I do not know if you got my send from the game i played Saturday. The client is a mess. There were no turn are slip markers and would not launch plasma are shuttles had to add a lot by hand.. went in today and the Tournament ships work fine even in the regular sfb room. The others did not... realy weird

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Wednesday, September 09, 2015 - 07:52 pm: Edit

Ho ho ho! Is that some preliminary Marines support I see?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Wednesday, September 09, 2015 - 09:37 pm: Edit

William,
Yup. I worked out an initial list of features that I need to implement for SFM.

They are:

1. Track phases within the player turn
2. Track what players turn is the current turn
3. Track what players have gone.
4. Track what units have had action (are flipped over)
5. Track whether a unit has been marked for "Opportunity Fire"
6. Separate out "Stun" status from damage (initially implemented as a continuum, but I realized that was wrong)
7. Finish implementing the calculating of movement cost

1. Calculate modifiers when attacking (Might not be completely possible due to the possibility of scenario specific rules modifying the modifiers)
2. Automated Zombie player

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 01:16 am: Edit

Modifiers will probably be tough, because there are so many things that can happen. It's probably similar to EW shifts in SFB. Even if you calculate it, you still can't really calculate it.

Biggest thing will be the map, though - do you think ADB will allow something resembling the standard map to be uploaded?

Either way, super happy to see the chance for online marines!

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Friday, October 02, 2015 - 05:35 pm: Edit

I have a couple of ideas.

How about an app or widget that shows you how many people are on SFBOL and how many are looking for a game.

It would be cool also if you could watch games and chat in the bullpen on mobile devices, even if they couldn't run the full game they should be able to handle chat and displaying the board and in game chat.

Another idea would be to have the SSD definition tool as a mobile app that way the volunteers could do work in small blocks of time when they dont have access to a desktop computer but can fiddle with their smartphone or tablet.

It would be neat also if you could do game setups and EAs with a mobile app and be able to later load those setups with drone loadouts and commanders options from the work you saved on your mobile app. In big battles those things can take an eternity that would better be spent gaming.

Another app idea would be a play by SMS app that would let you play by texting, similar to the way PBEM works but hopefully with a lot faster gaming.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, October 05, 2016 - 07:23 pm: Edit

Paul!

So I was just checking out and admiring the new (well, to me), updated logging feature. It would be great, however, if the "damage" log (i.e. the log entry that says how much damage you took and shield reinforcement which was used, etc) said what turn/impulse the damage happened on? It doesn't seem to do that currently.

Thanks!

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Wednesday, October 05, 2016 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Paul!

But another thing that just happened was:

In the middle of a game, my Kzinti drone racks just reset to fully loaded with type IM drones. When in reality, I had one empty rack, 2 racks with 1 drone each, and one drone with 2 drones. That seems like something that shouldn't reset in the middle of a game.

Thanks!

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, October 06, 2016 - 06:37 pm: Edit

Peter,
When it comes to the rack issue, was this a single session? Did your opponent drop at any time? I ask because I think there is an issue with loading games and people are selected "Yes" to loading all of the units when they should not. The only time that option should be selected is if the other player lost their game. (i.e. that allows a single player to upload ALL of the units both theirs and the opponents) So what I think is happening is that the rack information is not being sent to the other player and when they load the game. They are overwriting the information for the ship of their opponent. Not sure, what to do if that is the case except remove the feature.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, October 06, 2016 - 06:39 pm: Edit

Peter,
When it comes to the damage log entry I will look into this.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Wednesday, February 06, 2019 - 07:21 pm: Edit

By Marc Michalik (Kavik_Kang) on Wednesday, February 06, 2019 - 07:27 pm: Edit

Timer rules like that put a lot of pressure on the player, this is why we used to use a chess timer. The only reason I didn't use it in my tournament when I started that was that ADBs rules didn't allow me to use a chess clock. It was a long time ago, but I am pretty sure we used to give 20 minutes for EA and 30 minutes for your decision making during the impulse procedure. So, anytime you say "stop" during the impulse procedure you hit your chess clock. The rest of the game just works normally.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, February 07, 2019 - 02:16 pm: Edit

Why not add a dialog box at the beginning of a timed game where the users (players) decide what the time limits are. This way there's flexibility.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, February 07, 2019 - 02:19 pm: Edit

Idea for future product/ revision.

Any way to use the Shapeways 3D CAD models as data points to generate a "mega-hex" style map for SFBOL? Something that looks pretty. Maybe beautiful isometric view of map with 3D ship models suspended in extra large hexes?

Probably enormous amount of work and Paul would need help. Maybe charge premium for service? Might help increase appeal of SFBOL.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, February 07, 2019 - 02:29 pm: Edit

Question/Idea related to better SSDs for SFBOL

I know the mandate for 3rd Gen SSDs. I know *why* the mandate for 3rd Gen SSDs (anti-piracy).

I hate 3rd Gen SSDs. It's *much* harder for me to play with them because I just don't have a "feel" for how damaged or capable a ship is when I can't look at a regular SSD and just take it in at a glance. The pure numbers in an outline just don't do it for me.

So, here's the idea. Have a premium level of service (extra money) where you get to use the *FULL* SSDs for ships on SFBOL. That includes their tables, fighter/shuttle stuff, everything - just like they are printed in the books.

To help mike piracy harder, have some kind of code that disables the "print screen" button while SFBOL is active, and also prevents any attempt to physically print from SFBOL. Same code also disables the "copy" function from SFBOL. This way there is NO WAY to pirate a copy of the SSD directly from the screen when it is displayed.

If you are a pirate, you would be better off just buying the SSD book, scanning, and then pirating the PDF.

