I can still work on some a few nights a week.

By Seth Shimansky (Kingzilla) on Sunday, June 07, 2015 - 01:53 pm: Edit

I am not into anything but tourney ships now, but everyone has been very supportive of me online. If someone shows me how to do it I will help out. My second SFB game I played was a complete galaxy war with all the races 32 years ago and it took all summer for 8 of us to play it out. That was a very fun summer when we where sixteen.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Sunday, June 07, 2015 - 03:31 pm: Edit

Most of the Q&A is here and there are a couple of videos telling you how to do it. http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/12031/32638.html?1433699623

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, June 19, 2015 - 09:34 pm: Edit

More ships found in my Inbox from Matt and Frank.

Current numbers are:

Converted to 3G: 905
Not ey Converted: 2625

By Jon Berry (Laz_Longsmith) on Monday, July 13, 2015 - 08:08 pm: Edit

The 3rd Generation Hydran Knight is missing 4 APR and has been given 4 Fighter boxes instead. The Fighter boxes should be on the Lancer, and the Fighter converted to APR for the Knight.

edit:

The Knight's EAF shows 3 Fusion Beams and not 2 Hellbores. The SSD is still correct in that regard.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - 10:12 pm: Edit

Processed the ships from Frank

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, August 13, 2015 - 08:05 pm: Edit

PRESS RELEASE: SFBOL-2G TO END 31 DEC 2015
ADB, Inc., and Franz Games jointly announce that (with certain exceptions listed below) all remaining second-generation (2G) ship descriptions will be removed from the SFBOL system as of 31 Dec 2015. By that time, most of them will have been replaced by the superior new third-generation (3G) ship descriptions.

Those that are not converted by that time will be converted as fast as possible in response to player requests. (If nobody uses a certain ship, we don’t need to get it done any time soon.) We want to thank everyone involved in converting nearly a thousand of the 2G descriptions to 3G, which covers 80% of the ships actually used. A special BBS topic has been set up for players to request the swift conversion of any 2G ship that they actually use. If players make such requests as soon as possible, ADB, Inc., and Franz Games will make every effort to convert them before the deadline.

These ship descriptions are (basically) SSDs or ship systems displays. As everyone knows, the second-generation designs were never authorized by ADB, Inc. These descriptions had a major negative impact on the company’s sales of SFB products. ADB, Inc., has been more than patient and has extended the deadline for their removal several times. The new deadline of 31 Dec 2015 will not be extended. We know that a small group of players really prefers the second-generation ship descriptions, but ADB, Inc., cannot afford to have the 2Gs remain on the system as this amounts to giving away every SSD book in the line.

ADB, Inc., has authorized the second-generation tournament ships to remain on the system permanently.

The following ships form an exemption, in that second-generation descriptions can remain on the SFBOL system until 30 June 2016: early years ships, civilian ships, and non-Alpha Octant ships.

The following units form an exemption, in that second-generation descriptions can remain on the SFBOL system until 30 Dec 2016: shuttlecraft, gunboats/PFs, fighters, and bombers.

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Saturday, August 15, 2015 - 04:05 pm: Edit

Although there is plenty of time remaining, it is not clear what a 3G shuttle/fighter/bomber should even be. Non-fighter shuttlecraft are little more than a collection of damage points already. Fighters and bombers typically have a set of drone or plasma rails, but, other than showing their quantity, aren't on the SSD now (i.e. you can't hit and damage them, other than through crippling, which the client doesn't handle).

There are some problems with fighter definitions now, and there is certainly an opportunity to improve the playability of fighters, but it is difficult to see what should change to make them "3G".

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 15, 2015 - 05:24 pm: Edit

I don't know either but after year's end maybe someone will think of something.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Saturday, August 15, 2015 - 06:15 pm: Edit

Maybe a blank silhouette, in the shape of the shuttle or Fighter with a countdown box in the center for damage points and countdown boxes for the ammo.

