Archive through December 26, 2002
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Archive through December 26, 2002
FLAMEBAIT! Nobody respond to that. Even if you have good points to make.
Heh. Whatever Geoff.
Likewise Paul S.
Making Friends?
I fixed many of the links.
Ie should now be able to browse the links.
http://alphastrike.topcities.com/CAMPAIGN.html
There are still some broken links but the majority are now up.
V3, IS NOT A HAPLESS MESS! (and yes I did mean to use the capitals). My computer is in order and working just fine. I have No problems (other than counter cut-off which I've been assured is fixed for the next update).
Whoever Metal-Dog is ran out on me frustrated because he thought he was having problems. all he had to do was wait for me to press the synchronize maps/boards button and he would've been just fine.
Now I'm sittin here, X-mas eve, no family or friends, and all I can do is read up on drone rules because Someone wont reply to the questions I've asked about Mod E1 and SFBOL. Figures.
Before one more bad word is spent on SFBOL V3 I've got one, learn to use your computer! (or fix it, whichever applies).
God I needed to say that!
Anyone wanna play? 
Ah, I see. Anyone who doesn't like V3 doesn't know how to use their computer. It couldn't be that we just prefer the old controls that we have used for more than 3 years. Or that some of us hate using programs for which their are no user manuals to let us know how to do things.
Just because you like it Aaron doesn't mean everyone else has to. I have the latest version and I find it difficult to use. I would really like a manual to answer my questions, and when one is forthcoming I will read it and use the new version. Until that time I will not be using it.
Let me make it simple, you use what you want and I will use what I want, how does that sound?
Stephen
Stephen: How does this sound, don't badmouth mine and I won't badmouth yours. New players watch this and wont join because they think V3 doesn't work. well it does; and case in point just because you think what your used to for 3 years is easier than v3, just say so; don't say V3 is broke, it aint.
And by the way, some of the folks out there DONT know how to take care of their comps. If you do, good, then that statement was not directed at you.
I didn't say V2 was worse than V3, but you took it that way. My point is that V3 works and it supports regular game play, not just tourney.
I echo Moose's comments - I won't use v3 for anything except for Tourney Tartar playtest until a User Manual is available.
Aaron -- I'm working now. I'll answer your email on Thursday. I still have not gotten permission from the appropriate parties to load LMC stuff on SFBOL 3.x and much of what you asked is stuff I don't know 3.x well enough to know how to respond to.
The 3.2 manual has been postponed. Instead they have released an IRC-based artificial intelligence nicknamed "Lessss". Since Lessss is such a feat of engineering, they can only afford the mainframe time to run him on Wed, Thur, Fri and every 2nd Sat.
It is quite helpful, but beware, Lessss is a very advanced program and often beats its pupils silly in the course of "educating" them.
Manuals suck. I never read them.
That said, there is a huge difference between not liking 3.x (pleanty in there that I don't like still, as compared to 2.x) and calling 3.x a hopeless mess. It is not a hopeless mess. It is actually a very good program to play SFB on. I still prefer 2.x for playing tournament games, mostly because I trust 2.x to work flawlessly, but 3.x has more to offer in total. Once 3.x is as reliable as 2.x, it will be the better total package (though there are still differences - in particular the inability to float the chat consol seperately from the map and the inability to declare certain windows "always on top" - that I woud strongly prefer done the way 2.x does it).
I'm echoing Aaron. V3 is NOT a hopeless mess. It is a reasonably reliable program. It does need a user manual. (Besides Lesss That AI needs a break.)
Paul S: I do like V3 as well as V2. Simply I prefer V2 so far because I don't have to think about the interface at all. (Except in trac drag's.) V3 does have a reliability issue. But it has improved greatly since the Beta release.
Aaron: Ask me and I probably will give you a game if you catch me online when I dont have a tourney game going. Generally I can play Tuesday-Thursday night. (Nothings wrong with tourney games. But I see that you have a problem with them.)
FOOC ROTFL
Ok, good. I'm glad some people still like how V2 functions. V2 is still available. have fun.
With that said...
As for those who would like to play something other than tourney; (even just for a little while) it can be done on v3 but not V2, which is of course the obvious advantage of V3.
first, with just about any game not done tourney style, you have to be prepared for a longer game because you are using more rules (and often playing more than one ship).
Second, V3 has not been perfected yet because there are more rules that need to be accounted for in the program. If I may say an EXCELLENT job has been done thus far by Paul Franz, Les LeBlanc, and others who have contributed immensely to bringing V3 to reality.
Third, bug reports are there for those experiencing problems, and from what I've seen Paul and Les have been industrious in answering questions and fixing problems dealing with bugs.
