Archive through July 15, 2018
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Games and Science Fiction: Star Trek Fans:
Archive through July 15, 2018
The guy who does Trekyards has a standing invitation from me to provide him with images and information. It has not been used. (sigh)
I started to write a message on their web page but didn't want to come across too snarky, so I never sent it. Maybe I'll send them a tactful note.
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On another subject, the Trek short story that I'm writing is now over 30K words. I don't think it's a short story anymore. 
Right now, I'm at 30,870 words and counting. I figure I have another three or four thousand words to go before I get to the punch line, and then a couple-few thousand words of an after-story, plus a brief five-years-later epilog.
I'll post it on Trek-BBS once it's done. With any luck, that could happen sometime later this week.
I could, very easily, take it out of the Trek universe and set it in my own world. I have one Star Fleet officer on the ship, which has Warp drive, Impulse engines, and Phasers. I mention the Andorians, Rigelians, and Vulcans. I suppose it wouldn't be all that hard to change those buzz-words and make it non-Trek.
Of course, it has been heavily influenced by SFB-universe but is NOT set in ADB's world. I removed all reference to named planets, Meva and Aurora, and simply call them "the Andorian colony" and "the new colony". I do talk about Star Base Seven, up at the top edge of the map. From the general description of the ship, you will probably recognize it as a Free Trader. However, as Petrick would take me to task for some of the things I do in the story, I did not write it to be a Star Fleet Battles story at all.
The story is called So Clever. Here's the fly-leaf overview:
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A young woman eschews a position in the family business and strikes out on her own. She has the training and the resources to succeed. Strong-willed and
independent, she believes she is ready for anything. However, when things don’t go according to plan, she is tested like never before. Her ship is damaged
and forced to land on an uncharted planet for emergency repairs. She must deal with one crisis after another, when even mundane tasks become challenging,
and every decision may have lasting consequences. If her ship and crew are to survive, her choices must be bold and her actions decisive. But is she clever
enough to handle the surprises this strange new world will throw at her? One thing is for certain: her life will never be the same after this voyage.
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I'll post a link here once I upload it.
Garth L. Getgen
I thought I'd mention that you get away with "daring them to play it" by always ending it with some light self-depricating humor. Something along the lines of "because we just couldn't help ourselves". It would be easy to think of at least 3 or 4 good ones to always go with essentially saying "it's probably too much for you".
This works because...
“Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it, and then move on.” - Bob Newhart
@Marc - do be cautious about your advocacy of digital platforms. Something VASSAL and SFBOL have always been careful about is NOT being a 'video game' take on SFB. That's pretty critical, as THAT license is beyond ADB's control. It's been dabbled with - Interplay, at one point, worked with ADB to use their rules combined with their at-the-time-current 'Trek' video gaming license for the first two Starfleet Command games (heck, the first one actually shipped with the SFB Cadet's Edition PDFs on the CD)...but that was a pretty unusual aligning of the stars.
ADB's license is, as best as any of us publicly know, limited strictly to print media and only as much digital material as acts as an accessory/support to the print product.
THIS STATEMENT IS NOT CORRECT.
A new SFBOL would still just be SFBOL. It's not a game, it is just all of the play aids needed to play SFB online against another person. SFBOL is just a virtual version of SFB. You have to learn and know how to play SFB to use it, it is useless to anyone who does not have and know how to play SFB.
It would best be done in Unity, but even the game maker things out there like GameTable could do it. Tools for making games today are very powerful, and SFBOL is a VERY, VERY simple thing to make because it is just SFB play aids. A modern 3D version of SFBOL would essentially just be a virtual table with map, dice, EA, SSDs, Imuplse Chart, etc. That is a very easy thing to do. There are "game making" editors like Vassal that can do it, or even just a novice with C programming language could do it in Unity.
It would not be a "video game", it would just be a 3D version of SFBOL. It could serve as a gateway into the SFU for modern gamers who have little interest in games they can't access through the internet.
EDIT: One of the really "big deals" about this is that a 3D version of SFBOL could be on Steam. Just having SFBOL on Steam in the indie game marketplace would be the biggest advertising the SFU has had... probably ever!
