You can also check out Vassal, instead of Cyberboard. Information on that can be found in the F&E By Email section:
http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus/messages/37/3491.html?1289234400

By Daniel G. Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Monday, November 22, 2010 - 08:14 pm: Edit

Jeremy,

There's a large group of F&E players out there in Virginia. You should look up John Robinson and Dave Whiteside to see if there's a regular game near you.

By John Robinson (John_R) on Wednesday, December 01, 2010 - 12:28 pm: Edit

zzzz...snort..huh? Someone mention my name?

No active games currently under way. I just remembered that I got an e-mail from Bill Stec saying they were trying to get something going at Jason's (Crystal City). I need to respond to that. There is also a group in the Fredericksburg area that e-mailed me (lost in a change of ISPs)- they are into SFU on general
Maybe after the holidays

By Jeremy Scott (Jscott991) on Wednesday, December 01, 2010 - 01:00 pm: Edit

I only really play solo using the base rules (plus Neo-Tholians and minus a few things I find irritating, like flexible carrier groups). I'd probably be terrible playing with others.

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Monday, December 06, 2010 - 03:19 pm: Edit

Playing with others with unmodified rules can be helpful in better understanding them...
You'd be surprised all the new things I learn when I play against different opponents..

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Saturday, December 18, 2010 - 09:41 pm: Edit

Happy Birthday Scott -- now get back to work!

By TIMOTHY DOWD (Tim_Dowd) on Wednesday, January 05, 2011 - 05:54 pm: Edit

Stupid question, I'm a new user --on the Vassal F&E how do make a battle happen?

Thanks much,

Tim

By Troy Latta (Saaur) on Thursday, January 06, 2011 - 03:06 am: Edit

I'm a new user, too. What I did (which might be wrong) is to open a battle map and drag all the ships there. Then start arranging them into battle lines.

By John Robinson (John_R) on Thursday, January 06, 2011 - 12:04 pm: Edit

Timothy and Troy - See my response over on the (misnamed) F&E By E-mail topic.

By Daniel G. Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 - 07:15 pm: Edit

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 04:00 pm: Edit

I've been tinkering with an F&E computer port, though that doesn't mean I'll ever finish it

Right now I have spent a lot of time getting a map going. It loads from an easily editable CSV file, creates the map, allows you to see provinces or pirate cartels outlines, and zoom in/out to pretty much any level. It seems pretty quick to me, but my box is pretty darned high end. Its versatile enough I could plug in another data set and see the omega sector or whatever. Last night I put in each hex of allowed fleet deployment zones (the deployment rule logic was too much to implement for such a minimal gain).

Next I'm going to work on deploying fleets, then to operational movement. Not sure how far I get before I get bored, but since I'm making progress and done with the part that I typically have the most problems with (graphics) it could see some future.

Its in .NET btw, so its windows only. I'd post some screenshots or even the EXE I have now for people to view, but I won't post any links unless SVC gives me the ok. Its just a map, plenty of which are online, but I don't want to step on any toes.

I'll probably use Lawrence Bergen's counters he made for cyberbox, though I may just use his ship silouhettes and dynamically create the counters, not sure yet. Using those silouhettes could create a pretty neat battle view, as you could see each ship hull in a small window.

Is there a link anywhere on things that were desired in F&E, yet never implemented as it would be too cumbersome? I was thinking of individual ship names, though not sure if I have complete enough data out there. I was going to track all the battles ships took part in, total damage they've inflicted, hexes travelled, all sorts of useless but neato information. I could even easily track refits, and was going to link to SFB data when you clicked on a ship, all sorts of neato stuff.

There are 2 things that I see as a potential issue when it comes to finishing the game:

#1. Reaction movement. It is a phase where both players do something, and in a turn based game its wacky with a computer, but doable.

#2. I have never done any AI at all, and have no idea where to begin on doing one. If I did totally complete this game it'd have multi-player support, but probably no AI, which I see as a serious deficit. Perhaps some scripted AI? Anybody have any experience with this and could toss me a bone or two?

Again, who knows how far I'll get, but in the last week the entire mapping system is done ;)

By Daniel G. Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 08:00 pm: Edit

Eric,

Have you talked with Scott Burleson about where he is in developing a Computer based F&E On-Line interface. No point in duplicate efforts if together you can build a better F&E On-Line.

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 10:23 pm: Edit

I've seen what was done in the past, well, a few screenshots he linked on here, and I think my vision is a bit different. Plus I hate web apps, they are always sooo much slower than an EXE.

Hopefully these are ok to post by ADB, there are more out there with lots more info:

http://goodsects.gotdns.com/F&E1.png
http://goodsects.gotdns.com/F&E2.png
http://goodsects.gotdns.com/F&E3.png
http://goodsects.gotdns.com/F&E4.png

I don't have any ships yet, that was my next phase. Notice the 2nd image has Pharaoh's Cartel selected and highlighted. Image 4 is zoom all the way out (I can zoom out farther, but prevented it as its just too darned small) with no hex borders or province borders. The same method for highlighting pirate cartels will be used for fleet placement, which is my next phase. You'll have a list of all the ships for the fleet, select one or more and drag them to the map hex you want them. I still need to add the off-map graphics, but the backdrop is just an image (or a bunch of them) so that is pretty easy, I thought about a starmap initially but not sure it'd look right when each hex is over 1500 ly. I'll tinker with it more tonight and try to get fleet deployment done, only a couple hours available tho so may not finish it.

