Ever since I found this game online, I have been playing it religiously and I must say it is an amazing update to the original. When can future updates to the game be expected?

Hello and welcome to the forum. All I'm going to say that we are progressing in almost all parts of the game. The programming part has slowed down a bit, but other parts are in full development. I won't write any details because we have Matress for that :-P

Matress you have to conn...


PS: Expect detailed explanation soon, hehehehehehe....

Welcome arl215. Mike, our coder and the guy behind the next update, just relocated to a new job in New York City. He expects to be back online, on the forums and working on the game soon.

Hehe here comes the big update...

Welcome to the the forums, arl! As Kenneth said above, the development on the programming side of the game has slowed as the programmer is in the process of moving home. He hasn't got internet access yet so he can't even get on the forums much at the moment, but he hopes to be up and running in the next month or three.

But the programming is just one part of the game, and development is continuing in all the other areas, such as the game text and database, 2D images, 3D models, and music. We in fact recently just found a voice actor, BlazeLeeDragon, who is having a go at doing some Klingon voiceovers that we're hoping to eventually use in the Klingon intro video. And he really sounds like a Klingon...although we had to explain how to pronounce Qa'pla to him.

The copy of the game that you've got was released in May 2009. I know that's a long time ago, but work has continued on updating the game since then, even though we haven't made any releases since then. The simple fact of the matter is that we're a small team with extremely limited resources. We also focus on detail and quality rather than output, which tends to slow things down. We're also all unpaid volunteers. That said, there have actually been three different development builds of the game in that time, and there will hopefully be another one soon. The development builds are relatively unstable, unpolished builds that are only released to a select few people with the purpose of playtesting a specific feature to death to uncover any bugs and ensure the features generally work as expected. The unstable nature of the builds is why we don't release them in the wild though.

I can tell you that so far, the game has a significant amount of new content, such as new, replaced, or updated images. These include structure images, minor race emblems, and planet textures. The structure database has also been further developed, so there are new buildings, new upgrades, and things generally work a lot better. A number of bugs have been squashed, and the game also comes with more detailed crash reports (So it is easier for Mike, the programmer, to trace the cause of crashes). There are also several new features in the game, although these features are still in need of further development to be meaningful to the game.

What it doesn't however include is an AI or a combat system. As disheartening as this may be, they will be the last features that are implemented in the game. This is for a number of reasons; the AI and combat system are extremely complex features that ill require a lot of development in their own right - possibly as much as the rest of the game itself. They also can't be added into the game until the rest of the game is working either, so work on the AI and combat system has barely even started. We do however have an enormous catalogue of ship and station models that will be ready for use whenever the combat system becomes ready.

I'll stop there to prevent information overload. But if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask and we'll do what we can to answer them.

There he is! There he is! And just as informative as you were let to believe...

hehehehehehe

Anyway, yeah, plus the new images and stuff are all high quality and look much better than a lot of the ones in the version you have. Also we have added a number of custom planet textures that give some planets specific look and are based on the ones seen in the shows. You can see them here:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4137

Random event images, a feature that will be implemented:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2413

Also we are always looking for new team members too if you have any useful skill like 3D modeling or 2D art or voiceacting, programming... just say the word.

Thanks for the update, I look forward to the upgrade. All I can say is that your team is amazing and that this game will truely bean immediate classic when it is completed. Your efforts, skill and time are to be applauded and should be recognized somehow.

Thank you for the support.

There was talk abut alpha some time ago. How far are you to having this working for alpha.

Well the released version of the game is officially build version: "0.4.3427.36588". (You can see it at the bottom-left of the menu screen)

The last development build that Mike sent me (Which was in October) was labelled as "development build 0.4.3928.26257" though, so it's moved on a little. I know for a fact that Mike has done more work on the game since then though, so his copy will likely have a higher version number.

I'm currently pushing the team to try and get a build of the game out soon though. It's been almost two years since the last release and I think it's getting too long now. But it's ultimately up to Mike to decide when the game is ready for release.

Sweet TY

This doesn't mean the release will be soon. My pushing for it won't necessarily make it a reality. Mike has the final say and I haven't actually spoken to him in several months. So please don't get any false hope.

We'll post announcements as soon as there is something to announce. Just be patient.

I was pretty focused on the new job for the first few months in NYC, but as of this past weekend, I'm writing code for the game once again. A new public build is probably still a few months out, and getting it out the door will involve a lot more testing and grunt work than usual because of the inclusion of some 3D elements (just a new ship viewer, no combat yet). The 3D bits involve some new prerequisites and lots of compatibility testing, not to mention converting and bundling a ton of models. There will also be some new and overhauled features that will involve quite a bit of work to implement.

Good to see you online boss. If there is anything I can do model wise let me know. I am hoping the Klingon Intro will generate some buzz and get some more worker bees to the forum. I am putting my free time, what there is of that, into the video.

Ooh you're planning to release the ship viewer with the next update are you? I don't think we mentioned the viewer on the forums when we were testing the last three development builds back in October, so this actually amounts to quite a big announcement lol.

You know you've got a big and dedicated tester base here, Mike. The staff will be on board do do whatever testing you need, and i've got two computers plus my sister's laptop to do some testing on. I've got three friends that would let me borrow their computers as well, so I could potentially test it on at least six different computer setups. And once the development builds have been tested to destruction, you could do a limited release on the forums with some updated builds to a select few people that frequent here to increase the tester base. Then later on you can do a full-blown release after the results of all the feedback and testing has been worked into the game.

Testing? Count me in.

Also I have been thinking about that translation offer Vjeko gave me few weeks ago and whil I would love do it, I think that it's a waste of my time to translate a game for 1 (potentionally 3 people). Ty anyway

Slovenia joke? hehehehe, sorry man just kidding. I think that there are far more than 3 people in Slovenia interested in Star Trek, but it's your decision and you can always change your mind.

TBH: Apart form me, my mad and my uncle, I have yet to meet a person in Slovenija who even know's what star trek is.