Hi guys, I'm new, and I've decided to lurk no longer and make myself heard

Firstly, YES, a new BOTF, at last! Even though I haven't played BOTF in like 6 years, erm partly cause my friend hasn't given the CD back, I still remember it as one of the best games I've ever played, and so I've tried to keep an eye out for BOTF2, hoping that a sequel might be in the works.

But to be honest... I had lost hope that I would ever play BOTF2, especially with more and more real life stuff occupying my increasingly cramped brain Now that I've got some spare time to relax cause I've finished my degree and I'm having a "looking for job / post-grad gap-year / being a poor & unemployed bum" sort of year, I've stumbled on to this site.

I've got to say I'm amazed at the effort that's been put in by so many enthusiastic people, I feel strangely inspired, and I've begun getting reacquainted with the original BOTF (torrent'd!) I've downloaded and played with Supremacy too, for an alpha, it is top stuff, I was suprised with the really slick UI I haven't got far into it yet, and it feels the pace is a little slower than BOTF1? But I still reckon it's gonna be awesome when the final release comes out, I'll start posting in the feedback thread anything that I like soon (and dislike ). Hopefully that will help the developer, I want to help in any way I can!

Strings

no need to torrent it, but anyway good mods to get ideas and improved balancing data are available at http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf for example. look at community forums, modding, and then Installer Enhanced Mods (sticky topic there). there are plenty of mods to choose from which really upgrade the game (only the AI still sucks.. ).

but anyway welcome aboard. you might want to have a look also at Birth of the Empires (at least the threads and the screenshots atm.). The game is - as mentioned on various places here at the site - pretty advanced already and one or two years ahead of Supremacy in development (we started two years earlier than mike ). If you're a creative person, who knows how to write a good background story or descriptive texts or even a graphics master you find enough things to do to help FoxURA and us to develop a new content for BotE to be legally on perfect solid ground. Head over to the Modding Section here and look at the recents threads for BotE. Also, a (wiki) site for (all) our project(s) here where you can get those information a little more "concentrated" is http://www.botf2.com/bote and http://www.botf2.com/bote/wiki !

hope you find that interesting enough to do in your spare time now (I do ).

Welcome
Take a look
http://botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/vi ... f=5&t=1752

Thanks for the link to the AFC forums, there I found the enhanced installer as you said, plus the UDM, which sounds a lot of fun . I really appreciate the enhancer mod, I hope it balances things a bit, I just got killed by the damn Borg and my entire fleet couldn't even make a dent in it in my last stand.

I see from Kenneth's link what kind of help is needed, but I'm afraid I am no good save for a bit of XML, then I looked around on the forums and it seems there are people helping Mike with that already.

I am interested to hear that BOTE is to be "legally on perfect solid ground", it did cross my mind that whoever owns the copyrights to BOTF or Star Trek might not be too happy to see unlicensed development. So, how are you guys going about this? Edit: Nevermind haha, I looked at the BOTE part of the forum, and I understand now.

Good plan, basically... a core game with no ST content + a "unofficial" ST-mod ?

yep, that's the thing. We drop that content and since the rest was programmed by ourselves, no one can catch us then. The idea of a botf-like gameplay cannot be copyrighted so we're perfectly fine then.

Euch...legalese isn't my specialty as everyone on the forums knows, so i'm not going to saying much about it. Things are changing though, and we are conscious of the fact that we may be stepping on some legal toes. We're trying our best not to do so, but the whole point of BOTF2 is to fulfill a growing need for a "decent" Trek game - and one in a genre that would be non-existant Trek-wise if it wasn't for BOTF.

We have all spent the last 7/8 years waiting for a sucessor to BOTF to come around - or even a similar concept - and nothing has happened. The big companies have missed a massive opportunity with BOTF2, and now we've taken things into our own hands. If the companies want to top the game then fine - JUST MAKE THE GAME FOR US! Please?

...

Supremacy may be running slow at the moment purely because it isn't complete yet. I am working on the latest updates myself, which *should* be ready by tomorrow with a bit of luck. It'll be up to Mike (The developer, aka MStrobel) to decide when he releases my update, but you can always send me a PM and i'll give you the updated files. Your really should wait for Mike's updates though as they aren't just content updates.

...

If you're looking to help with the games, then pretty much anything game-related that you can think of would be useful - art/graphics/interfaces, models/textures, music/sound effects, writing -anything and everything would be useful. We are a fan-based community and so it is the fans that are making the content. Don't hesitate to have a go at making something that youthink will be useful to the project; even if someone has already made that specific graphic/sound/text doesn't mean that the existing version is better than yours! We will use the best work, so having multiple versions of the same thing will only help to boost the quality of the final product. And anything that isn't used could easily be used in a mod or something, so you're almost guaranteed that your work will make it into the game(s) in some form or other!

