Subscription Based SSD Viewer
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Subscription Based SSD Viewer
So I wrote a little app (screenshot at http://www.cooltexan.com/sfbdac.png) that creates an SSD, and allocates damage automatically to it. I don't know why I did this, probably because it only took me an hour or two total. Anyway....
I know SVC won't support a PDF/SSD system, and for good reason. He is right, it *will* get pirated horribly and affect the bottom line of a company that isn't exactly Walmart.
ANY method for making those PDFs can, and will, eventually be hacked.
However, what if there was a windows application (and if it sold well, maybe android/iblob/etc later) that allowed you to peruse all the SSDs ever made, search for them by all sorts of criteria, and then when you are ready it'd print one to an image. The image would be watermarked every so slightly, and have an account ID on them.
So you print an SSD, it spits out an SSD unique to you on a specific time/date with watermarks that are barely visible, but also contain account information.
In addition, it would be possible to only allow the printing when the application is online, and it could validate a specific ship was printed by a specific account at a specific date/time (which would be useful to find the popular or not-so-popular ships!).
Now, would this be perfect? No, you could still open the image in an image editor and take 15 minutes to go and remove most of the watermark evidence. Watermarks could actually be placed in specific patterns to also ID the user who created it. It would be possible, but would be FAR more work than simply scanning them.
So, would users pay $1 to maybe $5 per month for this ability?
Now the better part...
Instead of just printing them, you could actually use the application to track the damage on each ship, saving paper, grease pencils, and speeding up DAC processes. It could automatically tell if the ship is crippled, do campaign repairs, and who knows what all else.
Would *that* be worth it to folks?
What is really cool is this would be *really* easy to write the base code for. In fact, I've already got something working. The screenshot I gave the URL for is fully working (no, you can't have the exe unless SVC says I can distro it) and you can plug in new ships easily, with near zero computer experience.
The ship config files are all text. There is a line for each piece of annex data (like YIS=125), then you have all the systems. Those you simply give a type, number, X/Y, width, arc, section (for boarding), shots, reloads, ADDs, composition (sensor/scanner/dmgcon), and true/false if attached to a Mauler.
If you break every SSD into a grid, half the size of the boxes, everything lines up with that grid. I essentially coded that in, so you can make ships from the same hull in just a couple minutes each.
The hard part was the graphics behind them, which I stripped from FC PDFs, but surely most exist on some ADB persons hard drive. The time consuming part is entering in all those x/y coordinates for ships, perhaps 15 minutes each, but any user can do them.
SVC would have to be behind this of course, this was just an idea I had, and with perhaps 1000 subscribers (I don't know the market for SFB) maybe it'd be helpful to ADB.
Oh, and the SSDs could have "styles" allowing a FC view, or a SFB view, or heck even a F&E counter, with a simple button press.
Good idea or am I just silly and under-sfb educated?
This is a great idea from a utilitarian perspective, but it almost assuredly DOA.
Problem #1 is giving someone who hasn't bought a given Module access to the SSDs from it. Some Modules are just SSDs and ship descriptions. SSDs are the majority of their value.
Problem #2 once it's on my screen, how many different ways are there to capture the image (starting with [print scrn])?
And that's before we talk about the back-end work needed to make this happen. There's a lot of data entry here that would need to be done without cost to the ADB for this to have any possibility of turning a profit.
Well the whole SSD wouldn't be viewable on screen, just some of it. And on screen sure, you can copy/paste, I can't stop that.... but the watermark is always visible.
Since many of my purchased modules are *really* old, and I'm sure many bought them quite legitimately second hand, there is no way to prove people own something already. The only way I can see doing this is charge them $5 or $10 for ship modules, with perhaps $20 for new ones that haven't been out for years.
This allows them a digital version, *with* a digital DAC system (so this is just more than "Scanned SSDs"), and a residual income. Most who would pay would pay simply for the digital DAC, but to have a digital DAC the SSD data *must* be online.
I did look at the SFB online data files today. Not very elegant or versatile, but I could actually write a script to convert every one of those in less than a day.
I could build FC/SFB (or a custom theme users could make) SSD's in milliseconds that'll find the best way to organize the SSDs so all the data fits. I could create damaged SSDs for campaigns. I could track enhanced boarding diagrams pretty easily. Starbase damage would be a snap, etc, etc.
