Archive through October 05, 2022
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Star Fleet Battles: SFB General Discussions: Archive through October 05, 2022
By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, September 12, 2022 - 04:44 pm: Edit

Ginger McMurray:

Thank you for clearing it up.

By Chris Seebacher (Valpurgius) on Thursday, September 15, 2022 - 11:01 pm: Edit

What are the fonts used in SSDs?
What process do you use to make SSDs? i am trying to make some for ground bases linked in a power grid as well as for some freighters with skids and ducktails already in place.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, September 16, 2022 - 09:12 am: Edit

Apparently only SPP knows how (or has the software needed) to make SFB SSDs anymore.

I make SSDs by using my favorite paint program to manually construct them.

For the font, I think it is something like Helvetica (a commercial font). I think for some of them, they have been manually modified. For example, the "A" used in torpedo boxes is one pixel wider to be able to properly center it in the box. However, once you get a consistent image of the full alphabet you can construct your own. And for the occasional letter that you don't have, just make it yourself. They are all rather "blocky" which makes copying them from a printed SSD not that difficult.

Yes, this is rather tedious for the first dozen or so you are going to make. But, once you a nice set of words and phrases, hammering out SSDs doesn't take very long. That startup process is definitely tedious though.

You can look at my website for examples to use and images to steal from.

Have fun!

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Friday, September 16, 2022 - 01:19 pm: Edit

Chris, check the Archive through August 25 link at the top of this page - someone else asked and SVC answered.

By Chris Seebacher (Valpurgius) on Friday, September 16, 2022 - 02:21 pm: Edit

Thank you Mike. It turns out I have been to your site. Nice work.

Do you think there is any chance of getting him to cough up the default box size? I have seen 1/8" mentioned, but my calipers say it is more like 3.6mm.

Sounds like you have a severe case of what is called "Institutional Knowledge" in my industry. When we are feeling morbid we put it into a rating called the "Bus Factor". Which is simply "how screwed are we if so and so gets hit by a bus".

Also, since R1 and R6 are being redone, as a suggestion, would it be possible to make the pallets and skids a "standard" size and have the same size as a blank space on the freighters and tugs?

By Russ Simkins (Madcowak) on Friday, September 16, 2022 - 04:17 pm: Edit

Just a tip for making freighters, I built mine on layers so I can turn on layers for any combination of module/skids/ducktail and print. Works great

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, September 16, 2022 - 04:46 pm: Edit

The box size is whatever the standard grid for the software is, and that is in pixels not inches or MMs. Remember that we routinely print SSDs at 64% of the native size.

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Friday, September 16, 2022 - 06:30 pm: Edit

Quote:

Also, since R1 and R6 are being redone, as a suggestion, would it be possible to make the pallets and skids a "standard" size and have the same size as a blank space on the freighters and tugs?

I have played with doing this, but the results end up pretty messy.

If you make all pods for a single empire (and then treat civilian pods like an extra empire), you will end up with some large areas of "white" space that historically they have tried very hard to avoid with SSDs. (Because if you have "empty space" inside the lines on an SSD, someone is going to suggest how to fill it. Lots of someones.) So, that increases the difficulty of redoing those pods.

That said, I would love to see that. I would like to see the pod outline for all civilian pods to be exactly the same size each and every time. I would like to see the pod outline for all Federation pods to be exactly the same size each and every time. That way, as you say, the "holes" all work out and the pods can just "drop" in. That would be great.

As far as the box sizes, on my work every single line used is 2 pixels wide. This is for both the boxes and the ship outlines. Boxes are 18 pixels wide and 18 pixels tall, including the lines. (So, the inside of the box is 14x14 pixels.) And everything is based on that. So, the distance between two adjacent boxes (in either dimension) is 14 pixels, and the distance from an edge box to the ship outline is 14 pixels (for straight lines).

By John L Stiff (Tarkin22180) on Saturday, September 17, 2022 - 11:03 am: Edit

Regarding "monthly game yesterday."

With plasma vs plasma on a floating map, my suggestion would be to keep up your speed and always bolt (range 10 is 50% to hit). One could "not" play tournament rules and use the year when Sabots are available.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Saturday, September 17, 2022 - 09:06 pm: Edit

My backup plan was to bolt if he hadn't given chase. Thankfully, he did. I hate bolts as much as I hate photons. They seem to take a lot of strategy out in that if you hit with multiples you win and if you hit with none you lose.

That's an oversimplification, of course. :-D

By Johnny Casady (Phythalion) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 11:33 am: Edit

I'm updating my SFB stuff. I know that all the PDFs are the most up to date products. Where do I find the most recent dates on other product printings? If I already have the most recent product, I don't want to buy it again. I thought I had seen a list somewhere but I can't find it.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 01:06 pm: Edit

Phythalion: You can find it at this link:
http://starfleetgames.com/prod_update.shtml

By Johnny Casady (Phythalion) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 03:50 pm: Edit

Thank you Jessica! I knew it was out there somewhere.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 03:55 pm: Edit

Speaking of product updates: if you haven't purchased a copy of SFB Module R1 just yet, there is word here on a pending update to that product due out in the near-to-mid future.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 06:00 pm: Edit

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 10:08 pm: Edit

I have a photocopy of an article that came with a bundle of Designer Edition products I picked up at a Flea Market years ago....