All of the shared content for the various games is being kept on a Sharepoint server, so everyone can access it. If you want a look, the site is Here.

If you've made something for the game(s), you can either submit it the the site yourself, or send it to someone who can do it for you. You need an account to edit/add/delete files on Sharepoint, which you can get if you PM Mstrobel with your email address.

Welcome to the site.

*Edit - damn you Mal, posting while I was typing. That's just not acceptable.

Hahaha, thanks for the welcome. I didn't realise this has been going on for 8 years, so I can really understand why you wouldn't mind a professional game studio to come swoop up the project and finish it. But still it seems a bit of a waste and I rather like the community spirit of making the game ourselves!

I've looked around and found the SharePoint site yesterday, I went straight for the models since I modded Total Annihilation when I was younger (a RTS game in the same gaming era as BOTF) and I always fancied playing about with game models.

I loaded up the Defiant model by Nemitor for a quick look and found a hole at the bottom of it! I've decided to fix it plus remove some hidden faces inside the ship, brought the total polygon count down by about 200, plus halved the vertices in the model (There were loads of not joined up vertices!)

Can i sent it to you and you can upload it? I'll get an account later

I'll go grab some screenshots.

you might got that wrong, we do not want any professional studio to swoop in and take us over, that's why we do the change, to become less vulnerable to (sneaky) attacks .

anyway, for uploading, you have to pm mstrobel. he can set you up an account. big thx for wanting to help us with the models!

Nono, BOTF1 was created in 1999 - 8 years ago. This BOTF2 project has been around since about September 2004 - 4 months before I joined - but there have been at least three other BOTF2 projects that failed miserably for different reasons.

And as Mal said, we don't want a professional company to take us over - but for them to have the same sort of concept and make one themselves. Just leave us alone!

...

Ah, so you can do models can you? Then that's a useful skill! By all means, do whatever you can with our models to lower the poly count/fix them. Obviously the models that are on there are there because we have obtained permission to use them, but i'm not sure if we have permission to edit them. Nemitor is one of the forum admin though, so I know he won't mind you playing around with his Defiant. You can always send him a PM though if you decided you wanted to check though.

Until you've got an account, send any models that you have to Kenneth_of_Borg - he's sorting out all the models for us. I haven't even looked at the models since the last time I updated the shiplist - which is admittedly a long time ago.

I'll get round to doing it...one day...

Ahh, I understand better now. Hehe sorry for causing a stir.

Well, here's the hole on the underside


Nemitor's Defiant model and texturing rocks as it is, although when imported and texture applied it left a strange hole at the bottom, which is fixed now.

Final render of optimized model with 692 polys

I come home to see my ship textured and looking incredible. It's a dream come true!

Hehehe so you don't mind me editting it, good good

Hello Strings. Yes, I have been doing a lot of the organizing, building and collecting of models along with Zeleni, Models Please, Trashman and others.

Mike, (Mstrobel) can give you access to SharePoint to upload files, ext. You can see for yourself how I have organized the filing of models. There is a lot of work to do on models and we can use your help there for sure. If you are fixing / cleaning up and it is one of my models just do it. Show me later. I will not be insulted. When I first came to this site the need for models was apparent. To do this I learned how to make models. It sounds like you have more skill at this than I do. I will be glad to learn from anything you can show me. Completing this project is more important than my pride.

If you find a file about permission / credit on SharePoint for a model we took online please check about modifications in any attached information file. Here is some info about SharePoint files (but you likely already know this)


http://botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/vi ... =11&t=1760

You have seen the shiplist this is based on

http://botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/vi ... 36&start=0

The SharePoint Image library is a good place to see what we have and the library of model files can show you what we need. Besides the empty folders there are a lot of ships taken online that need to be fixed or replaced. Some are there just because it gave me an idea about what I wanted to build for that slot.

I am currently working on the Klingon Starbase II. You will see that transports, colony ships and bases are one thing we did not find a lot of online. Again welcome and I am so glad to have more help putting this all together. We will have something close to 300 models when it is all done.

We are using 3ds just because we had to start with something. The 3d engine is yet to be built / acquired. It will be the last thing to install in the games so we will convert to the required formate when we know what that is.

Oh and Zeleni has a lot of completed ships for the minor races he will be uploading in a while. He has done most of the work on the minor races for us. It would be best for now that you work on the major races so as not to duplicate effort there. There is plenty of work to go around.

Thanks for pointing me to the right threads and letting me what's been done already, and who's doing what


I'm actually very new to modelling, remember I was just fixing up that Defiant model, I don't think I can make it from scratch. The only model I've made so far is an asteroid lol. But anyhow, I appreciate what you said and I hope we can both ask for modelling tips from each other, if you ever need to make a super awesome asteroid, just let me know!

