okay.. chess

anyway what eventually needs to be done is to "prepare" all those text lines describing the events for the final implementation in some sort of code-similar pattern in order to take as much of the thinking work away from the devs as possible, i.e. to make a list in which effects, pre-conditions and different outcomes are already listed in full!
I don't think many "interactive" random events with user-choices and galaxy conditions to be taken into account !over a period of turns! (simple user-choices will much likely be implemented) will ever get programmed, it just kind of blows up the (time-)frame like we say here ..

"That unprincipled, evil-minded lecherous kulak Harry Mudd programmed you? ... This place is even better than Leningrad."
-- Chekov From TOS 041

So reading into what you are saying Mars_2 could list in text the "general" kinds of random events possible numbering no more than 30. By general we would mean one general kind of event hurts your ships in that area. The devs or Mars_2 could program the code.

The "specific" nature of the event could be randomized to show up as an ion storm or disruption of subspace or Q or whatever else. The severity and specific kind of damage to ships could be randomized in the single general coding subroutine.

We could even reduce the general kind of events to 10 or so but have 4, 5 or more specific causes named for the one general event. With the outcome randomized the total number of specific events with outcome combinations could be in the hundreds for only 10 or so coding subroutines writen.

So much to comment on... and I'm behind from a busier-than-expected workload this week, so it will take me a while to catch up.

One of my colleagues at SwRI released an asteroid impact-related theory we've been holding onto for a while... resulting in a flood of media attention (as we figured there would be - it's a pretty interesting detective story). If you google "Baptistina" and "dinosaur", you'll find some of the iterations out there in media-land.

Basically, we think we have the lowdown on the bullet that killed the dinosaurs. A pretty big asteroid impact occurred in the main belt over 100 million years ago, right smack on top of a Jupiter "resonance" orbit - the effect of which was to fling some remnants of the impact into the inner solar system. It's statistically likely that these remnants caused the Chixalub (sp) impact and also the Tycho crater on the Moon, plus probably dozens of other large impacts in the inner solar system... continuing on into present times.

My small part in all this was to do some of the asteroid impact modeling, trying to nail down the size and relative velocity of the asteroids. Oh, I made a few pretty movies of the impact too. Gotta always have pretty movies.

I'll try to catch up on various topics over the next few days...

One thing I'll mention right away, however - THANKS to several of you who offered to buy my novel - that's very kind of you!! But if you do, don't get it from Amazon because you'll pay more. The 4frontiers store and the http://www.shadowsofmedusa.com website have the book for roughly half-price... and more of the proceeds go to a better cause than a greedy publisher: 4frontiers, or me!

And a quick answer to a question from Malvoisin about how fast you'd see the effects of a big asteroid impact... some of the worst effects would happen very quickly. Within a couple hours of the impact, you'd have global flash-fires caused by atmospheric heating from all the reentering ejecta, especially on the opposite side of the planet from the impact. Even worse, you'd most likely soon get sulfuric acid rain, too. Within a game turn, whether that's 2 years or a month, you'd have significant population loss... however, some people could escape in ships too, if they could launch within a few hours of the event. Longer term, over many years (10?), you'd have more dust in the atmosphere that could lower temperatures and crop yields. All sorts of nasty effects... I'll try to find a good article that sums it up better.

Cheers,

- Brian

a probably >90%? nice! seems very valid to me..

totally agreed ...hm, if these images are derived from your videos, those must be real art-work
please use image shack and thumnail photos, that pic is way to big

anyway, that kinda leads me to a thing I was pondering on for quite some time, i.e. some kind of botf intro video for the game but it's just a thought..

Ooh so you were one of the guys that worked on Baptistina were you? I've been reading up on it myself - I get weekly science emails from a yahoo group called world science and Baptistina was their main story this week.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070905_baptistina.htm

Nice images - certainly better than what I can do. All I can do is muck around with MS Paint, Irfanview, and GIF Movie Gear 4.0 - which is how I managed to animate my avatar. I didn't even make the little guy, Jigalypuff changed my avatar to him as a joke a year or two ago. I haven't got a clue how Jig made him. It would take me months to fill in the pixels like that so it looks 3D.

I've got a copy of Paint Shop Pro 9 but I just don't understand it. It keeps referring to "layers" and other wierd stuff - I just want to make and edit pictures!

...



Actually it is something that people have mentioned before - including myself - but nothing as of yet has come about. We thought about maybe making something along the lines of the original BOTF promo video (Which is available on the armadafleetcommand parent forums in the downloads section under Patches. The download is called The BOTF Movie, but I can't give you the link because you need to be signed into those forums before you can download it.

Armadafleetcommand(BOTF) /Downloads/Patches/The BOTF Movie

Actually, I think we had a convo on the movie in the staff room...I'll see if I can dig it out.