Starfleet Command got me into programming when it came out sooo long ago, I'm just trying to find a way to give back and bring my considerable technology skills to the games I've spent so much of my life living in.
Eric,
Actually, SFB Online already provides support for this. And there is a on going project to convert the current SSDs to a more online version only SSD (i.e. an SSD that is useless outside of the SFB Online program). ADB is not happy with the current SSDs since they are more easily pirated.
Well if it is on paper, it is easily pirated, nothing anybody can do will ever stop that. VHS tapes supposedly were going to kill movies, copiers kill books, etc.
I paid for SFBOL yesterday to take a look, my account is still not valid 
From what I've seen, SFBOL doesn't provide the digital dac thing I mentioned to help players at a table, nor does it provide an extensive search ability based on all sorts of criteria, nor some of the other stuff I mentioned.
And what I was proposing was nothing like showing a SFB SSD, nor the ripped versions I've seen where it just shows #s for everything so aren't as easily pirated. I was going to have essentially a digital finger print on every SSD shown (and it won't even show a complete SSD, just the ship side) so if somebody does do a copy/paste 3500+ times, and create a book of SSDs, it'd be easy to figure out who did it.
I really wonder who is pirating SSDs though. Most of us playing SFB have been in it long before bittorrent, napster, or even the internet was around to distribute the stuff (though I'm sure some have just photocopies their friends books). Heck, I've bought every SFB book and haven't played since 1990, and even though I'll buy all the new books I seriously doubt I'll ever play the game again.
But I can write some code for it ;)
And no, I don't do java. I loathe the interface it presents, and functional or not, its annoying to use a crappy interface. I also don't want to deal with the JRE, which as an IT Director I see huge numbers of issues with various incompatibilities and versioning.
I'm watching this conversation with interest. Anything that would make money for ADB and the creator is a good thing, but not something that would lose money or destroy existing products.
Well if this sorta thing is an acceptable product I could start coding on it and have a demo within a few weeks or so (I am waiting on a new RAID controller for my main computer and it is the holiday season, else it'd be faster).
However it could potentially reduce the sales for future SSD books as people could just pay a smaller amount and get the SSDs through this project. I don't know the numbers, but since no physical media is required for sales of this project, there would have to be some balance where when, say, R13 comes out, the money made from both this product and lessened physical media sales is at least the same as would be expected from physical media sales alone. So perhaps people pay $10 or $15 for the product through this system, or $25-$30 for the physical media.
Ok, I guess I have no idea on all the costs of what this app should charge, so perhaps a survey or something ;)
If SVC gives the ok, I'll start working on a demo that uses the latest tournament cruisers only (so if they are pirated, well, it'd be stupid, as people could download them for free anyway) to see if it is liked as a viable product and if other SSDs should be created.
The graphics at http://jaynz.trekships.org/view_gallery.php?cmd=gallery_ADB.idx could be used if space is available on the SSD (and if they are authorized for use, I dunno) but the vector graphics used on FC cards would be much more suitable for the backgrounds of those tournament cruisers and be far more pleasing to the eye over typical SFB line art.
The great thing is that if this is a hit, it can be updated constantly. Perhaps in the future ships could come out 1-2 a week, a real time browser game could be created using the data from it, ship durability can be tested through billions of internals, BPV could be adjusted based on win/loss rates, players could upload color/font/icon styles. Essentially it could become a living project, improving over time, and keeping people subscribed and interested.
I'm just not real sure of the amount of subscribers it would have, and if it was enough to not only justify the effort, but also help pad the pockets of game designers.
There are a lot of challenges to solve, and I would not suggest you start coding before we do them.
And I'm not sure they could be solved, but I'm willing to listen to ideas.
One big issue I see is a group of people get one subscription and print everybody a copy. How do you solve that?
Another is that if you're thinking that a person would have to pay a per-product fee, how do you balance that with existing products? Will they have to rebuy existing products since there is no way to prove they actually own one?
For the short-term, I'd think tablets and phones would be the best environment to start with. It harder or more esoteric to copy the SSDs. There probably are already screen-cap programs for these environments but they're not standard OS features and the resolution for the SSD would be lower that want we get off of published SSDs.
