I get asked all the time: "When will you allow SFB software? What is the hold up?"

Sigh. I've only answered this question about once a week for about 20 years.
I've given the same answer every single time. But someone never heard it.
Or didn't believe it. Or thought there was some big dark secret that boiled
down to I was just being an ••••••• and didn't want to release it. Or they
just didn't want to believe that it wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
Anyway, this is the official form letter sent out something over 400 times.

Paramount says NO SOFTWARE EVER PERIOD. Not by us or anyone else.
They won't allow their property to be used, and won't allow us to allow others to
use our property. Hence, no software, period. Not sold, not given away,
not made available, not passed around the internet, nothing.
We can do the SFBOL thing as it is server based and not machine resident.

This situation remains this way until Paramount decides otherwise.
Nothing anyone outside of ADB Inc. can do will change what Paramount says or thinks or does or doesn't do.
We continue working through diplomatic channels to convince them
that such software would be beneficial, harmless, and great. But they
do not agree, will not agree, have not agreed. It is possible that they
will NEVER agree, but we will never stop trying. If anything changes,
we will announce the change and do a Request For Proposals for
the official software. We will never allow independent developers to
release such software except through ADB Inc. because Paramount
will insist on this as a condition of their approval, if they ever give it.
When the time comes, there will be one and only one such program
authorized, and we literally have two hundred different ones on file.

So, basically, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting, but if it someday
does happen, I wouldn't be surprised. Until then, Nobody can release
or publish or give away SFB software without a whole world of lawyers
landing on your head, so I would say to just put it away and forget it
and if it happens you can wait for the RFP and send it to us then.

The only thing you CAN do is use if in your own personal gaming,
in games where you are physically present as a GM or player.

I am considerably more frustrated than you are, and having to repeat
the same answer every week to somebody else who doesn't know,
doesn't believe it, doesn't want it to be the way it is, just makes me
even more frustrated. This isn't my fault, and I cannot change it.

--Steve Cole

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, August 12, 2006 - 05:49 pm: Edit

Our lawyer has given us clearance to do "play aide software" for SFB, F&E, and FedCommander. This must "require the physical game to be used" but could automate record keeping and so forth.

Here is the plan....

1. Anybody who might want to design such software, or who already has such software, email me your comments, ideas, and questions.

2. I won't answer.

3. What I will do is take all of the comments, ideas, and questions and roll them into a lawyer-approved "concept document" which I will send back to you. It could take a week or a month for this to happen.

4. We will then proceed to a "request for proposals" stage inviting developers to propose products and programs.

5. We'll pick one of each (or maybe more than one of each) and get them on the market.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 09:39 am: Edit

Funny that there has never been an answer to the second post in this topic.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 10:01 am: Edit

That way we know the status is still in bullet #2.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 10:29 am: Edit

I could not move to #3 without anybody else going to #1.

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 11:38 am: Edit

SVC, I sent you an email on this a while back.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 11:52 am: Edit

I cannot find it. Did I reply to it? Send it again. But send it on the 22nd, not today, or you don't have a prayer of a reply. And don't send it today and expect me tofind it on the 22nd. It will be buried by then.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 12:31 pm: Edit

I sent one in too. Will resend.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 01:14 pm: Edit

On the 22nd.

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 01:15 pm: Edit

No reply. (And due to #2 above, I did not expect one.)

I will resend on the 22nd.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 01:49 pm: Edit

SVC, why the sudden interest? Is there light somewhere?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 02:14 pm: Edit

Glenn: There was light six months ago; see the second post. The lawyer said "you can go ahead now".

What sparked my recent "anybody?" post was that I had to find something on the BBS, which I knew was here and could not find by keyword search. In the process of searching manually, I stumbled into this topic.

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 02:25 pm: Edit

SVC, I have commited time and effort into several excel programs that work well, but I fear what you are looking for is a standard of quality programming I cannot duplicate.
However, I can send you my excel files to see if they fit into your lawyer's opinion of exceptability. I am aware that what I have to offer is not truly complex or unique.
1) a MSC several years outdated
2) A DAC
3) A movement chart
4) An Andro PA chart (with notable issues)

That is all I have to offer.