I finished writing my story last night. I thought it was going to be a short story, perhaps no more than 12K words. Opps. Total count is 35,911 words, 199,003 characters including spaces, and prints out to 53 pages at 11-pitch font. I'll post it later tonight over on Trek-BBS and then post the link here.
I need to figure out where to go with the after-story that will pick it up three weeks after the end of this story. With any luck, I'll be able to keep that one under 5K words.
Garth L. Getgen
As promised, here is the link: So Clever
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Garth L. Getgen
The problem with doing a SFB game in Unity or any other platform is the moratorium on using SFB SSDs. The SSD is one of the things that gives SFB it's distinct flavor and character.
You have thieves and pirates to thank for that.
Unity would work just fine, and the UI would be very easy to make. New algorithms make seeking weapon movement a snap.
Garth, I look forward to reading your story when I have time.
Thanks. I hope you like it.
SVC's still reading the soft copy I sent him. He had formatting issues due to Windows vs. Mac, but got that sorted out. I sent PDF, which looked fine on my screen but somehow jumbled the text on his. Next, I sent a Word file. I had to resend that as a '97-version DOC file instead of a DOCX file.
Reminder to everyone: Steve's computer eats DOCX files. Do as Save-As to the old format to send things to him.
Garth L. Getgen
Yicks! So, Steve finished reading. He seemed to like the story but not the ending so much. He gave me a suggestion how to fix it in the next story.
The two people whose opinions I value above all others combined are Cole and Petrick. Everyone else can say they love it, but if either of these two guys tell me something's broken, I need to fix it.
Garth L. Getgen
So, are you going to edit the version you've already uploaded to Trek-BBS with the changes he pointed out?
I had always planned on writing a short (short? yeah, right) story set three weeks later, with it starting at a hearing. They are getting grilled by a panel of command-level officers who will decide whether to push for charges upon the captain and crew.
SVC thinks I need to say more with them still on the planet first.
Garth L. Getgen
Okay, I'm here for my public shaming.
Steve Cole was right.
SVC can say "I told you so" and I can't say "no you didn't".
I sat down last night and tacked another 800 words or so unto the end of the story. I am forced to admit, it stops at a more logical place now and doesn't leave it flat. I was going for a cliffhanger and built a brick wall instead. It wraps up a lot nicer now.
Garth L. Getgen
Public Shaming?
1) You had a Wonderful Idea in back of your Mind
2) You took Initiative on your Idea and Completed the Required Preparation to Write
3) You Wrote the Story, Step by Step, until you had 35K+ Words
4) You Shared your Story Freely for Others to Enjoy
5) You were Wise and Humble Enough to be Open to Feedback and Constructive Criticism
6) You made the Appropriate Adjustments to make a Great Story Even Better
* BE PROUD OF WHAT YOU HAVE DONE *
Well, if he really wants it ...
Shame. Shame on you Garth Getgen. Shame.
Is that public enough? (GRIN)
I didn't say I wanted it, but I freely admit I deserved it.
And I haven't seen Petrick's feedback yet. Oh, I can't wait.....
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Epilog: So Clever
*** Star Fleet Headquarters ***
"Admiral, did you see the report that just came in?"
"I'm reading it now, Commander. Flipping civilians. What a mess. We need to send a team. Now."
"Yes, sir. The nearest team is four days out."
"Well, tell them to get it in gear, Commander. The flipping civilians had two days to muck it up this bad, no telling what they can do in four more days. What a mess."
"Aye aye, sir." He closed the door behind him.
The Admiral turned to the next page. "What a mess. Flipping civilians."
===============
Garth L. Getgen
Garth,
“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” — Vladimir Nabokov
“I don’t write easily or rapidly. My first draft usually has only a few elements worth keeping. I have to find what those are and build from them and throw out what doesn’t work, or what simply is not alive.” — Susan Sontag
“Put down everything that comes into your head and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.” — Colette
“Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.” — John Updike
“By the time I am nearing the end of a story, the first part will have been reread and altered and corrected at least one hundred and fifty times. I am suspicious of both facility and speed. Good writing is essentially rewriting. I am positive of this.” — Roald Dahl
These are just the tip of the iceberg of a common theme you find among all writers. Some call it "The Stew Pot", I call it "Percolating" because "it can't start to become good until it is written down" and "the first version you wrote down is never any good".