ADB gets a cut of the extra fees for the higher level of service that gives access to full SSDs.

I *SO* would pay for this service. I would pay DOUBLE, or more - TRIPLE even, of what I pay now to not have to look at those horrible 3rd Gen SSDs and to be able to *use* the full SSD on SFBOL (i.e., mark damage on fighters right on the carrier's SSD, mark shuttle damage, track expendables on the sheet, etc.)

PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE!!!!

If piracy is the problem blocking this service, let's solve the technical problem by preventing the piracy.

If ADB sales is the problem blocking this service, let's solve the business problem by charging more and giving ADB it's cut.

I *betcha* ADB would make more money this way. Instead of selling ONE expansion which the player then scans and stores for personal use (like me), ADB gets money every month for it's IP.

PLEASE!!!!!! Let us use *real* SSDs on SFBOL!!!!

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, February 07, 2019 - 02:33 pm: Edit

Seriously.

Keep 3rd Gen SSDs for users who want to/have to pay for the cheaper SFB OL service.

Give access to FULL SSDs for double or triple rate and then give ADB it's cut (prevent copying through code - I know this can be done: I've been to websites where I can't "print screen" or "copy" from the website).

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 12:15 pm: Edit

Ted,
When it comes to the 3rd Gen SSDs and charging more for the 2nd Gen SSDs, I will need to check with SVC.

Is there any thing that can be done to make the 3rd Gen more usable to you?

When it comes to the Timer thing, it is not that I wanted to discuss the timing, but I wanted to make sure that people agree with the penalty for not completing their decision. At the moment, I will assume that everybody agrees with the penalty. (i.e. move forward, no action possible, slowest speed from the last turn with no weapons being charged)

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 01:32 pm: Edit

Considering how many hundreds of thousands of dollars 2G ssds cost us (proven by actual sales data) I don't think it's a subject of much interest to ADB. We would LOSE money, since no matter what you code they can be screen capped and people would do what was done before (pay one month's membership, steal everything, and leave). I suppose in theory such a premium membership could be $500 to ADB up front (just a guess, maybe more) plus extra monthly to Paul but I don't see you paying that. Groups would just chip in to buy one membership and make copies. No code has ever stopped that. Maybe if there were a way to keep you from seeing the SSD without playing and limited you to see 20 SSDs a month, maybe. I don't have much problem with 2G versions of official TCs.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandor) on Saturday, February 09, 2019 - 04:52 pm: Edit

As far as the 3rd Gen SSDs go. I am happy with them. I always pull out my paper copies of the ships to look at.

To make them better some of the 3rd gen do kinda suck. More then the rush to get them done then any thing else. Other then that they just take some getting used to.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, November 17, 2019 - 11:57 am: Edit

I have an idea. I only play tournament ships but think this idea would apply in all situations. The other day I launched a drone from rack 1. Then maybe 16 impulses later I launched another drone from rack 1 but obviously intended to launch from rack 2. It was a mistake my opponent caught (surprisingly) and it mattered little in our battle.

My idea is that in the weapon status tabs and during the firing stages, weapons be high lighted green if they are still available to fire this turn. I am not suggesting that the highlighting try to account for 8 impulse delays or anything that complicated. I am just thinking, ok, the weapon has not fired during the current turn and somehow show it as unfired. Or vice versa, show the weapon as fired once it has. For me, the best application for this is with phasers. It would be a huge improvement if it were only done with them. In my experience we are firing phasers 1 here, and 1 there, all the time. I am always trying to figure out what phasers my opponent has not fired. If nothing else was done just phasers would be a big improvement and probably speed up game play.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, April 05, 2020 - 03:50 pm: Edit

Enhancement Request-

Maybe there is a way to already do this. I was playing a game today against a Fed tourney ship and I was flying Gorn. I partially allocated a HET and then when we got about 5 hexes apart I allocated 2 batts to HET. I did not actually HET, just made sure I had power for it. He did not actually fire until range 2. I made the notation in my EAF when I did it and actually told another guy that was watching the game I was doing it just because I did not want anything to smell fishy after he blew all my batteries off.

I wonder if there could be a way to make a notation that I could later reveal that would show forethought on use of batteries for these situations. Maybe we should just keep using the honor system? Anyone have thoughts/ideas?

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, April 05, 2020 - 04:57 pm: Edit

Or maybe...we need an activity after the fire decision step that is specifically for reserve power allocation for delayed purposes. That's makes the most sense. The action would need to record the turn/impulse and what the batteries were allocated to.

Then - the question is how to reveal the allocation of reserve power at the end of the game. Maybe Paul could place the text of the action (i.e- 2 batts to HET) in a note on the energy allocation that could not be later changed but could be revealed at the end of the game.

During a turn there might be a few impulses max where there would be contingent battery allocation for the future. So it is possible that there would be multiple notes placed in the allocation.

Thoughts?

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Sunday, April 05, 2020 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Jack,
There is a way to do what you want.
Go to 'Log' tab.
Click on 'ADD' button.
Enter your order in the Summary that will pop up.
Click on 'OK' when finished.
A pop up window then shows up for IA and you then work your way to the IA step to which the order you want applies too.
In your case, enter the bttys intended usage immediately after movement.
It will record the turn and imp of entry.

At end of battle, simply click the 'Public' button beside the order you entered and all will see.
Until you do click this button, no one will see your order.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Frank

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, April 05, 2020 - 06:11 pm: Edit

Frank- yeah that works!!! Awesome thanks!!

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Monday, April 06, 2020 - 02:45 pm: Edit

WOW I guess I need to play around with the LOG stuff

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Monday, April 06, 2020 - 04:21 pm: Edit

Your welcome.

Cheers
Frank