By Tos Crawford (Tos) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 02:43 pm: Edit

I think SVC is looking for ideas, not finished products. How the product is brought up to 'production' standards can be negotiated after the product idea is accepted. Also if six players come up and say, "hey, I built a DAC from scratch" he might judge that their is a market for such a thing.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 02:43 pm: Edit

I have all of that already, and it's not the kind of play aide software we are looking for.

By Mike Clary (Mclary) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Are you looking for a standalone piece of software, then? For example, an app that would roll on the DAC or something else?

By Gary Bear (Gunner) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 03:57 pm: Edit

I have an Excel spreadsheet for Fleet Creation (Validation & Cost for CO options, drone loadouts, attrition units, and S8 compliance) that is about halfway complete (actually, it's a "second generation" improving on an earlier one), but I can't do Step #1.

I'll just continue to work on it as time & mood are available for my own use.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, May 14, 2007 - 04:55 pm: Edit

On the 22nd, I'll look at any memo about anything you think somebody would pay for (or would use if you gave it to him free).

By Michael Bennett (Mike) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 03:22 pm: Edit

SVC, don't you want player aid programs that run only on a MAC?

By Stacy Brian Bartley (Bartley) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 05:09 pm: Edit

There WAS a Mac Shareware Impulse movement tracker that was available as shareware that was up on the legendary UofM Mac shareware site. That site and the shareware are long gone (Although I attribute the disappearance of the app to SVC's diligence vis-a-vis copyright assertion).

I would be VERY disappointed if whatever comes out of this could NOT be run on a Mac.

regards
Stacy

By Simon Robinson (Loki) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 06:41 pm: Edit

I am currently working on a "minefield management prorgam" that will allow a player to record a full minefield and then handle triggering of mines, minesweeping etc. the program is also going to allow for t-bombs used.

As an additional benefit the program when finished will be able to create a random minefield and allow a player to play a solo scenario in a random and secret minefield.

Don't know if that's the kind of thing you're interested in.

I'm writing it as excel macro (visual basic). currently I'm still working on the multiple units moving in the detection range of multiple mines issue.

Simon robinson

By Andy Vancil (Andy) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 07:01 pm: Edit

The stuff I've done has all been done on a Mac, using Excel VBA. Most of it will run on a PC, and might even run on Linux under OpenOffice.

By Michael Bennett (Mike) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 07:38 pm: Edit

Back in the '80s, I wrote a BASIC program that did a few things to speed up the play of SFB. The biggest slow-down seemed to be the firing and the damage allocation, so those were the two areas the program handled.

1. It automated 1d6 and 2d12 dice rolls. The user would select from menu choices of which type of die/dice roll was wanted. Then the program prompted for the number of rolls that were needed. Finally, it would show the results. This feature allowed for fast resolution of photons, disruptors, or anything that needed quick random numbers.
2. It automated damage due to phasers. Using the same routine to get 1d6 random numbers, the user would select from menu options to fire any of the types of phasers. The program prompted for the number of phasers firing and the range to the target. It then reported the exact die rolls and the total number of hits that were caused.
3. It had similar routines for fusion beams and hellbores.
4. It also had a feature for damage allocation. The user could select for this from the main menu and the program would then prompt for the number of hits. Then it would do the 2d6 dice rolling and print on the screen how many of each result occurred. After each result, the corresponding row from the DAC was shown so no extra charts had to be consulted.

I first wrote the program in plain vanilla BASIC. Later, I used QBASIC from Microsoft to upgrade it a bit. I imagine the code could be customized fairly easily for any platform, if someone wanted to do it in some other version of BASIC.

We played SFB games with up to 10 players, each controlling a ship, and finished the games within two hours, thanks to that program. We also used mega-impulses (much like Federation Commander), but that's another story...

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 08:52 pm: Edit

on the 22nd of May, somebody remind me to read this topic.

By John Erwin Hacker (Godzillaking) on Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - 09:10 pm: Edit

How about an up - to - date SSD maker? The one that another website has is ok but it doesn't allow you to "plug and go" an SSD. I am very suprised that there isn't an SSD maker out there.

"THE GODZILLAKING"