Making SSDs functional but not as useful as a published SSD is a vital part of this app's success.
We may not even want the option to print the SSDs.
Working off apple and android app store pricing, the most the app could cost would be around $2.99. Let's say it has Basic Set and Advanced Missions free with the purchase. Each additional module would be at most a $1.99 purchase. Since SFB is a small, captive audience, the ADB might be able to raise that a bit. Might need to.
I don't think a subscription model would be viable unless you get something unique for it (say the ability to link up with another program user and throw damage back and forth), which opens up the possibility of growing into an app-based front-end for SFBOL.
A cheap app price holds out the possibility of expanding the fanbase for SFB and FedCom.
You can't print ships without a watermark on them (the watermark being your account information). While there is nothing stopping your friends from using it, there is currently nothing stopping your friends from using a photocopy. At least this way, everybody knows where it came from and what date it was printed.
There is *no* way I can see to prove somebody owns product X. However, I think many would accept a small fee for each module that is out, perhaps $50 for everything up through R10 or something, and $5-$10 for each thereafter. So yeah, they would have to spend money for the new digital format. However, the new format allows them more functionality like the DAC, repairs, crippled status, etc, where before all they got was paper.
Though I *hate* paying for a physical media *and* the associated PDF, I just did it with all the F&E/SFB stuff on e23, do it with all the battletech stuff, and all of those cost quite a bit. I'm probably not typical tho.
In the future the goal would be that this system outsell the physical media enough to no longer justify a physical media.
On another note, perhaps people could take a pic of themselves next to their collection on a shelf, and then you could make a "Players of SFB" website for a hefty discount on all the products you can make out on their shelves. It probably isn't very realistic though.
I am not sure we're not better off to proceed with the current PDF project.
Something to consider is that this is not a new conversation, but the 387th version of the same conversation. Most of us know all of the issues, and those who don't would do well to find one of the other threads and read up on it.
Just because something can be stolen doesn't mean that giving it away is good for ADB.
Just because security can be cracked doesn't mean no security is a good idea.
Any system designed for on-line use needs to be non-usable off line. (Given SFBOL we may not need any other online system.)
I've read a few of the threads on it, and am not aware of the PDF project (PDFs do not have nearly the security I was recommending).
You want something that is usuable, and secure enough that it is more of a pain than it is worth to pirate. However, if the ability is there for a user to print a SSD for their gaming table, the ability is there to pirate it easily.
I don't think stuff must work offline as well as online. Internet connections are pretty much everywhere in cities, and most people have phones now with internet abilities.
What I was talking about was totally different than SFBOL, and neither of the projects comes close to excluding the other.
If I'm barking up an empty tree though, just let me know and I'll go bark up another one and drop this one entirely.
Just a thought as a proof of concept. Something like this might work with just the Tournament Cruisers, EA and the interactive DAC. It also might be the least damaging if we find a huge hole in the theory.
Well I've already written a DAC that can handle all the systems from the game (though it doesn't do directional damage yet). I've already written a simple method to create and draw out ships and can add new ones in minutes, new variants in seconds. I've already written code for all the Alpha Octant weapons at least to calculate their damage/hit effects.
So basically I just need to add the watermarks to provide an online SSD viewer that can't be easily replicated or copied. Heck, I could even use that new system where it shows # of each system instead of boxes for each pretty easily (it could be an option with a button to instantly switch between them, with any configuration).
So it wouldn't be that hard to create such a system, but only if folks are open minded to it.
And it sounds like minds are already made up on other methods. Oh well.
I had a thought that might produce an online SSD that is functional for online use yet the least useful for pirating.
Use numbers, not boxes.
The mass of checkboxes that form an SSD are a pen and paper convention that an electronic SSD doesn't need.
So on a Fed CA the FH phasers would look something like:
P-1 - FH
2/0
Destroy a P-1 and you get
P-1 - FH
1/1
Repair the destroyed P-1 as a P-3 and the system adds a new entry to the SSD.
P-1 - FH
1/0
P-3 - FH
1/0
I know the original idea was an app for printing out SSDs but I really think that's a non-starter. A pure-electronic SSD seems a more practical solution.
I have no new solution for the issue of granting people access to sets they did not purchase. One thing at a time.