LAST UPDATED: 15TH NOVEMBER 2010.

HELP WANTED
The BOTF2 project is always in need of people that are willing to spare a little of their time to make certain aspects of the game(s). The different games will each have their own requirements, but many aspects are being shared. Whenever we need help to make certain aspects of the game, we will post about them in this thread.

The jobs will vary over time and as work is completed or as new work becomes available. Please don't be shy about providing help either; most jobs do not require any programming knowledge! (Although we do also have jobs if you happen to know programming)

We are looking for a range of people, including writers, voice artists, musicians, 2D artists, modellers, programmers, and play testers. That last job can be done by everyone!

So if there are any volunteers out there, please feel free to post in this thread, or contact the developers directly. Scroll down to see the posts that are currently available.

Please note however that as a fan-based project, we have absolutely no financial backing; as such, we rely entirely on volunteers. We cannot pay you for any work you do on the game(s). However, any work that you contribute to a released version of the game will be fully credited and acknowledged within the game. Ownership of any artwork will ultimately remain your own, and you will be able to have it removed at a later date if you contact us in writing explaining what you want removed and why. Please note that due to the nature of game releases, if such a situation was to arrise, we can only remove your work from future downloads of the game. We are not responsible for content that has already been downloaded.



JOBS

ADVERTISING
Advertising is important to us. We need people to spread the word about our game development project to other forums and communities. These communities are the biggest source of talented game modders that may be willing to help us.



ARTISTS for 2D GRAPHICS
2D art is just as important to the game(s) as the 3D art. We need 2D art for things such as the Minor Race Structure images, starships, general game buildings, the Random Events, in-game still images, and interfaces. Please contact us if you feel you could make a contribution in this area. If you need any specific software to do this, talk to us and we'll see if we can arrange something for you.
http://www.botf2.star-trek-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2388
http://www.botf2.star-trek-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1735

For Supremacy, any raster-based backdrops for the game will need to be rendered at a widescreen resolution of 2560x1600 pixels.



MODELLERS for 3D SHIPS:
What would BOTF2 be without glorious 3D combat? But we can't fight if we don't have the models to fight with! Please contact us if you feel you could make a contribution in this area. The threads below can provide you with more information.

http://www.botf2.star-trek-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1836

http://www.botf2.star-trek-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=885

http://www.botf2.star-trek-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1760



MUSICIANS:
A game is nothing more than a bunch of pretty screens without music to accompany it. Music adds tension, drama, and a touch of class to a game. We are looking for talented musicians to compose the games score. If you feel you could make a contribution in this area, please have a look at This Thread and feel free to contact either Mstrobel, Malvoisin, or Kenneth_of_Borg.



PLAY TESTERS
Play testing is something that everyone can do; all you need to do is play the game! We need to know of any bugs that are in the game, and the only way to find them is to play the game(s) on as many different computer configurations as possible. Note down any crashes, strange events, broken screens, missing text, typos, mis-matched text, missing images, and so on that you see, then report back to us.

There's more to it, however. We also need to know how the ingame stats are working; are the resource production/collection rates high enough? Are the resource and production costs too high? Can the structures be powered from the available energy in most systems? Are the tech requirements working as expected? You name it, and it'll probably need to be balanced, tested, and rebalanced at some point. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated - and all you need to do is play the game(s) and tell us what you think! What could be easier?!

Contact the developers with your comments in these areas; Mstrobel for Supremacy, and Malvoisin for Birth of the Empires (BotE).

You might also find Dafedz's Database is a useful source of in-game information, especially if you're looking for stats and information. The database is aimed primarily at Supremacy rather than BotE, however.



PROGRAMMERS

Programmers are needed for both Supremacy and Birth of the Empires (BotE). Supremacy has the greatest need for programmers however, as BotE is at a much closer stage of completion.

Supremacy:
Please send a private message or IM to Mstrobel to find out more about what is needed. We are especially looking for:

• Someone with experience with XML (and XSD schemas), or;
• Anyone else that is interested in learning to code for the sake of helping.
• If you have any experience with XML (and XSD schemas), or if you're interested in learning for the sake of helping.
• If you are a programmer experienced in C# and have a strong background in either AI or 3D graphics with Managed Direct3D (or, even better, the XNA Framework), then we would especially love to talk to you.

