Hey, Paul!

COuld we start a Masters Tournament 2021 topic somewhere appropriate? Probably the "Tournaments that aren't Sapphire Star" somewhere?

Thanks!
-Peter

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Monday, March 29, 2021 - 02:09 pm: Edit

Hey Paul!

This is possibly the wrong place to discuss this (but I don't know where the correct place would be) but I thought Barry's ideas for X2 in episode 609 were great! I'd love to hear about some playtests based on Barry's model for X2.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, March 29, 2021 - 03:51 pm: Edit

Shawn,
I would love to playtest some of Barry's ideas. Most probably we won't be able for awhile since Barry is on the road a lot so I am not sure if we can play online. And I will need to probably need to wait to get my second shot to play in person.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Sunday, May 09, 2021 - 06:43 pm: Edit

The Client has decided my Nick is in use... Growl can you fix it?
Vandar

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, May 09, 2021 - 09:10 pm: Edit

Vandar is been logged out.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Monday, May 10, 2021 - 05:40 pm: Edit

Thank You Paul for the quick fix.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 08:20 pm: Edit

Hi Paul.

I could not install the client, I am getting a failed to create JVM.
Do I need to reload the game?

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Thursday, June 17, 2021 - 08:20 am: Edit

Hi Paul,

I tried the client again, this time it worked (it seems like my computer was doing updates or something earlier). I will check again tomorrow.

all good

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, June 17, 2021 - 08:41 pm: Edit

Wayne,
Normally the "failed to create JVM" is related to anti-virus software.

In any case, I am glad you got it installed

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 - 08:56 am: Edit

Hey PAul,
I recently re-upped SFBOL, i think the paymnent wentt thru fine, but I still seem to be Cadet_Demo_Droid.
Can you take a look?

Thanks
The OG Droid

By John Smith (Johnsmith) on Tuesday, July 06, 2021 - 08:19 pm: Edit

It's been probably about 10 years since my SFBOL account lapsed. Just tried to start a new subscription, but it says JohnSmith is already taken. Can't recover it because I have no idea what email I used to sign up with, and in any case probably don't use any emails I had back then anyways. Is there a way to reset this, or do I have to come up with a different user name?

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Tuesday, July 06, 2021 - 09:49 pm: Edit

Hi John,

if you can not reset, perhaps you can still use your name (adjusted slightly)

By Shawn Gordon (Avrolancaster) on Monday, August 23, 2021 - 11:01 pm: Edit

(deleted - do not repost that)

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, August 29, 2021 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Paul: Check the FedCmdr board. Someone posted two questions re: SFBOL.

1 - Is it necessary to have an active subscription to play solo (monster) scenarios?

2 - when playing 2 player is it possible to play asynchronously without being both online simultaneously?


Garth L. Getgen

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Monday, November 01, 2021 - 10:10 am: Edit

Would it be possible to have the netkill tournament brought back. It was always my favorite tournament and is how you used to get rated statistically.

Looks like the page to report losses is still active, would it be OK to start using it again.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, November 01, 2021 - 10:42 pm: Edit

Joshua,
Yes.

By wayne douglas power (Wayne) on Tuesday, November 02, 2021 - 12:19 am: Edit

Sounds good, I will start playing Tournament games as NK games again.

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 05:20 pm: Edit

Would it be possible to have the Netkill standings updated for the quarter to see where we stand currently.

The most recent standings are from way back in 2018.

I know Ive been hemorrhaging NetKill points this quarter and want to see who i should get with to earn back my missing points. I think at the rate they have been taking my points kingzilla and CrashandBurn are both looking to make admiral soon.

Wish we could see more players take part. Its a fun tournament.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 07:37 pm: Edit

Joshua,
I have been working on that. Here is a link to the initial web page that I created.

Note: I need to verify that the numbers are correct. I might have the order not quite right. This is my first go at creating the report

NetKill Standings

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 09:40 pm: Edit

I've can see I've dug myself quite a hole. That's what I get for playing games even when I'm tired from previous battles. I enjoy the process.

I'll be ensign before spring at this rate but it's ok the quality of the competition is outstanding and I'm going to redouble my efforts.

Thank you for updating the standings. Is there a BBS topic for banter and trash talk because that would be pretty fun.

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 10:25 pm: Edit

Now we just need more players.

I saw a demo account today, tried to strike up a conversation and get them to stay awhile but I failed.

Hopefully we see him/her again.

I dream of a day with dozens of active Netkill players all buying products and memberships and a renaissance of glory for this old game I love.

SFBOL is better than Vassal advanced squad leader. Its the best online game client and I want to thank you Paul for running such a fantastic service. I dont win often but when i do i get such a thrill. The players these days are all elite. Thats both wonderful and very wicked.

Next time a demo shows up what are we supposed to do. Is there some strategy to getting them into the game.

