How do you use the G-rack to fire ADD?

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Monday, March 15, 2010 - 06:22 am: Edit

Load it with ADD rounds
regards
Stacy

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, March 15, 2010 - 06:30 am: Edit

I have this in the next update that will let you fire ADD rounds from a G rack.

By Roch Chartrand (Rochc) on Monday, March 15, 2010 - 10:35 am: Edit

Hi Paul,
I ran into some mismatch between the SFBOL Activity Window and the SFB Annex 2: Sequence of Play.

SFBOL Activity 6B7:
-Operate Shield
-Operate transporter (include transport T-Bombs)

SFB Annex 2 Step 6B7:
-Operate Shield
-Operate transporter (include transport T-Bombs)
-Mines laid two impulses previously by transporter become active

To announce T-Bombs activation in SFBOL it seem you have to use Activity 6B10, but this same step in the Annex 2 is for activation of T-Bombs roll out from the shttl hatch.

Situation that triggers this post, opponent called for activity and used 6B7 to transport a T-Bomb, my activity to answer is call was 6D1 to fire some weapons. When activity was revealed 6B7 toke over and my activity was cancel. Opponent already had T-Bombs on the map that where due to be activated. So he called activity again and use 6B10 to announce the activation of is T-Bombs, my activity answer at that moment was still 6D1. Activity was revealed and his toke over, I realize that I could still roll out a T-Bomb to prevent if ship to get closer so I called activity and I realize that Step 6B10 was already used. According to Annex 2 my opponent T-bombs activation announcement should have taken place in step 6B7 after the step operate transporter in 6B7, so I would still had the use of 6B10 to roll out my T-Bomb. But because the SFBOL Activity step 6B7 lack this instruction I was would held from doing my action.

Other mismatch is the step to fire Hellbore in the first and second firing option normally found in step 6D2 of annex 2, SFBOL Activity 6D2 only have the Aegis fire step listed. This mismatch may be due to my misunderstanding of the weapons selection mode in step 6D1.

Thanks

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 10:45 am: Edit

Thanks Ken and 'Tugger' for helping me last night get familiar with SFBOL. I see where it will take several times to really get fluid with it. Is there a way to set up a practice room or anything so that I can get more familiar before/between my next game?

By Fred J. Kreller (Kreller1) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 10:54 am: Edit

If you have a demo account, you are fairly limited, but if you are subscribed, you can always go in and open up a room and have at it. I do this all the time to prep for an upcoming battle.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 11:45 am: Edit

Is this 'practice' room that you open up an actual battle against another ship? If so, do you control both?

This morning I went in and opened up a room, picked a ship and went through little things like getting familiar with filling out EA form, drone load out, speed plot etc. But didn't know if I could pick another ship as well to go against for practice...and if I could I didn't know how to 'get going' so to speak. In the one game last night, Tugger was in control of starting the action.

By Fred J. Kreller (Kreller1) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 01:54 pm: Edit

Yes, you can control all the ships/units you put on the board. Once you have completed your EA, you would normally hit the "reveal EW/speed" button, and this sets all your units speeds for you. Then all you have to do to proceed to the first impulse is hit the "next" button. This will then show Impulse 1.1, then hit it again for the next impulse, etc. You also have a previous impulse button if you need to go back one. This is enough to at least get your feet wet, but keep using the client and playing games with other players, and you will pick it up pretty fast.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 02:13 pm: Edit

Thank you sir.

By Fred J. Kreller (Kreller1) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 03:14 pm: Edit

No problem. My callsign is Krellex, so if you have a question, or want me to fly, let me know.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 08:32 am: Edit

Sounds good.

I'll try to get in there and get a little practice time so that I'm more comfortable with the 'where and how' of the system. I'm not expecting to get in there and dominate the universe, but I'd at least like to give my opponent a good game with few delays and/or mistakes. I'm sure I'll still have questions that come up though. I'd like to get proficent enough to get into one of these tournaments in the near future.

I'm going by ikvavenger, I'll look for you when I log in.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 01:24 pm: Edit

David,
If you could do me a favor. If any, is confusing or not where you expect to be or the way you expect the client to behave. Please write it down and send it to me when you get a chance.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 02:21 pm: Edit

I will do that Paul. Ken was good enough to call me on the phone and guide me through quite a bit. It all seems pretty straight-forward. It will simply take running through it a few times to remember where everything is located.

I can tell you some of the things that I liked right away;

*Being able to communicate with the person I'm playing via the chat screen. That really helped out, not just to make it more personable, but when I had a question. Also the 'wait/thinking' quick tabs are nice so the other person isn't wondering where I went.