Birth of the Empires:
Please contact Malvoisin for info on the programming jobs that are available.



SHIP TEXTURING
Want to help with the models but feel your artistry skills are better than your modeling skills? We still need people to actually texture the models, otherwise the ships will simply look like grey shapes that float through space. We will even help you to learn how to do it if you're only a beginner!

Please contact us if you feel you could make a contribution in this area. The thread below can provide you with more information.

http://www.botf2.star-trek-games.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=885



TRANSLATORS
We have had a number of requests for translated versions of the games, especially for German and French translations.

Supremacy is being natively developed in English, so will need to be translated from English to other languages. Birth of the Empires on the other hand is natively being designed in German, so will need to be translated into a range of languages, including English.

If you would like to play BotE in a language other than German or English, or you would like to offer your services as a translator, please send a PM to Malvoisin.

Supremacy is capable of supporting literally hundreds of languages - assuming someone actually writes the translated versions for us. If you would like to offer your skills as a translator, please post in This Thread to register your offer. Please read the very first post of that thread before you post however, as there are a number of hurdles that need to be overcome before translations can actually be implemented.



VOICE ACTORS
We can always use additional voices for the Federation, Cardassian, Dominion, Romulan, Klingon and Ferengi empires. (The Ferengi are not an Empire in Supremacy, but they are in BOTE, so will still need voiceovers)

Combat Engine

See Audio on the left if you are registered
You will also need MOE or Jig to set you up with permissions to be able to upload files.



WRITERS

WRITERS - KLINGON AND DOMINION SHIP DESCRIPTIONS

Each ingame ship needs a brief description of it's history, capabilities or what you feel is necessary. This description will be presented to players whilst they are in the shipyard screen.

We have written descriptions for most of the ship models now, but the Klingon and Dominion ships still lack any descriptions. We therefore need descriptions for all their ships.

If you want the job, please contact either Matress_of_evil or Dafedz.

You can find a list of the Klingon and Dominion ships, as well as all of the other Empire ships, On This Page. You will need to scroll about a third of the way down the page to get to the list.

To see examples of the descriptions that we already have for the other Empires, please check out these links:
Federation
Romulan
Cardassians

add to list:

- someone good at PHPBB or some other forum software.

- Someone good with javascript.

PM/IM me directly.

Both Kenneth and Mattress would make great Producers

I'll try and think up some stuff

I volunteer for Moral Support / Groupie / Cheerleader

Gooooooooooooooooooo Strobel!!

Thanks for putting this thread together, Kenneth. Most importantly I need floozies. Any moderately attractive females in the 18-25 age range would be fine .

OK. Matters if you would be so kind as to make this a sticky. I hope we can tell some people where to go. (in a nice way, friendly but firm)

stickied.

i didn't want to wait for matress

Thanks boss.

Great post! All informations on one place... but it's a little out of date, all links are from old domain and invalid. It would be nice if someone can correct these links and update TO-DO list...

I've corrected all of the links. As you said though koki, some of the information is outdated. I will be personally sorting through the info over the next few days, especially for any missing images. The images are all in Dafedz's database so it's just a matter of grabbing the links. I need to add them to Supremacy anyways so I was going to be doing this at some time or another.

I've also made this thread a global - it will appear in ALL sections of the forums. This should help to give it a bit more coverage. All of the jobs threads are now also listed as announcements. Some of them were still set as ordinary threads.

Hello has all, I saw that in Supremacy you made a remarkable work. Would you like to have a version of texts in French, so that everybody can take advantage of it, I almost stopped translating the original version of BOTF as well as of DCER's Ultimate editor into French language.

Sure, we'd love to support multiple languages. I'm going to be adding more multi-language text support to the Supremacy Editor soon. That will make things much easier for you .

I would have some suggestions to be made for you for it:
1) In your file "String" it would indeed be that we can translate buttons Summary, turn etc.....