"Revision" is where good stories are told. There is no depth to the first version. Part of where depth comes from are old ideas that were once the main thrust of the story, but became minor side points in what the story evolved into.
Another top piece of advice famous writers give about the revision process is to keep a notepad with you wherever you go. You will have ideas for the story all the time, and the ones that you don't immediately write down are usually lost. All that depth that would have been there becomes lost.
Writing it down is the very beginning of telling a good story, re-writing it for the next 6 months after that is where it actually becomes a good story. It really does take a lot of time of having in your head and thinking about it, adding notes too it little by little as they come too you, to wind up where you wanted to be when you started.
I can affirm the need for notepad. Even if it's one line of a conversation, save it. Stick one in the car, one on the nightstand. Write ideas on an email and leave them in the Drafts folder.
I'm 5000 words into a story triggered by an old post-it with "briefcase full of rocks". No idea when or why I wrote it down, but it triggered an idea later.
One of my "briefcase full of rocks" lines that led to an entire universe is a song lyric from a Rush song called "Mission".
"A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission."
A lot of times song lyrics are where major story arcs arise from for me, but just random phrases like SteveZ has mentioned also happen.
It may be that I'm just a complete and utter weirdo when it comes to this, but when I write, either it's pure garbage (99.9999999999999% of the time) or it flows from me like I'm possessed by... "Not Me."
Sometimes, it just comes "in media res," other times, I (literally) write backwards.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that what works for one person isn't necessarily going to be what works for you.
Indeed, perhaps the best advice comes from film maker Steven Spielberg. When asked how is it he always makes such wonderful films ("1941" excluded), he told the interviewer that he makes movies that he would enjoy watching.
In short, please DON'T try to please anyone but yourself with what you write. If you enjoy what you've written and enjoy it again a few weeks/months later, chances are it's going to be enjoyed by others...
... And you'll (hopefully) have plenty of fun with it yourself.
When making a list of things not to do, reversing a hard and fast rule (e. g., this kind of ship cannot ever have that weapon) to create a plot device is right at the top. Not that sci-fi TV hasn't done it, but games have rules and writting a story in a way that changes game rules and 47 already published scenarios (and four published stories) is a bad career move for a writer.
I edited a post somebody made some days ago to note that a particular assessment of admittedly obscure data was in fact WRONG. In fact, we have said many times that nothing our lawyers can find in our license prevents us doing software. We never have because WE don't know how, hiring people to do it costs a metric asteroid ton of money, and while many software companies have talked or even negotiated with us, none ever signed a deal. If someone has the four million dollars to turn SFB into WORLD OF STARSHIPS then do give me a call and I will sell you ADB for one million and retire.
SVC: For a full computer game version of SFB or F&E you are right, that is a big and expensive thing to do.
Most people, even computer gamers, don't realize how simple and easy it is to make very simple games these days. As I was mentioning a few days ago, if you wanted to make a modern version of SFBOL to serve as a gateway to the SFB table top game for the internet generation... that is actually a very simple thing to make in 2018.
It would just be a "virtual table" with all of the "virtual components" you need to play SFB on it. A map, EA forms, Impulse Chart, SSDs, etc. Any novice programmer could do this very easily in Unity, and just about anyone could learn to do it in a game making utility like GameTable.
So a modern 3D version of SFBOL is something that can be done by just about anyone willing to devote the time to do it. "World of Starships" (which would be a terrible way of making SFB as a computer game, but I get your point) would be one of those "millions of dollars" types of things.
PS I also have no solution to the "millions of dollars" issue, or my own games would already exist;-)
SVC's talking about the way I used the T-bombs in my story. Maybe it's lazy writing on my part, but I couldn't think of another way for my hero ship to get away from the bandits.
However, comma, in my defense, I would point out I never wrote it as a submission to ADB for publication. Ergo, I allowed myself the freedom to think of my story as being only INFLUENCED by the game, and not officially set in the game's universe, thus it does not strictly adhere to the rule book. If I had been going that route, the story might have been only half as long as it is.
And I would not have used T-bombs.
I had fun writing it. I hope anyone who takes the time to read it finds it enjoyable. I have to thank SVC. I made several edits due to his wise and expert feedback, and the story is better for it.
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Garth L. Getgen