, 10:05:12 pm »
On the new server, we could make refits more customizable and novel. Like a K-D7 with +1 APR for 40 total power. This ship would not exist in any player's static shiplist. It would exist only on the server. This is a subjective can of worms to pop open though.

We can give better or worse quality officers to the AI and to players, instead of every officer in the campaign being junior. The game mechanics do change when a legendary officer is present in SFCOP! We simply never saw this in EAW/OP (outside of SFC:CE, briefly) because the default officer grants neither a bonus nor a penalty. Green officers really are poor. And legendary officers are very effective. If every player has a LWO, then that concept of rarity is broken. The new server can limit the availability of legendary officers, through an officer "shipyard". But this is a level of micromanagement. Some players may not want to go through the tediousness of searching for and recruiting officers. Just assign them randomly at 1%(legendary), 19%(veteran), 40%(senior), 40%(junior), 0%(no rookies) or similar.

Obviously many of us didn't care for SFC3's "pimp-my-ride" approach, and we preferred navies with standard refits and very limited customization (e.g. missile load out: TypeI or TypeIV, slow/med/fast). But the SFC1 refit and officer systems were not too bad. 

Offline d4v1ks

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #135 on: December 24, 2020, 06:58:09 pm »
Latest release:   SFC Launcher 2.1.0.17
Link for executable and source code:   https://github.com/D4v1ks/SFCLauncher
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Offline E_Look

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #136 on: December 27, 2020, 07:23:27 pm »
This is much appreciated.

I do want to mention one thing though- on my computer, Win 10, Core i7, the windowed mode does not work.  It appears the icons don't show and if you click in the dark and accidentally hit a button, the music plays, but the box is still dark.
It seems to work fine in regular mode.
This is so for both versions 14 and 17.d

Offline d4v1ks

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #137 on: December 28, 2020, 10:33:47 am »
This is much appreciated.

I do want to mention one thing though- on my computer, Win 10, Core i7, the windowed mode does not work.  It appears the icons don't show and if you click in the dark and accidentally hit a button, the music plays, but the box is still dark.
It seems to work fine in regular mode.
This is so for both versions 14 and 17.d

The game is a 16-bit color application. Current windows versions can't run them directly.
Or you run the game in 16-bit color compatibility (check its properties) or you have to use a compatibility layer like dgVoodoo (https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiumJZOPROpbhMwXNrWVi-Hj7hIIBw?e=pmo5cn)
« Last Edit: December 28, 2020, 01:13:05 pm by d4v1ks »
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Offline E_Look

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #138 on: December 28, 2020, 03:00:27 pm »
Thanks for the explanation.
It's been so long I've forgotten that SFC IS 16-bit color!

When was the game introduced?
I think I bought a copy in 1994!  It IS old...

Offline Panzergranate

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Re: SFC Launcher (a dynaverse and gamespy's online services replacement)
« Reply #139 on: December 28, 2020, 06:32:14 pm »
SFC 1 was released in 1999. I even have a pre-release demo that was not as slick as the finished product, but playable.

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