2) In the original version BOTF, in the section " Detail Report " of the Intelligence there is sometimes according to the length of messages, there is not enough place in the frame so that the message enter completely, you can see to it to make rather big frames so that texts bring in in its entirety that they are or not translated

3)I would like to know what are the official texts of the game so that if I have to begin a translation which you authorizes me has to begin to make it

Supremacy already comes with an editor, and you can enter some translations into the game via this editor; the option to do so is available for the special structures, facilities, ships, and stations, but it is NOT available for race text, such as first contact messages or race information. I'm also not sure how you switch game languages once you've loaded the game.

Anyways, to enter translations, load up the editor. Open your Supremacy folder and look for a file called "SupremacyEditor2.exe" - that's the editor. As with the game, it can take anything up to a minute to load, so be patient while it loads.

Once it has loaded, click on any one of the last four icons at the top of the screen - Buildings, Facilities, Ships, or Stations. This loads up the object entries into the panels on the sides of the screen. You can then double-click any of these object entries to translate the text.

When you double-click an object, a screen will load up with the relevant information in English. Do NOT change any of this text. Instead, click on one of the small boxes to the right of the English text:





This will load up a new panel where you can enter your translations. Select the language you wish to translate into from the drop-down list, then click on the + button to add that language. Then, delete the English text in the box on the right and replace it with the translation. Once you've done that, click on done.





Once you've finished your translations, close the program, and it'll ask you whether to save or not. Saving is generally a good idea.

I have already tried with this editor and it work very well. In fact I wanted to know if the texts of BOTF Project of Dafedz's page (diplomacy, races, resources, minor races, intel, ships...) will be the official texts of the game http://www.trekmania.net/temp_files/botf2_home.htm

As you can see from the above image there are still many instance of items in game that are missing an image file.

Ive been using the editor to replace some of the missing images but I'm now wondering if come the next update my changes will be overwritten and will revert back to 'missing image'.

Is there a reason for these 'missing images' other than a lack of time/material to replace them? I found a suitable image for the orbital batteries within seconds on google images.

Would it be possible for someone like myself to go through the editor replacing 'missing images' with suitable pictures and uploading it somewhere for consideration and possible redistribution with the next update?

Don' t worry Blane the "missing images" will be there when time comes... be patient!

PM MOE if you want to help out with any editor related issues as he normally tasks himself with updating it and it would seem a waste if both of you did the same thing.

Regards Wolfe

Yes, we would love to have your help.

Hi Blane, sorry I didn't reply sooner but I wasn't online all of yesterday. I got your PM as well.

The current version of the game is missing a lot of images simply because I haven't sent them to Mike yet - but there are still a few structures etc that haven't got images, so your help would be appreciated in that respect.

While the game is using images taken from BOTF, where we can get better/non copyrighted images, we are using those isntead. Supremacy obviously also has a lot more buildings than BOTF had, so we need newly-created images for those. People have already submitted images for the special structures. Off the top of my head those people are Skeet, Zeleni, Jigalypuff, Trashman, and Dafedz, (Sorry if i've forgot anyone) but if you can find images that are even better than the ones we already have, please let us know. The game is very much a work in progress so we are always looking for ways to improve it.

Dafedz's database contains many of the mages that are "missing" from the game; Dafedz recently updated it, and that's what i'm currently implementing with my updates. If you really want to help I could send you a copy of my updated files, but they are still incomplete so i'm not so sure that would be a good idea. The game would also try to "update" my updates with the original files every time you played the game as well lol. If you want a look though, just let me know.

To update the images in the game, all you need to do is replace the ones in the Supremacy\Resources\Images\TechObjects folder (For structures) - but the new files MUST have the same name as the existing file. I *think* it's case-sensitive as well. By convention, all the image files are named in lower-case and are 270x255 pixel .png files where possible for the sake of quality rather than file size. However, the .png's are set to the minimum quality setting and have been all been optimised to get the filesize as small as possible. Even at these settings though, the image quality is 10x better than what you get with even high quality .jpg's. The game does support .jpg's though. png's are also preferred because they support transparencies, which are used quite a lot in the game. Apparently irfanview doesn't support alpa channels though tut.

I started to make a list of the imageless structures for you here...but then I realised just what a massive list it will be. Keep an eye open for a new thread on it in the jobs section.

...

Lighton, Dafedz's Database IS what Supremacy is being based on. Things may change in the future, so don't take what you see in there now as being a definitive list of the text and buildings that will be in the final release. Dafedz is going to update it as and when we decide there needs to be any changes.