And finally, I've been noticing that alot of players are not having problems with bugs but rather voicing how much they don't like it because it's different from V2. Remember, the glass is half full. If you're using V3 it's going to take you longer to play anyway.
However a manual, even something dinky, could be useful.
KJ: Yes I have a problem with tourney, and my mind is set and won't budge in that area.
It dumbs down some players who desire to play with EW and other rules in the original game setting. I can't believe how much I've lost memory wise from lack of play.
Further, my favorite race is Klingon and I feel that tourney has taken away so much of the racial flavor from all races (but especially the klingons) that I can't really enjoy myself playing tourney style. So, never again will I play that way. I hate being a sore loser rather than being a glass is half full type of guy.
I could go on but there's no point really; I don't enjoy playing tourney rules and that's just it.
To me, the biggest issue with 3.x is that 1) the chat window cannot undock and 2) the chat window is never "Always On Top".
Seriously, look at Photoshop or Illustrator. There should be a series of small, compact controlls that take up less than 25% of the screen real estate volume that the player can drag around independantly, so they can put the controls where they're most comfortable with them. (For instance, I's put the impulse bar floating over the "top" edge of the map, where it's prominent, and drag the chat window to the lower left or lower right -- whatever corner wasn't in use at the time.)
Tha map layer should be "fixed" as the bottom most "Z layer" on screen.
A secondary issue is that I cannot change the font size/type on the text entry part of the Chat Window so that I can actually read what I'm typing and correct it.
I've also never managed to get a game to completw with 3.x without it crashing on me or someone else...which means that 2.5.x tends to get the opponents because they know it's stable.
In this case "Good enough" is the enemy of "better than"
It's a good start. User interface issues and stability are more important than new features right now.
Hmmmm, my computer must have a problem then because it never crashes, wait did....I just say something that doesn't make sense?
Good points as far as what players seem to like as far as organization. I have a laptop with small screen (but really good eyesight) so I can sympathize on the organization of the screen.
Did you see the counter I did for the Maghadim Ken? What do you think, or can you tell me what the color layout for each race (LMC) is supposed to be?
Ken,
Stability Issue: This is only third report I have heard about this. When people having a problem with the client, I need people to a) report it to me, b) sending me the debug.out.*, debug.err.* file this will help me debug a problem that I have never experienced. So far the two cases I have heard about were caused by 1) an old version of the MS JVM being run (they switched to the Sun JVM 1.4.x and that solved their problem) 2) an old version of the client that was incompatible with the latest client.
Client "crashing": Define crashing. What a user would consider crashing, I might consider a lock up or JVM problem. I have heard about some of your problems with an un-responsive system. Though, I am not sure why this would occur. It might be when people enter the room it automatically syncs up causing around 5K to 30K of data to be sent out from your machine (if you are a player). This would make any network stuff be delayed until the pipe is cleared. (i.e. sending messages to the people, etc).I am making some changes in the hope that they will help things. (Making things more consistent, changing a dialog to be modeless, etc)
Changing the font size/type on text entry: This was fixed in the latest release. Just change the Default font/color and it will change it.
No separate chat area: I am planning on adding the chat area to the pieces list dialog and giving the user the option to remove the chat area from the map area. Do you think this will be sufficent?
Paul Franz
Paul you can change the font size and colour on the command line??? How? Default Text?
As I stated in my post, SFBOL v3.x is a hopeless mess, IN MY OPINION. Other people are welcome to their opinion.
And there is not a huge difference between not liking v3 and stating that v3 is a hopeless mess Paul. I dislike v3 BECAUSE it is a hopeless mess (again, imo).
V3 is very non-user friendly in addition to being incredibly buggy. It is not ready (imo) for beta testing because of those 2 issues. I beta tested both the original SFBOL and SFC volI. I could PLAY both and still have FUN despite the bugs.
I CANNOT do that with v3. And thus why I stated that I look forward to v4. And I only stated that here because I had wanted to run a campaign via v3.x, which will now wait for v4. It was not 'flamebait'. I find flames a waste of time and I do not waste my time.
(caps used for clarity only)
ok, see ya in version 4. I'm going to go have fun in V3. I've experienced no problems. when I do, there's the bug reports and I have confidence in Paul's ability to solve any problem I may have.
For ME it IS user friendly.
Opionions about the relative strengths/weaknesses of various clients do not belong in this thread.
http://alphastrike.topcities.com/CAMPAIGN.html
Thanks Dave!
Les, Read your campaign rules. Ok, but I have no Idea what you mean on some things. 4 turns equal one year: Is a pulse a month or part of the sequence of play? (Remember, I want to play F&E one day but still haven't found anyone to play with.)