Is there a big spreadsheet of the all the ships that are going in the game, with status of whether it's completed, textured, poly count, etc? I imagine that would be useful, the shiplist thread is not bad, but not clear enough hehe.

I don't mind making one to get a clearer big picture, but if there's already one than I rather not duplicate the effort.

You wouldn't happen to have any experience modeling things like people would you? We have a rather limited number of non-Trek races at the moment for BOTE and could use all the help we can get.

Nope, sorry, I'm much better at programming really than modelling. Plus I like the idea that Matress said about making a 3D combat engine for any of the existing BOTF2 projects, I think I might actually be up to the job. So tonight I'm refining the ideas I have on how I can do it, when they're ready I'll present it to you guys.

I understand. It is not easy to see right off what is built. The Shiplist is, as you have seen, only a list of all that the game needs. To see what is built and what shape it is in look in both the model folders,

http://www.botf2.com/Shared%20Documents ... 44987A3%7d

and the Image Library.

In the model folders I tried to build a sub-folder for each model on the Shiplist. Here try to keep the empty folders labeled as such. You can also get a idea about what we have based on the Image Library.

http://www.botf2.com/Image%20Library/Fo ... ions&View={2EAB3CAC-2EF3-4EA6-85DB-87B0D9B58BA0}

A few are not textured but the mesh is shown naked in the Image Library.

PM Mike to get access to upload and manipulate the files and folders on SharePoint. As work is completed or as you want to show progress post your work in the thread loacted here...

http://botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/vi ... &start=240

fine, looks like things are finally moving along in the 3D programming sector! thanks for giving it a try.

you might have some referential help here: http://tnz2.cateia.com/index.php?arhiv=true and the full source here: http://www.cateia.com/transfers/tnz2-src.rar

screenie here:

We would love to have someone build / adapt or pilfer a 3D engine for us. If you do take charge of the 3D engine let me know what file type the models should be built in. We are currently working in 3DS for lack of a better idea.

Malv., thats old stuff frome Cateia now they are proffesionals. Check out this Star Trek Battlestations homemade game by Mark Hu , project is dead now but guy has finished 3d battle engine, here is cool video http://www.carlhu.com/markhu/gamevideo.wmv and official page http://www.carlhu.com/markhu/index.html

I know someone at us is in contact with cateia programmer right now (took it over himself, also a croatian like those from cateia). I emailed mark hu already but he didn't respond. also in his resume linked on his site, he states he sold the engine to a company called ivita or itiva..

Didn t know there is another Croat apart me on these forum?? Oh yes Trashman, i think is Croat too. Mark Hu sold it , thats bad , i really liked his engine

he calls himself MARVELOUS (;)) and "lives" on our german board (speaks german) http://www.birth-of-the-empires.de -> Forum

Saving in 3DS is perfect cause it'll allow me to correct minor things (ships facing the wrong way etc) before I export them to .x (DirectX format). Stuff like that would be harder to correct if it was in .x format already.

Cool, hopefully I can understand the TNZ2 source, C++ isn't my strongest language but I can see many ideas in TNZ2 that might be adaptable for a BOTF style combat system. Subsystems (think disabling vessels instead of destroying), tractor beams, plus I quite like the 4 way directional shields but I'm not sure how to fit it in with the current shields strength system, (simply divide by 4? hmm, maybe it'll make it too complex). Oh, we gotta have the eject warp core command, more for comical reasons than anything. http://tnz2.cateia.com/gallery/navEX.jpg

The other game Battlestations, I like the trails the ships left behind I will try putting that in, but a little shorter / fainter so it's more in line with what appears on screen (as the plasma exhaust or ion trail or whatever :p ) Allies warping in to help is also pretty cool, good inspiring stuff!

Edit: I realy should finish my posts before I submit them, lol.

that cateia guy is willing to help (in a reasonalbe fashion) anyone with programming questions, so if you have scoured through the source and didn't understand a few things, just mail him .

Lol, i've also been buliding up a 3D combat engine based upon the 'Irrlicht Engine'

Gave me a chance to start learning C# properly, plenty of tutorials and fun to do, though slowed down at the moment due to finding work

Give the engine a look you never know.

Regards Wolfe

now they come out of their houses do they..

where can I download the engine? Sharepoint?

Err, i've got little to give, any work i've done is held in diffreant files based upon what i was testing, be it lighting effects, mesh manipualtion and various camera styles, which are a pain .

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/index.html

That is the website with the Engine, its completely free and usable.

It's origninally based in C++ but there is a small section who have overhauled it for C# and support it and converting C++ code to C# is reletively trivial.

Regards Wolfe

I've heard of the Irrlicht Engine, when I was looking at the wikipedia article for parallax mapping (...so pretty...) It's really good from the looks of it, I think you should carry on and make a prototype combat engine, then we compare notes