I would have something to suggest him for his name "%Empire%" section of its Intel Database.
It should add the following: %EmpireFem%. %EmpireFem% is the feminine version of the empire. At home in France "Cardassian" is translated as "Cardassien" masculine version and "Cardassienne" feminine version.
But these words:

%Empire% technology-----------------------------> technologie Cardassienne = in French
%Empire% Internal Security-----------------------> Sécurité Interne Cardassienne = in French

Would you consider this suggestion so that if there would be a French version of the game that could translate smoothly and that our language is comprehensible?

Is this project still running? I am currently working on my own browser-based game roughly based on BotF, and am rather excited that I found this site here! Since I am working on my own pretty much on the game mechanics and have to depend on a friendly coder to do most of the tech-stuff for me, it will be rather small scale, especially in graphics, of course. Still, I would be glad and happy to maybe exchange some information and such.

I bow before your superiority, though.

We are always glad for more help. What did you have in mind?

Well, to be honest, I am not really sure if you can really use any of my help, seeing as how you are most probably far more advanced in developing a far more complex game than I am with my simple one.

You see, I intend to create a browser game for just around 15 players, with maybe another 20-30 NPC races to befriend, enslave or make part of your empire in diplomatic way, similarly to the way BotF ran it. Tech and production will be handled similarly to BotF, though there will be some additional technologies to research, which gain access to advantages and new buildings or such. Also, a new category for working will be assigned, mining, which will basically be required for industry to work. Now, since mineable ores are a resource which is used up over time, same as Dilithium will be in my game, this adds a nice new motivation for expansion, namely the need for resources...

This is of course just a rough outline of the game, just so you know what I am intending to accomplish. Now, I would be very grateful for any advice or critique you guys might have to offer, and I will gladly offer the same to you if you give me some insights in your working process (no fear, I am not looking to rip off your work ). I am a novice in comparison to most of you, probably, but I already designed some simple browser games like the one I intend now (with the help of the aforementioned friendly coder and some forum friends).

I just found my way to BotF2 and as BotF (and Rebellion) are two of my favorite 4x's ever... you've caught my attention and I'd like to help out. Unfortunately, while I'm a programmer, my forte is web design and PHP programming and I've only dabbled in graphics design. So as far as direct contributions to the game goes... I might not be much help.

However. I'm very much an idea-guy, a pretty hardcore gamer, and I've seen every Trek episode and movie except for the animated series. I even have the cut-away Enterprise-D poster someplace and the everyone-must-have TNG Technical Manual. I think I still have that awesome Starfleet Prototypes book around somewhere.

I've also dabbled in game design but often find my skills unable to bring to reality my ideas.

Anyway... if I might be of any use, let me know.

Programmers are always in demand, so Mike might have some jobs you could help with. Send Mstrobel a PM detailing precisely what skills you have or are interested in learning, and he'll let you know if he has any jobs for you. He might even be able to help you if you're willing to learn new things. He's already helped another forum member, CdrWolfe, learn about programming - and Wolfe is now building the 3D combat system for the game.

Do you talk like a Cardassian? We need voice actors too.

Hey Kenneth, don't know if you recall, but I submitted some voice clips for the Cardassians sometime last year. Don't know if you were looking for a different voice or not, but if you are interested I still have them or can make new ones, and if not no worries.

Yes, thanks for reminding me. Now that we have SharePoint back lets load that up. We could use more for the Cards and other races as well. Do you have the files online so I can grab them? If you want to get access from Mike you could upload and add yourself to the credit list at SharePoint yourself.

We can use more of all the races. Listen to what is on SharePoint,
look at this list below and just make up your own words to fit the race.

Original Romulan Voice Clips:
(Attack Subset)

Attack formation
Charge Weapons
Engage Enemy
Fire Torpedoes
Fire Weapons

(Damage Subset)

Hull Damaged
Shields Degraded
Shields Down
Ship Destroyed
Station Destroyed
Venting Plasma
Vessel Destroyed

(Defensive Subset)

Defend Region
Defensive Stance
Disengage Combat
Patrol Region

~S~

Posted in another part of the forums, will be more then happy to do the "GAME BALANCE AND PLAY TESTING"