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Thursday, February 03, 2011 - 10:25 pm: Edit

Oh, and yeah, my colors probably suck, if anybody has RGB values on what all the colors *should* be, let me know and I'll update the map All the graphics will be very easy to change as well, so if you want major planets to look like the great earth picks out there, its simple enough to use them instead. I'd like to have different SB/BATS graphics for each race too, but like I mentioned I'm using the cyberboard box for graphics, I'm incapable of drawing even stick figures on a computer ;)

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 02:19 pm: Edit

I got fleet deployment done, it was easier than expected. However, I need to do a few architectural changes. Basically I need to add support for the various turn phases, and give proper interfaces for each. I also need to input a database of all the F&E ships and their stats, which is pretty time consuming but not really hard (though I'm sure they'll be full of errors)

By Daniel G. Knipfer (Dgknipfer) on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 06:54 pm: Edit

Chuck strong can probably help you get your hands on some vector versions of the base icons. That would smooth out your graphics considerably. He would also probably know what RGB colors the Large Scale Map was done in, since he did it.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, February 04, 2011 - 11:21 pm: Edit

I believe that Mike Parker has some kind of Excel spreadsheet with many, many ships (a conversion chart for each race). Might be adaptable to a database to make that go faster.

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Sunday, February 06, 2011 - 12:16 am: Edit

Figure

I just went through all the counter sheets and the last dozen captain's logs and inputted all the factors on the counter.

I really wish the SIT's were more updated, as most are at least a couple years old with pages and pages of suggested fixes. I'd rather see ISC war first, like so many others tho, so that is why I just stuck to what was printed.

I gotta knock out another app this weekend (player finder for battletech) so I won't be playing with this again till next week. Hopefully the new cyberboard gets released then too

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Sunday, February 06, 2011 - 05:30 pm: Edit

FYI: It will not likely be next week. Progress is made daily on the CB though. We are closing in on being able to give some test copies out but I will let everyone know when it is time. I have a few people in mind that I trust know the file well enough to check everything over and give me proper feedback.

By Eric Smith (Badsyntax) on Sunday, February 06, 2011 - 10:48 pm: Edit

Shucks!

No biggie though, graphics will be easy to change, and I have enough now to get me through to the end if need be.

I have been thinking though, for a computer game is it really necessary to have all the stats on the counters themselves?

Lets say I removed them, and just used ship silouhettes in a "fleet". Within that fleet you can hover over any ship and see what it is, including all special rules that apply to it. BUT, you can also click on the fleet, see what the total/average AF/DF is, how many fighters, command ratings and # of flagships, total EW possible, drone factors, mauler factors, best battleline strength, overall EP cost, estimated turns of combat vs like force, etc, etc, etc...

If you had that amount of information on a fleet, would it really matter if you had 6 CWs or 6 CLs? Would anybody really care?

I dunno, I've only really played F&E once, enjoyed it immensely, and haven't found anybody to play with again yet

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, February 07, 2011 - 07:23 am: Edit

Well your profile is hidden. Where are you? Generally you can at least post up your City/State/Country and what race/side you choose to play. After you have done that go into the "opponents wanted" area and give it a go. Email is a good way to trade info once you get that step taken care of. F-T-F is harder because someone has to host the game and have the space for the map to leave unharmed for long period of time (of course). Cyberboard/Vassal is much easier from that standpoint and you can play across the globe as long as the timezone issue is resolved.

By Scott Burleson (Burl) on Wednesday, July 06, 2011 - 09:01 pm: Edit

I will be on the SFU OL call this Thursday night and would be happy to discuss F&E OL.

Star Fleet Universe On Call (Talk Shoe ID: 17702) between 9:30pm and 10:30pm Eastern Time

(URL: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/17702)

If you want to call in, just call 724-444-7444 and enter the Talkshoe ID.

It is also downloadable as a Podcast for those that can not make it. Also, if you can't make it but would like to have a particular subject discussed Email me before hand and I will see what I can do.

If you have problem with the Talk Shoe website go to:

http://www.talkshoe.com

and if there is still a problem refresh. Then do a search for call 17702

By Scott Burleson (Burl) on Wednesday, July 06, 2011 - 09:14 pm: Edit

My list of what needs to be done with this program before it can be released is down to seven things, though none of those seven things have anything to do with graphics, which need to be improved. If someone would like to help with that, send me an email.

Dan Knipfer is starting to help me with playtesting in this final phase of which I am very grateful.

This past week, I did work on a new manage fleets screen that will dynamically bring up the fleets in a given hex, allow you to drag and drop between the fleets, create a new fleet, and total the ships and compot as you do it.

This week, I am working on a temporary fix that we will have in the first release to handle special areas that need more detail than just the hex that the ships are located: capital hexes, the repair depot, the raid pool, and the salvage pool. The latter is not a real place, but every player I have seen does salvage by keeping ships in a pile. In a future release, there will be more intelligence with these functions, but for now, each empire will have an area at the bottom or the right of the map to deal with these items. Does anyone know of anything like this I am leaving out?

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Wednesday, July 06, 2011 - 09:29 pm: Edit

A box for new production would be useful: makes it easier to keep the stuff with free strat moves isolated in one pile.

By Scott Burleson (Burl) on Thursday, July 14, 2011 - 08:21 am: Edit

I will be on the SFU OL tonight and would be happy to discuss F&E OL.

Last week, we had a lot of F&E discussion. I would encourage anyone to listen to listen to the Podcast from last week.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=17702&cmd=tc will take you to a link of previous Podcasts and episode 159 was last weeks.


Star Fleet Universe On Call (Talk Shoe ID: 17702) between 9:30pm and 10:30pm Eastern Time

(URL: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/17702)

If you want to call in, just call 724-444-7444 and enter the Talkshoe ID.

It is also downloadable as a Podcast for those that can not make it. Also, if you can't make it but would like to have a particular subject discussed Email me before hand and I will see what I can do.

If you have problem with the Talk Shoe website go to:

http://www.talkshoe.com

and if there is still a problem refresh. Then do a search for call 17702