Perhaps if there was a demonstration mode of some sort where you could do the kind of things you would do at a Rangers demonstration. Start teaching them the rules and mechanics of the game. Ive seen many demo's in my time on SFBOL and want to improve the rate at which they subscribe for totally selfish reasons that should become evident when looking at the current netkill standings.

This SFBOL service is the last bastion of this wonderful game and it serves a great purpose. Someday they will play SFB on Mars and SVC's descendants will collect the loot. This is the finest starship combat game I've ever played and its gads better than old Starfire.

Isn't starfire another SVC game. I loved starfire too but it lacks a client like SFBOL. If Steve Cole did Starfire too doesn't that about make him as prolific in space combat as Richard Burg in historical combat systems.

This industry ought to be recognizing SFB as the pearl beyond price that it is. This game is fun and not too complicated. I just wish for more players,.

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, December 01, 2021 - 03:55 am: Edit

Thanks again for update to the Netkill page.

On another subject Matt(Neonpico) and myself were looking into the Soludra. And I was wondering if you could help us by creating Suludra Shards for the client.

We have an awesome battle planned. To make it short the •••• soludra have been feeding on a colony of yokel as and need federation assistance.

A soludra CV is involved and it needs black orange and green shards to make the scenario work but battle group Oregon is on it.

If you can support us with shard counters and definitions in it will be greatly appreciated.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Wednesday, December 01, 2021 - 11:01 pm: Edit

Joshua,
I will see what I can do about the shards. I have not implemented damage allocation for Dark Energy weapons yet.

When it comes to new players, what I would like to do is two fold:

1. Change the signup for "Demo" players. That is have a player register for an account and until that have paid for a subscription they will be a "Demo" account. (i.e. the limited)

2. After a player signs up, I would like to have an Email sent to that person with instructions (including videos) on playing the Cadet scenarios. Possibly a series of Emails. The initial Email would have links to the different web sites where you can get the Cadet Rules.

When it comes what to do with new players that people see. I think there are two things to do:

1. Say hello.
2. Play games.

I think that is what new players are wanting to see. That is that there are people online actively playing the game.

By Geoffrey Clark (Spartan) on Thursday, December 02, 2021 - 03:36 am: Edit

Hello Mr. Gaius,

Thanks for your thoughts on the popularity and merits of SFB. I agree, SFBOL is the last bastion of this game, and it is a great game.

There are a few ways to attract new players. One is the way you mentioned, the random demo accounts ... maybe we will find limited success in that channel. Another way is to get the people who already know SFB to come back. I think this more fruitful, and the hope is that they teach SFB to their offspring.

The master tournament archives, compiled by Mr. Schirmer is now being updated by myself. I hope to enrich this data with the email address for players based on the master list from this BBS system, and then SFB/SFBOL can and should do more marketing to bring people back. Maybe that is a task that is beyond what Mr. Franz should do, since he seems pretty busy, and some division of labor might be in order.

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Thursday, December 02, 2021 - 05:30 pm: Edit

Thanks for looking into the Soludra Shard situation they will be very helpful. For Dark Matter Damage we will just have to roll internals manually and try and remember what non eligible systems have been hit.

As for the new players we do say hello and welcome them warmly if they are open to playing we oblige them and try to take it easy on them at first. Its about teaching the game and client interface first then after they get more comfortable we can play competitively.

The last demo account we saw spoke and said they hadn't played the game in forty years. We were playing a game and should have offered to pause and show the new person around because we haven't seen the person back yet.

Another failed opportunity perhaps but we did try to be friendly. I hope Geoff and company have luck getting some of the old timers to come back to the game. I would sure enjoy playing some of the old timers again.

Thanks to Captain Spartan for taking over the Schirmer stats archives. They are a rich resource that could be mined for data. Having analyzed the Schirmer data for the last 10 years I conclude im about average in skill. I tend to rush and get into trouble because of it. I also play untill im exhausted and should ask my opponents to save and restart when I'm more fresh.

But for me star fleet battles is all about the process, getting the rules right and having a good time playing is more important than who wins and who loses. But •••• would I like to win more often. Its such a thrill to take somebody good down with nice play. I suspect if more people knew how much fun it was to play this game they would flock to play SFB/SFBOL.

The quality of the competition is excellent. And folks are such great sports on this service. As competitive as we get everyone is so gentlemanly and sportsmanlike. Losing 30 games in 45 days has been a real pleasure. Not as much pleasure as id like but I'm still a little rusty.

It would probably be alot of complicated programming work to support dark matter damage but the Soludra are a great empire from the Omega line of products and make excellent baddies. It should be easy enough to handle dark matter damage allocation manually.

I want to give the Soludra Tournament ship some play time so that we can start to glean information about how it stacks up against the rest of the tournament fleet.