I hope we can have nice graphics, 2D still or even movie, for all the random events.

We still need them for more of the minor race structures.




Can you select NASA images for us to use in areas such as random events and
minor race structures? : Mike can set you up with access to SharePoint and
point out file types needed. I can convert most file types if you do not
have the image software. :roll

Gotta throw out a disclaimer ... when it comes to the incredible artwork like Malvoisin found, that's way beyond my skills too. I'm like Matress when it comes to most things - I couldn't render or animate my way out of a wet paper bag.

However, my best set of simulation tools comes with an animation package that lets me make some crude movies of the simulated impacts. The movies are geared more towards science (i.e. visualization of the results). I've helped to extend the tools over the years too, so things are getting better.

To see what 100,000 exploding, sticky particles looks like, search for "Baptistina" on my movie page: http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~benke/pres ... ovies.html


On the other hand, I do also know several very good space artists! So if anyone needs some dazzling artwork for an intro or in-game random events, I could try to make some contacts. These artists tend to like being paid, however, since their art puts food on their table... but some might be flexible too...

Speaking of good artwork - I LOVE mstroebel's Supremacy intro... excellent art!!

About the >90% Baptistina probability - yes, the scientists spent a LOT of time (almost a year) trying to cover all their bases and account for all reasonable possibilities because they knew their results would be questioned closely. Carl Sagan said it best: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

Regarding NASA artwork that Kenneth_of_Borg asked about, unfortunately I only have "public" access... you can find lots of good artwork in various places via google, but it takes a while. NASA has done SO many past space mission and concept studies that end up with beautiful artwork getting buried.

By the way, Kenneth_of_Borg's image capture of his cube's attack on the USS Constellation sends shivers up my spine - excellent artwork there, no? The Borg take pride in their work. Hollywood is probably the best source of game-related artwork, me thinks...

Regarding random event formulas, as was speculated above... seems reasonable that we could generalize certain random events and program the formulas into the game rather then the specific events.

We might lose something in the process, regarding the impact (on the player) of the event - the events might end up being watered down, generic, cookie-cutter happenings. But if we keep that in mind up-front and try to spice things up with some randomization within each event... this approach sounds good to me!

For example, it seems simple for an asteroid/comet hazard random event to have a variable level of initial detection (EXCELLENT thoughts on that in the earlier posts, by the way - yes early detection in settled systems with a scanner and OB's is a GREAT idea IMHO), and also variable levels of damage and duration proportional to the scope of the impact. So planetary impacts could follow a general formula with "magnitude" and "advanced warning" as randomized parameters.

Nice!

Sounds good. We all understand about the time it takes.
This is a hobby and career and family come first.

I will continue my work on the major race fleets for now.
When that is done I can Google out non copywrite protected
images for the other stuff. (If Zeleni has not done all that
for us by then.) If you do happen on downloadable images
you think we can use just post in a link.

It sounds like you have a good background to work with the
random events planning. As MOE pointed out here is what
we have so far.

http://www.botf2.com/Shared%20Documents ... 20List.txt

http://www.botf2.com/Shared%20Documents ... Incomplete).txt

I think you can work it out to more detail. When you do
the Borg art department can go to work on it. If that is
what you would like to do the admins can set up a stick
for the ongoing work.

PS: the image above is from the re-mastered original series.
It was the attack by a Doomsday Machine episode.
You remember, the giant killer ice sickle thing - the captain
of the Constilation was obsessed with stopping it to the
point of over acting.

as for the artwork..I "hired" a couple of talented guys over at http://www.trekmeshes.ch and put their images on http://www.botf2.com/bote/shared%20docu ... 20screens/ . They'll be featured in-game probably when alpha5 comes out or sooner as a separate update. We'll see..

Ah - I stand corrected - the Constellation was not your handiwork. Still great artwork, though!

As for overacting commodores... LOL...

I recall an old trek novel where a super-doomsday machine was used to counter a Borg attack - or at least I think it was a Borg attack. Or some other nasty out there. Interesting book...

For my main involvements with the various projects, it's looking more AI-related (combat and/or general game AIs)... those might be the areas I can help with most. I'd love to see these games have killer AIs. The random events and most other areas seem like they already have some good momentum built up - but I'd sure like to stay involved in those discussions too. Maybe I can contribute a future thought or two... plus there might be some intersection between AI and other areas...

Sound good out there?

There is an older AI wiki hanging about though its been sorely neglected sadly on my part as my knowledge on AI doesn't extend to gaming at the moment.

It was i think going to be amalgamated into the main BOTF Wiki but wasn't in the end, type in BOTFII AI into google and you should see it. I would speak to Mstrobel if you want to have it moved over if it is at all possible and rewrite or add to it.

Regards Wolfe