"A Further Look At Star Fleet Battles" by Bob Schroeder... Four (4) pages....
It's about the Designer's Edition...
Wondering what magazine etc it came out of (probably in 1980)....

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - 03:25 pm: Edit

The cognitive dissonance is strong today... My apologies for spreading my shower thoughts with the group, but as you can see below... My mind went interesting places.

As I was sitting down today, punching and clipping counters I spied something on the Federation Commander Romulan Border rulebook cover that slapped me in the mental face.

A date discrepancy. On the order of three hundred years. Between 'source material' and modern published SFU content. My circa 1992-1998 era memories of the SFU align with the 23rd century factoid, as does the current splash page on the web store's about Star Fleet Battles, "It is a game of ship-vs-ship combat in the 23rd century."

This took me down the rabbit hole of time and I've come across several things I kinda would like definitive answers for. Here they are in no particular order:

  1. When did the 23rd century turn into the 26th century calendar dates I'm seeing in more recent releases? (The dates seem to put the calendar year as Y-[date] + 2400, ergo 2401 is Y1, 2575 is Y175) Note: I'm generalizing from only a few data points so I may be wildly off base.
  2. Is there a correlation between the Y1xx years and the Real World years of Historical 20th century weapons races (Dreadnaughts, WWI, the interwar period, the treaty-limited buildup -- complete with ample cheating, WWII, the drawndown of WWII forces and the Cold War buildup, stealth, modern day 'X' tech...) Note: When viewed through the lens of SFB's deepest roots going back to 2-D wet navy wargame design.
  3. What Y-date was the designed/intended basis for Pocket Edition? (This being the baseline everything was refitted from, right?) Follow ups: Did the effective date between Pocket, Designer's, and Commander's (mark 1 mod 0) shift from from that initial watershed even if the Y-number changed?


While I fully expect to find EMPERIAL ENTANGLEMENTS Paramount at play in here somewhere, I'm generally wondering about the why's and wherefore's around what is to me, a retcon. No offense intended or implied, if it is indeed a retcon your in rather esteemed company.

By Alex Chobot (Alendrel) on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - 05:02 pm: Edit

Jeff, in a nutshell, there are “competing theories” on what Terran AD calendar year Y1 corresponds to. I think it’s a CL article that gets into it, but I am not 100% sure on that. Since Federation Commander is intended as a more mass-market game, ADB decided to not use the relatively obtuse Y-year system and keep to the familiar Terran AD year format, with Y1 being the year 2400 according to one of those theories.

Keep in mind FedCom is not as concerned about setting historical accuracy as SFB and F&E - everyone has battleships, just for one huge example. It’s the more cinematic, faster and looser approach to the concepts. Kind of like Memoir 44 versus Advanced Squad Leader.

By Christopher Feola (Cfeola) on Saturday, October 01, 2022 - 06:05 am: Edit

I'm curious what the current outlook is for the Master Starship Book series. Last thing I remember seeing is that General Units was next up (presumably to be timed with the upcoming revised R1). What comes after that?

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, October 01, 2022 - 02:16 pm: Edit

My guess would be either ISC or, probably less likely, Andromedan.

Then again, the LDR MSSB kinda caught me off guard (I got it and it IS good :)), so it's possible that the next might be either Orion or WYN.

Regardless, I have spots set up on my shelves for all of those (and others?)

(hint, hint):)

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, October 01, 2022 - 04:28 pm: Edit

Jeff: I suspect the LDR MSSB hit when it did because it was more or less a natural offshoot from the Lyran MSSB.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Saturday, October 01, 2022 - 11:45 pm: Edit

While I'd very much welcome both ISC and Andromedan entries in the Master Starship Book project, I wonder if it would be worth waiting to see how the Andromedan War module for Federation and Empire shapes up - if only to get a clearer sense as to what, if any, additional units and/or mission variants might need to be drawn up in order to cover both empires more completely.

On another note, given the unprecedented look at conditions in the pre-Revolt M81 Galaxy provided by the Tholian Master Starship Book, perhaps it might be an option to consider an equivalent home galaxy portion for a would-be Seltorian MSSB product.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Sunday, October 02, 2022 - 12:18 am: Edit

Jessica, my last post was an admittedly LAME attempt at humorously saying, "I support the product line."

The Steves have also told how they expected the LDR MSSB to have been something quick and easy, but found it unexpectedly prickly. While I hope they won't be, I do expect the Orions and WYN MSSBs will be similarly difficult, so I do wish to continue with unflagging support for them.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, October 02, 2022 - 12:26 am: Edit

Also:

Quote:

there are “competing theories” on what Terran AD calendar year Y1 corresponds to. I think it’s a CL article that gets into it, but I am not 100% sure on that.



The article looking at the various rival "Chronologies" offered to try and make sense of the data in the U.S. Air Force data tapes is in Prime Directive Federation.

By Ginger McMurray (Gingermcmurray) on Wednesday, October 05, 2022 - 09:42 am: Edit

Are there any plans to do color SSDs for C6? I'm guessing there's not enough demand to make up for cost but it never hurts to ask.

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