*Range to target box was very useful. Eliminated the need to constantly stop and count the hexes.

*Having damage automatically allocated on the SSD was a nice feature, but being able to go back and make changes was something I'm glad we're able to do.

*Speed plot feature is excellent. I'll need more experience with it as this is a new rule for me.

*Point of turn/slip markers are very helpful.

Those are some of the things that really popped out at me the other night. I've only had the one partial game but enjoyed it. I'm hoping tomorrow night I can get back in there for at least a practice run. Like I said, it will just take a few times to really get it down so that I can flip around from function to function fluidly.

And I need to throw this in as well; it is nice to get into something like this where the people are friendly and more than willing to take the new guy under their wing. While I was on that one evening I had some great chats with several people with them giving advice and tips. That is kind of a rarity on the net these days and for a new guy to have to learn a new online system AND new/advanced rules he's not used to AND remember the good tactics he used to know years ago...well this kind of courtesy just makes me want to get involved, learn and be a part of this online community.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 02:40 pm: Edit

Paul, when will we get the automatic damage calculator?

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 03:48 pm: Edit

As someone who has played SFBOL for a few years now, I can say that there are probably a number of cool features in the client that I don't use because I don't know about them. And the reason I don't know about them is because the documentation is lacking or hopelessly out of date.

In general, I think the client is pretty nifty, and the SFBOL community is very helpful, but it is a shame that the documentation is in such a sorry state.

By Chad Carew (Blackhawkckc) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 03:54 pm: Edit

I agree with Andy, and I wish I had time to rewrite the old walkthrough myself, rather than just say its old and needs updating. Possibly will be able to help rewrite it in 6-8 weeks though. No promises but I am willing to tentatively volunteer.

Dave: welcome to the shark tank. There's tuna in the corner.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - 04:00 pm: Edit

Oh, tuna sandwich!

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Monday, March 29, 2010 - 10:20 am: Edit

Have a question please, I've just upgraded to the paid SFBOL subscription and I'm enjoying the gaming. So far I've only used the 'Star Fleet Battles (Tournament) option when selecting the type of game to play.

This morning I click on the 'Star Fleet Battles' option (non-tournament) to see what it looked like. I created a room and then tried to add a ship. I'm giving the 'Piece Select Dialog' box. In it I can view all of the tourny ships under the 'tourny' tab, I can view all types of shuttles under the 'other' tab. Under the 'terrain/monsters' tab are multiple choices as well. Under the 'library' tab is nothing. Even if I select a specific race, nothing shows up under this tab.

How would a player select ships, other than tourny ships, to use. For example if I wanted to use a Fed DD or a Klingon D5 or maybe recreate a CL scenario with several regular non-tournament ship in a single scenerio?

By Chad Carew (Blackhawkckc) on Monday, March 29, 2010 - 10:37 am: Edit

Hey Dave. You need to download the ship library. Go to Tools->Library. Select the "SFB" tab. Click the "Update List" button. It will ask if you want to check for updates. Choose Yes. Once complete, click the "Download" button. Let it run... it can take a while... Once done, I recommend restarting the client. Repeat procedure for each tab, if desired.

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Monday, March 29, 2010 - 12:16 pm: Edit

Excellent, thank you! Got it all done just now

By David Schultz (Ikvavenger) on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 06:02 pm: Edit

New question; I've downloaded the client onto my laptop and that's what I use to play as a paid subscriber. I have a desk top as well that is on the same service. My son has expressed an interest in playing the online version. Am I able to download the client to the desk top and we play each other while he's on the desk top and I'm on the lap top?

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 06:12 pm: Edit

Dave,

Simple answer.

The following are free.

1. The client is a free download.
2. All the files in the library are a free download.
3. Watching any game is free.
4. Playing a Fed or Klingon Tournament cruiser is free.

The following require a paid account.

1. Playing in anything other than tournament or playing any tournament ship other than Fed or Klingon.

If you want to play your son, you will either have to purchase a second account or... you'll have to play tournament and one of you will have to play the Fed or Klingon in Demo mode.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - 08:19 pm: Edit

The files in the library are free with a subscription.

By Seth Iniguez (Sutehk) on Monday, April 26, 2010 - 08:08 am: Edit

Anyone know if the Java platform runs on Linux?

By Chad Carew (Blackhawkckc) on Monday, April 26, 2010 - 09:19 am: Edit

It does. I use the client with mandriva linux 2010 X86_64 all the time (but use the 32 bit java, not the 64)