Well I probably have more of the required SIT stuff done than anybody else, but without official input it can never be completed accurately (this means things like construction, pinning, etc can not at the moment be completed without lots of assumptions by the developer).

"live" components like chat and network connectivity are very simple to implement.

I doubt we can work together unless Richard is programming in VB.NET. I don't want to use any other languages as I loathe ;{}'s and case sensitivity and have no desires to make a purely web based system that'll be slow and subject to inevitable browser incompatibilities.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Saturday, May 17, 2014 - 06:06 pm: Edit

Well, I'd have to learn VB.NET, but why not. A quick perusal of a tutorial shows that it seems to just be C++ with a sheen of basic painted over it.

If we kept it to F&E 2010 for a start of the project we could make something that worked and then build on that.

As for rules issues, I think there are fewer than you believe and probably could help with things.

By Eric S. Smith (Badsyntax) on Saturday, May 17, 2014 - 07:03 pm: Edit

Well all the .NET languages are essentially the same, and all can do the same things. Some things are easier in one language or another, but those things are few, very minor, and easily worked around.

I personally stick with VB because I like the verbosity of it (I type 80 wpm, and can code at 80 wpm, so its fine). I also like the fact it isn't case sensitive (when you type 80wpm, often you'll get words like HEllo which VB fixes, and C#/C+/Java will throw as an error). Its also a real pain IMO to read through 6 embedded {} loops.

HOWEVER, most of the industry does not use VB.NET, and I would not recommend it for game design or as a language to learn because it isn't as widely accepted. DirectX for example, there is almost no help for you and you have to figure it out. Folks are like "VB.NET can't do that", but it just shows they don't know what they are talking about.

BUT, if you do learn VB.NET, I can provide quite a bit of assistance, and even quite a bit of code I've already written.

Based on the Q&A thread, which is filled with veteran players asking questions, plus the *fact* that I know many units do not have all variables documented, I simply can't see issues like that not being a major stumbling block after the project gets going.

By Kevin Hunter (K_Hunter) on Thursday, June 19, 2014 - 06:01 pm: Edit

This would be amazing if it even comes to fruition. Good luck to all of you.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Friday, June 20, 2014 - 10:24 am: Edit

It's happening, Kevin.

Just S-L-O-W-L-Y...

By Eric S. Smith (Badsyntax) on Monday, June 23, 2014 - 04:28 pm: Edit

Just remember, Rule #15 from NASA's 100 rules of project management:

Rule #15: The seeds of problems are laid down early. Initial planning is the most vital part of a project. The review of most failed projects or project problems indicate the disasters were well planned to happen from the start.

I personally think this is the #1 reason so many projects such as this fail, and why I had spent so many hours in the planning phase creating a good solid foundation. This is also why the "bits at a time approach" end up killing things before they are ever complete.

I'm anxious to see what progress others are making, though in the spirit of #15 above, there shouldn't be many images until all the design is done. That was also why I was able to knock out so much progress in such a short period last year.

Oh well, I'm letting others do it, no point in doubling up.

I'll be at Gencon this year if anybody wants to talk about it more in depth.

By Kevin Hunter (K_Hunter) on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 07:14 pm: Edit

Are you able to share any screenshots or is this all under wraps?

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - 08:00 pm: Edit

No screenshots at this time. It is not under wraps. Progress has been very slow for me.

By Tim Losberg (Krager) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 12:59 am: Edit

From the search results I thought that read "Rule 15 from NSA..." NASA makes much more sense.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 08:42 am: Edit

Screenshots of the code, or something else?

I'm a couple of weeks away from getting the vanilla online econ done, but a screenshot of that would be not much different than the Strong/Parker spreadsheet.

By Eric S. Smith (Badsyntax) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 02:45 pm: Edit

My econ project (standalone) died a long time ago as I wanted all the ships/conversions/substitutions in there. That I think was the #1 reason I ended up doing my SIT database. Then of course all those special rules, the doubt on errata being accurate, and the flat out missing data was a serious pain to deal with. Unfortunately that kinda stuff has to be dealt with in order to have that kind of functionality within an econ form.

Can't wait to see progress!

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 04:08 pm: Edit

The MSC/SIT database and fleet builder (specific to my campaign) are next, and hopefully by then, I can get the campaign map figured out and done.

The players are chomping at the bit for the rules, and it's been challenging typing them all in from coffee and beer stained handwritten 20 year old notes.

By Kevin Hunter (K_Hunter) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 05:36 pm: Edit

As long as there is some kind of SFU video game out before I retire I'll be happy.

You have 25 years

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 07:08 pm: Edit

There is a game based on SFB that came out some time ago. Starfleet Command I think?

By Kevin Hunter (K_Hunter) on Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - 09:34 pm: Edit

Played that for years but it's really old, the multiplayer campaigns are dead (doesn't work newer operating systems), and the strategic layer was never that good. What you're talking about looks wonderful.

By Eric S. Smith (Badsyntax) on Thursday, June 26, 2014 - 02:32 pm: Edit

I can give you my SIT database, its the most complete thing out there I know of, and its in excel and easy to port to something else like SQL. I'm sure there will be issues as the SITs themselves have issues, but its a very good headstart.

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Thursday, June 26, 2014 - 03:09 pm: Edit

I'll be happy to take a look at it.

By Eric S. Smith (Badsyntax) on Friday, June 27, 2014 - 01:27 pm: Edit

email sent

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Monday, September 29, 2014 - 05:57 pm: Edit

Any progress being made?

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Monday, September 29, 2014 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Yes, actually.
It's just very, very slow.

By Bill Steele (Bill83501) on Friday, October 17, 2014 - 06:07 pm: Edit

has anyone tried using cyberboard on a surface?

Thanks in advance

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Friday, October 17, 2014 - 10:06 pm: Edit

Well, on my touchscreen laptop it works pretty good. Under windows 8 it was fantastic. After the upgrade to windows 8.1 the scrolling no longer works with a touch-and-drag on the map, but only with touch-and-drag on the scrollbars (or using the mouse or touchpad in the usual fashion). So less good now, but still pretty good.

The trick was figuring out how windows interpreted things. Touch and drag right or left moves counters or selects multiple counters. Touch and drag up or down initiates scrolling, which actually does scroll, but what broke in the win 8.1 update is that while you scroll it no longer redraws the screen. So you see the scroll bars move, but the screen displays the original map area, even after you finish scrolling. To force a re-draw you have to scroll with the scroll bar. Irritating, but workable. I wish this would get fixed back to when it worked right.

So it depends on how well your operating system deals with programs not designed for touchscreens.

By Ken Kazinski (Kjkazinski) on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - 09:29 pm: Edit

Randy,

Making any progress?

By Randy Blair (Randyblair) on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - 09:51 pm: Edit

Hi Ken.

Yes...it's taking me FOREVER to put the data in for 1159 F&E Hexes though!
I am using the models and tools by Aditya Ravi Shankar to make it a browser only experience.

Soon as I finish up a programming project at work, I'll have more "programming" juice to do more of this. But right now it's just data entry to my back end MySQL database.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Friday, July 03, 2015 - 08:46 pm: Edit

Any news on the F&E Online project via the SFBOL client?