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Saturday, August 15, 2015 - 06:52 pm: Edit

Email sent to Paul and SVC.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 16, 2015 - 12:47 am: Edit

No need to waste any thought or effort on shuttles at this point. Let us collect ideas without review or decision until next year.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 10:15 am: Edit

Because I am procrastinating on useful work this morning, some miscellaneous stats on the scope of the immediate project. No promises that I haven't missed something somewhere in the sorting process.

All SC5 and SC6 units as well as all Y- and W- units are excluded, per SVC's schedule above. I haven't removed civilian units, since there is no easy way to filter them from the library output table. Note that this only includes stuff actually uploaded into the library. I'm certain there are at least a handful of units sent to Paul but not yet installed.

ANDROMEDAN: 0 done, 67 remaining
FEDERATION: 29 done, 197 remaining
GENERAL: 124 done, 95 remaining
GORN: 35 done, 139 remaining
HYDRAN: 1 done, 180 remaining
ISC: 32 done, 65 remaining
JINDARIAN: 41 done, 8 remaining
KLINGON: 130 done, 95 remaining
KZINTI: 143 done, 21 remaining
LDR: 18 done, 45 remaining
LYRAN: 52 done, 109 remaining
ORION: 36 done, 34 remaining
PARAVIAN: 63 done, 36 remaining
ROMULAN: 76 done, 159 remaining (_very_ approximate)
SELTORIAN: 0 done, 59 remaining
THOLIAN: 32 done, 100 remaining
VUDAR: 38 done, 16 remaining
WYN: 60 done, 29 remaining

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 05:31 pm: Edit

Jason, thanks for that updated. Could you do that again on or around 30 Sept and 31 October?

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Sunday, August 23, 2015 - 05:39 pm: Edit

Roger, wilco.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Thursday, September 03, 2015 - 07:39 pm: Edit

I am/was planing on playing Jindarians Saturday. I went in to play around a bit. The damg allocation for the asteroid hulls is a mess. It just keeps taking armor starting with shield 1 and going around. Also there seems to be no way to have shields on are off.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, September 03, 2015 - 09:22 pm: Edit

Greg,
Which Jindarian ships?

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Friday, September 04, 2015 - 04:59 am: Edit

The asteroid ships 3Gen. BCH CA CL. for sure did not look at the others.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, September 04, 2015 - 06:39 am: Edit

Greg,
Found the issue. It is an issue with the client. I will be releasing a new version later today.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Friday, September 04, 2015 - 06:01 pm: Edit

thank you so much Paul for the fix. We can play Saturday two minor things.. i see no ATF line no problem as i can note it in the shield line. Would be nice if the shields can be off? is there something i am missing there?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, September 04, 2015 - 09:02 pm: Edit

Greg,
Oh!! Took a moment for me to realize what you meant. Definitely, something I need to add for the Jindarians. At the moment, you will need to basically damage the shield and then repair it after the damage allocation. Should be easy enough to at least add a checkbox to the shield reinforcement window.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Friday, September 04, 2015 - 09:17 pm: Edit

thank You yes for now will be easy to fix. I am looking forward to Saturday.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 07:24 am: Edit

Greg,
Just so that you know Matt Potter was keeping his head up and fixed the Jindarian EAs to include the ATFs. It is down above the ECM line.

They have now been updated in the library so at least that one issue is fixed for you.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 12:44 pm: Edit

SVC:

Two questions regarding division of ships between the phase I (12/2015) and phase II (06/2016) conversion groups.

1. Are national guard ships being counted as regular ships (phase I) since they served during the middle years and GW, or as Early Years ships (phase II) since they are variants of Early Years base hulls?

2. For Romulan "eagle" hulls, is there some dividing line to be assigned as to which will be phase I and which phase II? The meaning of Early Years breaks down somewhat for those hulls.

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Saturday, September 05, 2015 - 01:07 pm: Edit

There are, what, five Eagle ships that have both Y and GW versions? Just convert them, not worth making a big deal about.

As for national guard ships, they generally come in both G and Y versions with separate SSDs. Presumably, the G version is a phase 1, and the Y version is a phase 2.